TAKING THE CREATIVE ROAD A strategy for solving business problems DEALING WITH DISASTERS What HR can learn about managing crises HCAMAG.COM ISSUE 17.01
A SHIFT TOWARDS CULTURE IN HR Moving the focus from procedure to people
INNOVATIVE HR TEAMS HRD profiles the top HR teams who are leading innovation in Australia’s workplaces
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FEBRUARY 2019
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CONTENTS
@HRDAustralia facebook.com/HRDAustralia
UPFRONT 02 Editorial
Challenges in the year of innovation
03 Head to head Are workplace dress codes outdated?
04 Statistics
How HR is dealing with change
06 Opinion
Generations collaborating for success
07 Expert insight
The rights and wrongs of data collection
08 News analysis
34 AN ORGANISATIONAL IMPERATIVE
Why it’s important for organisations to make employee recognition a critical component of their strategy for success
Lessons for HR on crisis management
10 L&D update
How goal setting can develop employees
12 Recruitment update
The global trend towards flexible hiring
FEATURES 42 Shifting HR goals
The new focus on team culture
50 ‘Rizing’ to a new challenge
Using data to drive business outcomes
54 Connectedness matters
Tips for building a connected workforce
38
THE WORKPLACE COMPLIANCE GLITCH How measuring data can be the key to identifying potential non-compliance with complex workplace legislation
60 Keeping innovation alive
How to avoid big company syndrome
Shiona Watson harnesses people power
64 Other life
Steven Osiel, ambassador for beekeeping
HCAMAG.COM CHECK IT OUT ONLINE
SPECIAL REPORT
INNOVATIVE HR TEAMS
HRD highlights the achievements of the HR teams leading innovation in Australia’s workplaces
PEOPLE
A CREATIVE ROAD TO SUCCESS
McCann Australia’s national people and talent director Robert Stone believes in the power of creativity to solve business problems
Why an ‘open door’ policy may backfire
63 Career path
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2019
FEATURES
58 In favour of going direct
PEOPLE
INNOVATIVE HR TEAMS
FEATURES
46 FEATURES
BECOMING YOUR OWN LEADER
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Finding a successful leadership style is not just about knowing who you are but about understanding the needs of your audience
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UPFRONT
EDITORIAL www.hcamag.com FEBRUARY 2O19
Will you survive the future of work?
A
s we dive into 2019, it’s only natural for employers to start imagining the kinds of disruptions that might be heading their way. This game of fearmongering among decision-makers reached a whole new level at the close of last year as more and more organisations scrambled to make sense of the impending changes. Automation? Robotic integration? Saturated talent markets? It may seem like a daunting time to be in the people function, but it’s also the most exciting: 2019 is the year of innovation. Let’s face it – we have a lot to look forward to in the coming months. The days of pen-pushing HR are over; we’ve entered the era of strategic business partnerships. Technology has become increasingly integral to organisational strategy, decision-making and day-to-day progress. It’s a case of grabbing the bull by the horns in this new era of digitisation, because if you’re unwilling to adapt to the times ahead, then don’t expect to see 2020.
Automation? Robotic integration? Saturated talent markets? It may seem like a daunting time to be in the people function This issue of HRD is packed full of the future. Join us as we celebrate Australia’s most Innovative HR Teams of 2019 – the very best and brightest of our nation’s HR leaders. The report is a stellar showcase of the top teams at the forefront of innovation in talent management, diversity and inclusion, recruitment, reward and recognition, culture and HR technology. We also present exclusive interviews with the likes of Robert Stone, national people and talent director at McCann Australia; Sam Retallack, head of people and culture at Independence Group; and Nicolette Barnard, head of HR Pacific at Siemens. Start 2019 as you mean to go on: looking forward, not backward. The team at Human Resources Director
EDITORIAL Senior writer Emily Douglas Writers Nina Cuturic, Tom Goodwin, John Hilton, Libby Macdonald Contributors Brian de Haaff, Norma Kraay, Matthew E. May, Joe Murphy Production Editor Roslyn Meredith
ART & PRODUCTION Designer Marla Morelos Traffic Coordinator Freya Demegilio
SALES & MARKETING Marketing & Communications Manager Danica Mendoza Business Development Manager Matthew Nutt
CORPORATE Chief Executive Officer Mike Shipley Chief Operating Officer George Walmsley Managing Director Justin Kennedy Chief Information Officer Colin Chan Human Resources Manager Julia Bookallil
EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES emily.douglas@keymedia.com john.hilton@keymedia.com
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Human Resources Director is part of an international family of B2B publications and websites for the human resources industry HRD CANADA www.hrmonline.ca HRD ASIA hrdmag.com.sg HRD AUSTRALIA hcamag.com HRD NEW ZEALAND hrmonline.co.nz
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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 HRD Magazine can accept no responsibility for loss.
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UPFRONT
HEAD TO HEAD
Should HR ban workplace dress codes? Is it true that clothes maketh the man, or are such rulings outdated and in need of overturning?
Sam Retallack
Nicolette Barnard Head of HR Pacific Siemens
Cherie McGill
Head of people and culture Independence Group “HR should not themselves ban anything! The answer to this question lies in the creation of a purpose-driven organisation in which a strong culture, driven by strong positive behaviours, communicates the way individuals operate. In contemporary organisations, the clothes that people wear should reflect a set of personal choices that are driven by what they need to achieve or deliver in their role and as an expression of their individual diversity. There are, however, instances where a business requirement dictates a dress code, such as wearing PPE at a mine site, which is important and logical. Even in those situations the organisation can still adopt a co-creation approach to encourage inclusion.”
“When entering a corporate organisation’s building, you definitely encounter a code: a code created by the culture of the organisation and silent expectations amongst fellow colleagues that ensure most employees dress alike. We like employees to come to work as the individuals they are and to bring that wonderful diversity into our workplace. We have no written dress code, yet most employees still dress professionally. Broader policies or guidelines that establish a culture, enhance the values of the organisation, or set expectations of behaviour would be more relevant than setting rules on what to wear. Dress codes belong in the past.”
“I have been fortunate enough to work in fairly relaxed workwear environments over the years, and I personally gave up the power suit back in the 90s, where it should be. I do, however, believe that people like guidelines. It doesn’t mean the guideline can’t be that we allow relaxed business attire or that you can wear jeans but no thongs, etc; it is simply that: a guideline. At the end of the day, 99% of people will do the right thing and make wise wardrobe choices. But there is always the 1% who will push the boundaries.”
HR consultant People Direction
DRESSING THE PART According to a study by staffing firm Office Team, more than 60% of workers reported favouring more relaxed work clothing than either the formality of a suit and tie or a “somewhat formal” option. Almost 40% of respondents said they found their company dress code to be unclear as to what would be appropriate clothing to wear to work, and nearly one in three preferred to be compelled to wear a uniform, thus sidestepping any ambiguity. Surprisingly, those aged under 34 were the most likely to want a formal dress code. This was also the age group most likely to prefer a uniform – one in three favoured this option. At the other end of the scale, one in eight employees told Stormline in 2016 that they had considered leaving their company purely because of the dress code.
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UPFRONT
STATISTICS
Mixed feelings about change
NOT EVERYONE’S ON BOARD
HR leaders have conflicting attitudes when it comes to the demands on them to evolve and adapt to a changing world THE DIGITAL economy that has already disrupted and transformed so many organisations is set to overhaul the traditional HR functions that have served these businesses so far. However, HR leaders are of several minds in the face of these changes, and between those taking action and those succumbing to inertia lies a gulf. While forward-looking HR leaders are embracing the resources needed to redraw the conventional HR model through new strategies as well as the implementation of
48%
view the HR role as unchanged
41%
consider workplace culture to be a barrier to digital transformation
the latest technologies, including analytics, digital labour and artificial intelligence, a much larger cohort are in no hurry to rush to meet such changes head-on. “Those that ‘get it’ are acting decisively, viewing HR as a new value-driver,” says Robert Bolton, partner at KPMG in the UK and head of its People and Change Centre of Excellence. “The rest are either limiting themselves to changes that show some progress, or simply clinging to a static approach that’s perilous.”
50%
aren’t prepared to respond strategically to AI and machine learning
While two thirds of HR execs agree that HR has undergone or is undergoing a digital transformation or say they recognise that workplace transformation is necessary, the number of those who actually have a plan in place to achieve this falls short.
88%
of those who have invested in AI say the investment was worthwhile
Source: The Future of HR 2019: In the Know or in the No, KPMG International
WHERE THE MONEY IS GOING The two areas that have seen the greatest recent and projected technology investment are human capital management software and cloud capabilities.
FUTURE PLANS FOR INVESTMENT Those reporting plans to make investments in the next year or two are most likely going to sink funds into the fields of predictive analytics or enhanced process automation, with AI coming a close third.
49% 32% HR executives who have invested in HCM over the past two years
HR executives who have invested in cloud capabilities over the past two years
Source: The Future of HR 2019: In the Know or in the No, KPMG International
4
60%
Predictive analytics
53%
Enhanced process automation
47% AI
Source: The Future of HR 2019: In the Know or in the No, KPMG International
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70% recognise the need for workforce
2/3
of HR executives agree that HR has undergone or is undergoing a digital transformation
20%
of HR leaders believe analytics will be a primary HR initiative for them over the next one to two years
transformation
37% feel ‘very confident’ about HR’s actual
40% say they have a digital workplace
12% cite analytics as a
ability to transform and move them forward via key capabilities such as analytics and AI
at the enterprise or HR level
top management concern
Source: The Future of HR 2019: In the Know or in the No, KPMG International
SLOW UPTAKE OF AI
A QUESTION OF CONFIDENCE While more than one in three HR leaders say they are very confident about HR’s ability to transform the workforce and HR itself, almost one in four lack that confidence and struggle to adapt to change in the digital era. Responding to change
39%
Those who have already embraced AI and machine learning as a value-driver for HR are still in the minority. Of those who have adopted the technology, however, almost nine in 10 report it to have been a worthwhile investment.
