Chief Human Resources Officer, ARCBEST CORP
Alumni Connections with Chancellor Riley & Erin Gattis
In this Alumni edition of our UAFS Chancellor Connections series, UAFS Chancellor Terisa Riley sits down with ArcBest's Chief ...
About Erin Gattis
In a September 2022 conversation with UAFS Chancellor Terisa Riley, Gattis discussed her career path at ArcBest, noting that she began in an entry-level customer service role for the Benefits department. She stated that she later worked in Executive Benefits and Corporate Governance before serving as Chief of Staff to the CEO, after which she was asked to establish the company's talent management program. Gattis described ArcBest as a "values-driven culture" with values including creativity, integrity, collaboration, growth, excellence, and wellness. She said that of ArcBest's 1,800 employees in Fort Smith, over 500 attended UAFS, and described UAFS graduates as coming to the company "not just ready for a job, but a career." Riley noted that UAFS has begun developing certificates and associate degrees focused on logistics and logistical operations, including a master's degree in data analytics, which Gattis said would help organizations "go far."
Transcript (14 segments)
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Terisa Riley0:05
Hi, I'm Terisa Riley, the Chancellor of the University of Arkansas - Fort Smith.
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Erin Gattis0:10
I'm Erin Gattis, the Chief Human Resources Officer at ArcBest Corporation.
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Terisa Riley0:13
Well, thank you so much for having us here at ArcBest today, Erin. I just want to hear a little bit more about the history that you have here, especially because you're an alumna of UAFS. Tell me a little bit about ArcBest.
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Erin Gattis0:25
Yeah, so ArcBest helps keep the global supply chain moving. We offer ground, ocean, and air transportation through our less than truckload carrier ABF Freight, our Panther Premium Logistics fleet, and also our over 40,000 capacity providers across North America, and that number is growing. We also have fleet maintenance services through FleetNet America and household moving goods through U-Pack.
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Terisa Riley0:49
Absolutely, U-Pack moved me to Fort Smith. Well, so tell me about how you got to ArcBest?
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Erin Gattis0:55
Well, I actually started in a front line role in customer service for our Benefits department. So it was the most entry-level role we have. That's what I love about this company, and I was on the phone all day. So I was in benefits for a self-insured plan, so I talked to people who either their medical claim hadn't been paid, something was delayed, or a medical provider hadn't received their money yet. So that's what I did for the first two years of my career. I went from that entry level role, I also worked with 401k, then I went into Executive Benefits, then I went into a Corporate Governance role, Chief of Staff role for the CEO of the company, and then one lucky day our CEO, Judy McReynolds, came to me and said, 'Hey, would you be interested in starting up a talent management program for our organization?' And really ever since then we've been building out our talent management program at ArcBest.
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Terisa Riley1:47
Well, I love walking around the building and loved the tour so much. I got to see the values of the institution everywhere.
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Erin Gattis1:53
So we try to connect everything we do with our values. I'm proud of a lot of things about ArcBest. How we interact with our customers, how we give back to the community, but I'm really most proud of our values-driven culture. So our values are creativity, integrity, collaboration, growth, excellence, and wellness, and we use those in every decision that we make. We like our employees to tie what they do to those values, and really our people here at ArcBest are the heart of our success.
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Terisa Riley2:19
I got to meet several of the employees. How many in place you have right here in Fort Smith, how many do you think are UAFS graduates?
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Erin Gattis2:24
Yeah, so we have 1,800 employees in Fort Smith, and of those over 500 attended UAFS. So pretty impressive.
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Terisa Riley2:36
That's amazing. We just have a world-class workforce here, and UAFS is a great part of that. And what we notice about UAFS employees is they come to us not just ready for a job, but a career. One of the things that you talked about was being forward looking, so are we. So at the institution we've begun some additional work with certificates and associates degrees that are focused on logistics and logistical operations. So we're starting programs in each of those years including a master's degree in data analytics.
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Erin Gattis3:04
Very good.
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Terisa Riley3:10
Yeah, those spreadsheets we were talking about earlier. Having people ready to take that on, and bring that political and intellectual capital here. Knowing how to do the work and do it at a really sophisticated level will help your organization go far.
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Erin Gattis3:22
We're excited about the new supply chain. I think the degree and then the certificate, I mean ArcBest is just such a wonderful place to work, and it's exciting to see all these students from UAFS come work with us. You can tell what a special place UAFS has in their heart.