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When Katie Meyers was 16, she landed her first job waitressing at Skyline Chili in Cincinnati. In that role, she said she learned to put people first—a skill she’d continue to develop as an event planner for Hyatt Hotels in Chicago and eventually, in HR.
Meyers, whose career has found her working in HR at organizations including the MLB and NBA, is now VP and global head of talent management and development at HCM platform Dayforce. She shared with HR Brew the people lessons she has picked up along the way.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How did your first job influence your career?
Both of those roles, whether you’re on the serving side or the meeting/event side, [are] all about the people…It’s all about understanding people’s wants, people’s needs, learning how to flex with all different types of personalities, learning how to get to the root of what would be the most valuable and beneficial for the customer and the client…When I first got into HR, I remember thinking it is all about the people…and now the longer that I’ve been in HR, absolutely.
How did you end up in HR?
Although I loved event planning and getting to know people and working with people, I found myself getting more and more curious…not only about what we were putting on on the actual floor, but the build behind the scenes…Why do we want to provide this information to our employees? Why do we want to share our strategies over in this area rather than this area?…Once I found out that there was a whole wide world of HR out there, I knew that I wanted to be in it.
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What led you to Dayforce?
When I started getting deeper into the talent management and talent development function, I’ve noticed…that people go from breadth in the industry to depth back to breadth…So, I started my career in the depth piece. Some people can go deep in talent acquisition…you could go deep in comp and benefits. And then, at some point, you go back a little bit to the breadth, and I did that. I was the head of HR for a small nonprofit, and then I had the opportunity to go into sports…So, I was back in talent management, learning and leadership development…And the opportunity to jump over to Dayforce was similar to the roles that I had.
When we first connected, you said something that I’d like to explore here: “You bloom where you’re planted.” What does that mean?
[It’s about] having the opportunity to take a deep breath, in some cases, or take a moment to yourself, and just remind yourself that you are here in this space right now for a reason…It’s equally as important to learn what you don’t want to do as it is for what you do want to do.
Think about ways that you know you can continue growing in your current role…You might be taking on a new stretch assignment, or it might be learning about how to run something new…that might be pushing you out of your comfort zone…Blooming where you’re planted [is] taking advantage, saying “yes” to everything that crosses your plate…And then one day you’ll look back and say, “I was in that role at that time because I learned XYZ, and now I’ve been able to take those skills and really allow me to be successful in this position.”
