RyanMae McAvoy has worked with the same finance leader at Blackthorne for four years. They don't fight over budgets.

They co-build them. In this conversation, she shares the exact approach she used to build that relationship, starting with three questions every HR leader should ask their finance partner.

In this episode:

• The three questions RyanMae asks every department leader to understand their priorities

• Why framing a comp tool purchase as an EBITDA play changes the conversation

• How Blackthorne uses time as currency when measuring the real cost of turnover

• The "drop everything" framework for knowing when to break your own rules

• Why unlimited PTO without a minimum requirement is a red flag

• How putting therapy on your public calendar sets the tone for your whole company

• What happens when HR has to stand up and deliver bad news about budget cuts

This episode is for people leaders who know they need a better relationship with finance but aren't sure where to start.

Episode Chapters:

• 00:00 | Meet RyanMae McAvoy
• 03:35 | The remote vs. office debate nobody wins
• 05:38 | Why HR and EBITDA feel like different languages
• 07:40 | Should HR ever report to finance?
• 11:49 | Three questions that change your budget conversations
• 13:07 | Time as currency and the four-year finance partnership
• 15:32 | Comp philosophy in the most expensive US market
• 17:41 | Quiet Fridays and why unlimited PTO is overrated
• 18:58 | How to learn the business
• 25:07 | The "drop everything" framework for distributed teams
• 26:23 | Putting therapy on your public calendar
• 32:11 | When budget cuts happen, HR can't stand alone
• 35:17 | Fair vs. equitable in global compensation
• 35:17 | Data can tell any story you want

Connect with RyanMae McAvoy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rm80920/

🎙️ Pulse by HRBench. Practical people analytics for HR leaders who tie their work to business outcomes.

Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.

A $52 million whistleblower verdict in LA. Six years of litigation. Attorney's fees not added yet.

Susanne Kleveros, founder of Don't Tell HR, joins Pulse by HRBench to unpack why employee relations just exploded, why silence after a termination is the clearest signal a lawsuit is coming, and how HR leaders at fast-paced companies can handle the hardest conversations in a way that protects both the business and the people in the room.

In this episode:

• Why employee relations cases tripled at many companies in the last year
• The $52 million LA whistleblower verdict every HR leader should know about
• How employment councils are tightening what counts as a valid policy acknowledgment
• Why silence after a termination almost always means a demand letter is coming
• The severance-offer mistake that invites the escalation you were trying to avoid
• How to support managers through the emotional weight of investigations and firings
• Why HR should be trained like salespeople on open-ended questions

For HR leaders at PE-backed and mid-market companies navigating more sensitive situations than ever.

Episode Chapters:

• 00:00 | Why employee relations just exploded
• 04:22 | Meet Susanne and Don't Tell HR
• 06:28 | Where companies underfund the highest-risk HR work
• 07:59 | The $52M verdict that started six years earlier
• 08:36 | Policy acknowledgments that hold up in court
• 10:42 | Adapt to AI. Don't just adopt it.
• 12:59 | Recording laws and termination video calls
• 13:40 | Employees are ambassadors for life
• 17:30 | Bill Walsh and scripting hard conversations
• 17:56 | Silence escalates emotion
• 22:04 | How managers change after an investigation
• 27:22 | Vicarious trauma and HR's emotional load
• 29:20 | Train HR like salespeople, not interrogators
• 31:13 | The post-mortem every HR leader should run
• 34:53 | The story behind "Don't Tell HR"

🎙️ Pulse by HRBench. Practical people analytics for HR leaders who tie their work to business outcomes. New episodes every week.

Connect with Susanne and Don't Tell HR on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanne-kleveros-914b7a71/

Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.

Results don't just happen. They're designed. Dr. Tim Williams spent his career at P&G turning that idea into operating systems that HR leaders can actually run. He joins Pulse by HRBench to unpack what changes when HR treats outcomes like engineers treat problems.

