How Holly Kuzdzal Shapes HR Strategy for Mancini Companies

Holly Kuzdzal’s career is defined by her passion for connecting with people and driving positive change. Today, as SVP of Human Resources at Mancini Companies – a fourth-generation, family-owned enterprise with a diverse portfolio and over 1,000 employees – Holly leverages her broad experience to shape the company’s people strategy and culture.

Holly’s journey began at Texas A&M University, where a professor noticed her natural talent for building relationships and encouraged her to pursue human resources. Inspired by this pivotal moment, Holly shifted her focus and began what she describes as a “traditional route” in HR through positions in recruiting and talent acquisition. “Recruiting is the face of the company,” she explains. “It’s where employee perceptions are formed, and HR has an immediate opportunity to learn how we shape employee experiences. Gaining experience in each functional HR area builds an understanding and perspective every HR leader needs to lead an organization effectively.”

Her career quickly accelerated, taking her into industries ranging from oil and gas to aerospace and defense, healthcare, and high tech. Holly’s adaptability allowed her to thrive in a variety of organizational structures – privately and family-owned businesses, ESOPs, and large publicly traded corporations.
 

Seeing what good looks like from multiple perspectives within different companies is important for your own learning and development.

Holly’s commitment to people extended beyond the corporate world, leading her to take a break from HR and work as a consultant, childbirth educator, and doula. “This shift fed my need to connect with people and continue those communication and caring skills that I just thrive and live for,” she shares.

Now at Mancini Companies, Holly draws on her rich background to create and implement HR best practices, helping the organization – and its people – grow and succeed.
 

Leading HR Across a Diverse Organization

As SVP of Human Resources, Holly oversees a complex and diverse workforce spanning multiple operating companies and regions from Maine to Florida and as far west as Texas. While each operating company has its own HR leadership, Holly’s role is to provide guidance and best practices that unify and support the entire organization. “My role as an HR leader is to provide guidance and best practices for anything that crosses over all of our operating companies,” she explains.

Some of Holly’s wide-ranging responsibilities include:

• Enterprise-Wide Benefit Plans and Renewals: Holly oversees benefit plans for all employees, ensuring comprehensive and competitive coverage. “Ensuring that we're getting the best benefit coverage for our employees as well as the company,” she notes.
• HR Technology Oversight: She is responsible for the HR technology arm of the organization, focusing on solutions that create a seamless and transparent experience for employees throughout their lifecycle – from recruiting to retirement and transition.
• Board Engagement and Strategic Alignment: Holly interacts with multiple boards of directors – three at the family-level and two within the operating companies – reporting to them and ensuring HR strategies align with shareholder priorities and business objectives.
• Collaboration with Operating Company HR Teams: She works closely with the HR teams within each operating company, providing support and guidance tailored to their unique needs. “What may work well for our flooring distribution company may look very different for our beverage distribution company,” Holly points out.
• Support for Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A): For example, Holly provided deeper support for the flooring distribution company as they rebranded to UCX. She specifically leads talent management initiatives, such as identifying high performers and developing both regular and emergency succession plans.
• Customization of HR Best Practices: Recognizing the distinct needs of each operating company, Holly partners with teams to develop and implement HR best practices that reflect the unique mission, vision, values, and geographic considerations of each business unit.

Building and Sustaining Organizational Culture

Holly believes that a strong, values-driven culture is the foundation of Mancini Companies’ success. “We operate day-to-day with family company values, meaning we are going to care for each other, because we have their best interest at heart,” she shares. This spirit of support and inclusivity extends from frontline staff to leadership, encouraging employees to go beyond their roles to help one another.

Each operating company within Mancini Companies also has its own unique subset of culture, shaped by its history, geographical footprint, and recent acquisitions. Holly notes that UCX, the flooring distribution company, has one of the most distinctive cultures.  The recent rebranding process was about more than just changing names, but also about unifying cultures and ensuring a consistent experience for both employees and customers. “We spent a lot of time on the culture piece and what that means,” Holly explains. “Our mission was to provide the ultimate customer service experience for our clients. Being a B2B company, we had to bring everybody together.”

To make this vision a reality, Holly and her colleagues launched “Making It Real” sessions, where the CEO and HR leaders visit flooring locations to engage with employees at every level. These sessions focus on practical ways to embody the company’s cultural values and deliver exceptional customer service. “It’s not a one-time rollout,” Holly emphasizes. “Even today we continue to work on it by going out to the field and having ‘Making it real’ sessions. How can we shape the cultural experience and deliver that ultimate customer service experience? What are the day-to-day things that we can do?”
 

Current Top Priorities and Challenges

As Mancini Companies continues to grow and evolve, Holly’s top priorities reflect both the organization’s needs and broader industry trends as identified in our annual CHRO Leadership Perspective Survey. Her focus areas include:

• Leadership Development: Holly is committed to building a strong leadership pipeline through robust succession planning, identifying and nurturing high-potential talent, and providing ongoing development opportunities. “We always are thinking about how we are developing the next generation of leaders,” she says.
• Culture and Employee Engagement: Holly and her team continuously strive to improve the Employee Net Promoter Score and drive efficiencies through a supportive work environment. “We have a continuous focus on culture and what are we doing to support that to drive efficiencies in our business,” she adds.
• Safety: Holly has led a shift toward a proactive safety culture, implementing initiatives and campaigns that have significantly improved safety metrics. Her goal is to ensure every employee – whether in the warehouse or on the road – feels valued and protected. “I think that it is also important for our clients to hear the message that safety is one of our top priorities, as well,” Holly notes.
• Driving Efficiencies and Cross-Functional Processes: Holly is focused on streamlining processes across the company, including implementing a new ERP system and expanding cross-training opportunities. These efforts not only drive operational efficiency but also create new pathways for employee growth, mobility, and collaboration.

Holly’s main challenge is managing the rising costs of medical and pharmacy benefits while providing comprehensive support for employees’ financial, mental, emotional, and physical wellness. She emphasizes the importance of making data-driven decisions to balance both the needs of the company and the workforce, acknowledging that benefit plans may need to be tailored to meet the unique requirements of Mancini Companies’ diverse employee base.
 

Top 3 Pieces of Advice for New CHROs

Drawing from her extensive experience, Holly offers the following three pieces of advice to CHROs stepping into new roles:

1. Listen First: Holly emphasizes the importance of truly listening to both leaders and employees. “Listening to what your leaders and your employees are saying will help create the best solution for whatever you're trying to solve or improve,” she says.
2. Lead with Data and Conviction: Holly advises new CHROs to champion a few initiatives they genuinely believe in – those that make sense for the organization. “Provide a full picture… that has data-driven points behind it,” she recommends. Use clear metrics, such as ROI or Employee Net Promoter Scores, to support your proposals and drive impactful decisions.
3. Embrace Creativity and Technology: Holly encourages HR leaders to be innovative and proactive, especially with emerging technologies like AI. “Technology is such a big part of the employee experience,” she notes. She stresses the importance of partnering closely with IT and risk/compliance teams to ensure technology and AI are implemented thoughtfully, ethically, and safely.

Holly Kuzdzal is the SVP, Human Resources at Mancini Companies and a member of the Boston CHRO Community. 

If you are an HR leader looking to connect, collaborate, and learn from peers in your area, join your local CHRO community today. Already a member? Sign in to see when your community is meeting next.
 

Special thanks to Holly Kuzdzal and Mancini Companies.