This month in our HR Advisory practice we are recruiting for the following Advisory job roles:

• Senior Human Resources Advisor
• Senior Talent Acquisition Advisor
• Human Resources Business Partner
• Director of Human Resources
• Vice President of Total Rewards
• Senior Compensation Advisor

Interested? Please contact us to learn more at recruitng@fredericksonpartners.com.

We worked with SIMULATE to recruit Lisah Barry as People Lead. Barry will build human resources (HR) programs, processes and systems for scale, and will lead people through the company’s current growth and change period. She will develop comprehensive talent acquisition and retention strategies aligned with SIMULATE’s strategic goals. Reporting to the company’s Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, Sam Terris, Barry will also serve as a strategic partner of the executive leadership team, working to establish SIMULATE as an employer of choice.

Barry joins SIMULATE from ARRIS, where she recently served as Vice President (VP) of People. Previously Barry held HR leadership roles including People Operations Consultant and Advisor at BAWAR, People Operations at StyleSeat, HR Manager at Stimulant and HR Manager at VideoSurf Inc. (acquired by Microsoft), among others. Barry holds a Master’s degree in Opera Performance from The University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelor of Music and English Literature from State University of New York at Fredonia.

Lisah, congratulations and welcome to SIMULATE!

We partnered with Rec Room to recruit Cassi Hansen as Head of People. In the role Hansen will act as a champion for the company’s culture and values. Through the creation, communication and implementation of people programs, Hansen will set Rec Room employees up for success and improve the company’s employee experience and retention. She will also establish appropriate and effective HR systems, metrics and processes to track and report on the entire employee experience.

Hansen joins from Nerdery where she served 11 years, recently as Vice President of People Operations. She worked with board members, executive leadership and key stakeholders to construct Nerdery’s strategic plans and initiatives, with other roles at Nerdery including Director of Talent Acquisition, Culture and Engagement; Recruiting Manager; and Candidate Advocate. Earlier in her career she worked as Manager for restaurant developer D’Amico and Partners. Hansen holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies with an emphasis in Organizational Communications from Hamline University.

Cassi, kudos for joining Rec Room as Head of People!

• Cyara welcomed Jeremy Braidish as the company’s new Chief People Officer. Braidish joins Cyara from Electronic Arts where he served as VP of HR for the company’s Worldwide Studios Organization. Prior to Electronic Arts, Braidish held HR leadership roles at companies including Honeywell, Equifax, Dell and Accenture. (Announcement)
• Treasure Data announced the appointment of Kimberly Bronstein as Chief People Officer. Bronstein brings over 13 years of experience as an HR professional, most recently at Adobe where she held different HR roles during eight years, the latest one as Director of Business Partnering. (Announcement)
• Affinivax Inc. appointed Vanya Sagar as Chief People Officer. Previously Sagar worked at Sigilon Therapeutics, Inc. where she held the Chief Human Resources Officer role. Her earlier positions included HR Business Partner (HRBP) at Biogen and Administrative Director at Massachusetts General Hospital. (Announcement)
• OneSpan Inc. announced the appointment of Tom Aurelio as Chief People Officer. Aurelio brings over 30 years of HR leadership experience to OneSpan, most recently as Chief Human Resources Officer at Endurance International Group and previously at Criterio, Priceline.com, Symantec and GE Capital. (Announcement)
• Spire Global, Inc. welcomed Tim Braswell as its new Chief People Officer. Braswell has over 25 years of HR experience, having served at MetLife for a 10-year tenure with his last position as VP of HRBP, Global Functions. Earlier in his career he worked at Merck, Johnson & Johnson and Hughes Network Systems. (Announcement)
• Autodesk, Inc. announced the promotion of Rebecca Pearce to Chief People Officer. Pearce has been with Autodesk for the past six years previously as VP of People & Places, HRBP lead. Her experience includes HR leadership roles at Microsoft, Dysona and BAE Systems. (Announcement)
• Wingstop promoted Donnie Upshaw to be the company’s first Chief People Officer. Upshaw has been with the company for four years, previously as VP of HR. His past roles include Director of Talent for RaceTrac Petroleum, Director of HR for Energy Dispatch and VP of HR for Check Into Cash. (Announcement)
• ActiveCampaign announced Michael Rico as its Chief People Officer. Rico joins from Salesforce, where during a 10-year tenure his leadership roles included Senior VP (SVP) of Employee Success Business Partner. Previously Rico held HR roles at Old Navy and Gap Inc. (Announcement)
• Renalytix appointed Jean Casner as SVP and Chief Human Resources Officer. Previously, Casner served as SVP and Chief Human Resources Officer for Cantel Medical and earlier held HR leadership roles at Merck & Co, Inc., Henkel, NBA and Johnson & Johnson (Announcement)
• The Beauty Health Company welcomed Kellie Sears as Chief Human Resources Officer. Prior to joining, Sears held Chief Human Resources Officer roles at Asklepios BioPharmaceuticals, Inc.and Allergan and served at Pfizer for 13 years, most recently as Senior Director of HR Global Shared Services. (Article)

1. Building critical skills: Over half (59%) of HR leaders have employee skill-building as a top priority for 2022. The skills workers need are growing continually (for example, skills needed for an IT, Sales or Finance job increased 6.3% annually since 2016). But many HR leaders don’t have effective ways to track employee skills or help people add skills.

   Gartner recommends that HR create a skill-centric culture of learning. It cites Workday (a company we’ve partnered with), whose Talent Management vision includes re-defining all Talent functions around skills rather than roles (for example rather than a “Recruiter” role, defining ‘Recruit & Onboard’ as a function to “Identify, source and onboard the best candidate for critical skill needs.”)

2. Organizational re-design and change management: A top problem for HR leaders (54%) is dealing with ‘change fatigue,” or employee apathy, frustration and burnout due to too much recent change.

   An “ah hah” insight is that daily changes can have 2.5 times as much impact on employees as big ones such as M&A or restructuring. These “small” changes (96% of all changes) such as team members leaving, a change in responsibilities, or a new reporting structure, can actually be significantly more damaging.

   The good news: HR leaders play a role in building trust and team cohesion (which make employees 2.6x and 1.8x, respectively, more able to handle change).

3. Current and future leadership bench: Gartner points out that what good leadership looks like has changed to focus more on empathy. Leaders need new guidelines from HR–such as how to strike a balance in supporting employee mental health (without becoming a therapist), or how to drive productivity in a flexible hybrid environment.
4. The future of work: HR leaders said that workforce planning is often limited to “headcount planning” (51%). To help sort through trends and scenarios to create a Future of Work strategy, Gartner recommends tapping your Business Strategy team to help model scenarios.

   HR Advisory with an experienced strategist can also help a leader to see past 2022’s immediate challenges, create a vision of the future workplace and plan for it.

5. Diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I): Although #5 on the priority list, DE&I is now an urgent priority for HR leaders, with pressure from boards, stockholders and employees to deliver change. Per Glassdoor, 76% of job seekers say a diverse workforce is important to them. Diversity is especially low in the C-Suite with just 29% women and 17% racial minorities.

   HR leaders’ top struggle with DE&I is how to hold business leaders accountable for results (36%). Moving to consequential accountability means that if a leader is to advance in the organization, he or she must show progress on DE&I goals. Gartner shares Altria’s system of leader scorecards that track metrics such as diversity in hiring and promotions, or employee surveys on feeling included. Leaders also view and compare other leaders’ scorecards, for transparency and learning.

© 2022 Frederickson Partners