Erika Smith

The best career advice I believe that I've ever received is not to rush it. To take every experience as a stepping stone, to learn everything I can learn out of each and every experience, not try to jump into something that I'm not ready for, but also not to go down to something that I've already surpassed. But every level of achievement, every level of success, every promotion, learn everything that I can learn in that role and in that moment, so when I go to the next level, I'll have a view that won't be from down up, it'll be top down.

The advice that I would give to a woman who wants to be in human resources is to remain educated on the industry. Laws change quickly, and they change fast, so you always have to be up on when something changes, because you don't know how it's going to affect where you work. You don't know how it's going to affect your state. It may even affect the employees at your building, or what you're trying to do. So my main thing would be to stay educated.

I think that in my industry, sometimes human resources can become oversaturated. I also believe that with COVID, a lot of the companies allow, especially with the scope of responsibility, a lot of the HR representatives to work from home. But now that things have leveled out, they're wanting to bring us back into the buildings. The second thing would be AI. A lot of the questions that some of the associates or employees used to have for human resources, now they're going on AI and answering or asking those questions, and they're getting those same answers. So I think, in order to overcome that, we need to make sure that we are promoting the human in Human Resources. Because you can't beat a person face-to-face. You can't beat that interaction from someone who understands your situation and can make adjustments, or who can make provisions for you.

In my work life, I try to ensure that I'm approachable, that I'm consistent, that I have a heart for the people who come into my office. Even in my personal life, just at my church, just being a beacon of light, being there at the door to hug people, to welcome them, to let them know that they are accepted, regardless of who they are, where they come from, what their background is, and that crosses into my professional life as well. I have an open door policy. I don't care what you did, I don't care what they said you did. When you come into my office, this is a safe space.