An HR leader with 22 years of experience says empathy is the top skill she's used to be successful

• Kerris Hougardy, the vice president of people at Ada, said the pandemic has elevated the role of HR at companies.
• Ada has a wellness fund for each employee to have access to mental and physical health support.

When Kerris Hougardy first entered her role as vice president of people at the software-company Ada in October 2021, her top priority was implementing a fully remote, digital-first culture for all employees.

The transition, she said, required Ada to ensure its employees could do their work and communicate effectively by using collaboration tools like Monday.com and Slack. "These tools have enabled us to live up to those values of authenticity, courage, empathy, and simplicity," she said.

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Hougardy has worked in human resources for 22 years and started working at the Canada-based enterprise tech platform right before the Omicron variant began sending COVID-19 cases spiking. For her commitment to empathic leadership, she was also recently named one of Insider's 2022 HR Innovators.

Taking on her role during the pandemic, Hougardy said the company knew employees were going through a challenging time at home with restrictions and isolation. "We wanted to make sure they had access to talk to someone," Hougardy said. "Our employee relations team is on hand to support anyone going through work or personal issues."

In addition, Ada has a wellness fund for each employee to get access to mental and physical health support, access to ClassPass, and "lunch-n-learns," where they can listen to speakers around burnout and resiliency.

The company also has unlimited PTO and "work from anywhere" policies, Hougardy said, because employees "have dreams and challenges outside of work that require them to log off, shut down, and turn off their daily notifications."

Many communities have been affected by the pandemic differently, Hougardy said.

"We want to ensure that our strategy has focuses that help those communities," she said, "by inviting diverse voices to the table, ensuring those voices have influence in decision making and supporting them in the tech community."

Although the Great Resignation feels more prevalent in the US than Canada, according to Hougardy, she said Ada has taken measures to help with recruitment and retention in case of further economic changes due to the pandemic.

"Our strongest assets to share our story and what it really means to work at Ada are our Owners," by which she means employees, she said. "To support Owners that would like to develop their personal brand online, we have a social ambassador program to encourage sharing, writing, and engagement."

When it comes to retention, Hougardy said Ada remains competitive with its compensation. All employees get a bi-annual compensation review by the company's Total Rewards team, to ensure that no one is being paid under market for their role. Employees also get quarterly promotions or pay increases to ensure they are progressing in their role or elevated to a more senior role.

The number-one skill she's used to be successful in HR is empathy, she said.

"Empathy has helped me collaborate cross-functionally and build teams. Empathy has even helped with the 'harder' side of HR with things like project management, data analysis, and budgeting."

These "harder" sides are now boilerplate to the role, she said. HR is no longer just there to "hire and fire" employees or to enforce policies and processes, she said, "but to really support and engage with employees as 'whole humans.'"