SVP of HR Stefani Steinway discusses ways that technology enables proactive workforce planning and encourages strong engagement at Equifax Workforce Solutions.
By Debbie Bolla
HRO Today: What’s the biggest challenge you are currently facing and what are your plans to overcome it?
Stefani Steinway: Building a future-ready workforce is top of mind for us these days. We’re investing in employee development, with a focus on building digital fluency—including AI—and creating scalable programs company-wide, especially for leadership roles. We’re balancing the adoption of new technologies while providing space for innovation, which is essential when we think about development and effective skill-building.
HROT: How can technology enable proactive workforce planning and strong employee engagement?
Steinway: Technology strengthens employee engagement through better communication and connectedness. It also helps boost productivity, enabling HR and management resources to spend more time on proactive workforce planning and future-proofing teams. Part of that future-proofing strategy includes our focus on digital fluency. That is, recognizing that every team member—regardless of role or level—needs to develop certain digital capabilities to help them better meet business needs and develop in their careers. Investing in supporting our team members’ use of technology helps promote a growth mindset, improves processes, and eases collaboration.
HROT: What HR trend will have the biggest impact in 2025?
Steinway: AI will definitely have the biggest impact in 2025. As we’re working to help our organizations become more digitally fluent, we need to make sure that we as HR professionals are doing the same for ourselves. That will equip us to spend less time on manual processes, freeing up time to focus more on strategy—like succession planning, for example. As strange as it may sound, responsibly leveraging “artificial” intelligence can actually help us have more time to live up to the “human” part of our title.
HROT: What is your favorite way to spend free time?
Steinway: In my free time, I enjoy running and listening to podcasts. Currently, I’m listening to Mel Robbins’ “The Let Them Theory” which offers some interesting perspectives, especially from an HR standpoint. The most recent episodes have focused on bringing your whole self to work and the idea that work-life balance is a myth; it’s more about work-life integration. And I appreciate the message of prioritizing self-care so you can be available to others—it’s like the oxygen mask on the airplane analogy.
Stefani Steinway is SVP of HR at Equifax Workforce Solutions.
