Building High-Performing Teams: Lessons From Pentair and Smiths Medical with Nicki Leritz

On today’s episode, we’re joined by Nicki Leritz, whose previous roles include CHRO at Pentair’s Water Solutions segment and HR leadership positions at Smiths Medical and the Andersen Corporation. She’s now helping growing companies rethink how they build and scale people strategies through People Solutions Hub. Nicki shares her lessons from leading HR through fast growth, high turnover, and burnout, and how those experiences shaped her approach to leadership, hiring, and retention.

Key Takeaways:

(06:04) High turnover often signals burnout, poor engagement, or broken infrastructure.
(08:04) Bad onboarding causes people to leave within 30 to 90 days.
(08:42) Demand for fractional HR has doubled and isn’t slowing down.
(13:23) Hire for character, potential, and values — not just experience.
(14:06) The best leaders lead with humility, transparency, and active listening.
(17:55) Refusing to turn on video is a red flag for candidates.
(22:03) Feedback reveals growth mindset, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence.
(27:37) AI and ATS are screening out great people based on keywords.
(30:04) AI helps, but it won’t replace the human side of hiring.
(36:31) Letting go of people-pleasing is key to sustainable leadership.


Resources Mentioned:

Nicki Leritz
  / nickimastermanleritz  

People Solutions Hub | LinkedIn
  / psolutionshub  

People Solutions Hub | Website
https://www.peoplesolutionshub.co/

“The Let Them Theory” by Mel Robbins
https://www.melrobbins.com/book/the-l...




Thank you for listening to “Hire Learning with Oz Rashid.” Don’t forget to leave us a review and subscribe so you don’t miss out on future episodes.

Connect with our host, Oz Rashid, on LinkedIn:   / ozrashid  .

To learn more about MSH, visit https://www.talentmsh.com.




#TalentAcquisition #HiringStrategy #EnterpriseHiring #GigEconomy #AIinHR #WorkforceTrends