Human Capital magazine issue 11.01 by Key Media

SHARING IS CARING

Activity-based workplaces P30 ISSUE 11.01

BORDERLESS WORLD

Telework in practice P32 PROFILE

HR at REA Group P50 HUMAN CAPITAL MAGAZINE

CELEBRATING 10 YEARS

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2013 HR PRIORITIES Remake

Remodel

Restructure

PLUS: USING CREATIVITY TO UNLOCK INNOVATION

P26

editor’s letter

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

A triple-barrel threat Of all the news articles and feature stories running in Human Capital over the past 12 months, those covering two key topics – productivity and performance – were the most guaranteed to garner reader responses. A prime example was an online news article outlining how one company has ‘done away’ with traditional performance measures and reviews, and instead has kept people on track via social media tools and constant, two-way communication channels. Then there have been countless articles outlining how to always choose potential over current performance when selecting candidates, about maintaining ‘high performing’ employees, about how to make the most of ‘B’ performers, and how to handle those difficult underperforming employees. Then there is the productivity issue, a topic area so broad and complicated it’s difficult to know where to start – demonstrated by the findings of a recent white paper showing only 42% of organisations actually measure it, and only 22% accurately measure those things that matter. Without measurement obviously any efforts to improve the situation are doomed to failure. Tying these two topics together is innovation. That doesn’t just encompass smart use of technology, but also changing the way work is undertaken – perhaps using creativity to unlock that section of the human brain, or by embracing flexible work practices. All three topic areas are covered off in this issue. We hope that in the quiet post-Christmas period you have a chance to review where your organisation stands on all three fronts. The Human Capital team would also like to thank all readers and contributors for their continued support of HC in 2012. We look forward to bringing you more in the New Year. Happy, healthy and safe holidays to all.

COPY & FEATURES EDITOR Iain Hopkins JOURNALIST Stephanie Zillman PRODUCTION EDITORS Carolin Wun, Moira Daniels

ART & PRODUCTION SENIOR DESIGNER Rebecca Downing DESIGNER Marla Morelos TRAFFIC MANAGER Abby Cayanan

CONTRIBUTORS People + Culture Strategies, The Next Step, Kenexa

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

CORPORATE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Mike Shipley CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER George Walmsley MANAGING DIRECTOR – BUSINESS MEDIA Justin Kennedy CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER Colin Chan HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER Julia Bookallil

Iain Hopkins, editor, HC Magazine

Editorial enquiries Iain Hopkins tel: +61 2 8437 4703 iain.hopkins@keymedia.com.au

Over the past 12 months…two key topics – productivity and performance – were the most guaranteed to garner reader responses”

Advertising enquiries National commercial manager, HR products Sophie Knight tel: +61 2 8437 4733 sophie.knight@keymedia.com.au Subscriptions tel: +61 2 8437 4731 • fax: +61 2 8437 4753 subscriptions@keymedia.com.au Key Media keymedia.com.au Key Media Pty Ltd, regional head office, Level 10, 1–9 Chandos St, St Leonards, NSW 2065, Australia tel: +61 2 8437 4700 fax: +61 2 9439 4599 Offices in Singapore, Auckland, Toronto hcamag.com Copyright is reserved throughout. No part of this publication can be reproduced in whole or part without the express permission of the editor. Contributions are invited, but copies of work should be kept as HC can accept no responsibility for loss.

Human Capital wants to hear from you. Email us:

editor@hcamag.com HCAMAG.COM

HC MAGAZINE 11.01

contents

Cover story: 2013: The year of doing more with less As the corporate world gears up for another year, prioritising areas of focus becomes crucial. How can you help your employees work smarter rather than harder in 2013? 14 | HR law and order Jane Lewis, director, people and development, Allens, speaks with Carolin Wun about the challenges of HR in a top-tier international law firm and the need for HR to gain buy-in with all stakeholders

14 2

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32 | Out of sight, not out of mind With the momentum growing for flexible work options, HC looks at teleworking â&#x20AC;&#x201C; what are the benefits, who can use it, and what are your obligations as an employer?

42 | Better safe than sorry What is the business case for adopting pre-employment medicals? What are the downsides and benefits? Nick Binns outlines why every organisation stands to possibly benefit

Check out the HC archive online:

hcamag.com

38 30

Share and share alike As the definition of ‘workplace’ continues to evolve, employees are being asked to alter the way that they perceive their place of work. Keti Malkoski weighs the pros and cons of workplace sharing in activity-based workplaces

38 | Unlocking hidden workforce potential How can the power of your workforce be unleashed? The answer is with HR metrics. Stephen Moore outlines how to do it in this abridged version of an e-book by Frontier Software

REGULARS

04 | In brief: news 06 | In brief: hr insight

50 Profile: Simone Carroll Many organisations claim to be lean, agile and customer centric, but few execute on those ambitions successfully. Iain Hopkins talks to one HR leader who has pushed the boundaries of traditional HR practice. HR, she says, are the “architects of the business”

FRONTLINE INTELLIGENCE

08 | In Step – HR career experts 10 | Legal 12 | HR consulting

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IN BRIEF

news NEEDS STRAP

FEMALE LEADER CONCERNS DESPITE TRIUMPHS OF ASX 200

The month in numbers

210,000

BULLYING

FEDERAL BULLYING INQUIRY: IT’S A BILLION DOLLAR PROBLEM

n Workplace bullying has profound effects on a person’s health as well as their work and family life, and comes at a significant cost to the community and the economy, the federal bullying inquiry has determined. The Productivity Commission estimated the total cost of workplace bullying in Australia at between $6bn and $36bn annually, the House of Representatives has heard. In its long-awaited report released in November, Workplace Bullying: We just want it to stop, the Standing Committee on Education and Employment made 23 recommendations as to how Australian businesses should proceed. The recommendations principally focus on: • defining what bullying is and is not • promoting and strengthening existing legislative and regulatory frameworks • ensuring that the requirements of the draft Code of Practice: Managing the Risk of Workplace Bullying are met, with guidance and support provided to employers • improving workplace cultures • enhancing tools for the prevention and early resolution of workplace bullying incidences “Workplace bullying is happening far too frequently in Australian workplaces, and occurs in all sectors and industries. We discovered throughout the inquiry that prevention and early intervention is critical,” Committee Chair, Amanda Rishworth MP, said. A chief concern of witnesses was the lack of clarity about what to do and where to go for help, and for this reason it was recommended to the government that a new national advisory service be established to provide advice, assistance and resolution services to employers and workers alike.

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The number of migrants scheduled to enter Australia under the permanent migration program for 2012-13. The 457 temporary-entry visa program is also running at record high levels*

34%

Percentage of employees who don’t trust their organisations’ leaders^

18%

Percentage of employees who have requested ‘free drinks’ as their number one ‘unusual job perk’. This was followed by tablets or smartphones for personal use (17%) and time off for volunteer work (16%)** Sources: *Federal Government ^Randstad World of Work Report 2012/13 **2012 HR Beat: A Survey on the Pulse of Today’s Global Workplace, Dimensional Research/ Successfactors

n The latest stats show the number of ASX 200 directorships held by women increased substantially in the past year for the first time since the census was first conducted in 2002. An improvement to 12.3% overall was an increase of 46.4% since 2010. More broadly though, women hold 9.2% of ASX 500 directorships and there are still only six female chairs in the ASX 200 (compared to five in 2010) and a total of 13 in the ASX 500. While these are encouraging improvements, it is not reflected in smaller companies throughout Australia. According to the Diversity Council Australia (DCA) chief, much more needs to be done to address the lack of leadership in the broader business community. “It is encouraging to see that progress has been made in increasing the number of female directors in ASX 200 companies. However, it is quite disturbing to see the lack of female representation amongst directors in the wider group of ASX 500 companies and some sectors are really lagging behind,” Nareen Young commented. “The small number of female executives and women in line management positions is even more alarming for future trends given these roles are usually the pathway to the CEO level,” Young said. Organisations continue to source talent from the same small pool of women rather than casting the net more widely. The DCA said a starting point is for Australian boardrooms to better reflect the country’s diverse communities in the workforce, namely in terms of age, care-giving status, class, cultural identity, disability and sexuality, as well as gender.

WORKPLACE FLEXIBILITY

WORK-FROM-HOME NOT WITHOUT DISTRACTIONS n Almost half of professionals (49%) who were recently surveyed admitted they actually encounter difficulties concentrating when working from their home office. However, there are obvious benefits: it does give people more flexibility and control over how and when they work, and that’s a good thing, Wes Lenci, vice-president at Regus said. “But employers need to be conscious of the challenges these remote workers face, and be ready to provide them with alternate workplace options so employees can continue to be engaged, connected and motivated,” he added.

RECRUITMENT

FACE-STALKING? BE CAREFUL

THE MAIN DISTRACTIONS WHEN WORKING FROM HOME INCLUDE:

60%

Children and family wanting attention

28%

Inability to access proper office equipment

26%

The desire to complete household chores

24% 18%

The temptation to keep TV on as “company” Lack of proper work space

FAIR WORK FINDINGS

PUBLIC SHAMING ON THE RISE

n An employer has opted for posting a public apology and repaying some $17,000 owed to a staff member rather than endure litigation by the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) – but this is no ‘one-off’. In a rising trend among workplaces to avoid court, the FWO has negotiated numerous such terms between employees and employers to settle matters. Most recently, business director Giacomo Ferretti will take out an advertisement in the Sydney Morning Herald and pay nearly three times the $6,600

maximum penalty that could have been imposed if the matter in question had gone to court. The employer admitted to terminating his employee’s contract without paying out his annual leave, and Ferretti’s apology is one of 34 enforced undertakings by the office of FWO since 2009. Not all ‘undertakings’ have taken the form of public apologies and payouts. Coles and James Hardie are two companies to have donated $20,000 and $10,000 respectively to organisations promoting employee rights at work. Additionally, FWO has also recently required two employers – Cotton On and Sadamatsu Katsuyoshi, who operated the Japanese restaurant Masuya in Sydney – to publish apologies on the Facebook walls of their businesses.

DID YOU KNOW?

For one day in November a Wellington university coffee vendor charged women $4.00 for a flat white, while men forked out $4.40. The gendered prices were designed to underscore the gender pay differential. In Australia, women’s pay has remained between 82% and 85% of men’s pay since 1990.

n There is a minefield of legal hot water for accessing social media profiles when making recruitment decisions. Australian law can prohibit potential employers from using information gleaned from Facebook pages, exposing firms to liability under employment discrimination laws. A survey report released in November by Nuage Software, found that the majority of employees and job seekers are happy for employers and recruiters to view their personal social media profiles – yet problems arise when employers and HR base the entire hiring decision on something viewed online. By reviewing social networking profiles and information, employers may become aware of a job applicant’s age, political views, religious beliefs, marital status, race, union membership or activity, medical information, ethnicity, and other information that cannot be used to make an employment-based decision. “There is a danger in knowing information about matters which may be the basis for discrimination or adverse action,” Nicholas Linke, partner at Fisher Jeffries law firm said. “For the same reason that asking questions about such matters in an interview is dangerous (or downright stupid), employers should proceed with caution when gathering information in this way as it could be the basis for a claim,” he added. Should a discrimination claim arise, the employer will have the burden of proof to demonstrate that the decision to reject a job applicant was based on a legitimate nondiscriminatory reason. WWW.HCAMAG.COM

FRONTLINE INTELLIGENCE

recruitment

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

Productivity – HR’s key in 2013? Is there a more important concept for HR practitioners to be across as we approach 2013 than Productivity? Businesses are continuing the long journey of doing more with less. Nothing new here but it seems the pace of the journey has picked up. There is more pressure than ever before on this and it’s not going away. This month we look at some of the implications for HR professionals and the tool kit they will need to employ to meet the challenge of this environment and assist to drive productivity in their businesses.

PRODUCTIVITY – TWO EXAMPLES

“Productivity – HR’s Role” was the theme of a recent panel discussion hosted by The Next Step. At the discussion, senior HR practitioners in the audience heard about some of the challenges at two of Australia’s leading companies, Lend Lease and Qantas. Deborah Coakley, Head of Group People Capability, Loyalty & Corporate from Qantas and Michael Vavakis, Group Head of HR from Lend Lease, both provided insights into how the HR teams within their respective organisations were leading key initiatives to drive productivity improvements. They also described how both organisations are driving their own HR transformation agendas to implement or further imbed revised HR operating models that will improve productivity in HR services. The platform for productivity gains at Lend Lease relates to building synergies across their global operations. At Qantas, the productivity platform relates to improving performance to deal with a competitive landscape and also integrating new advanced technology in the form of aircraft, ticketing and check-in facilities.

SIMILARITIES

Whilst Qantas and Lend Lease represent organisations from different industries with very different challenges in their business environments, there are some similarities in the productivity agendas in each business that are being driven through HR. These are: • Implementation/further rollout of HR 8

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High touch HR generalist roles are becoming a thing of the past in large organisations Shared Service Centres to manage operational HR functions; • Driving consistency of ‘people’ processes across each organisation as a means of delivering productivity gains; and • The use of technology to automate various people processes to guarantee ‘consistency of process.’

THE MEANING OF IT ALL

Both panel members made a clear case that the objectives for implementing revised HR operating models was not just related to cost minimisation, but to enhance HR services to better meet customer needs. At the end of the day, better HR service delivery ensures stronger alignment to business needs and a more consistent and professional customer experience improving the overall standing of the HR function. Not only that, HR in both organisations will be providing to their internal customers new and improved business insights through analysis of key operating metrics.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR A DIFFERENT ROLE IN HR

Both panel members argued that the exciting outcome will be a different role in the future for HR Business Partners. This will require a different tool kit for Business Partners who will need to be able to: • Manage and analyse data to drive better business decisions; • Drive workforce planning; • Implement specific talent management

initiatives; • Originate and evaluate organisational effectiveness initiatives; • Initiate and manage workforce cost reviews; and • Drive career frameworks and measure improvements.

TOOL KIT OF THE FUTURE HR BUSINESS PARTNER

Both Deborah and Michael were quite clear that the tool kit of the future HR Business Partner will need to develop from that which was required in the past. HR Business Partners will need a tool kit that requires: • Business analytics; • Organisational design; • Organisational development based on data; • Business and commercial insights; and • Workforce planning.

THE FINAL WORD

The reality is that end-to-end, high touch HR generalist roles are becoming a thing of the past in large, more sophisticated HR organisations. Full end-to-end HR roles will only continue in the foreseeable future in less developed environments and smaller organisations that do not have the scale to implement advanced technology and Shared Services (which isn’t just about recruitment). Therefore, HR practitioners that intend to stay relevant and attractive in the market need to face reality and understand where their weaknesses are. This is particularly in regards to these new capabilities that are demanded by the market now and will be increasingly so in the future. In other words, future interview questions won’t be “tell me about a difficult grievance matter you have had to deal with?” Future questions will instead be: “What set of metrics did you use to inform and drive a significant productivity improvement in the business?”; or “Here are a set of metrics about a theoretical company. Tell me what’s happening in the business.” How many HR folk out there are ready for that? It’s coming in 2013.

MARKET MOVES

radar

Recent HR Market Moves Ed Watts has been appointed to the new role of Director of People and Organisational Capacity for Scripture Union Queensland. Ed has enjoyed a long career in HR as a Senior Manager and an active AHRI member. For the past 12 years he has worked across the Not-for-Profit sector in both Brisbane and Sydney. Prior to that Ed was in financial services in Brisbane after spending many years in Melbourne in Funds Management, HR Consulting and FMCG. UGL Engineering is welcoming Andrei Moore as their EGM Human Resources & Corporate Services. Andrei has been consulting for the past several months and was previously with Downer Rail where he held the role of EGM for Human Resources. Amanda Tober has joined UXC Connect as Director – People & Culture. Amanda is a senior Human Resources professional with significant experience in high growth, fast paced organisations. Before joining UXC Connect in October 2012, Amanda was Executive Director, HR at Mine Site Technologies where she was responsible for the start-up of the global HR function. After five years leading HR at Hallmark Australia, Ana Gelemanovic has joined OfficeMax as HR Director. Ana has extensive experience building organisational capability through strategic and operational HRM initiatives and she is skilled in driving organisational change. The Chisholm Institute has recently appointed Margot Stephenson as Executive Director Organisational Development and Transformation. Margot brings to the education sector a wealth of corporate experience with the likes of NAB, Telstra and MYOB.

