What people are saying about Breaking Glass.

My perception of HR leaders was always pretty dichotomous. HR was either very warm and fuzzy, hugging people & kissing babies or on the other extreme, policing rules that came out of the 1984 HR handbook. Then I met Andrea Garson and it changed my perception forever.

I have never seen a leader who is so genuinely compassionate about people and can be tough as nails when it comes to doing the right thing. I worked with Andrea for many years and she has been a source of inspiration ever since I met her. I have seen her bringing homemade cookies for everyone in the office ( 150+ people) when we hit a 100% response rate on Voice of Employee survey and I have seen her stand up to the president when she disagreed with a certain initiative and believed it was not in the best interest of the employees. I have seen her through expansions where we were hiring at the speed of light and creating new teams and I have seen her through cost cutting where we were right sizing the teams. I have seen her where we were celebrating successes and I have seen her we were are dealing with failures. No matter what the circumstances are, Andrea is always the one who is cool, composed, with a sensible, common sense approach to handle any situation. Andrea is a true leader that genuinely inspires and brings the best out of the people around her. It has always been a pleasure to work with her.

Andrea has been a game changer to my business and how I manage and motivate my team.  She is one of the most effective business leaders/coaches I have ever met and I’m astounded at the progress she made in such little time working with me.  I was a skeptic on hiring outside consulting talent as a couple past experiences resulted in poor ROI but Andrea proved her worth quickly.  Our company had procrastinated for a couple years on some key HR initiatives that needed to get done and Andrea was able to accomplish them in record time.   Andrea’s engagement re-energized me and my business, she has also become a professional confident for me which I’m truly grateful for since it can be “lonely at the top”.

If you are looking to grow your business, need a fresh perspective on your business and/or your team or are having a challenge moving the needle on some key business initiatives you will not regret bringing Andrea on board.

I first met Andrea when she asked me to join the Workopolis HR team in 2007, and didn’t realize at the time she would become one of the most memorable leaders I’d work with in my career.  At the time, I was an ambitious and junior HR professional who was looking for a mentor that would empower me and teach me and I couldn’t have asked a better fit.  In the four years that Andrea and I spent at Workopolis, I watched her build an incredible HR team to meet the needs of a rapidly growing tech organization. She had a seat at the executive table, and the trust she built with the executive team allowed us to play a strategic role in talent acquisition, employee engagement, org design, total rewards, and training and development.

I followed Andrea to Cardinal Health where we worked together to transform the HR function from a traditional and tactical administrative team into a trusted partner.

We have both moved on in our careers, but I still find myself drawing on the wisdom and experience I gained from those 5 years with Andrea.  She’s  an intelligent and confident HR leader, whose focus on business, evidence based decision making, culture as a strategic advantage puts her at the top of the HR talent pool. Most notably, for me, she was an incredible boss who has the skills and EQ to build a highly engaged and loyal team.

Andrea Garson delivers results to move your organization from Good to Great.

Andrea began partnering with Myers organization in May, 2017 and was brought into my business in March, 2018 initially to provide senior level support to me and my leadership team as we searched for an HR Director. I initially challenged Andrea’s concept of an HR business partner as I had rarely seen individuals with strong HR skill sets and had never seen those combined with insightful business perspective. Andrea quickly broke my preconceptions as she seamlessly integrated into my team, taking on our most challenging issues and raising the performance of the organization.

Her contributions were immediate. She was invited to participate in my leadership team meetings, at which Andrea contributed fully and meaningfully. She identified issues and eagerly presented ideas to address them. Andrea’s business intelligence and insight rapidly earned mine and my team’s trust, extending her ability to provide impactful business counsel and execution. Andrea accelerated her understanding of my organization by consistently asking questions and building relationships at all levels, helping us see strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that perhaps we didn’t even see. Her actions were always driven by the goal of improving business outcomes.

Andrea is a result oriented individual. She has various resources she can leverage to address specific situations. While skilled at giving clear direction and coaching, she is equally as comfortable digging in to get work done to advance the organization. As examples, she assisted me in preparing for and co-facilitating my first all-managers meeting with my team. She also came with steel toed shoes in hand and was on my factory floor multiple times helping us solve for operational efficiency gaps. Over her six-month tenure supporting my business, she created specific programs and deliverables as she also facilitated strategy and positioning discussions. She was adept at both ends of the spectrum and defined the value of a true business partner.

Andrea has natural strengths and a passion for developing a high performing culture, developing a values based leadership model, and a multitude of required HR deliverables. Her value comes from weaving those strengths into the larger business context to create organization initiatives and solutions that create results. Despite her role as a consultant, she was invested in the business’s success as I was, routinely sharing her passion and commitment across my team to improve our outcomes.

Andrea stands out as one fo the most impactful people I have had the opportunity to work with. She is the model of an HR Business Partner that makes organizations Great.

When I accepted the role of President for Cardinal Health Canada, I knew that I would need to replace much of the management team while embarking on a long overdue cultural transformation.  I could not have designed a better partner to support me in this multi-year effort than Andrea Garson. Her leadership and guidance in not only the traditional human resource decisions, but also in developing new strategies to reposition the business were critical to the success of our efforts.

In the time she worked for me I was continually impressed with her ability to balance the needs of the company with those of our employees;   her skills in collaborating across the organization with both executives and those on the frontlines; and her leadership in developing organization and benefit strategies that propelled the business forward.  The entire management team relied upon her mastery of the confusing and intricate variety of human resource rules and regulations; ability to plan and execute on multiple projects simultaneously; and her experience in negotiating solutions to sensitive issues. I most valued her calm advice and balanced judgement as we worked through the many and varied challenges of a business in transition.

Andrea excelled in adapting to changing expectations and new priorities.   She is able to withstand significant pressure during times of crisis and change; her calm, controlled demeanor empowers the entire team to focus on the work required to respond.     Her ability to communicate clearly and provide thoughtful, balanced feedback was a key factor to our overall success

Andrea is a valuable resource that can assist any team in improving its overall human resource management or dealing with a specific issue.  She was my most trusted advisor and I could not have succeeded without her by my side.

We have worked with Andrea to help with our ongoing HR needs.  Andrea has a perfect mix of professionalism and compassion which helps our team navigate any HR concerns and come out stronger for having dealt with them. We greatly value her experience and look forward to working with her in the future.  We highly recommend her!

Andrea is a true business partner and subject matter expert. We hired her on a 6 month consulting basis with specific objectives and deliverables which she completely delivered on.

She has the unique ability to assess and understand your specific need while drawing on her past experiences with leading employers to recommend best practice solutions. Andrea Garson is by far one of the best HR professionals I have had the opportunity to work with and we plan to continue the relationship as our needs arise. Andrea is a true HR business partner – a business leader and HR practitioner in perfect balance.

We have known and worked with Andrea for over 13 years.  We have had the privilege of working with Andrea at a number of organizations as a Talent Acquisition partner.  The consistent thread throughout each of these experiences is that Andrea is a values driven and results focused professional who is an absolute pleasure to partner with. Andrea is intelligent and business minded, builds exceptional relationships with the business and her Executive Teams and, as a result, is always “at the table”.  From a partner perspective Andrea has both the needs of the business front and foremost and is an inclusive, involved and supportive partner.  Andrea is an asset to any organization/team and we are always delighted to partner as an extension of Andrea’s various teams.