Podcasts about chro

CHROs have more responsibility than ever but less structural power than the role requires. In Part 2 of The CHRO Paradox series, Stacie explores the "C-suite gap"—the disconnect between where the CHRO sits and where real decisions are made. Drawing on data from The Conference Board, the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, Protiviti, and the Josh Bersin Company, this episode maps the four derailers keeping the authority gap open, illustrates what success looks like when organizations close it, and provides five concrete moves for HR leaders operating inside the gap right now. Stacie For more episodes, visit StacieBaird.com.

In this episode of the HR Leaders Podcast, I had an inspiring conversation with Björn Axelsson, EVP and CHRO at Sandvik, to unpack how one of Sweden's largest industrial technology companies is changing the way people think about mining, manufacturing, AI, sustainability, and future talent.Björn explains why mining is one of the most misunderstood industries in the talent market. Many people still picture it as old-fashioned, unsafe, or disconnected from the future, when in reality Sandvik has been working with autonomous vehicles, connected fleets, electrified equipment, digital mining, software, and AI-powered solutions for years.Most importantly, Björn shares how Sandvik is building a future-ready workforce by investing in STEM talent, early careers, mining academies, global mobility, employee-led storytelling, AI adoption, and local communities, all while helping customers access the minerals needed for the green transition.

In this episode of the HR Leaders Podcast, I had an inspiring conversation with Arun Serikar, VP, HR Technology, Digital Platforms & AI Innovation, Corp Functions at Schneider Electric, to unpack what it really takes to simplify HR technology, scale AI, and build a better employee experience across a global enterprise.Arun shares how Schneider Electric went from 545 HR applications to 303, reducing tech debt, breaking regional silos, and building stronger governance around the tools, data, and platforms used across the business. He explains why employees are not looking for the “best system”, they are looking for fewer systems that actually work together.Most importantly, Arun breaks down how Schneider Electric is using AI to move HR from a back-office function to an intelligence layer for the enterprise, from internal chatbots and ticket reduction, to performance review AI assistance, agentic workflows, and a future where employees can complete tasks without jumping between systems.

In this episode of the IDEAS+LEADERS Podcast, I'm joined by Angela Finlay, Chief Human Capital Strategist, former CHRO, educator, and author of Skill Stacking: Taking Ownership of Your Career in Changing Times.As organizations embrace AI and the pace of change accelerates, careers are becoming less linear and more dynamic. Angela shares why relying on a single expertise is no longer enough and how intentionally combining complementary skills can create new opportunities, increase resilience, and help professionals stay relevant throughout their careers.In this episode, we discuss:• Why traditional ideas of job security are rapidly changing• What skill stacking is and how it creates a unique competitive advantage• Why career pivots don't have to mean starting from scratch• The leadership mindset required to thrive in uncertainty• How AI is reshaping hiring, talent development, and the future of work• Why curiosity, continuous learning, and adaptability are becoming essential leadership capabilities• Practical advice for professionals who want to future-proof their careers and take ownership of their growthTune in for an insightful conversation on career resilience, leadership development, and building the skills that will matter most in the years ahead.Connect with Angela here: Angela Blum-Finlay | LinkedIn Thank you for joining me on this episode of IDEAS+LEADERS. If you enjoyed this episode, please share, subscribe and review so that more people can enjoy the podcast on Apple https://apple.co/3fKv9IH or Spotify https://sptfy.com/Nrtq.

In this episode of the HR Leaders Podcast, we sit down with Dr. Marcus Collins, Best-Selling Author, Keynote Speaker and Professor at University of Michigan - Stephen M. Ross School of Business, to unpack why culture is the most powerful force shaping human behavior, inside and outside organizations.Marcus explains why most companies misunderstand culture by reducing it to slogans, rituals, values, or “how we do things around here.” In reality, culture starts with how people think, what they believe, how they make meaning, and what behaviors those shared beliefs produce.Most importantly, he reveals why the future of work will not be won by technology alone. It will be won by organizations that understand the culture of work, align the front stage and backstage of the business, and build environments where people are truly connected to the beliefs, behaviors, and conviction behind the work.

In this special Enter The Vault episode of ‪@thehrldpodcast, we unlock the HR L&D vault, a curated collection of the most powerful insights, lessons, and truths shared by the brightest minds shaping the future of work.You'll hear game-changing perspectives on trust-based leadership, skills-based hiring, imposter syndrome, fear in the workplace, building high-trust cultures, HR as a strategic function, and what it truly takes to move from command and control to trust and inspire.From practical advice on rebuilding lost trust and professionalising HR, to deeply human lessons on vulnerability, failure, calmness under pressure, and original thinking, this episode captures the mindset shifts that separate reactive HR from truly transformational people leadership.If you're an HR professional, CHRO, L&D leader, talent strategist, people manager, or founder navigating culture change, leadership development, and the evolving world of work, this episode is packed with timeless insights you can apply immediately.Subscribe for more conversations redefining HR, leadership, and the future of work.Nick Day's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickday/Find your ideal candidate with our job vacancy system: https://jgarecruitment.ck.page/919cf6b9eaSign up to the HR L&D Newsletter: https://jgarecruitment.ck.page/23e7b153e7Enjoyed this? Check out our sister podcast ‪@thepayrollpodcast for more great content!Timestamps:(00:00) Introduction: Welcome to the HR L&D Vault(00:48) Everyone Is Making It Up: Imposter Syndrome at Every Level(03:53) The One Quality Every Great Leader Has: Calm Is Strength(07:08)Take More Risks: The Career Advice You Needed Earlier(08:28) Skills-Based Hiring and Walking Away from CVs(10:11) Why You Should Hire an HR Leader Sooner Than You Think(14:36) Trust Can Be Lost But It Can Be Rebuilt Through Behaviour(17:19) Trust and Inspire: The Leadership Model for the Modern World(21:50) Inspiration Is the New Engagement Frontier(31:06) How Fear Is Silently Sabotaging Your Leadership(34:06) Failure Is Not the Opposite of Success, It Is Part of It

Postawiłeś nogi moje na miejscu szerokim. Ps 31,9 Chrystus wyzwolił nas, abyśmy w tej wolności żyli. Stójcie więc niezachwianie i nie poddawajcie się znowu pod jarzmo niewoli. Ga 5,1 Panie, chroń nas przed godzeniem się na kompromisy kosztem Twojej wolności! Niech Twój Kościół stanie się oazą wolności. Chroń go przed tworzeniem nowych barier i budowaniem murów, które zamykają i oddzielają ludzi od siebie nawzajem. Gerhard Hopfer †2017

Ócáid bhailiúcháin airgid á heagrú ar mhaithe le Croílíne Chois Fharraige.

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Welcome to Work in Progress with Chris and Keyanna, your weekly workplace news hit, but with less corporate waffle, more real talk, and the occasional “wait… are we allowed to say that?” moment.All in under 10 minutes.No jargon. No doom-mongering. No pretending everything is fine when clearly… it is not.

In this episode of the HR Leaders Podcast, I had an inspiring conversation with Kelly Costanza, Chief People Officer at CAVA, to unpack how one of the fastest-growing restaurant brands is turning culture, hospitality, and frontline careers into a real business advantage.Kelly shares why culture cannot just be a word on a wall. At CAVA, culture is operationalized through values, competencies, recognition, career pathways, frontline listening, stock grants, mental health benefits, and leadership rituals that make the employee experience feel just as intentional as the guest experience.Most importantly, Kelly explains how CAVA is building a place where people can have a career, not just a job, from hourly team members growing into general managers, to leaders staying connected to the restaurants through shoulder-to-shoulder service, town halls, and practical feedback from the frontline.

AI can write website copy that outperforms 80% of what is online today. You just have to teach it who it is writing for. In this episode of Intended Consequences, Conversion Sciences founder Brian Massey shows you how to use AI to generate website copy that actually converts. The secret is not a better prompt. It is writing for the four ways people make buying decisions. You will learn the Modes of Research framework, first published in "Waiting for Your Cat to Bark," and how to map it onto Myers-Briggs types so any language model speaks your language. Then you will watch live rewrites that turn flat, jargon-filled copy into messaging built for Competitive, Methodical, Spontaneous, and Humanist visitors. By the end you can build your own AI messaging agent in ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini and let it do the rewriting for you. WHAT YOU WILL LEARN Why most B2B copy sounds the same and caps your conversion rate The four research modes and the buyer behind each one How to use Myers-Briggs as a shared vocabulary with any AI The simple prompt that teaches your chatbot to rewrite by mode How to generate personas straight from a URL How to A/B test copy that is finally different enough to win How to build a reusable AI messaging agent for your brand CHAPTERS 00:00 Why AI copy beats 80% of website copy 01:30 Styrofoam copy and the conversion ceiling 02:40 How our own biases sabotage copywriting 04:10 ICPs and the four-persona problem 05:40 Corner cases: copy big enough to A/B test 06:00 The 4 Modes of Research framework 06:50 Competitive and Methodical buyers 08:00 Spontaneous and Humanist buyers 09:30 Placing copy on the page by buyer mode 10:30 Why language models beat humans at this 11:20 Myers-Briggs as a shared language with AI 14:00 The simple prompt to train your chatbot 15:00 Generating personas from a URL (Calm.com) 17:40 Rewriting copy for each mode, live 24:00 B2B example: HR services, CHRO vs CFO 29:50 Laying out multiple voices on one page 31:00 Q&A: getting your team to trust AI copy 33:20 Building your own AI messaging agent 38:00 What is next: ad and landing page alignment 38:50 Q&A: CTAs, ad frequency, and brand salience RESOURCES Messaging skills and full prompts: https://conversion.science/msg-skills Conversion Sciences: https://conversionsciences.com Book: "Waiting for Your Cat to Bark" by Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg: https://conversci.com/catbark Roy H. Williams and the Wizard Academy: https://www.wizardacademy.org Subscribe for more on conversion optimization, AI, and the experiments behind what actually works. #AICopywriting #ConversionOptimization #CRO

