Eric Knauf never expected his most significant career pivot to begin with being laid off.

After helping guide WorkRise through one of the most difficult periods in its history, rebuilding trust, restoring employee confidence, and improving organizational health following a 55 percent workforce reduction, Eric believed the hard work was paying off. Employee sentiment had rebounded dramatically. Referrals were increasing. Leaders were communicating with unprecedented transparency. Then his own role was eliminated.

"I didn’t anticipate my role elimination," he said. "We'd done all this work to turn things around." Like many people whose jobs disappear unexpectedly, Eric initially wrestled with disappointment and frustration. But after the shock subsided, a deeper question emerged.

"Why does this matter to me so much?" That question would redirect his career.

For most of his career, Eric held senior in-house HR leadership roles, helping organizations scale while building healthier cultures and stronger leadership.

His work consistently centered on creating environments where people could thrive. At Workrise, that meant designing an Organizational Health Index that measured trust, psychological safety, employee voice, and leadership accountability. The effort helped move employee net promoter scores from an astonishing -73 after layoffs to a +8 within while restoring confidence throughout the organization.

When his position disappeared, however, Eric realized his commitment had never been to one company. It has always been to the conditions that allow human beings to do their best work.

The layoff became the trigger. It wasn't the cause.

Transition Process

Eric describes the months following his departure as a period of deep reflection. Instead of immediately launching another venture, he began examining why the loss of his role affected him so profoundly. Looking back across his career, he noticed a consistent pattern.

"I've always had an overwhelming desire to create conditions of good for the individual."

That realization sent him down what he calls a rabbit hole of research. He immersed himself in the work of researchers such as Amy Edmondson on psychological safety and became fascinated by research showing that organizations with stronger feelings of belonging dramatically outperform those without. 

But he also felt something was missing. Belonging had become an emotional concept measured largely through surveys. Eric wanted to redefine it as something organizations could actually build, measure, and improve.

From that work emerged what he now calls the Belonging Standard: a framework built around five measurable pillars: psychological safety, inclusion, support, connection, and purpose. It is also built around a maturity model organizations can use to understand and strengthen their human infrastructure. In addition to Edmondson’s work, he found that inclusion (Shore), support (Eisenberger), connection (Cross & Cummings), and purpose (Deci & Ryan) research directly tie to organizational outcomes.

The transition was helped by a severance package that gave him nearly a year to think, write, and research before dipping into savings. Friends, mentors, and respected leaders across the HR community encouraged him to continue even when the market suggested otherwise. The job market wasn't particularly welcoming. As one venture capitalist bluntly told him, "You have the pedigree, but not the youth."

Rather than chase another executive role, Eric doubled down on the work he believed mattered most. That conviction eventually came to fruition with his book, The 56% Solution: How Human Infrastructure Transforms Performance.

Current Direction

Today, Eric is the founder of BelongHQ, where he's helping organizations understand and improve the health of their human infrastructure.

His consulting work helps companies assess their readiness for major transformations, including AI adoption, acquisitions, and organizational restructuring. His premise is straightforward: organizations can only move as effectively as the human systems supporting them.

He's now working with channel partners and consulting firms, including a pilot with a globally recognized consulting firm, while seeking a technical co-founder to help build an AI-enabled platform that measures organizational belonging using operational data rather than relying solely on surveys.

The vision extends well beyond dashboards. Eric wants frontline managers to receive practical AI-generated recommendations that help strengthen belonging while improving measurable business outcomes.

His ambition isn't simply to build another HR technology company. "I want something that survives and lives on its own without me," he said. "Something that impacts people after I'm gone."

Advice to Others

Eric offers four pieces of advice for anyone facing an unexpected redirection.

• Separate the trigger from the true cause. A layoff, burnout, or other disruption may initiate a pivot, but it isn't necessarily the reason for it. Understanding what has always driven you creates a stronger foundation for whatever comes next.

• Treat feedback as information about fit rather than judgment. Not every role or every leadership position is designed for what you uniquely bring.

• Notice where hard work no longer feels like work. The activities that absorb your attention, energize you, and leave you wanting more often point toward your deepest contribution.

• Keep asking yourself one deceptively simple question: "Who am I now?" Identity evolves. Careers change. Titles disappear. But purpose can survive every change in vehicle.

Eric didn't discover a new purpose after his layoff. He discovered the purpose that had been quietly connecting every role he'd ever held.