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editor’s letter
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HR’s rich tapestry Chatting to two HR professionals from poles-apart-industries at a function late last year, I was struck (again) at just how challenging and diverse the HRD role has become. The HR professional on my right was facing up to the change management issues relating to a physical relocation of her company’s operations. Adding to the complexity was the fact that she was charged with bringing together two very different cultures – one white collar/office based, the other manufacturing/factory based. She had encountered similar problems before, albeit in a different industry, and for different reasons. Working in the tourism industry overseas, she encountered (and had to deal with) the ripple effects felt by communities when a major corporation shuts up shop or moves out of town. Located in a remote area, in a community that was very reliant on the hotel for employment, the withdrawal had massive economic and social repercussions for the region. It’s not the sort of thing most HR professionals would think about, but a changing world and societal pressure on organisations to look above and beyond mere profit as a measure of success meant the issues could not be ignored. The HR professional on my left was dealing with a turbulent economy and the vagaries of an industry that was reliant on part-time workers. Keeping those employees engaged and educated despite ever dwindling funds was the primary challenge he foresaw for the coming year. The HR professionals profiled in this issue’s cover story also demonstrate the wide range of challenges that often fall to HR to fix. From developing an effective EVP (Johnson & Johnson) to developing succession plans (Fonterra) and dealing with change (Foxtel), through to being clear on HR’s impact on bottom line results (Fuji Xerox), it’s all part and parcel of HR in 2012. Tell us in our online forums or email me on the address below to share your company’s challenges, and what impact you are having on resolving those issues.
Iain Hopkins, editor, HC Magazine
Letters to the editor
I was struck (again) at just how challenging and diverse the HRD role has become
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
CORPORATE HEALTH
Depression and anxiety P.16 HR TECHNOLOGY ISSUE 10.2
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HR at Colonial First State P.58 HUMAN CAPITAL MAGAZINE HCAMAG.COM
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EXCLUSIVE C OVERAGE
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COPY & FEATURES EDITOR Iain Hopkins JOURNALIST Stephanie Zillman EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Kate Aubusson PRODUCTION EDITORS Sushil Suresh, Moira Daniels, Carolin Wun
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, Leadership Success, Peak Health, EmployeeConnect
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
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HC MAGAZINE 10.2
contents 16
16 | Life on the edge Australia’s top tier law firms are pioneering a new program in the fight against depression and anxiety in the workforce. As Kate Aubusson discovers, HR is in the front line 40 | Don’t you forget about me According to the experts, new user-friendly recruitment technology is shifting the pendulum ever so slightly away from being candidate centric to ensuring the ‘forgotten players’ – the recruiters, HR managers and line managers – are engaged in the process. The key? Simplicity and mobility
22 Cover story: HR takes flight Few corporate roles are as challenging or diverse as that of the HR director. As the role continues to evolve, Iain Hopkins talks to four leaders in their field, including Foxtel’s Emma Hogan, about the rich tapestry that is HR in 2012 2
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46 | Workforce potential unleashed In 2011 Frontier Software commissioned Jan Sky, author and CEO of Sky Training, to produce a report into how business can maximise the effectiveness of their human capital. In this abridged version, she reveals the benefits that can be gained by utilising Executive State Identification (ESI)
Check out the HC archive online:
58 | Profile: Colonial First State With 2,400 employees and more than $90bn under management globally, Colonial First State has grown to be one of Australia’s leading wealth management groups. What role has HR played in this success? Iain Hopkins sits down with the CEO and HRD
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REGULARS
04 | In brief: news 06 | In brief: forum
FRONTLINE INTELLIGENCE
06 | In Step – HR career experts 10 | Legal 12 | Corporate health 13 | HR technology
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IN BRIEF
news Mature-age drop off Changes in the proportion of people participating in the labour market, 1996–2011 100 80 60
%
Men
TELEWORKING
40
REMOTE BOSSES: RECIPE FOR LOWER ENGAGEMENT?
Women 20 0
Total 15-19 20-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-59 60-64 65+
Age
TALENT MARKET
MATURE-AGE WORKERS BOWING OUT EARLY
n The latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) have shown that while the unemployment rate has been maintained at 5.3%, labour force participation has decreased by 0.3% – more people are simply giving up or bowing out of the labour market. The figures coincide with the findings of a recent study commissioned by National Seniors Australia, which found that negative stereotyping among the mature age workforce is rampant, and those doing physical work or IT/technical work perceived the highest levels of age stereotyping. Based on a sample of 1,428 workers aged 50–75, the study found • 14% felt a high degree of workplace age stereotyping • 44% felt a medium level • 42% reported a low level Lead researcher Dr Courtney von Hippel said overt discrimination was not necessary for mature-age workers to feel judged on the basis of stereotypes. Workers were found to be increasingly keen to prolong their careers for financial and personal reasons but were very likely to confront negative attitudes in the workplace. “It’s the loose commentary, not necessarily malicious, that can reinforce the vulnerabilities of mature-age workers,” Michael O’Neill from National Seniors Australia said. By not stamping out stereotyping and making older workers feel valued, it becomes very difficult to retain them in the workforce. The research found those workers who reported the highest levels of age stereotyping were also the ones most likely to feel disengaged from work, and contemplate early retirement. Some felt their negative experiences were no longer manageable and intended to leave the workforce. Older workers who participated in the study reportedly wanted their organisations to increase training opportunities and to better acknowledge their contributions, as well as to convey a positive message to younger employees about the value of experience. Age Discrimination Commissioner Susan Ryan added that the research further emphasised the importance of employers recognising workplace stereotyping. “The negative pressure of these stereotypes often result in older people self-selecting themselves out of the workforce,” Commissioner Ryan said. 4
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The month in numbers
1,900 –
number of random inspections of retail businesses carried out by Fair Work Ombudsman since November 2010. 26% were in breach of workplace regulations and laws, though many claimed to be unaware of this
$3bn – annual
cost to business productivity due to ‘information overload’, according to a report by Hitachi Data Systems and Deloitte Access Economics
51.6% –
percentage increase from July to the end of November 2011 in the number of 457 primary visas granted over the same period in 2010
20 – number of
days of statutory holiday leave offered by Australian employers, which ranks as the highest (with New Zealand) in Asia-Pacific but ranks among the lowest compared to Western European countries
n Managers who work remotely are likely to give less feedback, make their employees feel less empowered, and create employees who are less satisfied with their employment than those in the office full-time, according to a new study. The results suggested that the impact on employees whose managers worked remotely for a portion of the week were less positive compared to those whose managers had a full-time presence in the office. Worse still were the engagement levels of those employees whose managers worked out of the office full time. The degree to which employees are affected by their bosses’ work mode was also found to be dependent on the flexibility of their own working conditions. Communication between employees and managers who telework or work virtually were found to contain “fewer contextual indicators”, which hampered accurate interpretations and fostered misunderstandings. Employees and managers who both work virtually encountered fewer communication difficulties. More than 11,000 US-based corporate employees were surveyed in the joint study between the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and GfK Custom Research, and three managerial work modes (traditional, telework and virtual) were studied to investigate which work mode was most favourable to employee work outcomes.
REMUNERATION
DID YOU KNOW?:
ARE COUNTER-OFFERS WORTH IT?
n While employers like Facebook, Google and Twitter regularly attempt to outbid competitors by offering million-dollar carrots to retain staff, making a counter offer may not be worth it, according to new research. In a recent survey conducted by Launch Recruitment, it was found that of more than 4,000 professionals who participated, 70% reported actively looking for new opportunities in 2012. The results were quantified by dividing the respondents according to their level of seniority, and it was found that from entry level employees to senior staff, remuneration ranked last among their reasons for moving elsewhere.
Why do people quit? CxO/GM/senior
Mid level
Individual contributor
Ranked top
Company culture (32%)
Career progression (23%)
Career progression (26%)
Ranked 2nd
Career progression (17%)
Work-life balance (22%)
Work-life balance (23%)
Ranked 3rd
Work-life balance (16%)
Company culture (19%)
Company culture (18%)
Remuneration
5th (7%)
4th (16%)
4th (17%)
While retention remains a top priority and challenge in the year ahead, Rebecca Wallace, managing director at Launch Recruitment, said making a counter offer is only a short-term solution. The results also revealed that the more senior the position of the departing employee, the less important remuneration is to them, and the less likely a counter offer will work at all. Because remuneration ranks relatively low compared to other areas of importance, Wallace said organisations need to get more creative in how employees are recruited and retained. So what’s going to make people stay this year?
Why do people stay? Gen Y
Gen X
Baby Boomers
Ranked 1st
Career progression (39%)
Company culture (25.5%)
Company culture (28%)
Ranked 2nd
Work-life balance (18%)
Career progression (25%)
Work-life balance (20%)
Ranked 3rd
Company culture (17%)
Work-life balance (21%)
Career progression (15%)
Remuneration
4th (14%)
4th (18%)
5th (10%)
CULTURAL DIVERSITY
A TASTE OF DIVERSITY
n A workplace cultural awareness initiative, A Taste of Harmony, will run from 19–25 March to coincide with National Harmony Day on 21 March, and HR professionals are urged to get their organisations involved. With one in four Australian workers born overseas, the need to acknowledge and support our nation’s rich cultural diversity has never been more important, especially on the workfront. Culturally diverse teams operating in inclusive workplaces have been proven to be better at innovation,
problem solving and creating new products. For one week in March, A Taste of Harmony invites Australians to host a multicultural lunch at work to promote open conversation about the diverse cultures that exist in Australia’s workforce. With each staff member bringing in dishes that represent their cultural background, or a culture which they have experience with, a non-threatening environment for sharing cultural stories is created. More information about A Taste of Harmony can be found at tasteofharmony.org.au
HR professionals at the world’s biggest firms are asking left-of-centre questions in the interview room with the goal of achieving better cultural fit. For example, interviewers for investment banking firm Goldman Sachs ask candidates the firm’s stock price; and financial services firm Morgan Stanley asks interviewees to name a recent story they’ve read in the Financial Times (many can’t)
WORKPLACE DRUG TESTING
WHITE-COLLAR DRUG TESTING ON THE RISE
n The long boozy lunch may be a thing of the past for employees in some white-collar industries as many Australian businesses, including law firms, IT companies and medical clinics, introduce workplace drug testing. Australian Workplace Drug Testing Services director Tony Graham told The Age that whitecollar sectors have recently shown interest in testing. “In one case a fatigued office worker put an electric stapler through his thumb, while in a separate incident a worker came back from lunch after a couple of drinks and got his tie caught in a paper shredder,” Graham said. Research by Dr Ken Pidd of the National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction found that 1% of workers usually take drugs at work, and 2% were regularly under the influence of drugs while at work. Other key findings included: • 90% of positive drug test readings are from legal drugs • 5% of workers tested for alcohol return a BAC above 0.05 Some 9% of all Australian workers regularly consume alcohol within the workplace, according to a study of 10,000 Australian employees.
IN BRIEF HC ONLINE
forum Readers’ comments
Lack of opportunities for disabled ‘a national shame’ Employers and recruiters unwittingly impose a ‘glass ceiling’ on disabled Australians, largely due to a lack of infrastructure and understanding – and new figures reveal that disabled people are half as likely to be employed compared to the general population. John Walsh, a PwC partner and author of a new report, Disability Expectations: Investing in a better life, a stronger Australia, said that as a disabled person himself, he had been lucky to have very supportive employers, but that support isn’t always there for others. Walsh said employers commonly have questions over “How do we employ someone like this”, “how are the other work mates going to deal with it”, “what happens if they get an injury – are they covered by workers compensation?” and he commented “all of these questions imply a need for employers to be supportive in how they even get to square one”. The PwC report highlighted some alarming statistics: Australia came in 21st out of 27 OECD countries, and 45% of disabled Australians live in poverty – double the OECD average. Speaking to ABC, John Della Bosca from the National Disability Services Lobby dubbed the employment rate ‘a national shame’, and Lynette May from Disability Employment Australia said in many cases the biggest issue is ‘attitude’. “Employers, whilst they’re open to it, feel nervous – if you like, unqualified,” May said.
However, from July 2012 the Federal Government will be increasing subsidies to employers of disabled workers, and the benefits of employing disabled workers extend beyond a community responsibility. According to the Australian Employers’ Network on Disability’s Opportunity booklet, “attracting, recruiting and retaining people with disability can provide a significant and often overlooked opportunity for business, and a solution to Australia’s skills crisis”. There is also mounting evidence suggesting that businesses that are able to handle diversity and disability are better positioned to succeed in a globalising economy as they are equipped to interact with a more complex customer base, environments and cultural diversity. James Partridge, Chair of UK-based Disability Employer Engagement Steering Group said, “We, as employers, should not judge a person’s suitability for a role based on their disability. We should instead look at each individual’s ability and focus on what they can bring to our organisations if we provide the support, which is just about being flexible.” In addition, Sue LaVerne, managing director of Business Services at E.ON Energy, said, “We see no reason why our disabled employees should not have the same opportunities and career progression as their non-disabled colleagues.” – Stephanie Zillman
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KAREN TRUTWEIN on 09 Dec 2011 05:48 PM Australia needs to lift its game when it comes to employing people with disabilities. The situation is a disgrace. We need to look to places like the UK, where it is becoming more usual to provide training for employers so they will be willing and able to employ people with disabilities. It’s a matter of human rights, surely, not to mention rampant discrimination. As the parent of a child with autism I have a very personal interest in seeing this improve. KARNA ODEA on 10 Dec 2011 03:31 PM It is a very poor reflection on the Australian Commonwealth and state governments who should make a real effort to include a decent number of people with disabilities in their workforce, and big businesses who always want concessions from government but often do not support the disadvantaged sector of their local communities. All organisations should be expected to include disabled people into their workforce planning. JAMES EGGLETON on 11 Dec 2011 10:45 AM So HR departments across Australia are themselves guilty of violating the workplace policies that they are charged with administering i.e. equity, diversity, equal opportunity etc. I am particularly worried about the current unemployment rate for Australians with an autism spectrum disorder especially given the 1 in 100+ prevalence in younger people who will be seeking paid employment in the next 5–10+ years. These unemployment and poverty statistics qualify as a national emergency that demands a commensurate response. NAOMI ANDERSON on 12 Dec 2011 12:53 PM As an HR practitioner I know it is not always easy to go outside the norm. But the benefits are substantial. If you want your staff to be proud of working with you, show them you are respectful of people of all abilities, and show them it can be done. If you want to live in a world where we can be proud as a nation of our ability to provide work opportunities to all people to use their skills and talents, lead the way by ensuring that your management is committed to removing barriers to employing people with a disability.
FRONTLINE INTELLIGENCE
recruitment
John Baker is the Director of The Next Step’s Brisbane office. For additional information call (07) 3121 3225 or email jbaker@thenextstep.com.au. Website: thenextstep.com.au
HR professionals in 2012 – agility required! As many sections of the economy will be a roller coaster ride this year, companies are now faced with looking ahead and planning to meet the challenges of an unpredictable world. Businesses are striving to stay competitive in the face of increased competition from cheaper producers overseas, and battling a strong dollar in export markets. But what does all this mean for HR? In this month’s Instep, we look at comments made by three HR leaders on what they see as some of the key capabilities required for HR professionals to assist their organisations deal with the challenges of changing markets. There were clear synergies in their responses!
HR’S RESPONSE
At a recent executive breakfast held in Brisbane and hosted by The Next Step, a panel of HR leaders consisting of Rolf Moses, HR Director Australia for law firm Norton Rose, Leanne Whicker, General Manager, HR & Strategy for Sunsuper, and Greg Christensen, EGM Business Services at Sucrogen all described the challenges of their respective sectors. Whilst each leader thought that their HR communities had their own respective individual industry challenges to adapt to, there were some common themes for HR in every sector. As business models change, so HR has to take on extra responsibilities and do it quickly, was the first clear theme. The second was a requirement for HR to help the business be ‘change ready’ as the need for change accelerates with shorter planning cycles. The final theme was described by the panel in one word and became a theme throughout the discussion – the need for HR to be ‘agile’.