He Interrupted Her Mid-Sentence and Said "I Don't Agree." She Asked: "How Many Recruitment Drives Have You Led?" CHRO Deepashri on Standing Your Ground It was her first day in a new role. The leadership team was deep into planning the launch of a major production system. She raised her hand and asked: "What about the people strategy?" Everyone looked at her like she was speaking a different language. "What does people have to do with this? It's a manufacturing system." She asked again. Still dismissed. Still polite. Still ignored. She could have let it go. Instead, she spent six months building an irrefutable business case. She spoke to the consultants. She researched the ROI. She calculated exactly what would be lost if people failed to adopt the system. She pre-worked the stakeholders she already had relationships with, one by one, so she would not be the only voice in the room when the moment came. Then she walked into a meeting with the global head of manufacturing, the global head of HR, and the other senior sponsors. She was the only woman in the room. She was a nervous wreck. She had her game face on. She got the budget. She got the resources. She built a people pillar that outlasted her, survived an acquisition, and is still running today. Deepashri is Chief Human Resources Officer at 8th Ave Food and Provisions. In this episode, she shares two very different stories of standing her ground at work — one strategic and six months in the making, one instinctive and decided in seconds — and what she learned from both. You'll learn: Why she refused to use HR buzzwords like "empathy" or "doing the right thing" when pitching to hard-nosed manufacturing executives, and what she said instead to make her idea impossible to ignore. The pre-meeting strategy she uses before any high-stakes pitch: influence the people you already have relationships with one-on-one first, so you are never the only advocate in the room. How she walked into the biggest pitch of her career feeling like a nervous wreck, knowing that if she failed, she would be "just another person on the leadership team with no voice." The investment banker who interrupted her mid-sentence and said "I don't agree." What she said back, why she still calls him a friend today, and what happened when she pulled it off. Why she thought she was being assertive in a conversation that completely failed to land, what her coach told her, and the three-part technique she developed to deliver the most difficult messages in a way that registered clearly without feeling disrespectful. Why assertiveness looks and sounds different across cultures, and how she learned to calibrate between India's indirect communication style and the blunt directness expected in U.S. corporate environments. Her best career compliment: "Deeps will tell you the most difficult things in the nicest possible way." About Deepashri: Chief Human Resources Officer at 8th Ave Food and Provisions, Deepashri has built her career across global HR, change management, and organizational transformation roles in India and the United States. She is a coach, storyteller, and advocate for assertive communication across cultures.

Susan Podlogar spent decades as one of HR's most respected leaders - including nearly a decade as CHRO of MetLife - and she did it after taking five years away from her career to raise her kids. In this episode, she shares what that break taught her, why she still carries guilt from the years she didn't show up the way she wanted to, and why she believes parental leave is one of the most strategically important things a company can get right.Connect with us on LinkedIn: Parentaly | Allison Whalen | Jenna VassalloLearn more about our parental leave programs: How We Help | Contact UsKeep in touch with Parentaly: Podcast newsletter | Monthly newsletter

In this episode of the HR Leaders Podcast, we sit down with Anju Choudhary, Chief People Officer at Xoxoday, to unpack why burnout is not just a wellbeing problem, but a work design and change design problem.Anju explains why organizations often treat burnout as an individual resilience issue, when the real problem is often the way teams are overloaded with unclear priorities, constant change, weak manager support, and poor recognition systems. She shares why leaders need to stop rewarding unsustainable hustle and start designing cultures where people can perform, grow, and recover without burning out.Most importantly, Anju breaks down the practical ways HR leaders can reduce burnout, build trust, and create healthier performance cultures, from clearer feedback and better change management, to manager enablement, recognition, AI coaching, team playbooks, and reward strategies that actually connect to the lived employee experience.

How can you translate the skills that come easiest to you may into career opportunities?In this episode of Women Leaders on the Move, host Natalie Benamou welcomes Angela Finlay, is a CHRO, Columbia University Professor, and Author of Skill Stacking: Taking Ownership of Your Career in Changing Times.Angela brings a fresh perspective on career ownership and why the skills women use every day are often the same skills that create new opportunities. She shares how to recognize your strengths, build new capabilities, and connect your experience in ways that support your next move.Natalie and Angela talk about AI, portfolio careers, reinvention, and the power of skill stacking in a changing world of work.This conversation will help you see your experience as an advantage and take a more intentional step toward what's next.Keep shining your light bright. The world needs you.About Our GuestAngela Finlay is a Chief Human Capital Strategist, CHRO and educator who helps organizations and professionals rethink what it means to build a successful career in today's ever-changing workplace.LinkedIn https://windwardhcm.com/ stackingyourcareer.comHerCsuite® is a leadership network where women build what's next. Our members land board roles, grow businesses, lead the AI conversation, and live their best portfolio career with our programs. Join us at HerCsuite.com, or connect with host Natalie Benamou on LinkedIn.

What if the reason the world's biggest companies keep failing at AI has nothing to do with the AI itself?Siobhan Savage is the co-founder and CEO of Reejig, the Work Operating System helping the most complex organizations on earth move work to worker in the age of AI. She works with Fortune 500 companies across banking, pharmaceutical, and retail, and she is building a billion-dollar company on a single conviction:opportunity belongs to the builder, not the platform.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━HER STORYOne of twelve children. Canadian born, Irish raised, 15 years in Sydney, now in New York. She built her career in workforce strategy on multi billion dollar projects, obsessing over one question: how do you move work to the right worker and make a business run at high velocity?She never imagined agents would become a form of worker. Now that future is arriving, and the Fortune 500 calls her to make sense of it.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━WHAT THIS EPISODE EXPOSESIn this episode of Truth Works, Jessica Neal and co-host Jeff Markowitz sit down with Siobhan to reveal what is really happening inside enterprise AI.Most large companies have turned AI into transformation theatre: 12 month programs, enormous consulting bills, prompt training that changes nothing, and tools that get switched on then quietly switched off when the ROI never shows up.The problem is not the technology. It is that almost no one has actually looked at how the work runs.Reejig spent $40 million mapping how work actually works, building a view of tasks, subtasks, and skills before large language models were even real. That map is why Siobhan can walk into a company and understand 80% of its work without touching a single system.She also draws a hard line on responsibility. Being Bold AND Responsible is not a slogan for her, and she refuses to design a world where two iPads interview each other in a boardroom.Then it gets personal: raising "baby builders," the mom guilt of 16 hour days, and the human skills she believes will matter most in the careers of the future.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━TOPICS COVEREDTHE BACKSTORY→ One of twelve children, Canadian born, Irish raised, 15 years in Sydney→ Starting out in workforce strategy and the obsession with moving work to worker→ Recruiting as the ultimate training ground for resilience and connectionTHE ENTERPRISE AI REALITY→ The real reason enterprise AI is failing, and why it is not the AI→ Transformation theatre: long programs, consulting bills, prompt training that changes nothing→ Why tools get switched on then switched off when the ROI never appears→ Making invisible work visible without plugging into emails or calendars→ How Reejig spent $40 million mapping work before large language models were real→ Understanding 80% of a company's work without touching a single systemVALUE OVER COST→ The shift from cutting cost to unlocking value and growing margin→ How an invoice that took five hours can be reduced to 45 minutes→ Why your job is made of tasks, and how AI quietly removes parts of them→ Emerging and declining skills, and the danger of "jobs of the future" courses→ Stealth change management and the iPhone upgrade approach to adoptionTHE BIGGER QUESTIONS→ What it means to be Bold AND Responsible when jobs are on the line→ The leaders harvesting people out of jobs while paying consultants millions→ How the CHRO role is about to fundamentally change→ Managing a workforce of both humans and agents→ The handcrafted human experience making a comeback, even at AI companiesTHE PERSONAL SIDE→ Raising "baby builders" and teaching kids to use AI early→ Why human to human skills become more valuable, not less→ Mom guilt, 16 hour days, and choosing to build→ Why opportunity belongs to the builder, Jane in accounts, not just the PhDs━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━This is a conversation for anyone trying to understand what work becomes next, whether you lead a Fortune 500 company or you are figuring out your own place in the AI era.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Guest: Siobhan Savage, co-founder and CEO of ReejigHosts: Jessica Neal and Jeff Markowitz

In this episode of the HR Leaders Podcast, we sit down with Allwyn Dsilva, VP HR & Global Head of L&D, Future of Work & Business HR at Tata Communications, to unpack why the future of learning must be built around business outcomes, skills, internal mobility, and AI-enabled career growth.Allwyn shares how Tata Communications moved beyond disconnected learning platforms and traditional course libraries to build a more connected ecosystem, linking skills, career aspirations, hiring, learning, coaching conversations, and AI-powered recommendations into one joined-up employee experience.Most importantly, he explains why learning teams must stop leading with the beauty of their programs and start proving behavior change, business impact, and real outcomes. From AI literacy and dark network operations to internal hiring, AI interview practice, and skills-based career pathways, this episode shows what it looks like when L&D becomes a true business engine.

