Principal Consultant - Gary Mearns, B.Comm., MBA, CPHR, SHRP, FCPHR
Services - Our services include comprehensive labour relations support for businesses in the critical areas of collective bargaining, union contract administration and interpretation, grievance handling and disciplinary processes. This includes analysis of your current collective agreement to identify areas of risk to your management rights, development of contract language and proposals, and acting as the spokesperson during your collective bargaining process. We also offer other labour relations support in the areas of supervisory training and policy development that will help your managers be more effective. That’s how we contribute to your success.
Effective human resources programs in the areas of performance management, compensation and employee engagement also contribute to the success of organizations. We also offer human resources audits to identify gaps in your current HR practices.
Personal Mission - I’m a strong believer that good human resource practices directly contribute to the financial success of an organization. A comprehensive human resources strategy can greatly assist an organization in improving the quality of its employees, increase retention, contribute to increased productivity and reduce costs. This is all about talent management. I specialize in the areas of labour relations, human resource audits, performance management and strategic human resource management. Organizations that are unionized have unique challenges in the areas of collective bargaining, contract administration, grievance handling, and progressive discipline. They need specialized knowledge to ensure that they can deal on an equal footing with their unions. But non-unionized organizations often struggle with their people practices and find challenges in dealing with employee absenteeism, performance issues, employee turnover and weak supervision.
Knowledge and Experience - As the owner and principal consultant at GMA, Gary Mearns brings extensive experience leading the human resources and labour relations functions from three large organizations in both the public and private sectors in Saskatchewan. He has been involved in collective bargaining as the management negotiator in over 150 sets of negotiations with many of the largest unions in Canada, including the UFCW, Teamsters, CUPE, Unifor, SEIU-West and SGEU. With both his undergraduate degree in Commerce and a MBA from the University of Saskatchewan, he has also held a Chartered Professional in Human Resources designation (CPHR) since 1997 and the Senior Human Resource Professional designation (SHRP). Gary’s work in the human resources field was recognized in 2006 when he was awarded the Saskatchewan Centennial Medal. In 2023, Gary's contribution to the HR profession was recognized as he was awarded the designation of Fellow Chartered Professional in Human Resources.
Volunteering - Gary has also been an active volunteer in many organizations over his career, having been a founding board member and past-president of the Saskatoon Crime Stoppers program, board member and past-president of the Saskatoon Human Resources Association, board member and past-president of the University of Saskatchewan Alumni Association, and a board member and past-president of the Co-operative Superannuation Pension Plan. He was also a mentor for HR students at the U. of S.. for fifteen years and is a Past-President of the Saskatchewan Board of the Chartered Professionals in Human Resources.
Talk to us today about how we can support your organization, contribute to your employees' productivity, and assist you in improving your overall success.
Saskatchewan:
British Columbia