I was fortunate over the years to be involved in a wide range of really interesting projects. I was never a ‘day-rater’ and was always able to mix and match different types of work in different types of organisation. Although I was seen in some quarters as a competence management specialist, I always tried to maintain a balance across research studies, real-world projects in organisations, facilitation of cross-sector groups, and the development of practice-based tools and techniques.
Along the way I established a reputation for honest, professional analysis of business, people-management, and learning issues, for the cost-effective design and delivery of practical, workable solutions – and for high-quality presentations and reports. Some highlights of my experience include:
Exploring change and skills needs
- Research into how training policy is developed and skills issues are addressed in oil & gas
- Pan-industry steering groups on attraction, recruitment, skills and training issues
- People management and employment issues in the UK oil & gas industry
- Benchmarking people-management systems in a regional cluster of 25 chemical companies
- Comparisons of North Sea and Gulf of Mexico competence management and safety training
- Evaluation of emergency response training for the offshore oil & gas industry
Linking HR strategies and business needs
- Project-managing the design phase of industry technician apprentice training programme
- Core-competence frameworks, entry routes and career pathways for a regional energy cluster
- Research into the growth characteristics of companies and organisational metatypes
- Research into the links between business performance and skills strategies in SMEs
- Organisational re-design of the UK arm of a multi-billion pound company
- Various organisational analysis, organisation design and job design projects
- Critical roles and competencies for decommissioning nuclear power stations
Aligning personal and business goals
- Simple competency frameworks for large and small organisations
- Integrated competence and performance management systems for oil & gas operators, drilling and well services contractors, and SMEs
- Job evaluation projects using a range of different scoring systems
- Master Classes in people management for high-risk industries
- Tools to assess the risks of human performance error
- An e-learning strategy for a cluster of SMEs trying to penetrate non-core markets
- Attitudes/values surveys across a wide range of organisations
- Diverse projects on reward systems, executive selection and performance assessment
Embedding learning into HR routines
- Complete suites of HR policies and processes for international blue-chip companies
- A suite of web-based applications to help organisations manage intellectual capital
- Applications to assess and monitor competence against standards
- Database applications to help managers and teams prioritise business objectives and track KPIs
- Qualifications framework for offshore design engineers
- Web-based diagnostic tools to review progress against HR strategy
During my earlier working experience I also:
- Pioneered risk-based approaches to competence management within safety-case/SMS regimes
- Chaired an industry training committee and was deputy chair of 2 industry training associations
- Re-structured and managed a division of 450 staff and trainees based at 10 locations across the UK
- Won a National Training Award for integrated training programmes to support flexible skilling
- Planned a multi-skilled resourcing and IR strategy for a new plant and ran a major recruitment campaign