Governance Workshops

A day long workshop run in Wellington in October included participants from small and large entities, corporate and not-for-profit, newly established and mature organisations but similar issues surfaced and all participants provided positive feedback about the role that Policy Goverance could play in improving governance performance.

Many thanks to Grant Thornton to for hosting this event. They had this to say about the workshop:

“Expanded strongly on my previous experience with Carver’s ten principles.  Good practical session, good interaction,  good tools to take away” – Barry Baker, Partner – Grant Thornton (Wellington, New Zealand).   

 Not-for-Profit Governance Workshops

Many not-for-profit organisations struggle to find and retain committed board members. To assist these organisations Talent Finders periodically runs workshops for this sector. Board members and managers who attended gained increased knowledge and practical ideas on how to identify new board members. They also left greatly encouraged about how a best practice governance model, like Policy Governance®, could enhance the way in which their organisation functions and develops.

These workshops have been positively received by participants, as indicated by some of the following comments:

“Wow!! What a great model. I’d love to work as a manager under this policy”

“The presenters understood the complications faced by Boards and managers in the NGO sector”

“Excellent 2 hours of learning, thank you. Endorses issues I have thought, but not spoken up about – I hope to be more effective now the Boards role has been so well explained”

“Have been grappling with these issues and feel we now have a greater resource base to begin tackling them with.”

Pacific Horizon Limited

Having a professional HR consultant on tap with the experience to handle a plethora of challenges has paid off for Pacific Horizon Limited, New Zealand’s premier provider of motor homes. Talent Finders have worked alongside Pacific Horizon’s Managing Director John Cooper for several years, including selecting talent for some of the company’s key management positions. Talent Finders Ltd helped John to find this talent using best practice recruitment standards such as competency mapping, behavioural interviewing and in-depth psychometric assessments. Not only that, Pacific Horizon Ltd have also taken advice on business improvements including change management, employee relations and staff performance.

“We have someone we can rely on, who can step in quickly and very effectively when there is a people leadership opportunity or issue. And using a consultant as our HR Manager means we pay only for what we use.”

John Cooper, M.D. Pacific Horizon Ltd

Avonside House Trust

Policy Governance training for a Christchurch trust focused their board on what was important, giving them insight and clarity on their future direction. Talent Finders gave Avonside House Trust, which provides residential care in a home-like environment for mildly intellectually disabled adults, a valuable introduction to policy governance through its workshop programme. This empowered the board members to go off on their own, working on what they wanted to strengthen, with Talent Finders in the background for on-going support as required.

One board member commented that the workshop brought the clarity they had sought to understand their role on the board, in only few hours.

Education for Change Ltd

Having assistance to manage the recruitment process for Education for Change has empowered the organisation to build a professional team. Education for Change, specialises in health-funded programmes to address smoking. It has grown to become a sizeable national employer in a very short time, so bought Talent Finders in to smooth the recruitment and other HR processes in this rapid business development phase. Working with the Managing Director, Talent Finders quickly understood what was required, and were able to tailor-make a recruitment system to suit, followed up with on-going pertinent advice on all staffing issues. For example, using psychometric assessments to provide the means for closely matching people to their roles, ultimately improving the calibre of staff and the delivery of service.

“I really appreciated the input; it’s allowed me to build a strong and dynamic team, and become a more effective manager. Introducing good process has found me good performers.”