Kaitlynn Callen

I've been in manufacturing for about 13 years, and my journey has been quite dynamic. I relocated to Kansas from Chicago, where I spent 30 years in the suburbs. Before moving, I worked for America's largest flooring construction company, where I experienced their transformation from a small mom-and-pop shop into an M&A conglomerate. After that acquisition, there was no career path for me that I liked, so I jumped to a project management position to help clean up their systems. I then did consulting work, which I chose strategically because you get to work with so many different industries to find your niche. Through one of my clients, I learned that I'm really good at working with manufacturing companies and work very well in craft, male-dominated industries, getting to come in and show them what a woman in that workforce can do and the changes and development that can take place. I was hired at CST for a different title, but within my first two weeks, they realized how much experience and knowledge I had in career planning and training and development. They immediately began restructuring the entire HR department for our U.S. locations with my assistance. For the last year and a half, I've been focused on my plant as well as the U.S. training and development programs, which have included a series of off-site management trainings and internal trainings. I just helped roll out a succession planning tool that we built from the ground up, which allows employees to map out their career goals and timeframes so management and HR can better plan for positions and critical roles. My main area of expertise is training and development, helping people align their career goals with reality. Day-to-day, I handle employee relations, payroll, manage my on-site team, and do a lot of one-on-one coaching with our lowest level leadership team to make sure they're comfortable doing terminations and having difficult conversations with employees.