Should You Become an HRBP to Advance? A Microsoft HRBP Perspective - Ann-Marie Johnson - #193

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Check out this episode of the #1 people intelligence podcast with special guest, ⁠Ann-Marie Clayton Johnson⁠, Senior Director, Human Resource Business Partner at Microsoft & Former Salesforce People Analytics Leader!

Cole has known Ann-Marie since she was a Salesforce people analytics leader he looked up to. Then she became an HR business partner at Microsoft, and this episode asks why. Analytics was the highlight of her last decade: curiosity, access, and a team that shaped strategy by defining the metrics, work she credits in part to Ernestine. She left before seniority locked the door. Companies hesitate to trust a senior analytics person in a role they have never held, even though she would take that risk herself. Cole ties the move to advice from the CHRO practice at Heidrick & Struggles: business partner experience is often the barrier between people analytics and the top job.

What an HRBP does depends on the company. Smaller firms fold in operations. At Salesforce, partners did communications and employee experience. At Microsoft, Ann-Marie supports senior leaders in SMB and channel, a high-growth business whose sellers carry hundreds of accounts rather than enterprise’s one-to-one model. Her weeks are leadership development, off-sites, talent walks, succession, and org design, including SMB-specific roles inside functions built for enterprise. The sharper turn is producer to consumer. Any partner worth their salt should use analytics. Her background helps her see the system of data. On a low-performance steerco she pushed upstream: what predicts low performance, where the hot spots are, which managers deserve a double click, before a case opens. Connect the points so the story is visible. An agent or a dashboard does not change the world.

She has been at Microsoft only since February. People analytics had gone tools-forward and help-yourself. It did not work, and consulting is coming back. Nate Schultz joined from Salesforce, aligned to her skip level, with a team supporting sales. She wants those consultants senior enough to know statistics and the business. A leader who wanted people back in the office became the test. About 19 people were going in, not enough to know whether attendance helped. The answer came back as not statistically significa