Last week, Cathy Joshi, Technical Director, and Jude Wilson-Brown, Regional Marketing Manager for the Middle East, had the privilege to speak at Dubai College’s Year 11 Career evening to GCSE students regarding navigating their future career paths.
Founded in 1978, Dubai College is a coeducational secondary school educating students from Years 7 to 13, providing British academia to both local and expatriate families in Dubai.
Cathy and Jude provided insight into how they started their own career paths and gave advice to students on how to navigate their course choices as they begin to plan their own career around their passions and interests. Jude gave personal advice to the students, to ensure they undertake a career that they will continue to enjoy as they progress through their career journey ahead.
“I’m passionate about giving advice to all students, something which was lacking when I started my school career choices, on the many opportunities and jobs there are actually out there, especially for young girls. It’s necessary you find out what’s possible in the first few years of your career, so you have a can-do attitude wherever you end up working. Make as many connections as you can and if there’s no seat at the table, bring one! Never let someone say you can’t do something, always strive to prove them wrong.”
Jude Wilson-Brown, Regional Marketing Manager
HKA’s continuing commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility (“CSR”) is reflected in our colleagues who represent us throughout the globe, and we appreciate all the time they put into their efforts.
HKA was delighted to welcome a diverse group of colleagues to our global team in November and December
19th January 2023
Thank you for choosing to join our HKA global team. HKA is a great place for our brilliant people to work, grow and play. Your diversity, experience, and skills will make our company even better as we continuously collaborate and improve HKA together. Our culture is collaborative, honest, transparent, and high performing – we are one global team. Joining a new company is a challenging and exciting time. Please look after your mental and physical health. Protecting your health is HKA’s number one priority and we are here to support you. We embrace hybrid working, we are enjoying meeting up in our offices together again and reaping the benefits of in-person time – looking forward to seeing you in one of our offices soon. We hope you enjoy working with us in our global team and have time to develop as well as laugh together too.
Kate Wood, Partner, Chief People Officer
James Barton, Senior Consultant, New Zealand
James is a business consultant and civil engineer with over 10 years of experience working in the construction industry and business sector. James specialises in helping clients improve, deliver and optimise their business operations, through the use of strong fundamentals in project management, stakeholder management, risk management and process innovation.
Jon is a risk management professional with over 6 years of experience managing risk across a variety of sectors, including transport infrastructure both as a consultant and client. Jon has extensive and varied risk management experience at all project stages, with key technical competencies developed through his desire to continually grow and optimally understand the complexities of risks and their management. This includes facilitating and performing quantitative risk analysis on major infrastructure programs to include multiple disciplines in the risk process and improve available information for decision making. He has successfully contributed and implemented risk management plans, across multiple stages of the project life cycle in the UK, Middle East, and South America.
Saurav Chand, Information Technology Site Support Analyst, Sydney
Saurav has more than eight years’ experience in a variety of IT-based roles across the retail sector. He has worked within project and operational-based environments and has also operated at a Senior IT Support level. He is proficient in the use of Office365 (including Exchange), Active Directory, Cisco Networks, Windows Operating Systems and Electronic Point-of-Sale devices. Saurav holds a Masters in Computer and Network Security, and is an certified Sophos Engineer. He is currently completing certification in CompTia Network+.
Brian joins HKA as Consultant and is based in Bahrain.
Brian is a civil engineer with 9 years of international construction experience working on different types of projects for main contractors. He has a strong background in construction with areas of expertise in scheduling, quality control, project construction management, commercial management, and progress reporting.
He is currently working towards achieving the status of a chartered engineer and pursuing a Master’s in Construction Law, Arbitration and Adjudication.
Steve Dines, Principal, Business Development, Philadelphia
Steve is a Legal Services Professional with a concentration on Forensics. He is skilled at creating valuable relationships with Attorneys, Adjusters, Risk Management and Corporate Counsel. He assists clients in retaining the best expertise for their cases and claims. Steve joins the Philadelphia office as Principal.
Sumeda Illangakoon, Information Technology Site Support Analyst, Dubai
Sumeda Illangakoon joins HKA as Site Support Analyst and is based in the Dubai office.
