Why Most New HR Leaders Fail in Their First 90 Days

In this episode of the HR Leaders Podcast, we sit down with Sarah Stary, Vice President Global Head of People and Organisation and Internal Communications at Swisslog Healthcare.

Sarah breaks down what it really takes to lead transformation in a complex global business. She explains why standardizing the basics, especially onboarding and recruiting, became a high-impact priority, how her team built global consistency with local nuance, and why too many leaders still get distracted by innovation before fixing the fundamentals.

Sarah also shares a more important leadership lesson.

Do not rush to prove your value in the first 90 days.

Instead, she argues that credibility is built by listening, traveling, understanding culture, and making changes that fit the business you are actually in, not the one you just left.

The conversation also explores clear communication, trust-building, team autonomy, shared services, AI adoption, and culture integration inside the broader KUKA group.

🎓 In this episode, Sarah discusses:

1. Why new HR leaders lose credibility when they move too fast before understanding culture
2. How clear communication, in-person trust-building, and local dialogue accelerated buy-in for change
3. How to balance global process consistency with local market realities, customs, and business needs
4. Why standardizing onboarding and recruiting created outsized impact across a fragmented global organization
5. How Swisslog Healthcare is thinking about shared services, AI adoption, product capability building, and values integration with KUKA

🙏‍ Thank you to our series partner - atlas copilot

Meet the AI-native adaptive learning platform that builds the course, teaches the skill, and proves the impact, while work is happening, not weeks later → https://www.atlascopilot.com/

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