Alexandra Basso Moore, Chief People Officer at Asset Living

Show Notes

Episode Summary
What does it take to lead HR for a 13,000-person workforce in a rapidly evolving AI landscape? In this episode of HR Voices, Emily Fenech sits down with Alex Moore, Chief People Officer at Asset Living, one of the largest property management firms in the U.S. Alex shares how his team is reimagining the employee experience by embedding empathy, operational expertise, and smart AI adoption across the people function.

From redesigning roles and automating recruiting workflows to embedding former operators into HR teams, Alex reveals the strategic decisions that are helping his people organization stay human-centric—while staying ahead. You’ll hear about the practical tools they're using, the cultural shift it’s enabling, and why empathy remains their north star amid the noise of digital transformation.

Whether you're leading a people team or navigating AI at scale, this episode offers clear, actionable insights on building a future-ready, human-first HR function.

Key Timestamps

• [00:45] – Meet Alex Moore, CPO at Asset Living

• [01:03] – Leading HR at scale: Growing from 6,500 to 13,000+ employees

• [03:03] – The biggest challenge: Balancing AI adoption with human empathy

• [04:17] – How Asset Living is redesigning roles through AI

• [07:29] – Embedding frontline operators into HR functions

• [11:29] – Automating recruiting: Chatbots, ATS, and faster hiring

• [14:31] – Using AI in performance management to reduce bias and improve insight

• [15:33] – How to evaluate AI tools that align with business and people goals

• [17:27] – Final advice: Think beyond HR—AI must serve the entire business

Takeaways

• Lead AI transformation with empathy to ensure people feel supported—not replaced

• Redesign roles to prioritize high-impact work as automation removes tactical load

• Embed former frontline operators into HR teams to boost relevance and credibility

• Leverage AI in recruiting and performance reviews to streamline processes and reduce bias

• Evaluate AI tools through a business-wide lens, not just HR efficiency

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What is HR Voices?

HR Voices is a scenario-based podcast for People Leaders who’ve actually had to make the call.

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.

There are no right answers here. What you’ll hear is judgment: how seasoned leaders balance risk, fairness, legal reality, and humanity when the stakes are high and the path isn’t obvious.

HR Voices is for HR, People Ops, legal, and leaders who want to hear how other smart humans actually handle employee relations—without confidentiality breaches, hypotheticals that feel fake, or a lecture on “best practices.”

Emily Fenech (00:34)
Welcome to HR Voices. Today we're joined by Alex Moore, the Chief People Officer at Asset Living. Welcome, Alex.

Alex Moore (00:41)
Thank you, Emily. It's so good to be here.

Emily Fenech (00:44)
Yeah, we're so lucky to have you here. ⁓ Alex, Asset Living is one of the largest organizations in property management in the US. And in your role as CPO, you are setting the strategy for over 12,000 people. Can you tell us a little bit about your role and what it's like to lead at such a massive scale like that?

Alex Moore (01:03)
Sure, happy to. So yes, my position, I feel honored to be trusted to be really shepherding experiences for employees across the country. So Asset Living is a national company. We're in just about every state at this point in time and

have grown rapidly over the past couple of years. I joined and we were at about 6,500 people and then today we're closer to 13,000 people. So it's been a wild ride since I've only been here for about two and a half years now. And a lot of what my team is responsible for is ensuring from, you know, the moment an employee is or prospective employee gets contacted by a recruiter all the way through their hopefully great career success that they have with us that we provide meaningful moments and experiences

long way for everyone that is just a part of the asset living family. And so it is a role that has required a lot of nuance because we have employees in roles at.

apartment communities across the country. So think people that have no experience in our industry. We are this really great gateway to the industry and in a successful career in real estate. So folks can join us with literally no experience helping us lease apartments. And then we have folks that are executives over the way that we operate and deliver solutions to our clients. So our clients are the true owners of the apartment communities. And so we have really diverse skill sets, really just unique backgrounds that

join

our company and so a lot of the people programming has to be really thoughtful to make sure that whether it's serving an accountant or whether it's serving someone who's kind of the CEO of the property that the property manager if you will and any and all skills and crafts and experiences in between that everything we're doing is really going to be inclusive of our extremely diverse employee base so it's been a really fun experience it's been challenging but so rewarding so far.