Sumeda Illangakoon is a Sri Lankan national with over a decade of Information Technology operation experience in UAE with government and private sector entities. He joins HKA from the IT team at Mubadala Investment Company & Injazat Data Systems – Abu Dhabi. Before that, he was deployed as an IT consultant to various Defence, Finance, Energy, and Health Care projects in UAE.
Loïs Jeanson, Manager, Montreal
Loïs comes from a project management background in commercial, institutional and industrial buildings. He worked as an assistant project manager and contract administrator for the renovation of the Berri UQAM and Mont-Royal stations in Montreal (QC). He was in charge of estimating and managing the entire contractual cycle of the projects, with the aim of maximizing the operational and financial success (contract negotiations and its evolutions, cost control, risk management, etc.). He is a Member of the Order of Engineers of Quebec (since 2015) and he has a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA), at the IAE of Aix en Provence, FR. Loïs joins the Montreal office as Manager.
Sarah Makuyana, Assistant Management Accountant, Dubai
Sarah joins the Dubai team as Assistant Management Accountant.
Originally from Zimbabwe, Sarah obtained a Marketing degree from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in South Africa and is currently studying towards a Certified Management Accounting (CMA) certification. For the past 5 years, Sarah has worked in finance, mainly Treasury, and across different industries that include banking, hospitality, retail and e-commerce. She has a vast knowledge on working with different accounting systems and improving processes.
Gerhard Malherbe, Senior Consultant, Johannesburg
Gerhard Malherbe joined HKA as Senior Consultant based in South Africa.
Gerhard is a chartered surveyor with over 25 years of experience working in consultancy, construction, civil engineering and property development. Gerhard has experience across a variety of projects in both the public and private sector, including infrastructure, education, commercial, health care, retail, residential and industrial.
Amy Oei, Business Support Administrator, Lafayette
Amy Oei is an experienced Administrator with a demonstrated history of working in the construction industry. She is skilled in Analytical Skills, Microsoft Word, Communication, English, and Leadership. She is a strong information technology professional with a Bachelor of Arts – BA focused in History from Sonoma State University. Amy joins the Lafayette office as Business Support Administrator.
Ian Skitt, Senior Consultant, Abu Dhabi
Ian joins HKA as Senior Consultant and is based in Abu Dhabi.
Ian is a Chartered Quantity Surveyor and Commercial Director with over 29 years of industry experience in full pre- and post- contract cost management/quantity surveying, claims and contract management, and procurement management. His project experience covers a wide range of sectors including aviation, retail, commercial offices, hotel and leisure, residential, education, industrial/logistics, pharmaceutical, prisons, rail, roads, and public sector works.
HKA was delighted to welcome a diverse and talented group of colleagues to our firm in October
22nd November 2022
Thank you for choosing to join our HKA global team. HKA is a great place for our brilliant people to work, grow and play. Your diversity, experience, and skills will make our company even better as we continuously collaborate and improve HKA together. Our culture is collaborative, honest, transparent, and high performing – we are one global team. Joining a new company is a challenging and exciting time. Please look after your mental and physical health. Protecting your health is HKA’s number one priority and we are here to support you. We embrace hybrid working, we are enjoying meeting up in our offices together again and reaping the benefits of in-person time – looking forward to seeing you in one of our offices soon. We hope you enjoy working with us in our global team and have time to develop as well as laugh together too.
Deepak is a Civil Engineer with more than seven years of experience in contract administration, forensic delay analysis, and project management. He has been actively involved in providing advice to project owners, contractors, and subcontractors on construction and engineering projects that have suffered delays and disruption. His experience is spread across project sectors including buildings, power plants(solar), and transport infrastructure (including bridges, rail, and roads). Deepak holds an MSc in Construction Law and Dispute Resolution from King’s College London and is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.
Julien Chiha, Consultant, Dubai
Julien has 7 years of experience in project and commercial management within the Oil & Gas construction industry, having worked on various projects as a Main Contractor. He worked on numerous mega projects in the GCC region as a construction engineer before transitioning into commercial management, where he supported EPC projects in the GCC and Europe, handling contracts and claims management. Julien also has a BE in Mechanical Engineering from the Lebanese American University.
