Krystal Hart

I've been working in human resources for 13 years, starting in August 2012. I earned my bachelor's degree in human resources from Winthrop University after switching from accounting because I realized I didn't want to work with other people's money in that way. After graduation, it took me over a year of applying before I landed my first HR position as an entry-level HR assistant at the South Carolina Attorney General's Office in 2012. I worked there for a little over a year before moving to North Carolina, where I held some HR positions for a few years. In 2016, my position at the Attorney General's Office opened back up and they asked me to come back. Over the past 10 years since returning, there's been tremendous growth within the agency, which expanded my role to HR Manager. As an HR generalist, my day-to-day work involves supporting employees and managers with their HR needs, handling employee relations matters, coaching employees and helping managers understand appropriate paths for conduct and discipline plans and performance improvement plans. I perform compensation analysis on all new hires and periodically conduct compensation studies to maintain equitable salaries within the agency. I've developed policies and salary review programs to strengthen our retention initiatives. I also handle compliance, making sure all our OSHA and EEOC reports are completed every year. I assist with performance management, training and onboarding, and strategic partnerships with managers and leadership. One of my most notable achievements was receiving my SHRM certification in 2024, which was very challenging as I hadn't studied or sat for a formalized exam of that magnitude since the SATs over 20 years ago, and I was balancing it while working full-time.