Breaking Cycles Through HR: Rena Cater’s Approach to Employee Support at Eagle Transport

Anthony Codispoti (00:00)
Welcome to another edition of the inspired stories podcast where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they’ve overcome adversity. My name is Anthony Cotispodi and today’s guest is Rena Kader, vice president of human resources at Eagle Transport Corporation. They were founded in 1969 and are headquartered in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Eagle delivers high quality transportation services across petroleum,

chemicals and plastics industries. They believe in doing things right the first time and are constantly improving through training and teamwork. With a strong emphasis on safety, competitiveness and responsibility, EGLE values excellence, trust, integrity, respect and hard work above all else. Rena brings over 25 years of human resources experience and has been in her current role since October of 21.

She earned her MBA in organizational development from Husson University and holds a professional human resource certification. Known for her strategic thinking, strong work ethic, and attention to detail, Rena is passionate about creating supportive workplaces and helping others grow. Her extensive background has helped EGLE maintain a people-focused culture while achieving operational excellence.

Now before we get into all that good stuff, today’s episode is brought to you by my company, Ad Back Benefits Agency, where we offer very specific and unique employee benefits that are both great for your team and fiscally optimized for your bottom line. Imagine being able to give your employees free access to doctors, therapists, and prescription medications. And here’s the fun part. The program actually puts more money in your employees’ pockets and the company’s too.

One recent client was able to increase net profits by $900 per employee per year. Now results vary for each company and some organizations may not be eligible. To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at addbackbenefits.com. All right, back to our guest today, VP of Human Resources at Eagle Transport Corporation, Rena Kader. Thanks for making the time to share your story today.

Rena Cater (02:17)
Thank you for having me.

Anthony Codispoti (02:19)
So Rena, you have a long history in the HR space. What first drew you into the field?

Rena Cater (02:26)
Well, I think the field kind of found me, but my first inkling that I really wanted to work with people is kind of a funny story. When I was working at an electric company between my junior and senior year of college, and at the time my degree was in administration and computer sciences. I wanted to be, yes, I wanted to be a computer programmer. And so I went to work for a summer.

Anthony Codispoti (02:47)
very different.

Rena Cater (02:54)
and in their programming department. And I was in a little cubicle with at the time a green screen. So I just aged myself and data cards that really ages myself. And I discovered after probably the first month that this was not for me. So then I went and I added a bunch of other management classes onto my ⁓ my senior year.

and ended up graduating. I couldn’t change my major, so I still graduated with a BA in computer sciences with a minor in math, ⁓ but was very focused on this was I wasn’t going to pursue a computer career.

Anthony Codispoti (03:37)
Okay, so how did you specifically choose HR then?

Rena Cater (03:42)
So I started out at, ⁓ a utility company as my first career job. And I worked in a department that was… And again, so back when I started working, you got a ground level position, you were happy to do that, and you were gonna work your way up the ladder. So I started in at that point, it was an administrative assistant.

And I think the first time I realized that sometimes people aren’t treated the way they should be is shortly after I had my daughter. And I was told by my manager at that time that if I had known you were going to be getting married and having children, I never would have hired you. Yeah. 1980, like 1992.

Anthony Codispoti (04:30)
boy. What year was this? I want to frame this.

Holy cow. Okay.

Rena Cater (04:38)
Yeah.

And so I had an opportunity to move to a subsidiary of that utility. Cause at that point, that was when those utilities started to, you know, become parents. And then they had all these subsidiaries underneath them. So when I went to work at the other subsidiary, remember writing like a three page letter to the HR department and explaining everything that had occurred, including the, during my pregnancy and things like that.

only to learn probably six months after the fact that he was promoted. So I’m like, that’s not the way life should go. But I had an opportunity to work in many, different departments at this subsidiary. And my first real introduction to what I consider to be kind of part HR because we’re so intertwined was working for the safety department. And then I started to work on projects with the quality department.

Anthony Codispoti (05:14)
Okay.

Rena Cater (05:37)
And then I was asked, or I moved, I should say, to another subsidiary. And they, I was working as an admin or an office manager, and they came to me and asked me if I would be willing to do human resources at one of their small little hydro plants. And I looked at them and said, well, I’ve not done human resources, but they felt like all of my experience lent itself to that. So I agreed to do it. I took a chance.

and I went for my different certificate classes and I built an HR department for that. And I’ve been in HR ever since. I built one.

Anthony Codispoti (06:12)
You built one. It wasn’t like you

came in at the ground level of this HR and worked your way up. Like you were the person and you built the team that had to be intimidating. like you had worked in some of these areas around it, but you had never worked in specifically in HR. It seems, it seems a little mind blowing that they would ask you to start the department and create it.

Rena Cater (06:40)
Yeah, it was. And again, this is a subsidiary. So I had contacts at the parent company. I utilize them a lot to help me grow it. ⁓ And I pretty much read at the time the regular, you know, the standards book around labor laws and ⁓ the true register. And I, which is very boring, by the way. But, but you have to know this stuff.

