ABOUT US

Shaping Organizations

Organizations change. New units are started up or acquired, obsolete organizations are shut down or reorganized. Huntly is very knowledgeable and experienced with current approaches to these changes. Planning any such change requires accurate up-to-date data on your employees. This should be done well in advance of any changes. Huntly has extensive experience in developing computerized employee information databases and maintaining effective employee files.

Start-ups, Acquisitions, Shutdowns and Reorganizations

Huntly has worked through three booms and three recessions over the past 30 years. He has held Human Resources responsibilities for two Greenfield sites, several acquisitions, as well as the shutdown of operations, the cutbacks of executives and employees, and the complete reorganization of divisions.

As the first Director of Human Resources for the rapidly growing Cascade Resources, Huntly developed and implemented Human Resources Policies adapted to the division. Cascade Resources was a decentralized, fast paced, sales and service oriented organization owned by a paper manufacturer. The company policies designed for a technology dominated manufacturing environment became entirely inappropriate for a decentralized, creative entrepreneurial organization. Based on the overall company policies, what he learned about practices and priorities from managers, and his experience he drafted policies for management review. In management meetings and one-on-one discussions an employee handbook and a set of policies was approved. This process not only ensured effective policies but also assured buy-in by all the managers

As the first Director of Human Resources for the newly created French language school board in Toronto, Huntly drafted and negotiated with School Board trustees as well as management and implemented Human Resources policies.

The process was complex. Some of the schools in the Board and their trustees were carved out of other English language boards with conflicting traditions and cultures. Other schools were new. Funding came through an umbrella organization, The Metropolitan Toronto School Board. They were attempting to harmonize all policies and procedures as well as coordinate collective bargaining for all schools in Metro Toronto. Everything involving unionized employees had to be reviewed by them. Many of the clauses the teachers' union had negotiated in their collective agreements elsewhere did not apply in Toronto or were very incompatible with the collective agreements in the other Toronto boards.

The French language school board was one of the first publicly funded educational institutions in Ontario to be independently run by and for Franco-Ontarians. At that time a large number of French speaking immigrants of various races and religions arrived in Toronto. This raised brand new issues for Franco-Ontarians. Neither the politicians nor the board administrators had experience operating in these environments.

Developing and implementing School Board policies involved:

• Learning about what worked in this complex environment and in others outside,
• Meeting with various groups (including immigrant groups and parents) to gain their input, test ideas and build consensus,
• Reconciling strong differences and proposing a compromise to the politicians that still met our primary objective of providing an excellent education,
• Finding ways of communicating and implementing the policies approved by the politicians.

Computer literate

Human Resources Information technology systems must keep pace with changes in the organization and available technology. Huntly understands the technical issues involved with data processing. He has used the tools and been involved in the implementation of Human Resources information systems from the pre-PC days of mainframes using Fortran, Cobol and Basic to the hardware and operating systems available today. He is comfortable with spreadsheets, databases, queries and the modern networked office environment granting access to custom and standardized programs, including large Human Resources Information Systems integrated with payroll.