Unlock HR's Strategic Value: It Starts with Deep Business Understanding

Welcome to the Built by People podcast, where we share the stories and insights of the world's top HR leaders. Join us as we dive deep into the minds of HR executives, uncovering their strategies, challenges, and triumphs in shaping today's workforce. I'm excited to welcome Jessica to the Built by People podcast. Jess, thank you so much for joining us today. And as a starting question, I always love to ask if you could share a little bit more about your career journey.

Absolutely. It's great to be here. So I have been in HR for nearly 25 years, starting as an HR coordinator and now in a VP of HR position. And I've held pretty much every title in between that over the years. My beginning of my career, I really was exploring different industries, different companies. My first role was actually as an HR coordinator in Los Angeles at a limousine company for the entertainment industry. I'd never heard of that before I moved to LA, and that was really quite an interesting industry to be a part of. From there, I worked for an independent music label, for a major university, as well as Red Bull North America, which was such a fun job. From there, I really started my journey in the tech industry working for a company called Shopzilla, who at the time was a comparison shopping website. You might know it now really as Google who performs that need for consumers, but at the time there wasn't anything really like Google. That was a fantastic position I held. Really several different roles, had experience in compensation and benefits administration, and that company cared deeply about employee engagement and employee experience. So had a lot of fun pulling together different programs, wellness programs, team building, you name it, we probably covered it. We had some great experiences for our employees. Also, I had the opportunity to work in London on a 3-month assignment, which was Super fun and also just learned so much about practicing HR in another, another country. From Shopzilla, I went on to a company called Textile. You may know it better as JustFab, ShoeDazzle. They have lots of commercials. I was hired there to run their operations. And at the time, it was a 500-person company and really didn't have that HR foundation that you would need in order to continue to grow and scale an organization like they were at the time. And so under my remit was everything from tools and technology, performance management, compensation, onboarding, offboarding. It was probably my most difficult position, but I learned a lot. And difficult because there was just so much to do. So it was an exercise in prioritizing and staying focused and just knocking one thing out at a time to make progress. One thing that I learned at Textile or just Fab was the importance of HR business partnership. I had not been exposed to that particular position at prior companies, and I had this colleague who was the business partner, and I really was fascinated by the work that she was doing. She was providing guidance to our leaders. She really was part of the teams that she supported. And I knew that if I wanted to be at some point an HR leader and lead a function, I needed to have that skill set. Really understand how to partner with the business, with executives, be that sounding board, and help them navigate really critical company and employee changes. So from there, that's exactly what I did. I found a position as an HR business partner at Magento. It is now owned by Adobe, but it is an e-commerce platform. And I was the business partner for all of the executives with the exception of course the CEO and our technology group. And I was to the hip with our head of sales who was newer to the organization, building out the sales function first nationally and then internationally, and really got my feet wet in the world of business partnership and really providing that guidance and support to not only the executives but their leaders and employees. From with my experience, the tools in my tool belt, I would try to be an HR executive, and that's what I accomplished. I joined Pluto TV, startup in Los Angeles. Fantastic opportunity to build a team from the ground up. It was your— I say stereotypical, maybe say typical startup life. Long hours, lots of fun. Got to know your coworkers really well. I was there for just about a year when they were acquired by Viacom, which was amazing to, of course, be acquired. But I wasn't interested in working for a large company at that point. I liked the smaller company, but also liked the role of head of HR. I obviously would not have been at Viacom. So from Pluto TV, I joined Signal Sciences, cybersecurity startup, similar-sized company, about 150, and built out their organization, HR organization, from the ground up. You might be seeing a theme. They were acquired as well by a company called Fastly. Being part of the acquisition process, having a seat at the table, speaking with the acquiring company, leading communication, being there on day 1 when we announced to the street that this was happening was by far the highlight of my career. And I hope I get to experience that again. Was with Fastly for about 5 years leading the HR business partnering team. I then took a sabbatical. I was ready for a break and recently joined a new company here in Dallas. I moved. I was a mover, one of the many people that moved from the West Coast to another state. And I'm now leading the HR function at a company called Donatron Software. It's a software and service company for the auto repair industry. So that is where I am today.

Jess, can you share a story about a time when you were the first HR executive on a team? How did you demonstrate the strategic value of HR to the executive team? And what challenges did you face in shifting their perception of HR?

Yeah, it's interesting. More than one time when I joined an organization, people are very excited to, to meet me, to see that this position's been filled, and I immediately get the, I'm so glad you're here. And that's wonderful to hear once or twice, but once it's something you hear often and throughout your first week, you wonder, why are you so happy I'm here? And that's typically because folks will have problems that need solving, programs that they want to see implemented, but we're waiting for the leader to come into place. So my advice from a strategic perspective is resist the urge to go into action mode on day 1, week 1. I would even say within your first few months, if you can, of course, have your quick wins. But I think it's really important to be able to spend time understanding the organization, what the true priorities are, how the HR function can support the organization in achieving their broader goals, develop that strategy and start implementing it. Then getting into the action mode of, OK, you need help with this. Let's talk about how we're going to achieve what you're looking to achieve. And I think it's really important that you are constantly connecting the dots for executive team. So I want to implement X program. Because have the why rooted in as an organization, we are looking to do X, Y, and Z. Always connecting the dot. I'm not a big show and tell person. It's more about let me just show you what I'm about. I think this is an exception where really informing the team why you're doing the work that you're doing, connecting it back to the broader strategy is gonna position you and the team as a strategic partner versus the team that will get things done. On behalf of people managers and employees.

Jess, when was a time you faced resistance while implementing a people strategy in an organization that was new to having HR leadership? How did you navigate that situation, and what were the outcomes?

