Meet Amanda King, VP of HR at SourceAmerica®, an AbilityOne® provider that hires a talented and diverse workforce segment — people with disabilities. As an experienced HR leader with a history of working in for-profit and nonprofit organizations, King has experience with a variety of key HR practices including direct team management, employee engagement programs, international and domestic HR leadership experience, and more.
How did you get your start in the field?
In college, I was great at recruiting people to join clubs and my sorority. So, I thought, why not be a recruiter when I graduate? I graduated from George Mason University and returned to my home state of Pennsylvania where I worked for a local franchise of Manpower, one of the largest staffing solutions providers in the world. One of the franchise’s largest customers was a global manufacturer of HVAC and heavy equipment local to my hometown. When my point of contact, the Corporate Recruiter, didn’t return from maternity leave, she recommended me to her boss as her replacement. The rest, as they say, is history!
What’s your best mistake and what did you learn from it?
Early on in my career, I thought working for large corporations was the best way to prove my value and show success. I realized after having worked for some large corporations that my value is best leveraged with organizations of 500 people or less. With this number of employees, I can know every single person who works for an organization of that size. I can understand every facet of what makes the business tick. I can also help influence organizational structure, professional development, and recruiting/retention programs. Throughout my career, I have found this to be my sweet spot. Quality of impact is more important to me than the size of the organization.
What’s your favorite part about working in the industry? What’s your least favorite part, and how would you change it?
My favorite part is building an HR team that focuses on service delivery to a customer base – our employees – instead of just policy creation or managing the administrative tasks that fall under HR. There are many facets to a successful HR team. When you have an HR team composed of the right team members and they have the organization’s employees as their focus, then everyone is better prepared to deliver great results to the business.
It sounds like through your experience you really care about people, and you want to help them feel safe and comfortable, which is important in the industry. Please elaborate here.
As a direct employer of over 450 people, SourceAmerica is mindful within our own teams of hiring people with disabilities. “Disability” has a wide definition, and what we focus on as HR managers is ensuring people are successful at work. This starts with making sure the entire employment process, starting with the candidate lifecycle, is accessible and accommodating.
I recommend other HR managers ask themselves questions, including, “Can someone with certain needs apply for a position through our online resources? Does a candidate feel safe asking for an accommodation to hear, see, or understand the interview process better? Do our employees understand the process to get the adaptive technology or equipment needed to perform their jobs at the highest level?” Asking these questions and evaluating the hiring system can help to make the hiring and onboarding process much easier for an employee with a disability. At SourceAmerica, we are comfortable as an HR and management team with asking questions to our candidates and employees to understand their needs. However, ensuring that we have an inclusive culture where all employees feel safe expressing those needs is more difficult to establish. People with disabilities often experience lack of accessibility, reluctance to ask for accommodations, or even experiences of bullying during their lifetime that makes it more difficult for them to seek assistance.
Creating an inclusive work environment also ensures workers with a disability feel comfortable, welcome, and engaged, ultimately enabling them to produce their best work and thrive at the organization. HR managers, business owners, department managers, and others examining their Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA) hiring and employment practices can begin with small steps that make a big difference in overall company culture.
How can HR most effectively demonstrate its value to the leadership team?
I don’t believe in the traditional mindset that HR is about administration and policy. Sure, our teams are responsible for those tasks, and we must do them well. But since we know the people and understand the business, we can do so much more to help influence everyone’s productivity and success. I’m fortunate that I’ve worked with great leaders who’ve taken a chance on my approach to HR. As a result, the organizations with whom I’ve worked have benefitted from improvements in productivity, lower employee relations issues, more engaged employees, and opportunities to optimize the organization.
Where do you see the industry heading in five years? Or are you seeing any current trends?
The COVID-19 pandemic taught us about human resilience, the benefits of technology, and how employees have different expectations about their work/life balance. Organizations of all sizes should be aware that how we managed teams pre-pandemic is not how teams can be successfully managed in the future. Employees will continue to work remotely from main office locations or in a hybrid manner. Brick-and-mortar locations will no longer be as necessary for certain types of work. Due to remote work, employees will continue to be spread far and wide of each other. There will continue to be less delineation between work and life, and instead we will just call this “life.” We must be aware of what employees want and need yet be open-minded to balancing those requirements with organizational results.
It’s complicated to engage a remote workforce in a meaningful way for everyone involved. It’s more important now than ever to make sure that the company’s technology is on-point and communications are frequent and clear. This is the workforce of the present and future. We embrace changes that attract and retain the best people.
I think this is an incredible opportunity. With technology and remote work, we get to hire the best people, instead of only the best people near a brick-and-mortar location. Remote work and improved technology can also help all businesses hire more people with disabilities and provide readily available accommodations like screen readers, ASL interpretation, talk to text, and other adaptive technologies. It’s a win-win.
What are you most proud of?
During my career I’ve said hello to many new team members, and I’ve said goodbye to dozens of them, too. I think most people I’ve worked with know my interest in leading HR practices with a high level of integrity and transparency. While we might not always agree on something, we will have a conversation about it so people can voice their concerns. That is a much tougher approach than just saying, “That’s our policy. Take it or leave it!” I’ve found this approach is much better for all involved. And it’s the way I earn respect from people at all career levels and is something I seek to instill in the HR Team.
Do you have any advice for people entering the profession?
Data is the key to understanding an organization. As an HR professional you have access to where people live, where they went to school, what they want to do with their career, how long they’ve been in their profession, and on and on. This data will help you build programs that directly apply to your customer base (i.e., your employees) and help leadership make objective decisions. Leaders find real value in this approach. Learn everything you can about data management, HCM tools, and data analysis tools. At the bare minimum, you have to be proficient, if not an expert with Excel and business intelligence reporting. And above all else, to be an excellent HR professional, it’s imperative that you are a strong writer and communicator.
Don’t be afraid to take a position that gives you experience as it could lead to a more ideal position. For example, I wrote position descriptions for an entire year. Do you think that was fun? Nope! But, wow, did I learn so much about the organization after having done that work!