Darlene Chino

I have been in the human resources field for over 17 years, starting my career on the frontline as a human resource generalist. I worked my way up through various positions including employee relations specialist and Employee Relations Manager, eventually becoming a Human Resources Manager in 2012. Around 2020-2022, I advanced to my current role as Director of Human Resources. In my day-to-day work, I focus primarily on making sure team members are taken care of. I oversee employee relations, work with leadership on coaching and helping team members through their career paths through training and education on department policy and development. I work closely with my team to ensure our areas are covered, particularly training schedules and benefit administration, making sure we're in compliance and that all new hires are registered and ready to take on their benefits when they become eligible. I also manage performance evaluations and ensure overall compliance with all areas including benefit administration and our 401K program. Each day is different in HR, but we do the best we can to make sure that we take care of everyone. My most notable professional achievement has been training my team to be informed and capable in their positions. I have a staff where each person covers a specific area of human resources, and they're able to take on those roles without me micromanaging them. I'm able to ask them where we're at with things, and the accomplishment of creating that team foundation and having that reliability on them allows me to focus on other major areas. I just have a great team that puts it all together and rolls it out.