E74: Building an HR Department from Scratch: Strategies and Challenges with Vytelle’s Lynn Lobe

In this episode, Vytelle’s Director of Human Resources, Lynn Lobe, discusses her unique journey to HR leadership and the significance of empathy and opportunity in the workplace, the strategies and challenges involved in building an HR department from scratch, and managing global mobility, and the opportunities that combining her passion for animal science and HR provides beyond traditional roles.

• The importance of surrounding oneself with people who know more and not being afraid to tackle new opportunities.
• Why building an HR department requires prioritization and support from others.
• Why change management skills are required to overhaul an established HR program.
• How preventing fires in the workplace involves listening to employees and being flexible in processes.
• How increasing global mobility requires automation, fair and equitable approaches, and project management skills.

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• 04:33 – “So we recently had a guest who is a champion for veterans in the workplace, and she shared information that is so important for other people leaders to understand is that veterans have a very unique skill set.”
• 11:26 – “Something I really love about your journey is the importance of opportunity and giving people opportunity because I know that you were asked to put some foundational bricks into place, and that’s a huge opportunity and also can be very overwhelming.”
• 20:27 – “I think it’s just also having the exposure to some really good project managers. I’m not a project manager expert. I’ve been able and fortunate enough to work alongside some, and I think that’s where that sense of order comes into play. It’s like, okay, how can you strategically map this out so that this entropy that you’ve got going on can now be put into a scope that has a workflow to it.”
• 22:05 – “So how do the voices collectively come together in a way that then you’ve got a platform to say, this isn’t working, so what can we fix? And then now there’s going to be entropy. How do we project manage this? And that’s the kind of the issue, right? I mean, there can be a lot of cooks in this kitchen and in this endeavor. How do you do it so it’s fair and equitable, and doable?
• 25:36 – “And I think that the universe puts people in our pathway for a reason. And sometimes we see those, and there’s clarity around that, and sometimes not. But ultimately, you get somebody in my role, you get the ability to touch somebody, an impact for the positive in every situation that you can work in.”