HR's New Mandate: Data-Driven Impact, Not Just Perks.

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 Jodi to the Built By People podcast. Jodi, thank you so much for joining us. And as a starting question, I always love to ask if you could share a little bit more about your career journey.

Yeah, Dave, thank you very much for having me. This is pretty exciting. I started my career about 30 years, 30-plus years now. I started through training and development, and that really set the stage for the rest of my career journey because it made me realize what was so important is really understanding where people are and meeting them there. And so I think it influenced me as I went through the different HR pillars. I've been through 4 different industries, insurance, tech, financial services, and hospitality. I've done everything from compensation, talent acquisition, talent development, you name it in the pillars, I've done it. But I think what was really interesting in my journey is the amount of times I was asked to do just different learning opportunities where I had no background, like never done it before. I just didn't say no. I said, sure, and always figured out a way to do it. Some examples of that where I had a leader who I was supporting from an HR business partner perspective, who couldn't find hardware that was getting returned back to the company. And so I went on a research journey just trying to figure out what happens when someone puts it in the mail, what plant is it going back to, and then how does that get cataloged so that we could find it again? And we're talking, this was, you know, communication networks, so very expensive hardware. It wasn't cheap stuff. So, I did that. I also had the opportunity of working with a compensation team and doing what we called a reverse merger. We took the smaller company's compensation program and we integrated it into the company I was in, which was over 100,000 people. So that was a huge project, but my goodness, it was very, very rewarding. My CEO came up to me and said, hey, I want to set up an office in Hong Kong and I want to have a person in all these different countries, Australia, Korea, even Russia at the time, all over the place. And he goes, are you up for doing it? And I said, sure. And I had no idea what I was doing, but I think that really set the stage for my career because I just, I jumped in and tried to figure it out and then surrounded myself with people that could help me.

Jodi, how do you help HR professionals identify and leverage the most impactful data points for making strategic decisions? And can you share a specific example where data-driven decision-making transformed an HR initiative?

Yeah. You know, it's so important, Dave, that HR people understand data and use it effectively. HR people really, they can figure out how to hire somebody, how to pay somebody, but they need to understand how this affects the business. HR is the biggest cost any business has. So you need to understand that when you're bringing people in, what is that doing to the revenue? I would love to be able to ask any HR person, what's your employee-to-revenue ratio? Tell me what that is. And like, let's make sure that you're saying that out loud to the business. I would love for HR people to understand cash burn. So when you're talking about workforce costs, like it's not just about salaries, right? There's so much that is integrated into the burden of an employee coming on board. What is your cash burn against that, the company's bottom line? Market data. We look at it, we say, great, that's what the market's saying to us, but we need to be opinionated about it. We need to start saying, okay, hang on. Yes, I'm in tech, but my company is this size. We're pre-revenue or we're post, like, whatever. And then get opinionated around where you want to see the compensation in your, in your team. And you can't be opinionated about anything unless you've got the data points, unless you can actually say out loud, here's what the data is telling me. I'll give you an example. So I had an HR business partner and her leader come up and they were making the big case around they had to promote this person. And if they didn't give her a huge salary increase, she was walking out the door. And I said, great. So what happens to the internal equity if we do give this person an increase? And they both looked at me and I said, what's the impact on revenue? Like, I wanna know a prorated amount from now to the end of our fiscal year. What does that do on the payroll dollars? They just looked at me. And then I said, how does it affect our cash burn? What is that going to do when we're pre-revenue right now? So the two of them went away, came back, had all the information, We could then look at it and go, yeah, this makes sense to give her a promotion and a salary increase, albeit we dropped it by 10% because of the impact the data told us this would have on those 3 data points. And so if you don't do your due diligence and you just go by gut feeling and go by emotion, you can't justify the decisions you're making.

Jodi, you previously mentioned this shift from focusing on bells and whistles, like Boozeball tables to purpose-driven work. How can HR leaders effectively communicate and implement this type of transformation within their organizations?

Yeah, it's so interesting how the workplace has changed from systems and processes. You think about factories to now free thinking, you know, the innovate or die and failure to learn. Even office structures, like I'm old enough to remember when having a closed office was a big deal. And it would actually motivate people to work harder to get that big office. And then, you know, the bells and whistles came with the tech boom, and we had like areas to play, areas to nap, areas to meditate or pray, areas to socialize, snack on all sorts of great food. And that this was how recruiters enticed talent, and this is how people would be retained because their eyes would light up when they would see all these spaces. But truth be told, people were too busy to appreciate this space and everything that it offered. And so it really just kept people there longer and then hopefully to work harder. Now we are in hybrid or remote. A lot of us do not have offices, and even if you do, it's completely open concept, probably without an assigned desk. And companies just can't afford the bells and whistles to motivate employees anymore. So you're talking about two structures that have completely changed. And truthfully, I believe even those were smoke and mirrors. Having the closed office didn't really motivate me to work harder or to, you know, want to make sure the company was successful. Having a foosball table and being there longer didn't mean I was working longer. It just meant I was in the building longer. And what you realize is that why people want to work for a company is because that company is winning. If you think about being part of a winning team, that's where people strive. That's where they want to put their heart and soul into. So, The key ingredient here is making sure that people know what winning looks like, and then how does their role impact that winning? Everybody has a part. So our job as HR professionals is to connect that dot for existing and future employees. Talk about what success looks like. Talk about how you measure success. Talk about how you celebrate success and talk about how every role in the organization has a purpose towards that success. If you can do this by using your strong organizational design principles, you can find gaps in your organization and you can find fat. And so what you can then do is provide value back to the executive team by saying the biggest cost, uh, to your organization is delivering the win because we've got the right people in the right role doing the right things.

