By Tracey Patterson
Over the past few months, the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa’s Human Resources (HR) Team has undergone significant change. The departure of the HR manager in December prompted a review of the Church’s HR requirements, which resulted in a complete re-structure of the team and its functions.
The HR team is no more – many of the strategic functions of an HR manager are being filled by senior roles within the Church (primarily by the Moderator, Assembly Executive Secretary and National Mission Enabler), while Juliette Bowater’s role as Employment Adviser has been re-aligned under the National Mission team, and a new position of Complaints Officer, filled by Heather McKenzie, has been established.
As Employment Adviser, Juliette Bowater remains based at the Assembly Office in Wellington. When asked to describe her role, Juliette says it is to “resource parishes and presbyteries to conduct their mission activities confident that they have the right people to do the job; they’ve got safe people doing the job; and that they are doing it in a way that they are making the most of their staff, including valuing them, respecting them and dealing with them in good faith”. Resources available through Juliette include manuals, policies, police checks, credit checks, and good standing checks. Her other day-to-day activities include overall responsibility for the database and ministerial roll (assisted by the Office Manager) and the production of the Presbyterian People newsletter.
The re-alignment of her position as part of the National Mission team makes good sense, Juliette says. “The National Mission team is all about developing parishes and presbyteries in their mission focus so that they can best serve their communities, and really what I am doing is a support function to that”.
Although she enjoys helping people to overcome problems, Juliette says her greatest satisfaction lies in issue prevention. “It’s all about helping people to do the planning up front to hopefully avoid the problems later on”.
Since the introduction of the new Book of Order at the 2006 General Assembly, the Church’s disciplinary process has undergone significant change. This includes the establishment of a Complaints Officer role, filled by Heather McKenzie, who is based in Dunedin. Although in the past some complaints could be dealt with by parishes or presbyteries, all are now dealt with at a national level. Anyone who has a complaint of any kind against a member of the church must go to a local “Contact Person”, who will help them lodge the complaint. “It is then up to me, as Complaints Officer, to set the whole process going”, says Heather.
Heather describes her role as being a “process person”; appointing assessors, and disciplinary/judicial commissions, making sure the correct procedures are followed, and that information and decisions are conveyed to the right people at the right time. “I’m the person behind the scenes who is responsible for making the whole system work .”
Heather brings to the role extensive knowledge, understanding and experience of both Church and legal processes. In addition to her role as Complaints Officer, she is also the Book of Order Adviser. Heather fits these responsibilities around her primary work as Clerk of the Synod of Otago and Southland. In a prior role, she was Dunedin presbytery clerk for eight years, and also wrote both the Presbytery Clerk’s Handbook and the Parish Handbook. Heather has also been the Assistant Assembly Clerk since 1998. In her spare time, she is a Judicial Justice - a court-sitting JP.