HRBrainBank Isn’t Just a Casual Idea
The roots of HRBrainBank run deep into our 25-year history of working with HR professionals – deeper still if you take into account that two of us (Kelly Swaggerty and Brenda Perkins) grew up together as sisters. We are proud of the fact that few businesses can claim such a long and close association of its founders.
From our early start in the benefits industry combined with our entrepreneurial spirit, we created a business that sold employee benefit packages to large companies. Not content with just selling benefit programs, we sold our agency in 1997 and formed Joshua & Company, which offers outsourcing services to companies in need of compensation and benefit communications. At that point, Deborah Thorne joined the team and has been our long time design partner in producing eye-catching and effective employee benefit communications.
As we continue to work in the HR field we see that its needs are not waning, but growing exponentially. HR Brain Bank incorporates our experiences and the latest technologies into a central resource for empowering HR professionals and others to deal effectively with the rapidly evolving business world.
A Solid Partnership
Business partnerships are notorious for starting off rosy and full of grand expectations, and then falling into any number of pitfalls that bring them down into acrimonious ash heaps. Only partnerships that bring together complementary temperaments and talents tend to be long lasting.
As sisters and close friends we share the same values but approach life from different perspectives. We trust each other implicitly, honor our different gifts and talents and share a passion for personal growth and leadership.
We bounce ideas off each other without concern for who gets the credit. Kelly is visionary and tech-savvy, Brenda excels in building relationships and implementing business plans and Deborah is an accomplished creative director and product merchandiser. Kelly is the technical expert, Brenda is the industry expert and Deborah is the creative and product developer. We feel empowered by our unique combination of temperaments, skills and commitment to make a difference in the HR industry.
Kelly is a strategy architect who knows how to make change happen. She continuously grows through personal development and learning new technologies and loves the challenge of solving problems and coming up with systems to make work less complicated and faster. For example, she created a system to automate the production of benefit statements for Joshua & Company and for clients. She also developed the system and procedures we use for the production of employee communication materials.
Brenda has always placed a high priority on building relationships. Her many years of volunteering in the “real worlds” of the HR and Comp/Benefits communities speak to Brenda's dedication and ability to work with others. She has seen firsthand the enormous benefits gained when peers are given the opportunity to network and exchange ideas – one of the primary features and benefits of HRBrainBank.
Deborah has spent her career in the field of graphic design and product merchandising as a manager and an entrepreneur. She has the unique ability to dig deeper into the underlying objective and then visualize and create solutions that deliver even more than the client anticipated. She has seen extensive changes in the design field in the course of her career and has effectively utilized all types of media to creatively communicate the message.
HR Challenges from a Fresh Perspective
It’s easy to get caught in the status quo and to not “think outside the box,” as that well-known buzzword advises—suggesting that fertile ground lies beyond our habitual habits and thought patterns. As outsiders to the businesses we serve, we have the advantage of seeing things that aren’t so obvious to insiders.
The impetus for moving from selling insurance to the communications programs offered by Joshua & Company came when we realized that, no matter how good our benefits packages were, employees did not appreciate the effort their employers made to provide them with benefits. When we saw the communication disconnect, we realized that companies needed more than great benefits packages they needed to communicate with their employees in a direct and effective manner.
As we delivered services to larger companies through Joshua & Company we became aware that smaller companies couldn’t budget for those services, so we developed a number of products specifically for smaller employers with smaller budgets.
We noticed that larger companies tended to put the human resources function in the hands of one person, who has to wear a lot of hats to meet the organization’s HR needs. Wearing so many hats requires broad knowledge of HR, but not specific expertise in any one area. We noted that individuals in that position need experienced and trusted vendors to make their HR operations truly functional and effective.
In our own business we learned that we needed to team up with experts in other specialties (like Employee Relations, Staffing, Development, Benefits and Compensation) in order to serve our clients better.
People say they see us as non-traditional consultants because we freely share ideas, resources and solutions we collect through our work and develop from our fresh perspective – often without charge or without a promise of future business.
Putting It All Together
Our long association with HR professionals has made us acutely aware of how thin they are stretched and how difficult it is for them to find the right resources when they need them most. Because of our reputation and involvement in industry associations, clients and prospects alike contact us for help in making key connections with vendors, providers and other HR professionals to help solve their problems.
Our HRBrainBank mission is to be the “go to” place for HR professionals, where they can find answers to their questions and solutions for their problem – within all disciplines of the human resources profession.
Further Service to the HR Industry
People often ask Brenda how she got to be president of so many professional organizations. She says, “I had been a dues paying member of the Society of Human Resource Management, Kansas City Chapter (SHRM-Kansas City) for many years as a bench warmer (paying dues but not attending meetings).
“At one point it was time to decide if I was going to renew my membership, and if so, what I would get in return for my dues. I finally decided to renew and to attend meetings to meet new people and to learn more about the HR and benefits industry."
“When the call for volunteers went out I decided to raise my hand, and started serving on the Program Committee. Later I was asked to chair the Membership Committee. Our committee made significant progress and I was next asked to serve on the Board."
“As more opportunities came up I continued volunteering and stretching myself. Little did I know that each time I said yes I was walking the path to becoming President of SHRM-KC—which had over 750 members at the time. When my term as chapter president ended, I was elected to an executive leadership role with the Missouri State Council of SHRM, which had over 4,000 members."
“While my initial involvement was all about recouping my dues investment and getting to know a few HR people, I’ve gained so much more. Over time, my interest shifted from what’s in it for me to what can I learn about the HR profession and how can I give back to the industry that sustains our company?"
“Now, because of my volunteer efforts, I have an extensive understanding of HR professionals and the HR industry, and can be a better contributor to this exciting field.”
