Jill Wrobel, CHRO at Brunswick Corporation

Show Notes

Leading Through Uncertainty: Brunswick’s CHRO on AI, Frontline Talent, and a “Next Never Rest” Culture

Summary

How do you keep a 15,000-person, global, frontline-heavy workforce aligned when tariffs, interest rates, and tech shifts won’t sit still?

Jill Wrobel, Chief Human Resources Officer at Brunswick—parent to 60+ marine brands including Mercury Marine and Freedom Boat Club—shares how the company navigates uncertainty with a continuous improvement mindset they call “Next Never Rest.”

Jill breaks down what’s unique about HR in a cyclical, manufacturing-and-services business that spans welders and machinists to electrification engineers and digital product teams.

She details Brunswick’s “business system” approach to standardizing processes, using Lean Six Sigma and design thinking, and where AI and automation create outsized impact—from Microsoft Copilot for communications to an AI-driven tariff model and AutoCaptain, which can dock a boat at the push of a button while distinguishing a person from a leaf.

Jill also gets candid about the weight HR teams carry—context switching, coaching leaders, and rising expectations—and how she’s scaling HR’s impact with hackathons, smarter prioritization, and a stronger coaching stance so leaders truly lead.

Timestamps

[00:45] – Guest intro: Brunswick’s $5B portfolio, 60+ brands, and global footprint (Freedom Boat Club in 425+ locations)

[02:56] – The core challenge: operating through uncertainty—rates, tariffs, cyclical demand

[04:05] – Mindset matters: control what you can, “power of yet,” and resilience in a changing world

[05:57] – A diverse workforce: welders to electrification engineers to e-commerce and app teams

[09:28] – “Next Never Rest”: Brunswick’s business system, Lean Six Sigma, and design thinking

[10:58] – Practical AI: AutoCaptain auto-docking, Copilot for comms, and an AI model for tariff analysis

[14:13] – Why this is HR’s moment: HR as business leaders enabling humans + machines

[16:02] – Scaling HR: reducing workload, hackathons, automation, and coaching managers to lead

[19:01] – Protecting the team: mental health, boundaries, and sustaining energy

Takeaways

- Build a continuous improvement culture—standardize definitions, map end-to-end processes, and empower teams to iterate.

- Prioritize AI where it tackles the biggest business problems (e.g., tariff modeling, safety-critical automation) before chasing “nice to haves.”

- Equip HR to scale: run hackathons, automate repeat work, and share solutions globally to avoid reinventing the wheel.

- Coach managers to lead—HR adds leverage by enabling leaders, not owning every decision.

- Leverage practical tools now: use Copilot/GenAI for clearer communications, planning, and analysis to reclaim time.

- Support HR well-being: reduce context switching, set boundaries, and normalize recovery so the team can sustain high-impact work.

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Each episode brings experienced HR and People leaders into realistic, anonymized workplace scenarios—the kind you recognize immediately. Performance issues. Messy conflicts. Investigations that don’t fit neatly into a policy box. Instead of talking about their own companies, guests react to outside cases and walk through how they’d think it through in real time.

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Emily Fenech (00:34)
Welcome to HR Voices. I'm your host, Emily Fenech, and today we are chatting with Jill Wrobel.

She is the CHRO of Brunswick

Welcome, Jill.

Jill Wrobel (00:44)
Well, thanks Emily, it's great to be here.

Emily Fenech (00:47)
Yes, so Brunswick is such a cool company, researching you ahead of time. You design, manufacture, and sell boats and watercraft. That is very cool. Can you tell us a little bit more about Brunswick, the organization, the people working there, and your role as CHRO?

Jill Wrobel (01:03)
I would love to, and you're right, it is a fun industry. So we are all things leisure for marine. So it is boats, as you described, we make 17 brands, but our largest division is propulsion or engines, Mercury Marine, headquartered in Wisconsin.