And anytime I had an opportunity to go to, whether it was a conference or a certificate class or anything like that, I did that because I knew I needed to know and understand. And I was never afraid to ask questions. And I wanted to make sure that whatever we were doing, we were doing it right and within the compliance. And I was treating people, know, treating people the way they needed to be treated. And that was my first introduction and really learning about labor law.

learning about benefits, ⁓ all of those things.

Anthony Codispoti (07:43)
You know, anytime that I’ve started in a new field, started a business in a new industry, ⁓ it’s only ever worked when I’ve had somebody very seasoned and experienced that I could learn from. And it sounds like you did have access to that through ⁓ some of the other subsidiaries, but, you know, hats off to you for going in and like forming ⁓ the HR department ⁓ on your own and not having worked in that field before. That’s incredible.

Rena Cater (08:13)
Thank you.

Anthony Codispoti (08:14)
So ⁓ let’s move a little closer to present day and then we’re actually going to rewind a bit. But I want to know how the opportunity to join Eagle came about.

Rena Cater (08:26)
That’s also kind of a funny story. I was working obviously at another company and I had been talking with a vendor in regards to a product and we had been talking probably for six months and he was a salesperson and we, as we were talking, he was saying, well, this company is, I’ve been talking with this company and that company and then he paused and he goes, you know,

I’ve been talking with a company in North Carolina that’s looking for a VP of HR and I really feel like you would be a great fit. So my first thought in all honesty was, okay, this is an interesting sales tactic. So he asked me for my resume. I sent him my resume thinking I’m never going to hear back or anything about it, which is fine.

And lo and behold, the president of Eagle contacted me. We did a team’s interview a week later. Um, and my, yeah, I think it was a week later. We did our in-person interview that morning and then in the afternoon, um, actually we did it on Thursday, Friday. I had a phone call and was off of the job. So that was fast.

Anthony Codispoti (09:39)
That was fast.

What do you think they saw in you?

Rena Cater (09:47)
I think that we really connected on a level of ⁓ how EGLE wants to treat their employees. So on that cultural level, I had many of the same mindsets that the current executive team had that we want to treat people fairly. We want to do what’s right for them. We want to try to give them benefits that mean something. And we want to help people grow. ⁓

and really keep that family feel, even though we’re a company with over a thousand team members.

Anthony Codispoti (10:21)
So paint a picture for us. What exactly does Eagle do?

Rena Cater (10:26)
Eagle delivers petroleum. That is probably about 80 % of their business. And we are an independent carrier. So a lot of people think because we deliver it, we own the fuel. Well, we don’t. We’re an independent carrier. So somebody who does own the fuel, and I’m just going to say so that people will recognize the names of the stores, but let’s say a Circle K might hire us to deliver fuel to one of their stores. We all know Circle

has her own trucks, but we are that person. And we do, you know, that’s a 24-7 job. But the really good part about that is our drivers get to be home pretty much every night because it’s, you know, we have terminals across the Southeast and as far as Texas. So we…

⁓ are able to put people where the loading racks are to get the fuel into the trucks and then we service a local area so that we can have our guys home. Our chemical business is a little different. Some of those folks are out two or three days ⁓ at a time because those are longer hauls.

Anthony Codispoti (11:36)
What’s the geography that you cover?

Rena Cater (11:41)
We have as far north as Maryland, as far west as Texas, and as far south as Port Everglades, Florida.

Anthony Codispoti (11:50)
Okay, that’s a pretty big territory. I think now I want to do the rewind. Actually, before we do the rewind, in 2022, you got your MBA. What was behind that decision to go back to school?

Rena Cater (11:52)
It is.

Well, I had started trying to go for my MBA early on, but I had children, I was trying to build my career and life just got busy. And then I had started to pick it up again and then both of my parents got sick. And so my focus was taking care of them. And even though my mom early on in my life didn’t think college was the way to go, ⁓

She knew that I wanted to finish or to get my masters and she was encouraging for me to do that. So ⁓ just before I lost her, I made a promise to her and I guess to myself at the same time that even though I had started this journey many, many, years ago, I was going to complete it. And after she passed away, ⁓ that time that I was no longer spending taking care of her, I took to start classes back up.

Anthony Codispoti (13:06)
So I think now is probably the right time to do that rewind. Regular listeners of the show know that my favorite question to ask in the interview, I usually say for a little bit later, about a serious challenge that you’ll overcome in your life. And I think listeners are going to understand why I’m moving it a little bit earlier in the show, because this impacts a lot of how you approach life and how you approach your job today. And so as we rewind to your upbringing,

Rena Cater (13:31)
Mm-hmm.

Anthony Codispoti (13:34)
⁓ I’d like for you to share with the audience a bit about what that was like and how it influenced you going forward.

Rena Cater (13:42)
Sure. You know, one of the things that I find very interesting is when people meet me today, and maybe even, you know, five, 10 years ago, they have this image of how I was brought up, right? It was a picket fence. It was a perfect family. I, you know, everything was, I was handed stuff and nothing could be further from the truth.

