What happens when engineering principles meet people strategy? Sara Andrews, Chief People Officer at Ecovyst, brings this powerful combination to the HRchat Show, revealing how her background as an engineer transformed her approach to human resources leadership.

Looking toward her upcoming presentation "HR as a Shockwave: From Compliance to Competitive Edge" at DisruptHR Birmingham, Sarah previews how trust, talent frameworks, and culture serve as driving forces for organizational transformation. She also offers practical insights on balancing legacy practices with innovation, adapting strategies across different business environments, and leveraging AI for talent attraction, workforce planning, and personalized development.

Sarah also shares her journey of recognizing that truly effective HR requires building "strong, capable, competent and coherent teams" that directly impact business outcomes. Rather than viewing HR as a support function, she positions it as a strategic driver of enterprise value. Her refreshing perspective cuts through typical HR rhetoric to focus on measurable results: "My entry into HR was always about making a difference, having an HR function that created value and initiatives that really spoke to the bottom line."

While acknowledging HR's progress in gaining organizational influence, Sarah candidly assesses our current reality: "I think we have a seat at the top table. I'm not quite sure that our voice is as clearly heard as it should be." She outlines how HR professionals must develop skills to demonstrate how people management directly connects to growth, revenue, and DEI. This represents the evolving frontier for HR leadership – moving beyond presence to genuine influence.

Ready to transform your HR function from a support role to a competitive advantage? Listen now to discover how engineering principles can revolutionize your people strategy and drive measurable business impact.

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The HRchat show has had 100,000s of downloads and is frequently listed as one of the most popular global podcasts for HR pros, Talent execs and leaders. It is ranked in the top ten in the world based on traffic, social media followers, domain authority & freshness. The podcast is also ranked as the Best Canadian HR Podcast by FeedSpot and one of the top 10% most popular shows by Listen Score.

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In this episode, Christina Luconi, dubbed "the original people innovator," takes host Bill Banham on a fascinating journey through her pioneering career in transforming how fast-growing companies approach their most valuable asset - their people. With refreshing candor and hard-earned wisdom, she reveals how she's helped multiple tech startups scale from dozens to thousands of employees without sacrificing their cultural foundations.

The conversation explores Christina's unconventional entry into HR after studying psychology, where her willingness to question established norms ("why do we call humans 'resources'?") set her on a path of people-centered innovation. Her formative experience at Sapient during the 90s tech boom—where she helped scale from 150 to 3,500 employees in just four years—established her philosophy that culture isn't just important for growth; it's the essential foundation that makes rapid growth possible.

Christina shares practical strategies from her 14-year tenure at Rapid7, where she developed the concept of "scaling with soul." Rather than imposing values from the top down, she engaged employees directly in defining the company's identity and integrated these values throughout the employee lifecycle. The approach was so successful that even terminated employees would recommend the company to others—perhaps the ultimate test of cultural strength. She eloquently articulates how diversity of thought and cultural alignment can coexist when organizations focus on shared values while encouraging authentic self-expression.

Now launching her consulting practice, People Innovations, Christina aims to help early-stage companies recognize the critical importance of human-centered approaches from day one. Having faced personal health challenges that shifted her perspective, she's passionate about maximizing her impact across multiple organizations. Despite acknowledging the current difficulties in people leadership, she remains optimistic: "This could be one of the most pivotal and important roles in a company because ultimately, it doesn't matter what you're building or selling...AI might replace a lot of stuff, but it can't replace human relationships and trust and collaboration."

Ready to transform how your organization approaches culture and growth? Subscribe to the HRchat Show for more insights from visionary leaders who are redefining the world of work.

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Feature Your Brand on the HRchat Podcast

The HRchat show has had 100,000s of downloads and is frequently listed as one of the most popular global podcasts for HR pros, Talent execs and leaders. It is ranked in the top ten in the world based on traffic, social media followers, domain authority & freshness. The podcast is also ranked as the Best Canadian HR Podcast by FeedSpot and one of the top 10% most popular shows by Listen Score.

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Frontline worker recruitment demands fundamentally different approaches than traditional corporate hiring – a distinction Sean Behr, CEO of Fountain, expertly unpacks in this illuminating episode of the HRchat Show. As companies adapt to the latest hiring challenges, understanding these crucial differences could mean the difference between struggling with high turnover and building a stable, engaged hourly workforce.

The scale alone creates an entirely different paradigm. "When you're hiring a corporate office employee, you're generally hiring very few of them," Sean explains. "When you're hiring in the frontline, you write the job description and then you have to find a thousand of those people." This volume requires specialized technologies and strategies that traditional applicant tracking systems simply weren't designed to handle.

Communication preferences represent another critical divergence. While corporate candidates respond to emails and maintain LinkedIn profiles, frontline workers primarily use mobile devices and text messaging. The challenge for employers? Creating a hiring process that meets these candidates where they are – on their phones, often during non-traditional hours, sometimes speaking different languages. As Sean notes, "The ability for a frontline worker to use their phone to apply for a job is great... The flip side, though, is it's so easy that you're only one click away from someone else's job application."

The conversation explores innovative solutions throughout the hourly worker lifecycle – from AI-powered on-demand interviews that accommodate late-night scheduling to paperless I-9 processing that transforms first-day experiences from paperwork drudgery to meaningful orientation. Particularly intriguing is Fountain's new Shift product, addressing the reality that schedule compatibility often determines whether a frontline worker stays or leaves, regardless of how much they enjoy the job itself.

For HR leaders feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of system overhauls, Sean offers practical advice: identify one critical area of your hiring process most in need of transformation, then seek specialized solutions for that specific pain point. This focused approach allows for meaningful improvement without the paralyzing prospect of replacing everything at once.

Ready to change up your approach to hourly worker recruitment? Subscribe to the HRchat Show for more insights, and visit HRG

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Feature Your Brand on the HRchat Podcast

The HRchat show has had 100,000s of downloads and is frequently listed as one of the most popular global podcasts for HR pros, Talent execs and leaders. It is ranked in the top ten in the world based on traffic, social media followers, domain authority & freshness. The podcast is also ranked as the Best Canadian HR Podcast by FeedSpot and one of the top 10% most popular shows by Listen Score.

Want to share the story of how your business is helping to shape the world of work? We offer sponsored episodes, audio adverts, email campaigns, and a host of other options. Check out packages here.

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