Moments of impact from Sharon Pollard's career
Attivio (acquired by ServiceNow) · HR GeneralistAs the sole recruiter at Attivio, I was tasked with scaling headcount from roughly 50 to 135+ employees within 18 months, a mandate directly tied to the company's strategic shift into AI-powered search. The steepest challenge was hiring for hard-to-fill NLP/ML engineering roles that had remained open for 6+ months, at a time before modern automation and advanced ATS technology existed to ease the burden. To meet this challenge, I built a direct sourcing pipeline specifically targeting PhD candidates from NLP research labs, recognizing that traditional job postings wouldn't reach this specialized talent pool. I partnered closely with hiring managers to redesign the technical interview loops for ML roles, ensuring the process could accurately assess candidates while remaining efficient. I also launched a targeted employee referral incentive program focused exclusively on ML roles to tap into existing networks. Without the benefit of today's recruiting technology, success hinged on deliberate network and community building, strong hiring manager enablement, and persistence through a long, iterative process. The results were transformative: I grew headcount from 50 to 135+ employees in 18 months and filled more than 20 previously stalled NLP/ML positions. This talent build-out was a critical enabler of Attivio's shift into cognitive search products, directly supporting the strategic direction that ultimately positioned the company for its acquisition by ServiceNow.
CloudZeroAs the AI era fundamentally reshaped how we work, I recognized an urgent need to reimagine our people programs at the intersection of human and machine. As VP of People & Culture at CloudZero, I saw that traditional approaches to employee development, mentorship, and performance conversations were no longer sufficient. The challenge was clear: how could I leverage AI to amplify our people initiatives and create a culture where employees took greater ownership of their growth, engaged meaningfully with their managers in developmental conversations, and accessed mentorship at scale? I threw myself into the uncomfortable and designed an entirely new AI-native platform to foster these behaviors. Starting with a clear vision of how employees and managers needed to interact—from quarterly developmental touchpoints to ongoing mentorship connections—I taught myself Claude Code and began building. Over four weeks, I partnered cross-functionally with Revenue Engineering to brainstorm feature solutions and deploy code, while collaborating with our Security team to ensure safe architecture throughout the platform. I learned to integrate code and feature updates into GitHub, committing and pushing 48 pull requests from concept to launch. The results were transformative: 100% of employees and their managers now conduct quarterly developmental 1:1s (Touchpoints) through the platform, and 100% of people leaders have completed their mentor/mentee profiles within the mentorship module, ready to be paired. What began as an experiment in building at the intersection of people practice and AI became a fundamental shift in how CloudZero approaches employee development—proving that HR leaders can be builders, not just buyers, of the technology that shapes workplace culture.
Trove invited me to join a panel discussion as an HR leader with direct experience navigating AI transformation and its impact on talent acquisition and the candidate landscape. They specifically asked me to share my observations and experiences witnessing the AI era unfold across internal roles and external positions, and to address the evolving art of recruiting in the modern day. This recognition positioned me as a thought leader in an area where many HR professionals are still finding their footing. To prepare, I drew on the real-time workplace transformation I was actively managing at CloudZero, where AI was being fully leveraged across the organization. I synthesized insights from employee behavior I'd been observing—from productivity and engagement shifts to performance impacts—as well as how AI was changing skill requirements from both a recruiting and role scope perspective. I conducted discussions with executive teams and held internal focus groups to develop a nuanced narrative around how employees were adapting to the intersection of AI and human judgment. During the panel, I emphasized that companies should treat AI as an augmentation tool rather than a replacement, and I shared our framework for upskilling employees by pairing technical AI training with critical thinking workshops. I also recommended that recruiters begin evaluating candidates for 'AI fluency' as a baseline skill, signaling a fundamental shift in how we assess talent. The impact exceeded expectations. Over 60 attendees participated, and I received multiple LinkedIn messages afterward from HR leaders and engineers wanting to discuss our AI implementation approach in detail. Trove invited me back for a follow-up event and proposed a longer-term partnership. Beyond that, innovators across diverse industries reached out to engage me as a thought partner on their product development, specifically as it relates to AI adoption and the HR persona. This speaking engagement significantly elevated my visibility and credibility as a strategic voice in the future of work.