AGILITY IN THE HR CONTEXT
The panel discussion about agility in an HR context begged the question – what is this, and is this really anything new? One could 8
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Agility is assisting companies adapt rapidly to a changing and fluid situation where things could change overnight and rewrite the entire rulebook argue that over the last three years every company has had to be agile, in some cases just to survive. The panel thought that agility in HR was about assisting companies to adapt to a rapidly changing and fluid situation where a number of factors could change and re-write the rulebook overnight. These include technological change as well as rapidly changing and growing customer expectations. Whilst these challenges for HR resonated with all the panellists there were some clear examples. Leanne Whicker from Sunsuper said that post-GFC, customers are more mindful and interested in their Superannuation Fund performance and more demanding for information. For Rolf Moses the emphasis in the post-GFC world is about keeping a lean organisation of highly skilled talent and operating as one firm to take advantage of opportunities.
HR PROFESSIONALS AND AGILITY
The panel discussion certainly highlighted the need for HR professionals who want to
be ready to meet the challenge to have a combination of the right behaviours, change skills and commercial acumen to be agile. Agility is also about HR professionals who are focused on transformation. People who turn up and decide to make things happen through a clear understanding of the business, was how Greg Christensen described it. However, the pace of change is also a factor that people have to deal with. Rolf Moses was clear that we have to be able to act without all the information necessary. Take what is available and advise the best course of action. Be willing to make a decision in that environment. So whilst everyone was broadly aligned on the attitude needed to meet the challenges of a faster moving world, there was also a sting in the tail. In The Next Step’s inaugural HR survey in 2010, being repeated now for 2012, only 7.3% of respondents felt that development of their commercial or financial skills was important for their professional development. It is time to get real on this point. As Greg Christensen reinforced, learning the business is a key. Expectations in businesses have accelerated. Being agile is not just about moving at speed, it is about applying our technical knowledge in a commercial environment for the best outcome for the business.
THE FINAL WORD
This year will undoubtedly be unpredictable, and it will be interesting to see whether more of the HR profession has changed their opinion on the importance of commercial and business understanding as part of their development in order to show true ‘agility’. The panel in Brisbane were clear on its importance, and the 2012 HR Viewpoint Survey will be a telling barometer of wider opinion.
MARKET MOVES
radar
Recent HR Market Moves SCA Hygiene Australasia has appointed David Griss to the role of Director Human Resources and Communications. David joins SCA after spending six years with US healthcare entity Hospira as Human Resource Director for their Pharmaceuticals business across Asia Pacific. AMP has appointed Narelle Wilson to the role of Head of Learning for their Operations division. Narelle joins AMP after a significant career specialising in the Learning and Development space with organisations such as GIO Australia, Optus, Commander, AAPT and most recently Sensis where she held the role of People & Leadership Development Manager. Charles van Heerden has joined global plastics manufacturer A. Schulman in the role of HR Director for the Asia Pacific region. In recent years Charles has been operating his own consultancy providing strategic HR consulting for small-tomedium sized organisations. Prior to this Charles held a number of GMHR roles namely with Warrnambool Cheese and Butter and Feltex Carpets. Diana Jovcevska has joined Spotless as their National Human Resources & Resourcing Manager spanning their national operations. Diana will bring a wealth of relevant experience having undertaken a variety of specialist and generalist roles with organisations such as Austin Health, DGL, Autoliv and Jetstar. South East Water has appointed Sharon Robinson to the role of GM People & Culture. Sharon joins South East Water after having most recently held the role of
GMHR with Crown Casino. Prior to this Sharon held senior roles within nab, Arup and DDI. Alex Lombardi has joined International SOS as their Director HR Australasia. Prior to joining International SOS, Alex enjoyed 10 years with Amadeus, most recently as their Director/Vice President HR, APAC. His previous experience spans Qantas, Allianz and Credit Union Australia. Uniting Care Ageing has appointed Liz Horden as their Executive Manager People, Learning & Culture Uniting. Liz’s previous experience comes from senior HR management and change roles within reputable businesses such as Coles, Lion Nathan and NSW Health. Vanessa Morley has moved internally with Qantas into the role of Head of People Operating Model. Vanessa has enjoyed a successful career with Qantas over the last eight years and most recently held the role of Head of Talent & Inclusion. Qantas has appointed Yvonne James into the role of Head of Talent & Inclusion. Yvonne previously held the role of Director, Human Resources & Communications with Computer Sciences Corporation. She also brings extensive consulting experience. Michelle Thomas has been appointed the
Human Resources Manager for Smartsalary. She most recently held the role of HR Business Partner on a contract basis at TAL and prior to this was the Human Resources Manager Asia Pacific for Swiss Re. VMware has promoted Sonal Paprocki from Senior HR Business Partner to their Human Resources Director. She brings strong experience within the IT/Telco sector and, prior to joining VMware, held the role of HR Manager Australia, New Zealand and Japan with Novell Inc. Sarah Dunn has joined VMware as the Head of Human Resources ANZ. Sarah was most recently employed by Hewlett Packard as their Head of HR for HP Enterprise Services. She previously enjoyed a successful HR career with Sun Microsystems.
By supplying Market Moves, The Next Step is not implying placement involvement in any way.
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FRONTLINE INTELLIGENCE
legal
Helen-Anne MacAlister, Associate, Workplace Solutions at Carroll & O’Dea Lawyers
No pay while on holiday Is that legal? Apparently yes! The topic of paid annual leave was recently covered by my colleague, Janine Smith, in Issue 9.05 of Human Capital Magazine. However, the recent majority decision of the Full Bench of Fair Work Australia, in Hull-Moody Finishes Pty Limited Enterprise Agreement 2011 [2011] FWAFB6709, makes this topic worthy of further comment. Paid annual leave has been an attribute of Australia’s workplace relations system for over 60 years. It has long been recognised that leave from work is important for health and other reasons. Employers well know, that employing someone as a regular employee (as distinct from a casual), automatically brings with it an entitlement to a minimum of four weeks paid leave. However, as noted in issue 9.05, despite the four week leave entitlement a significant number of employees do not take it. Approximately 25% of full-time employees in Australia have at least five weeks annual leave accrued. It may be that the employees’ workload prevents them taking the leave, but often employees actively accumulate leave as a ‘buffer’. Whilst this means employees are not as well rested as they could be it also means employers are accruing costs on a year on year basis. In our experience some employers would prefer to have some way of avoiding the problems which flow from accrual of holiday pay and in this context the Hull-Moody Finishes decision - provides an alternative. In the decision, the majority (Vice President Watson and Senior Deputy President Hamburger) held that provisions whereby employees were paid a specific identified “annual leave” component with their regular wages and then were required to take a minimum of two weeks leave per year (without being paid), was not contrary to the provisions in the National 10
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The consequence of this decision is that there is apparently nothing to stop an employer simply contracting with an employee to pay the employee’s annual leave pay as an identified annual leave part payment Employment Standards (NES), relating to paid annual leave, as contained within Part 2 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (the ‘FW Act’). As a result, they held this arrangement was permissible in the proposed agreement. Commissioner Cambridge dissented. The main thrust of his opinion was that the proposed scheme had the effect of “cashing out” and was both contrary to the “cashing out” provisions and the overall intention of the NES. When looking at the most relevant sections of the NES (sections 90 and 92 of the FW Act) in isolation, one would have to agree with the majority, that there is nothing in those sections that requires payment for annual leave to be made at the time when
the leave is actually taken. It is also not “cashing out” because the leave still has to be taken (although unpaid). The majority decision is based on a logical, although perhaps rather literal, reading of the relevant provisions. The consequence of the interpretation of Section 90 adopted by the majority is that there is apparently nothing to stop an employer simply contracting with an employee to pay all that employee’s annual leave pay as an identified “annual leave part payment” component with their weekly pay. Employers adopting that same initiative by common law agreement would immediately eliminate the difficulties associated with managing a huge annual leave liability from that point on. The decision, which will not be subject to further appeal or review, is a significant one for all. Employers (with employees’ agreement) have a significant alternative option in managing annual leave hoarding and employees will undoubtedly lose the desire to take annual leave. This decision comes at an interesting time bearing in mind the recently announced review of the FW Act. Undoubtedly this decision will receive consideration in the review bearing in mind the long standing entitlement to paid annual leave. The attitude of ‘use it or lose it’ in relation to annual leave is something that may help with leave “hoarding” but would also hopefully assist with employee rest and recuperation. The Hull Moody Finishes decision is a sign that more exotic methods to deal with annual leave are now being pursued. Our Workplace Solutions team frequently provide advice in relation to employment entitlements and contractual provisions and are happy to receive enquiries regarding same.
FRONTLINE INTELLIGENCE
corporate health
Chris Rabba is General Manager, Peak Health Management, part of Bupa
Why investing in a workplace influenza vaccination program is worthwhile FLU AND THE WORKPLACE
About 20% of Australians are affected by influenza each year (Dugdale, 2007), so it’s likely that at least some of your employees will be affected in the coming flu season. Influenza can be debilitating – not only for individuals who catch it and their families – but also for the organisations they work for. People with flu may need to take up to six days off work – which can impact on their productivity during and after the episode, as well as the productivity of colleagues who need to cover their workload (Keech & Beardsworth, 2008). This can be compounded considering the infectious nature of the flu and the number of workers who may be affected as a result of flu circulating through a workplace. Further, reaction times are cut by 20–40% in people with flu, which can increase the probability of error or injury (A P Smith, 1993).
WHY OFFER A WORKPLACE VACCINATION PROGRAM?
There are many benefits to conducting an onsite corporate flu vaccination program for your employees, including the likelihood of reduced sick days and a smaller negative impact on workplace productivity. The good news for corporations is that vaccinating healthy adult workers can reduce the number of employee sick days and has been shown to be a cost saving for companies across a range of industries (Nichol, 2001) (Bruce Y. Lee, 2010) (Nichol KL, 1995). Workplace vaccination programs are estimated to result in a significant return on investment, particularly during a severe 12
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influenza season or pandemic (Bruce Y. Lee, 2010) The influenza vaccination is 70–90% effective in preventing influenza specific illness in healthy adults (Influenza (seasonal), 2009). Immunity develops about two weeks after vaccination and lasts for a year (Seasonal flu shot, 2011). The best time to vaccinate is in the autumn, before the actual outbreak in winter (Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing).
ENSURING SUCCESS OF A WORKPLACE VACCINATION PROGRAM
A strong communications strategy is critical to implementing a successful workplace flu vaccination program. It is important to provide as much of the right information as possible to allow employees to make an informed decision. Information can include topics such as myths and facts about flu, and flu hygiene tips. Online booking systems, catering for shift workers and providing the service at a convenient onsite location can all play a significant role in ensuring success.
CHOOSING A CORPORATE FLU VACCINATION PROVIDER
When choosing a corporate flu vaccination provider, ensure they: • provide an onsite service • use vaccination qualified personnel • comply with the National Vaccine Storage Guidelines • maintain cold chain management of the vaccine • hold the appropriate and applicable health services permits to store and administer the vaccine.
Flu facts ● Flu symptoms include fever, chills, aches, pains and tiredness, headaches, cough and a runny nose ● The flu vaccine contains a tiny amount of an inactive form of the virus which, when injected, triggers the body to produce antibodies that protect against the particular strains of influenza that are expected to circulate in the coming months. The vaccine does not contain any live viruses and thus cannot cause the illness. Serious adverse reactions are rare, with the most common reaction being local redness and swelling at the site of the injection (Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing) ● In 2012, the influenza strains determined by the Australian Influenza Vaccine Committee based on information and recommendations from the World Health Organization have remained unchanged. Annual vaccination is recommended for optimal protection against influenza, even when the influenza vaccine strains remain unchanged from season to season. This means people who had the flu vaccine in 2011 will still need it again in 2012 (Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing) (Australian Influenza Vaccine Committee, 2011)
For more information Immunise Australia www.immunise. health.gov.au. Bupa www.bupa.com.au This information should be used as a guide only and should not be relied upon as a substitute for professional medical or other health professional advice. Neither the author nor Bupa Wellness Pty Ltd (trading as Peak Health Management) make any warranties or representations regarding the completeness or accuracy of the information nor are liable for any loss or damage you suffer arising out of the use of or reliance on the information, except that which cannot be excluded by law. We recommend that you consult your doctor or other qualified health professional if you have questions or concerns about your health.
FRONTLINE INTELLIGENCE Nick Southcombe is General Manager, Frontier Software. (03) 9639 0777 frontiersoftware.com
technology
Payroll and HR Data Managed via Spreadsheet –
Is it time for an alternative? Question: I have recently moved to a HR Role for a new company that uses spreadsheets to track employee data and pay the staff. I am struggling to keep up with all the files. What are your thoughts on using spreadsheets to manage the workforce? Answer: When businesses first start, they often find spreadsheets to be a cost-effective way to manage employee data. As they grow and evolve, HR teams often get to a point where managing electronic and paper-based files can become time consuming and costly. When you are at the point where you have spreadsheets linking to other employee spreadsheets and files, it may be time to consider a specialist online alternative. Managing employee data through spreadsheets and manual forms becomes costly and inefficient once you have more than 10 employees. There are many costeffective online solutions that can remove the burden and provide HR and payroll with more time to perform value-add activities.
PROCEED WITH CAUTION
While spreadsheets are a great business tool, it’s vital we use caution when utilising them to manage a payroll, pay overtime or calculate commissions. An error with a simple cut-and-paste can have catastrophic consequences and expose the organisation to an unnecessary risk of fines for underpayments. In addition, faulty formulas can produce inaccurate reporting that can be damaging to the credibility of HR within the enterprise. Using an online solution will eliminate overpayments and underpayments. When award conditions are set up within a payroll system, all calculations are performed automatically. Compliance is also managed more effectively with an online system – the constant pressure to maintain
knowledge of changing award conditions and legislation is eased. An online system should also offer a single source of truth, where employee information is input once and accessed by many parts of the system. This approach minimises errors and also promotes data accuracy and reliability across all areas of HR Management.
MANAGING SKILLS FRAMEWORKS
Using spreadsheets to manage your corporate skills frameworks and training can be cumbersome. Managing training through spreadsheets and updating employee records with associated skills and competencies can be time consuming and is often inaccurate. Online systems automate these processes and keep employee records updated.
INTEGRATION
When employee data is stored in a central HR system online, integration can more easily occur with CRM, ERP and Talent Management solutions.
REDUCE THE RISK OF FRAUD
Managing employee data and payroll by spreadsheets offers minimal security, it can
be error prone and may expose a business to fraud. Creating and paying ghost employees in a spreadsheet is much easier than breaching the strict online security provided by an efficient online payroll system. Organisations that implement online systems can still come undone when they manipulate payroll data by exporting live data to a spreadsheet then importing it once a complex calculation is performed. This approach is not considered best practice and should be avoided at all times due to the high exposure to risk. If your payroll system is unable to accommodate your needs, speak to your vendor and ask what workarounds are available within the system.
