Melissa B Richards

About Melissa B Richards

A proven intelligent, dutiful, engaging, upbeat and positive people and culture leader that offers expert knowledge in organizational development, labor relations, employee engagement, employee relations, employment law, tribal law, benefit management, design, contract negotiation, workers compensation and risk management, succession planning, talent acquisition and retention, and implementation of process improvement and employee self-service technology. Also known as a strategic and performance focused executive that provides coaching and counsel to all levels of employees in union and non-union environments within diversified work forces that has successfully improved employee engagement, strategic labor management, and decreased healthcare costs. • Improved overall property engagement scores by 4 bases points and led the leadership team to improve our property ratings with Top Places to Work in the Large Business Category, Philadelphia, PA from 10th to 2nd in 18 months. • Designed and implemented 3-tier leadership development program that earned 18 college credits and improved overall senior leadership retention and tribal member senior leadership growth from a 11% Senior Leadership team to 44%. In addition, I successfully developed the successor the Director of Human Resources role. • Successfully decreased healthcare costs from $7M to $3.5M within 2 years, without negative impact to employees while increasing wellness initiatives within the entire employee base. HR Core Competencies Learning and Development Talent Acquisition Labor Relations (USW, UAW, UNITE HERE) Employee Relations Compensation, Benefits, Multi State Payroll Human Resources Information Systems Performance Management Diversity and Inclusion Organizational Development

Experience

1. Chief People Officer

   National Forest Foundation

   Mar 2023 — Present

Education

• Penn State University

  BS, Education

  1992 — 1996