For years, HR leaders have talked about earning a seat at the executive table.
But according to Andrew Bartlow, the better question is what they do once they get there.
That is the focus of the latest episode of Let’s Table That, the HR podcast from Borderless AI. In “How HR Leaders Actually Earn a Seat at the Executive Table,” hosts Jazmine and Glaze sit down with Bartlow, Founder of People Leader Accelerator, for a practical conversation about credibility, business outcomes, and what separates HR leaders who attend executive meetings from those who shape them.
Bartlow brings more than 30 years of HR leadership experience, including roles at PepsiCo and General Electric, and has helped companies through IPOs, mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, and periods of rapid growth. He also helped scale Invitation Homes from $500 million to $25 billion before founding People Leader Accelerator, where he helps HR leaders become stronger business operators.
The episode, recorded live at the Transform Conference, challenges one of the most familiar frustrations in people leadership: the feeling that HR is invited into strategic conversations too late, or treated as the function that documents decisions after they have already been made.
Bartlow argues that credibility matters more than permission. HR leaders who want influence need to connect their work directly to business priorities, rather than presenting people programs as standalone initiatives. The difference is not whether HR is in the room. It is whether HR can help the company make better decisions once the conversation starts.
The episode also explores why some HR leaders get stuck acting as “cruise directors,” focused on engagement activities, employee sentiment, and internal programming, without tying that work clearly to growth, performance, execution, or risk. Those activities may matter, but they rarely create executive-level influence unless they are linked to outcomes the business already cares about.
For founders and CEOs, the conversation is a reminder that people strategy should not be reduced to administration or culture-building. In a scaling company, workforce planning, leadership capability, hiring discipline, performance management, and organizational design are business levers. Treating them as secondary can slow a company down at exactly the moment it needs sharper execution.
Bartlow also speaks candidly about his own entrepreneurial experience, including building and shutting down a SaaS product. It is a useful detour because it reinforces one of the episode’s broader lessons: passion is not the same as product-market fit, and good intentions are not enough. Whether building software or leading HR, the work has to solve a real business problem.
For Canadian tech companies navigating leaner teams, tighter capital, global hiring, and the rapid adoption of AI, the discussion lands at a timely moment. The people function is being asked to support faster change with fewer resources, while still helping companies attract talent, retain key employees, develop leaders, and adapt how work gets done.
That makes HR’s executive role more important, not less. But the path to greater influence is not simply asking to be included. It is building the business fluency, operating discipline, and credibility needed to help lead the company.
At its core, Bartlow’s message is direct: HR leaders earn influence by moving beyond facilitation and into decision-making.
The seat at the table matters. What matters more is being ready to use it.
Watch the full episode of Let’s Table That below.
Borderless AI is a sponsor of Techtalent.ca. Through its Let’s Table That series, the company is featuring conversations with leaders about work, people, and the realities of building modern teams.