The Modern People Leader: Forward-Thinking HR 153 - Reverse integrating a 10k employee company into a startup: Holly May (Former Chief People Officer at Datavant)
Holly May, former Chief People Officer at Datavant, joined us on The Modern People Leader.
We talked about Datavant’s reverse integration: how they unified the two people teams, how they used real-life stories to illustrate their new values, and how they’ve made the company more agile.
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Read Holly's leadership lessons from her time at Datavant.
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(1:00) Good news stories
(6:18) Her journey to becoming Chief People Officer at Datavant
(11:08) Going from being the CPO at a 100 person company to a 9,000 person company overnight
(14:20) Her approach to job searching and the value of targeting companies for their culture and potential for growth.
(17:08) The concept of 'done is better than perfect
(19:52) Reflections on the challenges and opportunities of integrating and leading a significantly larger HR team post-merger.
(22:00) The cultural integration and value alignment efforts post-merger
(22:00) Holly expresses her initial reaction to being asked to lead a much larger people team post-merger and discusses the challenges of integrating different organizational cultures.
(24:00) How Holly approached transforming the HR function to align with the new, larger organization's goals and culture.
(26:00) The importance of building a strong team culture and ensuring the HR team's alignment with the company's strategic objectives.
(35:30) Challenges and successes of implementing a new employee engagement and feedback system.
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