Rafferty Vandermolen-Achieng

Lead a 140-person HR function serving 9,500 employees across 22 states with a $38M operating budget. Redesigned total rewards and pay bands after a market study, closing a 6 percent pay-equity gap and cutting regretted attrition 31 percent in two years. Led people integration for the $1.2B acquisition of Heartland Casualty, retaining 94 percent of key talent through Day 1 and 96 percent of critical roles at 12 months. Replaced three legacy HR systems with Workday HCM, Recruiting, and Learning, saving $2.4M a year and cutting time-to-hire from 52 to 34 days. Built a CEO and senior-leader succession program with the board compensation committee; ready-now successors now exist for 85 percent of top-60 roles. Launched hybrid work and wellbeing programs that moved engagement from the 48th to the 79th percentile (Gallup Q12).

Directed HR for 4,200 employees across retail banking, wealth, and operations. Created a leadership academy that trained 600 managers; internal promotion rate rose from 38 to 57 percent. Negotiated benefits renewals and moved to a self-funded medical plan, holding cost growth to 2.1 percent a year against a 6.5 percent trend. Rolled out a diversity recruiting strategy with HBCU and community-college partners, doubling diverse hires in technology roles.

Owned performance management, talent reviews, and learning for 3,000 employees. Replaced annual ratings with quarterly goal check-ins; manager adoption reached 92 percent in year one. Built a sales onboarding program that cut new-agent ramp time from nine to six months.

Partnered with claims and member-services leaders for 1,100 employees; led two reorganizations with zero grievances. Introduced structured interviewing that reduced first-year turnover 18 percent.