Healthcare HR is at a crossroads, and Michael Olson is one of the leaders showing the way forward. In this future-focused episode of The ASHHRA Podcast, co-hosts Bo Brabo and Luke Carignan sit down with Michael, VP of HR Operations at Avera Health, to explore what it truly means to operate HR as a strategic business partner in today’s high-stakes healthcare environment.

🚨 Spoiler alert: HR can’t afford to be reactive anymore. It must be data-informed, operations-savvy, and ready to influence 50% of a hospital’s budget—labor costs.

🔍 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

🔹 Why the “HR-as-Operations” model is the future
Michael shares his unique career journey from finance and IT to senior care ops to HR, and how his diverse background helps him bring a business-first approach to people strategy.

🔹 How HR leaders can manage $1B+ labor budgets
Hear how Michael is hiring HR talent who can speak the language of CFOs and help manage labor spend at scale.

🔹 The power of walking the floors
Whether you're in recruiting, systems design, or strategic leadership, shadowing your clinical teams leads to better design, empathy, and ultimately better hiring and retention strategies.

🔹 AI, automation, and HR’s identity shift
Michael, Bo, and Luke discuss how HR roles are being recalibrated—not eliminated—by AI. Those who thrive will be the ones who lead with data and understand the operational heartbeat of healthcare.

💡 Key Takeaways:

✅ HR must stop building processes for HR’s convenience and instead design for operational efficiency.
✅ Go beyond awareness—get fluent in your health system’s P&L, balance sheets, and reimbursement models.
✅ Every HR professional should learn how to leverage data, ask better questions, and act as an internal consultant.
✅ There’s no “career fairy.” Growth happens when you take initiative, seek mentorship across departments, and stay curious.

📢 Quote to Remember:
“There is no career fairy coming to save you. You have to go learn, go ask, and go connect.”

Whether you’re an HRBP, recruiter, or CHRO, this episode delivers a compelling vision for the modern HR function—one rooted in business acumen, empathy, and bold leadership.

🎧 Tune in to start thinking like an HR operator, not just a practitioner.

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