August Employee of the Month: Esther Scarpello

photo by Tim Fitzgerald

Esther Scarpello was selected as the University of Nebraska at Omaha's Employee of the Month for August. A native of Colorado, Scarpello began working at UNO in 2003 and serves as Fringe Benefits Manager in UNO's Human Resources Department. In nominating her for the Employee of the Month Award, one nominator said, "Esther focuses on providing the best possible support and counsel to UNO's many hundreds of staff and faculty, families and retirees. She is dedicated to improving service, internal communications, education and awareness of UNO's benefits programs. She manages the program expertly and stewards the resources under her care."

Over the last year, Scarpello has many accomplishments to her credit. These include:

• released total compensation statements to all employees;
• conducted five retirement planning seminars;
• increased attendance at UNO's annual benefits fair;
• developed a health screening card and distributed it to all employees;
• enhanced voluntary insurance offerings for accident and critical illness insurance via PerkSpot;
• conducted 2010 annual NU Flex enrollment electronically for the first time;
• redesigned the benefits orientation process;
• improved participation in Flex spending accounts by 21%

She also has received hundreds of thank you notes and messages in the past year from employees, fac ulty members and their family members, expressing their thanks and complimenting her on her excellent customer service skills. One retiree said, "you are a special lady, to answer so promptly, when I know how busy you are."

Another nominator for the Employee of the Month award said, "Regardless of the pace, the project, the amount of constant change or the pressing nature of the workload, Esther is calm and professional, giving her attention where it is needed and doing an exemplary job of prioritizing, following through and attending to the smallest detail."

"Esther focuses on providing the best possible support and counsel to UNO's many hundreds of staff and faculty, families and retirees. She is dedicated to improving service, internal communications, education and awareness of UNO's benefits programs. Whether in person, in writing or on the phone, Esther excels at answering questions clearly and completely, even though the information is usually complicated and the other person is often stressed about the topic."

(Pictured above: Scarpello and UNO Chancellor John Christensen.)