Leigh Stimson, RPR

Leigh currently has over two years as a Technical Recruiter. She holds her diploma in Human Resource Management but she has worked in a variety of positions, including Customer Service and Logistics. Her experiences have provided her with the skills to supervise people, deal with the public and coordinate the logistics department of a multi-million dollar drug store. In addition, she developed her skills in Occupational Health & Safety as a member of a Joint Health and Safety Committee where she completed Part 1 of her Certification Training.

Leigh enjoys keeping her skills current. She holds her Registered Professional Recruiter accreditation (RPR) through the Institute of Professional Management. She has taken other workshops such as Conflict Behaviour and Effective Interviewing Techniques. While in the Customer Service industry she took several correspondence courses and attended seminars to keep her skills up to date.

Leigh's last place of employment was with an Information Technology (IT) consulting firm. Unfortunately, due to the downturn in the IT sector, the company downsized and she was recently laid off. When Leigh joined the firm, she was hired as an Administrative Assistant but was told there was room for advancement. She was given the option of focusing on Business Development or Recruitment. Leigh was in her administrative position for less than a year before making the move to recruitment.

In her previous position as an IT Recruiter, she was a member of a two-person team that recruited for the company's client base. Leigh helped to establish guidelines for the recruiting department, co-authored a Policy and Procedure Manual that outlined the recruitment process, created and updated various Human Resource forms and assisted in starting an HR library. In addition, Leigh wrote a five page Human Resource Plan that helped to establish the company as one of the resource providers for the Government-On-Line (GOL) initiative.

Leigh is currently seeking to continue her role in Human Resources. Ideally, she aspires to become an HR Generalist, which would allow her to experience all the different facets that the Human Resources profession has to offer.

Leigh recently began volunteering her time with the Institute for Professional Management in the capacity of National Public Relations/ Memberships Chair. When not working she enjoys the walking, camping and gardening, taking a ceramics course and reading a variety of novels.

George Klassen, RPR, Palliser Furniture

George Klassen, RPR Palliser Furniture

George Klassen's career started at an early age when he worked for a small independent Manitoba based grocery chain. His 21 year retail career evolved from a position responsible for sorting glass pop bottles to leadership roles in Merchandising and Store Management.

George went on to receive his Human Resource Management Certificate from the University of Manitoba in 2000 and acquired his RPR designation through the IPM in 1998. He is an active member of the Human Resource Management Association of Manitoba and the Society of Human Resource Management.

In 1997, George's career focus shifted from retail to manufacturing management with Palliser Furniture. Founded in 1944, Palliser is a Manitoba family owned and operated home and office furniture designer, importer, manufacturer and an active partner locally and globally. Palliser consists of a workforce of over 5000 with operations in six countries, and sales offices worldwide.

George began with Palliser as Corporate Recruiter, a new role in the company. His challenge was simple, re-engineer the company from multi-divisional hiring to a centralized recruitment process to enable the very aggressive growth plan Palliser was anticipating. The company grew from 2400 employees to 5000 over three years, and the Corporate Recruiter role was changed to Employment Services Manager to better reflect the variety of recruitment activities. The activities include information sessions for applicants, corporate orientation for new employees, open house events for candidates, a Management Development program and ongoing partnership development with local schools, universities and agencies.

Since September, George took on a new challenge within Palliser. His experience in employee relations, public speaking, and program development proved valuable as he joined the Customer Experience Initiative (CEI), a project designed to re-think current practices that impact the customer experience. The CEI is a small core team that will work in collaboration with internal departments and develop best practices. The "cornerstone" of the CEI is…"Always deliver what we promise".

As George and his team move through their heavy agenda over the next year, George believes the newly acquired knowledge along with his strong retail background will provide a number of opportunities in the future.

When not working, George enjoys sports, watching movies, playing his guitar, writing songs, and canoeing. He also enjoys taking nature photos which he has done for years. He is an active member in his local church group. Music has always been a big part of his self-expression and he hopes to record a CD one day.