Atlanta Gear Works (AGW) is expanding its support staff by hiring its first Human Resources Specialist, a new position created to meet its expanding HR needs, previously managed by the company’s chief financial officer.

“We’re coming off one of our best years ever,” said Atlanta Gear Works President Jack Conway. “As a company that’s always invested in our people, we felt it was time to look at all of our employee benefits and policies, see what was still working and what needed changing. We knew we needed an experienced HR person dedicated to the role, and we were lucky to find Chelleigh.”

Chelleigh [pronounced Shelley] Cuddy comes to Atlanta Gear Works with more than 15 years of HR experience in a variety of industries from the tech space to real estate, covering the entire employee experience from employee healthcare and other benefits to onboarding and offboarding new hires and terminations, establishing and streamlining internal processes for payroll and employee relations, and employee event planning. 

“All of those positions made me stretch beyond my comfort level,” she said, a trait she feels prepared her for the high-pressure world of gearbox repair, where an emergency repair can require an all-hands-on-deck 24/7 response.

Atlanta Gear Works designs, engineers, builds, rebuilds and repairs heavy industrial gearboxes for some of America’s leading manufacturers with the goal of minimizing and preventing downtime. It also repairs other process-critical rotating equipment and continues to grow its field service division to provide extensive field machining and repair.

Among Cuddy’s top priorities at Atlanta Gear Works are recruitment and an extensive employee policy and benefits review. 

“Since starting at Atlanta Gear, I’ve been doing a lot of recruiting, revamping policies and looking at policy gaps that need to be closed and where we can improve benefits,” said Cuddy.

In her first three months in her new position, she’s attended at least one networking event a month, “getting our name out there, going to job fairs and career days.”

One event that impressed her was a career day at a local junior high school, where she and AGW President Jack Conway set up a small trade show booth. 

“We saw 300 kids, so many smart kids, kids that were interested and wanted to know about what we do,” she said, calling it a “promising sign” given the widespread U.S. labor shortage.  

atlantagear.com