What if the conversations your team isn't having are costing you more than the ones it is?  In this episode of the Balancing Act podcast, Andy speaks with Gustavo Razzetti — culture change instigator, CEO of Fearless Culture, and bestselling author of Remote, Not Distant, Stretch for Change, and his new book Forward Talk: The Bold New Method For Getting Teams Unstuck.  Gustavo introduces the concept of conversational debt — the compound cost of the conversations teams avoid — and unpacks the three destructive patterns that keep teams trapped: avoidance, blame, and groupthink. He explains why the corporate obsession with psychological safety has become a bandage for deeper issues, and why getting unstuck isn't about better meetings — it's about better conversations.  Tune in to episode 248 to hear Gustavo's rocket-booster moment about a CEO who chose to trust his team before taking the client's side, two mentorship moments — one for the CHRO investing in change capabilities, one for the CEO who just wants his teams to "get along" — and his closing reflection on the pointlessness paradox that quietly drains team performance.    Connect with Gustavo's work here: https://gustavorazzetti.com/ https://www.amazon.com/Forward-Talk-Method-Getting-Unstuck/dp/1646872479

Jean-Luc Fleurial, CHRO of a global pharma company, shares how to become a more effective CHRO and build a purposeful, performance-driven culture. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

By Phoebe Nieves & Simon Cocking. We look at The 8 Laws of Employee Experience, see more about this book here. This book comes at an interesting time, with a push back from some employers, HR departments and companies who feel that meeting the demands of employees have become too high. Initially when reading this book, we were wondering if there was an anti-woke agenda even being laid down here. Naturally in a period of flux and discourse between different generational needs, perspectives, and goals, it is a tricky path to navigate. Do new entrants have unrealistic expectations from what work should be offering them. At the same time, for employers, it can feel like the amount of time necessary to be expended, to get people up to speed, and delivering a suitable level of work done in return for renumeration offered, is seriously challenging. Jacob Morgan does a good job of finding a wide range of opinions and perspectives to help the reader navigate this challenging subject. The story of his own grandfather, newly arrived in the US, Georgian, barely speaking English, but clearly determined to work hard and return the faith in the first person who would hire him, is a smart, logical, and relevant anecdote. Immigrants are often some of the best hires, they want to work, have moved heaven and earth to even be in their new country, therefore they could be some of your best hires. It is unfortunate we live in a time where it is an easy, lazy, cheap trick to demonize those that look or sound different to us, when they may be a fantastic future asset to your company. Morgan aims to take through the nuances of how to find the best people people for your business, and to then continue to ensure there is value for all parties. Companies with the best retention rates are always to be looked at, and to also have an open door for returning ex-employees too, as they can then bring even more value. Therefore holistic attitudes and approaches can often bring more, and better value for the company and those who work for you, both now, in the past, and in the future. This was a thought provoking read, and one that will reward return visits too. More about the book here Organizations around the world have lost their way. It's time to get back to basics and focus on what really drives people and performance. In chasing talent, organizations have turned employee experience into an entitlement culture – lavishing perks without accountability, lowering standards in the name of empathy, and confusing short-term fixes with long-term solutions. The result? Performance suffers, leaders are scared to lead, and culture drifts. The 8 Laws of Employee Experience is a reset, a new framework to build a future-ready organization in an AI driven world. Best-selling author and professionally trained futurist Jacob Morgan shows that employee experience must return to its core: a value exchange where employees contribute, grow, and lead, and where organizations enable them to thrive. Based on over 100 CHRO interviews at companies like Verizon, Delta, Hilton, IBM,and LVMH, Morgan lays out eight unshakeable laws that form the new operating system for the future of work. This book isn't just about where we are today – it's about where employee experience is going over the next decade, and how leaders can design the future instead of being dragged into it. After reading this book you'll learn how to: Separate signal from noise in an era of trend-chasing with the STEEPLE methodology Discover the eight laws required to build a future-ready organization and how to implement them Use futurist frameworks like the Cone of Possibilities to map out multiple employee experience scenarios Conduct a future-ready audit to see where your company stands today and where it must go next Explore the five potential futures of employee experience and how to steer your organization towards the right one Challenge the myth that employee experience is about making people happy Combining...

In this episode of the HR Leaders Podcast, we sit down with Khadija Ben Hammada, Member of the Executive Board and Chief People Officer at Merck Group, to unpack how HR can lead through AI transformation without losing the human heart of the organization.Khadija shares why leaders cannot run global organizations from an ivory tower, and why being close to employees on the ground creates the trust, safety, and pride people need to speak up. She explains how field visits, human connection, and a strong sense of global community help Merck stay united across regions, even as the world outside becomes more fragmented.Most importantly, she breaks down how Merck is building AI capability across the business, from AI literacy for everyone, to leader upskilling, internal AI tools, hackathons, flagship use cases, and HR agents that can improve employee experience at scale. Through it all, Khadija is clear: AI should take tasks, not humanity, and HR must stay at the intersection of business, technology, and empathy.

What if your greatest career advantage isn't your job title—but the unique combination of skills you've built throughout your life?In this episode of The H.I.T. Podcast, Toby Kennedy sits down with Angela Blum-Finlay, senior HR executive, author, and "CHRO on demand," to discuss her book Skill Stacking and why career success is often built at the intersection of seemingly unrelated experiences.Angela explains how professionals frequently underestimate the value they've gained from volunteer work, side projects, parenting, leadership roles, and everyday problem-solving.What You'll LearnWhat Skill Stacking is and why it mattersWhy your value comes from a combination of experiences—not just expertiseThe STACK Framework:Supportive SkillsTactical SkillsAdaptive SkillsComplimentary SkillsKnowledge-Seeking SkillsHow to identify hidden strengths you've developed over timeWhy many people struggle to articulate their true valueHow AI can help uncover skills buried within your work and life experiences Whether you're a student, professional, leader, or someone considering a career change, this conversation offers practical tools to better understand and communicate what makes you uniquely valuable.

Most organizations treat AI adoption as a technology rollout. However, the ones gaining traction treat it as a leadership and culture challenge. In this episode of #shifthappens, Monica French, USA SMB Director at Microsoft, shares what she's hearing directly from small business leaders navigating AI — and why the human side of adoption is where most initiatives either accelerate or stall. Monica draws on frontline conversations with SMB founders, MSP partners, and her own career pivoting from traditional banking to fintech to explain why experiential learning outperforms passive training, why the chief human resource officer (CHRO) belongs at the AI table alongside the chief technology officer (CTO), and how lightweight governance can coexist with early experimentation. She also unpacks the gap between executive ambition and employee readiness — and what leaders can do to close it.

In this episode of our On The Road series, we sit down with Amy Coleman, Executive Vice President, Chief People Officer at Microsoft, to explore how leaders can scale AI transformation without losing the human connection at the center of work.Amy reflects on stepping into the Chief People Officer role at Microsoft, the humility of becoming a beginner again, and why leaders do not need to pretend they have all the answers in moments of uncertainty. What matters is being honest, learning fast, and bringing people with you.Her message is clear: AI and humans cannot be separated. As work changes, HR leaders have to help people understand what is shifting, what still matters, and how AI can unlock more creativity, curiosity, innovation, and human potential.

Jackson Lynch, also know as "The Talent Sherpa," joins Pandy to talk about the 3 hats of HR as he envisions the HR role changing with the introduction of AI. His experience as a CHRO has taught him that the most significant compliance challenges are not just technical. Watch this episode to learn how he advises CEOs and leadership teams to view HR in this time of change.

How can the power of the pause make you an even more effective HR leader?Why do HR leaders need to have a point of view and the courage to share it?My guest on this episode is Michael Fraccaro, Former CPO at Mastercard, Senior Advisor at Egon ZehnderDuring our conversation Michael and I discuss the following: Why your credibility as a CHRO is built on your understanding of the business, not HRHow the power of the pause transforms decision qualityWhy culture is a leadership behavior, not a program How courage, not technical knowledge is the real differentiator for HR leaders who want to move from good to greatWhy the CHRO pipeline challenge is less about technical skills and more about mindset, grit, and learning agilityConnecting with Michael: Connect with Michael on LinkedIn Episode Sponsor: Next-Gen HR Accelerator - Learn more about this best-in-class leadership development program for next-gen HR leadersHR Leader's Blueprint - 18 pages of real-world advice from 100+ HR thought leaders. Simple, actionable, and proven strategies to advance your career.Succession Planning Playbook: In this focused 1-page resource, I cut through the noise to give you the vital elements that define what “great” succession planning looks like.