We also have a division focused on all of your electronics, things like fish finding, cartography, GPS coordinates to enhance the boating experience. And then our last division that rounds out over 60 consumer facing brands in a $5 billion portfolio, which is wild, is our business acceleration group. And you can think about that as ways that we build around the boater. And we have a ⁓ model there called freedom boating.

Emily Fenech (01:27)
Yeah.

Jill Wrobel (01:49)
Club which is a subscription ⁓ membership.

type of service. I'm a proud member in the Chicago marinas, but we have over 425 locations globally, our most recent of which was in Dubai. We just signed up a new location in Dubai. So there's a lot going on in 25 plus countries. We have 15,000 amazing employees who help us create the coolest products for both families and partners really across the globe when it comes to getting

on the water.

Emily Fenech (02:24)
I love that. just got property in Michigan. I'm going to, ⁓ in Nashville is land. I live in Nashville right now. We're landlocked, except we do have lakes. So lakes is where it's at for Nashville. That's like the only.

Jill Wrobel (02:34)
You have amazing work in the

country. And in fact, often the lakes in Tennessee, we have a couple of our brands that are headquartered there, Sea Ray being probably the most familiar one that is in just outside of Knoxville. ⁓ Some of the best boating in the world there in the lakes of Tennessee. So between there and the lakes up in Michigan, either the Lake Michigan or some of the Inlet Lakes there in Michigan, you've got some great boating Emily in your future, I'm sure of it.

Emily Fenech (02:48)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

yes, yeah, I'll have to check out the 60 plus brands that Branson offers in this membership.

I wanted to ask you, as you think about the 15,000 employees at Brunswick, right? It's the end of the year. We're thinking about next year. What is the biggest challenge that's facing your people as you move into next year? What are you thinking about in terms of supporting them?

Jill Wrobel (03:20)
Yes, so I would say probably not too dissimilar to other industries or companies that you talk to, Emily. It is such a dynamic world out there right now. And when you think about the products that I just described that Brunswick makes, they are leisure in nature. And so some of what our people face is this time of year or in the cycle of making sure that we can produce amazing products at the right price when there's so much happening for our global customers.

and consumers, whether that's interest rates or what has been a very interesting tariff situation because we have thousands of parts and SKUs not only that go into our products but our products that get shipped around the globe. So I would say with some of the biggest challenges that they have is continuing to create great products and experiences and a great place to work when so much of it is being able to be agile and dynamic to what our our world demands or even

what our consumers want for the challenges that they have ahead of them.

Emily Fenech (04:25)
Yeah, the word I keep hearing in these interviews is uncertainty.

Jill Wrobel (04:29)
Yeah, I think that's right. And I think, you know, some of the ways in which we help support our people through that is the classic like control what you can control and try to have the mindset of continuous improvement. So maybe we didn't figure this out right now, but we will. It's kind of that power of yet the great Angela, a dot core book on grit is kind of core to who we are here. Like, you know, well, let's try, let's try to use this strategy or initiative to deal with this next layer of uncertainty.

which quite frankly, I think the overused term of unprecedented times has probably met its run its course. It's just kind of the world that we live in now and how do we embrace what is always going to feel like changing, whether that's not only from economic or geopolitical matters, but I'm sure you hear it a lot from your clients too of, you know, what is the future of technology? How do we have humans and machines working together? And so

I think there's a resilient spirit here at Brunswick where people know that we've been able to, in a cyclical industry, tackle a lot of challenges over the last couple of decades. Brunswick is a hundred plus year old organization, but doing so with the right mindset is really core to who we are. Doesn't make it any easier though. And so I've got just real regard for Brunswick's people, as well as all of our partners that continue to show up and

make amazing things even when the world is a bit of a dynamic place.

Emily Fenech (06:03)
And you have a very dynamic workforce too. mean, you have people who are in the manufacturing, you have more corporate employees, right? So when you think of all the different, how do you sort of classify and treat people as individuals knowing that the work that they do is unique from Brunswick employee to Brunswick employee? How do you think about that?

