Simone Ellis · Chief Human Resources Officer · United States
A board in an industrial business usually sees its workforce through three numbers: headcount, payroll cost and the recordable injury rate. Each matters, and each can look acceptable while the plant is losing the people who keep it running. I would help directors ask for the figures underneath: how many maintenance technicians and setup specialists can retire within five years, turnover by shift rather than by plant, the expiry dates and economic terms of each collective agreement, and how many supervisors were promoted without preparation. I can read those figures because I have managed them, in non-union, unionised and newly organised plants. I would also bring discipline on the people side of acquisitions, where the integration budget often omits wage gaps, schedule disputes and benefit transitions. I have not been a director, and my financial reading is that of an executive who prepares costs rather than one who audits accounts. A first appointment should use what I know while allowing me to learn the rest.
| Capacity | Committees |
|---|---|
| Ready to join | Compensation or human capital committee · Nominating and governance committee |
I am looking for a first independent seat at a manufacturer where the workforce is central to the board's risks: shift-based plants, retiring skilled trades, collective agreements or a programme of acquisitions. A compensation or human capital committee is where I could contribute fastest, because I have prepared executive pay recommendations and workforce reports for one for six years. I would also value a nominating and governance committee, which would teach me how a board renews itself. I am not seeking a chair role in a first term, and I would not present myself as a finance or technology director. The board should want someone who will ask how its plants actually run at night and how an acquired workforce will be treated, and who will accept that the answers belong to management.
Presented to the Board or a committee
Compensation committee and full board
April 2019–present
Presents quarterly workforce reports, executive pay recommendations and collective bargaining mandates; attends as an executive, not a director.
Member of a committee
Industrial maintenance programme advisory committee
September 2021–present
Unpaid member of the employer committee that reviews the apprenticeship curriculum, equipment and completion results.
Our decision to pay retiring technicians as mentors and fund community college apprentices was more expensive in its first two years than hiring experienced technicians with sign-on bonuses. As a director I would ask management to show both paths over five years, including contractor spending, overtime and the risk of losing a skill entirely. I would want to know whether selection rules had been agreed with any union involved, and how many apprentices were expected to leave before completing. Our own attrition was four of twenty-four, and a plan that assumed none would deserve challenge. I would also ask how the company will know whether the knowledge transferred, rather than relying on completion certificates. The board's role is not to design the programme. It is to make sure the cheaper option has not been preferred merely because its costs arrive later.
When the Bowling Green employees petitioned for an election, some managers measured success by the vote. I measured it first by whether our conduct stayed within the 1935 National Labor Relations Act, because a company that wins an election through unlawful conduct inherits a legal and cultural problem it cannot easily repair. A director facing a similar situation should ask who is advising management, whether supervisors have been trained on what they may not say, and whether any planned pay change is proceeding exactly as announced. The board should also hear the plant's own grievances, not only the campaign plan. Our employees chose representation, and the company has operated well under a first contract. I would encourage a board to judge management by the lawfulness and honesty of its conduct and by what follows the vote, rather than by the tally alone.
Before my first meeting I would ask the company secretary or general counsel for the committee charters, two years of minutes and the most recent compensation and workforce papers. I would then ask the chair which questions the committee has found hardest to answer. In the first two quarters I would visit at least two plants, including one night shift, with the chief executive's agreement and without interfering in management. I would read the collective agreements in force, the safety record by plant and shift and the most recent acquisition's integration report. At committee meetings I would ask fewer questions than I wanted to and write down the rest for the chair. By the end of the year I would hope to have suggested one improvement to the workforce information the board receives, such as turnover by shift or retirement exposure by trade, and to have asked the chair for a frank view of my contribution and of what I still need to learn.
My principal conflict is my employer. Corrinwood sells folding cartons to food, pet-care and household brands and buys paperboard, inks and equipment, so a seat at any customer, supplier or packaging competitor would be inappropriate. I would give the nominating committee a list of Corrinwood's material relationships and ask it to test them against its own. Labour relations raises a second kind of question. If a board were bargaining with a union that also represents Corrinwood employees, I would disclose that and step out of any discussion where my knowledge of our own negotiations could be relevant. I would never pass bargaining positions, pay data or employee information between the two companies. My unpaid committee role at Tobermane Community College would need disclosure if the company hired from or funded the college. Time is the remaining risk. Twenty-four days must include preparation and plant visits, and I would reduce other commitments before reducing preparation.
I have no shareholding in, or business relationship with, any company I would consider, but Corrinwood buys paperboard and sells cartons to many manufacturers. Each opportunity needs a fresh review against those relationships and the applicable independence standards before I could describe myself as independent.
IICA Independent Directors’ Databank: Not yet registered
The IICA Independent Directors' Databank is an Indian requirement and does not apply to the US boards I am considering, so I have not registered.