1177. A Day in the Life: What's It Really Like to Be a Human Resources Consultant?

Discover Your Talent–Do What You Love

Don Hutcheson

Education, Business, Self-improvement, Careers

5.0 • 619 Ratings

🗓️ 25 April 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sally Loftis is the Managing Director at Loftis Partners, a 100% woman-owned human resources consulting firm located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Sally works at the intersection of human resources, organization development, and social justice. Loftis Partners specializes in strategy, people, facilitation, and pay justice. Since launching in August 2020, Sally and her firm have worked with 54 clients across 3 continents. She completed her master's thesis on pay equity in nonprofits. She was published in the Journal for Applied Behavioral Sciences ("Building Trust Through Action Learning in An Uncertain Transorganizational Context").

"I had I kept joking with people that it was a little bit like trying to figure out what you want to do when you grow up–but in your forties. I had worked in human resources for 20 years at that point.

"Human resources is a really broad practice area. So part of it was trying to figure out what parts of human resources I wanted to work in. Two things were really helpful in narrowing it down. One is that I had just finished my graduate degree in Organization Development. I was really interested in that field because it is systems change in corporations, nonprofits or government. I had always worked on the strategic end of HR about how the people related to the strategy, so I knew that was a passion. And then I had done my thesis on pay equity, so I knew I had that, too.

"Then the second thing was some great advice I got early on from a friend who said, 'You should do some volunteer gigs if you can't get paying work immediately. That can help you kind of figure out what you do and don't want to do, and then also can give you some immediate feedback.' Since this was early 2020, the beginning of the pandemic, I was able to do some virtual volunteering. That really helped me in my decision making."

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, world. Welcome to discover your talent, do what you love. I'm your host, Don Hutchison.
0:16.7	Every Tuesday, I interview someone from around the world who's discovered their talents to do work they love to create a life of success, satisfaction, and freedom.
0:26.9	On Fridays, I interview an individual with many years of experience from one of the most popular or interesting occupations or professions who shares an insider's look at what it's really like to do what they do.
0:39.2	Today I'm delighted to bring you our featured guest, Sally Loftus, and our topic, A Day in the Life,
0:45.9	what's it really like to be a human resources consultant?
0:49.0	Welcome, Sally.
0:50.9	Thank you, Don.
0:51.8	I'm excited to be here with you today.
0:53.6	It is our pleasure. Sally, are you using your talents doing work that you love?
0:57.8	Absolutely. All right. Well, you have a great story to share.
1:01.6	Sally Loftus is the managing director of Loftus Partners, a 100% woman-owned human resources consulting firm located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.
1:12.6	She works at the intersection of human resources, organizational development, and social justice.
1:18.6	Loftus partner specializes in strategy, people, facilitation, and pay justice.
1:24.6	Since launching in August of 2020, Sally and her firm have worked with 54 clients
1:30.0	across three continents. She completed her master's thesis on pay equity and non-profits. She was
1:36.4	published in the Journal for Applied Behavioral Sciences with an article, building trust through
1:41.3	action learning in an uncertain transorganizational context.
1:46.2	Well, Sally, an amazing career, and we look forward to diving in.
1:49.4	But before we get started, take a minute or two and tell our listeners around the world a project
1:53.4	or so that you're working on right now that has you're excited and motivated.
1:57.2	Yes, I really appreciate that question because something that's really exciting me right now is having so many organizations that are interested in pay equity and trying to figure out how to kind of create communities of practice and networks for people to do that work together.
2:13.4	So I'm working on a new network, pay equity collective.
	...

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