Trisha Conley
Executive Vice President, People and Culture (CHRO)
LyondellBasell
SEPTEMBER 2024
Trisha Conley, Executive Vice President, People and Culture (CHRO) at LyondellBasell, says she “fell into HR by accident.” She intended to become a journalist, but after entering a tough job market after college, she took an office manager position at a home security company where she became the “de facto HR person.” This role inspired Trisha to obtain her MBA in human resources, and she never looked back.
Trisha had a mission to become a CHRO, and over the past 25 years, she climbed the career ladder, earning her seat at the table and making a name for herself as a disruptor. Here she shares her HR journey, advice for change leadership and views on AI as it disrupts the business landscape.
I wanted to be a CHRO. It was the top decision maker for all things people-related, and I was going to do what it took to get there.”
The Journey to HR Leadership
Trisha says her HR career truly began at Mutual of Omaha, where she gained foundational HR experience. She then received an opportunity to join BP in Chicago, where she spent 19 years in various roles navigating the nuances of a big oil company. During this time, Trisha says, “I kept putting my hand up for all roles. I was willing to live overseas. I was willing to do the projects that other people didn't want to do. I was able to move up the career ladder.”
Although her career was advancing, Trisha did not believe she would ever become BP’s CHRO, and she started “soul searching to find a company that would give me a shot.” As fate would have it, a $6 billion, publicly traded renewable energy company in Iowa, her home state, recruited her to be their head of HR.
I went from a giant company to a small one, but the buck in the HR space stopped with me.”
Trisha achieved her goal of HR leadership, but it was quite a transition moving to a smaller company. She went from a client group of 35,000 and an HR team of 150 to an organization with 800 employees and an HR team of 11. Despite the size difference, this was exactly what Trisha was looking for. She reported to the CEO and took advantage of the opportunity to co-create policies with her and the leadership team to make a defining impact. She was able to make decisions and act on them quickly, and she transitioned the HR function from something that was tucked under finance to having a true seat at the table. However, after two and a half years, Chevron acquired the company. Trisha did not want to go back to the bureaucracy of a large oil company, and she decided to pursue her next position.
In the beginning of 2023, Trisha chose to join her current company, LyondellBasell – a leader in the global chemical industry – as the Executive Vice President, People and Culture (CHRO). To Trisha, it had all the markers of a good organization for her, including being in an industry that she loves and having a down to earth and pragmatic executive committee. At its helm, the company’s CEO, who has a background in transformation, was looking for someone to help him lead culture change. Trisha says, “That’s where I show up better. So, it was a super easy decision for me to make the leap, and I have not regretted one day since joining LyondellBasell. I am absolutely at the right place.”
Leading Disruption and Change at LyondellBasell
Before Trisha joined LyondellBasell, the HR department had a solid foundation and a great team, but there were many areas that needed improvement. Trisha was brought in to be a disruptor, and she quickly made a significant impact. She outlined her approach, saying, “I spent my first 90 days just watching, listening, and observing, and on day 91, I went to the CEO and said, 'Here is what I recommend, here is what I need, and here is what it will cost,’" – which included adding 46 employees to their headcount and getting support to upgrade some much needed technology.
I’m a disruptor, and I fit better in companies that are open to change and not the status quo.”
Some of the most influential changes in Trisha’s plans were to split talent acquisition, talent development and management, and DEI into subfunctions as well as implement a strong data analytics backbone within HR. She said, “These key COEs were grouped together under one person, but they are each important enough to stand on their own. In addition, we didn’t have good data, so we were not speaking the same language as the business. Data not only drives better decision making; it also helps us quantify the work we do and measure positive impact when the data changes.”
Trisha says that putting a spotlight on each of these subfunctions has made a huge difference, and they are seeing tangible results from the change. She expressed, “We have a talent development strategy, we have a talent acquisition strategy, and DEI has turned a corner from being grassroots to actually starting to approach world-class in such a short period of time. In addition, we are starting to have good data analytics that are helping us make decisions that will move the dial at LYB."
Advice for CHRO Peers on Leading Change
Trisha emphasizes the importance of making quick decisions, and she believes that decisiveness has been a key factor in her career success. She advises, “Make a decision, and live with your decision. Decisiveness is probably the #1 thing that got me to where I am today. You’re going to make some mistakes, but I’ve made more good decisions than bad decisions, and the ones that were bad, I owned up to, learned from and moved on. At the end of the day, it’s the inability to make a decision that is an inhibitor.”
There are a lot of reasons why people aren’t disruptors, but for me, to not be one is far worse.”
Trisha encourages peers to trust their instincts, especially when assessing whether they have the right people in key positions. She pushes her team to have hard conversations and to act swiftly if they need to make necessary changes. She stresses, “Don’t take six to nine months to make a decision that you already know needs to be made now.”
Views on AI in HR
As advancements with artificial intelligence (AI) alter the business landscape, Trisha sees it as a “game-changer” for the future of work. However, she also remains cautious about its current capabilities. She says, "I’m a huge supporter, but I’m not ready to sign up until other people can prove that it can be successful, and consistently successful."
Trisha believes that HR is the right discipline to introduce AI, and she sees opportunities for it to streamline processes, quicken resume reviews and limit bias in the interview process, but the technology isn’t foolproof, yet. Trisha’s team recently tested an AI tool for evaluating survey responses, and there were issues with data accuracy. She said, “We’re still learning how to put the fence line around it. Even though the fence line is internal to the company, it’s really hard to teach it to look at only certain bits of data.”
Additionally, Trisha is assessing how to balance the technology with the “human touch” of HR, saying, “You have to make sure you don’t put AI in places where it’s going to make a difference to the culture and the way people engage.”
Trisha continues to focus on getting their processes “as systematic as they can be with people, before introducing AI,” so they can “follow very quickly” once the efficacy of the technology is proven.
Trisha Conley is the Executive Vice President, People and Culture (CHRO) at LyondellBasell and a Governing Body Member of the Houston CHRO Community. Trisha will be speaking at the Houston CHRO Executive Summit on December 4, 2024.
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Special thanks to Trisha Conley and LyondellBasell.
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