Maria Alejandra Melendez Details the Four Bedpost Pillars at Mattress Firm

Maria Alejandra Melendez is new to Mattress Firm, but not to building world-class HR organizations

Maria Alejandra Melendez, EVP of Human Capital, Mattress Firm; Photo by Judith Hill

BY BILLY YOST, HISPANIC EXECUTIVE

The role that shaped Maria Alejandra Melendez the most is the job she wanted the least—at least at first.

One-Third of Your Life

The current executive vice president (EVP) of human capital at major retailer Mattress Firm grew up professionally at Bridgestone, an organization where she rose through the ranks in ten roles over seventeen years—both in Venezuela and the United States. A year into her first job as a compensation analyst, she was asked to take on a labor relations job that would see her negotiating with three separate Venezuelan labor unions. The highlights from that job are somewhat nontraditional.

“It was a role I knew I needed experience in, as my aspiration was to become the HR leader of Bridgestone Firestone Venezuela. I experienced many unusual things, unsafe and stressful, to say the least,” Melendez says.

The situations with the union were not the real learning experience for the Latina, though. The difficulty of the job showed her that she could do just about anything in human resources and perhaps crossed a few roles off her future job searches. That’s when things really took off for Maria Melendez.

Photo by Judith Hill

Personalizing the Employee Experience

Melendez is only six months into her new role and new organization. However, the EVP knows where her organization is going and how best she can help propel Mattress Firm forward—all while keeping its customers happily horizontal.

“We have sleep experts here who provide amazing and impactful information and guidance to our customers for them to make one of the most critical decisions of their lives: where are they going to spend thirty-three percent of their time?” Melendez explains. “My job is to ensure that our employees have the same kind of experience that our sleep experts have with our customers.”

Hard Work That Spans Generations

Maria Alejandra Melendez was primarily raised by her grandparents in Venezuela. They instilled values in the future human resources (HR) leader that she would then bring to every organization in her career. Melendez pays tribute to her grandparents, recalling them as a hardworking and loving family who spent their entire careers with the same company.

“My mother always told me how respected my grandmother was across her company,” Melendez remembers. “This was at a time when very few women were in the workforce. Both of my grandparents worked and retired with their respective organizations, and they taught me ethics, hard work, and the kind of passion that helped make me who I am today.”

The employee experience at Mattress Firm is centered around four main pillars: attraction, growth, mobilization, and inspiration.

Melendez says that, at the end of 2023, there were about nine million roles open in the US. The post-pandemic environment has since seen many opportunities available for job seekers. As a result, Melendez wants Mattress Firm to be an employer of choice, where people know they can come and grow a career.

“People have choices in the marketplace, and we have to differentiate our offering through a differentiated employee experience,” Melendez says. “We want to inspire our employees to choose our company every day, as they deliver on our noble purpose to our millions of customers.”

To aid that growth, Mattress Firm is investing in experiences and opportunities for employees to get that next role inside their organization. That includes leadership training, education, and career path discussions to help employees know the job they’re doing today doesn’t necessarily have to be the job they’re doing a year from now.

But Melendez and her team aren’t alone in this. The EVP says they actively seek input and guidance from leadership, as well as other stakeholders who can help curate the employee experience. Mobilizing the rest of the organization—as well as key vendors and stakeholders—ensures all of Mattress Firm is centered around those four pillars.

Finally, when done correctly, all these efforts will inspire future, current, and long-tenured talent at Mattress Firm. When the broader employee base understands that their organization is continually reevaluating how to best serve its people, those employees are in turn motivated to be part of the solutions that will continue to make Mattress Firm a better place to be.

“We’re committed to nurturing the growth of our team members. In our dynamic business environment, every decision made by our employees contributes to their ongoing development as adept business managers. Whether they opt for a long-term or short-term tenure with Mattress Firm, our focus ensures that our people acquire invaluable business acumen that will serve them throughout their careers,” Melendez says.

Before You Finish That Sentence

To those just beginning their careers, a great deal of inspiration can be found in Melendez’s own journey. The EVP says had she just been focused on a title not only would she probably not have come to the US, but she would have also missed out on the dozen or so opportunities that make her skillset undeniable.

“I always said yes,” Melendez shares. “Often, I wouldn’t even know what my leaders wanted. I would say yes before they even finished explaining. I just wanted to learn more and find new ways to make people’s lives better. It hasn’t always been easy, but I can tell you that every role I’ve had has been a dream role.”

For those who have come to the US from other geographies on a temporary basis, Melendez urges them to continue to seek out new and different projects and experiences. By creating those opportunities, these job seekers can underscore the fact that even though they may eventually be returning to their original home they are here to drive lasting change that will benefit the organization while here.

“People may see you here as only a short-term employee,” Melendez says. “I always made an effort to not just deliver in terms of what was asked of me, but to go above and beyond and get exposure to as many new opportunities as I could. That requires a lot of time, but I promise you that it’s worth it.”

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