Why 80% of HR Teams Are Doing Strategic Work Wrong

We spend all our time fixing business workflows, so why is HRs own workflow still broken?

In the most recent HR Leaders Podcast episode, I had an inspiring conversation with Jeffrey Schmitz, Former Chief People Officer at Zebra Technologies.

He explains how his team successfully restructured their entire HR operating model by separating daily tactical operations from long-term talent strategy. By replacing fragmented, manual support with a centralised service hub and self-service workflows, Zebra built a scalable foundation for digital transformation while keeping culture at the centre.

5 things you’ll learn from this episode:

1. The structural model shift that allowed Zebra to transition from 60 HR Business Partners down to 8
2. The simple "start at the centre" rule that turned daily support tickets into an operational data goldmine
3. The non-negotiable tech stack foundation HR teams must build before attempting to deploy AI tools
4. The single candidate trait Zebra looks for that matters far more than rare technical AI expertise
5. The culture stewardship strategy Zebra used to navigate a massive M&A carve-out and hybrid work shift

🙏 Thank you to our series partner, Arist

Meet the end-to-end AI agent for enablement that finds talent gaps, builds personalized interventions, and delivers learning directly in the flow of work → https://arist.com/resources/webinars/agent?utm_source=hr_leaders_podcast&utm_medium=sponsored&utm_campaign=hr_leaders_podcast_cr_june_2026

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