#WISHRM25 Speaker Spotlight: Kayla Schaller-Greenwood

As a part of the WISHRM State Conference SMILE Team, I have the opportunity to engage with speakers and exhibitors, gaining insights into what to anticipate at the upcoming conference. I had a chance to connect with Kayla Schaller-Greenwood, who will be presenting two sessions, Tactical vs. Strategic HR: Finding the Balance for Business Success and The Power of Employee Experience: How HR Can Shape a Thriving Workplace Across Every Touchpoint .

Q & A with Kayla:

1. Who should attend your sessions?

   
   

   1. “Tactical vs. Strategic HR: Finding the Balance for Business Success”- Join me to get a better understanding of what tactical vs. strategic HR looks like and how you can balance both for true success. HR professionals often slip into spending most of their time on one or the other which can result in not fully executing on how HR should positively impact the business. If you feel like you keep getting feedback you’re focusing on the wrong things, see if this discussion brings you some more clarity!

      
      

   2. ”The Power of Employee Experience: How HR Can Shape a Thriving Workplace Across Every Touchpoint”- If you want to dive deeper into how HR can support the employee experience from hiring through exit, please join us! Every touchpoint of an employee’s journey at a company can leave them feeling great about their role or like a number. Learn the many ways HR can promote a stronger employee experience for team members.

      
      

2. What are some typical signs that an HR team is leaning too heavily into either tactical or strategic work?

   
   

   1. HR professionals too focused in the tactical spend much of their time putting out fires, completing tasks and checklists, and leaning heavily on the current policies and practices. The work is mostly about “getting things done” without much attention put toward if the process is truly efficient, effective, and using best practices to support the employees and business outcomes.

      
      

   2. HR professionals too focused on strategic initiatives may be out of touch with the day-to-day needs of employees. They may spend a lot of time working on projects, trying to implement change, and coming up with big ideas for how to better the organization. They may not be able to get in the weeds to execute consistently on foundation HR items and struggle to have the trust of employees to be responsive and support their needs.

      
      

3. HR professionals often juggle competing demands - what’s one takeaway from your session that might help them strike a meaningful balance between tactical execution and strategic impact?

   
   

   We will analyze the non-negotiables of working in HR. Your job is to balance the needs of employees with the needs of the business. We’ll discuss how to ensure you are providing tactical support to employees for items like benefits administration and payroll while also working on strategic initiatives like succession planning and total rewards strategy that will have impact on the business strategically.

   
   

4. Without giving too much away from your employee experience session, what’s one actionable strategy or tool attendees might walk away with to better align their HR work with business goals?

   
   

   HR absolutely impacts the bottom line of a company. From hiring great talent to execute the company’s mission to reducing turnover costs with strong retention, HR’s work is imperative to business goals. We’ll discuss how supporting an employee through their entire employee journey drives retention and therefore business results.
   

5. What do you hope attendees walk away with after your sessions at Wisconsin SHRM 2025?

   
   

   I hope attendees feel inspired from the sessions to focus on the right things as an HR professional. We have the incredible opportunity to directly impact the workplace of our team members for the better. I hope they will walk away committed to providing a great employee journey with understanding the actionable ways we can impact it from the ”The Power of Employee Experience: How HR Can Shape a Thriving Workplace Across Every Touchpoint” session.

   
   

   When leaving the “Tactical vs. Strategic HR: Finding the Balance for Business Success” attendees should feel more confident in balancing their work so it both gets things done day to day but also considers the larger picture of how their HR work impacts the business and employees long term.

Meet Kayla:

In her role as VP of Operations at Workforce Solutions, Kayla and her team have the privilege of providing HR consulting and recruiting services to business owners, fellow HR professionals, or anyone who just doesn't have the resources to fully execute their HR strategy.