Meet the Buffalo #HRCommunity! COVID-19 has no doubt been a challenging time for most HR professionals to navigate. I am so grateful to the amazing HR Community for showing up for each other and offering information and support. You all are the best! I want to introduce my network to some of my connections who rock and who are rocks for their organizations! Stay tuned for multiple posts in this series – all from HR pros practicing in different industries. If there’s anything I can help you with, please send me a message on LinkedIn or through the contact me area here on my blog.
Meet Ashley! Ashley and I first met back when we both worked at Delaware North and were HR Generalists for different field units. Our PHRs, love of planners and cats, and serving on the local SHRM chapter board (BNHRA) has brought us closer together over the years. She is so thoughtful and always brings up great questions and ideas I hadn’t considered. I’m so lucky to have her as a friend! Be sure to connect with her and learn more below!
Sum yourself up
I am an animal loving, HR enthusiast who loves to travel and collect new experiences.
Current position and in what industry
I am currently a corporate HR generalist in the dairy food manufacturing industry.
Has COVID-19 impacted you?
My company is considered essential since we support the food supply chain. I am currently still working in the office in direct support of our manufacturing sites.
What’s 1 thing you wished someone outside of HR understood about your job during this time?
That HR isn’t black and white, often times each situation warrants a look from multiple perspectives and an immediate response isn’t always possible or appropriate. Often times research and considerable thought needs to be applied to scenarios where there is no past practice to reflect on.
What are you doing to practice self-care?
I am enjoying some audio books that I downloaded over the last few months that I never listened to. I also enjoy spending time getting organized each week by creating a custom spread in my planner. This helps me stay grounded and I love that it’s a creative outlet for me too. I have a collection of themed stickers, pens, markers, and tapes that I use to create a visual guide for my week.
What has been your favorite part of your HR career?
My favorite part of my HR career has been the unexpected exposure to politics and laws that impact our lives. I do not normally follow the news so having the exposure to our government has been very eye opening and has made me feel more connected to the community and country that I live in. Can you tell from my responses that I am involved in more compliance than anything? 🙂
What is a word of advice or encouragement you’d give to other HR pros?
My advice to other HR professionals is: Have intention. Be deliberate. You will not always have a tribe behind you in the workplace, but you always have your HR tribe behind you if you’ve spent time building your HR community. Now is probably the best time to connect with other HR professionals to network and simply get to know how each other is handling the current global crisis. This pandemic has given us all something in common, so use it to build your support network.
What can the HR community do to support/help you right now?
My HR community can help me by being very careful to only share information that is known to be fact or only from a reputable source. HR has a major responsibility to control the flow of information – with the flooding of shares going on via LinkedIn or email regarding COVID-19 right now, I just ask that if you are sharing something related to COVID that it be linked to a government agency or a source that is known to be reputable. Don’t risk the spreading of fake or inflated news!
Share something fun about yourself
I love yoga and Erica Vetra is my favorite online instructor!
Claire is Coaching 