About Us
Poole Beelen & Associates was founded in 1992 by Les Poole and Trudy Poole.
Poole Beelen has established itself with a select clientele throughout Australia and South East Asia.
Despite our international presence and work for large corporate organisations, Poole Beelen takes pride in remaining a family owned business which has a passion for its work and a focus on quality and personalised service.
Les Poole Profile
In 1991 Les founded the consultancy firm primarily as a specialist workplace relations company and to provide assistance to clients seeking to introduce change to their business.
Since this time he has been involved in assisting employers with strategic human resources planning, workplace relations, targeted recruitment, senior executive mentoring and learning and development.
Les has established a highly regarded reputation in the field of industrial relations through superior performance in enterprise bargaining, covering areas such as claims development, negotiations, staff consultation, workplace change, document preparation, facilitation and mediation.
Additionally, he has assisted clients with
- interpretation and application of awards,
- industrial/employee relations training
- development of industrial strategies to enable the success of major organisational and workplace change projects.
He has a proven track record of successful negotiation at the peak level.
Prior to establishing Poole Beelen & Associates, Les spent eighteen years in senior Human Resources Executive positions throughout Telstra Australia with an extensive focus as Senior Industrial Relations Negotiator.
Les has also held senior line management positions with Coca-Cola Amatil and was the HR Director of Geon, a trans-Tasman printing organisation.
Through his wide experience, Les assists clients with:
- Strategic, practical advice and assistance in the development and implementation of enterprise bargaining agreements aligned to corporate plans
- The development of innovative, business-oriented enterprise bargaining agreements
- Strategic advice on the effective role of industrial relations in large, complex organisations
- The development of workplace policies and practices within the framework of prevailing industrial legislation; and
- Expertise in managing large scale industrial conflict and developing successful resolution strategies. Industries in which Les has practiced include communications, manufacturing, media, FMCG, office products and not for profit.
Coca-Cola Amatil
Since 2000 Les has provided strategic business advice to Senior Executive management as well as all business units in Amatil with a specialist focus on the Employee/ Industrial Relations aspect of their operation. I
In 2007 Amatil requested a comprehensive industrial relations strategy that would deliver effective operational flexibility throughout its workforce and strategies that would reduce the operational expenditure of EA covered employees.
Amatil had approximately 25 industrial agreements covering one third of their employees located across six States. Over the last ten years Amatil has been able to negotiate agreements that have produced unrivalled flexibility while delivering costs savings of more than $76 Million from the bottom line operating expenditure.
Les was the principal strategist for the enterprise bargaining approach and was responsible for the training, development and mentoring of five IR key operatives to execute the negotiations.