Human Resources staff introductions continue this week with a few more of the team members who are helping each of us. HR team members work in many different ways to make YKHC employees’ lives easier and our careers more successful. The team actively supports our organization’s success, and benefits everyone. We may work in a variety of departments and locations for YKHC, yet each one of us has connected to the HR Department at some time in our time here. They will know that the entire HR function exists to encourage YKHC’s success, and by extension, the success of every individual employee and manager.
Aside from leading the core group of managers who train and welcome folks to our YKHC team through the New Employee Orientation (NEO) each week, a key project for HR this month and next is the review of every employee’s Annual Performance Review by managers. It is a large project, yet allows HR staff to learn more about each individual staff member around our facilities. Managers can count on HR staff to help develop the outstanding workforce we have working already at our clinics, in the hospital, and throughout all our various departments.
Leading our Human Resources Department team is a returning staff member, Nikkey Lester, who is back as our Interim Human Resources Director.
Nikkey brings over twenty years of experience in healthcare, and is well versed in all areas of human resources. Nikkey graduated with honors from a private university in Michigan with her Master of Science Degree in Health Services Administration. She will complete her second graduate degree in Information Technology with a concentration in Cybersecurity and Information Assurance in the summer of 2022. Nikkey is originally from up North (Michigan) and has one adult son who she absolutely adores. Nikkey currently resides in the Houston, Texas area with her husband and two bonus children, who are teenage twins. One of her interests is being a positive change in healthcare and making a positive impact wherever she goes.
Nikkey says, “I enjoy working in Human Resources at YK Health because not one single day is the same as the next. Human Resources is ever-changing, and has to be to ensure things are getting better for employees and organizations”. Whether it be new and improved strategies to help the organization reach its goals, enhanced HR technology and tools, collaborating with leaders to improve processes, or just simply being a compassionate, good listener, Nikkey has her focus on helping us improve YKHC in many ways. “I am a problem-solver, and personally grow by assisting our leaders in providing a positive work environment for all our staff members. Employees are our #1 priority!
Erin Fox is an HR Generalist (HRG) in the department. Erin started as the AHEC Training Coordinator, and continues to develop skills throughout her work with YKHC. Erin tells us she is a real people person, and she benefits us by being good at multi-tasking, which is key to the HR team balancing all the projects that support the YK Health system. Bringing customer service experience to the HRG role, Erin helps us do a variety of key services such as welcoming new hires as a lead New Employee Orientation educator and organizer and inputting accurate data into the Kronos system for tracking employees.
When asked why she likes working in HR at YKHC, Erin tells us, “It’s not always the same thing over and over again. Our days are always bringing in new tasks, new people to meet and help out, and new learnings that build my professional skills”.
A key member of our HR Department staff who helps in every single area of HR and will be instrumental in our Joint Commission personnel file reviews later this year is our File Clerk & Records Retention Guru, Sabrina Rivers. Sabrina recently returned to the HR Department to help us organize and maintain the more than 1,500 personnel files we keep in the HR offices. The Joint Commission has strict guidelines on what files must look like, what documents they contain, and how they are organized. Sabrina helps us keep on top of that.
Sabrina has been working on and off here at HR since 2019. “A family member who was already working here told me about the position. When I first came in I didn’t know what this role was but thanks to my co-workers back then who taught me everything I needed to know. And to this day, I am still learning something new every day”, she says. “I enjoy working at HR because of my co-workers. I get to interact with the great employees here at YKHC, in the Human Resources office and from other areas of the building”. Thank you, Sabrina, for helping keep all of our employee files up to date.
Yet another member of HR is a returning employee. Sally Baughman, our Interim Employee Relations Manager, is back in the role she held for YKHC starting in 2018. Sally has had a long-term interest in working with Indigenous people, and was happy to return in December to help YKHC employees and managers to be the best at what they do, in order to service our YK Delta communities. Sally is a certified Tribal H.R. Professional, THRP, which brings her personal interest of working with various cultures and peoples into her role of an HR leader, which is to YKHC’s benefit. Her key interests are investigation of employee concerns and helping to improve the work experience of all staff at YKHC.
When asked why she likes working here at YKHC, Sally states, “This role gives me an opportunity to be an active team mediator for employees, managers, and entire departments. I like helping employees resolve concerns, so they will be able to put differences aside and concentrate on doing better work. The role I have here helps not only the great HR team we have, by balancing out the impressive skills HR members bring to YKHC, but also lets me help folks all around the organization to develop their own skills and improve communications for our patients and their co-workers”.
Next week will wrap up our introductions to the HR employees helping each of us. The team in HR has lots going on, and always welcomes happy and hardworking folks to join our team. Perhaps you have a family member who is thinking of working at YKHC. Have them ask our HR folks for help in finding a career space for future growth in the organization.