Hand-raising is how this pro learns more about HR and grows her career

Here’s this week’s edition of our Coworking series. Each week, we chat 1:1 with an HR Brew reader. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.

Katie Greco is a hand-raiser. She volunteers to work on projects that relate to her interests; it’s how she exposes herself to different aspects of the HR function, and gets exposure to senior leaders.

“That’s just who I am as a person. I want to be in front of the right people at the right time, always,” she said. “And I feel like the only way to do that is to raise my hand and also challenge myself.”

As an HR business partner at Taylor, a Minnesota-based printing and communications company, Greco is focused on growing her professional prowess as a strategist. She just finished helping two business units wrap up 2023 evals, and is now focused on 2024 goal-setting. She’s supporting leaders in defining goals and setting up employee development plans, while also supporting the business with employee relations and other go-to HR needs.

“I really wanted to get into a more strategic role and really be strategic with leaders, senior leaders…when it comes to employee relations issues, building culture,” she said.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What’s the best change you’ve made at work?

I have been part of an onboarding project team to completely look at what is working and what is not working to improve new hire retention. It resulted in a new-hire welcome kit, creating a buddy program, drafting checklists for leaders and the new hire, etcetera.

It’s been an ongoing project for a couple of years now…I’m a true believer that the way someone starts their career at a company, their day one, that really just sets the tone for the rest of their role and their career at that specific company. So, I just find it very important those first 30, 60, [and] 90 days, to really engage with the new hire, and onboard them correctly. We didn’t have anything really formal across Taylor.

What’s the biggest misconception people might have about your job?

That we do not care about the people. HR has a fine line to balance between supporting the business needs and being the voice of the employee. We need to help the business make legal and smart HR decisions, but also assist employees in advocating for themselves and having a voice in their career.

What’s the most fulfilling aspect of your job?

Seeing an employee get the promotion of their dreams that they have been working so hard towards.

What trend in HR are you most optimistic about? Why?

Work-life balance and DE&I. I think [DE&I has] been talked about so much more lately over the last year or two, which is amazing…It just really makes me optimistic that it can be very much long-term and can be incorporated across the larger organization and other companies. I think a lot of people have focused on work-life balance…Employers are really starting to see the benefits of providing work-life balance to the employees and how it has a direct impact on how well they perform.

What trend in HR are you least optimistic about? Why?

[Ending] fully-remote workforce. As of late 2023 and early 2024, I feel like I am seeing a lot of businesses move back to being in the office more days than they are remote, and the impact that is having on their employees. We have a chance to get something good from the pandemic and use it as an opportunity to change how we work.

There doesn’t seem to be much consistency. I feel like I’m seeing businesses report that being fully remote has had this amazing, great impact on the business, and then I’m seeing articles and reading things that are the complete opposite. It makes you wonder: Is it based on the business, is it based on the people, or is it based on leadership?