HR Exec Jeff Smith Shares Tips on How Executive Teams and HR Departments Can Work Well Together

A significant shift is taking place in the dynamics between human resources departments and executive leadership.

This change is driven by a growing recognition that HR can serve as a strategic partner in talent acquisition and management rather than merely provide a support function. Jeff Smith, a seasoned HR head who most recently helmed BlackRock and BGI’s department along with senior roles in media, put the point succinctly: “To have a strong HR department, CEOs and leaders need to want and allow it to happen and that means you are going to have to earn it.”

The idea is to elevate the potential of experienced HR professionals to work with executives to create a talent strategy, drive performance and find top talent that fits with a company’s culture, purpose, and goals. Like CEOs, HR leaders understand these aspects of the company from the inside, and, as Smith points out, it’s the job of an HR professional to have a deep knowledge of the company and the company’s people across departments and to understand points of need and how to fill them with the right people; internally or externally. 

“HR is a business in its own right and literally enables most things that happen in a company,” says Smith. “Who you hire, creating performance standards, developing leaders, aligning incentives and compensation, and creating the right culture for the business to work and thrive.”

Jeff Smith on Co-Creation of Corporate Culture

The notion of collaboration between HR and executive leadership is central to Jeff Smith's vision for modern organizations. "HR, done right, ends up involved in so many talent decisions. They end up shaping culture and doing things that many folks don’t understand the role HR can play in making this happen," Smith observes. 

However, his point isn’t that HR knows best, but rather that it can bring a unique background, expertise and knowledge of people to the table. Both HR and leadership have a stake in shaping the organization's culture and talent strategy.

As documented in the Harvard Business Review, this collaborative ethos found a tangible expression in BlackRock’s Human Capital Committee, which Smith co-chaired for years. The HCC played a huge role in talent management at the company; it’s not an isolated HR initiative, but a cross-functional committee involving senior line leaders from various business units. Its existence emphasized that talent management and culture shaping were not solely the domain of HR or the C-suite but a shared responsibility in every business. 

More Than Just Administration

For a long time, Smith says, “It was easy to just have administrative HR departments because I don't think people saw a need for anything else. There was no real imagination about it because there was no perceived issue or need.” 

However, once companies like General Electric and PepsiCo implemented more active and collaborative HR departments to great success, other companies began to follow suit after seeing what was possible. Many HR professionals from these innovative departments moved on to head HR departments at other companies. In recent years, says Smith, the talent pool for HR departments has dramatically improved and there are many great HR organizations in many industries.

“The talent pool in HR was pretty bad. The best people don't go into things that are perceived as lower value and not critical. The best of the best went into business roles and finance roles, not what people often consider ‘the back office.’ Now, the talent pool is much stronger and talented people make a huge impact and are well paid in HR.” 

The key shift is that companies began to recognize that HR departments served a crucial role in identifying the next generation of leaders and training them according to the unique purpose and culture of an organization. 

Human resources can also serve as a conduit between leadership and employees, working to develop a healthy balance that fosters a sense of accountability and teamwork towards a shared goal across the organization. This is an approach Smith emphasized throughout his time at AOL, Time Warner, BGI and BlackRock. 

“Many leaders don’t like conflict and want you as the HR person to have all the conversations and do the ‘dirty work,’ and you need to balance this with developing the capability of leaders to give feedback, to have difficult conversations, to learn to grow and develop their people, and to hold them accountable,” says Smith.

From Support to Strategy: The Transformation of Human Resources

The role of HR is undergoing a transformation, one that Jeff Smith describes as a shift from administration to strategic partnership. "It is something that needs to be fought for and earned," he emphasizes.

This shift isn’t merely a trend, but a necessity for many organizations, from small concerns to multinational corporations. As companies grapple with the challenges of talent acquisition, employee engagement, and organizational culture, HR has a proactive role to play. 

In this light, HR emerges not as a back-office function but as a catalyst for organizational success, a role that requires CEOs and HR leaders to engage in collaboration that can be both challenging and rewarding. 

When asked about the most important things HR can do, Smith responded, “Getting talent to the front and center of the agenda of the CEO and the leadership team and working very closely with the board of directors on all issues related to talent.” 

He also emphasized the importance of “making HR a destination for great people in the business to come and make an impact.” 

“HR is so visible and so constant in its interactions with the business that people see everything that is going on, so it better be good.”