Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: My approach this year is leave no one behind. I am going to give everyone the opportunity and I will help you get there. But everyone has a choice. I'm either going to stay in the same way I always did my business, or I'm going to transform and embrace this new technology.
[00:00:24] Speaker B: Welcome to a new episode of the what Works podcast series.
In this episode, Patricia Frost, Chro at Seagate, talks with Kathy Andares about leading through crisis and transforming organizations with AI. Patricia shares how her 32 years of military service prepared her to navigate Covid as a first time chro and discusses her leave no one behind approach to preparing the workforce for AI transformation. Let's get to it.
[00:00:55] Speaker C: Patricia, welcome to the what Works podcast.
[00:00:58] Speaker A: This is wonderful. Great to see you.
[00:01:01] Speaker C: Thanks for joining us, Patricia. I've been looking forward to our conversation for such a long time, so I'm really excited to dive right in. And as we get started, tell us about yourself. Tell us about Patricia. Who are you and how did you get to where you are today?
[00:01:18] Speaker A: Kind of the always tough question, how do you describe yourself? But I think I, I truly am a product of my environment. I was raised as an army child, what we call an army brat and generations of army service. And my family goes back four generations and didn't realize how much that was going to shape my life. And I ended up following in my father's footsteps and I also joined the army right out of college and my daughter is actually following in my footsteps now. So it's really interesting for me to watch it through her eyes as well.
But I think that really just rooted me in service purpose, mission driven. It's just how I approach things. And I thought I was only going to go in the service for five years. I stayed for 32.
It really was incredible. I would never change anything about it. It's just been a highlight of my life and shaped me. And then, you know, it's time to move on. Time to retire and retired. And I tried consulting and realized I really wanted to be part of a team again and I wanted to, to be able to bring what I thought were my strengths and kind of see things through. Like, see it truly see it through, leave my legacy of what I hope is shaping other people's lives and opportunities.
So that kind of led me to Seagate. It was just a good timing and a place where I found myself able to, I think, bring the strengths of the military.
So how do you bring that into the corporate world? Well, you know, in being a Chro is all about people.
It's diversity and we're a very diverse company. So it's diversity of experiences, culture, how people are educated and you want to blend that and bring all the strengths to the company. So I think it was just. I was very gratuitous and I came on right when Covid hit.
So, you know, what do we do in the army and in any military is crisis action.
Crisis action, planning delivery. Right. How do you manage through crisis? So I think and change management.
So I was able to easily fall into kind of that crisis action mode for me, which would made me very comfortable. So it was a, it was a win win of timing.
But I think everyone should reflect on their strengths and know where they think they can deliver the most and, and be valued. You want to have that kind of purpose and value proposition for yourself going forward.
[00:03:44] Speaker C: How did what you had learned and what you had done in the army prepare you for that kind of crisis situation? Ch Ro for the first time, I mean, I can barely imagine what this was like, but walk us a little bit through that scenario.
[00:03:58] Speaker A: I think all chros feel as we really value our workforce.
And for me, you know, when it. And I know my team tells me to not use this example, but I think it's who I am. You go to combat with the team you have, not necessarily the team you want.
Like, you can't just hire in someone and say, I want to bring you in my team and put you in close combat. Your team is your team and you build that team, you build on their skill sets. We do a lot of upskilling in the military.
It's your team. You know everyone's strengths and weaknesses. And when I came into Seagate, I felt the same thing. I'm like, you can't buy yourself out of a crisis.
Most companies cannot afford to buy themselves at a crisis. So Chros who are forward leaning, are you seeing where skills are changing? Are you able to forecast you need a different skill set within the company to stay at pace with your competitor.
[00:04:54] Speaker C: Right.
[00:04:54] Speaker A: To stay relevant.
So how. What are you looking at?
And so I think being able to recognize that, valuing your team and then can you upskill?
Because most companies cannot afford to say, I'm going to take this section completely, lay them off and then rehire and think you're going to retain your culture, your systems and processes and be able to move at speed and efficiency.
