Mrs. Loewen states she started her career not being on the path to HR, but rather started her HR job as a part time employee. She started as an HR assistant at Lewis and Clark College, until her sons were of high school age. She then went to work full time in HR for 10 years at Lewis and Clark College.

A position then became available at Western States College which Ms. Loewen states was a stretch to her comfort zone. With the change she did not realize that this new position was a one stop position as a generalist comprising of all employment functions, benefits, employee relations, safety, and training and development.

Ms. Loewen attributes the 5 years in the position at Western States as an excellent preparation for this current position at Clackamas Community College. At Clackamas, there are specialists including an HR
Analyst, HR Recruiting Manager, Payroll Manager, an HR Assistant, and Ms. Loewen’s job as and HR Manager.

Ms. Loewen relates that she was once promoted into employment relations and her ex-boss was really gung ho. As a new HR Director he set up the goals and objectives not only for the department, but for the entire company. The employees had individual goals and organizational goals.

Ms. Loewen had just completed her Bachelors degree and her next goal was to complete HR certification of PHR. The HR Director had stated on Ms. Loewen’s evaluation that she should take the PHR certification but did not have an end date. Ms. Loewen then said she was excited and since he did not articulate a timeframe, she just went ahead and did it.
Ms. Loewen comments that reflecting back to the recruitment side; employees are very important to her and are the biggest expense of an organization when you consider compensation and benefits packages. She further states that when there are turnovers, you need to find the person that best fits the organizational goals in place. She says that to her, people are important, but recruiting is a means with which to achieve the organizational goals, bottom line.

Finding the right workforce for the organization to be successful is a key according to Loewen and she cautions not to lean too heavily on the personal side and remain focused on accomplishing short term, long term, and any other organizational goals. Part of that mission must have a feeder into the mission and vision of the organization too.

Loewen says that it is also important for individuals, regardless of their position, is too realize how they are contributing to these stated goals. She firmly believes that all positions, whether 8-5 support or not, still need to know how their job relates to and helps the organization accomplish it’s goals. In her opinion, you need to see that contribution all the way to the top, and I agreed with her that too think it is important for people to know what is expected, how am I doing, and how do I fit with the overall objectives.

Ms. Loewen relates that the college has just come out of an accreditation, and that sense she has been in this new position at CCC, she has seen a wonderful sends of community. She further explains that everyone at the college seems to be engaged, but that there may be an element of newness to her position and we could possibly explore that question in the future to see what may be different.

The career pathway taken by Ms. Loewen is interesting and did not start in the same manner as others may have in this profession. She shares that when she was involved with PHRMA, she was on their board, and one of her responsibilities was Director of College Relations. The responsibility was Director of College Relations. This required that she have connection with the PFU Student Chapter. These are students that want HR as their profession. The classes they are taking are very focused and based on Human Resources, and the students have all been very deliberate about their career pathway choices.

Loewen points out that you don’t often see very many institutions that actually have a degree program for Human resources, but that she has seen institutions that have a master’s degree with a focus on HR. Loewen describes her belief that HR has morphed from people landing in HR in the past, to a new and younger generation that is actually choosing HR as a career. She relates that landed in HR and it became a career she feels fortunate to find herself liking. She strongly believes that many people did not choose to pursue HR as a career.

Loewen believes that to be successful in staffing you must have many skills. One of the most important is really having an understanding with the hiring manager and find out what their real needs are for an employee. Working with the manager on the job description so you are honing in not only on the tasks, qualifications, knowledge, skills and abilities, but making sure that when you post that job, screening is taking place based on this criteria. Screening helps you weed out unqualified applicants and saves the hiring manager time. This provides the manager with qualified applicants that the manager then needs to just pick from knowing that they meet the minimum agreed upon standards. These reasons Loewen states as the reason it is so important for HR to work with the hiring manager. Loewen emphasizes the relationship being about the hiring manager and that it one should make it all about the manger and their wants and needs.

One of the processes that Loewen would change in the staffing function is that there was not a recruiting tool at her last job. She found that she was doing everything manually. This included the tedious process of screening. With new recruiting tools, you can qualify your needs and if they are for a minimum of a bachelor’s degree, then that minimum is set and you don’t receive candidates that are not qualified. This is a time saver. Loewen believes that technology is great, but believes that just because someone is shut out due to a qualifier that they don’t necessarily deserve to be eliminated from consideration. Loewen cautions that technology should be used, but not to the point where it is so restrictive that it becomes detrimental and you are losing qualified applicants.
One experience Loewen used was an employee with 10 years experience in the field, yet no degree. This applicant may be a perfect fit for the organization. Loewen explained that in working with higher education, a Bachelor’s degree is required. One was surprised to hear that even the administrative positions at CCC require a Bachelor’s degree. Exceptions are made on this rule with a combination of experience and education.

