Russ Simpson
CHRO
Stibo Systems
Episode 116
Future-Proof HR: Leading Growth, AI, and Engagement with Strategic Data
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleJuly 8, 2025 · 13:39
Thesis
“Strategic HR leadership is crucial for navigating organizational growth and technological evolution, by prioritizing data-driven employee engagement and integrating AI as a complementary workforce augmentation rather than a replacement.”
Show notes
Between December 2023 and April 2024, Stibo Systems increased its employee engagement score by 47% — during a period that included a reduction in force. That combination (RIF + engagement improvement) is unusual enough to be worth understanding.
Russ Simpson, the CHRO, attributes it to three things: a rigorous engagement measurement system (Peakon, run quarterly), a commitment to making people leaders own their local results rather than letting HR own them centrally, and a deliberate communication strategy built specifically for the RIF period. He's specific about what that last one looked like: segmented messaging by employee group, refreshed employer branding to signal investment in the people who remained, and leadership that held the difficult conversations directly rather than behind layers of process.
The other half of this conversation is on AI. Russ's approach is the most operationally specific you'll hear: he treats AI agents like employees. They have managers. They get onboarded. They have performance plans. They have development paths. His rationale: if you're going to use these tools seriously in your business, you need the same rigor for them that you'd apply to any other member of the team. And to address the inevitable job security question, he's made a public commitment: no layoffs associated with AI deployment at Stibo Systems. The framing is "digital colleagues," not replacements.
- How Stibo achieved a 47% engagement score improvement during a reduction in force
- The Peakon strategy: why quarterly cadence and driver analysis matters more than the score itself
- How making managers own engagement results — not just HR — changed what actually happened with the data
- The communication playbook for a RIF: segmented messaging, employer brand refresh, and direct leadership conversations
- Why Russ treats AI agents like employees — with managers, onboarding, and performance plans
This episode is brought to you by Previ — an employer network that saves employees thousands on the necessities they already pay for, at no cost to the company.
What you'll take away
- 1Utilize advanced employee engagement tools (like Peakon) to gain consistent, actionable data and identify key engagement drivers, not just low scores.
- 2Empower people leaders to take ownership of local engagement results, facilitate action planning, and respond directly to employee feedback.
- 3During challenging periods like a Reduction in Force, implement comprehensive communication plans tailored to different employee groups and refresh employer branding to maintain trust and morale.
- 4Approach AI integration into the workforce strategically, treating digital agents similar to human employees with defined roles, managers, onboarding, and performance management.
- 5To alleviate job security fears around AI, position digital workers as 'digital colleagues' that augment the workforce and scale the business, focusing on business objectives and committing to no layoffs due to AI.
What most organizations get wrong
- •Treating AI agents exactly like human employees, assigning them managers, onboarding, performance plans, and development, is a novel approach to managing a digital workforce.
In Russ's words
“I truly believe that engagement is key, helps drive so much. If engagement's good, then we're driving turnover down, driving extra effort up, satisfaction for customers, and hopefully business results.”
This quote highlights the direct business impact of strong employee engagement across multiple organizational metrics.
“Peakon itself is just, it anchors so much. It does a great job of identifying the drivers that you should be focusing on. It doesn't just hone in on the low so these are the lowest scores. It actually looks behind the scenes and says, okay, what impact do these particular drivers have on your organization?”
This explains a sophisticated approach to engagement data analysis, moving beyond superficial scores to identify true organizational impact.
“The other thing we really could do is we wanted people leaders to take ownership of the results they had at their local levels.”
This emphasizes the importance of decentralizing engagement ownership to frontline managers for more effective action.
“We increased in all of those and really are in the top 25% of all technology companies. And if we look at our overall engagement score from December of '23 to April of '24, we increased 47%, and we achieved a, we used the eNPS score and achieved a 50 on that.”
This provides tangible, impressive results of their engagement strategies, especially post-Reduction in Force.
“I was thinking, why not treat them exactly like you would an agent? Put them on a talent management plan, onboard them, performance, development, have a people leader associated with them.”
This is a key 'contrarian' perspective, proposing a structured talent management approach for AI agents.
“We talk about agents much more like digital colleagues than we do in a replacement scenario. We were very clear on the why that we were using this in terms of a business objective. We've had no layoffs and we don't intend to have any layoffs associated with this.”
This quote directly addresses job security concerns about AI by reframing AI's role and committing to no AI-driven layoffs.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Difficulty getting a consistent sense of global employee engagement, especially during company growth.
- •Challenges in getting people leaders focused on and acting upon employee engagement data.
- •Administrative burden and infrequency of traditional employee feedback surveys.
- •Maintaining employee trust and morale during necessary but difficult events like a Reduction in Force (RIF).
- •Managing the black box syndrome and lack of comfort with AI agents interacting autonomously with customers.
- •Addressing employee fear and job security concerns related to AI adoption in the workplace.
In this episode
Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built by People
You started as a public high school teacher, moved into the private sector
Career Paths
HR leaders at Stibo Systems implemented Peakon survey to improve employee engagement
Employee Engagement Survey
Russ, could you walk us through the tangible steps and initiatives you implemented to drive engagement scores
How To Drive Higher Employee Engagement Scores
You mentioned navigating through a reduction in force while still increasing employee engagement
Employee Engagement during a Reduction in Force
Why do you believe treating AI agents similar to human employees is important
AI Agents: The Right Way to Treat Them
Russ, can you share some early results from implementing AI in customer support
IBM Expands AI into Customer Support
Russ, what parting advice would you like to share with our community
AI and the Future of Workforce
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
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