Testimonials
"I and my business have tremendously benefitted from Beth's expert guidance over the years. As SunCommon was just setting up she helped us effectively structure our organization and build the foundation for our success. As we expanded, Beth helped shepherd us through the growing pains while instituting grown-up procedures that served our people and business well. Beth played an integral role in developing our Leadership Team, expanding our Board and implementing Company metrics that allowed us to stay on task and hold each other accountable, to reference some of her contributions to SunCommon."It has been great accessing her extensive experience and committed values. Beth played a key role in SunCommon's success and remains a community ambassador for our mission, staying connected and continuously offering her support as a professional friend.”
- Duane Peterson, SunCommon, Waterbury, VT
"Beth Peters / VIVID Workplace proved a great partner for Social Sentinel during a period of rapid growth. Wearing a variety of hats, Beth worked as an extension of our internal team. As such, she was much more effective than traditional outside recruiters when it came to things like talent acquisition.
But Beth is more than just a talent acquisition expert. For example, Beth served as a Project Manager for the launch of our employee portal and we were thrilled with the results. With strong business acumen, a deep understanding of organizational dynamics and a commitment to results, I highly recommend Beth and am grateful for her efforts."
- David Stetson, Social Sentinel, Burlington, VT
"With the upcoming retirement of its long-term Executive Director, the Boards of Vermont Municipal Bond Bank and Vermont Educational and Health Buildings Financing Agency needed assistance recruiting a replacement. Complicating the search process was the fact that both organizations, while sharing an Executive Director, issue tax-exempt debt for different sets of clients and on very different terms, which requires a unique blend of skills and experience in a leader.
"Knowing that the search would be very challenging, the Boards decided to engage a seasoned HR professional with deep and wide recruitment experience to help find the right person for the job. After considering multiple candidates, the Boards unanimously chose Beth Peters of VIVID Workplace to lead the process. Because of Beth’s efforts, the national search resulted in several highly qualified candidates and an exceptional outcome.
"Beth provided the Boards with a full range of services: she helped organize and coordinate the Boards’ involvement; refined the qualities and characteristics they were seeking in a candidate; proposed and facilitated a comprehensive recruitment strategy; screened all qualified applicants; recommended an appropriate compensation package and helped negotiate a successful agreement.
"The success of the recruitment process was a direct result of Beth’s quality of work and attention to detail. She ran a thoroughly organized and timely process that specifically included giving the Boards sufficient time to reflect and react to candidates while also meeting key milestone dates. Beth also leveraged the search’s advertising to provide both organizations with additional exposure and positive “PR”.
"Neither of our Boards had conducted an Executive Director search in a very long time, and Beth provided us with a level of service that made the entire process enjoyable, timely and successful. The end result speaks for itself: we hired a highly qualified individual as the new Executive Director who has hit the ground running very effectively. Retaining Beth Peters of VIVID Workplace to manage the Executive Director search process was an unqualified success. I cannot speak highly enough of her efforts and dedication to the best possible outcome."
- Robert Giroux, Former Executive Director, Vermont Municipal Bond Bank, Vermont Educational and Health Buildings Financing Agency
"Cx Associates has been fortunate to work with Beth on multiple occasions over the past few years. We are committed to developing and using constructive feedback processes to support our firm’s aspiration for continuous improvement. Beth’s compassion, insight, collaboration and knowledge contribute to us developing approaches that support ongoing individual and organizational growth.
"Beth helped us develop a 360-degree review process that enabled staff to provide constructive feedback to the firm’s principals in a positive environment and she is assisting our management team in understanding and responding to the feedback. Her individual and small-group coaching have helped us improve communication and increase our capacity for mutual understanding.
- Jennifer L. Chiodo, PE LEED AP, Managing Principal, Cx Associates LLC.
"I often see my clients facing complex organizational, strategic or labor compliance issues that require the skills of a true human resources expert. In these cases, I've never hesitated to ask Beth to jump in. She has a unique blend of technical skills and practical, boots-on-the-ground knowledge that comes from her past work as both an inside HR executive and outside HR consultant. Beth's clients appreciate that she truly understands the nature of interpersonal dynamics and the vastly different needs of companies from startup stage to more mature firms. There is no question that working with Beth is an investment that pays for itself many times over."- Spencer Newman, President and CFO Consultant, Green Mountain Insight
“I have known Beth as a trusted colleague since she was the Director of HR and Administration at The Vermont Teddy Bear Co. I consider myself fortunate to have made this connection because Beth has a wealth of HR and business experience and has always been generous in providing advice and perspective for various business and HR challenges. This year I hired Beth to help me do some career planning work. With only a few short meetings Beth helped me zero in on important questions and turn the answers into a focused, pragmatic plan. As a seasoned HR executive Beth has a lot of direct connections, but more importantly understands the career development process and therefore helped me focus on the right actions that would open new conversations and benefit my process. Beth was clear that I was the one who had to do the work and she was not shy about holding me accountable to move my plan forward. She was also my #1 fan and maintained the support, encouragement, and the timely check-ins I needed to stay on track! This is not exactly an easy time to seek out and find a new position, but thanks in part to Beth’s coaching and support I am now in a new position that is the perfect move for my career.”
- Justin Worthley, HR Director, Burton Snowboards
“Beth would be an ideal addition to a team that functions in a fast-paced, innovative environment, and that needs a human resources professional who is a strategic player in conceiving and implementing the business’s future. I have worked with a lot of Vermont's HR professionals through client relationships with some of Vermont’s largest and most sophisticated employers. In my opinion Beth is among an elite group of professionals who not only know all the compliance issues, but who also have worked closely with management on strategic priorities. Beth also can deal with demanding environments with grace. She is driven to achieve excellent results for the larger business and will make and communicate hard decisions. At the same time, Beth demonstrates a level of empathy for individual employees that translates into better outcomes, even in difficult situations. As someone who regularly defends employers from lawsuits brought by disgruntled employees, I have to appreciate the latter quality, and must emphasize how important it is to the success of any business.”