CONCLUSION
While spreadsheets offer enormous flexibility and ease of use, your employees are one of your most costly assets. Managing workforce data with a purpose built Payroll/HR tool will deliver efficiency and cost savings. Using spreadsheets to manipulate data or calculate overtime rates heavily relies on operator accuracy, which increases risk and the likelihood of errors. So it’s a good idea to use a specialist system to manage payroll, HR and Talent Management. HCAMAG.COM 13
PROFILE ISADORE PAYNE
my brilliant career
Man of the world Having lived and worked in South Africa, Australia, and England across sectors including fast moving consumer goods, pharmaceutical, and industrial, this month’s profiled HR professional is embarking on the next phase of his career after a successful run at Kimberly-Clark Human Capital: What drew you to an HR role initially? Isadore Payne: I always wanted to become a HR practitioner because it offers the opportunity to get involved and influence business outcomes across many areas. HC: What is your current role and how did it come about? IP: I recently joined Bayer as head of HR for ANZ. I was approached by a leading search firm and am excited to partner with Joerg Ellmanns (Chairman & MD) and the management team at Bayer, which has exciting growth plans for the ANZ region. HC: What do you consider to be your biggest career achievement to date? IP: I’m very fortunate to have worked in different industries and across various cultures and geographies in my career to date. Leading change and managing conflict during the transition since the release of Nelson Mandela in 1990 in South Africa is certainly a highlight in my career. I was also part of management teams on more than one occasion, tasked with the turnaround of the enterprise, rebuilding the culture and improving engagement across different regions. HC: What do you think it takes to succeed in HR? IP: HR leaders need to have a clear understanding of the business, its challenges and opportunities. They need to formulate appropriate ‘people’ strategies and demonstrate the ability to partner and implement operationally. They also need to be outstanding leaders themselves. HC: What advice would you give to graduates considering a career in HR? IP: Do not specialise in the beginning of your career and build capability across all HR disciplines, preferably across more than one industry. HC: Describe yourself in a few key words? IP: I like to be involved in building successful teams and organisations. I’m an optimist and believe the ‘glass 14
HCAMAG.COM
should always be half full’. I hold Christian values that guide my decision making and leadership orientation. HC: Do you have any role models? IP: I worked with a number of very talented CEOs/MDs and learned a lot from them. There are also many inspirational role models in everyday life – ordinary people making a difference in their societies, assisting less fortunate people or caring for the environment or other just causes. HC: What would be your number one tip for other HR professionals undertaking change management? IP: We’re all familiar with the key steps in change management. The real challenge is to ensure you are able to capture the ‘hearts and minds’ of all stakeholders. The fact that you show a compelling case for change and follow a well-planned process does not mean you have gained ‘real support’ for the required change. The key lies in seeking different ways to engage stakeholders – the old Town Hall meeting and numerous slides explaining the logic and process is simply not good enough. HC: What makes a company an employer of choice? IP: There are many engagement models/frameworks providing guidance on the journey to become an employer of choice. Most have merit but all go back to the basic elements, namely clear purpose and direction, alignment, performance management, inspiring climate, effective teams, leadership and development. Many companies are trying to be ‘all things to all markets’. It is simply not possible and choices need to be made between operational excellence, innovation and ‘customer-centricity’. If you want to be a low cost airline then your focus will be on operational excellence and customers will understand and support your low cost offering whilst maintaining good levels of customer service. The culture and employee value proposition need to be aligned to the overall strategy. More industry profiles at:
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ISADORE PAYNE ROLL OF HONOUR
1986: Bachelor of Human Resource Management (Honours) 1984: Bachelor of Human Resource Management – all at the University of the Orange Free State, South Africa
Pulch Photography, pulchphotography.com
1988: Master of Human Resource Management
FEATURE CORPORATE WELLNESS
Life on the
workplace depression and anxiety
edge
Australia’s top tier law firms are pioneering a new program in the fight against depression and anxiety in the workforce. As Kate Aubusson discovers, HR is in the front line
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The world of Australia’s top tier law firms is an intimidating one. It’s a game of high pressure and high stakes where competition drives achievement and the iconic image of the stalwart and domineering partner reigns. It’s difficult to believe that high profile partners have spoken candidly to camera about their most vulnerable and demoralising experiences. It’s perhaps even more difficult to believe Australia’s top tier law firms have put aside their trademark competitiveness to band together against a common enemy. This is the reality of resilience@law, a collaborative initiative between Allens Arthur Robinson, Blake Dawson, Clayton Utz, Freehills and Mallesons Stephen Jacques designed to combat what some law practitioners have dubbed the greatest threats to the profession: depression and anxiety.
DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY IN LAW
The prevalence of depression and anxiety within the law profession is alarming. The Hickie Report revealed that lawyers and law students are prone to psychological distress and have a greater risk of depression than their peers in other fields. A BeyondBlue survey found that legal professionals have a high incidence of symptoms of extreme depression and a higher prevalence of alcohol and drug use to cope with feelings of sadness or stress. “The statistics are appalling across our profession. From a purely OH&S standpoint, law firms can be toxic and unsafe environments,” says Freehills partner and former head of litigation Peter Butler. “They’re worked too hard, there’s not enough time off, competitiveness is pushed to unhealthy levels and there is not enough appreciation shown. It became clear we needed to put some resources into finding a solution to try and help each other get out of it.” Following a conference held by the Tristan Jepson Foundation, managing partners from the five law firms made a commitment to raising awareness and understanding of stress, depression and anxiety. The group aimed to make a lasting contribution by developing a learning approach for employees at each stage of their legal careers, from graduates through to partners. Butler has been involved with resilience@law since its inception. Like many in the legal profession Butler witnessed first-hand the crippling effects of depression. “I’ve seen it in my family and I’ve seen it in my workplace. Following this conference it occurred to me that depression and anxiety are not topics we should be frightened to talk about. We wanted to try to demystify anxiety and depression. These aren’t illnesses that need to be whispered about.”
ELIMINATING STIGMA
What compounds the debilitating effects of depression and anxiety is the lack of any real understanding of the
We wanted to try and demystify anxiety and depression. These aren’t illnesses that need to be whispered about – PETER BUTLER issue, and the social stigma attached to mental illness. “If you feel that having depression and anxiety is humiliating and embarrassing then you’ll never reach out, but once you are aware it’s a common issue you are more likely to seek help,” says Butler. “It’s one thing if I have a broken leg or other physical injury – I can tell people and enjoy their sympathy and support. It makes me feel better but it won’t help the physiology of fixing my leg. It just needs some time in plaster,” says Butler. With this in mind, eradicating stigma is about taking the blame and humiliation out of the equation so that a colleague who suffers from depression will feel no less supported and no more judged than a colleague with a broken leg. The initiative’s most powerful and gutsy weapon against the stigma of mental illness is the resilience@law DVD. The DVD features law firm partners laying bare their most vulnerable recollections of individual struggles with depression and anxiety. “These are people who were close to committing suicide, or were terribly depressed and didn’t know what to do,” recalls Butler. “We hope those who watch it think, ‘that’s what I’m going through’, or ‘that’s what I might go through’, and the fact that someone has been through it and has come out the other side is inspiring.” Laura Cropley, Clayton Utz national OH&S advisor adds that the DVD has been a key component of the program. “It has such an impact on employees because they know the people featured. They know that partner at Mallesons, they’ve seen that QC or whoever it might be and they respect them and their work. It goes an extraordinary way to dispelling stigma.”
PROVIDING SUPPORT
However, eliminating the stigma is only half the battle. It’s equally important to ensure HR is equipped with the appropriate skills to engage with employees that suffer from depression and anxiety. The law firms pool their
WHAT IS RESILIENCE? PETER BUTLER – Freehills: People who work in an environment like a law firm are subjected to very heavy workloads and difficult demands from clients and others. It’s not an easy workplace. Resilience is about dealing with the stresses that come about day to day, month to month in the workplace and in the rest of your life. Make it a matter of constant improvement. LAURA CROPLEY – Clayton Utz: Resilience is about assisting employees in the challenges they face in their professional and personal life, so that they are fulfilled personally and professionally.
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FEATURE CORPORATE WELLNESS
workplace depression and anxiety resources and share their experiences to develop best practice methods to support and reach out to sufferers. “It’s the only time I‘ve heard of where top tier firms have gotten together and worked collaboratively on a project like this,” says Cropley. “Everyone had put up the white flag and it’s just not a competitive space.” Along with HR managers and partners from all five firms, Cropley and Butler embarked on a two-day mental health training course they both found highly beneficial. “It was an eye opener, the things that I learnt. It’s important that people look for the signs of depression and anxiety and feel comfortable asking ‘are you ok?’” Butler says. The course teaches HR managers how to identify the difference between a performance management issue and mental health issue – a distinction that is often overlooked. Cropley explains, “The key point of mental health training is identifying if someone has a mental health issue. It’s not about fixing the problem. It’s about referring them on or supporting that person as they seek treatment with a health practitioner or psychologist. It’s important HR managers can identify the signs and symptoms of what depression and anxiety looks like at work.”
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As part of the firms’ orientation programs, all new starters receive resilience@law training at induction. A psychologist speaks to the group and screens the resilience@law DVD. Throughout the year the firms hold seminars covering a range of issues including mental health, work balancing life and stress relief. Each firm has its own additional mental health support programs services that are promoted to employees through the resilience@ law program whether they are anonymous help lines or counselling. The firms also participate in national initiatives like Mental Health Month or RUOK day.
RESULTS
Though research into the effectiveness of resilience@law at reducing stigma and increasing support is not yet available,
In numbers 95% The percentage of those
surveyed by SANE Australia on working life and mental illness issues who recommended that employers and managers receive education on mental illness, and how to manage its effects in the workplace.
$6.5bn How much research
suggests Australian businesses lose every year by failing to respond appropriately when employees experience mental health problems
18 million the estimated
number of absentee days annually that are attributable to untreated mental health problems. Mental health issues have recently overtaken physical injury as the cause of the longest absences from work
SANE Australia offers a wide
range of resources to assist people diagnosed with mental illness and their families. Call the SANE Helpline on 1800 18 7263 or visit sane.org for more information.
anecdotal evidence is very encouraging. “I know so many people who have said to me that when they felt that the chips were down and they were going through depression, they thought it’s actually ok to reach out and tell a friend or a colleague. It’s not a career ending move to say you are suffering from depression,” says Butler. “More often than not the response will be ‘I know what you mean, I’ve felt the same way or I’ve seen it in others. Resilience@law has made a huge difference but it’s just one step along the journey.” Cropley agrees the work is ongoing. “It’s a movement. Previously no one was talking about it, but now we’re able to get in front of people, start educating, start those conversations, engage in national initiatives and advertise services,” she says. “We’ve had really positive feedback from the other firms,” Cropley adds. “The mid-tier firms have shown a lot of interest and we’re in the process of developing a tool kit so we can hand it to the mid-tier firms and say, ‘look, there’s the DVD, there’s the speaker’s notes, there’s the power point slides, go forth!’ “We’re changing the culture and reducing the stigma around mental health.”
It’s the only time I’ve heard of where top tier firms have gotten together and worked collaboratively on a project like this – LAURA CROPLEY
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COVER STORY HR’S BEST
hr summit 2012
HR TAKES
FLIGHT 22
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Few corporate roles are as challenging or diverse as that of the HR director. In a discussion with Iain Hopkins, four HR leaders share their insights on an evolving role and suggest ways to get ‘back to basics’ in HR during 2012
EMMA HOGAN
DIRECTOR OF PEOPLE & CULTURE Organisation: Foxtel Industry: Subscription television Biggest HR issue in 2012: One of the big challenges we’re facing at the moment is what’s happening in our industry, subscription TV. The competition has changed significantly over the last 10 years so it’s about continuing to remain innovative and retaining our best people and continuing to be the great organisation that we are.
ogan See Emma H e talk about th an essentials of team at effective HR dney, Sy HR Summit ch 28-29 Mar
Pulch Photography, www.pulchphotography.com
A
s evidenced by Foxtel’s win in the ‘HR Team of the Year’ category at the Australian HR Awards in 2011, Emma Hogan knows a thing or two about building and maintaining an outstanding HR team. However, like all recognition, that accolade is the end result of years of significant change and a lot of hard work. Hogan notes that when she joined the company five years ago HR was still very much the traditional administrative function “with some pockets doing great work depending on who the leader of that area was”. She adds that the key to HR’s development and acceptance in the business was not just ‘runs on the board’ but also building a solid relationship with the CEO, whereby the HR function sought to prove “how we could actually help him, not hinder him and the other executives”. This CEO endorsement has not always existed; Hogan has worked in other organisations where HR has either not been allowed to demonstrate its value, or hasn’t had a strong enough team to proactively create that credibility. “You kind of need it to work both ways. You need the sponsorship and you need a strong team to do it well,” she says. But before HR professionals start dreaming big, Hogan adds that it’s fundamental to get the basics right. “In HR
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COVER STORY HR’S BEST
hr summit 2012
people talk about being a strategic partner but if you’re not getting the basics right – if people are not being treated fairly, if people aren’t getting paid on time, if people aren’t getting recruited well – you won’t get the opportunity to do the rest. So, we always make sure that all our basic processes and compliance issues are correct and solid so we have the credibility to put on the initiatives that really make a difference to give us a competitive advantage.” Hogan also urges HR directors to show empathy with their CEOs. “I think sometimes we forget what a lonely job being the CEO can be and the amount of pressure that person is under. Whatever anybody is working on at any given point in time you always think your thing is the most important. Always be proactive with the CEO and understand what’s on his or her plate at the time, and where your issue fits. What could you be doing to help? Do your need to reprioritise your issues to support whatever is on his or her mind?” So what makes a great HR team? Hogan believes a mixture of skills, experience and backgrounds is a step in the right direction. “Nearly everyone in my team has done more than one role during their time at Foxtel,” she says. “They’ve moved sideways or upwards, or if some people have gone into the business, some people have come out of the business and into our team. I think mixing up the skills and empowering them to do their roles is really key to the retention of the team, key to the development of the team but also key to the success of the business. What happens is they’ll work with a new client and they’ve already had some experience in another area and they really bring
that benefit across so they see things in a new light.” Hogan does not believe in one set structure of an HR team over another; she has worked with centralised and decentralised models before, and believes the structure simply has to be one that works in the environment in which it operates. “If you’re working in an organisation with 38,000 people that’s a very different structure than one that has 1,500 or 300 people. For us what works is a combination of HR professionals out in the business with more centralised advisory areas. So the organisational development or internal communications are centralised areas whereas our HR practitioners are out and about in the business. The one thing I think you must do is have your main person, who is providing advice or support to members of the executive, sitting in the business.” And with the $2.5bn Foxtel takeover of Austar inching towards completion (in December Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan announced the proposal has been approved by the Foreign Investment Review Board but as of 5 February the ACCC had yet to approve the takeover), Hogan will no doubt be keen to ensure her team works effectively in the new corporate environment. “If Foxtel and Austar become one company that would be a significant challenge for us and one that we’re really excited about,” she says. “Obviously there’s a lot of work in that, and also making sure that we don’t drop any business results in any of the businesses while we are going through that process. I think that’ll be quite a challenge but it will be the people that make a difference. We’ll need to ensure we’re really clear about what the changes are and what the new company will be for everybody.” ■
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PEOPLE + CULTURE STRATEGIES
People + Culture Strategies (PCS) is an Australian workplace and HR law firm that services Australian and international employers in all aspects of workplace relations. PCS offers a unique value proposition: we focus on partnering with clients through approachable and pragmatic advice, provide flexible pricing models to suit organisations large and small (including monthly retainer arrangements) and deliver a comprehensive program of education events, webinars and other value-add activities. In addition, our expertise extends to non-traditional services to our clients’ HR/Legal functions including investigations, coaching and mentoring programs, strategic planning, industry-leading training and facilitation.
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JUSTIN MILES
GENERAL MANAGER HR Organisation: Fonterra ANZ Industry: Dairy products Biggest HR issue in 2012: My business right now is undertaking significant enterprise resource platform [ERP] change, introducing SAP across all our Aust-NZ business. This will affect 4,000 employees. The goal we’ve set ourselves is to manage the change in such a way that we increase engagement in the company, not just get them through the change. We’re using Gallup as our partners for engagement. We’ve shown some improvement between the first two surveys and have just gone through our third survey. Our changes will be in full swing by the time of the fourth survey so we will know how we’ve gone in achieving our goal. Any tips for other HR professionals going through organisational change? You must understand the three elements to shift: 1. The artifacts of the change, the things you can see and feel; the systems, processes, the tools, the forms, etc 2. How people will have to spend their time and/or how behaviours will have to shift, and 3. Beliefs, assumptions necessary to maintain change. It’s important for leaders to understand the costs and payoffs from the perspective of those who have to make the change. If you haven’t explained what the payoff is for employees, the change will be all about the surface stuff, the forms, the systems, and behavioural change will only be temporary.
iles See Justin M ing ap talk about sh ture fu a pipeline of HR e leaders at th ey, Summit Sydn 28-29 March
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For over 40 years, DDI has helped the most successful companies around the world close the gap between where their businesses need to go and the talent required to take them there. Our areas of expertise span every level, from individual contributors to the executive suite; and range from success profile management, selection and assessment, leadership and workforce development, succession management and performance management. DDI’s comprehensive, yet practical approach to talent management starts by ensuring a close connection of our solutions to your business strategies, and ends only when we produce the results you require. You’ll find that DDI is an essential partner wherever you are on your journey to building extraordinary talent.
