Amber May has been working for CATCH and Alliance Asset Management since December 2013. She was initially hired as a junior accountant, and shortly afterwards went back to school for her bachelor’s degree in accounting. She was then promoted to staff accountant, and took on more responsibilities related to payroll, open enrollment, and working behind-the-scenes with staff on human resource issues. As the companies grew, the HR needs grew and Kathy Kittle (Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President, as well as the Director of HR) needed greater support managing HR. In 2017, Amber officially became the Human Resource Generalist and became the primary contact for all HR related items.
Since taking on this role, Amber has made it a priority to stay on top of HR best practices and policies. She attends numerous trainings each year, including those with NeighborWorks America, BerryDunn, the EEOC, and Preti Flaherty. She is planning to get her SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) Certification in the future which is a recognition of competency-based professional development for HR professionals.
Amber is proud of our family-oriented company culture and prides herself on being very hands-on and helping staff balance their personal and professional lives.
“I want everyone to feel respected and safe here, and that this is their second home/family,” she says. “My favorite part of my job is getting to have fun with all our staff and seeing everybody is getting along, working smarter not harder. Everything is a learning experience – I’m a solutions person and love trying to figure out how to make things better.”
Her most recent big project was putting together our annual all-staff meeting and holiday celebration on December 12 which included open enrollment.
“I love getting everybody together, and providing our staff with the actual vendors including health insurance and our 403b retirement plans,” Amber explains. “It’s a lot of work but it’s really worthwhile and I think staff look forward to it every year. It’s fun coming up with topics for the presenters, organizing a Yankee swap with employees, and doing our personality tests in the afternoon. It’s a great community-building day with holiday music and décor and creating a homey environment.”
Regarding her overall responsibilities and the company changes in the last few years, Amber says, “I really do love my job here, and us all being in one building has really made a huge difference in our relationships. We’re smaller, and it helps our working relationships to be so close.”