In this episode:

• Why most HR leaders are managing, not leading, and how to flip that
• The organizational design framework behind culture and performance
• The P&G Brockville safety story: why they rehired the workers they fired
• How to plan for where your org needs to be, not where it is
• Why finance isn't the gatekeeper to funding your programs
• How to tie HR work to productivity, attrition, and bottom-line results
• The BE, BECOME, and ACT model for career transitions

Episode Chapters:

• 00:00 | Introduction: Tim's engineering roots and the science of HR
• 03:42 | The rain analogy: every result has a process behind it
• 05:17 | Why Tim's team is built from operators, not HR-only backgrounds
• 07:38 | The shift from administrative to strategic HR
• 08:25 | Making the decision to lead
• 10:42 | Manager vs. leader: handling resources vs. envisioning outcomes
• 12:05 | The 80 vs. 120 mph car: plan for what you need, not what you have
• 15:55 | Organizational design produces culture, culture produces results
• 18:06 | Where HR leaders should start pulling the thread
• 21:17 | P&G Brockville: the safety turnaround story
• 24:35 | People do what they value, not what you tell them
• 25:42 | Funding your programs: influence beats finance
• 29:21 | HR metrics are not soft. Productivity, attrition, and performance
• 31:55 | Determining your BE, BECOME, and ACT

For HR leaders at PE-backed and mid-market companies who want to move from administrative work to strategic influence.

Connect with Tim Williams on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothywilliamssr/

Connect with Organization: https://orgtransformgroup.com/

🎙️ Pulse by HRBench. Practical people analytics for HR leaders who tie their work to business outcomes.

Everyone's being told to "use AI." But most HR teams don't have a flight plan, a pilot, or even a destination.

In this episode of Pulse by HRBench, we sit down with Kristin McDonald and Dani Woods, two seasoned HRIS and HR tech leaders, to talk about what AI adoption looks like inside HR departments today.

They get into the real challenges: why AI tools still can't handle system-specific work like Workday configurations, how to measure AI impact beyond headcount reduction, and why automation should come before AI in most cases.

Kristin and Dani share what's working in their day-to-day, where they've seen AI fall short, and how HR professionals can future-proof their careers without freezing up.

If you're an HR leader trying to figure out where AI fits without blowing up your processes, this one's for you.

Topics we covered:

• Leading AI without a roadmap
• Measuring AI ROI beyond headcount
• Practical ways to start with AI today
• Career advice for HRIS professionals
• Why "exposure therapy" might be the best AI adoption framework

Episode Chapters:

• 00:00 | Meet Kristin and Dani: HR tech nerds and proud of it
• 01:37 | Leading AI when there is no roadmap
• 03:01 | Where AI actually helps (and where it completely falls short)
• 04:20 | Co-Pilot, ChatGPT, and Mando: tools HR teams are actually using
• 06:44 | How to measure AI impact beyond headcount
• 08:55 | Mapping workflows before layering on AI
• 10:35 | Why SaaS workflows were already hard before AI entered the picture
• 11:47 | Practical ways HR leaders can start using AI today
• 15:10 | "Are you going to take my job?" Managing AI fear in your team
• 16:40 | Career advice: which HRIS skills are future-proof
• 19:42 | Exposure therapy for AI: just start playing with it
• 21:15 | One thing HR leaders should remember about AI in 2026

🎙 Pulse by hrbench.com

Connect with Kristin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinmcdonald1/

Connect with Dani on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellejwoods/

John Youngkrantz, Payroll & HRIS Manager at FirstKey Homes, spent years watching HR hand managers spreadsheets and call it reporting. On this episode, he breaks down exactly how his team changed that — building dashboards that give HR business partners real turnover trends, open rec data, and headcount context to bring into manager walkthroughs across 29 markets and 16 districts nationwide.

John also walks through how HRBench became the single source of truth that finally got HR and Finance in the same room — and what that's done for HR's credibility across the business.

In this episode:

• Why headcount definitions cause conflict between HR and Finance — and how to fix it

• The 3 metrics every HRBP should bring into manager walkthroughs

• How to use trend data to coach managers instead of overwhelming them

• What changed when HR stopped being the report-on-request team

• The next frontier: actuals vs. forecast inside HRBench

If your HR team is still building reports in Excel and hoping managers figure out what to do with the numbers, this episode is for you.

Episode Chapters

• 00:00 | Introduction: Meet John Youngkrantz, FirstKey Homes

• 03:07 | Why HR-Finance alignment matters in budgeting season

• 04:29 | Building a single source of truth with HRBench

• 05:34 | How headcount definitions create conflict between HR and Finance

• 06:46 | What changed this planning cycle vs. previous years

• 08:42 | The next step: pulling finance forecasts into HRBench

• 09:14 | Building manager coaching dashboards from scratch

• 10:32 | How HRBPs use data in their manager walkthroughs

• 12:32 | Key metrics: headcount, open recs, and turnover

• 14:52 | Why less metrics is more: focusing on decisions, not data

• 16:01 | How data dashboards elevated HR's credibility company-wide

• 18:32 | Before and after: from spreadsheet dumps to trend conversations

• 20:26 | Managing frontline worker turnover in real time

• 21:20 | John's closing advice: ask the right questions, give context not panic

🎙️ Pulse by HRBench — practical people analytics for HR leaders who tie their work to business outcomes.