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COVER STORY HR’S BEST
hr summit 2012
T
raditionally, succession planning has been focused on identifying the best people and getting them up through the organisational structure at an appropriate speed that matches organisational need. Essentially managing people risk. It can work brilliantly but it can also stall if individuals are unprepared for working at that level. The research undertaken by Canadian organisational psychologist Elliot Jacques on working levels identified that as individuals mature and gain experience in the workplace, they need to be moving at an appropriate rate relative to their capacity to handle jobs and different levels. Some businesses have built their succession plans around this type of thinking. Those companies that don’t attend to this can risk getting lost in the organisational process by pushing people too far, too fast. Justin Miles, general manager, HR, at Fonterra Australia New Zealand, suggests it’s a balancing act in terms of weighing up the needs of both the individual and the organisation. “As organisations get flatter success at the next level up the hierarchy is a bigger challenge than say 10 years ago. When it’s purely a linear risk management process, of identifying and developing person A for job B, you may be making the wrong assumptions about what might be the ideal next move for the individual,” he says. For example, Miles suggests that a sales manager might be the ideal successor for the sales director role – and while that may ensure there is risk coverage against the departure of the sales director, the sales manager might actually be better off doing a stint in supply chain or in marketing to get the development experience necessary for longer term success at the next level up. “You need to
make sure succession plans are either capable of being used as talent plans or are balanced to make sure that individual development needs aren’t lost,” he says. The traditional notion of succession planning – step one, two, three up the corporate ladder – also needs to be reassessed. At Fonterra (a company with iconic brands like Ski yoghurt, Mainland cheese, and Western Star butter under its umbrella) Miles says the “right experience” 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.” A number of key factors are considered to identify future leaders in Fonterra’s own ranks. The first is an individual’s performance over time, including success against a set of key competencies. Secondly, given that Fonterra is a farmer owned co-operative, the person must demonstrate that they can live and lead the values of the organisation, and set appropriate expectations for those below them. The company also considers learning agility – essentially the ability to be successful in first time situations. “Whether the challenge arises from
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LEARNING SEAT
Learning Seat, a division of News Limited, is Australia’s leading online training and compliance management company that provides learning solutions and fully customised induction courses for corporations, government groups, industry associations and commercial training providers. Through individually branded, web-based organisational learning platforms, Learning Seat offers its clients access to over 400 online training modules, training tools and e-learning resources aimed to inspire, grow, and empower employees in areas including bullying and sexual harassment, managing people and business, health and safety in the workplace and green office practices. Learning Seat also provides courses in specific industries such as recruitment, local government, hospitality and medical practice.
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You need to make sure succession plans are either capable of being used as talent plans or are balanced to make sure that individual development needs aren’t lost
competitor activity, changes in market dynamics, or major social, political or environmental factors, the highest potential employees are the ones who figure out what to do when they don’t know what to do, and then take their teams with them on the journey,” says Miles. Fonterra also looks at motivational drivers beyond status or monetary reward – for example, the drive to do more for those around you, more for the organisation, more for the community. “There will be ego around personal success, of course, but our leaders should be aspiring to higher roles for reasons above and beyond that. You’ve got to commit to your colleagues, to your organisation, to your community, and to your own development – that means taking the tough assignments and putting in the extra effort,” Miles says. As for who should be keeping an eye out for high potentials, Miles believes in most instances the high potentials themselves are aware of who they are and what they want to do, but he warns that “the ability to spot talent shouldn’t be left solely with line managers – HR should also keep a watchful eye out”. In terms of development opportunities for successors, Miles says the overriding principle is to start early. “While you have to take the time to learn a craft, to consolidate skills in your profession, there’s no better time than early in your career to start moving around the world if you’re in an international company, or around different functions. The better we do with our people early in their career, in terms of encouraging them, to take on more difficult tasks or assignments, the easier it will be later,” he says. In terms of overall HR success, Miles concedes that he “measures a lot of things”.
Fonterra uses a process called ‘eight quarter planning’, whereby individuals who are identified as key talent are part of a people plan for the next eight quarters. In addition, the goal is for 80% of those plans to happen on time. Additional metrics look at the percentage of roles in senior ranks being filled internally, and also the number of executives moving from Miles’ area of the business to other areas of Fonterra. Fonterra also looks at the ‘ripple effect’ of good leadership, by assessing the outcomes for leaders and their teams. “These are real outcomes – meaning how many [in their team] have been promoted or taken on new jobs; or has the leader recruited great new talent to Fonterra; or has the leader proactively addressed performance issues.” As a final tip, Miles says succession planning and leadership development benefits from being simple, consistent and outcome focused. ■
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Taleo (NASDAQ: TLEO) helps organisations improve the performance of their business by unlocking the power of their people. Taleo is the only company to provide industry leading solutions in every category of talent management. Through its cloud-based platform, Taleo optimises recruiting, performance management, learning and compensation, and integrates them all so managers have the insights they need to achieve talent intelligence. Customers also plug into Taleo’s unique talent grid community to harness proven best practices, millions of candidates, and Taleo-ready partner solutions. From small and medium-sized businesses to large enterprises, more than 5,000 organisations rely on Taleo every day to pursue growth, innovation and customer success.
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MY RECRUIT ONLINE
Reforming – manual processes out, automation in Transforming – recruitment from anywhere and everywhere Revolutionary – continuous, real-time collaboration The future of recruitment. An Enterprise Intelligence System and the first of its kind in recruitment technology. A distributed sensory network, constantly monitoring events in real-time then acting on their semantic meaning. Your very own ‘Avatar’ – your decision making captured in code. Designed to work on all devices, from desktop to mobile, including PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad and Android.
Contact: Lynne Salmon, marketing director, Asia Pacific
Contact: Domenic Saporito CA, CEO
P: 03 9626 2413 E: lsalmon@taleo.com W: www.taleo.com.au
P: 03 8689 9510 E: domenic.saporito@dc123.com W: www.myrecruitmentonline.com HCAMAG.COM 27
COVER STORY HR’S BEST
hr summit 2012
BETH WINCHESTER EXECUTIVE GENERAL MANAGER, HUMAN RESOURCES Organisation: Fuji Xerox Australia Industry: Document technology, managed print services, software & supplies Biggest HR issue in 2012: Continuing to help the organisation achieve results. That’s the thing Fuji Xerox Australia is actively engaged in at the moment – helping the business make some choices about what next year looks like. I’m heavily involved in the strategic planning program, and then my team’s role will be how to support those decisions. It spans from how we build a better sales capability engine to the right organisational design to take us through the next three years. That all sounds great and glamorous, but we’ve also got to make sure we’re doing the fundamentals day in and day out.
See Beth talk Winchester R can H w ho t ou ab sational drive organi e HR th at s succes ey, Summit Sydn 28-29 March
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PEAK HEALTH MANAGEMENT
PEAK Health Management is one of Australia’s leading and most successful corporate wellness companies. A dynamic organisation, they are energetic, innovative and forward thinking in their approach. PEAK is committed to being at the forefront of the industry. Established in 1995, they are considered by many as the first choice for corporate wellness in this country, boasting some of the country’s leading business entities as long standing clients. Now part of the Bupa group, they can provide their clients with international expertise in the healthcare arena.
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RED BALLOON
RedBalloon offers a range of services to help organisations recognise, reward and motivate their people with amazing experiences. There are more than 2,000 experiences nationwide that provide a fun, innovative and exciting way for businesses to meet their goals. We’re passionate about delivering pleasure to people at work (we’re also Best Employers) and have done so with great success for many years working with both large and small companies.
Contact: Chris Rabba, general manager
Contact: Matt Geraghty, general manager, corporate
P: 03 9647 6317 E: chris@peakhealth.com.au W: www.peakhealth.com.au
P: 02 8755 0001 E: matt@redballoon.com.au W: www.redballoon.com.au
I
t’s a common misconception that HR, as essentially a support function, is too far removed from the frontline to have much of an impact on bottom line results. It’s a myth that Beth Winchester, executive general manager of human resources at Fuji Xerox Australia, is keen to dispel. She says that HR can have significant impact in driving organisational success at individual, team and strategic levels. “To me you can’t pick one or the other, it has to be at every level,” she says. “In any organisation the reason you’re in business is to have an outcome and in most businesses that outcome is for shareholders. If you think about how you achieve that, the biggest lever you’ve got is the people you have to service your customers, your stakeholders and the general market. So for me, HR has a massive role in making all that happen. Even though HR may not necessarily directly touch the customer, it touches all the people you work with and therefore it does.” First up, HR must be clear on what exactly the drivers of organisational success are, whether it’s a particular product line or service offering, an area of specialisation, or simply ‘the way things are done’ that differentiate the organisation from the competition. “Do we absolutely need to know every single basic product? Would we be the expert in that field? No, but we need to know what business we’re in and what are the key levers, and how the business is performing. I certainly think HR has to have a big role in that, and then helping the business make choices.” “At the end of the day you’ve got to help the business build whatever it needs – whether it’s an incentive
program or a recognition program, or helping managers have good conversations with their employees. You need to be across those levers.” Winchester, who is a qualified accountant, started off with an understanding of debits and credits, profit & loss, and other business metrics “well before HR was even a career,” she says. She believes this background has enhanced her effectiveness in HR and also believes tertiary HR qualifications are now well rounded and include a “hefty number” of business subjects. “Someone walking out of university today with a HR degree will have covered, in some way or another, an understanding of how businesses are put together. This is a generalisation but the best HR people I see are those who can blend the commercial understanding of the
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SHL GROUP
SHL is a global leader in talent management, driving better business results for clients through superior people intelligence and decisions – from recruiting to employee development and succession planning. SHL deliver over 25 million assessments each year in more than 30 languages. Along with its world-class consulting practices and 24-hour support centre, through an easy-to-use technology platform.
HR must be clear on what exactly the drivers of organisational success are, whether it’s a product line or service or an area of expertise – BETH WINCHESTER
JLT
Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT) is a leading provider of insurance-related risk solutions and corporate services. JLT is one of the largest firms of its type in the world, with subsidiaries in over 130 countries. JLT specialise in bespoke, local and multinational employee benefits packages, including group risk insurance, health insurance and wellness solutions.
Contact: Narelle Price, client relationship manager
Contact: Stuart Whitbread, general manager – benefit solutions
P: 1800 091 846 E: narelle.price@shl.com W: www.shl.com
P: 02 9290 8023 E: stuart.whitbread@jlta.com.au W: www.jlta.com.au/employee.aspx HCAMAG.COM 29
COVER STORY HR’S BEST
hr summit 2012
business with the understanding of how to inspire people to do great work, so it’s head and heart stuff.” Winchester also suggests that the benefits of learning on the job should not be overlooked, especially in generalist roles working close to an operation. “A good HR person is able to pick up the threads quite easily in their craft from working in the business context. If you’re sitting close to an operation you get to know it well and how it’s put together.” She adds that the HR function, alongside IT, finance and corporate communications, is in the rare position of being able to span across the whole business. “We can actually see the whole business and how it’s put together, which often people in line roles don’t get the opportunity to do. So actually HR people, if they’re good and get moved around the HR function to look after different clients, can build that knowledge and understanding of the various pieces. You can have the opportunity to understand the challenges that a blue collar workforce might have versus a salaried professional sales oriented or marketing department.” What else can HR be doing to ensure they get the best out of their people? Two areas spring to mind: fostering a culture of innovation and improving engagement. Winchester comments that innovation can come in different forms, ranging from continuous improvement of day-to-day functions, through to more audacious ‘big ideas’ or ‘aha’ moments. Winchester stresses that innovation does not necessarily mean always thinking big: “Nirvana for me is an organisation where everyone, it doesn’t matter where they sit, is thinking of a better way of doing what they do every day.”
HR’s role in innovation, she believes, is helping the organisation to sponsor it, to create the right environment for it to happen. “Advocacy is a word I’d use, so it doesn’t stifle anyone’s creative abilities, and you also create the space for innovation. That can be physical space, such as having collaborative spaces so people can meet over a cup of coffee and chew the fat, or it can be cultural space that everyone creates differently. Sometimes it’s just a bright spark idea as you’re in a meeting, or perhaps it’s something quite revolutionary where people are playing around with an idea and find a better way. It’s vital that we have all of those; you can’t force it into one little box.” She concedes that while all employees should be given the time and space to create, that’s not always possible. For example, a company that employs client facing call centre staff or people in a warehouse environment may struggle. “You can’t have innovation at the same level across the whole organisation, but you can always create the opportunity for people to think of better ways. The old fashioned suggestion box is a great innovation tool. Now you could do that electronically but you want people to feel that if they see something to improve, they can suggest a change.” The engagement journey at Fuji Xerox Australia started five years ago when Winchester joined the company. She wanted to use a creditable engagement tool to see how the company was measuring up against the competition. She opted for Hewitt. “There were a couple of people in the organisation at that time, five years ago, who said ‘We’re a best employer’. I said, ‘How do you know that?’ Under what measure are we saying
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1300APPRENTICE
API LEISURE & LIFESTYLE
1300apprentice is a not-for-profit organisation which takes on all legal employer responsibilities of the trainee/apprentice over the duration of the training term. We facilitate the process in partnership with our host employer and manage the recruitment, OH&S and training of the trainee/ apprentice to successful completion of the qualification.
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API Leisure & Lifestyle is Australia’s leader in employee benefits programs. Our 1,500 lifestyle and financial benefits will enhance your employment value proposition and assist you to attract, retain and engage employees. Reinforce your employment brand with our successful mix of online and hard copy communications. API has offices in every state, ensuring local servicing for your employees.
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P: 02 9715 3744 E: s.leet@1300apprentice.com.au W: www.1300apprentice.com.au
P: 02 9277 6560 E: kgreen@apilifestyle.com.au W: www.employeebenefits.com.au
The best HR people I see are those who can blend the commercial understanding of the business with the understanding of how to inspire people to do great work, so it’s head and heart stuff
that?’ So I suggested we measure employee engagement because it’s a proxy for leadership and management performance, and it’s also well founded that there is a direct correlation between employee engagement and company performance, so it can’t hurt. I also firmly believe it is a lever towards aligning business success with your people.” The 2012 survey will be the sixth, and Winchester notes the results have been “interesting” over that time frame. “Apart from the fact we know we’re tracking towards being a best employer and how we go against our competition – this goes back to the talent retention and acquisition issue – what’s been interesting has been how our drivers have subtly changed. As you fix some things they become less important, and you see other things become more important.” The single biggest message that Winchester believes the organisation needs to hear is the impact managers have on engagement. “All the research points to this and it’s very tried and tested, but the manager is the single biggest impact on employee engagement and their decision to stay or leave. So we’ve done a huge amount of work on this, running development programs to ensure managers understand their impact on engagement.” As a final tip for enhancing performance, Winchester recommends taking a look at corporate values. Fuji Xerox Australia has pruned its values back to a simple four. Although HR drove this, it was up to all managers to lead it through the company. She adds that employees now understand what a values culture looks like. “When people start making decisions based solely on
values and not just on profit or other metrics, that’s when you know you’re getting there. That’s had a significant impact on the business. “When you speak to people about what makes us different to other companies and why they chose us, or choose to stay here, the thing that makes us different is the cultural values, the fact that we really want to be what we say we are.” ■
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ASPERITY EMPLOYEE BENEFITS
Asperity is an international leading provider of employee discounts. Over 400 employers and over 1 million employees rely on us to provide employee discounts that deliver exceptional, measurable engagement. Asperity was founded in 2006 as a partnership between an online technology firm specialising in customer loyalty and a communications agency. Over the past four years we’ve become leaders in employee discounts by leveraging our expertise in these areas with a single focus of building the best employee discounts bar none. Asperity has offices in Sydney, London and Dublin.
– BETH WINCHESTER
AURION CORPORATION
Aurion Corporation is an integrated HR solution company. We develop Enterprise HR software and provide services from Software as a Service to fully outsourced payroll. Aurion is a Rich Internet Application (RIA), incorporating talent search and retention, payroll, time and attendance, scheduling, self-service, workflow, ad hoc reporting and business process automation.
Contact: Chris Barton, national manager
Contact: Richard Ward, national sales manager
P: 02 9248 0127 E: chris.barton@asperity.com.au W: www.asperity.com.au
P: 1300 AURION E: sales@aurion.com.au W: www.aurion.com.au HCAMAG.COM 31
COVER STORY HR’S BEST
hr summit 2012
AMANDA TOWE HR DIRECTOR
Organisation: Johnson & Johnson Medical Industry: Healthcare
What would be your top tip for other HR professionals coping with significant change? Have a structured plan and think about it, rather than living through the change and planning it at the end, which sometimes happens. We’ve been successful by being very deliberate – going back to the values and understanding what it means to do the right thing as we go through any type of internal or external industry change process.
Towe See Amanda ting ea cr t ou talk ab , a compelling d authentic an R P at H relevant EV dney, Sy it m Sum ch ar M 9 28-2
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B ONLINE LEARNING
B Online Learning is an experienced total solutions eLearning company and registered training organisation. Our solutions include eLearning content development, enterprise learning management system, rapid authoring tools, articulate training and master eLearning course. We partner with organisations to provide outstanding solutions aligned to their learning and development strategies.
