Talent Spotlight: Your Virtual Chief Human Resources Officer (vCHRO)

Carly Holm, CHRP, one of our talented HR professionals and fellow champion of flexible work, felt the pull to leave corporate life after the birth of her first child in 2015, and follow a dream. With vast HR expertise and a drive for helping businesses succeed, she founded Holm & Company. Now a thriving boutique HR consulting firm – whose team includes hires from our own talent community! – Holm & Company designs incredible workplaces that foster and support a company’s talent development, growth and excellence.

We talked to Carly to learn more about her journey.

Carly, tell us about yourself and the path that led you to Holm & Company.

I started my career in HR about 13 years ago, working for the big banks in Canada and the U.S. After I had my first child, I was craving the freedom and flexibility of working for myself. I started doing ad-hoc HR consulting projects for small companies that needed support. Soon after I realized that these companies needed more: they needed someone to go to on an as-needed basis for all of their HR needs, as well as a sounding board as their organizations evolved and grew. This is how Holm & Company was born.

How does Holm & Company help businesses? 

We help small- to medium-sized businesses with their HR. We are a team of HR professionals, all with over ten years of experience in the HR field, and act as our clients’ virtual Chief Human Resources Officer (vCHRO). We provide the full spectrum of HR support from compliance, policy implementation, recruiting, performance management, compensation reviews, employee support, training and more. Beyond the standard HR support, we act as our clients’ strategic business partner – helping the leaders of businesses make key decisions to help their companies grow.

How would you describe Holm & Company’s unique value?

We offer modern HR solutions for modern companies. Everything we do is custom, not cookie cutter. We get to know the company and its unique challenges and roll up our sleeves and do the work to suit that company – not based off of templates or HR jargon.

Who are your clients? 

Our clients are pretty diverse across many industries – from tech start-ups to engineering firms, high end design studios and non-profits. Every organization needs HR! Most of our clients’ companies are between 25-100 people and aren’t big enough to have their own in-house HR, but large enough that they need the support on an ad-hoc basis.

What gets you fired up about the work you do? 

Working with our amazing clients! I have learned so much about different businesses and cultures over the past few years. Every time I meet a new potential client, I get excited to learn about how they work and how they got to where they are. I am constantly inspired by the different business leaders that we meet. This makes me want to do better as a leader myself.

What makes Holm & Company an awesome company to work with?

Our amazing team! Holm & Company has grown substantially over the past year and we’re now a team of six. Three of my hires, along with a graphic designer, have been from the tellent community – I’m so grateful for that! I’ve had such great luck finding talent through tellent and I’ll continue to use the platform to access talented professional women.

What successes are you proud of? 

We’ve built out a recruiting arm over the past three months. So many of our clients wanted a different solution to standard recruiters, so we hired our own in-house specialist who focuses on targeted recruiting. Since July, we’ve placed over a dozen candidates for our clients, which is a remarkable feat! Our team works amazingly well together and has built a great process that we’re all proud of!

What advice would you give to women who are looking for work that works for them?

Now is the best time to go for it! I’ve been a huge advocate for remote and flexible work for years, but some of the silver lining with COVID is that many other companies are realizing this too. Keep your networks strong and work ethic high – just because we work flexibly, that doesn’t mean we don’t work hard.

To learn more about Carly and how she can support your business, connect with her at carly@holmandco.com and learn more at Holm & Company