Please give a warm welcome to Shamrock Company’s first ever Director of Human Resources, Odalis FitzPatrick! Odalis joined our leadership team in January 2024 and has been busy buzzing around ever since.
Odalis comes to Shamrock Company from the manufacturing sector where she spent almost 30 years in human resources (HR). She acknowledges that working for a quick service restaurant (QSR) franchisee will be different, but explains how she’s connected the two industries to help with the transition.
”The way that I look at each of the Taco Bell locations are as my individual plants, and their process[es] are my assembly lines,” she says.
Odalis has more than 30 impressive years
of experience in human resources.
Odalis believes Shamrock has done well without an HR person in place but sees incredible value in the creation of her director-level position.
“I think that I’m a big resource for them that they didn’t have before,” she says. “Now it’s like they can have consistency. I think that’s really important.”
First Impressions
“When I look at any anything, I always think of it as an opportunity.”
– Odalis FitzPatrick, Dir. of HR
Odalis got a pretty accurate taste of what Shamrock Company is all about from the start. “It’s very family-oriented,” she says of company culture. “You’re treated with respect, you’re really given the opportunity to grow. Dan really wants to ‘see’ everybody.”
She’s referring to Dan McGue, current president and CEO, who’s leading the company his father founded in the ’90s. Dan obviously made an impression on Odalis. “Dan really cares about his people. He knows his folks.”
Odalis shares that she, too, is committed to carrying out this same level of care and attention to team members.
HR“To Do” List
First on Odalis’ list of tasks this spring was getting the lay of the land. After all, we’ve got 30+ Taco Bell operations across three states!
“When I have employees call me years later … and tell me that they felt that their experience with me was the best they ever had, I know I’ve done my job.”
– Odalis FitzPatrick, Dir. of HR
“I’ve been kind of just evaluating what we have, what we need, where we need to go,” she shares. It took her no time at all to get out of the office and into our restaurants. She’s visited many of our locations to meet the teams and learn about various processes on site.
“I try to meet the employees, know who they are, know a little bit about them,” she shares about how she’s spreading our culture of care.
Odalis’ main priorities for the moment are training, implementing policies and procedures with consistency, and succession planning to prepare for Shamrock’s next stage of growth.
”There’s always an opportunity to do better,” she says. “These guys, they’ve already got it. They know what to do. It’s just how to make it better. How do we lead the way?”
We lead the way with stellar people like you, Odalis! Welcome to the family!