Features HR Executives

Competitive salaries, comprehensive benefits packages and an office near America’s most famous address may not be enough to recruit and retain top talent at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. No, employees also want a strong workplace culture, says Marguerite Eastwood, and that’s what she’s developing as the organization’s chief human resources officer. “I was brought […]

It’s not just Boston University, Amanda Bailey says of her most recent workplace. It’s literally Boston’s university, a renowned private research university—and one of Boston’s biggest employers to boot. Combine its 10,000-plus workforce with approximately 34,000 students and the total is more than what nearby Fenway Park could seat. So, it’s a formidable task Bailey undertook […]

The geographic splendor of upstate New York has its selling points, but that alone isn’t enough to attract quality employees to one of its major hospitals. On the healthcare front, it’s an applicant’s market. So emphasizes Jim Marco, who in January 2021 undertook a major role in recruiting and retaining the workforce at Glens Falls […]

When Elaine Ubakanma immigrated from Jamaica to the U.S., she was a little over 16, and her father abandoned her less than three months after she arrived. Years later, in 1989, she got a job with H. J. Russell & Company as a secretary. “I wanted to receive higher education, of course, but the cost […]

With over two decades of experience in the human resources industry, Madison Grey has learned that employees are the building blocks of a company—and that the human resources department is its foundation. A strong foundation is necessary to ensure that employees are engaged at work and are satisfied with their benefits. It also staunches a […]

Tending to personnel matters for 10 years at a Maine bank had its moments, but Catherine F. Lamson had an epiphany of sorts during the 1980s. Health care seemed a wilder ride, “where rubber meets the road,” she recalls thinking. So she took her HR skillset from banking to a hospital, then to a diagnostics […]

When visitors grab a bite to eat at the Morgan Library in New York City or the Smithsonian Institution Museums in Washington, D.C., their food isn’t being cooked by archivists or other museum staff. Instead, it’s provided by employees of Restaurant Associates, a contractor to these and other cultural institutions. Now celebrating its 75th anniversary, […]

While the COVID-19 pandemic slowed down the world, it helped accelerate the digital and cultural transformation at Ricardo Perez, S.A., an automotive distributor and dealer based in Central America. According to Maria Luisa Marcano, since 2014, the company has been reinventing how it interacts with its customers—and its employees. The pandemic simply accelerated the process; […]

Retirement seemed beckoning two years ago for Al Carlson, but the amiable grandfather has been reenergized since his college football coach introduced him to Charlie Nelson, the third-generation owner of KLN Family Brands in the western Minnesota community of Perham. Nelson wanted to grow the family’s confectionery and pet food business into a billion-dollar company […]

With the global pandemic moving everything from timesheets to happy hours into the digital arena, companies across the nation very suddenly needed information technology staff. Dawn Ponico’s employer—the information technology and healthcare staffing firm Mitchell Martin—helped meet that demand, sourcing over 1800 employees for clients during 2021. It also grew its own staff. As Ponico […]