Jodi, with multiple generations in the workplace, what strategies have you found most effective for bridging communication gaps particularly when it comes to giving and receiving feedback?

Yeah, it's been quite a ride over the past few years having all 5 generations in the workforce. Each generation brings their own perspective and their own preferences. And so how we've been handling this eclectic workforce is by teaching leaders and the HR team to be curious. Curiosity is the winning goal or the winning, um, ingredient there. Ask as many questions as needed to get to root issues. Challenge perceptions with questions, really teach them how to hear what the other person is saying by asking questions. So teaching them to be curious and continue to dig and ask questions, and then having them repeat back what they heard in their own words for clarity to make sure that they're on the complete understanding. I think that's the way we need to do it. The other thing we're trying to do is let's get rid of labels. We have all adults in the workforce right now.. And we can no longer stand on a box and say, okay, you're, you're exceeding expectations, or you're, you know, a top performer. We've thrown out the nine box. We don't use it anymore. We have algorithms that we use to talk to people about how they're doing against the job, how they're showing up and behaving at work against our core company values. We've created what's called the personalized employee experience. This personalized employee experience meets people where they're at. And then gives them what they need to succeed to where their career goals want, where they want to

be. Jodi, as someone passionate about developing the next generation of HR leaders, what do you see as the biggest gaps in their preparation for executive roles, and how can they overcome those challenges?

I think a lot of what I've observed, there's a lot of people out there who they know the HR pillars inside out and backwards. They know how to do talent acquisition, they they know how to do talent development, they know their rewards and recognition, they can have a smooth-running operation, but what they don't know is how to pull it all together. And it really starts with the why and understanding your business. So you need to know the numbers. It goes back to the data. You need to know what is the business doing, what are their short and long-term strategies for the company, and then you need to create an HR plan that ensures that success. And winning by having the right people in the right place. So what I like to do for HR people is start with learning the numbers in the business. How do we make money? How much money do we need to keep the workforce? Where's the tipping point? Get opinionated and be confident about your opinions. Then understand the skills that are needed to make sure that your business has got the right people. Again, like I said, that means you need to understand your business. You need to understand the industry that you're in. And you need to understand where you want to play in that industry to get the people and retain the talent that you want. And then finally, I think you really need to make sure everybody in your organization knows what winning looks like and how they contribute. Communicate, communicate, communicate. You can't overcommunicate. Allow AUAs, which is ask us anything. Allow people to ask the difficult questions and have that transparent, open, honest environment so people really understand the important stuff. Trust them. It's the only way, by giving them this information, trusting them, that they will buy into what you're trying to achieve.

Jodi, a lot of HR professionals talk about the importance of having a seat at the table. I want to take that one step further and ask you the question of, what are the most common obstacles HR professionals face when maintaining their voice at the executive table? And, uh, what recommendations do you have for HR folks navigating that landscape?

Yeah, I mean, I, I think I've said it and I'm gonna say it again. It's because people go in, HR professionals go in and they live by a calendar. It's time for us to do performance reviews, everybody. It's time for us to do talent identification, everybody. But that's not what executives want to hear. It's busywork. What we need to do is we need to talk about impact. So why would you even do a Ninebox? Why would you even do talent identification? Why would you do performance reviews? How does this help the business win? You got to start with your why. Why? And then get rid of labels. Stop talking about, you know, talent identification or Ninebox, or don't talk about a system. Talk about, hey, you know, I've realized that we're really slowing down in engineering. And I'm wondering, is it people are getting frustrated? Do they have the right information? Do we have the right people? So I want to just put something in right now to assess our people and make sure that they, one, understand what they're supposed to be doing, and two, they're focused on getting that done. So we're getting all the noise out of the system. Different conversation than saying to the leader, say it's January, it's time to do something. So I think that's how you maintain your voice at the table. You're constantly saying to the business, what I am doing is making an impact to the company winning.

Jodi, what advice would you like to share with our audience?

One of the biggest things I'm going to say to the HR teams here is stop and stay away from the shiny new trends. They're fun, they're exciting, they're costly, but again, stress the why of what you're doing and what you need to accomplish. People have so much pressure on their own lives today. Make work exciting, make work interesting, make work somewhere where they have purpose and somewhere where they can contribute. So whenever you're thinking about doing something, implementing something, trying something new, go back to how does that make a difference for the company in the market that we're in, and how does that allow us to succeed and win?

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

Thank you, Dave. I really appreciated it.