Australian HR Executive, Michael Fraccaro who moved to Asia with HSBC in 2007, has been appointed Global Head of Human Resources, Global Products & Solutions for MasterCard. Michael will be based in New York. Michael’s roles with HSBC in Asia included lead generalist HR roles as well as Asia Pacific responsibility for Talent, Resourcing and OD. Sandra Cittadini has secured a fixed term contract with SunRice. Sandra spent last year at Ernst & Young, prior to that a year at Westpac and twelve years with KPMG Australia. She brings with her a great deal of experience in talent management and global mobility. Steve Cooney has made the move from Queensland to join RailCorp in NSW as Manager Workplace Relations. He was previously ER/IR Manager for Bechtel Corporation’s $3B coal loading port expansion project in Mackay and prior to that managed organisational capability for Brisbane Transport. Also joining RailCorp as a Lead Business Partner is Jill Adams. Jill has worked across multiple industries and diverse client groups from executive to blue collar. She previously held roles at Spotless as the National HR & Resourcing Manager, GM Human Resources at Pacific Brands Homewares Group and as an HR Business Partner at Mercer.

Woolworths has appointed remuneration and benefits specialist Sue Thalis as Head of Reward. Sue has many years of experience in compensation, benefits and reward and previous roles have included Director of Reward & HR Systems at George Weston Foods, Remuneration & Benefits Manager at Tyco Fire & Security as well as specialist roles at HSBC and ABN Amro. Alyson Heinze joins Newell Rubbermaid as HR Manager this month. Alyson has most recently lead HR for SPC Ardmona and Kodak. Amanda Ferdinando has recently taken up the Regional HR Manager role at Star Track. Amanda joins Star Track from the Compass Group, where she was leading HR for the Healthcare sector. Her previous experience includes Harris Scarfe Australia and Target.

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

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FRONTLINE INTELLIGENCE

legal

Joydeep Hor, Managing Principal P: 02 8094 3101 M: 0416 265 797 E: joydeep.hor@peopleculture.com.au. Margaret Chan, P: 8094 3116 E: margaret.chan@peopleculture.com.au People + Culture Strategies

STOP PRESS: Proposed Consolidation of Commonwealth anti-discrimination laws Moves towards harmonisation of Commonwealth anti-discrimination laws began close to three years ago, with the 2009 launch of the National Anti-Discrimination Law Information Gateway by the Standing Committee of Attorney-Generals. The latest development in this process occurred on 20 November 2012, when the exposure draft of the Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill 2012 (Cth) (“the Bill”) was finally released.

KEY CHANGES UNDER THE BILL

One major change is, of course, the harmonisation and amalgamation of the five statutes which currently regulate this sphere into one piece of legislation. For employers, this change will have the benefit of simplifying the myriad of statutes that they are currently expected to comply with, namely: • the Age Discrimination Act 2004 (Cth); • the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth); • the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth); • the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth); and • the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 (Cth). Another change is the streamlining of exceptions and exemptions, and the introduction of a general exemption for “justifiable” conduct (that is, conduct done in good faith for a legitimate aim, in a manner proportionate to that aim). The practical effects of this additional exemption on employers remain to be seen.

CHANGES TO THE COMPLAINT PROCESS

What is likely to be the most contentious change proposed by the Bill is the move to streamline the complaint process by: • shifting the burden of proof from the 10

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The reverse onus of proof combined with the change in the default costs position for litigants may see an increase in the number of out of court settlements to avoid further costs complainant to the respondent – similar to the onus borne by employers in general protections claims under the Fair Work Act; and • changing the default costs position, requiring each party to a court dispute to bear its own costs (although the court will still retain the discretion to award costs). Under current anti-discrimination law, the burden of proof for direct discrimination complaints before a Court lies with the complainant. Under clause 124 of the Bill, the onus of proof will shift once the complainant has established a prima facie case. It will be the respondent who is required to establish a non-discriminatory reason for the action, to show that the conduct is justifiable or that another exception applies to them. What is also notable is that the complainant will not be required to disprove

the application of any defences or exceptions. The result is that in the absence of an adequate explanation by the respondent, if a complainant has provided facts from which the Court could conclude that discrimination has occurred, then that complaint must be upheld.

IMPLICATIONS FOR EMPLOYERS

Although change to the default costs position may encourage individuals who have genuinely been discriminated against to come forwards, with each party now bearing their own costs of litigation rather than the current practice of costs following the event, employers may be left out of pocket in terms of time and money if they are required to defend a discrimination claim in court. The Federal Government has also acknowledged that employers are likely to incur additional costs associated with reviewing and updating their current workplace policies to ensure legal compliance, as well as costs of training employees on the changes. Concerns have also been expressed that the reverse onus of proof combined with the change in the default costs position for litigants may see an increase in the number of out of court settlements and payment of “go away” money by employers to avoid the costs of litigation, since it is likely that they may no longer be able to recoup their costs even if they “win” the case.

GOING FORWARDS

With the Bill being referred to the Senate Committee on 21 November 2012, it is likely that consultation on the Bill will occur between now and early 2013. A report from the Senate Committee can likely be expected in mid-February 2013.

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FRONTLINE INTELLIGENCE

HR consulting

Andrew Brock, Client Services Director, Kenexa Level 2, 451 Little Bourke St, Melbourne Phone (03) 9602 3899 or email Andrew.brock@kenexa.com

The value of meaningful connections – social HR “I want to get into/work in HR because I like people”. That is usually the first sign for me to show the candidate the door when they are applying for any position in HR. It’s not that I dislike people, in fact to the contrary. However, that is not why I got into HR, nor why I stay in HR. I firmly believe that in order to positively impact business performance, people’s performance on the job is one of the last great organisational levers left to pull in order to create a seismic shift. Social HR is not about us as HR professionals being social; it is all about enabling our organisations to be socially connected. ‘Social’ has also become synonymous with technology in the last couple of years, but those are simply tools or a means to reach the end of being more social. Being social is about being connected in meaningful ways. Imagine the impact of a fully connected consistent, but customisable experience. Through cleverly designed social mechanisms, individuals can have their ‘unique’ experience, bringing and taking away from it what is most meaningful for them. This is extremely attractive in every aspect; think about the employee experience, how they are attracted to and then recruited by an organisation that speaks to their individual needs. Once they join the organisation, this flows onto how they are communicated to, assessed, developed and so on. Everything needs to fit neatly into an organisational framework, but with a unique and personal application to maximise individual strengths. Being truly social is connecting outside the organisation, too. Connecting passionate employees directly with their customer provides a very relevant and real customer experience and a fulfilling job for the employees. The recruiting function was first out the blocks in Social HR with the now familiar 12

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Easy to access information sources that allow collaborative interactions really accelerate the organisational learning at an amazing pace while creating an immense feeling of empowerment for employees socially targeted recruiting strategies, but this is moving on to impact all aspects of the employee experience. For example, in the on-boarding phase and then throughout the continued learning management, it is extremely effective to be able to tailor the experience to the individual’s preference of visual vs. auditory vs. live content, and the full spectrum of blends in-between. Easy to access information sources that allow collaborative interactions really accelerate the organisational learning at an amazing pace while creating an immense feeling of empowerment for employees. Consider also the rich source of organisational data and information that is

produced from these socially connected communities. For example, starting to fully understand your critical job roles and apply that knowledge to become exponentially more productive. To this day, too many organisations still cannot confidently identify or measure their critical job roles (the ones where the output difference between a great performer and an average performer is in the order of several magnitudes). In a social organisation, the business output data (e.g. sales, widgets produced) is completely connected to the people data. At a glance, we can see that the top 25% of sales people actually sell more than five times the average sales person. On the other hand, the top 25% of production engineers produce 1.5 times as many widgets as the average production person. So, let’s focus all our energy on attracting, hiring, developing and retaining the best sales people. From our connected data, we know where we recruited our current top sales people from, what schools they went to, where they live. We know what attracted them to our organisation, we know what their key competencies are, we know who their first managers were and what their on-boarding experience was like, and so the story continues. Armed with this information, it is a simple case of repeating the recipe for the next batch. This is the stuff of revolutionary change! As social HR practitioners, if we get the best-fit sales people, then they – as individuals – will flourish. This will exponentially increase the overall business performance, creating new jobs and promotion possibilities for all the production employees. In turn, we create better communities around us and so the cycle continues, making us all happier, socially connected and fulfilled.

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PROFILE JANE LEWIS

my brilliant career

HR law and order Jane Lewis, director, people and development, Allens, speaks with Carolin Wun about the challenges of HR in a top-tier international law firm and the need for HR to gain buy-in with all stakeholders Human Capital: What drew you to an HR role initially? Jane Lewis: While I was completing a Bachelor of Secondary Education, I was employed on a casual basis, where I had exposure to corporate education. I got really excited about the range of levers that I could pull from a people perspective and the opportunity to help improve business and create an environment where people have the skills, commitment and leadership to perform at their best. That’s when I decided to become a generalist HR practitioner. HC: Describe your current role. What parts of it give you a real buzz? JL: My remit includes working with both the Australian and Asian business. We’ve recently entered into a global alliance with Linklaters, and my role has been extended to support that as well. I work with the leadership team to shape the strategy and direction of the firm, and then align the people capability platform to deliver on our strategy and oversee its implementation. I have a team of over 40 across the country. There are four key things that give me a real buzz: 1. Co-creation – working with talented and creative people to overcome problems or realise opportunities; 2. Working on a project that is critical to the business or will really make a big difference. For example, working on the internal communications strategy for the Linklaters alliance (with incredibly tight timeframes) was a very

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energising experience because of the significance of what we were launching; 3. Seeing results in a complex change issue, or knowing a client has felt heard or understood and that I’ve supported them or added value; and 4. Seeing team members formally progress their careers or having great feedback from (internal) clients about what a difference they’ve made to their business. HC: What are some of the unique HR challenges that you have encountered being in a top-tier international law firm? JL: The market for legal services is facing changes in the way services are being procured, changes in growth opportunities, increasing competition from international firms and segmentation in the way that work is being delegated. As a result, our people need to be more like project managers and be effective relationship managers. They need to be more able to identify and pursue new relationships and new work opportunities. All of that requires us to review the common approach across all aspects of career management in a profession which relies on certain market dynamics which are no longer in place. We’re looking at the way we recruit people, the way we bring in and train our graduates, the way we remunerate our people, and what the right career milestones look like. Lawyers have very specific expectations of their path at a law firm, and it’s getting to a stage where this needs to change.

Lawyers have very specific expectations of their path at a law firm, and it’s getting to a stage where this needs to change

Pulch Photography, pulchphotography.com

– JANE LEWIS

JANE LEWIS ROLL OF HONOUR Bachelor of Education (Sydney University); half-way through an MBA HCAMAG.COM 15

PROFILE JANE LEWIS

my brilliant career Also, in a law firm, you’re working with shareholders of the business and that brings with it a much greater need for consultation and communication. You often spend significant time in building buy-in and consensus from the shareholders. HC: Some law firms have taken preventative measures against workplace burnout and depression. How is Allens combating this problem? JL: Five large law firms, including Allens, came together after a report in 2009 found that the experience of depression anxiety in lawyers was five times greater than in the general population, and established the Resilience@ Law initiative. Allens ran a series of workshops for junior lawyers that helped build the skills to manage the risk of depression anxiety but also to build resilience. What we’re focused on at the moment is helping employees effectively resolve instances of stress or depression anxiety, and creating a culture which promotes resilience and optimism. We’ve recently rolled out a training program to help our leaders identify and respond to stress burnout and mental illness, how to recognise the indicators, how to have a conversation with someone they are concerned about, and how to refer someone on to seek help. There has been strong engagement and positive feedback in this area. We are also looking at any structures or processes that might hinder resilience as well as looking at the way we manage projects, the way matters get resolved, how teams get put together, etc. HC: How has Allens addressed the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012? JL: Allens has been awarded Employer of Choice for Women by EOWA for the last eight years, and we’ve been working explicitly on gender diversity for 10 years. Our focus is on four areas: • Making sure gender diversity is seen as a business issue, and not just as something that is the right thing to do.

Career timeline: Jane Lewis

1995–99

1999–2000

2000–08

National training manager, Waterford Wedgwood Waterford Wedgwood is best known for premium crystal, china and designer-commissioned homewares. My role started with the training of sales staff, covering all elements from orientation to sales and general professional development. A number of opportunities enabled me to broaden my role and I got my first taste for being a generalist HR practitioner.

HR and learning consultant, Sparke Helmore Lawyers Sparke Helmore is a national law firm. My first role with the firm was intended to be focused on both learning and development and general HR support across the Sydney office. The firm grew at an average of 17% per year and opened several offices and practice areas in the time I was there. This meant that in reality my role was heavily focused on supporting the growth, challenges and opportunities that came with that.

HR director, Sparke Helmore Lawyers My role as director was focused on supporting the rapid expansion of the business and designing and implementing a people strategy and approach to HR that supported the firm’s strategy. There were a lot of ‘firsts’ for me and the firm during this time – people strategy, capability framework, employment brand campaign, graduate recruitment program, talent review process, etc

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• Empowering both men and women to make a positive difference to gender diversity. • Partnering with other organisations – for example, the Diversity Advisory Board – who are able to support us to create real change. • Creating a talent management system and processes to ensure talented women are identified early, supported, developed and nurtured. It’s not just about being compliant – it’s about best practice. HC: What do you consider to be your biggest career achievement to date? JL: At Sparke Helmore, I was quickly promoted to director during a period of rapid growth. I implemented many ‘firsts’ for the firm: the first people strategy; the first capability platform; first employment brand campaign; first graduate recruitment program; first talent review process; etc, and we were recognised as Employer of Choice. I quickly expanded my skillset early on in my career (I was aged 30), and also managed to gain buy-in from the partners and executive team for people investment and change. My appointment at Allens was completely different. My predecessor, Susan Ferrier, is an amazing HR practitioner who had built a leading HR platform, and to take her work and legacy to the next level feels like an incredible achievement. So, it’s two opposite ends of the spectrum – working with a greenfield and then a high performing team. HC: What advice would you give to graduates considering a career in HR? JL: 1. Be clear on what HR is about; that is, while it involves creating an environment where people are engaged and motivated, it must also be directed towards business performance. 2. Be change-focused, not design-focused. A change in behaviour has to be the key measure of success.

Did you know? • In 1822 George Allen established the firm in Sydney, which became Allen Allen & Hemsley in 1894. • Allens is part of The Business and Human Rights Working Group of the Global Compact Network Australia. Along with Rio Tinto, Westpac, Pacific Hydro and The Australian Human Rights Commission, the group is tasked with ensuring that human rights is on the agenda for the Australian business community. • Allens has put its weight behind not-for-profit organisation, Fitted for Work, which provides free interview-appropriate clothing and mentoring to disadvantaged women re-entering the workforce. The ‘dare to wear’ campaign, held annually in March, encourages employees to ‘dare’ to wear something courageous to work to reflect the courage demonstrated by disadvantaged people. In 2012, over 25 women at Allens dressed in this manner, driven by over $8,000 in sponsorship from their colleagues.

3. Get line management experience as quickly as possible. It will make you a much better practitioner if you’ve actually walked in the shoes of your internal clients who are leading teams and managing business units. 4. Have a spirit of service, empathy for your clients, the ability to anticipate concerns, and a genuine interest in your client. HC: What piece of HR technology makes your life easier? Why? JL: I recently switched to an iPhone 5 and I love it. It’s easy to access the web; and easy to review documents – someone can send me an attachment and I can instantly get back to them with feedback. It makes working between meetings so much easier. HC: Describe yourself in a few key words. JL: Energetic, optimistic, creative and hardworking! More industry profiles at:

2008–10

2010–CURRENT

Head of people and development, Allens Arthur Robinson My first role at Allens was to lead the HR Business Partner team that worked across the Australian business. I also worked on a number of significant performance and talent management projects and project managed the voluntary redundancy program we ran during the global financial crisis.

