Building the Circle: The Game-Changing HR Experience That Taught Me More Than I Ever Expected

Episode 1

Ever had a moment at work that completely shifted how you see your career?

That happened to me when I got laid off. I’d spent years on the HR side of layoffs—never imagining I’d be the one on the other side of the table. It was a massive wake-up call. Suddenly, I wasn’t just navigating job loss—I was experiencing it.

In this episode, I share how that moment led me to a whole new path in recruiting at Gap and changed my understanding of employee engagement, company culture, and what really makes a workplace thrive.

Listen and watch it here

In this episode:

✨ The real meaning behind employee engagement

✨ How recruitment shapes company culture in ways I never saw before

✨ Why every people-focused role is part of something bigger

If you’re rethinking your career, leading a team, or just want a fresh perspective on work, this one’s for you.

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Read the full transcript

Have you ever had an experience at work where you just knew that that experience was gonna change you? It could be that you were sent to a training, it could be that you realized the impact of your work and the effect it had on people. It could be a stretch assignment or even a bad situation that YOU knew was going to change you and make a difference with how you did your job going forward.

Well, I would like to tell you about a time that this happened to me. You see, I had been in human resources and operations for about 12 years. And I started with McDonald's Corporation in operations and then moved into HR. And then after that worked also in two other companies in HR jobs. And in each of these HR situations, I was what's called an HR generalist. My title was actually regional human resources manager, but the work I did was generalist work. And when we say that in HR, we mean that the HR person is generally responsible for all different parts of the people side of the business. This could be compensation, answering benefits questions, recruiting, hiring, training, employee relations. It could be just about anything that touches the people side of the business. So that's what I was really good at and had large territories, traveled often, and really loved that multi-unit environment. Well, I found myself laid off. And this layoff was huge. I didn't expect it. I had no light of sight that it could be and I'd been on the other side of the table. I'd never been the person being laid off. I was always the person handling those from an HR perspective. So this was, to say the least, this was actually a huge blow. I was single, I needed my income, the job came with a company car, so then I had to take that back and buy a car.

It just meant huge sudden change for me. And that perspective of actually being the person laid off was huge. I really now understood what it felt like and what it felt like to be grieving a position that you loved while needing to find a new position. So during my job search, I did all of the things. I looked for jobs online. At the time, we still had the paper. I did a lot of networking too.

I've always been someone who just really enjoys networking. So through that, I was able to make connections with somebody I used to work with who had contacts at the Gap, the retailer. So Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, at that corporation, Gap Inc. And the position was not an HR generalist role.

So it was in HR, but it wasn't the type of job I was used to. This job was in the recruiting department, and it was a very entry-level job. So for me, this meant not having a territory, not having the regional manager title.

I was applying for a job as what's called a search specialist in recruiting. And like I said, this is a pretty entry level job in recruiting. And this person is responsible for kind of like mining for candidates. They get the candidates so that the recruiters can interview them and the recruiters can guide them through the process. So I knew that this was a step back. Let's just be honest. It was a step back.

And I also knew that I loved the idea of working for a company like GAP because it had the stability, I felt it had the growth opportunity, and at the time I was dating somebody who was in the military. And I knew GAP had offices all over the country. So I thought, gosh, know, this might be my ticket to get into a company where I can continue my career. So I got the job and took it, like I said, big pay cut, responsibility cut, no more travel. And I can tell you quite honestly that it is one of the biggest learning experiences I've ever had in my career. So you see, I actually thought I knew all about HR. I was an HR generalist. I had big responsibility. However, I had never gone deep into a specialty in HR. So like I said, there's so many different parts. There are people who just do employee relations, who just do compensation, who just do benefits. And this was a job in recruiting. I was just doing one thing all day long, finding candidates, interviewing candidates, and passing them on through the process. So this experience was very informative. I learned just really what goes into filling jobs. I had always interviewed and what I recruited. I mean I had done that but I'd never done that as my only job all day long. And

So I had recruited, but I'd never done it as my only function of HR. And I wasn't used to doing it all day, every day, which was a lot of repetition, but it also was just an amazing learning experience to go deep in one specialty. So let me tell you about some of the things that I learned by going deep into this one part of HR. I learned what the job seekers go through.

When you're talking to job seekers day in and day out, all day long, the resume actually is more than a piece of paper. You actually build relationships with the people that you're interviewing and you see the person, not just the resume, you see the person who might need a job or maybe somebody who just wants more opportunity. Maybe they have a job but they want more opportunity. And going deep, into this job helped me to see that it's you're you're dealing with people's lives, I guess is the best way to put it. And people need jobs financially, they need them for their well-being, and they want a great job. Who doesn't want to elevate your job and get in with a great company? And so I did really learn to be in touch with the people side of being a job seeker and what that meant. And I had just gone through it myself. So that was just a really great experience. The next thing that I learned was that as much as I thought I knew about recruiting, I had a lot to learn. There was so much strategy behind it and I love strategy. So I enjoyed that piece a lot.

