Marsh's Christie Rall says organizational design needs to move beyond headcount and ratios and into strategic problem solving
The pace of change at work keeps climbing, and organizations need more agility than ever to keep up. So where does that leave HR? Christie Rall, Partner, Workforce & Rewards at Marsh in Calgary, sees an opening for the function to take a seat at the table on strategy.
"What this has done is really crack open an opportunity for HR at the table because how do organizations enable their strategies? Well, it's through people and it's through the intersection of people and technology and people and process," she said. "So it's a really important moment in time for HR as a strategic enabler of any business."
HRD America has also reported on how HR leaders are taking the wheel on AI as organizations redesign workflows and rethink their structures.
Rall will explore this topic further with other industry leaders when she moderates "The Operating Model Reset: What's Actually Working Under Pressure" at this year's HRFest Canada 2026. Her company, Marsh, is a Gold Sponsor of the festival, which brings together more than 750 HR professionals, executives and innovation leaders to Rebel in Toronto on Nov. 10 and 11, 2026.
As a first-time attendee, Rall shared what she's looking forward to at the event.
"I'm looking forward to everything, and that's a terrible answer, I know, but the opportunity to move from context to context and idea to idea and listen and learn from others," she said.
Why Marsh is joining the conversation
Rall says one of the reasons Marsh wanted to be involved is the chance to talk with HR leaders who are thinking about new things.
"I think the opportunity to engage in dialogue with HR leaders who are pushing the envelope, thinking about new things," she said. "Really robust dialogue and problem solving is always a place that we want to be."
Rall says the timing makes that kind of dialogue especially relevant for HR right now.
"I think what is happening in the world is putting people, roles, role design at the forefront of conversations of how organizations execute their strategy," she said. "How do we enable and execute strategy at pace?"
Executing strategy at pace also raises a question about how work is designed for the future, Rall says, particularly where AI is involved.
"AI and humans, what's a tech skill versus a key human-centric skill that's going to enable our organizations to thrive?" she said.
Related HRD America coverage has looked at redesigning work so people and AI each add what they do best and why coaching, judgment and employee experience matter more now as automation takes over routine HR work.
How operating models shape strategy
Rall's panel at the festival looks at how organizations are structured to carry out strategy. The panel will work through operating model archetypes, from headcount and spans of control to shared services and centres of excellence, and a quick self-assessment will help attendees locate their own structure.
"I think that your model as an organization is what enables a strategy," Rall said. "Organizations are being asked to do fundamentally more with fundamentally different capabilities. And a lot of organizations are operating with structures and practices that were designed for a different era."
Rall says organizations are also dealing with a lot at once.
"We know that organizations are dealing with cost pressures and growth expectation, all the digital and AI disruption and talent constraints, along with all of the geopolitical uncertainty that we live with, particularly in Canada right now," she said.
"It's a fundamentally fascinating problem with no right answer," she said. "This is where I think organizational design gets really, really creative, and we need to elevate it above headcount and above ratios, really into strategic problem solving."
The panel is the part of the festival Rall is most excited about.
"I'm excited as someone who is knee-deep in this content, but also as a practitioner," she said. "It's just the human-to-human moments and knowledge sharing and challenge untangling that is just so important as our world gets more and more complicated."
What she hopes attendees take home
Rall says she hopes attendees will leave the panel with some valuable insights they can apply in their own organizations.
"I hope they get the opportunity to take away real-world experiences that we'll all dive into, and then they can use those lessons in real time in their own practices," she said.
Operating model design, she says, reaches beyond roles.
"It's actually rethinking work for outcomes when work is fundamentally changing, and it is a strategic enabler of a business," she said.
Beyond her own panel, Rall says she hopes attendees will take advantage of all that HRFest Canada has to offer.
"I hope that participants, when they come to HRFest, take away the challenge to flip the script a little bit and to know that you're not working in a bubble, that everybody's in this boat," she said. "There's lots to learn from peers and there's lots to be gained from time together, sharing ideas and challenging each other."
"It's the energy that comes from so many people problem-solving and thinking about new things together in the same space," she added.
HRFest Canada 2026 takes place Nov. 10 and 11 at Rebel in Toronto. Registration is open now.