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Pulch Photography, www.pulchphotography.com
Biggest HR issue in 2012: Change management is probably the highest priority at the moment. We’re going through huge amounts of change, both with the stakeholders we’re dealing with externally and the healthcare system itself, so we’re constantly revisiting what we do. Change management from an HR point of view is equipping leaders to manage complex changes.
EMPLOYEE CONNECT
EmployeeConnect is a recognised leader in the HRMS market in the AsiaPacific region, providing the ‘best of breed’ web-based HR solution that can integrate with any payroll engines. Our solutions are known for their flexibility and scalability that are easy to use and cost effective to implement.
Contact: Sue Fell, business development manager
Contact: Ari Kopoulos, national sales & marketing manager
P: 02 9571 6883 E: mail@bonlinelearning.com.au W: www.bonlinelearning.com.au
P: 02 8228 8000 E: info@employeeconnect.com W: www.employeeconnect.com
M
Most companies have their values written up on the wall, and that’s as far as it goes. We put a lot of effort into keeping it alive
ost reputable companies in this day and age understand that the Employee Value Proposition (EVP) is not ‘marketing spin’; nor is it something that can be framed and put up around the office without having something concrete to back it up. As the 2011 News Corp debacle demonstrated, companies that have EVPs tied to lofty values that don’t relate to the day-to-day decisions that employees make, or don’t reflect the reality of ‘how things are done’, will eventually come undone. The employees of Johnson & Johnson Medical are acutely aware of their company’s EVP – they live and breathe it every day. For Amanda Towe, HR director at Johnson & Johnson Medical, the key to an effective EVP is clearly articulating the company’s promise to employees, and also articulating that promise directly back to customers. This forms the bedrock of Johnson & Johnson’s EVP. Based on a credo – a commitment to making a difference to the customers the company serves – Towe believes it’s an easy task to tie this back to employees. “The credo at Johnson & Johnson is everywhere at the company. It’s an expression of our company’s responsibilities and values, and really that’s an articulation of our promise as an organisation. It’s then translated into what that means for our employees,” she explains. While there is some compelling and advanced branding that sits around the EVP, the technical part of the EVP – that is, the promise to employees – comes back to the corporate values. “It’s about working in a company where you make a difference – the purpose beyond profit
opportunity that you have as an employee of Johnson & Johnson,” Towe says. That opportunity to contribute beyond profit is expressed in the credo: the first responsibility is to the customer, the second responsibility is to employees, the third is to the community and environment, and the fourth is to the shareholder. “It’s deliberately sequenced this way,” Towe explains. “If you get the first three things right, the shareholders will get a good return. Essentially it’s about doing the right thing for people beyond pure profit.” In some regards, Johnson & Johnson have had it easy in creating a meaningful EVP. As Towe points out, another clue lies in the company name. The ‘&’ in Johnson & Johnson is a universal symbol for partnership. “This is what we mean when we say we’re an ‘and company’. ‘And’ means that nothing we do at Johnson & Johnson Medical is just about us. It’s about us and all the great people we work for and with.”
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FRONTIER SOFTWARE
Founded in Melbourne in 1983, Frontier Software is a global leader in Human Resource, Talent Management and Payroll Solutions. Their flagship solution chris21 sets the benchmark functionality and useability. With support offices in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide and Perth and key global locations, Frontier Software is well placed to service their 1,600 clients.
– AMANDA TOWE
INJURY TREATMENT
Injury Treatment is an experienced provider of corporate health and injury management training and consultation services. We deliver a broad range of tailored solutions to assist organisations to effectively minimise the incidence of workplace injury, as well as to minimise the cost of workplace injury through proactive rehabilitation and injury management.
Contact: Nick Southcombe, general manager
Contact: Rob Daking, operations manager
P: 03 9639 0777 E: sales@frontiersoftware.com.au W: www.frontiersoftware.com
P: 02 9715 5677 E: rob@injurytreatment.com.au W: www.injurytreatment.com.au HCAMAG.COM 33
COVER STORY HR’S BEST
hr summit 2012
Being in healthcare, and in particular the medical devices area, means that J&J employees work with the surgeons, with the hospitals, and in some cases directly with the patient, and can see the direct impact of their actions every single day. “They can see what a difference that makes to people’s lives, people’s longevity, the quality of people’s lives, their ability to continue working. So it’s really quite compelling, and in a sense it’s quite easy for us to deliver against that EVP; coming to work every day is a way of experiencing making a difference.” The branding that sits around the EVP is ‘Be Vital’, which is effectively the company catchphrase. This branding is used on all internal documents relating to anything to do with people, talent management, and people practices. “The connection between Be Vital and ‘purpose beyond profit’ and the work of our credo is really about being vital as a person, being vital as an employee. Everything we do for our customers is vital to them,” Towe explains. The impact and meaning of the EVP is formally and informally reinforced at Johnson & Johnson. Employees are surveyed in what’s called a ‘credo survey’, which aims to focus on company values. Feedback is deliberately sought from employees on how the company is living up to the promise to customers. Action plans are then formulated, with ‘credo champions’ acting as grassroots champions of the cause. In addition, focus groups and education workshops are run around the credo, while reward
and recognition mechanisms allow for peer recognition of these values. These R&R programs are also both formal and informal. Some are leadership determined, awarded to employees who demonstrate desired behaviours and values; other programs allow for peer to peer recognition. Towe believes the ability to nominate peers creates a self-perpetuating forward motion for any program. “Most companies have their values written up on the wall, and that’s as far as it goes. We put a lot of effort into keeping it alive,” she says. The values are also “probably the highest priority” for the company in the recruitment process, says Towe. “If you don’t have all the technical aspects that’s ok, you can learn that. If you don’t have all the knowledge that’s ok, we can provide that with extensive educational support for people. But if your values are not aligned to ours we know it’s not going to work and we know that people won’t stick around because they won’t buy into that employee process.” Johnson & Johnson also ensure that their recruitment partners are trained and knowledgeable about the EVP, and are able to express it to candidates. A long-term onsite recruitment partnership with Hudson requires each Hudson rep to attend company seminars and be updated on business strategy. “They are well in tune with the HR team so they know what it means to live up to the values in the organisation, what it means to work here and demonstrate the credo values,” Towe says. Taking it a step further for existing employees, the
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LIFE RELOCATION
Life Relocation is a national relocation services company that specialise in providing destination services, immigration services and HR global mobility consultancy to support corporations who are transitioning employees who are relocating to Australia, being transferred nationally across Australia, repatriating back home or being transferred on an international assignment globally.
Contact: Linda Pendlebury, director P: 02 8212 5523 E: linda.pendlebury@liferelocation. com.au W: www.liferelocation.com.au 34
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ONETEST
Onetest is Australia’s leading provider of online psychometric assessments and surveys, offering a full range of online recruitment and development tools to help build productive, engaged and committed teams. Onetest boasts unrivalled client and candidate support with local psychology, development and customer service teams.
Contact: Paul Hopkins, head of sales P: 1300 137 937 E: enquiries@onetest.com.au W: www.onetest.com.au
We’ve had situations, product issues or customer complaints – as all companies do – and we turn back to the credo and our key principles and say, ‘what’s the right thing to do in this situation?’
credo has been translated into a decision making process – a formalised approach that draws people back to the core values. “When you’re faced with an ethical dilemma or any type of dilemma – and quite often in healthcare you are dealing with ethical dilemmas – it’s not always easy to jump to the right approach. There are often multiple right things you could do, or good things you could do, in response to a situation. So we have a defined decision making process that gets people to go through a simple but structured approach to thinking through what it means to be vital, to live the values.” This process is followed by the leadership team as well, thus ensuring there is no disconnect between the values and the actions of the company. “We’ve had situations, product issues or customer complaints – as all companies do – and we turn back to the credo and our key principles and say, ‘what’s the right thing to do in this situation?’ It’s founded on transparency. We use as a day-to-day part of our management practice – it’s not something that’s separate to what we do. It’s part of what we do,” Towe concludes. Having a meaningful EVP also removes another common pitfall for employers doing business in the 21st century: the dominance of social media and the ease with which negative word of mouth can spread if a company does something wrong. Towe says that Johnson & Johnson does not monitor what people – employees or otherwise – are saying about the company on social media channels, and there’s good reason for that. “Johnson & Johnson has for many years been founded
on the principle of decentralised management. We don’t always have detailed processes or standard operating procedures for everything employees do,” she explains. “So the best way to manage word of mouth is to always go back to the credo. As the employee you know the credo and understand the decision making process. And if you know that and do the right thing you’ll be aligned to how we do business. Then you’ll be representing the company well.”
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EMPLOYEE INNOVATIONS (EI.)
When you’re responsible for a company’s workforce, you need reliable backup. We offer a comprehensive range of specialist HR tools and services, and have over two decades of experience advising both local and multinational companies. When you need professional assistance, from basic HR functions to complex legal issues, we’re here to help. We specialise in employment law, migration, payroll, human resources, recruitment and employee recognition & benefits programs. So when you ‘Think Employment’, ‘Think EI’.
Contact: Amanda Daff, solicitor/national accounts manager P: 02 8030 8888 E: info@thinkei.com W: www.thinkei.com
– AMANDA TOWE
ROOKIE RECRUITS
Rookie Recruits are the career start specialists! An innovative company that takes the process of finding new talent to a new level. We believe if you ‘hire the attitude and train the skill’ your people will have the edge. Your people are your ambassadors - you want the ones with awesome attitudes!
Contact: The Rookie Team P: 1800 ROOKIE E: awesome@rookierecruits.com W: www.rookierecruits.com
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LEADERSHIP INSIGHT
Top tips
Leonie Curtis-Kempnich Director Training and Course Development, Leadership Success (02) 80690370 lstraining.com.au
How well do your middle managers
understand the numbers? I know to most of us financial management isn’t the most interesting topic in the world and we spend a lot of time discussing how to build soft skills in managers, but I think when looking at a well-rounded middle manager, the assessment of capability in key hard skills, in particular financial skills, is being overlooked. From my experience in industry it has become apparent that many middle managers simply don’t understand financial reports, how to interpret them or the implications their actions are having on the financial outcomes of the business. I believe this is largely due to the perception that financial reports are complex documents, which are difficult and painful to decipher, and belong in the domain of the MBA qualified, the executive team and the finance department. To me, this is a bit of a scary reality as it is actually the people at the front line sales and operational layers of the business who are creating many of the system inputs (expenditure, pricing etc), which significantly impact the financial performance of many organisations. Add to this the implications of executive level decisions around strategy, staffing and investment that are being made on the sum of incomplete or incorrect information, particularly given the current economic climate – this problem certainly becomes one worth solving. As a starting point, it is unfair (and naïve) to simply expect middle managers will get their inputs and information right if they have no idea how to read financial reports nor have an understanding of the consequences that their actions have on those reports they are reading. To break the above problem down into 36
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some specifics, it seems that in the conversations I have had with executives the most common grievances and mistakes relate to relatively easy-to-understand financial concepts, and these seem to centre around: 1. correct allocation of revenue, assets and expenditure to the correct GL accounts; 2. staff misaligning revenue and costs across months and as a result seeing wide fluctuations in reported margins; and 3. inconsistency in effective, profitable pricing in sales proposals, particularly in businesses that sell more than just a fixed price product. Although the third point above is a deep multi-faceted issue, I believe implementing a program to build the necessary financial skills and capabilities in your middle management ranks is relatively easy. Building skills, however, does require training. But in a few days (perhaps with the help of a representative from your finance department), you could teach a course that
could effectively educate middle managers about financial matters. This would make a big difference to the quality of financial information executives have at their disposal to ultimately make better decisions and reduce time wasted in correcting entries in the accounting system. The reason I suggest liaising with your internal finance department is because I have seen generic external courses to be of limited value for the simple reason that because many learners don’t have a financial or accounting background, they struggle to relate the concepts they learn externally to their own companies’ financial reporting and accounting processes. Where I have seen organisations gain traction in educating their middle managers around relevant financial matters is when their course focuses on: 1. Keeping it simple – use plain English terms and avoid too much jargon, after all the learners are not expected to become accountants. Stick to a limited number of terms that will help your managers meaningfully interpret your company’s financial reports. 2. Keeping it practical – above basic education on standard financial terms and interpreting financial reports, only focus on training that relates to learners’ job roles, otherwise what is learnt won’t be used and will quite likely be forgotten. 3. Using internal financial information and reports and avoiding too many generic examples – this will perform two functions: firstly, it will make what is being learned directly relevant and allow more specific prescriptive course content, and secondly, it will often make the reasons for strategic initiatives being driven from the top-down more clear.
TECHNOLOGY INSIGHT
Top tips
Ari Kopoulos is the national sales & marketing manager at EmployeeConnect. For further information visit employeeconnect.com.au
Transaction to engagement:
A new model for applications We live in a very exciting time: we are witnessing the birth of a new nervous system for our planet. The convergence of information, mobile devices, social media and gamification is rewiring us into an infinitely personal and permanently connected ecosystem. It is effectively humanising the web and shifting us from a network of transactions, to a network of people. This unprecedented shift offers new ways of building and nurturing relationships, with deeper levels of engagement. It also creates transformational business models with incredible opportunities for a dispersed and disruptive audience.
THE AGE OF THE RECORD
Transactional systems have been around since the birth of computing, starting out as punchcard databases. They are highly structured, focusing on core business processes with a hard coded set of business rules. These are the systems of the record that pioneered the way for economic expansion for the last 60 years. We know them as ERP, Finance, Payroll, and the first generation HRIS. As systems, they are very reliable and stable, but come with the cost of being rigid, dictatorial and very resistant to change. Although they serve the command and control nature of the enterprise, merely capturing and reporting on information is no longer a source of competitive advantage. The new way of doing business calls for a variable, dynamic, and an increasingly faster business process with a focus on communication and collaboration. As such, the business needs to be adaptive, agile and always on the ready, in order to seize the shrinking window of opportunity. These systems are no longer just rules driven and
real time, but rather intuitive and right time. They also represent the most strategic activities in the organisation.
THE AGE OF ENGAGEMENT
Perhaps the biggest driver of this shift is the rise of social media. Social media offers rich usability, and an intuitive design element, which is the primary model for daily engagement. As a result, users are expecting the same paradigms and design elements in the corporate world. The next generation systems will effectively be designed with the social networks in mind, offering constant communication, collaboration and sharing with networks of people and other systems. They will embrace the complete spectrum of multi-media channels like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Filterable information and knowledge will be delivered in real time as actions and activity streams with notifications, alerts and reminders. They will offer a home for the not-so-structured flow of information, such as the conversation. In terms of reach, they will work on a ratio of one to many,
mimicking neural and computational models. Elements of game design theory will also be embedded, offering an engaging environment where users navigate a system that recognises and rewards, with an element of fun. These systems will be much smarter, powered by intelligent and predictive business rules with pattern based processing. Highly visual in nature, they will have an innate ability to sense context, place, purpose and possibly sentiment. They will effectively empower the user to make the best decisions at the right time. Transactional-based systems are not going away. They’re a critical element of our business infrastructure and have their rightful place there. What is happening is an evolution; a shift in focus that recognises the benefit of communication, collaboration and sharing. For the business, it means an opportunity to capitalise emerging opportunities early in the business cycle. For the user, it means unprecedented levels of engagement. For the planet, it signals the birth of the collective human intelligence. HCAMAG.COM 37
HRIS
talent management
A NEW HR
Returning to work after a well-earned holiday, many professionals bring a revitalised fresh approach to the start of a new working year. How can these be capitalised upon to benefit the business? HR CHALLENGES
HR departments, like all areas of a business, face the constant challenges of needing to introduce efficiencies so that they can achieve more with limited resources. A recent major study¹, published by ADPES International, that surveyed 2,642 HR professionals from Australia, Europe, and China detailed the major challenges faced by the industry in the areas of talent management, cost saving and improving HR performance. In Australia the HR professionals surveyed were asked to list their most important challenges, issues or problems. “Hiring qualified people/difficulties filling key employee positions” was the number one concern cited by 41%, compared to 33% who mentioned “developing managers and employees with high potential” and 32% “problems retaining qualified people”. A close fourth was “creating a performance-driven culture”.
