India Bastien Holley

Title

Director of People Operations

Organization

AMP Creative

Location

Dallas, Texas

LinkedIn

linkedin.com/in/india-bastien

Education

Associate degree in graphic design and web development (Design School of Czech Republic); bachelor's degree in marketing and merchandising design (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México)

Favorite Quote

"I define a leader as anyone who takes responsibility for finding the potential in people and processes and who has the courage to develop that potential." —Brené Brown

India Bastien Holley is a creator turned talent development professional. As director of people operations at AMP Creative, a custom learning solutions firm, Holley oversees the company's people strategy, which includes training; onboarding; performance management; recruitment; benefits; and diversity, equity, and inclusion. With a background in content strategy, marketing, design, and sales, Holley says an inquisitive mind and an interest in sociology led her to talent development.

How did you land in talent development?

I stumbled into candidate experience because I was viewing the candidate journey from a user experience/user interface perspective, which is where my field of study was. I quickly moved to a people operations role because I believe that one of the biggest gaps in people operations is to view that function with the user (in this case, the employee) in mind and market the experience (employer brand), sharing information (to enhance the experience) and treating employees as clients. The talent development field really came into my life because I love businesses, I am interested in how things work and why, and I truly believe in the betterment of work.

In what ways has your experience with design, content creation, and brand strategy helped you in your current role?

I use design and content creation daily. Brand strategy is so useful for internal communications, creating an intranet, and supporting change management. It can really support people operations initiatives from getting buy-in from leadership executives to creating buy-in company-wide.

How have you helped to improve the employee experience at AMP?

From creating a massive internal website (intranet) to organizing the departments and creating internal branding, I believe I have enhanced their experience with onboarding, ongoing learning, and cross-onboarding (if an employee moves from one department to another). Having someone who thinks of all the employees and their experiences, I believe I have encouraged the way we conduct business internally while being remote. Keeping that same mentality on how we recruit, hire, onboard, and offboard and how we plan for future growth or downsizing always has to have the lens of betterment of work.

What initiatives have you launched that have enhanced company culture and team unity among your distributed workforce?

One is our virtual lunch & learn program that is primarily run by our employee resource group/DEI team. You really can't enhance company culture without investing in your employee resource groups and giving platforms for those who want to be heard, feel safe, and carve out the path for not only themselves but their teams.