Getting a pulse on your workforce in high-stakes environments is a challenge few talk about, but it’s the reality for HR leaders today.
Pulse brings you real conversations with HR leaders navigating the pressure, pace, and potential of operating in high-stakes environments.
From post-acquisition chaos to boardroom reporting, these unfiltered stories reveal how people leaders drive impact through data, strategy, and grit.
Brought to you by HRBench, the people analytics platform for high-performance HR teams.
HR is not a cost center. Candi Kramer, a fractional HR consultant who works with founders, breaks down how the people side of a business drives growth, and what it quietly costs when leaders treat it as overhead.
Candi has spent her career connecting HR to business outcomes, including a performance management overhaul across 4,000 employees that reached 78% adoption in year one. In this conversation with Logan, she gets practical about what moves the needle.
In this episode:
Why founders see people as a drag, and how to reframe people as a growth lever
How to speak the language of the business instead of HR jargon
Why the once-a-year performance review should be dead
The simple approach that beat expensive tools across 4,000 employees
Why your best individual contributor may make a poor manager
How to build a first-time manager playbook without a big budget
Why developing one manager frees up the founder to grow the company
For HR leaders, founders, and people managers who want HR to drive the business, not sit beside it.
Episode Chapters
00:00 | Meet Candi Kramer, fractional HR consultant
01:56 | People as a cost vs. a growth lever
05:11 | Drop the HR jargon and speak business
06:39 | Learn the business from your CFO
08:04 | What underinvesting in people really costs
10:00 | The annual review is dead. What replaces it
10:38 | When a system replaces the real conversation
12:54 | 78% adoption across 4,000 employees
13:39 | No feedback should be a surprise
17:03 | Why your best IC shouldn't default to manager
20:04 | A playbook for first-time managers
22:03 | The hardest skill: difficult conversations
23:47 | Develop managers, free up the founder
25:32 | Not HR for the sake of HR
Connect with Candi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/candikramer-hr/
Visit CK Consulting Solution: https://ckcsolution.com/
🎙️ Pulse by HRBench. Practical people analytics for HR leaders who tie their work to business outcomes.
Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.
20 Aug 2026
The 30% Rule That Predicts Your Next Layoff
Labor cost over operating profit is the number that predicts a layoff. Jessica Hart, a fractional HR consultant in California, tells clients that above 30 percent, a contraction is coming whether or not anyone has announced it. She has run the people side of a Heineken acquisition, a COVID furlough, and an asset sale.
In this episode:
The ratio Jessica checks first with every client, and who makes the decision when you don't
The grid she draws before any org conversation, and why the names come out of the boxes
Why every company on the calendar cuts its travel budget in July, traced quarter by quarter
The bike and the kickstand: which functions have to sit inside the company and which don't
The Halloween costume a former employee suggested for her, and the case for outsourcing the reduction
One day during COVID furloughing more than 40 people in California while Florida ran a mass hiring event
What every employee should get on day one after you acquire their company, down to the benefits waiting period
Why a text sent from a personal phone still shows up in court
For HR leaders at PE-backed and mid-market companies who would rather see the contraction coming than be handed it.
Episode Chapters:
00:00 | A 55-person company on its way to $200 million
05:12 | Meet Jessica Hart: Lagunitas, Heineken, and an MBA at twenty three
07:36 | Org design when the market is contracting
09:10 | Draw the grid, then take the names out of the boxes
10:17 | The 30% rule: labor cost over operating profit
11:53 | Total comp and the workers comp number nobody budgets
12:25 | Adding value without adding dollars
15:19 | Why every company cuts travel in July
18:52 | Core versus support, and the bike metaphor
22:21 | The grim reaper problem
27:25 | Furloughing California while Florida mass hires
30:10 | The employees who did not know they were for sale
31:49 | Day one after an acquisition
36:11 | Your proof is a handbook, a practice, or a text message
Connect with Jessica at: https://jessicahartconsulting.com/
🎙️ Pulse by HRBench. Practical people analytics for HR leaders who tie their work to business outcomes. New episodes every week.
Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.
Music licensed through Soundstripe.
Code: VOT675NMLFTNRQKI
3 Aug 2026
Putting HR Data in Claude Without Touching PHI
AI in HR, done inside HIPAA rules. Greg Doss runs recruiting and onboarding at Community Medical Services, a 1,100 employee provider of medically assisted treatment for opioid use disorder. He connected HR Bench data to Claude through the MCP connector and maxed out his account the same day.
In this episode:
Why 20 HR Bench licenses could not serve up to 200 supervisors, and what the Claude connector changed
What IT and HR wrote into their AI policy, and how Claude for Healthcare rejects patient data before it lands
The vendor pitch Greg's CEO forwarded, and the 20 minutes it took to prove they already had it
Using AI as a checks and balances layer against Paylocity, including a 35 to 40 employee headcount delta nobody had caught
The nine-page document that revealed 128 manual onboarding processes
Why "bad data in, bad data out" stops holding once AI can see the bad data
What happened to the weekly meeting where regional directors aired every onboarding complaint
For HR leaders at PE-backed companies who are being told to do something with AI and want to see what good looks like before they commit.
Episode Chapters:
01:58 | Is AI safe for HR data?
03:18 | Meet Greg Doss: 20 years in HR and recruiting
04:49 | 20 licenses, 1,100 employees, and a dashboard bottleneck
05:59 | Day one with the Claude connector: maxed out by 2 p.m.
06:48 | Why Claude writes like an HR person, not an IT person
09:40 | The CEO forwards a vendor pitch. Greg answers in 20 minutes
13:39 | Writing the AI policy: IT, HR, and Claude for Healthcare
16:45 | "How do I know this is right?" The human check
17:54 | Using AI as checks and balances against your HRIS
18:48 | Bad data in, good data out
20:33 | Adapt or die: the 60-day survey that changed onboarding
22:08 | 128 manual onboarding processes, and what Claude cut
25:26 | The weekly meeting that stopped being about onboarding
27:02 | The best time to start AI, and a board meeting tomorrow
Connect with Greg Doss on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-doss-shrm-scp-9207318/
🎙️ Pulse by HRBench. Practical people analytics for HR leaders who tie their work to business outcomes. New episodes every week.
Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.
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