Universal Engineering Sciences (UES)<\/a>, an Orlando, Fla.-based engineering and consulting firm. UES has acquired more than 15 companies in just the past few years\u2014doubling its employee count and tripling its revenue. UES now employs more than 3,400 people across the country, with plans to add 1,500 new roles by 2025. For the past two years, the Zweig Group Hot Firm List, which annually recognizes the fastest-growing architecture, engineering and construction firms in the U.S. and Canada, has put UES at the top of its list.<\/p>\nFor Norden, that\u2019s a lot of change to manage. She oversees not only the HR function but also UES\u2019 marketing and communications. To head both functions, Norden says she relies on the strong leadership of her five departmental heads across HR and marketing.<\/p>\n
Norden and her 50-member team focus on attracting and retaining talent while nurturing the company\u2019s culture. With employees coming together from so many distinct companies, Norden and the rest of the executive team have helped build the organization\u2019s culture in part by defining its values, as summed up by the acronym STRIVE: safety, teamwork, responsiveness, integrity, value and excellence. <\/p>\n
\u201cThose values tie us together and help drive culture as employees deliver services in a way they\u2019re proud of,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Defining values is one thing. Executing them is another. And that requires a regular cadence of communication in a variety of forums\u2014including occasional companywide town halls, regular meetings held by regional leaders, performance management reviews and ongoing communications via the company\u2019s internal platform.<\/p>\n
M&A Lessons<\/p>\n
Norden became involved with mergers and acquisitions very early in her HR career\u2014before she was even aware of it. In 1998, she worked as a manager of benefits, operations and compliance for a medical and \u00adsurgical supplier. Pharmaceutical giant \u00adMcKesson had bought the company, but Norden didn\u2019t know that until six months after she started her job. Her role, she says, \u201cended up going away because of integration activity, so I understood early on what it meant to sell or buy a company and then go through an integration.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even though her position was eliminated, Norden\u2019s relationship with McKesson was just getting started. She stayed on and was still at McKesson a few years later when, for the first time, she worked as an HR professional on mergers and acquisitions\u2014work she considers the most challenging but also the most rewarding of her career.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs an HR person, if you want to learn how HR impacts the \u00adbusiness and why HR is so important in \u00addriving organizational culture to get business results, work on \u00admergers and acquisitions,\u201d Norden says. \u201cWhen people ask me how to grow their careers, I say find out how to get on an M&A team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Norden went on to support \u00advarious transformations at \u00adMcKesson by \u201chelping people migrate to new teams and new roles and \u00adhelping them become successful at \u00adsomething they maybe hadn\u2019t \u00adimagined they could do,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Respectful Leadership<\/p>\n
But mergers aren\u2019t the only changes Norden has helped manage. There was one particular transformation at McKesson that other companies have also undertaken: the shift to tech-\u00adenabled self-service HR. Under that model, managers and \u00ademployees can perform some HR-\u00adrelated tasks, such as changing a title or address, rather than submitting requests to the HR team. Some individuals asked why they suddenly had to do HR\u2019s work, so Norden helped them understand that it wasn\u2019t about whose work it was. Instead, it was about empowering everyone with the tools to complete the work in the most efficient way. <\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, the goal was to free up the HR team to focus on talent and development and to meet the organi\u00adzation\u2019s strategic goals\u2014not to be a transactional process shop,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
That kind of change management involves \u201ca big mindset shift inside an organization,\u201d Norden adds. How does she help employees adopt such a shift, whether it\u2019s a new acquisition or a new way of working? \u201cIt comes down to respect,\u201d she says. Especially when acquiring other companies, \u201c[y]ou have to respect their history and the way they do things\u2014which made that company the one you wanted to buy. You have to try to take the best of both organizations and find common ground.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Norden sees it, respect hinges on communication. From the \u00admoment of an M&A announcement to the completed integration, people need to know what\u2019s happening\u2014\u00adbefore it happens, when possible. The HR team needs to communicate early and often, helping to build relationships and ensure that companies don\u2019t lose the talent they need. <\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes what you\u2019re acquiring is good people,\u201d not just the company itself, Norden says. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to lose people because they don\u2019t feel part of the new organization or might not know what their future holds\u2014even though \u00adsometimes you might not know what their future might be.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, the HR team must make \u00ademployees part of the conversations and decisions about their own professional futures. Respectful HR leaders ask for people\u2019s participation and input and listen to what they value and prioritize. And that takes time, Norden explains. <\/p>\n
