Phil Monaghan

▶0:01HostWelcome 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 Phil Monahan to the Built By People podcast. Phil, thank you so much for joining us. As a starting question, I always love to ask you to tell us a little bit more about your career journey. As an HR professional?

▶0:58GuestSure, thank you, David, and, and thanks for having me. So my career as an HR professional began in the mid-'90s where I left the financial services industry. I was working at GMHC, and I joined an IT consulting firm in the role of a data modeler, and completed that project and found myself on the bench, which is not necessarily a great place that you want to be in a consulting firm. And so I actually had a scenario where the payroll team was trying to work through an overtime calculation issue for staff that were assigned in Canada. So we're based in the United States, but we had staff just across the Detroit River. And so I ended up working on that for probably a week or two weeks trying to help them get it fixed. And I was putting in a lot of hours and my thought was, hey, you know, if I'm on the bench, I got to create value because I'm all cost and no revenue. And so the, the business unit leader for that office came in and he said, hey, Phil, you know, we don't pay overtime. When you're on a bench? And I— and so I just explained, well, hey, if I can't bring in revenue, let me help solve a problem. And so at that point, with no HR experience, they pulled me into recruiting. I did that for about 2 weeks, realized that I couldn't handle the rejection, and then moved into a staffing manager position where I managed our, our Chrysler account, where we had about 60 people assigned there. And so that was kind of the beginning of my HR career. And I really started off as a specialist. So I was a recruiter or staffing manager and a professional development manager. I stayed in the IT industry and moved to a company called NTT DATA. And that's where I really pivoted from being in a specialist to a generalist role. And so I just found that I was— it was more interesting to me. I felt that I was better in it because as a generalist, you're knowledgeable on a number of different topics, but not necessarily expert in any. And so I ended up kind of advancing my career through taking on additional clients and offices and then ultimately handling HR for the Southeast region. And then from there, I moved to the American Cancer Society, where I was hired as a director of HR business partnerships. And so we developed and implemented an HR business partner model there. And so I spent about 13 years of my career there. Really advancing my responsibilities, I think, based a lot on focusing on internal client relationships and really trying to design HR services that, that drive business outcomes and the achievement of business goals. And so I ended my stint at the American Cancer Society, spent the last 4 years heading up the department for the company. And then ended up moving here to Skyland Trail. We are a behavioral and mental health treatment facility here in Atlanta. It's an incredible organization with a great mission and really incredible employees. So I'm kind of thrilled to be here.

▶4:52HostThanks, Phil. What's one unique or valuable story that you'd like to share from your journey as an HR executive with our audience?

▶5:03GuestSo, you know, I would say that one of the most important things that, that you can do as an HR professional is to— I call it standing your ground. So I had an experience in a prior life where I was at a director level and my internal client that I was supporting was the CFO in her entire department. And she's a very, she's a very, very smart woman, very strong opinion. She could be intimidating, maybe not by intent, but that's how people were intimidated by her. And I remember a scenario where we were talking through an employee relations issue and we were talking through, you know, should this should we look at termination? And I remember a strong disagreement between the two of us. And in that case, she wanted to terminate. And I let her know, well, while you can do that, there's a better option. And so I think with her reputation, other people just kind of caved to what she would want to do. And I felt that I should still stand my ground. And affirm that even though she was multiple levels above me. And so I ended up doing that and really developed a strong relationship with her over time. And I would argue that I had probably in our entire department the best relationship with her. And I think that came about by not changing my perspective based on what she wanted to do. It's almost as if disagreeing with her in a respectful, positive manner and in a way that furthered the relationship, didn't hurt the relationship, I'd say that I earned her respect. And ultimately, she was very helpful to my career long-term at that organization. So I just think that sometimes as HR professionals, we can be intimidated by those for whom we work or serve. And I would always recommend that you hold firm to your recommendations and why, no matter what.

▶7:20HostJoe, I want to switch gears and talk a little bit about the role of a human resource business partner. What is that role and how do you see it differing from traditional HR roles?

▶7:33GuestSo an HR business partner role is unique in that it is a dedicated HR resource to internal clients, and it's usually multiple clients. And that position is really intended to be the conduit between the business, the clients that they serve, and the HR department. And so it's their job to know all the different services that are coming out of the HR department and so that those can be properly delivered and implemented to the client base. But much more importantly, they have to be a representative of the business to the HR department. So one of the things that I've always done and required of my teams is HR business partners need to know the goals and the business of the clients that they serve. And not just to be able to repeat them, but to know those goals intimately, uh, such that they can recite them and they understand the context to them. And in essence, HR business partners can help customize what comes out of an HR department and best align it to the needs of the business so that they can help the business achieve their goals. HR is an enabling organization. So it's our job, how can we take what's coming out of HR, customize it for that client so it best drives the achievement of their goals? HR is not there for HR's sake. HR is there to help drive business outcomes.

▶9:17HostSo I want to talk now about what it takes for an HRBP to become an effective and true business partner? What are the key skills and competencies needed to succeed in that role? And where do you see the biggest opportunities for human resource business partners?

