Senior Vice President of Human Resources, CENTURY ALUMINUM CO
Full Interview with Kenneth Calloway - Connexion 2023
Kenneth Calloway VPHR of Century Aluminum talks about creative problem solving at Connexion 2023 (Las Vegas, NV) ...
About Kenneth Calloway
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.
Transcript (12 segments)
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Kenneth Calloway0:00
My name is Kenneth Calloway, I'm the Vice President of Human Resources for Century Aluminum Company. We're a company based out of Chicago, Illinois. We have smelters operating in Kentucky, South Carolina, Iceland, and then some support facilities, one in the Netherlands and one in a recent acquisition in Jamaica. We have approximately 2,500 employees between all of those locations, and we oversee the human resource function for the organization.
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Interviewer0:26
Awesome. Iceland? Yes, have been multiple times. Oh nice, last year on vacation. Really? Wow, so I need to get closer to you now, I guess. It's a great place. Awesome. Well, listen, 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? The different entrance points from opportunity of vendors to reach out, there's just so much that you have to deal with. Help me understand what was most impactful to you when you first engaged with ConX? What was it that drew you to ConX?
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Kenneth Calloway1:19
Yeah, sure. You know, as a person in Human Resources, a lot of times you're kind of by yourself. You don't get to interact with a lot of your other counterparts in other companies. I think with ConX, the advantage was realizing that all the problems I have are the same problems as us. The interesting and exciting thing has been listening to how those folks have solved those problems or are solving those problems in creative ways, realizing you have faster, different employers there with different economic situations, whether those that are highly profitable to those that are with less margin, and how they deal with those problems and how they are able to solve the retention issues, the employee engagement issues, and those types of things. It's been really beneficial.
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Interviewer2:10
Yeah, you know, it's... 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. Yeah, like I mean, there's broader organizations like SHRM, you LinkedIn, you can't really have that. Can you talk to the think tanks and the online community, how that's impacted you?
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Kenneth Calloway2:45
Yeah, primarily for me it's been the think tanks, as far as the discussions that occur on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. First off, being able to identify those that are most beneficial and visit those, and maybe not participate in the ones that are not. But again, it kind of goes back to hearing their problems and realizing that I'm not unique in the problems that I have, and understanding the complexities of what they're dealing with and how they're solving those issues. From very large organizations to small organizations, it's been exciting. I've learned some things from the groups that we've discussed these things with, and it's been beneficial.
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Interviewer3:31
What is there if you could just point to one thing you learned, what has been most impactful?
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Kenneth Calloway3:37
Yeah, probably the deficiency in communication that all companies seem to have. 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. The employees always want something different, want something more. So being able to realize that maybe we're not as far behind as we think we are, but also realizing that there are a lot of good ideas out there that these other peers have been able to bring to the table that we're able to evaluate to see if they meet our needs.
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Interviewer4:20
Yeah, yeah. And that community is one aspect, right? The other aspect is you're a top dog, so where do you go when you need opportunity, when you need solutions and services? You want to punch something in Google, you're going to be there all day. You got probably 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 emails and phone calls every day. How do you filter and distill through that? Maybe if you could share what appealed to you with the ConX approach when it comes to our partners, the quality of those partners, and how you've been able to leverage those relative to your needs.
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Kenneth Calloway4:58
Yeah, case in point. We have a very difficult work environment where our employees work. It's extremely hot in the summertime, easily 150 degrees. So it takes a unique employee to be able to operate in that type of facility. We've kind of worked through that through trial and error, trying to hire enough people to retain enough people to keep the headcount full. Specifically with one of the partners, we're putting in place a predictive index analysis. We're going to do a predictive index analysis to determine, using our supervisors and high performers, to determine what the best employee looks like through this index, and then be able to test and measure potential employees coming in. I think we're on the verge of partnering with Human Works to be able to do that for us, which we're extremely excited about. Again, we've not been scientific about this at all; it's just been mass hiring to try to maintain the headcount. I think this is going to allow us to target that best fit before we bring them in, and they have a chance to fail. I think we're going to give them a better chance of success.
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Interviewer6:13
Yeah. So maybe go back to the origin of that first conversation. Where is that a different entrance point perhaps than other places you've been, where you're bringing people together?
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Kenneth Calloway6:25
Yeah, so having the conversation 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. ConX has been able to identify those for us. There's a better likelihood of this being the right product or right solution for our problem versus me having to take the time to do it. What has also been great is the willingness. I realize that it seems the focus is on the more senior executive folks within the organization, but 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. A lot of our HR employees within the organization have kind of grown up through the organization, so they've only seen, myself included, only seen what is there. So we don't have the visibility outside. So getting my team members exposed to those other companies with those other problems and other solutions has been...
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Interviewer7:41
Damn, that is really great, isn't it? To have cohorts that you're mentoring, being able to go into a community because you know this is a senior level community, however, you know, bringing someone else who can be eyes and ears and really just kind of see, you know, that's where you get great succession or just their journey in HR, learning from others. So exactly. Fantastic folk. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you taking a few minutes.