In a quiet office tucked around a corner in the town’s administrative services building, Haley Thore works discreetly to keep everything related to employment fair, legal and running smoothly for the Town of Hillsborough.

As the human resources manager, she works to make sure that all employment laws are appropriately applied to town employees in every stage of employment from application to termination.

Thore enjoys being involved in the positive aspects of employment such as hirings, promotions and market-rate pay adjustments. And she accepts that some difficult moments come with the job. Sometimes that means walking supervisors through the steps for termination, offering guidance on extending probationary employment periods or investigating employee complaints.

The Town of Hillsborough has about 100 employees, and Thore doesn’t work alone. Human Resources Analyst Eli Valsing focuses on recruitment and selection for vacant positions, onboarding new employees, benefits enrollment and facilitating an employee engagement committee. Safety and Risk Manager Phil Cundiff works to keep town employees safe on the job. Human Resources Technician Sarah Kimrey provides administrative and technical assistance to human resources staff, town employees and the public in addition to her responsibilities as the town clerk. Town Manager Eric Peterson signs off on every hire and termination.  

Thore is currently leading a project with the town’s finance department to choose a better timekeeping system for employees. She also oversees the town’s employee performance management program where she reviews and signs off on all employee evaluations to ensure fair ratings and merit pay increases are applied. And she’s preparing to send out the biennial employee survey and will analyze the results once employees have completed it. The survey responses are used to shape the focus of the Human Resources Division. In recent years, the survey has led to the implementation of additional employee safety measures and the creation of the employee engagement committee.

“Getting feedback from employees and implementing their ideas and addressing concerns creates a workplace culture where employees feel empowered and heard, which helps with employee retention,” Thore said. “When our employees are satisfied with the workplace, that trickles down to them providing excellent service to our community members.”

Thore has worked for the town for almost seven years, first joining the town as a human resources analyst in 2018 before being promoted to interim human resources director in 2020 and human resources manager in 2021.

For Thore, the appeal of working for Hillsborough has been the ability to work in all areas of human resources, including recruitment and training in addition to onboarding, offboarding and benefits.  

“Hillsborough is a small department where we wear a lot of hats, which keeps the work interesting,” Thore said. “And being able to recognize town employees when I see them makes being the human resources manager here in Hillsborough even more enjoyable.”