Dr. Corinne Rice, VP people team, gives keynote for Women First Conference

VP, People Team at tms, Corinne Rice, DBA, MBA recently gave a virtual keynote address for NextGroup’s Women First Conference, aimed at women pivoting career paths, transitioning, pursuing a passion project, or looking for inspiration.

Corinne discussed her experience re-entering the workforce after spending time at home with her children and relocating for her husband’s job with the military; the main themes she’s seeing right now as an HR professional; and how to nurture a successful team.

Here are 6 key takeaways from her keynote:

1. Take the help. If you are returning to the workforce after a pause, take the help and get support from organizations like NextGroup.
2. Continue to say yes to things — projects, help, coaching, and feedback — even when it’s scary. Your career is going to be a journey with ups and downs.
3. No one should need to shrink themselves to fit in at work. Minimizing or changing who you are is stifling and leads to burnout. HR professionals are listening for where your passions lie and what you can bring to the organization that stands out.
4. The workplace now needs to work for everyone. In the current job seeker’s market, flexibility is a table stake, not just a nice-to-have benefit.
5. It’s okay not to be okay. Raising your hand to say that is the brave thing to do, and a good employer will be willing to help you get what you need to thrive.
6. You can’t build a strong team without knowing what your people aspire to. Leaders need to keep development a priority and work with their team members to ensure there’s enough growth and exposure to achieve short term results and build a great career.

“We want you to shine bright. We want you to bring your whole self to work…We value the diverse experiences that people have to offer. We value the interesting things, the things that you know that we don’t know,” said Corinne on the topic of HR leaders encouraging employees to bring their full selves to the office.

Below you can watch a partial recording of the event to hear these insights and more for yourself.

To join Corinne’s team or other groups at tms, check out our open roles.

Corinne Rice, DBA, MBA
VP, People Team

Corinne Rice is building the future of work as a People & Talent Executive. Her 10+ year career spans a breadth of knowledge across Human Resources functions and expertise in change management, DE&I, Learning & Development, and data analytics, and she’s now sharing that expertise by teaching at DePaul University’s business school, where she recently completed a doctorate in Business Administration in 2021.

Corinne is a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and completed an MBA at North Park University in 2011. From there she joined Walgreen’s and was promoted to continuous leadership roles, taking on more responsibility in Talent Development, where she implemented programs and led evaluations for 400,000 employees.

As the VP of People at tms, Corinne translates strategic business plans into HR strategic and tactical operational plans. She’s moving the company into the future through a focus on DEI – ensuring that all people feel a sense of belonging and are able to bring their whole selves to work; evolving how work is accomplished and measured, leveraging analytics and data to drive decisions, and re-skilling/up-skilling people across agility, process improvement, efficiencies, cost savings, and transformation – while at the same time focusing on emotional intelligence, psychological safety, and empathy.

In her free time, Corinne enjoys spending time with her family, reading, traveling, and volunteering with groups that focus on education and the empowerment of women and other marginalized people.