I was not abused, let me tell you that, but I grew up in a dysfunctional family. My mom had been married two times prior to my birth, so I had four siblings that were half siblings. I had a sister and three brothers, and then she met my father and she had me. So it was a blended family.

My dad didn’t always get along with my brothers for sure. And both of my parents drank. And let me give you a little backstory as to why I feel that happened the way that it did. I was almost four years old when my sister, who at the time was 60, was killed in a car accident on the way home from high school. And it happened on my oldest brother’s birthday. ⁓

And she took a ride home with her best friend’s boyfriend in order to get to beat my brother home to make him a cake, because that’s who she was. So that loss rippled throughout the family. And I think my mom’s way of coping with it was to drink. I think my dad was a drinker to start with, but I was young enough where I probably didn’t really notice that. ⁓ So they both did.

And there were many feuds in my household. I was on a first name basis with our local sheriff. But again, they weren’t physically abusive to me. And a lot of people that are hearing this are thinking, oh my god, she was abused. She grew up in an alcohol family. But at the end of the day, they never stopped loving me.

were a little misguided. They had focused on some wrong things and thought that they were doing whatever they could do that was best at that moment. They had to deal with a lot. And my brothers probably got even the biggest front of it because they were older. they, kids rather they…

At the moment, they don’t want it, but kids want guidance and they need guidance. So I was pretty much left to my own vices. ⁓ I kind of became the older sibling being the youngest sibling, if that makes sense.

Anthony Codispoti (16:45)
So you were some sort of a caregiver role or like a big helper.

Rena Cater (16:50)
In many ways, I was definitely a big helper. My oldest brother would come and pick me up and he would be having a fight with his girlfriend or just want to chat. And I can’t remember the specifics of our conversations, but I remember they were pretty deep. And by far, probably I was the closest to him. My other two brothers, without guidance, they were at that age.

So they became very rebellious. They didn’t make a lot of good choices. ⁓ So when they did get in trouble, arrested in jail, ⁓ they would ⁓ often reach out to me. Because at a very young age, had started, ⁓ I babysat from the time I was seven years old. And it was my nephew, let me just, and then I…

Anthony Codispoti (17:42)
But seven’s the age

where you need baby sat, not where you’re doing the babysitting.

Rena Cater (17:45)
But

yeah, well, you know, it was for short periods of time. Let me clarify that. But it wasn’t too long. I mean, I, you know, I, I babysat from that point forward. And then ⁓ my aunt had a ceramic shop where she would actually pour the molds and my mom worked there at the time too. So I would go and work there ⁓ during school break and summer and whatnot. And I’d make so much money for every little mold that I

that I would pour was like five cents or a quarter or something like that. I would help her check out people and help her get set up for her painting classes. So I was always trying to make money. And then, you know, as soon as I had, was able to get a work permit. I did. And then I started, you know, I worked office job and then on the weekends I’d work at like a pizza shop. ⁓ So I’ve always been a very hard worker. And part of that is because I always felt like ⁓

No one was going to take care of me but me. And so I would help my brothers. I probably enabled them to get in trouble sometimes because I’d be there to bail them out, so to speak. ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (18:58)
And how

old are you when you’re bailing them out using air quotes?

Rena Cater (19:03)
am anywhere from nine, 10 years old to up until probably my really early 20s when ⁓ now my ex husband, who is also deceased, ⁓ told me I had to stop. The last time one of my brothers called and said, Rita, can you bring me some cigarettes and a pair of jeans? ⁓ And he’s, yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (19:31)
Wow.

So this is, ⁓ I mean, it’s at a very early age, you seemed like you had an awareness beyond your years of what was going on, the chaos and the dysfunction that surrounded you and your family. I don’t tell me if this rings true. It almost seems like the only way for you to get some sort of normalcy or order was for you.

at a very young age to create it and to try to spread it to those in your family. Yes.

Rena Cater (20:08)
You know, I never heard it put that way, but yes, I think that does ring true. ⁓ It’s the only thing, I only had control over what I could control, which wasn’t a lot at that age, right? But where I could bring it, I did. You know, I always wanted everyone to get together for the holidays, you know? And I don’t know why, because still all the time it ended up in a fight. But you know, we still tried.

Anthony Codispoti (20:31)
Yeah.

Did it feel like a burden at the time? Or do you look back on it now as a burden?

Rena Cater (20:41)
It didn’t feel like a burden at the time. It felt almost normal for me. And I probably didn’t realize that my upbringing was not typical until I really started going over to friends houses as I got older. And even looking back now, I don’t view it as a burden. I view it as something I learned from and created the person that I am today.

You know, I remember my mom as she was getting more sick and whatnot telling me that she didn’t want to be a burden to me. And I told her, I mom, you’re not a burden. And even though some people are going to not agree with this statement, I told her, you took care of me for 18 years of my life. It’s my turn to take care of you.

Anthony Codispoti (21:26)
and the people who wouldn’t agree with that statement, what supporting evidence would they give?