▶9:38GuestYeah, it's, it's a good, it's a good question. And I would say that there's a handful of key competencies and skills that you have to have as an effective HR business partner. I think big business acumen is number one, right? So you have to understand the business that you're in. And I don't mean the HR function, I mean the business of the organization and the strengths and the weaknesses of the organizations and the opportunities that are there in the marketplace. You have to consistently be working to both build and enhance relationships. I really believe that an HR business partner is always investing in the relationship. And the reason that you need to do that is because you don't ever want HR to be considered the police, but rather a partner. And so if you build a strong relationship and you build trust, those can be strong foundations on which you can stand to work with and best benefit the client. You've got to be strong in your skill sets and influence and negotiation, right? So one of the things I always do is I go to our clients and I don't say, yes, you can or no, you can't, based on the question that they have, but rather, here's my understanding of your business challenge. Here are the options that you have, and including in those options is what you want to do. Here are the pros and cons to each. Here's what I recommend and why. And so that way, that's an example of delivering services in partnership. So it's not yes, you can, or no, you can't. You never want to go to a client and say no, right? Sometimes you have to, but it's rare. You have to be strong in change management. How do you help the leaders of the business units that you serve? How do you help them drive change either within their business unit, their geography, or the organization as a whole. And then last but not least, you have to be— have to have strong HR expertise, right? So you have to be very knowledgeable about HR broadly. You don't have to be an expert in anything or everything because you can pull internal experts from the HR department. To support you, but you really need to be a functional expert. And I think the second question was, what are the opportunities for HR business partners? So I would say that there's two main opportunities that come to mind. So one is everything that I've just talked about, right? Knowing the business, knowing what those goals are, But having a seat at the table with the client, I think the, the HR business partnership roles that I've seen that are the most successful, that HR business partner literally attends the leadership meetings of the clients that they serve. So they have insight into the business, both for the challenges that they're experiencing, what are they thinking about, where are they going, to be involved in goal setting for the business unit, not to tell them what they need to do, but to help them understand challenges or opportunities associated with what they want to do. So it's, it's a continual proactive focus on how do we drive business outcomes. And then the other thing is really just staying on top of HR trends. In the industry, right? So, you know, the, the all business is continually evolving. HR as a function continually evolves. The needs of our employees are evolving all the time. And if you can stay on top of the HR trends themselves and that way you can be— you have a sense of what's going on in the marketplace, either in general or specific to an industry or geography. You can really help make sure that your clients are aware of some of those trends. And then again, how do you customize what's coming out of the department to best serve their needs today and tomorrow?

▶14:01HostSo I want to switch gears and talk about compensation and performance management. What are some of the key trends you're seeing in compensation and performance management, and how are these trends impacting the way organizations reward and recognize their employees?

▶14:20GuestYeah, good question. I would say that I think some of the trends that, that, that I'm seeing aren't cutting or bleeding edge trends, but I'm working in the nonprofit industry. I'm seeing a lot of nonprofit organizations in some cases really just kind of catch up to what's going on in the for-profit industry. But from a compensation perspective, I would say the things that I'm thinking about are transparency and differentiation. So transparency in— do your, do your staff, your employees understand your compensation philosophy, its structure? Do they know what salary grade they're in, the minimum, the midpoint, the max? Do they understand how merit decisions are made? So having transparency gives employees understanding and confidence in the compensation decisions that are made about them. The other thing that I would say, the differentiation part related to comp, is getting really comfortable with making both compensation decisions, whether at hire or promotion, or merit decisions to differentiate your top performers. So I'm going to argue all day long that you want to pay your best performers the most. And the most, that those two words, that's relative, right? It's relative to the position, the geography, the range, etc. But it's important to make sure that for key and critical positions, your high performers and your high potentials, that you're rewarding them the best. From a performance management perspective, you know, it gets— it's really down to some of the basics, but really doing those really, really well. And so it's when you're setting goals, I am an advocate of few goals, few competencies. So when you set goals, those are the things that you do. It's the what that you do, and the competencies are how you get them done. And so my recommendation, and again, it just depends on the organization, my kind of go-to is 4 goals, 4 competencies. Now in our roles, we're required to fulfill all of the requirements of our position all day long, every day, so that never changes. But our goals, what are the 4 most important things that we need to accomplish? Either within our function or in support of our clients as HR business partners. So notice we're setting our own goals to best support the business, right? That connection to the business. So, and then identifying which competencies that are required in each of our positions, which ones are most important to achieve those goals. So getting really good about setting few but really important important goals, meaningful goals. And then, you know, from a performance management perspective, having a good, strong structure to, let's say, quarterly check-ins with your staff on how they're doing, how we measure performance at the end of the year, and how we reward performance. You know, human nature is we tend to gravitate away from difficult conversations. But how do we get comfortable as people managers and as HR business partners? How do we support our people managers and our clients with our clients that we serve? How do we help them get comfortable in delivering that? Because that's really our employees want to hear honest feedback. So those are— I wouldn't say those are cutting or bleeding edge trends, but I think really getting good at those things and getting it really dialed in is really, really important and it's going to be valuable to the business.

▶18:24HostPhil, any parting advice you'd like to share with our community?

▶18:29GuestSo I would say that if you want to be a valued part of the organization, to me it's know the business, develop strong Relationships, pursue partnership over police. So if you are working with a business and they're doing something wrong, help them grow. Don't look at it through the lens of punishment or correction. Help them learn to look at it through the lens of growth and development. And then, you know, lastly, I would say, you know, continue to always learn. And so for me, everything that I do, I'm trying to grow the skill set, either to put a new tool in the toolbox itself, or if I'm taking one out that I already have, can I sharpen it and make it better? So better said, being a lifelong learner.

▶19:32HostPhil, thanks so much for joining us on the Built By People podcast. It was a pleasure having you on.

▶19:37GuestThank you. Thank you very much.