Human Capital magazine issue 10.04

BALANCING ACT

Return to work mums P.6 ISSUE 10.4

IDEAS SPRINGBOARD

Workplace innovation P.38 LADDER VS LATTICE

The succession game P.46 HUMAN CAPITAL MAGAZINE HCAMAG.COM

MIGRATION

CHINA HR CHALLENGES

CROSS-CULTURAL MANAGEMENT

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editor’s letter

Express yourself! Got a burning issue to get off your chest? Check out the readers’ forums at hcamag.com

Know thyself, know thy enemy Attending a conference recently, I was struck by the story told by one HR professional in particular. As head of HR for a government-owned organisation, her story seemed like a timewarp to a bygone era. Until 2006, her department was known as personnel. HR practices and procedures had little or no rigour or structure. It was, she said, “a passive department”.

The slow process of turning the department around and gaining internal credibility only occurred with metrics and analytics. In short, proving why her suggestions for improvement – for everything from the recruitment process to engagement efforts – might pay off. It’s hardly a surprise that the CEO and other executives asked for ‘evidence’. Would any other significant business decision – made by the finance department, for example – be made without data-driven insights close to hand?

For HR this data provides key insights into the talent the business attracts, their on-the-job performance, as well as their management and leadership potential.

Essentially, it’s a mirror held up to the subject at hand – in this case an organisation – to spot strengths and weaknesses.

Not coincidentally, the theme of the conference was the evolution of talent analytics.

While HR has embraced some form of analytics – typically lag indicators – the next phase of evolution will look at lead indicators: assessing not just where the organisation’s talent currently sits, but where it might go in the future against any number of uncertainties.

This next phase will also respond to greater demand from employers for local and international benchmarking. No surprise, given the war for talent. The old adage, keep your friends close and your enemies closer, seems apt. But in this case there’s no need to get up close and personal with the competition – just know those data-driven insights.

And what of that HR professional mentioned above? HR in her organisation now has validated and deliverable processes and is a driver of culture change in the organisation – it can now concentrate on building management capability, upskilling crucial roles and handling a complicated IR environment.

Would any other significant business decision be made without data-driven insights at hand?

Iain Hopkins, editor, HC Magazine

Letters to the editor

editor@hcamag.com

Got a burning issue to get off your chest? We value your opinions and input.

Human Capital would like to hear from you. Send through your comments to editor@hcamag.com. Alternatively, express your thoughts on the readers’ forums at www.hcamag.com

COPY & FEATURES EDITOR Iain Hopkins JOURNALIST Stephanie Zillman EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Jessica Cooper PRODUCTION EDITORS Moira Daniels, Robin Hill

ART & PRODUCTION DESIGN PRODUCTION MANAGER Angie Gillies SENIOR DESIGNER Rebecca Downing TRAFFIC MANAGER Abby Cayanan

CONTRIBUTORS Carroll & O’Dea Lawyers, The Next Step, Frontier Software, Peak Health, Kenexa

SALES & MARKETING SENIOR MARKETING EXECUTIVE Kerry Corben MARKETING EXECUTIVE Anna Keane COMMUNICATIONS EXECUTIVE Lisa Narroway NATIONAL COMMERCIAL MANAGER Sophie Knight ONLINE COMMERCIAL MANAGER Sarah Wiseman

CORPORATE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Mike Shipley CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER George Walmsley MANAGING DIRECTOR – BUSINESS MEDIA Justin Kennedy CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER Colin Chan HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER Julia Bookallil Editorial enquiries Iain Hopkins tel: +61 2 8437 4703 iain.hopkins@keymedia.com.au Advertising enquiries National commercial manager, HR products Sophie Knight tel: +61 2 8437 4733 sophie.knight@keymedia.com.au Subscriptions tel: +61 2 8437 4731 • fax: +61 2 8437 4753 subscriptions@keymedia.com.au Key Media keymedia.com.au Key Media Pty Ltd, regional head office, Level 10, 1–9 Chandos St, St Leonards, NSW 2065, Australia tel: +61 2 8437 4700 fax: +61 2 9439 4599 Offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Toronto hcamag.com Copyright is reserved throughout. No part of this publication can be reproduced in whole or part without the express permission of the editor. Contributions are invited, but copies of work should be kept as HC can accept no responsibility for loss.

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HC MAGAZINE 10.4

contents 34

28 | What’s your China strategy?

Tasked with helping to expand operations into China? What separates the heroes from the zeroes is the ability to hit the ground with both a plan and the flexibility to update it on the fly. Morry Morgan provides some advice before you start to pack 34 | Strength through diversity Beyond cultural awareness days, what else can organisations be doing to break down cultural barriers in the workplace? Jessica Cooper explores the latest options

20 Cover story: Thinking global, acting local – HR and globalisation Is it unreasonable to expect Australian HR directors to know the ins and outs of dealing with a global workforce? Iain Hopkins looks at what role HR plays in the relentless globalisation of business operations 2

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38 | Greatness lies within Organisations are increasingly moving towards changing their business practices to be more fluid and innovative to engage their employees. Human Capital investigates what HR can do to help promote a culture of innovation and creative thinking 46 | The succession game Succession planning plays a crucial role in any talent management strategy, but linear steps up a corporate ladder no longer cut it. What does succession planning look like in 2012?

Check out the HC archive online:

38 50 | My Brilliant Career: 20/20 HR vision With award-winning HR initiatives under its belt, Luxottica has always been at the forefront of people and culture initiatives. As head of HR for the past 18 months, Sharyn Schultz reflects on the challenges, achievements and insights she has discovered throughout the course of her brilliant career

REGULARS

04 | In brief: news 06 | In brief: forum

FRONTLINE INTELLIGENCE

08 | In Step – HR career experts 10 | Legal 12 | Corporate health 13 | Leadership 14 | Technology

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IN BRIEF

news DIVERSITY

SEXUAL EQUALITY: GET SERIOUS OR FACE THE CONSEQUENCES

n A new Bill introduced to federal parliament will aim to strengthen the compliance and enforcement powers of the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) – which will itself be renamed the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA). If passed, non-compliant organisations could be publicly ‘named and shamed’ as well as face financial consequences.

The Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Amendment Bill 2012 (Cth) comes at a time when businesses are starting to take gender equality more seriously.

Organisations with 100+ employees are required to submit annual reports to EOWA. Approximately up to a third of these organisations have failed to do this. Employment lawyer Stephanie Nicol from Gadens advised large organisations to audit their compliance with the legislation.

If the Bill is passed, reporting organisations will need to provide information on the following: • the gender composition of the workforce and board • equal remuneration between women and men • the availability and utility of flexible working arrangements • evidence of consultation with employees on gender equality issues Nicol said the Bill would raise gender equality issues to an executive level. The information provided in annual reports would also be used to develop industry benchmarks.

If passed, the first new reports will be due in 2014, relating to the reporting period April 2013 to March 2014.

GENDER PAY GAP STATISTICS

In the quarter ended November 2011, the gender pay gap stood at 17.6%.

The average weekly ordinary time earnings of females working full-time were $1,174.80 per week, or $250.70 per week less than men, who earned an average weekly wage of $1,425.50. The figures show that the gap has hardly changed from the previous quarter and is up 0.6% from a year ago (from 17% in November 2010). Over the period of 17 years, the pay gap has increased by 1.4%.

Gender pay gap 1994-2011 18

17

16

% 15

14 Aug-94 Nov-96 Feb-99 May-01 Aug-03 Nov-05 Feb-08 May-10

Source: ABS Average Weekly Earnings (Cat No 6302.0), November 2011 (released 23/02/2012)

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CAREER STRATEGY

BE INVOLVED IN OFFICE POLITICS OR FALL BEHIND

The month in numbers

60 – number

of minutes per day that smokers take in ‘smokos’, equating to 30 working days per year, according to research from OnePoll.com

$631,000

n More than 70% of workers say being involved in office politics plays a role in getting ahead, a new survey by recruitment firm Robert Half has revealed.

Here are 5 tips for navigating office politics:

1. Build a broad coalition of support Lobby for the respect and trust of all your colleagues. Forget strong alliances. You never know whose vote of confidence could benefit your career in the future.

The amount of money a former British HR manager allegedly embezzled while in his post. It was later discovered his qualifications were forged.

2. Avoid smear campaigns Gossiping or outright mudslinging only damages one person’s credibility: your own. Be direct but tactful, focusing on facts rather than feelings.

30% Percentage

3. Stay true to your values Unfortunately some will do anything to “win”, but character and credibility count. Don’t resort to schemes to get ahead.

of Coles staff now hired on a casual basis, down from 70-80% three years ago. Engagement levels have also risen – by 80%. Likewise, absenteeism has fallen – from 12.5% to 3% each year.

15 Number of

software developers Sydney-based Atlassian aims to recruit in the space of 15 days, using a European ‘Recruitment Roadshow’ bus tour.

4. Connect with your constituencies Apply a tailored message and approach to your coworkers; observe their unique work styles, priorities and communication preferences – and be willing to adapt your approach.

5. Play by the rules Pay close attention to office protocol. If you take a misstep, make amends quickly.

DID YOU KNOW?

IR

IR DISPUTES ON THE RISE: A HR SKILLS ISSUE? n New figures have revealed there was a sharp increase in the number of working days lost due to industrial disputes last year.

A new Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) report has shown that industrial disputes cost the nation more than 241,000 working days in 2011, compared to 126,000 in the previous year.

Employment Minister Bill Shorten said the government is pleased with the figures. “This is at a time when there has been increased disputation between public servants and Liberal governments at a state level, and also some of the turmoil we’ve seen at Qantas,” he said. Yet Opposition workplace relations spokesman Eric Abetz said the figures made it clear that the current IR system is flawed. “When you’re talking about an extra 115,000 days lost, that must have an impact on the Australian economy,” he said.

The figures come at a time when serious questions have been raised over HR’s competency in handling early-stage industrial disputes. Employment lawyer Jeremy Kennedy, partner at McCullough Robertson, said HR graduates are lacking in certain skillsets. “Some HR managers are not technically savvy on legal/procedural issues required under various legislation and they wing it a bit. Sometimes they slip up and things go pear-shaped,” he said. “I also think that studies in HR don’t teach you those technical skills and grads lack that. Having said that, I know some brilliant HR managers who are all over these issues. I think perhaps the real issue is maybe a lack of resources/support for HR from other management.”

Alec Bashinsky, partner, people & performance at Deloitte, said that a lot of people still view HR as the ‘I like dealing with people’ field, but that the presumption of HR just dealing with people is not the case. “[HR] needs to be business-savvy, they need to be results-oriented. It’s not just about sitting down having a coffee and having a chat,” he said.

He suggested that HR professionals need to view the next 10 years as a cycle that will offer them important skills and that they need to actively look for roles that will give them exposure in areas such as industrial relations.

LEADERSHIP

AUSSIE MANAGERS: DO THEY INNOVATE AND THINK GLOBALLY ENOUGH?

n In a new Australian Institute of Management (AIM) study, the responses of senior managers from more than 250 Australian organisations found that while there was high confidence in handling financial management and adhering to workplace laws, managers consistently rated their performance poorly in areas related to people, performance leadership as well as creativity and innovation.

The results suggested corporate governance is strong in Australia but also highlighted areas where managers need to improve to help

drive organisations’ productivity.

Key findings included: • Just 52% said ‘management demonstrates an international/ global perspective and has a good understanding of global markets and global thinking’ • 71% of senior managers believed that HR planning is an integral part of the annual business planning process • 65% agreed that management maintains a culture which is supportive of today’s employee values — not stifled by structure and hierarchy.

Financial management and managing external relationships to benefit their organisations were seen as the managers’ strengths; they scored far higher in these areas than most of their international peers.

Swedish researchers have found that having a boss who is incompetent, unfair and inconsiderate can raise the risk of a heart attack in their staff by as much as 60%

SUPERANNUATION

SG SET TO RISE

n With the passing of the controversial mining tax, the superannuation guarantee (SG) will now increase from 9% to 12%.

Yet the business community is divided on whether the range of tax cuts and benefits will be adequate to offset the 3% increase.

Peter Anderson, chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), said the passage of the mining tax “hides a bitter pill for the nation’s one million employers because there will be more employers paying the levy than incorporated businesses that will qualify for a tax cut”.

But Pauline Vamos of the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) said the mining tax is unequivocally good news for all business.

Vamos added that both employers and employees will consider the SG increase as part of the wage negotiation.

Tax concessions for nonmining-sector businesses include: • an instant tax write-off for the first $5,000 of any motor vehicle purchased in the next financial year • immediate write-off of all assets valued at under $5,000 (up from just $1,000) • a single depreciation rate of 30%. At the moment, small businesses allocate assets to two different depreciation rates: 30% and 5%. Now they can all go under 30% • medium and large non-mining sector business will also receive a cut in the company tax rate.

IN BRIEF HC ONLINE

forum Communication disconnect:

Employers and mums returning to work Organisations are increasingly recognising that paid parental leave alone isn’t enough to make returning parents feel supported and equipped before they return to work – yet the number of mothers re-entering the workforce remains high.

For Emma Walsh, who has a background in HR, her own personal experiences of reentering the workforce after becoming a mother provided unique insight into the experiences of mums returning to work.

Walsh asked her friends and colleagues about the challenges they had experienced when returning to work after having a child, and what help and support they had received in the workplace. “Overwhelmingly, the answer was none,” Walsh said.

Her experiences led her to create Mums@ Work, a provider of return-to-work guidance.

The organisation is now a leader in facilitating back-to-work programs, and it also designs in-house programs about how to facilitate parents returning to the workforce.

At KPMG where she once worked, Walsh said the proper conversations were simply not taking place.

However, after increasing diversity training and providing more specialist support, the organisation has experienced a more successful reintegration process.

According to Walsh, the way organisations tackle the return to work transition has improved. “I think

there’s been a significant shift in the last six years, and we’ve seen much more willingness to acknowledge a need for flexibility for people with families, from a time when a lot of parents almost had to pretend they didn’t have kids, and just get on with it.”

Lucille Rogers, a mother of three and a former HR director with more than 15 years in the business, found that despite dropping to three days a week, the “number of hours equation” still didn’t add up. Rogers fully expected to completely transition back into her role, but didn’t account for a new variable: the emotional side of returning to work.

Rogers was in the unique dual position of understanding the business requirements from an HR perspective and also as a new mum returning to work. For Rogers, who is now a USANA Health Sciences associate, the biggest pitfall was estimating what would be achievable before taking leave.

“At the end of the day, a workplace is a workplace and a business needs as many hours as they can get. But for mums, they need flexibility, and of course it becomes emotional.”

Walsh said successful re-integration is possible, and time and time again one of the main pitfalls employers make is not sitting down with the employee after they return to work and properly doing a ‘job redesign’.

“So often mums go in with unrealistic expectations about what they can actually do. The focus needs to shift to something more realistic.”

-Stephanie Zillman

What do you think? Leave your comments on all HC news and opinion:

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Readers’ comments TAMMY TANSLEY on 21 Feb 2012 02:46 PM It can come as somewhat of a shock that the old ways of working prechildren just don’t work anymore – ie pre-children, you could just stay as late as needed to get the work done, you could go out for those impromptu drinks with the team etc. Post-babies, there are childcare arrangements, pick up times to honour etc.

Not to mention the struggle of intellectual (value of career to self, etc.) vs emotional (guilt of leaving children). Add to that an impatience from organisations, and the need to ‘get it done’ and it’s no wonder it all just gets too hard. The RTW programs are a great idea – but there needs to be work pre-leave as well, so that new parents have some idea of what is coming.

