Einav Lavi, Chief Human Resources Officer at EDB

Show Notes

Clarity at Speed: EDB’s CHRO on AI-Enabled HR, Manager-Led Change, and Growth Mindset

Summary

When your company is transforming fast, how do you keep people aligned, energized, and ready for what’s next?

Einav Lavi, Chief Human Resources Officer at EnterpriseDB (EDB), shares how she’s steering a high-velocity shift from a database services company to a sovereign data and AI platform—without losing the human center.

With a background in finance and 20+ years in PE-backed transformations, Einav breaks down the CEO–CHRO partnership, why HR must be both data-savvy and deeply empathetic, and how AI frees teams to focus on meaningful conversations.

She details EDB’s change playbook: a company-wide growth mindset program, “framing memo” with a five-year plan, flat access to leaders, and manager-first enablement.

Expect specifics—quarterly talent reviews driven by predictive attrition insights, AI-powered sourcing that reduced five sourcers to zero, and EQ training for managers—plus a practical ritual for balancing business results with employee care.

Timestamps

[00:45] – What EDB does and its shift to a sovereign data and AI platform

[01:58] – Einav’s path: finance to CHRO, PE transformations, and a 7-hour CEO interview

[04:15] – The CEO–CHRO pact: balancing ROI with empathy in rapid change

[05:46] – Beyond “I love people”: AI handles admin so HR can focus on careers and culture

[07:26] – Managing change: over-communication, growth mindset, and the 40-page “framing memo”

[11:48] – Manager-led change: quarterly talent reviews, predictive attrition, and generous equity

[14:33] – Freeing time for real conversations: EQ programs and AI that removes busywork

[16:41] – Fit-for-purpose orgs: what roles to automate vs. where humans are essential

[21:59] – AI as augmentation, not replacement—and Einav’s weekly reflection practice

Takeaways

- Operationalize clarity with guiding principles, flat access to leaders, and a five-year “framing memo.”

- Equip managers to lead change: run quarterly talent reviews, use predictive attrition data, and develop EQ.

- Automate the busywork: use AI for sourcing, survey analysis, and note-taking; redeploy time to high-value conversations.

- Design for human–machine partnership: ask every function which roles can be automated and which require creativity/strategy.

- Make change personal: pair corporate transformation with growth mindset training and clear “what this means for me.”

- Balance business acumen with empathy—schedule regular reflection to stay anchored on both.

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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. I'm your host, Emily Fenech and today I'm chatting with Einav Lavi the CHRO at EnterpriseDB. Welcome.

Einav Lavi (00:44)
Thank you, Emily. Thank you for having me.

Emily Fenech (00:46)
Yes, and we just learned before that you were on a late night flight arriving at three o'clock in the morning. So I am so lucky that you didn't just sleep in. So thank you for being here.

Einav Lavi (01:00)
after this call but happy to have the conversation with you. Thank you.

Emily Fenech (01:03)
Yes,

so you know, Enterprise DB helps large organizations get their data in shape, keep their data in shape for security and scale. I am vastly oversimplifying it, but could you tell me a little bit about Enterprise DB, what type of customers you work with, what are your employees like, and give us an overview of your role as setting people's strategy for Enterprise DB.

Einav Lavi (01:28)
It's a big question. let me start. ⁓ EDB, exactly as you were saying, we are leading the strategic transformation for organizations, right? So we're working mostly with big enterprises or big customers very, very much in those customers that need to manage their databases. But what is really amazing about EDB and why I joined this organization is that we're going through a big transformation where EDB used to be that

supporting traditional identity for companies to manage their databases. But now we are really providing the sovereign data and AI platform, which means that companies can manage their database in a sovereign world with no worries of how security and how with the automation of AI and analytics. So it's very exciting journey. And that's why I joined the organization about two years ago, looking forward to lead and drive that transformation with our CEO, Kevin Dallas and the rest of the team.

Emily Fenech (02:25)
So tell me a little bit more about your background and why you think you were chosen or what attracted you to that challenge.