Director, people and development, Allens In my current role I work with the leadership team to shape strategy and then align the people capability platform to deliver on our strategy and oversee its implementation. From a practical perspective, my remit includes everything from employment brand and resourcing, remuneration, learning, talent management, and internal communications.

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COVER STORY

2013 priorities

2013

THE YEAR OF DOING MORE WITH LESS As the corporate world gears up for another year, prioritising areas of focus becomes crucial. How can you help your employees work smarter rather than harder in 2013?

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What is productivity? Of all the potential areas of focus for HR in 2013 – and there are many – HC has chosen two, with an additional overarching one. They are interlinked and closely aligned: productivity, performance and innovation. The burning platform for HR and indeed for other business leaders and economic policymakers must be productivity. Certainly the media headlines and reports produced around this topic paint it as a troublesome issue with no easy fixes. To take just one report, Chandler Macleod Group’s 5 Faces of Productivity, compiled from responses by 563 senior Australian business people, Australian productivity is slowing at a time when there is significant potential for it to be increasing. The report found that 74% of Australian businesses rate productivity as a high priority but only 20% have achieved significant productivity improvements. The biggest issues for businesses are: • Organisations are often not focusing on the right productivity initiatives. In fact, a significant number of organisations aren’t even measuring productivity, and those that do are measuring the wrong things. While organisations are focusing on people management, training and process innovation, it’s at the expense of employee mobilisation, workforce planning, product innovation and skills utilisation – the elements that truly drive productivity. • Onerous regulations and compliance burdens are significant barriers to businesses increasing productivity. • Talent is still a major issue. CEOs say the talent crunch is the main threat to business expansion, with 58% of businesses reporting skills shortages. Talent shortages are seen as a major threat to business expansion and future profitability. Overall, a massive 90% of business leaders reported facing a talent crunch in their organisation and one in four CEOs said they were unable to pursue a market opportunity or have had to cancel or delay a strategic initiative because of talent. In fact, half of respondents (48%) spend a lot of time educating new staff on things they would expect them to already know. There were two key observations to be gleaned from the research, according to Cameron Judson, CEO, Chandler Macleod Group. First, only 42% of businesses measure their productivity at an organisational level, and of these, only 22% believe that they can accurately measure productivity benefits. The other confirmation, if not surprise, was that the resources boom has masked a

Productivity is a measure of the rate at which outputs and services are produced per unit of input. Common inputs include labour, capital and raw materials. Put simply: Productivity = outputs inputs It may be expressed as a physical manner, a monetary measure or an index. Capital productivity: is represented by the services delivered by the available capital stock. This may be net capital stock, taking into consideration depreciation, or ‘productive capital stock’ which takes account of the decline in the rate at which assets deliver capital services over time (wear and tear). Labour productivity: is the ratio of output to the input of labour, typically expressed as the amount of output produced per hour worked. Source: Dr Glenn Otto, Productivity Growth & Economic Policy in Australia, accessed via aph.gov.au

decline in productivity. Australia has been lucky to coast on the back of the resources boom – indeed, this has kept the nation above water since the GFC. With that boom now easing, the focus is resettling on other areas, and productivity is in the spotlight. “We’re still very much a patchwork economy, so productivity growth is a challenge that’s different and specific to different sectors,” Judson says. “The research revealed that productivity in the agriculture and telco sectors has actually improved quite substantially, but we see significant decline in mining and utilities. There’s been significant capital investment, and that’s likely masked labour productivity. Industries with less capital investment probably had to focus on these things more directly.” So where does Australia stand? Over the past decade we have become significantly less productive. It’s clear that the fall in labour productivity over the past decade occurred in spite of large capital investment. Capital per hour worked is 25% higher than it was six years ago, yet workers are only producing 7% more output per hour. This calls into question the ability of Australian businesses to effectively enhance labour productivity as a lever to realise maximum return on capital investment. Multi-factor productivity shrank in the mid-2000s to unprecedented lows. Even worse, taking the data at face value, productivity seems to have completely disappeared, with the latest figures showing it at zero or even negative. A recent global report (commissioned by the US Society of Human Resources Management and the Australian Human Resources Institute) which ranked total factor productivity growth – defined as a measure of how efficiently and effectively the main factors of production (labour and HCAMAG.COM 19

2013 hot trend alert!

Now that’s pinteresting Pinterest is now the third most popular social media network, behind Facebook and Tumblr, and recently surpassed some 25 million active users. While the site hasn’t caught on in Australia as quickly as it has in the US, for one expert in the social media recruitment space, it’s only a matter of time. Paul Jacobs runs Jobgram, a company which designs infographic job advertisements that can be shared across Pinterest and other online media. He is seeing more and more companies align their recruitment strategies with social media campaigns. Looking specifically at Pinterest, its visual nature has several advantages over traditional recruitment tools, Jacobs says. “It’s an opportunity to showcase [the organisation’s] culture. It’s like knocking a window into a wall and you can peek in and you can sort of see what the culture looks like.” For example, companies can create boards around staff members to give candidates an insight into what the inside of an organisation is like. And recruiters can individualise boards in order to give a sense of personality, and humour. “It’s humanising recruitment and making it more personal,” Jacobs says. “Social media allows us to brand ourselves in different ways to different people – Pinterest fits into that really nicely. People can show a wider view of themselves,” he adds. One of Jacobs’ favourite examples of a recruitment ad on a Pinterest board was created by US furniture company, The New Traditionalists. “They were putting up all these pictures of people like George from Seinfeld, or Dirty Harry, and they were saying, ‘look, we want someone who’s like this, but not like this’.” The unique appeal of Pinterest is its focus on appealing visuals. On the other hand, Jacobs sees the visual element of Pinterest as part of a wider trend across social networks, for example the way people post photos on Facebook. Jacobs sees a great deal of potential for innovating on the part of recruiters, and considers Air New Zealand to be the best example in Asia-Pacific. “Even the non-recruitment related boards give an insight into the culture. That’s the power of it, you don’t have to be pushing out recruitment messages, you can just showcase the people, and the work environment… and you can get a feel for the culture.”

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capital) combined to generate output – ranked Australia 50 of 51, ahead only of Botswana. Treasurer Wayne Swan disagrees on the extent of the problem. He acknowledges that productivity growth has been on the decline in Australia, but believes we are among the top dozen nations internationally. He says the USHRM/AHRI report ‘marked down’ Australia for keeping unemployment low during the GFC and ranked other countries with poor fundamental economic settings, such as Italy, highly. What’s undeniable is that productivity growth in Australia has not only stagnated, but decreased in the past decade, with average productivity falling from a high of 3.1% to 3.3% per annum in the 1990s to 0.3% to 1.2% from 2000 to present day.

WHAT NOT TO DO

Clearly this is a significant issue facing Australia’s political and business leaders. What can be done to reverse the trend? Judson says it’s necessary to break down what productivity means in terms of where an organisation’s returns come from – and that will be specific to different industries. “If 70% of respondents don’t know whether it’s measured or whether they are measuring the right things, it’s pretty hard to start a conversation around changing productivity,” he says. (See box on p.19 for a definition of productivity.) Performance advisor and coach Dr Tony van Rensburg says it’s time to be working to improve productivity by focusing on the factors that can be influenced, rather than those that cannot. “All too often, the approach to low productivity is use of blunt instruments such as ‘across-the-board’ cost reductions, ‘efficiency dividends’ and downsizing the workforce; rather than on strategies to build more productive workplaces with greater skills and more innovation. Cost and debt reduction are important for productivity, and sometimes survival, but should not always be the first levers we pull,” he says. This sentiment is echoed by Rory Gregg, partner, operational advisory at Grant Thornton, who says productivity should be top of the agenda for all leadership teams. Unfortunately, he says, many people use ‘productivity’ as a euphemism for cutting wagerelated costs. “Productivity needs to measure all of the inputs that go into creation of a product or the delivery of a service,” he explains. “Wages are obviously one input in that mix, but might be just a fraction of the real total. Measures of productivity that focus on end-to-end workflows and the

COVER STORY

2013 priorities

In terms of their impact on productivity per dollar spent, how do you rate the effectiveness of each of these productivity enhancements? At some level, Australian business leaders have a clear understanding of the productivity impact of these initiatives per dollar spent. Key Chandler Macleod Group findings include: ■ Process improvement has the highest impact on productivity (54%) but is ranked third in the list of key tools ■ An increased use of contingent staffing at 36% is 13% more effective than organisational structure change at 23% ■ When comparing those ‘excellent’ and ‘very good’ responses in the chart below, workforce planning at 46% is only 1% lower than training and development, and people management (both 47%), but much further down the list of items being undertaken, or being regarded as key

36 44 41

POOR (%) FAIR (%) GOOD (%) VERY GOOD (%) EXCELLENT (%)

4 19

46 44

Training and development

8 Organisational structure change

People management

Communications

Product service innovation

Increased organisational porosity/contingent staffing

Marketing targeting

Skills utilisation

Employee mobilisation

Technology IT infrastructure

Decision-making tools/information

10 1

Workforce planning

Process innovation

levels of workforce engagement are often the most useful productivity indicators.” Some productivity levers are out of the control of business leaders, such as the value of the Australian dollar, and the much-delayed NBN (which will likely be a significant enabler of future productivity). Other areas need close consultation and collaboration (not to mention delicate political manoeuvring) to resolve, such as federal compliance. The CMG survey indicated that 61% of respondents agree that federal compliance costs are a significant drain on productivity, yet only 70% of that population had thought significantly about how to address these challenges. It may also be that labour productivity is not impacted by compliance regulations, the IR system and so forth. Politicians made sweeping predictions that enterprise bargaining would unleash a surge of productivity growth. However, no such growth occurred, and productivity actually declined during 2006 and 2007 when Work Choices was in force, and later under Labour’s Fair Work Act. True influencers of productivity, such as workforce planning, product innovation and workplace flexibility, can be leveraged irrespective of the regulatory framework. “As a leader, your job is to work within the constraints of your situation,” says Gregg. “Every organisation faces challenges in sourcing resources, and must work within the regulatory rules of the day. Constraints can be a good catalyst for product and service innovation, and should not be used as an excuse for underperformance.” However, CMG’s research indicates organisations have gone for the ‘easy fixes’. While they are focusing on people management,

Source: Chandler Macleod Group’s 5 Faces of Productivity

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2013 danger point 2013 priorities PROTECTION OF CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION 2013 will present an emerging challenge to employers. For so long concerned about limiting access to social media during work hours, employers may have ignored something far more serious happening under their noses: the leakage of confidential information in an age of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and social media channels such as LinkedIn. A comprehensive research study conducted by DLA Piper’s employment, pensions and benefits group has indicated that 61% of employers do not have a social media policy of any kind, while 60% of employers either allow or require employees to use their personal mobile devices for work purposes. A further 36% of employers allow employees to store business contacts on databases which the employer does not own or control. The interviews with 250 senior business decision makers working in UK businesses of 250+ employees, also found:

19% of employers said the most damaging loss of information would be loss of customer details

25% of employers that include restrictive covenants in

their contracts of employment do not have any confidence they are enforceable

48% of employers have not reviewed their contracts in the

last 12 months to keep up with the pace of technological change

If 70% of respondents don’t know whether it’s measured or whether they are measuring the right things, it’s pretty hard to start a conversation around changing productivity – CAMERON JUDSON

49% have not reviewed their email, internet or social

media policies Tim Marshall, joint global leader and international group head of the employment, pensions and benefits group at DLA Piper told HC that many organisations had struggled to keep pace with change. “You have all your standard policies and what you do to protect confidential information – restricted covenants in a contract, for example – but a lot of these now are out of date. This is new territory.” However, Pattie Walsh, partner, head of employment, pensions & benefits, Asia Pacific at DLA Piper, adds there are steps that can be taken. The first is to set expectations early. “It’s too late when an employee is leaving to start worrying about this. What have you done upfront? How have you managed expectations? What’s been the agreed contract between you and the employee?” she says. For example, make it clear that using a personal device for work matters is fine, but emphasise there will be a protocol to be followed when the employee leaves the company whereby that person will come in, sit down, and both parties will work through and clear off what’s personal and what’s business. Employers can minimise damage caused by loss of trade secrets, confidential information and business contacts by taking the following steps: ❒ Put in place a tailored contract, including confidentiality provisions, restrictive covenants and a garden leave clause ❒ Use physical and electronic security methods ❒ Limit access to information ❒ Label documents ❒ Put in place a social media policy ❒ Do not publish company trade secrets ❒ Include a confidentiality policy in the staff handbook ❒ Carry out training ❒ Require third party non-disclosure agreements ❒ Investigate any suspicion ❒ Implement a strict electronic communications policy

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training and process innovation, it’s at the expense of increased flexibility, employee mobilisation (across sites, teams, projects and countries), workforce planning, product innovation and skills utilisation. While the current focus may produce some short-term wins, it is unlikely to impact longer-term productivity enhancement to its full potential.

A BETTER APPROACH

Gregg says that upon scratching the surface, most large organisations have dozens of internal workflows that can be handled more productively through simple changes. It’s usually a matter of prioritising the most achievable improvements which can offer a worthwhile return. “Don’t leave the low hanging productivity gains on the tree. Pick them as soon as you can,” he says. “Organisations should be continuously measuring and refining their internal processes and ways of working, and looking for ways to improve customer service delivery. This requires a commitment to innovate, and the ability to efficiently deploy change across the organisation.” If your organisation can’t achieve actual changes to workflows, due to inertia, budget constraints, or infrastructure problems, then you might just end up generating more reports and overheads. Building a culture of innovation and performance improvement is crucially important to enhancing productivity. “Australian organisations often tend to ‘over-engineer’ and overlook the needs of their customers when

COVER STORY

2013 priorities

establishing or reviewing internal work practices,” Gregg adds. “Recent advances in broadband internet access and cloud-based technologies have opened up new frontiers for innovation and workforce utilisation. Leaders need to understand that significant improvements in productivity can still be achieved by reviewing traditional ways of working and legacy processes.”

THE TALENT CHALLENGE

It’s difficult to over-emphasise the talent challenge in this equation. Skills shortages are seen as the main threat to business expansion, while increasing labour costs and having to hire less experienced or lower-skilled people are having an impact on productivity, on getting people ‘up to speed’ quicker. However, employers are also becoming more adept at strategic workforce planning – but Judson says there’s still plenty of work to do. “I think their horizons are pretty short. While they should be looking at the skills required between now and 2020, I doubt many Australian companies are looking that far ahead. They’re more likely looking at the discreet project as opposed to their future workforce plans.” Judson adds that you can plan for it, source it, or build it – “but you have to address that talent shortage somehow”. Gregg confirms that improved workforce training and skills can lead to productivity boosts. In some cases, cross-training of employees or internal secondments into different departments might give employees broader experience and insight into the functioning of the business. These insights can be valuable when you are trying to improve collaboration, and may reduce waste and overlap. “Training will be less effective if your workforce is operating in a straight-jacket, without any latitude or resources to suggest or implement innovations,” he suggests. Labour productivity is ultimately dependent on that labour’s skills and more importantly where and how well these are being put to use (and combined with capital) in enterprises and industries throughout the country. Tim Roche, Right Management’s regional practice leader for career management in Australia and New Zealand, suggests there’s a fundamental problem. “Our research* suggests that up to 49% of the population are in the wrong role which in turn has a significant impact on

productivity in that people are not in roles aligned to their skill sets and occupational interests,” he says. Roche adds that while fostering innovation is a good starting point, it’s not necessarily easy to achieve. Career planning on the other hand is a more tangible approach. Given the high levels of job mismatch within organisations, he maintains it’s an opportunity for business to think more strategically in terms of taking a more systemic approach to careers. “Too many organisations have functional career paths while they need a matrix approach between functional and enterprise-wide career paths, thus allowing those employees with poor role alignment to move more easily across the organisation rather than being restrained to a functional path,” he says.

