HR Top Voices: Julieta Valerga
HR Top Voices
There are HR people who talk about transforming the function. And there are people who actually do it.
HR Top Voices is Desky's series where we give the microphone to the latter. Each piece is a real conversation with an HR leader navigating the same challenges you are: distributed teams, pressure to be more strategic, technology that promises everything and delivers little, and the age-old question of how to do more with less.
We're not looking for perfect success stories. We're looking for honest perspectives. The ones that make you think "this is happening to me too" and the ones that make you want to do something different tomorrow.
This edition: Julieta Valerga, Business Services Manager (Talent, Administration & Operations Manager) at Black Puma
Stop fighting fires and start anticipating them
If you've ever felt that HR has more potential than the rest of the organization lets it show, Julieta Valerga thought of it before you did. And she did something about it.
Today she's a Business Services Manager at Black Puma, focused on Talent, Administration and Operations, reporting directly to the CEO. But what matters most isn't the title. It's what she did to get there: she built from scratch an area that didn't exist, because she understood that isolated data doesn't help. And that HR can—and should—be the function that brings the most clarity when tough decisions are on the table.
We talked with her. Here's what she told us.
"Data is everywhere. What's missing is integration."
Julieta doesn't talk about data-driven HR as a concept. She operationalizes it.
"Having data isn't enough. What matters is integrating it with a systemic view that lets you prioritize, anticipate, and decide with criteria."
What's the difference between an HR report and a high-impact conversation with the C-suite? Context. When information arrives integrated—not as metrics from your department but as business evidence—the conversation shifts. You stop talking about people in the abstract and start talking about scenarios, consequences, and ROI.
And in a boardroom, that changes everything.
She built an area from the ground up. Here's why.
When Julieta proposed creating the Business Services area at Black Puma, she didn't do it to add another box to the org chart. She did it because she saw something others weren't seeing: that data from non-technical areas (finance, operations, people) were telling the same story from different angles, and no one was connecting them.
"When you process information together, you can anticipate scenarios and provide greater clarity in decision-making," she explains.
Simple in theory. Complex to execute. But Julieta did it anyway.
What HR should stop doing (now)
We asked her what she'd tell an HR leader to free up strategic time. She didn't hesitate:
"Stop wasting energy on operational tasks that can be automated and start redesigning the function's role with technology and AI support."
It's not efficiency for efficiency's sake. It's freeing up mental capacity to do what really adds value: listen to the business, anticipate needs, support decisions.
Anyone still approving each booking by hand, validating access, answering the same Slack questions over and over isn't being careful. They're being slow. And that slowness costs.
Where organizations bleed money invisibly
"In poorly designed processes, rework, and decisions made without complete information."
That's what she said when we asked where organizations hemorrhage without realizing it. And it's brutal in its accuracy, because it names what everyone senses but few measure: duplicate timelines, responsibilities no one owns, criteria written nowhere.
"What's invisible isn't that it doesn't exist, but that it doesn't always translate into metrics that make it obvious."
There are organizations spending a fortune on inefficiencies that don't show up on any dashboard. Julieta says HR's job is, among other things, making them visible.
AI in HR: A Cultural Integrator
"Technology adds value when it solves a real friction point in the process and frees up time for higher-value strategic work. It distracts when it's adopted because it's trendy or external pressure."
What's the criteria for deciding what to automate? Evaluate whether it improves efficiency, reduces errors, or provides useful information for decision-making. If it only adds complexity, it probably isn't worth it.
And on HR's role in adopting AI across organizations: not gatekeeper, not facilitator. Integrator. Someone who guides the cultural shift, builds the framework, who balances innovation with judgment and responsibility.
What HR should measure in 2026 (and almost no one is measuring)
Her answer stands out for its precision:
The organization's adaptive capacity.
Not the implementation of changes, but the actual level of buy-in, understanding, and ownership of those changes by teams. The speed at which a company adopts new technologies. How different generations coexist with progress.
"Silent resistance, lack of understanding, or poorly managed overwhelm can slow strategic goals without being obvious."
Measuring adaptability isn't just a cultural issue. It's a competitiveness variable.
One last question. The most human one.
We asked her what she'd tell her three-year-ago self, before she proposed the area.
"That you should trust yourself a little more. That things are going to work out. That you don't need to suffer so much thinking through 20 different scenarios, most of which won't happen anyway. That you should enjoy the process more and, most importantly, make time to recognize your wins."
There are HR leaders reading this right now who needed to hear exactly that.
For those managing remote teams and still dealing with multiple workspace providers
Julieta works at a 100% remote company. When we asked what Desky solves for her day-to-day, she was direct:
"Desky helps us organize and create traceability for a benefit that, without clear management, can generate invisible budget deviations and tracking issues. Centralizing coworking information lets us set limits, monitor usage, and make decisions based on concrete data instead of assumptions."
She added something worth framing: "A tool adds value when it combines operational efficiency with a close, responsive human experience. That's where I find value in Desky."
If you're managing spaces for a distributed team across multiple cities, it makes sense to understand how it works.
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Julieta Valerga is Business Services Manager (Talent, Administration & Operations) at Black Puma. Specialist in People Analytics and AI applied to HR, focused on integrating people, data, and business to make better strategic decisions.
Published by the Desky team — March 2026