In this episode of our On The Road series, we sit down with Laura Mattimore and Lucia Suarez from Procter & Gamble to explore how one of the world's most iconic companies is redesigning talent for the AI era.Laura leads global talent across P&G's enterprise talent systems, including hiring, learning, leadership development, workforce planning, and talent strategy. Lucia leads talent development, talent management, analytics, insights, employee experience, and transformation within that broader talent agenda.Their message is clear: AI is not just a technology shift. It is a work, culture, skills, and employee experience shift. For P&G, the opportunity is not to replace the human, but to build around human plus AI, with HR playing a central role in redesigning how work gets done.

In this episode of our On The Road series, we sit down with Kalifa Oliver, Ph.D. Senior Director of Technology - People Analytics at Lowe's Companies, Inc. to explore why HR needs to stop chasing AI tools and start solving the right business problems.Kalifa now sits in technology, not HR, leading teams across engineering, product, analytics, and people data. That gives her a very different view of what HR transformation actually requires.Her message is clear: AI is not magic. It will only be useful if HR asks better questions, understands the problem it is trying to solve, and stops adding technology on top of broken or unnecessary work.

Unser heutiger Gast hat Betriebswirtschaftslehre an der Bergischen Universität Wuppertal studiert und anschließend einen MBA mit Schwerpunkt Human Resources Management an der Management Akademie Heidelberg, der FH Ludwigshafen und dem Dublin Institute of Technology absolviert. Ihre Karriere begann im HR-Bereich als Management-Trainee am Flughafen Düsseldorf. Danach wechselte sie zur Deutschen Apotheker- und Ärztebank, bevor sie mehrere Jahre bei Heraeus tätig war, zuletzt als Global Head of HR im Bereich Precious Metals. Es folgten Stationen bei Saint-Gobain Sekurit sowie bei Vantage Towers, wo sie als Head of HR Germany und für europäische Cluster-Märkte verantwortlich war. Zuletzt war sie Chief Human Resources Officer bei Kandelium und hat dort die strategische Personalarbeit gestaltet. Heute arbeitet sie als freiberufliche Autorin, Speakerin und Sparringspartnerin für Führungskräfte und Organisationen. In ihrer Arbeit geht es um Führung, Kultur und die Frage, wie Menschen in Organisationen wirksam werden können. Sie hat selbst erlebt, wie stark Strukturen, Erwartungen und Rollenbilder Karrieren beeinflussen. Diese Erfahrungen prägen ihre Perspektive bis heute. Ein wichtiger Teil ihres Weges waren Lernräume und Netzwerke. Unter anderem war sie Teilnehmerin im New Work Masterskills Executive Programm und hat sich dort intensiv mit ihrer eigenen Rolle als Führungskraft auseinandergesetzt. Mit ihrem Buch „Fuckup & Forward“ beschreibt sie Führung aus einer persönlichen Perspektive und greift Themen wie Fehler, Zweifel und Entwicklung auf. Seit über acht Jahren beschäftigen wir uns in diesem Podcast mit der Frage, wie Arbeit den Menschen stärkt, statt ihn zu schwächen. Wir haben in mehr als 500 Episoden mit fast 700 Persönlichkeiten darüber gesprochen, was sich für sie verändert hat und was sich noch verändern muss. Warum fällt es uns so schwer, offen über Fehler zu sprechen und was würde sich verändern, wenn wir es wirklich tun? Was hält viele Frauen heute noch davon ab, sichtbar zu werden und Führung zu übernehmen? Und was können wir konkret von neuen Modellen wie geteilter Führung darüber lernen, wie Zusammenarbeit in Zukunft funktioniert? Fest steht: Für die Lösung unserer aktuellen Herausforderungen brauchen wir neue Impulse. Daher suchen wir weiter nach Methoden, Vorbildern, Erfahrungen, Tools und Ideen, die uns dem Kern von New Work näherbringen. Darüber hinaus beschäftigt uns von Anfang an die Frage, ob wirklich alle Menschen das finden und leben können, was sie im Innersten wirklich, wirklich wollen. Ihr seid bei On the Way to New Work, heute mit Marinka Zeiss. [Hier](https://linktr.ee/onthewaytonewwork) findet ihr alle Links zum Podcast und unseren aktuellen Werbepartnern

Send us Fan MailWhat happens when a company decides HR experience doesn't actually matter?In this episode of Jaded HR, Warren and CeeCee dive headfirst into the frustrating reality of how many organizations still view HR as little more than paperwork, party planning, and administrative busywork.The conversation starts with a real-world story that'll make HR professionals cringe: a small company passes over an internal employee with an HR degree for an HR opening… and hires a former school teacher with zero HR experience instead. Why? Because leadership viewed the role as “mostly administrative.” Warren and CeeCee unpack the deeper issue behind decisions like this — the ongoing devaluation of HR expertise and the dangerous assumption that “anyone can do HR.”From there, things spiral beautifully into discussions about: companies replacing CHROs with “Chiefs of Staff”  why succession planning can backfire when nobody retires  retaining ambitious employees in small organizations  the emotional toll of career stagnation  why great employees eventually outgrow some companies  Walmart's latest accommodation lawsuit disaster  and SHRM's absolutely wild 2026 conference pricing The SHRM rant alone is worth the listen. Warren and CeeCee break down the jaw-dropping cost of attending the national conference, debate whether modern HR professionals still need organizations like SHRM, and question whether niche experts and social media creators are replacing traditional HR associations entirely.There's also: Costco vs. Sam's Club suburban warfare  forklift certification anxiety  Pokémon Go bonding moments  pool season HOA drama  thunderstorms as sleep therapy  and enough cynical HR commentary to power an entire leadership retreat. If you've ever wondered whether companies truly understand the value of HR — this episode answers that question loudly and painfully.Topics Covered HR leadership  CHRO trends  HR career growth  succession planning  employee retention  SHRM conference 2026  HR certifications  workplace accommodations  Walmart lawsuit  HR burnout  talent development  organizational culture  HR professional development  cynical HR stories  Human Resources podcast Support the showWant to:* Share a dumb employee question* Share a crazy story* Ask us a question* Share a  best practice * Give us feedbackOur Link Tree below has links to our social media sites,  Patreon, Apple podcasts, Spotify & more.Please leave a review on your favorite podcast player and interact with us online!Linktree - https://linktr.ee/jadedhrFollow Cee Cee on IG - BoozyHR @ https://www.instagram.com/boozy_hr/

AI is accelerating change faster than most organizations are emotionally prepared for.Employees are anxious. Leaders are overwhelmed. And many managers are being asked to guide people through uncertainty without ever being taught how to truly understand human behaviour in the first place.In this episode of the foHRsight podcast, Mark Edgar sits down with organizational psychologist, executive coach, and author Karl Hebenstreit to explore why empathy, emotional intelligence, and self-awareness may become some of the most important leadership capabilities of the AI era.Together, they unpack:Why AI is creating more fear and pressure at work than many organizations want to admit The leadership gap created when technical experts become people managers overnight How unclear expectations quietly damage trust, performance, and culture Why understanding motivation matters more than personality labels How the Enneagram can help leaders better navigate teams, conflict, communication, and change This conversation is ultimately about something bigger than frameworks or assessments. It's about building workplaces where people feel understood enough to actually thrive.About Our GuestKarl Hebenstreit is an author, speaker, executive coach, and organizational development leader with more than 25 years of experience helping leaders and teams work more effectively together. His work focuses on emotional intelligence, leadership development, and using the Enneagram as a practical framework for building healthier organizations and stronger human connection.Stay connected with foHRsightTo sign up for our monthly newsletter, foHRsight, click HERE Follow us on LinkedIn:Mark EdgarNaomi Titleman Collafuture foHRward  Follow us on InstagramFor more information on our private community for forward-thinking HR leaders, including how to join our next Manager-Director HR Leader cohort launching this spring, visit our website at futurefohrward.com/community. We are also currently welcoming new members in our CHRO and VP+ HRBP & Talent cohorts. Don't miss your chance to join the community you've been missing!Support the show

