The Friendly Face behind the Counter

 Jeanne Peoples, a Human Resources Assistant, staffs the front counter at DHR's County Operations Center office.

Hers is among the first faces visitors see when they arrive at the Department of Human Resources.

Jeanne Peoples, a Human Resources Assistant, offers each a warm greeting and strives to help anyone who needs it.

It’s not unusual for Peoples, who has served in this position since 1997, to make several phone calls to assist someone who is lost or give a job seeker a copy of her own handmade, six-page job resource list. It’s obvious she loves what she does.

“It’s like making tons and tons of friends,” Peoples said of her job.

Peoples has won so many customer service awards through the County’s Serving Everyone with Excellence program that last year she received a Lifetime Achievement award. The program recognizes employees who provide outstanding service, interacting with courtesy, promptness, attention to detail and respect.

Peoples is the third and final County employee to be spotlighted this month, National Ethics Awareness Month, as part of a series on employees living the County’s core values of integrity, responsible stewardship of resources and commitment to excellence every day. The County’s Statement of Values details them.

Peoples is not one to seek praise. She’d prefer to not talk about herself. She doesn’t think she is doing anything particularly special, said her supervisor, Lisa McAvoy, Human Resources Support Supervisor.  Her customer service skills just come naturally, McAvoy said.

“I know if Jeanne is up at the front counter, I don’t have to worry about it,” McAvoy said. “She deals with things in such a wonderful manner. It’s her instinct to know what to do.”

Peoples almost didn’t end up in this job. Initially she interviewed for a different position at the County. She’d worked in several customer service jobs: at an insurance company and for a veterinarian. But she was up for a non-customer service job. It didn’t take her interviewer long to figure out that Peoples would be good at a front counter, interacting with the public.

What doesn’t Peoples do? Make promises she can’t keep, said Eric Martens, an Office Assistant for DHR’s Loss Prevention division. The two sit directly next to each other in the front lobby of DHR’s County Operations Center office. They work like co-pilots, he said, touching base first thing every morning on what’s ahead and helping each other through the challenges and unexpected issues that make each day different.

Peoples is reliable both with customers and co-workers, he said. Everyone knows she is going to do what she says she will do.

Her goal is simple: make sure her customers leave with more than they came for.

One of the keys, she said, is listening carefully to them to understand their needs. She works to resolve their needs or refer them to someone who can.

The other day a man approached the front counter saying he was there to fix an employee’s computer. The only problem was he didn’t know who he was there to help.

Peoples and Marten called several divisions in DHR to try to track down the employee with the broken computer. They left messages wherever they called and continued calling until they found the employee in need of the repairs.

Every day, Peoples takes calls from people trying unsuccessfully to reach other employees in DHR. She doesn’t just send them to voice mail or take a message. She locates the employee, takes down the caller’s name and number and offers to personally hand the message to the employee or get back to the caller with a status update.

It’s the same with the many job seekers who approach the front counter looking for work.

If they haven’t already checked the County’s online job postings, Peoples shows them how to do so.   Some know little to nothing about how to use a computer, so she starts with the basics.

“They go from frustrated to happy and that’s a nice feeling,” she said.

Job seekers may need to continue searching, and she offers them additional resources. Peoples hands them a job and training resource list that she created on her own. It lists hundreds of websites with job postings. She said she likes to be able to help them in any way she can.

Sometimes, job seekers push her for specific, even confidential, information about the hiring process or their chances. Peoples responds politely, saying she doesn’t have access to that information.

Customers remember her.

Peoples said she’s been approached by customers out in the public who remember her. They thank her for her help.

One time a man approached the front counter 10 years after she had helped him. When he saw her, he remarked, “you’re still here, good.”

Among the qualities her co-workers said they appreciate most about Peoples is the great attitude she has toward her job.

They describe her as a delight to be around.

At the root of it all? Peoples just plain adores what she does.

“It is a wonderful feeling to go to work every day and love what I do,” she said.