Emily Fenech (02:57)
Yeah, speaking of challenges, what is the biggest challenge facing you and your workforce in this moment?

Alex Moore (03:03)
Yeah. So I'd say it's not anything different than what peers are probably experiencing. And I would say it's truly demonstrating value in the world of rapid AI transformation. So I believe as more companies are prioritizing the adoption of AI that it's imperative that people teams hone in on the human element of what we do. So I would consider empathy in particular is a fundamentally human skill. so although AI has demonstrated some capability in modeling it, I firmly

believe that it will never replace what people are capable of and our ability specifically to put ourselves in the shoes of the employees that we're hired to serve so that we can continue to deliver elevated people solutions that inherently drive the business forward. So I truly believe that as people, teams get challenged to do more with less and I believe we all are being asked to do that these days, empathy driven HR will be vital to ensure that we're making the impact on our companies that we've been asked to make.

Emily Fenech (04:01)
Yeah, can you tell me a little bit more about how in your role you're helping your workforce navigate that challenge? know, AI is coming at all of us very quickly. How are you providing like the frameworks, the upskilling, the resources that people need to sort of make such a massive shift?

Alex Moore (04:17)
Yeah, so I would say that as you've invested in AI, that's been...

really important and we've as intentional as we possibly can be about making sure that everyone's ready for what's coming as relates to the benefits and the automations that we're able to afford and ultimately adopt with the investment that we've made in AI. And so one thing that we've done is we've redesigned job scopes for people, team members in particular, so that the best and highest uses of their time is spent on elevated responsibility and partnership versus what has historically been pretty

rate of workload. So I feel like our people teams have now been able to spend more time with business partners, hiring managers and leadership cohorts to really understand what is making them tick, what are the most significant challenges that they're facing, and then what their goals are to provide the teams that they support the ability to achieve those goals and see success. And so not only have people teams really evolved in what we do on a daily basis, but because of the different types of AI that we've invested in,

We've actually changed the scope of work of some of our operators and individuals that we are serving and so we've really helped them understand Hey AI is going to benefit you. It's going to help you elevate how you spend your time on things Let's say in the hiring process that maybe we're a little bit more tactical in nature And so we're really bringing people alongside us versus just being the the early adopters of it And so I've been really proud of how our team has really served the business well another area that we've been able to do that has been

in performance reviews and helping them understand, hey, it's going to be really important for you to digest all of the inputs that you've received in the performance review process, but digested in partnership with AI. Don't feel like you have to do it all on your own anymore. And that's one of the greatest benefits of the automations that we've been able to deploy through some of the investments that we've made. And then another thing I'd say that we've done that has really set us up for long-term success in this new age is we built a people team that is comprised of practitioners, right? Folks that have been in the human resources function.

for their entire careers, but we're also making sure we are embedding operators into our team. So when I say operators, what I mean is these are people that have actually been in the business and they want to offer their transferable skills and rich experiences to our function. And since we've started to do this, I believe that this has been a game changer for our entire company because our people team has literally been in the same shoes as a lot of the folks that now we are set up to serve. And so

this empathy that I already addressed, we can really apply it at a deep level to the tailored solutions that we're providing. So we've done this in the recruiting team, we've done this in the training team, and we've also done this in talent management and corporate learning development. And so based on the success that we've been able to see that this has been brought, ultimately what is brought to the company through this thoughtfulness between I've been in your shoes, here's some programming that I believe is really going to equip you and make a difference in your career experience.

We're going to continue to do this as often as we can to make sure that our team is continuing to serve our company well as the future unfolds.

Emily Fenech (07:29)
Yeah, there's a lot to unpack. You are doing so many exciting things, but recency bias, I have to dig in on this idea of embedding. When you say people who have been in the business, I assume you mean the front line, like they've managed properties, they've been in the field. How did that come about? How does a program like that emerge? What insights would have led you to making that decision?

