Joanne Rodgers, the CHRO of New York Life, began her career in compliance and worked as a securities regulator.
“If you watched ‘The Wolf of Wall Street,’ that was my case,” Rodgers told HR Dive.
Rodgers found her way into HR by way of a short stint in corporate strategy. Since then, she’s done pretty much “anything and everything” within the HR space, before assuming the CHRO role.
“I have the greatest job in the world. I am right in the center of people and culture,” Rodgers said.
Editor’s note: This conversation was edited for clarity and length.
HR DIVE: How is the role of HR changing?
JOANNE RODGERS: Now is the greatest time to be in HR, because I feel like there is so much going on around transformational work, whether or not that’s related to AI or evolving how organizations operate. HR is really front and center. I’ve seen a shift where we were always a partner, but now we are really driving thought leadership in many spaces. We’re ultimately driving business outcomes.
What is your approach to leading change?
When you think about any organizational change, it really is about people, and I really think it's about preparing them with the mindset, skill set and tool set.
Do you have any advice for other organizations on AI adoption?
We’re very fortunate. Our CEO is very forward-thinking and really sees the power of AI. What I would say for leaders who maybe don’t have that buy in is “keep pushing,” because AI is here and it is guaranteed to stay.
You have to get the tools in people’s hands. Start small if you need to. Give a subset of people those tools and then really prove out that there is excitement and engagement around that.
I go back to this concept of mindset. This is not deploying a technology tool; this is deploying a whole new way of thinking and working.
What are you excited about on the HR front?
I don’t want to be repetitive, but everything is all AI. As a leader, I have to come up with a three-year strategic plan of how we’re going to leverage AI in HR. It’s really exciting capitalizing on some of the momentum that’s in our organization but also thinking about how we can reimagine some of the work and think big and think differently.
What are you interested in outside of work?
I love music. I love live music. I like going to concerts. I’m getting my lineup ready for this year.
When I think about decompressing, anything to do with the beach. I am such a summer girl, so I love just relaxing at the beach. We got a relatively new puppy, Guinness, and it’s fun to take him to the beach. Everything to him is so new, and he loves to dig.
