Her Story
About Esperanza
I've been in my field for 20 years, and my journey into HR was quite organic. I started as an administrative assistant at a manufacturing plant, and people naturally came to me for help and guidance. When I went on maternity leave for my second son, the company brought me back as their HR person because employees were already coming to me, and they needed someone in that role since they had over 50 employees. From there, I worked across different industries including manufacturing, construction, and warehouse operations. After COVID hit, my previous company moved and it would have been an hour commute, so I started looking for new opportunities. My father was on hospice at that time, and I really fell in love with the whole program and how they made such a sad moment become such a beautiful end-of-life experience for the family. It was always something in the back of my mind. I landed with the Pennant Group working in Thousand Oaks in Southern California. Two and a half years ago, we moved up to Fresno, and I gave them my one-month resignation, but they had just acquired a facility in Fresno and asked if I would take care of the HR and payroll there. I said absolutely, and that's where I am now. In my current role since July 2023, I handle primarily onboarding, offboarding, staying on top of Medicare compliance for employee files, managing licenses and trainings, employee relation issues, and payroll. In healthcare, I've noticed there's less employee conflict than other industries - it's more about burnout with nurses and clinicians. What I'm told very often is that I have a calm demeanor and an ability to de-escalate difficult situations, which is something I'm proud of.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Esperanza
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say to be patient, because there's gonna be a lot of things that are gonna come with time. It's a career that you grow into. You want to be able to come in and fix the world, and write people up, and managers that are not doing what they're supposed to be doing, but I just say do a lot of sitting back and listening and learning and trying to see how you can work with the different individuals, because you can't work the same with everybody. They all have different personalities.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I think one of the bigger challenges that I see is, in this organization specifically, the financial part is very big. They have to at many times make abrupt changes due to financials and what have you. Unfortunately, that does affect the morale of the company because employees don't understand, and then they have this perception of the company is just caring about numbers and not about the employees. I understand both sides of it, and I've given my advice as far as not making such abrupt changes. When they don't take my recommendations and if something does happen, I'm not gonna say I told you so, I'm just gonna say okay, so we're definitely talking.
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