Kim Pollok's Rise to CEO: Insights on Modern HR Challenges and AI
On Rock Solid, Kim Pollok, CEO of SWBC Payroll & HR, tells host Bryan Eisenberg how a 2009 layoff led to an entry-level benefits job and, 16 years later, the top seat. She shares mentor lessons, multigenerational management, and how her firm is cautiously deploying AI.
Round Rock, TX (Newsworthy.ai) Thursday Jun 25, 2026 @ 8:00 AM CDT
Rock Solid: Round Rock Business Leaders Podcast — 79. Kim Pollok | From Layoff to CEO
Photo: Round Rock Studio
"Stop letting people give you dead birds... don't allow people to just give you their problem and then you are taking on everybody's problem without some solutions, because you're collecting everyone's dead birds and you can't do anything with it." — Kim Pollok
Episode 79 of Rock Solid: Round Rock Business Leaders Podcast, titled "Kim Pollok | From Layoff to CEO," hosted by Bryan Eisenberg, traces an unlikely climb from a December 31 call-center shutdown to the corner office at SWBC Payroll & HR. Published June 23, 2026, the conversation arrives as employers wrestle with hybrid work, multigenerational teams, and the breakneck arrival of AI inside HR and payroll systems. Pollok, who advanced her career without a college degree, provides a candid guide for leaders on developing talent, keeping clients, and ensuring compliance in an ever-changing environment.
Across roughly an hour, Pollok and Eisenberg unpack several threads pulled directly from her 16-year run in the industry:
Rock Solid: Round Rock Business Leaders Podcast — 79. Kim Pollok | From Layoff to CEO
Photo: Round Rock Studio
"Stop letting people give you dead birds... don't allow people to just give you their problem and then you are taking on everybody's problem without some solutions, because you're collecting everyone's dead birds and you can't do anything with it." — Kim Pollok
- Saying "yes" through the SWBC PEO acquisition, when no one on the team knew what a PEO was.
- Finding and asking for mentors, including SWBC Mortgage CEO Susan Stewart and FI division CEO Mark Hine.
- Managing baby boomers, Gen X, and Gen Z under one roof without abandoning fairness.
- Implementing a secure, private AI system for research and workflows, ensuring client and financial data remain protected.
- Why SWBC sponsored the Round Rock Chamber's Women Who Mean Business event featuring Olympian Cat Osterman.
Pollok's voice is plainspoken and practitioner-first. On the mentor lesson that reshaped how she leads, she tells Eisenberg:
"Stop letting people give you dead birds. Don't allow people to just give you their problem and then you are taking on everybody's problem without some solutions, because you're collecting everyone's dead birds and you can't do anything with it."
She credits Susan Stewart with the framing, and now uses it with her own team alongside a second mandate: "You have a seat at the table, you've earned a seat at the table, use your voice."
The deeper context is a company built on relationships. SWBC Payroll & HR, privately held by Charlie Amato and Gary Dudley, serves clients from five employees to 7,000 across roughly 42 states, with a typical book between 40 and 300 employees and industries ranging from hospitals and urgent cares to construction, property management, nonprofits, train-car refurbishers, and pig farms. Pollok describes the firm as an essential back-office partner for small and mid-sized businesses, providing over 70 specialists at a cost-effective rate. She joined after her prior call-center employer, with over 2,000 workers, gave staff the choice to relocate to El Paso or be laid off; SWBC ran the closing job fair, then offered her an entry-level benefits coordinator role at $10,000 less than her HR-manager salary. Pollok accepted the offer that very afternoon.
About Rock Solid: Round Rock Business Leaders Podcast
Produced by Round Rock Studio and hosted by bestselling author and keynote speaker Bryan Eisenberg, Rock Solid spotlights the entrepreneurs, nonprofits, and large employers shaping Round Rock, Texas. Each episode brings the community's most interesting operators directly to listeners who can't make every chamber lunch or evening event. Episode 79 with Kim Pollok is available now wherever podcasts are heard.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How did Kim Pollok go from a layoff to CEO of SWBC Payroll & HR?
- Pollok was the HR manager at a 2,000-employee call center that gave staff a choice to relocate to El Paso or be laid off. SWBC ran the closing job fair, and the afternoon her doors shut on December 31, the company offered her an entry-level benefits coordinator role at $10,000 less than her salary. She took it immediately, then climbed by saying yes to projects, including the PEO acquisition.
- What does "stop letting people give you dead birds" actually mean?
- Pollok credits the phrase to her mentor Susan Stewart, CEO of SWBC Mortgage. The idea is that as leaders rise, people hand them problems without solutions, and accepting every "dead bird" leaves a CEO unable to do anything else. Pollok now requires her team to bring proposed solutions alongside problems, and she uses the framing to coach others.
- How does SWBC Payroll & HR use AI without exposing client data?
- The firm runs a private, walled instance of AI that keeps inputs out of the wider universe, and encourages employees to use it for emails, research, and some workflows. Pollok and SWBC's IT team keep financial data and personal client information out of the tool entirely, citing security concerns across the company's 13 divisions and thousands of client employees.
- Who are Pollok's key mentors, and how did she land them?
- Pollok cold-asked Susan Stewart, longtime CEO of SWBC Mortgage, and Mark Hine, CEO of SWBC's FI division, to mentor her about four years ago, despite never having met Stewart. She arrived at the first meeting with a binder of questions, but the relationships became about rapport, not checklists, and she still leans on both for advice today.
- How does Pollok manage baby boomers, Gen X, and Gen Z on the same team?
- Pollok says fairness and consistency on performance are non-negotiable, but motivation differs by generation. She cites a baby boomer employee who works long hours and rarely takes time off, contrasted with Gen Z staff who prioritize work-life balance and use vacation as earned. Her job, she says, is finding what makes each group feel fulfilled to drive retention.
- What kinds of clients does SWBC Payroll & HR actually serve?
- The firm supports employers from five workers up to 7,000, with a typical range of 40 to 300 employees, operating in roughly 42 states. Industries include hospitals, urgent cares, marketing firms, nonprofits, construction, manufacturing, property management, a train-car refurbisher, and even a pig farm. SWBC acts as a back-office extension, offering more than 70 specialists for a fraction of an in-house hire.
- Why did SWBC sponsor the Round Rock Chamber's Women Who Mean Business event?
- Pollok wanted to support women and elevate an event she saw growing year over year, and she values backing the Round Rock Chamber. It was her first time attending, and she highlighted the panel, including Olympic softball player Cat Osterman, plus the unusually fresh crowd of new faces beyond the typical chamber regulars.
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