Kathy Kurth, Mba Email & Phone Number

Madison, Wisconsin, Us

In this role, I was accountable for planning and delivering payroll, benefits, and HR programs, encompassing administration of semi-monthly payroll, design of new HR programs, and partnership with solution providers to ensure employee-focused service delivery. Highlights of my accomplishments: ➢ Performed three full HRIS transitions as part of M&A growth, which each included business analysis, configuration, data mapping, parallel payroll testing, and data auditing to ensure accurate and compliant results. Designed and championed change management efforts to focus on positive employee experience throughout transitions.➢ Directed project to examine healthcare cost management solutions, resulting in multi-year benefits strategy: • Implemented HRA, which lowered premium costs for employees by 6% while reducing company costs by $53K -$90K per year. • Performed RFP for PEO contract to move onto fully insured, national plans in preparation for M&A growth. • Obtained benefit quotes from the market and negotiated with brokers to develop a benefits program that offered great employee-focused plan options while limiting the annual increase to $35K (down from $95K increase quoted by PEO).➢ Conducted annual PEO market review and selected new PEO partner, resulting in savings of $45K on TPA fees for more personalized, responsive service, which resolved employee complaints and service issues experienced with original PEO.➢ Designed organization's 1st compensation framework, propelling market competitiveness while simultaneously controlling internal equity and compression, leading to better utilization of comp budget, detection of wage disparities, and improved retention.

Madison, Wisconsin, Us

Delivered exceptional service as project manager for transformational HR, Payroll, and Benefits initiatives, including implementation of Paylocity's full HCM suite.

Madison, Wi, Us

Adult learning instructor teaching Workplace Writing and Academic Writing

Madison, Wi, Us

In this contract position, I worked with project team on development of integrated undergraduate business curriculum. Developed digital learning resource center to support the new integrated business curriculum. Designed business communication component of integrated courses. Created interactive learning objects to enhance learning experience. Supported faculty in the development and integration of social media tools, graphics, videos, and emerging technologies to facilitate learning. Built and supported courses in the Blackboard course management system.Taught in integrated curriculum. Assessed student learning. Mentored and coached students on course content, team dynamics, and academic success.

Wausau, Wi, Us

Adult learning instructor teaching Employment Skills and Communication courses:EMPLOYMENT SKILLSApplication of employment communication skills, including resume writing, cover letters, and interviewing strategies. Exploration of personal "brand" and marketing techniques. Discussion of job seeking skills - getting, keeping, and leaving jobs. Student will also develop a professional portfolio to prepare for upcoming job search.ORAL/INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATIONFocuses upon developing speaking, verbal and nonverbal communication and listening skills through individual presentations, group activities and other projects.WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONDevelops writing skills that include pre-writing, drafting, revising, and editing. Student will complete a variety of writing assignments designed to help the learner analyze audience and purpose, research and organize ideas, and format documents based on subject matter and content. This course also develops critical reading and thinking skills through the analysis of a variety of written documents.

After family relocation to Wausau, I served the Humane Society in a variety of roles, including volunteering in daily operations, writing grants to secure additional funding, and as a member of the Board. Key activities:➢ Partnered with Executive Director and Board President to identify and document current needs of Humane Society of Marathon County (HSMC). Organized information into a series of projects and programs. Prioritized list to ensure focus while researching and writing grant proposals.➢ Researched grant opportunities from public agencies, corporate foundations, and private foundations. Identified list of potential options and conducted in-depth research on foundation giving history and trends to identify donors with philanthropic interests and capacity that best matched HSMC’s top program needs.➢ Developed project proposals and grant application material based on grant requirements, donor’s identified philanthropic focus areas, and HSMC vision and values.* Joined Board of Directors in September 2012

Madison, Wi, Us

During this tenure, I served as an internal consultant to HR Leadership Team on technology, project management, process improvement, and business analytics.List of key achievements: ➢ Managed cross-functional team to complete the double-step upgrade of PeopleSoft HRMS and led the team in successful upgrade and cutover of production database without any adverse impact on business operations or user experience.➢ Configured, tested, and implemented corporate time system to improve previously paper-based, manual time tracking processes.➢ Administered $256M HR corporate governance budget for the cost of programs and services provided to the American Family workforce, as well as coordinated $18M HR operations budget that summarized all expenses involved in running the HR division operations, including salaries, training, travel, and consulting expenses. Researched and reported on variances to HR VP.➢ Designed advanced Excel template to help HR cost center managers accurately and consistently estimate travel budgets, using a series of questions and cost assumptions, resulting in HR travel budget deviation dropping from $112K (-19%) to just $9K (-2%).

Madison, Wi, Us

In this project, I established new Field Sourcing unit focused on the recruitment of agents. Hired and managed team of Staffing Specialists, Sourcing & Diversity Specialists, and Field Sourcing Consultants. Worked with various internal groups to develop agent recruitment brand, marketing materials, and social media presence. Identified opportunities for economy of scale by consolidating multiple state or individual-level contracts with vendors into corporate-level contract that leveraged our size to negotiate better pricing, saving the company over $75,000.

Madison, Wi, Us

In this project-based assignment, I introduced new HR services to field management, including exit Interviews, training programs, and online self-service tools. Conducted field interviews and focus groups with sales management teams throughout the country on agent staffing challenges. Developedand presented business case on need for agent succession planning and candidate sourcing,gaining field support through informative and persuasive techniques. Many leaders commented that it was my strong visual presentation of aging trends that made them realize the urgency and need for strategies to build a solid pipeline of talented candidates.

Madison, Wi, Us

In this role, I partnered with HR Departments to design, develop, test, and implement technology solutions that delivered data-driven business results. Proficiently delivered support on PeopleSoft, custom succession planning system, custom performance management system, and other HR systems, including troubleshooting, testing, documentation, and query requests.Key successes: ➢ Led testing efforts for the development of custom succession planning system that leveraged data from existing sources and user inputs to guide informed discussions about employee development and placement; developed test scripts and conducted all phases of testing (unit, integration, system, and user acceptance testing), facilitating discussions between developers and power users.➢ Set up guidelines, templates, and definitions for documenting business rules, which explain the logic used by the system to deliver data-driven results; created templates and processes for system testing, documentation, and status reporting.➢ Spearheaded systems sub-team for the District Manager support transition project, including discovery and documentation of existing systems and recommendations for enhancements.

Middleton, Wi, Us

At this company, I examined needs, identified solutions, created user documentation, facilitated custom training seminars, and provided coaching services as an internal consultant to HR, payroll, and training organizations across all business units.My notable contributions: ➢ Achieved annual cost savings of $130,000 by researching and implementing a knowledge management system that reduced the development time of documentation and training by 70% and provided 24/7 on-demand access to users across the country.➢ Augmented SAP HR/Payroll performance support tools and e-learning by 175%, providing interactive, on-demand learning content for the HR community on an expanded range of HR modules and topics.➢ Increased end user reporting by 85% by developing HRIS reporting curriculum (including instructor materials, training manuals, process documents, user training scenarios, and web-based performance support tools).

Arlington, Texas, Us

Mba, Strategic Human Resource Management

Bachelor Of Science, Major In Business Administration, Major In Communications, Minor In English, Minor In Theatre Arts