Ebru Cizmeci, Managing Consultant, Abu Dhabi
Ebru has 11 years’ experience working in the construction industry within project and commercial management teams on building projects for international consultant and contractors in the Middle East. She also holds a BS (Hons) in Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics and is a Certified Project Management Professional.
Jan Cruickshank, Expert Support Consultant, Glasgow
Jan is based in Aberdeenshire and will work remotely, but be tied to our Glasgow office. Jan has worked for the Construction Industry Training Board in various roles, including arranging and managing youth training apprenticeships. Her most recent role was leading a team of contract tracers for NHS Grampian during the pandemic. She describes herself as a natural problem solver with a meticulous eye for detail.
Jennifer Flickinger, Partner, Washington DC
Jennifer advises clients on challenging operational and compliance matters unique to federal government contractors. She assists clients in developing policies, procedures, systems, and controls to achieve compliant contractor business functions relative to FAR, CAS, and other regulatory requirements. Jennifer has extensive experience designing competitive indirect rate structures and implementing compliant accounting systems. Her experience also includes preparing cost proposals and related narratives, change orders, ROM proposals, REAs, and termination settlement proposals. During her tenure in the industry, she was responsible for ensuring compliance with the Service Contract and the Davis-Bacon Act. Jennifer has a strong record of negotiating with the U.S. Departments of Defense, State, and Labor, as well as the Defense Contract Audit Agency. She maintains active secret clearances (State and OGA).
Emma is a procurement and supply chain professional with ten years of experience leading commercial activity across a range of disciplines and categories, optimising value and innovation. Emma has extensive experience with procurement, strategic supplier management, supply chain risk management, business change and stakeholder management. She has successfully developed and implemented new commercial models across multiple stages of the procurement lifecycle.
Hadi Lakkis, Consultant, Abu Dhabi
Hadi is a civil engineer holding an MSc in Civil Engineering and Management from the University of Balamand Lebanon, an MBA in Banking & Finance from Swiss Business School Switzerland and he is currently completing the LLM in Construction Law and Arbitration from Robert Gordon University UK. Hadi is also an Associate in the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, a PMP Certified member in the Project Management Institute, and a Certified Manager by the American Institute of Business and Management.
Hadi has over 10 years of experience across the Middle East. Having worked as a lead contract specialist on a broad range of projects in different market sectors, Hadi has gained extensive experience in administrating contracts including FIDIC and Bespoke Forms of Contract. Hadi has experience in both pre- and post-contract stages of projects and has an extensive experience in drafting claim submissions in connection with delay and disruption events as well as the preparation of quantum calculations.
Sheehan Shetty graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and Minor in Business. Sheehan’s interest in construction was piqued during a project management internship with a Design-Build General Contractor. Prior to that, he gained experience with testing and validation in the HVAC industry through an Engineering Co-Op.
Mayada Suliman, Information Technology Site Support Analyst, Dubai
Mayada is originally from Sudan and has 4 years of experience as an IT Support Engineer. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Electronic (Telecommunication) Engineering and a master’s degree in Computer Architecture and Networking.
Anand Udayakumar, Consultant, London
Anand Udayakumar transfers from the Middle East to Europe, joining the ACCM team in London as a Consultant.
Anand is a qualified lawyer in India and has over eight years of international experience in the construction, infrastructure, and energy sectors. He has provided contentious and non-contentious legal advisory in over 100 projects spanning diverse sectors, spread across Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. His previous roles have included serving as an Associate in a Legal500 Tier 1 Construction Disputes practice at a renowned international law firm based in London, and prior to that, as an In-house Legal Counsel at India’s largest multinational construction conglomerate, with a presence in India and the Middle East. Anand adopts a multi-faceted solution-based approach, primarily dealing with issues/claims surrounding certification and payment, delay and disruption, defects, loss and/or expense claims, and contract termination for major standard form (FIDIC included) and bespoke contracts. He has had experience in acting on proceedings subject to ICSID, ICC, LCIA, SIAC, and DIAC rules for international arbitration.
By Vu, Senior Consultant, Paris
By has over 15 years of experience in the construction industry. He has acted as operational contract manager and complex project manager. By has advised clients on project organization, project management processes, contract management, budget monitoring, change follow-up, negotiation, amendment drafting, and risk and opportunity management.
