What Happened?
Vinton, VA-based Donna Collins as Director of Human Resources
About the Company
The Town of Vinton is located in Roanoke County, and is bordered on its western and northern limits by the City of Roanoke. To the east lie Roanoke County and the Blue Ridge Parkway, and to the south is the Roanoke River. The Town of Vinton provides small town character with urban services and amenities located nearby. The small town atmosphere is characterized by a low crime rate; small, locally, and regionally owned businesses; and moderately priced homes. Views of the mountains and Blue Ridge Parkway abound. Vinton represents the ideal type of community, small enough to provide a feeling of belonging, yet progressive enough to provide the facilities, services, and conveniences that are necessary to make a community feel like home to its citizens.
About the Person
Donna Collins is the Director of Human Resources at Town of Vinton. In this role, she takes on the overall responsibility for the HR policies and development of programs to help strengthen the employees training, retention, and recognition. Collins was hired by the town last summer after working with Freight Car of America as their HR Manager and previously for Hanover Direct in HR and AtWork Personnel in placement. Freight Car of America has about 390 employees; AtWork is a placement service often dealing with temporary employment positions. Collins grew up in Pittsburgh and then moved to Tennessee where she also worked in the human resources field. She earned her degree in human resources from Devry University. Collins has one son who is 17 and attends William Fleming High School. She had no childhood dreams of becoming a human resources director, but she came to realize when she was working as a teacher at a childcare center that she enjoyed facilitating talks between parents and the childcare personnel—that she “genuinely liked helping people.” Human Resources gave her that opportunity. Her duties with the Town of Vinton are diversified. She works with both employees and management on a daily basis and strives to do that ethically and legally, not favoring one side over the other, she said. Collins evaluates, develops, and implements policy. She is in charge of benefits administration. She deals with insurance claims. She tries to reach out to the town`s workforce to make sure they have what they need. She does deal with hiring new employees by posting jobs, handling preliminary interviews herself, and then meeting with the applicant and department heads. She checks references and conducts background checks for employees other than police department hires who go through a more stringent process. She arranges for health and drug screenings, and then arranges training and orientation sessions once an employee is hired. She conducts some trainings herself, facilitates other trainers or webinars, or attends trainings to return and disseminate information to town employees. Recent trainings have been on workplace safety, national disasters, stormwater management, and how to best deliver customer service. When she first took the position with the town, she surveyed employees and departments to determine what trainings they felt they needed. Collins is currently in the process of reviewing the town`s employee handbook and the town`s policies as relates to their employees. Her plan, with council`s approval, is to make the guidelines not only fair, but less ambiguous and also comparable to other nearby localities. She hopes to implement policies which will positively impact employee retention within the constraints of small town opportunities and compensation. Her philosophy is that turnover is lower when an employer can match salary and benefits comparable to surrounding localities, but can also meet the need for employees to feel valuable and appreciated. Collins says that in a small community she is able to offer the personal touch which is not always possible in larger municipalities.
Info Source
News
Short Profile