Meet The Team: Sarah Wood, Senior Consultant, Career People Australia
As we continue our series on introducing you to the team who make up our 3 divisions, Safety People Australia, iPeople and Career People Australia, we’re featuring Sarah Wood, our newest and key team member.
Sarah is our Senior Consultant, Career People Australia, and works with the Principal, Tom Brockhurst, on designing and delivering our career transition, transitioning to retirement and change management services. These services are something our clients have been asking us about for some time, and complements our current offerings by providing customised workplace solutions to meet the specific needs of clients and their employees through organisational change.
Here Sarah answers a few questions so you can learn a little more about her background and experience.
Please share how you first met Tom (and your first impressions!).
I first met Tom when I was the General Manager People and Organisational Development at Victoria University and responsible for managing the University’s contract for outplacement services for staff facing redundancy as a result of an extensive organisation-wide change program. Tom was working for Lee Hecht Harrison at the time and overseeing the provision of these outplacement services for the University. From the start I found Tom very supportive and easy to work with – he regularly checked in on the programs he was providing and was responsive to client feedback to ensure his services continued to meet our needs and expectations.
What do you enjoy about providing change management solutions to organisations?
Having worked in Human Resources roles for over 20 years, I am passionate about supporting organisations to maximise their business performance through the capabilities, performance, development, reward and engagement of their staff. I enjoy providing the expertise to help build the capability of an organisation’s workforce through effective leadership development, behavioural change and cultural transformation. Doing 2 or 3 things differently in respect to leading or communicating with staff can make a huge positive difference to an organisation’s ability to change and grow.
Please describe a day in the life of Sarah
I don’t need much sleep so I’m usually up early to get in a gym workout before I drop my 14 year old daughter off at school and then get the train into the city. A normal ‘day at the office’ tends to involve several meetings, many coffees and creating proposals and ideas for and with clients! My evenings are taken up with running the kids around to various sports training or matches, or playing tennis myself, followed by a glass of wine and a few pages of my book before bed!
What do you enjoy about working with the Career People Australia team?
This is the first time I have worked for a new division of an established organisation. I am enjoying the challenge – and the satisfaction – of winning new client’s business and being able to genuinely support their capacity and capability to drive change and growth and in so doing add value to their business strategy and outcomes. I am also enjoying the flexibility and variety that comes with consultancy work.
What’s your advice for an organisation wishing to help their more mature employees make the transition to retirement?
It’s not an issue that can be ignored these days with an ageing workforce. Organisations will no doubt be wanting their long-serving older employees to leave the company on a good note, so it is important that these employees are effectively supported through their transitioning to retirement stage; such support then reaps benefits for the organisation too as the retiring employee effectively transfers their knowledge and experience to their younger colleagues ensuring not only sustainability but future business success.
If you are yet to meet Sarah, you can contact her at mailto:sw@careerpeople.com.au or visit www.careerpeople.com.au