Connect with John Youngkrantz on LinkedIn.

Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.

AI has officially moved past experimentation.

In 2026, the real challenge is how to embed AI into your business strategy, while keeping humans firmly in the loop.

In this episode of Pulse, we chat with Melissa Lemberg, VP of Digital Transformation & AI Strategy at LogicMonitor, to unpack what responsible, measurable AI adoption looks like inside complex organizations.

Melissa brings nearly 30 years of experience leading large-scale, human-centered transformation across Fortune 100 and high-growth companies. Together, we explore AI through an executive and HR lens, especially for private-equity–backed companies where value creation timelines are tight and metrics matter.

In this conversation, you’ll learn:

• Why AI shouldn’t live in a standalone “AI strategy”

• How to tie AI directly to business metrics like revenue per employee and EBITDA

• What human-in-the-loop AI looks like in real workflows

• How HR can partner with executives, IT, and the board to lead adoption

• How to build an AI-curious culture that drives experimentation and results

If you’re an HR leader being told to “go do something with AI,” this episode gives you a practical framework to lead with confidence.

Episode Chapters

• 00:00 | Introduction
• 01:30 | Experience-Led, Human-Centered Transformation
• 03:39 | Embedding AI Into Business Strategy & PE Metrics
• 05:01 | Practical AI Use Cases That Drive Growth
• 07:00 | What Human-in-the-Loop AI Looks Like
• 09:58 | Beyond Lift-and-Shift: Big T vs Little t Transformation
• 12:59 | Measuring AI Impact Beyond Headcount
• 16:00 | HR’s Role in Leading AI Adoption
• 18:50 | Building AI Champions & an AI-Curious Culture
• 30:17 | The Future of AI at Work (Next 12–18 Months)

Connect with Melissa Lemberg: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissalemberg/

LogicMonitor: https://www.logicmonitor.com/

HR professionals are told the same thing:

Work hard. Gain experience. Wait your turn.

But, that’s not how careers accelerate.

In this episode of Pulse, Dani Woods shares what helped her move from HR assistant to director before 30, and why the title alone is not what defines success.

This conversation breaks down the career moves most HR professionals overlook:

• Why you need to “do the job” before you have the title

• How to move from HR operations into more strategic roles

• When leaders should stop being the technical expert

• How to build executive credibility early in your career

• What to do when your boss blocks your growth

• How to justify building and scaling an HR function

• What success actually looks like at the leadership level

If you work in HR, HRIS, People Analytics, or HR Operations and you want to grow into leadership faster and with intention, this episode is for you.

And the biggest takeaway:

Do not let someone else define your career path.

Episode Chapters

• 00:00 | Introduction
• 03:12 | From HR Assistant to Director Before 30
• 08:05 | Do the Job Before You Get the Title
• 09:47 | Tactical Ways to Level Up in HR
• 12:23 | When Leaders Should Stop Being the Technical Expert
• 14:34 | Moving from HR Ops into Strategic Roles
• 16:30 | What to Do If Your Boss Blocks Your Growth
• 18:00 | How to Think Like an HR Leader
• 24:59 | What Success Really Looks Like in HR Leadership
• 26:49 | Final Advice: Use Setbacks as Fuel

Connect with Dani: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellejwoods/

Subscribe to Dani’s Newsletter: https://lotuswelle.beehiiv.com/

HR leaders have reports, but still struggle to drive action.

In this episode of Pulse by HRBench, Emily Granholm breaks down what it takes to make HR a strategic business function, especially inside PE-backed companies, where the board expects clear financial impact.

You’ll learn the three most common analytics pitfalls that derail HR credibility, plus a practical approach to turning reports into decisions executives will fund.

Emily also shares how to make insights board-ready, how to frame retention and time-to-fill in financial terms, and why psychological safety and employee listening are critical leading indicators before turnover spikes.

Join us for how to make HR a revenue enabler.