ROHAN SQUIRCHUK on 21 Feb 2012 05:23 PM Tammy, I agree – the work of Alison Hill is great. I also think that ‘we’ all need to work on ‘Equal Parenting’ – remembering that both Dad and Mum [or whatever combination] are responsible for ‘care’ and one personally [generally Mum] is not there 24/7 on call with a ‘helper’ but that both parents are really important.

ALISON HILL on 21 Feb 2012 10:11 PM I agree with you Tammy that the conversations about expectations and ‘what ifs’ need to start to occur well before maternity leave. There is a great window of opportunity for organisations to collaborate with women. The reality is that disruption is the birthplace of innovation, and forward-thinking workplaces who embrace this will reap the reward that maternity leave can both support families and actually improve business. This is not an either/or situation.

JO COMPSON on 05 Mar 2012 12:58 PM This is a broader social issue, and should not be confined to the workplace.

There is still the expectation that it is the mother who will pick up all the childcare needs, and the mother who has all the clashes with work and child-rearing. Where there are two parents available, it needs to become more acceptable throughout society – and therefore in the workplace – that the male parent has these responsibilities as well, and must make the same work adjustments to allow for them.

FRONTLINE INTELLIGENCE

recruitment

Craig Mason is the Managing Director of The Next Step, a specialist consulting practice in the human resources market. For more information call (02) 8256 2500 or email cmason@thenextstep.com.au. Website: www.thenextstep.com.au.

Turnover in HR – Not pretty The HR community is constantly looking at strategies to improve retention for their respective organisations. The cost of turnover to productivity, efficiency and revenue losses are now well understood and documented. There have been many hours of discussion and many words written on how turnover costs companies real money.

Retention programs have been a focus for HR teams ever since the management consulting firm, McKinsey & Co. coined the phrase, ‘The War for Talent’ in the late ’90s.

The HR profession is therefore at the forefront of limiting ‘regretted turnover’.

However, the thinking that is applied to the internal business customers may not be being applied to HR functions. In this month’s editorial, we ask – is this a case of the ‘cobbler’s children needing shoes?’

they are still worrying statistics.

Some additional observations were also made from the Viewpoint survey results.

They include: • The level of role does impact tenure, and there is clear evidence that churn occurs most regularly in the early and intermediate market.

• When doing comparisons to the 2010 Viewpoint, there appears to have been a big jump in practitioners with less than one year with their current company. This increased by over 5% to 34.8% in 2012.

• On the flip side, the number of HR professionals who’ve worked for their current company for more than six years has increased 3.2% from 2010 to 15% in 2012. This group is over-represented by HR professionals in senior roles.

THE NUMBERS

REASONS FOR BEING UNHAPPY

The turnover of HR professionals with their current organisation was just one of the many areas examined by the recently published 2012 Global HR Viewpoint Survey, (the Viewpoint). The Viewpoint Report is based on responses from almost 3,000 HR professionals in Australia/NZ, Asia and the UK/Europe.

From the results of the Viewpoint, there are some serious questions that should be asked about the level of turnover in the HR profession in Australia/NZ and its reasons.

The results of the most recent survey showed that in Australia/NZ: • Nearly 35% of HR professionals have worked for their current company for less than a year and; • This increases by year two of employment, where 61% have worked in their current company for less than this time.

• Also, fewer than 5% of HR practitioners have worked in the current organisation for more than 10 years.

These results are disturbing. Even taking into account that contracting makes up 12% of the overall market in Australia and NZ, 8

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Factors that may assist to drive high turnover in HR teams are hard to generalise but they may include: 1. Constant model and structural changes in HR teams. The Viewpoint found that 55.7% of HR professionals indicated that their teams had been impacted by some sort of functional restructure over the past 12 months.

Interestingly, the Viewpoint also found that 70.1% of HR practitioners said that constant change in the HR model hurts the image of the function with business leaders.

2. The scale of many HR teams being small, limits career growth. The Viewpoint research found that 25.8% of HR professionals are in organisations of 500 people or less which limits the opportunities that exist for career growth in these companies.

3. The predominance of the Ulrich model which limits internal career opportunities and mobility. The survey found 53.9% of HR professionals indicted in the Viewpoint they are in this model. This numbers jumps to 81% for companies over 10,000.

4. HR professionals are attracted to an end-to-end role; that is, they have the ability

to think and do! Global driven companies limit the opportunity to impact thinking and originate solutions. Only 4.3% of practitioners are attracted to working for a globally driven company.

5. Changes in HR leadership for an organisation bring a new approach to the function. This often results in the new approach to HR requiring different skills sets and roles being made redundant or incumbents self-selecting out.

6. The HR function is no different to any other area of the business, poor leadership will create higher levels of turnover.

7. An overwhelming perception that the only way to get a salary increase is to move companies. The Viewpoint found that 84% of HR professionals felt the best way to achieve a wage rise was to move companies.

8. HR professionals often work long hours creating burnout. The Viewpoint results indicated that 74.3% of HR practitioners in Australia and NZ work an average of more than 40 hours a week.

9. Less sophisticated companies and senior leaders hiring the wrong HR professional.

HR professionals are often hired into businesses with a promise of wanting a new approach, combined with a commitment to budgets, time and resources. The reality is different and they would be most comfortable with a HR model that just delivers operational support.

THE FINAL WORD

There are some clear messages that turnover in HR teams is too high. There are many reasons that the turnover exists, but given that HR’s achievements are linked to building relationships with business customers, it no doubt makes it harder to be successful with constant turnover in the function.

For more information about the 2012 Global HR Viewpoint Survey, please contact The Next Step.

MARKET MOVES

radar

Recent HR Market Moves Kate Warburton is joining Allens Arthur Robinson as Head of Talent, Leadership and Learning based in Sydney. Most recently Kate held the position of Executive Manager, Talent Management at CBA which incorporated the management of CBA’s high potential programs.

STA Travel has appointed Alex Trifonidis to the role of Human Resources Director.

Alex has most recently been working as Head of HR Strategy for InsuranceLine.

Alex brings a variety of experience having worked in a number of diverse industry sectors including professional services, telecommunications and automotive holding both specialist and generalist roles.

King and Wood Mallesons have promoted Tamsin Creed to the role of Head of People and Development Operations. Tamsin is well qualified to take up the role having joined the firm in 2008, and most recently she had undertaken the role of People and Development Centre Manager. Prior to joining Mallesons, Tamsin spent time working in the banking and retail sectors both in Australia and overseas.

SAP has appointed Lisa Christy to the role of Director of Human Resources. Christy joins SAP from Microsoft, where she was a Senior Human Resources Manager focusing on developing leadership capabilities and management excellence. Previously, Lisa was Senior Human Resources Director at Gartner Asia Pacific, managing the Human Resources strategy and operations across 12 countries.

Matt Gibbs is joining engineering services provider Engenco as their Group Manager, Human Resources/Industrial Relations.

Prior to joining Engenco, Matt spent six

years with Heinz culminating in his most recent role as General Manager Human Resources. Prior to this Matt held roles in the banking, FMCG and consulting sectors both here and overseas.

Rachel Fishenden has joined leading FMCG business Lion as a Leadership Capability Coach. Rachel joins Lion after having spent a significant period of time with Baxter Healthcare as Human Resources Manager. Prior to working with Baxter Healthcare, Rachel held Human Resources roles with both Western Sydney Area Health Service and The Children’s Hospital at Westmead in Sydney.

Paul Di Michael has recently been appointed as Head of Human Resources for Objective Corporation. Paul has held a number of Senior National and International Human Resources roles in the FMCG, telecommunications and logistics sectors.

Sarah Jones has joined AMP in the role of Head of Talent and Diversity, based in Sydney. Sarah joins AMP having previously worked with leading insurance group QBE as their Head of Talent and Workforce Planning.

Ruzika Soldo has been appointed as General Manager of Human Resources at YMCA Sydney. Ruzika has held roles across the public and private sectors in senior generalist positions and also

specialist roles including Learning and Development, Culture, Diversity and Engagement.

ACE Insurance have secured the appointment of David Dowe as Sales and Leadership Development Manager. David has held senior roles in the Learning and Development space for organisations such as Kraft, CBA, and more recently Bankwest.

Robyn Dunn has accepted the role of National HR Manager, Corporate Partners and Speciality with QBE. Most recently Robyn held the role of General Manager Human Resources with CBA, looking after their Wealth Management Division. Robyn has a distinguished career having held senior Human Resources roles in the public sector as well as the telecommunications, banking and professional services sectors.

By supplying Market Moves, The Next Step is not implying placement involvement in any way.

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FRONTLINE INTELLIGENCE

legal

Peter Doughman, Solicitor, Workplace Solutions Carroll & O’Dea Lawyers

The use of social media and implications for the employment relationship The almost universal usage of computers in the workplace and the emergence of new forms of social networking media such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are generating novel challenges for employers. Most employers are addressing the social media phenomenon by implementing acceptable use policies and/or monitoring employee internet usage in accordance with applicable surveillance legislation.

The issues relating to employees’ use of social media are not necessarily limited to employee usage whilst at work. Social media/networking sites allow individuals to freely advertise their personal details (such as employment status and details) and publish publicly-accessible opinions on a myriad of subjects including their employment. Posts or tweets by employees that disparage the employer or inappropriately purport to represent the employer’s opinion may give rise for legitimate disciplinary action.

CONTROL AND DISCIPLINARY ACTION

An employer is generally not entitled to restrict an employee’s activities outside of working hours, although a valid basis for control over such activities may arise if there is a sufficient connection to the employment activity. In McManus v Scott-Charlton a direction to an employee to refrain from particular out-of-hours conduct was held to be lawful where the conduct arose as a result of the employment relationship and where the conduct had substantial and adverse effects on the ‘efficient, equitable and proper conduct’ of the employer’s business. In Rose v Telstra, it was held that a dismissal for out-of-hours behaviour shall be valid if such conduct is likely to cause serious damage to the employment relationship or damage the 10

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employer’s interests.

However, employers should exercise caution when making decisions arising from employees’ use of social media and consider factors such as the connection to the employment, the potential audience for, and effect of, the relevant post or tweet.

This is clearly illustrated in the recent decision of Fitzgerald v Escape Hair Design, where an employee of a hair salon was dismissed for posting comments on her Facebook page disparaging her employer and her modest Christmas bonus. The employee disputed the fairness of the dismissal arguing that her status message could only be read by her Facebook ‘friends’ and that her employer was not identified.

It was determined that the Facebook posting may have undermined the strength of the employment relationship, but did not irretrievably damage the essential trust and confidence between employer and employee to justify the dismissal.

ENCOURAGEMENT AND ACQUIESCENCE

Alternatively, an employer may encourage or

even require an employee to engage in social media activities. In these circumstances, the employee engaging in such activities is likely to be considered a representative of the employer. Difficulties will arise if such an employee engages in social media activities that potentially damages the reputation or business of the employer. A well-known columnist was recently dismissed by a prominent national newspaper after she made several unsavoury tweets in relation to the 2010 Logie Awards. As the columnist was known for her editorials, readers’ outrage at the tweets was directed towards her employer. The employer publicly justified the dismissal by claiming that the employee’s views expressed in the tweets were not in keeping with the standards set by the employer. The columnist publicly defended her activities and criticised the decision, arguing that the private tweets were ‘taken out of context’ and likened Twitter to ‘passing notes in class’.

As the matter has not been the subject of determined proceedings, it is not clear whether the employer had in place a social media policy, or whether the columnist was subject to contractual conditions in relation to her personal publications and activities.

PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS

Both situations illustrate the need for employers to be cognisant of possible effects that employees’ use of new forms of social media can have on the employer’s operations. Employers should also be aware that an employee’s private use of social media can generally only form the basis for disciplinary proceedings if referable to the circumstances of employment. To minimise the risk of disputes, employers are advised to implement detailed social media policies and consider the use of disclaimers for work-related social networking.

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FRONTLINE INTELLIGENCE

HR consulting

Ed Hurst, Managing Director at Kenexa Australia Level 2, 451 Little Bourke St, Melbourne Phone (03) 9602 3899 or email ed.hurst@kenexa.com

What does it take to be an engaging organisation?

How to engage our people and create the organisational change that drives business results – that is a central issue for organisations, large and small. This perennial question emerges in a range of contexts, but one of the most prevalent is our response to employee surveys. Too often, surveys tapping into Employee Engagement, culture and other related factors end up simply being an exercise in gathering numbers – a tremendous missed opportunity – especially since an engaged workforce is critical to performance.

In a column published here a few months ago, I shared some of our experiences of driving effective change and performance based on the insights provided by employee surveys. Since that article appeared, Kenexa has concluded a major piece of research with a cross-section of our clients that simply asks one question: what do the organisations with the most engaged workforces do that is so different from everyone else?

This research draws on the experiences of the clients with whom we run employee surveys – targeting, from a list of over 270 organisations, those with the most engaged people. The industries involved include healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, hospitality, pharmaceuticals and IT. Nine of the organisations are global, but some were much smaller. It can truly be said that this research represents best practice across the world of work, not merely conclusions that apply in one industry, country or type of organisation.

When considering what successful organisations actually do to drive engagement, there is no single list of actions that we could all take, since every context, culture, workforce and strategy is different.

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The specifics vary – but there is, nevertheless, a set of approaches that highly successful organisations adopt from which we can learn.

Culture on Purpose – the most engaging organisations actively manage, communicate and measure their culture as their people actually experience it, ensuring that culture is something they nurture in a purposeful way; Mission and Vision is Personal – engaging organisations have a strong sense of purpose and mission, and devote resources to helping people to connect on a personal level with that vision, so that it is real, authentic and theirs; Define Engagement for Themselves – although the management of engagement is vital, it is better to use language that is linked to what people actually do and experience in their day-to-day lives; the focus is on the real-world factors that drive people’s sense of being valued and successful, not the language of the survey; Customer, Not Profit – employees are usually more sincerely motivated by meeting their customers’ needs than the profit that the company derives from its work; engaging organisations help employees to find meaning in their work through ‘the customer experience’; if this is done well, profit will follow, and in even greater measure as a result of your engaged workforce; Visible Leadership and Ownership – trusting and knowing your leaders is a vital underpinning of engagement and performance; it is a crucial ingredient of believing in your work and feeling inspired; one important way of supporting this ethos is the way that business leaders take accountability for engagement, treating it as crucial to their success rather than a peripheral, HR issue;

Open Communication – the most engaging organisations communicate often, openly and honestly, even when the message is tough; a genuine enthusiasm for this is critical; Right People in Meaningful Jobs – believing in what you are doing, having a meaningful work life and doing something for which you have a talent are all vital to engagement, demonstrating the clear link to assessment, selection, development and your talent pipeline; if we get these things right, engagement is ‘baked into the work’; Innovation and Growth – the most engaging organisations have clear, long-term goals for growth that are based on their people as the ‘growth engine’; this is linked to genuine investment and a culture that is not afraid of failure; Create Own Best Practice – these organisations consistently look for best practice from within themselves and learn from their best performers; although looking outside is important, there is a sense that, in engaging organisations, success comes from making the most of your own people; Never-Ending Journey – vitally, these organisations see engagement and improvement as a perpetual journey, every day, every year; it will never be ‘done’ or saved for better times; it is at the heart of their purpose all the time and we can always do better!

Consistently and effectively applied, these principles allow organisations to move from simply measuring engagement to driving it forwards – something that is critical to achieving business performance, whatever industry, region or organisation you work in.

For this research, I am indebted to the clients involved and to my colleague, Dr. Jeff Jolton.

FRONTLINE INTELLIGENCE

corporate health

Chris Rabba is General Manager, Peak Health Management, part of Bupa

The key to maximising workplace wellness engagement One of the most underestimated components of any corporate wellness strategy is employee engagement. The vitality and functionality of a corporate wellness program can simply be measured by the number of participants, and hence, should be an essential gauge of success.

