After earning a bachelor's degree in marketing from Kennesaw State University, Whitney worked in sales at phone startup Vocalocity. "My first job out of college was in sales and taught me that I hated sales," Whitney recalls with a laugh. “I decided to go the HR route quite early on. »Looking at the aura of confidence that Whitney carries within her, you'd be surprised to find that she started her career in HR just seven years ago. The initial support she needed to make her way in the industry came in 2011, when Whitney was hired as the 50th employee of health informatics company Ingenious Med. “Mike Vandiver was CFO at Ingenious Med. He served as CFO while I was on maternity leave. Before that, I reported directly to the CEO.
When I arrived as HR Coordinator, Mike could have easily said, “I just arrived, I need a strong HR business partner. But he did not do it. He put me in touch with someone outside the company to guide me. He asked the company to pay for me to employee email database go to conferences. He never made me feel stupid and I also learned about the financial side of HR. He's someone I still talk to now. His philosophy of what HR should bring to a company was formed during this fundamental stage of his career. “Initially, I probably had the same view of HR as a lot of people – it's like Toby from The Office and nobody wants to talk to you. It's bad and scary. But when the company makes HR a partner, that team can really empower people. If companies only use HR to hire and fire, they won't find this kind of success.
I learned that HR is really about the employee life cycle. Under Mike's mentorship, Whitney developed a broad-based approach to human resources –– the experience she brought to CallRail when she joined the team as Director of Talent and Culture and has since became vice president. At a rapidly growing technology company like CallRail, Whitney's first priorities were to implement a human resources management system (HRMS), namely managing payroll, benefits and service organization, as well as introduce new methodologies for goal setting and performance evaluations. “When you enter a new business, you know certain things need to happen to scale effectively. At CallRail, there was no HRIS. It was difficult for people coming in to know who people were reporting to. It was clear that we needed performance reviews and to create a way for employees and managers to have their voices heard. Empowering his team to implement Namely streamlined things like payroll, org charts, 360 reviews, compensation changes, and goal progression.