As our Human Resources Director of 15 years, Katy Quilter is a driving force behind invenioLSI’s progressive company culture and generous employee benefits package, along with countless other efforts that make our company tick. We connected with Katy to learn about her experience leading to invenioLSI, her role, and how she enjoys her free time.
Transition to HR Director
With a Bachelor’s in Sociology and a Master’s in Social Work, Katy began her career as a social worker in New York City. In 1998, several years into social work, she sought out a career change and headed to the Human Resources office on Wall Street, where she landed a staffing job at a reputable bank. Katy points out that “social work, sociology, and HR have many commonalities, especially in that these roles offer support and services to individuals and groups." She adds, "I have been able to transfer my skills from one profession to another.” Instead of analyzing people’s biopsychosocial history, she would begin to analyze their resume, work skills, and job history. A few years into her recruiting career, she moved to Boston and sent her resume to an esteemed financial services company. A testament to the progression of the recruiting process since 1998, the company sent her a postcard back in the mail and hired her a year later. 
Working in these formalized corporate environments meant that Katy worked long hours on top of a draining commute. Long before the current COVID-19 pandemic influenced more flexible work environments across the globe, invenioLSI offered Katy a position with flexible hours and the option to work from home. Katy raves, “It enabled me to be a mom, work, and feel like a well-rounded person.” Since invenioLSI was on Katy’s radar before she pursued a role change, when the company offered her the benefit of flexibility, including “a wide range of exciting and varied work opportunities on any given day,” the decision to hop on board was a no-brainer.
Journey at invenioLSI
Since the time Katy started at invenioLSI, the company has made significant changes; however, its culture and mission have withstood the test of time. When we sat down with Katy three years ago, she described invenioLSI with the words “focused, innovative, and customer and solution-oriented.” Today, she believes those words stand true, explaining, “We drill down on what the client’s needs are, what’s going to be the best result for them, and how we can make that work within their budget.” She continues, “I’d add in the words ‘trust,’ ‘communication,’ and ‘relationships.’ This whole company is built on relationships. Relationships with our clients, employees, candidates, managers, and colleagues.”
Fittingly, Katy enjoys connecting with others, “whether it’s our employees, business partners, or vendors.” Her amiability and background in social work prove useful in her current role as she provides people with guidance or other resources to help them succeed. She explains that part of HR involves “Getting to know people, identifying their strengths, and then helping them get from here to there.” Aside from benefits, budgets, and compliance, HR calls for a heavy focus on soft skills—especially listening to people’s concerns and challenges and finding resolutions. She sums up, “When it comes to working with and advocating for employees, it’s all about compassion, empathy, honesty, relationships, and follow-up action plans.”
Spearheading and Adjusting to Growth
As Katy has formed genuine relationships over the years, she has recognized that what differentiates invenioLSI from the companies our employees come from is our “personal touch and connection.” She shares, “What it comes down to is that as a company, we care about the people. It’s a unique and empowering place to work.” When Katy started, invenioLSI North America—then LSI Consulting—was made up of no more than 15 employees. She recalls, “LSI always had that familial and entrepreneurial start-up feeling.” Now at over 100 employees in North America and over 1400 employees across the globe, Katy hopes to maintain an approachable, open-door feeling within the confines of a larger global organization.
As the company expands, Katy recognizes that one key factor in maintaining a personal touch amongst the growth will be her continuous involvement with our new hire orientation during the employee onboarding process. In addition, beyond the start of an employee’s journey at invenioLSI, she appreciates the continued compassion shown by her fellow invenioLSI executives. Their awareness of employee experiences and involvement in company projects cultivates a culture in which everyone is valued and recognized for their efforts to help the company and our customers grow.
invenioLSI also instills confidence and trust in our employees through ongoing professional development opportunities, including online training modules and our associate training program, invenioLSI Grow. Katy remarks, “We know that employees who learn every day continue to be excited about their work and are motivated to perform well and ‘wow’ our clients.” Accordingly, invenioLSI also expanded our service offering for our employees and created our first internal Consultant Development division, leading the charge to keep employees ahead of the curve with SAP and other technical certification requirements. Katy sums up, “That’s tremendous growth and change in just the last three years…and we’re just getting started."
Katy enjoys taking advantage of both the training and learning opportunities that go hand-in-hand with invenioLSI’s growth. While collaborating with her new global counterparts, she gets to assess, select, and modify the best HR tools like applicant tracking systems and processes like employee reviews and merit increases. Katy comments, “It’s nice that we have a new, stronger foundation for broadening our infrastructure, our teams, and our best practices.” As someone who finds joy in bringing people together, she feels fortunate to have added multiple administrators and recruiters to the Human Resources department. They have brought new perspectives, innovative ideas, and diverse skillsets while also granting her an opportunity for knowledge transfer. She explains, “We’ve hired so many great people whom I can share this information and experience with. The most enriching part of my day now is teaching, training, and guiding. It is exciting to clear the path for others to grow and be their own best selves each day at work!"
The company’s expanded resources and extended employee base provide each employee with more “breathing room” when managing client milestones and deliverables. Katy, in typical HR fashion, is pleased that these changes will help employees feel more comfortable taking advantage of her flexible PTO policy.
Time Off
Leading by example, Katy explains that “Taking a day off here and there is truly refreshing.” COVID-19 brought a lot of changes, and one that Katy has found solace in is her newfound appreciation for spending time outdoors. She spends most of her free time on walks with her daughter at the nearby Middlesex Fells Reservation (“The Fells”). Katy enjoys capturing these memories, sharing, “When I’m outside, I’ve always got my camera with me.” In addition to photography, Katy has been taking metalsmithing and jewelry classes for 5 years. She shares, "The last two summers, I participated in art shows and sold a bunch of pieces. You can check out some of the jewelry I've made on my Instagram page, @TwigandShell." Now that we are adjusting to the “new normal” of the pandemic, Katy has also been able to return to her roots through recent trips to visit family and friends in New York.
Since the time that Katy began her HR career in New York, she says that it “has been a learning experience ever since.” It is clear that throughout her career and especially in her past 15 years at invenioLSI, she has amassed an impressive amount of knowledge that she has used to make an incredible impact.
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