Cheyanne Garner

I would give credit to my friend Ashley. She was the person who gave me my first HR job. She got promoted, and I ended up taking her job after she got promoted. She said, if anybody's going to have my job after I get promoted, it's going to be Cheyanne. She took me in under her wing and taught me everything that I needed to learn, and it made me realize that HR is what I want to do, HR is what I enjoy. I kind of owe it all to her because she put me in the role and she didn't have to, but she did.

One of my former managers used to tell me that if you want something, you have to speak up about it. Her mindset was simple: ask for what you want—the worst someone can say is no.

So when there was a change in management, I went to her and said, “You’ve always said that if you want something, you should ask. This is me asking. I need to make more money. Based on the work I do and what people earn in our area, this is what I believe I should be making.”

She listened and said, “Okay,” and that was that.

Since then, I’ve tried to always advocate for myself because I know my worth and what I deserve, and I don’t want to settle. Honestly, that’s some of the best advice I’ve ever received: speak up for yourself. At the end of the day, you’re the only one who can truly do that.

I’d say it can be tough at times, but it’s also incredibly rewarding—so don’t give up when things get hard. I took some breaks from HR during COVID, but one thing that always stuck with me was seeing the excitement on new hires’ faces when I was younger in the field. I also loved helping students find jobs and build their resumes. Just knowing that you’re helping people—whether it’s by hiring them or helping them find opportunities—makes the work really meaningful.

HR often gets a bad reputation. People think of it like going to the principal’s office—like if you’re called in, you must be in trouble or about to get fired. But that’s not really what HR is about. HR isn’t the enemy; we’re a resource for both the company and its employees.

Yes, part of our role is guiding managers and helping the company stay compliant, but we’re also there to support employees. For example, I often know more about the benefits than employees do, and I can be the starting point to help them get the information they need. If I can’t answer a question right away, I’ll find the right person who can and make sure that employee gets the help they need.

I don’t want people to think of HR as something negative. I want them to see HR for what it really is—a valuable resource, because that’s truly what we are.

When COVID hit, I was working in the hospitality industry, so I got laid off. When we were able to go back to work, it was very limited because working at a hotel in the middle of COVID, the rooms are very empty, so not a lot of money coming in and people's hours were getting cut. Then Hurricane Sally hit our area and wiped out our entire Gulfside rooms. We had just renovated the hotel about a year and a half, two years before, and then all of our Gulfside rooms had to get re-renovated because of the hurricane. My income became more unstable, everybody's hours were getting cut. That was a tough part of my career. I ended up leaving HR for a little bit and went to remotely in the banking industry. It was great, I enjoyed working there, however, it was not human resources, so it was a bit of a pause in my HR career, but it was stable income that I could count on. That was the biggest hurdle I had to go through. I've also dealt with toxic people in the workplace. When I was younger, I was almost bullied out of a job. That experience pushed me to grow a backbone and decide that I would never let anyone treat me like that again. As far as opportunities, with human resources, it's always changing. There are always different things. Service Logic has endless opportunities. I've been invited to co-host a Lunch and Learn in April on the HR system we work in. I'm currently working on developing a proposal to expand my job and add more responsibility and job duties. I want to grow within my role as much as possible. I would really like to get into change management and coaching and teaching and training a little more, specifically with our managers.

Professionally and personally, accountability is a big one. I've gone through a lot of different things in my personal life where people weren't accountable, and it's a pet peeve. I mean, nobody's perfect, and you can't force someone to be accountable, but it is something that I take high value of. And then honesty. If I can't trust you, then it's not going to be a good relationship. I don't treat anybody any different because professionally, I have to treat everybody the same. But if I can't trust you, I'm going to limit myself. You're not going to have as much access to me personally if I can't trust you.