Hi, I’m
Sharon Bromell Covington
Senior Human Resources Professional
“It always seems impossible until it's done.”
Nelson Mandela
Summary
Responsive Human Resources Business Partner with well-rounded experience in all functional areas of HR, including labor law compliance, employee relations and performance management, leave of absence and ADA accommodations. Supports clients and effectively balances role of consultant and mentor with gatekeeper to control employer-related risks and grow client's management skills. Thrives on mentoring business owners and managers from small to mid-size employers with proven success at understanding unique business needs to establish genuine relationships as indispensable partner.
Overview
14
years of professional experience
5
years of post-secondary education
2
Certifications
Work History
Cato Corporation
Human Resources Business Partner (HRBP)
10.2023 - Current
Job overview
- Employee Relations - utilize independent judgment to provide guidance to Corporate, DC and Store Operations management, as it relates to the handling of associate relations issues, by conducting confidential internal investigations including complaints of sexual harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and other issues in a professional and timely manner
- Make recommendations to resolve issues in accordance with applicable laws and Company policies, practices, and procedures
- Maintaining a working knowledge of Federal, State, and local laws and employment legislation and enforce policies and procedures to ensure compliance
- Resolve payroll issues and concerns in partnership with the Payroll Department, including strategies to eliminate recurring Payroll issues and concerns
- Talent Acquisition - Coach and train people managers on the soft skills that support effective full-cycle recruiting, including the use of turnover reports and other data
- Collaborate with our internal Risk Management Administrator for handling and resolving workers' compensation claims
- Partner with our internal Benefits Team, specifically, the Leave of Absence Specialist for reviewing and administering LOA requests
- Serving as part of the HR team that reviews reasonable accommodations under the ADA
- Liaison with outside vendor for handling unemployment claims
- Providing training on HR topics and employment laws
- Assisting in investigating and responding to EEOC, DOL and OSHA complaints.
- Conduct exit interviews with employees leaving company to gauge areas of success and opportunities for improvement.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to develop integrated solutions for business challenges.
- Coach managers on effective employee relations strategies to address workplace conflicts proactively.
- Manage complex employee relations issues to promote a healthy workplace culture.
- Investigate and liais with legal department to respond to complaints of harassment, discrimination, employee grievances, and other sensitive issues and prepared position statements for EEOC.
- Identify HR training needs and conducted training for employees and leadership while recommending approaches to effect continual improvements in business objectives, productivity, and within company to reach business goals.
- Ensure legal compliance in all HR practices, preventing potential lawsuits and fines.
- Advise senior management on organizational development and change management initiatives.
- Facilitate effective communication between management and staff, fostering a positive work environment.
- Optimize workforce planning and resource allocation for improved operational efficiency.
- Resolve understaffing issues, disputes, employee terminations, and disciplinary procedures.
- Instruct senior leaders on appropriate employee corrective steps.
- Update training processes by reviewing existing documentation, leveraging feedback from associates and working with legal and compliance teams.
Campbell's Snacks/Snyder Lance
Human Resources Business Partner (HRBP)
07.2022 - 10.2023
Job overview
- Completes HR transaction forms for employee movement (new hire, termination, position change, promotion, pay change, etc.)
- Coordinates exit interviews feedback sessions and other final day procedures
- Sends completed exit interviews to HR Manager/Business Partner
- Responds to unemployment notices/claims and provides necessary documentation
- Responds to miscellaneous emails from employees requesting basic HR information
- This may involve researching programs, policies, procedures, employee benefits offerings or employee services
- Leads the coordination of various social events, benefit events, community events, and other related facility events
- Processes executed severance agreements, coordinates severance payments and outplacement services
- Administers the full-cycle leave of absence process
- This includes but is not limited to, responding to vendor inquiries, reporting leave absences and return to work dates for HRIS data entry, sending benefit payment letters and collecting monies owed, sending termination letters and completing termination paperwork as applicable
- Coordinates and documents monthly random drug and alcohol screenings
- Ensures completion and proper retention of I-9 documents
- Completes monthly I-9 audits and ensures documents are completed accurately and within the required deadline
- Reports compliance issues to HR Manager/Business Partner
- Completes requisition job posting requests and routes for approvals
- May help with recruitment efforts for open positions
- Coordinates and conducts new hire orientation
- Follows up with new hires that have not made benefit elections prior to new employee benefit deadlines
- Communicates and facilitates benefit information sessions
- Provides support for the benefits open enrollment process
- Regularly files HR paperwork in respective personnel files and keeps personnel files up to date and prepare communications related to various HR related subjects
- Administers the Recognition program and coordinates communication to the manager and the recognized monthly winner
- Posts HR related flyers and other information around office location(s)
- Recommends new approaches, policies, and procedures to effect continual improvements in efficiency of department and services performed
- Implements and communicates policies and procedures through various methods
- Maintains awareness and knowledge of HR laws and company policies and procedures
- Remains current on federal, state, case law changes that affect HR
