Twenty-nine years connecting technical work with the conditions of employment.

Mandate

Connect workforce preparation, field employment and technical careers with the operator's growth plans.

Outcomes

• Resourced a seventy-two-person apprentice intake in 2022
• Introduced a specialist track with fourteen first-round appointments
• Piloted remote-site employment improvements at four locations

Decisions in context

My present remit brings together the lessons of the earlier appointments. I work with the chief executive and operations director on workforce requirements, while my own team designs and administers the employment arrangements. The distinction between people-process ownership and technical authority is explicit. I present workforce matters to the board's people committee as an executive, with no director appointment. Recent decisions have involved accepting a smaller apprentice intake, funding improvements at remote locations and paying for a credible specialist career route. None is a complete solution to workforce scarcity. Each addresses a part of the employment relationship that the business can influence. In 2026 I am concentrating on first-time site supervisors and the conversations they need to handle well. The scope is substantial, but I still find that a specific unresolved site problem can reveal more than a broad statement about organisational culture.

Reason for the move

Current appointment; no announced departure.

Mandate

Support operating-site employment and people integration as the renewable portfolio expanded.

Outcomes

• Coordinated the 2018 transition of 214 acquired-site employees
• Maintained an existing payroll timetable for six months during reconciliation
• Created continuing ownership for unresolved integration cases

Decisions in context

I entered a business where assets could change ownership while employees continued doing familiar work in the same place. That continuity was useful but could conceal uncertainty about employment arrangements. I coordinated people integration with legal, payroll and operations colleagues, making sure that questions remained owned after the transaction team moved on. The 2018 payroll transition was a significant decision: retaining the existing timetable created duplicate work and additional cost, but gave us time to reconcile records and explain the proposed changes. I also developed regional people leads who could work with site managers without allowing every issue to wait for headquarters. The role broadened my understanding of the operator's economics and the responsibilities of asset leaders. When the incumbent CHRO prepared to retire, I was considered through the company's succession process and appointed to the wider function in January 2021.

Reason for the move

Appointed CHRO following the incumbent's planned retirement.

Mandate

Build practical development pathways with operations and make teaching capacity explicit.

Outcomes

• Replanned an overcommitted 2011 autumn programme
• Funded relief cover rather than assume instructor availability
• Separated programme completion from technical authorisation

Decisions in context

I took responsibility for a larger programme and initially underestimated how much the maintenance calendar constrained practical learning. In 2011, eighteen sessions were cancelled or postponed within six weeks. I had supported the schedule and could not attribute the result solely to operations. We deferred assessment for fifty-two participants, arranged relief cover and absorbed additional cost. That correction became an important part of my management education. I asked my team to bring capacity conflicts forward earlier and made the release of experienced colleagues a condition of confirming later programmes. Technical leaders retained assessment responsibility throughout. The appointment gave me experience of leading a specialist people team, managing expenditure and explaining a decision that had not worked as intended. I moved to Lanshuan Power because its growing asset portfolio offered a broader people mandate, including the employment experience into which newly developed colleagues would eventually move.

Reason for the move

Joined a renewable operator to connect workforce development with wider asset-employment responsibilities.

Mandate

Improve the administration and explanation of employment arrangements across dispersed locations.

Outcomes

• Established named follow-up for unresolved accommodation requests
• Standardised explanations of site travel arrangements
• Escalated recurring recruitment-versus-site expectation gaps

Decisions in context

This appointment brought me closer to the parts of employment that a central policy can overlook. I visited locations, reviewed recurring administrative problems and supervised three colleagues handling records and employee services. My authority remained limited: significant spending and changes to terms required approval from the regional manager and the relevant specialists. I learned to return with an answer after a site visit, even when the answer was that a request could not be met. Employees understandably lost patience when several visitors collected the same concern without resolving it. I began distinguishing an isolated complaint from a repeated failure in an arrangement we had advertised. That distinction helped recruitment colleagues describe postings more accurately. It also made me interested in development that fitted the actual working environment, which led to the next appointment in workforce learning rather than a move away from the field workforce.

Reason for the move

Promoted to workforce development manager after building practical field-employment experience.

Mandate

Coordinate classroom and practical learning arrangements for field employees.

Outcomes

• Reconciled instructor availability with regional work schedules
• Introduced participant follow-up after cancelled sessions
• Maintained distinct attendance and assessment records

Decisions in context

I joined directly after my degree and spent much of the first year learning how an operating schedule affected a classroom plan. My contribution was administrative, but errors had real consequences for people travelling from sites. I arranged venues, checked instructor availability and followed up when a session was postponed. A supervisor helped me see that the same experienced employee had been allocated to several activities at once. I began checking those overlaps before confirming invitations. I also learned to keep attendance separate from the technical assessment record; my signature on a register could not establish competence. By the end of the appointment I wanted a broader understanding of the employment relationship, including the travel and accommodation arrangements that influenced whether colleagues could participate. The regional personnel role offered that exposure without pretending that coordination experience had already prepared me to lead the function.

Reason for the move

Moved into regional personnel work to understand the employment conditions surrounding training.