Exclusive Interview with Christy Pruitt-Haynes, Head of Talent, NeuroLeadership Institute

 

In an exclusive interview with HR.com, Christy Pruitt-Haynes delves into her remarkable HR journey, offering profound insights into adaptive leadership and navigating shifting workforce dynamics.

Excerpts from the interview:

Q. How have your leadership and management strategies evolved as the workforce and workplace dynamics have changed over the years?

Christy: Today, transparency, collaboration, autonomy, and flexibility reign supreme for most team members. I also know that the definition of a successful career varies greatly from person to person. Gone are the days of people wanting to work for one company for their entire career and assume a linear upward trajectory of their career. As a leader, I now focus on each team member's capacities and motivations along with my own biases. I let those guide my management style, conversations, and priorities. 
 
In years past, many opted for a more authoritative leadership style, and that often created a harsher and less psychologically safe work environment. I have taken those lessons and now work with my teams instead of thinking anyone works for me. More importantly, I encourage all people leaders to do the same. I know that in many situations, I don’t have all of the answers and I rely on the expertise of those around me, but that means I have to know their strengths and create an environment where they are comfortable sharing their thoughts and opinions. 

As a people leader, my role is to create a psychologically safe work environment that rewards team members for having a growth mindset and contributing fully to the team. I am there to remove barriers that would impede their success. I know if they are successful, the team and organization will be successful, so I focus more on their success over my own and trust that we will all rise together. 

Q. Could you share an instance where you had to navigate a complex organizational change, and what lessons did you learn from that experience?

Christy: Several years ago, I was leading HR for an organization that, up until that point, had been run by the founder. They made the decision to sell to a much larger company and we went from being a solely owned and operated company of 500 to being part of a global conglomerate with over 15,000 employees. We were used to making decisions for ourselves and being very nimble in our approach to having to adhere to several layers of approvals and processes that ultimately made us better but initially was a difficult transition. As the HR leader, I led the integration, culture shift, and change management process.  Those 9 months were some of the most challenging and rewarding phases of my career. 
 
Throughout that process, I learned several things but the two that stand out are:
 

• Getting everyone on board with the company’s how is more important than getting everyone on board with the company’s what. - The one thing that distinguishes companies that are in the same industry from one another is how they make decisions, conduct business, and reward employees. Two airlines technically do the same thing, but how they do it is what sets them apart and what determines what success looks like. Understanding the new company’s ‘how’ helped me prepare all of our employees to be successful.   

 

• Relationships overcome challenges that knowledge can’t. - That fact transformed the way I think about onboarding new team members. Instead of focusing exclusively on company knowledge, I encourage organizations to focus on building relationships between the new team members and existing members. Make sure everyone knows who they are, what they are great at, what skills, backgrounds, and perspectives they add to the team, etc. Make sure their bosses know their capabilities and motivations. Focus on building relationships because, in the long run, they help lift performance, enhance the employee experience, and mitigate against bias.

 

Q. As AI and automation reshape various industries, how do you envision HR's role evolving to ensure seamless integration of technology while preserving the human-centric aspects of the workplace?

Christy: HR is responsible for many things including employee experience. Figuring out the intersection of technology and people very much affects the experience each team member has. What HR and the entire leadership team must keep in mind is that AI is a wonderful tool but just like any other tool, if it’s not used properly it can do more harm than good. A hammer can help build a home, but it can also destroy one if it’s not used properly. 

One of the most human-centric aspects of the workplace is, relationships help to mitigate against bias. Getting to know and respect your co-workers helps us to collaborate better, share openly, and succeed WITH everyone’s input. AI operates without respect to individuals so while it may be a time saver and efficiency builder for routine tasks, it can easily add to the bias experienced in more complicated decision-making.

There is no denying that AI can and will save companies money so we know it is here to stay but as HR practitioners, we have to be very thoughtful about what tasks we delegate to AI and what tasks require the nuanced thinking only capable by a human.

