---
title: "Episode 32: Strategic HR Leadership: Scaling HR From 4 to 30-Plus — with Krista Robinson"
description: Weitz VP of HR Krista Robinson explains how HR scaled from four generalists to 30-plus people, and why strategic HR needs a seat at the executive table.
---

[Activating Greatness Podcast Episodes](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes)

# [Episode 32: Strategic HR Leadership: Scaling HR From 4 to 30-Plus — with Krista Robinson](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/ep-32-strategic-hr-leadership-krista-robinson)

 Written by [Alec McChesney](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/author/alec-mcchesney) | Jun 8, 2026, 8:00:00 AM

## The Business Told Us So: Krista Robinson on Scaling HR From a Team of 4

**In this post:** *Weitz Vice President of HR Krista Robinson shares the strategic HR leadership lessons behind growing a four-person generalist team into a 30-plus person department. She explains why HR needs a seat at the strategy table and how leaders earn it with business acumen.*

When Krista Robinson joined The Weitz Company as an HR generalist, the business partnering model was simple. She supported the commercial group. A counterpart supported the industrial group. Between them, they touched almost everything. What came next is a case study in strategic HR leadership.

"We know somebody's leaving, we did the exit interview, now we know we got to open a req," Robinson said on Episode 32 of *Activating Greatness*, the leadership podcast from Velocity Advisory Group. "Everything is connected, full life cycle, we're handling it."

That intimacy did not survive growth. Today Robinson is Vice President of HR and sits on the executive committee of the general contractor, and her HR department has grown to more than 30 people. As she put it, the move from a generalist model to specialists was easy "because the business told us so."

That phrase holds the argument of the whole conversation. HR earns its influence by reading the business closely, then acting before the strain shows.

## When Recruiting Eats Everything

The first warning sign was recruiting. With hiring sitting on the generalists, a growth spurt swallowed the job whole.

"When we're in growth mode, you're doing nothing but recruiting," Robinson said. "So nothing else gets done. You've brought the new hires on, but you don't have any programming."

The fix started with a dedicated talent acquisition team. HR then paired compensation with benefits, brought learning and development over from strategy, and created an HR operations team to own systems work across the function.

The result is a set of centers of excellence backed by business partners who work directly with each business unit. Robinson called it highly scalable.

She did not pretend the change was painless. "It's as much change management as it is organizational design because you're moving a lot of people's cheese," she said. Standing still was not an option. "You can't stay structured the same way as the business grows around you," she said. "Things start breaking."

"We don't have to rip off a Band-Aid here," she said. "We need a plan and we need to start efforting toward the plan."

## Who Has the Ball

Robinson remembered seeing the whole picture "soup to nuts," and her biggest worry was that the new structure would split into silos.

"When you start breaking out those functions, clarity becomes critical," she said. "You have to clearly define ownership and where are the transition points."

Her team built a responsibility matrix that spells out what sits where. Anything it does not cover becomes a conversation. She also applies a simple test. If HR is still debating who owns something, the business is probably confused about whom to call.

FREE ONE-PAGE CHECKLIST

### The Ownership Clarity Checklist

Use it to map who owns each HR function, define the hand-off points, and spot the gaps that leave the business unsure whom to call.

[Get the free checklist](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/leadership-library/ownership-clarity-checklist)

## Borrowing the CEO's Confidence

Robinson grew into her own role the same way. About 20 months after she arrived, the HR director role opened. She had never led a team or had a direct report. When the incoming CEO asked about her interest, her first thought was "oh no, he's got the wrong gal."

What moved her was her trust in the CEO's judgment of people. "I need to maybe borrow his confidence in this situation," she said.

Leading former peers turned out to be an advantage, since she already had the relationships and credibility. The harder shift was letting go of the work that had defined her success. If you are not careful, she said, you become "the team safety net."

"If I just do it, I'm not doing what they're paying me to do," Robinson said, "and I'm also not allowing the people under me to grow."

That lesson matches the best advice she ever received: "Building strength under you is the key to your success as a leader." Her team, she said, should know more about their areas than she does. Her daily habit, prioritization, means working at the right level. She called communication the most underrated leadership skill, since leading is "more about your ability to rally the troops and make sure everybody's informed than doing the tasks."

