Meet Yvette Andino, Vice President for Employee Engagement 

In 1993, fresh out of Hunter College, Yvette Andino showed up to a City University of New York (CUNY) job fair at Madison Square Garden with 35 copies of her resume, interviewed on the spot, and landed a job in human resources. She had no idea at the time that her first job would launch a career at NYCHA that has spanned 30 years and counting. 

Ms. Andino is a poster child for New York City: she grew up in public housing in Manhattan, she was educated at CUNY, and she has spent her career in public service giving back to the city and institutions that helped her become the woman she is today. 

Over the last three decades of working at NYCHA, Ms. Andino has helped hire many employees; streamlined and modernized department processes; and engaged, supported, and celebrated employees. In her current role as Vice President for Employee Engagement, Ms. Andino leads the Authority’s efforts to empower employees through employee recognition programs, the Change Ambassador network of employees who share information and feedback about NYCHA initiatives, as well as the support of employee associations, and more. 

We spoke with Ms. Andino about her career at NYCHA, her accomplishments, and the future of employee engagement.  

Tell us about some of the roles you’ve had at NYCHA. 

I’ve worked in many departments at NYCHA. I believe in the mission of NYCHA, I believe in what we do, and I’m proud of what I contribute to the organization.  

My first year in HR I worked on the employment side, but then I was plucked to run the Vacancy Unit. Back then, staff used typewriters to create the postings, so I helped them automate the process by creating templates for the job postings. Then I worked in Health Benefits, which also wasn’t automated, so I worked with a consultant to computerize everything and create a database with every employee and every insurance plan each employee had. 

Following HR, I went to work in the Research and Policy Department as an Assistant Director – and that is the department I worked in the longest; I was there for 12 years. When I worked there, we had started developing the Authority Products Activity Tracking System.  

After research I worked in the Executive Department as Deputy Chief of Staff. I then became a Senior Manager for Resident Communications and Language Services, and I was Interim Chief Communications Officer for a short period of time. 

I was asked to help run the office of a former CEO, where I began overseeing day-to-day operations, overseeing the CEO’s schedule, briefings, and talking points while also doing employee engagement on the launch of our former strategic plan NextGeneration NYCHA.  

I was working to help other departments with messaging around different strategic plans – we worked on messaging to employees around NYCHA 2.0, then the Transformation Plan. 

What is an accomplishment at NYCHA you’re proud of? 

After Employee Engagement was launched in 2017, I established an Employee Engagement Committee. The committee was about getting staff together on a monthly basis to talk about different NYCHA initiatives. 

When the Transformation Plan came around, I said, “Look I have a cadre of 90 people I’ve engaged with over the years, and we can utilize them either for focus groups and have conversations about what they think is important in terms of NYCHA’s transformation.” So, we leveraged those employees and out of those conversations we launched the Change Ambassador program. 

I’m proud to say that as part of the Transformation Plan the core values or pillars of the plan on empowering our staff and creating a culture of service came out of the Change Ambassadors and Employee Engagement Committee folks – because those are areas that they felt strongly about (empowering staff, recognizing people for their good work performance, and making them feel valued). Change Ambassadors has grown to over 200 employees now and we are constantly recruiting. 

What has been your favorite role at NYCHA? 

My current role is my favorite. Our colleagues who work at our properties do the heavy lifting. They’re in the trenches day in and day out. Sometimes it can be a thankless job where they are putting out fires – whether it’s a sewage stoppage, a roof caving in, a literal fire – so it feels good to be able to recognize colleagues that go above and beyond when performing their duties and responsibilities and who have exhibited best practices to deliver exceptional service to both our residents and their colleagues. 

The Coaching and Mentoring Leadership Academy (CMLA) coming to fruition is a pivotal moment in my career because it’s something I’ve always thought we needed. It’s the first mentoring program for staff at NYCHA. To see all the participants — mentors and mentees — feel supported and motivated and grow within that 16-week period is amazing. I get really excited and happy about the CMLA because it’s changing people’s work lives and helping to instill pride, so that people feel confident they can do their jobs, have a network of support, and eventually grow in their career. 

Speaking of excited, what are you excited about for the future? 

We did our first employee recognition Authority-wide program during Customer Service Week. I’m excited that in 2024, we’re going to do two because the idea is to make this a biannual program. I’m also excited to do another two cohorts of the Coaching and Mentoring Leadership Academy. Originally, the plan was to focus on coaching and mentoring for supervisory staff at the properties, but we’ve been getting so many questions from other staff that we’re exploring expanding the program to include other titles outside of property management.