Is your HR strategy isn't aligned with your business strategy? You might think it is, but when Nadia Uberoi walks through what alignment actually looks like - the quarterly planning meetings, the initiative prioritization, the pushback on random requests - it becomes clear most of us are just reacting, not strategizing.
Nadia heads people operations at Garner Health. It's a rapidly growing 400-person healthcare tech company with a Big Hairy Audacious Goal: transforming the US healthcare economy. No small task. But what's fascinating is how she's builds an HR infrastructure that enables that mission instead of just supporting it.
We dig into her planning hierarchy that connects everything from their mission down to what HR works on this Tuesday. She breaks down her concept of "run the machine vs improve the machine" which was a refreshing look at the day-to-day vs strategy. Running payroll? That's running the machine - non-negotiable. Redesigning your performance management process? That's improving the machine - and it needs to connect to business strategy.
The conversation was particularly interesting when we talked about managing our "customer service" mindset in HR. It has it's uses but is overdone when we jump at every request. Nadia's take: look at how every other function prioritizes. They don't drop everything because of one request. Why should we?
She also shared what she wishes Garner had prioritized earlier (employer branding) and walked through their actual quarterly planning cadence - who meets when, what gets discussed, and how HR initiatives actually get resourced.
For mid-level HR professionals trying to be more strategic and less reactive, this episode gives you some substance to work with.
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About Nadia:Nadia Uberoi is Head of People at Garner Health, a healthcare technology company focused on helping people get the best care at the best price. She previously spent four years at Chewy.
About Andrea
I am an HR consultant to small and medium businesses in addition to running my Podcast & YouTube channel. My sweet spot is organizations with people-related crisis AND a commitment to learning.