The future of HR profession: A Q&A with Crystal Williams
Crystal Williams of FLEETCOR Technologies explains how HR leaders can get more creative in how they attract and retain key talent.
In this era of the Great Resignation or the Great Reshuffling, it’s not enough just to offer medical and dental and other traditional benefits to employees – companies need to go beyond and offer emerging offerings like expanded coverage for mental health services, gender affirmation surgery or just greater flexibility for working families.
Related: It’s time to think differently about benefits and compensation packages
So says Crystal Williams, CHRO at FLEETCOR Technologies Inc., an Atlanta-based global provider of business payment solutions, including e-payables and payment cards for automated accounts payable and in-the-field employee expenses. In our latest chat in this series, we caught up with Williams to discuss how HR leaders can get more creative in how they attract and retain key talent.
Katie Kuehner-Hebert: How has the role of HR professionals changed in recent years, and what’s driving it?
Shifting demographics and employee interests are driving a change in how HR must show up. In the last few years, the role has been forced to become far more strategic than ever before. Partnering with the business and having a true seat at the table to ensure the people agenda is aligned with the business agenda is critical to the success of any organization. The two go hand in hand to achieve strategic company objectives.
KKH: How has this shift impacted the relationship between the C-Suite, HR and employee benefits consultants?
HR is becoming the voice of the workforce, communicating the needs of its current and prospective employees to the entire C-Suite. And as workforce demographics change, so, too, must benefit offerings. In the past, benefits were simply considered the cost of doing business. We had to offer medical and dental because that’s what everybody else offers, and that’s what we just had to do to help attract talented employees.
Benefits are still a way to attract people, but we must be much more thoughtful about our benefits offering. As an example, offering coverage for mental health services, gender reassignment surgery, or just greater flexibility for working families are all new things HR needs to explore to modernize its benefits package to meet the needs of today’s workforce.
KKH: How has technology changed the way you work? How has it changed your role in the company?
Technology has greatly improved our efficiency. With Zoom, for example, we can be much more flexible about when and how we meet with prospective employees. Also, modernizing our HR system and having one system for all employee data feeding to other systems in the company as well as to external systems, like our benefits providers, our team can focus less on paperwork and more on the FLEETCOR team.
KKH: Do you see an increasing need for specialization within the field (talent management, compliance, diversity & inclusion, etc.)?
Yes, I think it’s incredibly important to build an HR team with a diverse group of specialists, each of whom can focus on one need full-time versus trying to tackle all needs part-time. If you’re in talent acquisition, as an example, you will understand how to create those relationships, and where to dig for the best candidates better than someone who is recruiting part-time.
Same thing with talent management. You will get to know the people within your organization and find tailored opportunities to develop and mentor them to become the next generation of leaders for the company. But again, if that’s only a part-time job, it’s not going to go as well. All pieces of the puzzle must come together in great collaboration to maximize the employee experience. Talent acquisition, talent management, compliance, diversity, inclusion and belonging— employees will be in touch with all of these different HR specialists at different points along their journey. As such, coordination and collaboration across all of the areas of HR will make it all work together.
KKH: What skills will be most important to HR professionals in the future?
Resilience is key. Being in HR is not always the most appreciated and loved role in the company. Also, there will always be people pushing their agendas and not considering the larger ramifications. Therefore, the HR person must hold their ground and push for the agenda that balances the needs of the organization with those of the employees.
Showing up authentically is also important. One of the fastest ways to build relationships is to be authentic. And to be a good HR person, no matter what your specialty, you must have and build relationships.
Lastly, it is important for any HR person to work at all levels within the organization. Being able to understand, reflect and connect with someone who’s in an entry-level role all the way up to the C-suite is essential for success.
KKH: What trends, challenges or issues do you see most affecting your profession?
Like most HR leaders in corporate America, our team is working hard to combat the Great Resignation or the Great Reshuffling. We are getting much more creative in our employee value proposition to retain the employees we have and attract new people to our team.
The last two years have also taught us to navigate and address macro issues—such as COVID-19 and inflation—when they impact our employees personally. HR must be ready to respond. And if we’re really good, we start to anticipate issues like these and consider them in our employee strategy, planning and communications.
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