Experience

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  Self-employed

  • Canada

  • Semi Retired

    • Aug 2022 - Present
    • Canada

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  University of Doha for Science and Technology

  • Doha, Qatar

  • Instructor

    • Apr 2018 - Aug 2022
    • Doha, Qatar

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  Jan Dicks Coaching and Consulting (formerly Conversant Workplace Sol)

  • St. John's, NL, CA

  • Principal Consultant

    • Jan 2014 - Apr 2018
    • St. John's, NL, CA

    Jan Dicks Coaching & Consulting

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  Conversant Workplace Solutions

  • St. John's, Newfoundland & Labrador

  • President and Principal Consultant

    • Jun 2014 - Jan 2018
    • St. John's, Newfoundland & Labrador

    A small human resources firm providing solutions that improve productivity through organisational and leadership development and best practices in human resources support.Organizations often unknowingly create situations, through their own processes or lack there of, which impede individuals from performing at their most efficient. Sometimes its as simple as realising that the individual and the role they are working in are not in alignment with their strengths, other times there may be a need for a complete systems overhaul. Identifying what’s necessary and implementing a custom solution enables Conversant to be of service to both the employer in need of immediate human resources solutions, and to the employees who find themselves displaced or frustrated with their current situation.Working with Conversant allows the organization to support their staff in a way that highlights their respect for them. In our experience this is one of the biggest factors that contributes greatly to the organizations efficiency and to their positive bottom line.Conversant has been working with a variety of industries including oil and gas, financial institutions, ship repair, municipalities and non-for-profits. In that time we have assisted clients in transitioning staff ensuring their employees have the best outplacement support, trained leaders to manage effective teams, conducted human resource reviews and provided support to increase efficiencies and productivity.

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  Newfoundland & Labrador Centre for Health Information

  • St. John's

  • VP Human Resources and Strategic Planning

    • 2007 - 2014
    • St. John's

    Ultimately serving as member of the Executive and reporting to the CEO, held progressively responsible positions as this organization developed and grew into a leading-edge provincial eHealth organization. Selected Accomplishments• Oversaw the recruitment of highly qualified and professional staff, often in critical hard-to-recruit areas, to increase the organization’s workforce from 42 individuals to 165 in a four year period• Developed a compensation strategy to enable the recruitment and development of the necessary skill sets to undertake leading edge technology solutions and peer reviewed research• Facilitated the development of a strategic plan to take the organization from a small agency operating as an offshoot of the regional health authority to a fully operational independent agency • Developed and oversaw the implementation of an organization-wide cascade of the strategic plan from Board level to individual goals and objectives monitored in performance reviews• Developed and implemented a performance management system, trained managers and monitored the system’s usage• Worked with a consultant to implement a new job evaluation framework and develop a market-based salary structure; chaired an internal job evaluation committee

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  Business Faculty, Memorial University of Newfoundland

  • St. John's, NL

  • Part-time Instructor

    • 2007 - 2009
    • St. John's, NL

    Taught "Human Resources" for second year students and "Recruitment and Selection" for fourth year level.

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  Knightsbridge Robertson Surrette

  • St. John's

  • Partner

    • 2001 - 2007
    • St. John's

    Established a local office for this Atlantic Canada firm, built the customer base and delivered human resources and strategic planning services. This company had not previously maintained an office in this location.Selected Accomplishments• Launched an office in a new location and began to build a practice that has since grown to be the largest human resources firm in St. John’s• Hired staff and associates as required to increase development and deliver the services• Worked with business clients to facilitate downsizing initiatives and supported the transition of their staff to identify new opportunities• Provided recruitment and selection services to a wide variety of clients for mid to senior level positions• Provided human resource consulting services in the areas of planning, organizational design, performance management, and compensation• Assisted clients to prepare strategic and human resources plans

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  Ernst & Young

  • St. John's NL

  • Manager

    • 2000 - 2001
    • St. John's NL

    Delivered Human Resources and Strategic Planning consulting to a variety of business and public sector organizations

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  KPMG

  • St. John's

  • Manager

    • 1998 - 2000
    • St. John's

    Delivered Human Resources services to a wide variety of public and private sector organizations.

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  Ireland Business Partnerships

  • St. John's

  • Director Ireland Business Partnerships

    • 1995 - 1997
    • St. John's

    Set up an international business development facilitation network between the Republic of Ireland and the province of Newfoundland and Labrador

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  Hospitality Newfoundland and Labrador

  • St. John's

  • Director Human Resources and Industry Training

    • 1987 - 1993
    • St. John's

    Developed a province-wide hospitality industry training system and worked nationally to develop and introduce training standards.Created competency profiles for 43 positions within the hospitality industry and integrated them into a training delivery and recruitment model.