#GetS***Done: Resilience and Inclusivity
As VP of People Services for North America for Colliers, Kerris Hougardy provides senior HR leadership to support all business units across the US and Canada, approximately 7000+ professionals. She is responsible for leading the North American People Services team of more than 80 professionals, overseeing all aspects of talent management. Prior to this, Kerris was the Director of Talent Acquisition for North America leading all Talent Acquisition activity for the region. She coached, mentored and managed a high performing team of 18 Talent Acquisition specialists with a focus on strategic business partnerships, candidate experience excellence, employment brand championship, diversity & inclusion and continuous process improvement.
Before joining Colliers in 2017, Kerris worked at Catalyst Paper and was HR business partner to all corporate staff and the executive leadership team in Canada and the USA. Kerris' career has spanned two continents. Prior to relocating to Canada from the UK 9 years ago, she had a successful career in recruitment, working for a range of small boutique, large international, and self-owned search firms specializing in senior level executive search.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
Why #GetS***Done is Kerris Hougardy’s personal hashtag
How the “particularly heavy” year that was 2020 proved her resilience
Why Kerris believes resilience is a valuable and underrated attribute
How she juggled starting a new career role at the start of COVID-19 with working towards an MBA at Simon Fraser University simultaneously
Why Kerris decompresses with a dog walk every day
The impact of George Floyd’s death on diversity and inclusion action within Colliers
How inclusivity is not “an HR issue” but is everyone’s responsibility
The need to recognize the privilege we all have
The need to start diversity hiring with working hard to find a diverse pool of candidates
Why Kerris relies on Radical Candor in management
In this episode….
Kerris Hougardy is Vice President of People Services for North America for Colliers, just this past month completed an MBA from Simon Fraser University, spearheads diversity and inclusion action for Colliers, and is a wife and mother. Her superpower, or one of them, is being able to achieve things, get things done, move roadblocks, and #GetShitDone is her hashtag. Nonetheless she believes talent recruitment and people management involves a part of resilience not usually discussed: empathy and understanding.
In the wake of reaching her current position at the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic and working on diversity and inclusion in the wake of George Floyd’s death, Kerris worked at opening up the right conversations with her team and shares that “It’s not an HR thing, it’s everybody’s responsibility”. She speaks to the qualities of resilience and inclusivity that guide her to implement policies and a shift in perception that focus on doing better and taking personal responsibility for action.
In this episode of What CEOs Talk About, host Martin Hunter explores why compassion is such a key element of resilience with Kerris Hougardy. They discuss how knowing your own limits and where your burnout starts is key to resilience. Kerris shares thoughts on diverse hiring practices and privilege that incorporate understanding and a drive to work harder at being intentional. And they explore the possibilities of Agile in streamlining the workplace.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Contact email: info@urgeo.com
Email: kerris.hougardy@colliers.com
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