Manage HR Magazine: Specials Magazine

Shawn Minard works in people strategy, focusing on how organizations attract, develop, and retain talent aligned with business direction. His work spans leadership development, employee experience, and performance systems that connect day-to-day work with longer-term growth. Minard has also contributed to inclusion initiatives and partnered with leadership teams on workforce planning and culture design to support organizational effectiveness across complex global organizations. Initial Foundations in HR My perspective on balancing growth and culture has been shaped by nearly 25 years in human resources. I spent the first 20 years of my career in the technology industry, including a decade at E-Trade Financial and another decade at Ultimate Software. During that time, I worked across recruiting, HR systems, compensation and benefits and learning and development, gaining a broad understanding of how organizations attract, develop and retain talent. Five years ago, I joined Frazier & Deeter at a pivotal point in the firm’s evolution. The organization had a clear vision for expansion across the U.S. and globally and leadership recognized that achieving those ambitions would require investments in key operational functions, including HR, finance, marketing and technology. I built a best-in-class people-and-culture team capable of supporting that vision. What began as a team of two or three people has grown into a global people and culture function of approximately twenty professionals. Today, the team is organized across four core areas: recruitment, employee experience, learning and development and people operations. Together, these groups support talent acquisition, employee experience, leadership development, workforce analytics, systems management and acquisition integration. Building that foundation has been critical in preparing the organization for continued expansion while maintaining consistency across the employee experience. Aligning People