Behind the Scenes with the Office of Human Resources

Recruitment. Onboarding. Payroll. Benefits. These are just a few things that the Office of Human Resources manages for employees across Empire State University. Here, Director Lindsay Holcomb, HR Business Partner Christine Mansell, and Assistant to the Vice President Rebecca Monaghan offer a look at the team behind the work.  

How would you describe what your office contributes to the university?

Monaghan: It’s a funny question to answer because I think there’s a general understanding of benefits, payroll, employee relations, and the ways that we interact with other departments. But what I have realized coming from another department and into human resources about a year ago is just the depth of everything else—the life cycle of an employee that we touch from recruitment and onboarding to training and development to benefits, payroll, and compensation. Then there’s workforce development and how we serve our employees to serve the institution and our students. It has been incredible to experience our team navigating all those intricacies over the last year. I’m really impressed as someone that didn’t start in HR, so I always love to shout out our team and the amazing work they’re doing. 

Holcomb: I think from the outside looking in, it looks like we just process a lot of information. But there is a lot more to that in terms of, like Rebecca said, the life cycle of an employee and what is involved in that. It’s also the conversations we have with faculty, staff, supervisors, and leadership, whether it’s getting something off the ground, implementing something, or helping an employee through something. There’s a lot of different pieces to what each of us do that make up the team and the department.  

Mansell: We’re serving the employees who serve the students, and that’s the end goal of our mission here. We’re working in the background to keep things moving from beginning to end of employee life cycles, but also I think from my experience in HR in different companies and then in the university, there’s just so much that HR touches. There’s a lot going on that maybe people don’t see, but we’re involved in many different projects throughout the university. 

Why human resources? What made you want to do this work?

Mansell: I kind of stumbled into human resources. I didn’t know what it was at all because I was originally a teacher. That was my first career for a couple of years, and then I worked in marketing and slowly got into HR. I think what I liked was helping people, and there were actually a lot of skills that I used in teaching that related to human resources. You’re helping to run a company versus a classroom, but they’re so similar in many ways.  

Holcomb: I also fell into human resources several years ago. I initially was going to be a high school history teacher. I decided I didn’t want to do that, but I wanted to still work with people. For me, it’s about having a direct impact on people’s experiences at work. A lot of the time, we’re supporting them through difficult situations or we’re helping them solve a problem. The focus is to help and support the employee or the supervisor so you can ultimately help and support the institution or the organization that you’re working for. That’s why I’ve continued to stay with human resources. 

Monaghan: My background is in administrative support work. I like to know how things function. I like to know how I can connect the dots and make one thing work and how we can change it and improve it. I’m doing my master’s in organizational psychology right now with a focus on personnel and HR, and a lot of that has to do with what motivates our employees. What do they need in order to function well? What do they expect from their institution? The part of my brain that likes to organize things and know how they work meshes really well with the part of my brain that cares about people and wants to make things work smoothly. And that aligns really well in the office of HR. 

What does a typical day look like for you?

Holcomb: No day is the same. You might have similar conversations, but they’re never with the same people. I talk a lot to employees and supervisors trying to work through a concern the employee has or a concern the supervisor has. I try to help each side through it. My day is filled with a lot of union-related matters, but also I oversee payroll, benefits, recruitment, and performance management, so I get a little piece of those each day from the teams that support them.  

Mansell: I think every day is different. Especially after being here a year and a half, I’m still learning new things. This is my first job in higher ed. Previously I worked in the software industry, so this has been a whole new learning experience for me. This role is also a new one for the university, so it’s been growing and evolving since I started here and that keeps it interesting as well. A typical day would consist of update meetings with different individuals. I work on a lot of different projects and strategic initiatives. I’ve been partnering with searches and onboarding orientations, helping out with different work groups for different initiatives.  

Monaghan: A lot of my work is very project-based as well. So I help when we’re trying to implement a new system or transition information. I work with various teams and partnerships on anything we’re trying to get off the ground to make things easier for our employees. My work also supports Sharon Butler as our VP, so I’m navigating her schedule and making sure she has what she needs to be effective. As much as I can, I make sure her day goes smoothly and that this team has what they need in order to be successful. 

What’s one resource, service, or initiative you wish more people knew about?

Mansell: I think in my role it’s just that I’m here. I’m a resource. I’m branching out and getting involved in projects throughout the university, such as the pilot program that we launched for higher-level searches. We’re working on higher-level orientations and overall onboarding for the university. If there are any strategic initiatives that supervisors may have in mind, HR ideas, or even issues they’d like to discuss, I’m here. 

Holcomb: We’ve spent and are spending a lot of time reviewing our current processes and working to streamline them and make them more efficient—not necessarily for us, but for the rest of the institution. For instance, how much more quickly can we get the process flow working for Interview Exchange, or onboarding or recruitment? We’ve had a lot of conversations over the last year, and we’ve started working on overhauling these types of processes so we can do them better and more efficiently. 

Monaghan: We put out as much as we can—opportunities for folks to engage with us, ask questions, and provide insights into what they’re experiencing so that we can make the appropriate improvements to various processes. What people will see a lot in our bimonthly communication from the Office of HR are times to sign up to talk to Benefits if they’ve got questions, or to chat with Sharon or Lindsay about performance management. We’re also going to start inviting folks to sign up for career coaching to work on their own professional development. So as people see those opportunities pop up in either their email or on Teams, I really want people to grab onto them and sign up. It’s 15 or 30 minutes to get the conversation started so that we can improve their experience as employees. 

What’s something you love about your job?

Holcomb: Our team and those relationships that have been built outside of the HR team—the challenges and the connections made on a daily basis. Also, being able to see, and to be a part of, the university’s growth and transformation over time.  

Monaghan: I really love how curious this team and this institution are. I think that as an online, state institution, we’re providing something really unique to the state of New York and to its online learners. The work that gets done every day at SUNY Empire is really intentional and creative, so I love being a part of it. This team is doing their utmost to think outside the box and to make things better in situations where there isn’t always a right or an easy answer. Being a part of a team and a community that’s trying really hard every day to do good work for a good reason feels awesome.  

Mansell: Of course I’ll agree with the team part. I think that has made my role more enjoyable since I started here, just being able to rely on a team that is always there if I have a question. I’ve really appreciated that community. Also, I’m comfortable working in an environment that’s growing and changing. I think we’re very innovative here at SUNY Empire, and I’ve always been drawn to those types of work environments. I like that we’re trying new things and we’re always thinking, we’re always changing. It’s a fun time to be here for sure.