Exist in digital era
Anticipating change
37%
36%
Thrive in digital era
Ignoring change
24%
14%
Struggle to adapt to digital era 0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Source: The Future of HR 2019: In the Know or in the No, KPMG International
have started to introduce AI
have invested in AI in the last two years
Source: The Future of HR 2019: In the Know or in the No, KPMG International
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EXPERT INSIGHT
OPINION
The power of intergenerational collaboration Who wouldn’t want to be 20 and know everything a 50-year-old does? Norma Kraay explains how intergenerational collaboration in the workplace is the secret to success WE OFTEN see headlines – especially in the HR world – predicting a wave of millennials, and now centennials, taking over the workforce, and highlighting how businesses need to change and adapt to ensure they continue to thrive when it happens. As a Gen Xer, I can admit that I, too, have reflected on and produced thought leadership on this topic; however, after my discussions and experiences with youth, leaders and clients, my thinking around successful strategies to enable our future workforce to excel has evolved. As these new leaders advance their careers, they recognise that understanding the organisational context and engaging talent of all ages in designing solutions to business issues is a key enabler for them to thrive. Organisations that encourage intergenerational collaboration to evolve with the workforce, rather than preparing to adapt to it, will accelerate their journey towards success. It is less about bracing for change and more about developing agile ways of working together.
Come together… Similar to the generations that came before them, millennials and centennials are looking for opportunities to contribute, engage, and take the lead in generating ideas and designing solutions. They grew up being encouraged to share their opinions openly, and are used to gathering feedback to make their ideas even more impactful. Providing our people with opportunities to lead at every level includes giving younger team
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members the chance to spearhead projects with support and guidance from seasoned team members. At Deloitte our client engagement requires both expertise and fresh approaches to creating solutions, and teams typically comprise individuals from at least two generations who work and interact with the client together. Beyond this, we also seek intergenerational collaboration to solve challenges in our offices.
as it is for us to share what we have learned over the years, it is equally important to listen to youth and give them a voice in decision-making today. Engaging them will enable experienced team members to accelerate and evolve their thinking for differentiated impact and innovative solutions. One of my favourite stories around reverse mentoring comes from our Deloitte Tax practice. During a career development conversation, a younger team member shared her goal to lead our Blockchain Tax practice one day. Although we had clients who focused on blockchain, many of our seasoned practitioners had not yet experienced this sector. This, however, did not stop her. She went in-depth into the field, including networking with the ecosystem, and became our resident industry expert. In just two years, with the hard work and collaboration of the team, our Blockchain Tax practice has grown into a group of more than 30 practitioners. This individual continues to be an adviser and expert on blockchain, including training others.
Not so different after all While experienced professionals rely on
We facilitate ‘reverse mentoring’ within our offices: listening to youth and giving them a voice in decision-making today In fact, some recent advances have come from working with high-school students! This summer a trio of high-school interns built Handshake, our digital receptionist app, which streamlines guest registration and sign-in, and helps keep meeting requests updated. With direction from one of our consultants, the group worked collaboratively with individuals across our enabling areas (eg IT, security, digital) to bring Handshake to life.
knowledge, varied points of reference and an expertise-based network developed over years, young professionals bring fresh perspectives anchored by technology, adaptability to rapid change, and a collaborative approach enriched by broad-based feedback sourced from digital networks. Each generation contributes knowledge in different ways to enable a growth mindset on both sides. When focused on the same goal, this collaboration produces intergenerational solutions that are simply superior.
Give and take Passing on our years of experience as baby boomers and Gen Xers will certainly help the younger generations prepare to make an impact globally. And this impact can only be amplified if we facilitate ‘reverse mentoring’. As important
Norma Kraay is the managing partner for talent at Deloitte Canada. She is passionate about building high-performing teams and leading complex business challenges to deliver exceptional client results.
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EXPERT INSIGHT
Brought to you by
EMPLOYEE DATA COLLECTION
Tread carefully when collecting employee data The rules around data collection for employees are undergoing rapid changes. Joe Murphy, ABLA’s managing director, national workplace, explains A FULL Bench of the Fair Work Commission has granted permission for an employee to appeal an unfair dismissal based on “public interest” as the case raised “important, novel and emerging issues” concerning personal data, security and fingerprint scans. Yes, fingerprints – familiar from forensic procedurals and one of a range of biometric measures used to monitor employee movements. In this particular case, the employer advised employees that they were introducing this technology for signing in and out of work. One employee refused as he was concerned that his biometric data would be accessed, sold or used against him. Despite responses from his manager regarding security, he still refused and was consequently terminated 12 weeks later. This case and subsequent appeal are significant as they will allow the Full Bench to review what personal data employers can request from their employees in a time of increased fear around data collection, breaches and privacy. As individuals become better educated on the threats against cybersecurity and the damage that can occur from identity theft, it raises the question: at what point can an employee refuse to share personal data with an employer without the risk of dismissal?
Health Records and the significant number of ‘opt-outs’, people don’t trust organisations to keep their personal data safe. How many organisations can give assurances that personal data will be secure at all times? No organisation can give a 100% guarantee that they won’t be hacked, but they should put every reasonable protection in place to make that data secure. Employment contracts, induction training and policies should clearly state reasons for data collection.
Employees’ rights to ‘opt in’
Building trust and proceeding reasonably are critical when an employer is exercising its rights
As we have seen with the government’s My
Managing Generation Z With younger, tech-savvy generations in the workforce, many companies are looking at adopting a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy, including personal phones and laptops. These policies present another area for review. Smartphones today are more than a technological tool. They can hold all of an employee’s private data, medical and financial records – even their fingerprints! If an organisation asks employees to use personal devices to access corporate data, policies and processes should be in place so they are clear on the employer’s rights to access the device and its data.
When is a company within its rights to collect data?
to collect information. If you have a workplace culture built on communication and trust that properly informs employees when, why and how you collect their personal data, you should experience minimal resistance. Whatever personal data you collect, keep these rules in mind: 1. Communicate: Tell employees what data you need and why, at every point of collection. If they understand the rationale behind it, cooperation should follow. 2. Document: Make policies available to employees at the start, and frequently remind them of what data you collect, and why and how it will be used. 3. Secure: Access to employee records and data should be restricted to the few who need it to do their job, as well as the employee. Giving the employee equal access is considered best practice. If you collect data or monitor your employees, you should communicate clear workplace policies to avoid repercussions should an unfair dismissal claim arise. Have a policy for email and internet use, social media drug and alcohol testing, and personal data collection. Whether fingerprint scans or health records, handling employees’ personal data can be a grey area. Review your methods of collection, the purpose of the data and the security measures adopted. Bring in relevant departments that have a role in protecting the privacy of employees. If in doubt, get professional advice on whether your current processes are best practice and would stand up in court if challenged. Joe Murphy is the managing director, national workplace, at Australian Business Lawyers & Advisors (ABLA). Serving business and only business, ABLA is trusted by the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and is the leading voice for business in the Fair Work Commission. ABLA was voted #1 Employment & Workplace Law Firm of the Year 2018. Contact Joe on 1300 565 846 or at joe.murphy@ablawyers.com.au if you have any questions raised by this article.
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UPFRONT
NEWS ANALYSIS
What HR can learn from Fyre Festival HR professionals are masters of dealing with disasters. Be it a corporate slip-up, an embarrassing executive decision or a harassment case gone public, more often than not these problems end up at HR’s door IN THE age of social media, when everything is accessible in a matter of seconds, maintaining a good employer brand is more essential than ever before. Never was there a more apt example of this than the PR crisis
organisations that choose style over substance? “Fyre Festival was marketed as the event of summer 2017,” Alan Price, operations director at HR consultancy firm Peninsula, told HRD. “Festivalgoers were expecting the event to be
“It was a massive wake-up call that we needed to implement some sort of plan in case it happened again” Ben Bazinet, VP strategy and development, Horizon North Logistics surrounding Fyre Festival. Marketed as the event of 2017, Fyre Festival was advertised as a heady mix of luxury, celebrity and high fashion – a music festival to end all festivals. But while the revellers were expecting to be dancing on private beaches with supermodels, the reality wasn’t quite the same. So, what can HR learn from the infamous failure of the festival? How can employers heed this stark warning of what can happen to
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held on the white sandy beaches of a private island, party with some of the most well-known models, and listen to the biggest bands and DJs on the planet. However, it filled the headlines of summer 2017 for all the wrong reasons. “Fast-forward to 2019 and two documen taries have already looked at how the 400-plus attendees were forced to fight for half-built hurricane tents and eat cold cheese sandwiches. The event’s founder, Billy McFarland, has had multiple significant legal
claims against him and is facing six years of imprisonment. Although the situation concerning this company is an extreme example, the lessons that can be learnt in regard to HR and employee wellbeing can apply to any organisation.” Price suggests looking to internal resources to deal with any impending organisational disaster – and, of course, it’s essential never to overpromise on what your team can deliver. “One of the major issues that was clear from the start was that most of the company’s employees did not have the time or resources to facilitate what had been promised to attendees,” Price said. “Stories of staff being unable to pay booked music guests or not being able to book a caterer in time for the festival have since filled the headlines. Many of the employees were having to work substantial hours in order to keep up with the workload, causing significant levels of stress and pressure, whilst others had to go above and
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CRISIS MANAGEMENT STATS TO REMEMBER
79%
of decision-makers think they are just 12 months away from a crisis
65%
of employees believe social media makes disasters harder to manage
54%
of companies have a crisis plan in place Source: ODM Group
beyond what was expected of them, with little or no warning and support from a manager. “After the backlash and the failure of the
employee to claim an anticipatory breach of contract that would allow them to resign and claim constructive dismissal.”
“Although the situation concerning this company is an extreme example, there are lessons that can be learnt in regard to HR” Alan Price, operations director, Peninsula festival, which co-host and rapper Ja Rule said ‘wasn’t fraud, just false advertising’, the significant costs incurred by the company meant that employees were later told that payroll could not facilitate owed salary and payments at that time. Employees were given no option to dispute this and were invited to resign if they wished to or to continue working for free. Deliberately withholding wages and telling an employee they can leave if they don’t like it could also entitle the
The truth is, when dealing with a PR disaster, there are steps HR can take to minimise unwanted repercussions. HRD spoke to Ben Bazinet, VP strategy and development at Horizon North Logistics in Canada, who explained how a recent PR nightmare had led to a total revamping of the company’s communications strategy. One of Horizon’s services is the provision of housing for remote workers. However, Bazinet said sometimes it was difficult to keep track of what was happening in
the distant locations the company operates in. “Essentially, what happened on this occasion was somewhat of a nightmare,” he told HRD. “There was an altercation, and ultimately a death, at a remote location. Thankfully, as we’re not the only company in this sector, the site wasn’t one of ours. “All of a sudden, we were fielding calls asking if the site was ours, what we knew about the murder, how we planned to proceed. And we had no clue what to tell them, what to say. At this point, we didn’t even know if it was at our site, but if we said ‘no comment’, then the media would start speculating. “Luckily, as I said, it wasn’t our site. But it was a massive wake-up call that we needed to implement some sort of plan in case it happened again.” This incident led to a total restructuring of the company’s communication strategy, so much so that it now has external media plans in place to help minimise any damage. It just goes to show the importance of having a solid emergency plan in place for when HR comes calling.