What does it mean when the only HR professional in a room of 6,000 AI innovators refuses to stay silent? Anju Choudhary attended HumanX in San Francisco, looked around, and decided that was not a coincidence. It was a calling. In this live conference conversation recorded at HumanX, Lori Adams-Brown sits down with Anju Choudhary, a seasoned Chief Human Resources Officer, to talk about what it really means to keep humans at the center of one of the most consequential shifts in how we work. Anju's message is clear: people leaders do not belong on the sidelines of the AI conversation. They belong at the head of the table. In this episode, you'll hear: Why Anju was the only HR professional among 6,000 attendees at a major AI conference, and what that signals for the profession The mindset shift every people leader needs right now: from "human in the loop" to "human in the lead" How building her first AI agent in under two minutes changed the way she talks about AI adoption What India's vast cultural and linguistic diversity taught her about adaptability, care, and meeting people where they are A practical, courage-forward invitation: take your first step, ask for help, and remember, we are all co-creating this together About Anju Choudhary: Anju Choudhary is a Chief Human Resources Officer with global leadership experience spanning IBM, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and beyond. A passionate advocate for human-centered AI adoption, she believes the people who understand the human element are exactly the ones who need to be shaping the future of work. Find Anju Choudhary at: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anju-choudhary1/ Timestamps: [00:00] Welcome and live recording introduction at HumanX, San Francisco [01:30] Anju's global journey: IBM, a traveling husband, and the richness of India's cultural diversity [04:00] What excites her most: creativity, collaboration, and the human-AI partnership [05:30] "From human in the loop to human in the lead" [07:00] What concerns her: people feeling helpless, frozen, and left behind [08:30] Building her first AI agent in two minutes and why that first step changes everything [09:30] A call for more HR and people leaders at AI decision tables [10:30] Final wisdom: raise your hand, ask for help, and co-create the journey forward Subscribe, leave a review at https://www.aworldofdifferencepodcast.com/reviews/new/, and share this episode with a people leader who needs to hear this. Visit https://www.aworldofdifferencepodcast.com for more resources. Join us on Patreon for exclusive content Join us on Substack for a deeper dive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 43 | Bob Fieck, CHRO, Wausau Supply Company Grit Is a Choice: Execution and Servant Leadership in the Building Products Industry Bob Fieck has spent 30 years stepping into situations most people would step away from -- broken operations, underfunded startups, businesses in the red, and organizations navigating major cultural change. Today, as CHRO of Wausau Supply Company, he brings that same mindset to one of the LBM industry's most dynamic and fast-growing organizations. In this episode, Bob and Tony cover the career arc that shaped him -- from a safety role at a paper converting operation in Oshkosh to labor relations, executive recruiting, and ultimately CHRO across some of the most complex organizations in manufacturing and distribution. Along the way, Bob developed a three-part leadership framework centered on execution, grit, and servant leadership -- and he breaks down exactly what each one means in practice. Topics covered in this episode: Why his mentor pushed him into HR when he wanted nothing to do with it Managing a two-month strike while sleeping at the plant Being hired before the company existed -- and building an HR function from a hotel conference room The 90-day execution model that transformed an underperforming business unit What Angela Duckworth's research on grit reveals about who actually succeeds How Wausau Supply is building an employer-of-choice culture across multiple brands and distribution centers Why his grandson's Pop Warner football schedule is the real reason he came back to Wisconsin

Most performance problems aren't about effort. They're about unclear expectations. When employees don't know exactly what they're responsible for, how much authority they actually have, or what happens when they hit it out of the park (or don't), the whole system breaks down. In this episode, you'll learn: Why trust and communication breakdowns are the real root cause of most organizational chaos, and how the Three-Legged Stool framework helps diagnose which leg is missing The two authority-blocking archetypes leaders fall into (the micromanager and the cowboy) and how both end up leaving employees without the space to grow or succeed A simple self-reflection exercise you can use this week to evaluate how you're setting expectations and recognizing your team Timestamps 00:02 Intro: What HR Mixtape is all about 00:16 Caroline's background and what she helps leaders solve 01:04 How 'people chaos' shows up in organizations: trust, communication, and the data trail it leaves behind 02:27 The Three-Legged Stool explained: responsibility, authority, and consequences 03:24 Which leg is missing most often, and why consequences get neglected 07:00 Why consequence clarity, both positive and negative, is the foundation of real accountability 11:20 Authority blockers in action: Shari's story about draft work, iteration, and the peek behind the curtain 12:42 The two authority-blocker archetypes: the micromanager and the authority cowboy 17:11 Why leadership development stays in the CHRO top five every year, and what's at stake if we don't fix it 20:56 One quick win this week: a self-reflection exercise for all three legs of the stool Guest: Caroline Quiett is the Principal of Quiett Consulting, LLC, where she helps leaders solve performance issues by building clear accountability structures, defined roles, and practical leadership systems. Drawing on deep curiosity about people and a genuine passion for untangling organizational complexity, Caroline developed the Three-Legged Stool framework to help leaders think more clearly about responsibility, authority, and consequences. She works with organizations of all sizes to restore trust, improve communication, and create environments where both people and performance can thrive. Brought to you by Paylocity. Paylocity is the fasted growing unified platform for HR, Finance, and IT. Paylocity brings your people, processes, and data together in one place so HR leaders can spend less time managing systems and more time doing the work that actually moves their organizations forward. Learn more at paylocity.com Keywords: accountability, performance management, leadership development, three-legged stool, responsibility, authority, consequences, people management, HR strategy, organizational culture, trust, communication, manager training, employee recognition

In this episode of our On The Road series, we sit down with Jennifer Reimert, SVP, Consulting Practice at Workhuman, to explore how organizations can make recognition reach the people who are often hardest to reach: frontline and deskless workers.Jennifer spent 20 years as an HR practitioner and total rewards leader before joining Workhuman. She was also a Workhuman customer back when the company was Globoforce, using recognition to help bring two merged companies together when culture, identity, and belonging were under real pressure.Her message is clear: recognition cannot only work for people at a desk. If most of the work that defines your culture happens on the floor, in the field, in hospitals, in plants, in stores, or across customer sites, then recognition has to meet people where they actually work.

In this episode of our On The Road series, we sit down with KeyAnna Schmiedl, Chief Human Experience Officer at Workhuman, to explore how organizations can identify future leaders before they are already in the obvious succession pipeline.KeyAnna shares how Workhuman's Future Leaders technology is helping companies spot the people giving off strong leadership signals across the business, including those who may not be visible through traditional talent reviews, manager nominations, or proximity to senior leaders.Her message is clear: the best future leaders are not always the most obvious names in the room. If HR can use better signals to see talent earlier, organizations can retain, develop, and invest in people before they walk out the door.

In this episode of Season 2 of The Language Question ~ Ceist na Teangan, host Finghin Mac Cárthaigh (Flor McCarthy) sits down with Molly Nic Céile, Irish language teacher, content creator, author, and founder of Gaeilge i mo Chroí / Irish in my Heart: A Guide to Loving and Living the Irish Language.Together, they explore how learning Irish (Gaeilge) can go far beyond grammar and vocabulary, opening powerful pathways into identity, heritage, and belonging.Thanks for your interest in The Language Question ~ Ceist na Teangan! Subscribe for free to receive priority notification on future episodes and to access valuable Irish language learning resources.Throughout the conversation, they reflect on the emotional power of Irish — from family connections and memory to the deep cultural meanings embedded within words.Molly shares her personal journey from learning Irish in an English-medium school in Donegal to building a global Irish-language community online through YouTube, Instagram, teaching, writing, and podcasting. Through her work, she is helping thousands of learners rediscover Irish not as a school subject, but as a living language connected to joy, creativity, identity, and community.This episode reminds us that Irish is not simply something to learn — it is something to experience, feel, and live.This Episode Celebrates:* The role of storytelling and media in learning Irish* The importance of conversation and community in language revival* The emotional connection between language, identity, and heritage* Breaking perfectionism and fear around speaking Irish* Making Irish accessible through creativity, technology, and modern mediaIf you've ever felt disconnected from Irish — or unsure where to begin — this episode will inspire you to start again.Thanks for reading The Language Question ~ Ceist na Teangan! Subscribe for free to receive priority notification on future episodes and to receive valuable resources.Podcast NotesRediscovering Irish Beyond the ClassroomMolly reflects on her experience learning Irish through the Irish education system and how, despite enjoying the language at school, she still left feeling unable to truly speak it conversationally.She and Finghin discuss the limitations of exam-focused language teaching, particularly the emphasis on rote learning and artificial oral exam structures, and how this can disconnect learners from the living reality of the language.The conversation highlights an important truth: many people already carry more Irish than they realise — they simply need confidence, encouragement, and opportunities to use it naturally.Building an Irish Language Community OnlineAfter studying media production, Molly began creating Irish-language content online in 2019 through her YouTube channel Gaeilge i mo chroí.What began as simple videos teaching basic phrases gradually grew into a global online Irish-language community. Molly speaks about the surprise and excitement of hearing from learners around the world — from Ireland to Australia to the United States — all reconnecting with Gaeilge online.Through YouTube, Instagram, podcasts, and conversation circles, Molly discovered that Irish could become part of everyday life outside traditional educational structures.Today, her work helps thousands of learners around the world build confidence speaking Irish through accessible, encouraging, and community-driven learning.Thanks for reading The Language Question ~ Ceist na Teangan! Subscribe for free to receive priority notification on future episodes and to receive valuable resources.Gaeilge i mo Chroí: Irish in the HeartMolly discusses the inspiration behind her award-winning book Gaeilge i mo Chroí: Your Guide to Loving and Living the Irish Language, which won Lifestyle Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards 2024.The book explores:* The emotional relationship many Irish people have with Gaeilge* Common myths about the language* Language shame and perfectionism* The importance of bilingual learning approaches* How Irish can become a natural part of modern lifeThroughout the episode, Molly speaks passionately about creating spaces where learners feel safe to use whatever Irish they have — even imperfectly.As she explains, Irish does not belong only to fluent speakers or classrooms. It belongs to everyone who wishes to reconnect with it.Buy Gaeilge i mo Chroí / Irish in my HeartIrish, Identity and BelongingOne of the strongest themes throughout the conversation is the emotional and cultural significance of the Irish language.Molly reflects on discovering that her own great-grandfather was a native Irish speaker from Mayo, and how close the language still remains within living memory for many Irish families.She speaks about the growing visibility of Irish in modern culture — from online communities and podcasts to films like An Cailín Ciúin and the wider revival happening among younger generations.For Molly, learning and speaking Irish is not about perfection — it is about connection: connection to identity, to heritage, to community, and to one another.The Future of Irish: A Living LanguageMolly shares her optimism about the future of Gaeilge and the growing momentum surrounding the language, both in Ireland and internationally.Now living in New York, she describes the thriving Irish-language community there — including pop-up Gaeltachtaí, conversation groups, Irish classes, and friendships formed entirely through Gaeilge.She also discusses her work teaching Irish online and at the Irish Arts Center in Manhattan, as well as her plans for a second book exploring the Irish language from a new perspective.Her central message throughout the episode is simple but powerful:Irish survives when people use it, enjoy it, and allow it to become part of everyday life.Free Irish Learning ResourcesIf you enjoyed this episode of The Language Question ~ Ceist na Teangan and want to continue your Irish language journey:Access free Irish learning resources, stay updated on upcoming episodes, and receive exclusive content.Sign up here:Free ResourcesThe Language Question ~ Ceist na Teangan Free ResourcesYou can also follow my writing on Substack:Thanks for reading The Language Question ~ Ceist na Teangan! Subscribe for free to receive priority notification on future episodes and to receive valuable learning resources.A newsletter and community for anyone learning the Irish language as an adultSlán tamall,Finghin Mac CárthaighHost – The Language Question ~ Ceist na TeanganMore on Molly Nic CéileMolly Nic CéileMolly Nic Céile is an Irish language teacher, content creator, author, and founder of Gaeilge i mo Chroí, an online platform dedicated to helping people learn and live the Irish language in an accessible and joyful way.Originally from Letterkenny, County Donegal, Molly launched her YouTube channel in 2019 to share her love of Gaeilge through videos, conversation, storytelling, and community learning. Today, her content has reached learners all over the world.She teaches Irish online internationally and at the Irish Arts Center in Manhattan, New York. In 2024, her first book, Gaeilge i mo Chroí: Your Guide to Loving and Living the Irish Language, won Lifestyle Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards.Molly is currently writing her second book while continuing to create spaces where people can reconnect with Irish through conversation, creativity, and community.Learn more:WebsiteYouTubeInstagram This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit finghinmac.substack.com