THE PERFORMANCE ISSUE

Echoing Roche’s comments about career planning, Peter Boxall and John Purcell define performance as a sum of ability, motivation (driven through occupational interest) and opportunity (being in the right role). While there may be any number of barriers to achieving high performance, Roche says there are two key issues to consider and they relate to high performance versus high potential. Right Management research^ shows that only 20% or less of high performing employees are also high potential. A manager may be a high performer at their current level but struggle at the next level. There are three factors that need to be considered when selecting HIPO talent – they are:

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What’s on your radar? In response to current complex market pressures, HR teams must manage an increasingly difficult balancing act – to attract, retain and nurture talent, while driving productivity gains and reducing costs. Here’s what else might be on your agenda in 2013, according to Kellie Rigg, director of HR solutions at Randstad: Develop a leadership pipeline: Leadership will increasingly be less about status and structure, and more about looking forwards, knowing, adapting, doing, and inspiring. A key objective for workforce planning should be to identify gaps in the leadership pipeline, and then design and implement career development programs and recruitment strategies to address them over the short-to-medium term.

✔

Strategic workforce planning: Today organisations across Asia-Pacific admit they spend little time on strategic workforce planning and struggle to engage external experts or their own employees on the issue. This means two things for future workforce planning: one, employers will need to embrace a more blended model in their own workforce to fill critical gaps; and two, permanent roles will have to include flexible work options to compete with the appeal of going solo.

✔

Employer branding: HR must work closely with senior management and the marketing department to build a strong employer brand and to ensure this brand speaks to employees, customers and all stakeholders. In doing so, the organisation will successfully attract, recruit, engage, develop and retain the right talent, while building a strong reputation in the market.

✔ ✔

HR practices aligned with strategic direction of the organisation: HR must sit at the boardroom table to ensure their people practices are aligned with the strategic direction of the business, both in the short and long term.

Attraction and retention strategies: As well as ensuring a steady supply of high potential employees to grow with the company, a greater focus on attracting external leadership talent may also be part of the answer. Leadership experts suggest approximately 20% of leaders should come from outside an organisation to ensure cross-industry expertise, diversity, fresh thinking and innovation. This is especially the case for fast growing high-tech industries where expansion is happening too quickly for managers to grow with the organisation.

✔

Manage change and uncertainty: This is a constant, and HR must work closely with senior management and communications professionals to ensure any change is managed effectively to maintain confidence, security, morale, motivation and high performance within an organisation.

✔

Manage a diverse workforce: More organisations are focusing their HR practices on boosting a more diverse workforce. HR must work closely with managers at all levels to ensure there is a strong feeling of openness and inclusiveness in the business, in order to meet the needs of people from all backgrounds.

✔

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Career Drive and Aspiration; Agility and Organisational Confidence; and Work Performance. “When recruiting for HIPOs, your process needs to be aligned to identifying these three factors. Teachable fit also comes into play being knowledge and skills required for a new role can be developed in a reasonable timeframe but a leader’s values, mindset, intelligence and personality elements are very difficult to change in a reasonable timeframe,” Roche says. Looking more broadly, when it comes to organisational performance van Rensburg says it’s prudent for management to set the pace in developing a fresh approach by implementing strategies that build ‘high value’ productive workplaces. These are mutually beneficial workplaces, where basic principles of human behaviour are consistently applied to achieve high performance over time. Broadly speaking, there are three levels of performance – High Performance, Consistent Performance and Under Performance. Van Rensburg notes most employees will perform in all three categories at different times. Some will display high performance most of the time, but occasionally underperform for reasons outlined below; others will be content to perform at a satisfactory level much of the time; and some will underperform frequently. But even they will usually have the potential to perform better. Part of the quest for a ‘high-value’ productive workplace is achieving greater levels of high performance from as many employees as possible; because they want to, not because they have to. “Studies have shown that a focus on getting more high performance is likely to increase productive output 50 to 60 times more than by focusing on eliminating underperformance. Underperformance has to be dealt with or it will become ‘toxic’, but it should not normally have the same weighting as amplifying good performance. We should also value consistent performance and ensure that it isn’t taken for granted,” van Rensburg says. So, how do we lift the overall performance level of individuals and organisations? Van Rensburg notes one effective approach has been around since the Industrial Revolution – it’s just been overlooked as being too simplistic or lacking immediate impact. He suggests examining a few of the more obvious high value strategies for creating productive workplaces. Human drive in the workplace is mostly determined by meeting intrinsic needs which, at the highest level, are the needs for Mastery, Autonomy and Purpose (MAP).

COVER STORY

2013 priorities

Specific and practical ways of meeting these needs in most people include: • providing opportunities for achievement • giving recognition and praise for good work • finding simple ways of making work more interesting • allowing responsibility and ‘room to move’ • creating opportunities for advancement and personal growth • encouraging teamwork and friendships • ensuring alignment between tasks and a higher purpose “These priceless needs are deeply embedded in the human condition and most of us crave them to a greater or lesser extent,” says van Rensburg. “The challenge for leaders is having knowledge of what individuals in their teams need most, and when. When it is hard to meet one or more of these needs – eg, during routine or repetitive work – then focusing on those needs that can be met becomes a priority.” Van Rensburg adds that while fair remuneration is important, a key step is ensuring that people have clarity about the following: Why are we here? What are the key things we need to achieve? How are we going to achieve them? ie, alignment and line-of-sight. “Humans are ‘meaning’ creatures and most organisations have a Noble Cause which their people can associate with – eg, customer service, community care, scientific innovation, etc. The Noble Cause is often hidden under layers of administration and needs to be ‘dug up’ and promoted. It’s often the reason people joined in the first place and is usually the organisation’s raison d’être,” van Rensburg says. A recent study indicated that the most important motivator of all is experiencing a sense of progress (akin to achievement). That feeling of moving forwards rather than spinning your wheels or encountering roadblocks. Leaders need to create and maintain a forwards motion. The intrinsic reward factors are well suited to drive greater levels of high performance over time. However, dealing with underperformance can sometimes be more complex.

THE UNDERPERFORMERS

When people are experiencing threats to their survival they will not respond as readily to the intrinsic factors. For example, if they believe their jobs are in jeopardy, are experiencing financial hardship or don’t feel accepted by the team, satisfying these basic needs will take precedence over the intrinsic ones. A good leader will know this and manage accordingly, van Rensburg says.

A focus on high performance is likely to increase productive output 50 to 60 times more than by focusing on eliminating underperformance – TONY VAN RENSBURG “In my experience, serial underperformance is not commonplace in most organisations and when it does exist, it’s more likely to be due to extraneous factors such as mental health, poor supervision or being ‘on the wrong seat on the bus’ rather being on the ‘wrong bus’.” Questions should be asked to uncover the real reasons for underperformance: • What exactly is the performance discrepancy? (eg, skill versus attitude) • Are expectations clear? • Do they have the right resources and support to do the job? • Do they possess the required skill and capability? • Are they getting feedback on their performance? • What obstacles exist? • Are they in the right job ie, ‘fit’? Then, regular two-way performance conversations built on trust need to happen where a mutual desire to help each other grow and develop dominates. The traditional boss-subordinate approach is unlikely to be effective in modern workplaces. The parties need to strive for a partnership approach. “When people do not respond to performance improvement encouragement, as can happen, then they need to ‘get off the bus’ as soon as possible,” van Rensburg adds. “Unfortunately, productivity benefits flowing from performance enhancement strategies take much longer than downsizing to be realised. “However, the results are almost always more positive to the organisation’s culture and brand, and are longer lasting,” he says. Over the following pages, get some tips on unlocking innovation using creativity.

*Career Transition Data, Right Management ^How to Select and Develop High Potential Leaders, Right Management

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PRODUCTIVITY

creativity & innovation

creativ A culture of

With innovation and productivity high on the agenda Cathryn Lloyd explores why it is important for industry and government to foster a learning culture that supports creativity

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Current thinking from governments and professional industry bodies is promoting innovation as the key driver of productivity, wealth creation and the means to a prosperous Australia in the 21st century. The idea that innovation is critical to creating a more productive and competitive Australia is highlighted by the Australian government’s 10-year innovation agenda Powering Ideas: An Innovation Agenda for the 21st Century (2009)1, which is a systems approach to innovation policy, entitled the ‘national innovation system’.

vity WHY BOTHER?

There are many reasons given why Australia needs to boost innovation and productivity. One of these reasons is to make Australia more globally competitive which will impact favourably on our standard of living. There are also many reasons given for why Australia’s innovation performance has been considered patchy and which has led to declining productivity. Areas of concern include lack of government and business investment in research and development and policy setting. The general thinking is that through innovation we can make a better future for Australia and the rest of the world. It is through innovation that as a society we will be able to deal with the challenges of the 21st century, and also respond to and seize opportunities. Businesses and governments around the world acknowledge that a more creative workforce is necessary for the competitiveness and success of organisations and countries in the global economy. In these complex and uncertain times, our ability to positively act and respond creatively and innovatively is indeed necessary. A recent Australian Institute of Management (AIM) Management Capability Index study (2012)2, based on the responses of senior managers from more than 250 Australian organisations indicated a sound governance and financial base across Australian organisations. While

there was high confidence across these areas, managers consistently rated their performance poorly in areas related to organisational capability, innovation (products and services) and visionary and strategic leadership. While pressure is on for businesses to embrace innovation in the workplace, the study proposes that these results provide a solid platform from which to foster creativity and innovation as a central part of business culture. If we accept the premise that innovation is essentially a good thing for our society, then how can industry best support and manage creativity and innovation, foster creative innovation skills, and at the same time improve management and leadership skills? This article focuses on business and management education with a particular emphasis on the need for organisational learning cultures that build creative capacity. In Educating for the Creative Workforce: Rethinking Arts and Education (2007)3 creativity is generally described as embodying generic attributes such as communication, team work, problem solving, cultural understanding, and decision-making skills. The report states that recent work on innovation across the economy suggests that it is “precisely the habits associated with artistic creativity that are a vital, if neglected, element of current innovation policy”. If we are to develop a creative workforce it makes sense to expose people to learning experiences that allow them to tap into their intellectual and creative potential. Within the context of professional development education, I make a distinction between ‘training’ and ‘learning’. From a training perspective it is assumed that industry and government should provide the necessary technical skills-based training that people need to do their job. From a learning perspective, industry and government need to promote learning cultures that support creativity. Using this as a jumping-off point, this article proposes that arts-based learning methodologies are integral to contemporary professional management education. There is growing evidence through literature and practice that this type of learning is a unique vehicle for providing experiences that can develop the attributes linked to leadership, as well as the ability to innovate and respond creatively to complex situations.

A NATIONAL CULTURAL POLICY

The development of a new National Cultural Policy4 in Australia recognises that the arts play an important role in driving innovation across the nation and contributing to productivity. Essentially, the idea is that a creative nation is a more productive nation. The policy sets out a framework that embeds creative skills and talent, not just at the heart of cultural life, but at the heart of technological development and national economic growth. It therefore stands to reason that a creative workforce is a more productive workforce. HCAMAG.COM 27

PRODUCTIVITY

creativity & innovation If a business has a creative and innovative culture it is more likely to be able to successfully respond and adapt to the complex issues of the 21st century The policy recognises the intrinsic value of arts and creative activity in developing a strong Australian culture, society, and economy. To that end, cultural policy is not just about supporting the arts. It is about supporting, enabling and strengthening communities and developing a creative culture that has the capacity and capability to take on the challenges and opportunities before us. This has implications for industry. If a business has a creative and innovative culture it is more likely to be able to successfully respond and adapt to the complex issues of the 21st century and be more competitive. The future brings great opportunities and many challenges. Businesses that embrace a creative learning culture will reap the rewards of their innovation and productivity.

CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION

Innovation is the process of implementing creative ideas. In New Pathways to Prosperity: a National Innovation Framework for Australia (2006)5 “innovation is seen as doing new things and drawing on knowledge or creativity to find new and better ways to add value to products, services and processes”. It is also about allocating resources to ensure valuable innovative ideas come to fruition. First and foremost, innovation is about people. The starting point for innovation is imagination along with the generation of creative ideas that add value. It is people who have the creative capacity and imagination to generate new ideas and design new products, new services, new processes and solutions as well as making innovative improvements to existing products and services. We can’t really have a conversation about innovation without talking about creativity – the two go hand in hand. Creativity is a source of knowledge and personal expression. Within the context of this article, creativity is used in its broadest sense and is captured in the following definitions. PricewaterhouseCoopers6 describes creativity as a “set of attitudes and behaviours that manifests itself in different ways through both 28

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individual and collective actions”, while Kerr and Lloyd7 suggest it is a set of “attributes and qualities concerned with imagination, inventiveness, improvisation, insight, intuition, and curiosity [in other words] the natural ‘artful’ genius and talent of people”. Creativity has often been associated with the arts and cultural activity when it is, in fact, at the heart of all endeavours. While it is fitting that creativity is part of the conversation, as it is a key component to innovation, what is challenging about this is that creativity is an elusive quality that is hard to pin down and define. The creative process is difficult, complex and confusing and this provides a conundrum for how business can best foster and manage creativity to help improve workplace performance. Creative innovation comes from many sources including the arts, science, business, research and development, and communities. In today’s global economy the arts and creative industries are fundamental to Australia’s identity as a society and nation, and increasingly to our success as a national economy. This links to the Educating for the Creative Workforce: Rethinking Arts and Education report which states that the focus of economic policymakers around the world on all things ‘creative’ is driven essentially by three separate but interlinked factors. These include: 1. The growth of the creative and cultural sectors (currently growing at more than twice the rate of the world economy as a whole) 2. Creative inputs as a part of wider innovation policy (creatively trained labour is in demand – think for instance the use of design across industry sectors) 3. The skills, aptitudes, and ways of working that creative practitioners bring to their practice (team work, communication and presentation skills) are increasingly in demand across a range of workplace environments. These factors are relevant as they highlight a changing workforce that has a need for increased creative and emotional intelligence. What is becoming obvious is that the contemporary workplace requires people who can think imaginatively as well as analytically. If this is the case then different types of learning and training are necessary.

IMAGINING THE FUTURE

While there are many facets that make up an innovative society and there are no easy fixes, there are at least two strategies worth investigating: The first creative act is for businesses to engage in meaningful and realistic discussions around creativity, innovation and productivity with their employees. Simple and clear dialogue is required that outlines what these concepts mean to the organisation and to our society. People need to understand why it might be necessary to embrace this type of thinking. These discussions should

include everyone so as to generate understanding as well as to motivate, inspire and empower people so they may be willing to bring their full creative selves to their work. The second creative act is for businesses to provide learning experiences that draw on a range of art-based methodologies and to also promote and support organisational cultures that foster and tap into the creative intelligence of people. Good technical skillsbased training will never be out of fashion and it is essential that businesses and governments provide the necessary and appropriate training. However, if we are to innovate and find solutions to complex issues we need to do more than simply invest in technical training. Given the push for innovation, organisations will need to provide a culture where: • experiential learning and development that utilise arts-based learning methodologies are embedded in organisational learning and development • creativity is recognised as a process • creativity is encouraged throughout the organisation • collaboration and cross fertilisation happens internally and externally • experimentation is encouraged • risk and failure are understood as being part of the creative process

• curiosity and ‘what if’ questions are valued • the motivation of individuals is understood • flexibility is offered – creativity is not a tap that can be turned on and off • resources are allocated Looking to the future, for Australia to build a creative workforce will necessitate a creative approach. It no longer serves us to work in a siloed way. New industry relationships, intersections, and dialogues are needed. Given the impending slowing down of the resources boom in Australia, real innovation is paramount if we are going to have a productive and competitive economy. The key to this is fostering and valuing a culture of creativity.

