Let me be your HR Super Hero

How does the saying go…”Not all superheroes wear capes?” Is it an overplayed saying? Maybe, BUT, it is important to highlight your strengths, especially in the workplace.

In this vein, my superpower is, “Not making HR scary.” How do I do this? I explain HR terminology, laws, and policies in laymen’s terms. I provide real life examples to explain how it impacts employees and the company.

As a small business owner you may not think too much about Human Resources and employment law, but I can do that for you. Connecticut is enforcing their employment laws to companies as small as 1-3 employees and you should know which ones impact you and you need to follow.

LET ME BE YOUR HR SUPER HERO, and make HR less scary and your business more compliant.

Interview questions that actually predict job performance

It’s surprising how often certain outdated interview questions still come up today. You know the ones…they are irrelevant to the job, on the verge of being illegal, and sometimes just awkward. It’s not a good first impression for the company and can set the candidate up for failure because of the meaningless responses they may have to provide.

Here are some examples:

1) Ineffective Question: “What is your greatest weakness?”

• The question often prompts insincere answers where candidates either mask strengths as weaknesses (for example, “I work too hard”) or give responses that offer little real insight into how successful they’d be in the role.

Behavior-Based Version: “Describe a situation where you recognized a gap in your skills or performance. What actions did you take to address it?”

• This rewrite is a more introspective question for the candidate. The candidate must think through a specific situation and explain how they course-corrected.

2) Ineffective Question: “Why should we hire you?”

• This generic question will most likely result in a generic response. It doesn’t necessarily help you learn anything new about their qualifications or fit for the role.

Behavior-Based Version: “Can you share an example of how your skills and experience helped you succeed in a role similar to this one?”

• This revised interview question is multi-layered. First, it helps the employer understand how well the candidate understands the role and responsibilities they are interviewing for. Second, it highlights the skills and experience the candidate brings that are relevant to a similar role they have held previously.

3) Ineffective Question: “Are you a team player?”

• This is a closed-ended question which just requires a “Yes or No” answer, and of course we would all answer, “YES!”

Behavior-Based Version: “Tell me about a project where teamwork was critical. What did you do to ensure effective collaboration?”

• This updated version is now an open-ended question. It prompts the candidate to think of a specific example (which does not have to be work-related) and to reflect on what worked and what didn’t.

The BEST questions are open-ended, behavior-based interview questions. They provide measurable, comparable insights across candidates and reduce bias in decision-making. The HR trope says, “past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior.” So, let’s re-word those BAD & INEFFECTIVE interview questions into GOOD & BEHAVIOR-BASED questions.

If you’d like to strengthen your interview process or build a more effective hiring strategy, I’d love to connect and be a resource for your team.

You don’t know you need HR, until you NEED HR.

It’s 2025 and you are a small business owner with 10 employees, a combination of full- and part-time employees. You do not have a sick pay policy; your employees either take their sick time unpaid or use whatever time off they have accrued. This has been working great for you, your employees, and your business. You had heard that effective 1/1/2025, there was a revision to the CT Paid Sick Leave Law, but since you had less than 25 employees, you did not pay too much attention to it.

Now it’s 2026 and effective 1/1/2026, the revised law mandates private sector employers, with at least 11 employees to provide eligible employees with paid sick leave. Again, you are not too worried about it because you have 10 employees…BUT what you may not be aware of is that you WILL need a Paid Sick Leave Policy established prior to 1/1/2027.

Effective 1/1/2027, a private sector business with any employees (minimum of 1), must provide paid sick leave for their employees.

WHAT DO YOU DO NOW?

• You have read the law but do not know how to write a policy for your business.

• This law means you now have to pay 40 hours of paid sick time to your 10 employees, and this adds an additional cost that impacts your business’s bottom line.

REACH OUT TO TRUE NORTH HR CONSULTING, AND I CAN ASSIST YOU THROUGH THIS PROCESS.

Welcome to True North HR’s “How to be a Resource to Humans” blog

Welcome to the Blog!

I'm Jessica Stevens, a Connecticut-based HR consultant with over 25 years of experience helping businesses build HR functions that are compliant, effective, and built to last.

Throughout my career, I've worked across union and non-union environments, supported C-suite leaders, and helped organizations in manufacturing, logistics, and community operations get their HR house in order. I've seen what happens when HR is done well — and what it costs when it isn't.

I started this blog because I know firsthand how overwhelming HR can be — especially for growing businesses that don't yet have dedicated HR support.

I also know what it’s like to be part of a small HR team, even an HR Team of one (ugh)! So, whether you're navigating a compliance issue, dealing with a tricky employee situation, or trying to figure out where to even start with HR, you're in the right place.

My goal here is simple: to share practical, no-nonsense HR guidance that helps you lead your people with confidence and protect your business along the way.

Let’s start our journey to “be a resource to humans!”