Faces of HR: From Frontline to C-Suite—Ray Smith’s Passion for People

Ray Smith’s journey to becoming a leading HR professional is a testament to her unwavering commitment to people. Her career, marked by a deep-rooted passion for creating inclusive and high-performing workplaces, has spanned diverse industries, from hospitality to healthcare. Starting as a frontline worker, Smith witnessed firsthand the impact of leadership decisions on employees and developed a strong desire to amplify underrepresented voices.

With over two decades of experience, Smith has honed her skills in organizational development, culture transformation, and leadership development. Her ability to navigate complex challenges and lead large teams has been instrumental in driving positive change. As Senior Vice President of People and Culture at The Arbinger Institute, she is at the forefront of shaping business culture for better performance and lasting results.

Additionally, Smith’s dedication to diversity, equity, and inclusion is exemplified by her work on the Champions of Health Care Award-winning project with CommonSpirit Health and Morehouse School of Medicine. Her ability to forge partnerships and drive impactful initiatives demonstrates her commitment to creating a more equitable world.

Ultimately, as a change agent, Smith inspires others to reach their full potential. Her career is a testament to the power of HR in driving business success while creating a positive impact on the lives of employees.

In our latest Faces, meet Ray Smith.

Who is/was your biggest influence in the industry?

Johnny C. Taylor, President and CEO of SHRM, is someone I admire in the industry. He does a fantastic job of positioning HR functions as strategic partners and is changing the way people view HR. I’ve read his book Reset twice.

What’s your best mistake and what did you learn from it?

The best mistake I’ve made in my career was making sweeping process changes within my first 30 days at a new company without assessing what was working, understanding the business model, or getting any buy-in from anyone. I made all these changes, drafted an email outlining them, and sent it out to leadership with an immediate effective date.

Although these changes were all eventually adopted, what I didn’t think of at the time was how this was going to make everyone who had been at the company much longer than I had, feel. I ended up alienating several colleagues, unintentionally invalidating the work that had been done before I joined and causing the CEO’s phone to blow up with complaints. It was a mess, but I learned several valuable lessons:

• Take time to understand the company and how it operates.
• Enter with a curious mind, asking questions to gain insight not judgment.
• Identify stakeholders and align with them to determine the best way to support them.
• Gain buy-in for changes based on the information gathered. Then explain why.
• Don’t let your ego prevent you from owning your mistakes.
• Always be ready to pivot when operational needs change.

What’s your favorite part about working in the industry? What’s your least favorite part, and how would you change it?

My favorite part of working in this industry is, without a doubt, getting to see the impact I’m making, whether it be on individual people or the organization. Getting to say that I’ve touched an employee’s life in a positive way, or changed this policy to be more inclusive reinforces that the work I’m doing matters and has a larger purpose.

My least favorite part is keeping up with ever-changing state and federal regulations. While it’s an important part of the job, generally, more regulations mean more reporting, more paperwork, and more leadership education. Most people don’t enjoy hearing about how a “small” change in a regulation change how they need to approach certain ways of working. It is always a bit of a balancing act. Although, we need to communicate why the regulation is important and why we need to comply with it. It can be difficult to maintain a balance between changing regulations, communications, compliance, and day-to-day operations.

I’m excited about the change that I’ve seen in HR over the last few years, but more can be done. If I could say I would like to change one specific thing, it would be that more people truly understand the impact a solid human resource department can have. There are still people who see HR as just the personnel department that handles the hiring and firing. HR is much more than that. The HR department can be a key strategic partner to the overall operation and companies that embrace that are going to see much more success than those that don’t.

It sounds like through your experience you really care about people, and you want to help them feel safe and comfortable, which is important in the industry. Please elaborate here.

As HR professionals, we want to ensure that when employees come to work, they feel safe and comfortable enough to share their ideas, have differing opinions from their colleagues, and provide feedback to leadership, among many other things. Our goal is to create a culture where employees are empowered to take ownership of their career and growth trajectory. Developing that positive culture where everyone is included, and individuals are sharing their diverse perspectives ultimately benefits the organization and makes them more successful. I have an open-door policy and employees know that they can come to me to talk about all sorts of things – work-related or not. That safe environment starts from the top.

How can HR most effectively demonstrate its value to the leadership team?

It goes back to being a strategic partner. HR professionals must demonstrate how much of an impact culture can have on the ongoing success of an organization. The more often HR has a seat in the strategic and financial meetings, the stronger the company will be. Once executives see the HR department as an extension of the operations team, that’s when they truly see the value of HR.

Where do you see the industry heading in five years? Or are you seeing any current trends?

In five years, people will see HR departments in a more strategic light—even more than they do now. More organizations are going to rely on HR to find cutting-edge solutions to help with accountability, efficient utilization of company financial resources, progressive thinking, and collaboration. In five years, we’ll see more people in the HR space having a seat at the table for those bigger, more strategic discussions.

In addition to following that trend, I’m also following the trend of AI in HR. I feel strongly that AI should never replace HR, because HR is people-centric and should have a truly human perspective, but I think it’s important that people who want to be successful moving forward learn how to embrace AI and use it to their benefit.

What are you most proud of?

My favorite part of the job is seeing the impact a solid HR department can have on someone. In a previous role, we had a situation with a new hire. For the first few weeks, the employee was exceptional. But when we hit a little after the 30-day mark, they started showing up late and with a very negative attitude.

The manager had been working with the HR generalist but since the employee was on their third strike, the supporting paperwork was brought to me for final termination approval. The manager was ready to fire them. After reviewing the termination file, speaking with the generalist and the manager, I encouraged the manager to take a beat, and offered to connect with this employee to see if there was something deeper happening that we didn’t know about. I suspected there was something else going on because of the dramatic shift in their performance in such a short amount of time.

When we brought this employee in, they were very defensive. After the manager explained why we were having the meeting, the employee lashed out a bit. And once they settled down, I interjected and asked them outright if there was a deeper explanation for their sudden change in behavior. It was then that they broke down, explaining that they had just recently lost their home, were living in their car with their child and were struggling to find a place to shower and drop their child off before coming to work. The employee was worried about losing their child, their car, and on top of all that, they were now worried about losing their job.

At this company, we had recently established an emergency assistance fund that we were able to utilize and assist in getting the employee back on their feet. Once their personal life stabilized, they went back to that employee we originally hired.

While this might not seem like some monumental HR feat, it’s the perfect example of the impact HR can have on just one person. By taking the time to talk with them and see them as human beings, we were able to come to a solution that really helped this employee and became a teaching moment for not only that manager but for other managers as well. It also taught the HR staff about the importance of being curious. It’s important to remember in HR that if we don’t ask, we don’t know what’s happening with people behind the scenes. Take the time to ask.

Do you have any advice for people entering the profession?

HR is a people business, so be open to meeting new people and networking. Don’t be afraid to reach out to someone who is in a position you’d like to be in one day and have a conversation with them about how they got there. Most everyone in an executive role in HR remembers where they started and is willing to share what they’ve learned with others. And while everyone’s career journey is different, hearing what worked for other people can help you create your own path.

Focus on building relationships outside of the industry. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve met along the way that I’ve stayed in touch with, and we have become each other’s champions and resources. I know I can reach out to them to ask questions, seek advice, find a new perspective or just bounce an idea off them. People do not understand just how valuable those relationships really are.

Most importantly, be your authentic self. You bring a unique perspective based on your lived experiences and everything that makes you, YOU. A company can find all sorts of HR professionals who have a ton of knowledge but what they can’t find is everything that makes you unique. Bring that person to the table.

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