Lisa Harris of Husky wins HR award
Burlington, VT - The Vermont Society of Human Resource Managers (SHRM) named Lisa Harris, Human Resources Manager of Husky Injection Molding Systems, Milton, as its 2008 HR Professional of the Year at the Association's annual meeting held at the Sheraton Burlington Conference Center in September.
Harris was away at a Husky training session in Canada at the time, and according to her General Manager, Geoff Glaspie, she learned of the award while seated for dinner next to company President and CEO, John Galt.
"That will be hard to top," said Glaspie, about arranging for Harris to accept the award on behalf of SHRM from Fran Mount, owner of Westaff, the sponsor of the award.
In his nomination, Glaspie said, "Lisa is the consummate business partner. She is an active member of the Management Team, serves as an invaluable sounding board and counselor to her peer managers on both tactical and strategic management issues. She participates in setting priorities for the operation to ensure overall business goals are achieved."
Harris was recognized for the development of a Leadership Training Program at the Milton Campus that has served as a model for a company wide initiative at Husky. According to Glaspie's nomination, the program provides training for managers, but also incorporates intensive one-on-one coaching sessions with each leader between each session to work specifically on that leader's development needs.
"We work with a lot of Vermont businesses who are facing challenging workforce issues," said Fran Mount. "It's a top priority to source and develop a highly qualified talent pool and Lisa's program addresses that for the profitability of Husky. Recognizing specific success stories is how we help each other do better. That's what SHRM is all about."
Harris also coordinated the development of a manufacturing training program that enabled Husky to train unskilled employees to be successful manufacturing team members in a relatively short time. She worked with engineering managers to develop a sustainable co-op program to train 20 students during their college years and she collaborated with Vermont HiTec to institute an apprenticeship program at Husky for technically trained, non-college bound students.
Harris is a member of Vermont Human Resources Association, an active member of the Relay for Life Event Planning team and an active mentor in the Howard Human Services organization mentor program.
About SHRM
The SHRM Vermont State Council is a non-profit council made up of
members of four Vermont chapters of SHRM. The goal of the SHRM Vermont State Council annual meeting is to provide human resource professionals and individuals managing the human resources function, training, networking and best practice ideas for working in Vermont.