Karen Allen

It is our great pleasure to nominate Karen Allen for Employee of the Month. From the time she was hired six years ago, Karen has brought with her excellent skills and experience along with a caring can-do attitude and creative energy to the job. Since joining the HR Team, she has worked in or assisted every HR Process from the front desk, to benefits, recruitment, job classification and description, training and other duties as assigned.

Karen stands out in our office as the ultimate team player. She exhibits concern for the entire HR team. She is always aware of how individuals in the office are doing. She cannot bear the possibility that any person feels left out. If someone is experiencing hardship, or is not feeling well, Karen is always there to offer a kind word, concern, a treat or a gift. She makes sure that office staff are especially recognized on their birthdays and other special occasions—always contributing to a positive office environment.

We have come to know Karen as a deeply motivated team member. She is excellent, creative, and egoless when it comes problem solving. She helps wherever there is a need and does not require recognition. When things go wrong Karen offers immediate assistance in order to sort things out or to mediate a conflict.

Karen always rises to any challenge. Karen was hired as a Personnel Technician. However, when Workday was installed and implemented, Karen, along with her regular duties was able to step into the role of Benefits Manager and processed benefits for all Utah County employees. More recently, she stepped in to assist the transfer of employees working in DDAPT to Wasatch Mental Health.

Recently, new challenges have arisen because of increased demands on our recruiters. Karen has managed or assisted in the hiring of almost 300 employees in a single year. This past year, with the presidential and other elections the Clerk/Auditor office required assistance in staffing poll workers. The solution was to have several open house new hire enrollments. Karen made herself available to participate in these after-hours events.

Karen has particularly shined as she has led the efforts to assist the Health Department in the recruiting of nurses and other staff during the COVID-19 expending extra time and effort to get necessary staffing in place for dispensing vaccines.

In addition to her recruiting responsibilities, she has also recently taken on Workers’ Compensation claims--ensuring that County employees get claims processed quickly and efficiently.

Finally, Karen has spearheaded the development of the new Workday-based performance appraisal--streamlining process. This has eliminated the need for paper appraisals to be printed or signed. Karen has also developed a training program for all departments to ensure that supervisors will be able to use process effectively.

Karen is, in so many ways, an exemplary Utah County employee and we are proud to work with her and endorse her as Utah County Employee of the Month.

The entire HR Staff!