Jill Wrobel (06:22)
Yeah, what an interesting question. And you're totally right. With so many different consumer facing brands, ⁓ 60 plus, and all of the technology and manufacturing, including the innovation that happens to put things in water. I often talk about my funny story when I first joined and I didn't grow up ⁓ on the water and my prior role was not in manufacturing, but some of the earliest work I was asked to tackle was to hire electrification specialists or electricians.

engineers to help create a battery-based engine or propulsion that you could charge and put in water. But I couldn't help but giggle when I think to myself, like, aren't you supposed to keep electricity and water like very, very far apart from each other? It's kind of what you teach your kids when they're young. But no, that's what we do here. We hire the smartest people from a whole variety of industries to come up with the most complicated and coolest innovations and keep everyone safe.

So you have that on one side, as well as really technical talent. Welders for our aluminum boat brands are just some of the gems of our business. Machinists and all of the skills that you can think of that have to be on production lines to build boats, much of which are still done by hand.

So we have a wide variety of types of employees. And I think at the end of the day, it's just treating everybody as human. We're a super inclusive type of organization. People's opinions really matter. ⁓ Those that are closest to our products often know best what our products need to be of the best quality.

sort of deliver the best experience for our consumers. And at the same time, we're always challenging ourselves to make sure that we're infusing our culture with kind of new and creative talent from other places of inspiration. One of our big pushes right now, as you can imagine, is putting everything online. So we've got an app that we created in-house for how to reserve your boats ⁓ at Freedom Boat Club, all the way through how to think about putting some of our amazing products on the likes of e-commerce channels

or in big box retail stores. So we have a lot of different types of people who all come together really with the mission of making sure that they're servicing the end consumer to get family and friends out on the water. Cause we know that it's better for relationships and really better for mental health. it's, but to say that it's complicated would probably ⁓ be the understatement of the century. I think we all thrive on a level of. ⁓

of curiosity as well as ⁓ making sure that all of those parts kind of come together in what's a large company and the largest of the industry at five billion dollars plus of revenue but still ⁓ there's a lot there's a lot to keep track of underneath.

Emily Fenech (09:10)
Yeah, and all of those people are using, you mentioned earlier, technology, sort of help them do their jobs better, and that's shifting as well. So I think about the ways that I use AI technology and how dramatically it's changed sort of my day to day. Now I imagine a welder, and I imagine someone in a manufacturing context and the designers designing these systems. Right, so as someone who's leading people strategy,

Jill Wrobel (09:16)
Yes.

and that's shifting as well.

Yes.

Emily Fenech (09:39)
for all of these people and with this sort of under layer of the technology that they use shifting, how are you sort of staying on top of that from a skills perspective and just from like, know, procurement, just making sure they have access to the latest tools to help them do their job. How are you thinking about that?

Jill Wrobel (09:52)
Yes.

Yeah, that's right. you know, I would tackle it probably first with kind of the right behaviors and mindset. We've been doing a lot of work over the last couple of years and came up with a new tagline called Next Never Rest, not because it was new to the company, but sort of a new way of approaching that there's a continuous improvement mindset that we can all embrace to think about how work could be done differently, even more creatively, more efficiently in the life.

So the way that we tackle that is really by empowering people to think about the work that they distinctively do and how they might use the tools that are either at their disposal or combined together with teams in like-for-like processes so that we can go further faster.

⁓ Practically, that looks like we launched something called a business system, which is taking a look at our major business processes that are similar across the organization and deciding where in that journey we could apply automation or robotics or even just common definitions, just even starting at the basics, data and definitions. That's been really helpful for cascading the continuous improvement mindset using Lean Six Sigma, which we're a big ⁓ user of or even design.

thinking, how to think about problems in a kind of structured way, but knowing that the white space is available to you.

You know, then the other part is just really hard decisions. You know, we, there's so much that we could invest in, whether that's in some of our research and development initiatives or in sites, site expansions or in people and the like. And I would put artificial intelligence, robotics, automation kind of right in the heart of that. We don't think about it separate and distinct for how to make our business better, but right of, you know, to the core of how we can approach business problems. And so we, the hard

work

is prioritizing what you can do to go further faster and then sort of letting your distinctive advantage lead you versus what you could wait for others to develop that you could partner with.