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UPFRONT
L&D UPDATE NEWS BRIEFS Australia firms fighting to keep up in the digital era As the global workforce faces the challenge of upskilling in the digital era, businesses in Australia are reportedly struggling to keep up. Nearly two thirds of companies are having trouble retaining top IT talent and embracing emerging tech such as artificial intelligence and blockchain, according to the Enterprise Cloud Index. Consequently, nine in 10 businesses are rushing to plug the talent gap by reskilling their IT teams. Skills in AI, machine learning and blockchain are in highest demand. Despite fears of AI and automation taking over routine, low-level jobs, almost three quarters of employers said AI had made a positive impact on their business, the study from Nutanix showed.
Revealed: Most bankable skills in 2019 January tends to show a spike in the number of workers enrolling in personal and professional development courses, according to LinkedIn data. The professional networking site has published a list of the top skills that companies will need most in 2019. Notably, even with the emergence of cloud computing and artificial intelligence, nearly six in 10 business leaders today put more premium on soft skills than hard skills, the data revealed. The most bankable soft skills in 2019 include creativity, persuasion, collaboration, adaptability and time management.
Foreigners with ‘basic’ English skills eligible for work visa Semi-skilled foreign workers who might not be fluent in English will be eligible to live and work in Australia under a new labour migration program. The Designated Area Migration Agreement (DAMA) will grant migrants in more than a hundred fields (such as agriculture
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and hospitality) a working visa as the government lowers the language, skills and income requirements for newcomers. The initiative aims to address the skills shortage and boost the population in regions such as the Northern Territory and Victoria’s Great South Coast. The program may also open an opportunity for workers to file for permanent residency if they can commit to working in the designated region for a specific number of years.
‘Connector’ managers improve performance
Organisations need to seek out ambitious, high-performing managers who can develop employee skills and unite talent from within and outside of the business to deliver results, according to Gartner research. The study found that the manager best positioned to improve performance in the current work environment is the “connector manager”. “A connector manager links employees to the right people and resources at the right time to get the job done,” said Aaron McEwan, HR advisory leader at Gartner. Gartner data also reveals that just one in four managers demonstrate the connector leadership attributes organisations need.
Leaders failing to invest in soft skills
Businesses are failing to invest in their own employees, according to a new study by the Australian Institute of Management (AIM). The AIM Soft Skills Survey 2019 found that nine out of 10 Australian leaders perceive soft skills as critical when hiring new talent, and 80.5% of Australian business leaders believe soft skills development is very or extremely important. However, the survey also highlighted that despite 51.9% of Australian businesses allocating more than $1,000 per employee in their total L&D budget, it was predicted that, in 2019, 43.6% would invest less than $500 per employee in soft skills training.
Goal setting to develop employees Employment Hero’s Alex Hattingh explains to HRD why setting goals is crucial to professional development Career and professional development are two of the biggest trends in 2019, according to Alex Hattingh, chief people officer at Employment Hero. She told HRD that employers had a great opportunity now to tie in employee goals with what they wanted from their roles, which would lead to “heightened employee engagement and satisfaction”. “As a business, supporting employee resolutions shows a personal level of care,” Hattingh said. “It shows that an employee’s personal success is as important to an employer as their professional and career success.” She added that there were different ways businesses could approach this conversation. Managers could ask employees one-on-one or in a team meeting to share a New Year’s resolution that was related to a professional development goal. They could then record it as a Q1 target and help them achieve it. This didn’t have to involve the cost of a course or workshop either – on-the-job learning or stretch assignments with the individual’s team or other teams could easily provide professional development. “You could go a step further and record each team member’s biggest-priority New Year’s resolution and check in with them each month,” said Hattingh. “This again shows a personal and caring interest in your employees and helps to hold them accountable.” Hattingh suggested three ideas for facilitating this.
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• You could record personal resolutions as part of your KPIs/OKRs/goals. • You could start a visual wall in your team’s section of the office, with the resolutions up and visible. • You could buddy people up who may have similar resolutions – for example, fitness or eating healthier or saving for a deposit on a house – and they could help hold each other accountable. Hattingh added that, by sharing goals, co-workers or managers could also help others make them more realistic if their targets were too aspirational or timelines too tight. “People goals can sometimes benefit from a
“As a business, supporting employee resolutions shows a personal level of care” ‘business-style’ approach,” said Hattingh. “If managers notice a trend with New Year’s resolutions, they can implement initiatives to support employees. I would recommend a survey, as this will make anything you implement a majority employee-selected companysponsored initiative.” For example, if wellness was a popular resolution, then bringing in lunch or offering morning yoga or meditation classes or a personal trainer once a week could be a small investment to support employees. Another reward would be that healthy employees were generally happier employees, which benefited everyone, Hattingh added. “Celebrating wins with employees is vital to making people feel appreciated and motivating those who may have fallen behind or become demotivated about achieving their goal,” said Hattingh.
Q&A
Michelle Gilmore Program director
L&D challenges for 2019
TRAIN
Fast fact ‘Connector’ managers can improve employee performance by up to 26% and increase employee engagement by up to 40%, according to Gartner.
What do you think are the key challenges organisations are facing in terms of building skills? Across both the private and public sectors, the practical application of valuable skills – and then measuring them – is an increasing challenge. There’s a vast difference between general, and often superficial, training for staff and focused skill-based training that effectively embeds a capability within teams. The latter is going to become more and more important as budgets decrease and value is more closely monitored. How is the employee-manager relationship evolving, and why is this significant for L&D? There are cultural signals telling us that the hierarchical way in which we used to work is slowly transitioning into professional partnerships and two-way relationships between staff and their leadership. This change needs to be reflected in L&D approaches. Managers and employees often take part in different, and at times conflicting, training for their roles. Training employees in a skill, field or discipline is useless if leadership doesn’t know how to coach, govern and measure their application. What do you think HR needs to get better at to enhance workforce skills? As budgets are (rightly) watched more closely, HR managers will need to be more accountable for the demonstrable impact of the L&D models they deploy. General and superficial training that can’t be measured within the context of the work people do will no longer be acceptable. Organisations must select better training partners, better design training content and its delivery, and better measure its impact. Enhancing workforce skills also means ensuring they anchor and contribute to the business’s overarching goals. This is what moves companies forward, and training without this is just an expensive way to give teams some time away from their day jobs.
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20/02/2019 2:16:09 PM
UPFRONT
RECRUITMENT UPDATE
Flexible approach to hiring key to business growth There is a recurring theme in global recruitment that heralds the future of business
to recruitment in the years to come, including more control over staffing and recruitment costs (36%); support for long-term absences, such as parental leave, secondments or sick leave (34%); and better management of workload fluctuations (32%). Thirty-one per cent saw the benefits of access to new ideas/initiatives to support innovation, and providing a stopgap when permanent hiring took too long. Morris added that contract workers were essential when scaling any business, to ensure
“Growing technological complexity is changing businesses, requiring more specialist and hard-to-find skills” The gig economy is crucial to businesses that need to address demands for greater flexibility, both today and in the future, according to Andrew Morris, director of Robert Half Australia. “Growing technological complexity is changing businesses, requiring more specialist and hard-to-find skills,” Morris said. With traditional job roles evolving rapidly, he said businesses needed to adopt more flexible approaches to recruitment to find the right balance of skills. According to global research by Robert Half, business leaders aim to achieve a 66:34 split between permanent and temporary workers by 2023, highlighting how the professional gig
NEWS BRIEFS
economy is transforming traditional staffing and recruitment strategies. Australia is following a similar trend, with the latest ABS statistics confirming that more than one million Australians are classified as independent contractors. Moreover, Australian hiring managers predict a 70:30 split between permanent and temporary employees by 2023 – a strong indication of the future direction of Australia’s workplace dynamics. Robert Half ’s research polled over 3,800 business leaders in 12 countries worldwide. It found that 97% of business leaders identified the benefits of adopting a more flexible approach
Companies face massive talent shortage
Australian companies are forecast to have a talent shortage of 739,000 highly skilled workers and to miss out on US$162.35bn (A$228.31bn) in unrealised revenue by 2020, says The Talent Crunch report by Korn Ferry. It highlights the divide between supply and demand for highly skilled workers, and the potentially damaging effect on the Australian and global economy. This includes the cost of recruiting workers from overseas, and the cost of economic growth. By 2030, the deficit is forecast to rise to 2.2 million highly skilled workers and US$587.56bn (A$826bn). 12
the availability of a contingency workforce. “With the growing split of permanent and contract workers, employers need to ensure they are maximising the benefits of the professional gig economy and embracing the long-term strategic gains that temporary workers provide, such as increased staffing flexibility, access to skills, and better management of workload fluctuations.” The rising adoption of the gig economy and a flexible workforce is being driven by several factors, mainly new technologies that allow for greater workplace flexibility, such as collaboration tools that offer businesses a more flexible approach to managing key project initiatives and workload fluctuations.
What job interview candidates are really thinking About one in four job hunters in Australia go into an interview with the mindset of interviewing the employer, according to new research by Indeed. The study also found that 70% of job hunters consider the interview as an opportunity for them to get to know the company. Indeed’s job whisperer, Ruby Lee, said job hunters were missing the bullseye when it came to searching for a job because they were not expanding and completing their searches. “Job hunting can be a daunting and scary task; however, searching for a job should be an exciting time full of opportunity.”
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Q&A
Lucy Zucker Head of client success Cappfinity
Fast fact Nine in 10 employers in Australia are open to hiring a candidate with continuous temporary or contract work experience for a permanent role, according to Robert Half.
How VR can enhance the recruitment process Why do you think it’s becoming increasingly important for HR to deliver a great candidate experience? There are multiple reasons why improving candidate experience is so important for organisations. The war for talent is still real, and in the majority of industries candidates are in control and have choice. The strongest candidates are likely to apply for multiple schemes, and a negative experience could not only mean the loss of an exceptional hire but harm a potential customer. A great candidate experience with insight, communication and feedback will have a positive impact even if the applicant isn’t successful. Providing an educational process that helps the candidate to understand more about the company and the specific role they are applying for will make for a more informed decision on both sides. This in turn will lead to improved brand perception, increased productivity and higher retention rates.
