Clarissa O'Connell

▶0:01HostWelcome to the Built by People podcast, where we share the stories and insights of the world's top HR leaders. Join us as we dive deep into the minds of HR executives, uncovering their strategies, challenges, and triumphs in shaping today's workforce. I'm excited to welcome Clarissa to the Built by People podcast. Clarissa, thank you so much for joining us. And as a starting question, I always love to ask if you could share a little bit more about your career journey.

▶0:55GuestYeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me today. I've been in HR a little over 20 years. I started at the very basic HR job of a receptionist and a coordinator, and I've worked my way up to where I am today. So I feel really fortunate. Worked for some really incredible companies, generally in tech, but I've also veered off for a tad bit to work in a nonprofit type of community company that gives back. So. That's kind of where I've always been. I've worked in California and I've worked in Washington State, and now I'm in Austin, Texas.

▶1:27HostClarissa, you mentioned to me in our last conversation that a negative HR experience early in your career inspired you to join the profession. What was that experience and how has that experience shaped your leadership philosophy and approach in HR?

▶1:43GuestYeah, it impacts everything I do every day. So I actually went to school for something completely different than what I ended up doing in my career. And about a week into my job right out of college, I needed HR guidance. And so I went into an HR department and to this day, I think it's honestly probably one of the worst experiences I've ever had with another HR professional in my entire life. And I left that meeting and I thought we should be doing better by people and we should be acting in a professional way and solving problems instead of causing more turmoil. And so I honestly left that meeting and I went to a job fair and I've never looked back. I think that that experience has crafted the way that I approach every single thing that I do every single day, providing timely responses to really taking the time to not jump to an answer, but really listening to what the employee or the company needs before I can provide the right response to generally treating people the way that I would hope to be treated if I was in the same situation. And it's molded who I am and it's molded the teams that I have the opportunity to work with because we all kind of embrace that same type of approach to things that are happening within the company, and it, it's worked out really well for us.

▶2:51HostHaving worked at Microsoft and various tech companies globally, what key lessons have you learned about building and maintaining strong HR teams across different cultures and regions?

▶3:03GuestYeah, I think the most important thing that I can tell anybody who's in an HR role is to make sure that you inherently know what your company does, both forwards and backwards. A true partner to the business really makes what we do a lot easier, and it gives us more credibility when we're dealing with situations that arise, whether those are positive or negative. So I tell all of my teammates, sit in on your team meeting, learn what your teams are doing, whether that's engineering or your mission control and administrative departments to your marketing people, and really truly understand what they tackle and do every single day so that you can align with them when they're encountering situations that they may need guidance on. And make yourself as available as possible. Let your managers know that there's no question that's too hard or too easy, and let people know if they just don't know who to go to, that you're a good resource. You may not know the answer, but you can point them in the right direction. I think building a relationship with the leaders of the company is really vital, but also making sure that the employees who are at the desk level understand that they're just as important as everybody else in the company. I'm pretty proud to say at our current company, my HR business partners know every single person by name. And they can call them out. We have over 700 people. So it's really important for us to inherently know the people that we're working alongside every day and to make sure when they need something that we understand that they, by the time they come to HR, they probably needed it a while ago and they're just now gathering up the strength to come to us. And so treating them with the kindness and respect that they deserve. And again, leveraging what I said in my previous answer, which is treating people the way that we would expect to be treated ourselves.

▶4:36HostClarissa, before we started this podcast conversation, we were talking about a lot of the great relationships you have with the HR community, including with HR executives. You've obviously built really strong networks of HR professionals throughout your career. How important is relationship building in HR, and what advice do you have for creating and nurturing these professional connections?

▶4:59GuestYeah, I think as an HR professional, sometimes you don't want to have to reach out and ask for help yourself, because really we're supposed to be the beacon that has all the answers for those things. And early on in my career, I realized that there are so many incredibly intelligent people in the HR community, and I've really done everything I can to maintain solid relationships with those people and to also try and give back as much as possible. Simple things, whether it's answering a question on LinkedIn when they pop up with experts, or making sure that you're going out of your way to introduce yourself in breakout sessions at conferences. To aligning with really incredible groups like HR Executive and making sure that you're interacting and asking questions to other really brilliant people because we don't always know the answers and other people have really amazing, tremendous ideas. And so taking a combination of inherently what you want to do coupled with all this other really great feedback from like-minded professionals, it makes our job so much easier. And that's in addition to going out and listening to podcasts or reading as many articles as you could get, or really just making sure that we're interacting with people and colleagues and then giving back to those people who want to follow our executive journey, the people who are newer in the HR career and, and trying to give them guidance so they don't have to repeat the same errors that we made coming up to where we are and making sure that they have a strong foundation so that the perspective of changing HR to not be the bad guy and to really make sure that we're a true partner to the business and to the employees can continue on once the executives move out and other executives move in.

▶6:33HostClarissa, there's often a perception that HR works for the company, not the employees. How do you work to break down this stereotype and build trust with employees?

