An Interview with Dave Hennessy, Written by: Holly Breton, Vice President, HR Search

by | Oct 1, 2024 | Newsletter

Dave Hennessy, Senior Vice President at Keystone Partners 

Dave Hennessy is a Senior Vice President at Keystone Partners as well as a Board Member of NEHRA and the host of the successful HR podcast called The Hennessy Report.

I got to sit down (via video call) with Dave Hennessy and chat about all things HR- his business at Keystone Partners- his popular podcast for HR pros called The Hennessy Report and his work on the NEHRA board. We had so much ground to cover and I was excited to gather some helpful information from Dave for our HR community.

We started by talking about Keystone Partners and their important work. Keystone Partners delivers custom career transition services and technology to connect people, organizations, and opportunities. They also provide Leadership Development programs and Executive Coaching Services.

Dave shared with me such a wonderful story about their Founder, Dave Melville and our Founder, Clark Willmott. These two gentlemen were competitors for years and built a terrific relationship over the years. He shared that Clark, in fact, ended up placing Keystone’s very first employee!

I asked Dave how their business at Keystone has impacted by COVID-19. He shared, “Our business has changed dramatically…we our offering consulting virtually…networking events have all also become virtual as well. Prior to these times, we were encouraging one on one face-to-face meetings as much as possible. All of our content workshops have been converted to Zoom…most have been good and have worked but you definitely lose something not being face to face….what has impressed me with the technology piece, however, is that you can present to large groups but also break into smaller groups…witnessed this with a recent NEHRA event and enjoyed how this worked.”

We then chatted about his successful podcast and he explained that it all happened organically. He started to talking to HR leaders and asking if they would be open to participating and the more conversations he had, the more HR execs have started to talk with him. He has talked with such folks as Russ Campanello (iRobot), Tracy Burns (NEHRA), Beth Grous (TripAdvisor), Steve Pemberton (WorkHuman), Danielle Stanton (SNHU) and more. You can tune in and find this on Keystone’s website as well as Linked In and NEHRA.

When asked how COVID-19 will change HR, Dave explained, “a major focus for HR leaders has been building great teams…they now have to figure how to do this remotely…projections are that up to 50% of people will be working remotely from now on…even for part of the week…so how do HR leaders build or maintain a great culture factoring in remote workforces? That is what they need to focus on now.”

I wrapped up by asking Dave for some words of wisdom for our HR leaders out there and as always he said some great advice. He said, “Lean on each other…there are so many resources out there.” Check out Dave’s podcast called The Hennessey Report where he talks with top HR leaders from all over the country….he has learned that HR leaders in particular have been amazing to approach and are always willing to talk, listen and help. He went on to say “reach out to your friends in search like Willmott..invaluable resource.”