So what are the key elements required to ensure maximum participation in your wellness initiative? How do you ensure you engage as many employees as possible? Here are some essential elements to consider.

ADVOCACY

Senior management endorsement can go a long way. A visible commitment from the CEO, for example, can set the scene for the entire program by highlighting the company’s support.

CO-CREATION

Engaging employees in the design and decision-making process can generate an element of buy in. Wellness Champions and Wellness Committees are a great way to enlist support and create advocates on the ground. Co-creation can ensure you are capturing your team’s needs and wants, paving the way for greater relevance at the program’s blueprint phase.

ACCESSIBILITY

Removing barriers to participation can assist in making it easier to take part in the program. Simple strategies can include: • A no-cost/low-cost model • Running the program’s activities in convenient locations on site

Senior management endorsement can go a long way.

A commitment from the CEO can set the scene for the entire program • Online solutions accessed from home • Catering for shift workers • Allowing employees to access the program during work time

TRANSPARENCY

It is important that the program comes across with no hidden agenda. Outlining the objective(s) upfront and ensuring privacy and confidentiality will assist in establishing participant confidence.

INCENTIVES

Incentives are a great way to stimulate participation without being the sole reason for participation. Creating a bias towards program users can assist in driving new participants whilst acting as a retention tool for current users.

RELEVANCE

The program needs to be relevant to the employee population in its content and format. The ‘what’s in it for me’ question should be answered. Areas for consideration include employee: • Demographics • Health risk profile • Education and literacy levels • Health areas of interest

APPEAL

The program needs to be broad in scope and design, and attract the masses. Interesting topics, novel approaches and interactive components and can all assist in engaging large numbers of employees.

AWARENESS

Crucial to any wellness initiative is effective marketing and communications. Strategies to achieve this can include: • Creating a wellness brand • Use of innovative communication mediums – eg. smartphone apps • Social media • Narrative • Social proofing • Selecting a key messenger – for example, bringing in a celebrity or credentialled health expert.

SATISFACTION

Word of mouth endorsement and quality programming can feed the participation cycle in a positive and engaged manner.

It can also stimulate new users as well as create program loyalty and advocacy.

HCAMAG.COM 13

FRONTLINE INTELLIGENCE

technology

Nick Southcombe is General Manager, Frontier Software. (03) 9639 0777 frontiersoftware.com

Your HRIS and Bullying Question: The subject of workplace bullying is very confusing and our organisation is struggling to stay abreast and manage our obligations. How can our HRIS help?

Answer: Workplace bullying is becoming increasingly prevalent in some Australian workplaces. We have seen some serious incidents which are so severe that laws are changing to protect employees. As the laws transform, it’s vital employers recognise their responsibilities and ensure employees understand their rights and the internal processes for reporting incidents. Your HRIS has a plethora of tools to help you manage your responsibilities effectively without increasing the daily workload on HR staff.

WHAT IS BULLYING?

Bullying is repeated, unreasonable behaviour and it’s not always intentional.

Often people are unaware that their actions may constitute bullying. That’s why it’s a good idea to run some education programs internally and make your policies clear.

Some examples of bullying include verbal abuse, isolating employees, intimidation, spreading rumours, unjustified criticism and even deliberately changing work rosters to inconvenience particular employees.

HOW TO AVOID BULLYING IN YOUR WORKPLACE

Employers must develop OH&S policies and procedures that address all OH&S requirements including physical harm, bullying and mental harm. All Australian jurisdictions require employers to have procedures and policies in place to manage anti-bullying efforts. If your HRIS has a Health & Safety module, it should be able to help you to manage these processes and the reporting of incidents or complaints.

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Education is key.

Your policies and procedures should be clearly displayed in the Employee Self Service solution.

It’s advisable to provide staff with harassment awareness training.

DEALING WITH ALLEGATIONS

If an employee raises a bullying allegation, employers have an obligation to protect the interests and privacy of all parties. Having an automated, security-rich HRIS in place will help you to manage the complaints in a timely and secure environment as well as keep a complete case history.

Education is key. Your policies and procedures should be clearly displayed in your Employee Self Service solution. It’s advisable to provide all employees with workplace harassment awareness training.

This training can be managed through the Learning and Education module of your HRIS. Your Learning and Education system will also maintain attendance records that will provide evidence (should it ever be needed) of your organisation’s

commitment to eradicating this alarming behaviour.

ON-BOARDING

To help eliminate bullying across the enterprise, it’s crucial that your policies are outlined during the on-boarding process. If your HRIS solution automates on-boarding, that’s even better. Then you are able to ensure that all new employees follow your company approved induction process which should include education regarding bullying, and the reporting process.

COSTS TO THE BUSINESS

It is no secret that bullying can be costly to the enterprise. While no Australia-specific surveys have been completed, the Productivity Commission cites various research to suggest that in the year 2000, approximately 350,000 people were bullied in Australian Workplaces at a cost of between $6bn and $13bn.

Bullying can lead to mental stress and result in workers compensation claims. The direct costs can include increased absenteeism, staff turnover, legal costs as well as reduced productivity. There are also indirect costs such as the negative impact on innovation and creativity, and the possibility of damage to the employer’s brand.

It’s well worth having performance measures in place to uncover bullying before it causes significant damage. This can be automated and managed through the Performance Management module of your HRIS. Frontier Software has asked our trusted legal advisors TressCox to prepare an eBook on the topic. The eBook is designed to show employers how to prevent bullying and understand best practices surrounding anti-bullying policies. Get your free copy at www.chris21.com.au/bullying.

FRONTLINE INTELLIGENCE Nick Southcombe is General Manager, Frontier Software. (03) 9639 0777 frontiersoftware.com

HCAMAG.COM 15

PROFILE KRISTA PARCELL

HR at ninemsn

The art of constant adaptation Few industries are as dynamic as digital media. HR professional Krista Parcell talks about dealing with constant change and creating engaging HR initiatives that connect with young workers In its simplest form, Krista Parcell’s role as ninemsn’s director of people & culture is about creating a dynamic workplace environment that enables employees to be the best that they can be, to harness their strengths and their creativity to bring innovation to the workplace. It is, she says with a laugh, a culture that allows people to bring their personalities to work, and “not a corporate stereotype of themselves”.

“Sometimes I have a wry smile as people are dressed a little too casually, but it’s certainly a very eclectic group of employees and that is really part of the culture. It’s about ensuring we create an environment where people can be creative and feel good – there’s lots of colourful hair, and I see Gen Y in very interesting outfits at times.

It’s a very exciting environment to be in.” ninemsn is home to some of the biggest brands online including Windows Live, Hotmail, Bing, Cudo and more than 80 sites including: National Nine News, Wide World of Sports, Grazia, The Australian Women’s Weekly, Cleo, Dolly and TheFIX. Reaching some 9.3 million people a month, ninemsn is the largest online portal in Australia.

With this in mind, ninemsn is a dynamic workplace that brings together a number of young, highly skilled professionals. The average age of an employee here is 28 – and ninemsn CEO Mark Britt is in his early 30s.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

Although Parcell is wary of entering into a debate on ‘generational wars’ at work – she believes it’s been over hyped – she concedes there are differences between generations, but these come about as social norms change, as technology advances, and we interact differently.

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“There are certainly differences but I don’t think we need to play so much on those,” she says. “The more interesting challenge is ensuring we’re catering to the diversity of your employee group, regardless of whether that diversity is around age or around different cultural experiences, and even around different values and how they present at work.”

She adds that it’s about understanding where people are within their individual life cycle as well. Flexible work practices, she says, may be important not just for people who are having kids, but it might also be appealing for people who are training to do a triathlon, or people who are learning how to cook, or doing something outside of work they are passionate about.

That said, with such a youthful staff, Parcell is in a unique position to track what’s important to a younger demographic. In terms of what employees expect from ninemsn, two things stand out: a commitment to social responsibility and diverse career paths.

“There’s an element of social responsibility that comes to the forefront more with Gen Y than it has with other generations. What I mean by that is while there’s always been an element of being socially responsible as a company, organisational success for Gen Ys tends to look a little bit different; it’s not just about how successful the company is from the monetary or financial perspective, but it’s also about how the company uses those assets or those skills to then support the community.” ninemsn employees undertake volunteer work with The Australian Business and Community Network (ABCN) and KidsXpress, that enables employees to use skills they have in the workplace in a way that benefits

IN HER OWN WORDS...

Pulch Photography, pulchphotography.com

What achievement are you most proud of in your career?

For me, it’s not a big bang thing, it’s nothing specific; for me, when I feel good about my role and what I’ve done it’s when I’ve had a really tough interaction with somebody, and they’ve walked away feeling okay about that. Their sense of self is still intact.

They might not like the outcome but they feel like they’ve been treated with respect and dignity and treated well as a person. It’s the downside of the job but it’s also your opportunity as an HR practitioner to show how you do value people – it’s one of those moments of truth.

those out in the community. “It’s really important for Gen Y,” says Parcell. “Just having the traditional day off to volunteer isn’t enough – you need to have something that’s far more impactful and talks to a greater purpose.”

In terms of career prospects, Parcell says younger workers are particularly interested in seeing some diversity in their career paths instead of the hierarchical process of moving up through the organisation.

“For example, it’s not, ‘If I go from one role to the next to the next it’s mapped out forever more that I will be a producer.’ It’s about being able to traverse across different functions and develop different skills within the organisation and create a meaningful career that has breadth and depth in experience.”

From there, Parcell adds, it’s about HR providing the structures to ensure people are remunerated appropriately even if they are not necessarily moving up the corporate ladder, but are adding a different level of skill or are broadening their skill base.

Parcell feels this flexible and tailored approach to career development is one of the major benefits for an organisation of ninemsn’s size (around 380 employees).

She adds that the whole process is made much easier by having leaders who take an interest in employee development, and who encourage a culture whereby those career discussions are commonplace – not just once a year.

MANAGING CREATIVITY

Personal file: Krista Parcell Family: A wonderful husband, Robert,and two beautiful stepchildren, Jack and Ruby.

Favourite sports: Rugby union and tennis.

Favourite movie or TV: Spooks (ABC1).

Best advice ever received: That in any given moment most people are doing the best they can. It might not be up to your standard, or your best, but it’s the best they have in them at that moment – and you need to respect and work on that.

Start with the trust bucket full!

Self-described: Pragmatic, giving,

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decisive, good at juggling, and fun.

Hobbies: I love cooking up a storm with my friends, or for my friends and family.

First job and/or worst job: First job – I’ll give you two very contrasting jobs I was doing simultaneously. I was a flute teacher for a primary school, and I was also in the army reserve as a cadet officer.

If not in HR: Tongue-in-cheek, I have to say ASIO. I’d have loved to have done that.

Also medicine, probably my first love, but it wasn’t to be. So HR is the next best thing, feeling that I’m helping in a different way.

A notoriously tricky aspect of managing creative workers, where output can be subjective and not necessarily tied to rigid KPIs, is performance management. Does Parcell feel there are significant differences in how these employees are assessed? “The challenge is to remember that while you’re taking people through a career path in an organisation and they’re doing a job, that you’re tying that as much as you can to the individual and not creating a rigid HR process structure – or box-checking process – for each person.”

Parcell says that it’s not just restricted to employees with a creative bent. She finds the same principles apply to technically skilled employees such as ninemsn’s data mining experts, for example.

“They have very different perspectives on the world as well,” she says. “So our frame of reference is more around having individual conversations with people rather than one holistic framework. Each role and each function will be different, and that means a level of agility is required by the HR team in order to cope with that.”

CHANGE AGENT

In a young and dynamic industry, quick reactions and constant change are expected. Parcell says her life has been nothing but change – “I’ve almost stopped talking about change, but rather I frame it as a constant

PROFILE KRISTA PARCELL

HR at ninemsn adaptation to what’s happening environmentally and organisationally.”

She cites one recent example: an overhaul of the company’s values, which were changed due to the realisation that the existing values did not resonate with employees in a meaningful way.

After consultation and brainstorming sessions among employees and executives, the company moved away from “corporate speak” ideals to several values that are simple and concise: being brave, smart, humble, and giving a sh*t about what people do every day. “That last one is very un-PC for a P&C department,” Parcell laughs.

“But it resonates really well with how we approach work, everyone gets what it means, it’s different, and we live and breathe it every day.”

HR’S FUTURE

Looking to the future, Parcell believes there will be two significant shifts in her profession. The first revolves around L&D: “I believe there will be a shift in looking more towards harnessing employee strengths rather than always focusing on deficits from the development perspective. I often see talent plans that have the development area clearly marked rather than focusing

on some of the strengths people have and how they can utilise those strengths in a variety of ways, rather than perhaps using it in the traditional manner,” she says.

Secondly, she believes HR will increasingly have more meaningful relationships with their CEOs. “Mark sees the culture and the people piece as both of us working together. We own that together. From my perspective, that means that while I’m responsible for ensuring the nuts and bolts of HR tick over, I’ll have absolute support from the CEO to implement things, to change things, and to shape things with him and the executive team.”

Her tips for working more effectively with the CEO? “You’ve got to listen, sit back and really understand where the CEO wants to take the business; understand what it is you’re trying to create. Secondly, HRDs need to do their due diligence on their CEOs before they start to work for them. Understand what’s important to the CEO. Is the people piece important, and how do their values match with yours? If you have a misalignment in values there will be a clash and it will be hard work.”

More industry profiles at:

hcamag.com

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INTERNATIONAL HR COVER STORY

HR and globalisation

Is it unreasonable to expect Australian HR directors to know the ins and outs of dealing with a global workforce?

Iain Hopkins looks at what role HR plays in the relentless globalisation of business operations

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Volatile IR. Uncertain economic conditions.

A dearth of talent. Retention issues. Engagement woes… the list goes on – and that’s just for Australian operations.

Now imagine your business is setting up operations in emerging markets – perhaps it’s China. As an HR professional, what should you be across? What does the business expect you to know? Can you apply the same rules that worked for expansion into the developed world? And why, indeed, is your business looking beyond these traditional domains in the first place?

PageUp People’s 2012 white paper Into High Growth Markets highlighted that while there continues to be great opportunities in the developed world, including markets in the US and Europe, they are facing tough economic times and slow recovery rates, alongside market saturation and intense competition. Yet while emerging markets have their own problems, growth does not appear to be one of them. The International Monetary Fund world forecasts paint the picture very clearly. World GDP growth for 2012 is forecast at 4.5%.

But this average is distributed very unevenly, between the advanced economies at 2.6% and the high growth economies at 6.5%.

The emerging nations offer deep, lucrative and relatively untapped markets.

However, seeing the possibilities and realising them are not the same. How should MNCs be mobilising their HR functions to support this growth? For practical reasons, and to avoid gross generalisations, this article will look at growth into Asia-Pacific areas, with a primary focus on China.

EXECUTING ON STRATEGY

Sylvia Vorhauser-Smith, senior VP of research at PageUp People, suggests that the top priority on HR agendas is something familiar to any HRD struggling with the local skills shortage: that is, structuring the workforce to enable the organisation to execute on strategy. This is naturally complicated by the nature of global workforces.

For example: What is the optimal ratio of expats to locals going to be at both leadership and employee levels? Can the expats be brought up to speed quickly enough to be able to assimilate into the culture and build the relationships that they need?

“If you take a country like China, the social angle and the social community angle is much stronger in the emerging world than it is in ours,” Vorhauser-Smith says.

“Business relationships are not just there to complete the transaction or to achieve a specific task or outcome.