Einav Lavi (02:32)
It's very interesting. My background is actually from finance and accounting. This is where I was starting my career back then. And then I was really like the combination of people in data and people in analytics and people in driving transformation. And I've been in the HR business time transformation field for more than 20 years now, but really was looking for organizations that going through a transformation. That's my strength.

and mostly in private equity companies. So I've been working with private equity companies for about 17 years, helping CEOs and teams to drive transformation with talent. As technology moving very fast, you want to make sure that you have the right talent to cope with the future and you have the right culture, the growth mindset culture, the ability to embrace change, the ability to learn fast, the ability to understand, yes, I can do it.

the can do attitude is very important for us at EDB. So, EDB was exactly where I wanted to be for a couple of reasons. One is the technology and data and AI. This is where everyone wants to be at this point. But I was super, super impressed by the CEO of the organization, Kevin Dallas. And this is the main reason for me joining, because he has that ability to not only have a very clear vision of how we're going to transition from

database company to a surveillance data and AI, but also how we're going to do it with the power of people, with the culture. So funny story, I flew to Seattle to meet him on my interview. And we spent seven hours, seven hours together. We had breakfast and then he canceled his, we had lunch and he canceled all the rest of the meetings. And I have a flight back home. Otherwise we could have spent more hours, but it shows me

Kevin's very understanding that for us to be able to do transformation, we need to focus on the culture and the people. So we spend more than seven hours to really plan and strategize how we're gonna do it.

Emily Fenech (04:35)
Yeah, I think that CEO CHRO relationship is so make or break for not just the CHRO, but like for the entire company. Could you talk to me a little bit more about that relationship, it's important to you.

Einav Lavi (04:49)
I think, first of all, my background and what I bring to the table, and I think that's why I'm a good partner to my CEOs, is the ability to understand the business side of things, right? It's not only about, so I love to see CEOs like Kevin that really look at the people and culture, but at the same time, need to balance with what are the ROI's? What does the business need, right? So I think more and more with the concept

transformations that companies are going through, with the transformation of AI, technology ⁓ trends and changes, frequent changes, people partners are having a very critical role. looking to think about what is the workforce of tomorrow, we need once the financial understanding and the operational acumen, but also the commitment for employees engagement and employees development as we move fast. And I think that's

Probably the biggest challenge of CHRO these days when they're looking on how we can move very fast, and specifically private equity companies, we need to move very fast, we need to have that growth mindset, but at the same time, we care, we care, we engage, we want to bring that empathy, that is very important for this role.

Emily Fenech (06:05)
Yeah, I think it's a myth that those skills are distinct. You know, I think sometimes you hear that, I'm a people person. I love people and I'm not comfortable with data. And I think, you have, you kind of have to be both to be successful in that role.

Einav Lavi (06:20)
Thank you for saying that. sounded exactly like me. I always say that when I interview people partners or HRBPs to my team, and when I ask them why HR, why is this role, to be honest, I don't like this response if I love people. I think most of us love people one day, some days, some days we love them less. I think it's about what are you trying to achieve? What is that? What can you drive? How can you drive the business forward with bringing the empathy, the care,

People don't call HR to ask about their payroll. I don't want people to come to call me to ask about when is my payroll or when is the next holiday. By the way, all of this can be done with chat bot these days and with automation and AI. What I'm really looking at and what EDP is doing very well with the transformation of AI is to have my HRBPs focusing on the soft side of things. What are your aspirations? What your career looks like? There is no one fits all.

And luckily, the AI transformation was able to give us the opportunity to focus on what people care and what is your career, where do you want to be and how EDB can support you in that journey and get much more time on your calendar to have those real conversations with people and drive this career. So yes, no, it's not yes, we love people, but we are doing much more than that. And we have to do much more than that for the business and for the employees.

Emily Fenech (07:45)
Yeah, absolutely. When you think about your employees, when you think about feedback loops, things that you're hearing directly from them, what would you say is the biggest challenge that you think employees are sort of facing in this moment at your organization?

Einav Lavi (08:00)
I think mostly in EDP and in fast growing organizations, it's about the change. It's about there's so much change happening, right? I can tell you that in two years, when I'm telling my board about the changes I've been making in the last few years, months, it feels more like five years, right? We are moving very, very fast. And with that, people are saying, what's about me? Like, what is that for me?