By is widely regarded as a senior consultant who is well qualified in complex construction issues in the gas, petrochemical, transportation, nuclear, and naval sectors. He is able to identify the key issues in construction disputes and deliver objective appraisals in those projects.
Milestones in construction projects typically represent the achievement of a significant event and/or certain stage of work. However, there are rare instances when these milestones prescribe an achievement of payment, by reference to fixed percentages of the contract within a prescribed duration. The completion of such a milestone would not be activity-dependent, but rather cost-dependent. This is where variation orders make an impact.
What are variation orders in construction?
Variation orders typically address the issue related to additional works and/or descoping works which potentially have time and/or cost implications on the sequence of the works. They can also address issues related to completion dates and contract price. Based on the above, this raises the question on how to address the variation order when conventional delay analysis methodologies cannot be implemented in unconventional contracts[1], where milestones are cost dependent.
Conventional milestones are completely dependent on the sequence of the relevant works. Any critical impact on the sequence would adversely affect the milestone’s forecast date, as concluded in conventional delay analysis methodologies. However, when it comes to contract-price-based milestone, it is a different game.
Let us assume the parties enter into an agreement, where the contractor will undertake to complete the works within a period of 50 months for the contract price of USD 10 million. The contract includes four (4) milestones, which are determined by completion of a percentage of the contract price, and within a fixed duration, as shown below:
At some point between Milestone II and Milestone III, the employer issued a variation order of USD 1 million for additional works.
How are variation orders assessed?
Variation orders in construction are assessed through a structured process. If initiated by the contractor, a request is submitted, reviewed, and upon approval, discussed with the client regarding time and cost effects. The final signed variation order is then submitted.
If initiated by the client, the need is determined, and the proposal is sent to the contractor for evaluation. Upon agreement, a signed variation order with scheduling and cost details is submitted to the client. Detailed documentation, including reasons, schedule impacts, permit requirements, and cost breakdown during the variation order preparation helps to ensure clarity and avoid questions.
In the case of the example above, the additional work represents 10% of the contract price, thereby revising the contract price from USD 10 million to USD 11 million. On the basis that the milestones are contract-price based, one scenario would be that the contract duration should likewise be pro-rata extended by 10%: 5 months from a total duration of 50 months to 55 months.
In unconventional contracts[2], a contractor may potentially argue that, as the contract price is revised, then all contract-price-based milestones will be equally revised due to the introduction of a variation order[3]. However, an employer can easily challenge this rationale, as it is theoretical and does not consider the uneven differences in the milestone weightages.
A reasonable and a common-sense approach is necessary to address a variation order’s impact on the milestones. One could argue that measurement of its impact in an unconventional contract is not dependent upon required time, but the price of the additional work.
How are variation orders measured?
Therefore, the variation order’s impact on the milestones is measured in consideration of:
Timing of the planned execution of the additional work, to identify which subsequent milestones will be impacted;
A simple mathematical relationship between the weightage of the impacted milestones; and
The price of the additional work and its percentage in conjunction with the contract price.
Assuming in the following example that the additional work needs to be undertaken in the period between Milestone II and Milestone III. The additional work would only impact Milestone III and Milestone IV, as the previous milestones were already achieved. The original duration between Milestone II and Milestone IV is 25 months. As the additional work represents 10% of the contract price, therefore the revised duration between the milestones would be increased by 5 months to a revised duration of 30 months.
The figure below illustrates the calculation of the revised Milestone III and Milestone IV durations, following the introduction of the additional work through a variation order.
The durations of the milestones are therefore amended as follows:
Variation orders in unconventional contracts: the verdict
In unconventional contracts, the milestones are contract-price dependent and prescribe the achievement of quantities achieved. Therefore, a creative, reasonable, and common-sense approach is necessary to determine the impact of a variation order on the milestones.
In the absence of a resource-loaded programme, a simplistic way of determining the impact is by considering i) the planned timing to execute the additional work, ii) the mathematical weightage relationship between the affected milestones, and iii) the cost of the additional work. Although, effort and progress in construction projects are not linear.
