Author: Dawn Frazee

Posted on

Florida Aquarium HR is Everywhere

This three-level, 152,000-square-foot Aquarium tells Florida’s unique water story as it follows a drop of water from its underground source to the open sea. Along the way, visitors discover more than 5,300 plants and animals representing more than 600 species native to the state. Highlights include interactive programs with scuba divers and other educators. The aquarium features many educational facilities, including two fully equipped classrooms and a Conservation Station.

How did you end up with this particular job in this industry?
After having worked for IBM for 24 years, I retired in October of 1993. In November 1993, I was recruited and given the opportunity to work as the director of HR for The Florida Aquarium. This was an HR person’s dream come true-to come in on the ground floor of a new organization.

What is your background?
I attended Penn State University and Colgate University. While with IBM I held various personnel positions including compensation analyst and performance analyst.

What are the biggest challenges of your industry?
My biggest challenge was to put together an HR organization and strategy that supported our values of hiring a culturally diverse group of qualified people, as well as meeting our staffing goals by our March 31, 1995 opening. These objectives were met.

What challenges do you feel are universal for HR?
Key challenges are employee-relation issues regarding diversity, performance evaluations, respect for the individual, salary/wage administration and staffing.

How is HR viewed at your organization?
All HR team members view themselves as internal consultants who provide HR services to all team members-our customers — who work at the aquarium.

What about your job and/or your organization makes you most proud?
We have designed and implemented a foundation for a culture that’s based on fairness and trust; one that respects each team member in a setting that encourages growth, empowerment, cross-functional teams, wellness, safety and cultural diversity.

What is “special” about HR at The Florida Aquarium?
Our culture and values are a part of the way we conduct business.

Workforce, January 1997, Vol. 76, No. 1, p. 87.

Posted on

NASA HR is Everywhere

In 1915, when aviation was still in its infancy, Congress created an organization that would supervise the scientific study of flight. That organization evolved into NASA four decades later when Congress formed a civilian agency to continue the work. Today, virtually every aircraft in use utilizes technology pioneered by NASA. And new industries have been built on the technology that made space exploration possible, including personal computers, advanced medical equipment and communications satellites.

How did you end up with this particular job in this industry?
I’ve worked in some aspect of HR at NASA since I came here in 1979. I got into government work initially on a tip from an employment counselor who told me the government hires college graduates who take a civil service exam.

What is your background?
I graduated from the University of Michigan in 1970 with a bachelor’s degree in zoology. Then I got out of the army in 1971 and began working for what’s now called the office of personnel management. It’s the federal government’s central personnel office.

What are the biggest challenges of your industry?
Working in a government agency is perhaps different than the business world because we have a set of customers that’s pretty varied. We have the higher level management, plus Congress. Congress asks questions about the agency’s workforce, about the budget and so forth. And then we’ve got the administration which has two outside entities-the office of management and budget, and the office of personnel management — both of which we have to answer to in one way or another.

What challenges do you feel are universal for HR?
Finding automated systems to both help us with our jobs and help the managers with their jobs.

How is HR viewed at your organization?
The NASA HR function is playing a key role in managing our workforce restructuring. The top HR official at NASA (the associate administrator for HR and education) is at the table when strategic decisions are made. This includes serving as a member of the NASA Senior Management Council that develops the strategic plan and advises the administrator and as a member of the new Capital Investment Council which addresses, long-term investments in agency capabilities and infrastructure.

What about your job and/or your organization makes you most proud?
I’m proud of the agency I work for and the work it does. We have a mission that’s unique and everybody who works for NASA feels proud of that and part of the team. So when there’s a shuttle up in orbit, somehow you know that you did something — even if it’s two times or three times removed — that allowed that to happen. I’m also pleased about the quality of people here. And I guess to some extent, the HR function has to take some credit for that.

What is “special” about HR at NASA?
We get thousands of job applications and what we have are hundreds of openings. We’re blessed with choices because there’s a lot of interest in working for NASA.

Workforce, January 1997, Vol. 76, No. 1, p. 93.

Posted on

FBI HR is Everywhere

It is the mission of the FBI to uphold the law through the investigation of violations of federal criminal law; to protect the United States from foreign intelligence and terrorist activities; to provide leadership and law enforcement assistance to federal, state, local and international agencies; and to perform these responsibilities in a manner that is responsive to the needs of the public and is faithful to the Constitution of the United States.

How did you end up with this particular job in this industry?
I’ve been with the FBI since 1972. This is my ninth assignment. The agency needed someone with operational experience who had directed investigations to oversee the personnel functions. Everything we do in the FBI is designed to support investigations. I bring that perspective to the personnel process.

What is your background?
I have a bachelor’s degree in history and a juris doctorate degree. I served in the U.S. Air Force from 1958 to 1963. I worked for both IBM and Honeywell Information Systems before joining the FBI. Since being with the FBI, I’ve been a special agent in charge of an organized crime drug squad, an inspector and legal counsel, among other things. I’ve been in HR just over 2 1/2 years.

What are the biggest challenges of your industry?
Our jurisdiction is expanding based on the crime problems of our society. Ten years ago, for example, we weren’t dealing with World Trade Center bombings or bombings of federal buildings. We have to be responsive to that kind of crime problem, and we structure our whole system to be able to address that in a very responsible way. We’re under constrained resources so we have to be innovative and we have to be aggressive.

What challenges do you feel are universal for HR?
Getting more done with less. We’re downsizing and reengineering just like the private sector is. So like Corporate America, we’re always trying to find the most effective way to do business, to hire the right people, to assign them to the right places, to train them the best we can to make them more effective in discharging their responsibilities.

