Great leaders always find the balance between business foresight, performance, and character. Their characteristics like vision, courage, integrity, humility, and focus along with the ability to plan strategically and catalyze help them build a best cooperation amongst their team.
One such woman leader, creating a difference in the HR industry, with a whooping 20 years of experience in the field, is Nicole Martin, CEO and Founder of HRBoost. A person who truly lives joy and purpose through her work, Nicole is a true inspiration for today’s womenfolk!
An early starter, Nicole started her career at the age of 18, right after completing BS in Business and Psychology and MSHRM from Roosevelt University. She has also earned certifications (SPHR, SHRM-SCP) specific to the field of Human Resources and Business. A very versatile persona, Nicole is a writer and a speaker with her two books related to the field of HR, The Talent Emergency and The Human Side of Profitability.
In the shoes of a Founder
As a Founder, CEO and Chief Empowerment Officer of HRBoost Nicole leads a high performance team of HR leaders to partner with businesses and meet them wherever they are on their journey to being a best place to work. “We have experienced tremendous growth and proudly nearly every client has been sourced via word of mouth,” says Nicole.
HRBoost has served businesses spanning various industry sectors, including Professional Services, Non-Profit, High Tech, Manufacturing, Staffing firms, Hospitality and Healthcare environments. The clients of HRBoost are typically high growth businesses with 50 to 250 employees, though it has served smaller and larger businesses with up to 500 employees on a project basis. Recognized as a 2017 Annual Awardees for Business Excellence (AABE) by the Daily Herald Business Ledger, the company specializes in building HR departments from scratch!
With ‘a vision to bring joy and purpose to people through their work’ HRBoost is marching towards its glittering future.
While questioned about the challenges she had to face and the thing that keeps her motivated, Nicole said, “It may seem idealistic, but every person deserves this. Growing rapidly in business can be good, but it can also have significant challenges. I was fortunate to have my first shared services client invest in my business and I do what I have always done…I learn. I came out of the 10,000 small businesses program with Goldman Sachs in 2014 and have been executing on my five year growth plan. Getting the education to be successful is critical, but even more important is overcoming fear and speaking your truth.”
‘Success Leader’ of HRBoost
It is not easy to be the client’s favorite always! But with determination and dedication towards work Nicole has accomplished it for HRBoost. Nicole thinks that ‘it is one thing to provide tactical HR services and quite another to strategically rebuild the infrastructure of HR and link it to strategy’.
HRBoost’s first shared services client signed on in 2011 and scaled from $10M to $28M in a little over 24 months. They were proudly recognized as the Best & Brightest company to work for during that same time. The next year, the company sold for $58M and HRBoost was retained a year post sale and then they converted their key HR Consultant as their permanent HR Director, who still works there! Even better, six years later they have sustained their Best & Brightest status, long after HRBoost left. “Building something sustainable is our focus and is the major factor in how businesses find us and partner with us,” asserts Nicole.
Then on, there is no looking back. HRBoost talent lives for the vision to bring joy and purpose to people through their work and enjoys the diverse clients it partners with. “I employ the concept of intrapreurship in my business and I truly believe HRBoost is better for the talent we employ,” adds Nicole.
Nicole’s perfect balance between professional and personal Life
I am a mother of two young boys and I have an amazing husband who truly devotes his life to family and co-parents with me. After welcoming my second son in 2016, I implemented a schedule that works for everyone and still delivers results. My schedule includes field days, client facing days, meet and greet days, writing days, work from home days, pay someone to make me do it at the gym days and yes, I turn if off on the weekend and I get home for dinner most nights. I do not think of it as balance. I think of it as work/life integration. It is who I am.
Nicole’s advice to the Womenfolk
I would advise young women that you must forget your gender and be the person you are. Meet others in this way and it is easy to see we are just people seeking to be understood. When we seek to understand, exercise prudence and remain true in our values, confident in what we know and seek to collaborate for mutual good, only good can come of it. I never walk into the room thinking about my gender and it surprises me when it is called out. In recent years, I have been invited into select groups where the demographic is heavily male and when asked, “You are the first female in our group, does that bother you?” My response was simply, “It’s not a problem for me, is it for you?”
