| 20+ Years Experience HR, IR and Compliance Leadership | PROSCI Certified Change Management Practitioner | Enterprise-Scale HR APA Group and AGL Networks | Aged Care and NDIS Community Sector Governance |
Claire Cates is a Senior HR Consultant with more than twenty years of experience across human resources, industrial relations, compliance, and change management. Her career spans some of the most demanding environments in the country, from large-scale energy infrastructure through to frontline community care, and she brings the same steady, rigorous approach to all of it. For SBAAS clients, that means access to genuinely senior HR expertise, the kind most small businesses could never justify employing in-house.
The depth of Claire’s experience is real and hard-won. Across nine years with APA Group, and earlier with Agility as part of the Australian Gas Light Company, she held senior human resources, change management, and compliance roles across the Queensland and Northern New South Wales networks. She led recruitment, performance management, enterprise bargaining and industrial relations, succession planning, and formal job evaluation, embedded a national health, safety and environment management system into the Queensland business, and managed the audits and regulator relationships that go with operating critical infrastructure. She was also a member of the Queensland Emergency Response Team, activated during the Bundaberg floods. This is HR done at genuine scale, under genuine pressure.
What makes Claire especially valuable to small business is that she has also worked at the other end of the spectrum. As Manager of Nerang and Districts Meals on Wheels, she ran the full operation of a lean community organisation, leading day-to-day operations, managing HR and industrial relations, developing policies and procedures, overseeing governance, and steering the organisation through financial, aged care, local council, and NDIS audits. More recently she has worked independently in HR consulting and NDIS support. She understands both the corporate playbook and the reality of a small organisation with no HR department and no room for error.
That combination is exactly what small business owners need. For most, HR is the part of running a business that keeps them up at night: the difficult conversation, the compliance obligation, the policy that has to hold up if it is ever tested. Claire takes that weight off their shoulders. She brings calm, structure, and genuine care to the people side of business, making sure the right things are documented, the right processes are followed, and the business and its people are properly protected. She is precisely the person you want in the room when the stakes are high.
| ⚠️ A NOTE FROM CLAIRE I have spent two decades in human resources and change management, so I approached my arrival at SBAAS the way I approach any new environment: I conducted an assessment. My findings are as follows. Eric is brilliant, generous, and exceptional at his work. Eric also tells dad jokes, continuously, and with a confidence entirely unsupported by the evidence. I raised this, discreetly, with Trudi, Valeria, Ashleigh, and Savannah, and I can report strong and immediate alignment across the group. I am aware there is a faction. Johnson laughs sincerely, and Tomas has now apprenticed himself to Eric in the craft, which has emboldened the whole operation. Drawing on change-management best practice, my professional recommendation is that a coordinated intervention may be required. I have chosen my words carefully and will not commit the other word to writing. The coalition is forming. That is all I am able to say at this stage. 😄 |
EDUCATION AND CREDENTIALS
Rigour, Compliance and Genuine Care
- Bachelor of Business – Queensland University of Technology
- PROSCI Change Management Certification
- Certificate IV in Occupational Health and Safety
- Certificate IV in Workplace Training and Assessment
- Scotwork Advanced Negotiation Skills
- Quality Management (ISO 9001)
- Human resource management and industrial relations, including EBA negotiations
- Policy, procedure and governance development
- Change management and organisational integration
- Health, safety, environment and risk management
- Regulatory compliance and external audit management
- Recruitment, performance management and talent development
- Enterprise energy infrastructure – APA Group and AGL
- Aged Care and NDIS community services
- Not-for-profit branch management and governance
- Current National Police Check
- NDIS Worker Orientation – Quality, Safety and You
- Code of Conduct for Aged Care
WORK WITH CLAIRE
Ready to Take the Worry Out of HR?
Whether you need employment policies that hold up, a difficult people situation handled properly, or genuine HR support without the cost of an in-house team, Claire brings two decades of senior experience and a calm, practical approach to help you get it right.
📞 (07) 3916 9896 | ✉️ info@sbaas.com.au | 🌐 sbaas.com.au