Reframing the Role: HR as the Business Partner and its Evolution

Tracie Sponenberg is Chief People Officer of The Granite Group, based in Concord, NH. An award-winning, third-generation family-owned business, The Granite Group has a proud tradition in the plumbing and heating wholesale supply business dating back to the turn of the last century. Tracie is responsible for leading all People functions throughout the company, with over 50 locations, and nearly 700 team members throughout New England.

While Tracie used to describe herself as “working in HR,” she now describes herself as a “Business leader specializing in People” - a change that came after her transformation from paper-first to people-first leader, and after embracing the importance of learning about the business, technology, the critical nature of relationships, the importance of a growth mindset, speaking up, and learning to always put people before profits.

With expertise in people development and engagement, strategic business planning, technology selection and deployment, wellness, employment branding, culture development and turnaround, leadership, team organizational and strategy development, Tracie has gained broad experience across a wide range of industries in her more than 25 years in human resources, with much of her career focused on working with CEOs to develop people strategies to help change and enhance the culture, and help the organizations -and their people - grow. She began her career in HR while in college, interning with a global public transportation company, and advanced through the organization over the next five years. Tracie found her business home in medium sized private companies, where she could have the most impact on the organization. She has led the HR function at an award-winning multi-state professional services firm; a Pulitzer-prize winning newspaper and publishing company, and a national wellness distribution and technology company.

Tracie has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from The College of The Holy Cross, and a Master’s Degree in Human Resources from Framingham State University. She is SPHR and SHRM-SCP certified; was the recipient of the 2019 GSHRC Ry Perry HR Hero Award; was named one of the 2020 “35 Employer Branding Experts” by Eightfold.ai; was named to the 2020 Most Inclusive Influencer List; and was recently named by PeopleHum as one of the Top 100 Global Thought Leaders, and one of the top 50 Global HR Professionals by The OnCon Icon Awards.

Tracie has spoken on HR, leadership, technology and business issues across the country (and now she speaks virtually around the world.) She is a co-founder of DisruptHR NH and HR Rebooted, a founding member of Chief Boston and CPOHQ and an Expert Council Member for Select Software Reviews. Her articles have appeared in CIO Review Magazine and HR Tech Outlook, and she has been a guest on numerous HR podcasts and interview series. Her HR expertise has been featured on NPR, and in publications including USA Today, US News and World Report, Employee Benefits News, Chicago Sun-Times and The Wall Street Journal. She is on the board of her local food co-op; The Harvard Pilgrim Foundation; the advisory board of the Framingham State University Master's in HRM program and the advisory board of Families in Transition/New Horizons.

A bookworm and introvert who never spoke in class until college, in recent years Tracie started getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. Though she now realizes she won’t die speaking in public, to the media, or on camera, she still hates parties and crowds - but loves espresso and movies. When we are not in a pandemic, she loves traveling, Disney World, visiting local coffee shops and very slowly running 5Ks with her husband. Now you can find her hanging at home with her family, cooking, reading, hiking in her backyard and watching a ton of Netflix.