An alternative solution one considers might provide a more reasonable and effective solution is the use of a resource-loaded programme. It is a useful tool to demonstrate the impact of a variation order, as it automatically calculates the exact point in time when the cost-based milestones were achieved. Although time-consuming, the employment of a resource-loaded programme would be essential when entering a contract with contract-price-dependent milestones and allows the usage of conventional delay analysis methodologies to some extent.
At every stage of a project, HKA is committed to delivering in-depth analysis, expert counsel, and customised support tailored to the unique aspects of your circumstances. Whether you are an owner, contractor, subcontractor, law firm, or government agency, our extensive experience allows us to address individual needs with precision and proficiency.
Choose HKA for unparalleled expertise and support.
Footnotes
[1] Due to the fact that milestones keep varying with time as it is measured based on the achieved work, as opposed to completion of a certain aspect of a project in typical contracts.
[2] In this article, an unconventional contract is when milestones are contract-price dependent.
[3] A variation may have an additive or subtractive impact on the contract price. For the sake of simplicity, the article addresses in the event a variation order has an additive impact, only, on the contract price.
HKA was delighted to welcome a diverse and talented group of colleagues to our firm in September
24th October 2022
Thank you for choosing to join our HKA global team. HKA is a great place for our brilliant people to work, grow and play. Your diversity, experience, and skills will make our company even better as we continuously collaborate and improve HKA together. Our culture is collaborative, honest, transparent and high performing. Joining a new company is a challenging and exciting time. Please look after your mental and physical health. Protecting your health is HKA’s number one priority and we are here to support you. We support hybrid working, we are enjoying meeting up in our offices together again and reaping the benefits of in-person time – looking forward to seeing you in one of our offices soon. We hope you enjoy working with us in our global team and have time to develop as well as laugh together too.
Kate Wood, Partner, Chief People Officer
Ryan Amaya, Recruitment Manager, Americas, Philadelphia
I’m a people person who believes in the value and possibilities of modern HR/People practices, has a dedication to making my company and its culture as amazing as possible, getting the right people in the door and keeping them happy.
Mariam Atooka, Senior Associate Consultant, New York
Mariam Atooka is an engineering consultant with more than five years of experience in the construction industry. Mariam’s areas of expertise include critical path method (CPM) scheduling analysis, claims and project documents review, and expert report preparation for matters of delay, disruption, and damages. She has worked on oil and gas, commercial building, and utilities projects across the United States.
Georgia Caley, Consultant, London
Georgia has an MSc in Construction Cost Management and has six years’ experience as a quantity surveyor working with an international PQS firm. She has worked on various projects across the UK and Europe from feasibility to handover, mainly within the commercial sector. She has significant experience with waste to energy projects, as well as new build and refurbished buildings, fit outs, and data centres.
Crispin Cockman, Director, Dubai
Crispin is a Chartered Quantity Surveyor with approximately 35 years’ experience of major construction projects across various sectors of the industry.
He is an experienced senior manager, professional quantity surveyor and commercial manager and has experience of working in the UK, the Middle East and South Africa. Crispin specialises in the area of construction law and in the analysis of contract pricing and contractual performance and is experienced in the preparation and assessment of contractors’ claims and in the preparation of expert witness reports on matters of quantum.
Lily Crowdus, Associate Consultant, Dallas
Lily Crowdus graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Science, Architectural Engineering, completing coursework focusing on BIM for Capital Projects, Design I & II, Project Management and Economics. Prior to joining HKA, Lily worked as a Project Intern on the Tesla Gigafactory Project and Austin FC Stadium Project for Austin Commercial.
Serena Doshi, Consultant, London
Serena qualified as a chartered accountant (ACA) in 2021 and began her career as a graduate in Audit at BDO. She has over four years’ experience gained in delivering audits for both listed and private clients in a variety of sectors; including retail, leisure, hospitality, and shipping.
Erin Doyle, Associate Consultant, Chicago
Erin Doyle graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a Civil Engineering degree in 2022 and from Saint Mary’s College with a Mathematics degree in 2021.
Bukola Esho, Associate Technical Director, Dubai
Bukola is a Chartered Civil Engineer with over 20 years’ experience of providing geotechnical advisory and technical support for the design of marine works, foundations to bridges, building structures, and earthworks.