What are some of the key benefits of using virtual reality (VR) to select candidates, compared to more traditional forms of assessment? Since its implementation in 2016, over 2,000 candidates have been assessed in the virtual world. As the technology is relatively new to the market, candidates are immediately impressed with it and with the immersive nature of the experience. In fact, 90% of those surveyed after their assessment said they would speak positively about their assessment.
Salary the biggest draw for employees
When employees were asked what attracted them most to a workplace, salary came out on top, a study by Citrus Group revealed, with 30% of Australians listing this at the most important factor. The second highest was job flexibility (22%), followed by career progression (14%), culture (13%), the option to work from home (12%), incentives (5%), and leadership (4%). Extra leave finished lowest (2%) in the ranking. The study also found that 22% of respondents had left a previous role due to lack of career progression.
Ageism still rampant in Australia
Additionally, VR technology allows organisations to assess in a consistent manner. Controlled by the software, it delivers exactly the same experience to every candidate, meaning they can be assessed on a truly level playing field. It also removes the issue of overpreparedness that many assessors see in traditional assessments, as candidates are unable to predict what they will be, or are being, assessed on, which drives more natural behaviours and reactions. For the assessors, the benefit of VR is the level of engagement they experience. Not only do they feel that the VR experience is impressive, but they frequently use evidence from the assessment to reinforce hiring decisions, as they feel that the behaviour seen within this environment is more real than in other, more traditional exercises (eg an interview).
How does VR support diversity and equal opportunity? Having put over 2,000 people through VR, no adverse impact has been found aligned with ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status or age. As it taps into candidates’ strengths, not their experience, it removes some of the inequalities sometimes seen in other assessments (eg socio-economic status and its link to gaining experience, like internships). Given the consistency with which VR assessments are delivered, for example an identical environment for each candidate and automated instructions, it removes many human biases from the process. The technology itself can be adapted for the majority of disabilities.
Almost a third of Australian employers are reluctant to hire job applicants over a certain age, according to an Australian Human Rights Commission survey. For seven in 10 companies, the cut-off age is 50, even though setting an age limit is against the law in Australia. While hesitant to recruit older workers, the majority of respondents recognised that the experience (75%) and professional knowledge (68%) of more seasoned employees gave their company an advantage. Of those hiring older employees, 32% had not faced any major roadblocks to hiring more experienced staff.
Telstra recruits globally amid IT skills shortage
Telstra is set to open a new innovation and capability hub in Bangalore later this year in order to tap into the digital talent pool of the city known as ‘India’s Silicon Valley’. Telstra CEO Andy Penn predicts Australia will have a shortage of 60,000 skilled workers in the ICT sector in the next five years. This, he believes, is forcing his company to recruit on the global market. Telstra has already established its presence in India, working with partners and the staff supplied by third parties. www.hcamag.com
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20/02/2019 2:16:47 PM
PEOPLE
GLOBAL HR LEADER
A CREATIVE ROAD TO THE TOP Robert Stone, national people and talent director at McCann Australia, explains why he’s committed to the ‘truth well told’ FOR A long and successful career in talent management, you need an endless supply of enthusiasm and a gift for understanding people. Robert Stone, national people and talent director at McCann Australia, has both in abundance. HRD talked to Stone about what originally inspired him to work in this sector, and about the projects he’s most proud of.
HRD: How did your career in the HR sector begin? What inspired you to join this industry? Robert Stone: After graduating from high school, I really had no idea of what I wanted to do with my working life. When exploring university degrees I was always extremely interested in creative industries, but I’ve also had an innate ability to connect with people, to build trust and resolve difficult situations. With this in mind I enrolled in a Bachelor of Business degree specialising in marketing and HR.
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Upon graduating, I found that it was extremely difficult to land a graduate HR position in Australia due to a real shortage of roles. After a long and unsuccessful job hunt, I recalibrated and decided that I would take a different approach. I knew that I wanted to be an HR professional, but
ultimately allowed me to make the transition into a talent-orientated position.
HRD: What’s been your career highlight so far? RS: I’ve been extremely fortunate to have worked for some amazing global organisations
“When truth is well told it has the power to move people, brands and markets ... We put ‘Truth Well Told’ at the core of everything we do, from our work to our people” only in an organisation that would allow me to be creative in my approach. And so I decided to take a graduate planning position within a media and marketing agency. This move allowed me to truly understand the inner workings of a creative business, which
that have allowed me to travel and see the world. If I was to choose a highlight, I would have to say it was on 31 October 2017, when Alex Lubar [CEO of McCann London] and I were invited to the House of Lords in the UK to present evidence regarding “What is the
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PROFILE Name: Robert Stone Company: McCann Australia Position: National people and talent director Years in the industry: 8 Proudest moment: Invited to provide evidence at the House of Lords. Fun fact: Stone played basketball for a living before coming into HR.
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PEOPLE
GLOBAL HR LEADER
“I knew that I wanted to be an HR professional, but only in an organisation that would allow me to be creative in my approach”
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role of the international workforce in the UK advertising industry?” This talk was based on the iconic Brexit vote.
HRD: What schemes or decisions have you been most proud of in your career? RS: I have two schemes that I am extremely proud of from my time at McCann London. The first was called Open Hour, in which McCann London launched a new initiative that aimed to diversify its next generation of employees by encouraging a broader spectrum of prospective candidates to consider a career in advertising. Open Hour is a weekly hourlong session of 15-minute one-on-one Skype calls, initially with the chief creative officers and co-presidents of McCann London, Rob Doubal and Laurence Thomson. It was later extended through senior management in disciplines including strategy, planning and new business. The sessions are targeted at anyone who is considering a career in advertising – and particularly those who haven’t previously considered this career path but would like to find out more. Open Hour will be advertised in schools and job centres across the country, aiming to spark interest in both schoolchildren who may not have decided on their career path, and those changing careers at a later stage in life. It offers participants the opportunity to ask questions of advertising industry experts, and can be used to show work or ask advice about working in the industry. The second scheme is the McCann Worldgroup Global Diversity Coalition, which I’m extremely proud to be a founding member of. This group is made up of Diversity Coalition Champion leaders from various global markets who work together to inspire an open, dynamic and integrated global community with a focus on conscious inclusion. Our first-ever initiative was intended to create a global week-long cultural awareness campaign spotlighting
five different cities. It had the following three objectives: • Increase awareness of the rich diversity and perspectives of McCann talent across the globe. • Introduce the McCann Global Diversity Coalition, and Champions. • Engage and connect employees from around the world to strengthen our collective knowledge about the global culture that we serve.
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HRD: Tell me more about the world’s first advertising trademark, ‘Truth Well Told’. RS: In 1912, Harry McCann opened an advertising agency using the words ‘The Truth Well Told’ as his slogan. When truth is well told it has the power to move people, brands and markets. Truth Well Told is both a creative philosophy and a collaborative global vision. It recognises the importance of consumer insight in building brands, which makes them successful in the long run. Truth is a catalyst for authentic and powerful ideas that will be believed, embraced and advocated by people in their everyday lives. And it is this approach that keeps us at the forefront of the industry. We put Truth Well Told at the core of everything we do, from our work to our people.
HRD: What piece of advice would you give to someone looking to get into this industry? RS: Working in the creative industries will be one of the most exciting, challenging and fulfilling careers you will ever have. We’re in an industry that allows us to solve businesses’ problems in a creative way. Our partnerships with brands not only allow us to solve their problems but they also allow us to influence culture and address some of the most serious issues affecting the world today. If you’re curious, bold and open-minded, you will go a long way!
www.hcamag.com
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20/02/2019 2:17:19 PM
National
2019
National HR Summit A U
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R A L
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26-27 March • Luna Park Sydney
Join over 1000 HR leaders for one award-winning event
TURIA PITT Athlete, Humanitarian, Motivational Speaker
ROSS SPARKMAN Head of Strategic Workforce, Planning Facebook
BRIDIE DAWSON Chief People Officer Australian Financial Security Authority
STEVEN WORRALL Managing Director Microsoft Australia
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3:50:13 PM 20/02/2019 3:48:51
COVER STORY
INNOVATIVE HR TEAMS
PUSHING FOR GREATNESS INNOVATIVE HR TEAMS 2019
Australia’s most innovative HR teams
HR should always be at the forefront of workplace innovation. Over the following pages we profile some of the companies that are leading the pack, in HRD’s annual list of Australia’s most innovative HR teams 18
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RECENT YEARS have seen ‘disruption’ become a catch-all term for any vaguely new concept introduced into the workplace. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s become conflated with innovation in the public discourse; the framing of the word is often used to suggest that disruption within an industry is inherently good and beneficial. But disruption is not in itself innovation. To innovate requires something more – a blend of creative inspiration and practical application that is often sought but rarely reached. When it comes to HR, this is a particularly crucial distinction. Disruption for disruption’s sake will simply… disrupt the workplace and lead to a loss of productivity. Innovation may initially breed disruption, but it ultimately leads to improvements across the board. The responsibility for driving a positive workplace culture and best practice – whatever form that may take in the industry in which you work – is not to be taken lightly. This feature is intended to celebrate those HR teams – and their attendant organisations – who have risen to this challenge, marking themselves out as innovators in the truest sense of the word. At a superficial glance, it would appear that the organisations featured on this year’s list have little in common. They span a broad range of industries, and the innovations they have put in place are often wildly different. This is unsurprising at one level: each organisation is different, developing its own culture and unique way of doing things that best suits them. However, a closer look reveals that there is more shared than one might suspect: • INNOVATION IS RARELY (IF EVER) A SOLO PROJECT The lone genius toiling away for the betterment of all is a popular cultural myth but rarely an accurate reflection of how breakthroughs are made. Strength often comes in numbers, it would seem. Consultation with colleagues and stakeholders is crucial to drive companies forward. • DIVERSITY IS STRENGTH These organisations all place great emphasis on diversity. Australia is a multicultural society, encompassing a broad spectrum of humanity. Drawing on this collective strength can enable greater breakthroughs and more equitable working environments for all. • TECH IS A TOOL, NOT A REPLACEMENT Modern technology is not a substitute for human interaction and skill sets; rather, it should supplement and enhance, being used to increase productivity rather than marginalise its users. After all, we can never forget the importance of the human part of ‘human resources’.
Turn the page to see some of the leading HR innovators in Australia – organisations and teams that have distinguished themselves among their peers. Forward-thinking companies would do well to study them closely, learning from their insights – and perhaps we’ll then see some of this year’s readers making appearances on next year’s list.
