The WorkOps Podcast

Summary
Anuradha Mayer, EVP & Chief People Officer at Infoblox, joins Jeet Mukerji on The WorkOps Podcast to explain why People teams need to stop thinking only in HR programs and start operating like product teams. For Anuradha, the shift means treating business leaders and employees as customers, building practical solutions to their problems, and getting feedback before anything feels finished.

She takes Jeet Mukerji inside Infoblox's AI transformation: a leadership exercise where HR teams built AI prototypes for internal customers and pitched them for a buy-or-pass decision; an AI Trailblazer Award that rewards scaled impact and sharing unfinished work; and routine HR letters automated to save 87% of the time previously spent. The conversation follows the company's staged rollout of Bloxmate, its internal employee-support assistant, the capabilities-and-speed tradeoff behind build-versus-buy decisions, and a joint HR–IT roadmap that spans both workforce transformation and the hire-to-retire lifecycle.

Anuradha also discusses why teams will increasingly manage AI agents, why employees have AI performance and development goals, why leaders must combine AI fluency with human connection, and why AI output without original thought becomes more work for everyone. For CHROs, People Ops executives, HR technology leaders, and anyone deciding how to turn AI usage into measurable business impact.

Chapters
00:00 AI Fluency and Human Connection
01:15 Meet Anuradha Mayer
03:55 Moving from HR Programs to Products
06:07 Rewarding AI Experimentation and Sharing
09:09 Automating HR Tasks and Saving 87% of the Time
10:04 Introducing Bloxmate: AI-Powered Employee Support
11:28 Build vs. Buy: Capabilities and Speed
13:41 HR Transformation Roadmaps and Managing AI Agents
18:31 AI Engineers and the Future of HR Teams
22:49 AI Performance Goals and Employee Adoption
25:54 Balancing AI Fluency with Human Connection
27:41 Avoiding AI Slop and Preserving Critical Thinking
29:57 Why AI Is the Biggest Technology Wave Yet
31:54 Advice for HR Professionals and Leaders

Takeaways
- Move from programs to products: start with a real business problem, test the solution with internal customers, and measure whether it helps.
- Make unfinished work visible. Anuradha encourages her team to share work even when it is only 50% complete, because early feedback accelerates learning.
- Automate the routine to create space for meaningful work. At Infoblox, automating employee letters saved approximately 87% of the time spent on that workflow.
- Decide whether to build or buy based on the capabilities you need, how fast you can deliver them, and whether your content and processes are ready to support trustworthy AI answers.
- AI transformation is also a leadership responsibility. Employees need accessible learning, clear goals, human connection, and guidance on where AI can have an impact.
- Keep original thinking in the driver's seat: use LLMs as critical thought partners instead of shipping unexamined AI-generated material.

Connect with the Guest
Anuradha Mayer: EVP & Chief People Officer, Infoblox
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anuradhamayer/
Company Website: https://www.infoblox.com/

Sponsor
This episode is brought to you by Kinfolk, the AI service desk built for HR.

Learn more at kinfolkhq.com.

Summary
Claude Silver, Chief Heart Officer at VaynerX, joins Jeet Mukerji on The WorkOps Podcast to explain how a role with no job description became the only Chief Heart Officer title in the business. Twelve years ago Gary Vaynerchuk gave her one remit, touch every single human being and deploy empathy, and she has scaled it from about 400 people to 2,200 by renaming HR "People and Experience," dropping the college degree requirement, swapping culture fit for culture addition, and building a network of culture champions who scale the heart.

The conversation covers where AI belongs in the People function (answering the benefits, holidays and onboarding questions that once took a full-time person, but not the human moments), why AI adoption should sit with IT, how VaynerX helps people through the fear of AI, and why she expects People teams to keep growing as coaches rather than shrink to a flat G&A line. She closes on kind candor, balancing empathy and accountability without creating entitlement, and why every AI rollout should start by talking to people. For CHROs, People Ops leaders and anyone deciding where AI should and should not sit in their organization.

