Jenna Eichberg
Chief People Officer
AlertMedia
Episode 276
Transform Your HR Career: Strategic Skill-Building for Impactful Leadership
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleMarch 14, 2025 · 18:46
Thesis
“HR leaders can achieve broad and impactful careers by intentionally collecting diverse skills and experiences across various industries and roles, continuously learning, and leveraging their professional network for guidance and growth.”
Show notes
Jenna Eichberg is a self-described "unicorn in HR" — someone who knew at 18 that HR was her career. What she's done with that clarity is a case study in intentional skill collection across industries that couldn't be more different: manufacturing, insurance, consumer goods, tech.
As CPO at AlertMedia, Jenna's operating premise is one of the sharpest in this batch: any HR leader with genuine business acumen, a growth mindset, and deep HR expertise can thrive in any industry. Specific experience is a nice-to-have, not a prerequisite. What actually matters is the ability to embed deeply in the business, understand what leaders are trying to accomplish, and build a people strategy that enables those goals. She's lived that conviction across Boeing, General Mills, Capital Group, and now a SaaS company. Her framework for the function is to develop depth in at least one domain (hers is compensation and total rewards) and then layer breadth across as many adjacent spaces as you can access. Be a skill collector, not a specialization locker.
Her AlertMedia Aspire program is the most concrete expression of her leadership development philosophy: prepare managers before they're managers, not after. The logic is simple but rare. Leaders who enter managerial roles without foundational development often struggle for the first year — burning relationships and confidence they'll need for the decade that follows. Pre-promotion investment pays returns that post-promotion remediation can't match. Her parting advice is two words worth keeping: "connect more." You don't have to be the smartest person in the room. You just have to know how to find the smartest person and ask for help.
What you'll learn:
- The "skill collector" framework for building a non-linear HR career across multiple industries
- Why business acumen + growth mindset unlocks HR leadership in any sector — and what that looks like in practice
- AlertMedia's Aspire program: preparing leaders before they're managers, not after
- How to develop the breadth and depth combination that separates strategic HR leaders from specialists
- Mentorship and the pay-it-forward model for developing emerging HR talent
- Why professional networks are the most underutilized problem-solving resource in HR
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What you'll take away
- 1HR professionals should proactively identify and seek experiences that build diverse skills and capabilities, rather than adhering to a single, narrow career path.
- 2Invest in developing emerging leaders *before* they step into managerial roles to accelerate their success as 'force multipliers' within the organization.
- 3Actively engage with the broader HR community and leverage professional networks for advice, mentorship, and warm introductions to navigate career pivots and solve challenges.
- 4Embrace risk and learning by taking on unfamiliar or scary roles; every experience offers valuable lessons about personal preferences and strengthens professional grit.
- 5The most effective HR leaders are deeply embedded in business strategy, understanding organizational goals to develop human capital strategies that directly enable business success.
What most organizations get wrong
- •Jenna fundamentally believes that HR leaders with good business acumen, a growth mindset, and deep HR expertise can thrive in *any* industry, challenging the conventional wisdom that specific industry experience is a prerequisite.
In Jenna's words
“I always say I'm the unicorn in HR in that I knew from the very beginning going into undergrad that I wanted to have a career in HR.”
Highlights a rare clarity of purpose from the start of her professional journey.
“The best HR leaders are deeply embedded in their businesses. They understand the business strategy, they understand what their leaders are going after, and can really be a true partner and come out with the right kind of human capital strategy or people strategy and vision that really enables that business to achieve those goals.”
This quote defines the strategic and business-centric role of an effective HR leader.
“If you can start your career in manufacturing, There is no better place to learn HR than in supply chain.”
Advocates for a foundational and challenging entry point into HR, emphasizing grit and diverse problem-solving skills learned in a demanding environment.
“Your employee success is how— is contributing— is going to be a reflection of how successful are you as a leader.”
Clearly articulates the 'force multiplier' concept, linking a manager's effectiveness directly to their team's success.
“I fundamentally don't believe that in HR. I believe any HR leader who has a good business, has good business acumen, who has a growth mindset, who wants to learn and understand how businesses work, and has the deep expertise as an HR professional, you can go into any industry and thrive.”
This statement challenges the conventional belief that industry-specific experience is essential for HR leadership, advocating for transferable skills.
“You don't have to be the smartest person in the room. You need to be the smartest person to go ask the smartest person for help.”
Emphasizes the importance of humility, networking, and leveraging collective intelligence for problem-solving and growth.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Organizations often neglect leadership development until individuals are already in managerial roles, hindering their ability to accelerate success (e.g., Aspire program addresses this).
- •HR professionals face pressure to conform to rigid career pathways, limiting their exploration and authentic professional growth.
- •HR leaders frequently attempt to solve complex challenges in isolation, missing opportunities to leverage the vast knowledge and experience within their broader professional networks.
- •Employees' primary financial concern is covering monthly expenses, creating a significant stressor that impacts well-being and productivity (sponsor mention).
In this episode
Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built by People
Mills says she knew from the beginning she wanted to work in HR
The Secret to a Career Journey
When you were 18 years old, you knew you wanted to pursue HR
How to Get Out of Your Career Path
AlertMedia's Aspire program prepares leaders before they step into managerial roles
Alert Media's Aspire Program
Jenna says HR professionals should diversify their experiences to build skills
How to Build a Diverse Experience
Many HR professionals feel pressured to follow a certain career pathway
How to Find Your Personal Path
Jenna says paying it forward is being willing to ask for help from others
Paying it Forward to HR Talent
Jenna, what parting advice would you like to share with our community
Jenna On Built by People
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
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