Getting That Seat at the Table

by Someone Who is There

Philip Mazza
CHRO, Byrne Dairy Companies
 Philip Mazza
CHRO
Byrne Dairy Companies

About Byrne Dairy

• About $1b company
• Four manufacturing facilities in Central New York
• Fifty-six convenience stores throughout New York
• 1,500 employees
• Partner with major retailers throughout the nation
• Our ESL and cultured products have a national reach
• Our employee-base is very diversified in terms of talent, from CDL drivers, to
production technicians, maintenance technicians, lab technicians, R&D, engineers,
office positions, store staff, etc.,.
 Philip Mazza
CHRO
Byrne Dairy Companies

About Me
• Thirty-five years in Human Resources
• Worked for large organizations such as Kemper Insurance, Intermedia
Communications, and Barnes & Noble
• Adjunct professor at LeMoyne College
• Serve on LeMoyne College’s Madden Business School Board
• Served on several Board’s of not-for-profit organizations
• Bachelor degree in Business and an MBA
• CHRO for Byrne Dairy and a member of its Board of Directors
• Recently published novelist
 Philip Mazza
CHRO
Byrne Dairy Companies

Objective
To learn how to move from being a tactical manager to being part of a strategic
executive team.

1. Differentiate between the tactical and strategic areas of responsibility in your role.
2. Understand how senior leaders think and what is important to them.
3. Design elements of a system for HR to demonstrate its value to an organization, it
must measure its performance against targets.
 Philip Mazza
CHRO
Byrne Dairy Companies

At the End of the Session

My promise to you . . .

I will provide you with a summary of actionable items.

 Philip Mazza
CHRO
Byrne Dairy Companies

Are You Delivering ?

• 1997, Harvard professor Michael Beer shared his thoughts about HR in “The
Transformation of the Human Resource Function.” His premise then was that HR
must shift from administrative work to strategic partnership.
• 1998, David Ulrich asked in HBR, “Should we do away with HR?”
• 2005, Keith Hammonds wrote an article in FastCompany entitled “Why we Hate HR.”
• 2013, Ram Charan wrote in HBR about how to fix HR.
• 2015, Peter Cappelli wrote an HBR article entitled “Why We Love to Hate HR…and
What HR Can Do About It”
All this means that there is a compelling need for our work. But the answer is not
changing HR’s organizational structure or reporting relationship.
 Philip Mazza
CHRO
Byrne Dairy Companies

Are You Delivering ? The Answer . . .

1. The HR body of knowledge is real and highly complex, and it requires practitioners to
understand both quantitative and qualitative concepts that apply to the workforce.
2. The crux of the issue is and always has been what every CEO wants to know – How
well is our workforce performing within business constraints?
• You can look at the components — talent acquisition, pay and benefits,
employee relations, learning and development — but each of those
components must be connected in order to answer the question.
 Philip Mazza
CHRO
Byrne Dairy Companies

Differentiate Between the Tactical and Strategic

Areas of Responsibility in Your Role
1. You must have a strategic plan that answers the question: How well is our workforce
performing within business constraints?
2. Simple format: strategic area, action items, ownership, success measures.
3. The plan’s keys are its success measures – the quantifiable, from the now to the
future. This is you moving the needle; this is your strategic intent.
4. The strategic plan differentiates the tactical v strategic by showing how the tactical
supports that burning question.
5. The strategic plan shows that you are proactive v reactive.
 Philip Mazza
CHRO
Byrne Dairy Companies

How They Think . . . How They Are Wired

1. Know the link between operating metrics and financial statements.
2. Think strategically. 
3. Understand how others view their company; know their competitors.
4. Balance stakeholder needs through value based thinking and long-term interests.
5. Persistence and grit.
6. Vet ideas through the lenses of customer value and investment risk – ROI.
7. Intuitive decision makers.
8. Organization design is considered a key strategic issue. 
9. Self-aware.
10. Know the priorities.
11. Confident .
12. Have a cause.
13. Have a an ego.
 Philip Mazza
CHRO
Byrne Dairy Companies

Let’s Re-Wire You . . .

1. Step back and judge whether or not what you have been asked to do is worth it. Do
this all the time; get others in your unit to do the same.
2. Question old habits looking for value. That’s how we’ve always done it, doesn’t
work.
3. Don’t show you are overwhelmed. Figure out how to prioritize and make
recommendations. Same goes for your staff.
4. Push back in a way that builds credibility and adds more value.
5. Solve problems, not just report them.
6. Know the cause-effect of your metrics and financial statements. Take a deep dive
into variances and report findings.
7. Know what your competitors are doing.
8. Balance employee needs with company requirements. Communication plans are
critical.
9. Do not deviate from your strategic intent.
 Philip Mazza
CHRO
Byrne Dairy Companies

