On behalf of the Board of Regents, I am pleased to present a KUDOS Award to Chelsea Swarm, Payroll Manager in the Office of Human Resources. Chelsea joined UNK in 2008 as a Payroll Technician.
Everyone on campus likes her – not only because of her pleasant personality, gracious manner, and outstanding work ethic – but also because she is responsible for getting everyone paid. She processes about 36,000 paychecks for 2,400-plus employees each calendar year. In addition, she monitors and interprets federal and state regulations to insure payroll procedures are in compliance; conducts campus payroll training; reconciles work study expenditures and generates billing for off-campus work study employees; monitors the taxation of non-resident aliens; monitors and authorizes SAP security; processes court-ordered garnishments; completes employment verifications; directs preparation of government reports and responses to audits; processes unemployment requests and claims; serves as an employee relations specialist; oversees personnel-related SAP information; and is the go-to person regarding employee leave time, pay, and tax filing status.
Pictured: Jim and Janet Karr, parents; Chelsea Swarm, recipient; Chancellor Doug Kristensen; Graeson and Jaxton Swarm, sons; President Bounds; Tom Swarm, husband; Regent Daub; Mary Chinnock Petroski, supervisor.
Suffice it to say Chelsea is busy. Her supervisor, Director of Human Resources Mary Chinnock Petroski says Chelsea “comes as close to being irreplaceable as any employee I have had in 35 years of work life.” She also served two terms on Staff Senate, including terms as treasurer and president; is a Leadership UNK graduate; and serves on the Employee Recognition and the Student Employee of the Year Committees. In 2010 she received UNK’s Employee Recognition Award and in 2013 was a recipient of the Staff Award for Excellence.
With Chelsea today is her husband Tom and their two sons, 5-year-old Graeson and 2-year-old Jaxton, her parents, Jim and Janet Karr, and her supervisor Mary Chinnock Petroski. Congratulations, Chelsea, for the work you do.