Norah McNeil, human resources manager of Stillwater, Okla.-based OnCue, which operates 68 stores in Oklahoma and one store in Texas, has found success by taking a people-first approach to her position. She enjoys watching employees grow in their careers and providing an empathetic ear.

With 12 years in the human resources (HR) department at OnCue under her belt, the last five years as human resources manager, she has learned new strategies to stay sharp in her role. 

Norah McNeil

CStore Decisions is recognizing McNeil as one of our HR award recipients due to her passion for the people she works with and her drive to improve the employee environment and set OnCue apart from the competition. 

“I enjoy having the ability to have a positive impact on our employees’ career and/or life,” McNeil said.

McNeil graduated from Oklahoma State University with a bachelor’s degree in Finance. Soon after, she accepted a role in OnCue’s accounting department, where she stayed for a few months before transferring to the human resources department as an assistant. 

“As much as I enjoyed numbers, I missed interacting with people and jumped at the opportunity to transfer to human resources,” she said.

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In her current position as human resources manager, McNeil’s responsibilities include overseeing benefits and leave administration, maintaining the human resources information system and coaching general managers and area supervisors. 

Additionally, she investigates employee claims, oversees performance evaluations and completes various monthly reports.

McNeil finds her work especially meaningful when assisting OnCue’s 1,500 employees with her HR team in their career paths and helping them find resources when they are in difficult situations.

“I truly enjoy assisting the employees with navigating various parts of their employment,” she said. “I love getting to celebrate in their successes and good news.”

Furthermore, McNeil believes in keeping up with an ever-changing industry. She continues to grow and learn by keeping her mindset fresh. 

During her time in OnCue’s HR department, she served as the co-lead for the Employee Advisory Committee, a diverse group with members who hold various positions with the stores. 

The goal of the committee was to gain feedback on the challenges front-line employees are facing on a day-to-day basis. With this information, McNeil and the team were able to help make employees’ jobs more efficient, safer and fun while building upon OnCue’s culture and standards. 

“I was honored to be a part of this initiative and enjoyed building relationships with all the committee members,” said McNeil.

McNeil cites this initiative as being instrumental in raising employee engagement and allowing OnCue to be named one of the Top Workplaces in Oklahoma five times and Top Workplace USA twice. 

She believes the company’s value lies within the effort and collaboration of the employees who work there. 

“The team aspect really rings true at OnCue. We are all a team with one main goal and that is extremely clear in the work that we all do,” said
McNeil.

Currently, McNeil is working on finding methods to set OnCue apart from the competition. A few options the company can look into to meet this goal, according to McNeil, are changing benefit packages, offering other incentives and providing more flexibility.

“Staying competitive is key now,” said McNeil.

OnCue began a new marketing campaign to provide insight to prospective applicants into its fun, energetic culture. Pay and benefits, particularly, are being evaluated to offer that competitive edge. 

“As the human resources manager, being able to collaborate on these ideas brings joy and focus to our goals,” said McNeil.

With McNeil’s people-first approach clear in mind, one of the aspects of her job she is most looking forward to in 2022 is holding face-to-face meetings and trainings to develop new relationships. She wants to let OnCue’s employees know that she is there for them by building connections between OnCue’s locations and main offices. 

“I look forward to honing my own skills and becoming a stronger advocate for the employees and company,” said McNeil. “Being able to hold quarterly meetings and go to stores to meet new faces again will be wonderful!”