Rena Cater (21:33)
the fact that I didn’t have that guidance growing up and what did my parents really do to care for me. But at the end of the day, they had a roof over my head. The minute I started working a job, I bought my own clothes, I bought my own car, paid for my own insurance. But ⁓ those are all okay with me because it built responsibility and it is who I am today. And I think it enables me to

really put myself in the place of others that are struggling and understand where they’re coming from. I really, really hope, give me the tools in my tool belt to help them break the cycle for themselves, just like I broke it for my family. I’m an anomaly out of my core group.

Anthony Codispoti (22:23)
Yeah, I actually, I want to explore that a little bit because I’m curious as people around you are, in my words, not yours, kind of swirling down the drain. ⁓ at a very young age, you’re doing the opposite. You are becoming stronger. You are helping and supporting those around you at an age where that should not be expected of you. And even today, as you look back on that, I’m hearing in the words that you’re using a lot of gratitude, you know,

hey, they put a roof over my head. They were kind of doing the best that they knew how to do. ⁓ And you started off the story with pointing out that you were never abused and that you know that your parents always loved you. Why do you think, do you have any sense of why you went one way and some of the people around you were going in the complete opposite direction?

Rena Cater (23:17)
I think that…

I knew I didn’t want a life of, you know, jail. And I wanted to have a life for myself that maybe I did see on TV, right? Or that some of my friends had. I wanted the white picket fence. I wanted the nice home. I wanted that family unit where kids were kids. And we did things together that didn’t have to involve alcohol and all of those things.

⁓ so, and I knew that in order for me to be able to do that, I had to do something different, right? I couldn’t just get done high school and go get a job and just, you know, never better myself. So I, I always strive to better myself. And ironically, I never got in trouble at school. ⁓ which brings up a little funny story in eighth grade, cause at that time we went K through eight and one, one building.

in eighth grade, my eighth grade teacher said, I’m going to give you a detention just because you need to have one because you never have. He kept me like five minutes, but yeah. That’s so I had to. Yeah. I was always a rule follower, I guess. ⁓ in, many senses, ⁓ now, you know, don’t talk to me about driving my car, but anyway.

Anthony Codispoti (24:34)
just so you had the experience of being a quote unquote bad kid. That’s funny.

Well, now

I have to. What’s the problem with you driving your car?

Rena Cater (24:54)
⁓ back then I had a lead foot and, ⁓ and I would, you know, race, ⁓ mile marker to mile marker on the interstate. So I had a little bit of rebel in me, but that’s where, that’s where it really showed. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (25:07)
Okay. That– that’s where it came out. Yeah. ⁓

you know, you said something earlier, Reena, about, ⁓ you know, you went to get your MBA. Mom, years ago, originally wasn’t on board with sort of the direction you were taking with your life. Can you say more about that?

Rena Cater (25:19)
Mm-hmm.

Sure, because I had been working at ⁓ the Veterans Administration actually from the minute that I had a work permit, she thought that I should just work on getting into full time with the VA. It’s a good job. You have good chances. You don’t need to go to school. You’re spending money that you don’t have to spend and things like that. And I was very adamant that, no, mom, I’m going to school.

And she, so I filled out all my own financial aid paperwork, all of that to make it happen. And I worked two and three jobs during college. I stayed on campus year round because I took classes during the summer as well.

Anthony Codispoti (26:08)
And what was it that softened her view later on?

Rena Cater (26:12)
I think that as I, when I graduated and the jobs that I had and she saw me, you know, kind of move my way up the ladder from an admin. ⁓ Unfortunately, she never got to see me be a VP, but she did get to see me be a manager. And I think that she realized then that, you know, maybe my choice was the right choice.

because I don’t believe some of those opportunities would have occurred had I not had that degree.

Anthony Codispoti (26:45)
What was driving you so hard to get that degree? mean, you know, at that age, we are impressionable and, you know, our parents, can sway us. They can influence how we think. Was it sort of these trips to your friend’s houses and seeing, wow, there’s a different life that’s possible for me?

Rena Cater (27:01)
I think it was definitely part of that, but I always wanted to be more than a high school diploma. And I don’t mean that in a bad way because you got to remember that back then a lot of jobs, if you didn’t have a degree, you didn’t even get an interview. And honestly, I initially wanted to be a lawyer, but I couldn’t afford that school.

So that’s how I ended up, you know, going for, you know, administration and computer sciences, which was up and coming. It was the thing to do. And I thought that could be a really good career. I was good with math. I have a good attention to detail. So I figured I could do that job. ⁓ But I think in some way, I always kind of went against the grain, ⁓ you know, with with my parents.

⁓ you know, even when there were parties at my house, I would be the person and I would, people would pay me to go to the refrigerator and get them a beer. So, you know, I just, I utilized any opportunity I had made a positive.

Anthony Codispoti (28:15)
And so, Reena, today, how are you leveraging some of those challenging experiences growing up to help other people?

