Kristen Hildebrant

▶0:00HostWelcome to the Built by People podcast, where we share the stories and insights of the world's top HR leaders. Join us as we dive deep into the minds of HR executives, uncovering their strategies, challenges, and triumphs in shaping today's workforce. I'm excited to welcome Kristen to the Built by People Podcast. Kristen, thank you so much for joining us. And as a starting question, I always love to ask if you could share a little bit more about your career journey.

▶0:48GuestThank you for asking me to join. This is such an honor. I have been blessed throughout my entire career journey. I started in retail, many, many years ago. And what attracted me to retail was always the people. And while it sounds cliché, it's always been about matching people to something that motivates them. When I moved to New York a few decades ago, I really didn't know what I wanted to do, and retail wasn't an option. I started my journey in human resources by working with a staffing company and loved what they did. They were matching talent to the client needs. I decided to make the leap into corporate HR when I realized I had a love for the people, but I didn't get to work with them after I placed them. I found my way into recruiting. I was working in different industries from insurance to global electronics, global technology, and now security. It's been an adventure both professionally and personally for me.

▶1:45HostCan you tell us about a specific situation where your decision-making approach as Arrow's first HR C-suite executive led to a significant positive outcome for the organization? What was your thought process?

▶2:00GuestAbsolutely. I think one of the— I've been here 19 months, and so I think one of the things that's been really impactful for us so far has been the suggestion of implementing a formal learning and development team under the HR structure. We are a workforce of roughly around 6,000 spread out across now up to 10 states. And one of the things that we were missing was a dedicated team that was focused on not just orientation and onboarding, but the development, whether you are a field security guard, a field supervisor, or an HR professional working within these security firms. So the very first thing that I did was searched for and have found a very talented, dedicated learning and development manager that is everything you could ever ask for, from a facilitator to a concept designer to a learning management system guru. And she has taken off. What we are seeing actually this week with the introduction of our new LMS curriculum that is the first time for the organization, which will take anybody from level 1 to level 2 to level 3, and that includes our leadership development opportunities. So I'm, I'm extremely excited, not just for where we are, but where it's going to go. And really give us that competitive advantage in the security space.

▶3:21HostKristin, can you tell us about how you've approached leadership development throughout your career, particularly in mentoring others, and share a specific success story there?

▶3:32GuestAbsolutely. I think one of the things that I really didn't understand growing up was the concept of a leader. There was always authoritative, and that was always something that was a very big signal for me. But I was always influenced by people that seemed to effortlessly influence other people. And I realized as a young adult very quickly that really that's a key signal of leadership. And you do adapt styles. And so that was something, whether I was in one industry versus another, I've always looked at adaptive leadership and being able to not just adapt yourself through self-awareness, But when you're dealing with other people, learning other people and, and learning how to communicate and how to lead through influence, I think with, you know, the mentorship piece, you're a mentor every day, whether you realize it or not, whether they're in your department or an employee that you're helping or a manager that you're, you know, sitting across from on the, on the floor. One of the things that I think if I look across the, the team that I've worked with over the last, couple of decades in the HR space, I see people that have gone into leadership roles, executive roles in their respective disciplines, whether that's learning and development, the generalist side, benefits side. I have several individuals that I've worked with that really didn't know what they wanted to be when they grew up and very quickly accelerated into leadership positions. But I think one of the things that still sticks out to me, and, and it's, it occurred while I was here at Arrow, was somebody coming to me after a planning session with the team. And I had just recently been promoted to the CHRO role and said, I'm motivated, I'm ready to go. And I felt like I was doing something right. So I'm excited to see where he's going to go, and I'm here to support it. I'm here for it.

▶5:25HostI want to dig a little bit deeper into your approach to adult learning and training. Could you share with us a time when your non-traditional approach to adult learning and training created meaningful impact in your organization. What was your specific methodology?

▶5:41GuestSo I think one of the things that goes back to a leadership development program that I was a co-creator of several, not several, it was several years ago. It was before, while we were home for COVID, and we really were struggling in the COVID environment, all being remote. Being a global organization on different time zones, and really coming together as a new leadership team. And, you know, you can sit in a room or sit on a Zoom and lecture, but unless you are getting into it with practical application, there isn't much there. And so what we decided to do was we picked leadership topics and we built our own program based around that. It wasn't trademarked, but, what we decided to do was take each leadership lesson, whether it was a soft skill or whether it was a technical skill in the organization, and we assigned that subject matter to one of the leaders to not only do the technical and practical research side of it, but also to provide hands-on kind of practical application of that. And then they presented it to the organization. And we did that on a biweekly basis that eventually moved to monthly. And I will tell you, it was a sense of ownership. It was a sense of pride, but it also was a sense of accountability because here I am, if I'm talking about self-awareness, for example, and my team is aware of this, does my team see that every day? And it really was the accountability factor that I think shifted how the managers were looking at, it's not just another leadership development program. So I'm excited to bring that same concept here to Aero Security. My hope is that we're looking at leadership development by the fourth quarter of 2025, and I feel very strongly about putting individuals into that copilot seat and being able to take that accountability factor and run with it. It was impactful, and I feel very strongly about continuing that process as we move forward here with our learning and development efforts.

▶7:47HostKristin, what parting advice would you like to share with our community?

▶7:51GuestI think the more that this collective community can do to continue to emphasize the value of HR, the better. What I have found in the last several years of working within HR, whether it's you're working as a legal advisor, a labor advisor, a leadership advisor, the value that we have in this organization as HR professionals is it, it's hard to capitalize on. It's really hard to define. We are playing multiple roles, multiple hats, and the more that we can come together as a community and disrupt some of the norm, the more we can take the accountability as influencers in an organization. I think that helps to continue to propel the HR profession in general. I'm not the traditional need-the-seat-at-the-table kind of HR professional, I like to be at the table, and I have been for several years. I think it's what you do once you're at the table that really drives the point home. And I've been blessed so far in my career with that, and I'm looking forward to more of that in the next decade here with Arrow.

▶9:00HostKristen, thanks so much for joining us today on the Built by People podcast. It was a pleasure to have you involved.

▶9:05GuestThank you for having me. It was a pleasure.