Top 50 HR Leaders to Watch in 2024
When a company’s products skyrocket to fame on social media or the organization reports an outstanding quarter, it’s rarely the people in HR who are called upon for public comment. But, when labor disputes break out or a worldwide mystery illness cripples the job economy, it’s Human Resources that is sought out to help navigate difficult times.
At Visier, we believe that the good people of HR are everyday heroes deserving of celebration and the spotlight year-round. That’s why we selected these 50 exceptional HR leaders to watch in 2024—because the work they are doing not only supports the humans they serve but also drives the business forward through insights and innovation.
This year we are proud to honor these 50 HR notables from Africa to Australia, Florida to France, and Singapore to Seattle—this global group of top leaders represents the future of HR and the future of business. Congratulations to the class of 2024!
Adam McKinnon
People Data & Analytics Leader The Reece Group Australia
HR is most effective when it uses data to understand and scope challenges, design interventions, build business cases, and measure impact!
More: The Reece Group Enabled Leaders to Make Better Talent, Recruiting, and Training Decisions
Angela Le Mathon
VP, People Data & Analytics GSK United Kingdom
HR is most effective when it is well-informed and collaborating directly with the business to solve priority people problems.
Andrea Kasper Pazinko
VP, Head of Employee Insights Prudential Financial USA
How does HR strategy impact the business? We act as co-creators with our partners to build talent strategies that align with business priorities, to build capabilities and career opportunities that meet future demands, and to invest in our culture and talent programs that help set Prudential apart as a great place to work. All of this sets the groundwork for achieving business outcomes.
David Hashemi
System Director, People Insights CommonSpirit Health USA
How does HR strategy impact the business overall? There is an ongoing shift in how organizations think about their workforce. Sometimes seen as a cost liability to be minimized, the workforce must instead be stewarded as an asset—the most important asset we have! Organizations are more focused than ever on investing in their people and recognizing the ways these investments drive organizational success. This creates a tremendous opportunity for HR to strategically drive success through evidence-based guidance on when, where, and how these investments can be most effective.
More: CommonSpirit Health Unified Data To Improve Access & Maintain Privacy
Brad Woodfield
Senior Director, People Analytics DaVita Kidney Care USA
HR must deliver best-in-class employee experiences to win talent. HR will innovate by borrowing frameworks and concepts from top consumer-focused companies that leverage data to deliver the right experience to the right person at the right time—this is how People Analytics and HR will make talent and infrastructure investments to delight employees at scale.
Dawn Klinghoffer
VP, HR Business Insights Microsoft USA
HR is most effective when we are encourage listening and learning, particularly in our collaboration practices.
There is no “one size fits all” approach, and figuring out how your employees can bring their best every day can help create a thriving organization.
Eric Bain
AVP HR Optimization, People Analytics & Strategic HR Business Partners Auto Club Group USA
The most valuable impact an HR group can have is when they are providing consultative value on their products and services through the design, execution, and governance stages.
At each stage, the collective and unique perspective HR provides through data, legal, and compliance understanding alignment to the organizational mission or change management, in complex people solutions, has the ability to influence efficiency, effectiveness, and culture amongst other things. If the partnership is missed, or value is misunderstood, the cost and rework efforts could have a detrimental impact on all aspects of an organizations culture.
Doug Shagam
Head of People Data & Insights Johnson & Johnson USA
HR is most effective when we place our candidates and employees at the center of everything we do and enable metrics that matter to improve the experience of all the stakeholders we serve.
Erik Otteson
Asst. Director, People Analytics General Motors USA
HR is most effective when we use data and insights to drive better outcomes for employees and the business.
Jaclyn Lee
CHRO Certis Singapore
HR is most effective when they are able to use data to draw talent insights for the business, and, as a result, work with business leaders to make the most effective people decisions that have the most impact on ROI and business performance.
Gary Russo
Executive Director of Workforce Intelligence Providence USA
If I could take only one lesson from the last four years, that lesson is the power of empathy. Empathy to pause, meet someone in their time of hardship, and focus only on connecting with them in that moment. That empathy creates trust and partnership when it is time to make a change. That has become a firm foundation in my own HR strategy: emphasis on listening and connecting, especially when a stakeholder expresses their hardships. That is where you find problems truly worth solving and the partners you need to make change possible.