A WORD FROM OUR PARTNER Whether you’re striving to attract and retain the best talent in today’s competitive market or to engage employees to achieve sustainable growth, it is critical to create and nurture a compelling employee value proposition (EVP) that is aligned to your employee experience (EX). The challenge for HR professionals is the need to proactively manage and evolve your EVP and EX so that the expectations you set with your employees are brought to life through their day-to-day, real-life experiences. The HRD Innovative HR Teams list shines a spotlight on the organisations leading the way in HR innovation. By recognising those who are pushing the boundaries and thinking bigger, this list helps set new benchmarks for the Australian HR industry. Whether it be in recruitment, culture, data, benefits, health and wellbeing, engagement or diversity, we can all learn from their innovative thinking. Maxxia is proud to sponsor the Innovative HR Teams list for the fourth year running, and, on behalf of Maxxia, I congratulate and applaud these HR professionals for their efforts in creating great experiences for their employees. For more than 30 years, Maxxia has been helping organisations gain an edge with tailored employee benefit programs. We support over 1,200 organisations and their HR teams across multiple sectors to be forward-thinking in their employee benefit strategies. We’re entrusted to provide tangible value to more than 300,000 employees with a range of benefits. As you read through the pages of this report, you’ll discover how leading HR teams are delivering a competitive advantage for their organisations. Be prepared to be inspired by their innovative approaches and creativity.
Andrew Daly Group executive customer development, Maxxia
www.maxxia.com.au/employers
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COVER STORY
Brought to you by
INNOVATIVE HR TEAMS AECOM Industry: Construction and engineering HOT INNOVATION AREA: FLEXIBLE WORK
ACCENTURE AUSTRALIA Industry: Professional services HOT INNOVATION AREA: RECRUITMENT
The market Accenture operates in is ever-changing, and accordingly the ANZ graduate recruitment team has completely redesigned its recruitment process. The intention was for a digital yet personalised and high-touch process that provided a seamless and consistent candidate experience. To this end, the team embraced technology in 2018 – first through the global introduction of pymetrics and Taleo automation, then by working with a tech team to develop and refine a Splunk tool that allowed the recruitment team to quickly and easily identify top candidates, significantly reducing the screening of CVs. The HR Autoscreener tool ‘reads’ thousands of résumés in just a few hours, allocating scores based on the candidates’ education, skills and experiences. This allows the recruitment team to quickly and easily identify top candidates, particularly top diversity candidates. Design thinking sessions were also used to advise on the creation and refinement of the application process and assessment events held throughout 2018. Instead of running one long recruitment process with a two-month application window, Accenture has implemented an agile process: three 12-week recruitment cycles run yearly, allowing for process changes after each cycle from employees and candidates.
The AECOM HR team has taken numerous significant steps to position the business for the current and future challenges of planning workforce resources, specifically its contingent and contract workforce. With the implications for IR/ER of the contracting economy, it introduced a platform for its contingent and independent workforce – AECOM Link. AECOM Link is a support tool designed to add value to the company’s existing suite of talent sourcing tools. The gig economy is rapidly emerging as an option for talent who are choosing to work more flexibly. In this shifting talent landscape, AECOM Link enables connections between hiring managers and talent at any time. This includes on-the-fly requirements or pre-resourcing for projects yet to be awarded. While centralising the tacit, explicit and embedded knowledge of the company’s existing contractor talent, AECOM Link is also socially agile, with the ability to engage via @aecomlink and undertake targeted advertising via AECOM’s Facebook and LinkedIn profiles. Currently, AECOM is investigating expansion of AECOM Link’s reach, with opportunities including alumni, subcontractors, contractor compliance and geographically dispersed workforce strategies.
ADELAIDE FOOTBALL CLUB Industry: Sports HOT INNOVATION AREA: TEAM MANAGEMENT
In the AFL, players vigorously compete in an elite sports competition. When marginal gains count for so much, what HR technology is being used by staff within these clubs to ensure the best working environment in which players can prepare for their matches? In 2017, Adelaide Football Club was at the forefront of change and innovation, successfully rolling out Teamgage for all of the club’s administrative staff. But in 2018 the club wanted to push the boundaries of innovation and see if Teamgage could also benefit the team within its elite football department. Six main metrics were selected based on the club’s core values and the key drivers of the team. In the last six months, Adelaide Football Club has been able to drive positive change in the football department with respect to these six main metrics. The biggest improvement has come within the area of ‘Environment’, which has increased by nearly 10% to 85 out of 100. Success for the club and the wider business continues to be measured not only by the AFL league table but by the key stakeholders of players, members, employees and fans.
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COVER STORY
INNOVATIVE HR TEAMS
ALINTA ENERGY Industry: Energy HOT INNOVATION AREA: MULTIPLE
The Alinta Energy people and culture team made numerous innovations in 2018 to support significant growth of the business. On the capability front, a new leadership development program was launched that targets three levels of management, with face-to-face facilitated and interactive learning, as well as short hits of training to follow up on specific topics. Alinta also introduced Pivot technology for performance reviews, replacing its previous unsupported system with best practice methods. Pivot’s remuneration and bonus review system has also replaced the use of spreadsheets. A new salary packaging policy and provider, Maxxia, was introduced, enabling potential tax savings for some of Alinta’s most remote employees, and increasing the options available to metro employees. Alinta has also continued to build its gender pay analysis methodology, using position-matched market data to provide an external reference point. This has removed the loss of accuracy and inherent swamping that comes with broad-banding males and females in career levels or WGEA categories.
AURECON Industry: Engineering and infrastructure consulting HOT INNOVATION AREA: EMPLOYMENT CONTRACTS
With workplace polls often indicating a lack of meaningful employee engagement and trust, the issue of engaging talent – and
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ASTRAZENECA Industry: Pharmaceuticals HOT INNOVATION AREA: TALENT ACQUISITION
As local patient needs continue to change and the science of drug development progresses, AstraZeneca has needed to expand its functions and hire staff with new capabilities. To do this, it partnered with specialist in-house recruiter Hudson RPO to fast-track its talent acquisition capability development. Fundamental to this has been the use of innovative technology solutions to broaden its pool of high-quality niche candidates from diverse international sources. These technologies include Hiring Solved, Spark Hire, and XRef. The team has also achieved efficiencies by working flexibly across a range of locations, allowing AstraZeneca to access high-performing, diverse talent acquisition experts both locally and offshore in the Philippines. These innovations have led to the record hire of 300-plus high-potential recruits for 2018 across diverse industry segments.
building their trust – is becoming one of the biggest competitive differentiators across many industries and companies. So what better place to start meaningful engagement than when people are hired? Visual contracts are an emerging discipline and part of a broader movement to simplify the law. Ultimately, businesses and employees all want the same thing – agreement, alignment and engagement. The business world today can be overwhelmingly complex, but solutions, in the face of this complexity, need to stay simple. As human-centred designers, Aurecon wanted to make the complex simple. A talented team was assembled from different disciplines – HR, innovation, legal, marketing and communications, and graphic design. Aurecon also partnered with law professor Camilla Andersen from the University of Western Australia. Concepts and drawings were developed in design workshops, with each iteration tested and tweaked. More than 4,000 words were eliminated. The end result is a succinct and understandable employment contract – one that tells a story about Aurecon’s culture and is free from legal jargon.
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Brought to you by
AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL SECURITY AUTHORITY Industry: Finance HOT INNOVATION AREA: EMPLOYEE WELLBEING
BARWON WATER Industry: Water utilities HOT INNOVATION AREA: EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
At Barwon Water, the HR team plays a critical role in supporting the organisation in achieving its goals and embracing this positive period of transformation. Its purpose is to drive the organisation to be a resilient, high-performing, inclusive, safe and healthy workplace, and to hold each other accountable to CARE (to be Courageous, Authentic, Respectful and Engaged). As part of this process, Barwon Water’s HR team has identified three priorities to be rolled out as part of a coordinated three-year program that links back to the organisation’s Strategy 2030.
Wellbeing@AFSA is the Australian Financial Security Authority’s (AFSA’s) strategy for building a healthy, resilient and engaged workforce. Providing sustainable employability and focusing on building a work-life balance, it’s a strategy with a comprehensive program to support staff in being healthier, happier and more engaged in their work. Launched in late 2017, and central to AFSA’s wellbeing strategy, were six pillars – Career, Social, Financial, Physical, Community and Mental. These pillars provide an anchor point for all health, safety and wellbeing initiatives and provide AFSA with a platform for a holistic wellbeing approach. AFSA held its inaugural Health Week in 2018, with 103 staff members having a health check and 305 staff participating in the flu vaccination program (an increase of 36% from 2017). Sixty staff members took part in a Practical Stress Management program, while a new Resilience Program was rolled out in partnership with a new wellbeing provider. The Wellbeing@AFSA strategy has had a significant impact on AFSA, leading to substantial improvement in staff perception that AFSA cares about employee health and wellbeing, and a 14% increase in staff satisfaction from 2017.
1. LEAD 2030 (Leadership, Engagement, Authenticity, Development): All executives, senior leaders and people leaders are actively part of the leadership program, while also supporting the next level down. 2. TEAM 2030: Using the results of a culture survey to help understand behaviours, each team developed its own agreed purpose, goals and behaviours, including behaviours that wouldn’t be tolerated. 3. DEVELOP 2030: The Personal Performance Plan was reviewed entirely to ensure the process supported Barwon Water’s transformation. To this end, the company moved from a ‘form filling’ exercise to a new template that encouraged meaningful conversations between leaders and their staff.
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COVER STORY
INNOVATIVE HR TEAMS
BLUECROSS
CHILDREN’S CANCER INSTITUTE
Industry: Aged care
Industry: Not-for-profit, advocacy
HOT INNOVATION AREA: EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
HOT INNOVATION AREA: PEOPLE & CULTURE
Through a person-centred approach to care, BlueCross aims to enrich lives and improve residents’ and clients’ wellbeing across its residential and community services. BlueCross’s HR work in the aged care sector continues to be innovative and dynamic, inspiring change and contributing to an industry that is increasingly in the public eye. With a variety of new initiatives launched, including STARFish, Creating the Exceptional, and 7 Pillars of Management, the organisation has undergone a period of momentous change. In this context, the work of the HR team has been instrumental. Supporting change management and a positive workplace culture has been a key imperative. The most recent engagement survey indicated that 79.5% of staff were either very satisfied or satisfied with their experience of working at BlueCross. The organisation has secured a series of new provisions to support staff. These include paid parental leave, access to family violence leave, and paid police checks for all staff. These new conditions are innovative in the for-profit aged care space and considered a new benchmark by the unions who view BlueCross as the industry standard for wages and conditions.