The company is moving very fast. We were able to overachieve results now for two years since the new leadership has joined. We were able to gain the best customers in the market, the whales. It's huge shift for employees. They have a different company now. How do we help them to go through that change? How do we help them to, how do we enable them to have that understanding that this is not only a transformation with the company, but also it is a great opportunity for an individual.

transformation and really looking at the growth of the individuals. This is probably what I'm spending most of my time, change management, and specifically with what we're doing at EDB. And what we are doing with the big transformation that we are going through, we're mostly over communication, mostly over communicating. We put a process in place where employees can reach out to anyone in the organization and just, hey, Kevin, CEO.

I got this message, what do you mean by that? Very flat organization, we want always to be there for employees. Again, automation and AI enable us to have more time to be more accessible for employees. Second, it's about the growth mindset. We really focus on that. I brought a program, a growth mindset program to the organization. Everyone in the organization is taking that program and has been amazing to see the understanding of people.

understanding of people that it is not only a corporate transformation, but I can grow within the company and this is how, and this is what is required for me. So in equipping employees with the growth mindset, with programs that we're bringing, showing them the why very clear, ⁓ our guiding principles are all about driving clarity, creating alignment, spreading energy. I hope you can see my energy, I was sleeping for two, three hours.

But it's a lot about that. It's a lot about your part of the journey and this is how you can impact. We have launched a framing memo. The framing memo is 40 pages, who we are, where we go, very clear plan for the following five years and very clear objectives for each of the functions of what they need to do to drive the company ahead. And we're doing a lot of activities and trivia events and a lot of activities and engaging activities around.

Do you understand what are we doing? What are the objectives of the organization and how you can impact those? So I think the ability to have clear clarity, to give clarity to employees, to create that alignment within departments of how we can work together towards that goal. And the mechanism of feedback is a key for employees specifically in these environments where there is so much change and transformation.

Emily Fenech (11:10)
Yes, ⁓ I love that. think it's such a underrated thing to communicate with consistency and clarity. sounds simple enough. We can sit here on a podcast and say, you need to do that. to actually show up and do it on a daily basis, I think when you look at performance issues and where people struggle, it tends to come back to like not understanding what it was that you were supposed to be doing in the first place.

Einav Lavi (11:35)
Yes, this is why we put these four guiding principles. It's a lot about driving clarity. And that's why we're using, we're investing a lot in the managers, in the leadership in EDB, because they are going to drive the change. At the end of the day, I can come up with best practices and best processes. But if the leaders want one's believe in what we're doing, have that understanding of what we are doing, and then thinking about how I'm going to take that message to my teams.

we won't be able to drive these thoughts formation. So super critical.

Emily Fenech (12:07)
Yeah, we talked about the CHR relationship with CEO and how that's so important, the alignment. But can we talk a little bit more about managers? Just your relationship, your team's relationship with the management function in general? What does that look like?

Einav Lavi (12:22)
We are part of the game. I hate when companies are calling HR the back office or we don't do that. We're sitting hand by hand with the manager. So we are doing talent reviews at least quarterly, which means that every quarter, every manager is meeting with a people partner to go over what are your challenges? What are you facing? No surprises. We're using a lot of data, very data-driven conversations because we're doing quarterly reviews. So every quarter, every manager has to respond to five questions.

What is the performance of your employee? Potential, do you want to promote that individual? How critical are the organization and what is the impact they making? This data that we are gathering on a quarterly basis is giving us very good basis for conversations, real conversations again. So the people partners, my team is sitting with each of the managers on a quarterly basis and really going over those questions. Why did he say that about those employees? We're also looking into data, we're using AI for

projecting ⁓ attrition. So my team is now able to say, okay, based on the predictive attrition analytics, I'm saying that that employee is not engaged enough. They didn't respond to this in those surveys. They're not sitting on their own hands. We have different databases that we're using to really analyze if there is a flight risk of employees. So there are no more surprises of you're getting a resignation letter, but we are actually

talking with managers on a quarterly basis, identifying those at flight risk based on the data, identifying the top talent and we have very generous programs of equity that we are giving. Again, it's a private equity company. So we're giving more equity to employees to the top talent and recognizing them. There is a lot of, two discussions about their people and what can we do about them on a quarterly, at least quarterly basis.

