Human Resources. What do you think of when you hear those two words? What role does it play in your company’s success? Is it merely an administration aspect of your company that you pay attention too when you need new staff and talent for your venture, that then gets put back in a box until someone needs to be hired or fired? Perhaps in days gone by, this may have been the case, but over the last decade in particular there has been a major shift in thinking around just what HR’s purpose is.

Let’s stop and think for a minute. People, we know, are the lifeblood, the heart and the soul of any company. For what is arguably the most important part of your venture, why so often dos HR take a backseat in the growth and development of our businesses?

Agata Zasada knows this better than many. She has lead major scale-ups for the Olympic Broadcasting Corporation, Lululemon, and most recently for BC’s own Hootsuite. Truly leading edge, progressive companies like Lululemon and Hootsuite know that to be successful, the modern day HR department should be at the forefront of your company’s core. Yes to be truly successful, you need a strong and clear company culture that not just aligns with your business goals, hiring practices and strategies but one that drives all of those forward.

I sat down with Agata at the inaugural BC Tech Summit in Vancouver to learn how we can all find, retain and keep the right people we need by letting HR drive of strategy forward.

About the podcast: The You can do that here! podcast was created and produced by Andrew Zwicker of AZcreative for the Kootenay Association for Science and Technology. The podcast is a weekly series of conversations with some of the most innovative and successful entrepreneurs in the Koots.