Staff Spotlight: Holly Hollar
For the past four years, Holly Hollar has been someone nearly every FSR employee connects with at one point or another. As the Human Resources Administrative Assistant, Holly is often the first person new staff meet and one of the most frequently contacted by long-timers. Whether she’s processing payroll, onboarding new hires, handling open enrollment, managing Relias training, or fielding the constant stream of HR-related questions that come her way, Holly approaches her work with a genuine desire to help.
Holly grew up in Brownsdale, near Austin, and has built a career that blends strong administrative skills with an understanding of caregiving environments. Before joining FSR, she worked in nursing homes, memory care units, and home services. When her daughter entered daycare, she transitioned into office management for a home care agency, gaining hands-on experience with hiring, training, payroll, and daily HR operations. She later moved to DMC Plumbing & Heating in Pine Island, where she handled billing for Mayo Clinic projects. This experience that led her to a one-year role in Mayo’s construction department.
Her move to FSR in 2021 was a leap of faith encouraged by a friend and a decision shaped by something small but meaningful: paid holidays that didn’t require PTO. That benefit, paired with the culture she discovered in her interview made the choice clear. From the beginning, Holly sensed she wouldn’t just be taking a job; she’d be joining a team. “I wanted to feel part of something,” she recalls.
Holly describes working in HR at FSR as supportive, collaborative, and grounded in respect for all staff, no matter their position. She appreciates the organization’s transparency especially around benefits, policy decisions, and work groups where staff voices genuinely influence outcomes. She also values the “mom and pop feel” that persists even as FSR grows, noting that staff are treated as people first.
Work-life balance is an ongoing challenge for Holly, a self-described “control freak” who is always ready to dive into a task. But with consistent encouragement and the flexibility FSR allows, she’s found the space she needs to balance work with family life.
One of the unexpected joys of her role has been learning how widely recognized and appreciated FSR is in the community. She remembers attending her first job fair, where both adults and teenagers approached her to say how much they loved volunteering with FSR—or hoped to work here one day. “Four years ago I had never heard of Family Service Rochester,” Holly says. “Now I meet people all the time who thank me for working here. It’s amazing.”
Above all, Holly feels fortunate to be part of an organization she believes in. “I feel lucky to be here,” she says. “This isn’t just a job—it’s a career. I tell Cindy (LeFebre-Westendorf), ‘I’m not leaving. You’re stuck with me.’ And I mean it.”