Once you do that, you're becoming more strategic partner. You're becoming very data, fact driven HR, BP, not just, okay, okay, you have a problem if you're pale, let me jump in and help you. We don't do that because the AI is able to free up our time to have those strategic discussions. So to answer your question, to make it simple, it's a lot about conversation, engagement with the managers, empowerment of the management. We are doing some EQ programs for management.

of how you show empathy to your team. Because now that the machines can take the rest of the, yeah, the machine can do that. And we are now going through a process of really identifying what areas the machine can take, AI can take. Then we need to focus on the EQ with managers. So it's a lot of real conversations about people. then based on real conversations, data, facts will come with the program. So it's a very strategic process that we have implemented this year.

Emily Fenech (15:07)
Yeah, two things I really like about what you just said is that you're taking the time that it's freeing up and instead of just stuffing more productivity into the time or greater expectations, you're actually leveraging it for conversation and empathy, which I don't think I've heard that response yet.

Einav Lavi (15:25)
Okay, first one. Managers are really appreciative of that because when you have real conversations, you also can predict what are the challenges that managers will have and how you can really be a partner for them. So I can easily tell you and don't ask my CEO, ask their leadership, they really appreciate that we are now having those conversations that they couldn't have before because it was very much of like, okay, I need to do this.

we did free up the time to be able to have those conversations that are super critical for our world.

Emily Fenech (15:57)
Yeah. And the second thing I like too is that, you know, quantitative data, you can't over-index on it, right? You use it to point you in the right direction. But I think you've said the word conversation, like if there was a word bubble of us talking, you know, you tend to, you seem to be very like discussion and conversation focused, which is a data company to hear the CHRO talk about conversation as an input, as an important input, qualitatively is refreshing.

Einav Lavi (16:27)
Yeah, we just we just came we had an employee event last week and they were asking some questions We have a panel for the ELT the executive leadership panel and one of the questions they asked me How do you like to spend your day? One-on-ones or working on a presentation my answer was about this because this is the only way you know There are things that the machines cannot replace the emotional intelligence the care the empathy the strategic thinking

So having the time and the ability to focus on the session is just a game changer for us.

Emily Fenech (17:00)
Absolutely. Let's talk about the things we have one more question for you is just what are those things that it can replace? Like what are you trying? What are you excited about? What are you automating when it comes to AI both in your product, but also in your people function?

Einav Lavi (17:15)
I love your question. So we have a process of fit for purpose and the fit for purpose is me sitting me and my team sitting with each of the leaders and really looking at first the structure. What is the structure? These are your objectives based on the framing memo. Now let's talk about the structure that you need for your team and then with the structure, what is the talent that we need? What are the skills gaps and what are the gaps that you have and how we can fulfill them?

What I've added this year in 2025 is another question. What role can be automated? So think about what we're doing today in each of the functions. I'm doing that with each of the functions. What role can be replaced by AI? And what roles we cannot replace? Because again, the creativity, the strategy, a machine cannot do. But the human machine partnership with now generating a huge amount of data into

A quick report, enough, this is what your employees are saying. I'll give you a quick example, the engagement survey, right? I had to go over 4,000, 5,000 responses to understand what is the sentiment of employees. You don't need to do that today. The AI summarizes, and this is what your promoters are thinking, and these are what we're, it's easy to come in and say, okay, I can really focus time on the strategy I need to build based on this data, instead of focusing on the data and cleaning and looking at what people are responding.

So this one example. Another great example within my function is the sourcing. We used to have five sources in my team. We have zero today. We're using AI for sourcing. We're getting the best rate. The AI is able to go and search in multiple job sites and come to us with like, these are the best candidates and also prioritize based on different metrics, how frequently they're jumping for a job, job to job.

So the ability of my team to focus on, again, conversations with candidates based on this is the best candidate you should talk with, the AI is doing the sourcing, my team is getting the shortlisted candidates and having real conversations about career, culture, how do you evaluate culture? This is what I want my team to focus on and not on your experience, what you've done before, is it relevant for the job? Because they will get the most qualified candidates.