This week on Truth Works, my co-host Jeff Markowitz and I sit down with Judy Gilbert, the Chief People Officer of Oura, the company behind the Oura Ring.Judy is not a typical HR leader.She started her career at McKinsey, moved into executive search at Egon Zehnder, and then spent 12 years inside Google's People Operations team, helping scale the company from roughly 3,000 employees to 70,000.Along the way she ran learning and development, ran performance management, and served as head of HR for both YouTube and Google's moonshot factory, Google X.After Google, she became Chief People Officer at the biomanufacturing company Zymergen, where she helped build the team, took the company public, and then navigated its sale and wind-down.She tried to retire. It didn't last. The pull of being on a team trying to do hard things brought her to Oura.In this episode, we get into the difference between HR as an order-taker and HR as a genuine strategic partner, and why so many chief people officers get "organ rejected" within a year of joining.We talk about the danger of arriving with a fixed playbook, the chemistry that has to exist between a founder and their people leader, and why the job is really about being the one person willing to tell the emperor he has no clothes.Judy also shares the exact questions she asks before taking any role, how she pressure-tested Oura's CEO Tom Hale by sparring with him over compensation philosophy, and why a company's soul has to already exist before anyone can help it grow.In this conversation, we discuss:- The "I don't want to know" fear that stops people tracking their health- Whoop vs Oura, and how much data is actually useful- Why strategic HR is a competitive advantage most companies waste- The three questions Judy asks before joining any company- Why chief people officer turnover is so brutally high- The "toolkit" mistake that gets HR leaders fired- Being the person who has to tell the CEO he has no clothes- Glass balls vs rubber balls, and what to drop when you're building- How to protect a company's soul while running a hard business- Why clear cultures keep people and confused ones lose them- Why every CHRO is now the company's AI strategistThis is a candid look at the work behind the work, from someone who has built the people function at three very different companies and seen what separates the ones that scale from the ones that stall.If this conversation changed how you think about culture, leadership, or the people who quietly hold a company together, share it with someone who needs to hear it.Full episode of Truth Works with Judy Gilbert out now.

If your organization isn't obsessed with how fast your people can learn, you're already falling behind in the race to "out-learn" the competition. In this episode, I'm joined by Susan LaMonica, the Chief Human Resource Officer at Citizens Financial Group—a super-regional bank with $226 billion in assets and 18,000 employees.  We explore how they are driving a massive workforce transformation to build a team that is ready for the future of work. We dive deep into their journey of becoming a skills-based organization and how they use a "skills taxonomy" and an internal talent marketplace to support mobility and career development. Susan also explains their "measured approach" to AI governance within a heavily regulated industry, including the role of their Generative AI Council. We unpack their "Reimagine the Bank" initiative, where they are rethinking 47 different business processes to drive value and effectiveness. From launching internal "gigs" to tracking productivity metrics like customer NPS and employee sentiment, this conversation is a strategic guide for any leader looking to blend high-tech tools with a human-centered culture. Watch the full video on YouTube ---------- Start your day with the world's top leaders by joining thousands of others at Great Leadership on Substack. Just enter your email: ⁠⁠https://greatleadership.substack.com/ Quick heads-up: my new book, The 8 Laws of Employee Experience, is a practical playbook for building an environment where people do their best work—order a copy here: https://bit.ly/8exlaws

In this episode of our On The Road series, we sit down with Ken Wechsler, SPHR, CCP, VP, Total Rewards at Akamai Technologies, to explore how AI is changing the conversation around rewards, recognition, performance, and the future of work.As a total rewards leader, Ken is now facing questions that would have seemed unlikely just a few years ago: What is our AI strategy? What outcomes are we trying to drive? How will AI change productivity, performance, and how people are rewarded?His message is clear: AI skills alone should not automatically mean higher pay. The real question is whether AI helps people deliver better outcomes, raise performance, create more value, and help the business move forward.

In this episode of the HR Leaders Podcast On The Road, we sit down with Eric Mosley, Founder and CEO at Workhuman to explore how recognition data, AI, and human insight are changing the way organizations identify their future leaders.Eric shares how Workhuman's new Future Leaders capability uses recognition data, performance data, and AI to identify the people most likely to rise into senior leadership roles years before they are officially promoted.And this is where it gets really interesting.Eric says the strongest signals are not coming from a traditional succession planning form. They are coming from the language people use about each other, the recognition moments that describe how work actually gets done, and the patterns that emerge across billions of human interactions.

Agentic AI is already reshaping how work gets done, and the biggest risk for CIOs isn't failure, it's falling behind. In this episode of ThinkCast, Gartner VP Analyst Brandon Germer explains why scaling agentic AI can't be done in silos, and how CIOs must co-lead with other C-suite members to build the financial, operational, and governance foundations for enterprise-wide impact.   You'll learn: Why the biggest risk in agentic AI isn't failure — it's waiting too long to act What it takes to scale AI beyond isolated use cases into enterprise-wide systems How to align the CIO, CFO, COO and CHRO around shared outcomes Why the CIO's role is shifting from technology owner to orchestrator Dig deeper: Download our guide to realizing AI value Attend a Gartner CIO Conference near you See why Gartner is the world authority on AI Try out AskGartner for more AI-powered insights  

In this episode of the HR Leaders Podcast On The Road, we sit down with Jorge Quezada, MBA (He.Him.His), Vice President, Culture & Performance at Granite Construction, to unpack what happens when culture stops being treated as a soft initiative and starts being run as a business driver.Jorge explains why culture is the operating system of an organization, shaping how people think, act, interact, and bring the company's mission, vision, and values to life every day.He shares how Granite is updating its culture for the next 100 years by preserving what makes the company strong, diagnosing what needs to change, and creating the conditions for people to grow, adapt, and perform.Most importantly, Jorge reveals why the future of culture belongs to leaders who stop copying best practices from other companies and start understanding what their own people, business, and operating system actually need.