Rena Cater (28:24)
Well, you know, it is very, it’s much easier for people to relate to somebody if they can understand that that person didn’t have that silver spoon in their mouth when they were born. They didn’t have that perfect childhood. And I’ll share with you actually the most recent story, which, which I have to say, I’m so happy for this person. ⁓ Probably a couple of months ago, we had a young lady that started working in our office and actually in HR and

She was having some very challenging times, abusive relationship to the point of, you know, physical bruising and a restraining order. And so, you know, immediately my protective mode kicked in, right? And I started to talk with her about that. And we have a wonderful program at Eagle, which we’ll talk about in a little bit. It’s a care coach program.

And she also speaks with him and spoke with him then and continues to do so. So as she was talking to me, I could tell she was, know, because we talked a few times and, he got bonded out. And then there was this, there was a big to do with that. And that’s when she actually physically got hurt. So anyway, he went right back into jail. And I finally told her, I said, look,

I said, I understand where you’re coming from. said, I, my childhood was not perfect. And the first thing she said to me was really, she goes, I figured you had a perfect life. And I said, no, no, far from. I said, but you know what? You can make that change now for you. And if you make it for you, you’re making that change for your children. You can break the cycle. have that power and we will do everything in our power to assist you to do that.

And we did, we got her in touch with people and she has done all of the right things and she never gave up. She literally probably made about 30 phone calls to try to find a place to live for her and her four children. 29 of those calls were no. And I’m so happy to say that she’s moving into her own place October 1st. And it’s a rental, it’s a nice rental, it’s a three bedroom.

And she did that. And she did it all on her own. And I say that because all it took was her listening, believing, and trying. And she’s done it. And I told her the other day how proud of her I was that she broke the cycle and that she’s done that for her kids as well.

Anthony Codispoti (31:09)
That’s awesome. And you know, hearing your story, it reminds me of, know, the reason I really like to ask the question about the hard challenge is because I think there’s this natural human tendency to look at people from the outside and people looking at you. You said, you know, in this moment in particular, I just assumed you had the perfect life growing up. Like you have no idea what somebody’s been through to get to where they are. And so it’s really helpful to kind of pull back that

hurting a little bit and share. So people are like, I’m not the only one who went through X, Y, Z. I’m not the only one who’s having a hard time with something. And when you hit that hard thing, that’s not the time to quit. It’s not the time to throw in the towel. It’s not the time to let yourself swirl down the drain. You need to pick yourself up. You have to figure out a way to put one foot in front of the other. And that’s, I think, the hope that you’re giving people by sharing your story and offering

you know, experiences and lending a hand to them.

Rena Cater (32:12)
I certainly hope so, because I’m not sharing my story. I don’t want sympathy. I don’t want any of that because my life is great. I’m very happy. I have a job that I love. I work with people that I absolutely admire. ⁓ I have two beautiful children and several grandchildren. I’m a happy, happy person. ⁓

You know, I just want to help others to get out of whatever rut that they think they’re in. Because all ruts are very, very temporary. Even the one that I was in from the age of, you know, almost four till…

18, 19, 20, whatever, right? It’s a long route, but you know, there were moments you come out and then you go back in along that way, but you just have to be willing to learn from it and not get stuck in it. Don’t be the victim, you know? Just learn from it.

Anthony Codispoti (33:01)
It’s a long rut.

Mm.

Tell us about the care coach program at Eagle. What is that?

Rena Cater (33:25)
⁓ I love this program ⁓ and I was so happy when I even learned that they had it. So the care coach program is ⁓ a business that we have come in ⁓ and they have coaches. We have a care coach at every single one of our terminals. So approximately 22 of them. And well, some of them have multiple terminals, I guess, if they’re close enough in proximity. So maybe 20.

They are pastors, but they also are ⁓ educated in counseling and so forth. And it is a completely confidential program paid for completely by the company. And they are there to listen. If you are having, ⁓ whether it’s marital issues, financial issues, issues with your children, issues with your job, just feeling down yourself, struggling with weight, struggling with a medical problem.

anything like that. They are there to listen, to help. They have a lot of different resources and they’re available during the workday. They’re available by cell phone. They’ll meet you for coffee, whatever it takes. So, and I think that for the people that utilize them, it’s made a huge difference and we’ve had a lot of really good feedback from it. And obviously we don’t know who all uses them unless they choose to share it with me.

Anthony Codispoti (34:53)
Wow, that’s tremendous. Is this a program that you brought in or was this in place by the time you joined the team?

Rena Cater (35:01)
This was in place when I joined the team, but at that point, I think we only had it in three locations. So since I’ve been there, ⁓ we’ve put it at all of our locations. And it’s really a program that my ⁓ boss brought in initially and ⁓ something that I support 110%.

Anthony Codispoti (35:21)
I’m going to guess that this was part of what encouraged you to take the role because you’re saying that you guys really connected on the level of taking care of employees. That was something you had in common.

