DeKALB – John Acardo, an NIU graduate, has taken on the role of chief Human Resources officer. Acardo spoke to the Northern Star about his plans.

CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF AND YOUR BACKGROUND?

“I’m originally from Rockford. Through my academic journey, I identified NIU as being the institution that I wanted to go to and get my undergrad and graduate degree. I originally wanted to go into operations management and information systems. Along the way, I decided that I wanted to switch more towards political science, public law emphasis, and that really kind of springboarded my opportunity to learn and grow in the public service sector within Illinois.”

“Some of the first roles that I encountered in my career were with local governments. I had the great opportunity to help craft and shape HR departments within those organizations.”

AS SOMEONE WHO WAS HERE AS A STUDENT, WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE TO BE BACK HERE AS A PERSON IN YOUR POSITION?

“I’m overjoyed, it is an incredible opportunity to be back at my alma mater and to serve in this new capacity. In higher education, these are rare opportunities. When I learned of this opportunity, I felt it was perfect for me to come back home to NIU, a place that I love to work with the people that really helped define who I am. I mentioned this during my interview for this position. NIU really defined who I am and changed my life, and I really am happy to be back and working with the faculty and staff, some of whom I had when I was an undergrad here.”

WHAT DOES YOUR POSITION AS CHIEF HUMAN RESOURCES OFFICER DO?

“Human resources is really an area in organizations that can help employees achieve their full potential and really help them achieve their own career goals and aspirations. Human resources is certainly where payroll is conducted. That’s one of the larger areas of our operation. We maintain and keep record of all of the employment changes that occur for all employees throughout their career here at NIU. We do employee and labor relations. We also do the service awards and recognition recruitment and help administer the recruitment process as well. One of the other major areas that we help manage is benefits. So your regular health insurance, dental, medical, all of those different elements are managed through our office as well.”

COMING INTO THIS POSITION, ARE THERE ANY CHANGES THAT YOU HOPE TO MAKE?

“I think HRS at NIU the human resources function, has a lot of areas of opportunity where we can really become a strategic transformational partner to campus and really help our supervisors as well as department chairs, and our regular employees really achieve their own career aspirations and their own career goals. I really want to take a lot of time to learn about our processes and hear from campus stakeholders on what would make their job easier.”

“Whether that be through workflows – a form that may need to be completed for something. How can we make that easier and more efficient on our stakeholders? To me, that’s really important.” 

“Same with improving our access and transparency with data. The reports that we provide our supervisors, chairs and other stakeholders on campus can easily be automated and provide real-time data so that decisions can be more informed on those employment metrics.” 

“We look at how we can make NIU better all the time. Our goal is to continue to have that continuous feedback in that process.”

HOW HAS YOUR POSITION BEEN SO FAR?

“It’s been great. I’ve had a great opportunity to meet with campus stakeholders and senior leaders. I’ve had several listening sessions where I’ve had an opportunity to hear from employees on what they’d like to see from HR. I’m kind of in the phase of taking it all in and really hearing from our campus, you know, what types of changes they’d like to see in HR and how we can best serve them. It’s also been great to reconnect with old colleagues and people that I knew in undergrad, as well as get reacclimated and reacquainted to the DeKalb area.”

YOU’VE HAD A LOT OF STOPS IN YOUR CAREER. DO YOU SEE YOUR CURRENT POSITION AS ONE OF YOUR LAST STOPS?

“I would say yes. I’ve had the great opportunity to work for many great organizations where I’ve been asked to do specific things and to help really create HR as a strategic partner and to be able to help improve processes and programs or make things more efficient for our stakeholders, and so certainly I have had a great opportunity to work with those organizations to achieve those results. I’m excited to join NIU and wrap up the career that I’ve started back here where it all started.”

WHAT KIND OF THINGS DO YOU DO IN YOUR FREE TIME?

“My partner Megan and I have three kids: Charlie, Joe and Marcy. I spend a lot of time with them. We enjoy doing a lot of outdoor activities and camping. They enjoy a lot of sports, baseball, specifically. I do a lot of running. I get up really early in the morning and do distance running. I run six miles a day. It’s a great way to kind of let off steam, but also be able to enjoy that opportunity to enjoy what’s around you.”

IS THERE ANYTHING THAT YOU WANT THE COMMUNITY TO KNOW ABOUT YOU OR YOUR GOALS?

“I think really just that I’m here to serve you. I really want to hear from anyone in our campus community about how human resources can best serve you, whether that be in helping be that sounding ear for what might be a good career growth path for you, with professional learning or other development, to how can we best serve you to make things easier so that you can focus on what you need to focus on and making sure our students cross that stage every year. I’m here to serve the campus and ready to hear how we can do that.”