As AI and emerging technologies reshape work, HR is being pushed into a bigger role: making sure the company's workforce strategy keeps pace with its business strategy.▶️ Watch this episode on YouTube!In this episode, Matt Kirchner sits down with Dr. Peter Fasolo, former CHRO of Johnson & Johnson and now Director of the Institute for Leadership & Work at Boston University, to talk about the future workforce from one of the most senior vantage points in HR. Fasolo does not describe HR as a siloed function focused on policies and process. He describes it as a system tied to competitive pressures, customers, leadership, organizational design, and the business outcomes that matter most to the executive suite and the board.Fasolo argues that as AI takes on more routine work, the value of HR has to become more strategic, not less: understanding the internal labor market, knowing where to build talent versus buy it, helping the company close capability gaps, and making sure the workforce is aligned with where the business is headed. With Matt pushing the conversation into practical territory, the episode becomes a broader discussion about leadership, culture, upskilling, and what companies will need from HR chiefs as the future workforce takes shape.Listen to learnHow HR leaders can tell whether the company actually has the skills and leadership depth its strategy requiresAre mass layoffs truly due to AI, or is there more going on in these businesses?How to decide when to build talent, buy talent, borrow talent, or use AIWhere companies should redirect their talent if they're able to automate tasks with AIWhy the next phase of HR leadership is less about administering programs and more about helping the executive team build an organization that can compete3 Big Takeaways from this Episode:1. HR has to move closer to the center of business strategy. Fasolo makes the case that HR can no longer be defined mainly by process, policy, or employee programs. As work changes, the real job is helping leadership understand whether the company has the talent, structure, and alignment to deliver on its strategy.2. The future workforce starts with maximizing the capabilities you already have. Before companies rush to hire, restructure, or blame AI for workforce disruption, Fasolo argues they need a much clearer view of their internal labor market, skill gaps, and job architecture. Workforce strategy starts with knowing what exists inside the business and maximizing your human capital.3. Technology only creates value if leaders use the freed-up capacity well. AI and workforce disruption is all over the headlines, but here's a grounded way to approach it. If routine work takes less time, then organizational leaders need to redirect their people toward customers, coaching, judgment, problem solving, and the kinds of leadership work that technology cannot replace.Resources: https://techedpodcast.com/fasolo/We want to hear from you! Send us a text.Instagram - Facebook - YouTube - TikTok - Twitter - LinkedIn

In this episode of the HR Leaders Podcast On The Road, we sit down with Khalil Smith, VP, Inclusion, Diversity, and Engagement at Akamai Technologies, to unpack what it really takes to build a performance culture where people trust each other enough to speak up, challenge ideas, and grow.Khalil explains why culture is not what leaders say they want, but what the organization actually rewards, and why silence is often the clearest signal that trust has broken down.He shares how leaders can build stronger cultures by creating trust, encouraging healthy disagreement, aligning systems with values, and making recognition and feedback feel honest, specific, and useful.Most importantly, Khalil reveals why the future of culture belongs to organizations that close the gap between what they say and what they reward, creating environments where people can challenge respectfully, perform boldly, and speak up without fear.

In this episode of the HR Leaders Podcast On The Road, we sit down with Peter Andrew Danzig, Senior Advisor, Foundation Culture at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, to unpack what psychological safety really means beyond the buzzword.Peter explains why psychological safety is not a checklist, policy, or one-time initiative, but a belief system that has to be co-created, practiced, and reinforced through everyday behavior.He shares how leaders can build safer spaces by embracing healthy friction, operationalizing empathy, and creating room for challenge, accountability, apology, repair, and growth.Most importantly, Peter reveals why the future of culture belongs to organizations that stop treating safety as comfort, and start building environments where more people can speak honestly, move through conflict, and still feel seen, heard, and valued.

These episodes of #thePOZcast, live from Transform 2026 in Las Vegas, are proudly brought to you by our friends at Overalls What if your employees had one central hub to handle real life? Meet Overalls. A smarter way to support your team, combining expert human LifeConcierges™ with AI to solve everyday challenges across healthcare, caregiving, benefits, insurance, finances, life admin, and more. From start to finish, Overalls handles the details — using existing benefits where they fit, and filling in the gaps where they don't. So employees save time, reduce stress, and stay focused at work, while employers boost engagement and get more value from their benefits. Overalls is redefining how work supports life, helping employee teams from Reddit, Patreon, BeatBox, and more cross pesky to-dos off their lists every day. Learn more at https://getoveralls.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=pozcast Thanks for listening, and please follow us on Insta @NHPTalent and www.youtube.com/thePOZcast For all episodes, please check out www.thePOZcast.com About:  Nancy Hauge , Chief People Experience Officer  Nancy oversees all "people" functions worldwide at Automation Anywhere, including talent acquisition, communication, total rewards, learning and development, engagement, DEI, and Social Impact. She brings more than 30 years of experience in senior leadership and management consulting roles. Prior to joining Automation Anywhere, she was the chief people officer at HotChalk, where she was responsible for all people functions, legal, and facilities. Before that, Nancy served as the SVP of global human resources and facilities at Silicon Image through its 2015 acquisition, and as SVP of human resources for K12 Inc. (STRIDE) through its 2007 IPO. She also has executive experience at Ruckus Network, Noah's New York Bagels, Gymboree Corporation and Sun Microsystems.  She was recognized by HRO Today as CHRO of the Year 2023, for Innovation.  Additional recognition includes being named by HR Leadership as one of the Top 100 HR Tech Influencers for 2021, by HRO Today as a Leader of Distinction in North America in 2019. She is also a recipient of the "Stevie Awards" for women in high tech and was named by the Silicon Valley Business Journal as one of the "100 Women of Influence" in Silicon Valley both in 2015. Nancy has served on the Board of Regents for Holy Names College and the Board of Advisors to The Cameron School of Business at The University of North Carolina, Wilmington.  What you didn't know: Nancy started her career in comedy. Writing and performing. Of course, Nancy admits that she is lucky she wasn't very good at that or she would not be here today. Key Takeaways: 1. People Are the Most Unpredictable — and That's the Point Nancy's reason for still loving HR after 45 years: no two days are ever the same, because people will always surprise you. That unpredictability isn't a bug in the people function — it's what makes it the most creative, human-centered role in any organization. 2. AI Agents Should Do the Work Humans Shouldn't Have to Do The real promise of AI in HR isn't efficiency for its own sake — it's freeing humans to do what humans are actually best at. Reviewing resumes, scheduling interviews, and answering repetitive benefit questions should be automated. Creativity, judgment, and connection should not. 3. The Referral Agent Changes How Jobs Get Designed Automation Anywhere's referral agent is a glimpse at the future of workforce planning: as a new job description is written, AI maps it to existing tools in the catalog and recommends what else needs to be built. Jobs are no longer just roles — they're a design challenge. 4. The Future of Benefits Is Bespoke, Not Bulk Volume-purchased, one-size-fits-many benefits packages are a legacy model. Millennials and Gen Z expect benefits that match their actual life — their family structure, their life stage, their specific needs. Companies that don't move toward personalization will lose the talent war to those that do. 5. Benefits Are How You Reach Into the Family Nancy's reframe: benefits aren't just a compensation component — they're the one place a company can make an employee's family a partner in retention. When a company helps with a night nurse, fertility support, or postpartum care, the family notices. And families influence career decisions. 6. The Night Nurse Benefit Generated the Most Emotional Response of Nancy's Career Of all the benefits Nancy has implemented across 45 years, a night nurse support service for new parents produced the most extraordinary emotional response she has ever received from employees. It's a reminder that the highest-impact benefits often aren't the most expensive — they're the most human. 7. AI Agents Can Surface Benefits at the Exact Moment They're Needed The awareness and adoption problem in benefits is real: employees don't think about benefits until they need them. AI agents that detect life changes — a new dependent added to insurance, a leave request filed — and proactively surface relevant benefits solve this problem at scale, without requiring HR to monitor or manage it manually. 8. People Share More With Agents Than With HR — and That's a Feature Employees are more willing to disclose sensitive, personal information to an AI agent than to a human HR representative, because there's no fear of judgment or career consequences. That confidentiality drives benefit utilization and gives companies a more accurate picture of what employees actually need. 9. Great Alumni Are Part of the Benefits ROI Nancy's two-vector framework for benefits ROI — retention and human wellness — includes something most people skip: the alumni experience. The goal isn't just to keep employees as long as possible. It's to make them feel so well-cared-for that when they leave, they become ambassadors. That has real, lasting value. CHAPTERS: 00:00 – Introduction: Adam welcomes Nancy Hauge — whose favorite color is puce — and sets up a conversation with one of the most experienced people leaders in the series. 02:00 – Meet Nancy & Automation Anywhere Nancy introduces herself as Chief People Experience Officer and describes Automation Anywhere's AI agent platform — built to help enterprises manage agentic solutions across their entire tech stack. 04:00 – Why 45 Years in HR Never Gets Old Nancy's answer to what keeps her energized after four-plus decades: people are the least predictable thing in the world, which makes HR the most creative function in any business. 06:30 – The Greatest Innovation in HR Tech Nancy's take on the biggest recent leap: AI agents that remove human bias from processes, hand repetitive work back to machines, and free people to do what they're actually best at — creativity and problem solving. 09:00 – The Referral Agent: AI Redesigning Job Descriptions A specific innovation at Automation Anywhere: an AI agent that, as a job description is written, maps it to existing agents in the catalog and recommends new ones to build — fundamentally changing how work gets designed. 12:00 – The Future of Benefits Is Bespoke Nancy's bold prediction: one-size-fits-many benefits are on the way out. The next generation of workers — Millennials and Gen Z — expect à la carte, concierge-level solutions tailored to their life and their family, not volume-purchased packages. 15:00 – Benefits Reach Into the Family A reframe that changes how you think about total rewards: benefits are the one place a company can reach into an employee's family and make them partners in retention. That's a responsibility — and an opportunity. 17:30 – The Night Nurse Benefit The benefit that generated the most emotional response Nancy has ever seen in her career — a post-birth night nurse support service — and why the reaction from employees was extraordinary. 21:00 – AI Agents Driving Benefits Awareness How Automation Anywhere uses AI agents to proactively surface the right benefits at the right moment — detecting life changes like a new baby on insurance and prompting employees with relevant support before they even think to ask. 24:00 – Confidentiality & the Trust Factor Why employees are more likely to share vulnerable, personal information with an AI agent than with HR — no judgment, no performance review implications, no office gossip. And why does that drive benefit utilization? 26:30 – Justifying Benefits ROI on Two Vectors Nancy's framework: retention is one vector, human wellness and happiness is the other. And the goal isn't just keeping people — it's creating great alumni who leave saying the company genuinely cared about them. 29:00 – The 5-Year Century Nancy previews her upcoming book, co-authored with Automation Anywhere's CEO, publishing May 19th via Wiley — about how rapidly everything is changing and how AI agents are going to help humanity tackle its biggest challenges.

