The fastest way for HR to become more strategic may be to stop trying to do everything itself.
HR leaders are buried in administration while organizations demand more strategic partnership, technology adoption, change management, and employee leadership. Tony Buffum argues that the answer isn’t building bigger HR kingdoms. It’s building an ecosystem of external partners who can take work off the team’s plate.
In this episode… Tony explains why HR needs to delegate more, use vendors as strategic partners, rethink established processes, and create room to focus on the business problems that actually matter.
Key Takeaways :
HR can’t be strategic while drowning in administration. Payroll, benefits, and other tactical work can consume the time HR leaders need for culture, relationships, and business strategy.
Build an ecosystem instead of building a bigger HR kingdom. Tony argues that external partners can provide specialized expertise without HR having to bring every capability in-house.
Your vendor may know your process better than you do. Some partners have worked through hundreds or thousands of implementations. Instead of telling them, “Here’s our process,” HR should ask, “What should our process be?”
Being a strategic business partner is something leaders should recognize, not HR should announce. Tony describes a CFO who wanted to work with him because he felt like a business partner, not simply “the HR guy.”
Start with the gaps keeping you up at night. Find the work that is consuming your team, identify who can help, and get the right partner involved rather than carrying everything internally.
HR needs to lean into AI now. Tony says HR leaders should help identify the AI strategy and build an adoption strategy, including a sandbox where employees can experiment and learn.
This episode was recorded live at SHRM Annual 2026
The Heroes of HR podcast is a limited series sponsored by isolved.
isolved is an HCM platform that modernizes HR, benefits, and payroll across Healthcare, Hospitality, Manufacturing, and more.
Learn more about isolved: https://www.isolvedhcm.com/
Guest : Tony Buffum
Tony Buffum brings 25 years of HR experience and focuses on helping organizations build and scale freelance talent programs. His core message is simple: HR doesn’t need to own everything to create more strategic value
LinkedIN : https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-buffum-hrexecutive/
The Heroes of HR Podcast is hosted by
Amy Miller, Product Evangelist at isolved
https://www.linkedin.com/in/amycmiller/
Ryan Leary, Co-founder at WRKdefined
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanleary/
William Tincup, Co-founder at WRKdefined
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tincup/
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