Vialto Partners’ Lisa Buckingham on the transformation of the HR function

Today’s CHRO is asked to design the system of work, not just support it. Lisa M. Buckingham describes the role as architect and orchestrator, blending AI-enabled decision-making with a human experience built on purpose, growth, and psychological safety. In this interview, she discusses culture as a driver of innovation, the move toward skills-based teams, a relationships-first approach with CEOs and boards, and how to turn AI’s potential into measurable results while keeping the enterprise human.

Lisa M. Buckingham is a globally recognized human resources executive with over twenty-five years of experience leading people, culture, and transformation strategies across complex, mission-driven organizations. As Chief People & Culture Officer for Vialto Partners, she leads the company’s global people strategy, driving organizational performance and advancing a culture of inclusion and agility that supports Vialto’s purpose of helping people thrive in a global, mobile world.

What are some of the most significant changes you’ve seen in the HR function over the past 5–10 years?

Over the past decade, HR has been reshaped by two intertwined shifts: digital transformation and redefining the human experience at work. Digitally, the journey has had two stages. Stage one focused on eliminating rote manual processes. Now, AI augments human judgment and decision making. In stage two, on the human side, expectations matured: people need clarity of purpose, flexible work design, continuous growth, and psychologically safe teams. In parallel, organizations discovered the value multiplier of an engaged, purpose-driven workforce.

The mandate now is integration with augmentation as the design principle. Roles and workflows should assume people bring judgment, ethics, and creativity, while systems handle data gathering, pattern detection, and workflow coordination. As leaders, we must enable and build tech fluency, change leadership, and data literacy across the enterprise, as we train systems and people together under governance that keeps the experience fair, transparent, and humane.

In practice, the HR function is becoming the operating system for how work gets done— how capability is built, how culture shows up in everyday decisions, and how value is created at pace.

The headline is a mindset change: HR is no longer a service line; it is a strategic engine that architects the conditions for sustained performance.

Which two or three factors, in your opinion, are most responsible for those changes? How do you see those forces shaping the strategic importance of the CHRO role right now?

The drivers are clear: the ubiquity of AI and data, rising stakeholder expectations, and the new economics of talent.

AI and analytics now inform everyday choices. Stakeholders expect transparency, inclusion, and results, and high-demand skills evolve faster than org charts and headcount plans can absorb. That combination changes the CHRO’s mandate from policy owner to the architect and orchestrator of how work happens.

Architect, because we design the talent operating system: a living skills taxonomy, dynamic team formation, modern learning that favors speed over pedigree, and governance that keeps AI human, ethical, and scalable.

Orchestrator, because we align product, technology, finance, legal, and risk around a single cadence for value creation, adoption, and downside scenarios.

The approach must be pragmatic. We have to weigh buying versus building, to maintain speed without locking into yesterday’s platform. We have to make clear use cases with baselines and timeboxes and push beyond vanity KPIs to true decision-grade metrics, like cycle time, quality, safety, and customer and employee confidence. Done well, technology becomes an amplifier of human insight, not a substitute for it.

This enables people to envision credible pathways to higher-value work, helps leaders make better decisions sooner, and ensures performance is anchored in values that are visible in day-to-day choices. That is where the modern CHRO earns strategic trust.

Some of the most important drivers of human capital value creation, such as culture and well-being, are difficult to measure and may strike some as frivolous. How do you make the case for their importance to others?

Culture is the engine of innovation. It is the lived experience of work, how decisions are made, how risk is discussed, how people feel while doing hard things. And it can be measured.

Look at engagement and pulse trends, regrettable attrition, internal mobility into pivotal roles, decision lead times, and time from concept to first customer impact. When those metrics move in the right direction, culture is creating the conditions for ideas to surface early, be argued well, and move quickly to value.

Let’s take contribution as an example. A strong culture gives experienced executives real freedom to innovate and test new ideas, allowing judgment and pattern recognition to compound. At the same time, trust and psychological safety invite junior talent to share early concepts, ensuring good ideas are not buried but move quickly toward impact, no matter who they come from. That pairing of seasoned perspective with fresh insight widens the option set and accelerates progress. And to create that, we have to become intentional architects of culture. For example, we formalize reverse mentoring so experienced leaders and early-career talent mitigate blind spots together.

In short, culture is not a slogan. It’s how decisions get made. It’s an operating advantage and a financial one, especially in an AI-intensive, high-change environment where learning loops are the currency of performance. When culture invites contribution, equips people with skills, and makes outcomes transparent, innovation becomes repeatable and the business moves faster with higher quality.

Culture doesn’t decorate the strategy. It powers it.

Everyone is trying to figure out AI right now. The potential is transformational, yet many companies are still working to realize ROI. What role do you think CHROs should play in capturing the value of AI and managing its risks?

AI does not just add tools, it rewires how work should be designed. That is why CHROs must lead as architect and orchestrator, as I shared earlier. From there, we can revolutionize workforce design. Hierarchical org charts, in my view, will be gone with the wind. They will be replaced by skill clouds that assemble around the most important initiatives and shift as strategy and client demand move. That requires a deliberate blend of data science and behavioral science to guide team formation, workflow, and decision rights.

Learning needs to be practical and bespoke while tied to outcomes leaders recognize, such as cycle time, quality, safety, customer satisfaction, and employee confidence. Keep humans in the loop wherever judgment, empathy, or accountability are essential. Do this well, and AI amplifies human insight, risk is anticipated, and people see credible paths to higher value work.

Which CEO and board touchpoints are most valuable—and why?

Relationships are everything. The value is less about a calendar slot and more about a high-trust rhythm anchored to a rolling agenda. What matters in touchpoints with the CEO and the board is the quality of the dialogue: framing choices clearly, naming risks and mitigations, and agreeing on commitments.

Public and private boards are more similar than people assume. I have worked with public company boards and private equity boards, and in both settings the expectation is the same: bring the right issues, in the right format, at the right moment. My job is to curate that flow and uphold a no-surprises norm. Technology can organize information, but it does not create trust or repair a strained relationship. That is human work.

If a CHRO does not have strong relationships with the CEO, the board, or peers on the executive team, it is time to take stock and make it a priority:understand concerns, establish a shared context, and rebuild confidence through transparency and follow through. When relationships are strong and materials are decision-ready, the organization moves faster and with fewer surprises. The real measure is durable confidence in strategy, talent, and succession depth. The CHRO should be the steward of that confidence.