Bernadette Martinez
Human Resources Manager
Los Alamos County
By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com
As the new Los Alamos County Human Resources Manager, Bernadette Martinez has made helping people her entire career.
She explained she has worked for Los Alamos County, in the Human Resources Division, for 15 years. She started as a Human Resources Technician as rose through the ranks before officially becoming the manager Dec. 8. Martinez took over the position from Mary Tapia.
“I’ve had a long career with the County and HR,” Martinez said.
County Manager Anne Laurent welcomed Martinez to the manager position.
“Bernadette was the clear frontrunner after a nationwide search and has the full confidence of the senior management team,” she said. “She brings a strong commitment to continual growth and employee support. I am excited to have her in this leadership role.”
Martinez said she is pleased to be a part of the County team.
“One of my favorite things about working with the County is it really feels like family,” Martinez said. “It’s a smaller organization than say, LANL, and it really feels like family. Over the past 15 years, I’ve just really gotten to know the employees and know their families. To me, employees are more than just a number; you know their name, you know their story. That’s one of my favorite things about working for the County. There’s a lot of great things I could say about the County. It’s a great place to work, we have great people, we have great benefits, great mentors …”
In addition, she added that being in Human Resources allows her to help others. Human Resources can get a bad rep; people associate it with negative things, but Martinez emphasized the department is here to assist.
She explained the ability to help people is the reason for her long tenure in the department.
“A lot of people think of HR and they associate it with negative things. It could be employee discipline or things like that but there’s so much more that goes into it. Things like seeing employees when they’re hired and when they are promoted or when they get married or have babies (and) helping them with all the paperwork. There are hard times, too … so I think the ability to really help employees navigate through those moments is really rewarding.”
Martinez said she can personally attest to Human Resources being an asset when going through a difficult situation.
She said when she was 20 years old, her father was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
“I was young at that age, and I was in charge of all his paperwork and working with his HR department was just one of the most fascinating experiences even though it was a very tragic experience. They were just so helpful,” Martinez said. “They went above and beyond to help my dad in every way they could. They were so helpful to my family; they just made a really difficult situation as easy as they could and that always stuck with me and that’s something I always wanted to give back.”
Her new position comes with a lot of responsibility. Martinez said she oversees all aspects of HR, including risk and safety, recruitment and all onboarding tasks. Other duties focus on compensation, benefits and pensions, all mandatory trainings as well as employee and labor relations.
“There’s a lot that the HR Manager oversees and needs to do just to make sure we are compliant (such as ensuring that) our policies are up to date, our personnel rules are up to date,” she said. “Over the past 15 years I think what’s really helped me with that is I had the opportunity to work in every one of those fields …”
A big challenge that comes with the job is dealing with conflict in the workplace “but if you have right tools and the right training, you can be really strong and confident with conflict resolution,” Martinez said.
She’s seen a lot of changes during her tenure in the County. Martinez said when she came on board, she was working in a portable office building since the Municipal Building hadn’t been built yet. There also have been a few personnel and policy changes. She herself achieved a lot during her time in the Human Resources Department. Martinez earned her MBA, a Bachelor of Science in Business with a concentration in Human Resources Management, and an Associate of Arts in Pre-Business along with her Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM) certification.
Looking to the future, Martinez said her department is going to be busy, but she hopes to offer everyone stability. For instance, the Human Resources Department has been short-staffed for several years and Martinez said she hopes to make it fully staffed. Another objective is to get the entire staff certified by SHRM, something that used to only be available to the deputy manager and manager.
Having this certification is advantageous because “it’s been a great confidence booster for employees plus the rest of the County benefits from it,” Martinez said. “They have that knowledge, they have that experience, they have that confidence to make those decisions, so I think that’s a really big, positive change that we’ve had.”
A third goal is to make some revisions to the department’s policies and personnel rules. This is a huge one because it will involve the entire County, she said.
It’s a lengthy to-do list but the core mission remains unchanged: to help people, Martinez said.
“We’re here to help. We’re a resource for County employees; we’re a resource for the public. I know a lot of the staff have the same feelings that I do, wanting to be there to help and assist people with what they are going through.”
When not working Martinez, who lives in White Rock, is busy keeping up with her two sons’ sports schedules as well as doing outdoor activities.