Top 10 Pioneering CEOs to Follow
The CEO and Principal HR Consultant at HerrinHR is Mallory Herrin. She is in charge of the company’s strategic planning, growth goals, team leadership, and overseeing the client consulting work that the company performs.
When Mallory started the business, she performed everything herself, including the bookkeeping, design work, and HR consulting. Over time, she was able to begin expanding the internal staff and outsourcing specific tasks, such as accounting, so she could concentrate entirely on expanding the business, achieving its sales goals, and providing excellent customer service.
Below are highlights of our interview with her:
Could you briefly share your life before beginning your professional career?
I’m from the DFW area in Texas and grew up as the youngest in a small family. As a kid, I always thought I would become a teacher, a veterinarian, or something else that would be in service to people. However, after some short stints working as an elementary school teacher’s aide, in a daycare, and in a veterinarian’s office as a teenager, I quickly realized that it wasn’t the path for me. Working at the vet was especially tough, as I would cry every day over the animals that were suffering or being put to sleep.
I began working in administrative roles and was very fortunate to begin work at a company that let me quickly advance from an admin position into accounting, and I was then handed HR duties. Though I was still very young and early in my career, when I began attending college, I really fell in love with the HR field, and the rest is history.
What are the primary service offerings provided by HerrinHR?
HerrinHR offers a variety of services to best fit our clients’ needs. We provide a la carte options that include strategic HR consulting, tactical HR support, recruiting, training (on HR compliance topics, management and leadership skills, and professional skills), fractional HR leadership, and benefits brokering and administration. We have different billing models and pricing for each of these services to allow our clients to only pay for what they need and use, as well as to give smaller businesses access to these much-needed services, which can be prohibitively expensive with many outsourcing providers.
Through a joint venture with Smarter Benefits Solutions, we established HerrinHR Alliance, which is a full-service Human Resources Outsourcing (HRO) model that includes an HRIS system, payroll processing, benefits administration, and HR consulting at a per-employee-per-month rate.
Define your approach to leading a team. What would you say about it?
My approach is simple but includes some key elements. First, I lead with a clear vision in terms of where the company is headed and what we need to achieve at specific points in order to reach that vision. I also make sure that whatever we do, whether it be establishing the joint venture that we have embarked on or expanding our service offerings, it must be in alignment with our mission and values. Those on the team and even the external partners we work with must also understand, share, and respect our values. I don’t micromanage; I listen to ideas and feedback and provide our team with autonomy while being transparent as a leader.
Being a great leader requires trust. I have to trust my team, and they have to trust me. It also requires building a sense of community and always working on cultivating a company culture that is psychologically safe, positive, and continuously improving.
What obstacles did you face along the way that helped you learn important lessons for your career?
Early in my career, I had to learn to see the big picture in HR. So many HR professionals don’t get a seat at the table because they approach HR in a very siloed manner, only focusing on day-to-day tasks, compliance, or a specialty area. However, it’s important to see how everything works together and to bridge the gap between business strategy and people strategy. That was a major lesson to learn in order to become a strategic partner in HR.
I also learned quickly that you can’t do it all. You have to have a team of great people around you, and you have to be able to give up control and delegate, stay humble, be approachable, and be a good listener.
Give us some insights about your work as a human resources expert.
My work in HR really runs the gamut. While I primarily focus on people strategy development, the implementation and execution of strategies cannot be ignored and are critical components to consider when developing strategy. All of the functional areas of HR, from talent acquisition and retention to performance management and total rewards, and more, must be considered—as well as the employee experience in its totality—in order to truly create effective HR strategies and great workplaces.
As an HR expert, I often speak at conferences and on podcasts on HR topics, and I really do what I can to advance the field and shape the future of work in a positive way. One of the primary reasons I wrote the book Intentional HR: A Revolution in Strategic Thinking was to help other HR professionals level up their strategic ability so that they too could create effective strategies and amazing places to work.
Which book on management or leadership is your favorite? Why?
As an avid reader, there are so many that I adore that it’s hard to narrow it down to one. However, one that I found really life-changing was Leadership and Self Deception by the Arbinger Institute. It provides a framework for taking the ego out of situations in order to garner the best results, seeing others as whole individuals, and self-reflection as an individual and as a leader. I read it in the early 2000s, and its lessons still stick with me to this day. In fact, I am re-reading it now and often use it as a tool when helping organizations turn toxic cultures around.
As per you, which technology advancement will significantly alter the recruitment industry during the next five to ten years?
I think that as AI is continually developed and utilized within applicant tracking systems (ATS), it is going to make major improvements to recruiting automation. Recruiting is very time-consuming, and the better an ATS can learn patterns and sift through applicants without accidentally knocking out qualified candidates or letting unqualified candidates through the gates, the more it will reduce the time it takes to fill a position. This is especially important in the current labor market, where employers are really challenged to find top talent to fill open roles.
Tell us about your vision for HerrinHR and how you hope to affect change.
My vision for HerrinHR is to continue making a significant impact for our clients and expanding our HRO offerings. We have such a phenomenal, true one-stop-shop outsourcing option that really benefits organizations, and I love to see the difference it makes for our clients.
As far as how I hope to affect change, it’s all about staying true to our mission, which is to create amazing places for employees to work and to help our clients achieve growth and success through providing superior HR services to small and mid-size businesses. When businesses and organizations are successful in reaching their goals and the work environment really sets people up for success, it makes such a profound and positive difference in the lives of the individuals employed there.
Website: www.herrinhr.com
