Current Trends and
Issues in HR – An Interview with HR
Director, Catherine Kerr
Interviewer: Kareen King,
President, SHRM Lehman College Student Chapter
Contributions made by Mayrelin Tapia, Vice President, SHRM Lehman
College Student Chapter & Alondra Garcia, Treasurer, SHRM
Lehman College Student Chapter
Bio: Catherine Kerr is an
accomplished HR professional, with seven years’
experience in various HR roles, predominantly at GRID Alternatives. GRID
Alternatives is the nation’s largest and fastest-growing non-profit
organization that specializes in providing solar technology and job training to under-served communities.
Catherine Kerr is considered a trailblazer and is instrumental in defining what HR
means at GRID Alternatives. Ms. Kerr is the key player in starting, growing and
leading the HR team and defining the organization’s values. Catherine is
passionate about leadership and combines this with HR’s values and into
strategies that will keep employees, motivated, productive and engaged as well
as lead the organization to success. Catherine is currently based at the head
office in California and is responsible for overseeing
all HR functions including coaching & management, benefits, organizational
insurance, policies & labor laws, culture & values, and co-lead on
safety.
1. Tell
us a bit about yourself and your professional journey, how did you decide on
HR?
I started in an AmeriCorps funded position
called “VISTA Leader” where I was essentially
doing HR functions for the 8-12 AmeriCorps members the organization had at the
time – recruiting, onboarding, helping with benefits questions, offboarding,
etc. At the end of that year, the organization was just getting large enough (50-60 employees) to warrant having a
full-time HR person. I started as an HR & Admin Assistant for a 4-office,
single-state, 50-60 employee organization. Seven years later I’m the HR Director
for an 11-office, international, 350 employee organization.
2. What do you know now, that you wish you knew when you first
started your career in HR?
I
always joke that if the organization or I had any idea what HR was before I
started that they probably wouldn’t have offered me the job and I probably
wouldn’t have taken it. HR is just so
critical to the success of an organization! That said, I’ve really grown to love this field, so I guess I’m glad we were naïve.
I
will say that one resource I’ve really come to rely on is
my network of other HR professionals and mentors/advisors like our benefits
broker. I didn’t realize how much information gets managed by HR – recruiting,
compensation, employee relations, insurance, labor law, coaching and
professional development, etc. Navigating those things requires deep knowledge of certain areas (e.g. medical
insurance) and others, like employee relations, mostly live in the grey when it
comes to navigating. I’m glad for the team I have
now (including the folks who work above, next to, and report to me) but had I
understood this better when I started I would have started to build that
network sooner.
3. What
do you think the most disruptive force or area in the HR field will be this
year and how do you think it will impact businesses?
I think the big stuff for HR this year will be reacting to
cultural events which are intertwined
with equity work and Presidential edicts. If DACA is ending or threatened to end, how does HR navigate to support
employees and reduce fear while staying in compliance with labor law? How do we
create space for employees to navigate serious emotional trauma after events like
Charlottesville or Parkland and still come to work and focus? And how do we do
equity, inclusion, and diversity work from a social justice standpoint that is really meaningful and not just lip service? As
millennials and Gen Z start to move into the workforce, and into positions of
significance in the workforce, I don’t think what’s
been done to date in diversity work will suffice to retain great talent.
4. What are some of the pros and
cons noted and foreseen, due to the new Paid Family Leave Policy, which
became effective January 1, 2018? What strategies would you propose, to support these pros and cons?
I
don’t know if I’d call this a con, but I would say that any time legislation is passed with additional benefits for
employees (whether paid sick leave, additional
unpaid time off for victims of domestic violence, increase in minimum wage) it always
has real, budgetary and production impacts on employers. That said, I think
it’s really important for employees to
get time off to take care of sick family members and shouldn’t have to worry
about their own income and job security
to do so. We also already have a fairly
generous policy as an employer headquartered in California, so it was less of a change/adjustment for us.
5. How difficult has it been to source good healthcare
providers and what strategies could HR Managers implement in order to provide employees with more
affordable health care plans or incentives to lower their health care spending?
