From Cocktail Waitress to CHRO: How My Unconventional Background Shaped My HR Strategy

Dr. Jim: [: 00:00:00

Lesjune Simon: Thank you for having me.

Dr. Jim: I'm pretty pumped to have this conversation with you and looking forward to what you come up with. Before we get into the myth busting segment of the conversation, I think it's important for you to tell a little bit of your story the work that you're involved in, and maybe even some some stuff about the company that you work for.

Lesjune Simon: I've been in HR for about 15 years now. Funny to be back in Vegas cuz about 15 years ago, I was a Vegas cocktail waitress. So that's a little bit of history that nobody would ever expect from a CHRO, correct? And I've been in Love HR. I love all things HR being a cocktail waitress drove me to HR seeing what goes wrong with the people who are considered lower level.

I wanted [: 00:01:00

Dr. Jim: There's something really interesting that you mentioned about your background that caught my attention. And that was the, your experience as a cocktail waitress and how that informed some of your viewpoints in terms of people strategy. Tell us a little bit more about how that shows up when you're doing the work.

When you look at talent strategy, talent attraction, talent development, how does your experience as a cocktail waitress and what you experienced during that time show up in those key elements of the employee life cycle?

Lesjune Simon: In the employee life cycle, I realized that everybody can have a chance to be a leader.

wing up those people who are [: 00:02:00

Maybe they didn't even know. they could become the next leader. They didn't know that they could be, someone that adds immense value that they're already adding immense value because they're working those late hours and we run on those employees who are doing the extra work. So I realize it from a different level than some people who have, Maybe not worked in the background of the scenes and had to do maybe what somebody would call the hard grit work.

Dr. Jim: There's a couple of things that I really like about what you've mentioned. One was you're intentional about giving people chances at opportunities. But there's another element of what you said that I found interesting, and that was your emphasis on tenacity.

Where does that come from? Why is that important?

to be successful is to have [: 00:03:00

And passion comes from a lot of things. I've heard somebody say that a lot of people's passion comes from their pain. So they transformed it into a passion, which transforms into Being amazingly successful. I look at people when they're interviewing, how many times they've interviewed, people will tell you a lot of things about themselves in an interview, or even when they write a cover letter and to see the people who keep trying, who want to learn.

Not just about degrees or anything, but the length of time they've worked at somewhere and they just stayed, at this lower level and no one ever gave them the fair chance or shot if I give this person a shot, what will they do? And it's like my current boss. He took a shot on me.

I've. I've been stuck at the director level for a very long time. And then he seen my resume and he gave me a shot as a chief. Right now for him working day and night trying to knock it out of the park because I love what I do.

Dr. Jim: You're ready to bust some myths.

Lesjune Simon: Yeah, let's bust some myths.

and senior leaders in HR and [: 00:04:00

Lesjune Simon: That HR is just there to punish you and that you should be scared of HR.

That is a myth that I wish would just die. Every place I've worked at people are like, Oh, no one likes HR. Oh gosh. If HR calls, they don't want to answer the phone. And that's not what HR is about. HR is about the development of people. We bring the people in, we hold that whole employee life cycle, like you discussed through people retiring.

And we want to see people do well and thrive. HR is not the people who punish you. We're also not the paper pushers.

Dr. Jim: That's an interesting answer. And I like that from a theory perspective, but oftentimes as somebody who's, who hasn't been in HR, I've been on the revenue side of the organization and I've typically engaged with a lot of HR leaders.

the stick versus the carrot. [: 00:05:00

Lesjune Simon: That starts with orientation. As soon as somebody is coming into the company, it should be up to the HR leader to step into that new hire training, introduce themselves, let everybody know who they are. Let everybody know that their door is open. Let everybody understand that, they're there to help them.

If there's any issues, they can come to them. If they want to try a different track, career progression, you can come to them if they have a training person, getting them that way, letting them know that they're really there to assist them. Obviously we are there as the HR professional to protect the company as well.

y. They've seen it happen in [: 00:06:00

Dr. Jim: Great stuff. I appreciate you sharing that. This is just a teaser of a much longer conversation. I'm sure if people want to continue the conversation, what's the best way for them to get in touch with you?

Lesjune Simon: Yes, they can get in touch with me on LinkedIn. It's Lejeune. So L E S J U N E with an accent on it. Simone is my last name. You can find me on LinkedIn there or engagevitality. com.

Dr. Jim: Thanks for hanging out with us and helping us bust some myths.