Dan Thompson
Chief Benefits Officer
Vensure Employer Services
Episode 143
From HR Generalist to C-Suite Strategist: Master the P&L, Drive Profit
Current chapter: Dave: I'm excited to welcome Dan to the Built By People podcast
Built By PeopleJune 18, 2025 · 16:29
Thesis
“HR professionals must transition from operational generalists to strategic C-suite partners by developing strong financial acumen, embracing data-driven decision-making, and assertively demonstrating their direct impact on the company's profit and loss.”
Show notes
From Humble Beginnings to HR Leadership: Insights from Dan Thompson
In this episode of the Built by People Podcast, host Dave welcomes Dan Thompson, Chief Benefits Officer and Division President at Thompson Risk, to share his career journey.
Dan discusses his rise from a modest background, working varied roles in healthcare, sales, payroll, and ultimately insurance, where he found significant success. Dan emphasizes the importance of financial acumen and strategic thinking for HR professionals aspiring to advance to C-suite roles.
He stresses the need for HR professionals to align closely with CFOs and CEOs, understand company financials, and continuously improve their skills.
Dan also highlights using mentorship and networking to foster career growth and the significance of balancing human capital management with business objectives to ensure organizational success.
00:00 Welcome and Introduction
00:14 Dan's Career Journey
03:40 Transitioning to CHRO: Key Skills and Competencies
04:56 Challenges in Advancing to Leadership Roles
07:45 Understanding Business and Financial Acumen
09:59 The Role of Mentorship and Networking
12:29 Demonstrating Strategic Value
14:59 Parting Advice and Conclusion
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What you'll take away
- 1HR professionals need to deeply understand business financials, particularly the P&L statement, to equate HR decisions with their direct impact on company margins.
- 2To advance to CHRO roles and gain a C-suite seat, HR generalists must be assertive, align with CFOs and CEOs, and actively engage with the P&L side of the business.
- 3Leverage HR technology and data to measure and analyze employee productivity, time management, and work-life balance, then translate these insights into human capital plans with quantifiable financial outcomes.
- 4Actively participate in networking opportunities (e.g., SHRM chapters) and seek mentorship from tenured HR leaders to gain insights and guidance for career advancement.
- 5Veteran HR leaders have a responsibility to 'pay it backwards' by sharing their experiences, successes, and failures to mentor and uplift emerging professionals in the field.
What most organizations get wrong
- •C-level executives often make a mistake by hiring 'cheap' HR talent (e.g., $65k-$85k) for roles requiring advanced CHRO competency, rather than patiently coaching and empowering mid-size HR professionals to grow into strategic roles.
- •HR professionals often focus reactively on 'soft impact' benefits renewals to 'keep the noise quiet' instead of proactively exploring more financially strategic alternative financing arrangements like level-funded or self-funded plans.
In Dan's words
“get aligned with your CFO, get aligned with your CEO, get a place at the table. And that's a transformative step from somebody who's an HR generalist to them becoming an HRO or a CHRO.”
This highlights the essential shift in mindset and action required for HR professionals to advance into strategic leadership roles.
“You don't have to be a finance expert... Go into the chase, get a little bit more financial understanding of the company's financials.”
This encourages HR professionals to overcome perceived barriers to financial literacy, emphasizing that a basic understanding is sufficient to make impactful decisions.
“make it known that you have ideas, fresh ones and innovations and disruptive ones, and make that company go. And I think HR people need to have the insight that they'll be recognized for those types of things, and that allows their career to grow.”
This stresses the importance of proactivity and demonstrating strategic value rather than just executing tasks to advance in an HR career.
“We have software where we can identify... who is the leading most productive and who is the least productive... How do we help them achieve more things?”
This demonstrates a practical application of HR technology and data to optimize workforce productivity and provides a tangible example of strategic HR.
“And then really for the more veteran HR leaders that are listening to the podcast is share your stories, the good, bad, and the ugly, because it's going to help you to reach down and be able to help those HR professionals at that middle level of their career or at the beginning of their career. Move them up.”
This emphasizes the responsibility of experienced HR leaders to mentor and guide the next generation, fostering a culture of shared learning within the profession.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Small to medium-sized companies struggle to afford dedicated HR staff, leading to non-HR personnel handling critical HR tasks, often inefficiently or incorrectly.
- •Mid-sized organizations under-resource HR roles by seeking 'cheap' talent, expecting high-level CHRO competencies from professionals paid significantly less, leading to unmet expectations and ineffective HR functions.
- •Many HR professionals lack a strategic voice at the C-suite, struggling to articulate their value in financial terms and connect their initiatives directly to business profitability.
- •HR departments often default to traditional, reactive employee benefits management, focusing solely on renewals rather than exploring more modern and cost-effective alternative financing arrangements.
- •Organizations lack robust data and technology to objectively measure and analyze employee productivity, making it challenging for HR to create data-backed human capital plans with clear financial outcomes.
In this episode
Dave: I'm excited to welcome Dan to the Built By People podcast
How to Build a Career on a Dream
Dan: A lot of small to medium-sized companies can't afford HR
Steps to Promotion to Chief HR Officer
Get a little bit more financial understanding of your company's financials
Employee Benefits: Financial literacy required
What role does mentorship and networking play in career development of HR professionals
Mentorship and Networking
How can HR professionals demonstrate strategic value to the organization to secure a seat
How to Gain a Seat at the C-suite
Dan, thanks so much for joining us today on the Built by People podcast
Dan Krupa on Built by People
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Organizations and entities mentioned
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