Reddit HR VP Delecia Krevet talks about growth and employee management
It was a mentorship at Apple Inc. that started Reddit VP of HR Business Partnerships Delecia Krevet on her career path, but there have been highlights along the way that inform her present role meeting the challenges of an ever-shifting market.
The VP sat down with HRD’s Sarah Dobson to discuss what she has learned so far.
One of her biggest accomplishments, she shared, was when it relocated to Austin, Texas, where there were five universities or colleges within city limits – none of which Apple had had any contact with.
“One of the first projects they charged me with was creating their college recruiting and career program and establishing relationships with those schools,” she said. “I spent a year building up that program so that Apple had a natural pipeline for those graduating candidates.”
Leadership development programs “hallmark work”
Krevet has honed her expertise at some of the world’s leading tech giants, such as Amazon, Google and Raytheon, focusing largely on developing leaders.
At Google, for example, she led rotational leadership development program that took on 30 to 40 employees at a time, around the globe.
“I really enjoy helping talent grow and develop,” she said in the video interview. “Anything about developing talent and helping people grow in their career, I really consider those to be some of the hallmark work that we get to do as HR leaders.”
Market downturns and layoffs an increasing challenge for HR leaders
One of the biggest challenges Krevet is seeing right now in the HR industry is dealing with constant restructuring, leading to layoffs, which she said is the most difficult part of HR for her.
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Another challenge, she said, is the ever-increasing role of HR from personnel managers to business partners.
“I think the change of it is moving from that transactional personnel mindset, to, you are a strategic thought partner, you are a strategic business partner … you are truly a lever that helps leaders think about how they can run their businesses more effectively.”
Krevet pointed out that the entire employee base of Reddit (around 2,000) is smaller than her team at Amazon. But that allows her to have a greater impact on the company’s growth, she said. A main focus for her team is “talent density” – a higher concentration of proactive, thought-leading change makers.
Talent density and change management
“The ability to impact and really touch lives and help shape and mold the organisation is huge,” she said. “Reddit just does such an amazing job at what they do for their employee base, and I wanted to be a part of that in this phase of their journey in growth.”
Her team assists leaders at Reddit with providing tools to assess their workforce for upcoming talent or talent that might be on the fence.
“What are the things that we can be doing now to help leaders be well-positioned such that when the market trends change, we don’t miss a beat,” Krevet said. “I do think that starts with talent density to a certain extent, to make sure you have the right people in the right seats at the right time.”