Michael O'Neill
Chief Human Resources Officer
Major League Baseball Players Association
Episode 48
The Future of HR: Outwork the Organization's Needs. Secure Financial Well-being.
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleSeptember 23, 2025 · 23:25
Thesis
“Michael O'Neill advocates for HR to transcend tactical responsibilities, becoming a respected strategic partner that proactively meets organizational needs, underpinned by a belief that financial well-being empowers both HR professionals and employees to focus on higher-level objectives.”
Show notes
Three years ago, the MLB Players Association unionized minor league players — and overnight, Michael O'Neill's HR function went from serving roughly 1,500 people to more than 5,500. Most HR leaders talk about scaling. Michael actually had to do it, in real time, while simultaneously building the infrastructure that should have existed before the growth happened. It was, as he puts it, building the plane while flying it.
Michael came to HR from law, which shaped a particular instinct: the credibility of the function has to be earned, not assumed. At the MLBPA, where personal relationships and direct interaction are deeply embedded in the culture, that credibility matters enormously. He's made it his mission to position HR not as an administrative necessity but as a respected strategic partner — and he acknowledges, with characteristic directness, that losing that respect keeps him up at night.
He also makes a case that doesn't get made often enough: financial well-being isn't a soft benefit. It's a strategic enabler. When employees aren't distracted by financial stress, they make better decisions. When HR professionals aren't personally under financial pressure, they advocate more effectively for others. It's a through-line that connects personal well-being to organizational performance in ways that are easy to overlook and hard to argue with.
- What it looks like to quadruple a union's size in three years — the HR infrastructure challenges Michael faced and how he prioritized them
- Moving from law to HR — what a legal foundation gives you, and what you have to learn from scratch
- Change management at the MLBPA — why in-person conversations outperform email when people care deeply about an outcome
- Financial well-being as a strategic lever — the case for treating employee financial health as an organizational performance issue
- HR's credibility problem — how Michael approaches earning and maintaining respect as a strategic function
- Integrating AI in a relationship-first culture — where automation helps and where it has to stay out of the way
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What you'll take away
- 1Strategic HR leadership requires constantly 'outworking the needs of the organization' to maintain respect and influence, balancing tactical necessities with long-term goals.
- 2Effective change management hinges on proactive, personalized communication (e.g., in-person discussions over emails) to address underlying 'why' concerns and ensure understanding of policy benefits.
- 3Prioritizing financial well-being for both HR professionals and employees is crucial; it reduces stress, enhances focus, and improves overall productivity and decision-making.
- 4Rapid organizational growth (e.g., quadrupling in size) necessitates a focus on building robust HR structures, strategic recruiting, and consolidating clear policies and procedures.
- 5In organizations where personal interaction is highly valued, AI solutions should be carefully integrated, often in a background capacity, rather than replacing frontline human engagement.
What most organizations get wrong
- •We're not ready necessarily to shift that burden [of frontline HR interaction] to AI because it's just impersonal. And I don't know when we will or if we will, but I think it, I think we would be less of an early adopter of that.
- •As an HR person, when you're finding it, when you figure out how to be financially independent... I believe that that makes you not only in HR, but in all, in all roles, I believe that makes you a better employee or a better, a better executive in ways.
In Michael's words
“So, you know, working for the players union like the, like I do, it's a bit interesting being a part of the union and the players are the union members. And so we have around 5,500 members... I kind of was thinking about why I joined the union in the first place and was just trying to go someplace and be someplace where there was a purpose and there was a goal.”
Highlights the unique context of HR in a union and the guest's motivation for purposeful work.
“When we went and unionized the minor leaguers about 3 years ago... it was also taking our union size from about 1,300 to 1,500 people all the way up to 5,500-plus people. So that's a gigantic movement in union. So as you could imagine, some of the biggest things are understanding... I had to build it. I'm in the middle of building an HR structure and we tripled the size of the union, quadrupled the size of the union at that point.”
Illustrates the immense challenge and work involved in rapidly scaling an HR function during massive organizational growth and unionization.
“I really do want to make HR a strategic partner with the organization. And I can do that here because, you know, it's a respected function within the organization. But if it loses that respect, it sort of keeps me up at night.”
Captures the guest's core drive to elevate HR's role and his concern about maintaining that strategic influence.
“We changed the policy that affected a, a smallish number of people, but a very vocal small number of people... And what it really turns out is, is sometimes, sometimes the best way to do that is by, is by bringing people into a room and talking it out with them versus sending them that email.”
Provides a concrete example of a communication breakdown and offers a pragmatic solution for effective change management.
“I think that financial well-being for both the individual HR person as well as the people within your organization is so important... I believe that that makes you not only in HR, but in all, in all roles, I believe that makes you a better employee or a better, a better executive in ways.”
Emphasizes financial well-being as a foundational element for professional effectiveness and overall employee productivity, tying it to strategic HR.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Organizations experiencing hyper-growth (3x-4x in a short period) struggle to scale HR infrastructure and recruiting to meet demand, as seen with the MLBPA unionizing minor leaguers.
- •Companies with diverse business units and specific cultural fits require sophisticated talent acquisition strategies beyond general recruitment to find the right people for each group.
- •Leaders struggle with communication breakdowns when implementing policy changes, leading to employee misunderstanding, resistance, and perceived unfairness, especially with vocal minorities.
- •HR executives are bogged down by administrative, non-strategic tasks (payroll, benefits queries, ad-hoc employee issues), preventing them from focusing on strategic initiatives.
- •HR leaders constantly worry about demonstrating and maintaining their function's strategic value and respect within the C-suite.
In this episode
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When we unionized the minor leaguers, our HR business exploded
Union President Eric Feist on the Challenges of HR
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What Keeps You Up at Night?
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What would you hope has changed in your current HR org in 12 months
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Financial well-being for HR people and employees is so important
Financial Well-being in the Workplace
Michael: James, thanks for joining our Built by People podcast today
Built by People Podcast
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
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