HR That Moves the Business: Connecting People Strategy to Results — with Terri Fleener

Plan for Them to Stay: Terri Fleener on HR That Moves the Business

In this post: WCG Clinical talent leader Terri Fleener argues that HR should be the department of yes. She explains why outcomes matter more than hours, why loyalty has to be earned, and why leaders should plan for their high potentials to stay, not just plan to replace them.

Terri Fleener's workday often starts at 4 a.m. It is the only quiet hour in a house with two teenagers and a husband who sleeps late. By 3 p.m., the teenagers are home, on speakerphone, and her world is upside down.

"I can't do a podcast at 3," she said on Activating Greatness, the leadership podcast from Velocity Advisory Group. Her schedule works for her. It would not work for everyone, and that is her point.

Fleener leads talent for WCG Clinical, a private equity-backed clinical trial support organization, and oversees culture for the company. She sees HR as a business driver, not a support function. In her view, leaders who want results should stop managing hours, start earning loyalty, and plan for their best people to stay.

HR Is the Department of Yes

HR has a bad rap, Fleener acknowledged, as the people who say no. She argues the opposite. "We're the yes people," she said. "We want our people to be successful."

That matters because WCG is "a people powered organization," she said. "We're not producing a widget." In clinical trials, change is constant, and AI is adding more of it. "Is this a Terminator or is it a good thing?" she asked. No one knows yet. What she does know is that a company cannot move forward unless its people are empowered to embrace change.

The challenge is that people are unpredictable. Fleener noted that five generations now share the workforce. Some baby boomers "wear burnout like a badge of courage" and see an 80-hour week as a rite of passage. Many younger workers see the same week as a red flag and a reason to leave. They want flexibility, time with family, and lives outside work.

The answer is to meet people in the middle. "It's not one size fits all," she said. "That doesn't work in a clothing store, and it sure doesn't work at business."

Measure Outcomes, Not Status Lights

WCG is a remote-first organization, and Fleener trusts her people to work when it makes sense for them. "You can still measure their results," she said. "Gone are the days of an 8 to 5."

She pushed back on the idea that a green status light equals productivity. During the conversation, her own status showed as away. That did not mean she was idle. A team member on the East Coast may keep Pacific hours. "I don't care as long as we are getting the work done," she said.

Tony Greco found the same thing when he asked his team when they do their best work.

Flexibility has a cost if leaders ignore it. WCG's engagement survey showed that employees love working remotely, and that many feel lonely. Teams now hold virtual cubicle hours, working side by side on video and chatting while they do it. Companies that shed office space, she said, now have to be intentional and planful about bringing people together in person, whether that happens once a quarter or once a year.

Loyalty Has to Be Earned

When executives resist flexibility or investment, Fleener starts with one question: Why? What are you afraid of? The answer shapes the pitch.

She also warns leaders not to be comforted by low turnover. Many employees are holding onto their jobs because the market is tight. When it opens, she said, "people will have choices and they will make choices that are best for them."

Her father spent his whole career at one company. That model is gone. "I couldn't tell you in the last four years one single candidate of the hundreds, if not thousands, that I have talked to that have been with one organization," she said. Her conclusion: "You need to give people a reason to stay."

From Performance Management to Performance Development

Development is one of the strongest reasons. Fleener described the old model: a manager holds feedback all year, then delivers it at the annual review when it is too late to change anything.

"We don't own their performance. They own their own performance, but they don't know what they don't know."

Terri Fleener, Talent and Culture Leader, WCG Clinical

That gap belongs to leaders. Timely feedback, learning opportunities, and leadership programs fill it. Handing someone a book and calling them the next manager does not.

Remote work raises the stakes. "What you cannot be is a micromanager," Fleener said, because a remote leader has no control, only influence. "You just have to trust and verify, but it starts with the trust." Jason Casarella explored the same line between coaching and micromanaging.

The Cost You Cannot Put in a Spreadsheet

When a high performer leaves, the hardest cost to quantify is how the remaining team feels "on Sunday night before they sign in on Monday morning," Fleener said. Morale and culture take a hit. Operations can, too, if that person was a single point of failure who carried knowledge no one had documented.

Her remedy is simple: Keep asking the questions you ask in interviews. What are your interests? Where do you see yourself in five years? "We need to continue to ask those questions," she said.

Rapid-Fire Leadership Lessons

Fleener answered all four questions in under two minutes, the fastest round the show had recorded.

• Daily habit: Empowerment. "If I'm not empowering those around me, I am failing as a leader."
• Most underrated skill: Transparency. "People are starved for truth," she said, and leaders "should trust that they're big enough to handle that."
• Stop doing: Micromanaging. "It's sort of like an abacus," she said. "We don't need that anymore."
• Best advice: "Assume positive intent, but never assume that anyone else is doing that." Explain the why behind your ask so no one has to guess.

The Takeaway: Flip the Succession Plan

Fleener closed with an idea she wants leaders to take into their next budget cycle. Most organizations build succession plans to replace people. She wants the opposite: "planning for your high potentials to stay."

That means programs and conversations designed to keep great employees happy, engaged, and growing, especially the ones who would take knowledge and a following with them. Replacing a leader is a plan for failure. Keeping one is a plan for growth, and it belongs at the center of any HR strategy built to move the business.

Listen to the Full Episode

Hear Terri Fleener's full conversation with host Alec McChesney on Activating Greatness. Watch on YouTube, or listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Follow Terri on LinkedIn.