We recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Xenium’s HR Business Partner, Kyle Hadeed. With a unique journey from being a client to now playing a pivotal role at Xenium, Kyle shared insights into his role, the evolving landscape of HR, and his passion for making a difference in the industry. Dive into our conversation below to learn more about Kyle’s experiences, accomplishments, and his vision for the future of HR.
Q: What is your role at Xenium, and how long have you worked here?
A: I’m a Human Resource Business Partner, and I’ve worked here for over a year.
Q: Your prior role gives you a unique perspective on your HRBP role. Please tell me a bit about that and how that brought you to be interested in working for Xenium.
A: In my previous role, I was a client contact of Xenium’s for about three years. I got to know a few HR Business Partners, Kelli (Woodworth) and Annie (Oxenfeld). It was cool, you know, learning and working with other HR professionals outside of my internal HR team. I also came to Xenium for training one time with Kelli. When I was an HR Coordinator, Xenium helped me develop my career when I wasn’t even a Xenium employee. I saw how awesome Xenium was when I was a client and their top-notch service and expertise. So, when I saw the HR Business Partner opening, I was like oh my gosh, this is a slam dunk.
Q: Can you tell me what a typical day is like for you as an HRBP?
A: The first thing I do is look at my Monday.com board, check all my emails, and review my on-going to-do list. It’s important to prioritize because as a HR Business Partner, there are a ton of different things that come up in the day-to-day. I typically have check-in meetings with my clients throughout the week. I see what comes up through my desk, whether specific projects like handbook development, performance management, discipline and termination toolkits, or any of our key deliverables. Sometimes, clients will need things urgently and I communicate with them as soon as possible to help address any of their concerns or questions.
Q: Having worked in internal HR, what’s your favorite part about now working in an outsourced HR and payroll company?
A: Internal HR is excellent, but you work for one company in one industry and with one employee count. Whereas working for Xenium, I have 30-plus clients of different sizes and industries, and they have all kinds of initiatives. The complexity is higher, and the opportunity to learn is higher. Supporting various organizations and their different life cycles is exciting. You make a difference, whether it’s an organization of 10 or 500 employees.
Q: Can you talk about a project or an accomplishment in the last year that you’re proud of?
A: I’ve had some challenging employee relation issues that were high stakes and having to navigate through those with my clients and working with key stakeholders, I thought was a great accomplishment. Helping my clients find a viable solution to help their organization move forward was important to me.
I’ve had some clients that have never had a handbook before, and they had no idea where to start, and implementing one can sometimes be challenging. But it was beneficial for them to have something structured as they continue to grow and add employees.
Q: How would your clients describe what is it like to work with Kyle?
A: Easygoing and understanding. I try to help my clients find the root cause of specific issues rather than just putting a band-aid on the problem.
Q: What advice would you have for someone who’s just starting in their HR career?
A: Ask questions. That’s the number one thing. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. HR is very complex. Make sure to lean on someone, a more experienced HR professional in or outside your organization to help.
Q: How do you see the role of HR evolving in the future, particularly in the outsourced space, and what are your goals for the future?
HR is evolving in a positive way in how businesses see the human resource function. We’re seeing the trend of organizations seeing HR professionals as a strategic business partner. Whereas before it was seen as an administrative function.
For me and my growth, I want to continue to learn, I want to grow into a leadership role, and find a specific HR function where I can be a subject expert.
Q: What do you like to do in your spare time?
A: I like to spend time with friends and family, hang out with my buddies, play video games, and watch sports. When it’s football season, don’t contact me on Sundays. Ha! I really enjoy golf, but I’m not the best golfer in the world. I don’t want to say what my handicap is, it’s not good, but I love it.
Q: What’s your favorite football team?
A: The Indianapolis Colts.
Q: What’s your favorite memory of working here in the last year?
A: My favorite memory was when I went to an XCITE team building event about a month in working at Xenium. I was new to the team and didn’t really know anybody. We went to a client that had a brewery, and it was really nice, truly getting to know everyone. It just helped me be at ease. So, I’d say that and dressing up as a caterpillar (Our team did an Alice in Wonderland theme) for Halloween.