What’s your H-E-B story?
Grocery was going to be my path into the world of arbitration and mediation. When I was in college at Texas Tech, my goal was to work in labor relations. A family friend worked in arbitration, and I always thought that sounded exciting. A professor recommended a job in labor relations at a small grocery company so that’s where I started.
My husband got a job offer in San Antonio when he graduated with his PhD, so we made the decision to relocate, and I started applying to H-E-B – a company I knew from competing with them. Now, when I say “applying”, I was actually sending my resume to anyone I knew who had an H-E-B contact and asking them to forward it along. This was pre-internet, after all! Eventually, the head of HR gave me a call and said, “Listen, I'll make you a deal. If we interview you, will you please stop sending your resume?” Ha! It’s a deal!
Sounds like you got creative! What was your journey like once you got to H-E-B?
With 12 other people, I was recruited into a pilot program aimed at putting HR Managers into every store. So, I worked at SA36 for a while, before we learned that we really didn’t need an HR Manager in every single store. There was an occasional HR issue to address, but most of my nine months in the role was spent stocking shelves and bagging and doing whatever else I could do to help. Which was a great experience – just not necessarily what they envisioned we would be doing.
After that, I served as the HR Manager for all our warehousing Partners. Then, I worked in Partner Relations for a couple of years before moving back to MWT as the HR Director. After six months, I was "volunteered" for Compensation and Benefits — a move I never would’ve pursued on my own. That opened the door to Corporate HR, Corporate Recruiting, and eventually every part of HR.
In each role, what I learned about myself is that I love to create and improve processes that make lives better.
Given that my experience covered every aspect of HR, I was able to help kick off HR Tech, Communication, Change Management, Wellness Primary Care, and other critical teams that help our business and our Partners live well. Today, I am responsible for the design of the programs under Total Rewards (benefits, compensation, perks, VPP, 401k, etc.) and H-E-B Wellness Primary Care – currently 14 clinics and growing.
What’s your favorite part of your job?
Helping others. Whether that’s our Partners and their families, or anyone else I’ve had the opportunity to serve over the course of my career.
Through Total Rewards programs and our clinics and wellness programs, we’ve been able to help so many people. And if our Partners are experiencing a healthcare issue, we can usually work to get them into a better situation. The clinic Partners make me so proud with all the great work they’re doing.
What’s been the biggest lesson you’ve learned over the course of your career?
I’ve spent a big part of my life watching myself get in my own way. Humans do that. Over the past five or six years, I’ve put in a lot of work to become a better human and a better leader — and that’s not easy work. Our patterns run deep, and the moment we’re stressed, they snap right back into place. It’s challenging, but it’s worth it, because it helps me show up every day for our Partners and give them the very best I can.
It was my work with horses, actually, that put me on this path.
Can you share a little more about that?
I bought my first horse when I was twelve years old for $125 that I’d made babysitting, but I loved them before I was born. But even though I loved them, I never really had the relationship with them that I hoped for.
About six years ago I was riding and my horse had a bad fall. That moment was really the catalyst for a big change in my life. While I was recovering from a broken ankle from the fall, I ended up attending a women’s riding retreat. Something I hadn’t done before.
I remember, we were in a session about whether people should give horses treats — the answer being “no”— but I turned to the woman next to me and said, “well, unless you’re trying to fetch your horse in a big pasture. Then treats are helpful.” She says to me, “Huh. I don’t need to have treats to get my horses to come to me. They want to be around me.”
When she said that I was taken aback. But then it really got me thinking, and that became the launchpad for the next phase of my journey. I started learning all I could about how I could be the kind of person my horses wanted to be around.
This led me to the realization that I wasn’t always present when working with my horses – my mind was elsewhere – and that held true for connecting and being present with people too. Since then, I’ve worked hard to learn how to be present and really connect with others. I have shared this realization with other people and have enjoyed witnessing their growth and seeing how it fuels my own progress. It’s true that the more you teach, the more you learn, and this has been such a profound learning opportunity for me.
What’s been a memorable moment at H-E-B for you?
One of my memorable moments was when I won the Fully Clingman award a few years back. It was a great honor and the unexpected benefit to me was that in writing my thank you speech, I had the opportunity to think about all the Partners that had helped me grow and really say thank you to H-E-B Partners for changing my life for the better, including Charles Butt.
What advice would you give others about working for H-E-B?
If you’re looking to lead a life of joy and happiness, find ways to be present and connected to the people and world around you. That really is the secret sauce of everything. If we’re upset about something that someone said to us, or we’re stressed about what’s going to happen in the future, then we’re not in the present moment. And by doing that, we’re missing our whole life. I’m a planner and a worrier by nature, so this is particularly hard for me to manage. But if I’m truly connected with the people, horses, nature in front of and around me, then I can’t be anxious about what’s next or worry about what’s already happened — I can only be in the moment. And that’s such a healthy place to be.