So I think you kind of really have to value the workforce you have and everyone needs to bring their best self to the table. I mean there is a, you know, a Two way conversation there. So I think for me that's always been kind of my foundation of really understanding our team, understanding their strengths, their skill sets. And I really look at middle managers, which are really the powerhouse of any company. And I don't know that we spend enough time on our managers, probably our frontline managers and then the middle management, how well do they understand their teams and the skills within their teams and understand also what people are passionate about, where would they like to go, what opportunities can be open to them instead of just wiping, like saying, you know, sitting with a Excel spreadsheet and go, nope, let's let that person go. Let's let that person go. I mean, these are people, right?
[00:06:18] Speaker C: These are people. No, for sure, for sure. And I'm sure this is. It was true in Covid and I'm sure now in the AI transformation, it's another similar conversation, right?
[00:06:29] Speaker A: Because a lot of front and center, I think every chro needs to be front and center in the AI conversation. They need to be leading, they need to be talking about will AI take away certain functions within hr?
[00:06:44] Speaker C: Right.
[00:06:45] Speaker A: And I think this is where we have to be front and center and leading this discussion.
First we had to take the anxiety down from our workforce. So my approach this year is leave no one behind.
I am going to give everyone the opportunity. We are going to give everyone the same set of tools and training and I will help you get there. Everyone has a choice. I mean, they're going to stay in the same way I always did my business or I'm going to transform and embrace this new technology. So this is why I think chros truly have to own it and think about how is AI impacting that entire employee life cycle. So I made a conscious decision this year to say I'm giving up headcount because I needed the resources. I said we won't hire so I can use those dollars to ensure I leave no one behind in my HR function, which is actually people and places. So I have security, internal comms and operations. So I just wanted to make sure I was being fair across my entire function that I was going to dedicate. Everyone's going to have the same licenses, we're going to give everyone the same training, the same opportunities to then they can understand as an individual the habits and behaviors that they have to change. Because you have to kind of come to work differently. How are you going to operate in this new AI environment to find that value?
Right, because it should bring you capacity you didn't have before.
But then how do you use that capacity. And I think HR has to help the business understand, okay, if it freed up capacity, how are we going to use that capacity?
But my focus this year is understanding that we're going to meet employees where they are, bring down that anxiety that all their jobs are going away. And I say, no, you are going to help shape what your job should look like, that role in the future, augmented and empowered by AI.
So you're the AI leader at every level. Everyone should feel themselves that they're a leader in some way.
You're the AI leader and then AI, the solution is your thought partner.
But at the end of the day, so I think about this way, at my level, I can use AI to create a beautiful strategy, a great roadmap, a great action plan.
But if the leaders don't come and buy into it and don't deliver it with, you know, passion and empathy and direction and be clear and concise, that strategy, it dies. So let's understand the human element. Where does AI stop and where does the human begin?
AI could give you this flawless communications plan, right? Flawless script.
If it is not delivered by the leader with empathy, right.
And conviction and clarity, it erodes trust. So I think let's really understand the power that we bring.
Think about it. In logistics, the last mile, AI can be working great across the middle enterprise, making sure all goods are moving, but it's the truck delivering your package to your doorstep. What are all the factors that are not AI related? It's weather, the terrain, the driver, they're getting the right house number, right?
That's not being done by AI. That's being done by the human.
So I always look at that last mile as human terrain.
[00:10:23] Speaker C: Oh, I love that.
[00:10:25] Speaker A: And how do we deliver?
It's. How do your customers feel?
AI isn't going to determine that. That's that last mile of that human connection. About your product, do you deliver with integrity? Right. Does your product deliver as what you said it was going to deliver on? It is truly a human terrain.
But we have to train everyone, right? You have to equip everyone.
And so you think about HR's role in learning and development.
What are those plans? What are the best ways in which, in the mediums in which we learn? Very different mediums, I think coffee, tea and AI. Everyone collaborating. Where did you fail using it? Where did you have success?
Everyone learning from each other. I mean, think about that. Connection is powerful. And then saying, I'm really struggling. Can you help me? Wow, that's you being, you know, vulnerable and then Having a teammate reach out and saying, well, let's talk about, let's see how you could use this better. I mean, that connection, that's the human, human connection that I'm excited about.
[00:11:33] Speaker C: And how do you do that? How do you develop your workforce overall? And then also in HR for using AI. And I mean, there's the technical side, but then there's also experimentation.
