Diamond Gordon didn’t always know working with numbers would be part of her career path, but she is glad it’s where she ended up. From a young age, Diamond excelled in her math classes, but it wasn’t until her first job in payroll about 10 years ago that she saw it as a career.
“I have always loved working with numbers, and because of this, I want to be the go-to person for anyone who needs help understanding how they work and how they apply to their job.”
For Diamond, her role as Payroll Manager is about more than overseeing the operations behind teammate compensation. She takes pride in knowing that doing her job well allows the rest of the TOI team to fully focus on patients. While she doesn’t work directly with patients at TOI, she knows the important work the doctors and medical staff undertake, and she is passionate about supporting them.
“If I can alleviate any of the stress for our healthcare workers, that means a lot to me. Whether that is making sure they don’t worry about getting their checks on time or any questions about compensation, I want them to know they can lean on me.”
Because Diamond has such a great team supporting her in payroll, she has also had the opportunity to help and assist in other areas of the company. She has worked alongside learning and talent development helping both the clinical and non-clinical employees train on multiple systems that the company uses.
“I always ask myself: how can I be of service to TOI? I want to know that I am doing everything that I can to help the company and our staff grow.”
Don’t Focus On Your Mistakes
For anyone thinking about a job in payroll, Diamond’s biggest advice is don’t focus on any mistakes you may make. When you are working with computers and numbers every single day, sometimes mistakes can happen, and you need to act with unwavering integrity. But, working with the great team around her helps catch those mistakes so they don’t turn into bigger problems. Payroll can be seen as black and white, but her team has the skills to get creative when they need to in order to find a solution to a problem.
“We are all human, and we understand that mistakes happen. Be accountable and apologize. Find the quickest and most efficient way to fix the problem.”
Diversity in Health Care
Diversity is important across all roles at TOI. In healthcare, it is critical that both the clinicians providing care and the administrators making decisions behind the scenes understand the needs and experiences of the community we serve. The more diversity a healthcare team like TOI has across the entire company, the stronger the team is. When working as a team to better achieve our goals, our collective performance is greater than the sum of our individual efforts.
Diamond understands the power that representation can have in a healthcare setting:
“If you walk into a doctor’s appointment and the person you are seeing shares your nationality, you feel like they understand you better, which is so important, especially if you have any questions about your health.”
When she’s not at work, Diamond loves spending time with her family. With four kids between the ages of 1 and 17, she and her husband have their hands full. They love to stay active by playing tennis or taking the kids to the park. Whenever the sun is shining, you will find them outside enjoying the bright, sunny days.
