Interview 1 Shihong
Interview 1 Shihong
Interview 1 Shihong
Shihong Xu
I was so excited to have an opportunity to interview Barb Santo, the executive director of
Human Resources at Dexter Community Schools on September 26, 2019. I asked five questions
related to HR profession, which are the most important practices of HR department, greatest
challenges in her role, some creative ways to motive employees non-monetarily, the methods to
What impressed me most during the interview is that Barb thinks highly of strong
relationships with the employees in her role. She said as an HR, she should be available to
address employees’ problems and take time to know their lives because it’s a job that deals with
human beings. Besides, Barb mentioned even though she reviewed laws and consulted district
attorney, sometimes there were still not clear answers or guidelines to handle many complicated
lot of gray in the workplace, so she always takes time to make decisions instead of rushing to
judge because the decision would impact somebody’s life. As to the advice for non-HR people,
it is very impressive that Barb stated people that assume leadership role in schools should
HR director handles a number of areas and tasks simultaneously. After the interview, I
get to know more about this position and I should admit HR is a stressful, complicated but also
school district, what Barb said today will remind me of what I should do tomorrow:
deals with human beings, so it’s worthy and necessary to dig deeper to understand my
employees, their interests, their ambitions, their hopes, and their struggles. I believe getting to
know about their other life will have a direct effect on how I manage and how I respond. I can be
objective while still knowing my people and should never miss the human aspect of what I am
doing. Therefore, it is very important to embrace an open-door policy and be available to support
my people.
As a human resources professional, I am confronted with all different decisions: some are
easy to make while others are difficult, complicated and even risky to make. For example, if an
employee comes and complains, I should remember there’re always three sides to the story: the
accuser, the accused and the truth. I cannot make a decision just by listening to the complaint. In
many situations, issues require careful consideration and investigation because they are
correlated with each other and it takes time to figure out what really happened. If I rush to
conclusion, I may not be looking at the problem holistically. Instead, I am supposed to step back,
pop in and out, and collect all the facts to treat the root cause of the problem.
Barb said it was very important to have a positive start each day. I totally agree with that
because it will help HR and the people who assume leadership to effectively respond to their
own emotions and the emotions of others. According to my observation, people who are good at
managing their own emotions are more respected, trusted by others and rise to leadership
positions. There’re some strategies that we could use to increase emotional intelligence, such as
walk away. For example, when someone attacks me in the email at work, I won’t take it
personally. Instead, I can choose to walk away, read it again calmly the next day and respond
professionally. When I am in the better control of my emotions and that control will bring me