Jessica Smith

▶0:00IntroWelcome to the Built by People podcast, where we share the stories and insights of the world's top executive leaders. Join us as we dive deep into the minds of executives, uncovering their strategies, challenges, and triumphs in shaping today's workforce. Now, let's jump in and get started with our next guest.

▶0:44HostWelcome to the Built By People Podcast. I'm excited to have Jess Smith with us today. Jess, thanks for being a guest.

▶0:50GuestYeah, thanks for having me.

▶0:52HostAbsolutely. Hey, as a starting point, I always like to learn a little bit about your career journey. Tell me about how you got to where you are today.

▶1:00GuestYeah, well, really, I phrase it as really intentional reinvention. So I started my career in finance, actually, which is not the typical path you see for HR, but I spent the first half of my career in finance, moved into banking. I really wanted to work in Europe, so I ended up doing my MBA there and studying in Spain, and then later working for Barclays Wealth Management. And then after the financial crisis of 2008, I just wanted to take a different route. I wanted to make impact in some other way. I got, I took a sabbatical from the bank. I got a role back in Barcelona in recruiting and really making the first offer to someone was so exciting and powerful and showed really the kind of impact that I wanted to be able to make, which was really through people. And I've been in HR ever since.

▶1:55HostOh, that's awesome. Well, that sounds like a really fun career journey and awesome time over in Europe, I'm sure. As you focus in on Char and what you're currently doing, what's maybe the biggest challenge you're currently facing in HR?

▶2:11GuestYeah, definitely two main ones, I would say. So the first one is how do we think about implementing AI from an HR perspective, but also from the business perspective? And then also as a result of that, how do then we we manage resourcing moving forward. And so what we're seeing is that a lot of organizations are starting to think through and not yet find, but at least account for efficiency, um, and what AI can do, but we're in many cases still looking for the efficiency itself. And so how do you keep doing more and experimenting with the same resources is definitely top of mind for me.

▶2:53HostWhat's keeping you up at night maybe? And this could be something like a recent situation where things broke down, whether it's benefits, engagement, turnover, compliance. What's maybe keeping you up at night?

▶3:05GuestYeah, definitely engagement, right? As the business looks to shift and change and really, you know, businesses are like living and breathing organisms. So we have to shift and change as well as things shift and change in the market. And so, As we do that, how do we keep engagement high, right? So we start talking about implementing AI. On one hand, it's exciting, but on the other hand, it also creates uncertainty for colleagues and also creates ambiguity for colleagues. And those two things typically can breed disengagement. And so definitely that's one. And then as you transform the business, because to implement a lot of these types of changes, you need to make transformations in your business and how you're structured. And so we even ourselves have gone through gone through several transformations over the past couple of years just to make sure we are future-proofing the business and definitely have had some dips in engagement. And so we've gone through and, and find ways to reestablish that engagement, um, immediately after. And we've had some positive results from that, but it definitely has to stay top of mind because we're essentially in a phase now where we'll just go from one change to the next.

▶4:17HostMakes sense. Which tools or partners are most critical for you today?

▶4:22GuestYeah, it's hard for me to name just one. I have been spending a lot of time testing every tool of anyone really that reaches out because there's so much new technology right now in the market. And I've come from tech, so I spent most of my HR career in Amazon and with Meta. And so I know how fast these things can evolve. And so right now I'm spending time testing tools to see how do you— because as we start to think about AI, it won't just be one thing, right? We'll need like a suite of tools, a suite of agents to deploy what will be the efficiencies in the future. And so that's how I'm spending my time right now.

▶5:03HostIf I could wave a magic wand and fix maybe one system or process, what would it be? And maybe there's not a tool to fix this yet, but what would that be within HR?

▶5:13GuestYeah, for me, actually, if I could wave a wand, I wouldn't fix anything. So what I would do is just reimagine how we work. I think we spend a lot of time thinking about, oh, this small thing is broken, now we need to fix it. And we're about to go through a revolution of sorts, right? So I think we need to be actually reimagining how we work. And that will be in some scenarios, not trying to fix the thing that's broken, but thinking completely differently. About the way we do things.

▶5:44HostI love that. That's great. If I came back in 12 months from now, what would, what would be one thing you hoped has changed within your HR org or just your company in general?

▶5:54GuestYeah, so I would say, I would hope, if I think about HR, right, that 50% of the things that we do would've changed, right? Because in the moment that we in, nothing should stay the same. We should be evolving constantly. And so, I would hope that we've changed processes, that we've found tools or things to connect to tools that can help us be more efficient, that can help us understand more, right, about our colleagues as well, and that we would have made major changes.

▶6:24HostThat's wonderful. What parting advice would you like to share with our community, maybe aspiring HR professionals, people trying to climb the ladder, people that are at the top of the ladder, et cetera?

▶6:34GuestYeah, what I would say is it's definitely a pivotal moment right now in HR. We are in a situation where we need to be thinking about our own orgs and how we are set up and we're designed, but then also the business and how the business can implement AI. My advice would be to double down your knowledge of AI, um, and to be part of the leading leadership team that's gonna lead how we think about AI into the future, whether that be within the broader workforce or within your HR organization. I myself even signed up for a class recently at MIT with leadership in the age of AI because we need to educate ourselves so that we can be at the forefront of this change. So that would be my parting words. It would be lean into curiosity. Now is the moment. And then my second one would definitely be, and take care of yourselves, right? Because we also lead these changes, especially when they impact our people. Um, and that can be tough as well. And so my other advice would be take care of yourself in these moments. Make sure you're taking breaks and really think about also your wellness.

▶7:41HostThank you so much for your insight today and being a guest on the Built By People podcast. Jess, you're awesome. Keep doing what you're doing.

▶7:48GuestThanks so much.