Katie Lenway is proof positive that all education and experience serve a purpose. She has degrees from The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) and the University of Wisconsin – Stout, where she majored in hotel, restaurant and tourism management. Though she could easily have parlayed either one into a lifelong career as a chef, restaurant manager or hospitality professional, for example, she instead took a road less traveled.
Katie signed on five years ago as a sales rep with the foodservice sales division of Hormel Foods. More recently, she is a recruiter in the company’s human resources department, responsible for bringing in experienced team members. Katie also serves as a member of Hormel Integrating Relevant Experiences (HIRE), an employee resource group designed to help seasoned workers integrate their experience into the Hormel Foods culture to help them further develop and the company benefit from their expertise.
“We hire a lot of recent college grads,” Katie says. “And we have a strong culture and history of promoting from within, so many of our team members have grown with the company. A few years ago, we wanted to ensure that we had all the best tools and resources available for integrating people who are coming to us with industry experience and hadn’t started their careers with Hormel Foods. So, we asked, ‘How do we take their experience and leverage it and also help them assimilate?’”
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