People won’t deal with you unless they trust you. If I’m setting up an operation over there in Asia, I can’t just assume that I’m going to be able to do what I did here and then simply and easily export it to China.”

There are pros and cons for expatriate representation in local subsidiaries: arguments for expatriates include more successful global strategy implementation, technical and management knowledge transfer, coordination of foreign departments and human resource development. However, offsetting these benefits to a greater or lesser degree are the high costs of expatriation (3-5 times base salary), high failure rates and poor repatriation rates.

THE TALENT

With the global population reaching seven billion, there has never been a larger pool of potential human resources. Yet critical qualified talent, where and when organisations need it, remains in short supply. China produces 8.5 million graduates per year; however, less than 10% of these are suitable to work for MNCs. Inequalities in standards of education also mean that only 25% of Indian and 20% of Russian professionals are considered employable by MNCs. For MNCs, Vorhauser-Smith says that maintaining adequate stocks of human capital requires the management of a global workforce, balancing expatriate and local skills and developing global mindsets. For example, competencies such as a cosmopolitan outlook,

“Business relationships are not just there to complete the transaction or to achieve a specific task or outcome. People won’t deal with you unless they trust you” – SYLVIA VORHAUSER-SMITH thirst for adventure and intercultural empathy are included in the success profile of high-performing global workers.

While it’s well accepted that organisations compete for top talent, it’s perhaps less obvious that geographic locations also compete for talent. Measured by a number of factors including physical and infrastructural factors, knowledge and technology and quality of life, the consistently top-rated cities, based on MNC expatriates living there, are the key financial centres of the world (New York, London, Paris) with Asia represented only by Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo, none of which could be classified as emerging markets. Less appealing cities find it more difficult to attract the world’s best talent.

It’s also worth noting that the cost of skilled labour has increased in China by between 10% and 40%, and in India by around 35% – clearly a blow for companies looking to gain benefits from offshoring operations and the accompanying labour arbitrage benefits in those countries. Vorhauser-Smith comments that the Chinese government has established some very aggressive policies to accelerate economic growth, such as increasing minimum wages. “The government is really keen to put more money in the hands of local consumers so that they can actually live off their own economy rather than rely on exports internationally,” she says.

The nature of this talent is also changing. Traditionally a source of unskilled labour, countries like China are now being scoured for skilled labour – and local Chinese companies are competing for that same talent.

HCAMAG.COM 21

INTERNATIONAL HR COVER STORY

HR and globalisation Vorhauser-Smith says that local Chinese companies, even the state owned enterprises, are paying as much or more than multinationals for highly skilled labour, so a price war is happening; alternatively MNCs are looking at other territories such as Vietnam or the Philippines.

They’re also upping their overall incentives. Career opportunities used to be a unique selling point for foreign multinationals, but now there are so many huge Chinese corporates that have overseas operations that a large number of skilled Chinese workers are reversing the trend, moving from multinationals back to the local companies.

“Partly it’s because there’s job security and also they’ll be working with Chinese-speaking managers, who they understand better,” she says. “There’s also a sense that they’re getting tired of acting as translators for multinational expats and having this feeling of not being able to get up into leadership ranks because expats keep taking those roles.”

To combat this, MNCs are increasing the skills of the workforce by establishing local corporate colleges and corporate universities, or are striking deals with local universities to support and share that knowledge.

To ease the perception that there is a ‘ceiling’ on the promotion of local managers, some forward-thinking MNCs are pursuing what ManpowerGroup calls a ‘reverse expat strategy’. A reverse expat is a local manager who is placed at the helm of a Western-based company’s emerging-market business and then rotated through some of the company’s more mature operations outside of that market. The reverse expat shadows and role-plays with local leaders; observes and absorbs protocols, processes and practices; and develops a plan for quickly adapting any relevant developed-market practices to the developing country.

MNCs are also fine-tuning their employee benefits to make them as appealing as possible to local workforces.

Vorhauser-Smith says that English language skills development remains consistently highly regarded in Asia-Pacific, even by senior executives. “They want to be able to show that they’ve been to an English speaking college or university. It looks good on their resume and makes them very marketable back home.”

Pattie Walsh, partner, head of employment, pensions & benefits, Asia Pacific, DLA Piper Australia, echoes this, and adds that branding remains an important

Cross-cultural communication: all about context The human factor associated with communication across cultures adds colour and dimension, as well as complexity and potential for misunderstandings. Many models depicting cultural differences have evolved. One that is particularly useful in understanding how and why cultures differ is the context versus content model described by anthropologist Edward T Hall.

High context

Arabia

China

Japan

Greece

Low context

Mexico Spain Italy

US

UK

France

High context In a high-context culture, there are many contextual elements that help people to understand the rules. As a result, much is taken for granted. This can be very confusing for a person who does not understand the ‘unwritten rules’ of the culture.

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Low context In a low-context culture, very little is taken for granted. Whilst this means that more explanation is needed, it also means there is less chance of misunderstanding, particularly when visitors are present.

Contrasting the two American content, on one hand, is low-context and so contracts tend to be longer in order to explain the detail. On the other hand, a high-context culture would have shorter contracts since a lot of the content would be assumed knowledge.

Highly mobile environments where people come and go need lower-context culture. With a stable population, however, a higher context culture may develop.

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A career move?

For the HR professional who has themselves spent time overseas, perhaps in a rapid growth area like China, what does this mean for their employment prospects back home?

Human Capital asks Craig Mason, director of specialty HR recruiter The Next Step: “I think employers generally look at offshore experience favourably, as the type of person who puts themselves out there and gives themselves that challenge is usually positively thought of as being proactive and resilient.

However, there are times that I think the Australian market is somewhat myopic, and there would be plenty of returnees that would suggest that they feel as though they’ve possibly not been looked upon as favourably because they are not so up-to-speed with the local legislation or not so up-tospeed with the local issues. It’s one of those things that I say to people, if going overseas interests you personally, it will add to you professionally, but don’t think it’s necessarily going to help when you return to Australia.”

consideration for many Asia-Pacific workers. “The brightest and best are very tied to brand, and they know their next move will be determined on having had time at an international brand. In China, where you’re dealing with headquarters based elsewhere, they will know that the closer they get to native English, the greater their opportunities will be. Even very senior individuals who have spent time abroad will always look to advance and develop their English. That means you’re part of the club, you can deal with the CEO when he comes out. That can’t be underestimated.”

For expats, too, there is an evolution in terms of how relocation packages are being put together. For example, an employee sent to Hong Kong 10 years ago would have expected a large housing allowance and a significant education allowance. These days employers face a problem: many local senior employees will not be on that deal. Walsh adds that recent discrimination legislation in Hong Kong has focused on this, with the result that there’s a ‘carve out’ for expat packages under Hong Kong law.

Walsh also warns that despite the natural focus on what happens for secondees ‘on the way out’, there’s not enough thought put into what happens on their return.

“You often find people come back, but it’s not terribly well handled.

What happens to me next? How am I integrated back home? I took great skills away with me on secondment, what am I bringing back? Let’s say you go into China or anywhere in Asia. What you’re bringing back is so valuable but it doesn’t seem to be valued as it should,” says Walsh.

GLOBAL STANDARDS

Looking more broadly, HR is often in a difficult “meat in the sandwich” position when it comes to corporate governance and CSR – particularly

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when charged with implementing and upholding universal policies and values such as integrity.

“You find yourself working in markets where those values aren’t necessarily the values of the individuals there and in fact doing business contravenes those values if they’re taken to the letter of the law,” suggests Vorhauser-Smith. “You’ve got to start thinking about flexibility and being able to implement those policies into a different environment and business context.”

Very different definitions and interpretations of ethics and standards can apply in high-growth markets.

From arduous and complex bureaucratic requirements through to expectations of pay-offs and bribes, it can be challenging to get things done.

Corruption in business practice is defined as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. Examples include: • bribery of government officials • commercial bribery, corrupt activities for financial gain • misreporting or concealment in accounting records • use of third parties, agents, consultants in bribery schemes • facilitating payments • travel, entertainment, gift giving A typical example is a salesperson trying to sell computer products in China; if they worked for a local company there would be gift-giving, and they might undercut the original transaction to something way below profitability just to start building a relationship.

A multinational employee, on the other hand, is likely to go in with the mindset of making a profit, doing business above board, and frowning upon anything they would classify as unethical. However, more often than not the purchaser would favour the local company employee, resulting in the MNC employee struggling to reach sales targets.

“This situation forces the HR function to sit back and think about things like global policy as not being ‘here’s a document, follow these rules’ … there really needs to be flexibility to compensate for different environments because of course in that example the Chinese locals wouldn’t even necessarily see that practice as being corrupt, and they’d probably be offended by the fact that anyone would think that was unethical,” says Vorhauser-Smith.

THE LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS

The first level of recognition for HR professionals based in Australia and sending employees overseas is the complexity of the legislative framework: understanding the legal requirements involved in moving a person from Australia into Asia, and what impact both local and Australian laws have on that move.

Andrew Ball, partner, workplace relations, employment & safety at DLA Piper Australia, concedes

INTERNATIONAL HR COVER STORY

HR and globalisation that “very few people look at this issue”, yet it can and does have an impact. The Fair Work Act, for example, will apply to employees who have been engaged in Australia but will work overseas. Taking termination as just one example, Ball says the unfair dismissal laws and adverse action, which were introduced under Fair Work Act, will come into play.

Another example is the Long Service Leave Act. For an employee who starts their service in Australia for around five years, goes to China for three years with the same company, comes back to Australia and works another two years, the issue is whether they will be entitled to long service leave based on the whole period of service.

There are issues around superannuation. What happens in relation to pensions and benefits? Is there a bilateral treaty in place – which it often comes down to – between Australia and the country where the employee is going to or coming from?

Where it hits a little closer to home for the employees is the terms and conditions – the documentation they get across the desk that they are asked to sign off on.

Ball explains: “The issues that employees often bring to their HR managers are, if I’m going to work overseas, will I be compensated in some way for doing that, what

taxation advice will I receive, what will the relocation package be and what does that include – for instance, moving family, dogs, furniture, and what will happen when the assignment ends – will I be repatriated on the same terms and conditions that I had before?”

This last point is one that is often forgotten, yet in a fast-moving world, it can’t be ignored. The repatriation of the employee after they’ve completed the international assignment will often be put into the contract, including details of whether the employee will return to the same or a comparable position. But what happens if that position no longer exists? What entitlements apply? Is it a redundancy or straight termination of employment?

On a purely practical level, Ball adds that “the deal” between the home country employer in Australia and the host company needs to be clearly articulated: who’s going to pay for what? How is it going to be treated in accounts?

Who’s going to stump up the money for the tax advice?

“All those issues come up, which often the employee never sees but HR have to deal with via their counterpart overseas,” he says.

Is it rare for an Australian HRD to have knowledge of the legislation in China? Walsh believes so.

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INTERNATIONAL HR COVER STORY

HR and globalisation

There are different rules, every jurisdiction plays diiferently – Hong Kong is entirely different to China, and it’s different again from Japan or Korea “There usually won’t be a great deal of knowledge held by the HRD based in Australia about the jurisdiction to which the individual is going, and I think it can’t be expected. The big misconception is that Asia is one large entity. There are different rules; every jurisdiction plays differently – Hong Kong is entirely different to China, and it’s different again from Japan or Korea.

Generalisations tend not to work, but people like generalisations. You can do it at that level but the devil is in the detail,” Walsh says.

International mobility can be further complicated by dual employment rights. This can impact on something as seemingly straightforward as secondment. Typically, a secondment letter will be drawn up, ‘home’ remains the employer and the employee is seconded to whatever the entity is overseas. That may work fine for the Australian

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employer, but it may not have the same meaning in China or Thailand, for example, where it may be necessary to have a contract with a local entity, a local sponsor.

Walsh explains: “The local HR professional goes to their drawer, pulls out a template Chinese or Thai agreement and lodges it to get the visa. On termination – and this happens all the time – you may have carefully constructed an Australian contract and everyone will think we’re playing by Australian rules, but when asked if any local documents were lodged, and the answer comes back that a template contract was lodged with local authorities, suddenly the employee has local statutory rights as well.

“Once again the construct you’re putting on something at home has to be understood in the local context.”

Both Walsh and Ball reiterate that at the very least, Australian HR professionals need to have their documentation right.

“The thing I find challenging is lack of thought about who is the entity. Get the entity names right, get the express governing law right, and even if you then get an argument about having local governing law as well, at the very least have in place the best possible documentation to give you something to negotiate with. Sometimes HR sees the documentation as an admin task, but for us it’s the first thing we look at: who’s the entity, who’s the assignment to, what are the terms of the agreement,” says Walsh.

Ball adds that the documentation should involve all three parties, either as a tripartite agreement or perhaps more commonly a document between the home country employer and the employee, and a document between the home country employer and the host country employer.

“Once you’ve got that you almost iron out all the issues relating to the two country organisations – you say, ‘Okay you’ll be paid from their payroll but we’ll remain the employer.’ It’s very clear.”

HELP NEEDED – AND REQUIRED

While in Australia it’s well-known that only registered migration agents can provide advice in relation to work visas, it’s less well-known that in some jurisdictions, Hong Kong included, breaches of labour law and immigration law are criminal offences – and criminal liability goes down the food chain to the decision makers and managers. “Sending someone to Hong Kong who doesn’t have a work visa isn’t something to be taken lightly – there are potentially criminal sanctions. It looks like some of it is admin and process – and some of it is – but the ramifications can be quite serious,” says Walsh.

Ball adds: “Remember this is a three-party operation – the Australian employer and employee need to make sure they have liaised with their counterpart overseas to make sure it is compliant with those laws.”

REDUNDANCIES

While the focus of this article has been on the hiring and retention side of international hires, in the current uncertain global economy it’s hard to avoid talk of reducing headcount. Again, multijurisdictional reductions in workforce can be complicated so Walsh recommends a few fundamentals: •One size can’t fix all and local knowledge helps: every jurisdiction will be quirky – as just one example, how you calculate wages for payment in lieu of notice will be different in Australia, China and Hong Kong.

•Beware of tight timetables: it will be necessary to notify unions and governments and provide time for consultation. “This is absolutely critical if you’ve got an ongoing relationship with government and unions in that country – you can’t flaunt those. You have to play with whatever the local rules are. If Shanghai takes three months to go through your redundancy plans, that’s what it will do,” says Walsh.

•Beware also of definitions of redundancy: what might be accepted as a legitimate redundancy in Australia might not be sanctioned in China.

While there are many to choose from, Ball provides

just one example of a ‘local quirk’. In Australia, every employment award contains a notification and consultation provision if an employer is implementing redundancies.

These awards can have broad effect. The banking/ finance and insurance award, for example, can apply to quite senior people. Therefore an overseas investment bank that makes redundancies worldwide will be confronted by a notification and consultation clause that they probably wouldn’t think of for their senior staff.

Similar quirks occur all over the world.

“The key is more lead-in time, and to have greater knowledge of what local conditions are before implementation,” says Ball.

Indeed, it’s perhaps best to look to the past for some sage advice for the future. Two well-known proverbs seem especially relevant. An ancient German proverb says that fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

An ancient Chinese proverb states that everything can be done with enough perseverance. While HR professionals might heed both, they might also be tempted to slightly amend the second proverb to: ‘Everything can be done with enough perseverance – and time.’

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INTERNATIONAL HR

china insight

What’s your China strategy?

Tasked with helping to expand operations into China? What separates the heroes from the zeroes is the ability to hit the ground with both a plan and the flexibility to update it on the fly.

Morry Morgan provides some advice before you start packing So you are tasked with helping expand your business into China, eh? Many have tried and, sadly, many have failed.

