About

Debra J. M. Best, SPHR, SHRM-SCP

 Owner and Principal, Deb Best Practices

Deb Best, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, Owner and Principal of Deb Best Practices, has more than 30 years of state and national business, change management, stakeholder communications and human resources leadership experience for Fortune 5, technology, healthcare, manufacturing, consumer and supply-chain publicly and privately held companies, including General Electric, Trans World Entertainment and Boston Scientific, as well as non-profit, academic, medical and public-sector organizations, including the State of New York.  Central to her work as an HR Practitioner is to partner with leaders at all levels to define and leverage both talent and challenges to meet needs, which in turn maximizes success for both the organization and the individual.

A graduate of The University of New York at Albany, Deb received her SPHR (Senior Professional in Human Resources) certification from The Society of Human Resources Management in 1998, and her SHRM-SCP (Senior Certified Professional) designation in 2015.  She is also a trained and certified community and workplace dispute Mediator, as well as an authorized Predictive Index, Everything DiSC® and Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team™ Partner. Deb is a founding member of the Capital Region Women@Work Executive Advisory Board, and she was a long-time columnist and blogger for the Times Union’s Women@Work Magazine.

Deb Best Practices, a growing New York state Certified Women-Owned Business Enterprise (WBE) entering its 14th year in business, provides outsourced senior human resources (HR) practitioner services for leaders in all sectors tailored to each client employer’s needs:

  • Internal recruitment strategy, branding and internal hiring process advisement / implementation in all sectors and at all levels – Recruiting Your Talent for Retention;
  • Outsourced / Interim Human Resources / Compliance Leadership for National and Local Employers of All Sizes in All Sectors – HR 911 & HR Helpline Services;
  • Apprenticeship and knowledge transfer services for entry-level HR professionals and non-HR managers;
  • COVID-19 and Other Communicable Disease Workplace Navigation;
  • Complex employee relations and performance conversation navigation and coaching;
  • Wage & Hour / overtime compliance / workplace policies / employee handbooks;
  • Third-party employee and harassment complaint investigation services;
  • Compliant Sexual and Other Harassment Prevention and other related HR training;
  • Strategic planning facilitation and development;
  • Change, stakeholder communication and project management;
  • Workplace dispute resolution;
  • Team and leadership coaching; and
  • Predictive Index and Everything DiSC® assessments, workshops and team-building training.

View Debra J.M. Best, SPHR's profile on LinkedIn