Sabrina Isidore

Sabrina Isidore, Human Resources Director at Akonovia, brings over 15 years of experience building and scaling people functions. With a background in psychology, she partners with executive teams to advance inclusive culture, data-informed people strategy, employer branding and workforce practices that support sustained organizational growth.

Through this interview, Isidore emphasizes building HR from the ground up as a strategic partner to leadership. She highlights the importance of integrating inclusion and values into daily practice, utilizing data and dialog to shape the employee experience and leading with agility, authenticity and continuous adaptation through organizational growth.

AT A GLANCE:

• Laying the Right Foundations– Establishing and strengthening HR structures that can grow with the business while preserving clarity, consistency and trust.

• Leadership at the Table – Positioning HR as a true partner to the executive team, shaping decisions around inclusion, engagement and performance as business priorities.

• Insights Over Assumptions – Combining workforce data with continuous employee dialogue to inform smarter decisions on talent, development and experience.

• Staying Human through Change – Navigating rapid growth and transformation with agility, transparency and a strong commitment to values lived in everyday actions.

From Set-Up to Scale: Executing People Strategy

My path into HR began during my bachelor’s degree in psychology, when a course in organizational psychology changed how I understood the workplace. It showed how psychological insight could be applied inside organizations to influence and shape culture, leadership and people’s everyday experience. I did not envision myself practicing as a psychologist. Instead, I saw a way to utilize and apply those skills within organizations to support people and serve the communities I worked in. That realization led me into HR.

“With strong support from leadership, we hold structured individual check-ins with every employee at least twice a year. These conversations are meaningful dialogs that our people look forward to.”

I entered the field at the entry level, working as a recruiter and trainer and gaining experience across both small and large organizations. Those early roles allowed me to learn by doing and to see how people systems function in practice, including where structure makes a real difference and where its absence creates challenges. That growing understanding led me to WINK Technologies, where I was hired to build the HR department from the ground up. It was my first role as HR Director and a defining one. Over nearly three years, building and structuring the HR function showed me how intentional HR structure supports organizational growth while staying grounded in people and values.

When I joined Akonovia, HR processes existed, but the structure required reinforcement. The focus became strengthening the foundation, building on what was in place and creating systems designed to scale. For nearly three years, this work has positioned HR as a strategic function driving clarity, engagement and long-term performance. Today, I partner closely with the executive team to deliver a people strategy aligned with the company’s growth and mission, using HR metrics and workforce analytics to guide decisions, strengthen values across entities and cultivate a high-performance, inclusive culture. The objective remains constant in building workplaces where people feel supported, empowered, and able to perform at their best.

People Analytics in Practice: Data Plus Dialog

My approach to data-driven HR starts with sequencing. Advanced analytics only add value once the fundamentals are in place. At Akonovia, that meant first building reliable systems by leveraging our Applicant Tracking System, Human Resources Information System (HRIS) and internal surveys to understand the workforce clearly.

Employee Net Promoter Score feedback plays a central role in that process. Combined with qualitative input, it helps surface trends and priorities that I bring into executive discussions to support informed decision-making.

At the same time, data in silos is never enough. With strong support from leadership, we hold structured individual check-ins with every employee at least twice a year. These conversations are meaningful dialogs that our people look forward to. They do not replace score-based evaluations. Annual and midyear reviews remain in place for all employees. Together, these practices help us stay aligned on objectives, surface challenges early and ensure our employee value proposition continues to reflect what people need as the organization grows.

Future-Proofing HR: Depth before Hype

For me, future-proofing HR starts with depth rather than speed. Working alongside the executive team, we maintain a succession planning approach that actively tracks skills across the organization. As employees grow and develop new capabilities, these changes are documented, providing us with visibility into both current strengths and future readiness.

Still, systems alone do not retain talent. What truly sustains engagement is consistency between what we say and what people experience on a daily basis. That’s why we position psychological safety, well-being, learning opportunities and flexibility as not just perks. They are expectations embedded into how we operate.

When values are lived internally, employees become natural ambassadors. That authenticity extends outward through leadership visibility, industry participation and university engagement. It reinforces Akonovia’s reputation as a workplace defined by credibility rather than messaging.

Leading through Growth: Staying Nimble

Growth has tested our HR model in real time. When I joined Akonovia in 2023, we were about 30 employees. After a merger in Fall 2024, we grew to 80 and today we are approaching 90, with plans to continue expanding.

That pace has fortified the importance of agility. Staying nimble—remaining open to learning, asking questions and adapting quickly—has allowed us to manage risk while supporting change. Labor regulations, work models and employee expectations continue to evolve, requiring constant recalibration. Hybrid work, for example, was never a major disruption. Flexibility was already embedded in our culture.

Employee-led committees further support this balance. From onboarding and training to health and safety and employee experience, these groups operate with clear mandates and give employees a direct role in shaping how we improve. Innovation, compliance and execution move forward together because change is shaped with employees, not imposed on them.

Advice to HR Leaders: Tools, Not Titles

The most important is nimbleness. As technology advances and expectations evolve, HR must continuously adjust to remain relevant. That requires emotional intelligence, openness to learning and the confidence to ask for help.

Transformation does not happen alone. Strong networks and genuine partnerships with the executive team matter. When leadership works together—grounded in shared values and a willingness to change—HR can support growth without losing integrity.