Two examples for my function, but what I'm going through now, we've started about six months ago, is really to look at the same questions for each of the leaders. Now that you are clear on your structure, if you're the partner, and the skills that you need and the talent that you need, what are the roles that you can automate? What are the roles that you can bring AI to support? So this is the transformation that we this year.

Emily Fenech (19:56)
Yeah, absolutely. I think it's not just like like a hammer in search of a nail, which some, some, know, some AI is just sort of looking for, I'm not articulating it clearly, but right. Like if you have AI, everything looks like a problem that AI can solve. Right. But when you actually look at your processes a little bit more, closely, right. In terms of what can be automated, what has good data behind it. So you're not just scaling garbage or you're not just scaling in this. Right.

Einav Lavi (20:22)
⁓ I think when I, about seven years ago, when I brought the first tool into my talent acquisition function, the first AI tool, everyone was panicking. You're going to replace us. This is just the first step. No, I don't see it this way. This is really freeing up your time so you can focus on the strategic work, on making decisions, on really engaging in conversations and something that the machine cannot do.

And I think now people that have been working with me for a of years, they can see how I'm using AI and leveraging that into, again, automating what is the administrative work and freeing up the time to focus on conversations and building relationship and really understanding the pains of the employees and the managers and being able to be a real partner for them.

Emily Fenech (21:08)
Right, right. All voices is a we have AI in our platform for employee relations as a function. And we don't hear that the tool is causing people to decrease team size. What it is, is that like, people are grateful. They're like, I don't have to go back and relisten to an interview five times to figure out what was like, it's right there. Yeah.

Einav Lavi (21:28)
or taking notes. My men don't need to take notes anymore. Just the effort of like, I need to put feedback after the interview, they don't need to do that. So if they can really focus on the conversation, is that candidate is going to be a good fit for my team instead of let me take the notes and make sure that I'm having it right for the HR team.

Emily Fenech (21:48)
Yeah, or let me spend hours recompiling the information I already compiled, right? Nobody wants to be spending their day like that. I think we have a similar perspective. To me, it just seems like an awful lot of upside to be concerned about.

Einav Lavi (22:07)
And more and more, think these days, everyone understands that this is where we need to be. I don't think anyone will challenge why we bring AI and how is it going to replace roles or not. ⁓ It was, I think the initial conversations a couple of years back was around, it going to replace talent? I think everyone knows now today that this is more of augmenting leadership, giving opportunities to people to focus on the right things. Good trend that I'm seeing.

Emily Fenech (22:33)
Yeah, and it seems like a great opportunity for, again, people leaders to sort of step up and sort of navigate the change within the organization because it's such a partnership of the people and the technology. And so I think you'll see a lot of great HR leaders sort of rise in this moment, rise to the challenge.

Einav Lavi (22:50)
Exactly.

And that's what we are focusing on now, how we are equipping the managers to drive that change and really embrace that change with the growth mindset.

Emily Fenech (23:00)
Well, I really, I want to let you, I mean, you've had a long night and so I'm going let you get some rest, but do you have any parting words of advice or wisdom for the HR leaders listening?

Einav Lavi (23:11)
that's a one. Just to understand, I think that understanding of the combination of what we were talking about, right, the ability that we need both the financial acumen and the operational acumen, but at the same time, we have to have that commitment of employees development and engagement and to find that balance. I'm asking myself on a weekly basis, I block my Fridays for some reflections and I'm always asking a couple of hours on Fridays and I'm asking myself, did I do that balance?

this week, like can we find a balance between the empathy building, spending time talking with employees and at the same time driving the transformation that the organization is expecting me to do and we need to make. So I think having that debate and challenge ourselves as people leaders will help us to drive the organization where it needs and will bring an organization which is engaged and ready for the future.

Emily Fenech (24:07)
⁓ That's great advice. And even just pausing for reflection is something I think we could all be reminded of. That's great advice in and of itself.

Einav Lavi (24:14)
Yeah, I started doing it three years ago. It's working very well. Very important. We need a break sometimes to be creative.

Emily Fenech (24:22)
Yes, well thank you so much for being here. I really enjoyed our conversation.

Einav Lavi (24:26)
Thank you. It was really fun. Thank you for having me.