Erica Niesse joined the HRchitect team in 2013 and is now the Director of Workforce Management Implementation Services. Erica continually focuses on growth and project success for the Workforce Management team. Working side by side with a team of experts in the Workforce Management field, Erica has led the team to complete projects for more than 150 clients.
Hometown: Atlanta, Georgia
Alma Mater: Georgia Tech. I got my degree in business management.
Favorite Food: Definitely any type of Mexican food.
Last book you read: Most of the time when I’m reading, I’m reading to my one year old. The most recent one that I’ve read to him was The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, which is one of my favorites. Other than that, I’m a big James Patterson fan, so the last book I read myself was one of his newer releases.
Favorite Movie: I would say Bridesmaids. It’s so funny!
Hobbies: On the weekends, in the summer and the fall, I spend a lot of time at my family’s lake house on Lake Burton. It’s about an hour north of Atlanta. It’s great to be able to go up there and spend time with my family, swimming and hiking.
How did you find out about HRchitect, and what made you join? Matt (our President & CEO) reached out to me on LinkedIn. We connected and kept in touch for several months. Because of my background (more on that later), he reached out to me with a need to expand the workforce management implementation practice. After several discussions, I decided that Matt’s leadership style, and the culture, and everything about HRchitect would be a good fit for me. Fast forward almost 7 years later, and that still holds true!
Can you expand a bit more on your background?
I had previously worked at RedPrairie, which is now JDA, implementing the company’s workforce management solution. I later moved to Ceridian, and then HRchitect, so I have a pretty extensive background in the world of workforce management.
In your own words, what do you do at HRchitect? The main part of my role is to oversee all of the workforce management implementation projects from start to finish. That includes overseeing the Project Managers, Functional Consultants and Technical Consultants to make sure the overall project runs smoothly. I also oversee the sales of implementation services for workforce management technologies. I work side by side with our sales team, meeting with clients to tell them about our experience, plus making sure clients have a clear understanding of what our implementation experience looks like. On the other side, I do some of the functional consulting too. I’ll do requirements gathering, training and testing.
What motivates you to wake up and go to work every day? I would say the team that I get to work with every day! Everyone on the team is friendly, and we’re extremely close. I get up in the morning excited to begin chatting with them about what we’re doing for the day to help our clients and move projects forward.
Tell me about a recent project that you worked on that you’re particularly proud of. One that comes to mind is a project we did with L.A. Care Health Plan. Another vendor was implementing SAP’s Employee Central and EC Payroll, and we came in and implemented WorkForce Software. What really excited me was how cohesively we were able to jump in and work seamlessly alongside that other vendor. The entire project went so smoothly from start to finish, which isn’t always the case with competing implementation projects. We finished under budget, and on time, and we have a happy client. The client chose to continue to work with us on an ongoing basis for support. Beyond that, the client presented with us at WorkForce Software’s 2019 user conference, to share the story of their successful implementation. I think that speaks to the strong relationship we forged with the client, and the success of the project. I’m really proud of that. They have been one of my favorite clients to work with.
Which employee perk that HRchitect offers do you enjoy the most? Why? Working from home. That was one of the things that intrigued me when I talked to Matt about joining HRchitect. Working from home allows me to have a great work-life balance. For example, if my child is sick, I’m able to drop what I’m doing and pick it up later during the day, and be there for him. I’m able to work better because of that flexibility.
If you had to describe HRchitect in one word, what would you say and why? Community. I feel like everybody at the company is really like a family and a community. We all work together and everybody shares the same goals and the same culture. It’s really a great culture across the board.
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