3 minute read
South Fayette resident launches HR consulting firm
Plant, water, grow
South Fayette resident launches township-based HR consulting firm
By Andrea Iglar
At South Fayette High School, friends called him “Dr. Phil.”
It wasn’t because he was a talk show host or a therapist.
Steve Nicholas was a good listener.
And he still is. The South Fayette resident leans on his listening skills as a human resources professional.
“I think that’s helped me a lot with human resources and partnering with business owners and business leaders,” Nicholas said.
“I hear what they’re saying, and I hear what they’re not saying, and then try to create solutions.”
Nicholas has launched HR Seeds Consulting, a human resources firm based in the township home that he shares with his wife, Sarah, and their daughters Lydia, 5, and Claudia, 2.
He lends expertise to large and small organizations regarding talent acquisition, workforce sustainability and retention, compensation management, performance and more.
While the fundamentals of HR could be boiled down to “hire, retain, fire,” Nicholas embraces his purpose-driven business motto: “Plant. Water. Grow.”
“If you’re doing it right, you are going to see a nice harvest come up at a certain point,” he said.
“I really do believe that about people and business—let’s plant some seeds, let’s water it, and let’s see it grow to the next evolution of whatever it’s supposed to be.”
When he was in second grade, Nicholas moved to South Fayette with his family, living in Hunting Ridge and Lakemont Farms.
He graduated from South Fayette High School in 2006 and majored in psychology at Kent State University in Ohio. There, he became interested in industrial psychology—basically the psychology of business and people.
“In many regards, that changed my course and eventually led to getting into human resources,” Nicholas said.
After graduating college, he moved back to South Fayette, which was familiar and comfortable but also thriving and expanding in new ways.
“I was very open and excited to be able to come back and formally live in a township that was really growing and moving in a good direction,” he said.
Nicholas spent 15 years gaining increasingly responsible experience at large organizations in the oil and gas, healthcare, nonprofit and financial realms.
Feeling the entrepreneurial spirit, he started HR Seeds as a side project last year, and then he left his corporate job to focus on HR Seeds full-time in July.
“I personally believe that every business and every group of employees has more potential in how they’re operating,” Nicholas said. “I come in to really see what we can make better, tighter or more sustainable.”
Nicholas serves local and out-of-state clients and has joined the South West Regional Chamber of Commerce to expand his network in the South Hills and West Hills. He hosted a booth at South Fayette Community Day in August.
Nicholas said he is grateful that both his home and business are in South Fayette, which has become a destination with a positive reputation.
“It is awesome to be in a community that wants to grow and continue to bring businesses in,” he said. “I’m kind of rolling with the township, growing and evolving. Businesses should be doing the same.”