Alex Moore (07:54)
So I think it started when we were doing employee relations work. And I mentioned earlier, there is a role within our company where you're essentially the CEO of your property. So you're responsible for managing the entire staff. You're responsible for the finances being managed effectively. You are responsible for making sure that every apartment is leased right. There's a marketing component. There are just traditional people leadership responsibilities associated with that role. And so as we were doing employee relations

that particular position, we realized that having someone in HR that could practice the craft of HR while also saying, I was in your position and I know exactly what you're dealing with and here's how I can best partner with you knowing that, we started to hire into that employee relations function. Usually someone that, you know, expressed a desire to have this career transition, you know, it can give people the opportunity to work remote more often and do some of these things that maybe when they're

managing a property and have to be on site full time, they don't really have that responsibility load that allows them to be at home or be in front of a computer. And so it's a real benefit to them in their career if they want to do something else than community management and essentially grow within the more traditional career path within our company, which is our operations career path. So we started with employee relations, then we transitioned to recruiting, right? Hiring is such a big part of that job. And so we said, look, our recruits,

Emily Fenech (09:19)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Alex Moore (09:23)
recruiters can say, I've in your shoes. I know how hard it is to hire an entry level for some of these positions or be competitive in the market. So recruiters started to come from that side of the business. Then we brought it to training. Then we brought it to our learning performance organization and the teams that are building out learning development programming to ensure we're creating career pathways and developmental programs. So it just started to bleed into all of the facets of people, but it started with that truly ability to relate to

are people that were here to serve in that employee relations function and then it just grew from there.

Emily Fenech (09:58)
Yeah, that's brilliant. What has the feedback been from the practitioners? From having folks maybe that had, ⁓ you know, as you mentioned, CEO level responsibility for their property. So they did have some experience, you know, inherently with people leadership, but what has the feedback been from the practitioners?

Alex Moore (10:18)
You know, I would say it's overall been really welcoming. And if anything, it's brought a huge sigh of relief to some of the functions that really couldn't empathize truly, right? There is this opportunity to empathize in a way that if you've walked in their shoes, you can in ways that a practitioner cannot. And so I feel like because we've taken this blended and embedded approach, it hasn't really come as anything that's, you know, what would be considered to be negative, I would say threatening or concerning or, you know, we don't value.

Emily Fenech (10:46)
Great.

Alex Moore (10:48)
the HR practitioners skill set and tenure. So I would say because it's really complementing the existing skills and experiences, it's truly been way more welcomed than something that would be considered to be a negative thing for the business.

Emily Fenech (11:04)
Yes. Well, let's go back to one of the other things you were mentioning before, which is changing the role of the members of your people team because of AI. And I'm curious, sort of what sort of automations, obviously something has to have been automated in order for you to go back and redefine these roles to free up that time, right? So could you tell us about some of the automations, some of the tools that you've been experimenting with, and what's been successful, maybe what hasn't?

Alex Moore (11:29)
Sure, so I would say the big things that we've invested in upfront, it's really been focused on the...

recruiting side of the business. So we invested in a new applicant tracking system that has allowed us to deploy automations via AI from the moment a candidate begins the screening process. They're on our job page and identify, you know, not only one opportunity, maybe a couple opportunities that they're interested in. have a chat bot that lives on our careers page that now welcomes them, answers preliminary questions, and it starts the pre-screening process, really point them in the right direction.

while on the back end, it's showing us, based on these very objective criteria, this is what this person may be best qualified to do. And so this has been a huge time saver for our team because we're not necessarily having to do all of that very high level screening ourselves. This chatbot really helps with that. And then it helps with things like interview scheduling and just allows for the automations and the tool to help us bring candidates through the process faster, which has made a significant impact.

act on things like time to hire and allows us to really focus on the quality of hire, right? That to me is going to be one of these components of our function that our team will continue to need to drive. so because the automations are in place, we're really able to focus on that instead of some of the tactical work that our team was spending so much of their time doing historically. We've also used similar recruiting focus investments, but to drive top of the funnel activity through things like programmatic job posting solutions. And so

really using what marketers have been doing for a long time, but we're able to work with these programmatic solutions to be really tailored and thoughtful about where all of our jobs get posted to ensure that we're not just resting on the traditional job board strategies that we had for years. And that's also been able to drive better candidates into the funnel and more qualified candidates into the funnel. So that time to hire has been able to improve. And then I mentioned this earlier, but we're in earlier stages in the performance management side.

of what we do. once again, we have a pretty comprehensive performance review process that gets a lot of input, which is so good because we believe that we need a comprehensive view on an employee to best rate them and best describe their performance, their achievements, their opportunities for growth. And so we have some AI built into the platform we use that's able to synthesize a lot of the inputs for the hiring manager and ultimately the direct supervisor that's responsible for the performance review so that

they are still expected to craft the review, but because of all those feeds being synthesized, they're really able to identify what are the most common themes or patterns and some of the feedback I've received so that whenever I'm tailoring what I'm inputting as it relates to their performance review, I can use my own voice while looking at all of this synthesis to be really efficient in the way that I write this review.

