201. Remembering the Human Side of HR, with Brenda Neckvatal
Today our expert guest is Brenda Neckvatal, an award-winning HR professional who is often referred to as the “HR Force of Nature” by her clients. Not only does she help business leaders solve their most difficult people issues, but she is also a specialist in crisis management, government contracting, HR compliance, and mentor to women working in an HR department of one.
She started as an HR sprout after fourteen years in retail management. She discovered that she really enjoyed helping people solve their unique problems and human resources offered her the ability to support her co-workers in a greater capacity. Having the benefit of working for five different Fortune 500 companies, she converted her experience into a series of focused best practices helping small businesses achieve their workforce goals.
In her 30-year career in human resources and business, she has consulted with nearly 500 small businesses and C-suite leaders. She has optimized employee effectiveness and helped mitigate the high costs that are associated with making hasty employment-related decisions.
As a student, her teachers knew that something was holding Brenda back but nobody knew what it was. After barely graduating high school and feeling down on herself, a coworker noticed she read something backward and asked her if she’d ever been tested for dyslexia. Once she discovered that, she felt justified. Brenda had to relearn how to read, but she went back to school and was able to graduate with honors.
When the coronavirus hit the US, everything changed. Brenda was suddenly speaking to over 3,000 HR and business leaders who were all scrambling to figure out how to deal with the uncertainty the virus caused. She knew that during times like these, taking care of your employees was more important than ever.
If you’re a leader or small business owner, here are some of the things you can do to help take care of your team:
- Be open to suggestions from your employees, because they are going to be full of ideas.
- Small business owners need to be vigilant about following hiring and labor laws, because the Department of Labor is paying closer attention than ever. You are not too small to be noticed.
It’s times like these that taking care of employees falls to the wayside as business survival becomes the focus, but know that you will never survive in the long run if you don’t make your workplace somewhere that people love to work and feel taken care of.
The Biggest Helping: Today’s Most Important Takeaway
“Transformation is not easy. Surviving something like this isn’t easy. My big takeaway is trust the process. Trust in yourself. Take time for yourself, think through what’s going on. Trust your process. You may not know what’s going to happen at the end of it but just trust it.”
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