Chalk up eBay, BestBuy and the better part of Google on the board. But while these businesses went out with a bang – often with wreaths laid at their China headquarters – because they underestimated their consumer, or in Google’s case, the government, more companies disappear without fanfare, because they underestimate the Chinese employment environment. China is in a serious ‘War for Talent’, and it’s costing (businesses) lives.

UNIQUE TALENT CHALLENGES

‘The War for Talent’ was first coined by Steven Hankin of McKinsey & Co back in 1997. Hankin was originally referring to the demographic shift, primarily in Europe and the US, as retirees outstripped new, and qualified, recruits. However, while China is in a war of its own, it is not the ageing population that is the cause – most Chinese retiring today grew up when relationships, not computer skills, determined career advancement.

Instead, it is enormous economic growth coupled to the mismatch of Chinese education and international business acumen. The cultural phenomenon of rote learning, a focus on grades before experience, and a society that is only now realising the importance of innovation has caused this mess. So much so, that while 6.6 million university graduates entered the workforce in 2011, Hudson reported that of 670 executives in China, 73% stated that it would still be tough to recruit top talent, citing ‘skills shortage’ as the top challenge.

This kind of news is terrifying for Australian and Asia-Pacific HR directors who have the mission to build a workforce linked to a China expansion strategy. But then again, nothing in China is easy, so why should recruitment be any different? Operation directors complain of poor quality, sales directors complain of 28

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corrupt buyers, and finance directors complain of erratic changes to taxation and reporting legislation. All this ‘ma fan’ (Chinese for ‘trouble’) is just the barrier to entry. The proverbial ‘toll you must pay’. Accept it, and focus on building a competitive edge – talent attraction.

BUILDING A TALENT PIPELINE IN CHINA

Since you will probably be hiring a large bulk of your staff from the youth market, it’s important to understand how they tick. You may be surprised. In 2011, the MRI China Group conducted a survey, which included 2,265 Chinese aged between 25 and 37. One question that drew considerable attention was: ‘Why do you choose to remain in your company?’ The top three answers were: • Career development • Team camaraderie • Work-life balance Interestingly, ‘pay’ was not in the medal rankings.

Asked what attracts them to a job, a separate study by Aon Hewitt within a similar Chinese demographic reported (as one, two, three) found: • L&D • Company reputation • Career opportunities Again, no mention of salary within the top three motivators.

This should come as a shock to anyone who has spent time in China over the past 10 to 15 years, since jobhopping, over the barest of salary rises, was commonplace among white-collar workers.

Unfortunately, those job-hoppers are still prevalent, only this time it’s less over pay and more over maintaining a 40-hour work week and being home for dinner.

Aon Hewitt’s report, while supporting the research of MRI, is also a reminder that a strong employer brand is beneficial to increasing the access to talent – 20% more by

some accounts. But what’s more interesting is the move away from multinational companies towards some unexpected benefactors. In 2010 the Chinese-English language newspaper, Global Times, reported that while “just 10 years ago, only about 2,000 university students joined the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) each year” that number in “last winter’s intake was more than 130,000 university students”. To paraphrase, just ‘being foreign’ is no longer enough. Now, not only do Australian brands need to compete against the Global 1000 companies for top quality staff, but local government and State-Owned Enterprises are now taking a chunk of the talent.

But smart (and that means tech-savvy) companies need not fret. They understand that nowhere is there a bigger internet penetration than China, with 384 million active users – an irony that is not lost on many, who complain of internet censorship. But while Facebook, Twitter and YouTube (among a growing list of around 2,600 sites) are blocked in China, there are home-grown SNSs (that’s ‘geek-speak’ for Social Networking Sites) that are ideal platforms to connect to your potential employees and build a strong employer brand. Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo are Twitter copies, and Kaixin and RenRen both mirror Facebook. While LinkedIn isn’t blocked (although it has had its ups and downs in the past), it also has a decent Shanghai-born competitor called Ushi. LinkedIn boasts around 1.5 million active users in Mainland China, compared to Ushi’s 700,000. However, Ushi’s founder, Dominic Penaloza, boasts that half of LinkedIn’s China-based numbers are expatriates, and they are not growing. Ushi, by contrast is predicted to “hit three million users in China within a year”. That’s why Australian businesses are recommended to add ‘social media expert’ to all HR job descriptions.

But then again, maybe you won’t target the Chinese at all. That might sound strange, but thanks to the GFC, the continued stagnation of economies in Europe and the US, and the pull of China as the ‘place to be in business’, foreigners are eager to take up jobs, often at close to, or equal to, local wages. Says Chris Hughes, a director of healthcare insurance company PIBB, “It’s possible to hire 20 foreign insurance experts for around 25K-30K Chinese yuan. But for every 20 experts there’s only one Chinese, and so the local talent expects 80K or more.” This opinion is also voiced by the CEO of Bayer Healthcare, who says that he is struggling to hire senior Chinese managers, as their wage demands were too high.

While Bayer wanted to hire locally, they still had to bring over Europeans to fill senior positions.

You can now see how so many foreign companies have stumbled. While there are hundreds of books focusing on doing business in China (I should know, one of them is mine!), most are simply out-of-date before they hit the ‘new release’ shelves. What separates the heroes from the zeroes is the ability to hit the ground with both a plan and the flexibility to update it on the fly. In China’s 5,000 years of history nowhere was it written that business here was easy. But one thing is for sure, China will be here a long time after the ‘Googles’ of this world have come and gone.

Further information: Morry Morgan will be presenting in Melbourne and Sydney on his ‘What is your China strategy?’ tour. The upcoming dates are: May 1 – Melbourne, Regus Business Centre, Level 27, Rialto South Tower, 525 Collins Street. May 3 – Sydney, Regus Business Centre, Level 37, Citigroup Centre, 2 Park Street. Email: admin@clarkmorgan.com or Phone: (03) 9650 1598.

About the author: Morry Morgan is the author of Selling Big to China, co-founder of China-based ClarkMorgan Corporate Training and publisher of Network HR magazine. Born in Melbourne, he has been based in Shanghai since 2001.

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INTERNATIONAL INTERNATIONAL HR HR

migration

Breaking down the barriers While Australia’s immigration policy has evolved reasonably well in addressing the skilled labour needs of the Australian economy, employers are urged to ‘watch this space’ when it comes to long overdue policy reform For many Australian companies the concept of a ‘borderless workforce’ is extremely difficult to grasp – but the hard fact is, Australia doesn’t have enough of the right skills to sustain current projects.

In some circles, this has been referred to as the talent and demographic mismatch.

The driving factor for companies deciding to source talent overseas is scarcity, as skills shortages in various regions and sectors across Australia are forcing employers to look overseas for the talent they need.

According to ManpowerGroup Australia & New Zealand’s managing director, Lincoln Crawley, the world’s borderless workforce – the migration of talent across and within national boundaries – is growing rapidly in size.

“Employers need to take a sophisticated approach to managing their talent supply and demand, in order to win the escalating war for talent. This means including a talent mobility strategy in their overall plan to combat skills shortages,” Crawley says.

Crawley says employers must collaborate with governments and educators in creating more dynamic sourcing opportunities, at least regionally. Given the 30

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complexity of Australia’s immigration laws, and a lingering parochialism in terms of Australia’s relations with the rest of the world, this is easier said than done.

Crawley sums up the dark cloud hanging over the mobility programs of many organisations: “More work opportunities are surfacing across more global markets, but labour laws have traditionally been local. The hard fact is, Australia doesn’t have enough of the right skills to sustain current projects. So if we want to survive, we must consider ourselves part of a region, working closer with our Asia-Pacific neighbours and the opportunities they provide for sharing workforces across borders.”

THE GRIM REALITY

Just how easy (or difficult) is it for organisations to source talent from overseas? A recent discussion paper by professional services firm Deloitte, titled The New Immigration Paradigm, slammed current immigration laws as being outdated and no longer serving the needs of Australia in light of the burgeoning skills shortage.

The paper suggested that innovative solutions are needed to meet the challenges of the current economic

environment, namely an overhaul of outdated immigration legislation.

Mark Wright, partner at Deloitte and national immigration leader, says that the current environment is increasing demand for a coordinated approach to workforce planning, where new government policies and employee relations need to be considered.

“Traditionally, immigration has been about ‘ticking boxes’ in order to bring offshore labour in to fill a role, but we need to stop thinking about immigration policy in isolation from other workforce solutions,” Wright says.

He adds that a more targeted approach to addressing Australia’s skills needs is required, namely by moving some of the centralised control away from Canberra and allowing states and regions greater input and control over the flow of skilled workers on a needs basis.

ManpowerGroup’s Borderless Workforce survey revealed that some Australian regions have embraced a global workforce more than others, with Western Australia leading the way. Nearly half (47%) of WA employers are using foreign talent to supplement their workforce.

Western Australia has been forced to think more

strategically about labour supply – in some ways, attracting workers from overseas is easier than enticing them across from the Eastern states – but it faces an uphill battle unless changes are made to Australia’s migration policies.

To address the short-term or periodic demands of companies or regions suffering the effects of skill shortages, and given Australia is in the throes of a multi-speed economy, Deloitte recommends that consideration should be given to extending the use of State Skilled Migration Plans to include temporary business entry. State governments or regional authorities should be given policy scope to develop local programs appropriate to their specific needs.

“Ensuring that the recently introduced Regional Migration

DID YOU KNOW?:

Deloitte Access Economics has undertaken labour force modelling based on scenarios developed by Skills Australia to help understand likely future skill requirements.

Based on a high growth scenario, Skills Australia’s Australian Workforce Futures document estimates there will be 9.3 million job openings in Australia over the next 15 years – 4.8 million as a result of economic growth, and 4.4 million as replacement jobs for retiring workers. Australia’s current total employment is only 11 million.

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SkillSelect – the new paradigm By golly – did the New Zealanders get this right?

Introducing SkillSelect – the ‘new’ system which provides significant changes as to how Australia manages its skilled migration program. I assure you, we are not in New Zealand, but rather, home, and approximately four hours’ travel time away from our cousins.

Come 1 July 2012 in Australia, gone will be the days when a skilled migrant can make an application direct with the Department of Immigration and Citizenship under the skilled migration pathway. The new system requires skilled migrants to record their details to be considered for a skilled visa through an Expression of Interest (EOI). Only individuals who receive an invitation can then proceed to make application for skilled migration.

The EOI is expected to have advantages for all parties – the prospective migrant, the employer, the state and territory governments – Australia as a whole! The EOI will allow

for skilled migrants intending to migrate to Australia not only to register their interest, but also to be found and nominated for skilled visas by Australian employers or state and territory governments.

Employers can search SkillSelect using a range of criteria such as the skilled worker’s occupation, qualifications or English language ability. Employers will be able to view details of skilled workers and then make contact with them to discuss sponsorship and employment.

Employers will need an AUSKey to use SkillSelect. To obtain an AUSKey or find out more, employers should visit the AUSKey website (auskey.abr.gov.au) What a solution! Thank you, New Zealand – we hope it works here just as well as it works over the pond.

About the author: Marsha Bassily is principal solicitor & registered migration agent [MARN 0701366] at MB Lawyers.

For further information visit MBLs.com.au.

Phone (02) 8999 8012 or email mbassily@ mbls.com.au

Agreements [RMAs] and Enterprise Migration Agreements [EMAs] allow states greater flexibility in sourcing workers would be a first step in achieving that,” Wright says.

The RMAs, introduced as part of the last federal budget, are designed to identify and address the skill shortages currently facing many parts of regional Australia.

These agreements will see employers, local and state governments and unions collaborating on workforce strategies that support the growth of skills and employment in the local area.

The RMAs will see a range of stakeholders provide input into developing strategies specific to their region by identifying where the shortages exist in terms of skills, industry and jobs. Local authorities will then negotiate with the government and local employers will be able to directly sponsor workers under the agreed RMA. While the agreements are primarily concerned with attracting foreign labour to work in regional locations experiencing skill shortages, the collaborative framework is intended to address local labour market requirements from within the Australian workforce. If properly executed, this initiative will help address the current problems by encouraging and sustaining participation in the regional workforce.

The recently introduced EMAs offer another opportunity for state-based modification. As they stand, Deloitte suggests EMAs may be too narrow in scope, as they apply only to major infrastructure projects with a 32

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minimum capital investment of $2bn and a peak workforce greater than 1,500. The current and future skill shortages extend well beyond the limited projects that would benefit from this initiative in its current form.

Instead, Deloitte suggests the EMA concept should evolve into a more widely applied arrangement that works in tandem with state governments and local authorities to meet the needs of individual regions and the projects underpinning their growth. Ideally, Australia would benefit from a program that allows an EMA in Queensland to look different to an EMA in Western Australia.

MORE (POSSIBLE) SOLUTIONS

Taking it further, Deloitte has suggested that employers and government need to address the problem of workforce planning with solutions that provide for the whole of an employee’s career life cycle, including: • Global internship programs – this solution would allow highly sought after graduates recruited from universities and colleges around the world to enter a program through which they could develop their skills base by rotating through the global operations of the sponsoring company.

• Global skills passport – allowing skilled workers, such as engineers, entry to participating countries on the basis of their skills status alone.

• Sponsored project visa – this would accommodate the high level of project-driven labour activity in the resources, construction, IT, and energy sectors by allowing companies to more easily bring in workers for periods of up to six months to work on specific projects.

• “456½” visa – sitting between the current 456 and 457 visas, this scheme would allow skilled workers from depressed international markets, such as the US or Ireland, to work in Australia on a temporary basis, possibly for six months to a year.

“Asia is expected to be the engine room for growth over the next decade and if Australia is to be truly competitive in that market and realise its future potential it must continue to support a diverse range of programs that provide both long and short-term solutions, and which take into account the many stakeholders involved in the various stages of the employment lifecycle,” Wright says.

This is not just Australia’s problem, Wright adds, and business needs to work with the Australian government to engage with other nations around the world to achieve solutions that allow them to source the workers they need, deploy them effectively, as well as retain them in the long term.

“True global mobility will be one of the key factors in ensuring Australia’s workforce requirements are addressed and that will only be achieved by shifting the debate beyond our shores,” he concludes.

INTERNATIONAL HR

migration LATEST NEWS The Department of Immigration has announced a new ‘fast-tracked’ system for employer-sponsored skilled workers to secure permanent visas. The new method aims to take the sting out of the current complex system and effectively make it easier for employers to entice skilled migrants to stay.

The minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Chris Bowen, says the measures will simplify the process for businesses looking to use the permanent employer-sponsored visa program. The new reforms will be rolled out by 1 July 2012, and key changes include: • Permanent residence for eligible Temporary Business (Long Stay) subclass 457 visa holders will be streamlined and simplified • The age limit will be changed to ‘less than 50 years’, not ‘less than 45 years’

• Instead of applying under the current ‘exceptional circumstance model’ with regards to age, skills and English language ability, ‘exemption categories’ will regulate any exceptions • A new consolidated sponsored occupation list will replace the 457 occupation list • The new visa structure will replace the six employer-sponsored visa classes and subclasses with two new visas: 1. Employer Nomination (Class EN) Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186) 2. Regional Employer Nomination (Class RN) Regional Sponsored Migration

Scheme (subclass 187).

• Within each of these visa subclasses there will be three streams.

An employer or visa applicant will need to meet the requirements of

each particular stream. They are outlined as: 1. The Temporary Residence Transition stream is for subclass 457 visa holders who have worked for their employer for at least the last two years and the employer wants to offer them a permanent position in that same occupation.

2. The Direct Entry stream is for applicants who are untested in the Australian labour market and have not held a subclass 457 for at least the last two years or are applying directly from outside Australia.

