Beyond HR Admin: Why Strategic HR is Your Business's New Secret Weapon

“And he said, come work for me. I'll train you everything I know. And what I didn't know was he was planning to retire. The next year, but his name is Larry and he was true to his word. He brought me on, he sent me through some additional training, made sure that I got my HR certification, and then he rode off into the sunset. And that was 23 years ago. And here I remain.”

This quote highlights an unconventional entry into HR, emphasizing mentorship and on-the-job training as a foundation for a long career.

“But when you're answering the same question for the 10th time, right, about the same kind of thing, or, hey, maybe they didn't read the email that was sent, that's kind of demoralizing, right? And then you spend a lot of time doing that repetitive administrative kind of work. Rather than focusing on strategy.”

This directly addresses a common pain point for HR professionals, underscoring the shift from administrative tasks to strategic work.

“And making sure that HR is well aligned with those 3 executives has been a huge benefit because they can sort of carry the water for us, right? They can ask all the questions or say, hey, I'm also being inundated with these questions. You know, how do I help? Get the word out, and then use sort of the same language so we're all speaking from the same playbook.”

This illustrates a practical strategy for improving communication and reducing HR's burden by involving and aligning with operational leadership.

“And I just don't think that that's something that AI will be able to— it won't be able to fill that gap, right? You really need humans to have that conversation.”

This quote draws a clear line between the capabilities of AI and the essential role of human interaction in fostering meaningful communication and trust.

“And of course, and so this isn't just in my current company, but it's sort of universal that the number one issue that employees state they have is a lack of or insufficient communication with the leadership team.”

This highlights a pervasive and universal challenge in employee engagement, underscoring the critical need for effective leadership communication.

“I would say, and I'm probably beating the same drum of many other HR professionals, but really be a business partner first. You need to learn the business well. You need to be able to speak the business language fluently.”

This provides core advice for HR professionals, emphasizing the need to integrate business acumen with HR expertise for strategic impact.