- Manages and executes local recruitment strategy and job placement for all levels of employment including regular and temporary labor; internal and external candidates as needed
- In conjunction with business partner leadership, develops and implements hourly recruiting strategy
- Partners with corporate talent acquisition for open positions
- Recruits for positions as needed
- Manages new hire orientation, on-boarding and training programs for all new employees (including leadership new hires)
- May manage department records and reports such as applicant tracking system, data on recruitment activities, applicant flow, interviews, hires, transfers, promotions, and terminations
- Ensures all employee files are maintained properly and in accordance with all federal, state, local and company regulations
- Partners with Benefits team to implement health and financial wellness strategies to support all associates
- Responds to and resolves employee complaints and requests by government agencies as required
- Investigates serious conduct and compliance issues with assistance of HR Director and Legal
- Represents Company at hearings
- Represents company to local community through associate engagement in local community events, participating in local events as needed and creating product and employment brand awareness
- Implements and executes effective communications to support company strategic plan/objectives, company values, etc
- Fully engages Leadership in understanding HR initiatives, policies, procedures and processes
- Coordinates and communicates site human resources initiatives with corporate HR partners to ensure alignment with HR strategy
- Manages and implements a variety of corporate Human Resources strategies at the respective location and, balancing business partner and corporate HR initiatives
- Provides appropriate communications and promotes employee understanding of programs, policies, and objectives.
Lance/Kenco/Frito Lay
Human Resources Business Partner (HRBP)
04.2021 - 04.2022
Job overview
- Provided counseling and/or coaching to employees and management regarding employee relation matters and application of company policies, programs and benefits
- Recommended and administered OFI or corrective action plans; ensuring forms are completed per policy and in compliance with all applicable laws
- Administered applicable company and/or site policies, programs and benefits and acted as a liaison with corporate to facilitate change management; conducting training as necessary
- Acted as a liaison for employee programs and benefits (e.g
- Health, 401(k), performance management, incentives, etc.)
- Coordinating and/or facilitating benefit meetings during open enrollment
- Ensured new hire and termination paperwork is processed and employee data is current and accurate within the system of record (e.g
- UKG) and maintained proper employee files in accordance with policy and law
- Actively engage with ACE tools to identify and support process improvement activities
- Participated in the maintenance, development and implementation of policies and procedures
- Post jobs internally and externally while maintaining the applicant tracking system and reports
- Performed recruiting duties for all non-exempt (fulltime or temporary) and liaisons with established temporary agencies as necessary; including phone and resume screenings, candidate interviews and final selections
- Create requisitions, job descriptions and offer letters, performed reporting functions
- Completed the on-boarding functions for new employees including system on-boarding (UltiPro), new employee orientation and necessary coordination of new employee training.
Raytheon Technologies
Human Resources Advisor
08.2018 - 04.2021
Job overview
- Advise, coach and guide Managers and Employees to effectively navigate HR processes from simple to complex
- Promote quality, compliance management, and process improvements
- Effectively handle and resolve a wide range of HR queries, including employee relations matters received through a variety of channels including telephone, email, and online portal ensuring that high quality service is delivered throughout
- Proactively manage caseloads using the CRM Salesforce system and ServiceNow to take ownership for updating customers, meeting deadlines and resolving issues
- Take ownership of more complex Tier 2 cases, providing initial advice, guidance and support to Line Managers across specialist areas including Employee Relations, Total Rewards and Talent and L&D
- Utilize established HR processes, knowledge, policies, company guidelines and regulations to resolve customer queries
- Actively engage with ACE tools to identify and support process improvement activities including supporting optimization efforts with this party vendors
- Identify, recommend and create content or knowledge articles to be added to the external and internal knowledge base, train and assist with developing new team members
- Provide guidance to junior specialists and act as a point of escalation within the team
- Assist new hires and HR professionals with relocation inquiries and policy inquiries by working directly with SIRVA
- Candidate Reimbursement processing
- Utilize multiple online systems like ADP, SAP, Autotime, EV5 and Workday to help.
Mecklenburg County Government
Human Resources Generalist
04.2016 - 08.2018
Job overview
- Resolve HR Policy issues or concerns including employee relations, via inbound calls
- Update Cigna records on Cigna site
- Instruct and navigate employees and managers through MeckWeb, MeckEDU, MyHR, MyTime
- Create service requests through CherWell for departmental staff changes, new positions, reports to changes, position transfers, lateral employee transfers, updating county and state funding, promotions, merit increases
- Process new hire paperwork by creating and editing the HR employee hire records in PeopleSoft
- Process Dependent Age-out Report, family status changes, calculate “Transfer of Service Time,” key benefits enrollments, and research escalations pertaining to benefits for resolution
- Process verification of employment and verification of benefit requests
- Run New Hire Orientation Reports to prepare for the NEO onboarding bi-weekly, collect I-9 required ID's to verify employment in E-Verify, processing by 3 business days deadline from hire date
- Manage leave of absence FMLA, ADA, STD & Pay and benefits coordination and HR policy, procedures, best practices, & managed workflow administration of leave of absence/ ADA & Cobra process
- Managed FMLA/ADA/Cobra audits to ensure service level agreements, federal, state employment laws and regulations have been met.