Loewen regularly reads SHRM magazine but is quick to point out that it takes some diligence I a busy schedule to take the necessary time to read it. With that in mind, Loewen sets aside 30 minutes to invest the time to read it, and then picks out important or relevant articles to read more in depth. HR BLR is another regular she recommends CUPA for the educational HR professional.
Since coming to CCC, Loewen finds that her typical day is filled with working on projects. As an example, Affirmative Action, Civil Rights Review, and numerous employee contact is made regarding FMLA. She warmly shares that you learn something everyday.
Ms. Loewen believes that he most important function of staffing is partnering and collaborating with the hiring manager. If the manager understands that the HR Person is there to partner with them and help them get the very best person, it becomes a team environment focused on shared goals and not blaming HR for blocking a hire. Loewen makes the point that as HR, you do not want to be seen as someone that people need to get past, but rather someone that understands it is all about their department and finding the right people for them. She stresses again the importance of forming a partnership, not an adversary.

An insightful reflection by Loewen is shared about her conviction of having a presence outside of HR, and how she makes a conscious choice to go to other areas and other people away from the HR office. She believes that this way people do not always associate that HR is there because something is wrong or bad. She believes, and one would tend to also, that this helps remove the stigma around HR.

Loewen describes the time spent on staffing at CCC is a full time job for one person. When she was at Lewis and Clark her title was Employment Manager and she maintains that 50% of her time was spent staffing, recruiting, and selecting employees. At Western States She was more of a Generalist so it was probably at least 33% of her time. She shares that there was great stability with the faculty, but that the administrative positions had a turn over every 3-5 years.

One of the resources that Loewen uses for recruiting is Job Elephant (http://jobelephant.com/ ). She relates that this service saves a great deal of time. She faxes the job description and advertisement over to Job Elephant. She tells Job Elephant what agencies and/or advertisers she wants the advertisement posted at and they take care of it. Job Elephant performs their service for free, and she only pays for cost of the ads. She saves immeasurable time making only one contact and also only receives one bill from Job Elephant for all of the ads placed. Time is eliminated logging in to sites, using passwords, and sorting through and approving multiple bills. Loewen estimates that this one service saves approximately 1 hour per day.

Loewen finds too, that complicated to fill positions such as IT Manger are easier to accomplish because she calls her contact Michael at Job Elephant and ask for their opinion on where to place the ad, how to post it, how much it will cost or should cost, and they do all of the research for you.

Discussing best practices in staffing and general HR, Loewen shares an excellent download of a 52 page “Top 10 Best Practices in HR 2012” http://blog.blr.com/2012/02/free-report-top-10-best-practices-in-hr-management-for-2012.html

Loewen thinks that the biggest mistakes made in staffing are when the hiring manager is in a rush and they just want a warm body, they make a wrong hire. She elaborates that even though you may want to fill a position, it pays to take the time now, instead of later. The problems that can manifest are potential disciplinary measures up to and including termination, because it sucks the time and energy out of everyone involved. Loewen believes that even though a hardship may face a department when shorthanded, it is better to wait for the correct hire in the long run. Loewen looks for alternative ways to staff the temporary needs by looking at employees on part time who may prefer more hours, or outsourcing to a temporary agency until the position is filled correctly.

Alternatives to recruitment used by Loewen come up on a regular basis when employees are on FMLA, and the area manager needs someone to help. The managers are in the position that temporary employees could not be trained before the employee on leave returns, so they turn again to the utilization of part time employees, or they look for staff that has perhaps been promoted out of that job that could help fill in on an interim basis.

The affects of external environments at CCC are explained by Loewen according to Affirmative Action and EEO. Loewen chooses to explain this because she has a colleague at Western States and one of their interview questions was; what would you do to promote diversity? In Loewen’s opinion, diversity is everyone. You want to respect everyone because of their origin, race, religion, or many other things while totally embracing everyone.
Loewen believes that when it comes to Affirmative Action, especially when you are receiving Federal funds, you are required to prove that your workforce is diverse. She believes that as an example we live in the Portland Oregon area and when you look at demographics, there is an issue.