Rena Cater (35:34)
Yes, the care coach program and honestly just the conversation that I got to have with the executive team. And ⁓ I think the acknowledgement that when I did talk about those moments when I got to help employees and that that’s what I feel my job is about. Yes, it comes with the hard stuff too, right? It’s certainly not all roses and gumdrops, but

The good things offset that by far. If I help one person, it makes up for all of the tough things that I had to do. ⁓ the fact that they acknowledge that, and most importantly, my boss who acknowledged it as well. And I think we’ve made some changes at Eagle, probably nothing real earth shattering. We’ve added some benefits and things like that. But I think the employees have a

new sense that they can contact me and talk to me and I’ll work with them as much as I can. I don’t undermine their manager, you know, unless there’s something going on, but I, you know, that’s not my, my intent. It’s just to help them sometimes work through or to understand maybe even the manager’s point of view.

Anthony Codispoti (36:51)
What are some of the benefits that you’ve added recently? Whether they’re traditional benefits or just, you other perks to, you know, kind of keep your employees happy.

Rena Cater (36:56)
⁓ so.

Yeah.

Yeah. So, you know, we obviously have all of your traditional benefits, but we did make a change a couple years ago with our prescription provider, which has managed to save our employees a lot of money. And obviously the company too, because it’s kind of hand in hand. ⁓ But we have introduced a cancer care program ⁓ that will handhold

somebody through that whole process and even suggest like second opinions. They’ll review and it’s nurses that have worked in cancer care forever. And they’ll review the documentation of the medical records and determine if what they’re getting for treatments really the right treatment. ⁓ And then we’ve also have a keep it simple surgery in place that we can essentially depending on where our team member lives.

they may have access if they need to have a knee replacement or rotator cuff or something like that, it might be completely free for them. Yeah, so we keep trying to put those things in and then little simple things that cost us nothing like working advantage program. It’s just a discount program. People can go on if they’re gonna go to an amusement park or something, there might be discounted tickets on that for them.

Anthony Codispoti (38:02)
Wow, that’s incredible.

Rena Cater (38:22)
and things, you know, things like that. It’s a lot, so people don’t remember most of them, but that’s okay.

Anthony Codispoti (38:31)
That happens sometimes. Are there any other ⁓ maybe like innovative things, forward thinking, HR practices that you’ve introduced? Perhaps something that involves technology or mobile workforce solutions? Anything to keep your employees engaged, productive, happy?

Rena Cater (38:33)
It does.

Yeah, so I don’t know if it’s for thinking, ⁓ you know, because we have so many terminals, it’s hard for our drivers. Our drivers don’t have a work email per se, right? It’s a personal email. So their communication before prior to me was pretty much the either getting a note in their boxes or seeing something posted on a wall. We also have satellite locations where that means there’s no

No brick and mortar building. It’s just like a parking lot where our trucks are. So that we can better accommodate our customers. So those drivers don’t even have a box to go to. So we put in digital screens at all of our terminals. So that we’re able to advertise on that screen what’s happening, what’s new. We say happy birthday, we say happy anniversary, all of those things as well.

⁓ and then we also just introduced an intranet site. and on that, you know, we have, documents that most people like to get to, and it’s all in one spot. So it’s easier to find. And they are, can chat with each other. ⁓ but more importantly, especially in our line of business, our, our terminal managers now have access to send out, ⁓ an email to all of their.

reports or even just a group of them, let’s say at a satellite location, you know, don’t come in today, there’s a storm or we’re closed because of, you know, hurricane or whatever. And given that we’re in Florida or even Northwestern Carolina, unfortunately, you never know when that may happen.

Anthony Codispoti (40:24)
Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, it sounds awesome being able to introduce those communication tools really helpful. You know, I mean, there’s some work environments where people are just naturally congregated all the time. And, you know, the transportation field, like you guys are in. Yeah. People are dispersed. They spend most of their working time outside of those central gathering points. And so you need a way to stay in touch with them. And, and I’m going to guess that, you know, you’ve probably got some tools through that communication method.

Rena Cater (40:39)
Mm-hmm.

that.

Anthony Codispoti (41:03)
to be able to help build the culture and make people feel involved and included.

Rena Cater (41:11)
We certainly try, we share ⁓ whatever’s going on within the terminal. If they’re okay with it, we’ll share with it with all terminals. As simple as dressing up for Halloween, ⁓ hosting a family picnic, ⁓ having a celebration for 5,000 safe loads without any incidences, ⁓ terminal of the year celebration, meaning that they

They met all of their, all the marks, whether it be production, ⁓ income, and so forth, right? Safety, all of those things. So we try to share that across the board. A lot of it people will see on Facebook from us as well as LinkedIn, but we will also put it on those digital screens. Birth of a new child, right? Congratulations to them and when they want it shared and we’ll do those things. Trying to keep it, everyone connected.

And then we’ll share news from corporate office as well out on those screens.

Anthony Codispoti (42:13)
As you look back over your 20 plus years in HR, how have you seen the role of HR in companies evolve?

Rena Cater (42:24)
I believe that the role was very transactional before, right? You had a policy, it was black and white. Did this incident, did this issue, whatever it might be, fit in this policy? Nope, they violated the policy. Okay, they get written up. Or, well, no, it’s okay, it’s allowed per the policy, right? They took the human out of it.

Anthony Codispoti (42:52)
Mm-mm.

