Bianca Janeczek joins the Aug. 4 City Council meeting to introduce herself after Mayor John Vieau appoints her to the new role. The City Council made its official vote on her appointment on Aug. 18.
Reminder Publishing file photo
CHICOPEE — Chicopee’s Human Resources Department has a new person in charge after Bianca Janeczek’s appointment as the chief human resources officer was confirmed during a special City Council meeting on Aug. 18.
Mayor John Vieau announced Janeczek’s appointment at the Aug. 4 City Council meeting. However, the City Council decided to table the official vote so a special meeting could be held for further scrutiny.
Following her official appointment, Janeczek shared her excitement for the new role in a statement to Reminder Publishing.
“Being appointed Chicopee’s chief human resources officer is something I’m incredibly proud of, but more than anything, I feel genuinely grateful for the trust that has been placed in me. I don’t take that responsibility lightly,” Janeczek said. “My hope is to lead HR in a way that is transparent, accountable, approachable and focused on people. There is a lot of opportunity ahead, and I’m excited to listen, learn, build strong relationships across the city and make sure our employees and residents can feel confident in the work coming out of Human Resources. I’m incredibly excited to get to work and to be part of Chicopee’s next chapter.”
Janeczek has an associate’s degree in business administration and management from Springfield Technical Community College and a bachelor’s in business administration, industrial and organizational psychology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
She previously served as the Human Resources Executive at McGill Hose & Coupling Inc. for over two years, where she helped double the organization’s personnel.
Before that, Janeczek served as an emergency room technician at Cooley Dickinson Hospital, a human resources generalist at Sunshine Village and an executive administrator at MiraVista Behavioral Health Center. In her role as chief human resources officer, Janeczek must also be an Americans with Disabilities Act coordinator. She said she has an ADA background and her previous roles illustrated how critical disability and accommodations are.
“I think the biggest thing with anything of that nature is to assess the full situation, see what we currently have in practice, and then see what needs to be determined after doing a thorough investigation and research,” Janeczek explained. “I’m not a very reactive person. I like to gather all the information first; make sure that we are accommodating all people of all kinds at all times.”
Janeczek said she wants to modernize the HR Department and ensure that the department’s previous problems, such as paying benefits to former employees, retirees and their dependents after they had died or left the job, don’t happen again.
She plans to assess the department’s current standards and practices to find any flaws. From there, she said she will jump into technology platforms and create a robust system that eliminates room for error.
“Something that’s a little bit more modern than, say, an Excel spreadsheet,” Janeczek explained. “Something that can be regulated and proceduralized and more fluid.”
Janeczek further stated that she eventually wants to create a more computer-generated department through a phased approach.
She said phase one would be to ensure the system or software works before the department moves on to the next phase.
“Dream goals for the city for sure would be to modernize it completely and have a strong, robust system that takes out a lot of the manual work, a lot of the second-guessing work and kind of just have it nice and fluid,” she said.
Janeczek’s term runs until June 30, 2029. She hopes to break a trend where Chicopee has not retained a human resources director for more than 18 months at a time.
The City Council unanimously approved the appointment.
