Vice President of People Operations at Oliver Mechanical
Oliver Mechanical was founded in 1990 and is a full-service mechanical contractor based in Manchester, NH and licensed to do business in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. They possess strong capabilities in HVAC installation & service and commercial plumbing installations. They serve both the plan & spec and design-build markets and have expertise in a wide range of technologies and applications. As a senior HR leader and true business partner, Amy specializes in overseeing human resources operations and strategy, employee and client relations, organizational structuring, HR Tech, and policy development.
I always love asking our HR folks how they got into this niche area and I think Amy’s answer is the best I have heard. She explained, “Mine was the most obscure journey…I started in hospitality…I was running successful restaurants in Boston and really loved it…fast forward a few years, my sister gave me two beautiful godchildren and I started to miss out on things…birthday parties…special occasions…and I knew I needed to make a change. I needed to work in a more tradition business environment. I started in a recruiting firm as a Recruiting Coordinator and worked my way up. I eventually moved over to a corporation and started doing recruiting and compliance and grew from there. The rest is history…I have now been in corporate HR for 12 years!”
We then chatted about the current climate and recruiting as well as hiring challenges. Amy shared that “for a trades organization, and post-COVID, our talent is getting increasingly difficult to find…there was such a push for many years to go to college right after high school that the trades have suffered…there have been more conversations recently and an emphasis on getting folks to enter the trades again but this will take a good 3-10 years to catch on. On the corporate side, top talent is taken and salaries have grown significantly…especially when it comes down to counter offers. It can be difficult to compete.”
I then asked Amy what some of her plans and goals were for this year as I always love learning from our HR partners what their initiatives and areas of focus are. Amy’s company is going through a major re-organization and she said it is “real exciting…there is lots of strategic planning happening…leadership development and TA strategies.” She is also working on engagement as well as DE&I initiatives. She is helping her organization to develop their culture and become an employer of choice.”
In her spare time, Amy volunteers on the MAHRA board (Manchester Area HR Association). She is now the President-Elect and will officially become the new President in June of this year. She is working on expanding MAHRA’s reach and increasing the services of this non-profit organization.
Lastly, when I asked Amy what advice she has for her fellow HR colleagues, she said, “Keep fighting the fight! It is worth it! Also, lean on your people!”
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