Chris Jimenez, Cpc, Eli-Mp, Sphr Email & Phone Number

Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson, South Carolina Area

The business has been started and mothballed a few times. It's a reality of life that sometimes our dreams go on the shelf to deal with what is in front of us. But I am hopeful that it will be restarted in the future.

Dearborn, Mi, Us

Professional Development Planning and Career Development Planning:Implemented the first competency model to be used on each role in the company, with roughly 5,000 variations of behaviors, proficiencies, and competency types. These led to the creation of career paths, development plans, and more productive succession planning.For the first time in FordDirect history, every employee can see their job description, the competencies associated with it, and those of others. This information will allow a person to actively plan their future with all the information needed to make an informed choice. This will allow for proactive use of the full Org Development suite for each employee to take control of their future.Enhancing the Employee Experience:In addition to the formation of employee resource groups and continued support of the overall employee experience, I overhauled the company's internship program. In 3 years, it went from a casual program to a program that is highly structured, rebranded to be a source of pride for current and past participants (Catalyst), and led with a purpose. Interns have reported having a great experience, even compared to that of their friends in other programs. Our Intern Leads gained valuable management experience. Our company was able to work with great early-career talent. Win-win for everyone.Employer Branding:Led the planning, creation, and implementation of social media content on LinkedIn, particularly from 2021-2024. The main engagement strategy revolved around FordDirect Focus, an employee spotlight that can be found on the FordDirect corporate LinkedIn page. This program alone led to over 500,000 impressions and thousands of new followers in a few short years. It increased the amount of recognition and visibility our employees received for their well-earned achievements.

Dearborn, Mi, Us

Culture Committee:A year before Covid hit, a need was identified in the company by our CEO to do something about our internal culture. With that mandate, I led the work with my partner in HR to peel back the root causes of the challenges. Sources of the concerns were identified, a team of volunteers throughout the business was assembled, and we got to work caring for the company so we all could be proud to call FordDirect our employer. Net Promoter Scores increased, the company was recognized by Detroit media as a Top Workplace, and employee satisfaction ratings increased. This hard work helped us navigate the challenges of going fully remote in 2020 and created a pathway to keep our engagement up in the years that followed. I'm proud of the work we did to keep the company together in a difficult time, and of the Key Contributor award I received as a result.Process Improvement: Implemented a new enterprise resource planning system, which allowed for resource management in the company for the first time. Through this project management tool, we had a centralized repository for project planning, increasing transparency across the business. I also implemented an executive planning tool for our Board of Managers to modernize our meetings during the pandemic.

Detroit, Mi, Us

My Introduction to HR:Sometimes in our careers, we are fortunate to cross-paths with a person who will impact our lives in ways we can't imagine at the time. That person for me was my former CHRO. Through pioneering work in peer-to-peer recognition and D&I efforts (remember, D&I was barely a thing in the early 2010s), I was able to lean into my growing passion for HR. I was also able to partner with others in the business to build our company culture that reflected our vibrant, creative business. That work allowed me to work closely with other HR leaders and take on bigger projects, including global deployments of a performance management system, a recruiting system, and a learning management system. I remain proud of this work and how it helped my thousands of coworkers.Early Business Intelligence:I worked in many back-of-house teams in my tenure here (IT, Finance, HR), but it originally began with the formation of the company's first Operations team. The executive I worked with in this team shared a passion for data visualization and using data to make informed decisions. This data guided us through our annual planning activities with Ford Motor Company. We uncovered strategic insight for the business through my use of executive dashboards and consultation of the data. Ultimately, I was able to form a team of amazing people to support our business through transparency and analysis. This was an exciting experience at a great time for the agency.

Detroit, Mi, Us

Agency Scope Planning:My background was once again useful at the agency when a new executive joined the company. It wasn't long before we were doing many of the things I only dreamed of before I left and started putting into reality. Resource planning became more automated and reportable and historical project data was used to plan next year's scope. This was important to prevent burnout in the organization and reduce attrition. It was all brand new at the time and I was able to use my creative side and my technical skills. It was this blending art and analytics, and it was a period of time filled with new possibilities and great energy.

Royal Oak, Mi, Us

Learning from Entrepreneurs:My time at Core3 Solutions was short, but I learned so much from our great co-owners. They continue to inspire me as I look to the future. They brought me in to assist with shoring up the project management function with resource management and project tracking. In this role, I was able to be a Project Manager and an Account Manager. It was a great experience but one that was cut short when I was offered the chance to return back to the agency with a new opportunity. Still, all these years later, I reflect on the impact of this role on my future.

Detroit, Mi, Us

Livonia, Michigan, Us