Pulse by HRBench

Labor cost over operating profit is the number that predicts a layoff. Jessica Hart, a fractional HR consultant in California, tells clients that above 30 percent, a contraction is coming whether or not anyone has announced it. She has run the people side of a Heineken acquisition, a COVID furlough, and an asset sale.

In this episode:

• The ratio Jessica checks first with every client, and who makes the decision when you don't

• The g...

AI in HR, done inside HIPAA rules. Greg Doss runs recruiting and onboarding at Community Medical Services, a 1,100 employee provider of medically assisted treatment for opioid use disorder. He connected HR Bench data to Claude through the MCP connector and maxed out his account the same day.

In this episode:

• Why 20 HR Bench licenses could not serve up to 200 supervisors, and what the Claude connector changed

• What IT and HR wrote i...

Culture is a strategy, not soft stuff.

Jamie Petter, founder of Culture Grid HR and a fractional Chief People Officer, joins Pulse by HRBench to break down why so many acquisitions break on the people side, and how to define culture before a deal instead of after it cracks.

In this episode:

• Why culture feels "soft" and how to treat it as a strategy that drives results

• The Culture Grid: purpose, product, and people, with trust at t...

Melissa Duncan top grades every director-and-above hire, and she will not recommend anyone for a people-leader seat who has not gone through it.

In this episode of Pulse by HRBench, she breaks down how PE-backed SaaS companies hire senior talent, build culture that a board respects, and raise revenue per employee without gutting the team.

Practical, specific, and built for the inflection points you are living right now.

In this epis...

Leadership development fails when it starts with a training request. Ash Panjwani has spent thirteen years building performance and leadership systems at VMware, Twilio, OneTrust, and Procore, and now runs Work Happy.

She joins me on this episode to explain what to build instead.

In this episode:

• The three-layer approach: set the standard, build the system, then bridge the gap

• The calibration meeting that exposed how rarely compan...

Cole Napper, the world's first Chief People Intelligence Officer, walks through his People Intelligence Manifesto, why the HR operating model is collapsing into two layers, and how HR leaders can stop losing the language battle in the boardroom.

In this episode:

• Why the four branches of HR analytics (people analytics, workforce planning, talent intelligence, behavioral science) are collapsing into a data layer and an intelligence...

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...

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 ro...

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 Br...

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 meas...

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 HRBe...

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-scal...

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

• ...

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.

...

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:

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 implementatio...

What if the performance issues you’re seeing are really signs of trauma?

In this episode of Pulse by HRBench, Dr. John King shares his powerful story, from surviving childhood trafficking and losing everything at age 45, to building a framework for growth, healing, and leadership in high-performance environments.

This isn’t just John’s personal story. It’s a roadmap for HR.

We explore:

• Why trauma isn’t...

In this episode of Pulse by HRBench, we sit down with Stacie Baird, Chief People Officer at Community Medical Services, to talk about the early warning signs of burnout, and what HR can do before it turns into turnover.

With over 30 years of experience in high-growth, PE-backed organizations, Stacie shares how CMS has built a proactive strategy around burnout, engagement, and retention. 

Reducing turnover by 27% in the process.

Y...

What happens when you lead with culture and back it up with real-time workforce data?

In this episode, Kevin Trowbridge, Director of Compensation at Kimray, a 75-year-old manufacturing company that’s rewriting what modern HR looks like. From starting every hiring process with a culture-fit interview to implementing job families that re-energized frontline engagement, Kimray is a case study in values-led, data-powered HR.

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