SPECIALTY INDUSTRIES

Service Specialty
(Entertainment, Governmental, Hospitality, & Retail)

Since 1995, The Human Resource Consortium has been sought, repeatedly referred, and engaged by industry leaders.

Why?
We ‘live’ the passion for mission. From first-hand experience, our team knows, embraces, and thrives within service environments including its specialized roles, needs, challenges, and needs for high touch.

How do we fuel our clients’ competitive edge?
We’re a boutique consultancy with specialized expertise in aligning, developing, and implementing integrated systems in human resources to your service strategy and desired culture. Did you know that the nature of our leading-edge work elevates employee engagement, enables up to 400% increase in organizational performance and value, and successfully speeds best practice culture change by 300%. With a 30-year track record for extraordinarily ‘high touch’ consulting interface, our partnered execution with your team is seamless, assuring internal ownership, capacity building, and sustainable impact.

With average employee engagement at a low of 29%, there’s acute pressure to engage employees and elevate performance, irrespective of strategic choice.

employee engagement analogy

Our wide and deep industry expertise coupled with a high-touch, partnered approach enables us to rapidly build trust, create team-engaging communications, align HR & OD frameworks to more rapidly advance culture change, and create internal change management readiness and lowered resistance. Through adept, strategic leadership alignment and innovative employee engagement strategies, we empower our clients to exceed expectations, inspire employee and customer loyalty, and thrive in their rapidly evolving marketplace.

Our success in service organization projects includes

Culture Development & Employer Branding

  • Engagement surveys and culture assessments
  • Rapid creation of inclusion and hospitality/service-focused cultures
  • Values-driven leadership and communication
  • Internal communications strategies
  • Strategy and management of social media and Glassdoor presence

Talent Acquisition & Recruitment

  • Workforce planning aligned with seasonal demands
  • Hospitality and service employer branding
  • Recruitment marketing and sourcing strategies
  • Interview frameworks and candidate experience
  • Selection approaches, tools, and metrics

Onboarding & Training Programs

  • Structured, role-based onboarding plans
  • Role-specific training modules (customer service, safety, hygiene standards)
  • Cross-training for flexibility and retention
  • Compliance training (e.g., harassment, safety, labor laws)

Performance Management Systems

  • KPIs tailored to hospitality and service roles (engagement, satisfaction, turnaround times, etc.)
  • Feedback culture and regular check-ins
  • Performance review cycle design
  • Coaching and mentoring frameworks

Employee Engagement & Retention

  • Engagement surveys and action planning
  • Recognition and rewards programs
  • Career pathing and succession planning
  • Work-life balance initiatives for 24/7 operations

Compensation & Benefits Benchmarking

  • Competitive salary structure design
  • Service Excellence incentive and bonus programs
  • Benefits strategy for hourly vs. salaried staff
  • Wellness programs tailored to shift work

Technology In HR

  • HRIS systems for scheduling, payroll, attendance, HCM
  • Paperless hiring and digital onboarding
  • Tech tools for learning & development
  • Data-driven HR analytics and reporting

Workforce Compliance & Risk Management

  • Employment practice audits
  • Labor law audits and policy updates
  • Union relations and collective bargaining support
  • Health & safety compliance (OSHA, hospitality standards)
  • Crisis response planning (e.g., public health, client/guest conflict)

Our Services team with internal and external entertainment, government, hospitality and retail expertise:

  • Kawel LauBach, Principal: 30+ award winning years in the service industry with Southwest Airlines, Caesars Entertainment, Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment, Signature Healthcare and UHS including large-scale staffing strategies, practices, and uniform hiring guidelines as well as best-in-class leadership development, progressive employee relations and elevated employee engagement/productivity, and improved seasonal flexibility of labor, substantially reducing labor costs for one of North America’s largest integrated resorts.
  • Josephine Agnello-Veley, MS: HR & OD leadership and strategies in governmental services and higher education.
  • Yvonne Alverio: Inclusive, collaborative, and service-centered culture development in financial services, governmental and military, healthcare, hospitality, entertainment, & retail.
  • Gregg Barratt, HR & OD Practice Leader: 30+ yrs best practice service and call center assessments, messaging, training & development, metrics, recognition & rewards practices in financial services, governmental and emergency services, hospitality, professional services, and retail.
  • Shanon Cornell, MSHRM, Senior Total Rewards & HR Consultant: Governmental and retail total rewards and HR practices.
  • Valerie Davis-Howard, MBA – Senior Culture & OD Consultant & Executive Coach: 15+ years in OD consulting across industries after more than a decade of internal work in OD at Chase Manhattan Bank, The Hartford, and Cigna Insurance and extensive external expertise across all sectors.
  • Gary Decker, MBA – Senior HR Consultant, Change Management Practice Leader & Executive Coach: Internal Deloitte team management in addition to wide ranging external service expertise.
  • Beth Frechette, MS – Sr HR & OD Consultant: Internal healthcare and higher education expertise to significantly enhance leadership capacity and increase employee engagement, performance, and HR performance efficacy.
  • Kelsey Gregory, MBA, MSSM – Senior Total Rewards Consultant: Internal and external experience in governmental services and higher education.
  • Betsy Larson, MPA – Total Rewards Practice Leader: Internal and external experience in financial services, governmental, and higher education.
  • Scott D. Macdonald, Esq, SPHR, SHRM-SCP – Senior HR Consultant: Internal and external governmental services. External experience in healthcare and retail.
  • Nancy Martone, MS – Healthcare Practice Leader & Executive Coach: Internal Healthcare HR & Organization Development and CAO, enhancing culture, services, and employee experience as well as reducing costs, elevating HR performance, and expanding service lines.
  • Bruce Nichols – Senior HR & Shared Services Consultant: Extensive internal financial services and B2B service experience in addition to external consulting experience.
  • Chris Rose, Talent Acquisition Practice Leader: Extensive recruitment across business sectors with exceptional strength in healthcare and expertise to transform TA practices, selection processes, hiring manager and candidate satisfaction, and rapid completion of hard-to-fill searches.
  • Regan MacBain Traub, Founder & Managing Principal: Internal and external healthcare, financial services, and B2B experience in addition to 30+ years external consulting experience across governmental and retail services.

The HRC’s clients consistently receive partnered approaches and tailored solutions that align with their strategy, culture, and goals, ensuring impactful results, knowledge transfer, and higher ROI sustainability of results. Additionally, they benefit from attentive listening, market-differentiating perspective, expert consultation, timely response, and additional support from our leaders, as needed.