Sierra Hedrick

I would say hard work. I don't have a really other way to put it, because I don't know how to say no, which can honestly be a curse as well as a gift. But I never turn down a challenge. I'm always willing to do my best and give my best shot at anything that's asked of me, and I think that's really helped me so far. Just showing that I'm willing to take on that extra challenge and responsibility, and that, you know, there's nothing that I won't at least give a try.

I once got told that I was too big for a company when I inquired about a promotion. They said, you're too big for us, you're gonna go do much more than we have for you here. I think it's very important for a manager or a supervisor to be very direct with their employees. That was the best advice I ever got, because it let me know that while they cherished me there, they were not going to be able to challenge me and offer me everything that I was able to do. It was kind of an interesting dichotomy there, because I was a little hurt, like, oh, so you don't want me to move up in the company. But at the same time, it was... I understood that he was being honest, so I could understand my situation better, so that way I could go on to pursue things that would allow me to be as big as I was.

I would say, HR gets looked at as the big bad wolf sometimes, so it's important to remember that it's human resources, you know, that encompasses everybody, so it's important to keep that humanity and understand that there is a way in most situations to compromise so that both the company and the employees can get equal benefit. Trying to keep that compromise in mind instead of just having a hard line set in the stone is definitely going to help you in the future. It's going to help you identify paths that weren't previously discovered, and it's going to help the employees feel more secure. I would also say, listen. Listening is kind of underrated in this industry. Most employees just want someone in HR to listen. They want to know that they're important. And they are, because they drive the company, so it's important to get a gauge and a read on what's going on in their everyday lives.

The biggest challenge I would definitely say is recruiting. It's always going to be recruiting, I feel like, simply because even in a great job market, you're going to have an influx of people, and everybody's going to want the jobs if you're doing your job right. So they're going to say anything on that application to get through. I think the biggest challenge is always going to be recruiting. It's going to be difficult to be able to parse out those that are legitimately skilled. The biggest opportunity is transformation, determining small ways that you can transform your company's morale or your employee morale and engagement with very little overhead or effort. I would say just always be thinking outside of the box in ways to make employees feel valued. Even that can be very small gestures like gift cards, certificates, anything like that, just to show them that we're recognizing them and we understand that they do a good job. So I would say don't ever undervalue the power of recognition.