Today@Dal

The Human Resources department, in an effort to achieve greater alignment with institutional priorities, has restructured its leadership team. Human Resources welcomes three new directors.

Chris Hattie joined HR as the new Director, Employee Relations during the week of June 12. For the past several years, Chris has been working in human resource and labour relations leadership positions at Mount Saint Vincent University and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. He is an experienced labour negotiator and holds a Masters of Industrial Relations from Queens University.

Ken MacDermid joined HR the week of June 19 as the new Director, Total Compensation. This is a newly created position that will lead Payroll, Benefits, Compensation and Retirement Services, bringing these functions together in a strategic and streamlined way. During his career, Ken has held consultancy and leadership positions dealing with pensions, benefits and payroll. Ken’s most recent role was Director of Payroll with the Nova Scotia Health Authority.

Laura Neals will assume the position Director, Academic Staff Relations effective immediately. Laura has worked with HR over the past 18 months in progressively more responsible roles within Academic Staff Relations, taking on the Acting Director role in January 2017.

As an earlier part of the HR restructure, the Talent Management portfolio was also created last year within the HR department. Tracy Rands began in January 2016 as Director, Talent Management.

The directors will be instrumental in leading the Human Resources department as well as continuing HR’s work on the university’s Strategic Priorities, notably 5.2 (Diversity and Inclusiveness); 5.1 (Develop a HR Strategy to attract, support and reward the best faculty and staff); 5.4 (Reduce the deficit and stabilize the ongoing cost of the Pension Plan); 2.2 (Attract and retain outstanding academics) and 3.2/3.3 (Promote a culture of service and engagement for students, faculty and staff).