{"id":3683,"date":"2025-03-07T10:16:01","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T16:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.und.edu\/ndlaw\/?p=3683"},"modified":"2025-03-07T10:19:15","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T16:19:15","slug":"alumna-michelle-kommer-built-thriving-all-female-workforce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.und.edu\/ndlaw\/2025\/03\/alumna-michelle-kommer-built-thriving-all-female-workforce\/","title":{"rendered":"By learning to collaborate rather than compete, alumna Michelle Kommer ’07 built thriving all-female workforce"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Forum: In honor of International Women’s Day, we profile Michelle Kommer and her all-female team at HighRoad Partners.<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\"030825.B.FF.HIGHROAD_PARTNERS\"
Michelle Kommer, CEO of HighRoad Partners and a former state Commissioner of Labor and Commerce, talks about her company’s values and culture in her office at 209 NP Ave., Fargo. Alyssa Goelzer \/ The Forum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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By\u00a0Tammy Swift<\/a><\/div>\n
Friday, March 7, 2025<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
The Forum<\/a><\/div>\n
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 <\/p>\n

FARGO \u2014 The phrase, \u201cI don\u2019t know how she does it\u201d might have been invented for Michelle Kommer.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s a former state labor and commerce commissioner\u00a0who left the public arena in 2020<\/a>\u00a0to rehab a 112-year-old tire warehouse into a headquarters and home for her business, HighRoad Partners, which provides human resources and benefits support to other businesses across the country.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s an attorney who graduated in the top 10 of her law school class while raising young children, and a high achiever who has held high-powered legal, operational and human-resource positions in industries ranging from manufacturing to banking.<\/p>\n

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\"030825.B.FF.HIGHROAD_PARTNERS.7\"
Two storefronts at 209 and 211 NP Ave., Fargo, underwent a full-scale, multi-million-dollar renovation in 2022 to house HighRoad Partners, a business that provides HR and benefits solutions to other businesses. The business was previously located in Moorhead.\u00a0 Alyssa Goelzer \/ The Forum<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The mother of three is also a former foster parent\u00a0who founded the North Dakota Heart Gallery\u00a0<\/a>as a way to find adoptive families for children in foster care. She\u2019s also spent over a decade researching the importance of authentic, healthy female relationships in the workforce and would like to publish a book on that topic someday.<\/p>\n

On top of all this, Kommer seems down-to-earth and personable and \u2014 dare we say it? \u2014 nice.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitially, it was a very conscious, difficult effort to retrain my brain, and stop seeing other women through a lens of competition or threat,\u201d she told The Forum. \u201cToday, it\u2019s completely natural \u2014 I see other women as a source of inspiration and opportunity to make a new friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"030825.B.FF.HIGHROAD_PARTNERS.8\"
An inspirational sign displayed in the lobby of HighRoad Partners in Fargo. Alyssa Goelzer \/ The Forum<\/figcaption><\/figure>
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It also helped that Kommer\u2019s own career started off with a powerful female mentor. That was Mona Flaten of Community First Bankshares who hired Kommer right out of college.<\/p>\n

\u201cMona hired me for potential, and I learned how to be a strong leader while being myself \u2014 that you can be firm but kind, direct but compassionate, and effective but not at the expense of others,\u201d Kommer says today.<\/p>\n

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\u2018Say yes to what scares you\u2019<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

When Kommer was contacted in 2016 with an offer from then Gov. Doug Burgum to be the state\u2019s next labor commissioner, she recalls two immediate, conflicting reactions:<\/p>\n

\u201cMy brain said, \u2018This is crazy,\u2019 and my mouth said, \u2018That sounds fun.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Then again, that\u2019s how Kommer has built her career: She simply leaned into whatever scared her and did the job anyway.<\/p>\n

Whether that resilience came from the \u201cyou can do it\u201d conviction of her parents or the constant recalibration required from moving 11 times as a child, her determination to work through fear served her well.<\/p>\n

Kommer\u2019s parents \u2014 Mike Worner, a high school administrator-turned-education professor, and Marilyn Worner, a special education teacher \u2014 moved their family around the Midwest for various career opportunities.<\/p>\n

When Michelle was in high school, they settled in Mayville so her dad could teach at Mayville State University.<\/p>\n

After agreeing with her dad to attend Mayville State one year, she liked it so much that she graduated from the small school.<\/p>\n

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Her original plan was to attend law school after college, until she learned of an auditing internship with the federal government.<\/p>\n

She was so scared to live and work in Washington, D.C., that she almost left the plane before it took off. Thankfully, she didn’t \u2014 and eventually got to fly to places throughout Europe and Africa to audit embassies.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents raised us to work hard and not give up, and to keep learning. I learned early that saying yes to scary things led to learning, career advancement and was also rewarding and fun,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