There was also so much relationship building, not just with the candidates, but also with the hiring manager and anybody who was part of that hiring process. I was always expected to build that relationship so that I could learn exactly what the hiring manager was looking for and go find it. So it was just really helpful for me to learn the depth of being a recruiter. And then I knew that I was going to be able to take this experience and grow in the company or leave GAP and do something with another company where I would always treasure this. And one of the things that I learned is that it is just so imperative to get it right. So

Suppose I was a recruiter and I was interviewing and providing a great candidate experience. In that case, I need to have a relationship with the hiring manager so that they would provide the same great candidate experience. I didn't want somebody to meet with me and then go meet with somebody else and have a completely different experience. So that relationship was huge. I also learned that sometimes you can hire someone and maybe 30, 60, 90 days later hear that they've left. And that told me that, gosh, know, it didn't matter how hard we worked to hire, if we didn't onboard and train that person well, there was a chance that they would leave. And then you might hear about people who were frustrated and maybe they weren't getting promoted or maybe they didn't see their supervisor enough or get the communication that they needed.

It generally came back to us in recruiting because we were like their first friend in the company. And so from that experience, I actually coined this phrase of the name of this podcast, the people success circle, because I really understood that every single part of what we were doing and partnering with what we were doing in the company.

I learned that every single part of what my work was doing...

I learned that every single part of the business that supports the people side is integrated and every part is equally important. And so all of this affected me as a recruiter. It affected how I led the teams that I led in the future.

All of this affected me as a recruiter and in any role I have had since then because I learned just the importance of how reliant our employees are on the systems and the processes and the support that we give them. And I also learned that when the people side of the business is broken, it affects the profitability and the success of the business.

After working with the recruiting team at GAP for a few years, and I got such great learning experience in several different projects that I was able to work on, I was then engaged to the military man, and we moved to Florida. As soon as we moved to Florida, there was a job open up.

As soon as we moved to Florida, a job opened up within GAP at the Old Navy brand as a regional HR manager. So I applied, got the job, and was able to go back into what I had so much experience in, supporting a region, multi-unit, and going back to a generalist role. So I covered all parts of the HR world. And I have to tell you, when I went back into the generalist role, I was armed with so much perspective that I knew that it was going to change how I did my job. I really, really was able to see the People Success Circle was reliant on all of us, and every piece of it was so important.

I was so happy to be back in the war.

I was really happy to be back in the role of regional HR manager and I was committed to use my newfound knowledge and experience to be even better than I was before. And that perspective really changed. It helped me to see firsthand the...

It helped me to see firsthand how integral every piece of the people side of the business was to each other.

I also know that we have an employee engagement, that's not a good transition, don't do that.

That's my story about how I learned the importance of every piece of the circle. And today we still face these same engagement issues. In fact...

Today, we still face these same engagement issues. In fact, in 2024, Gallup determined that the employee engagement rating of

In fact, Gallup states that in their 2024 Global Workplace Report that we only have 21 % of our global workplace engaged in their work. Now it's a little higher in the US. It's up to 33 % of the workplace is actually engaged, but those numbers are still way too low. And as I've said before, they affect so many things.

They affect our customers when our employees aren't engaged. They affect our profitability. And they affect the well-being of everybody who works at the company.

And further news is the engagement is actually continuing to drop. It is lower than pre-pandemic days. So we have a problem on our hands. So we have a problem on our hands. It's not just a nice to do to focus on people. It's mandatory for us to create a place to

It's not just a nice to do to focus on the people side of the business. It's crucial to us building businesses that are successful that people want to work at where our customers are happy. And I think that it's so important to talk about this in this podcast. We know that when we put people first, profits follow. We also know that when we take our eyes.

We also know that when we take our eyes off the people side of the business, that low engagement happens. We're seeing it across all industries, across the entire US and across the globe. The good news is that we, me, and probably you, if you're listening to this podcast, can do something about this. We can create workplaces where people want to be and results happen.

Employee engagement and employee well-being are at the heart of both personal and organizational success because we know the vast majority of workers are disengaged and they're not getting the support that they need.

Employee engagement and well-being are at the heart of both personal and organizational success. And we know that when they suffer, that they...

We know that employee engagement and well-being are at the heart of what makes a company successful, but the vast majority of workers are disengaged and not receiving the support that they need to thrive.

If you're listening and you're thinking about how these challenges show up in your organization and your workplace, you are not alone. But the good news is we can fix them. Together, we can create workplaces that prioritize people and businesses that thrive.

Thank you for tuning in to the People Success Circle podcast. In future episodes, we're gonna dive deep into strategies that affect every part of the circle, and I invite you to join us. I'd love to hear your thoughts on these topics. Feel free to reach out to me on social media, and you can get my email address in the show notes. I'd love to hear suggestions and feedback.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode and please feel free to reach out to me on social media. I invite you to future episodes where we'll tackle this together and complete the success circle. Nope.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic, so please send me a message below or reach out to me on social media. I invite you to join future episodes where we'll tackle these challenges together and create workplaces that thrive.