Q. How do you strike a balance between leveraging advanced HR technology and maintaining the "human touch" in employee interactions?

Christy: Human resources, as well as every other department, has to figure out a way to use technology for each individual's benefit. That means looking at many of the mundane tasks that drain our time and energy and coming up with, or implementing, a technology-based solution so people are able to focus on more creative and strategic endeavors.
 
Technology allows HR departments to streamline processes like new hire paperwork, documenting conversations, and vacation requests so they can focus on things like creating cross-functional work teams geared towards developing skill sets. Technology also makes functions like workforce planning simpler because it can quickly analyze demographic data, workflow, etc. to assess where additional resources may be needed. That allows the HR team to then focus on understanding the skills, capacities, and motivations of team members so they can recommend people to move into new and higher-level roles. 
 
What technology shouldn’t do is replace the need for human interaction. As humans, we are more disconnected than we have been at any time during our modern history. That means people crave relatedness and are looking for ways to connect with their coworkers. That provides an opportunity for organizations to utilize technology to create efficiency, which frees people up to collaborate and get to know their coworkers in real-time. Organizations that are thinking long-term are now switching their onboarding to focus on developing internal relationships instead of just sharing company information.

Q. With the rise of the gig economy and remote work, how has your talent acquisition strategy evolved to attract and retain top talent in a competitive landscape?

Christy: As the song lyrics say, ‘You’ve got to give the people what they want’. Today’s employees want flexibility, and they want to continue to see their careers grow, often in non-traditional ways. The first part of that is companies have to think about which positions must be in an office and which can operate as location agnostic. The pandemic proved that many roles can be combined from various locations that may or may not be in a corporate headquarters. 
 
Employees also want salary transparency. When it comes to recruiting, one of the best things a company can do to shorten the time it takes to secure talent is to list salary ranges in the description. No one wants to waste their time applying for a role that does not meet their minimum salary needs or doesn’t align with the value that role adds to the organization. 
 
Finally, organizations that capitalize on concepts like a career marketplace (where they shop internal talent to work on diverse projects that may be outside of that person’s normal day-to-day work), will be able to retain their talent. We are also seeing an increase in diagonal career growth. Employees want the option to move between various departments without losing their career momentum. The desire for new and interesting experiences has eclipsed the desire for a more certain and defined career path. To retain talent, companies have to allow individuals to have different experiences that normally would not have existed.

Q. In your perspective, what do you believe will be the most significant HR trends and challenges that organizations will face in the next five years, and how are you preparing your team to address them effectively?

Christy: We are already facing a fairly significant leadership gap. So many employees are focused on developing specialized technical skills and many have not developed cross-functional strategic leadership skills. I believe that trend, unfortunately, is going to continue and must be addressed immediately.
 
We are also seeing insignificant shifts in the type of experience employees want. Coming out of the pandemic, many individuals reimagined what life should look like with a full work/life integrated approach. Several people are now location-agnostic and are looking for employment opportunities that will support that lifestyle. Companies will have an advantage if they are able to lean into individuals' desire for hybrid or varied location work. We are seeing that trend across multiple industries, including technology, healthcare, and various service industries.
 
Finally, individuals are now fully starting to prioritize mental and emotional health. We are seeing people leave employment that they previously would not have in order to avoid burnout. Organizations need to re-imagine what benefit programs, work hours, work expectations, and work styles look like. The definition of success for those entering the workforce is not just focused on money, but also on autonomy.
 
The biggest skill I recommend developing is for HR practitioners to ask ‘why’.  Why can’t we offer options for how vacation time is earned and used? Why do we limit bereavement leave to certain relationships instead of acknowledging the fact that many people’s chosen family/friends are closer to them than their uncle or aunt? Why don’t we give team members an option of either getting a bonus of $2500 or getting a reimbursement of $4000 for the skills development they select? The HR teams and organizations that will be successful tomorrow will question things and create a culture of transparency, safety, and accountability that helps everyone succeed.
 

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