July 2013 Employee of the Month

Meet Infrastructure Specialist 2 Julie Anderson July Employee of the Month

She is pleasant. She is dependable.

She is extremely patient.

That’s why Infrastructure Specialist 2 Rhonda Quick nominated her co-worker, fellow Infrastructure Specialist 2 Julie Anderson, for Employee of the Month (EOM). BWC officials agreed, and Julie has been named our July EOM.

“I have found that she, on a consistent basis, provides superior customer service to meet the needs of the internal customers and IT field support - I know when I am working with her I can always depend on her to assist me, and excel at meeting the needs of the internal customer,” said Rhonda. “She is a valuable employee who is dependable, outstanding, and an asset to BWC and the IT Division. She demonstrates superior customer service, stemming from a personal work ethic that exceeds the standard.”

Julie was pleased with the news.

“It’s nice to be recognized, because I do my best to get things done quickly and efficiently,” said Julie. “I appreciate the award, and I plan to continue my efforts in the future.”

Julie, based in the William Green Building, has worked at BWC for about eight years. In addition to her training tasks, her typical day consists of checking network consoles, emails and tickets to see if there are any problems that need her attention. After resolving such issues, she works on various projects such as VoIP and ISE. She also assisted in the training on making and terminating cables in Pickerington; and trained multiple infrastructure and ops build employees in the basic functions of network monitoring. Rhonda said that Julie’s training skills are second to none.

“She has provided assistance and training to myself and Robert Palmer (IT field support, Cambridge) on the process and procedures of network cabling,” said Rhonda. “Her training and patience with us as we learned were superior.”

Clearly, Julie wears many hats. But she enjoys the variety in her job duties.

Every day here can be very different, which is one of the reasons I enjoy my employment at the BWC,” she said. “I am able to use my training, experience, and education to troubleshoot the issues and problems that arise during the course of the workday.”

But it’s not just the wide array of responsibilities that Julie enjoys here – it’s her co-workers.

“My favorite part about working at BWC is the group I work with,” said Julie. “The Communications/WAN team is very knowledgeable, easygoing, and willing to help and support each other and I consider myself fortunate to be part of this team.”

The feeling is mutual, according to co-worker Shon Luckett, an information technology manager 1.

“Julie never tells a customer NO - she is always willing to help even when it is beyond her job classification,” he said. “She follows up with the customer to insure the customer’s satisfaction. Julie will not only tell the customer who to contact, she will contact the person for them. Julie is knowledgeable at her job and thorough with her work, and always willing to learn new aspects of the IT department.”

In her nomination form, Rhonda described a recent, important assignment where Julie played a key role: Rhonda was assigned three IT Request Forms (ITRFs) requesting Virtual Private Network (VPN) access and key fobs. All three ITRFs were submitted at the same time and requested a total of six key fobs – the required turnaround time for the fobs was one day – and the ITRFs and key fobs played a crucial role in supporting the Ohio Safety Congress & Expo (OSC13).

Julie was out of the office attending training all that week, and her backup was in the training as well. The third backup was in Logan. In a testament to her dedication, Julie came up with a solution to provide the key fobs by the deadline, even though she was attending off-site training, and communicated her answer to Rhonda. The key fobs and VPN access were successfully provided to congress staff.

“She understood how important it was to get the internal customers the key fobs by the deadline,” said Rhonda. “She played an important part in supporting OSC13 and in recognizing the importance of the request, and rising to the occasion to provide exceptional customer service.”

It was just another day for Julie – just a part of doing her job, she said.

“It is my goal and desire to provide excellent customer service,” she said. “I feel it is important for state workers to attempt to troubleshoot issues for our customers as soon as possible. If I confront a problem beyond my expertise, I know that my co-workers have my back and I know they feel just as strong about customer service as I.”