Another new executive joins McFührer, who knows what this guy will be up too...

The Labor Relations and Human Resources Division welcomes Barry Chapman, who starts today as HR Business Partner supporting Operations and Safety. Barry has an extensive background in Human Resources leadership roles and a particularly strong knowledge of transportation operations. As we restructure Human Resources, Barry also will supervise our dedicated recruiter for Operations, Carol Crossen.

The HR Business Partner position is a new one to TriMet, but is the predominant model used in large organizations throughout the country. Typically, the HR Business partner offices in one of the business areas they support. HR Business partners are distinguished by their subject matter expertise in a broad number of HR disciplines, such as organizational development, training, change management, talent acquisition, organizational design, employee relations, compensation practices, compliance, and workplace investigations. Think of them as hands-on HR Directors with few or no direct reports. The HR Business Partners bring their broad skill set to bear to help the areas they support achieve their business goals; they also use their knowledge of the areas they support to influence the organization-wide HR policies and services to make them more relevant and user friendly to the organization.

In addition to Barry, Angela Burns-Brown is transitioning from Recruiting Manager to a HR Business Partner position; she will support Public Affairs, Legal, and the General Manager’s Office. On June 18, Stacy Chrest will join TriMet as a HR Business Partner to support Capital Projects and Finance & Administration. Stacy spent more than a decade as a HR Business Partner with Mercer, a large compensation and benefits consulting organizations, which TriMet uses.

Along with implementing the HR Business Partner concept, we are reorganizing our recruiting function. Adam Robbins will focus his recruiting efforts on candidate sourcing for all TriMet’s open positions. Jean Brown will recruit across the organization for non-exempt (hourly) positions and lower-level exempt positions. The HR Business Partners will recruit for management-level positions. And, as mentioned, Carol Crossen will recruit for the entry-level operations positions with support from others, as needed.

An new organizational chart for Labor Relations & Human Resources will be circulated shortly.

Please join me in welcoming Barry, whose office space is across from Angela Burns-Brown

Randy M. Stedman