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‘My boss, my mentor and my friend’<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

She returned home to work in Sen. Kent Conrad\u2019s Fargo office then landed another auditing position with Community First Bankshares in Fargo. Her future mentor, Mona Flaten, hired her.<\/p>\n

\u201cMona was my boss, my mentor and my friend,\u201d Kommer said during a TEDx Fargo talk, \u201cWomen For (not vs.) Women.\u201d \u201cShe had a unique knack for being my warmest supporter but she could also not so warmly call BS on me when I deserved it \u2014 and I did sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Years later, Kommer asked Flaten why she\u2019d hired her. \u201cIt\u2019s because I knew I could learn something from you and I knew I could help you learn something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Flaten would die at age 47 in a motorcycle accident, Kommer never forgot what her role model taught her in terms of the importance of female relationships in the workplace.<\/p>\n

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While at Community First, Kommer worked her way up to heading human resources, where she learned an important lesson.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where I learned that businesses are not a two-legged stool of just finance and operations,\u201d she says. \u201cIt’s three. The third one is people. And that’s where I fell in love with HR, and saw for the first time the importance of human beings and feelings and that above everything else is the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2018We had a baby each year of law school\u2019<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In 2004, Kommer enrolled in law school at the University of North Dakota.<\/p>\n

By then, she was married and had small children. For three years, she got up early every day to commute to UND. They were also foster parents at the time, \u201cso we had a baby each year of law school,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Kommer still managed to graduate in the top 10 of her class.<\/p>\n

Why? She thinks she learned to use time wisely. \u201cYou are absolutely managing every second of your time,\u201d she says. \u201cI carpooled most of those three years with a woman who became my best friend. And she too had had children and had a baby our third year of law school. But we studied in the car. We read out loud to each other. We used every minute. You had to.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"030825.B.FF.HIGHROAD_PARTNERS.6\"
The lobby at HighRoad Partners is pictured on Friday, Feb. 28, 2025, in Fargo. Alyssa Goelzer \/ The Forum<\/figcaption><\/figure>
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As a lawyer with human-resources experience, she landed a diverse assortment of responsible positions with big companies, including Ottertail Company, Noridian Insurance and Western State Bank.<\/p>\n

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Ryan Moen, now chief information officer at Western State Bank, was hired by Kommer when she was\u00a0<\/b>chief administrative officer and general counsel for the bank. He worked for her for over two years.<\/p>\n

He attributes her success to three characteristics: lifelong learning, a driven nature and a certain fearlessness.<\/p>\n

As a manager, Kommer was supportive of her team but also held a high level of standards for them, as well as for herself, he says.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Moen believes Kommer also recognized her employees were humans with real-life struggles. \u201cIf someone needed to take care of themselves or attend to something, she was always very supportive of those things,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll in all, I would say she\u2019s a fantastic person professionally and personally,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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Big help for small business<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

By 2016, Kommer had mainly worked for companies that employed thousands. It wasn\u2019t until she joined the state\u2019s Labor and Commerce divisions that she saw up close the unique challenges of the small business owner.<\/p>\n

Kommer learned the vast majority of North Dakota employers had fewer than 50 employees. \u201cThe heart and soul of our state is small players,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cAnd so it was those employers who were what I would call working managers \u2014 trying to build their company and do the work, but also be HR, be finance, be accounting. Yes. And that’s where things were kind of breaking down.\u201d<\/p>\n

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She found that in over 90% of the cases where employees made claims against their employer for wage and hour law or discrimination laws, the employers\u2019 errors were unintentional.<\/p>\n

The lesson: Every company needs HR expertise, whether they employ two people or 200. \u201cWe always say that our clients are absolutely smart enough to figure out the new FMLA provisions, but is it the best use of their time, rather than growing their business?\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

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\"030825.B.FF.HIGHROAD_PARTNERS.2\"
Michelle Kommer, CEO of HighRoad Partners, holds up a restored sign from Badger Tires, which used to be located in the NP Avenue building which now houses her business.\u00a0 Alyssa Goelzer \/ The Forum<\/figcaption><\/figure>
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HighRoad offers services such as payroll, HR compliance, benefits administration, recruiting, background checks, onboarding and payroll surveys.<\/p>\n

They can help employers develop job descriptions that Meet Fair Labor Standards Act requirements and help attract candidates who are a good fit for the employer\u2019s values and culture.<\/p>\n