FACTORS TO CONSIDER IN TALENT MANAGEMENT About the author Richard Watson is Managing Director of ADP Australia/ New Zealand. Email information@ au.adp.com or call 1800 000 729
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It is obvious from the results above that the major HR concerns start and end with the recruitment, retention and development of qualified people. But given the uncertain economic environment, the question may well be asked: shouldn’t there be an abundance of qualified candidates?. The following are some factors that HR professionals need to consider: • The ageing workforce – as experienced Baby Boomers retire, there are too few younger people to take their place • Growth of the knowledge economy – the move from manufacturing to knowledge-based industries has been a major factor in creating the talent war • Changing attitudes of younger people – a new generation of high potential young people are looking for a rewarding lifestyle (work-life balance) rather than a long-term career in one organisation
Data from a 2009 recruitment report² comments that appointing people with potential is the most popular way of tackling recruitment problems – and the most effective recruitment initiative was deemed to be providing extra training to allow internal staff to fill posts.
FINDING BETTER SOLUTIONS
Time pressure is one of the biggest barriers to tackling the talent management challenges. Looking for smarter solutions and slicker processes that introduce efficiencies saves you time and provides better workforce data. Automation is the most popular solution to the talent management challenge, with 40% of HR executives considering this solution to their challenges in the next 1-2 years.¹ In addition, 33% favoured delegating more HR tasks to managers and/or employees and 30% cited engaging external consultants. Given these results, 2012 could be a great time to consider the latest integrated HR management systems that streamline and automate key HR processes. The following are important questions to consider when assessing your options for an HR management system: • is it an integrated HR system where you can manage the entire employee lifecycle in one central database? • is the HR system built using a powerful workflow engine? • can your workflows be configured to your business processes, enabling you to align industry best practice with your organisation’s standards? • is the system easy to use, configurable and flexible to your organisation’s size, culture and processes? • do you have access to a client support team? • what about data integrity and reporting? • is there an employee and manager self-service function? • do you have the option for e-recruitment to assist with the management of job vacancies, applications and candidates?
LANDSCAPE… MORE TIME FOR STRATEGIC PLANNING
By introducing a system that will automate key HR processes, improve workforce data and reduce administrative duplication, the improved efficiencies will allow you to focus more on HR strategic issues and add value. Access to departmental HR reports gives managers the added benefit of making management decisions with realtime employee information. Organisations where HR plays an active role in the business and those where HR is a component of the strategic plan enjoy 15% higher levels of satisfaction with the HR function.³ By introducing an integrated HR management solution, you can better utilise your staff’s core skills,
leading to a more productive HR function with higher levels of staff engagement and job satisfaction. In turn this allows HR to move to a higher plane in terms of its contribution to the corporate strategy. 1. HR Challenges and Solutions for SMEs: Winning the War for Talent Through Automation and Outsourcing, research conducted and analysed by Heliview and CorporateLeaders, 2010. 2. Annual surveys by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) in the UK: The 2010 Resourcing and Talent Planning Survey (based on 2009 data) and the Recruitment, Retention and Turnover Survey 2009 (based on 2008 data). 3. 10 Best Human Resource Practices, by ADP in the United States based on a Spring 2010 survey of 800 heads of HR, senior HR executives and other senior executives in the US, Canada, Western Europe, China and Australia.
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recruitment technology
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Don’t you
forget about me According to the experts, new user-friendly recruitment technology is shifting the pendulum ever so slightly away from being candidate centric to ensuring the ‘forgotten players’ – the recruiters, HR managers and line managers – are engaged in the process. The key? Simplicity and mobility Anyone who has ever applied for a job using an automated recruitment portal can relay frustrating experiences when they’ve been left hanging, neither here nor there, once their application has been sent off. Or perhaps you’ve been on the receiving end of disgruntled phone calls from candidates wanting to know what’s happened to their application. Of course, this feeling of being left high and dry also occurred when actual human recruiters were involved in the process – but somehow the expectation was that technology would remove this frustration. Fortunately, Candidate Relationship Management (CRM) has finally caught up with the demands of both employers and employees. Employers can now keep candidates up-to-date relatively easily on their applications, while candidates feel they aren’t being ignored or forgotten about. The success of recruiting technology in automating the applicant process has freed up corporate recruiters to begin pursuing more outbound and proactive sourcing strategies. Building pipelines of critical talent, whether for strategic hard-to-fill roles or high volume positions that drive company growth, are quickly becoming a requirement for companies
looking to stay ahead of, and quickly respond to demand. Robert Stefanovic, from Taleo’s corporate product marketing group, suggests that companies are already doing this by using tools that help them find and engage with candidates where and how they like. “This means the ability to tap into major social and professional networking platforms as well as the ability to communicate jobs and other career information to the growing population of mobile web users,” he says. Best practice CRM in 2012, Stefanovic suggests, requires recruiters using tools that allow them to build their relationship with these passive candidates over time, from basic contact management, tagging, and tracking capabilities to more advanced campaign management features that let them systematically market to candidates on a one to many basis. However, Domenic Saporito, CEO of MyRecruitOnline, suggests that tech providers have ignored the other half of the equation: the actual users of the system. That is, the hiring manager or recruiter, or even the line manager. “No one is looking after the user; everyone is looking after the candidate,” he notes. “I think now we need
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recruitment technology Decisions, decisions Selecting new recruitment software? Use this checklist from Recruit Systems CEO Neil Bolton
❏ Articulate the business case for recruitment software your objectives for the new system ensuring ❏ Outline they align with business goals ❏ Identify the current processes which will be affected by the system ❏ Determine how you would like these processes to be improved ❏ List and prioritise your recruitment software requirements on the category of recruitment software which you believe ❏ Decide best meets your needs (for example, Recruitment CRM or in-house solutions)
❏ Identify recruitment software vendors and research their solutions input from key stakeholders involved in purchasing and ❏ Solicit using the system ❏ Create a short-list of alternatives ❏ Contact each vendor and explain your objectives and expectations ❏ View live demonstrations and download free trials ❏ Negotiate contract terms ❏ Make your recruitment software purchase Source: Recruit Systems: recruitsystems.com.au
to think about the user and how they will interact with technology.”
THE ROAD TO NOW
Recruitment was meant to be simple, and the systems supporting recruitment were also meant to be simple. However, somewhere along the line simplicity got lost, with an endless line of ‘add-ons’ and other ‘special features’ adding to the confusion. Robert Yue, VP at SuccessFactors, says that historically part of the problem lay in HR’s relationship with their inhouse IT departments. “When you talk to IT they have very different ideas of analytics to what HR is looking for. Most IT departments have built mini empires; they’ve built their technology and skills up, and you are at their mercy in terms of giving you what you need. In the case of line managers they may not even be clear on what they need from an HR technology perspective.” Indeed, Stefanovic suggests that while inhouse systems had a place in the early days of recruiting technology, the reality is that today the talent acquisition market is very mature and has rendered inhouse systems obsolete. SaaS-based solutions such as Taleo have now been available for over 10 years, and bring with them a 42
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tremendous depth of functionality, flexibility, partner services, and ongoing innovation at prices that even the smallest companies can afford. “It doesn’t make practical or financial sense for a company to attempt to replicate what is available off-the-shelf today much less keep up with the pace of innovation that the best-of-breed vendors are able to bring to the market,” he says. Beyond IT/HR relations, Saporito slams the overreliance (and thus dependence) that many corporations have on Microsoft. He says that Microsoft has not yet developed the tools to offer anything different to what’s been on the market for the past decade. “You need to navigate away from dot.net shops in order to get some of the stuff now being produced. For the system we’ve created there’s no way you could do it in a Microsoft dot.net environment because they haven’t developed the tools to do it. That’s what’s holding back the industry. There’s been very little innovation in I would say the last 10 years in the recruitment industry, mainly because the tools simply haven’t been invented to do it.” However, one trend over the past 10 years has changed recruitment: employers now have the same tools as the recruiters, so they can undertake the recruitment function effectively themselves. “There’s a trend towards involving line managers because systems are becoming easier to use. HR can now include line managers who perhaps know nothing about recruitment, but there’s an enforced workflow that line managers can easily follow so they can also be involved in the recruitment of their own staff – and hence improve the engagement of the people they do recruit,” Saporito says.
REFOCUS ON USERS
So who is this new generation of recruiter and why should this impact on the technology being used? Saporito, himself a recruitment industry veteran of 13 years, says those who are involved in the recruitment process are typically Gen Y (or younger), and these workers demand two things: mobility and simplicity. “I’d suggest this is where we start – we need to look at systems that are going to engage the people doing the recruitment. I always found it very strange that a lot of recruiters are these very gregarious people who love being out meeting people, yet we tie them to a desk. Any organisation that wants to incorporate a successful system into their business is going to have to look at the people using it before anything else. All systems basically do the same thing, but if you get one that people actually like to use, that’s going to be the game changer in systems moving forward.” Traditionally there has been a strong focus on back-end systems over front-end systems. Corporations
are typically so focused on the integration with their back-end that they forget that what makes their recruitment successful is the interaction of their front-end staff, the people doing the actual hiring, and their front-end system. “That’s the downfall of some big recruiters who have bought stuff inhouse, but this is also what some of the bigger corporations are starting to do as well,” comments Saporito. Generational clichés aside, Saporito adds that Gen Y is demanding and they will not tolerate having to sit in front of a monitor with a clunky system that can only use Internet Explorer and will only work on a PC. “They want it on their Macs, they want it on their iPhone, on their Androids and they also want apps so whereever your recruiter is they can instantly see the status of all placements, process applications and communicate with candidates,” he says.
SIMPLIFICATION AND AUTOMATION
If simplicity is key, what are the new crop of systems offering? Streamlining of functions and processes is one key element. Saporito suggests that a ‘drag and drop’ function to enable recruiters to create talent pools, or to move people through an enforced workflow, will remove
No one is looking after the user; everyone is looking after the candidate. I think now we need to think about the user and how they will interact with technology – DOMENIC SAPORITO
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recruitment technology some of the time consuming manual processes associated with the recruitment process. Saporito explains: “Drag a candidate from the Screened bucket into the interviewed bucket and then on to Shortlisted and Placed. As you do, all of the various administrative tasks that have to be completed each time are automatically done for you – notification emails are sent, diary reminders are put in place and reports are updated.” By creating ‘rules’, the process becomes automated. The MyRecruitOnline system uses an ‘external rules engine’. This means that business owners or managers can turn the way they wish their company or recruitment agency to recruit into sets of rules, thus allowing for real-time decision making. Traditionally everything needed to be coded, requiring weeks to turn around an enhancement to the system; now, with an external rule engine, it can be updated in a matter of hours. Recruiters will be able to create virtual versions of themselves in the system to make decisions and act automatically on their behalf, eliminating administration time. A recruiter does this by setting up rules that reflect their personality and the way they want their business and processes to operate – the system takes over and alerts you via email, SMS or live chat if something needs your attention. “What this means is that not only is there going to be consistency in delivery of service but they also know that things happen in a real time online system, and will be treated and acted upon exactly as they intended, at the same time, every time,” Saporito says. “If you can turn all your decision making into hundreds of rules, then you
When someone fills out a page, the next page might ask if they could answer three questions using their PC or Mac Camera. The recruiter may have 100 people doing it all at once, effectively interviewing themselves for a job don’t even need to be logged in to know that things are happening just as you want them to.” The MyRecruitOnline system also has the ability to send, receive and process an SMS, and can create QR codes for every job logged in the system – a popular feature for retail employers, where customers are often candidates. “Imagine you as a jobseeker see a job advertisement in a newspaper or on a poster. Advertisers are now using QR codes – so you simply hold your phone up to scan the code in the ad and instantly the job description and contact details are downloaded to your device,” says Saporito. “An applicant can then send an SMS to the recruiter or company to register his or her interest in the position and will receive an SMS back with specific information about the application process. “Similarly, a temp can be sent a job request via SMS and can reply via text message as to their availability. The potential of mobile for employers and candidates is just beginning to be tapped. For example, Taleo is working on an app that will show a candidate all the jobs meeting their exact specifications within a certain physical radius across all of Taleo’s customers and quickly allow them to apply right from their phone. “In the future, you won’t find the job, the job will find you,” says Stefanovic.
EASING BOTTLENECKS
Technology could also potentially ease notorious bottlenecks in the recruitment process. For example,
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interviews can get backlogged due to the need to interview candidates one on one. Even technology like Skype has drawbacks: the candidate needs to download it, there can be problems if they sit behind a firewall, and so on. “We’re doing more and more regional and remote placements these days. Therefore to have in our system the ability not just to see someone but to also record part of that interview will mean significant efficiency gains. These ‘talent trailers’ can be easily sent to clients or managers, who will view them, much like watching a series of movie trailers, before deciding who they would like to meet. Even allowing our candidates to interview themselves suddenly means the recruiter can interview more than one person at once,” Saporito explains. The scenario might be, when someone fills out an application page, the very next page might thank them for applying, and ask them if they could answer three questions using their PC or Mac camera. The recruiter may have 100 people doing it all at once, effectively interviewing themselves for a job. “It’s turning every part of the recruitment process into electronic bits so that we can then scale it and manage it and send off to clients. As we dig for talent – everyone is
talking about how the workforce is shrinking and there will be an increase in competition for talent – being first to market will be very important. This is a technology enabler so clients can be first to market.”
CUTTING THROUGH THE HYPE
If consumer reaction to anything new in the tech space is anything to go by (check the queues waiting outside Apple stores before a new product launch), it’s easy to get carried away by the hype. With different technologies and services all claiming to be “the next big thing” it can be overwhelming for companies to try and make sense of it all. In addition to the checklist (see box), Stefanovic suggests employers should start with analysing what they need and what they are trying to accomplish. “The key is to invest the time upfront in asking the right questions about your business, your process, and the people you hire, and then using that information to focus on the various tools and strategies that best support what you are trying to do, both today and down the road. When you understand the ‘Why’, the ‘How’ becomes much more obvious,” he concludes.
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FEATURE EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE
workforce insight
In 2011 Frontier Software commissioned Jan Sky, author and CEO of Sky Training, to produce a report into how business can maximise the effectiveness of their human capital. In this abridged version, she reveals the benefits that can be gained by utilising Executive State Identification (ESI) ESI is a progressive, psychoanalytical tool essential for gaining a more intimate understanding of behaviour and its impact upon employee performance. ESI uncovers the barriers that get in the way of high performance – barriers you may not even be aware of. It also uncovers natural strengths from which to leverage motivation. In ESI terms, these barriers are called your inhibitive states and the strengths are called your supportive states. You know when you’re striving to achieve a goal and you get so far, yet you just don’t know why you can’t achieve that end result? Well, perhaps it’s a ‘state’ that’s inhibiting your progress. By understanding a person’s various states, ESI supports the personal growth of your team members.
ABOUT ESI
ESI has been developed from Ego State Personality Theory and works on the premise that your personality is made up of separate states, rather than a whole. Your mind is unique and works from several different states, yet you can only operate from one state at a time. The state that is ‘in charge’ (or in operation at the moment) is known as the executive state, ie it’s the one that’s ‘running the show’. By identifying other supportive, helpful states within you, you will be able to harness their power and ensure they occupy the executive position, while moving those unwanted inhibitors out of the way. Let’s take, for example, a state in you that may harbour thoughts of resentment, perhaps brought about when an instruction is misinterpreted or
UNLEAS Workforce potential
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workforce insight
inappropriately carried out. When you address that situation from the state of resentment, ie the one from which you communicate, consequent inappropriate behaviour from you and an inappropriate response from, say, your manager are likely to occur.
AWARENESS IS KEY
Being aware of your states will give you more options from which to choose and a more appropriate state can be selected for communication. This approach, when used with performance management, will unleash workforce potential. For example, communicating from the state that values (or respects) your manager will generate a completely different dialogue and enhance, rather than inhibit, the communication process. Your state that values your manager will appropriately define a better course of action, as opposed to the state of resentment. Imagine if you were consciously aware of the state from which you were operating when delivering updates on performance, or giving simple words of thanks or praise. Or, if the performance warranted reprimand, being consciously aware of your state/s would give you greater power and control over the outcome. It is no surprise that open, honest, regular communication around performance will increase productivity and employee engagement. This doesn’t mean micro-managing the team; rather, it reflects that KPIs are clearly defined and the team understands and works with the performance benchmarks that are in place. The pathway to overall organisational success is 48
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ESI is a progressive, psychoanalytical tool essential for gaining a more intimate understanding of behaviour and its impact upon employee performance clear to everyone, from management through to the frontline team. My theory is that time gets in the way of supporting people with feedback or simple words of encouragement on performance.
