For this week’s edition of Faces of HR, we give flowers to Diane Hughes, Chief People Officer (CPO) at Alliant Credit Union. Like many of the HR professionals we feature in this column, Hughes didn’t always have HR on her radar. In fact, she calls herself an “accidental HR professional.” During college, she majored in English literature and planned to be a teacher. During her freshman year, however, Hughes landed a role as a recruiting coordinator.
“I had no idea what HR even was, but I enjoyed the job and learned so much in the first year,” she recently shared with HR Daily Advisor. “I switched my major to HR and the rest is history.”
Over the course of her impressive career, Hughes has gained invaluable experience working across multiple facets of HR including recruiting, organization design, diversity and inclusion, compensation, development, and employee relations.
She has also held several leadership positions, serving as Chief Talent Officer for Northern Trust. In this role, Hughes led talent acquisition, learning and development, talent and succession planning, workforce analytics and HR strategic planning. Additionally, she also served as Head of HR Strategy, Head of HR for Enterprise Enablement and Global Head of Talent Acquisition. Prior to Northern Trust, she spent 10 years in Commercial Banking Human Resources at JP Morgan Chase.
In her current role as CPO, Hughes leads Alliant’s human capital and training and development teams, partnering with leaders across the nearly 90-year-old non-profit financial cooperative to create an expectational workplace experience for all Alliant team members.
“We recently launched a brand-new Employer Value Proposition program (EVP),” says Hughes. “Our EVP redefines what it means to be a part of the Alliant team and our workplace values, culture, and day-to-day employee experience. It’s more than an effort to attract new talent throughout the organization; it’s an entire employer brand that conveys to current and prospective employees what Alliant is at its core and what it’s like to work here.”
In our latest Faces, meet Diane Hughes.
Who is/was your biggest influence in the industry?
My biggest influence in the industry was my mentor, Amyre Coleman. We worked together at JP Morgan Chase and Northern Trust. I worked for her at Chase, and she recruited me to join her at Northern. She was my manager, mentor and ultimately became my sponsor. She saw something in me. I worked hard and she helped me build my skills in the HR-space and developed me as an employee and leader. Amyre taught me the importance of client relationship management and business acumen. She set such a great example of what the importance of giving back meant, while bringing along others on that journey.
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 of HR is the role’s impact on the people side of the business. A business can only go as high as the talent allows. It is rewarding to align talent management with strategy to enable business outcomes. I’m unsure I have a least favorite part of the industry. Many federal, state, and local regulations impact HR. Ensuring that programs and policies comply can, at times, be very tedious work and requires constant attention.
Where do you see the industry heading in five years? Or are you seeing any current trends?
Like most industries, AI and technology will greatly impact the HR industry over the next 5 years. How to use AI and other technology tools will continue to change how we do business. Many parts of our work may be automated, changing how we work and deliver services.
The earliest example of AI in HR is the automation of repetitive tasks, helping talent acquisition streamline the sourcing and screening process and analyzing performance and workforce data. Some organizations are already using chatbots (similar to Alexa or Siri) for basic employee inquiries.
What are you most proud of?
The thing I am most proud of in my 20-year career in HR is that I have worked with many great people, particularly women, and served as a mentor. Many have shared that I have been instrumental in their career development. Watching them from the start of their career and grow and continue to move up, has been the most rewarding thing, and what I am most proud of in my career.
Do you have any advice for people entering the profession?
Continue to keep learning, become a student of your industry, and continually build on your HR expertise. As HR professionals, we gain credibility by understanding the business we are in and creating HR programs and initiatives that drive business results.