Sarah Frymire
Vice President of Human Resources
One Source
Episode 12
Unlocking high growth: Why your people strategy is your secret weapon.
Current chapter: This episode features Previ, the only free tool to boost internal communication engagement
Built By PeopleJanuary 15, 2026 · 16:33
Thesis
“Successful high growth and organizational change hinge on proactive trust-building and clear, targeted communication, ensuring that people strategy is directly aligned with business objectives.”
Show notes
Summary
In this episode of the Built My People podcast, Sarah Frymire shares her journey from various industries to her current role in technology leadership. She discusses the strategic priorities at OneSource, focusing on workflow refinement and organizational clarity to support growth. Sarah highlights the importance of leadership development through book studies and emphasizes effective communication strategies to engage employees. She also addresses the essential tech tools for HR operations and shares her aspirations for future growth within the organization. Finally, Sarah offers valuable advice to leaders about the significance of clarity and trust during times of change.
Takeaways
- Sarah's career journey spans multiple industries, culminating in a passion for technology.
- Workflow refinement is crucial for supporting high growth at OneSource.
- Clarity in leadership is essential for aligning teams with organizational goals.
- Leadership development initiatives can enhance team performance and engagement.
- Effective communication strategies are vital for employee engagement.
- Utilizing technology can streamline HR operations and improve efficiency.
- AI opportunities are being explored to enhance HR processes.
- Trust is built through clarity and transparency in communication.
- Book studies can provide practical applications for leadership development.
- Organizational growth requires a solid foundation and strategic planning.
What you'll take away
- 1Align people strategy directly with business objectives to support and enable periods of high organizational growth.
- 2Prioritize workflow refinement and clear ownership to reduce handoffs and prepare for continued scaling.
- 3Invest in leadership development through practical application, such as book studies, to empower managers to effectively communicate and implement change.
- 4Automate reactive HR approval processes (e.g., compensation, title, policy changes) to reduce manual friction and free up strategic team time.
- 5Cultivate trust proactively within the organization through clarity, honesty, and vulnerability before periods of significant change.
What most organizations get wrong
In Sarah's words
“I really love to be part of scaling organizations and trying to connect those dots between what are the business objectives, what is the people strategy, and how to connect that to one another.”
This quote highlights her core passion for integrating HR strategy with business goals to drive growth.
“Biggest one we have right now is really our workflow refinement. It's looking at What people do, should we keep doing it that way? Making sure that like what they're spending their time on is helping us scale.”
She emphasizes the critical need for optimizing daily work to support the company's high growth phase.
“We're looking at a complete review of how we're structured. That started probably even back into late 2024, called Project Horizon is actually what our whole project name was for.”
This provides a concrete example of a strategic organizational restructuring initiative to improve alignment and reduce silos.
“I would say the approvals that HR is always involved in... we have somewhat of a, of an older process where it's done through email. So you're constantly having to go through, do we have the right people? Do we have something? And we're looking at automating that where there's a built-in hierarchy, it's all in the same system...”
This identifies a common, friction-causing HR operational challenge and a clear path toward automation and efficiency.
“I can tell how engaged our employees are, and I can tell, especially afterwards, if they're going to their managers and asking questions and getting clarity, you know, then I feel like we're on the right track of communicating effectively.”
She outlines an unconventional but practical approach to measuring employee engagement and communication effectiveness through follow-up questions.
“Trust a lot of times is built prior to that time. Like trust being built before it's tested is so much stronger than when you're in the fire.”
This powerful insight underscores the importance of establishing a foundation of trust before critical periods of change to navigate them successfully.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Manual, email-based HR approval processes (comp, title, org structure, policy changes) create friction and slow down operations.
- •Lack of a robust tech stack to effectively track and measure employee engagement, relying on traditional surveys and anecdotal feedback.
- •Silos and inconsistencies in organizational structure resulting from outdated operational methods ('how we've always done it').
- •Over-communication can dilute important messages; finding the right balance for targeted communication is a challenge.
- •Manual updates between HRIS and other operational systems require IT intervention, leading to inefficiencies.
In this episode
This episode features Previ, the only free tool to boost internal communication engagement
Built by People
Sarah Previ is the newest Built By People podcast guest
Built By People: Sarah
OneSource has some strategic priorities for this upcoming quarter
Top Executives: Strategic Priorities for the Quarter
What are you looking to do to streamline operations and organizational strategy
Top Executives: The Challenges of the Organization
A lot of what you do doesn't look strategic, right? Yeah
Strategic Priorities in the In-Between
What internal process or processes have consistently created friction or slowed you down
What's Bringing Change of Processes To Life?
OneSource is taking leadership books and putting them into practical use cases
OneSource CEO on Leadership Initiatives
You guys are working on communication. So I am curious, right
WSJD Live: Communication and Engagement
Are there certain channels or formats that lead to noticeable higher engagement
How to Get More Engagement from Your Team
What tools or platforms are most essential for your operations today
What's Your HR Tech Stack?
We're looking at automating HRIS feeds into our operational system
How to Automate HR System Updates?
If you sat down again with us in 12 months, what would change most
WSJD Live: What's Changed Most Within the Company in the
What advice would you share with other leaders navigating rapid change
Exploring Change With Your Team
Sarah Miller: Thank you for joining us on Built By People podcast
Built By People: Sarah
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
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