Last year the Children’s Cancer Institute launched its 2018–22 Institute Strategic Plan, identifying people and culture as key to achieving research success and the number one strategic enabler for the organisation. To address key challenges such as communications, accessibility of information, pre-start user/candidate experience, innovation and workforce stress, people and culture delivered a range of innovative HR-driven technology solutions. Among the solutions the team identified, planned and implemented were Yammer, a new intranet, an electronic onboarding system, as well as a variety of wellbeing initiatives, including an online wellbeing platform. Within the Children’s Cancer Institute, the people and culture team strive to lead by example. Their aspiration is to be a high-performance team who are agile and think outside the box, while generating and implementing innovative solutions to key organisational challenges. In a recent survey, more than 92% of team members said they were satisfied with people and culture, and 100% believed that people and culture led by example and demonstrated the Institute’s values.
CANCER COUNCIL NSW Industry: Not-for-profit, advocacy HOT INNOVATION AREA: STAFF RECOGNITION
Cancer Council NSW understands that to achieve its vision of a cancer-free future it needs to attract top talent from all sectors. It also recognises that its employees’ contribution is instrumental to the success of its work and wants staff to know how much commitment and passion are valued. With this in mind, in 2018 the Council launched the final piece in its ‘Make Your Mark’ recognition program. Make Your Mark encompasses three tiers of recognition: the Recognition Wall, the Quarterly Divisional Awards and the CEO Awards. The program allows peer-to-peer recognition, and both employees and volunteers can single out deserving staff. In August 2018, at the inaugural CEO Awards, which hosted 80 guests from across NSW, all the nominees were celebrated and winners of each category announced.
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Brought to you by
CHOICE
CITY OF COCKBURN
Industry: Not-for-profit
Industry: Local government
HOT INNOVATION AREA: CULTURE
HOT INNOVATION AREA: EMPLOYEE EVALUATION AND RECOGNITION
CHOICE has taken a user-centred approach to its employee journey, flipping the traditional model that focuses on the desires of senior management. This means that in any change/improvement or implementation of tools, processes, policies, approaches or practices, CHOICE first asks the questions: What is the employee experience? What are the possible pain points? What’s the accessibility and useability like? It considers the need to pilot, test and experiment, and get regular feedback and insights. It looks at the question of what experience staff need. In the last year, this approach has helped drive a number of significant changes at Choice. For example, the organisation recognised that it needed to evolve from using an annual traditional engagement survey to providing a more meaningful experience for employees. More frequent and targeted surveys were implemented, along with communicating actions as a result of surveys in a way staff could understand and access. Where some HR teams would have simply switched tools, CHOICE worked with staff to understand the problem, the behaviours that occurred, and potential solutions to be piloted.
An issue identified within the City of Cockburn’s old performance review system was the inconsistency in the way managers were providing ratings to their employees. To address this, the City of Cockburn Competency Framework has been developed. Providing a systematic and transparent approach to monitoring, evaluating and developing employee competencies, the framework encourages a common language when talking about employee performance. It promotes the City’s Values and has been designed to align with the objectives of the Strategic Community Plan 2016–26. In 2018 the City of Cockburn also introduced its Values Awards. With the previous awards programs being either too vague in scope or inadvertently overlooking staff, a new scheme was established to address these issues and also better align with the City’s Values. By celebrating the recipients, the City of Cockburn is also educating all employees on how they may be able to live and work its Values. The City is proud of its Values Awards, and the positive impact across the city has been far greater than the financial cost.
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COVER STORY
INNOVATIVE HR TEAMS
CITY OF SUBIACO Industry: Local government HOT INNOVATION AREA: WORKPLACE CULTURE & VALUES
The City of Subiaco is a local government council that has over 200 full-time, part-time and casual staff who work to deliver services to the community. Led by the People and Organisational Development branch, the organisation has implemented a cultural development program aimed at improving its leadership and embedding values-led behaviours into the way it delivers services. The City’s values were originally identified in 2014, but there was a significant shift in the following years due to council
CSR Industry: Construction HOT INNOVATION AREA: HR TECHNOLOGY
In 2018, CSR’s HR team transformed its performance management system, creating ACHiEVE@CSR. ACHiEVE@CSR provides a digitised experience and was custom built through a co-design process involving business leaders and CSR’s digital and HR teams. The agile principles adopted by the team were instrumental in its change management process. As a result, implementation was faster, cheaper and more positive for employees. In addition to the new technology, the HR team delivered over 300 days of training across Australia and New Zealand.
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restructuring. In 2018 it was identified that the City needed to improve its culture and lift the level of engagement by focusing on its leadership and values. The process started with developing City leaders. Across three tiers of leaders, the City implemented a development program involving assessments using human synergistics tools and focused on capability-building and leadership behaviours. Since running this program throughout the 2018 calendar year, the City has reduced its turnover to 20%. Its people talk about the values in their everyday lives. The City also achieved significant service improvements and economic development breakthroughs for the community.
Adopting a customer-led innovation process and agile principles, the team designed and implemented ACHiEVE@CSR with a focus on strategically aligned performance objectives; encouraging more regular performance check-ins; and providing coaching to drive performance and improvement. It also allows for real-time peer-to-peer feedback and a more contemporary and fair approach to assessing and rewarding performance, and is intended to support the growth of employees with robust development tools and career infrastructure. CSR’s recent survey found that over 80% of employees now have much more strategically aligned goals and are doing more regular performance check-ins. Importantly, employees are very clear on how behaviours affect performance, as well as the impact this can have on the customer experience.
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COX AUTOMOTIVE Industry: Automotive HOT INNOVATION AREA: CULTURAL SHIFT
The Cox Automotive Australia and New Zealand HR team was only formed in June 2017 as part of a greenfield project. It originally consisted of only two HR advisers before Snez Jankulovski was brought in as the group HR director and tasked with building a new HR function from the ground up. She was also tasked with developing a holistic people strategy aimed at fostering a winning culture across the group of Cox Automotive companies. There are now 11 dedicated HR professionals on the HR team, implementing contemporary HR solutions and frameworks. They have laid the foundations of good people practices, while at the same time preparing the organisation for the future world of work. Applying an agile methodology to implementing a new process supported by the Small Improvements system, the HR team replaced its old annual paper-based performance appraisal with a forward-feedback approach, helping team members to stay engaged, grow and succeed. The new solution encourages social recognition, offers 360-degree feedback and has the ability to
record discussions and outcomes from one-to-one conversations. Women with Drive (WWD) is another key innovation the HR team have delivered. This inclusive movement was formed to celebrate the work of women in the automotive industry and support female achievements, aspirations and successes, with a ‘think big’ attitude and a space for every voice. Since its launch on International Women’s Day 2018, regular WWD events have been held to empower women and men, championing equality and ambition. The most recent event featuring eight-time world champion Layne Beachley inspired all of Cox’s employees (especially women) to be successful. The automation of Cox’s onboarding and induction process has been another area of innovation. This has involved moving from a manual, time-consuming onboarding process to an online automated system that integrates with the HRIS and payroll systems. It gives new employees a seamless digital experience from day one, allowing for a more streamlined process and an improved overall employee experience for new starters. These are just a few of the innovative people solutions Cox’s HR team have implemented – an amazing effort in under 18 months for such a relatively new team.
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COVER STORY
INNOVATIVE HR TEAMS
DELOITTE
EMPLOYSURE
Industry: Professional services
Industry: Recruitment
HOT INNOVATION AREA: WORKING ENVIRONMENT
HOT INNOVATION AREA: RECRUITMENT & EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION
Deloitte is one of the pre-eminent professional services firms in Australia, with more than 9,000 employees. Today, Deloitte focuses on everything from cybersecurity and virtual reality through to accounting and advisory. With a relentless focus on innovation and disruption, Deloitte prides itself on leading the way with innovative and best practice HR initiatives. Deloitte’s people and performance team is at the centre of many of the standout achievements that positioned them to be the Australian HR Awards 2018 Employer of Choice (>1000 employees). Successful initiatives include the Return to Work program, top LGBTQI inclusion practices, an internal Wellbeing Index survey, and new wellbeing initiatives. The company also focuses on ensuring its learning, leadership and career pathways are future-ready, encouraging and enabling staff to reskill continuously. Through innovative classroom experiences and digital/on-demand learning, it increased total learning hours by 24% in FY18. The Deloitte University offers the graduate D|Academy experience, Partner Pipeline and Hi-Potential programs, transition experiences and leadership development.
As a business providing a service delivered by people, Employsure’s biggest priority is the attraction and retention of the very best talent. In eight short years, the company has doubled in size year-on-year to over 700 employees. There have been a number of innovations in 2018 to enhance employee satisfaction, including automated reporting through Tableau, internal training, the Ambassador’s Club program to better invest in the company’s future, and Workplace by Facebook. To improve gender equality and diversity, Employsure has also partnered with flexible work agencies FlexCareers and Beam and Return to Work job boards for mothers. With a more than 300% increase in the last year in the number of ‘flexible requests’ granted by the company, Employsure is also proud to have achieved a 49:51 female-to-male ratio across the business. Employsure has partnered with a UK/Australian-based start-up, Predictive Hire. Using predictive data models and algorithms to benchmark new hires against the values, behaviours and attributes of the company’s existing high performers, this is designed to support longevity of the business by enabling better hires.
GLEN EIRA CITY COUNCIL Industry: Local government HOT INNOVATION AREA: DISABILITY EMPLOYMENT
Glen Eira City Council introduced a change management program – Glen Eira Transforming Together (GETT) – just over two years ago.
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One of the new initiatives under GETT was the launch of the Workplace Diversity Strategy in September 2017. This strategy provided an opportunity to create jobs for people with disability. However, the Council wasn’t able to attract as many candidates and was missing out on a major talent pool. The Council’s objective to implement best practice in disability employment saw the people and culture team contact the JobAccess Employer Engagement service – the National Disability Recruitment Coordinator (NDRC). The NDRC worked alongside the team to review its recruitment policies and practices and suggest changes to help remove any barriers to employing people with disability. Glen Eira City Council has since placed a number of candidates who identify as living with disability in a range of roles across different departments, which has had a positive effect on the workplace. Beyond making clear business sense, employing people with disability also has a meaningful impact on their families and the people around them.
