Senior Vice President of Human Resources, Century Aluminum
Search every verified Kenneth Calloway interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Kenneth Calloway, Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Century Aluminum, discussed his role and the company's HR initiatives in a September 2024 interview at Connexion 2023 in Las Vegas. He described Century Aluminum as a Chicago-based company with smelters in Kentucky, South Carolina, Iceland, and support facilities in the Netherlands and Jamaica, employing approximately 2,200 people. Calloway stated that HR has become "dead center and the most important seat at the table" due to the focus on talent, cultural transformation, and digital change. He noted that the company is implementing a predictive index analysis to identify traits of high-performing employees and assess potential hires, aiming to improve retention in a challenging work environment where temperatures can reach 150 degrees. Calloway said that Connexion has provided him with a community of HR peers, noting that he previously felt isolated in his role. He remarked that the platform helped him realize that "all the problems I have are the same problems others have" and that he has benefited from learning how other companies address retention and employee engagement. He also highlighted the value of Connexion's curated approach to vendor introductions, which he said saves time by identifying relevant solutions. Calloway added that he has involved his team members in Connexion discussions to expose them to external perspectives, as many HR employees have "grown up through the organization" and lack visibility beyond it.
“A lot of times you're kind of by yourself in Human Resources; you don't get to interact with a lot of your other counterparts and other companies. With Conex, the advantage was realizing that all the problems I have are the same problems others have, and the exciting thing has been listening to how those folks have sol...”
“There is a fast array of different employers at Conex with different economic situations, from those that are highly profitable to those with less margin, and seeing how they deal with problems like retention and employee engagement has been usually beneficial.”
“HR is just expanding and expanding you know from often in times past it wasn't the most important now it's dead center and the most important seat at the table because Talent right what do we do with a cultural and digital transformation and how do you engage as an HR leader when you know peers what are they doing.”
“As a person in Human Resources a lot of times you're kind of by yourself you know you don't get to interact with a lot of your other counterparts and other companies and I think with conx the advantage was realizing that all the problems I have are the same problems us and so the interesting and exciting thing has been...”
“I was surprised when I started working in HR many years ago the lack of connectivity of the HR leaders you just assume that you guys get to talk a lot there's just not a lot of great opportunity where you have really a closed community authentic conversations with people you trust.”
“Probably the deficiency in communication that all companies seem to have you know ours are really visible to myself but realizing that regardless of where anyone else is in the process of trying to develop their communication internally it is never good enough you know the employees always want something different want...”
“We have a very difficult work environment where our employees work it's extremely hot the summertime it's easily 150 degrees and so takes a unique employee to be able to operate in that type of facility and we've kind of worked through that through trial and error trying to hire enough people to be able to retain enoug...”
“We're putting in place a predictive index analysis to determine using our supervisors and high performers to determine what the best employee looks like on this index and then be able to test and measure potential employees coming in and so I think this is going to allow us to be able to target that best fit before we...”
“Having the conversation kind of tailor made for myself before I even join the phone call through Andrew having discussions with me to determine what our needs are and being able to look and not me having to look online and send emails and make multiple phone calls to multiple companies that may or may not be a good fit...”
“I've been able to introduce some of our team members to the company as well and they're now involved in some of the discussions and learning from some of the discussions again a lot of our HR employees within the organization have kind of grown up through the organization so they've only seen what is there and so we do...”
Kenneth Calloway VPHR of Century Aluminum talks about creative problem solving at Connexion 2023 (Las Vegas, NV) ...
Kenneth Calloway VPHR of Century Aluminum talks about creative problem solving at Connexion 2023 (Las Vegas, NV) ...
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