Most of you know Wendy Whipple as the current Assistant Director of the HRSS processing team. However, Wendy has held a number of positions within HRSS since joining the department in 2016. Wendy first began her HR career as an HR Assistant, taking on both traditional HR roles and management of the front desk. As her experience, skills, and organizational knowledge grew, Wendy was promoted to an HR Representative. In 2018, she continued to demonstrate her knack for exceptional customer service and was promoted to Administrative Manager, overseeing a team of 8 employees.
When asked about the most challenging aspects of her roles, Wendy will tell you about the campus transition to Workday that began in 2018. The HRSS processing team has steadily helped improve Workday functionality by consistently advocating for their customers’ needs. Wendy considers her team “Workday Superusers” who are adept at identifying issues before they become larger problems for not just the FAS portfolio, but all of campus.
The COVID-19 pandemic has also posed new challenges to the way Wendy and her team conduct business. Since March 2020, HRSS transitioned to fully remote operations. Since then, new processes have been successfully implemented for welcoming new hires, completing remote I-9s, processing premium pay and hiring exception requests, and managing new types of leave. With the constant influx of new and changing information, Wendy and her team have remained flexible and adaptable-- prioritizing sharing information in a way that is accessible to customers. Through these challenges, Wendy places a high level of trust in her employees and focuses on ways to keep the team connected.
Thank you to Wendy and her team, for all their hard work!
Samantha Baird