References 1. Australian Government, Dept Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education, 2009: Powering Ideas: An Innovation Agenda for the 21st Century 2. Australian Institute of Management, 2012: Australian Management Capability Index 3. ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation, 2007: Educating for the Creative Workforce: Rethinking Arts and Education 4. Australian Government, Dept of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Office for the Arts, 2011: National Cultural Policy Discussion paper 5. Business Council of Australia, 2006: New Pathways to Prosperity: A National Innovation Framework for Australia 6. PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2005: Cities of the Future: global competition, global leadership 7. Kerr and Lloyd, 2008: Pedagogical learnings for management education: Developing Creative and Innovation, Journal of Management and Organization

About the author Dr Cathryn Lloyd is the principal and creative entrepreneur of Maverick Mind, a professional learning and development consultancy. Cathryn holds a Doctoral Degree in Creative Industries (Research). Visit maverickminds.biz or call 0406 007 753

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WORKPLACE DESIGN

SHARE & share alike

As the definition of ‘workplace’ continues to evolve, employees are being asked to alter the way that they perceive their place of work. Keti Malkoski weighs the pros and cons of workplace sharing in activity-based workplaces

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We have all heard the latest buzzwords and trends in physical workplace design, but the long-term impacts of new ways of working are yet to be established. From hot desking and activity-based working to teleworking and co-working: Are these mobile ways of working actually more effective for people and business? Today’s workplace strategies are progressively embracing ‘sharing’, where employees no longer ‘own’ a workpoint, but where groups of employees own and share a space or a ‘neighbourhood’, which contains various activity areas that support learning, focusing, collaborating and socialising. This working trend can be credited to a host of changes, including but not limited to: • Demographic changes demanding flexibility to support work-life balance expectations • The continuous war for talent to attract and retain • Increased mobility driven by new information and communication technology – employees can now work anywhere at any time • The dispersal of work in third workspaces (multivenue) and distributed offices (multi-location) • Increased competition – the demands of the work and diversification in business processes and procedures to remain competitive in a global market • The need for increased responsiveness in the customer/client relationship • The need to reduce costs including real estate and energy costs, and to foster sustainability

NOT FORGETTING THE PHYSICAL WORKPLACE…

These changes in business, people and technology have all resulted in the physical workplace becoming more flexible, adopting approaches such as activity-based working. The way that we define the workplace is changing dramatically and employees are being asked to alter the way that they perceive the workplace. As the definition of workplace ‘flexibility’ has changed, there has been topical debate about the relevance of the workplace. Research demonstrates that the workplace will always remain relevant due to work, people, cultural and social needs: • Work: Collaboration, knowledge sharing, decision making, communication and various other team processes are more effective when conducted face-toface as required, than when conducted virtually. • People: The workplace is a part of our work identity, relevant as it is a physical representation of our work including what we have achieved and our position. • Cultural: From an organisational culture perspective, it is most effective to create common beliefs and values (a united culture) and emotional attachments and commitment (an engaged culture) in one physical space. • Social: We do not come to work just to work, and the

WORKPLACE DESIGN

activity-based workplaces workplace is a place where we can make connections with each other that contribute to our social identity.

ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING

Schiavello research explores the strengths and developmental areas of new ways of working, including workplace-sharing approaches such as activity-based working. Before employees can share the workplace, organisations need to consider the changes that need to occur to support it. Workplace sharing fundamentally involves a change in organisational cultures, team processes and procedures and individual mindsets. Additionally, changes in employee relationships and policies also need to occur. From a cultural and policy perspective, activity-based working is a model based on trust and respect. In response, some organisations have introduced clean or clear desk policies to manage workplace sharing. This is driven by hygiene, safety and security needs. These policies are not new and they provide rules as to the way the workplace should be used. However, there is debate regarding how much governance needs to be enforced by these policies without micro-managing the workforce. These policies need to be detailed enough to manage workplace sharing without dictating day-to-day adult functioning in a ‘command and control’ manner. Although organisations need to ensure that confidential information remains secure, do they also need to manage what food is eaten or what personal items can be brought into certain areas within these workplaces? Despite activity-based working being portrayed as an empowering model, strict rules can contradict trust and enforce respect as opposed to letting it grow organically. Evidence suggests that although workplace ‘mess’ should be managed, positive behaviours and attitudes related to ‘homing’ or ‘nesting’ should not be outlawed as they promote wellbeing, comfort and ultimately effectiveness. From a change management perspective, these rules should be positioned more as guidelines that evolve with the employees, which they develop and own. Best practice approaches stipulate that teams together should determine what these policies mean to their work and their people, not rules that are enforced by senior management from the top down. These policies need to ensure a professional environment that is safe and healthy but also allows people to be people at work which is progressively being blurred with home. Traditionally, a ‘workpoint’ was allocated to every employee within the organisation representing who that employee was – from a work and even personal perspective. Workpoints are an expression of identity, including an employee’s position within the organisation and what they value, dependent on how they ‘decorate’ the piece of workplace that they own. Today, with

Workplace strategies are embracing ‘sharing’, where employees no longer ‘own’ a workpoint, but where groups of employees share a space workplace-sharing approaches, this expression of identity is cleared or cleaned away every day or even several times during the day. However, we need to ensure that we do not take away all the human dimensions of the workplace, as these contribute to positive outcomes that are motivating, including the ability to develop a sense of place and belonging.

WHO WILL BE COMFORTABLE WITH WORKPLACE SHARING?

Some employees will be more comfortable with workplace sharing than others depending on what they are working on, but more importantly, who they are. Employees with stronger extroverted personalities are more likely to be confident communicating and collaborating with other employees that they do not know or have not been formally introduced to. Indeed, without familiar human clues in the workplace and minimised personality/interest artefacts such as photos, creating conversations becomes even more difficult. How strong an employee’s work identity is will also impact how comfortable they are working in a workplace-sharing approach that is based on work outputs as opposed to work processes. The response is that workplace-sharing approaches such as activitybased working need to be flexible. They need to be considerate of diverse needs, such as providing additional focus on cultural integration to younger graduate employees that generally do not have strong developed work identities yet. Also, for employees to be autonomous in their work they must perceive the responsibility of working anywhere at any time as positive, and thus organisations should consciously educate employees to be reflective of their work needs in the workplace. Ultimately, new workplace approaches must improve people and business effectiveness in order to be viable. They must find a balance between work, people, cultural and social needs. The workplace contributes to our sense of place, and workplace sharing without ownership challenges this. The human instinct of territoriality needs to be recognised and reframed in a positive way with greater freedom of choice as the focus.

About the author Keti Malkoski is a workplace research psychologist at Schiavello. For further information visit schiavello.com HCAMAG.COM 31

FLEXIBLE WORK

telework

Out of sight, not out of mind With the momentum growing for flexible work options, HC looks at teleworking â&#x20AC;&#x201C; what are the benefits, who can use it, and what are your obligations as an employer?

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Like a snowball that’s getting bigger and bigger as it rolls down the mountain, employers must be aware that flexible work options are becoming not just nice to have but essential. Telework (essentially working from home) in particular was given a significant boost by the federal government-backed Telework Week, held in early November. With a keynote address by Prime Minister Julia Gillard, the Telework Congress kicked off proceedings with an exploration of how the adoption of telework will deliver benefits for the economy, environment and community. Telework Week brought together leaders from industry, government and academia to also discuss the benefits for employees, employers and the broader community (see ‘In brief’ on p.6 for more insights). Clearly there is much work to be done. While the economic advantages of having flexible work options are widely recognised, new research from recruitment firm Robert Half has found a staggering 85% of companies do not have a company-wide work-from-home policy. The main roadblocks are trust, security of information and access to technology, the research found. “Companies can address these challenges in part by maintaining open channels of communication and being very clear about what is expected of employees. But it is also essential to have the appropriate technologies and policies in place to ensure that employees are able to access company networks without compromising the security of confidential data,” Andrew Morris, director of Robert Half says. Key statistics from the report include: • 85% of HR directors* agreed that non-financial benefits, including flexible time, have a positive impact on staff retention • One in three (30%) of HR decision-makers said they are actively planning to implement a flexible work scheme to improve staff engagement in the next 12 months • 83% of HR leaders said that they find it more challenging to manage remote workers compared to workers on-site and only 58% said that remote working policies were in place According to Morris, companies are right to have a certain healthy paranoia about remote working, but that paranoia is best addressed through good technology and tight internal policies. “Flexible time and remote work can be powerful motivators and may result in significant morale, retention and productivity improvements. But a flexible work policy needs careful implementation and close supervision to be effective,” he adds. Intel’s white paper, The Future of Knowledge Work, outlines possible future work trends. The report notes that while it is likely that workers will increasingly be spread geographically and across time

Friendly banter and a fun office atmosphere has always been a critical aspect of our company culture. Just because someone isn’t physically in the office doesn’t mean that they should miss out on that” – CRAIG SEARLE zones, co-location will still be required to fulfil the human need to establish connections with co-workers, build relationships and trust, and provide opportunities to grow as a team. Co-location is also important because it is known to spur through social interaction knowledge spillover, serendipitous interactions and innovation. In other cases, where employees are spread geographically, technology will help fill the gap virtually. ‘Virtual co-location’ is expected to include a combination of technologies that will enable people to virtually ‘be there’ when they can’t be physically present. Successful virtual solutions would allow people to feel and interact as if they were sitting in the same room, provide ambient sociability and enable better understanding and trust building. For instance, virtually sketching ideas or sharing 3D physical models across a distance would provide rich interaction. “These solutions would ultimately encourage the unanticipated moments that occur when people are able to bump into, hang out, and connect personally with others. This would not be the simplistic two dimensional video conference systems in place today, but a set of technologies that would provide a rich interpersonal experience,” the report notes. And given the likelihood that team members may need to travel more frequently to co-locate physically (at least during project inception), the same type of rich interpersonal virtual solution could also be a significant factor for ‘homing from work’. An interactive experience that provides ambient sociability with family members while away on travel would ease some of the angst employees experience while away. The report continues: “An increase in the geographic dispersion of co-workers, and a shift towards

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my brilliant career Legal obligations

Workplace lawyers have warned that employers often approve flexible working arrangements without giving thought to the potential risks involved. It is important for employers to evaluate potential risks and exposures when considering and granting work from home requests, as health and safety obligations apply the same way to work performed at home as they do to work performed in the office. It may be problematic for employers to refuse requests to work from home without reasonable business grounds, and it is important to only refuse a request for flexible work arrangements (such as working from home) if there are reasonable business grounds for doing so. In considering requests to work from home, Harmers Workplace Lawyers advise businesses to consider the following: ● Give careful consideration to all work from home requests ● Prior to granting any request, complete a detailed, documented risk assessment

of the home work environment looking at areas such as environmental factors (lighting, heating, ventilation, etc), workplace organisation and layout (including electrical and trip hazards), risks arising in respect of others that may enter the home work environment (such as children) and hours of work. ● Establish a comprehensive policy for working from home arrangements, which covers issues such as the requirement for employees to report health and safety concerns or incidents back to the employer and expressly allows the employer to routinely inspect the home working environment; and is signed off by the employee prior to commencing a work from home arrangement. ● Keep documentary evidence of requests for working from home arrangements and the reasons why requests were/were not granted. ● Implement regular reviews of work from home arrangements as circumstances will inevitably change.

management by results are two trends that could spur increased travel in order to facilitate the human-human connection. However, this trend is likely to diminish over time in direct correlation to the fidelity of virtual solutions that become available. As the virtual medium enables robust interpersonal interactions, the need to be physically present will lessen.”

IN PRACTICE: BAE SYSTEMS DETICA

How are companies addressing the demand for teleworking? IT security company BAE Systems Detica has for several years offered employees formal workfrom-home arrangements whereby approved employees can work remotely for a specified period of time per week. The company also has a number of staff working full-time from remote locations around the globe,

primarily out of a home office. Craig Searle, COO, BAE Systems Detica, tells HC the company believes that by providing flexibility if can offer an attractive and functional work environment for staff. “Because of the nature of our business we also regularly have consultants stationed at client sites away from the office. During that time they effectively become teleworkers for us as well. In some ways, we probably have more mobile workers than traditional office-based workers within our team. We have 2,500 working around the globe and mobile/teleworking supports those working on the same projects in different countries across different time zones,” he says. There have been stumbling blocks for Australian companies. Although they may have wanted to trial teleworking more extensively, there have been hold-ups with technology, including the long-delayed NBN. However, Searle says the technology to allow for effective teleworking has been in place for some time, and deeper corporate culture issues may have instead been a more significant hurdle. “Essentially it comes down to a matter of trust between the company and its staff. People who work from home invariably get some amount of suspicion about how much work is actually being done when they’re not in the office and ‘visible’. In order for teleworking to be viable for any organisation, there needs to be a level of trust and clear expectations established for all parties,” he explains. As a company, Searle says BAE was always focused on achieving the right outcomes and ensuring the processes are then structured to fit, rather than the other way round. That meant there were no huge shifts required in terms of managing outcomes rather than processes to achieve those outcomes. However, he concedes the challenge was in ensuring that people who telework don’t feel isolated from the rest of the team and have equal opportunity to be involved in all aspects of the organisation. “That has meant we needed to not only improve our communications but also provide a range of channels to enable strong communications,” he says. Searle has also been careful with the type of work handled by remote workers, by ensuring these workers are assigned to interesting remote team-based projects where possible. “It’s easy to fall into the trap of handing mundane or boring tasks to remote team members as they might not complain as much,” he says. “Make sure employees working out away from the office have specific responsibilities for ongoing tasks or projects. Engaging remote workers and making sure they are an integrated part of the team will help to retain talent, which is crucial in times of skills shortages.” He adds that only “on occasion” has productivity been a concern. “Dealing with the issues really came down to improving communications between the remote workers, Continued on page 36 >

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FLEXIBLE WORK

telework

Case study: Cisco Human Capital talks to Jennifer Dudeck, director of human resources at Cisco, about how her company has embraced teleworking HC: Can you outline some of the flexible work arrangements Cisco offers employees? Jennifer Dudeck: We have some different flexible work arrangements – it’s more than just teleworking. Employees can work as a mobile worker, which means they don’t take an assigned space but go wherever space is available in much more of an activity-based situation. Or they can be a fully remote worker, like myself, where they work from a home office, and don’t have any expectations of space other than a conference room every now and then. HC: Why has Cisco invested in this form of work? JD: We know our workforce is changing, especially those entering the workforce. From an attraction and retention perspective, for new entrants in particular, they view flexibility as a right rather than privilege. Upwards of 40–50% of new entrants would take lower paying jobs with that level of flexibility and mobility over a higher paying job. Sixty-nine per cent of employees polled in a Cisco survey indicated they believe it is unnecessary to be in the office in order to be productive. Secondly, we believe so strongly in adopting our own technology first before we sell it to other customers, it’s obviously a driving factor. The notion of virtual offices is something that is core to our business strategy. Then environmental and real estate considerations. We’re not looking to contract space necessarily but we can’t continue to add space at our current growth rate.

my kids. I get to drop them off at school in the morning, and get to be at home when they return. Work has bio-rhythms – it’s not ‘sit at a desk and stare at a computer screen for seven hours’. So this allows me to manage my work according to my own personal bio-rhythms. For instance, it allows me to go for a walk if I need it – and yes, I can do that on the [Cisco work] campus but teleworking gives me greater flexibility. HC: And how about the pitfalls? JD: Not all jobs are suited for teleworking, and not all teams will be able to use teleworking. Managers need to know what will work with their team. Also, it has not really meant a better work-life balance; in fact, that

Flexibility without having work-life balance will not accomplish what we hoped to from an employee perspective

HC: Why has it taken so long for teleworking to be accepted? JD: At Cisco, a many of our employees are still in those more traditional generational groups of Baby Boomers, upper Gen Xers – they don’t value flexibility over higher pay jobs, and they don’t look for flexibility. But the rate of change will be much faster now, with the growth of social media and the expectation of having data anywhere.

flexibility can erode that work-life balance. I don’t leave an office now and come home – I leave an office in my house but that computer is always sitting there. It’s not necessarily healthy in the long run, knowing I’m always contactable on my mobile or laptop. Flexibility without having work-life balance will not accomplish what we hoped to from the employee experience perspective.

