Work Friendly Consulting

12/13/2022

A void employee burnout this season by carving out guilt-free time for your associates.

12/13/2022

Expecting? Navigating the news at work can feel daunting. Work Friendly CEO and Founder, Celia Balson, provides her expertise and insight as an HR Executive and mother in this feature

09/01/2022

Check out our Founder & CEO, , speak about Why People Operations Matter on The Open, Honest, & Direct Podcast! Celia is spilling some of our best practices as HR leaders and it is a can’t miss listen!

Tune in below!🗣💬📣

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1tbsREC5Ys0YDeJKkqJzx5?si=jJg6dJhoTYSoMkmEjft7nA

06/24/2021

Instagram, meet Britteny!

A graduate of Millikin University with a Bachelors in Organizational Communication, Prior to joining Workfriendly, Britteny’s career toured from tech giants Google and Workday, Coca Cola start up Fairlife, big four accounting firm EY and The museum of science and industry in Chicago. Most recently britteny lead national retail talent acquisition for one of the largest cannabis operators in the US, Green Thumb Industries.

Bringing her talent acquisition skill set and pairing it with her passion for people; Britteny is proud to have had a hand in hiring thousands of individuals and has stood as a champion for justice, inclusion, belonging and diversity in the workplace & excited to expand her reach by supporting Workfriendly's diverse clientele.

Outside of her people work, britteny is a loving wife & a mom of 2 humans and a pup, national leader for multicultural sorority sigma lambda gamma national sorority inc, pursuing her MBA and is an aspiring tarot reader.

06/24/2021

Double post Thursday!

Meet Sarelle! Raised in the northern suburbs of Chicago, with a five-year stint in the Pacific Northwest, Sarelle is incredibly happy to have worked on the Work Friendly Team for the last 3 months.

Sarelle’s professional roots lay in the nonprofit space, originating with direct service for pregnant women in prison as well as those recently released from incarceration as a vocational skills coach. Eventually, she transitioned to behind the scenes work in development, fundraising, and volunteer stewardship, but never lost her passion for being an advocate for others—especially marginalized populations. In what she likes to call Chapter Two of her career, Sarelle shifted from nonprofits to the HR industry, supporting teams in the hospitality, food and beverage, and most recently the medical field.

Come Summer 2021 Sarelle will have a Master’s in HR Management. When not working or studying, Sarelle enjoys spending time with her family (mainly her two amazing nephews) and friends. While she does not have a dog, she would like one—specifically a Brussels Griffon!

06/24/2021

Meet one of our newest team members, Lauren!

Lauren has called Chicago home for eight years but she will always be an Oklahoman at heart.

Lauren joins Work Friendly after several years in the Telecom staffing field and the non-profit spaces. She loves helping small companies scale their people policies as they grow.

Lauren’s educational background is in mental health with a Bachelors in Psychology from Mercyhurst University and Masters in Community Counseling from the Loyola University of Chicago. For her, Human Resources is a natural extension of her passion for helping people by cultivating trust and increasing employee engagement.

Outside of work, Lauren loves to run with her two rescue dogs, May and June. She’s training for her 4th Chicago Triathlon.

Welcome to the Work Friendly fam, Lauren! We are so lucky to have you!

05/18/2021

02/16/2021

Our amazing client, , sure does know how to brighten up this snowed in Tuesday! Thank you for the delicious gift box, team! ⛄️ ❄️

12/16/2020

Ashley is a special member of the Work Friendly team, as she is our VP of Sales AND one of our People Experts!

After mastering sales in recruiting and human resources technology throughout the city of Chicago, Ashley joined the Work Friendly team to grow the business by making a difference in the way organizations meet and surpass their people operations goals.

This year, she’s caught the people bug, and has started collaborating with clients as one of our dynamic People Experts!

Ashley has hit the ground running with support like recruiting for technical positions, building employee handbooks, preparing compensation analysis, managing employee relations, as well as playing an integral role in planning and strategy for 2021, through roadmap exercises and HR Audits.

Her favorite part about being on the Work Friendly team, outside of getting to work alongside her talented coworkers, is the variety of ways she can assist any and all HR teams, from seed stage through to Fortune 500 organizations. She prides herself in acting as a true extension of your organization, remaining as agile as possible for your ever-changing needs.

If you’re interested in learning more about what it looks like to work with the Work Friendly team, we encourage you to reach out to Ashley directly via email. [email protected] ❤️

12/11/2020

Meet Tessa! Tessa was the second member to join the Work Friendly Team.

Tessa started her people career as a social worker in low-income neighborhoods throughout Chicago with her Bachelors's and Masters's in social work.

With seven years of working with people, Tessa joined the Work Friendly team in December of 2018 as Celia’s first employee and has since blown us away with her people expertise.

Through her partnerships with our clients, Tessa has become a trusted advisor to support and develop HR functions as need through filling roles like Interim Head of Talent, HRBP, and Head of People.

Tessa specializes in bringing her warm, compassionate spirit to her work and making your people feel seen, heard, and supported.❤️

If you are interested in exploring what it would look like to work with Tessa, we encourage you to reach out to [email protected] to start a conversation about how our team can best support your people.

12/09/2020

Meet Natalie!

Natalie is one of our stellar People Experts here at Work Friendly!

Natalie got into HR after graduating from UNC-Chapel Hill with an English degree and planning to go to law school. She took an internship/contract job doing HR at IRI (Information Resources, Inc.), in Chicago, she loved it and never looked back! ❤️

Over the past 20 years, Natalie has been the Director of Human Resources for many organizations. In the last ten years, she has focused on building her experience in the advertising and marketing agencies. Through the years, she's also worked with several financial services companies, logistics firms, insurance agencies, and a few of the world's top advertising agencies as their Head of People.

Natalie's favorite part about HR is that no day is ever the same. She loves being able to help and support people as they do their best work!

Her appreciation for people is shown through the lasting friendships she's built with the people and companies she interacts with daily.

Show Natalie some love in the comments! 🤗

12/07/2020

Today, we’re excited to introduce you to Work Friendly’s Founder and CEO, Celia Balson.

Celia spent years working in HR throughout the country. Through her time working in different HR roles, she realized how many great companies were lacking formal People functions.

As an avid people person, Celia realized that people are foundational to the successful growth of any company. She believes supporting your people in the best way possible is the puzzle piece influential to taking your brand to the next level.

When Celia realized her experiences made filling this void possible, she founded Work Friendly, an HR consulting company here to support you, and your people, so you can build the business you're dreaming of.

Celia’s journey with Work Friendly has taken her all over the business world. She’s supported companies of all sizes and makeups from 2-10,000 people large through all sectors and stages (private, seed, series, and public).

Through her fabulous work, Celia built Work Friendly through glowing referrals in the Chicago community. Celia and the Work Friendly team are ready to partner with you no matter where you are in the World to invest in and equip your people to manufacture a company you're proud of.

If you're looking to support your people and grow your business, there is no better ally than Celia! You can email her directly at [email protected]. She's eager to meet you and the team of wonderful people you built on the way to achieving your dreams. ❤️