[00:11:45] Speaker A: It's so easy.
You don't have to like overbake it. We took 40 people and we made them. We've took them through Office 365 and Copilot. We had them really learn all the different aspects and what they do in their day job.
So now when we're giving everyone licenses, they become my champions and they're going to, everyone's going to do virtual training. But then every other week they come together in a forum and discuss do they understand the training they just had? What are the best tools? What are the best engineering prompts?
[00:12:17] Speaker C: Right?
[00:12:18] Speaker A: Like how do they, what's the prompt to use to best to get the best result?
I don't expect them to all be, you know, prompt engineers. That's not what I'm expecting of them. But I can give you a prompt library that we know is tested.
But I think again, it's going to be that human connection where we're going to come together every other week, what did we learn? And we'll record the sessions in case for people who can't make it. But my expectation is they go on this journey together.
[00:12:46] Speaker C: So you are really like between all of your peers on the executive team, are you kind of the front runner?
[00:12:53] Speaker A: No. We have an AI council with our cio, myself and one of our leaders in sales and marketing.
And then we have an AI collective, we call it, and it's, it's those champions from across every function because we're very vertical based and they're helping us look at the governance, data governance. We have, you know, legals represented there, so we have everyone looking at it and then it's also to also share which, you know, if you think about in marketing, some of the tools they're using can be used in hr, internal comms, right? So it's like don't reinvent it. If one function found a great tool, let's share why they feel that tool has, you know, been valued and brought them capacity, you know, how legal is using it with documents and contracts. Well, we could use that in HR too, right? So how do you share and not reinvent things each time? So that collective is Going to be kind of that transparency at the function to enterprise level. And I think the power comes and we're not there yet, Seagate's not there yet.
We can find value in capacity in our functional or vertical, but it's when you get horizontal, what do you see?
[00:14:08] Speaker C: Kind of both for the Chro, what are the new maybe evolving capabilities that chros need more of and then also for anybody in hr, maybe are there things that people need to know more, be better at?
[00:14:23] Speaker A: I think it, you know, first I always say know your tradecraft.
So if you're in talent acquisition, if you're learning development, if you're on compensation and benefits, first you really have to be that subject matter, expert in the the basics, the tenants of your discipline. And that's whether you're a software engineer, hardware, firmware, doesn't matter. Be the expert in your trade craft because then technology is augmenting you.
So I always say, you know, learn those basic building blocks and then how you use technology to augment you and don't be afraid of the technology. It's okay to say I don't understand how this technology works.
Well, go sit with people to explain how that technology works.
Right.
And I think all, every company, we have a lot of work to do with our data lakes and cleaning up our data. So AI can actually be efficient.
And I think we're all trying to figure out how do we become more skills based.
And I think that's still a struggle.
[00:15:25] Speaker C: Yeah, for sure, for sure. Yeah. And I think the skills are so important and I think as you were talking about too, we also need to now understand on a granular level what the work is.
[00:15:35] Speaker A: Right.
[00:15:36] Speaker C: So not just skills, but in order to know what skills we need, we also need to understand what work is done. Right. On a much more granular level. So understand that's where the AI is going to come in. Because the AI doesn't have skills. Right. But it's going to do work for us. Some organizations are maybe cutting too early or too much in the wrong places. Right.
[00:15:57] Speaker D: Because.
[00:15:57] Speaker A: Because maybe they didn't look at their processes to know where the humans truly required and they're cutting and then I think they're going to have to rehire back.
[00:16:04] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:16:05] Speaker A: Maybe they cut the wrong thing.
So I think the, the CHR are really sitting and spending time with the cfo. And what is that timeline? How do you do the analysis of what augmenting with AI means? And are you cutting the right people?
[00:16:18] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:16:19] Speaker A: And how you let them go is also important because you might want to boomerang some of them back.
[00:16:24] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:16:25] Speaker A: You made a wrong decision.
[00:16:27] Speaker C: Yeah. The Chro and CFO relationship seems to be even more important now. Did you experience that?
[00:16:35] Speaker A: Started with COVID and I think it just continues to grow. And I think where you've seen some incredible chros who've actually gone in operations, some have actually become CEOs. It shows you that those that are mastering the business and the financial and have that financial acumen and really understanding that P L and people are your most expensive asset. Right.
