Mike started his professional career at Central HR after working briefly as a Temp in Payment Processing. During Mike’s time as an HR Assistant he manually created offer letters, processed data entry back when HR was still processed entirely on paper, and handled customer service over phone, email, and in-person. After about a year in the position and some reorganization in the Front Desk Area (now formally called Shared Services), Mike became the unofficial Lead in the area, training 3 temps and his new interim supervisor, taking on 2 additional Recruiters to assist, and taking on additional tasks. When Mike wasn’t dealing with this new workload, he was creating new training documents for future HR Assistants / the current HR Assistants who overtook his duties when he went on vacation. In January of 2018, Mike began studying for his Society of Human Resources Management Certified Professional credential (SHRM-CP). He took the test in June, syncing with his 2 year work anniversary, and passed. By mid-September, Mike received an offer to work at Pitt School of Social Work – quite the birthday present!
Mike spent lots of his early days learning the tasks associated with the role and creating training documents so he and future successors would have references to look back on. While he avoided Appointment season his first ear here, he did not avoid taking on coordination for the MSW Program Director Search – the first of many searches he’d wind up coordinating despite being told “we don’t hire all that often” when he started. Mike also spent a lot of time relearning his job again and again – 3 times total. He started by learning the initial processes when everything was paper, then the MacGuyvered process that came about when COVID-19 sent everyone working remotely, then the new and current process of PittWorx. Now that Mike has had a full year of the same HR processing system, Mike has turned his attention to strategic aspects of SSW HR. He has reviewed the School’s recruitment process and advertising strategies, streamlined appointment processes, created guides and FAQs for various HR tasks and appointments, and revamped the staff onboarding process (the creation of which was one of his first projects at the School). Mike has also been a member of the DEI Committee for the past 2 years, attended the Racial Equity Consciousness Institute, and is a Capstone Course conversation away from completing the DEI Certificate with Pitt’s FSDP program.
Mike is looking forward to working on recognition and retention over the next year or so. Mike also wants to say he wasn’t planning on building up recognition just in time for his 5 year work anniversary, but fully understands if you don’t believe him.