Madison McCord
CHRO
Domo
Episode 284
The Strategic HR Imperative: Beyond Admin to True Business Partnership
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleMarch 4, 2025 · 15:02
Thesis
“Effective HR professionals move beyond administrative tasks to become strategic business partners by deeply understanding the business, building trust, and leveraging data to drive informed decisions and solve people-centric problems.”
Show notes
Unveiling HR: Madison McCord's Journey from Psychology to Strategic HR PartnerIn this episode of the Built by People podcast sponsored by Previ, host Dave welcomes Madison, an HR executive, to share her career journey.
Madison discusses her transition from a psychology background to HR, emphasizing the importance of understanding people and their motivations. She elaborates on the concept of the three Ps in HR: police, pushovers, and partners, and explains how HR can balance strategic partnership with maintaining necessary boundaries.
Madison also shares critical HR transformations implemented at Domo as it scaled from a startup to a nearly 1,000-employee public company. She underscores the role of communication, data-driven decision-making, and internal promotions in fostering a high-performance culture.
Her parting advice highlights building relationships, adaptability, and presenting solutions, not just problems.
00:00 Introduction to the Built by People Podcast
00:16 Sponsor Message from Previ
00:44 Guest Introduction: Madison's Career Journey
03:05 The Three Ps in HR: Police, Pushovers, and Partners
05:25 Scaling HR Processes at Domo
08:49 Building a Culture of Internal Promotions
12:13 Positioning HR as Strategic Business Partners
13:43 Parting Advice and Conclusion
What you'll take away
- 1To be strategic partners, HR must speak the language of the business by understanding its metrics, financials, and strategic goals.
- 2Building trust and credibility with leaders takes time and is essential for HR to provide valuable advice, push back constructively, and influence decisions.
- 3Leverage data—from exit surveys, engagement data, and performance analytics—to make objective decisions about talent, rather than relying solely on subjective feedback.
- 4Reimagine performance management beyond traditional reviews by implementing modern, data-driven approaches like organizational network analysis to gather comprehensive feedback and identify key talent.
- 5During rapid growth, scale internal communication strategies to ensure all employees are consistently aligned with strategic initiatives and understand their impact on the business.
What most organizations get wrong
- •Traditional performance reviews are often ineffective due to low participation and low impact, necessitating a more agile, data-driven approach that moves beyond simple manager feedback.
In Madison's words
“HR isn't just about policies and administrative work... but it was about that aspect of solving business problems through people.”
This quote defines her foundational philosophy of HR as a strategic problem-solver rather than a purely administrative function.
“The most important thing... is just that trust and credibility that you're building with your leaders. So first, again, understanding the business so that you truly can speak the language of the business.”
It highlights the crucial elements—trust, credibility, and business acumen—for HR to become a valued strategic partner.
“How do we scale our communication, ensure everybody's up to speed on and marching in the same direction on what's going to be important to the business.”
This identifies a critical challenge during company growth and emphasizes the goal of effective internal communication for strategic alignment.
“We haven't had formal performance reviews at DoneWell for the last 6 years, and I will say when you talk about performance reviews in HR, I still like, there's definitely going to be differing opinions across the board. And when I took on the role, I didn't want to move back to traditional performance reviews because that didn't work.”
This shows a distinct and somewhat contrarian approach to performance reviews, detailing their previous dissatisfaction with traditional methods.
“How do we get more data to ensure that we're making the right decisions and we truly feel like the list of key talent we put together represents the true population of our employees?”
She underscores the paramount importance of data in making equitable and accurate talent decisions, moving beyond subjective biases.
“Coming to the table with solutions, not problems, like I just mentioned on my last, you know, last answer. I think building relationships and truly understanding what motivates not only those that you're working with, what, but the business, so that you're well-informed as you're providing advice and feedback.”
This concise summary offers actionable advice for HR professionals looking to enhance their strategic influence and value.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Informal, email-based HR processes consume significant time and resources, particularly for companies lacking budget for dedicated HR tech.
- •Rapid company growth and distributed workforces create communication silos, hindering strategic alignment and consistent messaging across the organization.
- •Traditional performance review systems often result in low employee participation and minimal impact, forcing HR to seek more effective modern alternatives.
- •Over-reliance on subjective manager feedback in talent identification can lead to biased key talent lists that don't accurately reflect the workforce.
- •HR professionals are frequently viewed as 'policy police' or 'pushovers,' preventing them from being seen as true strategic business partners.
In this episode
Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built by People
I was initially very interested in psychology because I wanted to understand people
Exploring the Career Journey
HR professionals need to find a sweet spot of being strategic partners while maintaining boundaries
The 3 Ps of HR: Partners, Police, Pushovers
Madison was instrumental in helping Domo streamline its HR processes
What's Domo's Most Critical HR Transformation?
The company has grown rapidly and has employees dispersed across the globe
Employee Engagement: Communication
Domo has a strong track record of recognizing and rewarding high performance
Domo Performance Reviews: More Data, Less Confirmation
What parting advice would you like to share with our audience? Madison: Being adaptable is critical
What parting advice would you like to share with your audience?
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
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