Maintaining a robust workforce pipeline is crucial for OIT, given its over 1,100 employees, the majority of whom provide technology support to all of Colorado's agencies. It requires innovation and planning. Compensation Data Analyst Erica Hamlink earned the First Quarter Innovation award for fiscal year 2026. She is recognized for transforming OIT’s workforce planning from a reactive stance to a "proactive, high-quality, predictive model." This transformation was achieved by challenging the status quo to identify new and better ways to build a workforce pipeline.
Thinking differently about how to collaborate with others, Erica created a way to analyze nearly 1,100 employee records that allows leadership to anticipate trends and succession needs. Erica took a new approach and reached out to the Colorado Department of Personnel and Administration (DPA) HR Analytics team to obtain new data previously unavailable to OIT. By developing relationships with other agencies in the state, OIT now has access to new data previously unavailable.
"My favorite part of my job is getting to collaborate with stakeholders to decide how to approach data to best serve their needs," she said. She notes that this collaborative process encourages others to think about how they use data while allowing her to learn more about the people OIT supports.
Fun fact about Erica: she can’t taste bitter. So it’s no surprise she delivers such sweet results!