When a co-worker told Norden her schedule is always jampacked, Norden knew why: \u201cIt\u2019s because I spend a lot of time with people. I make time for people.\u201d That time investment also helps form connections among her team members so they can better collaborate with each other.<\/p>\n
\u201cSheila is a strong leader,\u201d says Liz Musico, McKesson\u2019s vice president of HR, recalling her former \u00adcolleague\u2019s people-centric focus. \u201cShe developed her direct and indirect reports and infused talent across the enterprise.\u201d<\/p>\n
With any organizational transformation, transparency is critical. Norden recalls working on acquisitions in which, the day the deals were announced, she knew certain locations would close. \u201cYou cannot sugarcoat that. You cannot say, \u2018Oh, we would never do that,\u2019 when you know long term that might not be true. You have to be transparent,\u201d she says. That means the HR team might have to convey that, even though terminations are not in the plans, the organization can\u2019t yet predict every decision but will keep everyone informed. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to tell people what they need to hear, but you also need to help them get to the next place,\u201d she says. \u201cThat level of respect is what makes or breaks how well an acquisition works.\u201d It\u2019s also what informs \u00adNorden\u2019s \u201calways-\u00adapproachable style,\u201d according to UES CEO Dave Witsken, who describes Norden as \u201chardworking, prepared and detailed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stability Amid Change<\/p>\n
While Norden\u2019s career has focused on change, her own professional and personal life has been remarkably constant. She worked for McKesson for almost a quarter century before joining UES, and she has been married to her husband, Lee Norden, for more than 28 years. (They married during spring break of her senior year at Virginia Tech and have a son in his 20s). Norden now lives in Orlando but remains loyal to her hometown of Richmond, Va., where she lived for more than 40 years.<\/p>\n
Norden\u2019s parents modeled her constancy\u2014and her drive. Norden\u2019s father, Ralph Shortt, who worked for the same vending company for 40 years, encouraged her to pursue her professional dreams.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad was a big supporter of women in the workplace,\u201d she says. \u201cHe always said, \u2018You can do whatever you want to do, and don\u2019t let anybody tell you different.\u2019 \u201d Norden\u2019s mother, Pat Bowyer, worked in finance for grocery chains and later for the state of Virginia. \u201cI was very fortunate to grow up with an intact nuclear family,\u201d Norden says.<\/p>\n
The youngest of three athletic siblings, she recalls a household that was both fun and competitive. Ever since her early-childhood idolization of gymnast Mary Lou Retton, she has been fascinated with athletes who reach the top of their fields. \u201cThat helps me think about how I want to lead\u2014what makes people behave that way and keeps them focused?\u201d <\/p>\n
She strives to emulate leaders who win \u201cin a good way,\u201d she says. \u201cThey don\u2019t win despite other people, but because of other people.\u201d <\/p>\n
At Virginia Tech, Norden studied psychology. She planned to become a social worker or therapist. But after graduating in 1995, she held a summer internship before entering graduate school for social work that made her realize the line of work wasn\u2019t for her. <\/p>\n
\u201cI could not really manage the emotional load of social work,\u201d she says. \u201cI could not separate, so I brought it home.\u201d<\/p>\n
With her career plans upended, Norden thought back on different jobs she\u2019d had and enjoyed\u2014and she recalled a temporary position she\u2019d held at a bank. For one assignment there, Norden helped interview and select teller candidates. And she loved it. \u201cI can read people really well,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n
So she entered the graduate HR program at Virginia Commonwealth University, earning her master\u2019s \u00addegree in HR in 2000.<\/p>\n
Norden, who calls herself \u201ca teacher at heart,\u201d continues her love of education today. She\u2019s \u00adcurrently in a remote graduate \u00adprogram at Liberty University, working toward her doctorate in business administration with a \u00adspecialization in leadership. She hopes to complete that degree in 2024. <\/p>\n
Once she ultimately retires from HR, Norden doesn\u2019t think she\u2019ll stop working. Maybe, she says, she\u2019ll embrace yet another change and start teaching. <\/p>\n
Novid Parsi is a freelance writer based in St. Louis.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In an HR career spanning 25 years, Sheila Norden has helped navigate many mergers and acquisitions (M&As)\u2014and their profound effects on workers. \u201cThat\u2019s a stressful time,\u201d Norden says of a consolidation\u2019s impact on people. She knows because she\u2019s seen it from both sides: as an HR leader and an employee. Since March 2022, Norden has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,301],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-249087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-employee-relations","category-leadership-and-navigation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/squarehr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/squarehr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/squarehr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/squarehr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/squarehr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/squarehr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249087\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/squarehr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/squarehr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/squarehr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}