Maybe a really good example is we just recently launched something called AutoCaptain, which is you press a button and your boat will dock or move away from other objects of interest without needing sort of somebody behind controlling the steering wheel at the helm, as they say. There is a ton of AI and technology in that, how to recognize different color waters, objects in the water, a person versus a leaf, as an example.

alike. So investing in that is super important to us because that could help lead how those products show up in the industry. But we are also focused on things like efficiency tools. We have a Microsoft suite like many others do and use generative AI like copilot to help make sure that we are maybe writing or editing communications in a different way or doing planning. And then there's things in between. I think the tariff example is another good one where our team said, hey, there's a lot of analysis

that we have to do here based on these inputs and outputs. It takes us a long time to make some of these assumptions. What if we spent more time developing a bit of an AI model that could help us with some of this versus doing all of the iterations directly and it's proved its weight in spades. So I would say tackling the largest business problems first is definitely where I'd recommend and where

distinctively have an advantage and don't beat yourself up too much if you can't do everything you know at the same time. There's a lot that we'd love to apply AI to but we've got to be really smart with the investment profile and the payoffs.

Emily Fenech (13:34)
Yeah, I love those examples. That's what I was getting at earlier is that you have three entirely different types of people, types of problems. And yet you sort of sit at the center as the, as people leader of ensuring that those people are well equipped with what they need to solve those problems. And I just think it is such a moment for people leaders. Yeah. And talk to me more about that. It just feels like

Jill Wrobel (13:55)
such a moment.

Emily Fenech (14:00)
That what you just described in, know you sort of vastly oversimplified it because it only took you one minute, but so much work just went into those three distinct use cases. Like parking a boat, identifying a leaf from a person. mean, that's, you can have a whole podcast on just on just that, right? But then, you know, data and then just basic knowledge, like administrative backend processes that are incredibly manual. You just sort of, you know, you have, you have HR involved.

Jill Wrobel (14:14)
Hahaha

Yes.

That's right.

Emily Fenech (14:30)
in all of those, right? So talk to me a little bit more about like this moment and what it means for sort of the next generation of people leaders coming up.

Jill Wrobel (14:37)
Well,

I love to think about it as just like, how lucky are we to be HR leaders at this time and in this moment of history, quite frankly. I just, I find that it really elevates the function to be at the table with how we run businesses. We are business leaders and we are really thinking about how to deploy the best of human resources. ⁓ And that includes how to get humans to think alongside machines, which I also think

is really thrilling. And the reason that I say that is I feel like the best HR leaders are the ones who approach things ⁓ as a, you know, really from the commercial lens. Like what does our product mean to our end consumer? How do we deliver it? How do we win in the market? And then let's figure out how to, you know, extract really the best business related initiatives out of, you know, humans and teams.

So I feel really lucky. We have an incredible HR team here at Brunswick. They are really the lifeblood and the heart of how we deliver services. And I think for me, I'm so proud that the business leaders are often pulling them into these conversations to really map out, you know, what are we going to need now and in the future? How do we get people there? And the best part about humans, in my opinion, is we're completely irrational. You want us to like do rational

but that's just not how we're wired, which I think creates an extra layer of just really ⁓ a value as well as just privilege as to how to think about creating ⁓ work in the world and give a good experience to everybody.

Emily Fenech (16:20)
We talked about the challenges of sort of the employee base and the business, but let's think specifically about your team, the people function. What would you, what's their biggest challenge as we go into next year?

Jill Wrobel (16:27)
Yes.

