Katie I. Kato

Katie I. Kato, M.Ed., SPHR, SHRMS-SCP (727) 543-4248 Katie@TheHumanResourcesFactor.com

Katie I. Kato is a Consulting Partner with Grahall, LLC and is the founder of the Human Resources Factor. She has over thirty-five years of human resources experience serving in leadership roles primarily within the hospital & healthcare industry. Since 2008, she has served as the President/ Chief Human Resources Strategist for The Human Resources Factor, LLC, where she provides human resources strategy and support to a number of different organizations including her current role as Senior Director of Human Resources at iRISE/Florida Spine & Joint Institute, which is a multi-state company providing orthopedic/chiropractic care to injured persons.

As a consultant, she has also completed interim VP HR assignments in larger acute care hospitals including in Los Angeles, California at HCA West Hills Hospital and in Miami, Florida at HCA Aventura Medical Center. She provides a wide range of human resources consulting services to small businesses with various HR and employment-related compliance issues. Her focus is to assist those organizations who do not have the resources to employ a full-time human resource professional, but who recognize the need to get support with navigating the various HR struggles that small organizations face on a daily basis. Katie believes that by providing assistance to these smaller companies, which are the backbone of our nation, she is supporting her local community by creating stronger, friendlier and more compliant places for people to be employed in a healthy work environment.

From 2013-2018, Katie worked with Promise Healthcare and Success Healthcare as their Senior Vice President-Human Resources/Chief Human Resources Officer whose corporate office was located in Boca Raton, Florida. Promise Healthcare had nineteen Long-Term Acute Care Hospitals & Skilled Nursing Facilities in eight states, and Success Healthcare had two Acute Care Hospitals in two states, with a combined total of over 5500 employees in nine states nationwide.

As the senior HR leader, Katie had direct accountability for the full life cycle of all staff functions for both organizations in a multi-state operation with responsibilities including talent acquisition/recruitment, HR/legal compliance, benefits/health/welfare administration, employee health/workers compensation administration, executive and staff compensation, employee engagement/retention, HRIS/technology, HR strategic leadership & communication, performance management, learning system management, and leadership development.

For eight years, Katie worked as Director of Human Resources for HCA Palms West Hospital & HCA Largo Medical Center, which were two large Acute Care Hospitals and part of the HCA Healthcare system. While working with these organizations, she was instrumental in the provision of clinical and support staff while working in a very tight labor markets and established proactive employee engagement strategies which included the development of an Employee Advisory Group. Through this collaborative approach, she was able to successfully avoid unionization for these hospitals for duration of time she held their HR leadership role.

In addition, for over seven years, while living in Miami, Florida, Katie served as the Regional Director of Human Resources for HealthSouth, which at the time had over 1500 employees working in a network including a home health agency, multiply Physician practices a Surgery Center, and four hospitals including Doctor’s Hospital (full acute care…known for providing the Sports Medicine for the Miami Dolphins, Miami Heat, and Florida Marlins), Miami Rehabilitation Hospital, West Gables Rehabilitation Hospital, and Larkin Hospital (psychiatric acute care). These hospitals are now part of Baptist Healthcare, but at the time were a part of the HealthSouth organization.

Katie has also worked many years at Senior Home Care (a home health company) and held other HR roles/positions at other organizations including Parkway Regional Medical Center, North Central Florida Mental Health Services, and other companies. Katie is currently an At-Large Director for the Palm Beach County Society for Human Resources Management (PBC SHRM) chapter and serves as the HR Florida Ambassador for the HR Florida Conference. She has been in various leadership roles with that chapter since 2016. Since 1987, Katie has served in a wide number of other SHRM Board/leadership roles with the North Central Florida SHRM, Greater Miami SHRM, and Suncoast SHRM Chapters including Secretary, VP Membership, Non-Dues Revenue, College Relations, Programs, Awards Chairs and supported the SHRM Foundation.

While in graduate school, Katie started her career in human resources when she served as the President of the student chapter of the American Society of Personnel Administration (which is the prior name of SHRM) at the University of Florida. While serving as President of that chapter, she set up a state-wide conference with other ASPA chapters from around Florida and established in-house internship programs with local companies for the students of her chapter. Early in her career, Katie served as the President of the American Society for Training and Development Chapter (now ATD) in North Central Florida. Since that time, Katie has also served in a number of other volunteer/leadership roles in other community organizations including offering an HR Education Series to the Largo-Pinellas Chamber of Commerce, serving on the Nursing Shortage Consortium, and the Economic Council of Palm Beach County’s Housing Leadership Committee. More recently, Katie served on the Learning & Education Committee for the national American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration (ASHHRA).

Katie received her bachelor’s degree and master’s degrees from the University of Florida. In addition, she is lifetime certified by the Human Resources Certification Institute as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) which is an honor that is no longer available. Katie is also a Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP) with the Society for Human Resources Management. Katie is also an Authorized Partner for the PXT Select with Profiles International, Inc.