Interview with
an HR Hero:
Human resources is a lot like nursing, according to
Antoinette Blunt. After a rewarding 25-year career as a
registered nurse – much of it spent at the managerial level
with the Victorian Order of Nurses (VON) in her home-town
of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. – Blunt can draw more than a few
parallels between nursing and her present job as an HR and la-bour
management consultant.
With a wide variety of clients served by her company, Ironside
Consulting Services, Inc., Blunt believes both occupations require
a problem-solving approach.
“If you’re going to start recommending a resolution, you real-ly
need to have all the background information first,” she said. “It
runs the whole gamut from knowing who they are, understand-ing
the problem, planning appropriately and then evaluating. And,
that’s exactly how nurses are trained.”
After 14 years of running her consulting service, and 13 years
of volunteer work with the Human Resources Professionals
Association (HRPA) – including serving as association chair
from 2009-2010 – Blunt was honoured with the Fellow Certified
Human Resources Professional (FCHRP) designation in 2013,
in recognition of the lasting contribution she has made to promot-ing
best practices and enhancing the reputation of the profession.
HR Professional spoke to her about the rewards and challenges
of providing a diverse range of results-oriented HR consulting ser-vices,
when she’s “never quite sure what she’ll be dealing with next.”
HRP: How and when did you decide upon a career in human
resources?
AB: For the last 10 years of my nursing career, I was executive
director of the Sault Ste. Marie VON, and we were responsible
for human resources. While working on my master’s degree, my
electives focused on human resources. It went from there to get-ting
involved in a lot of provincial committees at the VON. At one
point, I was seconded for about 16 months to be the acting di-rector
of labour relations for VON Ontario. Then, in 1999, the
provincial government changed the community nursing model
and we lost the nursing program in the Sault after 50 years. My
heart wasn’t in health care anymore; it was time for a change. So, I
started my consulting business.
HRP: What was your first HR job?
AB: My first HR-related work was with the VON, and then I
turned it into my own business. I’ve been providing HR and la-bour
relations services to employers throughout Northeastern
Ontario since 2000. I still maintain my certification as a nurse,
and I provide a lot of services to hospitals. Most of my nursing
career has been at the managerial level, so there are very transfer-able
skills.
A GENERALIST WITH SPECIALTY SKILLS
By Lisa Gordon
ANTOINETTE BLUNT,
SHRP, FCHRP
interview
HRPATODAY.CA ❚ SEPTEMBER 2014 ❚ 49