She also wants leaders to stop hiding their missteps. When they do, she said, "you've created a culture of pride and self over team," and people learn to hide problems. In high-stakes construction work, that means blowing past stop signs.

## Strategic HR Leadership: Take the Seat, Then Earn It

Robinson's view of strategic HR has two sides. For executives, HR can only shape company direction if it is part of the conversation. Otherwise, she said, decisions are simply prescribed, and "all you can possibly do is react."

> "If you want a strategic HR team, put them at the strategy table."
> 
> *Krista Robinson, Vice President of HR, The Weitz Company*

For HR professionals, the burden is to use the seat. Early in her tenure, Robinson sometimes stayed quiet in executive meetings, unsure whether to trust her own opinion. "In that moment you make yourself administrative because you tell yourself, not my lane," she said. She stopped once she recognized that "everything has a people impact."

Using the seat well requires business acumen: why the company pursues certain work, what margins it targets, and how it makes money. With that context, HR can tell leadership when a strategy looks different on the ground, such as a direction that excites executives when most employees do not want to do that work.

"We need to take off our administrative hats and put on our business hats," she said. "In construction, when our people thrive, our business thrives."

Other guests on *Activating Greatness* have made a similar case. Terri Fleener described [HR that moves the business](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/ep-19-hr-that-moves-the-business-terri-fleener), and Jackie Fisher of Juneau Construction laid out [the business case for culture](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/ep-30-hiring-for-culture-fit-jackie-fisher).

## Learning as a Job Requirement

Robinson treats development as an expectation, and she models it. She talks openly about her mentor and shared lessons from a two-week HR executive program at the University of Michigan with her team. Her argument to a veteran superintendent who sees no reason to keep learning is the industry itself. "If we're building today the same way we were building 20 years ago, we'd be obsolete," she said.

## Frequently Asked Questions

### How do you scale an HR department in a growing company?

Krista Robinson, Vice President of HR at The Weitz Company, moved from a generalist model to specialized centers of excellence. She started with a talent acquisition team, because recruiting consumed generalists during growth, then added compensation and benefits, learning and development, and HR operations. Business partners now support each unit directly.

### What does it mean for HR to be a business driver?

According to Krista Robinson, strategic HR starts with a seat at the executive table and the authority to shape decisions rather than react to them. HR leaders then earn that seat with business acumen: how the company makes money and what growth demands. That context lets HR apply a people lens to every decision.

### How do new managers stop doing the work themselves?

Krista Robinson said new leaders must deliberately carve out time for strategic work, or they become the team safety net. Doing the work yourself means skipping the job you were hired for, and your people stop growing. Her best advice: Building strength under you is the key to your success as a leader.

### How do you build a learning culture on an HR team?

Krista Robinson models it. She talks openly about her mentor, completed a two-week HR executive program at the University of Michigan, and shared the lessons with her team. She also ties learning to the industry, telling employees that building the same way as 20 years ago would leave a construction company obsolete.

HOW VELOCITY HELPS

### Velocity Leadership Development & Emerging Leaders

Robinson learned early that a leader's value shifts from doing the work to building strength in others. Velocity's year-long Emerging Leaders program helps new leaders make that shift through a 70/20/10 model with cohort coaching, reinforcement calls, and a Velocity Coach paired with every participant. Participants practice prioritization, communication, and delegation on real challenges, so they stop acting as the team safety net.

See how Velocity works with [construction teams](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/construction/).

[Explore Leadership Development](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/leadership-development/)

## The Takeaway: Use the Vantage Point

Robinson closed with a challenge to her own profession. "Sometimes as HR people we're humble, but the truth is that we have a vantage point that no one else has," she said.

That vantage point is worth little if it stays quiet. Give HR a real seat at the strategy table, and expect HR leaders to bring business acumen and speak up. When the business tells you something, act before things break.

## Listen to the Full Episode

Hear Krista Robinson's full conversation with host Alec McChesney on *Activating Greatness*. [Find it on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@VelocityAdvisoryGroup), or listen on [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/4LcgAut0KyYiGyDhFvMjPD) and [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1868386871).

FREE GUIDE

### The Humanity Check

Before your next change, test whether it rests on evidence from your own business, and whether you model the honesty about missteps that lets your team surface problems early.

[Get the free guide](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/leadership-library/humanity-check)

[View full post](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/ep-32-strategic-hr-leadership-krista-robinson)

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