Paaras Parker started learning her human-relations chops in the most hands-on way possible: on retail sales floors at early employers including Victoria’s Secret and Macy’s. So it’s interesting that, these days, she’s managing people in one of the most remote ways possible, as CHRO of Paycor, a software company with $655 million in revenues that has 95 percent of its people working remotely.
“If you’re in healthcare or childcare or retail or service, you’re physically going someplace probably every single day, and that’s the nature of that work,” Parker tells StrategicCHRO360. “In a business like ours, it’s really around productivity: Are we able to provide support, experiences and outcomes we expect without people having to be physically in the office? Both things are OK, but you have to be authentic about what the company does, whom we serve and what is required of that job.”
For Parker, personal authenticity includes being a mother of a nine- and 13-year-old and a commitment by her and her husband to remain located in Cincinnati, which was home to both of them and where varied corporate opportunities provided the advancement and variety each desired.
Parker has been CHRO for Cincinnati-based Paycor for three years, helping the provider of human-capital-management software do the best job of managing its own human capital through a post-pandemic transition that has provided challenges at every turn.
“It’s not about what you want to do but about how your organization is transforming, and the needs of your employees,” Parker says. “We have a ton of pride in being a high-performing [HR] team. We focus on empowering our own leaders and educating and talking all the time about what it means to be a high-performing team.”
Parker is a native of Karachi, Pakistan, whose family emigrated to the United States when she was young, and she went on to Miami (Ohio) University intending to become a child psychologist. While a professor successfully discouraged her from that profession, Parker knew she wanted to work closely with people.
Among the racks and checkouts as a manager at a Victoria’s Secret store, “I learned a ton about business: what makes it run, how do they make money,” she says. “But even more, I learned really early that human beings are the special sauce of any business. Human beings working with you, on any given day, make an impact on you, on [business] results, on how customers feel, on how well the store was opened and closed, and that’s what really got me into human beings and performance. That’s what made me tick.”
Early on, Parker worked for Global Novations, a consultancy now owned by Korn Ferry that specializes in helping companies become more diverse and inclusive. “In the early 2000s, companies were still learning what that meant,” Parker recalls. “So we worked with customers across all industries on their DEI practices and how to embed them into people practices. That accelerated what I was able to learn because of the people I worked with and also diverse customers.”
Then Parker decided with her husband to take a position what would allow her to be home more often, as he did. She moved to a high-level HR role at Macy’s, where she spent six years. Next, Parker joined Kroger for several years in roles that included heading HR for 84.51, Kroger’s technology and digital and alternative-profit unit. “It was marrying all my cool experiences,” she says. “I fell in love with tech.”
The opportunity to become involved with a tech company that was a leader in its space, at the highest level of human-capital management, lured Parker to Paycor in 2022. But the fact that Covid largely had receded by then meant that she was free to help reshape a culture that was still going to rely largely on remote work.
Here are some principles and ideas she relies on:
Rely on data. Information is king even in what can be the touchy-feely realm of managing people, and managing people who manage people, at a company whose software helps other companies manage their people.
“Particularly at Paycor, there’s not one type of customer we serve, not one type of employee, not one kind of industry, so we’re a workforce where we’re just curious about how different industries work and how employees in that industry thrive,” Parker says. “We are curious and grounded in data about what makes people tick regardless of where they were born, where they live, what experiences they have.
“That just makes us a better company, when we are in tune about unique aspects of a company or the customers they serve or the people they employ. As long as people are different, we are going to continue to be really intellectually curious about how to serve them best.”
Curry diverse thinking. “We help our own employees learn about the implications of diversity of thought,” she says. “It can create a lot of seamlessness in our communications style, but also cause tension. We help people learn that diverse thinking styles create better business results and ensure that people have the tools and ways to learn, not just about their styles, but have an understanding and appreciation for someone else’s style.
“You immediately start seeing how effective you are with peers and with people you report to and customers you get to serve. It creates a different type of appreciation and intensity for how important it is to see people for who they are and adapt our style to drive positive and productive outcomes.”
Harness togetherness. Particularly in a remote-work environment where creating organic person-to-person work connections is a challenge, Parker touts the importance of employee resource groups (ERGs) as one way to create those connections that can overcome physical distance.
Another way at Paycor is to host virtually an annual event that’s meant to combine fun with learning in a group setting. “It’s not directly related to work,” Parker explains. “People get a lot of professional and personal development out of it.” Paycor presents speakers who address topics such as negotiating skills, how to apply AI and how to meditate for increased focus at work. There’s an awards ceremony as well.
And there’s fun. One time, employees in small groups picked an artifact from their home and shared its significance in a story about themselves.
“It’s something you do together, giving people things to talk about and connect about for weeks and months,” Parker says.
Regular planning sessions. Quarterly, Parker sits down with her senior team leaders and internal strategy team, “not just to understand trends happening across the industries we serve, but to do a deep dive into what rising trends are emerging for the types of employees who work for Paycor. We make really data-driven decisions based on what we know is happening in the market.”
Upgrade benefits. Parker headed an effort to understand employee attitudes about their company benefits and launched an overhaul based on what she found. That has included an extension of family leave, the introduction of sabbaticals and a variety of military-leave and bereavement options. The company even added pet insurance as an available benefit.
Paycor also boosted support for employees who are taking care of children and their own elderly parents. This includes a “Care ERG” that coordinates resources for child daycare, offers tips on what to do with anxious pets and boosts “backup” benefits for employees who arrange their own daycare.
Facilitate home work. “In the office, when you get a bad headset, you just call the [A/V] guy and get another one. But when you work from home, you can’t do that, and we found out that was really important.”
So Paycor created a personalized benefit called Thrive Pack, a marketplace into which it deposits a few hundred dollars a year per employee so they can buy technology, shoes, even hotel rooms.
“I have $180 in my Thrive Pack right now,” Parker says. “I’ve got my eye on a standing desk.”