3. The Agreement stream is for applicants who are being sponsored by an employer through a highly scrutinised and negotiated labour agreement or regional migration agreement.

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INTERNATIONAL INTERNATIONAL HR HR

cross-cultural business

Strength through

diversity

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Beyond cultural awareness days, what else can organisations do to break down cultural barriers in the workplace? Jessica Cooper explores the latest options A quick glance around any office space will reveal a broad representation of people from different cultural backgrounds. People of all beliefs, values and cultures are communicating on a regular basis, while multinational organisations with teams dotted around the world are collaborating together to brainstorm ideas and to make projects happen.

Whether we realise it or not, cultural intelligence, or CQ, is one of the most essential skills for HR professionals to effectively run their organisations.

Kees Hoefsloot, a partner at the Cultural Resource Centre, says that handling cultural differences is becoming more relevant when working in a global workforce, and HR professionals need to have a deep cultural understanding. “HR plays the most important role. HR has to facilitate knowledge transfer about cultures to different people across the organisation, and how you do that is by training people,� he says.

He believes it is important to understand other cultural perspectives and stresses that one culture should never be dominant over the other. Together, people of diverse cultures must work on compromising and discussing the best ways to work with each other to ensure objectives are achieved.

The director of Quantum Management Indicators, Dr Des Tubridy, adds that diversity training is critical, and says the two most important ways to manage diversity are to provide diversity coaching and to ensure the organisation has good policies and procedures on cultural awareness and management.

“One of the main issues that arise from different multicultural groups is a lack of communication and trust. If it’s not managed well by a team leader or HR manager, this can lead to negative consequences for the team,” he says.

CULTURAL BARRIERS

It’s well recognised that cultural barriers play a major role in hindering effective decision making and can even form the bedrock of conscious and unconscious bias. Yet the myriad of research on cultural diversity and avoidance of the concept known as ‘groupthink’ demonstrates that it’s our lack of understanding and closed minds that prevent us from accomplishing the best possible results.

“It’s important to identify cultural communication barriers in the workplace and overcome them. It will not be possible to understand every culture in the world; however, it’s important to start by looking at your own values and worldwide perspectives and the impact that they have on your interaction with diverse individuals,” Tubridy says.

It can also be observed that cultural differences occur within the same country, city or even social group, he says.

For example, Australian managers are known to value honesty and creativity. However, if they work in India, they will realise that Indian managers place a stronger emphasis on values such as obedience, loyalty and trust.

Before entering into a diverse workplace or travelling abroad, managers are encouraged to increase their CQ, which is constituted of a number of competencies.

A cross-cultural-competent manager will display some, if not all, of the following: • Awareness that they are not fully informed about any one culture • Coping strategies for cross-cultural situations • Ability to develop respectful and cooperative relationships with individuals from diverse backgrounds • A strong sense of their own value system and recognition that other people and nations have their own unique values

DID YOU KNOW? ‘Groupthink’

refers to a situation where group pressure for conformity deters the group from critically evaluating unusual, unpopular or minority views

• Patience and understanding of other values and behaviours.

Tubridy also notes that a cultural stereotype of Australia is its democratic approach to doing business.

We call our bosses by their first names, and generally, everyone is treated equally. We also personally take on a lot more responsibility for our work. However, countries such as India and Malaysia have a more hierarchical culture and bosses possess a great deal of authority and demand respect. In these circumstances, accountability often falls on the manager.

“If working in this environment, you have to be very aware of that. Or if you’re working with a multicultural team which has Indians and Malaysians, you need to know they think differently to Australians,” Tubridy says.

Most importantly, managers need cultural sensitivity.

Making just one mistake can undo a lot of hard work in building team rapport.

“You’ve only got to make one mistake to get offside in managing diversity,” Tubridy says.

He outlines the following coping strategies that can be used in cross-cultural situations, to ensure HR managers or team leaders are better equipped: • Read up on the cultures you are dealing with • Ask questions in a non-threatening and non-offensive manner • Check meanings and confirm the messages of the sender • Avoid slang • Most importantly, manage your humour Aside from genuine differences blocking the paths to greatness, Hoefsloot believes one of the main cultural barriers we have is making assumptions that other people have similar work behaviour and norms to ourselves.

“We need to have training and knowledge transfer to make people aware that yes, we are different from each other and these differences are not dangerous; these differences are actually fantastic. I personally believe that diversity is a strength, not a weakness,” he says.

Organisations should be using cultural diversity to develop even stronger work practices and a stronger organisation, he adds.

Tubridy agrees that while the process of decision making with multiple cultures is generally a longer and more strenuous process, the patience this requires pays off in better outcomes.

“A decision from a diverse group is going to be a better quality decision with different angles and different thought processes,” he says.

BUILDING CULTURAL AWARENESS

There have already been successful attempts to manage cultural diversity in the workplace, such as international cuisine days, or awareness days (Harmony Day, 21 March), and some organisations have been known HCAMAG.COM 35

INTERNATIONAL INTERNATIONAL HR HR

cross-cultural business

MULTICULTURAL EXECUTIVES The Diversity Council Australia’s (DCA) recent cultural diversity research ‘Capitalising on Culture’ revealed the following stats about five DCA member organisations:

40% of

participants were bi or multilingual, approximately 30% possessed a multiple cultural identity and just over 20% had a high degree of global experience.

Senior executives and potential executives were proficient in a total of 80 different languages.

Over 60% had

lived and worked in countries besides Australia and more than 50% regularly interacted with clients and colleagues overseas in their current role.

Collectively, survey participants had lived and worked in 114 different countries and had regular business interactions with at least 72 different countries.

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to provide language training – a perk welcomed by those who perhaps flunked out of Year Eight French or are planning an overseas holiday to Japan.

An example of the former, A Taste of Harmony, was also conducted in March this year. It encourages employees to bring in a dish from their cultural background to share with their coworkers. This little taste of culture plays a small, yet effective role in opening up people’s minds to diversity. However, it must be said that there is still a long way to go before people will grasp the importance of being sensitive to other cultures.

“International cuisine day is very relevant, but it only discusses culture on a superficial level. It’s great to get people to accept different ways of doing things, but what they really have to do is take it to the next step and see how we can actually manage cultural diversity to create an effective organisation,” Hoefsloot says.

He believes HR has to learn to dwell on cultural differences initially, but then move towards understanding how these differences can be overcome.

“We shouldn’t be afraid as HR to talk about these cultural differences. It’s not a threat. Some people say it cannot be politically correct to mention that we are different. I think, let’s be politically correct and do mention that we are different and then, based on those differences, ask what we can do in an effective way to deal with these differences,” he says.

Tubridy believes there needs to be more involved than a couple of events per year, although he agrees these can be helpful. He notes that HR managers must ensure that there is regular training which covers more than workplace fairness legislation and laws. There should be more case studies, role plays and awareness of current affairs to allow participants to gain a new perspective.

Additionally, cultural minorities should be encouraged to continue with their culture in the workplace.

Organisations should be investigating ‘best practice’ examples of promoting cultural diversity and conducting diversity management audits to evaluate successes and failures.

TRAINING

The objective of all organisations, Tubridy notes, should be training and awareness. He says managers must have positive personality traits and a sense of maturity to start with, which can then be finetuned with training.

“When we send someone over to India for a project, obviously they’re very mature and can handle people, but we finetune them,” he says.

It is suggested that companies should spend more time focusing on how to overcome cultural differences, rather than simply stating them.

In the Cultural Resource Centre training programs, there is a strong emphasis on CQ, which explores open-mindedness, cultural knowledge and coping

“Managing diversity goes far beyond the limits of equal employment opportunity and affirmative action” – DES TUBRIDY strategies. The main objective is to give everybody the same opportunities and ultimately, to build a stronger organisation.

The most important points covered in the Cultural Resource Centre training include: • How cultures differ from one another • How diverse cultures deal with authority • How diverse cultures deal with motivation • How diverse cultures deal with communication • How diverse cultures deal with the obligations they have to other people • How diverse cultures deal with risk taking elements of their work • How diverse cultures deal with taking ownership and decision making • How we can deal with these differences effectively • How can we can manage these differences appropriately Tubridy adds that while it is important to ensure that training addresses the skills and knowledge of cultural communication, it’s also important to examine the attitudes of participants. Training needs to either be long term or there should be constant refresher courses to ensure this information sticks.

THE WAY FORWARD

“Managing diversity goes far beyond the limits of equal employment opportunity and affirmative action,” Tubridy says.

Organisations that recognise that strategic thinking is necessary for creating a productive, diverse workforce are now employing Chief Diversity Officers (CDOs).

CDOs are seen as valuable assets to organisations, always seeking out learning opportunities and ongoing diversity sensitivity training for their organisational managers and staff. A report in the Wall Street Journal

noted that the CDO of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC reports directly to the chairman and senior partner. The firm also rotates its partners every two years in order to give the position accountability and credibility.

According to research by executive search firm Heidrick and Struggles, around 60% of Fortune 500 companies currently have a CDO or executive role designated for diversity. Among those in the roles, 65% are female and 37% are African-American. They come from a variety of professional backgrounds, including HR, marketing, finance and operations.

Many CDOs earn salaries equivalent to other senior organisational roles such as chief marketing officer or chief legal counsel.

Looking ahead, if organisations continue to focus on diversity training strategies and apply this knowledge effectively, there will only be room for positive growth and development.

Above all, Tubridy concludes managers must be willing to work towards changing the organisation “in order to create a culture of diversity and inclusion that follows the mission, vision, and values set forth by the leadership team”.

Why bother?

What are the benefits and shortcomings of cross-cultural training and ongoing attempts to raise cultural intelligence? What still needs to be done? It would seem plenty as the Diversity Council of Australia found the following key findings in its 2010 survey of more than 2,000 employed Australians, titled Working for the Future.

• Approximately 10% of Australian employees had experienced racial harassment or discrimination in their workplace in the previous 12 months.

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders were three times more likely than non-Indigenous people to report having personally experienced an incident of discrimination at their organisation in the prior 12 months (30% vs 10%), and six times more likely to report having felt discriminated at work because of their cultural background (18% vs 3%).

• Men were significantly more likely to feel they had been discriminated against because of their cultural background (5% vs 3%) or racially harassed (9% vs 6%). They were also significantly more likely to indicate that the racial harassment had been witnessed (75% vs 51%).

• Non-Australian born respondents were significantly more likely to report being discriminated against on the basis of cultural background (11% vs 2%) and racially harassed (14% vs 6%).

• 9% of Australians had experienced racial harassment in the previous 12 months, making it more even more prevalent than sexual harassment (6%).

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HIGH PERFORMANCE

HR and innovation

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Greatness

lies within Organisations are increasingly moving towards changing their business practices to be more fluid and innovative to engage their employees. Human Capital investigates what HR can do to help promote a culture of innovation and creative thinking

“The best organisations are those that combine the three elements of people, workplace and technology in equal measure.” So said Scott Dodds, general manager for marketing and operations at Microsoft UK, quoted in an article titled “People, places and technology: A hybrid future”.

As Microsoft has proven time and time again through its own innovations, this could not be truer. Now an increasing number of companies are adopting a more flexible structure and using innovative methods to engage and retain their employees. For example, it’s now commonplace for organisations to utilise telecommuting to provide a flexible working environment, while others are providing various platforms for their employees to voice new ideas or feedback. With technology acting as an enabler, many of these innovative moves are possible.

PLATFORM FOR IDEAS

Employers say that they want to promote an innovative culture, where employees can do out-of-the box thinking that will benefit the organisation as a whole. Moreover, they explain that HR has a big part to play when it comes to implementing innovative workplace practices on a daily basis.

Beth Winchester, human resources general manager, Fuji Xerox Australia, says that innovation in all its forms – from continuous improvement of day-to-day functions through to the big ‘aha’ breakthroughs – requires HR to

sponsor it, to create the right environment for it to occur.

She notes that the companies that get this right are the ones that give people the time and space to create. She concedes that’s not always easy when you’ve got client-facing call centre staff or people in a warehouse situation where they’re packing and unpacking, so you can’t have innovation at the same level across the whole organisation. However, it’s always possible to create the opportunity for people to think of a better way. “The old fashioned suggestion box is a great innovation tool. Now you could do that electronically on an email but you want people to always feel they can suggest an improvement,” she says.

Sarah Robb, head of people ops for G&A in JAPAC, Google Inc, says that Google’s philosophy is to “launch and iterate” and this transcends into the work that employees do. She says that the organisation allows its people to make mistakes and learn from them. “In an industry such as ours, waiting for perfection takes too long so it’s important to be innovative, try new things, learn from those mistakes, and apply those ‘learnings’ to one’s next project.”

In order to foster an environment of ideas and open discussion, Google has communal ‘workplace huddle rooms’. “A lot of innovative ideas came from this type of casual gathering and discussion,” Robb says. The organisation also ensures that teams are small – around four to five people – in order to keep it engaging.

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HIGH PERFORMANCE

HR and innovation FLEXIBLE WORKING STRUCTURE PLATFORMS TO SHARE NEW IDEAS INNOVATIVE

EMPOWERED EMPLOYEES

WORKPLACE

BREAKING BARRIERS – OPEN OFFICE

▲ Innovative workplaces share these key traits

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TECHNOLOGY AS AN ENABLER

Of course, one initiative above all others has captured headlines around the world, and made other companies look on enviously: the ‘20% project time’. Google employees are allowed this time to work on new projects that are outside of their usual work responsibilities, and Robb says that this has been effective. “Google News [a centralised aggregation service to find news online] and Gmail came from this 20% project time,” she notes.

Several other companies are also providing platforms for employees to share their ideas, and this is especially so for organisations that thrive on innovation. MichaelJoerg Ivan, general manager for HR policies, processes and projects AAP in Daimler SEA, states that the company has an intranet portal known as ‘My Idea’ for employees to share their ideas. It is a global employee portal, managed by the Business Innovation Unit – a team based in Germany whose job is to only think about innovation, from car batteries to mobility concepts in big cities. It’s a fresh twist on the old-fashioned suggestion box.

“Employees whose ideas have been chosen get rewarded. However, there are some criteria such as how big the innovation is and whether the proposal helps to cut costs,” explains Ivan.

Ai Sim Tan, director of HR, ASEAN, Lenovo Singapore, says her profession has an essential role to play as “HR must be a key contributor of the corporate agenda, from both a culture as well as an agenda-setting perspective”.

At Lenovo, HR has implemented a framework called ‘The Lenovo Way’, which incorporates the company strategy and values in a working system. The company

has an ongoing practice that encourages its employees, whether at regional or country levels, to provide suggestions to improve on work processes.

Citing an example, Tan says that the company’s talent acquisition team is gradually eliminating the use of hard copy employment contracts. Instead, contracts are drawn up electronically, and stored on Thinkpad Tablets. This way, new hires can sign and receive a soft copy on their gadget instantly. “The suggestion to do this came from a talent acquisition specialist who wants to do his part for the environment and showcase Lenovo’s latest technology,” she explains.

Also, for the company to encourage as well as continue this process, HR organises a ‘4P culture ambassador’ (the 4Ps are part of the Lenovo values) nomination competition, whereby employees can select a colleague as an “ambassador” depending on the “strength and frequency of contributions and ideas”.

Another technology company that promotes innovative ideas is Alcatel-Lucent. Tina Yap, VP of HR, North and South East Asia, Alcatel-Lucent, says that HR leaders in the company are mandated with the responsibility of transforming the way the organisation works. One of the HR initiatives is the ‘Innovative Boot Camp’ with its research arm, Bell Labs. “Groups of employees bring innovative ideas such as a new way of doing business or new technology inventions to the table. If selected, the company will sponsor these ideas and help to bring them to market,” she says.