Chapters
00:00 Welcome Claude Silver, Chief Heart Officer at VaynerX
00:20 Never wanting to do HR and becoming Chief Heart Officer
03:35 People and Experience, not HR
05:45 Dropping the degree requirement and culture fit
07:06 Culture champions who scale the heart
09:26 Choosing an HRIS that feels human
10:22 Why the heart is not automated yet
11:38 How the People and Experience team uses AI today
13:20 Why IT should own AI adoption
14:22 Helping people through the fear of AI
16:54 Efficiency still needs critical thinking
19:06 The next 18 months: coaches, not paper pushers
21:40 What AI means for entry-level HR talent
23:13 Advice for starting a career in HR
24:08 Testing for AI skills when hiring
26:29 Will People teams scale with the company?
28:49 Belonging without entitlement
31:55 Kind candor in practice
34:24 Bespoke training for managers
35:37 Final advice: talk to people first

Takeaways
- Claude renamed HR "People and Experience" because the job is to take care of people from the moment they send a CV to their last day, and beyond through an alumni network.
- VaynerX dropped the college degree requirement and replaced culture fit with skill set fit and culture addition, because culture fit often just means exclusivity.
- AI now answers the benefits, holidays and onboarding questions that used to take a full-time person, which frees the team for the human work; AI adoption itself is owned by IT, not HR.
- Claude expects People teams to keep scaling with headcount, because the future of HR is coaching, not paper pushing or policing, and well-being is not a product off the shelf.
- Retention comes from safety, belonging and recognition delivered with kind candor, balancing empathy and accountability without coddling or creating entitlement.

Connect with the Guest
Claude Silver LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/casilver/
Company Website: https://vaynerx.com

Sponsor
This episode is brought to you by Kinfolk, the AI service desk built for HR.

See more at kinfolkhq.com

Summary
Katarina Berg, CHRO at On, joins Jeet Mukerji on The WorkOps Podcast to explain what an HR leader carries from company to company after 30 years in the function, and what she leaves behind. She has run People at Spotify and now at On, the Swiss running brand that benchmarks itself against tech companies, and she has deliberately changed industry every time so she never does a "blue copy" of the last playbook.

The conversation covers the 5 Cs she hires for now that leadership is both and rather than either or, why she still backs experience over tech-native hires (intuition, she argues, is just experience), and why AI in the People function is a mindset shift, not a tech shift. She describes the one-day agentathon where her HR team built plug-and-play agents in Claude and Lovable, how On buys and tweaks platforms like Sana rather than building from scratch, and the question she thinks nobody in HR is asking: when AI removes repetitive work, what replaces the recovery it used to give people? For CHROs, People Ops leaders and anyone deciding where AI sits in their organization.

Chapters
00:00 Cold open
00:51 Welcome Katarina Berg, CHRO at On
01:08 30 years in HR and never a blue copy
06:21 The 5 Cs to hire for when everything is both and
11:14 Does experience still matter in the AI era?
17:01 From Spotify to On: listen before you change anything
21:46 A mindset shift, not a tech shift
28:16 AI first does not mean people lost: HR, IT and the agent hackathon
34:50 The micro pauses AI takes away
36:31 Build, buy or tweak

Takeaways
- Katarina hires for 5 Cs, communicative, consistent, compelling, able to conceptualize and able to put it in context, because leadership today is both and, not either or.
- She still backs experience over tech-native hires: intuition is compressed experience, and it is what lets a team judge AI output and dare a contrarian bet.
- AI in the People function is a mindset shift, not a tech shift, so HR has to be the change agent and cannot be tech averse or scared.
- On's HR team built plug-and-play agents in Claude and Lovable during a one-day agentathon, aimed at repetitive work, and talent acquisition already answers every applicant instead of leaving them in a black hole.
- Nobody's unique: On buys and tweaks platforms like Sana rather than building from scratch, and Katarina's open question is what replaces the recovery that repetitive work used to give people.

Connect with the Guest
Katarina Berg LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katarina-berg-5375074/
Company Website: https://www.on.com
Katarina's book, BOLD: A new era of strategic HR: https://www.amazon.se/-/en/BOLD-new-era-strategic-HR/dp/8327289802

Sponsor
This episode is brought to you by Kinfolk, the AI service desk built for HR.

See more at kinfolkhq.com

Summary
L. David Kingsley, Chief People Officer at Illumio, joins Jeet Mukerji on The WorkOps Podcast to talk about what AI is doing to the People function from inside a zero trust cybersecurity company. David spent 13 years in management consulting at Accenture and Booz Allen before a single moment changed his path: he asked a disruptive HR business partner to leave his account planning meeting, then started wondering what HR would look like if it showed up differently. Salesforce called soon after, and he has led People teams ever since.

The conversation covers the anti pattern he sees in early career teams, a 14 slide deck produced in 17 minutes that skips the learning that comes from building it yourself, and his rule that AI work should never take longer to read than it took to make. David explains how Illumio governs AI inside its own Copilot instance, why HR has to move from necessary evil to trusted advisor to earn a voice on the future of work, and how recruiting coordination has changed almost overnight. He also describes the month every member of his people team built and named an AI agent, from LL Coolpay in compensation to Ingrid in people operations, and his plan to put those agents on the org chart. For CHROs, People Ops leaders and anyone deciding where agents belong in the HR operating model.

