'She is an absolute delight to work with! ... All employees should be modeled after Gretchen.'
From her nomination:
Gretchen is diligent about providing the highest level of service to both her internal and external customers. She is always looking for ways to grow professionally and to improve processes and make others’ jobs easier. She recently graduated with her master’s degree and is constantly looking for ways to put it to work. She is the go-to person in our department because she is so knowledgeable, helpful and responsive.
She is an absolute delight to work with!
Gretchen is accountable, clever and resourceful in all aspects of her job. For instance, she has taken responsibility for delivering the benefits information to our new hires at general orientation. She does an amazing job anticipating and answering all the questions our new hires throw at her, but in follow-up surveys she found participants often wishing they had been given information that was contained in the original presentation. Her solution was to institute a trivia game that reinforced important information while livening up the session. The trivia game significantly reduced the lack of retention by new hires, and even has been mentioned as one of the best parts of orientation.
Gretchen is also directly involved in planning the Employee of the Year Salute to Excellence event. She observed the process in 2024 and in 2025 directly contributed to weekly meetings, improving on lessons learned from the prior year to make this an even better program.
And she is professional to the core. She's respectful of people’s time, their belongings, their traditions and cultures, their opinions and knowledge. She speaks to everyone as though they are the most important person in the room and has a natural ability to make people feel welcomed and respected. She is anxious to learn and she continually strives to provide excellence in all she does for the department and the organization.
Thank you, Gretchen, for your commitment to always leading with CARE!