Laura Maffucci

▶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 Laura to the Built by People podcast. Laura, thank you so much for joining us. And as a starting question, I always love to ask if you could share a little bit more about your career journey.

▶0:54GuestSure. Thanks so much. It's exciting to be here. Looking forward to chatting with you. I think my journey in HR and my career journey has been a little different than most people's. I grew up in compensation, HRIS, and total rewards, and that isn't typically the path that you take from junior parts of HR into leading an HR function. But I've always stayed very connected with all of the different COEs within HR and partnered really closely with my leaders and have a pretty diverse background when it comes to the industries and things that I've worked in. I've done everything from services to manufacturing to consumer packaged goods. So I've got a lot of breadth of experience that way. And at GP, it's just one of those great companies where as long as you're willing to seize onto the opportunities and dig in there and do things, their opportunities will always find you. I was really lucky and now I am head of HR here and leading an amazing team.

▶1:50HostExcellent. Laura, what are some of the key considerations HR professionals should keep in mind when implementing a global HR strategy?

▶1:58GuestI think it's really easy for companies to jump right to the tactical. What am I going to pay them? What are the benefits going to be? And of course, those things are important and you have to do those. But I think a mistake you can make is jumping right there and not thinking holistically about how you're going to drive global parity, global consistency. There's so many different regulations in each country. You're never going to be able to be completely consistent across the board. But I think what you want to do is think about who you want to be as an employer and how you want to take care of people and come up with— what we do is we have guiding principles around all of our benefits, all where we say, okay, what is the minimum level of care we want to have across the board in all countries? And then if it's more in one country, that's great. But if it's less, we are still going to do what our baseline guiding principle is. And I think it's really important for companies to start there.

▶2:53HostLaura, how can HR leaders effectively develop a global employment strategy that accommodates diverse cultures and regulations?

▶3:02GuestI think you need to listen. I think you also finding a good partner, whether it's EOR or using tools that are available like we have with GP and GPGIA, really research and understand the norms in the countries. Listening to the people that you are hiring in those countries, they can provide you with a lot of insights. And staying open-minded and understanding that you don't know what you don't know. And it's really important to research and understand what's really going on in a market, in a country, as far as legal requirements, but also just norms that might not be required by law, but that most good employers in those countries offer.

▶3:40HostWhat potential challenges might HR face when integrating AI into their practices, and how can they overcome them?

▶3:48GuestI think fear is a big thing with AI and resistance to change. I think that we're in a time similar to like when Facebook first came out. I remember we had someone in marketing who was hired specifically for that social media strategy and people were coming and complaining because she was on Facebook all day because they didn't understand that was her actual job. So I think it's getting people educated on what it is and what it can do and how it can help you be more strategic. And help you be smarter and more effective and spend your time on more value-added things. And not that it's going to take your job. AI isn't going to take your job, but it is going to impact people who aren't willing to embrace AI.

▶4:28HostAnd Laura, how can HR leverage AI to enhance employee engagement and streamline HR processes?

▶4:35GuestI think all of the good HR systems out there have an AI component. Workday does, and I know some others that do as well. And I know GP, we've incorporated that into our Baseline platform as well as our new product, Jia. So I think really just being an early adopter and when the tools are in front of you, dig into them, learn about them, and actually put them into practice and make use of them. And again, I think it goes to education and training and not wanting people to not be afraid and wanting to embrace it, understanding that using an AI tool can take care of hours of research, or perhaps some thought starters for writing something, or even if it's a tool like resume scanning, things like that, so that you can focus on the more strategic aspects of HR, I think it can really help propel HR to being the strategic partners that we wanna be.

▶5:27HostLaura, what parting advice would you like to share with our community?

▶5:31GuestDon't be afraid of change and don't be afraid to embrace EI. Fear is what holds most companies back, wanting to just stand firm here and, well, the way it's always been, then I'm just going to be able to stay here. And that's not the case. That's not going to make you safe. So don't be afraid to try new things and also be very careful on the security front and make sure that your employees are educated on how to properly use AI without compromising confidential company information.

▶5:58HostLaura, thank you so much for joining us on the Built by People podcast. It was a pleasure to have you involved.

▶6:03GuestThanks so much.