HC: As a teleworker, what are some of the benefits? JD: The benefits are significant in terms of having a family. I’m a mum with two sons aged seven and nine. That is who I am. Teleworking has enabled me to continue to be a mum and have a great career where I can continue to accelerate and grow, and be there for

HC: Do you see a solution to this? JD: People are less and less willing to make this trade-off between their personal and work life. For companies like Cisco there will be a huge focus on wellness and the individual. You can’t care about wellness as a company and not care about work-life balance.

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FLEXIBLE WORK

telework > Continued from page 34

DID YOU KNOW?

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has pledged a commitment to seeing 12% of the Australian Public Service regularly working from home using high-speed broadband by 2020. The current level of the APS involved in teleworking is about 4%

Further information For further tips on teleworking, including home workstation self-assessment checklists, visit nbn. gov.au

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their team members and their managers,” he says. “As long as everyone has visibility of who is executing what tasks and by when, we very rarely encounter issues around productivity.” On the communications front, BAE uses a range of collaboration tools to ensure team members are able to share information effectively, regardless of where they are physically located. These include wikis, WebEx, chat servers, peer-to-peer file sharing tools and the more traditional web-based email portals. Team camaraderie is further bolstered by more left-of-field means. For example, some remote workers have gone so far as to produce their own fortnightly newsletter that details what they’ve been working on and what has been happening in their personal life. “This is a really nice way of trying to emulate some of the more social aspects of working life,” says Searle. “We also have weekly team meetings where anyone who isn’t physically in the office dials in for a conference call. Friendly banter and a fun office atmosphere has always been a critical aspect of our company culture. Just because someone isn’t physically in the office doesn’t mean that they should miss out on that.” BAE has also undertaken appropriate risk mitigation to ensure compliance with OHS obligations. As part of the telework application process, the company requires the staff member to provide detailed information about their work environment and its compliance to BAE’s OHS principles. A key factor in deciding whether or not to allow a staff member to work remotely is that they have a suitable and safe area to work in. BAE also provides regular OHS updates regarding workstation set-up, posture, etc, in order to ensure that the working environment continues to be of an equivalent OHS standard to the corporate offices. Finally, the company reserves the right to perform an OHS inspection of the telework environment as part of the assessment/ re-assessment process. While the OHS principles are in place, one health issue that will come into sharp focus as teleworking becomes more widely utilised is burnout through overwork. How has BAE ensured work-life balance is not thrown off kilter? “I think it comes down to the individual,” says Searle. “In the modern work environment, a large portion of employees – not just within BAE Systems Detica, but also broadly – are provided with laptops and work smartphones even if there is no expectation of them formally doing telework. In that case, it is up to the individual to ensure the employer’s expectations are managed when it comes to out-of-hours work. I would dare say that for many IT professionals, the occasional evening working from home is pretty common. It’s an issue when this becomes the norm, without suitable processes to support it.”

A FIVE-STEP GUIDE

Robert Half offers the following advice to companies implementing an effective remote working policy:

Set and manage expectations: Employees who choose to work remotely need to understand that the work still needs to be done to an appropriate level of quality and on deadline. Be sure that these expectations are clear and that there are consequences for noncompliance.

Keep channels of communication open: Don’t rely solely on email, schedule regular calls and consider solutions such as web conferencing to give you more ‘face time’ when employees work remotely. Online collaborative work tools can also allow staff, no matter where they are, to contribute to projects. Internal use of social media, properly managed, can also help dispersed teams work effectively.

Implement clear policies: Create a set of policies that outline specifically the conditions and circumstances under which employees are allowed to work remotely. Include regulations on data transfer and security as well as job performance and use of social media tools. Work with your information technology personnel to set up and manage the requisite security protocols.

Manage devices appropriately: As more employees seek to use their own devices for work-related tasks, companies need to have in place policies relating to management and, where necessary, remote deletion of data. Give serious consideration as to whether you want to provide devices to employees or let them use their own.

Monitor data access: Use technology effectively to provide employees with an appropriate level of remote access to corporate networks but be sure that access is tracked and logged. Use encryption and data security methods to monitor usage and prevent misappropriation. *201 HR directors across a broad range of industries in Australia were surveyed

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HR STRATEGY

HR metrics

STEPS TO SUCCESS

UNLOCKING HIDDEN WORKFORCE POTENTIAL How can the power of your workforce be unleashed? The answer is with HR metrics. Stephen Moore outlines how to do it in this abridged version of an e-book by Frontier Software Your HR data can be harnessed to drive corporate decisions and deliver competitive advantage. When properly executed, HR metrics provide savvy HR practitioners with the tools to transition their role from operational support to value-added business partner. HR metrics provide management with the tools to evaluate the workforce and identify areas for improvement.

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When properly executed, HR metrics can provide the conduit that enables the HR department to progress from an operational support role to that of value-added business partner.

Step Five – Strategic HR The HR department designs, implements and facilitates programs and initiatives that optimise workforce productivity, capability, availability and sustainability in alignment with key business plans and objectives.

Step Four – Transformational HR The HR department designs and implements major change programs that optimise employee performance and contribution at all levels of the organisation.

Step Three – Analytical HR The HR department designs and implements integrated metrics and reporting that enables effective workforce management and continuous improvement at all levels of the business.

Step Two – Operational HR The HR department creates systems, processes and procedures that enable the organisation to provide fair, reasonable and competitive terms and conditions of employment while simultaneously minimising workforce risk.

Step One — Transactional HR The HR department ensures that the organisation can professionally advertise, select, contract, hire and induct employees of suitable calibre and quality, while also developing and maintaining effective administrative procedures.

Measuring, evaluating & continuously improving people performance at every level of the business

TODAY Objectively evaluating & improving HR Department performance & business contribution

HR Workforce Management Metrics

HR Department Effectiveness Metrics

EXECUTION

HR Workforce Planning Metrics HR Workforce Benchmarking Metrics

THE HR METRICS MODEL: “WHAT GETS MEASURED GETS MANAGED” 1. HR workforce management metrics

When properly developed and executed, HR workforce management metrics enable the CEO/SMT, department heads, line managers and the HR team to systematically review and evaluate those areas where current workforce performance is acceptable and those areas where intervention and improvement are required. There are many areas that can be reported on, dependent upon your organisation’s specific needs and priorities.

2. HR workforce planning metrics These can effectively identify, capture and utilise integrated business and workforce data and information in order to develop, implement, and maintain a comprehensive workforce planning program that underpins short and long-term workforce structure, development, resourcing, sustainability and retention. Key areas covered include: • workforce structure & composition • workforce resourcing & procurement • workforce demographics & change • workforce integration & attributes • workforce sustainability & retention

3. HR workforce benchmarking metrics While workforce management and workforce planning metrics combine to create a powerful picture of overall workforce performance and contribution within an organisation, they do not, however, provide any form of analysis or comparison against other relevant/external organisations or industries. To remedy this situation, HR departments can elect to: • Subscribe and contribute to a professional benchmarking survey

Structuring, developing & preparing your people to meet future business & labour market imperatives

TOMORROW Objectively measuring & evaluating workforce performance against established industry standards

PERFORMANCE

• Utilise their local HR network, a like-minded group of competitor organisations or a supportive employer association/industry body as the basis.

4. HR department effectiveness metrics In this instance, the HR department utilises integrated metrics to objectively evaluate its own performance and contribution to the organisation by designing and implementing survey tools in any of the following three areas: • HR workforce effectiveness survey How satisfied are ‘rank and file employees’ with products and services implemented by HR? • HR customer effectiveness survey How satisfied are key internal customers with HR’s business alignment and understanding, product quality and suitability, customer service and support and business case and engagement? • HR team member effectiveness survey How satisfied are HR team members in relation to HR strategic planning, HR insight and vision, HR capacity and capability and HR teamwork and cooperation? In addition to implementing survey tools, the HR department can also design and implement its own KPI report and checklist that enable the head of the HR/HR management team to objectively evaluate how effective the HR department has been in engaging the mainstream business and thereby to what extent the HR offering is valued as an integral component in the day-to-day running of the organisation. Example metrics can include: • HR expenditure per employee • HR expenditure as a percentage of operating expenditure • HR headcount ratios • Per cent HR business partner hours devoted to transactional/operational HR matters HCAMAG.COM 39

HR STRATEGY

HR metrics 10 KEY ELEMENTS

Establishing internal ownership and accountability In the very first instance, it is vital that the CEO/ senior management team understand and accept that the HR metrics being reported to them reflect overall workforce management and performance within the organisation, as opposed to specifically measuring the performance of the HR department. (ie, this reporting reflects upon the performance of ‘everyone with a seat at the table’ and not just the HR manager in isolation.)

Creating a cross-functional HR metrics steering committee This committee should comprise, at a minimum, of: • The allocated HR department metrics sponsor/owner • HR participants/business partners from key operational areas within the business • Senior/respected representativs from: the finance department; the payroll department; the accounts payable department; and the IT department

Determining your HR metrics based upon workforce management priorities and not HRIS/ payroll capability Good HR metrics often extend way beyond your HRIS/ payroll system with important data stored in other areas including accounts payable and the HR department itself. (ie, data relating to recruitment, training expenditure, talent development, equal employment opportunity or staff grievances, to name just a few). To achieve the best possible results, we recommend that your steering committee establishes your KPIs on the basis of what is most important for the CEO/senior management team to understand, and then identify the

C List +5

Business focused

B List +5

6 months

Initial

A List +5 Priority 1

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Priority 2 Quality managment reporting

Determining your data resourcing capability Once the steering committee determines the desired KPIs for the organisation, it is then time to determine how the essential data will be captured and processed: • In its simplest form this may involve a suitably qualified full-time or part-time HR metrics analyst, manually capturing data and populating spreadsheets. • At a more advanced level this may require the HR and IT departments to work in unison in utilising existing data-warehousing capability to create an online, in-house HR metrics dashboard. • At the ultimate level, this may involve purchasing and installing sophisticated HR metrics software from an external vendor.

Biting off more than you can chew While it is always tempting to introduce a swag of KPIs at the one time, it is also a risky business! Your CEO/senior management team may struggle to grasp and fully understand the volume of reporting being presented to them, while you may struggle over time to maintain the quality and accuracy of your reporting. We recommend that you introduce your KPIs on a progressive basis over a period of approximately six to 12 months. [See graph 1.] Initially, we suggest that you select four to six KPIs in those areas that are determined to be of immediate importance to the organisation; then the performance indicators in the areas of secondary importance, to be followed thereafter by your final four to six KPIs. (ie, approximately 12 to 15 KPIs in total.)

Graph 1. Prioritising KPIs

12 months

relevant/applicable data sources. If you limit your reporting to only what is available through your existing HRIS/payroll system, you are potentially inhibiting the quality and relevance of your total offering which may also be focused in the wrong areas.

Priority 3

Integrated workforce metrics

Validating your methodology To ensure credibility with your target audience it is essential that yoursteering committee establishes clear definitions that underpin each KPI that you have identified/intend using within your organisation. (ie, if you intend reporting unplanned or undesired staff turnover, what exactly does this constitute? How does it vary from planned turnover?) Once your definitions have been established, prior to implementation we recommend that you ‘road test’ and validate your assumptions and logic with key line managers throughout the organisation.

Building your costing models In creating quality HR metrics that capture executive attention it is highly desirable that you include dollar calculations wherever possible. (ie, what is the dollar cost

to the organisation of an unplanned executive turnover, or the dollar cost of an unplanned employee absence from work?) Again, prior to implementation, we recommend that you ‘road test’ and validate your assumptions and logic with key line managers throughout the organisation.

Producing reporting that captures attention To be effective, workforce performance metrics should comprise the following two key elements: 1. Consolidated corporate reports which provide the senior management team with a concise/macro overview/report in relation to the organisation’s effectiveness in managing its workforce. 2. Drill-down performance reports which provide the senior management team with more detailed information that: • Breaks the organisation down into specific divisions and units • Provides comparative data and trends • Provides opportunities for comparison and analysis. To achieve the best possible results it is important that you produce your HR metrics in a style and format that is familiar and convenient for the senior management team to read and interpret. Some key principles to follow include: a) Use a format that is similar in style to other forms of management reporting and not simply a re-hash of payroll data which is presented in a format that nobody really understands b) For those on your senior management team who prefer to receive information in images rather than in data format, wherever practical provide one data table per selected KPI accompanied by one graph. Report the data table in accordance with the financial year and the graph on a rolling 12-month basis. (This will highlight trends and seasonal fluctuations.) c) Make sure your data tables are engrossing by creating specific measures that will interest your key customers. For example, if your performance indicator is workforce turnover, rather than just reporting turnover per cent you could instead also report: • % turnover (planned and unplanned) • % turnover (combined) • % high performance unplanned turnovers • % talent pool unplanned turnovers • total number of employee turnovers (planned, unplanned and combined) • total dollar replacement cost for all workforce turnovers Use ‘traffic lights’ to interpret your data tables and to draw executive attention to areas of key concern. d) Carefully consider the reporting frequency for each selected KPI to ensure that your reporting is meaningful

and worthwhile. (ie, it might be appropriate to report headcount and turnover monthly, recruitment quarterly and exit interview results half-yearly.) e) When your base workforce metrics reporting has been established and in use for several months, under the tutelage of the HR manager, the senior management team will identify performance trends and thereby opportunities for improvement. At this time it is opportune to establish agreed internal performance targets that are accepted and owned by everyone with a seat at the table (as opposed to being the exclusive domain of the HR manager). Note: Where an agreed budget has been established, this can be incorporated into your reporting process effective immediately.

Sticking to your guns for at least six months When your initial four to six KPIs have been completed and are first introduced to the CEO/senior management team it is highly likely that you will receive many requests for amendments or enhancements to the reporting that you have produced. While not wanting to dampen enthusiasm, we recommend that you hold off on making major amendments to your formatting and content until the CEO or executive team have had sufficient time to become competent/proficient in understanding and correctly interpreting the data you have provided – that is, six months. Thereafter, outstanding issues and concerns should be carefully considered. Additionally, to avoid unnecessary disruption it may be appropriate (at least in the early stages) to submit the content to each designated senior manager for review prior to general distribution.

Honing your interpretive and leveraging skills To be effective, your workforce metrics must become a regular agenda item for all senior management team meetings and be subject to proper and real scrutiny and evaluation. HR managers should insist on presenting the workforce performance metrics report, using the opportunity to enhance relationships and to leverage and influence major strategies or programs. They must also be prepared and capable of providing commentary in areas where performance is acceptable, and also those areas where additional resources, support or intervention are required. Where intervention is required, the HR manager must be capable of providing a detailed strategy/solution, including the projected costs and benefits to the organisation.

About the author Stephen Moore is a senior HR professional who has spent more than 30 years in HR management. He is now the managing director of consulting firm Optimum Performance

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PRE-EMPLOYMENT SCREENING

medical checks

Better

SAFE than sorry What is the business case for adopting pre-employment medicals? What are the downsides and benefits? Nick Binns outlines why every organisation stands to possibly benefit

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The decision on whether to adopt preemployment medicals should start with discussions on “why do we want to do pre-employment medicals”? and secondly, “to which roles should they apply”? Whilst this discussion might sound more philosophical than commercial, answering these questions will go a long way towards developing the rationale for a business case for adoption. A decade ago, there was the common notion within an organisation that if we don’t know about the health of a worker, we cannot be held accountable for it. I think it’s safe to say this has now proven not to be the case and that employers are expected to, at a minimum, have involvement in the protection of the health of a worker and ideally to be promoting better health. As a consequence, with greater involvement comes greater responsibility and accountability. For any organisation that is interested in improving the health and wellbeing of its workforce, understanding and managing the health risks that come into the business through the recruitment process is a key step and pre-employment medicals offer a way to achieve this.

