Heather Wester, Mpa, Mj-Lel Email & Phone Number

Saint Paul, Minnesota, Us

Maintains in-depth knowledge of legal and compliance requirements related to day-to-day management of employees, reducing legal risk, and ensuring regulatory compliance.Ensures smart HR risk reduction and liability prevention.Serves as HRIS application owner, including proper use of the system, accuracy of the data and proper retention of employee records.Develops, implements, communicates, and enforces HR policies and procedures that keep company safe.Partners with various leaders to ensure understanding, provide training, and enable data integrity processes across HR related systems and other business systems.

Las Vegas, Nevada, Us

Recruited to establish and oversee human resources department for a gaming technology company. Full cycle recruitment, payroll, benefits, and other duties outside HR including product development and management, gaming compliance, ad-hoc reporting, and legal.

Recruited to establish & oversee People Operations team for startup company experiencing hyper-growth. Partner with directors and senior leadership executive team to develop new business initiatives, foster employee engagement, and mobilize talent. • HR Organization Leadership: grew People Operations team from 3 to 7 within 8 months, overseeing and directing benefits administration, payroll administration, executive compensation, training, leadership development, succession planning, HRIS integration, implementation, & transition, and regulatory compliance. Heavy emphasis on leading the Company through rapid People Operations change and transformation programs. • Organization Transformation: enabled operational change essential to an overall reduction in overhead cost; led process guide & departmental process flow initiative; developed & implemented new policies & procedures; created new departments including Talent Acquisition, Learning & Development, and Payroll & Benefits. • HRIS Technology: Drove transition from outdated & unsustainable HR systems into a fully integrated HRIS platform on Ultipro/UKG. Instantly improved accuracy, easy of payroll processing, reporting, compliance, analysis, and planning capabilities while streamlining People Operations functions. Multi-state, multi-jurisidctional, and multi-national human resources responsibilities including California HR and Labor Compliance and Canadian HR. Oversaw benefits negotiation and benefits administration for two separate companies and two separate enrollment periods. Successfully negotiated a fast-paced, ever changing startup environment, wearing many hats and requiring constant flexibility in areas such as Finance, Administration, Human Resources, Compliance, Credentialing, Recruitment & Retention, and HRIS.

Orlando, Florida, Us

• Employee Relations: Introduced proactive employee relations and communications programs to resolve previous labor and management issues and restore the credibility of employee-centric focus of the HR organization across resort properties in Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Nevada, and New York.• HR Operations: oversaw layoff and reinstatement of 600+ employees during the 2019 COVID-19 pandemic including resort closures, retainment of essential staff, WARN Act notices, and building maintenance across two states, including 400 union employees.

Joined HR team tasked with revitalizing Brady following years of instability, internal change, restructuring, mergers, & acquisitions. Supported corporate repositioning, guiding recruitment of 600+ seasonal staff and 50 technical, professional, & management staff. • Workforce Integration: Integrated 2 local and 1 off-site commercial laundry facilities comprised of 300 staff in the aftermath of 2 acquisitions, steering flawless workforce assimilation into core business operations, including the successful negotiation and integration of 3 separate collective bargaining agreements. • HR Operations: Consolidated HR functions previously managed by multiple departments in multiple states into a single, consolidated organization to manage all generalist affairs. Trained and supervised an HR team of 7.

Midvale, Utah, Us

Recruited to establish & oversee People Operations team for startup company experiencing hyper-growth. Partner with directors and senior leadership executive team to develop new business initiatives, foster employee engagement, and mobilize talent. • HR Organization Leadership: led an HR team of 5 to manage a warehouse/e-commerce staff of 500 (1000 during peak retail season) in a 266,000 sq. ft. facility, including overseeing safety & worker’s compensation/risk management. • Organization Transformation: streamlined incentive process for heavy equipment operators leading to 60% reduction in operator turnover and overall increase in departmental productivity; this program was used to standardize job descriptions and incentive programs across four distribution centers.

Master Of Jurisprudence, Labor And Employment Law

Master Of Public Administration (M.P.A.), Public Administration

Bachelor Of Arts (Ba), Psychology