Exploring the Golden Age of HR: Insights from the CHRO & People Leaders Community Roundtable with Madan Nagaldinne

The latest session of the CHRO & People Leaders Community Roundtable brought together senior HR and operations leaders for an in-depth discussion with Madan Nagaldinne, Partner of People Practices at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).

With more than two decades of experience leading people strategy across global organizations - including Amazon, Facebook, Compass, and Paxos - Madan offered a practical and forward-looking view of how the HR function is evolving from an operational role to a true strategic engine for company growth.

From Operations to Strategic Ownership

Madan highlighted that the most effective HR leaders today take ownership of the systems and decisions that shape their company’s talent strategy. Beyond traditional HR tasks, their impact now lies in designing systems that drive talent excellence - from hiring frameworks and compensation philosophies to internal communications and organizational design.

At a16z, he focuses on helping founders and executives of portfolio companies win from a talent and people perspective, defining strategies that shape how companies attract, reward, and retain top performers.

He encouraged people leaders to think of themselves as strategic partners rather than support functions, directly responsible for measurable outcomes such as hiring quality, engagement, and retention. A true people leader, he emphasized, should be able to look across the organization and ask: What roles are missing from our executive design? Where do we have overlapping strengths? And how does our leadership structure align with where the company wants to go?

Owning the Science of Hiring

A major theme was reimagining hiring as a data-driven science, not an intuition game. Madan analyzed how many companies still rely on unstructured interviews and inconsistent evaluation methods, leading to misalignment and bias.

He contrasted this with leading tech and scale-up companies that have transformed hiring into a repeatable, data-driven science. Their methods combine assessment of past performance with structured problem-solving exercises, such as take-home tests, that reveal how candidates think and approach challenges.

He noted that introducing even one well-designed assignment early in the interview process can dramatically reduce bias and increase hiring accuracy. Post-hire reviews are equally important: evaluating whether recent hires have created measurable impact helps refine future decisions and strengthens HR’s strategic position within the organization.

Owning this process means owning the science of talent - knowing what makes a great hiring decision, why it works, and how to replicate it.

Compensation, Leveling, and Organizational Design

Another recurring theme was compensation - an area where HR leaders often underestimate their influence. Madan underlined that understanding compensation is a leadership competency, not just an HR specialty.

He recommended developing a concise, two-page compensation philosophy that outlines how the company pays, promotes, rewards, and manages underperformance. This transparency helps build trust across teams and establishes HR as a strategic voice at the leadership table.

Compensation, he noted, should always be data-driven and impact-based: identifying who the top performers are, how their contributions are rewarded, and where the organization needs to realign incentives.

Simplified leveling also plays a key role, especially for startups. Madan shared a practical framework with three categories:

1. Early-stage – professionals still building expertise;

2. Mid-career – individuals skilled in multiple areas, comfortable with ambiguity;

3. Expert – those with deep mastery and leadership readiness.

This clarity helps ensure fairness, alignment, and scalability as the company grows.

AI Transformation as People Transformation

A core theme of the discussion was the relationship between AI and HR. Madan positioned AI transformation inherently as a people transformation, emphasizing that HR leaders will play a central role in guiding this shift.

He pointed out that as AI unlocks new productivity gains, organizations will need to reassess structures, roles, and workloads - making HR’s voice essential in shaping these strategies. HR leaders should also champion the responsible adoption of AI tools, navigating constraints from legal or IT teams while ensuring their organizations keep pace with change.

He also noted a crucial shift in language: “years of experience” are becoming less relevant than “years of expertise.” In an AI-enabled economy, hiring and evaluation will increasingly value skill depth, adaptability, and learning agility.

Transparency, he added, remains the cornerstone of engagement: employees want clarity about company performance, their own progress, and investor sentiment. When those elements are communicated openly, teams are more likely to stay aligned with the mission and culture.

The conversation closed on a shared understanding: this is the golden age of HR, where technology, data, and human insight intersect. For today’s people leaders, the opportunity lies in turning these tools into long-term advantages for their organizations - and shaping the future of work from the inside out.