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GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY Industry: Education HOT INNOVATION AREA: ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
The tertiary education sector is undergoing significant change as a result of new technologies and funding sources and increasing student expectations. To keep up with these changes, Griffith University needed to develop new skills and behaviours, and new ways of doing business to ensure it would thrive in the decades ahead. The university required a future-focused competency framework, and it needed to think creatively about how it would build these future-focused competencies in an extremely busy workforce. To address this, the HR strategy and innovation team designed and implemented a new Capability Development Framework for the university in 2018. More than a futurefocused competency framework, it is an innovative digital organisational development system that provides users with customised development journeys, learning solutions and real-time analytics, and offers a range of career development solutions. It also promotes experiential learning programs to create opportunities for employees to have a voice and connection to the organisation’s performance and success. The MVP Capability Development Framework was released in a soft launch in October 2018, and it has been attracting a growing following of delighted users since then. It’s a truly innovative organisational development product, the result of a genuinely user-focused, multidisciplinary and passionate people solutions team.
HEADSPACE NATIONAL YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH FOUNDATION Industry: Health and community services HOT INNOVATION AREA: WORKPLACE CULTURE
During 2018, headspace embarked on a bold initiative to define a refreshed organisational culture. This saw the evolution of ‘The headspace Way’ to better reflect the organisation and how it goes about its work. The people and culture team began by establishing a steering committee to lead the design, promotion and execution of interactive events to shape the development of a cultural framework. Inductive data analysis of almost 2,000 data inputs meant themes were derived without predetermined hypotheses, and ensured that ‘The headspace Way’ was truly reflective of the experiences and insights of staff. Results revealed Inclusion, Collaboration, Agility and Excellence to be core components of headspace’s identity, and thus became its organisational values to guide actions and decisions. A common language around ‘The headspace Way’ has emerged, with a number of teams introducing various employee-led initiatives. While bringing ‘The headspace Way’ to life, the team also undertook a culture survey in 2018. Results revealed a staggering increase of 16.7% in overall employee engagement since 2017. Seventy-two per cent of employees regarded headspace as a truly great place to work, an increase of 11% and above the average of 59% across the health and community services sector.
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COVER STORY
INNOVATIVE HR TEAMS
HIPAGES GROUP
LIBERTY FINANCIAL
Industry: Online directory services
Industry: Finance solutions
HOT INNOVATION AREA: LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS
HOT INNOVATION AREA: RECRUITMENT AND EMPLOYEE BENEFITS
Late in 2017, the hipages people and culture team identified from internal employee surveys that the effectiveness of leaders needed to be improved. As a small/medium company with a small budget, the approach also needed to be innovative. In response, the team developed and delivered a multifaceted and unique leadership program to accelerate the development of its leaders. The first priority was to improve the effectiveness of the main form of manager and employee communication – one-to-one weekly meetings. Running a full-day Constructive Conversations workshop was followed up with small group action-focused Coaching Clinics for six months, along with a variety of smaller initiatives to encourage camaraderie. Additionally, senior leadership developed a charter to clearly articulate the core leadership behaviours that best support the hipages culture. A launch ceremony for the charter was held, opened by an Aboriginal elder who gave a talk on the importance of leadership. Business leaders were also asked to physically sign up to the charter by adopting the Aboriginal practice of marking their hands around the charter, a symbol of accountability. These innovative people and culture initiatives have quickly improved the skills and motivation of hipages leaders in 2018.
The Liberty ‘Culture and Community’ recruitment process is unique. There are three rounds of interviews, with no communication throughout (to prevent biases) and recruitment decisions made during a roundtable. Liberty also uses an online rating form for all interviewers to capture its recruitment data. As champions of diversity and inclusion, Liberty partners with various groups, including the Mindfulness Clinic (Women in Leadership), P2 Group, Code Like A Girl, Converge (EAP offered to family, friends and clients of Liberty), and Interact Australia. In 2018 the Liberty Culture and Community team introduced a KidsCo onsite school holiday program; a Mental Health First Aid Program for staff; a Grad Girls sponsorship program; LinkedIn Learning Accounts for all staff; and a Women In Leadership program. Liberty’s parental leave policy has been revised to allow employees on parental leave to continue to accrue annual, personal and long-service leave, as well as superannuation contributions and the payment of any company health and wellbeing subsidies. Staff members who missed out on this benefit by being on parental leave before this change was implemented were also retroactively credited.
INS Industry: Recruitment HOT INNOVATION AREA: EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
INS is a small business with an oversized commitment to HR, aimed at creating a workplace that supports employees and allows them to do great work. With an HR team of just one, INS passionately believes that great, innovative HR is a business imperative not just for big business but small business as well. In 2018, INS introduced a number of successful initiatives,
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such as the implementation of a cloud-based HRIS to streamline processes and provide high-quality employee data and reporting. It also updated HR policies to include best practice benefits, for example paid community service leave, paid parental leave, and the INS alert (special leave) program. Additionally, 2018 was the first year that INS measured employee engagement, with 93% of staff saying INS was a great place to work. Even more impressive was that, six months later, after a major organisational restructure, a follow-up pulse survey showed agreement with this question had increased to 100%. INS also has a very low voluntary turnover rate of less than 5%. INS serves as a reminder that even the smallest of HR teams can achieve great things.
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OXFAM AUSTRALIA Industry: Not-for-profit HOT INNOVATION AREA: WORKPLACE WELLBEING
Oxfam’s people and culture team are committed to creating an equitable, diverse and safe workplace as part of its people and culture strategy. It has partnered with the University of Melbourne and the University of NSW in a three-year study of workplace wellbeing. A key outcome is the ‘Respectful Relations at Work and Work-life Balance’ project that is designed to: • evaluate the interaction between harmful workplace experiences and work-life conflict and their impact on employees’ occupational wellbeing • evaluate the protective role of organisational climate dimensions in the relationship of harmful workplace experiences and work-life conflict with employees’ occupational wellbeing • deliver and evaluate the capacity of inclusive leadership training to reduce harmful workplace experiences and work-life conflict, and improve indicators of organisational diversity and employees’ occupational wellbeing
The project provides Oxfam with valuable data, an opportunity to discuss lived experience, and also a forum for staff and managers to contribute to solutions sessions. Oxfam also supports the ‘Racism. It Stops with Me’ campaign run by the Human Rights Commission. As part of this, staff are asked to participate in a one-day diversity and inclusion program. This is designed to provide them with the tools and awareness to cultivate a more inclusive workplace and society, irrespective of race, religion, sexuality, gender expression or identity. Oxfam has strengthened its EAP offering to staff with a broader scope of support, including counsellors specialising in family violence, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues, LGBTI members and more. This program also provides specialist advice on nutrition, sleep, resilience, mindfulness, addictive behaviours, retirement planning and positive lifestyle changes. Employees were invited to participate in a Wellbeing @ Work Index survey late last year. The survey asked them for feedback on how Oxfam Australia supported four pillars of wellbeing; Mind, Body, Purpose and Place. In 2018, the results led to Oxfam promoting ‘Feel Good February’, providing information on healthy eating and increasing activity, as well as a healthy sleep seminar. Further work in the nutrition space is planned for the year ahead.
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COVER STORY
INNOVATIVE HR TEAMS
PHILIPS ELECTRONICS AUSTRALIA Industry: Consumer technology HOT INNOVATION AREA: MENTAL HEALTH
QUINTON ANTHONY Industry: Recruitment HOT INNOVATION AREA: DOMESTIC & FAMILY VIOLENCE SUPPORT
In 2018, Quinton Anthony set some ambitious targets for employee engagement and financial results. It has worked hard to deliver a QA Life program that includes employee development, talent management, diversity, reward and recognition and health and wellbeing. With the aim of supporting a family feel, one of the company’s
SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC Industry: Energy management and automation HOT INNOVATION AREA: EMPLOYEE INITIATIVES
The HR function at Schneider Electric has recognised that talent management is required to unleash the innovation mindset of employees so they can add value for customers. Putting customers first, collaborating as one team and playing on have been unified as #InnovationAtEveryLevel. Initiatives launched in 2018 included ‘Innovation Champions’, an open initiative for anyone to opt themselves into the program. The aim of this training is to encourage employees with a passion
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In late 2017, the Philips team lost a colleague to suicide. Since then, the organisation has committed to providing its people with all the skills and resources possible to support them in maintaining good mental health. Philips partnered with Black Dog Institute, SleepFit, Benestar and Mercer to help deliver on its goal of ensuring its employees are supported no matter who they are or where they work. Ninety-eight per cent of people managers have been trained by Black Dog to manage in a style that creates a mentally healthy workplace. Prior to training, they were surveyed about how well they understood how mental illness manifested in the workplace; the challenges of disclosure; and how they modelled and encouraged behaviours that contribute to a mentally healthy workplace. Coupled with other solutions from SleepFit, Benestar and Mercer, this became known as ‘Thrive at Philips’ – a program combining awareness, prevention, health solutions, lifestyle management, and a support structure to empower all employees to enhance health and wellbeing.
more recent initiatives is its Domestic and Family Violence (DFV) support package. Employee safety and that of their families is of key importance to the company. It recognises that domestic violence can affect attendance, performance at work and personal safety. To ensure employees don’t have to choose between keeping their job and financial security or keeping their family safe, Quinton Anthony provides 10 days of paid DFV leave annually. Employees also have 24/7 access to professionals trained specifically in DFV through an employee assistance program. The support package also includes: • financial assistance with interim accommodation • short-term flexible working arrangements • support to help arrive at and leave work safely, along with workplace safety planning strategies • free and confidential counselling • a daily allowance • financial assistance with relocation costs • loans to assist with bond and rent payments, with repayments made over 12 months
for innovation to facilitate change in the organisation. Additionally, Schneider got its Innovation Champions and wider organisation to facilitate #GrowthHack, an innovation program to come up with growth initiatives for its 2021 strategy. Crowdsourcing from every part of the business (including regional areas and factories), four teams were shortlisted to go through sprints, a hackathon, and a Shark Tank-style event, to pitch for funding. The results were spectacular. The ‘Sharks’ committed $110,000 in funding to accelerate the teams, which will result in over $10m worth of opportunities over the next three years. This program has enabled talent to think creatively, outside of their comfort zone, and make a difference within the organisation.
