TONYA LEARY

President, T.S. Leary & Associates 

About Tonya

Tonya has been a recruiter and human resource professional for twenty years.  She has been recognized by industry leaders for reducing employee and management attrition, increasing the quality of key leadership, and significantly increasing diversity representation of women and minorities in leadership roles. 

After a successful career in human resources and operations management at Boddie-Noell Enterprises, Denny’s, Adelphia, and Staples, Tonya identified a need for human resources management expertise and consulting, and launched T.S. Leary & Associates.

Awards

• Adelphia Leadership 2005 Outstanding Performance Award for excellence in Employee & Labor Relations
• “Staples Pacesetter Award for Outstanding Balance Scorecard Performance.

Hobbies

Hosting events at home and socializing with friends, networking with Christian business owners, gardening, exploring consignment shops for antiques and great finds, and studying the Bible with her husband, George.  

Recruiting/ HR Specialties

Tonya works with both business clients and jobseekers, helping them find the right match in such specialties as telecommunications, human resources, quick serve restaurant management, hospitality, retail, fire and water restoration, information technology, engineering, finance, marketing and sales.

Recruiting Strategy

As a HR Consultant, Tonya works with business owners to achieve greater financial and business results through solid human resource strategy and practices.  She works with operators to clearly define position requirements as they are today, but also focuses on how the job will change in the future.

“Finding qualified candidates with a proven track record of driving measurable results is critical,” Tonya said recently, “particularly for positions that require specific and highly sought-after skills in information technology or senior management.  In addition, it is essential that the candidate fit into the company culture.” As a result, Tonya employs a variety of techniques for finding qualified candidates, including Internet searches, posting on major job boards, networking with recruiters in various forums and contacting non-web recruiters, cold calling passive candidates, alumni and association referrals.

“It is important that both parties are satisfied at the end of the day,” she added, “so I make it a priority to follow-up with the client and the candidate two weeks after the placement, and at  30, 60 and 90 days.”

Advice for Job Seekers 

“If you have spent more than ten minutes with the interviewer,” Tonya said, “we can almost guarantee the last question will be, ‘So do you have any questions for me?’  Prepared questions for the interviewer shows you are interested in the position, conveys confidence and indicates you are ready to be an effective contributor and impact the organization.”

“For example,” she noted, “if I were seeking a Regional HR Director’s position in the retail industry, I would ask the recruiter or the hiring director a range of questions which would give me an opportunity to convey my strengths, strategies deployed and how I can impact the organization in the role.” 

Some questions to a prospective employer might include:

• How is the department team structured today? 
• What are some of the immediate challenges facing the department in the next 90 days?  How would you describe the current workplace climate? 
• What is the average tenure of key management and employees in the region? 
• Are there plans for company growth, acquisitions, closures or remodels? 
• Does this position provide any budget oversite responsibilities?  
• What are the department successes and what are the current challenges?
• In the last year what percentage of new leadership has come from within the organization versus external hires? 
• Based on how the last employee functioned in this role, what changes would you like to see that would enhance the department’s effectiveness?

Contact Information

Email:  tonya@tlearyandassociates.com

Phone:  (240) 291-5878

Website:  www.tslearyandassociates.com.