David Hughen
David Hughen has over 19 years of experience driving creative human resource strategies and solutions.
Hughen is focused on optimizing employee commitment and productivity. He links his clients’ strategic business goals to all engagements, and measures results in concrete ROI metrics tied to top line and bottom line performance.
Hughen believes barriers to employee commitment and productivity are often a result of organizational issues such as broken compensation and reward structures, vague job descriptions and expectations, and ineffective recruitment methods, to name a few. He advises organizations in proven methods to effectively identify and address barriers to optimal organizational performance. Hughen designs systems and processes that drive his clients’ ability to maximize productivity. He measures his success by the tangible, measurable outcomes of improved revenue generation and operational efficiency. He also addresses soft skills issues such as total quality leadership, organizational communications, and employee training. Hughen offers a wide gamut of advisory services in the fields of human resources and organization development and design.
Founder and head of AustinWorkNet, Hughen addresses the new work dynamic in post-recession times. Hughen believes that today, the best companies are approaching the relationship of work and people differently than in the past. He advises clients on how to best make that occur for maximum increases in productivity, employee satisfaction, and overall performance.
Hughen is a speaker and consultant to this new work environment. He is passionate about helping organizations think differently about their structure, their leadership, and their very definition of work.
Prior to AustinWorkNet, Hughen served as VP, Human Resources for HelioVolt, a next generation solar company. Previously, he was VP HR and Administration with ClearCommerce while also providing advisory services to a range of VC-led firms in the Central Texas region—which led to the eventual formation of AustinWorkNet. Hughen joined ClearCommerce from Exterprise, where he served as VP, Human Resources and managed the successful acquisition of Exterprise by Commerce One. Prior to Exterprise / Commerce One, Hughen oversaw human resources for Applied Materials-Austin. In that capacity, he managed Applied’s explosive growth to more than 3,500 employees. Before Applied Materials, Hughen managed H.R. operations for NEC Electronics in California. His emphasis on H.R. metrics led to a scorecard methodology for better understanding the health of the organization.
He holds Bachelor’s and Master of Science degrees in Human Resources and Organization Development from the University of San Francisco. In addition, Hughen is chairman of Communities in Schools’ Leadership Circle (Advisory Council) and is a board member of Workforce Solutions.
