Feb. 2, 2024

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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This episode was brought to you by Pyn. Get access to their Employee Journey Designer here.

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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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