Eric Dettmer
Chief Human Resources Officer
SitelogIQ
Eric Dettmer is the CHRO for SitelogIQ, and he has been an HR professional for the past 33 years. He was born and raised in Detroit, and his education and professional career have taken him to Washington DC, Tennessee, Arizona, Minnesota and Connecticut.
A fun fact about Eric is he visited all 48 continental states in the US by age 12, and more than four decades later, he still has not made it to Hawaii or Alaska.
Learn more about the Minneapolis CHRO community here.
Give us a brief overview of the path that led to your current role.
After graduating from Michigan State University, I worked in Generalist, Staffing, Leadership Development, Compensation/Benefits, HR Systems and Leadership roles within the Public Sector, Manufacturing, Consumer Product Goods (CPG) and now Commercial Construction industries.
What is one of your guiding leadership principles?
There is no substitution for great talent.
What is the greatest challenge CHROs face today, and how are you addressing it?
Leadership succession depth. We have worked with a trusted partner and developed our own series of leadership development programs.
What is the key to success for someone just starting out as a CHRO?
There are several for CHROs/CPOs. In summary, I will share two that should be at the top of the list:
1. Get an in-depth understanding of the business. For example: who are your customers, who are your competitors, how do you win, what are the financials, what are the issues present when you don't win. Get out and visit customers. Talk with as many employees on as many sites as possible. In my opinion, it is only once you have such an in-depth understanding that you can connect the HR functions goals and priorities to the goals of the business.
2. Establish yourself as a trusted advisor to the CEO. A critical role of the CHRO is to be the trusted confidant and advisor to the CEO. Everyone I know in a CHRO-level role talks about the criticalness of having a positive working relationship with their CEO. Make sure you establish it and manage it.
How do you measure success as a leader?
I take great pride in seeing individuals who I have worked with get promoted to the C-suite, knowing I maybe had a little bit of a part in getting them there. In addition to that, as a CHRO I also measure success on if I am sought out for my perspective. It can be seen as a proxy for how much I am trusted on business and talent related topics.
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