More: How Providence Centralized People and Business Data with Visier To Gain Powerful Hiring Insights
A GLOBAL TOP 50
Jaco Van Vuuren
COO & CIO, People and Culture
Standard Bank Group South Africa
Jeremy Shapiro
AVP, Human Resources, Workforce Analytics Merck USA
Data-driven thinking is at the heart of great talent decisions. The more we can put those insights directly in the hands of leaders—at scale—the stronger our decision-making becomes.
Jason Pagan
System VP, Human Resources & Head of Workforce Planning & Organizational Performance Ascension USA
By far, the most prominent event of the last four years has been the emergence of and response to COVID. We all learned how to not only work differently (e.g., fully remote) but also how to work more efficiently. HR functions need to build upon the creativity and flexibility that arose from the pandemic as we take on the next business challenge.
Our ability to quickly build and execute a data-driven talent strategy at the speed of business is now table stakes. The HR strategy is now an integral part of the business strategy and it will stay that way as long as we continue to deliver timely, impactful, and directionally correct insights that measurably improve outcomes our leaders care most about.
Kanella Salapatas
Group Head of HR Data & Analytics QBE Insurance Australia
What do you enjoy most about your role in people analytics? What I love about People Analytics is the ability to seamlessly integrate my passion for technology and data with my commitment to delivering programs and insights that enhance both the human experience and the performance of our business.
People Analytics stands out as a unique field as it enables us to collaborate across various departments to address challenges, capitalize on opportunities, and even improve the well-being of our employees, all through the lens of data and technology. This is the point where my work takes on deeper meaning, and it's where I draw my excitement and motivation.
Julien Legret
Global People Analytics & HR Digital Director Cartier France
There is no business strategy without a people strategy at its heart. To measure your organization’s performance you must have analytics centered around your people.
More: 3 Tips From Cartier on Scaling People Analytics To Drive Business Impact
Kevin Moore
Senior Director People Analytics DocuSign USA
Given the rapid advancements in Generative AI, I believe 2024 will be a significant technology test-and-learn period for HR. Specifically, forward-thinking HR departments will identify Generative AI technology projects within the HR COEs with high potential ROI and start to deploy the new technology. These projects will be tested with small user populations at first, and then lessons learned gathered before scaling more broadly in the organization.
Marc Croonen
Chief Human Resources, Sustainability, EHS & Communication Vandemoortele Belgium
To have an effective and successful HR strategy it is crucial to understand profoundly, outside-in, what the trends are in the societies we operate in, and integrate the upcoming requirements proactively in the HR strategies and processes: hybrid work, generational changes in the workforce, sustainability and ethics, and digitalization and artificial intelligence.
Lydia Wu
Senior Director, People Strategy & Operations Panasonic Energy of North America USA
It’s 2023—HR strategy is the business strategy and business strategy is HR’s strategy. With the turbulence that started this decade, the perspective on, and value of, people in any organization has shifted dramatically. HR’s role is no longer supporting the business strategy but rather guiding the direction of the business by providing internally and externally driven insights. Plan for the future of the business by laying the foundations and roadmaps needed in this volatile talent market. Adjust for market turbulence within the business by creating adaptable frameworks for HR processes so the function can pivot with the business.
More: How Panasonic Uses Visier to Prove HR Value to Leadership
Kunal Thakkar
Senior Director, People Analytics & Reporting IQVIA USA
The mindset is shifting from an HR perspective from reactive partners to proactive problem solvers. It’s now about using data insights to solve business challenges and putting that knowledge into the hands of HR business partners around the globe. To allow us to focus on the right analytics, we take a feedback-driven and agile approach.
This ensures we capture business’ feedback, but also re-prioritize based on external market dynamics (e.g., COVID). As we collect this feedback, we have taken a broad approach to create a robust people analytics roadmap in partnership with our HR business partners, HR COE leaders, and functional leaders like Finance. This has enabled us to continue to focus on the areas that really move the needle with the business in a truly scalable way.
Maighdlin Schellings
Head of Data Analytics & Insights Australia Post Australia
Mark Berry
SVP, People Inari USA
How will lessons learned from the last four years inform your HR strategy going forward?
It's all about prescience, accountability, resiliency, and malleability. The business needs HR to lead—anticipating issues before they arise, leading the work to address those that most impact the business, evaluating the impact of our work, and revising our efforts or adjusting our approach to fit the evolving needs of the organization.
