Exclusive Interview with Karen Kuhn, Senior Director, People Operations, Order

In an exclusive interview with HR.com, Karen shares what drove her into the forefront of people operations from being ‘a trusted right-hand operating in the background’, the challenges she overcame in her career, and her learnings over the years, among others.

Excerpts from the interview:

Q: What has your HR journey been like and what influenced you the most to have a positive impact on your career?

Karen: For most of my HR journey, I’ve operated in the background, making sure the machine was running smoothly and acting as a trusted right-hand. I loved being in that position, out of the spotlight, and if you’d asked me 2 years ago whether I could ever imagine moving into a Head of People position, I would have shied away from the question and remained steadfast that I was happy to stay exactly where I was.

When I was presented with the opportunity to join Order, a 60-employee company, as an HR team-of-one, I didn’t conceptualize it as a Head of People type role - my goal was to come in and provide as much value, infrastructure, and support for the team as I possibly could with the knowledge I had. 

Since then, I’ve found myself center-stage of the People organization, with the support of an all-star team, and it’s truly been the most rewarding, humbling, and most challenging position of my career.

In my day-to-day, I draw on the years of experience I’ve accumulated in this line of work, but what inspires me most is the encouragement from former and current leaders pushing me to trust my own judgment and embrace my own style, which is a tough thing to do when facing imposter syndrome in a position you’ve never held before. It’s the most worthwhile challenge I get to face each day.

Q: What were your challenges during the early days of your career? What are those today?

Karen: The challenges I experienced in the early days were centered around getting my footing and building my confidence in the HR space. There are so many facets of People Operations, and I worked hard to become a true generalist, understanding and operating in the full scope of the employee lifecycle. While that has allowed me to navigate well in the context of small companies, it’s not scalable - I can’t do it all myself!

Today, the challenge is scale. As Order continues to grow, I need to amplify my ability to support our population by selecting the right experts to focus on the areas that need the most attention. I’ve tried my best to design a People organization around the unique needs of this company, rather than implementing what I think a People organization ‘should’ look like.

The challenge will be to continue to experiment with how that approach will scale.

Q: How do you see workplace culture evolving over the next few years?

Karen: One of the things I love most about Order, and something that I speak to candidates about all the time, is the level of authenticity, care, and penchant for self-development this group of folks brings to their work and to each other every day. We are by no stretch of the imagination perfect, but we are always striving to be better, learn from one another, and grow.

My sincere hope is that workplace culture finds its way back here. There’s so much pressure in the industry right now to be perfect, which can lead to empty virtue signaling and performativity. Ironically, that dilutes and undermines the real growth that happens when fallible human beings are able to make mistakes, learn from those mistakes, and become better individuals and teammates. 

My hope is that we can start to lift up our heads as a community and begin to acknowledge the expectation of ‘perfect’ as a potential detractor of company culture rather than the undeniable mark of a strong one.

Q: Can you please share the top three learnings from the challenges you faced?

Karen: Here they are:

1) Seek Understanding and Assume Positive Intent
When things move fast and are constantly evolving, not everything will come out as eloquently as everyone might hope. It’s best to assume your teammates mean well, and to try your best to understand where they’re coming from. If you’re concerned about their intentions, seek understanding there, too. Ask about it, and lead with vulnerability.

2) Design Around the Machine, not the People
This is very difficult to do in a hyper-growth stage, but designing around the needs of the business means you’re always giving your team the best chance to help achieve the company’s goals and grow professionally along the way as they are challenged to adapt and learn new things.

3) It’s Better to Let Things Break Than to Try and Plug All the Holes Yourself
When you begin adding to your team and delegating to them, there can be an immense amount of pressure to prove that everything is still running smoothly. This is often the best opportunity to identify what processes are actually not working/scalable, and where you could have done a better job training your team.

Q: Where do you draw inspiration from? What do you have to say to those who are still struggling to find a place in the boardroom?

Karen: I draw inspiration mostly from my team members, my peers, and my leaders. I love learning from people smarter than myself, taking the nuggets that are meaningful for me and applying them in my own style. I found my ‘place in the boardroom’ by striving to add as much value as I can with what I know, learning as much as possible along the way, and leading with humility and vulnerability.

Q: Where do you draw the line when it comes to work-life balance?

Karen: Work-life balance is a struggle for me, (1) because I absolutely love what I do, and (2) I feel responsible in many ways for making sure we’re doing everything we can to take care of every team member at Order. I’ve taken the time over the years to get to know myself and I can feel when I’m starting to hit the point, where I need to take a break.

When that happens, I don’t shy away from asking for help from my team and my leadership to allow me the time I need to rest and recover.

Q: What fundamental change(s) (in terms of culture) have you brought into your company?

Karen: I can’t claim to have fundamentally changed our culture - it was a great culture before I joined and it continues to grow richer with each new team member we bring on. I see my responsibility as bringing on folks who will continuously add to it and fostering an environment that makes them feel safe and empowered to do so.

What I have done, however, is put tools and resources in place to continue nurturing the culture here at Order. These days we have performance management frameworks engagement surveys, leadership training, and a dedicated DE&I budget and committee (to name a few) that help us continue to attract and retain best-in-class, culture-carrying talent.

Q: What are some major changes you see affecting HR within the next few years?

Karen: The employee-driven market, coupled with the aftermath of an ongoing global pandemic, has taught us that talent is everywhere and that it can take so many diverse forms. It’s in our best interest to meet the right talent, where they are, both geographically (which often translates to a remote work setting) and personally, by empowering them with the tools they need to be successful in their roles and to grow as individuals.