MEET OURWORKFORCE READINESS DIRECTOR: Pierre Turner, PHR, SHRM-CP

Meet Pierre Turner, PHR, SHRM-CP, Talent Acquisition and Development Manager at Howard Energy Partners and Workforce Readiness Director for SHRM San Antonio.

Pierre is a strategic HR leader with more than a decade of experience in how organizations attract, develop, and retain talent. His work pairs workforce planning with analytics and practical tools: shorter time-to-hire, structured onboarding built for retention, and data-driven recruiting that improves both candidate quality and hiring-manager satisfaction. He also partners with leadership on compensation and benefits so total rewards stay competitive and aligned.

At Howard Energy Partners, a midstream energy company with operations across multiple states and into Mexico, that work sits close to the business. Beyond talent acquisition, he is known for building high-performing teams, mentoring HR professionals into stronger strategic partners, and introducing automations, dashboards, and feedback tools that cut administrative load and sharpen decisions. Compliance, audit readiness, and risk mitigation stay in the picture, alongside a culture where people feel valued.

On the SHRM San Antonio board, Pierre leads Workforce Readiness, connecting the chapter’s HR community to the skills, pipelines, and partnerships San Antonio’s employers actually need. He sees HR as both a safeguard and a growth engine: compliant and resilient, and built to unlock the workforce an organization will need next.

Q: Energy, infrastructure, and field operations are competing hard for skilled talent, and San Antonio is feeling that squeeze. From your seat in talent acquisition and development at Howard Energy Partners, what are local employers still getting wrong about workforce readiness, and what actually moves the needle?

Skilled talent stays scarce whatever the broader market does, and many of us still recruit for experience that already exists. That leaves every employer competing for the same small pool. What moves the needle is growing the pool: hire for what's hard to teach, like a safety mindset, reliability, and mechanical aptitude, then teach the technical skills. Involving operations leaders in defining what "ready" looks like keeps that training tied to the real work.

Q: You have shortened time-to-hire and built structured onboarding specifically to protect retention. Where do most organizations lose people between the offer and the first 90 days, and what have you changed so new hires stay?

Early turnover usually traces back to three moments: the wait between offer and start, the first weeks on the job, and the relationship with a new supervisor. Small steps help at each. Stay in touch through outreach, and have the supervisor engage during all facets of the new hire experience. Show candidates the real job before they accept and ensure there is a scaffolding for that hire to be successful. Give supervisors a simple 30/60/90-day plan, so new hires know where they stand.

Speed only matters if people stay.

Q: As Workforce Readiness Director, you sit between the chapter and the talent pipelines our members depend on. What should SHRM San Antonio members be doing now, with schools, veterans, or early-career talent, that they are not doing yet?

With schools, engage counselors and teachers to establish a relationship since they shape what students consider. With veterans, write postings around skills so military experience translates, and look at programs like DoD SkillBridge, which lets service members work with you for up to their last 180 days of service on military pay. With early-career talent, create true entry-level roles that teach the job.

We can also pool our demand. When twenty employers commit to interviewing every graduate of a training program, organizations have a reason to launch one. That's the bridge I want us to build.

Briana Garcia

President

Education Service Center, Region 20

Veronica Pacheco

President-Elect

Southwest Research Institute

Sandy Hernandez

Immediate Past President

Thomas J Henry Law

Sandy Hernandez

Thomas J Henry Law

Brandi Doyle

Development Director

Howard Energy Partners

Edward Contreras

Secretary

Endeavors

Ty Miyahara

College Relations Director

H. E. Butt Foundation

Shavonne L. Smith

Government Affairs Director

Ogletree Deakins

Pierre Turner

Workforce Readiness Director

Howard Energy Partners

Jennifer Reynosa

Membership Director

USAA

Rhonda Michel

Volunteer Director

Wells Fargo

Desiree Werland

Marketing & PR Director

Stronger Than Autoimmune

Kendrea Kelly, MBA

MEET OUR CHAPTER MANAGEMENT PROFESSIONAL: Kendrea Kelly

Kendrea Kelly is the operational backbone of SHRM San Antonio. As Chapter Management Professional, she handles the work most members never see—systems, processes, timelines, vendor coordination, compliance, communications flow, and the daily details that let a volunteer board focus on strategy, programming, and members.

She brings more than 12 years of association management experience, including her tenure as Certification Manager at the American Payroll Association / PayrollOrg. In that role she directed certification and recertification programs, oversaw exam development (job-task analysis, item writing, form assembly, cut scores), managed boards and committees of industry volunteers, negotiated vendor contracts, audited program finances, and served as the in-house expert on standards, accreditation, and operations. Earlier she streamlined recertification workflows, cut application turnaround time, coordinated thousands of exams while maintaining audit compliance, and built SOPs that reduced onboarding time for new staff.

That same discipline—process improvement, stakeholder management, and quiet reliability—now supports every SHRM San Antonio board member. When someone needs the answer, the file, the deadline, or the next step, they go to Kendrea.