Photo: Nicole snaps a selfie on the coast of California with Pebble Beach in the background.
Yuba Water's senior human resources analyst, Nicole Deme’, is part of the team that is responsible for providing employees with advice, guidance and general help related to benefits and compensation, leaves of absence, health and safety coordination and more. She also helps with recruitment and talent oversight, as well as policy development and updates. Scroll to learn more about Nicole, her professional background and what she enjoys when she's off the clock.
What is your background/formal education that led to where you are in your career today?
In 2008, I started selling insurance with a local broker before I was lucky enough to get hired by the City of Yuba City within HR and grow my knowledge. Then, in 2018, I was hired by the City of Marysville where I wore a lot of hats, including city clerk, human resources manager and assistant to the city manager. After a few years, I was absolutely blessed to be hired by Yuba Water and become part of this amazing team!
What does your average day look like? Or what are some of your essential duties?
I usually spend a fair amount of time talking with employees about benefits, policies or reports they need to help complete a project. I really like talking about leaves of absences (like the Family and Medical Leave Act or military leave) that employees take and how it impacts their work life. Every situation is completely different from the last one, so it keeps me on my toes and lets me be a continual student by adapting and applying new laws and practices to best help employees and the agency.
Do your duties differ throughout the year? And if so, how?
They really don’t, but there are subjects that will shift my focus throughout the year, like open enrollment, our annual employee awards and other employee engagement-related events.
Photo: Nicole and her son, Dylan, pause for a photo before hitting the links at Plumas Lake Golf Course.
What do you enjoy most about working for Yuba Water?
There are so many things, like the people, the practices, the support and the management team. It’s such a phenomenal place to work. I hope we never forget how fortunate we all are to work at an agency that practices what they preach and means what they say – that is so few and far between in today’s world.
Tell us something about yourself that most of us don't know.
Two things. One, I am deathly allergic to pineapple and bee stings (I carry EpiPens and have about a 30-second window to use them), and two, I was previously a member of the Northern Valley Shooters Association and used to shoot competitively.
What do you like to do in your free time?
I love anything outdoors, but watching my boys play baseball takes the cake, no matter how hectic the day or weekend is. If I get to watch them play it was the best day/weekend EVER.