When Mental Health America of Central Carolinas leadership needed support optimizing their use of SharePoint, they turned to Apparo’s free IT Coaching service for help.
Mental Health America of Central Carolinas’ (MHA) mission is to provide help, offer hope and promote mental wellness through advocacy, education and prevention. Karen Lucas Walker, Human Resources Manager, was confident that their organization could benefit from increased use of SharePoint, especially given their current need to work remotely, but was unsure of the right steps to take. She read about Apparo’s free IT Coaching service and reached out for the support of a coach. Apparo matched her to corporate volunteers from Hylaine.
Karen explains the importance and impact of this initiative, “My IT Coaching through Apparo has been very valuable. When sharing with MHA staff and leaders, I highly encouraged them to consider Apparo with IT Coaching challenges they may be experiencing. Additionally, my IT Coach, Chrissy Reed’s background in HR was a perfect match for me. Chrissy recognized and understood my expressed desire to implement a new MHA HR/Employee Engagement communications structure within SharePoint. She also discovered MHA’s current SharePoint is an older version and recommended updating to a newer version to create an overall efficient, user friendly and appealing intranet for staff. Thanks to Chrissy, I have been able to apply some techniques right away!
I appreciate working with Chrissy and her IT coaching skills. My experience has given me new insights with practical, hands-on coaching relative to implementing an ease of access for employees to locate HR/Employee Engagement communications using SharePoint. I can recall five or more years ago most staff avoided accessing SharePoint because of things as simple as logging in and locating files. It is great to know SharePoint has come a long way with its development.
Also, hats off to Apparo’ s IT Coaching opportunity and Jennifer with the ‘big picture’ idea of a new MHA’s overall SharePoint intranet design! I am looking forward to continued opportunities with Apparo to further develop my IT skills.”
Chrissy Reed, Karen’s coach and Apparo advocate since 2013, explains how she recently learned that IT Coaching was a right match for her skill set. “When I was first connected with Apparo, I was under the misconception that you had to be very technical to be an Apparo volunteer. Now, as an IT Coach, I understand that that isn’t the case. I am able to be an effective SharePoint coach for Karen because she is going through what I sent through just a few months ago. A lot of the challenges she faces, I was just facing. Working with Karen has made me feel confident as an Apparo volunteer.”
She continues to explain how she has also benefited from this volunteer experience. “It’s not just about teaching her tips and tools, which is what I expected going into this, but strategizing and collaborating together about the best way to put SharePoint to work to make our jobs easier. We have such a great connection because we are both in HR. I’m learning as well during this process. It’s been such a great experience and I look forward to supporting Apparo for years to come.”