"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."

Albert Einstein

The Stopgap Group
illustration

Case Study 3 - Bax Global

Business activity: Freight forwarding and logistics
Interim role: HR Director
Author: Stella Cairns

Starting as a fairly straightforward four-month contract, this HR Director’s role has become the most interesting and varied interim contract I have undertaken to date.

The original brief was to review the work of the HR team as the incumbent HR Director had been on long-term sick leave for about six months and the fairly junior department had been operating without a functional lead.

In the early weeks, I revised some outdated HR policies and procedures, including Terms and Conditions and the Staff Handbook, before embarking on a substantial project to rewrite and replace all of these. I also reviewed some health and safety matters such as fire awareness, DSE training and the provision of occupational health services. Before long, it became clear the HR Director would not be returning to work and the Managing Director asked me to extend my contract to complete and implement the projects I had begun and to tackle one or two other issues.

During this extension, the events of September 11th had a profound effect on parts of the business which furthered my involvement in resolving business issues from an HR standpoint. Subsequently, my contract was further extended so that I could look at a new project to provide management development training in-house.

I am now set to complete this role in February 2003. Interim appointments are typically much briefer than this one but I have tackled all aspects of HR work throughout the duration of this contract. The Terms and Conditions and health and safety projects are long completed and implemented and since then I have:

  • Designed an assessment centre for potential managers
  • Written and run a management development programme
  • Carried out research into the possibility of replacing the existing pension scheme
  • Re-organised the work of the HR Department
  • Run recruitment campaigns for senior managers in Finance and Logistics
  • Dealt with selection processes for redundancy programmes
  • Dealt with four unfair dismissal claims, one discrimination claim and attended one tribunal

No one day is the same, next week I shall be working on a training course for the sales team - amongst other things! I have been an interim manager for several years now and this lifestyle allows me to stay focused on delivering tangible results, gives me the freedom to express my views to the senior management team without threat and I can move on to help elsewhere before routine sets in.