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239 - Helen Russell (Chief People Officer, HubSpot): The growing trust gap at work
Description
Helen Russell, Chief People Officer at HubSpot, joined us on The Modern People Leader.
We talked about how HubSpot is fostering an AI-first culture, why belonging is so important right now, and what HR leaders can do to move fast without losing their humanity.
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(04:48) Creating safe spaces for HR leaders to connect
(07:43) What HubSpot does & Helen’s role as CPO
(10:09) HubSpot's marketing leadership and AI innovation
(11:53) What HR leaders are talking about now: RTO, AI, DEI & manager overload
(14:10) Engagement, psychological safety & cultural struggle
(16:38) Why belonging is the metric that moves everything else
(18:58) The four-pillar talent strategy at HubSpot
(21:51) How cultural commitments and behavior are being realigned
(24:09) The evolution of “HEART” to “Deliver with HEART” and new commitments
(26:22) Balancing urgency with human-centered belonging
(28:23) Monday Minute & Grow DAI: Scaling safe AI experimentation
(31:21) From deflect to automate to enable – how HubSpot’s internal AI strategy evolves
(33:17) Flashback to Rivian: bottlenecks, decision-making, and now AI frameworks
(34:28) Buying vs building AI tools – from BrightHire to Tenor to Qualtrics
(36:45) Creating a “common front door” with GPT for all employee services
(39:01) Why HR teams should start building AI tools themselves
(42:47) A call for HR to step up and lead through AI transformation
(44:50) Don’t get left behind – HR’s chance to take the lead
(46:05) MCPs explained (for non-tech leaders) & the future of SaaS + LLMs
(49:38) What MCPs mean for employees as internal customers
(50:34) Why traditional SaaS may be in trouble & horizontal automation is the future
(53:09) Rapid Fire: Top leadership traits in the AI era
(53:39) The HR team of the future is deeply human
(54:29) AI strategy envy & final takeaways
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