PURPOSE

Essentially, a pre-employment medical is used during the hiring process to increase the likelihood of hiring candidates who can meet the inherent job requirements at an acceptable level of health risk both to the worker and the organisation. With respect to the medical, organisations need to understand and comply with anti-discrimination and privacy legislation, in that physical and indeed mental attributes must relate back to the intended occupation, rather than being simply a blanket approach to all occupations. Essentially, every organisation accepts a certain level of risk when engaging and retaining employees. This risk is counterbalanced by reward for the organisation in measurable factors such as improved productivity, leading to financial gain. By hiring the wrong worker in the wrong occupation, the organisation imports significant risk directly into its operation and may stand to lose the productivity balance and expose itself to workers compensation claims, poor absenteeism and a high resource drain on existing personnel (such as those engaged in human resources, training and line management). This can focus decision making away from productive avenues. On the subject of privacy, the National Privacy Principals (NPP) sets out 10 principles that organisations need to set as the minimum standard when dealing with personal information and, in relation to pre-employment medicals, this is particularly evident in NPP 1, Collecting Information, and NPP 10, Health Information. As a part of an overall privacy policy, organisations need to implement and maintain an ‘authority to release’

Organisations would be much better placed to target their preemployment medicals and their inherent requirements, against the physical attributes for each role within their organisation process, to ensure that individuals are aware of what information will be collected and stored in relation to their health and their employment within an organisation. From my experience, the ‘authority to release’ is often overlooked by organisations and it has the ability to not just impact upon the collection and use of personal information in a practical sense (ie, discussions with a worker around a health condition raised by a doctor), but also presents a significant legal exposure through contravention of the Privacy Act itself. Pre-employment medicals must relate specifically to the attributes of the role and if they are not, then it is quite likely the Anti-Discrimination Act has been breached and the organisation exposed to possible legal action. There are numerous factors that must also be considered, inclusive of age, sex, race and religion. It is worthwhile quoting the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board: “It is vital that a pre-employment medical test relates exclusively and directly to the particular duties of the job and does not discriminate against people with disabilities.” My view is that, for the individual, it should reinforce that the organisation they are joining places a value upon their overall safety, ensuring they can carry out nominated duties without an increased risk to their health. Pre-employment medicals can also raise health issues, previously unknown or undetected that potentially, if left undiagnosed, can adversely impact upon the individual’s health and have far reaching impacts other than simply their ability to work. Likewise, from an employer’s perspective, a preemployment medical can help address some of the cultural barriers around the mistrust of organisations using medical information, such as promotions. Establishing trust must be seen as a key priority and this can be demonstrated through a mature and sound pre-employment medical process.

THE BENEFITS

If organisations want to look at the benefits of preemployment medicals from purely a cost perspective in HCAMAG.COM 43

PRE-EMPLOYMENT SCREENING

medical checks Did you know? • Non-screened (pre-employment medical) employees have a 33% higher injury rate of compensation claims than screened employee • Non-screened employees incur 4.3 times higher claims costs • The average cost of return-to-work cases for non-screened employees was 18.1 higher than screened employees Source: Roshenblum & Shankar, (2006): ‘A study of the effects of isokinetic preemployment physical capacity screening in the reduction of musculoskeletal disorders in a labour intensive work environment’

workers transitioning from normal employment into either poor health or compensation claims, the evidence stacks up and is supported statistically in academic (peer reviewed) journals (see box above). As any rehabilitation provider will tell you, it is quite often the hidden component of a workers compensation claim that is much more difficult to manage. Often there is an underlying health or degenerative condition that gives rise to the compensation claim in the first place and makes both the claim and injury management very difficult. From a claims management perspective, trying to disentangle the claim component from the health component in, say, a degenerative condition is extremely difficult and will quite often lead to a breakdown in the working relationship with the individual. For example, telling a worker who was injured during the normal course of their employment that their claim for compensation has now ceased because the residual loss of functioning and pain is as a result of their degenerative condition and not the work condition, is extremely difficult. After all, the worker associates the pain, discomfort and, in some cases, the complete loss of being able to return to their job, as having everything to do with the work injury. In many instances, protecting the worker from themselves and not placing them in a position of exposure should have been seriously considered.

POTENTIAL DOWNSIDES

Pre-employment medicals can backfire on an organisation if all they are going to do is the screening and nothing else. This is because the results for that medical essentially become the benchmark for the worker and if there is any deterioration over time, which one would almost inevitably expect, there is an instant exposure to a claim for compensation if that deterioration has anything to do with the duties performed. Using standardised or non-specific assessments paints too broad a picture and this type of approach has significant shortcomings in that it won’t necessarily address all of the occupational risks or indeed the inherent requirement placed upon the individual. 44

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It is also worth considering the cost to preemployment and indeed what components within the assessments are actually going to be used by an organisation. I have seen a number of organisations that get all manner of radiology, including X-rays, CT scans and even MRIs of applicants and the cost for all of this does need to be considered in terms of what an organisation is going to achieve by screening. The purpose of a pre-employment medical can be broken down into two main statements: • Identify risks to the individual that will place them in a position whereby a loss will be experienced (be that a workers compensation claim, illness or absenteeism or indeed force the worker to resign and seek employment elsewhere). It is worth remembering the initial cost of employing the individual, including their training and the loss of institutional knowledge. • Job matching the individual so that they are afforded the maximum ability and protection to stay at work, gainfully employed, for as long as possible. If we consider some of the key issues in the media at present – skills shortage, ageing workforce, productivity and workers compensation claims – the aim must be to get the right person in the right role for as long as possible.

DOES A ‘ONE SIZE FITS ALL’ APPROACH WORK?

The simple answer to this is no. Organisations need a more mature appreciation around targeting what risks are present and how they impact on each occupation within their organisation. Carrying out detailed respiratory and radiography for what is essentially an administration position is largely overkill, both from an intrusive, personal perspective and from a cost perspective. Organisations would be much better placed to target their pre-employment medicals and their inherent requirements against the physical attributes for each role within their organisation. For example, a highly physically demanding role would certainly require a higher level of physical ability than an administrative role and the medical testing carried out should reflect the aspects of the role that will impact on the individual(s).

THE EMPLOYEE LIFE CYCLE

In conclusion, having a discussion with an organisation that is considering the deployment of pre-employment medicals and explaining the benefits to both parties is simple. Then, if employers are truly committed to the need and understand the benefit of pre-employment medicals then this same process can be extended to cover employees as they move between different roles in the same organisation. It is my belief that in adopting this approach, the benefits to the organisation and the individual can continue throughout the lifetime of employment.

About the author Nick Binns is managing director of 2CRisk. For further information, email nickb@2crisk.com. au or visit 2CRisk. com.au

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LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT

games at work

GAME ON!

Games and fun at work don’t mix. Or do they? Research indicates that businesses can tap into the motivational benefits of ‘gamification’ to engage employees in learning

Playing games at work would have once been cause for a warning, but a new theory turns those old notions upside down – and it’s quickly gaining momentum in Australia. The process is known as ‘gamification’ and the concept is quite simple: harness the enthusiasm people have for virtual gaming by implementing the same themes into the workplace. Ben Thompson, CEO of Power2Motivate, an organisation specialising in solutions for employee recognition, rewards and training, outlines the following elements of gaming that can be used in HR strategy: • Level ascension through skills-based learning, demonstrating skills, taking tests and completing challenges • Gathering virtual goods, like stars on a leader board • Avatar programs – encouraging online employee profiles and presence in a way similar to social media • Live feeds to continuously update staff on others’ achievements and progression • Points gathering – points may take on a value, eg, organisations can donate money to charities based on points • Employee rewards based on progress Thompson says that whether the goal is to improve company morale, facilitate internal communications or deliver professional training, gamification may spark a competitive business edge and foster L&D, and that gamification strategies can energise employees and create an atmosphere of progress because they can monitor their own performance. Aaron Dignan is the author of Game Frame, a book which explores why people are motivated to play games and how businesses can use game mechanics and behavioural tricks to engage employees and customers. “[Playing games] feels more important to a person than completing their expense report at work because of the

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way the game system is structured,” Dignan says. He adds that games are structured in a way that makes people feel motivated, powerful and successful when they achieve, and HR departments willing to reconfigure roles and processes – so they may tap into the addictive power of games – will in effect be sprinkling “magic engagement dust around the workplace to transform dull disengagement into glittering possibility and purpose, or turn a bland product into a living and breathing social phenomenon”.

GAMIFICATION IN ACTION

Digital learning provider ILX Group has designed a suite of games to make learning fun and create digital learning communities. Significantly, these are specific games including Snakes & Ladders and Inca Trail, which are used to support e-learning courses such as PRINCE2 project management. The games are downloadable as apps for mobile devices. Michelle Phillips, head of Asia Pacific for ILX, adds: “Each ILX digital learning course includes multiple choice questions incorporated into an examination simulator. It seemed like an obvious progression to take the content one step further and weave the courses’ content into a games format as an entertaining extension to learning.” Phillips says the primary reason why games have been incorporated into ILX’s digital learning is to improve the user experience and user engagement. “There are many studies that show that games help create engaging workplaces and facilitate collaboration. The key concept behind it is to reinforce the knowledge – particularly for examinations.” ILX also offers a multi-use platform so learners can play against each other. Phillips reports the gaming element is also popular when courses are delivered in-house in a physical environment. “The trainers are using the games in the classrooms – it’s bringing a different dimension to classroom learning,” she says.

Mobile technology will perhaps boost the use of games in learning to the next level. “The games can be used on all smart devices,” Phillips says. “This has contributed to the creation of digital learning communities, or groups of people learning collaboratively in their pursuit of program and project management qualifications. Trainer feedback has indicated there is plenty of laughter when the games are in use. This is always a strong indicator of positive learner engagement with often complex subject matter.”

ROI

Deloitte has developed a three-step guide to getting the highest return from your investment in learning, no matter what method that learning is delivered in.

Align learning to strategy First, you need to set priorities for learning that are firmly linked to the overall business strategy. Senior management must play a central role in this process, laying out the overall business goals on which learning priorities should be based – as well as clear, measurable targets for any development spend. Executives should also play a key role in encouraging employees to take part. Ideally, they should participate in the learning program themselves. However, if this isn’t possible, they should at least be featured in welcome videos or similar media. Executives should also assist in identifying key employees to take part in tailored learning programs. Before beginning these, each individual should go through an assessment process facilitated by a coach who then draws up an individual learning plan. This plan should be aligned to personal goals and organisational priorities.

Use all of the tools at your disposal Learning should make use of and effectively integrate all potential tools – such as e-learning, face-to-face training and coaching – to get the most impact for the money being spent. Face-to-face learning should be complemented by other methods back in the workplace which can be used to reinforce skills and knowledge learnt during a course. Digital technology in particular can help apply learning to deliver benefit to the business, as employees can access material when and where they want, and in easy-to-digest, bite-sized pieces. E-learning has other benefits too. For starters, it enables organisations to much more effectively access a global pool of educational talent: it’s much easier (and cheaper) to get a Harvard professor to deliver a single webinar than to ask him or her to present at multiple seminars. Additionally, digital technology enables social learning on a much larger scale, with users sharing experiences, skills, and tips across the world rather than across a classroom. These factors can

all improve engagement and knowledge retention. However, to be truly effective, any online solution should be fast to load and simple to use. It should also be easy to modify, so that it can be kept up to date with online design trends and new content-delivery methods. Finally, learning should be promoted heavily to ensure sustained use. Organisations should regularly promote interventions to users via intranet or email, and use both physical and digital delivery events to encourage learning – for example, promoting budgeting courses when the end of financial year approaches.

Monitor and reward To be able to assess return on learning, you need to be able to measure it. First, the impacts should be measured at an individual level: before-and-after ‘health checks’, 360-degree assessments and self-administered tests can all be used to great effect to recognise an individual’s progress, and can also be used as markers towards promotion.

GAME ON

As outlined above, gamification is the latest innovation to measure and motivate employees. Deloitte has seen particular success using leaderboards that rank users against their peers. Specialist badges are also awarded for completing tasks. These badges can be used as credit towards qualifications like MBAs, and can also be used to promote expertise on social networks such as Twitter and LinkedIn. Finally, the impact should be measured at an organisational level against the targets set at the beginning of the process. By analysing employee and business performance data such as staff engagement, retention and customer satisfaction, organisations can measure the impact of learning and ensure they are getting the highest possible return. HCAMAG.COM 47

LEADERSHIP

authenticity

WINNING HEARTS AND MINDS Can leadership authenticity really be a key to capturing the hearts and minds of employees, and can it be developed? Walter Bellin believes so Over the past 25 years I have used the following exercise in my leadership development workshops many times: I ask groups of five or six participants to identify someone from the present or any time in the past who they all agree is (or was) a truly great leader – and then I ask them to come up with the four or five traits or qualities that made them great leaders. There has been an amazing consistency in both the leaders chosen and the qualities or characteristics that made them great. The most common leaders chosen were leaders of great social movements such as Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela and US civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King Jr. The typical characteristics identified as making them great leaders were: integrity, courage, a deep commitment to their cause and a clear and compelling vision of the future they wished to work towards.

WHAT IS AUTHENTICITY?

Authenticity implies two basic things when applied to a leader, such as the three identified above: 48

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• Firstly, it implies something about their qualities as a person, the quality of their values, and the quality of their actions that follow from these values. It implies that they have good motives and intentions, which are broad and inclusive of the welfare of all whom they lead and all who are affected by their leadership. • Secondly, authenticity implies that the leader is real, that they are exactly who they claim to be and exactly how they present themselves. This means, among other things, that what they say they believe in or value is exactly what they believe in or value; that their motives or intentions are exactly what they say they are; they ‘walk the talk’; they do (or at least attempt to do) what they say they will do. A leader who demonstrates this authenticity will earn the trust of the people they lead. The vision of the future they want others to join them in creating will be both mentally attractive, credible and emotionally compelling. Their authenticity will inspire people, win their loyalty and people will follow them because they want to.

HOW DO PEOPLE PERCEIVE OUR AUTHENTICITY – OR LACK THEREOF?

There are two primary means by which people will perceive our authenticity as a leader. The first is very obvious: they will simply watch our actions and – over time – compare these with what we have said. There is a second subtle but equally powerful factor that affects people’s perception of our authenticity – and does so more quickly than comparing words with actions. When we speak, in addition to the words we are using, we express non-verbal cues contained in our voice qualities and body language (especially facial movements) that others pick up subconsciously. This occurs through our brain’s right hemispheric function, which subconsciously but simultaneously picks up these non-verbal cues, while our conscious mind is listening to the words. According to extensive studies by psychologist Albert Merabian, only 7% of a message’s meaning is conveyed by the words and 93% by nonverbal cues. When we are speaking, the right brain of our listeners is subconsciously picking up and assessing the congruence of these non-verbal cues with the words they consciously hear. If they are congruent, there is a greater likelihood that the listener will accept and be positively influenced by the message. Conversely, if they are incongruent, the listener will experience a kind of internal ‘dissonance’ and more likely reject the message and (perhaps) become sceptical or cynical about the leader. I saw this demonstrated once when a well-known Australian television moderator interviewed two candidates from rival parties (Liberal vs Labor) in a single electorate, with an equal number of supporters for each candidate present. After the interviews, the moderator asked if anyone had changed their mind about who they would support. For one candidate, no supporters had changed their mind – in fact some said they were even more committed. For the other candidate, a half dozen had definitely changed their mind – and a number of others were now unsure. When asked why, they responded that something just didn’t “feel right” (ie the internal ‘dissonance’ of inauthenticity) about their candidate’s communication. In the election several months later, the authentic candidate won what had been a safe seat for the other party for decades!