She has been involved in a wide range of projects involving nearshore marine structures, highway roads, rails and bridges, tunnels, deep basements, and large building schemes. Her project portfolio is as extensive as it is impressive, having worked on a number of high-profile projects in the Middle East and in the UK including High Speed Rail 2 (HS2) and several PIF projects in Saudi Arabia.
Damian Lamb, Director, Sydney
Damian is an experienced Project Controls professional with over 20 years of experience in rail and infrastructure specialising in Cost Management for the previous 10 years. He has spent the last few years working on the Crossrail programme in London as functional head of Cost for the Systemwide sector. Damian has seen the Crossrail project from beginning to end and was involved in both the development and completion stages.
Mamagane Maserumule, Consultant, London
Mamagane is a chartered accountant (CA (SA)) with several years combined experience from a Big Four firm in Assurance and Transactions and Corporate Finance. In 2017 after completing his university studies, his career began as an Assurance Trainee in financial services – specialising in banking and capital markets. Post articles in 2020, he was promoted to an Assistant Manager. He later moved into Transactions and Corporate Finance in 2021, working on a variety of valuations and modelling projects across a range of industries e.g., FMCG, TMT, construction, energy and natural resources.
Francisco Matta, Director, Miami
Francisco Matta has more than 25 years of experience in the construction industry as an architect and forensic expert. Francisco co-directed the forensic division of an international architectural firm, offering opinions in matters related to standard of care and construction defects, and served as a managing consultant in a multinational consulting firm, specializing in standard of care, construction defects, and schedule and delay analysis for large-scale construction projects throughout the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
Marko Metry, Associate Director, Sydney
Marko has experience in project management, including project controls, scheduling, delay analysis and contracts administration for a wide range of multi-million-dollar construction projects. He has extensive knowledge and a passion for delivering on-time and on-budget projects. In addition, Marko is experienced in creating project, portfolio and program schedules, and he’s an expert in setting up milestones, project enterprise structure and budget deliveries.
Tharaka Ranaweera, Consultant, Melbourne
Tharaka is a Civil Engineer with experience working within various stages of the design process across numerous large-scale transport infrastructure projects. He joins us from the Commercial team at Mott McDonald working for clients such as Rail Projects Victoria and Suburban Rail Loop Authority.
Sandra Raphael, Manager, Chicago
Sandra Raphael has more than 10 years of experience in project engineering and contract and claims administration in the construction industry. Sandra has been assigned to a variety of projects—desalination plants, airports, marinas, wind farms, military facilities, rail transit, refineries, chemical and fertilizer plants, and urban developments—throughout Egypt and the United States. Sandra has implemented claims strategy, guidelines, policies, and procedures; made recommendations for claims process improvements; performed delay and quantum analysis; and coordinated and led claims through negotiation and arbitration. She also ensured claims are managed according to applicable laws and regulations.
Simon Turtington, IT Site Support and Service Manager, Warrington
Simon has 25 years’ experience working within progressive IT departments, 21 of those in management roles. He joins fresh from a role heading up the IT Department at a training company in Manchester, having previously spent 17 years overseeing the direction of the IT function at a strategic level for a firm operating in the financial sector. Simon is a strong communicator and will ultimately be responsible for heading up the global IT site support team.
We recognise the devastating toll mental health issues can put on those who suffer and their loved ones. We can only achieve the best possible outcomes for our clients if we do the same for our colleagues; through supporting mental health initiatives and erasing the stigma and misunderstandings surrounding mental health issues.
See below some of the ways our colleagues support mental health initiatives, how they support their own mental health and top tips on how to do so.
19 March 2022 marked my 10-year anniversary of joining Cadogans, now HKA … I was a new relatively young managing director back then and was so focused on ensuring that I, and the business, was successful. I worked every hour I could and was all about work. When I wasn’t working, I was thinking about work. I was worried about work, worried about my team and my clients… I just couldn’t switch off. I worked and spent time with my young daughter in the few hours I didn’t appear to be working…but now I question whether I really was “present” at that time. I let down my friends by not seeing them, and when I did… I was talking about work! My marriage wasn’t going well… apparently, I wasn’t great to live with! On top of that, my health started being affected too. I was encouraged to do something… anything, that would be for me.
After a 20-year gap since I played golf as a junior, I called my local club, bought a set of clubs, booked a lesson with the club pro and joined that weekend. Within a few weeks, I was hooked.
