Expecting humans to be frictionless is where HR falls short

Summary Kelsey Willock sits down with Khadijah "Kay" New, Chief Human Resources Officer at H2O America, the water and wastewater utility serving Connecticut, Maine, Texas and California. Kay traces two decades of people leadership from recruiting at SGS to HR at Avangrid to a utility that grows through acquisition, and explains why supporting the whole employee means diverse benefits, real flexibility and leaders who coach rather than dictate. She names the industry's blind spot (expecting humans to be frictionless), shows how financial stress reaches every level of the org chart, shares the tuition payback experiment that paid down employees' student loans, and describes the shift most leaders aren't ready for: employees counting what it costs them to work for you. For CHROs, total rewards and benefits leaders, and anyone building a people strategy for a four-generation workforce.  Chapters 00:00 Intro 00:42 Meet Kay New, CHRO at H2O America 04:51 A first job at McDonald's and a first paycheck at the movies 06:49 The leader her grandmother and mother would have wanted 08:20 Supporting the whole employee across 4 generations 10:15 Expecting humans to be frictionless 12:41 Take care of the people, and the vibe check 15:03 Tuition payback and financial stress at every level 19:09 The comp shift most leaders aren't ready for 21:55 Leading What's Next and AI that restores people  Takeaways - Supporting the whole employee means diverse benefits, diverse support and the flexibility to meet 4 generations where they are, not a checklist that worked 15 years ago. - The industry falls short when it expects humans to be frictionless; lived experiences don't stay at the door, so leaders have to coach people to work at a sustainable level. - Take care of the people and the people take care of everything else, and you'll see it in the room before you see it in the survey. - Financial stress shows up at every level, from childcare costs to college tuition, so a compensation strategy can never be set and forgotten. - Employees are counting what it costs them to work for you, and AI should give people their time back rather than replace them.  Connect with the Guest Khadijah New LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kay-new Company Website: https://www.h2o-america.com Newsletter: Leading What’s Next: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/leading-what-s-next-7496791425804754944 Book: AI in HR: How Copilot Agents Power Enablement and Human-Centered Change: https://a.co/d/0h8bXju0  Sponsor Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations—Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence.With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.See a demo at https://www.aurafinance.com/