314 - Building HR from Scratch: From Team of 3 to 40: Courtney Kolar (Chief People Officer, Neighborly)

Courtney Kolar, Chief People Officer at Neighborly, joined us on The Modern People Leader. We talked about how she helped build an HR function from a three-person team into a 40-person people organization and the People Services 2020 roadmap that created the foundation for scale.----  Sponsor Links:🔗 Learn more about Cloverleaf at cloverleaf.me/mplMPL Links:🔗 Go sign up for MPL Build.----  (03:20) Courtney’s Career Journey: From Kohl’s Store Management to HR(09:27) Neighborly’s Growth: From 600 Employees and 9 Brands to 1,600 and 28(12:43) Walking Into a Three-Person HR Team & Seeing the Blank Slate(15:17) How the People Organization Grew to 40 Across HR, Comms & Facilities(19:20) People Services 2020: The Four-Year Roadmap to Transform HR(21:48) Building the Foundation: Going Digital, Organizing Policies & Adding Systems(23:07) Manager Training, Change Management & the Resistance to More Structure(26:06) The M&A People Integration Playbook: Inventory, Trust & Culture(30:40) What Came After 2020: Pandemic Pivots & the Next Phase of the HR Roadmap(34:52) What People Services 2030 Could Look Like in the Age of AI(37:56) Reimagining Job Architecture for a Changing Workforce(41:18) Why Every Company Should Operate Like It Needs to Be IPO Ready(44:01) Courtney’s Personal Readiness Plan for the Next Stage of Leadership---- 📬 Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get episode recaps💡 Follow The Modern People Leader on LinkedIn😊 Follow Daniel Huerta on LinkedIn😊 Follow Stephen Huerta on LinkedIn---- Past guests on MPL include Brené Brown, Annie Dean (VP of Team Anywhere, Atlassian), Josh Bersin, Katie Burke (Chief People Officer, Harvey), Liz Fosslien, Helen Russell (Chief People Officer, HubSpot), Dave Scott (Chief People Officer, ADT), Melanie Rossenwasser (Chief People Officer, Dropbox), Crystal Boysen (Chief People Officer, Sprout Social), and many more.