Jandal HR - People, Culture, Partnering

When human resource specialist Mary Johnston isn’t weaving plant fibres into kono and kete, she’s unravelling problems and seeking solutions to support and empower businesses.

From the bush-backed New Plymouth home she shares with artist husband John Hodgson, Mary is running Jandal HR.

“Jandal HR is about demystifying human resources – you can slip on the jandal and walk on and do your own HR,” she says.

After many years as a high-flyer in the world of human resources, Mary is stepping back – just a little – to get weaving, spend time with family in Taranaki, but still support small through to large-sized businesses.

Mary says that growing up as the daughter of a chainsaw contractor in rural Waikato gave her a solid grounding.

“We were brought up in a practical no-nonsense way and that’s carried me through,” she says.

“I’m a problem solver with a business background.; I’m practical, have commercial acumen and I understand that organisations need to have an engaged and thriving workforce to be successful.”

When working with an organisation, Mary has a particular approach. “I want to meet the leaders, I want to understand the business, what’s going well, what’s not going well and what the business wants to achieve.”

Over time she has learnt many important lessons about the importance of providing supportive environments for all workers. People need to know the purpose of their jobs, expectations of their roles, and the function of the company they work for. “Unless they understand the bigger picture, they aren’t going to have the same buy in.”

In her HR role, she helps leaders attract staff, develop them and keep them. “If people have bought in to the purpose of the organisation and are happy in their work, talent will stay.”

That’s what she’s learnt from experience.

Mary spent nine years as general manager of HR for civil infrastructure company Downer NZ, which has over 40 depots throughout the country. “I’m a person who likes to roll up their sleeves and implement strategy – get stuff done.”

Next, she had a big role with Unitec Institute of Technology in Mt Albert for four years. She spent a lot of time on change management and implementing new strategy and bringing Unitec back to commercial viability. Lifting staff engagement with a focus on valuesbased leadership was key to stabilising the organisation.

Mary has just finished a year’s contract at the Canterbury and West Coast District Health Boards to prepare them for the big health changes.

“A lot of my job is problem-solving and troubleshooting,” she says.

“I work with both mainstream and kaupapa M ori organisations, and I’m comfortable working in both.”

She started her working life as a primary school teacher, going on to be a principal and then a lecturer at Wellington College of Education.

Her next move was into project managing the marketing and selling of property.

“Then, when we went to the US for five years, I moved into human resource management, and I worked for Microsoft supporting Microsoft’s Research and Development Division including the Emerging Technologies and the Tablet PC teams.

“All my positions in civil engineering, information technology, education, health and in sales and property, involved building successful relationships with people.”

And the teaching element is still there –she often runs workshops on strategic and operational planning, building teams and developing leaders.

Another area of expertise is change management – supporting culture and structural change. “Cultural change is about ensuring there is a shared vision and purpose, a set of values and the workforce demonstrating these values on a daily basis. Structural change often needs to happen when businesses grow or need to downsize. This can sometimes be tough for individuals, so it is really important that this type of change is done professionally and respectfully,” she says.

“What I get a thrill out of is empowering people to lead with confidence; to lift their leadership capability.”

Since her time at Downer, Mary has been excited to see many of the young people she nurtured through key talent programmes go on to take up senior leadership positions across various companies throughout New Zealand. “And they are role modelling excellent leadership practices. The legacy is growing your own people in an organisation.”

Mary enjoys empowering businesses to do their own HR work – with initial guidance. “A lot of people can do this stuff themselves. A little bit of investment can pay back ten-fold.”

Then they can slip on that jandal and walk their own human resource journey. Contact Mary at 027 284 6672