Amnie Dingus got some early-career HR experience in a unique working environment.
In 2014, Amnie accepted an internship with the Washington Nationals, taking on a number of HR-related duties— coordinating a job fair for seasonal positions with the Major League Baseball franchise, hiring more than 200 employees for multiple in-season positions, completing an annual MLB diversity report for interns, full-time front office, full-time on-field and part-time staff, for example.
In baseball terms, you could describe Amnie’s role with the Nationals as that of a utility player; a jack-of-all-trades who can be plugged into various positions and still get the job done.
That label could just as easily apply to her professional experience in the eight years since her time with the Nats franchise. She’s worked as a human resources specialist and an HR manager, and is the current director of human resources for Culpeper County, Va., where she still takes on a variety of HR roles, from recruitment, retention and professional development to benefits and compensation and legal compliance.
Amnie recently sat down with IPMA-HR editors to talk about her journey from big league intern to local government HR director.
You’ve spent the bulk of your HR career in local government. What drew you to the public sector?
I started going to town council meetings with my mom and ended up really enjoying them. But I knew I didn’t want to hold any type of public office, so I started figuring out other ways to get involved. My cousin had earned her master’s degree in public administration and enjoyed it, so I started looking at programs near me, found one at George Mason and enrolled. (Amnie holds a master’s degree in public administration from George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., and a bachelor’s degree in management-human resources from Virginia Tech.) I really enjoyed learning the ins and outs of government.
Your professional experience as an HR generalist runs the gamut—recruitment and retention, staff development, policy development, legal compliance and on down the line. Looking strictly at recruitment and retention, how are you approaching that right now, at a time when the job market is still very labor-friendly, and employees and job candidates have many opportunities available to them?
It has definitely been a challenge this past year. We used to get hundreds of applications for jobs, especially administrative positions. Now, we’re lucky if we get 50. So, right now, we are just doing our best to get our jobs out there. We’ve started using a few more posting sources, and I’m looking into a new feature with NeoGov called Attract. The biggest thing we are doing right now is a classification and compensation study, because that is one of the top things we hear; that our salaries aren’t competitive.
From a professional standpoint, what’s been the silver lining to emerge from the pandemic for you; how has this tumultuous time changed how you approach your job as an HR director and as a people leader?
It gave me a new perspective and made me better understand that work isn’t everything. Like everyone in HR, many new responsibilities fell on me, and it was sometimes hard to balance everything. I was more worried about work than ever before, and I got “public sector burnout.” I wasn’t enjoying my job anymore and needed to change paths for my mental well-being. Taking that 10- month break from the public sector helped me get myself back on track and [it helped me] remember why I loved the public sector. So, when the opportunity to come back to where I started my public sector career came up, I was more than happy to come back.
I’ve always told employees that, yes, I’m here to help the organization. But I’m also here to help you. And my door is always open, [so] don’t be afraid to come talk to me. But I think the pandemic really reminded me to focus on being there for the employees and expanding programs to help them and to help them remember why they joined the public sector.
You were an intern for the Washington Nationals, where you took on a number of HR-related responsibilities, from coordinating a job fair for seasonal positions with the organization to hiring more than 200 employees for multiple in-season positions and completing an annual MLB diversity (EEO) report for interns, full-time front office, full-time on field and part-time staff. How did you come to be an intern with a professional baseball team, and how did that unique experience prepare you for a career in HR?
One day I was looking at part-time opportunities while finishing my MPA and came across the posting. So, I decided, why not take a chance, because how cool would it be to say I worked for the Nationals? I never really expected to receive a call for an interview, but I did, and shortly after, I received the offer. The experience provided such a broad range of responsibilities that it gave me an even better understanding of HR than what I had from school and my previous HR generalist position. It was so great to see how a major league team operates as a whole and from an HR perspective. It also makes a really great talking point in interviews and with co-workers.
What do you like to do in your free time, and how do you find time for your hobbies, and for maintaining a sense of work/life balance?
I’ve learned to better disconnect from work when I’m at home, so I think that has been an enormous help in maintaining a healthy work/life balance. At home, I focus on spending time with my family and doing what I enjoy. I’ve always enjoyed crafts and got back into them during the pandemic, so that is one thing I enjoy doing in my free time. I lost count of how many Wine and Design take-home kits I did then. It helps me relax and empty my mind of the day’s craziness. Another big thing in my life right now is a six-month-old Doberman puppy. She has a lot of energy, so we are working on finding ways to burn that off and getting ready to start obedience training.
01 December 2022
Category
HR News Article