WHY IS EXCEPTIONAL BEHAVIOUR LEFT UNRECOGNISED AND UNREWARDED? Although performance reviews in large organisations are conducted regularly, my experience shows that employees often feel unrecognised and unrewarded for their efforts. In many instances, promises are not kept with regard to training and personal development, and there is an overall sense of dissatisfaction. ESI provides
an excellent opportunity to identify factors present in the performance review process. States can be easily identified or discussed, and by focusing on supportive executive states, employee engagement increases and KPIs are more easily met. Working effectively with your human capital by considering that employees have a variety of states, both supportive and inhibitive, will increase workforce performance and engagement. Investing in the people who perform the many various tasks can be as simple as recognising and acknowledging their performance; in particular, exceptional performance. Performance that goes unnoticed will directly contribute to a drop in morale, which in turn (as you probably know) equates to low performance. This in itself can be the one significant factor that could bring an organisation down. The solution to addressing this type of performance, acknowledging the poor performance yet wanting to also address the potential of exceptional behaviour, is to be aware firstly of yourself and the state from which you will respond or communicate the next message. In other words, allow the state in you that values your employee to do the acknowledging.
AVOID BEING PROMPTED BY NEGATIVE EMOTIONS
We experience behavioural triggers every day, in varying degrees. Most of these behavioural triggers are all no more than so many minor annoyances, like the mosquito buzzing around without landing on your skin. You’re distracted for a moment until you swat it away. Occasionally, it may bite you and the discomfort lingers with the pain preoccupying your mind and your emotions. Sometimes, in the workplace, it seems that we’re being ‘triggered’ all day long with one negative event after another, and it drives us to behave from states of impatience, fear, frustration or even anger. It’s certainly possible to be triggered positively, such as viewing a beautiful sunset, a happy memory or an unexpected compliment; yet, biologically, we more frequently choose to come from the state in us that senses danger. The result is that we notice what’s wrong far more readily than noticing what’s right. And a keen observation is that bad information is processed more thoroughly than good.
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workforce insight towards the overall goals of the team and the organisation. With executive coaching and performance counselling, I often suggest that people start a ‘gratitude book’ and write in it each day the small things they are grateful for. Things such as a large order being received; a manager supporting a major client through a difficult transaction or simply the biscuit tin in the tea room being full. These little acknowledgements will greatly discourage workplace negativity. I encourage you to try this for one week, and invite managers to also try this with their teams, and request that each team member raise at the next meeting one thing they are grateful for.
FINDING THE ‘RISK TAKER’ STATE
WHAT FEELINGS DO YOUR PERFORMANCE REVIEWS EVOKE?
When a team member receives a performance review, do they focus more on the positive comments or the negative ones? Losing something makes us far unhappier than acquiring the same thing makes us happier. They will demonstrate a type of ‘toxic’ behaviour that will spread rapidly, possibly throughout the entire organisation. Consider for a moment the states you may call gratitude, appreciation or thankfulness. Now consider how you behave when either one of these states is executive. In other words, what are the roles of the state? Ask yourself the question: When was the last time you recall having one of these states executive? Was it at work or perhaps at home? Do you recall a situation where you could have applied the behaviour of one of these states, yet chose to place another inhibitive state into executive? What was the outcome, and could you have changed the outcome by being more selective of your state of behaviour?
ELIMINATE NEGATIVITY
Think of a time when you felt a sense of gratitude towards another person, or appreciated what the executive team did. I don’t mean the large achievements; the small, incidental acts that could have gone unnoticed, yet contributed greatly to the success of the last project or the saving of a client. The way in which a manager related to a client or how he/she has never used bad words with them, to or about other team members. Little acts of gratitude, appreciation and thankfulness will outweigh negativity and dismiss the need to remind your team of the measures of success that contribute 50
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I had the opportunity recently to work with the CEO of a very large medical organisation outside Sydney. The company was rapidly growing and the CEO had only recently been appointed. His senior management team were also reasonably new; changes were occurring rapidly. My client was seen as taking too long to make decisions on recommendations and this caused frustration that was filtering down the organisational ranks. There was a sense of disharmony brewing and lack of confidence. Given his profession as a GP, it made sense to gather as much information as possible before delivering the final ‘diagnosis’. Yet as a CEO, decisions needed to be made more quickly. He, too, expressed a sense of frustration and I asked him if there was a part of him that ever took risks. With eagerness he described how, when outside of work, he climbed cliffs and wind surfed. I asked him to describe his risk taker state and how he performed when that state was in executive. He described being in control and able to make quick, clearly-judged decisions; how he felt an adrenaline rush when he achieved success. I asked him how he could use his risk taker state in the work place when faster decisions were needed. He proceeded to type a message into his computer as a reminder that there was, in fact, a state in him that could move more quickly with decisions. Taking the time to get to know the various states from which your staff operate may appear time-consuming, yet the long-term benefits can be enormous.
FINDING YOUR OWN STATE
Take the time right now to mentally scan your body. How are you feeling? Are you breathing any faster than usual? Do you sense any anxiety in your stomach or your chest? Are you feeling slightly uneasy or irritated by what you’ve just read? Perhaps it’s a positive feeling, or one of agreement with the words you’ve just read. Can you identify that part (state) of you that is reacting to these
words? If you can, could you give it a name and, if you could, what would you call it? Identifying states and giving them names makes for easy identification. Names may be as simple as anger, frustration, curiosity, satisfaction or annoyance. What’s very important at this stage is to recognise that there is actually a part of you that’s executive, triggered by the words you are reading. Another observation would be to ask yourself if this state is one that supports or inhibits you and how often it is present – in other words, how often is it in executive? Similarly, if you notice a member of staff acting from an inappropriate state, rather than acknowledging that state (a potentially disastrous call) acknowledge that you know there’s a part of them that could behave or perform in a more positive or supportive manner.
Identifying states and giving them names makes for easy identification. Names may be as simple as anger, frustration, curiosity, safisfaction or annoyance
WHAT PART OF YOU IS DOING THAT?
Let’s say a team member is frequently arriving late and, after the manager checks that there are no home issues causing the lateness, discovers it’s simply laziness or lack of motivation in the morning. During the performance discussion they might suggest they know there’s a part of them that is motivated to get up on time and be at work – they’ve seen it demonstrated in the past.
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workforce insight One of the causes of workplace unrest and low job satisfaction is poor performance management, especially with team members not performing to the required standards
They could then ask, ‘What’s happened to that part of you?’ There just might be some interesting conversation generated here that will uncover a range of underlying factors. By asking them to identify the relevant ‘part of them’ it allows them to step outside themselves and answer from a different perspective. There’s no blame assigned and they are more likely to take responsibility for their actions. Another observation is that by asking about the part of a person, they’re not asking about the whole of that person. Curious as it may seem, give it some thought. If I ask you about a part of you, you could in that moment ‘step outside yourself’ and answer from another part of you that’s possibly doing okay.
INHIBITIVE VS SUPPORTIVE STATES
The negative qualities feel threatened, showing evidence of inadequacies and unworthiness that tend to offset the positive list of qualities, or in ESI-speak – inhibitive vs supportive. Yet it’s the negative that catches your attention. Carl Jung referred to these qualities as our shadow – the weaknesses, shortcomings and unacceptable aspects of ourselves that we typically seek to disown. Parading your strengths and denying your shadow doesn’t win friends or influence people, and it can be an energy drain. Acknowledging your unsupportive factors and admitting to your mistakes tends to inspire greater respect, and you will go on to achieve greater performance. ESI invites you to accept the whole of who you are. 52
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Accepting both supportive and inhibitive states gives you greater strength of character that will empower rather than force you to defend yourself so vigilantly. States that may have previously triggered you into poor performance can become a source of information and learning. An understanding of your states that make up ‘who you are’ will produce honest self-observers. If you are prepared to acknowledge what is true without losing value in the process, you can draw on more supportive states from which to perform in that moment. In other words, you become the person you are capable of being.
ALIGNING ENTERPRISE GOALS WITH EMPLOYEE CAREER GOALS
Key to the success of performance management for the enterprise is the alignment of organisational goals with employee career goals. Setting down business goals and plans will ensure employee performance and training remains aligned with the growth of the organisation. Once goals are set, ESI will assist you in understanding if the goals are achievable and facilitating open dialogue.
GENERATING A SENSE OF BELONGING
If you work for Virgin Airlines, you understand your purpose; if you work at Goodyear Tyres or Kennards Hire, the reason to exist is still clear. This purpose, usually defined by a mission or vision statement, forms the umbrella under which the many departments operate. But how long has it been since you checked that your department was aligned to the enterprise goal? Is your department a strong spoke of the main
umbrella coverage, or a weak link causing the umbrella to bend and sway in a strong wind, or even break away completely? The need to belong is a fundamental human motivation that Abraham Maslow first gave currency to in the 1960s. Maslow defined it as the most important need after basic safety in his hierarchy of needs. People need to ‘belong’ or ‘connect’ to other people, be they associations, companies or corporations. Positive connection with others underlies our sense of security, which is critical to our effectiveness or performance at work. The more we feel our value is at risk, the more energy we spend defending it and the less energy we have available to create value.
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
One of the biggest causes of workplace unrest and low job satisfaction is poor performance management, especially with team members not performing well. Research shows that poor performance management is one of the main contributing factors to staff absenteeism and turnover. A manager’s inability to provide timely and appropriate feedback often results in the team member becoming distressed and behavioural changes become
apparent, affecting the team member’s performance. Managers themselves who experience a sense of low self-worth can be guilty of filtering their own personal experiences through to team members by displaying behaviours and using dialogue that discourages good performance from the team. In many organisations managers are not trained on how to conduct effective performance reviews. If your organisation would like to more closely align its corporate strategy with the workforce or eliminate a ‘harmful’ DNA, it may be worth considering some training in this regard. Furthermore, training managers who understand ESI principles and how to use this tool during performance appraisals will unleash employee potential. About the author: Jan Sky is in the business of creating a difference in the workplace and in people’s lives. Jan specialises in leadership and people development. For further information contact: jan@execstateid.com.au or visit execstateid.com.au Further information: To download the eBook Maximise Employee Performance and Unleash Workforce Potential click on the link frontiersoftware.com/performance/ebook.pdf
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EMPLOYER BRANDING
15 moments of truth for your brand
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Delivering a employment experience The employer brand has an impact beyond just the attraction and recruitment stages of an employee’s lifecycle with an employer. Brett Minchington outlines the key moments of truth for your employer brand Companies are increasingly realising that looking at only one part of the employee lifecycle – for example, recruitment – is simply not enough. An employee’s needs and motivators change over time during the course of their tenure. These changes may be influenced by lifestyle factors such as age, gender, experience, qualifications, marital status, stage of life, career aspirations, etc. Your employer brand strategy must consider the complete picture, and leaders need to carefully consider and plan how the employee experience impacts people at each touchpoint across the lifecycle. Smart executives realise that a ‘one-size-fits’ all lifecycle strategy fails to optimise productivity. Companies that segment and align the employee lifecycle as part of their employer brand strategy will benefit from maintaining higher levels of engagement, productivity, customer satisfaction and profit.
WHERE TO BEGIN
A lifecycle mapping audit will identify any gaps in employee experience from pre-hire to re-hire and your future strategy will need to address these gaps to ensure your people policies, processes and systems are working to provide a signature employee experience. In theory it makes good sense; in practice, much work needs to be done as there are many moving parts to join up. Segmenting and effectively managing the employee lifecycle will require a culture change for many companies.
THE 15 MOMENTS OF TRUTH
Whilst there will be variances depending on company size, scope and scale, the key ‘moments of truths’ across the employee lifecycle that will require your focus include: 54
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Passive candidates Build market reach and reinforce your distinctive employer brand assets with your target audience through communications that refresh memory structures (i.e. how you want them to perceive the employment experience at your company). Leading companies are using a range of communication initiatives including social media communities and database relationship marketing to communicate and engage with their target audience.
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Active candidates For many future employees this may be the first time they experience your brand so make sure it is a positive experience. If you are using employment agencies ensure they are well briefed on your employer value propositions – they are a strong reflection of your employer brand.
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Pre-hire Speed and communication is critical at this stage. Don’t leave candidates sitting and wondering what’s happening with their application. Many applicant tracking systems (ATS) now allow for the candidate to log in and view their progress and next step in the pre-hire phase.
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Interview Has the recruiting staff been briefed on your EVP strategy and messaging? Provide resources that assist hiring staff in staying ‘on brand’ during the interview phase. This is when your future employee will be assessing ‘what you say’ with ‘what you do’. Be clear on communicating where your company is headed (vision) and what is distinctive about your company (your EVPs).
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Rejection As there will be more rejected than successful candidates it is important you do not do damage to your brand by poorly handling the rejection process. Irrespective of the number of applicants you receive, each candidate must feel they are treated as an individual rather than be a ‘victim’ of a ‘one-size-fits all’ rejection letter.
Manage poor performers with dignity and maintain their self respect
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Hire For all new hires connect them to your employer brand at the earliest possible time. Companies are now using micro-sites or other IT products to manage the hiring and onboarding stage. This is likely to contribute to higher levels of engagement in earlier stages of their employment and faster times to productivity. A welcome pack aligned with your brand should be developed and provided to all new employees before day one. New Zealand based agency Geyser Creative articulates this well for clients by ensuring the content, format and design of all touchpoints reinforce the employer brand and the employment experience it promises to deliver (see figure 1).
– BRETT MINCHINGTON
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Performance management Manage employee and company expectations around performance management. Focus on the task, not the personality. Performance appraisals are still the most unenjoyable part of the employee lifecycle so change the focus and you’ll change the outcome.
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Induction This is possibly the most important stage of the employee lifecycle, when new hires consider whether they made the right choice to join. It’s when they discover the ‘real employment’ experience and decide how far off it is from what was promised in the recruitment stage. Too big a gap and it is likely dissonance will set in and begin to move the engagement curve in the wrong direction! On boarding Don’t overload new hires with too much information. Building relationships with key employees and stakeholders is critical during this stage. Focus on initiatives that build employee engagement – it will have a long-run payoff well into the employee’s tenure! Manager relationship Assess employees for cultural fit with managers. If the employee-manager relationship is strained or unproductive everyone loses, so focus on the bigger picture and pair up employees with managers where the relationship is likely to be most productive.
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Career development Ensure clarity and commitment around career development. A focus on personal and professional development should begin on day one. The plethora of widely available information on the internet provides an unlimited career development resource and when paired with a mobile device such as an iPad or tablet self-driven career development takes on a whole new meaning. Ongoing training is critical here.
Promotion Reward brand based behaviours. Leading companies are using self regulatory processes where employees can comment on behaviours they witness amongst employees at all levels. This feedback is captured in an online system or mobile app. The data collected over time will tell a story as to how well the company is living up to its defined brand values. Your values, behaviours and actions should align with your EVPs. Exit It’s too late to find out if people are leaving because of your managers or working environment. The focus here should be on making the exit an enjoyable one. Manage poor performers out of the company with dignity and maintain their self respect. Remember it’s a two-way street and you hired them. Ensure they leave as advocates. Alumni Stay in touch with ex-employees. They may become ‘boomerang’ hires one day or a source of new client business.
About the author: Brett Minchington, Chairman/CEO of Employer Brand Re-hire International, is a Assess ex-employees for cultural fit. Determine global authority, what’s changed and how the ex-employee now fits in. A strategist and strong benefit is that they already have experienced your corporate advisor on employer branding company culture and this may work in your favour. (brettminchington. com). His new book A joint approach between those responsible for your Employer Brand consumer brand and employer brand strategy may ensure Leadership - A Global each stage of the lifecycle aligns and helps focus managers Perspective is available on delivering a signature employee experience that leads at (collectiveto higher levels of customer satisfaction and profit. learningaustralia.com)
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MARKET OVERVIEW & TRENDS
employer brand
Source: 2011 Hays Salary Guide
Stand out from the pack What role does the EVP play in attracting the best talent? In a survey conducted on Hays’ website jobseekers were asked, without prompting, to name the sector or organisation where they would ideally love to work. The top six sectors named were: • Federal, state or local government • IT&T • Resources & mining • Not-for-profit • Big 4 accounting firms • Banking Employers that received multiple mentions included Google, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Apple, Virgin, NAB and Westpac. According to Hays’ Bridging the Skills Gap white paper, these organisations have strong and recognisable employment brands, giving them an advantage in the race for the top talent. “Promoting your employment brand is one of our six strategies for bridging the skills gap,” says Nick Deligiannis, director of Hays. “By promoting your employment brand you will attract like-minded candidates who will be aligned with your values and way of doing business. In our research, 50% of companies said they are already taking steps to create a favourable employment brand in order to help combat the skills shortage. “A definable and communicable Employee Value Proposition [EVP] is critical to your employment branding.