Matthew Hamilton
VP, People Analytics & HRIS Protective Life USA
Make no mistake: HR strategy is impacting your business.
The more nuanced question is, “Does your HR strategy intentionally and purposefully impact the business?” The lack of a clear, guiding, principled HR strategy doesn’t merely fail to achieve positive business outcomes, over time it will actually erode them.
More: How Protective Life Used Insights To Reduce Turnover and Improve DE&I
Melissa Shore
VP, Employee Experience UKG USA
HR is most effective when it’s fully integrated throughout the organization—from listening and hearing employees at all levels to having a meaningful seat at the executive table to help solve business problems.
More: How UKG Uses VisierTo Gain a 360-Degree View of the Employee Lifecycle
Mei Kim
Executive Director, Global Workforce Analytics Estée Lauder USA
How do you think HR will evolve/innovate in 2024? I see HR continue to build muscle in their digital savvy, evolving with a greater appreciation of the power of data insights. If there was one thing I’d like to see more of it is how HR practitioners apply generative AI in their day-to-day, strengthening their prompting capabilities in the path to truly leverage its powers to help them be successful in their jobs.
Michael Salva
People Analytics Manager Pitney Bowes USA
HR is most effective when it is focused on business problems and seeking to understand how the HR strategy can support solving those business problems.
More: How Pitney Bowes Used Powerful Insights From Visier To Reduce Turnover, Improve Hiring, and Spark Data-Driven Conversation
Peter Meyler
Head of People Data, Analytics & Insight Phoenix Group United Kingdom
How does HR strategy impact the business overall? When HR is completely aligned to proactively identifying, supporting, and delivering on the key people-related customer and business-related challenges and priorities in an evidence and insight-informed way. When HR can’t or doesn’t do this it lacks relevance and credibility. More: Phoenix Group Is Using People Data To Make It the ‘Best Place Colleagues Have Ever Worked’
Niklas Fehrling
VP, Business Digital Organization HR & IT Bosch Germany
How do you think HR will evolve/innovate in 2024? HR will evolve mostly through the implementation of generative AI in different fields of applications like providing guidance on questions, active self-services, and job adverts. This will be a quantum leap in employee experience.
INDUSTRIES REPRESENTED
Steve Rudolf
System Vice President, Human Resources Baptist Healthcare System, Inc. USA
How do you think HR will evolve/innovate in 2024? HR is going to be significantly impacted by GenAI technologies. These technologies are going to quickly introduce new efficiencies, new challenges, new risks, new skills, and new ways of supporting employees and how business “gets done.” With the possible exception of the introduction of the internet, this will be the biggest game changer in the careers of nearly every HR professional. HR will have no choice but to evolve in order to keep pace with the changing technologies and expectations.
More: How Baptist Health Reduced Turnover by 50% with Visier
Scott Judd
Senior Director, People Analytics eBay USA
HR is most effective when it thoughtfully aligns the success of both the business and the employee.
More: How eBay Uses Insights From Visier to Increase Retention and Drive Business Decisions
Shannon Vallina
VP, Workforce Planning & Analytics McKesson USA
The HR function will continue to become more data-driven as people insights allow HR to come to the table as a true strategic partner to the business. People Analytics will be at the heart of understanding the future of work and how we evolve and adapt to continuously changing environments.
More: How McKesson Accelerated Workforce Intelligence Innovation and Eliminated 1,000 Hours of Data Work
Sara Tiew
Head of Workforce Transformation & Analytics UOB Singapore
HR is most effective when it harnesses data-driven insights to simplify strategy execution.
Steven Piperno
Head of Global Workforce Analytics FIS USA
How does HR strategy impact the business overall? A well-defined HR strategy directly shapes a company’s ability to affect talent, productivity, costs, diversity, culture, engagement, and more—all of which contribute to business success. More specifically, retaining top talent reduces vacancy costs.
Diverse and inclusive teams shape culture and drive product innovation. Workforce planning aligns business growth with labor demands, enabling cost optimization while reducing risk to client outcomes associated with market changes in talent supply and demand. When we align HR initiatives, policies, and practices with business objectives, we directly contribute to the achievement of the company's mission and vision. More: How to Adopt People Analytics at Lightspeed, According to FIS Global