⁓ I would say twofold. One is because they are relied upon to really help leaders lead, they do feel a lot of stress and pressure as to how to think about how to best guide our leaders with great leadership. So how does it show up? How do they help their teams? And how do they do so in a way where everything is kind of changing so quickly? Skills and effectiveness, team effectiveness, organizational effectiveness and the like. And they want to be able to do great work.

for everyone, but that leads to their second problem, is they can be very overwhelmed with the workload. And while I'm really proud of our most recent engagement survey as it pertained to the HR team, and we had so many questions improve, they are really feeling the...

new weight of what it means to be in a lot of these conversations ⁓ with business leaders. And so one of the things that we're going to be really focused on next, Jerry, could almost think about like a hackathon is what are some ways to really think about how they can scale their impact and reduce their workload.

What type of the work are they doing and why? How long are they spending on that? ⁓ Is there a different way to tackle that? Where can they use AI or automation or ⁓ even just powering with each other? Who's doing something else interesting across the globe that they don't have to recreate because they can make connections with those folks? So there's a lot of different ideas that we have to be able to address that.

But I know they find their work incredibly valuable in terms of what they deliver to our employees as well as to our consumers. So it's almost like so much of a good thing that everybody wants their time that we've got to think about how to scale their impact. And my obligation is to make sure that we're doing right by HR leaders too in terms of skill enhancement and even how they grow their own career.

in this very interesting time that we live in.

Emily Fenech (18:28)
Yeah, I think HR more than any other department also has to navigate the context switching of like what they're being asked to do. Just like the sure number of hats that you can wear in a given day and the ⁓ emotional but just but yeah, but mental impact of that. It's like you're pulled into an employee relations issue that requires a certain emotional presence sometimes and then it's then you're pulled into like, you know skills, you're pulled into payroll, you're pulled into benefits, you're pulled in. Yeah, it's yeah.

Jill Wrobel (18:39)
Yes. Totally agree.

Yes, a strategy conversation. Exactly.

Emily Fenech (18:59)
Yeah, I just, it must be difficult to navigate that many, that many sort of states of, it's just a, it's a very different emotional state to show up in these different conversations and the ability to sort of turn that on and off has to take a toll. So I, I have a lot of empathy for HR leaders. And ⁓ one thing I've learned in this role is just, just how much is on, how much is on your plate. It's, it's hard to believe, but.

Jill Wrobel (19:26)
Yes, yes, I

think that's right. And I think, you know, ultimately, I think they the team really feels a sense of pride for the type of work they do and how they're relied on. So, you know, they want to be wanted, which feels, you know, really good. I think the question is just where do they provide that unique value and how do they make sure, for example, that, you know, they can't, you know, the managers have to lead, you know, the leaders have to lead. And so how do they coach them versus, you know, get direct

involved unless of course the demands of the the role of the situation require it. yeah, mental health, being able to de-stress, finding community, making sure that they feel that they've got the capabilities to lead with confidence, you know, all of that's kind of part of it. And at the end of the day, I want them to be able to go home to their family and friends and their interests kind of feeling like they contributed at work, but they can still be

as energetic and as well as passionate about the things that matter to them outside of working for Brunswick.

Emily Fenech (20:29)
Yeah, absolutely be able to turn that off. Well, good luck on your hackathon. That sounds like a great idea. I hope some good ideas come from it. Any sort of last words of advice you have for the HR audience listening?

Jill Wrobel (20:41)
⁓ You know, you touched on it earlier, which is I just feel like it is such a wonderful opportunity for us to embrace this time for the profession, as well as for us and our careers. Just how lucky are we? I really, in my heart believe that. And I'd also say no one has figured this out. So it's not like you're doing anything wrong. We're all stepping through this time, navigating through...

you know, how we, you know, take the best of both technology and world dynamics and figure out how to, you know, give everybody a true purpose as well as a release, which in Brunswick, you know, comes in the form of getting out on the water. So ⁓ I just think it's incredible to be an HR leader ⁓ now, and it's really fun to kind of learn and continuously learn our way through it and to do it together.

Emily Fenech (21:36)
Well, I've really enjoyed our conversation today, Jill. Thank you so much again for being here and yeah, take care. I will.

Jill Wrobel (21:43)
Yes, get out on the water, Emily. We'll talk to you soon.