For her compassion and willingness to understand different perspectives, Maria Jose Toro, Human Resources Project Specialist, was one of the three recipients of Haskell’s quarterly Living the Values Awards.
Toro was nominated for the award by Design Associate Jessica Machin.
“Maria Jose goes above and beyond to be the most effective communicator and educator to team members at Haskell,” Machin said. “Her compassion for listening and understanding the experiences and needs of others at Haskell (and outside of Haskell) is comforting and reassuring, knowing that you can have an open dialogue where you can express your comments or concerns in a welcoming space which Maria tries her hardest to provide.”
Toro has been with Haskell for almost three years, and ever since she joined the company, she has strived to reflect Haskell’s values of Team, Excellence, Service, and Trust throughout her day-to-day life in and outside the workplace.
“Maria Jose is consistent in holding herself accountable for practicing daily self-growth habits and is amazingly generous in sharing her improvements and continuously educating others on ways to achieving those advances,” Machin said. “She is mindful that everyone is their own individual with a broad range of conditions. Maria Jose provides the way she practices self-growth and offers alternatives to modify them to fit anyone’s current needs. It is encouraging to see her share her growth and methods that anyone can use to improve their daily habits, communication skills, and general life experiences.”
Toro serves on Haskell’s Best Place to Work committee, which is dedicated to ensuring that it makes good on its strategic goal of delivering its team members the best jobs of their lives. She is also a member of a subcommittee devoted to putting Haskell’s Core Value of Trust into action in the workplace, and plays a leadership role in Haskell Together, the company’s initiative focused on advancing diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
“When I arrived at Haskell in 2018, I was really impressed to see how critical Haskell’s values are to the company’s operations,” Toro said. “For a lot of companies, their values are all talk, but at Haskell, the values are at the forefront of every action or decision made by the company and its team members.”
For Toro, acting on the values requires great communication.
“Effective communicators limit operating on assumptions,” she said. “I’ve found it’s incredibly helpful to my team if I maintain transparent communication strategies.”
As an HR Project Specialist, Toro works on different projects across the company, but much of her time is devoted to supporting Haskell’s Talent Acquisition team and the Learning, Development, & Engagement program.
“The Living the Values award is a critical component of Haskell’s methodology for putting its values into action,” Toro said. “It’s important for team members to feel appreciated, and it’s especially important to highlight the team members who adhere to Haskell’s values and demonstrate them both in and out of the workplace. I’m very honored to have received this award, and I’m proud to work for The Haskell Company.”
