For more than four years, Kelly Jaynes has made a meaningful difference for Milwaukee-based Badger Mutual Insurance as director of human resources. Jaynes’ expertise in talent acquisition, employee engagement and strategic planning has earned the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Top Workplace awards in 2019 and 2020.
While navigating the COVID-19 pandemic and the company’s downtown headquarters move in the past year, Jaynes has doubled down on her commitment to the employees at Badger Mutual.
In March, Jaynes worked alongside other senior management to support each employee’s transition to work-from-home during the pandemic.
Moving the company’s office from the south side of Milwaukee to the city’s growing downtown required the HR department to personally facilitate the change in commute, work style and location for many tenured staff.
In the day-to-day, Jaynes has used “culture index” as a recruitment tool to eliminate personal biases from the hiring process and pinpoint specific skillsets in the talent pool. Once an employee is on the team, she works closely with every department on career path objectives as a way to guide and encourage professional development.
For supervisors and emerging leaders, Jaynes implemented the “Living as a Leader” leadership training program.