Chapters
00:00 Cold open
00:54 Welcome L. David Kingsley, Chief People Officer at Illumio
02:53 The day he asked HR to leave the meeting
07:57 AI slop and the learning early career people skip
15:52 Process maps in minutes, not weeks
18:50 AI governance inside a walled garden
23:20 From necessary evil to trusted advisor
31:16 The chief workforce officer and the new shape of HR
36:51 AI agents with cheeky names on the org chart
42:38 One front door for every employee

Takeaways
- AI can produce a polished 14 slide deck in 17 minutes, but early career people who skip the whiteboard to final draft process also skip the pattern matching that makes them credible in front of a board.
- David's rule for AI work product is simple: it should never take longer for someone to consume it than it took you to create it.
- Illumio keeps AI inside its own Copilot instance, steered by an executive AI committee and a working group, and would rather leave some value on the table than let company data into personal accounts.
- HR only gets a say in how AI changes the nature of work once it has moved from necessary evil to critical enabler to trusted advisor, by showing up as a business person first.
- Every member of Illumio's people team built and named an AI agent, and by the end of Q1 next year those agents will sit on the org chart reporting to each of David's direct reports.

Connect with the Guest
L. David Kingsley LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ldavidkingsley/
Company Website: https://www.illumio.com

Sponsor
This episode is brought to you by Kinfolk, the AI service desk built for HR.

See more at kinfolkhq.com

Summary
Is AI a skill to list on a job description, or simply the way work gets done now? In this episode of The WorkOps Podcast, host Jeet Mukerji sits down with Amy Garefis, Chief People Officer at ZipRecruiter, who spent most of her career as a CPA before moving into HR four years ago. Amy explains why the hardest part of that move was accepting that people decisions rarely have a right answer, and why ZipRecruiter keeps investing in interns and early career talent while other companies pull back. She walks through how her people team is adopting AI, from baseline courses to self-identified evangelists building workflows, and why freed-up time disappears unless you plan for it. She also shares the story of ZipRecruiter's quarterly collaboration weeks in Phoenix, where the original goal of productivity gave way to something the company values more: connection. A practical conversation for people leaders working out how to bring their teams along on AI without losing the human side of the work.

Chapters
00:00 Cold open
00:43 Welcome Amy Garefis of ZipRecruiter
01:06 From CPA to chief people officer
04:11 Why HR decisions rarely have a right answer
05:47 Should new grads start in HR?
08:04 Why ZipRecruiter still hires early career talent
11:11 Is AI turning everyone into a manager?
15:11 Tokens, time and how the people team uses AI
20:38 Building AI fluency across the company
25:08 ZipRecruiter's quarterly collaboration weeks
34:38 Advice for leaders driving AI adoption

Takeaways
- AI is a way of working, not a skill. Amy expects it to appear in job descriptions for now, then fade into a baseline expectation the way "internet" once did.
- HR rarely has a right answer. Moving from accounting meant getting comfortable with decisions everyone can relate to and has an opinion on.
- Automation does not create free time by itself. Decide in advance which strategic work the saved hours will go to, or other tasks will absorb them.
- Make AI adoption accessible. Offer a finite set of tools, share small real examples, and let self-identified evangelists lead inside each department.
- In-person time pays off in connection more than output. ZipRecruiter's collaboration weeks started as a productivity play and became a team building one.

Connect with the Guest
Amy Garefis LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-garefis/
Company Website: https://www.ziprecruiter.com/

Sponsor
This episode is brought to you by Kinfolk, the AI service desk built for HR.

See more at kinfolkhq.com

Heather Oxley, CHRO at Perficient, joins Jeet Mukerji on The WorkOps Podcast to explain how a 7,000 person IT services company is rebuilding its People function around AI without pretending everything can move at the same pace. She opens with the work study she ran on arrival, which found that 60% of HR's workload was inquiry, and shows how that single number set her first priority.

From there the conversation moves through Perficient's two speed operating model, the AI academy whose capstone requires a real client or internal outcome, and the decision to break 40 semi autonomous units into global practices so hiring draws from the largest pool instead of the smallest. Heather is direct about what does not work, including concentrating AI accountability in one person and treating course completion as proof of skill. HR leaders, People Ops practitioners and anyone building an AI operating plan for the function will find a practical sequence here: measure, separate fast from slow, prove the skill, fix the structure, then buy for speed.