Understand How Senior Leaders Think and What is

Important to Them
1. Talk business, not HR with business managers.
2. Obtain your company’s business plans and see where you can help.
3. Talk about business plans, performance, and opportunities.
4. Every meeting about an HR issue is an opportunity to ask questions about the
business.
5. Find out how the business measures its performance. Measure your business in the
same manner.
6. Show you can fix problems.
7. Build your influence by showing your value through metrics, analytics, and your
strategic plan.
8. Publish HR’s commercial contributions e.g. cost savings, improved service, value-
driven organizational design.
 Philip Mazza
CHRO
Byrne Dairy Companies

Your New System

1. Use metrics to show how the HR department helps save money.
Numbers talk. Show your executives the different metrics that prove, in black and white, the
financial worth of your department. Executives see numbers as a straightforward, proven
record of the value your department provides. Reporting on key metrics like workforce
productivity, recruiting costs, and retention, and creating specific goals and meeting them are
sure-fire ways to develop a strong relationship with the executives at your company.
2. Create an efficient culture.
One of the main focus areas of human resources departments is making the company culture
more efficient and productive. This is built on things like employee morale and engagement,
management satisfaction, and developing processes around recruiting and training that save
the company money in ways that other departments aren’t able to. By carefully selecting your
workforce and developing employee management processes that protect the company against
future lawsuits, your department will be able to save your company time and money.
 Philip Mazza
CHRO
Byrne Dairy Companies

Your New System

3. Show how HR innovations can change your workplace.
The number of new HR technologies currently being used in today’s workforce is remarkable.
The HR technology industry itself is a $4b market, and it’s growing. If your C-suite level
executives are wanting the company to innovate and be ahead of the trend, it’s important to
understand the most valuable part of the company: its employees. The HR department has a
very important role in finding and developing the employees who are going to plant and
develop the seeds of innovation and growth.
4. Show strategic value in placing employees.
When it comes to the strategic direction of the company, HR also plays an important role.
Employees are the most important resource in your company. Talent metrics are critical in
showing the value of talent acquisition.
 Philip Mazza
CHRO
Byrne Dairy Companies

Your New System

5. Predict future company needs through human resources.
The great thing about HR data and analytics is that they can help predict the future of your
company’s human capital needs. The amount of critical data that flows through the HR
department can help direct future development. By keeping tabs on productivity and
determining how many and what kind of new employees the company will need to hire in the
near future and well beyond, HR can provide the kind of forethought that will allow your
company to not just survive but thrive in the changing markets to come.
 Philip Mazza
CHRO
Byrne Dairy Companies

Design Elements of a System for HR to Demonstrate its Value to

an Organization, it Must Measure its Performance Against Targets
• You must be able to support and enable the execution of strategy through building
organizational capability. This is a role that cannot be automated, shared as a service, offshored
or outsourced. It comes from an intimate knowledge of a business’s strategy and the existing
capabilities of the organization.
• Business process redesign
• Organizational redesign
• Job redesign
• Competency model development
• Strategic workforce planning
• Benchmarking
• Monthly reporting: data . . . metrics . . . predictive analytics . . . variance reporting
• Department balanced scorecard
• Personal scorecards
 Philip Mazza
CHRO
Byrne Dairy Companies

Action
1. Differentiate between the tactical and strategic areas of responsibility in your role.

• You must have a strategic plan that answers the question: How well is our workforce
performing within business constraints?
• Simple format: strategic area, action items, ownership, success measures.
• The plan’s keys are the success measures – the quantifiable, from the now to the
future. This is you moving the needle; this is your strategic intent.
• The strategic plan differentiates the tactical v strategic by showing how the tactical
supports that burning question.
• The strategic plan shows that you are proactive v reactive.
 Philip Mazza
CHRO
Byrne Dairy Companies

Action
2. Understand how senior leaders think and what is important to them.

• Talk business, not HR with business managers.

• Obtain your company’s business plans and see where you can help.
• Talk about business plans, performance, and opportunities.
• Every meeting about an HR issue is an opportunity to ask questions about the business.
• Find out how the business measures its performance. Measure your business in the
same manner.
• Show you can fix problems.
• Build your influence by showing your value through metrics, analytics, and your strategic
plan.
• Publish HR’s commercial contributions e.g. cost savings, improved service, value-driven
organizational design.
 Philip Mazza
CHRO
Byrne Dairy Companies

Action
3. Design elements of a system for HR to demonstrate its value to an organization, it
must measure its performance against targets.
• You must be able to support and enable the execution of strategy through building
organizational capability. It’s a role that comes from an intimate knowledge of a business’s
strategy and the existing capabilities of the organization.
• Business process redesign
• Organizational redesign
• Job redesign
• Competency model development
• Strategic workforce planning
• Benchmarking
• Monthly reporting: data . . . metrics . . . predictive analytics . . . variance reporting
• Department balanced scorecard
• Personal scorecards
 Philip Mazza
CHRO
Byrne Dairy Companies

Q&A

Thank you.

phil.mazza@byrnedairy.com