Why SiriusXM’s head of people is betting on skills-based design to future-proof its workforce

Faye Tylee is the chief people and administrative officer at SiriusXM, leading the company’s enterprise people strategy including talent, rewards, culture, and employee experience. She’s set to speak at HR Brew’s upcoming summit, Talent 2030 Collective: Recruit, Retain, Repeat, on April 21 about how HR teams are building systems that support growth at scale. Before then, we had a chance to get her thoughts on the shift from reactive people strategy to intentional workforce design.

The following has been edited for length and clarity.

If you zoom out, what’s the biggest shift happening in the talent landscape right now that HR leaders can’t afford to ignore?

The biggest shift is how work itself is being redefined, which is driven by AI and a move toward a more skills-based, future-of-work model. As AI accelerates, jobs are no longer static. They’re being unbundled into tasks that are automated, augmented, or remain distinctly human, which is fundamentally changing how we think about roles, careers, and capability-building.

At SiriusXM, that’s pushing us to move beyond traditional role-based hiring toward a more dynamic, skills-based approach. We’re focused on helping team members understand the skills they have today, the ones they’ll need next, and how to build them through more transparent, structured development opportunities. It’s about making career paths more visible, flexible, and aligned to where the business is going.

Some of the questions we’re actively working through: What skills will matter most for our future? Which capabilities are universal across SiriusXM? How do we better map skills to the work being done, and how can AI and productivity tools help accelerate that?

Where do you see organizations falling short today when it comes to hiring, development, or retention?

We’ve long believed that careers aren’t linear. We have team members who have built long, diverse careers here—moving across functions, building new skills, and even helping launch entirely new areas of the business. Rather than role-based, we’re working to make those pathways more transparent and scalable so team members can better understand what’s possible and how to get there. That visibility is critical for both development and retention.

The other challenge is how organizations operationalize culture. Culture is often treated as an initiative or an afterthought, rather than a core driver of performance and experience. For us, culture is intentionally designed and embedded into how we work. Our communities play a central role in fostering connection and belonging, ensuring team members feel valued, heard, and understood. And our office-based SteerCos help bring that culture to life locally, while staying aligned to our broader enterprise priorities.

AI is showing up everywhere in the employee journey right now. Where do you think it’s actually adding value, and where is it being overhyped or misused?

Our approach to AI is about enhancement. The real value comes from how AI helps us rethink how work gets done by automating routine tasks, augmenting human capabilities, and allowing our people to focus more on the creative, strategic, and distinctly human aspects of their roles.

Across the business, we’re already seeing that play out, from partnerships like Sierra that help deliver more seamless customer experiences, to innovations like synthetic voice ads that are expanding access for advertisers. And from a people and culture perspective, one of the most exciting opportunities is how AI can unlock greater visibility into skills and work. As jobs evolve, we’re exploring AI tools and platforms that can help us better understand how work is broken down, what can be automated (or augmented), and where human expertise is most critical.

When it comes to where AI’s overhyped, I think about how success is measured. Adoption alone isn’t the goal. The real question is whether AI is meaningfully improving how work happens, making it more efficient and more transparent.

What’s one thing HR leaders can start doing differently tomorrow to build stronger, more resilient teams?

Treat culture as a core operating system for performance, not as something that sits to the side of the business.

In a rapidly changing environment, culture is what creates clarity, alignment, and resilience. It defines how decisions get made, how teams collaborate, and how work actually gets done.

For us, the past two years have been focused on intentionally redefining organizational culture to better align with where the business is going. That meant going beyond words on a page and spending time embedded across the company to understand how team members experience work day to day, what enables them to perform at their best, and where friction exists.

What emerged consistently is that values only matter if they show up in everyday behaviors, expectations, and decisions. That insight shaped how our values evolved—show up, link up, level up—into clear commitments that guide how work happens, how teams collaborate, and how leaders show up.

When you think about talent in 2030, what do you hope organizations have finally figured out?

By 2030, the organizations that win will be the ones that have fully embraced a more transparent, skills-based, adaptive model of work. That means moving beyond static roles to environments where skills are visible, career paths are dynamic, and team members can navigate their growth with clarity and confidence. Workforce planning will be even more proactive and powered by a deeper understanding of how work is evolving and where human capability is most needed alongside AI.

At the same time, AI and people systems will enable more personalized, self-service experiences, giving team members greater access to opportunities, development, and information in real time. And the differentiator will be technology—and how well organizations integrate that with culture.

I want to see continuous learning be the norm, adaptability is expected, and team members feel consistently connected, supported, and empowered to grow and perform.