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO ASSESS, DEVELOP AND DEMONSTRATE YOUR OWN AUTHENTICITY

• Make sure that you have set and are working towards personal development goals. Here I am not talking about learning a new management or leadership skill, but rather working towards building the personal character

A leader who demonstrates this authenticity will earn the trust of the people they lead – WALTER BELLIN traits that are found in the leaders you most admire. This means, quite literally, cultivating those qualities that make you a better person. Utilising the services of a coach to assist you with this process can be invaluable. • Keep working on the most fundamental leadership skill of all: good self-management. This means especially managing yourself well under emotionally challenging and stressful situations – which is when we are most likely to speak or behave in ways that violate our stated values. It is simply impossible to be an effective, authentic leader of others without being effective in managing ourselves. • If you are to successfully undertake the two strategies described above, you will need to cultivate accurate and in-depth self-awareness. To achieve this, the periodic use of a good quality psychological instrument can be invaluable – provided that the coach or facilitator who debriefs you with the instrument is well qualified and does not use the instrument in a judgmental way. • In spite of how busy you may be, it is important to do a regular internal audit, at a quiet time and place that is regularly set aside for this, asking yourself: what is really important to me? What are my most important priorities? Do I actually feel, value or fully believe what I am telling the people I lead? Should I be changing my message to make it more congruent with the above? To succeed with this internal audit, you need to be really honest with yourself. •Do a regular external audit of you daily behaviour. Most people are boss watchers. They will be constantly comparing your daily behaviour with the messages you are giving them about what is important to you and what you believe and value. Seek feedback about this from people you trust to be honest with you. • Finally, as part of this external audit, open your diary and compare the use of your time with your messages to others. Does how you use your time demonstrate commitment to your stated priorities, beliefs and values? If not, reprioritise your time usage to become more congruent with your message. Such changes will usually initially take you out of your comfort zone – but as a leader the payback to you and your people will be manifold. As your authenticity is increasingly more fully expressed in both words and action, you will win hearts and minds – creating trust, inspiration and commitment in those you lead.

Walter Bellin is the CEO of Corporate Crossroads and author of the new book ‘Climb a Different Ladder: Self-awareness, Mindfulness and Successful Leadership’ (Jane Curry Publishing $29.95). For more information visit corporatecrossroads. com.au

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PROFILE SIMONE CARROLL

HR at REA Group

Architects of business Many organisations claim to be lean, agile and customer centric, but few execute on those ambitions successfully. Iain Hopkins talks to one HR leader who has pushed the boundaries of traditional HR practice. HR, she says, are the “architects of the business” Simone Carroll’s work aspirations were set early in life. She grew up in Wagga Wagga, a regional city some 450km from Sydney. It was an excursion to the Melbourne CBD as a young girl that sparked a moment of inspiration. Carroll explains: “I remember it being a rainy day and I was watching these men with shoulders slumped walking in the subway station, dark coats, tightly bound ties around their necks, looking a bit like lemmings. It didn’t make any sense. It occurred to me that the discretionary effort was pretty low. I was a fairly commercially minded child and I remember thinking there must be something to be done to improve the situation. If you can create purpose, if people can walk into work with their heads held high then surely there’s an opportunity there.” And so there was. Carroll says she was “very excited” at an early age to get into HR, and is “still excited” to be there. Her career started as a trainee with the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Authority, where she stayed for seven years. She’s since held HR and IR roles with Medibank Private and Kraft Foods, followed by a stint in the Netherlands as group HR manager of directories business Truvo. “I found I really enjoyed businesses that are going through a phase where they want to invest in people in order to achieve growth. I guess in some ways I get addicted to creating the kind of place where people want to be,” she says. This has also been the case at REA Group, where she has held the position of GM of HR for the last three years. The REA Group is an online advertising business

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specialising in real estate. Established in Melbourne in 1995, the Group operates real estate websites in Australia and around the world (its key website locally is realestate.com.au). The company employs over 600 people in Luxemburg, Hong Kong, Italy and Australia. A co-source operation in China bolsters the developer team and provides the flexibility required for online sites.

A NEW ERA OF WORK

Carroll and her team of nine HR professionals are fully integrated into the business using lean and systems thinking, with a key focus on the customer. This means all people in the business, whether they are from HR or otherwise, have an opportunity to improve the people, culture and performance of the business by literally working in the HR team, or by having the HR team working in what REA Group calls the lines of business. This customer centricity is something all HR practitioners can and should embrace, Carroll says. “The customer experience largely is influenced by what companies used to call, and some still call, the back of house. Take invoices as an example. This is something the customer wants to not only be accurate but easy to read. They deal with our employees all the time – not only do they want our employees to be personable but they also want them to be accurate and aware of the product. They don’t want their time wasted. You’ve got to know where you stand in the value chain, in relation to the customer.” Carroll says HR plays a role in organising the business in the direction of the customer. “Everyone knows where

Everyone knows where they stand in relation to the customer. It’s less about where HR is as a function in relation to the customer and more about how HR organises and coaches the business – SIMONE CARROLL

IN HER OWN WORDS... What are the biggest HR challenges facing your organisation in 2013 – and how are you planning to overcome these? “The key one is growing our leadership capability. This is something all organisations in Australia will be challenged with, for two reasons. We’re at the end of the industrial age, and we’ve also seen a social shift, which says people don’t look up for advice and support, they look across. It’s more about what my peers say than what my boss says. So what does that mean for leadership? Is it as enticing to be a leader anymore or is it more enticing to be a functional specialist and to have mastery over something I love? We’re facing these issues, where leaders are being challenged and their identity is being challenged – they can’t rely on a position of power anymore because the employee doesn’t respond that way.”

Personal file: Simone Carroll Family: A husband and a five-year-old daughter.

Favourite sports: I love a bit of gym and yoga – a bit of yin and yang. I’ve also signed up to do Tough Mudder with my executive colleagues which I’m very nervous about. Favourite movie or TV: I love The Party with Peter Sellers. Best advice ever received: From my father when I was a little girl: Just do your best. Self-described: I’m a problem-solver, humanistic, commercial and creative. Hobbies: Travel, painting, singing with the REA band, called Lost Property. First job and/or worst job: First job: I was the fruit & veg manager on Saturday mornings at Goodfellows in Wagga Wagga. Worst job: (but I was probably the worst at it) was the karaoke girl at the local tavern. I had to fire up the karaoke machine at 6pm to get the punters warmed up while they were still sober – it taught me some people skills. If not in HR: Architect.

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[Our diverse staff] have only one thing in common: we believe in the purpose of the company and we have an achievement mindset – SIMONE CARROLL they stand in relation to the customer and what they can do to improve that. It’s less about where HR is as a function in relation to the customer and more about how HR organises and coaches the business. How do they, as the architects of the business, design the organisation to be customer centric?” REA Group has also adopted ‘agile working methodology’, which sits comfortably alongside HR’s fully integrated model. “We’re the first HR team [using this methodology] that I’ve seen documented and we’ve been doing some additional research to become fully agile,” Carroll says. Beyond the surface-value concept of ‘agile’ – daily stand-up meetings and retrospectives – the agile methodology means the HR management goes beyond the HR department. Meetings can be attended by people from different departments. Cross-functional teams and the results of those collaborations are accepted as the norm. Ideas of ‘confidentiality’ are, for the most part, dropped – and this, Carroll concedes, can be difficult for some to accept. “The challenge is dealing with things of a confidential nature, and being able to get HR practitioners themselves feeling comfortable in the first instance if you adopt the methodology, to be able to converse with each other in such an open way.” While becoming so transparent requires and adjustment in thinking and practice, Carroll sees benefits.

“You know what? If you have an absenteeism issue in, say, a contact centre, there’s no point in hiding it. The business wants to know you are addressing it – with the business being the people in the call centre, as well as the stakeholders. I think in fact it builds trust.” Being agile infers flexibility and ability to change with the business. Is that still the case? “Absolutely,” Carroll says. “We still have 90-day plans, and those 90-day plans are still linked to a three-year strategy, and they are all very relevant. But what you need to do is, on a daily basis, be able to deal with the things that come up in HR. Usually those things that come up, that are unplanned, are the things that stop you achieving your strategy.” Carroll adds that not only is agile working a more effective way of ensuring that not only can HR deal with anything that comes up because they are in a position to predict the trends and the support networks are well established so teams can resolve

PROFILE SIMONE CARROLL

HR at REA Group issues together, “but it keeps us honest and on track when it comes to managing the organisational shifts that we require”. Perhaps most important, the people that keep HR honest are the other stakeholders in the business. For example, a team leader in the residential part of the business is in a position to come along to HR’s daily standup to see what the progress is in their line of business. While Carroll concedes take-up of agile working in other organisations would be very dependent on culture, she says that over time she’d be surprised if it didn’t catch on elsewhere. “This isn’t a new way of working – it’s been around since Churchill in the cabinet war rooms where he was organising forces on the go,” she says. IT was an early adopter – as a way of “dealing with the chaos” and making delivery faster in the 1980s. Now HR is in a similar position. “People have got a grip on technology today – the average human being understands what technology is all about and the value of it, so now it’s gone beyond IT and into human psychology – how do humans work and how do we get the most out of human capability,” Carroll says. Furthermore, Carroll says HR professionals know it will not be enough to simply aim for best practice. “You’ve got to do the right thing for the organisation, which means we’ve got to access all the strengths available to us in the organisation and work those strengths as much as possible,” she says.

DIVERSITY AND ENGAGEMENT

Carroll is justifiably proud of how the company has embraced agile working, and the results in other areas are just as impressive. REA Group has picked up accolades from EOWA for its efforts towards gender equality. Alongside the standard offerings of flexible work arrangements – compressed weeks, work-from-home – Carroll says the company has a mindset that says any time they are looking to pull people together they’re looking for diversity – men, women, and people from all backgrounds. “There is only one thing in common: we believe in the purpose of the company and we have an achievement mindset. It’s just a matter of saying ‘who have we got that will come from different places on this?’ And it just so happens that will incorporate a nice mix of men and women. With the agile way of working, with these cross-functional teams, it’s people from marketing, from IT, from HR, from sales, working on our problems to get the best solutions for the customer. It’s about representing the customer – we’re dealing with consumers, human beings of all types dealing with our website, and we need to represent them and understand how they as human beings search.” Fifty per cent of the REA Group executive leadership team and 45% of the senior leadership team are women.

In non-traditional areas like IT, the company is encouraging females to adopt IT as a career and has partnered with Swinburne University to do this. Internal networks and buddy programs enable these grads to partner with women in other cross-functional areas. The company holds discussions on how to survive with modern families and other life challenges. “We had the CEO’s wife come in one day to talk about how they manage their household. Whenever we hear a really good success story of someone doing things differently – and that’s a key value of ours – then we embrace that and share with each other, with that learning mindset,” Carroll says. While Carroll believes gender quotas have a place in workplaces that have not traditionally attracted many female applicants, she concentrates on making REA Group an attractive place to work. “Getting men, women, people from diverse backgrounds, is an outcome of being an attractive place to work,” she says. Of the women who are available and qualified to do the work, Carroll has found there is plenty of interest in the brand. “Yes, we do networking and all the things we know our colleagues are doing – so we’re in the places we need to be – but it’s not about telling people to come here, it’s about attracting them here. It only happens when you’re very serious as an organisation about putting in place the benefits that people need to accommodate their lifestyles.” In terms of engagement, REA Group is currently on par with the global high performing norm according to Towers Watson. A significant contributor to that score is looking at the employee journey at REA Group. “We think about those experiences that employees have during their life and we seek to increase engagement at those times on their journey. We have almost a marketing approach to the way we manage engagement, which again is slightly different,” Carroll explains.

STILL ON TARGET

When asked what she’s most proud of in her career, Carroll doesn’t hesitate – it echoes directly her childhood revelation about work: “It’s easy,” she says. “It’s not one thing. I’m proud of the little things that I know I’ve done but no one else knows. Those entirely discretionary things I’ve done just because I believe I can make a difference. I’m proud of the effort I put in, and that I get to live my purpose every day, and I get to encourage people to do theirs. I’m proud of choosing HR. We may not be dealing directly with the customer every day. We may not be standing on a podium talking to people in the office as a CEO would, but we’re the architects of organisations that have an impact on people’s lives.” More industry profiles at:

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SIGN OFF

the lighter side written by Stephanie Zillman

CEOS COULD BE DETERMINED BY BIRTH DATE Spice up your company awards presentations If your company presentations have descended into a fairly predictable, heck vaguely solemn affair, maybe it’s time to spice things up.

SECRET SANTA HELL ROLLS AROUND AGAIN

There are those who delight in the task of buying someone they’ve barely spoken to in the office a gift worth $10. There are others who would rather munch on broken glass. Here are HC’s Secret Santa gifts you should avoid at all costs – unless you intend to start the New Year as the office outcast. • Something you got for free, complete with brand logo. Nothing shows you didn’t care about the Secret Santa exchange more than giving something that they could have gotten for free. Show at least some effort, people! • Anything with sexual innuendo. Save it for your best friend’s bucks or hens night because absolutely nothing good can come from giving a box of novelty condoms to a colleague, no matter how well received you think it may be. At the very least, it communicates unprofessionalism to collegial observers. • Underwear. A 10-pack of new Bonds could be just what your desk-buddy needs, but it’s a bit too familiar for an office Christmas party. If you’ve already bought it, save it for Dad’s stocking on Christmas day. • Anything that refers to body issues the person might have – namely, deodorant. Nothing is more shame-inducing than being the one to receive deodorant, diet pills, a pack of tissues or breath mints. You name it – if it’s from the chemist, time to re-think.

UNUSUAL JOB DESCRIPTIONS

How many HR hours go into creating comprehensive and accurate job descriptions? Too many, if these pithy alternatives are to be believed. When Dilbert creator Scott Adams asked people for joke job descriptions, he got more than he bargained for with hundreds of responses. Here are eight of the best: • Help people hate each other – Divorce lawyer (Scott Adams’ favourite) • Talk in other people’s sleep – College Professor • Make people feel bad about their work – Quality assurance tester • Take numbers on pieces of paper, rearrange them and put them on different pieces of paper – Tax Accountant • Arrive after the battle and bayonet all the wounded – Auditor • Ensure that stupid people stay in the gene pool – Lifeguard (HC’s favourite) • Spend most of the day looking out the window – Pilot • Copy and paste from the internet – Student

US comedian Larry Weaver took inspiration from his former ‘David Brent-like’ boss who handed out inappropriate awards, minus the irony. HC takes a look at some of the best from Weaver’s collection of employee awards that he would like to see handed out more regularly to colleagues, employees, volunteers – maybe even that miffed-looking courier driver. • Selective Hearing Award – For only hearing what you want to hear • Foot-in-Mouth Award – For always saying the wrong things at the wrong time • Bermuda Triangle Award – For the desk where things go in but never come out • Loch Ness Award – For the least likely to be found • Baryshnikov Award – For the best at dancing around the issue

People born in March and April are more likely to achieve CEO positions, according to a recent Canadian study. Conducted by a team at the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia, the study involved a sample of 375 CEOs between 1992 and 2009. The findings, which will appear in December’s Economics Letters, show that people born in March and April represented 12.53% and 10.67% of the sample. In comparison, only 6.13% and 5.87% of the CEOs were born in June and July respectively. This in turn shows that, in the Northern hemisphere at least, ‘summer’ babies are less likely to become CEOs due to a ‘birth-date effect’, study co-author Professor Maurice Levi told media. In the Northern hemisphere, cut-off dates for school admission tend to fall between September and January, and children born close to the cut-off dates often start school slightly earlier or slightly later, Levi explained. This means that students born between June and July are the youngest in their class, while those born in March and April are the oldest. “With advantages on intellectual development, older children in the same grade tend to perform better than the youngers,” he continued. “And early success is often rewarded with leadership and learning opportunities, leading to future advantages that are magnified throughout life.”

• Running with the Bulls Award – For the biggest risk taker • Big Kahuna Award – For the most time surfing the internet • Baby’s Bottom Award – For the smoothest in times of crisis

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