Rena Cater (42:53)
And, ⁓ and I remember probably my very first meeting with my new team at Eagle, you know, I told them, said, we’re going to put the human back into human resources. ⁓ you know, because they, that department had become transactional to the point where if a driver needed something, they would communicate the answer to the terminal manager and have a terminal manager tell the driver. And I’m like, no, no, that’s not what we’re going to do.

Right? ⁓ Well, we’re going to we’re going to talk to drivers. We’re going to help drivers. We’re going to help anybody in the company directly. We don’t have to. If they’re asking a benefit question or they’re asking about their pay time off policy, that doesn’t have to go through a terminal manager or their manager. Right. We can work with people directly. And that was a pretty big switch for Eagle and a big switch for my team. I might add.

Anthony Codispoti (43:47)
How did you navigate that? When there was sort of this chain of command that existed before, I’m going to guess HR felt almost insular. Like, ⁓ you know, we don’t communicate directly with, you know, the person asking the question. I don’t know if that was comfortable or uncomfortable to them, but making that change had to be something different.

Rena Cater (44:09)
Yeah, it was definitely different, but I really feel like most of the folks on my team were happy with that. ⁓ Because they, know, sometimes some drivers you ended up talking to anyway, because they were just persistent ones. But ⁓ I really feel like, you know, it added to the workload a little bit, but the message got to them and it got to them the correct way. You know, when

It’s like anything, right? If you tell a message to somebody and have them deliver their message to somebody else, it’s like that telephone game, right? It never comes out quite the same. So, ⁓ you know, and then as far as, you know, presenting that whole idea to our terminal managers, ⁓ I remember the very first manager meeting that I went to, I did a presentation on, you know, we’re putting the human back in human resources, which means some of the admin stuff that you’re doing.

that you don’t have time to do because you’re running a terminal, we’re gonna take that off your plate now. ⁓ for the most, it was an adjustment. Some adjusted much quicker than others, but I think it’s all working pretty well now.

Anthony Codispoti (45:22)
Can you think of a story that embodies this ⁓ idea that Eagle really prides itself on of doing things right the first time? An anecdote that would really help people understand how that plays out in the day to day.

Rena Cater (45:40)
Yeah. You know, ⁓ we meet every week ⁓ and usually we talk about, you know, anything that maybe didn’t go quite so good the week prior and or those things that went well. ⁓ At the end of the day, humans are humans. So you can’t do everything right the first time. But we certainly do try. We put a new driver through training almost 30 straight days.

well, full days, should say 30 full days before we allow them to pull a load on their own, right? ⁓ Because it’s petroleum deliveries are not like your typical cargo, right? You don’t back up to a dock, you don’t get loaded and then you don’t go back up to a different dock and get unloaded, right? You are getting in and out of the truck. You have to know which tank to…

to dump which fuel, you have to put the right fuel in the right compartment in your truck. So there are a lot of factors and there’s math involved in all that. So we do a lot of training and we try to explain to our drivers that we provide a service to our customers, right? And that service is to provide fuel when they need it. So their tanks aren’t empty so that they can in turn provide a service to their customers.

So we’re a really big piece of that puzzle. That doesn’t always go the way we want it to go. But when it doesn’t go our way, we are very quick to rectify it as well, which is why we’ve had some long-term customers with us.

Anthony Codispoti (47:22)
So when a mistake happens, you own it and you jump on it to figure out how can we fix this as quickly as possible. Cause like you said, there’s humans involved. There’s going to be errors. There’s going to be mistakes. It’s just, you know, I think what defines a company, what defines an individual is how you respond in those instances.

Rena Cater (47:34)
you

Absolutely, we don’t try to place blame on somebody else. We own it.

Anthony Codispoti (47:49)
Yeah. How about a book or a podcast, a course, some kind of resource, Rena, that’s been helpful for you that you might recommend to our listeners?

Rena Cater (48:00)
you know, that’s a really tough question for me. ⁓ I read a lot of different leadership books, but there’s one book and it doesn’t, it does have to do with leadership, but it doesn’t. And it’s called The Goal. And actually I ironically have it here because I have given a copy to my boss. ⁓ And it’s, I can’t pronounce this first name, but it’s Goldrad and Jeff Cox. ⁓

And this is actually around manufacturing and it’s kind of around the Toyota’s premise of, you you do think you touch things one time, right? So it’s that lead concept. And I read that more from an HR perspective, but

I guess it has impacted me because part of putting the human back into human resources and not delivering a message through a third party and just dealing with somebody direct is a lot quicker and more efficient than asking somebody else to do it for you. ⁓ And so this book really talks a lot about some of the hurdles of changing a process.

And why does it make sense that you go left instead of right when you’re at a manufacturing line? sometimes it’s simply just the way you have something set up. But in order to do that, you have to step away and you have to realize that you’re going to have people really ⁓ not agree with you and try to ⁓ almost not, well, maybe sabotage you in your efforts.

But you just have to keep forging forward. You have to stick with it and you just have to have faith, I guess, in some terms. ⁓ Then on the other end of that, it’s going to be what you need it to be and what you expected. And it’s going to be better for the company overall and or even for your own life. ⁓ So I guess it’s just another one of those working through the bumps.

