Theresa Fesinstine is an accomplished People Leader with over 25 years of experience in the field. Today, Theresa is the founder of not one, but two companies - peoplepower.ai and Culture Markers, both of which support organisations through periods of change.
With peoplepower.ai, Theresa is marrying AI with human-centric approaches - something close to our hearts at Harriet. Cecily Motley chatted to Theresa about how AI can transform the HR landscape.
Cecily Motley: To get us started, can you tell me a bit about your career to date?
Theresa Fesinstine: I have spent the majority of my career working in human resources at the Director and Executive level. Curiosity and creativity have always been through lines in my life and career, and I think that is why I have leaned into this space of what artificial intelligence can do for us from an HR standpoint.
CM: And if your career were a bestselling novel, what would its title be?
TF: The Amazing Journey. My life has been a real journey - whether that’s actual journeys across the world or metaphorical ones. I think all of us have a journey in one way or another, so this story would be mine.
CM: And do you have a preferred HR horror story that you whip out at dinner parties to break the ice?
TF: We were doing a recruiting event with upcoming college graduates. One young male candidate arrived and started air kissing other candidates and the recruiter at the table and telling them that they needed to catch his air kisses in their hands. Unsurprisingly, we didn’t give this candidate an offer! There are some less fun horror stories too, but that’s the great thing about HR: we spend our time dealing with both the most fun parts or the business but we also see the worst of it. That’s a really interesting place to sit.
CM: Definitely. And what have been the biggest behavioural shifts in HR from when you started your career to now?
TF: The HR function can be a little bit slower to adopt technology than other areas of the business, but I'm hoping that starts to shift in 2024. For a long time, HR roles were focused on people and communication: that was our skillset. But over the past eight years or so, I’ve seen a real push towards the need to work with data and provide analytics, which is difficult because for many HR leaders that is not their background.
CM: What do you think of as your biggest success, as a manager?
TF: I think a lot about how much of somebody's potential comes out as a result of the people that they're managed by as opposed to their intrinsic ability. And I do think it’s a blend; many of the people that I've managed have gone on to much bigger roles than I've had and I feel really proud that I played some role in their professional growth. As a manager I am both a cheerleader and a challenger, and I think my teams would agree with that.
CM: You are now building a company that's committed to upskilling HR professionals on AI. Where do you think HR is right now on the adoption scale?
TF: Truthfully, I think very, very early days. I see many HR colleagues feeling like, we’re not the tech people, are we the ones to lead the charge with AI? But that's why I'm so passionate about bringing HR leaders into the fold of what AI can do. I’m so inspired when I have the opportunity to work with clients and help HR leaders see the value in experimentation - in the tools and technologies that could be so powerful for them. I know they want to have happy, joyful, connected, successful companies, it's just hard to get there with smaller teams and a workforce that has felt like they've been really put over the coals in the past few years. AI can empower us as HR leaders to utilise information in a thoughtful way and to impact the way that our employees are engaging with work, with our companies, and the way that they operate.
CM: What do you waste the most time on at work?
TF: When I was working in-house, I would say meetings. More specifically, we spend so much time regurgitating the same conversations without resolution. So I think the bane of my existence is actually the lack of ability to make a confident decision. I've seen companies with brilliant ideas get snuffed out because somebody's willing to take a risk. I think that's where a lot of HR leaders could take a note on AI - yes, it's risky, but it can impact our businesses in such a big way if we just weigh up the risks and rewards.
CM: That’s a great answer. And what would you pay good money to know about other companies’ people teams?
TF: I would pay to know how businesses are viewing the role of HR in AI integration. Because I believe that HR leaders need to be asking strategic questions about where and how AI fits into their businesses’ long-term game plans on resourcing and employee experience, but I can’t be sure that everyone is thinking about AI from that lens.
CM: And is AI going to take your job?
TF: No, I don’t believe AI will take my job, or most jobs. There will be some roles that we find are just done better and more efficiently with AI, but as with all technology, it will create space to do jobs differently. There are jobs that will be changed dramatically as a result and new skills will be needed, but I don't envision a world of computers making all the decisions without people playing a part in it, because AI just doesn't have the ability to rationalise and relate in the way that humans do. And we need that human relationship.
CM: What AI prompts do you use daily?
TF: I use a six point prompting method, where I treat my AI like an entrusted friend.
I start with a strong welcome - like “hey there, how are you today?” Then I say what role I want us each to play; I tell the AI what tone I’d like it to use - I might ask it to talk like Brene Brown or Adam Grant! I give my specific request and I outline how I want it to query me in case I haven't thought of everything. I end by saying that I really appreciate its help
Prompts-wise, what I use most is challenging my AI to ask me for greater detail. Oftentimes it brings out things that I haven't thought of or thought to even consider before. It’s also really important to get the lead-up right - if you’re not getting the answers you were looking for, it might be because you need to be clearer with what you’re asking. Anyway, I think it’s a whole science - I love it!
CM: What is your slam dunk interview question and why do you ask it?
TF: “What have you been most curious about over the past year?” The most innovative, connected people-focused leaders I have worked with are all really curious humans, so I always like to understand what a candidate is curious about and how they view that.
CM: And what do you think will be the biggest behaviour shift for HR in the next 15 years?
TF: You know what, Cecily, I feel like the next 15 years is a huge question mark. But I hope the biggest behavioural change will be a true focus on crafting individual experiences. Everything from benefit plans to the way that people are allowed to work - there is no one size fits all. One of the things that I started working on at my last company was this idea of changing the way we viewed our benefit plans to more closely accommodate people in different life stages. So I hope we start to become a little bit more compassionate and loving of differences; individualising the experience of work and what that looks like.