Context is the new currency for HR

SummaryA top performer walks out the door at Qualtrics holding an outside offer for double their salary. Michael MacArthur, then Head of People, has a choice: pretend the market is wrong, or admit the comp process was. His read, years later from the COO seat at Recharge: the 2x counter-offer isn't a market signal. It's an audit finding.This is one of the cleanest diagnostics we've heard for whether a comp process is really working. And it's the same logic Michael applies to AI, engagement, and the build-versus-buy questions every HR leader is wrestling with right now. The unifying argument: context, not better tools, is the layer that separates the HR teams winning with AI from the ones spinning cycles.Timestamps01:00 Michael's path from sales comp to head of people at Qualtrics to COO at Recharge03:00 The Qualtrics dysfunction: forced curves and 18-month time-in-seat gates04:00 The "double their salary" diagnostic signal for a broken comp process06:30 Recharge's fix: 6-month cash cycle, no forced curve, multi-level calibration10:00 Process transparency versus salary transparency13:00 Nectar's anonymous follow-up and the context thesis for AI in HR14:30 Why Anthropic's engagement score doesn't matter to Recharge16:00 Build versus buy on the people side: when trust outweighs context21:30 The CEO move that put Recharge's exec team on terminals23:00 Audit the workflow before you prompt the modelTakeaways- The fastest test that your comp process is broken: a leaving employee getting offered double their current salary at the next job.- Forced curves and time-in-seat promotion gates work at 250 employees. They quietly stop working at 2,500.- AI value in HR shows up in context-gathering, not dashboards. Anonymous follow-up conversations beat static survey scores.- Internal-historical engagement trends beat external benchmarks. Anthropic's engagement score doesn't tell you what's happening on your team.- Audit the workflow before you prompt the model. Most failed AI projects in HR are unmapped-workflow problems, not tooling problems.Connect with the GuestLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mimcarthur/Recharge: https://getrecharge.com/about/SponsorThis episode is brought to you by Kinfolk, the AI service desk built for HR.See more at kinfolkhq.com