An EVP communicates a company’s values and culture, as well as the rewards, opportunities and experience of working for your company. “In short, an EVP communicates what it’s really like to work for your company. By communicating what you stand for and the experience of working at your company, you’ll attract like-minded candidates who are a natural fit with your company and the way you do business.”
IDENTIFY YOUR EVP
Defining the essence of your company is not a simple matter of sitting down with your marketing team and crafting a catchy strap-line or captivating image. Here are Hays’ tips: Firstly, identify the essence of your company – what it stands for, its culture, values, beliefs and vision. This can be done through various internal and external surveys as well as looking at staff policies, marketing materials, your website and the organisation’s history.
Once you collate this data you will realise that, whether intentional or not, you already have an employment brand. In other words, potential employees already have a perception of your company as an employer based on your communication messages, customer service and all contacts with the company. This is your default employment brand, and you likely want to make alterations. To do this, extract the common core values evident in your research and write these core values in succinct and uncomplicated language. This is your EVP: it is more than decorative sentences. It needs to be based in truth. You can then build your employment brand upon the foundation of your EVP in order to attract the right type of candidate. Consistency is the key when communicating your EVP and employment brand, both internally and externally. Keep the messages consistent not just during the recruitment process, but during every interaction your business makes.
SOCIAL MEDIA’S IMPACT
Which factors do you think have the greatest impact on your organisation’s employment brand in the market? Career path/training and development available The company’s financial health and stability The company’s products and services An individual’s ‘fit’ with the company’s vision, culture & values Direct/indirect experience of the company Salary & benefits
Deligiannis warns that social media is also having a huge impact on employment branding. “Social networking gives candidates the opportunity to share their interview and job search experiences with a global audience. So if you fail to make a good impression, such as not getting back to candidates or have a lengthy recruitment process, expect candidates to share their experience of the recruiting process at your company on social networking sites.”
Work-life balance Not important
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Minor importance
Important
Very important
Extremely important
To view the Hays Bridging the Skills Gap white paper or to contact your local Hays office, visit hays.com.au
PROFILE BRIAN BISSAKER AND KATE RIMER
hr at colonial first state
Dynamic DUO With 2,400 employees and more than $90bn under management globally, Colonial First State has grown to be one of Australia’s leading wealth management groups. What role has HR played in this success? Iain Hopkins sits down with the CEO and HRD A tour of Colonial First State’s new headquarters (part of the impressive Commonwealth Bank complex at Sydney’s Darling Harbour) reveals not so much the staid environment that is perhaps most associated with the banking and finance world, but rather the fun, open plan office environment more commonly associated with advertising agencies. It suits Brian Bissaker, CEO of Colonial First State (CFS), to a tee. “I describe myself as a shop floor leader,” he says. “This building adds to that style, but even prior to that I really enjoyed getting in amongst the shop floor and talking to people. I want to test the culture – what’s really going on out there, how are people feeling? I try to adopt a style that is quite down to earth and open, approachable and accessible. That’s purposeful – I want all of my people to feel like they belong.” To that end, Bissaker attends each and every induction/onboarding session and ensures that all executives have a role to play in welcoming new employees. He also has no set office and no set desk space – instead setting up his laptop every morning in different areas of the business.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS Tied with that objective of being considered “one of the troops” is Bissaker’s interest in corporate culture. And for that, he admits he relies on HR to provide a “culture pulse”. “I want HR to tell me what their view of the business is, to tell me how they think the mood is, to provide insights into what the culture is, right down through the ranks. That’s the number one thing – if people are positive and upbeat and there’s a good culture, you can achieve a lot.” And while Bissaker considers culture measurement the “number one metric” he looks at for HR performance, Kate Rimer, general manager, HR, wealth management business unit, suggests it’s just one of many 58
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“touchpoints” the company assesses, considering both qualitative and quantitative metrics. Rimer cites the quality and cost of the recruitment process as a good example. “What are our attrition rates for people in the first year? We conduct stay interviews with people after the first 90 days to get a sense of the quality of the onboarding, cost to hire, time to hire – those types of things. We’ve bought onboard a new head of recruitment where we’re saving at the moment a million dollars a quarter on recruitment costs. So I can show the business that not only is the quality of the recruiting improving but also the cost is reducing.” Tied to that, a project Rimer is currently working on is exit interviewing: aligning the questions and analytics from those interviews with culture surveys and stay interviews, so that similar questions are being asked over time. Rimer says that approach allows for “a much better idea of trends”. Indeed, a major focus at CFS is on talent measurement: assessing how the company is doing around quality of succession plans, internal sourcing of talent to move through, diversity, and other key areas. “There’s a range of metrics, some are more strategic; some are more tactical. I think the business is continually wanting a better quality of analytics from HR,” Rimer says.
BUSINESS PEOPLE FIRST; HR PEOPLE SECOND For most business decisions at CFS the HR team is “in the thick of things”, Rimer says. A case in point was the recent announcement that CFS is in the process of buying out another company. A number of issues immediately arose, not least being a change of CEO at that company. “That involved stock exchange announcements, media releases, employee communications, and not least of all organising a board meeting in the space of 45 minutes,” says Rimer. Bissaker adds: “We’ve been joined at the hip, going down to the new business, doing presentations. It’s
Pulch Photography, pulchphotography.com
IN THEIR OWN WORDS What do you consider to be the biggest HR/people issue facing the business in 2012 and beyond? Kate Rimer: It’s resilience. It’s the ability to run a marathon rather than a sprint. Part and parcel of that will be to continue to get engagement and productivity out of people through quite challenging times. The other one is how we leverage technology. We’re facing a tsunami of technology and social media. How do we leverage that not just in how we interact with our people but also with our customers? Brian Bissaker: I concur with Kate. The big issue for HR is this issue of market uncertainty. We’re in the financial market, and it’s tough; our customers are hurting. We need to have people on the phones who are engaged, who are resilient, who can have the hard conversations. We need to have people who have empathy. We always say it’s not our money; it’s a privilege for us to manage this on behalf of the customer. So it’s keeping people going when markets are up and down. Also in financial services revenues are down so the cost pressure is high. How do we make sure if we have to do a restructure and take hard decisions and let people go, that we’re doing it in such a way that isn’t making other people fearful? During the GFC I undertook CEO town hall presentations where employees asked me questions. It worked really well then and I want to start them again.
company. We don’t have a department store on Market St like David Jones. That’s an asset. For us, our people are our assets. So making sure that our strategic competitive advantage is how we deal with our people, we need to have HR right in amongst the strategy planning.”
THE CEO/HR RELATIONSHIP
Trust is built up by people delivering on what they say they will, so you can rely upon them, and they don’t let you down – BRIAN BISSAKER fundamental to have HR input at this point in time.” Rimer adds that CBA has witnessed a growth and maturing of the HR function over the past couple of years; her team now sits with Bissaker’s direct reports, and are an integral part of the business – “everything we do is starting with the customer and working our way back. We get noise from the business if we have systems and processes that don’t do that, and we have to improve them”, she says. She believes it’s a given now that HR are business people first and HR people second. “Sitting with the business, understanding how the business makes money, how the business loses money, who our competitors are, what are the dynamics in the economy – both in Australia and globally. Understanding and being able to speak that language. The business expects that.” Bissaker adds that people issues are entwined with the business strategy. HR is involved in strategy meetings offsite, brainstorming, and enhancing their knowledge of the business. “That creates a cohesiveness,” he says. “Always pushing back and saying yes or no; always making sure that people issues are at the forefront of the strategic plan. It is one and the same because our competitive advantage is our culture. We don’t have an asset like a gold mine – that’s the asset of a gold mining 60
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It’s quickly apparent from sitting down for a joint interview with Rimer and Bissaker that there is mutual respect between the two. It speaks well of the relationship HR has at the top ranks of CFS. Bissaker comments that respect comes in two forms: technical respect – the person really knows what they’re doing; and secondly, personal respect – the values the person possesses align well with the business. It goes both ways; for Rimer it also comes down to trust and values. “If you’re working with a CEO whose values are not aligned with yours then it’s going to be very difficult to make decisions together and have that trust. It’s in a sense a partnership. As Brian said, working with someone you admire and respect, but also someone you know is going to listen, and someone you can learn from, is important. The best CEOs I’ve worked with have always been willing to take feedback and have often turned to their senior HR person and said, ‘tell me, call it as it is’, because maybe others won’t. So you have that sense of confidentiality in that working relationship, which I think is really the essence of how it can work well.” Rimer notes that it also helps to walk in the shoes of the CEO, to consider what they might need to know, what they might be concerned about, what their priorities might be. “That would be my mindset,” she says. “Not just looking at things through the people lens. When people turn to you in meetings and say, ‘now the people agenda’, I go no, there’s the people, the shareholders, the customers, we’ve all got to be looking at the business through those lenses.” Putting a colloquial spin on it, Bissaker adds that building trust is partly about getting runs on the board. But he adds it’s crucial to prove your talk through actions; of doing what you say you will. “Trust is built up by people delivering on what they say they will, so you can rely upon them, and they don’t let you down.” He also feels that trust is built if the leader is seen to be sticking their neck out. He cites a term used in Harvard Business Review called benevolent concern, where the leader is able to show that he/she is standing up to the powers that be, is putting his/her career on the line, because they really believe in something. He also feels it’s about authenticity and consistency. “People shouldn’t see your behaviour waver – whether you’re at the Christmas party or working with people in the office. It’s in the way you treat people in front of others.”
PROFILE BRIAN BISSAKER AND KATE RIMER
hr at colonial first state He is also a strong advocate of the personal brand – and is acutely aware that people are forming views and opinions of people they’ve only just met. “Everyone has a brand. And we’re all human, so we’re making up our minds every day about everyone. Everything we do can increase the value of your brand, maintain it, or detract from it. You’ve got to understand that – and once you do it’s very powerful. It’s your own asset that you can control. I talk about personal brand in the induction, and it can freak people out. I say, don’t freak out – it’s fantastic, because you’re in control of it. Everything you do can enhance your brand. But at the same time, if you do bad stuff it can bring your personal brand down.” And finally, candour is crucial to that CEO/HR relationship. HR should always be willing to be honest and insightful, suggests Rimer. “You should be able to bring insights – whether they be observations or insights from other companies or from studies and reports. Bring all that to the table so the CEO can use it to inform his decisions.”
HR AS MENTOR Rimer is often asked for advice and guidance from other members of the executive team. She was also recently approached by an internal candidate applying for a role on the executive, about how to manage the process and put themselves forward in the most effective way. It paid off; the person landed the job. “That’s very common – to be asked to provide an objective third-party view on an issue. It’s valuable, and I think in that case the mentoring did help that person get the role,” she comments. Bissaker also uses Rimer and members of her team for feedback and guidance. He believes it’s “critical” in a senior HR role to be able to provide that support, as it’s “lonely at the top”. “CEOs have got to make a lot of hard decisions and a lot of decisions that may not be popular,” he says. “And if you try to be popular all the time you end up not getting anywhere. You’ve got to be prepared to make those decisions, and you’ve got to be able to bounce
decisions off others because you don’t want to be out of line and unreasonable – you want to be hard and fair. So I’ve said to Kate, ‘what do you think, what’s your view? I want your feedback, you’re in there, tell me’.”
INNOVATION AND COLLABORATION If the HR/CEO relationship is an accurate microcosm of the way business is undertaken at CFS, does this mean that innovation and collaboration are rife in the wider business? Bissaker believes so, but thinks the word innovation is often given a prohibitively tight definition: “Often companies point to a product as an innovation – we’ve got this new gadget that will drive profit – but we look at innovation across the board. Innovation is everywhere. It’s the way we deal with people at induction. It’s innovative because not many people do it. We try to get the grassroots encouragement through process excellence and other programs and we’re looking at a broader company-wide innovation program, more to do with products and so forth, but I don’t want people thinking innovation as just product, I want them thinking it’s how they deal with each other.” The trust that was mentioned earlier plays a role in collaboration, Rimer suggests, and this is apparent in the way the executive team operates. She cites a high performing CFS team who deliver services into another part of the wealth management business in Australia. That business is humming at such a high level that they are now taking those services to other parts of the wealth management business around the world. “In my mind what drives all that is self confidence,” says Bissaker. “At the hiring stage, and when we’re looking to promote people, we’re looking for people who are self confident in their own ability. There’s no insecurity.” More industry profiles at:
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SIGN OFF
the lighter side written by Stephanie Zillman
YOUR EARLY MORNING VOICEMAIL MESSAGES INTERPRETED Did they really just say that?
SORRY, YOUR STAR SIGN MAKES YOU INELIGIBLE FOR THE JOB
A Chinese firm has decided that people who are Scorpios and Virgos are “too moody and critical”, telling job seekers with those star signs that they need not apply. On the other hand, Capricorns, Pisces and Libras will be given priority. These bizarre and controversial requirements are part of a job ad posted at a university in Wuhan, central China, by an English language training firm. Since uncovered, they have been the topic of much debate and criticism online. According to the Chutian Metropolis Daily, a local newspaper in Wuhan, the woman in charge of the firm said that she had done prior research on star signs and found that Scorpios have strong personalities and are moody, while Virgos are hugely critical and tend to job-hop.
HOPEFUL CANDIDATE GETS TASERED
A man who was unsuccessful for a job at an electronics retailer thought he’d make the most of the experience, putting an Xbox down his trousers on the way out. In the US state of Pennsylvania, Timothy Joseph Mandes was charged with retail theft, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest after being caught red-handed. Store manager Jake Gruver told police the man had come into the store for a job interview, and was told at the end of the discussion he was unsuccessful. When Mandes left the building, another employee saw him loitering near the game consoles and later found an empty box. The theft was tracked to the candidate after reviewing surveillance footage. Defiant to the end, police said they were forced to tase the man after he tried to escape arrest.
OFFICE HUMOUR
The manager of a large office approached the new recruit and asked him to come into his office. “What’s your name?” asked the manager when they sat down. “John,” the new employee replied. “Okay. First rule,” the manager said in a stern voice: “Here we don’t call anyone by their first names. It breeds familiarity and that leads to a breakdown in authority. I refer to my employees by last name only – Smith, Jones, Baker. I am to be referred to as Robinson. Are we clear on that?” “Yes,” the new man said. “Good,” said the manager. “What is your last name?” “Darling,” the man replied. “My name is John Darling.” The manager’s face went through a series of twisted expressions. He looked down for a moment, then back up. He continued, “Okay, John, listen...”
A CareerBuilder. com survey of the most outrageous interview mistakes candidates have made, according to more than 3,000 hiring managers and HR professionals, listed the top five job interview blunders as:
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Candidate answered cell phone and asked the interviewer to leave her own office because it was a “private” conversation.
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Candidate told the interviewer he wouldn’t be able to stay with the job long because he thought he might get an inheritance if his uncle died – and his uncle wasn’t “looking too good”.
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Candidate asked the interviewer for a ride home after the interview.
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Candidate smelled his armpits on the way to the interview room.
It’s a problem every HR director has to deal with, and the quandary of whether to believe your trusted worker is an ongoing dilemma. The early morning “I can’t come in today because..” phone call is all too common, and remains a serious problem for business. However, things are looking up. For your amusement, HC has put together a list of our favourite “day off work” excuses, and what the real reason for the absence may be (though, of course, your workers may really be sick at home in bed) ● Driver’s licence renewal
appointment = 24-hour virus. ● One-day only sale = Flu. ● It’s Friday and I want to start the
weekend early = Sudden unbearable stomach pains. ● Court appearance to argue
speeding ticket = Visiting sick aunt in hospital ● I’m looking for a new job and have
interview appointments = Mysterious recurring infection ● There are no more public holidays
until Christmas = Stomach bug ● Went out drinking mid-week with
the boys = Slipped a disc at the gym last night ● I royally messed up and can’t face
the music = Terminal Illness
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Candidate said she could not provide a writing sample because all of her writing had been for the secret police and it was “classified”.
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