When talking with Madison Simms, Human Resources Generalist, you can quickly tell she’s someone who is kind, understanding and has a passion for helping people. It’s also easy to see why she is a great fit with the Twin Valley Family of Companies.

“In my previous job, I was an administrative assistant for the Chief Administrative Officer who was the Chief Executive over Human Resources, Marketing and Facilities,” Madison shared. “I worked closely with all three departments, and it became clear to me that HR was where I wanted to land. I enjoy being in a department that works to make the employee experience the best it can be. I love being able to work with someone from the interview process all the way through and seeing employees succeed and get promoted into new roles.”

Since joining the company in January, Madison has hit the ground running. Providing HR support to Twin Valley, SKT, and ISG Technology, she is responsible for new employee orientation, compensation and benefit administration, employee relations, legal compliance, workers’ compensation, performance evaluations, and more. Along with the rest of the HR team, Madison is working towards implementing an Employee Wellness Initiative to improve employee health and well-being. The program will focus on employee physical, mental, social and financial wellness.

“Madison’s impact is not even close to measurable,” explains Ashley Olberding, Human Resources Director. “Beyond her warm smile and positive attitude, she has quickly become the backbone to HR. As she approaches her 90-day mark, I could not have ever imagined how many things she would have become integral in and the impact her ‘can-do’ attitude would make for our team and employees. Immediately, she jumped into benefit audits and has led the charge as we work to ensure our employee enrollments are correct in all systems and billings are correct. She’s used her knowledge of ADP and recruitment to ensure we’re driving the right efficiencies and processes while focusing on the employee and candidate experience. All along, she’s kept the voice of the employee front and center. I do not want to imagine a world without a Madison in it!”

Madison exemplifies the company’s values – Humor & Fun, Lead by Example, Resilience, “Team First” Initiative, and Continuous Improvement – and you can see evidence of that both in her work and the way she spends her personal time.

During football season, there’s one place Madison can most likely be found – next to her husband, Cory, at Arrowhead Stadium cheering on the Kansas City Chiefs. “We are the biggest Kansas City Chiefs fans,” explains Madison. “We have season tickets and try to make it to most home games.”

Like many others, there’s one Chiefs player she’d be thrilled to meet. “I would love to meet the GOAT [Greatest of All Time], Patrick Mahomes,” said Madison. “He has made being a Chiefs fan so much fun the last few years. We are huge Mahomes fans!”

She’s also a Kansas Jayhawks basketball fan. As a matter of fact, Madison has met many KU basketball players, as well as coach Bill Self and other KU coaches. She explains, “While Cory was finishing pharmacy school at KU, I was a bartender and waitress at Johnny’s Tavern, so I got to meet most of the basketball team over the years. I served Bill Self and the coaching staff over lunch many times. Bill was always very polite and a good tipper!”

When asked how she was feeling at half-time during the recent NCAA Championship game against North Carolina with the Jayhawks trailing 15 points behind, Madison shared, “Anyone who knows me knows I am the ultimate pessimist, especially in sports. Half time of the NCAA Championship game I was saying things like ‘it’s over,’ and ‘we can’t make a free-throw, a lay-up, even a 3!’”

Madison adds, “I was absolutely defeated going into half-time. Going into the second half I kept reminding myself of the 2008 comeback and praying we could get our act together, and luckily, we did! We yelled and screamed down to the very last four seconds when Harris stepped out of bounds. It was a huge relief when they [North Carolina] missed the final three pointer.”

Growing up, Madison went to school in Maize, Kansas where she was a cheerleader and played softball and volleyball. That’s also how she knew Cory. In fact, they’d known each other as far back as elementary school and were friends for many years before they ever considered dating.

In college, around her 21^st birthday, is when Madison realized Cory was “the one.” They were married in 2018 and settled in Goddard, Kansas with their nine-year-old Saint Bernard, Josephine (aka Josie or Feeny) who Madison lovingly refers to as “the heart of their household.”

Madison and Cory enjoy spending time with their families; however, the holidays can get a little competitive, especially at Christmas. “In the Snyder household (my parents) we love to play a new board game every Christmas,” she explains. “Over the years, we have so many stories and laughs from these games. It’s a wonderful bonding experience and gets lots of laughs because my side of the family is overly competitive.”

At Madison’s in-laws, Christmas sounds a little more laid back as they “have a Christmas Vacation movie night every year a week before Christmas where we bring good food and watch our favorite Christmas movie,” she said. “It’s a time of year we always look forward to, even though we can quote the movie 100%.” It’s often been said that laughter is the best medicine and Madison might just agree. “My husband and my dog equally make me laugh the most,” she said. “I’m blessed to have a husband with the same sense of humor as me, which is hard to come by. And our girl Josie, with her big personality and attitude always keeps us laughing.”