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
Dan Thompson grew up modestly, worked jobs across healthcare, sales, and payroll before landing in insurance — and from there built a career that took him to the C-suite. His story isn't primarily about resilience, though there's plenty of that. It's about a specific insight that he arrived at through experience rather than education: to get a seat at the leadership table, HR professionals need to understand the P&L. Not in theory. In practice.
His argument is direct: the gap between HR generalist and CHRO is largely a financial acumen gap. Leaders who can look at a P&L and trace the line between a people decision and a margin outcome speak a language that CFOs and CEOs actually want to hear. The professionals who stay stuck in the "people support" lane are often the same ones who've never made the investment — which doesn't require becoming a finance expert, just requires enough curiosity to go deeper than most HR people do.
His framework for demonstrating strategic value is equally practical: align with your CFO, align with your CEO, develop human capital plans that translate into quantifiable financial outcomes, and make your ideas known before you're asked for them. Networking, mentorship, and SHRM involvement aren't soft career advice — they're the infrastructure of a C-suite trajectory for people who didn't get there through a traditional ladder.
- The financial acumen gap in HR careers — why understanding the P&L is the most direct path to the CHRO seat
- Aligning with the CFO and CEO — what it means to be a genuine strategic partner, not just a stakeholder
- Translating HR metrics into financial outcomes — how to build human capital plans with quantifiable business impact
- Making your ideas known before you're asked — the assertive approach that separates strategic HR leaders from operationally-focused ones
- Mentorship and networking as career infrastructure — what SHRM chapters and tenured mentors actually provide
Previ is a private pricing network that is free for companies to launch and maintain. It saves employees $2,200/year on essential services like their cell phone and auto insurance bill. Visit here to learn more.
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
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
Expand transcript (0 words)
Transcript is not available yet.