When
we were a small organization, it was much
harder for us to source good healthcare
than it is now. We tap into the CIGNA network nationally. That can still have
limitations in certain regions/markets but generally
allows us to provide a good network to all of our employees. Plus, we have
Kaiser out in California.
One
thing we’ve done to cut costs is switch
to self-funding some of our plans. There is definitely
some risk to doing so, but thus far we’ve saved a significant amount on our annual plan premium costs, that has
allowed us to continue offering good
benefits, and a high rate of employer-covered
premiums, to our employees.
6. The Trump Administration has proposed to revise various
wage and hour requirements for employers. What impact do you anticipate such
legislation would have on employee’s pay and compensation policies as well as
the organization’s growth strategy?
My sense is that
‘revise’ here means make better for employers and worse for employees. I don’t
anticipate this having a huge impact on our organization, although I imagine it
will for many. Currently, we’ve extended
an internal policy that exempt employees must make at least the minimum salary
required in California (we are a California Headquartered company) which is
higher than federal regulations. So, we’ve mostly been able to remain in
compliance.
If
the federal exempt salary threshold is revisited,
and it is done at the level proposed by the prior administration, then it
will have impacts as we have to make hard decisions about whether we give
significant raises or re-classify employees who we know will work significant overtime.
7.
What role does
HR play in the promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace
and how can HR monitor this?
HR plays a HUGE
role in diversity, equity and inclusion work, but I don’t think it can be
successful unless top leadership is also bought
in. Leadership
has to see the value, and champion the cause at all levels of decision making in order for the work to truly get done. But HR is often the team
helping to develop policy, and most importantly, interpret policy so the day-to-day impacts are big. For instance, if you say you want to work
more with the re-entry population, and you hire more from that population, what
do you do if someone violates parole and is temporarily unable to work? HR and
Leadership needs to put an equity lens on
that decision, while still considering real business needs. If immediate
termination is your default answer, you’re not really
doing the work. HR is also the team who often hears employee complaints. We
know we have a legal obligation when it comes to harassment, but what do we do
about Microaggressions? How do we support everyone in the workplace?
Lastly, HR has
the data on demographics and compensation which should be used to help create
benchmarks for change/growth.
8. In such a competitive world, what strategies
are needed to ensure retention and engagement of employees?
To
the extent possible, compensation is always important.
But beyond that, I think employers need to focus
on: training and supporting good management and managers, creating a flexible
workplace that understands that an employee’s personal life doesn’t disappear
the minute they walk in the door, and I really believe that advancing
diversity, equity and inclusion work, in a real way, will matter with the
incoming workforce.
9. How has technology
and social media helped to improve your work, and has it created any
limitations?
We
have a lot of locations, so technology
plays a huge role in the work that we do. We track everything we do in some kind of system – SalesForce database, HRIS,
etc. And we constantly talk via email,
Google chat, Skype call, etc. It’s also allowed us to move some trainings to virtual which has created
significant cost savings. That said, there is unquantifiable importance to in-person
connections and each time an organization moves something from in-person to
virtual, that cultural bonding piece is lost.
10. From an HR perspective, what
would you say are some internal fears and barriers that limits organizational development?
Organizational cultures where employees don’t feel that their ideas can be
shared and heard limit organizational development. Anyone can come up with the
next great idea so your company needs to
have a culture that supports that. Also, to work on growth, leadership has to
be willing to say “we aren’t perfect, we could be better”. That’s strong leadership, but I think sometimes leaders fear
that vulnerability in that way and will make them seem less strong as leaders.
11. What do you think the HR
function would look like in the next 5
years?
I’m not totally sure, but I think in this day and age – with
Parkland, with #metoo, with competition for good talent – companies see that HR
is a critical function, so I hope that
translates into HR being more and more invited and at the table for critical organizational conversations.
12. What would be your advice to HR students on
building a successful career in HR?
Read
a ton! stay up to date on trends in labor
law, articles on organizational development, etc. Regardless of the position
you’re in now, emotional intelligence, attention to detail/organizational
skills, and strong communication skills will serve you in any role (HR or otherwise,
honestly) so continue to practice those skills even if you aren’t currently
working in HR or managing people.