- Jeffrey Nolan, Esq., Partner, Dinse, Knapp and McAndrew
“We hired Beth to facilitate our Executive Director Search for our statewide membership organization. Beth worked quickly and effectively to grasp the character, needs and structure of our organization. This enabled her to become a real partner to the search committee, we could rely on her to manage much of the work of the search from resume review to interview questions and format. She led us in a professional and timely manner. Beth participated in each step of the process including networking for candidates, interviews and deliberation. Together we worked our way from a field of 30 down to our two finalist candidates. I would highly recommend Beth to any hiring process, and would guess these facilitative skills could also be utilized in organizational review and strategic planning process. Please feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss our experience and outcome any further.”
- Katharine Roberts, President, Vermont School Boards Association
“Beth was a strong contributor to the improved performance of individuals around the Company. She brought clear structure and discipline to our training and development process. She created a consistent process, a realistic budget, and held managers accountable for the development of their employees. She worked closely with managers to coach them through addressing performance issues with strong action plans and clear consequences. Beth’s professionalism, strong commitment to social responsibility and the communities we serve as well as a willingness to take on new challenges, strong focus on performance management, and team player attitude make her a great asset to the business community.”
- Mary Powell, CEO, Green Mountain Power Company
“Beth Peters is a facilitator extraordinaire! I asked her recently to help me facilitate a strategic planning session with over 25 cross functional business partners for a global organization I’ve been working with for years. She was able to integrate in a way that was the perfect blend of egoless presence, intuitive insight and co-partnered flow. She is the perfect blend of professional and personal, adding warmth and wisdom when needed, stepping back and letting participants find their own way when appropriate.”
- Peter Cole, Founder and Principal, Cole Consulting, LC
“LMS is a fast growing family based business. We realized to keep pace with our growth we needed to reach out to other professionals. After meeting with Beth Peters we immediately knew we had found somebody with the experience, insight and strategic thinking we needed. She listens to our ideas and understands what makes us tick. Beth has been instrumental in helping us develop a solid employee performance based evaluation system. She has helped us identify strategic growth objectives that will support our long term goals. Beth brings positive energy, ideas and implementation plans to the table. I highly recommend Beth to help you with your Strategic Growth Plans and Human Resource Managment Objectives. Please do not hesitate to contact me directly should you have any further questions.”
- George Lamphere, President, Liquid Measurement Systems, Inc.
“ I have been working with Beth for career coaching over the course of several months. Beth has helped me quickly identify strengths that would be ideal for my professional future. She helped me identify and articulate my values, skills, passions and talents, which in turn has given me the information I needed to put into motion some exciting possibilities for my career and community involvement. She has been a great support, motivator and mentor as I have mapped out and navigated my professional path. Among Beth’s many strengths is her unique effectiveness as a connector. Beth has a wide network of colleagues which allows her to maintain a keen awareness of the business climate, job market and professional opportunities for her clients. During my work with her she has readily connected me with people that she thought I might benefit from knowing as resources in my own process. As a result of her generosity, I have been able to broaden my network and quickly make decisions that have increased momentum towards achieving my professional dreams. I would highly recommend Beth to people who are trying to determine next steps. She is very knowledgeable, extremely personable, and has a fantastic ability to help you connect with what is most important to you.”
- Harriet I. Williams, Ed. D., Executive Director, Dress for Success Burlington
“All organizations, in my experience, struggle to find the optimal balance between challenging and supporting their personnel to achieve optimal results. Another way to frame this is a continuum between attention to business tasks and attention to business relationships. Beth gets this like few others, and adds tremendous value, because not only does this inform strategic direction and resources, but it also contributes to effective day-to-day decisions and execution. Beth has proven herself to be a valued asset in a variety of professional situations, and no matter where she goes she makes a significant positive impact. She is one of the folks who have my very highest level of recommendation.”
- Flip Brown, Owner, Business Culture Consultants
“Beth helped me build a highly effective and creative organization of motivated, engaged employees over the 10 years I was CEO of Vermont Teddy Bear. She recruited and helped me hire talented people who now hold high profile, key positions in many of the Vermont's best companies, guided me through the complexity of HR law and regulation, developed a highly effective seasonal workforce, and teamed with me to build one of the first consumer driven health plans in Vermont. Beth is not the typical HR professional. She tunes into the strategic objectives of the enterprise, thinks outside of the box and is not afraid to take calculated risk in developing an organization. She deeply understands the balance required to advocate for the development of employees and meet the needs of the Company.”
- Liz Robert, CEO, Terry Bicycles
“ I have worked with Beth in a variety of settings over many years. These ranged from the corporate banking sector, as board members at the Boys and Girls Club, to personal and professional coaching. Beth's enthusiasm, passion, diverse knowledge and experience have been an asset to the many organizations and individuals that have had the pleasure of working with her.”
- Ranjit "Buddy" Singh, MBA, Mortgage Loan Officer, Spruce Mortgage
“Beth has been a very active member of the Boys & Girls Club of Burlington’s Board of Directors since 2007. Beth is a sophisticated board member who supports the mission of “supporting the children who need us most” in numerous ways. She not only gives of her own resources but she also gives of her expertise. Beth is a highly skilled HR professional therefore able to provide wise counsel regarding personnel as well as strategic matters. We are fortunate to have someone of her caliber on the Board of the Boys & Girls Club of Burlington.”
- Mary Alice McKenzie, Exec. Dir., Boys and Girls Club of Burlington