“When they asked me to take on HR responsibilities at Cornell, I said no at first,” Chris said. “My perception at that time was that HR was where change stopped, and I wanted to help people make change.”
After seeing that the Vice President who made the offer was truly committed to change, however, Chris realized his perception might be wrong and he took on the opportunity.
“That’s when I learned what HR really can do with the right leadership,” he recalls. “When we combined forces, we got a lot done.”
Chris has been at Lehigh since January. We sat down to ask a few questions so Spotlight readers could get to know him better.
Q: Why did you choose a career in organizational development and human resources?
A: I earned a bachelor’s degree in international relations thinking I would go into international business. But I realized I’m more of an observer of people and that I was more interested in people than numbers. That’s when I decided to go to graduate school and get a master’s in organizational behavior.
Q: You had climbed to the position of Associate Vice President of Organizational Effectiveness at Cornell. Why did you decide it was time to make a move?
A: I had really reached as high as I could at Cornell. I knew that I could stay and comfortably retire from there. But I wanted to continue to grow. I thought if I’m going to go anywhere, I would want it to be as a chief human resources officer.
I had received a couple of offers from other universities, but they didn’t feel right. I felt bad turning them down since it’s an exhaustive process, but it wasn’t what I was looking for.
Q: Why did Lehigh feel right?
A: The timing kept getting more right. My kids were all getting older. And I was really comfortable with (Lehigh Vice President of Finance and Administration) Pat Johnson. (Pat was at Cornell for nearly two decades.)
When I told people at Cornell I would be working for Pat, they all replied that I was lucky because she was so great to work with. That comfort level was important. Several things also just kept kind of popping up in our lives that made Pennsylvania feel right. It felt right almost from the beginning.
I was also interviewing back out west and I was open to that. I thought my wife would definitely want that. But she said, ‘If you get offers from both places, you should definitely choose Lehigh.’ I liked the reputation, the strength of the institution, the 150 year history.
Q: What have you been doing in the first weeks of your time here?
A: I’ve been meeting with people around campus, doing a bit of a listening tour.
By the time I’m done I will have met with all four deans, every vice president, almost every vice provost, the provost, and the president.
I’ve been asking them about the direction they think Lehigh is going in. Then I ask them how HR can be a part of that -- what could we do more of or less of? How can we serve you? Pat Johnson has been good about giving me the time to do this and then she wants to hear back after I’ve finished. I’m also sharing the information with our HR staff so we can prioritize and craft strategic goals.
Q: What did you learn about the challenges or opportunities facing Lehigh during your conversations?
A: There are layers. I think for the university as a whole, the higher education landscape is changing pretty dramatically. There are certain things we need to do to adapt to it. Lehigh is in a strong position but every university has its unique modifiers. We have to honor 150 years of history and really identify what has made us strong and so successful.
At the same time, we have to realize there are things we have to change. Some of those things aren’t a problem in terms of honoring our past, things like technology, for instance. On the other hand there may be something that has made us great for 150 years and that’s exactly what we’re going to have to change. So how do we honor that distinctive history while moving it forward?
I don’t know all the answers but I know the senior leadership wrestles with that all the time.
Q: Tell us more about how preparing for the future at Lehigh feeds into how HR does business.
A: The biggest part that impacts HR is in the ‘war for talent.' A lot of staying on top and staying strong is having the right people. Staff is a really important part of that. Our hiring needs to be extremely strategic.
We have to change our HR direction from one of compliance and transaction, which is not valueless, since it keeps us out of trouble and keeps faculty and administrators from spending all their time doing paperwork. But we have to get rid of more paperwork so we can be more strategic to help people identify and hire the right talent in the directions that Lehigh needs.
And then, once we get that talent here, no job stays the same. So we have to offer them the right training, the help for them to grow in their career path. No one wants to stay the same over ten years. They want to grow and expand and we want to help them, because it’s good for Lehigh.
So we have to change HR to focus more on that. To do that, we have to look at systems and our own inclinations. One of the reasons people self select into HR careers, it’s because they want to help people. So, we need to always be asking how can we serve you better. Not by taking work off of the manager’s plate, but helping him or her think through what they need strategically.
I want us to provide more advice and counsel. We won’t make the management decisions, but we will provide the processes and expertise to help managers. One of the ways we can do that is push out the right data that managers can use to make better decisions with regard to recruitment, performance management, career development, compensation and reward strategies. I want people to come to us asking questions like ‘how can I make this position more attractive,?’ or ‘how can I keep this valued person?’
I want people to perceive us not as a roadblock but as a trusted partner. That will mean changing some of the ways we do things here in Human Resources.
Q: What is HR’s role in the Diversity and Inclusion effort at Lehigh?
A: Diversity and inclusion are university values. We are the “people people” of the university in HR, so these values are key for us.
I think we should be a standard bearer and supportive of it. But I don’t want it to be ‘just HR’s job.’ Everybody has to live by those values, so we should be training on these values and assessing them in our performance appraisal process. We should be supportive and helpful in looking at the numbers to help build strategies for creating and retaining a more diverse inclusive workforce. We can get and analyze data and push it out.
I love data. It really helps refine strategies but it also lets you celebrate victories. You can look back at data over time and really see the progress you’ve made.
Q: What do you like to do in your free time?
A: My wife’s hobby is horses and my hobby is fixing fences and corrals. I love the country life. I like chopping wood and building a fire. With so much of what we do here, it’s hard to say at the end of the day ‘I accomplished that’ because things don’t end neatly most of the time. But when you chop wood or fix a fence you can stand back and look and say ‘that’s done.’ And that’s just not a feeling you get much in this line of work.
Q: We noticed you have a lot of wolf imagery in your office. What’s that about?
A: At Western Washington University, we were in the community of the Lummi Nation, and we discussed totems a lot. My Lummi colleagues told me that the wolf is a pack animal and is known as a teacher, but only comes when summoned. I felt I could relate to that and that maybe the wolf was my totem.
Q: What is one thing you think people would be surprised to learn about you?
A: I think I don’t do well in job interviews and I don’t think I’m good at looking for jobs for myself. It’s ironic because as part of my own work in hiring staff, I’ve interviewed hundreds, if not thousands, of people. For a long time I kept a notebook with all of my rejection letters. It was pretty thick.