How to Transform HR Into a Strategic Function

She thought she was doing HR right. She followed every process. She kept the calendar of cycles moving. She checked every box. But despite her consistency and hustle, nothing really changed. Engagement stayed flat. Leaders barely showed up for calibration. And her inbox? Overflowing with questions that her systems should’ve answered. She came to me and said, “I’m working harder than ever. Why does it feel like I’m not making an impact?” So I asked her a simple question: “What would happen if you stopped tweaking the process and started questioning the purpose?” That stopped her. Because like a lot of HRBPs, she was taught to execute - not disrupt. To optimize, not redesign. To “partner,” but often from the sidelines. We started pulling at the threads: Why are we still using 9-box if no one trusts the data? Why are we doing action plans no one follows? Why do we keep “launching” things that don’t land? Together, we asked a bolder question: “What if we designed NOTHING by default?” That meant starting with outcomes - not templates. She reframed her work around 3 anchors: 💡 Clarity – does every employee know what success looks like? ⚡ Energy – are our programs fueling teams, not draining them? 🚀 Momentum – are we helping the business move faster on what matters? Everything she built had to move the needle on at least two. If it didn’t? She'd let it go. She stopped running 12 steps of performance management no one used. She co-created with the business, not for it. She ditched long playbooks and built leader toolkits based on real conversations. And the result? Teams got clearer. Engagement scores climbed. Her leaders? They started pulling HR in - because now, she was delivering value they could feel. Her inbox slowed down. Her influence sped up. And her identity shifted from “solid operator” to strategic driver of how work really happens. Here’s the truth I watched her learn: You don’t drive transformation by tweaking the old model. You drive it by ditching the assumptions underneath it. So if you’re a mid-career HR pro wondering how to make a bigger impact… Start here: Ask what you’d build if you weren’t tied to legacy. Design for clarity, energy, and momentum. Partner with people who challenge your thinking, not echo it. Because complexity is easy. Simplicity takes courage. And the next era of great HR? Belongs to the ones bold enough to start over.

I recently supported an HR leader at a 500-person organization through a transformation that felt small on paper but was massive in mindset. She didn’t come to me for consulting. She’s someone I knew who needed a sounding board, so I offered to help. She thought she needed to pull together a basic HR report. What we ended up building was a blueprint for how HR earns its seat at the business table. Here’s where we started: One core question: How does your work connect to how the business runs and grows? From there, we shifted the lens: • From reporting activity to delivering insight • From tracking turnover to protecting performance • From keeping up to leading forward We built a dashboard, not a deck, that spoke the language of the C-suite. And it changed how she showed up in the room. Some of the metrics we focused on: • Revenue per FTE – Are we getting the ROI on our talent investment • Top talent flight risk – Where are we at risk of losing our future leaders • Manager effectiveness – How are we enabling the front line of culture • Time to productivity – Are we onboarding for speed and success • Engagement drivers – What’s fueling or draining performance • Bench strength – Are we building capacity or just filling gaps We also layered in pulse trends, goal alignment, and internal mobility because strategy isn’t real unless it reaches people. She told me, “I finally feel like I’m leading HR, not just managing it.” That’s the shift. When HR stops waiting to be invited and starts leading with data, clarity, and intent, that’s when transformation begins. Not just for the function. For the whole business. #HRRealTalk #EmployeeExperience #PeopleAnalytics #HRLeadership #EmployeeEngagement #WorkforceStrategy #HRTransformation

HR: We’re updating the manuals and organizing team events. CEO: I don’t care about manuals or happy hours. HR: What should we focus on? CEO: Build a talent engine. I don’t want just job posts. HR: More strategic hiring? CEO: I want early signals on skill gaps. I want a clear view of our future leaders. HR: Got it. CEO: Use exit data to learn. Use performance data to grow. Build your high performers, and hold everyone to a higher standard. HR: So… less process, more performance? CEO: Exactly. Link talent to revenue. Make HR a growth function, not just a support role. The lesson? CEOs don’t want HR to manage people. They want HR to build teams that drive growth. It's about business impact now, not process excellence.

HR needs to stop chasing a seat and start owning a voice in the debate. No one invites the CFO to “have a voice.” No one wonders if the CRO should be in the room. But HR still acts like influence is something to be granted. It’s not. It’s something you assert by being indispensable to the business conversation. Start by dropping the language of scarcity. The moment you ask for a seat, you position yourself as an outsider. Strategic leaders don’t ask. They contribute. If your insights shift outcomes, the table becomes a stage, not a gate. Earn trust by framing your perspective through the lens of business impact. This means speaking in terms of revenue, risk, efficiency, and scalability. HR cannot be the department of feelings. It must be the function that sees around corners. Lead with clarity. When HR leaders soften their views to avoid conflict, they disappear. Clarity builds credibility. You don’t have to be loud, but you must be unmistakably firm. You cannot be a strategic partner if you are allergic to tension. People always, but not at the expense of progress. Great HR holds the line on both empathy and performance. Stakeholders need to see that you can build belonging and drive accountability in the same breath. The power is not in being invited. It is in being unignorable. HR doesn’t need to get a seat. It needs to remind everyone why the meeting doesn't start without them. Learn more by reading the Talent Sherpa substack at https://buff.ly/BhSC0Wa

“HR shouldn’t just have a seat at the table. HR is the table.” When HR leaders speak the language of finance, they empower themselves to prove the financial impact of people on business performance. In an in-depth discussion with Blue Ocean Global Technology, I talk about helping organizations quantify the ROI of human capital, and most importantly, why that matters. For example, one client turned a $250K investment in an engagement initiative into $65M in profit, and we know this because we used advanced data analytics techniques to measure key metrics like productivity and attrition. Another client, a Chief People Officer, secured a $250 million budget increase by showing the business case supported by their human capital strategy. Not only that, they reframed the way they thought about HR - from an expense that needed to be managed, to an opportunity to drive revenue and profit through investing effectively in people. WIN! Human capital is still the largest expense in most organizations. But, with just a 5% improvement in HCROI, organizations can drive anywhere between 15–40% profit growth. Need more proof that HR is the #FutureOfWork? 😀 I’ll link the interview below!  #HumanizingHumanCapital #DataAnalytics