Her Story
About Cassie
Cassie Baalke serves as Payroll Manager in the retail luggage sales and manufacturing industry, where she has worked for nearly 10 years. She began her career after earning a degree in HR with an initial role at a union-based food production company, where she gained experience with unions and began handling payroll tasks such as auditing time cards across multiple shifts. Baalke then moved to a tech startup as an HR manager, taking on expanded responsibilities including 401K, benefits, and payroll during the COVID period when she became self-taught in multi-state and multi-country payroll processing. She later joined her current company as an HRBP before transitioning fully into payroll and advancing to the Payroll Manager position. Baalke focuses on the technical and analytical aspects of her field, building systems like vacation accruals, and is currently studying for her CPP certification. She credits her strong work ethic and dedication to hard work to the example set by her father, who worked in the NFL, and she values integrity and ethics highly, noting that trust is essential in HR and payroll roles.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Cassie
01What do you attribute your success to?
I think it has a lot to do with how I was raised and watching my dad's work ethic. My dad worked in the NFL his whole life. He made sure that I never got a handout a day in my life. It was very important to him and to me to never follow behind his footsteps. I've had to work very hard to make a name for myself so nobody could ever say that it was just handed to me. I pride myself on the fact that everything I've done has been something that I worked extremely hard for. I enjoy working and I credit that to my dad because a busy mind is a calm mind.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
You have to be an advocate for yourself because not a lot of people are going to advocate for women. If it's resonating with you and you really are feeling a certain type of way, do not be scared to speak up for yourself whether it be you think you deserve a promotion or you're not wanting a certain thing. You have to advocate for yourself. It gives more of a sense of fulfillment to say like I know that I deserve this, I stood up for myself.
03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
From the field that I'm in, one of the biggest things is integrity and ethics. I'm big on that just because with HR and payroll, if you ruin it once you kind of ruin it forever. I'm big on always if I say I'm gonna do something I'm gonna do it. People can always trust that everything is safe with me.
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