Chapters
00:00 Cold open
00:54 Welcome Heather Oxley of Perficient
01:12 From IT consulting to the CHRO seat at Perficient
03:18 Why the CHRO job keeps expanding
05:11 Where HR ends and IT begins
07:06 Spreading AI accountability across the HR leadership team
09:41 The academy, the capstone, and applied AI skill
12:16 Go fast on the obvious, slow on the complex
13:02 60% of HR workload was inquiry
15:26 Build versus buy on hiring and skills
19:29 Global practices and matching supply to demand
23:01 HR in three years, agent supported and proactive
26:20 Pilots, passengers, and leaning into the hard

Takeaways
- A work study at Perficient found that 60% of HR's workload was inquiry, questions already answered somewhere in the policy library, which made an inquiry agent the obvious first place to move fast.
- Perficient runs at two speeds by design: fast where the ROI is clear and the blocker is data hygiene, slower where cross silo handoffs offer a real chance to redesign the employee experience.
- Course completion does not count as capability at Perficient, because the AI academy only certifies people once they finish a capstone applied to a real client or internal situation and assessed on the outcome.
- Rather than appointing an AI transformation lead, Heather gives every function head accountability for AI in their area, on the logic that concentrating ownership in one person slows the whole organization down.
- Consolidating roughly 40 autonomous units into global practices widened the hiring funnel from the smallest pod to the largest, and a bought skills platform, kept current by feeds from learning and daily work, powers the supply to demand match.

Connect with the Guest
Heather Oxley LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heatheroxley/
Company Website: https://www.perficient.com

Sponsor
This episode is brought to you by Kinfolk, the AI service desk built for HR.

See more at kinfolkhq.com

Summary
What happens when a CHRO treats AI like a brainstorming wall instead of a threat? In this episode of The WorkOps Podcast, host Jeet Mukerji sits down with Jason Desentz, Chief Human Resource Officer at Toshiba America, to unpack why AI is an enhancement story, not a replacement story. Jason shares the history lesson behind his optimism, from direct deposit to factory robots to Ford's reversed AI layoffs, then goes inside Toshiba's HR Shark Tank, where cross functional teams built working Copilot agents like Payroll Princess and Time Tamer in 60 days. He also lays out his two goalpost framework for every AI decision and warns about the integration trap that could fragment HR tech stacks all over again. A practical conversation for HR and operations leaders who want to experiment with AI without disrupting the business.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:45 From police academy to CHRO
05:50 Why AI will deepen HR expertise instead of replacing it
08:50 The direct deposit lesson
13:55 Starting small with proof of concept
16:35 Inside Toshiba's HR Shark Tank
20:00 Build, borrow, or bot
21:30 The two goalposts and the integration trap
28:55 FOBO and getting people AI ready
32:55 From curious to cautious

Takeaways
- AI will change how HR work looks, not whether it exists. Like computers, direct deposit, and factory robots before it, it enhances the function and creates new work.
- Start small instead of trying to do everything at once. Pick one proof of concept and give it a full cycle, a year to 18 months, before judging whether it worked.
- Cross functional experimentation multiplies value. Toshiba's HR Shark Tank mixed payroll, field HR, business partners, and L&D to build real -Copilot agents on top of their day jobs.
- Every AI decision has to pass two goalposts: little to zero disruption to the business and a genuine improvement to the employee experience.
- Watch the integration trap. HR spent 15 years consolidating eight systems down to three, and bolting on AI point solutions risks recreating the same fragmentation.

Connect with the Guest
Jason Desentz LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-desentz/
Company Website: https://www.toshiba.com/

Sponsor
This episode is brought to you by Kinfolk, the AI service desk built for HR.

See more at kinfolkhq.com

Summary
Payroll problems were blowing up Slack channels at SurveyMonkey, and employees weren't taking them to finance. In this episode of The WorkOps Podcast, host Jeet Mukerji talks with Becky Cantieri, Chief People Officer at SurveyMonkey, about the decision to hit the blow-up button and move payroll out of finance and into HR, how a willing CFO and one simple question (who is willing to talk to the employee?) made the handoff a slam dunk, and why the defining skill for HR leaders right now is metabolizing change: finding signal in noise fast enough to prioritize, pivot, and keep up in the AI era. A practical listen for people leaders, HR operations teams, and anyone rethinking who should own the employee experience.

