“The women with significant leadership voice and influence in the executive suite”

Jennifer is a proactive HR leader who puts people first. She is driven to add value to the company and its 3,000 employees by serving as the organization's culture curator, managing and developing world-class succession and development processes, and ensuring that all team members feel valued and appreciated. Jennifer promotes personal and professional development in the Human Resources department as well as the rest of the company. Under Jennifer's leadership, employee growth has been and continues to be a top priority for the company, including development inside the HR department. Jennifer has worked closely with an external consultant to establish a leadership assessment for senior-level management jobs as a complement to leadership development, with the goal of assessing talent, finding latent potential, and identifying development possibilities.

When she first started as CHRO, the HR team's survey data revealed a lack of development possibilities and an unclear career path within the function. Jennifer responded by planning and implementing two major developmental reorganizations. Employees from the Organization Development, Talent Acquisition, Total Rewards, and HR Business Partner units participated in a variety of cross-functional rotations. Jennifer has overseen the construction of a Human Resources Solution Center for the department and company over the last few years, and they now have a one-stop-shop for HR needs and employee questions. This contains an 800 number that may be used for both internal and external inquiries/requests. In addition, the HR team has been a key contributor to organizational talent, bringing in talent from IT, Finance, Fleet, and other departments and exporting talent to Finance, Supply Chain, IT, and other departments.

“Human Resources isn't a thing we do; it's the thing that runs our business.”

Jennifer possesses remarkable leadership ability, motivate, and inspire a group. During the chaos caused by the Covid epidemic, her leadership in this area was crucial. She came up with innovative ways for her HR and facilities teams to collaborate while working with the rest of the company to ensure that everyone felt connected and involved. It's no surprise, then, that the HR department received the top scores of any department in the organization in their most recent employee engagement survey. Jennifer is always working to improve the candidate employee experience in order to attract and retain qualified candidates. Her vision has led to a positive application experience, which includes access to company information on our employment site as well as through social media. A robust online onboarding process and the formation of employee resource groups are part of the employee experience.

Following employee survey results that indicated an opportunity to improve culture and corporate performance by enhancing supervisor-employee interaction and effectiveness, she created a method to drastically boost supervisor performance. Jennifer has been proactive in addressing this, first through an internal leadership development program called the Leading People Program, which focuses on core leadership abilities, and then with the Management Essentials Program, which focuses on tactical management skills. A set of six Management Practices has been developed under her direction, which defines specific expectations of all people leaders in the organization. Furthermore, these behaviors account for 25% of each people leader's overall success, emphasizing the necessity of people leadership in these significant jobs.

Black Hills Corporation is a customer-focused, growth-oriented utility company with a long history of excellent service and a desire to be the preferred energy partner. The firm, which is headquartered in Rapid City, South Dakota, serves approximately 1.28 million electric and natural gas utility customers in over 800 cities across Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming. Employees collaborate to develop solutions that have a positive impact on people's lives. Black Hills Energy has been guided by its principles and objective of improving lives via energy during the course of its 138-year history. Black Hills Energy contributes to the well-being of its customers and communities by delivering necessary energy services. This obligation humbles and motivates Black Hills Energy and its workforce, and they consider it a privilege to deliver electricity and natural gas to almost 1.3 million businesses and homes within the eight-state service zone.

Black Hills Energy operates as a regulated utility. As a result, the most competitive areas are developing energy technology and talent. Black Hills Energy takes pride in its strong family-centered culture of belonging, where employees' genuine concern for one another is evident. Employee resource groups, community volunteerism, and internal networking events help to keep Black Hills Energy's workforce connected. Health, welfare, retirement, and relocation benefits are all generously provided by Black Hills Energy. The Achiever's top 50 workplaces award has been given to Black Hills Energy on multiple occasions, the most recent being in 2021. In 2021, it is also designated as a HIRE Vets Platinum employer. Black Hills Corporation is made up of regulated natural gas and electric utilities, as well as vertically integrated mining and power generation companies. With 47,000 miles of natural gas pipes and 9,000 miles of electric transmission and distribution lines covering 1,600 miles across eight states, Black Hills Corporation oversees one of the country's largest natural gas and electric infrastructure systems.

DEDICATED TO SUSTAINABILITY

The mission of Black Hills Energy is to improve life through energy, which means we must be ready to make tomorrow even better than today. That is why Black Hills Energy is committed to a cleaner energy future based on its commitment to offer safe, dependable, and affordable energy that enhances the lives of its consumers. Black Hills Energy is committed to the sustainability of its organization, communities, and world by investing in the success of its workers, constantly innovating, intelligently utilizing resources, and placing people at the center of its decision-making.

The mission of Black Hills Energy has never been more critical or urgent than during COVID-19's shared crisis. Over the last year, the Black Hills Energy team has worked together to securely serve its customers and support one another, responding rapidly to the uncertainty and challenges of 2020. The pandemic also highlighted the critical role businesses play in the world today. Whether delivering energy to homes and businesses, helping customers in times of financial need, providing resources to employees, or partnering with communities, Black Hills Energy recognizes it is much more than a utility; it is an engaged corporate citizen. The pandemic also brought attention to the crucial role that corporations play in today's environment.

Jennifer is a lifelong learner with a voracious desire for personal and professional development. Her father, a retired manufacturing executive with no formal education, is her greatest role model. Jennifer had a firsthand look at great leadership during her formative years because of his ability to solve complicated situations while always putting people first. She recalls meeting someone with her father in a store and having a spirited conversation in which photographs of family members were removed from wallets and shared. She remembers thinking to herself that the individual must have been a close friend of her father's. When she questioned who it was, he said it was someone who had previously worked for him but had been sacked. "He was in the wrong position, but I was able to assist him in finding the perfect employment elsewhere."Throughout her career, Jennifer has been fortunate enough to have a number of mentors. All of her mentorship connections have been around the notion of continued personal and professional growth and preparation. She attributes her success to a number of people who have invested in her.

Jennifer has advocated for and supported investments in HR data analytics tools and platforms, as well as the creation of an HR data analytics team. Black Hills Energy's analytics team is looking into new ways that data and analytics might help them gain a competitive advantage in the talent market. Establishing a dedicated HR analytics research team to investigate trends in turnover, gender pay analysis, organizational network analysis to assess communication flow among employees, regular engagement surveys and quarterly pulse surveys, and topic-specific research studies are just a few instances. Jennifer has worked closely with an external consultant to establish a leadership assessment for senior-level management jobs as a complement to leadership development, with the goal of assessing talent, finding latent potential, and identifying development possibilities. Jennifer Landis' extraordinary ability and significant leadership voice and influence at the Executive table has made her a most remarkable women HR leader. IE