Delivering Outstanding Results

When Irma Lockridge, Chief People, and Systems Officer, joined CoorsTek seven years ago, there wasn’t a formal HR structure. Irma brought her experience and strategic vision to CoorsTek. She built a centralized, formal Human Resources structure, including implementing processes and tools to drive productivity and efficiencies across the organization regarding performance, hiring and retention, and workforce management. Her first step was to recruit Talent Acquisition and Talent Management experts to create a structure and develop resources to support this new work. Irma also oversees the information systems and corporate communications departments.

Regarding what makes CoorsTek unique, talent and culture is their differentiator! Irma established a mindset for the entire employee experience that serves as ground zero from which all HR work is based: Attract, Hire, Onboard, Develop & Grow, Engage, and Retain.

The guiding principles for this employee lifecycle must be leader-lead and include alignment with strategy, internal consistency, balancing global and local needs, company values, and employee engagement.

Learning and development is another critical talent success factor for Irma. “We prioritize learning and development for individuals and teams so that we grow our people to grow the business,” says Irma. She has worked diligently to establish strong rigor around workforce planning, which has led to a significant increase in skill attainment and development and has driven significant productivity and operational efficiencies.

Irma believes that the role of the human resources team is to act as a catalyst to enable growth across the organization by unlocking the potential of CoorsTek people to deliver outstanding results to the customers. “We are building a culture where everyone has clear objectives and understands what they are doing, why they are doing it, and how it impacts our business strategy,” adds Irma. “Our approach to recruitment, retention and talent development is aligned with our fundamental values known as The CoorsTek Way. These principles guide all of our interactions with customers, team members, families, communities, and world.”

Being a lifelong learner, Irma’s goal is to keep her skills current while evolving. These last few years have taught everyone the importance of pivoting with the unexpected. “You always have to be willing to try a different approach given new and unforeseen circumstances. I recently joined the board of directors of two incredible public companies to understand market dynamics better and keep external perspectives top of mind,” she explains. “The diversity of experiences and thoughts makes you a stronger leader.”

Irma has been at CoorsTek for seven years, and each year has been filled with change and opportunity. “We will continue the trajectory of growth for our talent acquisition and talent management functions with an eye toward more comprehensive leader development, training, and coaching opportunities,” she adds. “We will continue to develop the CoorsTek Academy and LEAD, our senior level leadership development program to support the expected growth of our business. The future of CoorsTek is very bright and I look forward to continuing to find ways to contribute.”

CoorsTek is a Colorado-based company that has thrived through multiple generations of family leadership and decades of history in the porcelain and ceramics industries. The company has historically been a US-based organization but, over the past 10 years, has undergone a significant effort to expand its global footprint by acquiring two ceramics companies, one in Europe and one in Japan, that doubled the company's size. The addition of these companies has helped to scale the company's growth in markets and regions outside the US.

The company’s vision is to Make the World Measurably Better. They have spent the past 10 years bringing three companies together as one, and as they do this, their story is evolving to one that is more global in nature yet still driven by their fundamental core values known as The CoorsTek Way. “The shift to a more global organization has required a change in mindset and forced us to think about the organization we need to be to operate in the global economy, with the challenges of integrating multiple cultures, languages, work styles, operating discipline, etc.,” elucidates Irma. “This strategy puts heavy emphasis on Talent & Systems, with ambitious targets to attract and retain talent and engage employees through development and leadership opportunities. Our goal in this area is for CoorsTek to be viewed internationally as the employer of choice in the ceramics industry and to have a dynamic and engaged workforce.”