Anthony Codispoti (50:07)
Rena, what would you characterize as your superpower?

Rena Cater (50:12)
Okay.

That’s another tough question for me. ⁓

I think it’s resilience. I just have resilience.

I think I have the ability to most people feel comfortable so that, and I want to do that so that I can help them with whatever it is that they may need.

Anthony Codispoti (50:40)
I think we’ve got decades of evidence that supports that resilience is indeed your superpower, at least one of them. Is there anything that you do to get your day started or keep you on track, some habits or rituals?

Rena Cater (50:45)
Thank you.

Well, healthy and maybe not healthy, but I start every day out with a cup of coffee and a wordle. ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (51:04)
There you go. That gets the mind working, huh?

Rena Cater (51:06)
You know,

it does, it gets the mind working. ⁓ You know, I love to walk. ⁓ You know, I don’t always get to exercise in the morning. I did that for a while, but I live a little further from the office now. And, you know, even though I’m an early bird, I can only get up so early. ⁓ But I do try to eat very clean and I try to eat healthy. ⁓ And it’s not a hundred percent all the time because that’s way too boring.

Plus I go on vacation, so that doesn’t work well. But I try to have ⁓ the healthy and the clean eating outweigh the unhealthy by a long shot.

Anthony Codispoti (51:47)
You know, sometimes our mistakes become our greatest teachers, Rena. What’s an early career moment that seemed like a setback at the time, but actually when you look back on it now propelled you forward.

Rena Cater (52:03)
It was, was in a rough marriage and I allowed that to impact my work ethic. And so I had forgotten to ⁓ notify an agency that we didn’t want their temp to come back the next day because when I,

got home, things were a little crazy. And, ⁓ and I didn’t dare tell that to my boss and they knew. So, so I didn’t own it. I didn’t own it. That’s the last thing that I’ve ever done where I didn’t own it. And so they outsource my position. ⁓ So I found myself unemployed. It was a tough lesson, but

Anthony Codispoti (52:42)
Mmm.

Wow.

Rena Cater (52:58)
know, and accountability is everything to me. And was teaching my kids accountability. But I was so, I was the main breadwinner. I was the person with the benefits. And it was that way throughout my marriage. And so I was fearful that I was gonna lose all of that from my children. And by being fearful of it, I made the wrong decision and not owning it. And I ended up not having it anyway. So yeah, it didn’t work very well.

Anthony Codispoti (53:24)
That left an imprint and that’s, I mean, put you in a really scary place. You’re like, am never going to do that again. How did you work your way out of that? How did you find the next opportunity?

Rena Cater (53:26)
That absolutely did. Yeah.

Well, so I needed to do something quick. So I signed up with temp agencies ⁓ and I started ⁓ advertising clean houses. So I was cleaning homes and then I did land and I ended up getting a job at the convenience store just down the road from us. So I was able to work all that in and then ⁓ none of which came with benefits by the way. So then I…

I landed a job with a temp agency. And the first one was going through child protective services records, which I wouldn’t wish on anybody because those are heartbreaking. But then my next job was at a manufacturing plant where I lived at the time, which turned into a full-time job. and then I just, I started working myself right back.

Anthony Codispoti (54:31)
Yeah.

Well, it goes back to what you were saying earlier. You’re going to go in and out of those ruts in life, but they are temporary. So keep moving forward and work your way to find a way to get yourself out of that rut because they are temporary. Yeah. So I’ve just got one more question for you, Rena. But before I ask it, I want to do two things. First of all, to the listeners, pause for just a second, go to your podcast app, hit the follower subscribe button.

Rena Cater (54:38)
Mm-hmm.

Yes. Yep. Yep.

Anthony Codispoti (54:59)
want you to get more great content like this in your feed and it helps other folks find the show too. Rena, I am also going to let people know the best way to get in touch with you, which I think is your LinkedIn profile. And we’re going to include a link to that in the show notes. ⁓ folks that are listening, you can search for just by looking her name up, Rena, R-E-N-A, cater, C-A-T-E-R. ⁓

Not there probably aren’t too many arena caters, but just in case you can add eagle transport on to that So Rena cater Eagle Transport and connect with her there So last question for you Rena you and I connect one year from today and you’re excited. You’re celebrating something big What’s that big thing you’re celebrating in one?

Rena Cater (55:34)
you

boy. ⁓

That’s a great question. I don’t think I have an answer for that.

Anthony Codispoti (55:58)
Nothing personal, nothing professional. ⁓ A goal post you’ve got for yourself, a milestone.

Rena Cater (56:08)
Well, okay, on a personal level, ⁓ that I am still with a man that I have managed to fall in love with over the past nine months. How’s that?

Anthony Codispoti (56:24)
That’s

awesome. I love that one. That’s a great place to end. Rina Kader from Eagle Transport. want to be the first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate it.

Rena Cater (56:33)
Absolutely.

Thank you.

Anthony Codispoti (56:37)
Folks, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us today.