Letter from the President
I am excited and humbled to serve as TMHRA President this year. As human resources professionals, we impact our employees’ lives, and where many of us spend most of our time – at work. But as HR professionals in local government, our impact is even more significant – we impact where people live. That realization makes what we achieve and how we fulfill our roles as HR professionals even more meaningful, and how TMHRA can help you with this responsibility is even more critical. As part of a municipal organization, we are given the daily opportunity to live the Servant Leadership example.
As some of you may know, I am one of those rare individuals who received their degree in the same area they work – human resources. I truly enjoy the diversity and challenges that are part of this job (let’s face it, most of us could write a book about the employee issues we deal with), but I fell into the public sector – it has been a true blessing. Where else can you go to work every day and say, “I helped build that!” As HR professionals, we do! We may not be the engineers, planners, and inspectors often considered when discussing “building a city.” Still, we are the ones helping to hire the right planners, develop the engineers, competitively compensate the inspector, and lead (or push in some cases) an organization that employees want to come work for, are proud to be a part of, and embrace the core values. Not only do we help build the city, but we also help make it a place people want to live and are proud to call home. We help recruit, hire, retain, develop, and support the employees who touch our citizens’ lives at the parks, libraries, city services, and emergencies. I am passionate about HR being a strategic partner that makes our cities successful.
However, I also recognize that this HR Servant Leadership journey is different for each of us. For some, we are part of a larger, complex organization with a large department; for others, we are a department of one wearing all the hats; and for others, we are part of an older organization that may be slow to make that necessary strategic shift. Regardless, TMHRA strives to provide you resources, support, information, and assistance with all these challenges. In a profession as vast and diverse as the state of Texas, TMHRA will continuously work to help you in your professional journey. I encourage you to start this journey from January 31- February 2, 2024, at our Civil Service and Labor Relations workshop in Conroe and May 8 – 10 at our TMHRA conference in Denton.
I look forward to working with you this year.
Best Wishes,
Lauren Safranek