PUSHING FOR FLEXIBILITY

Organisations are increasingly finding that allowing employees more flexibility in terms of work hours is beneficial, especially knowing that with technology, they will be able to work whenever and wherever. This helps with their work-life balance, claim employers.

Robb explains that Google’s culture encourages flexibility, especially in terms of work-life balance, and it is HR’s role to facilitate this. “It doesn’t matter that you aren’t at your desk all day as long as you get the job done.

You decide how to structure your work day.”

Moreover, she adds that Google has a PTO (People Technology Operations) team that helps to automate information. As the organisation’s systems are webbased, employees are able to access them from anywhere.

“Information is not connected to a desktop or a file folder in an office; it’s all ‘in the cloud’ so we can access large amounts of data securely whenever and wherever we need to.”

Daimler also provides flexi-work hours and timeworking modules for the convenience of their employees.

Employees can choose from a number of contracts, all with various conditions such as the ability to work for 20 hours. In addition, the organisation has a global sabbatical leave policy that employees can access for

personal reasons or when they are pursuing executive education such as an MBA. Companies such as Lenovo and Alcatel-Lucent also offer flexible working hours in order to accommodate their employees. Lenovo has a ‘Work from Home’ policy where staff can address their personal needs by working from home whenever necessary and are also given notebooks to work with.

USING INNOVATION AS A RETENTION TOOL

Not surprisingly, innovation plays a role in retention. The most in-demand employees tend to be drawn to companies offering innovative thinking.

Robb says that Google hires people who are smart generalists who can move internally throughout the company, and as there is flexibility of international mobility, talent is retained within.

“If you’re analytical in your approach to problem solving then your abilities can transcend the specific role into which you’re hired.”

Ivan says Daimler uses a preventative approach to retain key employees, especially in Asia where the war for talent is strong. The company uses an IT system known as ERT or Engagement and Retention Tool to

In HR, the faster the demographics of the world change the faster you need to move things – ROBERT ORTH help retain employees, especially high-potentials. After line managers have identified the high-potential employee, “HR has a check-up in four fields and it will analyse the situation. The IT system will give a solution and this is offered to the line managers. In this way, employees feel that the company is doing something for them,” explains Ivan.

The ability to grow in the company is important to employees, and organisations understand this. AlcatelLucent practises an internal ‘full open market’ for job

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HIGH PERFORMANCE

final tips The Maximus guide to harnessing innovation Define what innovation means to your organisation

opportunities – jobs are made available to all employees in 130 countries.

Ensure members of your executive team understand and are aligned in terms of what good innovation looks like for your business

LOOKING BEYOND THE WORKPLACE

Engage your broader leadership group to think-tank innovative concepts regularly and build a bottom-up culture of idea generation Leverage your strategy teams and business experts to work with your high potential leaders to turn concepts into strong business cases Prioritise good, ROI-focused ideas and gain executive agreement on valuebased investing Create a culture that supports the continual flow of new ideas and strong feedback loops

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Innovation has long been a priority at IBM. One hundred years ago the company founder, Thomas Watson, developed a mantra called ‘THINK’, which was based on his early statement that “all the problems of the world could be settled if people were only willing to think”.

‘THINK’ signs were made up and placed in all IBM offices, a reminder of the importance of independent thought and innovation.

Over time, this has evolved into a concept called ‘Smarter Planet’, which encapsulates IBM’s vision for the future. IBM believes our world is becoming more instrumented (lots of gadgets), more interconnected (lots of networks linking things), and more intelligent (lots of data to make

decisions that effect real change). IBM works with governments and business across various industries, using IT to improve natural and man-made systems in areas as varied as healthcare, natural resources, transport, banking and water.

“Smarter Planet is a natural development of THINK,” says Robert Orth, director, human resources, IBM Australia and New Zealand. “We’re asking, where can we take things, how can we move solutions forward?”

Orth says employees have rallied behind the concept, which takes a much broader view of innovation than just looking at the workplace. “It’s about how you can provide solutions which interconnect things, which perhaps you hadn’t thought about before. There’s a lot of ‘what if’ involved. What can we change and do? What if we tried this solution for power conservation? What if we tried this for our transport and road systems?”

Orth believes HR needs to be an agent for change and innovation. “In HR, the faster the demographics of the world change the faster you need to move things. It’s no different to business. I think HR needs to get some big thinking going about practices and approaches – where’s the next level in terms of how, when and where people work. It’s thinking about the workforce of the future and how you’re going to work with it.”

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WHS

creating a safety culture

I was just following the rules…

Do you want a corporate culture where employees choose to be safe, rather than obey the rules because they must? Perhaps it’s time to embrace both the behavioural and psychological elements of human nature Chances are your organisation already has a number of safety rules, safety officers and a system to manage safety. However, despite the best efforts to increase safety in the workplace, incidents are still happening at a high rate.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, there were 640,700 people who had a workplace injury in 2010.

Although this is fewer than the 690,000 people who had a workplace injury in 2005, it appears our ability to further significantly reduce accidents has reached a plateau.

For many years, Behavioural Based Safety (BBS) programs were well suited to raising awareness of safety issues in the workplace. BBS is based on the premise that individuals are motivated to act safely through fear of repercussion rather than by a true internal commitment to safety. With BBS techniques ‘positive reinforcements’ tend to increase the likelihood of a particular behaviour reoccurring, whereas punishments or ‘negative reinforcements’ can reduce this likelihood.

THE ‘BBS CEILING’

However, as the statistics suggest, such behavioural interventions have limited effectiveness over the longer term and do not sustain a continued reduction in accident incidents. As a result, leading safety specialists suggest we’ve now reached the ‘BBS ceiling’.

Likewise, whilst systems, processes, regulations and tools all play an essential role when it comes to ensuring a safe working environment, it is equally important to understand the complexities of what makes individuals 44

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within the workforce act as they do. Therefore the role psychology plays in workplace safety should not be underestimated, says Dr Rod Gutierrez, principal psychologist with DuPont Sustainable Solutions.

Gutierrez says that BBS programs are destined for limited effectiveness, because people become used to the reward or punishment resulting in a decrease in safe behaviours due to repetitive exposure.

DuPont’s business director, Fiona Murfitt, adds that BBS programs don’t take into account psychological elements such as what employees think and feel.

As humans we have an in-built ability to adjust to our environment following prolonged exposure to it. It is the reason why people who live under an aeroplane flight path are seldom troubled by aircraft noise. In fact, they tend to notice it more when the noise stops. In the same way, workers can become accustomed to the consequences administered in response to their behaviour, be it safe or unsafe, and thus effectiveness of the consequences eventually diminishes.

The most effective strategies for workplace safety include components of BBS coupled with other strategies that target the internal processes influencing safety behaviours and outcomes.

Murfitt says employers who target both behavioural and psychological elements are more likely to create a culture where employees choose to be safe, rather than following rules just because they have to. That is, to acknowledge and assess their own safety (independence) and the safety of those around them (interdependence).

Gutierrez says the premise of cognitive psychology is that much of what influences our behaviour occurs ‘below the surface’ in our mental processing.

Although behaviours and emotions can be readily observed, there are a number of internal processes that give rise to these behaviours.

Addressing these unobservable components, in collaboration with a more traditional BBS approach, can assist in ensuring workplace safety is managed to its optimum effectiveness.

CREATING A ‘SAFETY CULTURE’

Murfitt emphasises the need for a safety culture to be driven from the top down – if you’ve got leadership commitment, even the most seemingly resistant employees can be influenced to internalise safety.

In addition, social influences such as an organisation’s culture and the style of leadership can change an employee’s thoughts, beliefs and values which, in turn, can shape their behaviour.

Organisational culture refers to things like the values, beliefs and accepted behaviours that employees share through myths, stories, rituals and specialised language.

Consider the idiosyncrasies of your own work community for example: the symbolism of a corporate logo or the rituals of the Christmas party.

“This culture conveys a sense of identity for employees and can in turn facilitate a sense of commitment and act as a mechanism to guide and shape behaviour,” Gutierrez says.

When an organisation includes safety as a part of its culture, it becomes an entrenched value that is vitally important at both an individual and group level.

The presence of a robust ‘safety culture’ is a good predictor of safety performance behaviours, safety

knowledge and safety motivation. Meanwhile, a ‘safety climate’ is more about the perception of safety in the workplace. This is closely concerned with intangible issues such as the situational and environmental factors that affect workplace practices. The ‘safety climate’ is relatively unstable, subject to change and based on management practices.

“The adaptation of organisational culture and climate to incorporate a core safety component can help equip employees with a belief in the importance of safe behaviours. No longer are they adhering to safety rules because they are concerned about punishment or are anticipating reward, but because they genuinely believe it is the right way to act,” Gutierrez explains.

The involvement and acceptance of safety in an organisational culture is heavily reliant on visible, felt leadership. A clear safety vision and policy needs to be set and communication should be two-way.

There also needs to be continuous safety development activities and ongoing clarification of accountability and responsibility.

A safety culture can be achieved by ensuring organisational commitment, management involvement, employee empowerment and appropriate systems for reward and reporting. These mechanisms can help influence the thoughts and beliefs of employees through contextual and social influence.

“Overall, a broader psychology-based approach to safety that takes into account both elements of behavioural and cognitive psychology, along with social influences and shared belief systems can be instrumental in achieving stronger, more sustainable results for organisations of all shapes and sizes,” Gutierrez concludes.

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The succession game Succession planning plays a crucial role in any talent management strategy, but linear steps up a corporate ladder no longer cut it. What does succession planning look like in 2012?

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FEATURE WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT

succession planning Like a prisoner trailing a ball and chain behind them, many organisations in 2012 are trailing outmoded management theories and structures better suited to the 20th century.

Fortunately, one of these throwbacks, the concept of the singular dictatorial leader, is coming to an end. Pia Lee, CEO of LIW, says that leadership today abounds all the way through an organisation, from top to toe. Plus it’s incumbent on the CEO to actually create more leaders throughout the organisation; to look beyond shorttermism and create some sense of sustainability.

“Part of your role as a leader is not only to create the conditions for others to be successful, but also to be looking at how you create an ongoing legacy of leadership within an organisation,” she says.

THE NEED FOR CHANGE

If the business environment has changed over the past decade, so too have the notions of talent management and succession planning. The rules have changed.

Organisations are more disparate: they are flatter; the opportunities for jobs higher up the chain are fewer.

Clearly a slightly different approach is needed if organisations are to groom talent from within and to equip them for future roles.

“Instead of the corporate ladder, we have more of the corporate lattice, which is a broader way of thinking about succession planning,” explains Lee. “So whilst there may be fewer jobs at the top, how do we still build a broader portfolio of experiences for our upcoming talent?”

Hay Group also takes the view that the traditional career ladder is not necessarily what breeds the best leadership talent – especially CEOs. “Lateral moves are making the difference,” confirms Nicholas Conigrave, a director in the business solutions team at Hay Group. “The traditional career ladder is outdated in many organisations with flatter structures – moving people laterally helps organisations retain good people because it stretches and grows them, and ensures that individuals do not become frustrated through lack of career fulfilment.”

Lee’s company, LIW, is frequently engaged to support high potential individuals by giving them much greater, chunkier, strategic projects to work on in order to give them exposure to broader areas of the business, or to give them greater experience in a range of different situations.

It’s then a matter of providing them with the education required to support them through that journey.

“It’s live on-the-job experiences as well as giving people cross-functional experiences so that their knowledge becomes broader. So they are not in a narrow stream going up the ladder, but are able to be more nimble, more adaptive – and that suits the organisations that we are to become as we move forward,” Lee says.

Justin Miles, general manager HR, Fonterra ANZ told

“The traditional career ladder is outdated in many organisations with flatter structures – moving people laterally helps organisations retain good people because it stretches and grows them” – NICHOLAS CONIGRAVE HC in January that the “right experience” for future leaders might mean time spent in another business function, but also whether that person has been in a position to turn around a team, or to start up a business.

Other ways to build experience might be to work in a different operating environment, whether overseas or in a staff versus line role.

“To prepare people for future jobs you’ve got to be able to facilitate a good mix of development experiences and it’s a challenge on two fronts,” he says. “Firstly, organisations tend to be risk averse in putting people into jobs or situations they haven’t faced before and secondly most of us tend to avoid situations where there is a chance of failure.”

REDEFINING THE CONCEPT

In a rapidly changing business world, where roles shift, change and disappear altogether, should succession planning be looking at individuals or roles? Lynne Salmon, Taleo’s Asia-Pacific marketing director, comments that many organisations consider both concepts during the process. Initially, a role-based perspective is helpful in creating pools of talent with similar skill sets that are relevant to a number of positions. All members of a given talent pool could have development activities assigned to them, and their progress monitored as they develop the needed skills for their future positions. These talent pools are the ‘feeders’ into succession plans that are position or individual-specific.

Conigrave says the departure of a leader is the ideal time to challenge the implicit ‘images of success’. “You cannot expect to find someone with exactly the same skills and experience as the outgoing leader, and a search that is limited to finding someone of the same ‘mould’ as the incumbent may mean that the best candidate is HCAMAG.COM 47

talent matrix Talent management - Potential x Performance The decision to promote or develop people for future roles is a critical one.

It needs to be based on something more than current performance or in reality, past performance. It needs a clear understanding of their true potential and their future development needs, or else it can lead to a breakdown in motivation, confidence and ultimately, performance.

• The matrix is used to evaluate an organisation’s talent pool.

• The X-axis assesses performance and the Y-axis assesses potential.

• The combination scores of Y and X define the box within the grid where the employee is placed.

• Each box has a developmental strategy.

For succession planning, the focus should be on the upper right hand corner boxes (the blue & two green) as this is your high potential pool.

High

Needs Development

Meets Expectations

P O T E N T I A L

Prepare for future role Growth

Limited

PERFORMANCE

overlooked. The opportunity to find the person who can bring a fresh approach to the table or greatly enhance a company’s financial success may be lost,” he says.

Is it fair to assume then that a succession plan should no longer be seen strictly as a replacement tool but rather a leadership capability tool? Salmon believes succession planning and leadership development are intertwined, but strictly speaking, succession planning remains a replacement tool. The succession planning process, however, identifies the individuals whose development should be actively managed and monitored.

“The vehicles for development live outside the succession planning process in the form of development planning and the delivery of both formal and informal development activities,” she adds.

Furthermore, with limited movement in the upper ranks, the process of succession planning no longer needs to serve its traditional purpose of replacement planning. Instead, the tools and techniques of the process can be applied to developing a workforce with well rounded skills sets. “Finding high potential talent, assessing their development needs, executing development activities to close those skill gaps – all these steps can still be useful in planning for long-term talent needs,” Salmon comments.

THE BROADER PICTURE: COMPETENCY FRAMEWORKS

Ari Kopoulos, national sales and marketing manager at EmployeeConnect, advocates using both a talent matrix (see box) and a competency framework as part of the talent management process.

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Current Performance How are they performing in their current role?

High

Low

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Exceeds Expectations

Potential • Do his/hers innate capabilities align with the desired competencies of the future role?

• Has he/she had the right training and experiences to prepare for the role?

• Future aspirations?

For those with growth potential • How soon will they be ready?

• What should we do to prepare?

High

Talent management is a framework of tightly integrated HR processes that assist in making informed decisions that support strategic objectives to be profitable and successful. To work effectively, talent management needs a central framework. It’s this central framework that enables the exchange of talent supply with business demand. Also known as competencies, Kopoulos believes this is the currency between capabilities and needs and integrates all the HR modules.

