Overview
In this episode of Drive Thru HR, hosts Robin Schooling and Michael VanDervort sit down with Deb Muller, Founder and CEO of HR Acuity. Deb discusses the evolving landscape of employee relations (ER), the growing complexity of workplace conflict, the rise of AI as ER infrastructure, and how trust, data and governance are becoming foundational to the future of the function.
Listen here.
Key Themes & Insights
Employee Relations Has Entered a New Era
Deb explains that employee relations has shifted from a “cleanup function” to a strategic discipline responsible for predicting trust and mitigating organizational risk.
Then vs. Now:
- Past: ER teams focused on case intake, reactive investigations and policy enforcement.
- Today: ER is expected to forecast risk, identify trust gaps and help shape organizational culture using proactive data insights.
The Workplace Is Now the Intersection of Identity, Politics & Accountability
Deb notes that personal identity and global socio-political issues now show up inside workplaces instantly.
ER teams are being asked to manage:
- Politically and socially charged conflict
- Public online activism
- Heightened employee expectations for transparency
- New global regulations
Trust Is Breaking Down—and ER Must Measure It
Trust emerged as a central theme. Deb stresses that organizations must treat trust as measurable, not theoretical.
HR Acuity is introducing a Trust & Risk (T&R) Statement, modeled after a financial P&L, to give ER a standardized way to quantify ER health and organizational risk.
Three pillars of the T&R framework:
- Operational Efficiency – ER responsiveness, staffing, and workload
- Employee Trust Experience – psychological safety, willingness to speak up, post-case outcomes
- Risk Metrics – including new dollar-based indicators like legal cost per 1,000 employees
Deb: “If you build trust through transparency and process, the risk will mitigate itself.”
The Critical Importance of AI Governance
Because ER data is sensitive, organizations are creating cross-functional AI governance groups (ER, legal, privacy, compliance).
Best practices from the roundtable:
- Govern AI like any other high-risk system
- Ensure strict data isolation and guardrails
- Avoid casual use of public LLMs for sensitive information
- Review implications for discovery and litigation
- Set policies around transcription and recording in investigations
ER Burnout Is Real—and Getting Worse
HR Acuity’s Employee Relations Benchmark Study shows:
- Overall ER case volume is down,
- but harassment, discrimination, and retaliation cases are at record highs
- and case complexity has increased significantly.
What Will Shock Organizations in 2026
Deb predicts organizations will be surprised by how AI’s broader workplace impact will drive new forms of conflict, such as:
- Job redesign tension
- Resistance to AI adoption
- Misuse of AI tools
- Fear of visibility and surveillance
- AI-generated employee complaints
AI won’t just change ER processes—it will change the types of cases ER manages.
