In this episode, Lauren Lewis sits down with Laura Azzarella, PHR, MS HRM, an experienced HR professional and leader in the Buffalo HR community, to talk about employee relations, leadership, data, AI, and how the role of Human Resources continues to evolve. Laura's path into HR was not exactly planned. A first-generation college student originally studying media production, Laura found an HR assistant position while looking for a new job. What started as an opportunity to try something different turned into a career focused on people, leadership development, employee relations, and making complicated HR topics easier to understand. As Laura puts it, she likes to make HR make sense. Together, Lauren and Laura discuss: Laura's unexpected journey into Human Resources The Pain Points of navigating difficult employee situations Why HR professionals spend so much time operating in the gray Working in HR across manufacturing, higher education, and professional services Using data to identify problems within an organization The importance of protecting your professional reputation and not burning bridges Why AI-generated information still needs human oversight Laura's involvement with the Buffalo Niagara Human Resources Association Creating practical resources for emerging HR professionals A major part of the conversation focuses on AI and its growing role in the workplace. Laura has been experimenting with generative AI since its early days and sees it as another tool HR professionals can use to work more effectively. Instead of replacing the human side of HR, she believes technology can take repetitive and administrative tasks off someone's plate so they have more time for strategic work and real conversations. But using AI also comes with responsibility. Laura and Lauren discuss why professionals still need to understand the fundamentals of their field. AI can provide an answer that sounds completely confident and still be wrong. When you're dealing with employment law, employee relations, investigations, or someone's career, simply accepting an AI-generated answer is not enough. You still have to check the work. They also discuss some of the new challenges AI creates for employers, including generated images, altered information, workplace investigations, and the need to think carefully about what employees and companies upload into these tools. Beyond technology, this episode gets into what HR is really about: people. Sometimes an attendance problem has a bigger story behind it. Sometimes an employee struggling at work needs resources or support. Sometimes HR has to make a difficult decision that an employee is not going to like. The challenge is knowing how to listen, understand the situation, protect the organization, support employees, and make the best decision possible with the information available. Laura also shares her approach to leadership and why she does not believe being a leader means being the best at everything. Instead, great leaders surround themselves with people who bring different strengths, perspectives, and skills to the table, then give those people the opportunity to succeed. Whether you're an HR professional, business owner, manager, emerging leader, or simply curious about how AI is changing the workplace, this episode offers a practical and very human look at where HR is headed. 💼 Connect with Laura Azzarella LinkedIn: Laura Azzarella, PHR, MS HRM Applied Potential Solutions: appliedpotentialsolutions.com Laura is also developing an Employee Relations 101 course designed to make topics like investigations, progressive discipline, ADA, FMLA, and difficult workplace conversations more approachable for HR professionals. 🤝 Connect with StaffBuffalo & Pain Points Podcast Website: staffbuffalo.com More Episodes: staffbuffalo.com/painpoints