How is HR viewed at your organization?
Functionally, we’re viewed as an integral part of achieving the overall mission. If we’re solving a major case or developing a major project, we put our problem-solving hats on and are viewed as a vital part of the process of finding a solution.

What about your job and/or your organization makes you most proud?
Addressing a difficult problem and being able to resolve it in a successful way — whether it’s hiring a certain number of people in a certain amount of time or changing a performance system to more accurately measure and reflect and compensate our employees for the jobs they do. Those kinds of challenges keep me going.

What is “special” about HR at the FBI?
Federal personnel law is regulated by statute. If we’re going to hire someone with this job skill they have to be paid X amount of dollars. If we’re going to rate somebody on a performance system, these are the principles we must employ, and so on. So we have less flexibility than the private sector.

Workforce, January 1997, Vol. 76, No. 1, p. 90.

Posted on

Universal Studios HR is Everywhere

For more than 30 years, Universal Studios Hollywood has been giving guided tours on its 415-acre back lot. As many as 35,000 people tour a day. Besides the back-lot tour, attractions include shows, amusement park-style rides, and numerous shops and restaurants.

How did you end up with this particular job in this industry?
I came into this industry by chance, due to fortuitous networking. I was happily pursuing my career with PepsiCo when an associate informed me of an opportunity at Universal Studios Hollywood. Intrigued, I followed up and was overtaken by the opportunity before me to create a world-class human resources function within an industry that crossed amusement, entertainment and tourism boundaries.

What is your background?
I worked for five years for PepsiCo’s Pizza Hut restaurants. Before this, I was almost completely a labor-relations professional and joined the “HR” side of the business when I became the employment manager at a large retail chain.

What are the biggest challenges of your industry?
Meeting the demands of an increasingly sophisticated and diverse consumer, as well as distinguishing the attraction from others.

What challenges do you feel are universal for HR?
To build the team, management and line so as to have the talent and capability to meet and surpass marketplace challenges. To select, develop and retain the talent who can woo the customer in a profitable fashion.

How is HR viewed at your organization?
Just a couple of years ago, the HR department here was called “Personnel and Labor Relations.” As the title indicates, the function was viewed as reactive and slow to meet the organization’s changing needs. Today, HR is seen as a guiding light in the company’s forward movement. It sits at the table and is involved in all essential business strategic thinking; it has become, within a couple of years, the absolute strategic business partner.

What about your job and/or your organization makes you most proud?
I am proud of the management team we have built at Universal Studios Hollywood; its members are passionate about the business and its guests. This is a team that will have the capacity to drive our industry into the millennium. I am equally proud of the commitment and guest service ethic of our front-line employees; they love their guests and it shows.

What is “special” about HR at Universal?
To operate the park’s busiest summer ever (1996), 3,500 line employees were hired within 60 days at an 8:1 interview/hire ratio. Considering the complexities of hiring top employees in a competitive urban area, I challenge any organization to top this! Finally, with strong employee-incentive programs working for us, the employees not only stayed through hot days with more than 45,000 guests in the park but asked to stay on in the fall.

Workforce, January 1997, Vol. 76, No. 1, p. 86.

Posted on

Cirque du Soleil HR is Everywhere

In the early eighties, a group of young street performers pooled their talent and dreams and founded the “Club des Talons Hauts” or “High-Heels Club,” aptly named because most of them were stilt-walkers. The Club also featured fire eaters, jugglers and other such entertainers. The members organized a festival and brought it under a big top. Cirque du Soleil was born.

Today, more than 10 million spectators have oohed and aahed over dazzling feats of acrobatics and comical burlesque.

How did you end up with this particular job in this industry?
I was working as a consultant, as a trouble-shooter. I would go to businesses, see what was going wrong and come up with an improvement plan. Cirque du Soleil asked my opinion regarding some HR problems. I was later contacted and offered a job. I came on in 1989 and became vice president in 1993.

What is your background?
My first training was in outdoor recreational facilities. That’s what my college degree is in. I worked in summer camps and worked with handicapped people for five years.

What are the biggest challenges of your industry?
For the next five years we’ll be in growth mode. We’re planning on expanding to six shows by 1999. My biggest challenge will be dealing with the fact that we’re a multiterritorial company. Different laws are a challenge, multilanguages are a challenge and decentralizing power is a challenge.

What challenges do you feel are universal for HR?
Ensuring you realize the potential of your people, and take advantage of their diversity. If you’re hiring people who all look alike, you’re not enabling yourself to have a chance to confront new ideas. You have to be able to build different ideas and respect that.

How is HR viewed at your organization?
HR here is part of every strategic decision. I’m one of four people on the management team. But, we remember that HR is a service. We’re not the leaders; we’re not taking the business risks; but we do participate in the decision. HR policies should protect everyone and the company-not be restrictive but help out. We strike the balance between decisions and humans.

What is it about your job and/or your organization that makes you proud?
The product. Also, being one of the few organizations that can provide permanent work for artists. An artist can see the possibility of staying with the company for six to 10 years. The only other place an artist can work that long is maybe Las Vegas or on Broadway. We give 230 artists around the world full-time jobs.

What is “special” about HR at Cirque du Soleil?
We have an edge in staffing because people want to work for us. We receive 30 to 40 applications a day from people who want to be associated with our product. People who are already here have a real sense of belonging. Not everyone is in the shows, but every department is here to ensure we build good shows. That instills pride.

Workforce, January 1997, Vol. 76, No. 1, p. 94