Workhuman · Senior Human Experience Strategy PartnerWhen three engineers started the same week at Workhuman and received completely different first-day experiences—one without laptop access until day three—it became clear we needed a formal onboarding program. Managers were uncertain what to cover, and new hires were floundering without structure. This inconsistency was slowing productivity and creating frustration across the Engineering organization. I began by interviewing recent hires and their managers to identify the most critical pain points, then designed a pilot 30-day onboarding experience starting with our Engineering team. Partnering closely with department heads, I identified role-specific competencies and built a first-week curriculum that addressed the most common gaps new hires mentioned—like understanding our product architecture and learning how teams collaborated. The program provided structure, clarity, and a consistent experience for every new engineer. The results were immediate and measurable. Time-to-first-commit for engineers dropped from six weeks to three, and our 90-day new hire survey scores jumped from 3.2 to 4.6 out of 5. Managers reported spending 50% less time answering basic questions, freeing them to focus on higher-value coaching and development. Our VP of Engineering became a vocal champion, telling the exec team the program cut his time spent on new hire logistics in half. A senior designer who joined mid-scale said it was the first company where she felt fully productive by week three instead of floundering for months. What started as a reactive fix became a scalable onboarding machine that transformed the new hire experience.
BrightcoveI created Shine Bright in response to clear gaps employees identified in our performance management approach—specifically, the lack of structured check-in templates and coaching prompts that would help managers lead meaningful development conversations. After mapping out the core elements that were missing, I prototyped the framework with a small group of managers, gathered their feedback, and iteratively refined the model before preparing for a company-wide rollout. I then launched Shine Bright with comprehensive training sessions and a manager toolkit designed to make adoption seamless. The biggest challenge was overcoming manager skepticism around time investment. Many leaders doubted they could fit regular check-ins into already packed schedules. To address this, I built a 15-minute 'quick start' template and enlisted early adopters to share their wins in leadership meetings. This shifted the narrative from viewing check-ins as a burden to recognizing them as a business advantage. I partnered closely with the VP of Talent and our Director of Learning & Development, who championed the rollout, and worked with the leadership team and approximately 40 managers who became the first adopters and advocates across the organization. The results were significant and measurable. Within six months, manager check-in completion rates jumped from 30% to 85%. Employee survey scores around 'feedback' increased by 5 points, while scores around 'manager care' surged by 10 points. Several managers shared that Shine Bright was the first time they felt truly confident leading development conversations. The framework fundamentally transformed how our organization approached performance management and strengthened the manager-employee relationship across the company.
CloudZero · VP, Head of People & CultureWhen I joined CloudZero in May 2024, the company had reached 65 employees with strong market traction and headcount growth signals—but no dedicated HR leadership. The people function had critical gaps: no performance management system, compensation philosophy, talent strategy, career frameworks, structured onboarding, or repeatable hiring practices. Founders were spending valuable time on people issues rather than product and strategy. The company needed modern, scalable people practices to support its next phase of growth. I began with a comprehensive listening tour across employees and leadership to understand pain points and priorities. From there, I developed and launched a full People Strategy anchored in creating a high-performing, inclusive, and highly connected workplace. I prioritized building foundational infrastructure: a compensation framework and Total Rewards strategy rolled out in Q3 2024, a structured onboarding program, and a new ATS to standardize hiring. Critically, I led with a recognition pillar first—establishing trust, respect, and psychological safety as the foundation for all subsequent initiatives. In June 2024, I launched a peer-to-peer recognition program tied to company values, integrated it into Slack, and trained managers on reinforcing desired behaviors. The results have been significant. Despite substantial organizational transformation and multiple product strategy pivots, employee engagement scores (eNPS) have consistently ranged from 82-85%. The recognition program achieved 98% adoption within 90 days and drove a 12-point increase in our Recognition survey metric. Operationally, time-to-hire remains under 30 days across all departments, with new hires reaching meaningful impact within just 14 days. I built a scalable people infrastructure that not only freed leadership to focus on strategic priorities but positioned CloudZero to attract, retain, and develop talent through its next growth stage.