They also guide a business when an employee doesn\u2019t fit.\u00a0 \u201cWe will not come in and fire someone on your behalf,\u201d Kommer says, \u201cbut we will role play with you. We will coach you. We will give you talking points. And of course, throughout all of that, we’re helping you do that in a both legal and compassionate way. But we are not (hatchet man) George Clooney in the movie, \u2018Up in the Air.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Clients also have access to HighPoint\u2019s HR-management platform, which would otherwise be cost-prohibitive for most small businesses. This fully-integrated system supports the entire employee life-cycle from applicant management to performance management, timekeeping and payroll, Kommer says.<\/p>\n

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Women for (NOT \u2018vs\u2019) women<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

No sooner had Kommer made it known she planned to start HighRoad did people from her past workplaces start approaching her about joining her team.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the folks that I work with today are all connections of mine or connections of connections. And that was just a wonderful compliment,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Although it was never a deliberate choice on her part, she wound up with an all-female team.\u00a0 It\u2019s not surprising:\u00a0 According to research by Mercer, a global consulting firm, women make up 70% of the HR workforce in Asia, Europe and North America.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal is to create a place where these wonderful women come to work every day and feel valued and can work to their strengths and have what I call real flexibility,\u201d she says. \u201cA lot of women who have been in the workplace have worked at places that claim flexibility, but you still get the stink eye when you\u2019re walking out because your kid is sick.\u201d<\/p>\n

HighRoad walks the talk by allowing employees to make their own schedules. \u201cWe have a number of people who don\u2019t work a full 40-hour week on purpose,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen I hire, I say, \u2018How much do you want to work, and let me know if that changes. And what do you want your hours to be?\u2019 And then we reverse-engineer how to serve our clients with excellence.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"030825.B.FF.HIGHROAD_PARTNERS.5\"
A relaxation room at HighRoad Partners with a sauna, massage chair and weighted blanket is pictured on Friday, Feb. 28, 2025, in Fargo. Alyssa Goelzer \/ The Forum<\/figcaption><\/figure>
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One of the most essential people to come on board was Chief Experience Officer Carla Koening, who has worked alongside Kommer through three different jobs over the last 20 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is the yin to my yang,\u201d Kommer says, \u201cand I absolutely could not do it without her.\u201d<\/p>\n

They work in a sprawling, 7,000-square-foot building at 209 NP Ave N., which melds the aged beams and exposed brick of the 1913 building with a posh, black-and-white color palette.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe encourage dogs and babies at work,\u201d Kommer says, while clicking down the long hallways on stiletto-heeled, animal-print booties. As part of that, the office includes a mother\u2019s room;\u00a0 an exercise room, and a mini-spa area with weighted blanket, massage chair and sauna. (Kommer\u2019s \u201ccommute\u201d to work is about 2 minutes long, as she lives in a gorgeous flat on the second floor.)<\/p>\n

Art posted throughout the workspace champions female success, from the restroom featuring a wall of motivational messages in powder-pink hues to the photo of her grandmother, Mabel Kachelhoffer, from when she graduated from Mayville State (then Mayville Normal School) in the early 1900s.<\/p>\n

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\"030825.B.FF.HIGHROAD_PARTNERS.3\"
Michelle Kommer, CEO of HighRoad Partners, holds up a Mayville State University flag while standing next to the university diplomas and early-1900s-photo of her grandmother, Mabel Kachelhoffer, taken when she graduated from the Mayville Normal School.\u00a0 Alyssa Goelzer \/ The Forum<\/figcaption><\/figure>
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It all ties in with what Kommer has learned via research and experience: When women can move from an adversarial to a supportive place with each other, beautiful things can happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat can I learn from her? And how can I help?\u2019 are two questions we should ask ourselves to help us have healthy, supportive, authentic relationships with women in the workplace,\u201d Kommer once said. \u201cUnderstanding female relationships in the workplace has changed my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Read the original article from The Forum<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Forum: In honor of International Women’s Day, we profile Michelle Kommer and her all-female team at HighRoad Partners.   By\u00a0Tammy Swift Friday, March 7, 2025 The Forum   FARGO \u2014 The phrase, \u201cI don\u2019t know how she does it\u201d might have been invented for Michelle Kommer. She\u2019s a former state labor and commerce commissioner\u00a0who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":3684,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[517],"tags":[574,1555,657,1554],"class_list":["post-3683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","tag-alumni","tag-international-womens-day","tag-law","tag-michelle-kommer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBy learning to collaborate rather than compete, alumna Michelle Kommer '07 built thriving all-female workforce - North Dakota Law<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Michelle Kommer is featured by The Forum for International Women's Day for her all-female team at HighRoad Partners.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.und.edu\/ndlaw\/2025\/03\/alumna-michelle-kommer-built-thriving-all-female-workforce\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"By learning to collaborate rather than compete, alumna Michelle Kommer '07 built thriving all-female workforce - 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