Marsha John-Greenwood will speak at HR Leaders Summit on November 10
Employee expectations are evolving faster than many organizations can react to, and that shift has made anticipation and alignment core responsibilities for HR leaders, according to Marsha John-Greenwood, VP People and Culture at TIFF.
As a result, what sets the tone for her work is not reacting once challenges arrive but staying ahead of them. That awareness shapes both policy and leadership readiness, ensuring organizations can respond quickly without losing consistency for employees, she says.
“It’s important that we keep not just informed but keep abreast of things that could come up and be aware of what’s happening around us in our immediate environment,."
John-Greenwood will speak at HRD's HR Leaders Summit on November 10 about HR’s shift from compliance to anticipation. In a fireside chat with Lawrence Hughes, Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer at Porter Airlines, she will explore how strategic planning and a future-focused mindset can shape policies and communication frameworks that help leaders act quickly while maintaining stability for employees.
“For me, the key thing about being an HR leader is being close to the business, understanding not just what's operationally required, but also looking ahead and aligning that to strategy,” she says.
Bridging the gap between strategy and employee expectations
However, John-Greenwood makes it clear there is no single silver-bullet strategy for staying ahead of workforce challenges.
“We can't just look at who we're recruiting and bringing in; we're not just looking at how our benefits fare in the world,” she says.
Instead, John-Greenwood maps what she calls the “horizontal and vertical” – the lifecycle of recruitment, development and performance, alongside the enablers that allow employees to engage, like technology and tools. That view has led to prioritizing leadership capability.
“If our leaders and our managers are not delivering, if they don’t have the tools, resources, and support, then the employees are the ones who will immediately feel that there’s a disconnect between what’s been said at the top and what’s happening in day to day,” she explains.
Managers are, in her words, the “spongy layer” between executives and employees, absorbing pressure from both directions. Their resilience, resources and messaging determine whether the organization can adapt at the pace employees now expect, says John-Greenwood.
This urgency is heightened by the collapse of patience among workers, a shift she links directly to 2020–2022, when tolerance for slow responses evaporated. For HR, that means giving managers tools and frameworks to act swiftly without reinventing processes each time.
“People have no patience; they ask for something, they expect it to be happening very quickly, which is a very interesting dynamic,” she says.
Leading with calm and honest communication
John-Greenwood also highlights total rewards as an area where employee expectations are evolving.
“Total rewards is bigger than just salary and benefits. It’s wider than that. It starts to incorporate things around DEI as well, because that plays a huge part in how people, especially employees, see the organization,” she says.
These broader definitions of value are shaping how TIFF reinforces its employee proposition.
But sustaining credibility requires more than policies or programs. Leaders must project steadiness, she says.
“That word 'calm' is really important,” she says. “When I started in the field, I had a very different lens, but now, I believe that nothing’s insurmountable. We can definitely find a way.”
John-Greenwood stresses that employees need honesty, even when solutions aren’t immediate:
“Communicating that you’ve actually listened or you are looking into something, and it’s not that there’s some sort of deathly silence and no one says anything, is essential,” she says.
Positioning HR as an integral part of business leadership
For her, maintaining calm also means avoiding overexposure of HR as the single voice. Instead, she often channels communication through other leaders, reinforcing shared accountability across the organization.
Ultimately, John-Greenwood wants HR seen not as an add-on but as inseparable from business leadership.
“Yes, we have a function that’s called HR, but at the end of the day, it’s the business outcomes that we’re trying to deliver,” she explains. “Yes, we have a people lens, but we are business leaders, and to that end, we have to present ourselves in that way.”
The HR Leaders Summit will be held on November 10 and 11. Register here.