Emily Fenech (14:31)
Yeah, I love that. I happen to know a founder of a similar tool. I don't know if it's one that you're using, but when we talk about sort of where that line is, it's like, know, human memories can be so flawed. And when you're responsible with the progression of someone's career and with their performance, sometimes you have that recency bias. You have that, what's the last six weeks of their experience been versus if you're on a six month performance review cycle, right? You kind of sometimes forget to look back. And that's where I find AI to be, have so much potential.

is just in helping us synthesize organized structure data over time so that we're sort of looking at it through ⁓ maybe a less biased lens. I know that it can introduce and reflect bias, but it can also help us, you know, overcome our own. So how do you find the line? As Chief People Officer, you're probably getting a lot of tools put in front of you. There's a lot of AI out there. How do you find the line between, yes, this is a good use case for our particular business,

Alex Moore (15:18)
Thank you.

Emily Fenech (15:31)
and maybe some that are not.

Alex Moore (15:33)
Sure, so I would say I think I'm still in the process of learning and trying to make sure that I'm open to the possibilities of AI because it's not going anywhere, right? We need to be open to it. However, I think my true north, if you will, goes back to where we started, which has to do with what is going to make our lives easier? What is going to, to your point, foster more objectivity and a more data-driven approach to looking out

the full picture while our team can really focus on the people component of what we do, which is leading with empathy and embedding empathy into our roles. And how can we ensure that people teams of the future are really focused on the human component that AI will never be able to replace. And so I think if I'm looking at AI today, it is really focused on efficiencies, automations, taking the tactical workload off of everyone's responsibility plate.

so that we can spend more time on, as I shared earlier, the best and highest uses of time and truly focus on the human elements of the job that we do as a people team, but also as our teams that we're here to serve do so that we can all be elevating the business in the way that we're driving the people component of what we do. The final thing I'll quickly share, just because I didn't share it earlier, is we're a services business. And so it is such a just people business inherently that if we're able

to create better people opportunities to focus on that element of the job, I think we'll all be more effective as an organization.

Emily Fenech (17:12)
Absolutely. Do you have any sort of parting thoughts that can sum up this conversation? There's a lot changing right now. We have a lot of people listening who may be navigating this as well. Any sort of parting words of wisdom or advice ⁓ on how to navigate the challenge of AI adoption in this moment?

Alex Moore (17:27)
Sure, so I would say think outside of yourself and your team because as I shared, think

anything that we consider doing, we know not only has real business impact, but impacts the business user that we are partnering with. And so we don't want to think about AI from the lens of what's going to make our jobs easier or what's going to make us more efficient in what we do. We want to make sure that the business collectively benefits from any investments we're making in it. And so, like I said, that's why I am led by our true north of the empathy driven people function that we're really trying to foster.

But it has to be successful via our end users or our operators that we're supporting really seeing, hey, I'm able to do my job better because the people team invested in these functionalities or these technologies that are going to drive the business forward. So I really do think that our team is being really thoughtful about any of the changes that we're making or the levers we're pulling with with technology and AI by

putting ourselves in the operator's shoes, really making sure that any decision we're making is going to be best for the business and not just best for ourselves. And that's how I think we really get a win for everyone as we all work towards this future of work that is going to need to work in partnership with AI and not against AI to see success.

Emily Fenech (18:53)
Solid advice. Thank you so much Alex for being here and for sharing your experience and your learnings with us. We really appreciate it.

Alex Moore (18:59)
Thanks so much for having me again, Emily. It was great to get to spend this time with you. Bye.

Emily Fenech (19:03)
Awesome. Bye, Alex.