Maggie Ruvoldt
CHRO
LEARN Behavioral
Episode 280
Strategic HR's Secret: Business Acumen, Trust, and Enterprise-Wide AI
Current chapter: Covering monthly expenses is the number one concern for employees in 2024
Built By PeopleMarch 10, 2025 · 11:02
Thesis
“Successful HR leadership hinges on deep business acumen, treating HR as a strategic business function, and proactively fostering trust between employees and the company to drive innovation and organizational growth amidst evolving work dynamics and technological shifts like AI.”
Show notes
Women are 16% less likely to use AI than their male counterparts. Maggie Ruvoldt's closing message to HR leaders — particularly women — is direct: don't leave AI to the comp sci majors. Get running with it.
With more than 30 years across business and HR roles, Maggie has built a consistent identity: a business leader who happens to do HR, not an HR leader who occasionally engages with the business. The distinction shapes everything. Her first career-building move for early-stage HR professionals is disarmingly simple: walk to every department and ask, "Teach me about what you do every day and how it drives the business, so I can partner with you better." No strategy required. Just the intellectual humility to acknowledge you don't know — and the discipline to keep asking. Her rule of thumb: if it doesn't scare her a little and doesn't create room to grow, it's probably not the right next move.
Her trust framework is the sharpest contribution in this conversation. The conventional wisdom says "people leave managers, not companies." Maggie's update: the erosion of trust is increasingly happening between employees and the company itself — the logo — not the individual manager. Return-to-office mandates, DEI policy reversals, AI workforce decisions: these are company-level acts that hit the employee-company relationship directly. HR's response can't be passive. HR has to be a vocal, brave advocate in leadership discussions for the employee perspective — even when that means delivering uncomfortable truths. And on AI governance, she's equally firm: enterprise-wide coordination beats departmental silos every time.
What you'll learn:
- The one question every early-career HR professional should ask every department to build real business acumen
- Why Maggie frames herself as "a business leader who does HR" — and how that lens changes decisions
- Why trust erosion is now a company-level problem, not just a manager-level one
- The vulnerability-innovation link: why psychological safety precedes organizational experimentation
- An enterprise-wide AI governance model — and why siloed departmental AI adoption is a trap
- Why women in HR are underutilizing AI by 16% — and why closing that gap matters
This episode is in partnership with Transform. Check out their community here.
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What you'll take away
- 1HR professionals must actively develop broad business acumen by understanding the functions and drivers of every department to become strategic partners.
- 2Innovation requires vulnerability and a willingness to fail, which is only possible in an environment built on trust, particularly between employees and the broader 'company' entity.
- 3AI implementation should be approached with an enterprise-wide strategy rather than siloed efforts, to maximize efficiency, collaboration, and leverage across the organization.
- 4HR's crucial role in rebuilding organizational trust and improving employee experience is to be a brave, vocal advocate for the employee perspective at the leadership table.
- 5All professionals, especially women and HR practitioners, should proactively engage with and learn about AI, starting with simple applications, to avoid being left behind.
What most organizations get wrong
- •While managers significantly impact daily experience, the erosion of trust is increasingly happening between the employee and 'the company' itself, due to major organizational decisions (e.g., RTO, DEI, AI policies).
- •AI is not solely for technologists; every individual across all roles, including HR, should actively learn and leverage AI to remain competitive and effective.
In Maggie's words
“I always feel as if, if it doesn't scare me a little bit and doesn't give me the opportunity to grow and learn, that it's probably not the right next thing.”
This quote highlights a personal philosophy of embracing challenges for continuous professional and personal growth.
“you can't be good in this role if you don't understand all the other levers of how the business works.”
Maggie emphasizes that foundational business knowledge is critical for HR professionals to be truly effective and strategic.
“Teach me about what you do every day and how it drives the business so that I can partner with you better and support you better.”
This provides a simple, actionable question for HR professionals to build cross-functional business acumen and foster collaboration.
“You can't have innovation without vulnerability. If you don't assume you are going to fail, you'll not innovate.”
Maggie links the willingness to be vulnerable and embrace potential failure directly to the ability to innovate, highlighting the role of trust.
“Where I think the erosion is happening is between not the direct manager and the employee, but the employee and the company, like the logo almost that people are having.”
This quote identifies a critical shift in where trust is breaking down in modern organizations, beyond just the manager-employee dynamic.
“when we can create and help create an engaged employee base and experience, We're gonna be better at customer service. We're gonna be better at innovation.”
Maggie articulates the direct business benefits of a strong employee experience, framing HR's role as both company and employee advocate.
The problems this episode addresses
- •HR professionals often lack comprehensive business acumen, hindering their ability to act as strategic partners rather than just operational support.
- •A growing erosion of trust exists between employees and the company (as an entity), driven by major organizational decisions, impacting engagement and innovation.
- •Organizations risk costly, disparate, and inefficient AI solutions due to siloed departmental initiatives instead of a cohesive enterprise-wide strategy.
- •HR teams struggle to vocalize the unpopular truths about employee impact during leadership discussions, which is critical for rebuilding trust and improving employee experience.
- •Non-technical professionals, particularly women in HR, are underutilizing AI, risking being left behind in technological advancements and missing opportunities for efficiency and growth.
In this episode
Covering monthly expenses is the number one concern for employees in 2024
Built by People
I always love to ask you about your career journey
A Question for the C-suite
Maggie says understanding other business levers is crucial to success in HR
Maggie Lee on the Importance of Business-oriented HR
Maggie says early career HR professionals should develop broader business acumen
Maggie, what strategies would you recommend for early career HR
Maggie says trust is the foundation for innovation
Trust Being the Foundation for Innovation
When implementing new initiatives, you emphasize taking an enterprise-wide approach
WSJD. AI: The Enterprise-Wide Approach
What role should HR play in rebuilding trust within organizations around employee experience
HR's Role in Rebuilding Employee Experience
Maggie shares her advice on how to use artificial intelligence in HR
Maggie On AI For HR
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
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