A massive wave of retirements known as "Peak 65" is creating a serious crisis for organizations as decades of institutional knowledge begin to walk out the door. This shift in workforce demographics means we must act now to secure our talent pipeline before these experts leave for good. In this episode, CHRO Robin Benoit shares how she and her team at FM are tackling this challenge at its core. We explore their unique mentorship program called AKA (Accelerating Knowledge Advancement), which pulls experts away from their day jobs to help newer employees reach senior-level career growth years ahead of schedule. Robin explains the balance between AI optimization and human interaction, highlighting the danger of using technology to automate entry-level work in a way that "kills off" the learning process for future leaders. We discuss building a "career lattice" for internal mobility and why we need transparent retirement conversations to ensure experienced workers don't block promotion paths while we still benefit from their wisdom through reverse mentorship. This episode is essential for CHROs who want to use succession planning and employee engagement to thrive in the future of work. Watch the full video on YouTube ---------- Start your day with the world's top leaders by joining thousands of others at Great Leadership on Substack. Just enter your email: ⁠⁠https://greatleadership.substack.com/ Quick heads-up: my new book, The 8 Laws of Employee Experience, is a practical playbook for building an environment where people do their best work—order a copy here: 8EXlaws.com

These episodes of #thePOZcast, live from Transform 2026 in Las Vegas, are proudly brought to you by our friends at Overalls What if your employees had one central hub to handle real life? Meet Overalls. A smarter way to support your team, combining expert human LifeConcierges™ with AI to solve everyday challenges across healthcare, caregiving, benefits, insurance, finances, life admin, and more. From start to finish, Overalls handles the details — using existing benefits where they fit, and filling in the gaps where they don't. So employees save time, reduce stress, and stay focused at work, while employers boost engagement and get more value from their benefits. Overalls is redefining how work supports life, helping employee teams from Reddit, Patreon, BeatBox, and more cross pesky to-dos off their lists every day. Learn more at https://getoveralls.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=pozcast Thanks for listening, and please follow us on Insta @NHPTalent and www.youtube.com/thePOZcast For all episodes, please check out www.thePOZcast.com About:  Kyle Forrest is the Future of HR Leader for Deloitte Consulting LLP. The Future of HR team advises, implements, and helps business and HR leaders drive business and workforce outcomes through Deloitte's knowledge and practical understanding of HR operating models, processes, AI and automation capabilities, HR technology and vendor partner strategies, and evolving HR skills and capabilities. Forrest also serves as the dean of Deloitte's Next Generation CHRO Academy, bringing together senior HR leaders aspiring for the CHRO role to advance their careers. Takeaways:  1. The AI Conversation Has Moved On — and That's a Good Thing A year ago, every conference session was about AI features. In 2026, the more important question has taken center stage: what should humans be doing? Organizations that are answering that question well are investing in the uniquely human capabilities — creativity, presence, novel thinking, relationship-building — that AI cannot replicate. 2. No Generation Is Primarily Motivated by Pay Alone Deloitte's research across all four workforce generations is consistent: salary is table stakes, not a differentiator. Purpose, mental wellbeing, financial wellness, and a sense that the company cares about the whole person are what actually move the needle on attraction and retention. 3. Mental Wellbeing Benefits Are Now a Business Outcome, Not a Perk The link between employee stress and productivity is well-documented. Organizations that invest in mental health benefits aren't just being compassionate — they're protecting output, engagement, and retention. Gen Z's comfort with this dialogue has accelerated adoption across the board. 4. The Sandwich Generation Is the Next Big Benefits Frontier A growing number of employees are simultaneously raising children and caring for aging parents. This dual caregiving burden creates stress, distraction, and leave risk that compounds over time. Benefits that help employees navigate elder care — not just time off, but actual guidance and support — are going to become a significant differentiator in the next few years. 5. Women's Health Benefits Have an Underserved Second Chapter The fertility benefits conversation has expanded — but Kyle points to a significant gap: supporting mothers through recovery, healing, and the early transition to parenthood after birth. There is growing investment in this space, and the companies that get ahead of it will have a meaningful advantage. 6. How a Company Handles Pregnancy Loss Is Now Part of Its Employer Brand Word travels fast — especially on social media. How an organization supports an employee through the loss of a pregnancy or a failed IVF cycle is the kind of story that gets shared widely. It's become a visible signal of company culture and values that candidates and current employees pay attention to. 7. Benefits ROI Lives in Attrition and Time-to-Hire Data Kyle's framework for building the business case: calculate the cost of slow hiring and high attrition, then show how the right benefits mix moves those numbers. Unfilled roles have a direct revenue impact — and retaining the right people means not missing out on sales, delivery, or growth. 8. Performance Psychology Coaching Is the Most Interesting New Benefits Category Drawing on decades of research in elite sports, performance psychology coaching helps employees handle high-pressure moments, navigate stress, and show up at their best — consistently. It's distinct from traditional mental health services and addresses a different, underserved need in the workforce. 9. Asynchronous Interviewing Is Democratizing the Candidate Pipeline Tools that let candidates complete interviews and skills assessments on their own time — at 5:30 AM before work or after putting the kids to bed — are surfacing qualified candidates who would have otherwise been filtered out by scheduling friction. Companies using these tools are finding people they would have missed. 10. Modern HR's Job Is Strategy, Not Inquiry The more benefits navigation and routine HR questions can be handled through technology and concierge services, the more HR professionals can focus on what actually moves the business: partnering with leaders to personalize benefits for their specific workforce mix, build better teams, and make smarter people decisions. CHAPTERS:  00:00 – Welcome Back, Kyle Adam welcomes Kyle Forrest back for his third appearance and sets up what's different about Transform 2026 compared to previous years. 02:00 – The Shift: From AI Features to Human Value Kyle's big observation from the conference circuit: last year was about AI products; this year is about what work should remain human — and why that's the more important conversation. 04:30 – What AI Still Can't Do The uniquely human capabilities that no model can replace: being present in the room, generating novel ideas, building real relationships, and innovating in ways that go beyond the existing body of human knowledge. 07:00 – Four Generations, One Workforce, Zero Agreement on Pay Deloitte's generational research shows that across Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and Boomers, salary alone is not the primary motivator — and what that means for how companies structure total comp. 09:30 – Mental Wellbeing as a Business Outcome How Gen Z's comfort with mental health dialogue has pushed organizations to take wellness benefits more seriously — and the research linking stress reduction directly to productivity and engagement. 12:00 – The Sandwich Generation Problem A growing segment of the workforce is simultaneously caring for kids and aging parents. Kyle makes the case for why navigation benefits for elder care aren't just nice to have — they're becoming critical. 15:00 – Benefits That Remove Burden from HR How smart benefits design reduces the volume of questions HR has to field — freeing people professionals to spend time with business leaders on strategic workforce decisions instead. 17:30 – The Modern Role of HR Kyle's take on how the HR profession has evolved over nearly 100 years — and where it needs to go next: less inquiry-answering, more personalized workforce strategy in partnership with business leaders. 20:00 – Fertility Benefits and the Overlooked Healing Journey The growing investment in women's health benefits — and the often-missed opportunity to support mothers not just through the fertility journey, but through recovery, healing, and the transition to parenthood. 23:00 – Supporting Loss in the Workplace A candid moment: how companies show up for employees who experience pregnancy loss or failed IVF is becoming a visible differentiator — and word spreads fast, in both directions. 25:30 – The ROI Case for Benefits Investment Kyle's framework for justifying benefits spend: tie it to time-to-hire, attrition rates, and the measurable revenue impact of unfilled roles and disengaged employees. 28:00 – Performance Psychology Coaching One of the most interesting emerging benefits: coaching that applies lessons from elite sports psychology to help employees navigate stress, pressure, and high-stakes moments at work. 30:30 – TA Tech Innovation: Interviewing on Your Time The candidate experience innovation Kyle is most excited about: asynchronous interview and skills assessment tools that let candidates go through the process at 5:30 AM or after bedtime — and the pipeline results companies are seeing. 33:00 – Where to Find Kyle & Deloitte's Research Kyle points listeners to Deloitte's Insights to Action platform and his LinkedIn for the latest research and workforce intelligence.