Chapters
00:00 Cold open
01:16 From the Nordstrom sales floor to CPO
06:37 Fifteen years of reinvention
09:26 Metabolizing change
14:22 The payroll problem
18:31 Winning over the CFO
21:44 Rebuilding the team
28:03 The AI champion at SurveyMonkey
32:51 Refusing to wait in the AI queue
35:21 Permission, capability, agency

Takeaways
- Employees don't think in org charts. When something breaks, they go to whoever usually answers, so design ownership around the employee experience, not department history.
- The team willing to talk to employees should own the employee-facing function. SurveyMonkey moved payroll into HR when it became clear finance didn't want those conversations.
- Make handoffs safe with data: SurveyMonkey's HR team committed to SLAs and email volume reporting while banking controls stayed with finance.
- The defining HR skill right now is metabolizing change: finding signal in noise fast enough to prioritize, pivot, and keep up with AI.
- Metabolizing is teachable. It starts with curiosity, a growth mindset, and the willingness to throw out a process you built and are proud of.

Connect with the Guest
Becky Cantieri LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-cantieri-85654a/
Company Website: https://www.surveymonkey.com

Sponsor

Summary
What happens when a CEO hands unlimited AI access to every employee, and adoption still stalls? In this episode of The WorkOps Podcast, host Jeet Mukerji sits down with Kimberly Nerpouni, Global VP of People & International Operations at Pearl, the parent company of JustAnswer. Kimberly shares why AI transformation is a human enablement problem rather than a technology problem, how her People Ops team built Pearl's AI accelerator and a 1 to 10 adoption scale with no bad scores, and her three levels of work framework for deciding what AI should absorb first. She also explains the feedback facilitator agent her team is building, the hard line she draws (AI never gives feedback, it helps managers facilitate it), and why PIPs don't exist at Pearl. This conversation is for people leaders, HR teams, and anyone navigating AI adoption inside their organization.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction
00:45 From IT manager to people operations
04:25 JustAnswer, Pearl, and human plus AI
06:15 Inside Pearl's AI accelerator
10:55 Build, buy, or borrow
13:15 The three levels of work
17:05 AI that facilitates feedback instead of giving it
19:50 The AI agent hub and transparency
23:35 Why PIPs don't work and what replaces them
35:05 Don't wait, just do

Takeaways
- AI adoption is a human enablement problem, not a technology problem, and people ops is uniquely positioned to lead it.
- Move AI into level one work first, the tasks that don't require your expertise, so your team can focus on level two and level three work.
- Build, buy, or borrow: piloting with AI startups can reveal exactly what's worth building bespoke in-house.
- AI should facilitate feedback conversations by scanning context and prompting managers, but it should never give the feedback itself.
- Front-load clarity with job descriptions, career ladders, and employee-owned development plans so PIPs are never needed.

Connect with the Guest
Kimberly Nerpouni LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberlypignolet/
Company Website: https://www.pearl.com

Sponsor
This episode is brought to you by Kinfolk, the AI service desk built for HR.

See more at kinfolkhq.com

Summary
What happens when your AI pilot works too well to stay a pilot? In this episode of The WorkOps Podcast, host Jeet Mukerji talks with Ivan Nosov, Head of HR Tech and Global Total Rewards Director at Campari Group, about taking AI in HR from proof of concept to production. Ivan shares why he started with Copilot Studio knowing it wouldn't last, where RAG breaks down at enterprise scale, and how his team built a digital twin router app on Claude that loads only the context each question needs. He also lays out the adoption playbook that made it stick: winning over regional directors and COE champions first, running hackathons for awareness, and addressing the work people hate instead of the work they love. A practical conversation for HR, people ops, and workplace technology leaders navigating AI transformation.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:30 From IT engineer to HR leader
03:45 Should AI transformation sit in HR or IT
05:55 How non technical HR can get started
07:20 Copilot Studio as a proof of concept tool
09:30 Harness, routing, and the limits of RAG
15:00 Building the digital twin router app on Claude
17:40 Context engineering and distilling tacit knowledge
19:30 Winning adoption through champions
29:55 The future of junior roles and build versus buy

Takeaways
- Start with the accessible tool to prove the concept, then move on. Copilot Studio validated Campari Group's AI ideas, but production required control over the harness that abstracted platforms can't offer.
- Routing beats RAG at scale. Loading only the relevant context for each question makes AI more targeted, more efficient, and far less likely to hallucinate.
- Campari Group's digital twin runs on Claude with deliberate model selection: Sonnet for efficiency, Haiku for helper queries, and Opus for final artifacts because of its design taste.
- Adoption spreads through champions. Win over regional directors and COE heads first, stay with them until the outputs click, and they will share it further than any rollout plan.
- Context engineering is the real work. Distill tacit knowledge into a compact, unambiguous knowledge base: 250,000 tokens in total, with no session loading more than 50,000.

Connect with the Guest
Ivan Nosov LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivan-nosov/
Company Website: https://www.camparigroup.com/

Sponsor
This episode is brought to you by Kinfolk, the AI service desk built for HR.

See more at kinfolkhq.com