6
P R O F I L E
Colleagues first: Ginger Scherbarth Chief people officer at HEAPY (Dayton, OH), a nationally recognized leader in sustainable and resilient engineering design.
By LIISA ANDREASSEN Correspondent
S cherbarth describes herself as a genuine, results-oriented leader who is a highly strategic thinker who’s able to balance the “big picture” with the details required to make meaningful change. One of her key talents is developing an organization’s strategy and cascading the objectives and messaging so that the entire organization is pointed in the same direction; that’s just what she’s doing at HEAPY. “When I started, HEAPY had just transitioned from a practice- centered structure to a formal C-suite, and I was hired as the first chief people officer,” Scherbarth says. “This demonstrated to our colleagues that they are our most valuable asset, which warranted a ‘seat at the table’ to advance our colleague-first vision.” A CONVERSATIONWITH GINGER SCHERBARTH. The Zweig Letter: One of your chief responsibilities is to revitalize the HR department at HEAPY. What steps are you taking to do that? Ginger Scherbarth: During my first year, we spent a lot of time
building our internal infrastructure – setting a framework for operations, establishing a service-centered and collaborative culture, and developing solid, meaningful partnerships with vendors who support us. We were also dealing with the ramifications of COVID-19 and the impact the pandemic had on our day-to-day work and our colleagues’ wellbeing. As we transitioned to a colleague-first organization, we redeveloped our purpose, vision, mission, and core values. We also used employee engagement survey to understand where we needed to improve. We discovered that we needed to get back to basics and help colleagues to understand what is expected of them and provide them with the materials and equipment needed to do their work. We took a deep dive and formed focus groups to evaluate and update job responsibilities for certain roles to ensure alignment. Our work also involves understanding each colleague’s dream for their career and personal life. We’re putting in plans this year to foster that journey, which is very exciting to me. TZL: Have you had a particular mentor who has guided you –
THE ZWEIG LETTER AP
Made with FlippingBook Annual report