D&L Parts Co. Inc
Human Resources Administrator
04.2015 - 04.2016
Job overview
- Interacted with customers by phone, email, or in-person to provide information.
- Organized, facilitated and participated in community service efforts.
- Supported departmental goals with the coordination of inter-departmental meetings and collaborative initiatives.
- Aided in employee onboarding through training new hires on office procedures, software applications, and company policies.
- Coordinated communications, financial processing, registration, recordkeeping, and other administrative functions.
- Answered multi-line phone system, routing calls, delivering messages to staff and greeting visitors.
- Maintained electronic and paper filing systems for easy retrieval of information.
- Maximized office space utilization by maintaining a clean, organized work environment that encouraged productivity and efficiency.
- Contributed to a positive work environment by fostering strong working relationships among colleagues.
- Assisted in event planning efforts for company gatherings, conferences, or workshops to enhance employee engagement and networking opportunities.
- Expedited invoice processing by accurately reviewing vendor submissions, reconciling accounts payable discrepancies, and conducting timely payments.
Wells Fargo Bank
Human Resources Service and Delivery Specialist
10.2010 - 04.2015
Job overview
- Responsible for full benefit and payroll consultation for Wells Fargo team members in a call center environment
- Assist Wells Fargo team members with questions related to Wells Fargo benefits, qualified events, payroll, policies, programs, tuition reimbursement, displacements and on-line tools associated with human resources
- Use of case management tools and other traditional human resources systems to document transactional work and educate team members on human resources related topics
- Provide subject matter expert (SME) skills and mentoring skills for new hire training
- Partner with Corporate Benefits on revision of Annual Benefits Enrollment tools, policies, and procedures and other project management responsibilities.
- Assisted in training new hires for successful integration into the team while sharing best practices on safe driving techniques and effective route planning strategies.
Education
Allen UniversityColumbia, SC
BA from English
01.1993 - 05.1998
Skills
Microsoft 360
Peoplesoft
Ultipro (UKG)
Kronos
Workday/Salesforce
Lawson
EV5
SAP
ADP
Equifax
Leave of Absence Administration
Policy writing and editing
Notary Public
Organizational skills
Editing
Technical writing
Proofreading
HR policies development
Grievance handling
Exit Interviews
Diversity and Inclusion
Coaching leadership
Employee Retention
Succession Planning
Organizational Development
Benefits Administration
Legal Compliance
Relocation assistance
Performance Management
Team building
Onboarding, Training, and Development
Effective Communication
Recruitment
Payroll Processing
Attention to Detail
Conflict Resolution
Employee Recognition Programs
Problem-solving aptitude
Professionalism
Employee Handbook Development
Multitasking
Time management abilities
Active Listening
Self Motivation
Written Communication
Conducting employee surveys
Managing employee relations
Certification
Notary Public License, Central Piedmont Community College, 2017
Availability
See my work availability
Not Available
Available
monday
tuesday
wednesday
thursday
friday
saturday
sunday
morning
afternoon
evening
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Accomplishments
- Collaborated with team of other professionals in the development of Leave of Absence process revision, writing Standard Operation Procedures, offboarding as a result of a plant closure and other efforts involving team work.
- Supervised contingent workforce team of 200 staff members.
- Documented and resolved employee relations issues which led to investigations and resolutions.
Work Preference
Work Type
Full TimeContract WorkLocation Preference
On-SiteRemoteHybridImportant To Me
Work-life balanceCompany CultureFlexible work hoursPersonal development programsHealthcare benefitsWork from home optionPaid time offPaid sick leave4-day work week401k matchTimeline
Human Resources Business Partner (HRBP)
Cato Corporation
10.2023 - Current
Human Resources Business Partner (HRBP)
Campbell's Snacks/Snyder Lance
07.2022 - 10.2023
Human Resources Business Partner (HRBP)
Lance/Kenco/Frito Lay
04.2021 - 04.2022
Human Resources Advisor
Raytheon Technologies
08.2018 - 04.2021
Human Resources Generalist
Mecklenburg County Government
04.2016 - 08.2018
Human Resources Administrator
D&L Parts Co. Inc
04.2015 - 04.2016
Human Resources Service and Delivery Specialist
Wells Fargo Bank
10.2010 - 04.2015
Allen University
BA from English
01.1993 - 05.1998