Tara Blackburn ---- 2011 HR Professional Of The Year
At the last COHR monthly meeting, we were excited and proud to announce the 2011 HR Professional of the Year Award to Tara Blackburn. Tara works as a Human Resource Analyst with Carolina Health Specialists. As can be seen below, Tara exemplifies the role as HR Professional of the Year.
This year, COHR put together a committee of past winners to review all the nominations. There were a lot of very qualified nominees submitted, and COHR was very thankful for all the submissions. The committee reviewed the nominees, and maybe took a slightly different approach this year. The winner this year, has not yet reached the pinnacle of her career. In fact, compared to some of us old timers, she is just getting started. However, this person exemplifies what COHR would characterize as the 4 "P‟s" that make the difference between anyone just performing the HR related duties and the person who is, or has the potential to be an outstanding HR role model.
The first "P" is obvious for People Skills – When Tara was new to HR about three years ago, her wise HR Manager, Joyce Hankins, introduced her to COHR. She didn‟t just join as a way to get out of the office for a couple of hours and have a nice lunch, but took it as the opportunity to get to know other people, where everyone could potentially be a mentor, and embraced the opportunity to grow. When a call went out for anyone who was interested to volunteer to serve on the Board, Tara was right there to volunteer. Tara didn‟t let it intimidate her that she was new to the profession. And she brought a fresh approach to the Board.
The second "P" is for Professionalism. Members of COHR have seen this person grow in this area not only in her knowledge, but in her communication skills, and overall confidence in herself. HR Professionals have to be the role model and we walk a very fine tightrope between what is fair to the employees and what is fair for the company. Tara has embraced her role on the Board very seriously, and COHR had no doubt that this year Tara will continue to progress towards becoming the ultimate professional.
The third "P" is for Perseverance. Joyce states that while Tara came to their organization with very little HR experience, she quickly was able to grasp the training that she needed and was provided, has become a very thorough researcher and her life saver. In HR you quickly find most of the times, things are not always as they seem. You have to keep researching and peeling the layers of the onion to keep digging to find the reason something happened or to get to the root of the problem.
The fourth "P" is Passion. This is something that you cannot get from any course. If you don‟t have Passion, you will quickly burn out in HR. It is what keeps you coming back after a really bad day. It is what makes you reach down inside to help the employees you serve, find a solution that will make sense, and continue to do what you can to help others. The winner this year, displays a passion for everything that she does. From running marathons, to diving in to do whatever she can with COHR. A couple of years ago, Ruth Pastula, introduced the needs of Help 4 Kids to COHR. COHR members went above and beyond the call for help for this great organization giving from the heart to help, especially at Christmas time when we had three car loads of stuff to deliver after the meeting to Help 4 Kids. Tara and her organization didn‟t stop there though. They collected from all of their offices and filled the Help 4 Kids truck. When Ruth stepped down this year as coordinator of the effort, Tara immediately volunteered to take on the role, and has brought her enthusiasm and passion to the cause.
Tara is a graduate of Winthrop College and the daughter of two teachers, which surely have been very influential in her development of the 4 "P‟s." COHR would like to once again congratulate, Tara Blackburn, as the 2011 HR Professional of the Year.