Exclusive Interview with Christine Hairelson, Vice President of Employee Experience, Accusoft

 

Q. What has your HR journey been like, and what influenced you the most to positively impact your career?

Christine: My journey to where I am today all started with a conversation I had in college with one of my best friends’ mom. I was struggling with what Major to select and she introduced me to the role of HR in business. From that conversation, I found my way, which included pursuing a double major in business and psychology. Both disciplines provided me with a solid foundation that I would later apply in my career.

The first eight years of my career were in the restaurant industry. Through hard work, support from my family, and a bit of luck, I learned the critical aspects of HR and worked my way up to leading HR for businesses like Winghouse and Five Guys Burgers and Fries Franchise.

About 10 years ago, I transitioned to the Technology space and haven’t looked back. Accusoft is an amazing organization, and surrounding myself with some of the brightest minds keeps me challenged and continually learning.
   

Q: What inspires you about your role?

Christine: What inspires me most in my role is helping others. No matter how challenging a situation may be, it is worth it when I know that the effort I put forth is helping someone. As individuals, what inspires us to give more and do our best is different, so my advice to others is to find what inspires you and chase that. Life is too short otherwise.

Q: How do you see workplace culture evolving right now?

Christine: Workplace culture has already started to evolve over these past few years, and I believe that trend will continue. Businesses will continue to focus on attracting talent, which means they also need to stay focused on providing a workplace culture that speaks to what employees want to see in an employer. Topping that list is providing more flexibility - flexibility in how, where, and when they work, as well as the flexibility to pursue personal, as well as professional, passions.

Q: What are your best tips on how to lead during a crisis, uncertainty, or change?

Christine: The last few years have proven that uncertainty and change are here to stay, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It does, however, put pressure on HR executives and teams to lead the way in supporting organizations at the strategic level, from focusing on ways to drive business results to drive morale and culture for an evolving workforce. The best advice I can give to HR leaders is to focus on a few key areas, including

●    Positivity – change can be stressful, so bring positive energy to the situation.
●    Assume positive intent – this can be extremely difficult, but it’s important to understand that everyone is working toward the same goal.
●    Communication – take the time to learn how your key stakeholders want to be communicated with, and embrace those methods to ensure you have open lines of communication.
●    Active listening – everyone, from executives to frontline team members, wants to be heard, and it’s up to HR leaders to actively listen to effectively find solutions and lead teams.
●    Practice self-care – it’s easy to forget about self-care when you’re focused on others, but we can’t effectively serve others and drive real results if we don’t first take care of ourselves.

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

Christine: We’ve seen how critical it is to have an HR executive seat at the boardroom table during the last three years. It’s up to us to continue to prove the value of what we do, so HR leaders should keep learning the business, and go beyond the HR lens. HR truly is a strategic function of the entire business, so take the time to learn how this function can, and should, be integrated into the organization's overall operations and how your role can influence that.

And finally, don’t give up. Not every organization is in a position to support the HR function at that level, or perhaps they don’t understand. If it’s not working where you are today, look for an organization that aligns with your vision of support for employees.

Q: Do you see any new job roles being created by the transformation?

Christine: Absolutely. As we move into a more data-driven HR function, the need for roles to identify, collect and analyze that data will continue to grow. So, I expect to see more roles in automation and data analytics. Another area that we have already seen some transformation in, but have a lot more work to do is in the area of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. As direct alignment to the shift in expectations from our employees on workplace culture and creating the environment, they want to call home, having leaders and roles built around DE&I will become paramount as organizations work to more actively think about all aspects of their business through a DE&I lens.  

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

Christine: HR professionals will need to find new ways to create a community within their organizations as we continue to work in hybrid work environments. More time will need to be focused on communications and outreach programs, and we will need to find a way to make this work with fewer resources. This means working smarter and finding ways to automate repetitive processes so that we can focus on our people.