Yeah, in my first role— actually, second role as head of HR, one of my strategies or one of my responsibilities was to oversee talent acquisition. And frankly, at that time, the company did not have an in-house recruiting function. They had really hired most of their positions at the time, about 100 employees, via a recruiter. So you can imagine that was a very expensive endeavor. So I set out to build out that team. I hired a talent manager, an ops individual, implemented Greenhouse as our ATS, and got to work of implementing what that kind of structured interview process could look like to find the best talent. And our executives were on board. With the exception of one person. And I learned an incredible amount through this experience. I think what I didn't do, which I would do now, is really understand what the resistance was about. What were the fears or concerns about shifting from using a recruiter you've used for several years to our— to this new process and addressing those? And in this situation, while I did have conversations with the leader to influence and explain, this is what we're about, they weren't interested. They weren't necessarily enforced by their leader, our CEO, to follow the new process. And so I went ahead and partnered with the leaders who were really excited about the idea of an internal team that can source candidates on behalf of the hiring managers and really take a lot of the heavy lifting of recruiting off of their plates.. And we had a lot of success. And what we saw was hiring managers from the other— from the organization that wasn't handling or wasn't involved in the internal recruiting process, asking questions, oh, they're having success. Why aren't we doing it that way? So over time, more and more roles shifted to our internal team from that organization. You know, we had success, but that was a challenging one, and I can't I'm not in a position to force anyone. I think that is putting HR in such a bad light, and that's just not what I'm about. So it's about, again, showing the results, and hopefully over time, they'll see that it would benefit them from following the program.

Jess, how did your experience in diverse industries, like working for a limousine company in LA, influence your perspective on recruitment and HR strategies? Can you provide a specific example where this unique background benefited your approach?

I think what working at different types of companies in different types of industries has really helped me understand the importance of empathy and really understanding the employee population and what's important to them. And that has really come to light in my newest position here in Dallas because I have worked my entire career for California-based companies. And I'm learning very quickly that what's important to employees, let's say, in San Francisco are very different than what's important to my employees and my current organization. One example is I'm building out, revising our benefit offerings, and my prior company have amazing benefits for employees. One is a healthcare reimbursement account that reimburses employees up to a certain amount for therapy or counseling services, which is outstanding. And that's something that is brand new, that concept, to my executive team, my current company, and employees. So I think that would go over really well. And it demonstrates not only do we care about you employees, but we as an organization are willing to put money towards your mental health and well-being. There are other programs at my prior company that while I personally believe they are fantastic, just would not work at my current company at this stage of the game. Prior company, quite progressive, democratic state, politics very different than my current company. So I think it's understanding that just because one playbook worked at one company, you really have to understand the population, what's important, and tweak that playbook to really make sense at your new company. So I think over time, working at different companies, dealing with different demographics, has really helped shape my approach to It's not a one-size-fits-all. It's a take what you know works and tweak it to make it the best for the company.

Jess, could you describe a case where you successfully advocated for an organizational change at the executive level? What steps did you take to ensure the decision was informed and beneficial for all stakeholders involved?

One that comes to mind is implementing performance management for the first time at one of the startups I worked at. I benefited from the CEO believing in performance management. He had worked for very large companies, Google being one of them. And so he was bought in on why companies do performance management. However, there were different levels of understanding what is a performance review, why would we do this. I had some resistance, but it really was just a lack of not knowing what I had in mind. So that's when you really have to engage your stakeholders. And find out what's important to you. If we did a performance review quarterly or once a year, what would be a successful outcome for you? And depending on who I spoke to, I received different answers. My head of sales, who is primarily, as he should be, concerned with closing deals, he wants something, a program that's going to be flexible and not too time intensive. Other managers had different perspectives. So it was taking what they wanted to achieve, using best practice, using resources out in the field, whether that be SHRM or Gartner is a great tool for building out new programs, pulling together a recommendation, and then bringing them along, not getting too far down the path, 'cause I really wanted to incorporate their feedback into what I was doing. I also spoke with people leaders throughout the organization as well as employees to pressure test what I wanted to do. So I think it's really important when you're launching a new program, going back to what I started with, root it in the why. Why are we doing this? How is this going to help the company achieve its broader goals? Incorporate the feedback that you receive from your executive team. Bring them along the way. And with a program like performance management, it has to be a crawl, walk, run. Let's start the behaviors that we need for the long term. Coming out with a 20-question review that includes 360 and all these different components is not the way to go. Keep it simple, get the buy-in, get the participation, then over time, add components to that program while you bring your exec team along. That will really benefit the organization.

Jess, what parting advice would you like to share with our community?

Learn the business. We are strategic HR partners, and that's only possible if we truly understand what our business is about. What are our revenue streams? What's our product and our offerings? How is it different than our competitors? What makes us stand out? Because as an executive, when you have that seat at the table, you're involved in conversations not just about the people, but about the business and making very important decisions, whether that's M&A, product launches, you name it, we're going to have an opportunity to participate and provide our feedback. Understand the business is step one, and as a leader, make sure your team understands it as well. Something I started in my last company was holding my weekly team meeting right after the executive team meeting, so I'm coming fresh with insights, what we talked about to a point, right? I have to be confidential as well, but really instilling in them that as part of the HR team, you need to understand the business. I also take time in every meeting for us to share what we've learned over this past week, whether that was through an insightful conversation with an employee or attending a cross-functional meeting where some really great findings were discovered, really ensuring that we understand and have a good pulse on what's happening in the company. Therefore, you can really be able to contribute to the company.

Jess, thanks so much for joining us today on the Built by People podcast. It was a pleasure to have you involved.

Thanks, Dave.