Janice Byrnes Classification
Posted by Bill Molesworth
President Mike introduced Janice. She had become interested in Rotary when her daughter, Marissa Leadbetter, became an exchange student and he was pleased to welcome her to the Club.
Janice said her classification is Human Resources Research, which is a little unusual. She's been involved in this area for about 15 years.
Janice was raised in Markham, a small town of about 4,500 people where her parents built their dream home on a ravine so she could take advantage of the pool, the creek or the woods. She made a habit of falling into the creek so she could be late to school.
Her father worked at the Telegram and provided a strong example of morality. When consulted, he put a stop to the building of a tower when the foundation digging revealed native remains until they could be properly cared for. Unfortunately he died when she was 13 and she only realized later how brave her mother had been to carry on with a young family. They took a 30 day trip to the East Coast, long before the highways and Holiday Inns and stayed anywhere that cost less than $10.00 a night. She says they had some memorable evenings but carry the trip with them still.
Her sister is in Toronto and her brother in Japan, teaching English to kindergarten students.
She and her husband, a financial planner, eloped, which allowed them to enjoy the parties afterwards without going to the trouble of arranging a wedding. Marissa is now almost 18 and planning to go into biological anthropology and maybe go back to South America, Chantal is 12 and wavering between being an author, a hairdresser or a rocket scientist. Bruce, 8, is mostly into sports and mad minute math. They have recently been joined by a 65 lb lab puppy.
With some skating experience, she applied and went to the first place that offered her work - Yellowknife - to run a skating program. Her husband was working on the Dew Line at the time so they were in the same neighbourhood. She went to Melfort, Sask. and experienced the co-operative nature of harvesting; everybody helping to get all the wheat in. She moved into project management and event planning and then joined her mother to start Today' Bride - a project that proved Murphy was right, even to their editor having a breakdown. 100,000 copies delivered to the home took up more room than they expected, but they moved them and circ. now is 750,000, though they sold it several years ago.
She worked for an export company helping CIDA with projects in the Caribbean and then International Packaging which took her to Europe. With kids and full time work she also got a degree and is now involved in Industrial and Organizational Psychology. She does measurement and data analysis for Diane Mackey & Assoc. in Barrie. They do testing of staff, recruiting for all sorts of companies like Tim Horton's and Canadian Tire, focus groups (they have their own focus group facility). She carries out surveys, quantifies the results, does numerical analysis, recommends changes to products prior to launch, works to develop HR compensation packages and motivations. She says that most people say they are leaving a job because of money but in fact it's mostly because they aren't properly motivated. She tries to help companies develop programs that get staff involved and to enhance productivity. Employees need value, thanks, good communications and supervisors who listen.
The costs of staff turnover are severe; each new hire costs about a year's salary to get on line so it's important to keep people to reduce costs.
She's thinking it's time to take her skills into her own company working on career development, reducing turnover, encouraging recruitment and analysing the major changes in demographics that are coming. She's also planning on taking an MBA next year.
Ron Crane expressed the Club's thanks for a look at a different experience and for joining Rotary.
Janice was raised in Markham, a small town of about 4,500 people where her parents built their dream home on a ravine so she could take advantage of the pool, the creek or the woods. She made a habit of falling into the creek so she could be late to school.
Her father worked at the Telegram and provided a strong example of morality. When consulted, he put a stop to the building of a tower when the foundation digging revealed native remains until they could be properly cared for. Unfortunately he died when she was 13 and she only realized later how brave her mother had been to carry on with a young family. They took a 30 day trip to the East Coast, long before the highways and Holiday Inns and stayed anywhere that cost less than $10.00 a night. She says they had some memorable evenings but carry the trip with them still.
Her sister is in Toronto and her brother in Japan, teaching English to kindergarten students.
She and her husband, a financial planner, eloped, which allowed them to enjoy the parties afterwards without going to the trouble of arranging a wedding. Marissa is now almost 18 and planning to go into biological anthropology and maybe go back to South America, Chantal is 12 and wavering between being an author, a hairdresser or a rocket scientist. Bruce, 8, is mostly into sports and mad minute math. They have recently been joined by a 65 lb lab puppy.
With some skating experience, she applied and went to the first place that offered her work - Yellowknife - to run a skating program. Her husband was working on the Dew Line at the time so they were in the same neighbourhood. She went to Melfort, Sask. and experienced the co-operative nature of harvesting; everybody helping to get all the wheat in. She moved into project management and event planning and then joined her mother to start Today' Bride - a project that proved Murphy was right, even to their editor having a breakdown. 100,000 copies delivered to the home took up more room than they expected, but they moved them and circ. now is 750,000, though they sold it several years ago.
She worked for an export company helping CIDA with projects in the Caribbean and then International Packaging which took her to Europe. With kids and full time work she also got a degree and is now involved in Industrial and Organizational Psychology. She does measurement and data analysis for Diane Mackey & Assoc. in Barrie. They do testing of staff, recruiting for all sorts of companies like Tim Horton's and Canadian Tire, focus groups (they have their own focus group facility). She carries out surveys, quantifies the results, does numerical analysis, recommends changes to products prior to launch, works to develop HR compensation packages and motivations. She says that most people say they are leaving a job because of money but in fact it's mostly because they aren't properly motivated. She tries to help companies develop programs that get staff involved and to enhance productivity. Employees need value, thanks, good communications and supervisors who listen.
The costs of staff turnover are severe; each new hire costs about a year's salary to get on line so it's important to keep people to reduce costs.
She's thinking it's time to take her skills into her own company working on career development, reducing turnover, encouraging recruitment and analysing the major changes in demographics that are coming. She's also planning on taking an MBA next year.
Ron Crane expressed the Club's thanks for a look at a different experience and for joining Rotary.