We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Katie Corum a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Katie, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
We are not born with resilience. We learn it through trial and error. And although we have the choice to be resilient or not, I choose to be.
I had gone out of state for college in order to receive my B.A. in Human Resource Management. When I moved back to Florida (where my family lives) it was difficult for me to get a job in HR due to not having experience. So, I was provided an opportunity as a Purchasing Assistant for the County. I stayed there almost 1 year. But decided that I wanted to find a job in Human Resources. Otherwise, why did I go to college and receive the degree. So, I landed my first real HR job working for a statewide healthcare company. I was super excited about it. That is, until I was laid off, along with all of the other staff due to 33 healthcare facilities closing in FL within a year after I had started. And so it began in which I would then go on to work for a few other local, national and international companies and go through more layoffs due to the telecom crash, financial issues, etc. When interviewing with various companies, others would look at me as a job hopper, when in fact I was not. I was a result of economy and companies gone wrong. I stood firm in my determination to find my next HR job and one that I would be at for a while. And that I did. However, if I did not have these hurdles and challenges, I would not have been so open to change and being as passionate as I am about the work that I do.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I have always loved people. I enjoy helping people. But I didn’t have the stomach to go into nursing. So, I chose to go the business professional route into HR.
I started my company, SOAR HR Consulting, LLC in late June 2022. I wanted to skip the ‘red tape’ and get straight to it in helping small and mid-size businesses with their HR processes and operations.
Employees do not have a lot of confidence in their Managers. And that is due to the Managers not being trained accordingly. We provide the tools, trainings and templates in order to provide the Managers the confidence and clarity that they need in order to lead their teams in engagement, recognition, progressive counseling, performance reviews and more. We also recognize that companies do not buy unless it’s due to a need or want. Businesses need HR. That is why we offer an HR assessment which provides a 360 overview of their company as a whole in showing where they are in compliance, where they may not be, and recommendations that we provide them. It then blossoms into an organic business relationship. One of our other popular services has been the digitalized employee handbook. Now, more than ever, companies may want to start seriously considering going that route. With the Trump Administration back in office, there will be a lot of updates and changes happening this year. The only way to keep up with those changes is to have a digital employee handbook, in which a company such as ours can make the updates for your business behind the scenes. One less thing for business owners to worry about.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
My 3 qualities that were most impactful to me are as follows:
Work ethic- If you do not work hard in order to attain success, no one else is going to provide it to you. You have to buckle down, get your hands dirty, learn the challenges, grow from them, help to evolve and improve them.
Strategic thinking- Listen to your employees. Learn from them. Share their feedback to the C-Suite Executives. Utilize that feedback in order to improve your business, implement new systems/benefits/payroll/recognition/employee engagement programs. You get more bees with honey when you allow your employees to feel that they are heard and that their opinions are heard. Allow them to be a part of the process. Then they will be more eager to be open to any upcoming changes.
Vulnerability- There have been jobs that I worked at and I may not have had as many years of experience on a certain system or payroll or other project and did not know it all. But I was open to finding solutions. I was open to learning. And when I did, I shared those solutions. As a solopreneur for the past 2.5 years, I have put myself out there and have shared my experiences with other entrepreneurs and HR professionals. That is how we inspire each other and learn from one another. I don’t call other Fractional HR professionals my competition, I call them my HR collaborators as there are certain skill sets and experience that they have and vice versa. We share with one another. We learn. We grow.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
We are always looking to partner with and/or collaborate with other business professionals. Some of the best ones are employment attorneys, accounting, bookkeeping, benefits brokers, payroll vendors, non-profits, new businesses, private equity and M&A.
Every business needs Human Resources in it. No matter if it’s 1 person or a few. The problem that we see is that some small businesses do not think that they need HR until…..it’s too late. We are trying to change that mindset from being ‘reactive’ to instead being ‘proactive’. By doing so, we potentially are saving these businesses hundreds or thousands of dollars and a lawsuit.
Reach out to us as we do offer a FREE 15–30 minute consultation.
We can be reached at www.SOAR-HR.com or Katie.Corum@SOAR-HR.com or 1-800-784-6684.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.SOAR-HR.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SOARHR/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiecorum1/
Image Credits
Company logo- Pablo Lopez
Flyer -Abinaya Sundarrajan.
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
