How to prioritize HR initiatives without losing your mind

Meet RICE—the framework that'll flip how you prioritize HR initiatives, used by the best product teams worldwide.

Every HR leader I speak with says the same thing:

"We're drowning in competing priorities. Everyone wants something yesterday. Where do we even start?"

If you've ever juggled onboarding improvements, pressure to educate managers, dealing with toxic team culture—and leadership breathing down your neck about AI—you know the feeling.

Here's the problem: when everything is "priority one", nothing is.

In Product, we've faced this forever. Hundreds of feature requests, limited resources. You can't build it all.

So we invented frameworks to prioritize with discipline—models like RICE.

And honestly? HR should steal them.

🍚 The RICE model: Your new best friend

In product, RICE helps prioritize feature ideas. But when applied thoughtfully in HR, it becomes a powerful lens for answering: What problem am I really solving, is it meaningful, and is it the best use of our time?

R = Reach

Ask: Who exactly will this touch, and how big is the group?

• One frustrated manager?

• A whole department of 200 engineers?

• Every new hire this year?

➡️ Example: "The toxic manager issue directly affects 25 engineers (~15% of the company)."

I = Impact

These questions help you distinguish high-impact work from busywork:

Severity: How much pain are we solving? Is it costing us talent, productivity, creating frustration? Can this be solved another way that makes the initiative less critical?

Frequency: Daily pain or once-a-year annoyance?

Business tie: Does solving it link directly to retention, ARR growth, fundraising readiness, or cost efficiency?

➡️ Example: "Morale complaints surface weekly. Severity is high: attrition risk + productivity drop. Business impact: losing just two senior engineers could delay roadmap delivery by a quarter and risk $3M ARR."

C = Confidence

Ask: How sure are we that fixing this will deliver results?

• Do we have survey data, exit interviews, or productivity metrics?

• Or is it just a gut call?

• How confident are we that our suggested solution will solve the underlying problem?

➡️ Example: "High confidence problem—validated by engagement survey and exit interviews, repeatedly flagged by managers. High confidence solution: already tested successfully in another department or a similar company."

E = Effort

Ask: What will it take to fix this?

• A workshop series?

• A full system overhaul?

• How many teams need to be involved?

➡️ Example: "Medium effort—requires HRBP coaching + manager support, not a full reorg."

📊 See RICE in action

Notice how the "invisible fires" (toxic culture, manager training) rise to the top, while the shiny-but-low-value work (handbooks, swag) sinks to the bottom.

Why RICE changes everything

This framework isn't just for convincing stakeholders—it's for yourself. It forces you to ask:

• What problem am I solving?

• What's the measurable business outcome?

• Is this truly the best use of our time?

That discipline separates impactful HR leaders from ones stuck in busywork.

If I were VP HR tomorrow, I wouldn't just juggle requests. I'd put every initiative through a RICE lens, then come back with: "Here's who this touches, how painful the problem is, what business impact we risk or gain, and why we're tackling it now."

Then I'd come back with: "Here's who this touches, how painful the problem is, what business impact we risk or gain, and why we're tackling it now."

Because that's how product earns trust. And it's exactly how HR can earn it too.

⚡ Quick guide: Run RICE in 30 minutes

1. List your initiatives for the quarter

2. Score each one (1–5) on Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort:

   1. Reach: % of org affected, e.g. 1 = <5%, 5 = entire company

   2. Impact: business outcome, e.g. 1 = marginal, 5 = retention/fundraising critical

   3. Confidence: evidence, e.g. 1 = gut feeling, 5 = surveys based

   4. Effort: required resources, e.g. 0.5 = workshop, 4 = half-a-year effort

3. Sort by score → high-leverage work rises to top

4. Share with leadership → align on what HR will and won't do

💡 Remember: The score matters less than the thinking behind it.

Til next time,
Shirley