MEET THE HR INFLUENCERS:
Mila
Lucio, MBA, CHRE, GPHR
OPTIMIZING POTENTIAL
By Kristy Rydz
With over 25 years of HR leadership experience in the fast-paced and
high-growth automotive industry, Mila Lucio was captivated by the idea
of working toward a bold goal as the chief human resources officer at
Green Shield Canada, the country’s only not-for-profit health and dental
benefit provider.
“Our mission is to create innovative solutions that improve access to better health. To be
able to deliver on that kind of mission – while exceeding customer expectations with bestin
class service and sustaining a successful business model through which we give back to
our communities – provided a much more fulfilling and rewarding outcome at the end of
the day, which was what really sold me,” said Lucio.
Utilizing her master’s degree in business administration, Lucio originally fell into the
HR profession after spending a few short months as an operations administrator at Union
Gas, before applying for an HR opening within the company.
“Once I started working, I realized this beautiful marriage between my passion for understanding
human nature and my results-focused orientation, and how those two come
together in the field of human resources,” said Lucio.
Almost three decades later and in her new role for just over year, she told HR Professional
about why she values employees who are coachable and how self-awareness is crucial to
being a good leader.
What was your first HR job?
Mila Lucio: I was a coordinator of salary administration at Union Gas. It was heavily
numbers-based and desk-oriented, so I have to say I didn’t really love that role. But it did
make me realize the types of things that I do enjoy and how I can leverage my love of understanding
people to help them achieve best outcomes.
Tell me about your current job. What are your main areas of responsibility?
ML: In a nutshell, my role is to optimize potential. I like that vision I’ve established for my
team because it’s about optimizing the potential of the organization and our people. As a
result, on a daily basis, I’m ultimately responsible for anything to do with talent management
and succession planning, overall performance optimization and the linkages to total
rewards design and overall workforce planning. As a member of the executive group, I am
also responsible for establishing and delivering on the corporate-wide strategy for the organization,
working with our board on HR-related items and acting as an executive coach
on people-related issues.
hr influencer
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HRPATODAY.CA ❚ OCTOBER 2016 ❚ 51