Day in the life… of Helen Imber, Human Resources Advisor
Helen was born and raised in Victoria, BC before she moved to the mainland to get a sociology degree from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. She spent her early years as a server between semesters and took a year off between high school and university to work at Lake Louise for a ski season. After university she was an executive assistant to the president of BackCheck, a pre-employment screening service.
Helen is coming up on her four-year anniversary at Oppy. A regular day involves interviews, screening resumes, calling prospective candidates for phone screens and answering employee questions on everything from the ADP system to how to write a great performance development review. Helen is currently completing a certificate program at British Columbia Institute of Technology in human resources management part-time.
Favorite projects Helen has enjoyed over the years include being part of the OppyU program which enabled her to meet people from our offices all over North America in-person. Before being promoted to her current role, as human resources assistant, Helen enjoyed participating in the Champions of Change meetings and hearing all the great ideas that come out of our employee feedback surveys. She also enjoyed redesigning the lobby at our Vancouver office with teams in IT, marketing, executive and operations to our current gorgeous entryway.
Helen’s family is from Britain. As the only Canadian Imber, she is constantly having to explain to her parents that their way of pronouncing yogurt is incorrect, they are not receptive and it continues to be an ongoing battle. After university Helen travelled around the world with two friends. Her highlights were the Golden Temple in India, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, tubing down the river in Laos, sailing over the Greek Islands and white water rafting and zip lining in Costa Rica. Since that trip, Helen has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and spent time on the Serengeti and Zanzibar.
Helen says she has gained invaluable experience while working at Oppy and learned a great deal working with Satri Alpine, human resources manager and Doug Galloway, vice president of human resources. She aims to continue taking on new projects in the many different areas that human resources operates.