But they're also your culture. They represent who you are. They should be celebrated.
That elevating yourself to always have that seat at the table and be just. There should be no daylight between you and the cfo. Understanding what the CFO is trying to achieve, what he or she is trying to achieve. How do you help them get there?
Yeah. And not just short term decisions that could impact that longer term growth. Having that discussion like well you cut here, but that is going to impact our revenue in the long term because like you said, maybe you cut too much and now you can't respond or pivot to the market.
So where is the Chro sitting there at the table.
And your HR BPs, because they're in a lot of these staff meetings.
So I'm telling the HR BPs, wake up. Don't just turn yourself off when the HR administrative part is done.
Listening to what is being said in that staff meeting, what is impacting operations.
So then you can help be that solution provider.
I want every HR professional to see themselves as a solution provider for every aspect of the business.
[00:18:09] Speaker C: And I love that because I think that goes so well with how we are thinking about systemic hr where we're saying we are here to help the business solve problems, not just basically do services for them, not just the administrative services, as you mentioned, but any problem that comes up in the business is a people problem too. Right?
[00:18:27] Speaker A: It is a people problem every single. We help managers move faster. What tools do managers need? Like I look at, I want to make sure that any HR solution we bring on at this point is also a business solution that managers can use the tool. Yeah, I don't. I think the days of this only being an HR tool, those days are gone.
[00:18:48] Speaker C: Yeah, it's.
[00:18:49] Speaker A: It's a business tool.
And how do they use it? Because they're people leaders or people managers. How do we help them be more efficient?
But the HRBPs are so critical in this space.
Every function, if you think about it, the developing the skills, the Comp and Ben, how do we have those? Do we understand what the CFO and the team finance team's trying to solution?
My Comp and Ben team better be sitting right there understanding the impacts. Right. It goes to our footprint strategy. Why would you go there? Is the talent there? What does that look like? Because hiring in a new location is costly.
Is the talent, all of those things and then drive it with the data, get the analysis, get the data that you're helping that informed business decision.
[00:19:38] Speaker C: Because they are going to know all these different parts of the organization. Right. They know all these.
[00:19:43] Speaker A: We Try to rotate HRVPs and comp and bend or at least give them a little bit, you know, really understand compensation and benefits.
[00:19:50] Speaker C: Oh, that's great.
[00:19:51] Speaker A: Because they're going to be the chro of the future. Yeah.
[00:19:54] Speaker C: Wow. It's fantastic.
[00:19:55] Speaker A: And I love us very excited for all of them.
[00:19:58] Speaker C: I know. This is so, so amazing because what you also said about HR tools not being HR tools. That's exactly. Not just HR tools. That's exactly why we built Galileo for managers too. Because we said this is not just for HR people to know kind of and get their craft.
[00:20:15] Speaker A: That's what we want to partner with you all. Because if you can pull that in and a manager as a one stop and saying, okay, I know I can go to this tool, get the truth, like be grounded in truth and factually based. Right?
[00:20:27] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly.
[00:20:29] Speaker A: It is. It's not HR for hr.
[00:20:31] Speaker C: It's not the HR exactly. It's a business tool.
[00:20:33] Speaker A: It's Galileo for the business.
[00:20:35] Speaker C: For the business.
[00:20:35] Speaker A: So that to me is exciting. And then you can have that cost, you know, that proposition with the CFO and say, hey, this isn't about HR for each.
[00:20:45] Speaker C: That's right.
[00:20:45] Speaker A: This isn't hr, which normally, you know, begging for a resource.
[00:20:48] Speaker C: That's right. It's right.
[00:20:50] Speaker A: This is what we think is going.
[00:20:51] Speaker C: To bring value to the business and that's very powerful. So I love, I love all of this.
[00:20:56] Speaker A: Yeah. How does Galileo open capacity and time? Because time is so important to a manager.
How does that give them time back that they feel confident that when they do a chat in Galileo that is, it's, you know, factually based and going to help them drive in that business decision. Right?
[00:21:19] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:21:20] Speaker A: So I think this is why these partnerships are so important on the different, you know, foundations that we're operating on. Whether that's workday, SAP and there's so many different other platforms out there.
