Wonolo
The magnificent hero number 7 of human resources has taken an interesting path and donned many costumes over his years of protecting us from the villians of HR. Previously Lance Richards ran the innovation team at Kelly Services, a frenemy of Wonolo. But like many wise men and women do, he decided to combine his passions with his paycheck and now is the head of Human Resources and Rick Management for the Town of Avon. The town of Avon is a town of world class skiing – Beaver Creek and neighboring mountain Vail. Lance’s interview is surely memorble, so pick up a open and dust off you memopad – you are going to want to take notes.
Be on the lookout for more profiles of HR Heroes, and if you have someone that you think would be a great fit for this series, tweet your nomination to us using the #hrhero hashtag.
My HR Hero is…
The head of HR at Disney, or Marriott, or Vail Resorts, or Cathay Pacific. They’ve got thousands of employees, but they live and work in the experience economy. Without engaged and motivated employees, any one of these firms would be out of business in two nanoseconds.
The one piece of advice I’d give to a new manager is…
Get to be great friends with a senior-level HR professional! As you begin managing people, you’ll want to get perspectives around behaviors, motivators, de-motivators, and how to address those.
The superhero I most relate to is…
My brother-in-law, Tim. He was hit head-on by a sleeping driver one morning, and emerged from the hospital months later as a quadriplegic. They widened the doors of his office for his wheelchair, and he was back at work as a high school principal months later… and never misses a beat. He retained his incredible sense of humor, and continues to be a model husband and Dad.
I believe you can improve employee retention by…
Look at the things you are doing, the policies you have in place, how your managers treat their people. Turnover is expensive, yada, yada. The key here is look at things from an employee’s perspective… how rigid are you in your policies and procedures? How many pages of “work place rules” do you have?
The next great innovation in HR is…
The coming intersection between Artificial Intelligence and Semantic Analysis. This has the potential to really change talent management: recruiting, selection, learning and development and so much more…
I’m particularly excited about…
These new LLBean clogs I got! In Vail, I have to stand in the snow to grill, no matter how much I shovel the deck. Now, I can work in the kitchen in my socks, and then slip these on quickly to run back out to the deck.
I started working in HR because…
I thought I could contribute more in HR (and it was Personnel back then). As I spent more years in the field, I realized that the needs in our field matched up with my strengths in so many ways.
HR is…
Underrated in most organizations, because not enough HR people are business savvy. Knowing HR is tablestakes. But, knowing HR may be required, but it is no longer sufficient. HR people must know their business as well as they know HR. Otherwise, they’re toast.
Firing someone is…
Easy-peasey if they’ve done something really bad like stealing.
Painful if we must part ways because things just didn’t work out.
Horrific-and-loss-of-sleep for lay-offs when the person did nothing wrong.
I always start my day with…
Coffee. Two splendas and cream. Then I take the dogs out to the front yard while I get the WSJ out of the driveway. I read through the headlines in the kitchen. It’s quiet, and I can collect my thoughts and see what I missed. Yes, iPhone is nearby if I see something I need to look further into. TV? No. I must hurry, though… someone must wake up Kiddo!
My go-to interview question is…
Well, out here our common interview question for everyone is “ski or snowboard?”. Once we’ve got that clarified, I always enjoy asking “What question would you have liked me to ask, that I did not ask… that is, what question did you prep for, but I missed?” Alternately, I’ve also asked “what question are you thankful that I didn’t ask?” (Yes, then I ask it…)
I’m most proud of…
Our daughter, Brie. She’s balancing life as a 7th grader along with being a full-time ski racing athlete… and keeping straight As. Her focus, determination and persistence is inspiring. She finished the season ranked at 105th in the country in Grand Slalom and 130th in the country in Slalom in her age group. I’m daily impressed with her as she becomes a bright, delightful young woman. (Now, if we can get her through her teens…)
Ultimately, my job is…
My day job is to coach and consult managers and employees around their workplace relationships and work performance. I also have to be able to sit with CXOs and tell them when I have a differing viewpoint. I’m paid to bring my experience to the table, if I don’t, I’m not doing my job. I’m also especially focused on bright up and coming managers, and how I can help them develop a good grounding in leading and managing others.
My other calling (not a job, as I relish it) is to help build HR people; hopefully, so I’ll be allowed to retire some day.
My biggest role, and best job title, is being a Dad; that’s so damn important to me.
The biggest challenge in the war on talent is…
Helping people, especially HR folks, understand that this “war” has ended, and that the Talent has won. The Supply vs Demand equation is upside down now, and has been for a couple of years. Talent is fully in command, and we, as employers and engagers of talent need to adjust to this quickly.
