Brenda Finzer, Employee of the Quarter

Brenda Finzer first started with Houston’s in July 2015, in the Admin Department. After moving into Purchasing in mid 2016, Brenda seems to have found her niche as a Buyer overseeing inventory control. She works to keep product in stock while balancing inventory between the Wilsonville and Kansas City warehouses. Despite Houston’s Buyers not having the typical Buyer role (as they don’t negotiate pricing), one of Brenda’s favorite things about her job is, “the challenge of keeping the inventory in stock and balanced.” Brenda also enjoys Houston’s casual welcoming atmosphere, the friendly people, and the crazy, fun attitudes of her co-workers!

Purchasing Manager, Amanda Hackathorn, speaks highly of Brenda, “She is really fun to work with. She is creative, smart, and has a great sense of humor. She works hard every day and can laugh off just about everything. These characteristics are valuable as a team member as they help her to learn from her mistakes and keep her motivated to be better every day. Purchasing is truly lucky to have Brenda on our team.”

Outside of work, Brenda is usually busy keeping up with her family – two teenage boys and her 9-month old grandson, Wyatt. With Wyatt’s family recently moving a little further from home, Brenda makes sure to enjoy all the time she can with them, including frequent trips to the beach as a large group. If she’s not with her family, Brenda also enjoys ocean fishing, crabbing, photography, and hiking – especially My. hood and Mirror Lake. When asked what celebrity she would like to spend time with, Brenda quickly responded, “Russel Wilson! He’s cute and fun to watch.He’s not an arrogant quarterback like others.” If you hadn’t already guessed, Brenda us a bug Seattle Seahawks fan. In fact, she was sure to point out that (at the time of this interview) there were only five weeks until the season opener. We expect Brenda to be cheering on the Seahawks on August 18th, while possibly enjoying her favorite meal – chicken kabobs, rice, and grilled veggies. Yum!

Brenda’s dedication to her favorite football team resembles her dedication to her work. Her ability to consistently think outside of the box, and her desire to be a better Buyer as well as look for ways to make her department even better, are the primary reasons Brenda was nominated for the employee of the quarter. “She is a pleasure to work with and is always willing to help out whenever needed, be it covering phones for a break or sending in orders for other Buyers, whatever is needed. She does all of this with a smile and a great sense of team work,” says Amanda.

Congratulations, Brenda, on your Employee of the Quarter award for the Third Quarter of 2017. The honor is well-deserved. Thank yo for all of you hard work!

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“The main focus is for Regional Managers to work with various departments and gain a better perspective of how everything works in the building as well as get to know the people in each department better,” says National Sales Manager Jarrod Bowren.  This is the first time that any of the current Regional Managers have had the opportunity to spend an extended period of time in any department learning the ins and outs of daily operations at Houston’s.  While the main goal was to help our outside sales staff to learn about routine procedures in the Wilsonville office, Jarrod also wanted to expose the Regional Managers to the upbeat and positive culture that has consumed Houston’s.  “There’s a huge difference,” said Jarrod, noting that employees are up and moving around, and interacting with other people in different departments.  “It’s refreshing.”

Regional Manager Pete Butorac tries out an iSi dispenser with the help of vendor rep Antoinette D’Ambrosio Photo Credit: Christina Graiff

In addition to shadowing the various departments, the Regional Managers also had a day of in-office vendor training in which they met with representatives from National Chemicals, Espresso Supply, Hospitality Glass, International Tableware, Inc (ITI), and iSi North America.  These hour-long sessions provided great insight into vendor product lines, product testing, and allowed time for question that our sales team regularly fields from their customers.

The week wrapped up discussing 2017 goals and how current procedures and processes could be improved upon with key departments such as Purchasing, Inside Sales, and Marketing—the goal being “help us help you” in building sales and revenue, and working toward the ultimate benefit to Houston’s. Communication was one of the largest topics of the day: communication within departments and between departments.  Jarrod wasn’t shy in displaying Outside Sales’ 2017 sales goal for all to see:  $62 million!  It’s a realistic goal, one easily attainable when all departments work together to better serve our customers.

The merchandising team arrived in the office in full force on Friday, ready to learn primarily about the technology that Houston’s has available to assist in offering our clientele supreme service.  Time was spent learning about Salesforce and how to utilize the program to help grow customer satisfaction and loyalty, as well as how to navigate the extranet, our internal reporting and information resource.  They also were given the opportunity to get better acquainted with Robin Phillips, the newly promoted National Merchandising Manager.  Robin is excited for “the opportunity to expand my responsibilities…one of my long term goals is business development in other parts of the country…I believe it is an exciting time in our company and see great things for us ahead.”  In addition to Robin’s long term goals, he also looks forward to transitioning some of his day-to-day responsibilities to Jered Bokoskie, and to further working with Bob, Geoff, Lindsay, and everyone in the office.

What a great way to bring 2016 to a close and to begin focusing on how to make next year even better.

The post Setting Our Sights on 2017 appeared first on Houston's Blog.

Meet Alaina Roberts.  A Houston’s employee since January 2015, and 2016’s fourth quarter Employee of the Quarter.

Quiet, compassionate, and fun are the words Alaina might use to describe herself.  I would add charming, engaging, kind, friendly, and likeable to her list.  When Alaina is seen around the office, whether in passing or stopping to talk with others, you can count on two things:  one, she is smiling, and two, she will take time to acknowledge you, to simply say hello or to offer assistance if needed.  She loves her coworkers, and in fact, they are one of the reasons she enjoys her job so much.

Alaina works in our Purchasing Department as a buyer.  Specifically, her job is to purchase merchandise for us to sell to our customers.  She works with the vendors she is assigned to, from the time the Purchase Order is placed, through the time it is received in our warehouse, and even after, to ensure everything was received correctly.  And she loves it all!  She especially likes to play around with numbers, forecasting how much product we will need from our vendors based on the amount of product our customers are buying.  Alaina believes that her patience when working through issues and her acute attention to detail makes her good at what she does.  Her manager, Amanda Hackathorn, takes it a step further and says that she appreciates Alaina’s “team-oriented attitude” when it comes to work, and the fact that she is kind to everyone and is willing to help out wherever needed, including in other departments if they are short staffed.

When Alaina isn’t working at Houston’s she enjoys reading, hiking, and just spending good quality time outside with her husband and her dogs.  She loves the beach and visits the coast whenever she can.  In her down time, or when it is too rainy to go outside, Alaina loves to read.  Any genre will do, but she wants to read “Unbroken” and maybe eventually watch the movie too.  She has recently dived in to reading the Bible for the second time.  When she was younger she read the books out of order, bouncing around based on how she was feeling on any given day; now, though, she is reading it in order from the Old Testament to the New Testament, in hopes of learning how the story really fits together.

Congratulations on being chosen the Employee of the Quarter, Alaina!  Houston’s appreciates all that you do!!

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