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On the AllVoices Reimagining Company Culture podcast, we sat down with Josh Dazel, Vice President of Human Resources at Skai, to dig into running an authentic, employee-centric HR function. Josh Dazel [he/him] is a white, cis, gay male living in Los Angeles, CA, with 15+ years of experience in People Operations in both start-up and established global technology companies. Josh received a master's degree in Organization Development from Pepperdine University in 2013 and is an avid Barry's Bootcamp, music, and theater enthusiast.
The conversation moves past the usual talking points. Instead of treating authentic hr as an HR theme, Josh Dazel treats it as an operational discipline that sits in the daily decisions managers make about people, priorities, and trust. Below, the takeaways HR leaders, employee relations specialists, and executive teams will find most useful.
The discussion below pulls on several threads from the episode and connects them to current research and what AllVoices sees across hundreds of People teams.
What Authentic HR Looks Like in Practice
Authentic HR is one of those words HR teams use freely, but the on-the-ground version is much messier. In the conversation with Josh Dazel, several patterns showed up that mirror what SHRM's research on workplace priorities also highlights about effective people work. The gap between the slide-deck version and the daily practice is where most programs fall apart.
The data backs the case. Gallup engagement findings on US workforce shows that organizations treating authentic hr as a real discipline outperform peers on engagement, retention, and the cultural metrics that matter most over a multi-year horizon. Companies that treat it as messaging see short-term lift and long-term decline.
For HR leaders building Human Resources programs, that means starting with the everyday touchpoints where authentic hr either lands or fails: hiring loops, onboarding, manager 1:1s, and performance conversations. These are the places where intention turns into experience, and where employees decide whether they trust the company enough to stay, speak up, and do their best work.
The pattern across high-functioning HR teams is consistent. They write fewer policies, run more pilots, and spend more time in conversation with managers who are actually doing the work. That discipline is harder than rolling out a campaign, but it is the difference between authentic hr as a phrase and authentic hr as a result.
How HR Teams Make Authentic HR Operational
The shift from concept to operation is where most teams stall. Two questions usually surface in workshops with People leaders.
Where should authentic hr live in the org?
Ownership matters. Programs that sit only with HR rarely get traction. The strongest organizations pair central ownership in HR with distributed accountability across people managers, with a feedback loop into leadership. Employee Relations can help build the capacity to run that distributed model without losing visibility, and gives the People team a single place to track what is actually happening.
What does success look like in 12 months?
Most teams need a one-year mark with concrete outcomes: a measurable change in employee engagement scores, a defined set of policy and process changes, and named owners for the work. Without that, the program drifts and budget questions become harder to defend. The honest version of a 12-month plan also includes two or three things you tried and decided not to repeat.
What Actually Works When You Lead Authentic HR
Three patterns repeat across People teams that get this work right. The principles cut across industry and company size.
Default to action, not announcements
If a problem can be fixed with a process change, do that first. Comms is downstream of substance.
Tell people what's actually happening
Even bad news travels better when employees hear it from HR than the rumor mill. Treat people like adults.
Audit your own credibility
If employees don't trust HR, the cause is usually a backlog of unresolved issues, not a messaging problem. Fix the backlog first.
These three principles also depend on the underlying culture. Without a baseline of employee relations function, most operational changes get rejected by the organization's immune system. Build the foundation first.
Where Employee Relations Fits Into Authentic HR
Whatever the topic, employee relations sits underneath. Authentic HR programs that ignore the ER reality get blindsided by a case that should have been resolved early. AllVoices builds investigations management and HR case management so HR teams can connect the surface-level work on authentic hr to the deeper work of resolving issues, tracking patterns, and acting on what employees raise. The two are tightly linked: when employees see issues handled fairly, they trust the rest of the work too.
How ER data informs Authentic HR strategy
Issue patterns, response times, and resolution outcomes give HR a clearer picture than survey data alone. When the ER data is integrated into Employee Engagement workflows, leaders can see how authentic hr translates into the lived experience of employees who raise concerns, and what to do about it. The teams that move fastest tend to review case themes monthly and feed those insights into the broader people strategy, instead of treating ER as a separate, reactive function.
For a real example, see Harbor Freight's ER consolidation. The same pattern applies: connect the strategic intent of authentic hr to the operational rhythm where ER, HR, and managers actually meet employees.
Frequently Asked Questions About Authentic HR
What does authentic HR mean?
Authentic HR means HR that prioritizes substance over optics. The function fixes real problems, communicates honestly, and builds trust by following through. It's HR that employees see as on their side.
How is authentic HR different from traditional HR?
Traditional HR often focuses on compliance and risk management. Authentic HR keeps those, but adds clear advocacy for employees, transparent communication, and visible follow-through on issues raised.
How do you measure HR's credibility?
Track engagement scores on items like "I trust HR to handle issues fairly," exit interview themes, time-to-resolution on cases, and the volume of issues raised through formal channels.
What kills HR credibility fastest?
Cases that get reported and never get answered. Even unfavorable answers are better than silence. Silence tells employees the system doesn't work.
Can HR be both employee advocate and company representative?
Yes, but only with explicit operating principles. Most authentic HR teams advocate hard for fair process, transparent communication, and fast action, even when the business prefers slower or quieter.
The Bottom Line for HR Leaders
Authentic HR is not a posture. It's a set of decisions, repeated over time, by people who control budgets, promotions, calendars, and the daily experience of work. The HR leaders who get traction stop treating this as a campaign and start treating it as ongoing operational practice. That reframing matters because it changes how you measure success and where you put your energy week to week.
That shift requires data, follow-through, and a clear point of view. SHRM's research on workplace priorities and the broader research community make the business case clearer every year. The companies that act on it consistently win on retention, culture, and outcomes that show up on the financial statement. The ones that keep treating the work as branding tend to lose ground quietly, then noisily.
The conversation with Josh Dazel is a useful reminder that the work is doable. None of it requires a huge HR team or a massive budget. It requires clear thinking, consistent execution, and the willingness to adjust when the data tells you to. Pair that mindset with the right tooling and the right partners, and authentic hr stops being aspirational and becomes a measurable part of how the business runs.
Want to see how AllVoices supports HR teams running this work? Book a demo.
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