Let's all just work together and make sure these Tools are integrated.
[00:21:34] Speaker D: So important.
[00:21:35] Speaker C: Because I think if we have the way that we're going to build all these agents, there's a danger that there will be all like disconnected again. Right. And so then you have all these agents running off.
[00:21:45] Speaker A: Yeah. It can't be like, I would tell everyone, just know your infrastructure to know the network that's riding behind. I'm not, you know, the architecture and if you. And I'm not expecting. I don't expect myself to be the expert, but pull in the experts of the architecture and say, okay, where does the data sit? How would this integrate?
And make sure you're making those right decisions. Because you could throw a lot of money at something and then like you said, it's a one off.
[00:22:11] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:22:11] Speaker A: Solution. And what, what do we do on our phones when it's a one off?
You delete the app. You delete the app.
[00:22:17] Speaker C: Exactly.
Yeah, exactly.
[00:22:19] Speaker A: So we don't delete apps.
[00:22:21] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:22:23] Speaker A: Let's invest in the ones that we think are really going to be. For long term.
[00:22:26] Speaker C: Yeah, no, absolutely, absolutely.
[00:22:29] Speaker A: We can pilot fun things in the short term. But I keep saying, especially if it's going to go across the enterprise, let's really make good decisions. I think piloting within your functions, fun. And I think we all should be doing pilots with different software solutions.
But when you're thinking about what is an enterprise solution or what will go across all people, managers, even individual employees, what is that?
[00:22:55] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. And I think that's super powerful and really exciting where we can add value there and bring the entire organization together and how is it going to change?
[00:23:07] Speaker A: And I think where I would like to work with all Chros and with like, Josh Burson Co. Is what are the metrics that we use to know we achieve success? I think that's like the next step is, okay, so we deployed this new solution.
What is that individual adoption metric? They were like, okay, our employees adopted it, they're using it. Right. There's some touch points, but did it really open up the capacity? How do we measure that capacity and then the value? Because I think those are the things our CFOs are going to ask. Okay, show me that value proposition. Show me it in dollars. Right. Time and money.
And I think that's an area that, you know, when we all come together, that's that discussion of what metrics matter to the business.
[00:23:56] Speaker C: That's fantastic. What's your one piece of advice that you have for Chros in this new world of AI? I know we talked about many things, but you had to distill it down to one piece of advice, what would it be?
[00:24:10] Speaker A: Come to work every day as the chief business leader, that integrator of the business. That's who we are.
And don't take a seat at the side, sit at the table, be upfront.
We're the business leader.
Our people are our most precious asset. We represent the workforce.
Come in there with that confidence of what we represent.
Come in with data and drive the conversation. But drive the conversation in a business term, like whatever terms are using your business. Right. It has to be in that terminology that's used by your business leaders, by your CEO, that you are showing that you absolutely understand the objectives of the company and that you're there to help drive. Drive revenue, reduce cost. Right. That value proposition. And you speak their language.
[00:25:07] Speaker C: I love it. I love it. Well, what better way to end on that? Thank you so much, Patricia. This was so exciting.
I love talking with you and so many insights that you shared with us. Thank you so much. Really great to see you, and thanks for your time.
[00:25:23] Speaker A: All right, all of us.
Wow.
[00:25:28] Speaker D: What an amazing conversation with Patricia Frost, Chief Human Resource Officer at Seagate Technology.
Patricia's military leadership philosophy really resonated with me, especially her concept of the last mile being human terrain.
While AI can optimize processes across the enterprise, it's that final human connection, whether it's a soldier in combat, a driver delivering your package, or a manager inspiring their team, that ultimately determines success.
What also struck me was how Patricia embodies the evolution of what we are seeing in top chros. Her leave no one behind approach to AI transformation perfectly illustrates what our research shows. The most effective chros are those who lead through crisis, understand operations at a granular level, and see themselves first and foremost as business leaders.
Patricia's advice to come to work every day as the chief business leader is inspirational, and it's becoming essential as AI reshapes how work gets done, and chros become the architects of organizational transformation.
Thanks for listening to our what Works podcast. Until next time, keep pushing the boundaries.
[00:26:42] Speaker C: Of the future of work.