▶6:44GuestYeah, I hear that so much. And truth be told, we all work for the company, right? So whether you're an employee or you're HR, and I think that's where it boils down to the fact that you need to treat everybody with respect and And yes, an HR professional does need to uphold the compliance and regulatory rules, let's say from a company, but we also have the ability to handle situations in a way that works for both the employee and the company. I never go into a meeting and say, this is the company line and there's no flexibility on that. We try and approach every meeting with the employee saying, here's our policy. What do we need? How do we make sure this works for you? And how do we make sure it works for us? And treating people with the kindness and expertise that we can provide to them as an HR person while still making sure that their needs are being met. It takes a long time to hire really great people into a company, and we try and uphold the standard that those people are here for a reason. They've gone through this lengthy hiring process. They're here, they're making a difference, and we really want to go over and above to make sure that everybody, when they come to work, is having what they need to be successful. Whether that's personally or professionally, but it's definitely a stigma that HR is the bad guy. I would feel pretty confident in saying most HR people aren't the bad guy. I think we just need to keep working diligently so that employees know that we're all in this together and we all need to be on the boat rowing in the same direction so that everybody can accomplish the things they need and supporting them as much as we possibly can throughout that process.

▶8:12HostAs someone who travels frequently to different global offices, how do you maintain consistency in HR practices while respecting local cultural differences?

▶8:23GuestYeah, I think there's this perception that if you're a global HR person, all you get to do is travel and that's so fun. And there's so much more behind that, right? Because each one of those global locations has a different kind of set of expectations and rules. And so part of being successful in a global market is really taking the time to step back and understand what those nuances are. My companies are really great at making sure that we're educating our managers on those intra and intercultural kind of differences. And really openly trying to communicate and be as effective as possible while trying to encompass those beliefs in each one of those markets. It all ties back into making sure that as an HR team, you understand what those are so that you can approach those in a way that's both respectful and, and shows that you care enough to understand what those markets are. My current company has offices throughout the globe, and each one of those regions is completely different. And so we also do everything we can to make sure that we're frequently in those markets so that they understand that despite being in a different global location from where maybe the executives sit, that it's really important to make sure that you're showing face time in those offices and not going to those offices and just buckling down and sitting in meetings, but really taking the time to walk the floor and get to know the people and spend time listening to their concerns. One of my favorite things to do is I just shoot a Slack to the market that I'm going to saying, I'm going to be there on Wednesday. First 10 people who want to come to lunch, let's go. So that I can try and understand and hear the feedback from those global markets. And we're constantly asking for feedback and gathering opinions on what we could be doing better. And really, as an HR team, embracing that feedback so that we can constantly be changing the way that we're doing things so that we're doing the right thing by everyone who works for the organization.

▶10:04HostClarissa, what parting advice would you like to share with our audience?

▶10:08GuestYeah, that's a great question. I wish somebody would've asked that question and I would've listened to that answer when I started my career. The most important and humbling thing for an HR person is to know that It's okay to not have all the answers, and it's okay to not know how to answer something in the beginning. As long as we have the understanding that we're not going to know all those answers, and it's okay to tell people that we don't know and that we need to come back to them. I frequently sit in a meeting and say, I hear you. I understand. I don't actually have a solution for you right now, but I commit to you that I'm going to do my homework and I'm going to come back to you in a timely way to make sure that they get what they need. Sometimes it means that we may need to change what we're doing in order to accommodate what the employee needs. And sometimes we may need to go back to them and say, let's work out an answer for this together because this is a unique situation and there's no standard for answering this. And really understanding that's okay to not know, but as long as we're open and transparent about what that is and work with the employees and the company to be able to get the answers that they need and to do it in a way that's respectful. And kind, I think is probably the biggest advice. And the second is get to know your business, get to know your people. I know I said that earlier, but you can't help drive a company forward unless you know inherently what that company does and that you're deeply embedded in developing trust with your leaders so that you can really not only provide them guidance and provide them another way of thinking about things since we're the experts for people, right? Our entire job is to know how things work. While making sure that the people have a voice and that the people are being heard and driving those entities forward. Trust yourself. You're in the role for a reason. And HR sometimes is the secret team that sits in a corner and whispers around with everything that's happening. But what we really need to know is that we're a strong voice. We are experts at what we do, and it's okay to offer that expert advice and feedback because we're here for a reason and we've worked really hard to learn what we're doing. And we need to be comfortable sharing that feedback because HR is hard. And sometimes it's not— managers sometimes think they know the answer to HR, but it's not always the answer you think. It's sometimes something different. And we're the ones that have that level of expertise. So share, share that feedback, ask to be in those meetings, answer those emails, raise your hand and provide an additional way of thinking about things. And you'll find that will help you embed yourself and it will really help grow your reputation, and it'll cement the fact that HR professionals are here for a reason, and what we do is really important.

▶12:44HostLarissa, thank you so much for joining us on the Built by People podcast. It was a pleasure to have you involved.

▶12:49GuestThank you so much for having me. I am really grateful for being able to communicate with you and talk to fellow HR professionals.