I quickly discovered that golf helped teach me how to switch off my work brain. Each shot, as you stand over the ball, needs a balance of focus, calmness and confidence to commit you to the shot you’re about to hit. If something pops into your mind at that point, you won’t execute your shot properly.
So, is this about golf? No. It’s about mental health and learning how to be more effective and present, both at work and at home. Golf was my way of learning how to clear my mind, and it still is. I know I wouldn’t be doing the job I’m doing now if I hadn’t taken up golf nearly 10 years ago and learned how to “switch off”.
So, what’s your “golf”?
(And, if you fancy a round sometime to help clear your head… don’t hesitate to give me a call.)
I know my own Mental Health is not always easy to focus on or is consistently top of mind – it is a continually growing work-in-progress that I actively need to remind myself to pay attention to.
However, what keeps me motivated to prioritize my mental health well-being is that there are many people whom I love and care for who need my mind to be healthy. This includes my children and family, my colleagues, my clients and most importantly, myself.
HKA is proud to sponsor and support the Dubai Hurricanes, encouraging gender equality in sport and supporting the beneficial impact in which sport can have on mental health.
“Taking part in sport at any age plays a tremendous role in shaking off the stresses of life. The Dubai Hurricanes create a diverse and welcoming team environment that does exactly this.”
Benjamin Highfield
“Sport creates an environment where individuals can not only develop social skills and build great relationships, which supports mental health, but also allows families to feel a sense of community and support away from home.”
Jude Wilson-Brown
To recognise World Mental Health Day, HKA is pleased to support and donate to World Federation for Mental Health, Lighthouse Club and Mental Health America.
Mental health is sometimes one of the most overlooked aspects in our lives and mental health awareness days remind us to take a moment to pause and reflect on how we are mentally as this affects all aspects of our lives.
What I try to do to take care of my mental health is do the things I enjoy… and I try to exercise. Exercise releases the “happy hormones”, so love it or hate it, it is scientifically proven to be good for you. I find hiking a much more enjoyable form of exercise and the fact that’s in out in nature, pure joy. I now try to organise monthly hikes with friends as a way to stay active, enjoy the outdoors and enjoy a catch-up session with them.
What I also do is have interests not related to my work; my latest hobby being sewing. I took this up during lockdown and am loving it. I’ve made a few items already and planning a few more before the year is over. One of the biggest things the Covid lockdowns made me appreciate… human interaction. Technology is great but there is nothing like a face-to-face and a hug from a friend.
The above are just some ways I prioritise my mental health. One other thing that I would also recommend is therapy. Our medical aid allows for some free therapist visits every year so make use of those. Life can get overwhelming, so make sure you find ways to offload, vent and just take care of your mental health in a way that works for you. It’s important for your overall well-being.
Laura Whyte, Marketing and Communications Manager, Global
As someone who has struggled with mental health issues from a young age, I’m so grateful for days such as World Mental Health Day! It gives people the courage to tackle mental health issues head on and helps banish unhelpful taboos.
You should never feel ashamed about having issues with mental illnesses, and the first and most important step to help get yourself better is speaking to someone about it.
There are many ways that I try to keep my mental health in a good place – whether it’s getting out for a good hike with my husband and two dogs, or ensuring I get enough sleep. I’m also not ashamed to say I rely on anti-depressants to help keep anxiety and depression at bay. I was once ashamed to admit this to others, but I now embrace that they are important part of ensuring I’m able to live my life in the happiest way possible.
R U OK? Day, Oceania
Each year, our Oceania colleagues recognise R U OK? Day. This year, we were privileged to hear from Andre Kock, an R U OK? Day Community Ambassador. The focus was to bring the topic of mental health front of mind and to remind colleagues to ask, “are you okay?”; reinforcing that no qualifications are needed to initiate a conversation.
Andre shared his personal story with our colleagues within a supportive, safe and open environment which allowed others to share their own personal stories.
When initiating a conversation, use these four steps:
Ask “are you okay?”
Listen actively
Encourage action
Check-in
If you are concerned about someone, have the courage and confidence to check in and ask how they are doing. A conversation could truly change a life, and remember, it is okay not to be okay.