Chapters

00:00 | Introduction

03:00 | The 3 HR analytics pitfalls that kill credibility

06:30 | Finance vs HR data: headcount, severance, and alignment issues

09:00 | From dashboards to decisions: making data actionable

12:45 | Making HR insights board-ready

16:45 | Retention is a lagging indicator: what to measure earlier

20:45 | HR, AI, and the shift from reactive to proactive

23:45 | Closing: positioning HR as a revenue enabler

Connect with Emily Granholm: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilygranholm/

What does it take to lead people in high-stakes, private-equity-backed environments, where efficiency matters, managers are underprepared, and AI is reshaping how work gets done?

In this episode of Pulse by HRBench, Kelly Oliver, a veteran HR and business leader whose career spans leadership roles at Microsoft, Oracle, HP, Salesforce, and most recently as Head of HR at a PE-backed cybersecurity company.

In this episode we explore:

• Why scaling efficiently now requires HR to understand how the business makes money
• Why most managers are unprepared for today’s environment, and what effective manager enablement looks like
• How HR can use data, QBRs, and performance visibility to influence executive decisions
• Why AI should live behind the scenes, not between people, and how HR must lead AI strategy without losing the human connection
• What it means to “be better than a bot” in an AI-driven workplace

This is a practical, executive-level conversation for HR leaders navigating growth, profitability pressure, and rising expectations from boards and PE sponsors.

Episode Chapters

• 00:00 | Intro: Leading HR in PE-Backed, High-Pressure Environments
• 01:58 | Meet Kelly Oliver: From Engineering to Head of HR.
• 04:00 | The Real Question: How Do You Scale an Organization Efficiently?
• 06:07 | Why Everything Is Now a 90-Day Window
• 08:56 | HR’s Role in Revenue-Driven Execution
• 11:35 | Performance Heat Maps and HR’s Early Warning Signals
• 12:31 | Why Every HR Team Should Run a QBR
• 17:56 | Managers Are Unprepared & Here’s Why
• 19:28 | Manager 101: What Leaders Actually Need to Learn
• 21:36 | Managing the “What” vs. the “How”
• 27:27 | How AI Is Already Changing the Manager Role
• 29:08 | Where AI Belongs: Back-End Efficiency, Not Front-Line Humans
• 32:14 | Why HR Must Be Central to AI Strategy
• 35:02 | AI Literacy for HR Leaders: Lean In or Fall Behind
• 38:02 | Human Connection Still Matters More Than Ever
• 40:46 | Final Challenge: Be Better Than a Bot

Connect with Kelly on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/k-oliver/

Good Signs Consulting: http://goodsignsconsulting.com/

HRBench: https://www.hrbench.com/

AI is reshaping how we work, and HR should be at the forefront.

In this episode of Pulse by HRBench, we sit down with Kristin McDonald, a veteran HR tech strategist and self-proclaimed “HR tech nerd,” to unpack what it means for HR to lead in the age of AI.

Kristin shares:

• Why AI literacy is now table stakes for HR leaders

• How to build an AI roadmap that drives business value

• What traps to avoid during tech implementations

• How to evaluate AI vendors (and when to build vs. buy)

• The role HR plays in AI governance, data readiness, and org-wide enablement

Whether your exec team is pushing AI adoption or you’re simply trying to modernize your HR tech stack, this conversation will give you the clarity and confidence to lead from the front.

Chapters

• 00:00 | Intro: Why AI in HR is a Strategic Imperative
• 01:39 | Meet Kristin: A Self-Proclaimed HR Tech Nerd
• 02:11 | AI Overload: Trends, Buzzwords & Real Questions
• 04:05 | Strategic Tech Stacks: It’s Not About the Shiny Tools
• 06:32 | Before You Buy: The Internal Questions HR Must Ask
• 08:54 | Integrations & IT: Don’t Buy Without These Partners
• 10:25 | Point Solution vs. All-In-One: What Actually Works
• 13:12 | Implementation Pitfalls: What HR Gets Wrong
• 17:12 | Where Should HR Tech Live, IT or HR?
• 21:07 | The Case for a Single AI Agent Experience
• 22:12 | Why HR Must Lead AI Adoption (and How to Start)
• 27:57 | How to Become AI Literate as an HR Leader
• 30:24 | Getting a Seat at the AI Table: HR’s Influence Playbook
• 35:43 | How to Build an AI Roadmap That Actually Works
• 38:15 | Quick Wins vs. Long-Term AI Strategy
• 39:42 | AI Governance: The Hot Topic No One Wants to Own
• 42:18 | Final Advice: Learn Together, Lead with Confidence

Connect with Kristin McDonald on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinmcdonald1/