This month's spotlight is all about an essential member of V-Soft's HR team. Tessie Henry, V-Soft's HR Specialist, ensures HR functions for the company are always running smoothly, from onboarding to benefits and everything in between. Those who work closely with Tessie can attest to her positive attitude and willingness to lend a helping hand whenever called upon. We sat down with Tessie to learn a little bit more about her role within V-Soft and how she enjoys spending her free time.
I work at V-Soft as an HR Specialist. Some of my duties include: onboarding & offboarding, managing the commissions system, benefits administration, working on strategic projects for the Director of HR, handling unemployment claims/employment verifications, drafting policies/procedures, UAT testing of the HR portal, ensuring compliance with state and federal guidelines, customer service and more.
There are many pros to working at V-Soft, from being passionate about the work I do, to my amazing coworkers. I think within this past year especially, V-Soft really stood up and showed how much they care and think about their employees on a personal level. As we know, the COVID-19 pandemic rattled the world. V-Soft showed many times how much they cared for employees by sending thoughtful and useful gifts, to constantly being transparent by sending updates regarding the company and cases within offices. Along with that, I am also very proud of how much V-Soft supports its local communities with charitable efforts, such as the V-Soft Cares Annual Charity Golf Scramble.
Tessie (right) enjoying time with her coworkers, Tammy (left) and Chanin (middle), during a V-Soft team building event.
I have been with V-Soft for over 7 years now and I am proud of how much I have grown and the knowledge/experience I have gained over the years. The world of HR is ever-changing as there are new federal and state laws being enacted every day that can affect how we work. It can be a lot to keep up with, but it keeps the job interesting. You also never know what situations to expect to run into every day, which keeps you on your toes.
One reason I absolutely love my role is being able to work with and meet new people and have an impact on them, whether internal coworkers, consultants or vendors we work with. Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in our jobs and we forget that we could potentially be changing someone’s life by providing them an opportunity that could end up being a career, not just a job, and when I say “we,” I mean everyone at V-Soft plays an integral part, from immigration, contracts, sales, recruiting, finance, etc.
My cats, Smokey and Sumi, are essentially my children, so they take up a lot of my free time. We adopted both of them about 3 years ago and they have made a huge impact in my life. As you can imagine, they are extremely spoiled! Besides my cats, I am huge music lover, which might be why I ended up marrying a musician 😊. I spend a lot of time helping my husband, Josh, create new music from the ground up. I also enjoy traveling and have been to all 50 states.
Tessie enjoying time with her husband, Josh.
Penn State Football is a way of life for me. I have had season tickets since before I was five years old and have traveled the US going to games. Another fun fact is that my cousin, Brent, is Defensive Coordinator for Penn State, which makes watching games now even more special.