Her Story
About Molly
I've been in HR for more than 25 years, and I kind of fell into it. I was working for a book distribution company as a receptionist in a temp job, and I ended up getting hired on, and then got to their HR department, and that's where I started my career from there. Now I'm a Managing HR Consultant with the San Diego Employers Association, where I've been for more than 7 years. We're a consulting firm with a team of 3 consultants, and we support small to mid-sized businesses that either don't have any HR department or maybe they have just one person in the HR department. We assist them with compliance, employee relations, leaves of absence, basically everything HR-related. We work with about 120 active member companies, mostly through email, handling questions and issues that come in. Within the professional field of HR, there are just so many different things that come up, and you have to understand the implications of things that come up and the potential liability to the business and the impact that it'll have to the business. You need to be a problem solver and think, okay, the easiest way might be this, but that's not compliant, so you have to find another solution. I'm also currently the co-president of NCHRSD (North County HR San Diego), where I've been on the board for 4 years. I had been VP of Programs before becoming co-president. In my first HR job, I was an HR manager and was also responsible for recruiting. By the time I left that organization, 70% of the staff were people that I had recruited. When you're in HR, you really do shape the company and the company culture. I keep my HR ears open for things that I need to hear, because people don't always realize that they should be sharing information with you, because it will have impact on the organization as a whole. You need to be listening so that if you hear something that you need to hear, you know that you need to hear it and can act on it.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Molly
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to being adaptable and keeping my HR ears open. I keep my ears open for things that I need to hear, because people don't always realize that they should be sharing information with you, because it will have impact on the organization as a whole. You need to be listening so that if you hear something that you need to hear, you know that you need to hear it and can act on it. For example, I was recruiting for a company and found out that the hiring manager had been hospitalized. I went to the HR business partner and said, did you know that this employee had been hospitalized? The employee was just using their vacation time, but they were eligible for state disability insurance because we're in California. They should be out on a leave of absence, and it would be a job-protected leave of absence. The vice president of the company just didn't even think, oh, I should be letting HR know about this. The employee didn't realize they could use their state disability insurance and didn't have to use all of their PTO for the time that they were out. It's got a financial impact for the employee as well.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've received for being in HR is that when you have shared your advice and the reasoning behind it, you've done your job, and if leadership doesn't follow your advice, you've still done your job. This saves a lot of heartache. You did your best, you did it. If they want to follow it, fine, and if they don't, you can't think about it anymore. You did your job.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Don't go into HR because you love people, go into HR because you find people interesting. You will not get bored, that's for sure. Within the professional field of HR, there are just so many different things that come up, and you have to understand the implications of things that come up and the potential liability to the business and the impact that it'll have to the business. You need to be a problem solver. You need to think, okay, the easiest way might be this, but that's not compliant, so you have to find another solution. Also, just be prepared to be the moral compass of the organization.
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