The Construction Industry Training
Board (CITB) has created two new posts to encourage more women and ethnic
minorities into the construction industry. Aaron Mounds and Di Barber (right) are
the board’s new equal opportunities and diversity advisers. Mounds joins from
the Hampshire Constabulary, where he was equal opportunities adviser
responsible for implementing and monitoring the police force’s equal
opportunities policy. Barber produced and carried out the equal opportunities
strategy for the Greater Nottingham Training and Enterprise Council, where she
designed an equal opportunities good practice standard.
County Durham and
Darlington Health Authority has appointed a business director from the
chemicals industry to develop nurses, doctors and clinical staff.
Alan Cowie is now
chief executive of the new Durham and Teesside NHS Workforce Development
Confederation. The body came into effect on 1 April and others are being set up
across the country. For the last three years, Cowie has been business
vice-president of Synetix, part of ICI, and was previously managing director of
Tioxide Specialties.
Trade and Industry
Secretary Stephen Byers has announced the appointment of Professor Paul Davies
and Professor Kenneth Miller as deputy chairmen of the Central Arbitration
Committee. Davies is a Cassel Professor of Commercial Law at the London School
of Economics and Political Science. Miller is head of department of the law
school at the University of Strathclyde and a member of the Law Society of
Scotland.
Personal profile
Helen
Boardman is the new development and training manager for law firm Nabarro
Nathanson. She has previously been an independent HR and training consultant
and has been training manager for law firm Hammond Suddards Edge.
What
is the most important lesson you have learnt in your career?
Never
underestimate people’s potential to learn and develop.
What is the strangest situation you
have had to deal with at work?
Running a training
course in the middle of a mock Victorian street with an eight-foot stuffed
horse looking over my shoulder.
If your house was on
fire and you could save only one object, what would it be?
I would have a
dilemma about which of my Persian cats to save.
What is the best thing
about working in HR?
Knowing that you
can influence how people can develop.
What is the worst?
Having to convince
people that training is crucial to the organisation.
You have stumbled upon
a time machine hidden in the vaults of your company building. What time period
would you visit ?
I would go forward
100 years into the future
What would be your
Mastermind special subject?
History of art.
How do you get to work?
I drive a round
trip of 110 miles to the office. I use the time to review and plan mentally.
What is your favourite
cheese?
Wensleydale
What is your favourite
drink?
I don’t drink
alcohol.
What is your greatest
strength?
Being able to
produce a constant stream of creative ideas.
What is your least
appealing characteristic?
I am the customer
from hell – if things aren’t right, I complain.
What
is the greatest risk you have ever taken?
Having children and all the juggling of work-life balance.
CV:
Helen Boardman
March 2001
Development and training manager, Nabarro Nathanson
May 1994 HR and training consultant.
March 1991 Training manager, Hammond Suddards Edge
January 1990 Regional trainer, Humberside County Museums
Top job
Harjit
Sidhu has been appointed as associate director (HR) at the telecommunications
company Transcomm, the new name for the merged businesses of RAM Mobile Data,
Tardis Mobile and Playsafe Monitoring.
Sidhu was formerly HR
manager for RAM Mobile Data and has played a significant role in the company’s consolidation
process since the companies merged last summer.
At RAM, Sidhu has
implemented policies to improve morale following the merger, including flexible
working hours, dressing down and home working for sales personnel.
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She was previously HR
adviser for the shopping channel QVC, where she cut recruitment costs by half
by developing an in-house selection scheme for presenters. The selection
procedure, which was previously conducted by agencies, involved day-long trials
where potential presenters were asked to talk about products. She also
recruited people for roles elsewhere in the company, including board level
positions.
At Transcomm, Sidhu
plans to introduce a performance management system which will set out clearly
each person’s goals within the company. She said, "It is about telling
people what they are there for, what the company’s goals are and their part in
that."
