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Heartline Magazine July - September 2005
Managing vital resources - HR Head focuses on strategic goals
by Tony Cumberbatch
 Her objective is to continue to develop her career in Human
Resource Management in a dynamic and challenging environment, with the
opportunity to apply her training and expertise in the area of Performance
Management Systems and Project Management.
What better environment to do this in than the Heart
Foundation of Barbados. Joining the management team of the Heart Foundation in
June 2004 as Human Resources & Administration Manager, Stephanie Catling has
come into a dynamic organization set on a path of organisational re-engineering
aimed at achieving internal and external operational excellence.
She has also come to the position highly qualified to take
on the challenges presented.
Having gained an Associate Degree in Arts from the Barbados Community College,
with passes in Political Science, General Paper and Law in 1993, she later
obtained in 2002 a Bachelor of Science (BSc.) (Hons), in Human Resource
Management from the University of Luton – England. This year, 2005, she
completed the Master of Science (MSc.) degree in Project Management & Evaluation
from the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus. She is a Member of the
Human Resources Management Association of Barbados.
 Beginning her working career in 1994 as an Accounts
Executive at J.E.R. Associates Ltd., a leading public relations firm, Ms.
Catling learned the rudiments of administration, planning and organizing of
events, as well as customer relations.
In 1996 she moved into the public sector with stints as a
Clerical Officer/Accounts Clerk in the Attorney General’s Office, and from 1996
to 1999 as a Clerical Officer in the Department of Inland Revenue.
She returned to the private sector in 2000, joining Innotech
Services Ltd. as an Accounts Clerk. In 2002 she was employed at ABM Woodcraft
Ltd & Offshore Corporate Services as a Office Assistant, and then returned to
Innotech Services Ltd. working in various areas, including Accounts and as an
Administrative Assistant.
Since 2002 Ms. Catling has lectured at the Barbados
Institute of Management and Productivity in Organizational Behaviour,
Recruitment & Selection, Training & Development and Administrative Procedures.
 There was no difficulty in the transition from working in
the private sector to functioning in a NGO and a charity. She said “The only
difference in working for an NGO/charity are the rules which govern its
operation and the fact that we here are chiefly responsible for fundraising
efforts to assist with the development and implementation of various
initiatives. However, like any other organization, the primary resource is the
people who play a pivotal role in achieving organisational objectives and
performance targets.”
She noted, though, that one of the challenges of working
with a charity is the sometimes limited human resources to assist in the
execution of various strategic initiatives. “In some instances it means that the
human resources pool consisting of not only employees, but also volunteers and
members may become exhausted if every effort is not made by each person/sector
to contribute to the implementation of various projects or programmes. It means
continuously making every effort to further develop, motivate and create
incentives towards achieving an active resource 'pool'.”
To this end Ms. Catling has been particularly instrumental
in the on-going training of staff, seeing this as key to the success of the
organization.
“I firmly believe that as long as you provide the
opportunity for employees to further cultivate or improve their skills,” she
said, “this lends to both the individual and organizational development and
growth. It is especially vital in a charitable organization, given the limited
number of human resources, to have a well trained unit capable of providing
multiple cross functions; as it is necessary to have persons sometimes perform
tasks outside of their primary role”
“My ultimate goal is to assist in strategically developing
the human resources of the Heart Foundation, including both the membership and
volunteer-base, which will lend towards successfully achieving organizational
goals, greater service and improved image.”
A year ago the Board of Directors of the Heart Foundation
moved to change the direction of the organization from being essentially
volunteer-based to a more dynamic, business-oriented entity. Critical to this
was the strengthening of the management structure and the development of a
strategic business plan that would take the organization on a path of growth and
development.
Led by Chief Executive Officer, Adrian Randall, this plan is
now firmly in place, and embraces key strategic areas such as the development of
human resources, operational excellence, public perception and awareness,
outreach programmes, and the development of projects and programmes which
generate funds for the Heart Foundation.
As part of the management team, Ms. Catling has been able to
put her excellent organizational and communication skills to good use in the
implementation of the stated goals.
Her wide ranging responsibilities include the recording of
staff information, staff training, arranging an co-ordinating of various
programmes, events and conferences, and assisting the CEO in the overall
management of the organization.
She headed the secretariat of the major Care For Life
courses held in November last year, when close to two hundred persons were
trained in First Aid in what was said to be the largest mass training exercise
of its kind ever to be held in the Caribbean. She also was involved in the
planning of the highly successful Annual Conference for Emergency Cardiac Care,
which was held in Barbados in June this year, and which brought together
doctors, nurses, paramedics, medical and nursing students and other emergency
care practitioners from throughout the Caribbean, USA, Central and South
America. She also manages the administrative aspects of the Heart Foundation’s
on-going Emergency Cardiac Care training Programme.
Looking to the future she is keen to continue to create a
learning environment for both the internal and external customers of the
Foundation, and to see the Foundation provide a range of diverse programmes that
cater to a cross-section of the Barbados and regional community in the
fulfillment of its primary mission 'to keep people heart healthy and reduce
suffering and death from cardio-vascular disease’.
“I would particularly like to see a specific focus on
children from the ages of 6-11, given that the earlier we get our message of
heart health to them the better chance we truly have of impacting on the way
persons live” she said.
To date, the Foundation has nine employees, comprising of
both full and part-time individuals. “And what is truly interesting about this,”
states Ms. Catling “is the inability to determine between those two types of
employees based on their seamless commitment and loyalty to the foundation and
their contribution towards the successful achievement of the organizational
objectives and goals.”
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