After 26 years in human resources, Wendy Crotteau has special experience in "organizational development, talent acquisition, employee relations, mergers and acquisitions, process and policy deployment, and continuous improvement."
"I've also been fortunate throughout my career to gain exposure to different industries, including health care, finance and manufacturing," said Crotteau, who has a bachelor's degree in organizational communication from Purdue University.
As the director of human resources for Chicago-headquartered Charter Next Generation Inc., Crotteau continuously evolves the film packaging firm's HR function to support its growth while also creating the best possible experience for its employees. She seeks to "cultivate a courageous and curious HR team to take our department to the next level."
Crotteau started at Extrusion Dies Industries LLC, acquired by Nordson Corp., and was "fascinated by the focus on increasing the utility of packaging — the way the addition of plastic could increase product longevity in the food industry, for example." When she joined CNG, she learned more about plastics' versatility and applications in other industries such as health care, automotive and construction.
"I've had the opportunity to create and deploy a global centralized talent acquisition team and new applicant tracking system. My team also created an employee value proposition and developed a continuous learning program to help build our talent pipeline throughout the organization," she said about her greatest career achievements.
Her current challenge is understanding how to leverage technology to improve the company's candidate, leader and employee experiences while maintaining a connection with employees throughout their entire employment life cycle.
The failures she has experienced in her career, she said, have taught her "to listen to employees and collaborate with stakeholders across the organization to make sure you understand the problem you're trying to solve"; that people analytics are a crucial HR tool, especially when working with or coaching business leaders; and that failure happens and it's OK.
"Failure is an opportunity to learn, regroup and come back even stronger," said Crotteau, who added that the mold she is breaking is being more agile in the way she thinks about opportunity, growth and ways to succeed.