Clarissa O'Connell
Chief Human Resources Officer
Sonar
Episode 272
Beyond Bureaucracy: How HR Becomes Your Business's Most Strategic Partner
Current chapter: Covering monthly expenses is the number one concern for employees in 2024
Built By PeopleMarch 18, 2025 · 12:57
Thesis
“HR's fundamental role is to be a true strategic partner to the business and a compassionate advocate for employees, driven by professional expertise and a commitment to treating people with respect and fostering their success.”
Show notes
Clarissa O'Connell started her career as a receptionist. In an early job, she sat in on an HR meeting that was so poorly handled — impersonal, careless, creating more problems than it solved — that she decided on the spot she could do this better. The whole of her 20-year career has been shaped by that moment.
As CHRO at Sonar, she brings two convictions to every conversation about HR leadership. The first: know your business forwards and backwards. Not just the culture — the operations. What does engineering do on a Tuesday? What does the sales motion look like? How does revenue flow? HR leaders who don't know these things can't be credible partners to the people who do. Her second conviction: stop being the secret team in the corner. HR professionals have real expertise, earned through hard work, and they have an obligation to offer it clearly and confidently — not whisper it from the periphery. That also means being flexible when approaching employees with policies: "Here's our policy. How do we make sure this works for you? How do we make sure it works for us?" That frame flips the perception of HR from enforcer to partner.
Her global HR approach is notably relational: when visiting an international office, she Slacks the local team with an open invitation for lunch — first ten in. It's a simple tactic that generates genuine feedback and signals that headquarters is accessible, not distant. Her parting advice carries no hedging: trust yourself. Know your business. Know your people. And recognize that not having every answer isn't a weakness — it's the beginning of actually finding one.
What you'll learn:
- How a single negative HR experience shaped a 20-year leadership philosophy around empathy and problem-solving
- Why business fluency is the most important credibility asset an HR leader can build
- A practical framework for approaching employee conversations with policy flexibility, not rigidity
- How to build a peer network as an HR executive — and why it's essential when you don't have all the answers
- Simple tactics for staying connected to global teams across multiple international offices
- How to step out of the "secret corner team" identity and lead with visible, confident expertise
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What you'll take away
- 1An early negative HR experience can profoundly shape a leader's compassionate and problem-solving approach, emphasizing timely responses, active listening, and treating people with respect.
- 2HR professionals must deeply understand their company's core business operations to be credible partners, sitting in on team meetings and learning what each department does daily.
- 3Building and nurturing a strong network of HR peers is crucial for sharing knowledge and continuous learning, as HR professionals don't always have all the answers and can benefit from collective intelligence.
- 4Breaking down the 'HR is the bad guy' stereotype requires approaching situations with flexibility, balancing company policy with employee needs, and providing kindness and expertise.
- 5Maintaining consistency in global HR practices involves understanding and respecting local cultural nuances, educating managers, and actively engaging with regional teams through face-to-face interactions and soliciting feedback.
What most organizations get wrong
- •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.
- •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?
- •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.
In Clarissa's words
“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.”
This quote highlights the foundational negative experience that shaped her entire HR philosophy of employee advocacy and problem-solving.
“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.”
This emphasizes the critical need for business acumen, arguing it gives HR professionals more credibility and makes their job easier.
“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?”
This directly addresses the 'HR is the bad guy' stereotype by showing a flexible, employee-centric approach within policy boundaries.
“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.”
This provides a practical and personable example of how to engage with global teams and proactively gather feedback.
“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.”
This offers reassuring advice for HR professionals, advocating for transparency and a commitment to finding solutions rather than instant knowledge.
“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.”
This powerful statement challenges the traditional, often understated role of HR, asserting its expertise and strategic importance.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Employee financial stress is a top concern, impacting well-being and productivity, creating a need for benefits that alleviate household expenses.
- •Negative HR experiences early in a career can deter individuals or create a lasting perception of HR as unhelpful or adversarial.
- •HR professionals often lack deep business understanding, hindering their credibility and effectiveness as strategic partners.
- •Employees are hesitant to approach HR with concerns, often waiting until problems escalate due to fear or a negative perception of HR's role.
- •Maintaining consistent HR practices across diverse global offices while respecting local cultural differences is a complex challenge for multinational organizations.
- •The pressure on HR professionals to always have immediate answers can lead to reluctance in seeking help or admitting uncertainty, undermining transparency.
In this episode
Covering monthly expenses is the number one concern for employees in 2024
Built by People
I've been in HR a little over 20 years
What Makes an HR Professional So Special?
A negative HR experience early in your career inspired you to join the profession
How a Negative HR Experience Affects Your Leadership
Having worked at Microsoft and various tech companies globally, what key lessons have you learned about building HR teams
How to Build a Strong HR Team
How important is relationship building in HR, and what advice do you have
Strengthening the HR Community
There's often a perception that HR works for the company, not employees
"HR Works For The Company, Not the Employee"
How do you maintain consistency in HR practices while respecting local cultural differences
How to Lead a Global HR Team
Clarissa Johnson: The most important and humbling thing for HR is humility
What Final Advice Do HR Pros Have For Their Employees?
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
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