“To the employee, competencies represent a set of behaviours they require, or must acquire to ensure success in their specific roles. They flag the organisation’s expectations and required levels of performance. They also provide the employee with a roadmap of what is valued, recognised and rewarded,” he says.

The organisation itself, he adds, will need to develop meaningful and standard definitions of competencies, behaviours, and skills required throughout the organisation and relate those to a unit of demand such as a person, position, job, projects and learning. “Once this is done you will have a three dimensional environment that can automate the pushing and pulling of employees through the various HR processes,” he says.

At the organisational level, a competency framework establishes the link between company objectives and personal goals, ensuring that employees are clear about how they are expected to perform in their jobs. A competency framework provides transparency and consistency across all locations and geography, ensuring greater organisational effectiveness. A competency framework plays a key role in any change management process by setting out new organisational requirements.

FEATURE WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT

succession planning In performance appraisals, the framework forms the basis of measurement. These measurement criteria can then be linked to the learning objectives, allowing the performance appraisal process to identify development opportunities. This also allows organisations to build a standardised remuneration review process as an outcome of performance. It also provides a starting point for evaluating an individual’s potential for promotion, integrating the succession planning process with the overall talent management strategy.

Similarly for L&D, the framework allows the HR professional or the employee to plan their career by identifying competency gaps through comparison against the competency profile of the position. This allows for a more effective training process and gives the employee a transparent development process. Identifying an ‘excess’ of competencies can also measure an employee’s potential and when mapped against performance provides a unique view of their talent profile.

When used in conjunction with recruitment, the framework allows employers to recruit against desirable behaviours that translate into high performers. It also makes the process consistent and transparent across all positions, levels and grades.

TOOLS FOR DATA-DRIVEN DECISIONS

It’s a sad reality that many organisations don’t have a complete view into the competencies, work experience and aspirations of their employees. This information typically comes from a range of sources, and it’s often not captured. Even in cases where it is collected, often it’s not accessible in the form of aggregated insights for managers and HR. This lack of talent visibility hampers every talent management process, including succession planning.

When management and HR lack a comprehensive view into talent, otherwise qualified individuals are excluded from succession plans and bench strength for many positions is weaker than it could be.

Salmon notes that there is a wealth of information about people – strengths, educational and professional backgrounds, aspirations and more – that can be used to align talent with business needs in a way that benefits the organisation and the individual. The challenge is in collecting the information, aggregating it and making it accessible to managers and HR. “The recruiting process is ideal for gathering this wealth of information,” she says. “Candidates are motivated to share as much as possible about their backgrounds and interests, and modern career sites make it easy for candidates to share information they’ve already documented not just in resumes and CVs, but their LinkedIn profiles as well.”

Internal career sites are great for attracting internal candidates to positions, but newer technologies are

enabling managers and recruiters to proactively search for internal candidates and new tools are giving employees the means to signal their career interests.

For example, DDI’s Manager Ready is an online assessment tool built around 30+ real-world behavioural situations such as coaching an underperformer, resolving conflicts or solving a business problem. It’s a valuable tool that provides information for making better business decisions about frontline leaders.

It helps on two fronts: firstly, to identify those individuals who are best prepared to step into your frontline leader roles; and secondly, it provides managers with a better understanding of their leadership skills with tips and tools for them to create and act on focused development plans.

Indeed, Kopoulos adds that organisations are seeking ways to build data-driven decision making platforms but are failing badly.

“Integrated talent management is not a payroll system with some HR forms; it is not a recruitment system; and it is not a performance appraisal system. It could be an HR Information System, but not by default. Technically, it’s a framework of tightly integrated HR processes that assist in making informed decisions that support your strategic objective to be profitable and successful,” he says.

If starting afresh, Kopoulos suggests avoiding single module solutions offering out-of-the-box implementations and slick interfaces; their lack of integrated modules can introduce functional and technical issues that could get in the way of strategic decisions. With this in mind, consider the holistic approach.

“Look for a secure, single-platform, workflow-driven system. It should be user-friendly, leveraging a single data source and including all the core HR modules with robust, yet flexible, reporting layers. But most importantly, it should have a place to define your central framework.

“It’s this central framework that enables the exchange of talent supply and with business demand. This is the currency between capabilities and needs, and integrates all the HR modules.”

TAKING OWNERSHIP

Conigrave advocates using a range of tools to ensure organisations have accurate, up-to-date information on their team members, but he warns that technology is an enabler – ultimately it is the leadership of the process which is crucial to success.

Lee adds that HR plays an “absolutely critical” role in succession planning. “They are there to ensure the organisation meets its business goals, but also to ensure that the workforce planning and the talent is in place in order to achieve that.”

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PROFILE SHARYN SCHULTZ

my brilliant career

20/20 HR vision

With award-winning HR initiatives under its belt, Luxottica (home of OPSM, Sunglass Hut and other well-known retail chains) has always been at the forefront of people and culture initiatives. As head of HR for the past 18 months, and with time spent in industries as diverse as IT and finance, Sharyn Schultz reflects on the challenges, achievements and insights she has discovered throughout the course of her outstanding career Human Capital: What initially drew you to an HR role?

Sharyn Schultz: I started my career in IT. When I first left school, I worked in the IT department of a fairly large organisation in Melbourne. One of the things I found frustrating was sitting at a desk, staring at a computer all day. One of the role models I had was the manager in charge of IT at that stage, who saw something in me that suggested I'd be better off looking at IT training. So they gave me an opportunity to work on a fairly large project, implementing a new IT system into the sales business. At that time, I'd also taken on the responsibility of managing a fairly large team, which was also in the IT function. So my natural style was more inclined towards working with people in order to help them become better at what they do. That’s where I got introduced to the broader people piece, and that’s where my passion lies.

HC: What is your current role and how did it come about?

SS: I joined Luxottica as vice-president human resources & communications in October 2010. The role is AsiaPacific focused.

I was with ING DIRECT prior to that, and one of my strengths in my work history was building a culture and

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leadership team that drives performance and identifying what needs to be done in terms of people strategy to do that. So there was a strong synergy with what I was doing at ING and what Luxottica was doing as part of its next phase of growth and development. It was taking what had been a fabulous piece of work that Rhonda [her predecessor Rhonda Brighton-Hall] had done in terms of putting the core processes in place, and then looking at how we could build on that to lift it to the next level.

Luxottica is quite a decentralised business, and with responsibility for Asia as well, we don’t have a model whereby if we do it this way in Australia, everyone else must do it the same way; instead we say, if we’re doing it like this here, does it make sense to do it the same or quite differently somewhere else?

HC: Does anything stand out for you in terms of differences between the two sectors, finance and FMCG? SS: It has been an interesting move, kind of an unusual shift in many ways. There are two things I would note.

Pace is one – I always thought ING DIRECT worked at a quick pace in terms of how quickly we got things done.

My experience of retail – and I can only talk of my experience here at Luxottica – is that it’s faster again.

Also, the decision-making is different – it’s the nature of

Pulch Photography, pulchphotography.com Pulch Photography, pulchphotography.com

JANINE STEWART ROLL OF HONOUR SHARYN SCHULTZ 2011 – MBA ROLL OFfrom HONOUR Melbourne Business School Bachelor in Education,

majoring in Human 1994 – Bachelor Resource Development of Arts from from UTS. Also a Graduate University of NSW Certificate in Change in Psychology and Management Sociology (Onethrough AGSM. This was from a stepping semester away stone to a Masters graduating in 1994but I never Iquite got around when accepted an to that bit – workinand family appointment Italy then became focus areas. with Ansett) HCAMAG.COM 51

SS: I think as a young grad you need to be mindful that there’s a balance between being people-focused and performance-focused. Sometimes people go into HR because they’re great with people and therefore believe all their decisions need to be based on doing the right thing for people. I think there always needs to be a balance between the right people decisions and what the right business outcomes need to be. Also, one of my learnings in HR is there’s a whole heap of grey. I don’t think a lot of people understand how grey HR can be until you get in and realise that sometimes there’s no right or wrong way of doing it. You just have to make a decision and go with what you think is best and adjust as you go through.

There’s also something there about being pragmatic.

HR professionals can get pretty excited about a lot of sophisticated fancy things we can build, but we’ve got to be pragmatic and make sure whatever we’re doing links back to the culture and the business strategy.

dealing with daily, weekly and monthly results [in FMCG]. Sometimes that can be good and sometimes that can cause consequences that hadn’t been planned for. Often it’s a quick response tied to what’s happening in the broader economic environment, so it’s about getting the right balance.

HC: How would you recommend other HR professionals learn more about the wider business world?

SS: If I reflect back on what I’ve done there are probably a few things. One is definitely about networking. There is also a piece about trying to work across different industries. There’s also a piece about being curious – try to learn as much as you can, ask questions, and understand that it’s about relationships as well. I’ve learned a lot about business when I’ve had good mentors where I can go to them and ask silly questions – and they’ve been happy to have that conversation.

HC: What advice would you offer to a young graduate just starting out on a career in HR? 52

HCAMAG.COM

HC: What do you consider to be your biggest career achievement to date?

SS: Something our CEO Chris Beer and I are quite proud of is the charitable foundation at Luxottica called OneSight. This foundation provides people in disadvantaged communities across Australia with access to free eye tests and, if needed, free glasses. OneSight is fairly well embedded across the business and we have lots of people in the business who take part. However, we wanted to take it to the next level and make it sustainable.

What we’ve just launched is our first sustainable clinic.

It’s been a long process to work with the different health bodies at local and federal government, but we’ve just launched a program in Mt Isa so that over time we can build capability within the community. We’ll provide the equipment and training, and eventually they’ll be able to do it themselves. It’s a long-term commitment, but we’re really proud of it.

HC: Describe yourself in a few key words.

SS: My team would say I’ve got high energy – I work at a fast pace and bring high energy to the environment. I’m very much about ‘we’ in terms of how I operate; I’m all about team and ‘we’re all in this together’ rather than ‘I’ll do this or that’. Thirdly, I’d say I’m optimistic – I would lean more on the side of optimism in the way I think.

HC: What’s the biggest HR challenge Luxottica faces and how do you plan to overcome that?

SS: We’ve just announced a major organisational strategic change. We’re intending to rationalise the number of optical brands we have in the marketplace.

What that means from the HR perspective is a major transformation process. How do we transform the business so that strategically we’re well placed to build

PROFILE SHARYN SCHULTZ

my brilliant career on the strengths of the business? There are three pillars: we want to focus the business, simplify the business and we need to connect better to the customers. We’ve built a fairly significant HR strategy to support this and over the next two years we’ll be focusing on key areas to achieve our desired outcomes. A major part of that is around leadership, as the business leaders will be overseeing the whole transformation agenda.

How we create world-class customer experiences and build the capability to deliver that is also a major part of the strategy. If we are to connect better to the customer what does that mean in terms of capability development for the 3,000 people who work in our stores?

Sitting alongside all of it, one of the key roles that I play in the executive team is ensuring we get alignment across the project and the change agenda. How do we ensure the executives are aligned with what we’re announcing to employees? What does the strategy look like? What does our structure look like? It’s alignment across all the different elements.

HC: Luxottica has always put extra effort into engagement initiatives. Can you outline some of these initiatives for 2012?

SS: At grassroots level we have a process called Plan on a Page. It’s a one-pager where it articulates the business strategy, key priorities and the major initiatives that support the strategy. Obviously, the people element is key to that.

As part of the strategic people piece we’re equipping our managers to have conversations with their people about how they drive local level engagement. The geographic diversity of the company – around 800 stores across the country – can be a challenge. So if you’re working in a store in Karratha, what are the two-three things that could make a difference to employee engagement? Is it flexibility around start/finish times?

Then, at the organisational level, it’s more about involving people in key roles in the transformation.

We’ve put together a sub-group of leaders across the business who have critical roles in the transformation.

It’s great for them, as most of them haven’t done a transformation before and will build our leadership pipeline for the future.

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SIGN OFF

the lighter side written by Stephanie Zillman

WORKING ON THE LOO: TIME IN LIEU?

JAPANESE COMPANIES REGULATE WAISTLINES

An unusual three-day employee retreat is hosted annually by a Japanese oral hygiene product manufacturer, but not with the goal of team building or boosting sales – instead, slimmer waistlines is the focus.

Two years ago, Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare released a report on the nation’s burgeoning bellies, and as a result the government passed legislation which requires all citizens over the age of 40 to have their waists measured yearly. If the measurement exceeds the required healthy stipulations, they are considered at risk and are referred for counselling and support.

Companies are required to slim down their workers or face higher payments in the national insurance program. To ensure a healthier lifestyle, some organisations have hosted yearly boot camps with various lectures on diet, exercise and Zen meditation.

Taking it a step further, electronics giant NEC requires all of its Japan employees to undergo yearly checks from the time they turn 30. Additionally, all employees must attend lifestyle courses, and any employee who shows “poor results” (think beer gut) will receive individual follow-up attention.

PSST! GOSSIP IS AN ESSENTIAL INGREDIENT OF A HEALTHY WORKPLACE

According to the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, “pro-social gossip” plays an integral role in the maintenance of an ordered society.

A study published in the journal from the University of California found gossip is a therapeutic exercise that can lower the stress levels of participants, resulting in a happy workplace.

In one research experiment, study participants were hooked up to heart-rate monitors as they observed two people playing a game. After a couple of rounds, the participants saw one player not playing by the rules, which caused their heart rates to increase. When the observers were able to pass along this knowledge, in the context of “pro-social gossip” to other people, their heart rates decreased.

“Spreading information about the person whom they had seen behave badly tended to make people feel better, quieting the frustration that drove their gossip,” explains Robb Willer, a psychologist and co-author of the study.

However, Laura Davies, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the California Pacific Medical Centre, felt the study was “limited” and should be taken “with a huge grain of salt”.

I’ve been the Head Cheese for 6 years…

Do you hand out business cards that has an actual job title?

How very 20th century of you!

Today’s movers and shakers prefer to give their employees the freedom to choose their own imaginative titles.

‘IT support officer’ has far less swagger than ‘Problem Wrangler’, and ‘Digital Dynamo’ has a certain something that ‘Digital Adviser’ doesn’t.

According to one of the biggest printers of business cards in the US, moo.com, some suggestions for jazzing up your employees’ titles include: ● Sales Ninja ● Corporate

Magician

● Happiness

Advocate

● Web Kahuna ● Master

Handshaker

If you’ve ever been sitting on the toilet and wondered if you’re hearing the distinct sound of texting in the next cubicle, you probably are.

A new US study has found twothirds of workers use their phones while on the loo at work.

So the long-held suspicions of HR have finally been confirmed – workers wanting to avoid being seen using their mobiles at work simply remove them from prying eyes.

A survey of 1,000 US employees conducted by marketing firm 11mark found that 74% of men and 76% of women use their mobiles in the toilets at work.

Other loo survey stats found: • 63% have answered a phone call • 41% have initiated a phone call • 67% have read a text • 38% have surfed the internet Respondents also reported using social media and online shopping while sitting on the throne!

DOCTOR’S NOTE? NOT A PROBLEM

The hassle of getting that pesky medical certificate to legitimise a day or two on the couch just got a whole lot easier for employees – why make a trip to the doctor’s office and feign a malady when you can get one mailed straight to you?

Indeed, getting out of work has never been easier with the Doctors Note Store website providing employees with the chance to buy fake doctor’s certificate replicas to explain their absences. Run

by Aussie expats in London, the so-called ‘novelty sick notes’ take 4-5 working days to arrive by mail.

These documents appear to be as authentic as any real doctor’s certificate, written on official doctor’s notepaper, with a genuine stamp. Notably, Doctors Note Store claims no responsibility for the misuse of their products, clearly stating in their disclaimer that they are strictly for educational/ entertainment purposes only.

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