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SPECIAL BROADCASTING SERVICES (SBS) Industry: Broadcasting HOT INNOVATION AREA: DIVERSITY & INCLUSION
In 2018, the SBS Diversity and Inclusion Strategy was funded and launched to support development of five employee-led action groups. The purpose of these groups was to identify existing or potential barriers to inclusion and put forward recommended action plans to address and remove these barriers. SBS strives to recognise that when people can be their authentic selves, they achieve their best and help others to
do so as well. To mark the launch of the strategy, a shareable piece of video content titled ‘The Real You Matters’ was created. It explores how some Australians can, and often do, hide an essential part of who they are at work due to fear of being excluded, judged or discriminated against. The film shows exaggerated scenarios where employees go out of their way to hide part of themselves from their colleagues and managers. This clip went viral, with millions of views around the world. Since 2017, SBS has seen an increase in the number of women joining by 75%, in employees born overseas by 73% and employees with languages other than English by 14%, as well as a 13% increase in ATSI employees and a 600% increase of employees with disability.
VIACOM INTERNATIONAL MEDIA NETWORKS Industry: Broadcasting HOT INNOVATION AREA: PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
The Viacom International Media Networks Australia HR team is a passionate and lean machine. With only four staff, the team successfully supports a business of 150 people. However, HR found the company’s previous performance management and appraisal system to be clunky and outdated. After campaigning to change the system, the Australian team was challenged to reimagine the goal-setting and appraisal process as a beta test for the global organisation – more than 10,000 employees. Working to develop the tools required, the HR team engaged an organisational psychologist to create relevant workshops, while also striving to ensure buy-in from senior management. The result? Monthly check-ins. A simple, effective and meaningful conversation employees have each month with a manager to craft and review agile goals, discuss personal development and give and receive feedback and support. After 12 months, employee turnover was halved, resulting in an estimated $110,000 saving for the business. This local success has meant that the same process is being rolled out globally, with a few tweaks. This is a major achievement for the Australian HR team – leading the way as the rest of the world follows.
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FEATURES
EMPLOYEE RECOGNITION
Employee recognition: An organisational imperative In the wake of the banking royal commission, organisations must rethink their approach to employee recognition. Alan Heyward, managing director of O.C. Tanner | accumulate, elaborates “PROVIDING A service to customers was relegated to second place. Sales became all-important.” The words of Commissioner Kenneth Hayne in handing down the 76 proposed reforms contained within the banking royal commission report on 4 February formalised what we have all known for some time: widespread cultural transformation across the
institutions that will ‘direct’ this change and expect their employees to align and connect with a new organisational purpose, it is the belief, commitment and effort of those many thousands of frontline employees and managers that will dictate the success, or otherwise, of the transformation. It is here that employee recognition has a critical role to play.
People who feel appreciated at work are happier, more engaged and add greater value than those who don’t have that same sense that what they do matters financial services sector is urgently required to rebuild public trust. Where once a sales culture prevailed across the sector, in which financial targets were prioritised above, apparently, all else, financial institutions are now being compelled to undertake transformational change to create a sustainable, service-based culture in which the primary focus is, unquestionably, on the needs of the customer. While it is the leaders of these financial
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The power of appreciation The evidence is clear – people who feel appreciated at work are happier, more engaged and add greater value than those who don’t have that same sense that what they do matters. The O.C. Tanner Institute’s 2018 Global Culture Report vividly illustrates the power of effective recognition in the workplace, generating among employees a 16% higher sense of personal wellbeing, 24% higher sense of opportunity within
the organisation, a 23% higher sense of the quality of leadership, and a 20% increase in their connection to purpose. The latter point must be uppermost in the minds of decision-makers, particularly when we consider that respondents to the global culture survey also indicated they were 121% more motivated to do their best work when recognition was tied to their organisation’s purpose, and only 20% of millennial employees planned to stay for more than five years in companies where they felt profit came before purpose. Nor can the bottom-line benefits be ignored, as the Global Culture Report reveals that purpose-driven companies outperform their peers in share price by 12 times. As financial institutions strive to transform, the ability to create an environment in which employees know their day-to-day efforts are both noticed and valued, and engagement, motivation and discretionary effort can thrive, will surely be one of the foundations on which their new purpose and culture are built.
Plenty of work to be done The challenge, and conversely the opportunity, for financial institutions – and indeed all companies – is that Australia lags behind other key markets when it comes to employee
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perceptions of meaningful workplace recognition. Australia ranked 54% on the O.C. Tanner Institute’s Global Appreciation Scale (alongside the likes of the US, Canada, Japan, Germany) but was slightly behind the UK (57%) and significantly behind India (68%) and China (67%). So, the banking royal commission report and the O.C. Tanner Institute’s 2018 Global Culture Report are aligned on the direction in which financial institutions must head if they are to effect culture change on the scale that is needed. Employee recognition must be at the centre of the conversation. However, that conversation has changed significantly in recent times, and for it to have the desired cultural impact, it’s important to examine how.
A more holistic, sophisticated view The people focus of organisations over the past few years has become far more holistic and sophisticated, with an organisational lens and data-driven decision-making becoming the norm, rather than the exception. Where once there was a focus on ‘driving engagement’ and reinforcing behaviours that aligned with company values, the conversation has turned – sharply and importantly – to building a strong culture by considering the overall employee experience and how it aligns with organisational purpose and the customer experience. I’ve heard more than one HR executive within the financial services sector talk of their desire to create a “consumer-grade employee experience”. The conversation is essentially now
about companies finding ways of connecting employees – with each other, with their accomplishments and roles, and with the company purpose – in an increasingly disconnected world fuelled by a flood of new technology and continually changing workforce dynamics. Fewer companies are relying on annual engagement surveys as a reliable organisational health check, in favour of more relevant and frequent cultural assessments, pulse surveys, and effective one-on-one conversations between leaders and their direct reports. The result is a far closer alignment of objectives and expectations with purpose. This holistic focus also means that the days of employee recognition being
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FEATURES
EMPLOYEE RECOGNITION Brought to you by
MORE FLEXIBLE, PERSONAL RECOGNITION The recognition goalposts have changed. If you’re not asking yourselves the following questions around employee recognition, chances are your recognition strategy still has room for improvement. How do your employees want to be recognised – privately or publicly? How is consideration given to those employees in offline, remote, office-based, and flexible roles? Through which channels do employees want to access recognition based on their role, location or how tech-savvy they are? Does your suite of recognition tools enable you to provide a natural, intuitive social media experience for digital natives? Does it provide a nonconfrontational, easy-to-learn digital experience (or a predominantly offline experience) for those workers who still remember what it’s like to use Telex?
O.C. TANNER | ACCUMULATE O.C. Tanner, the global leader in engaging workplace cultures, helps thousands of top companies create peak moments that inspire people to achieve, appreciate, and thrive at work. Learn how to influence greatness in your organisation with O.C. Tanner’s Culture Cloud™ at octanner.com.
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a standalone HR initiative are becoming fewer; for leading companies, recognition is now a strategic organisational imperative with a measurable bottom-line return.
More flexibility, more personalisation, stronger connection Many companies continue to scan the market for a recognition platform primarily aimed at a tech-savvy user base, but what are they really paying for? If it is purely a technology buy, the return is likely to be limited.
to recognition and appreciation has also grown in importance. Specific capability is now less a ‘nice to have’ and more a core competency that is integral to the role of every leader in driving culture change. Put simply, today there is far stronger focus on, and commitment to, helping people thrive at work. The cultural benefits of doing so are clear to see.
A cautionary tale The cultural issues outlined in the banking
The days of employee recognition being a standalone HR initiative are becoming fewer; for leading companies, recognition is now a strategic organisational imperative It is those companies that are considering the needs of all demographics – making recognition as relevant and personally meaningful as possible for each employee – that are making the most significant cultural inroads. Not so long ago, social media channels were flooded with recognition content related to the rise and rise of the “entitled, impatient, idealistic” millennial generation and their expectations around frequent recognition and opportunity. Millennials are the dominant workforce segment, so their needs are arguably more important now than when the initial hysteria surrounding their emergence occurred. However, that conversation has also turned sharply – the rise of Generation Z, the first generation of true digital natives with relatively underdeveloped interpersonal skills, is high on the agenda. And let’s not forget about the needs of us Gen Xers and baby boomers. Building leadership capability as it relates
royal commission report are not unique to the banking and financial services sector. There will be many organisations across a multitude of industries that have actively fostered sales (rather than service) cultures and are watching the current proceedings with great interest and planning how they can start focusing on the right behaviours as opposed to the right outcomes, to avoid similar levels of withering public and regulatory backlash and scrutiny. Conversely, there will be organisations in that boat who think they have nothing to worry about and risk being shredded if they don’t at least consider strategic and culture change. Some financial institutions have been making moves in the right cultural direction for some time; others are starting from a long way back. Whatever the case, when it comes to wholesale culture reform, they could do a lot worse than start with the role employee recognition, done well, can play.
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FEATURES
COMPLIANCE
Get wired with compliance As the focus shifts towards some of the world’s biggest companies becoming undone, HRD takes a closer look at the workplace compliance glitch and how measuring data could be the only way forward
OVER 28,000 workplace cases were resolved by the Fair Work Ombudsman in the 2017–18 period, a 5% increase from the previous year and a climb that resulted in close to $30m being recovered for workers. Nearly $9m of this amount was due to compliance and enforcement faults. In light of recent media headlines inun dated with reputable names that have come under fire for underpaying staff across several industries, the question must be asked: why is Australia’s workforce under the spotlight when technology leaves no room for human error? “I don’t believe it’s their reluctance to be compliant. I think it can be confusing and costly,” says David Kroser, managing director and founding partner of workforce management solutions provider RITEQ. He believes it’s an insight into an employer’s mindset when it comes to navigating the changing complexity of the Australian award and EBA landscape. It’s become an infectious call to action, and as more Australians rally for their rights and conditions to be met, there has never been a greater need for employers to not only proactively seek to rectify their wrongs but most importantly to restructure how their HR departments and payroll teams validate awards and workplace laws – in accordance
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with how these documents were originally meant to be perceived when they were first written up by industry bodies. This is because, according to Kroser, although many employers may be incorrectly interpreting workplace laws on paper, “the vast majority are possibly not aware of the fact that they are doing it”.
Road to recovery RITEQ has been shown the back door to the inner workings of Australian companies and HR departments since 2002. But there’s a common issue that has surfaced throughout the years and continues to prevail today – inconsistency across the board. “We can have 20 retailers on an identical award, which is documented and governed by the retail governing body, and all 20 retailers can interpret it slightly differently because a lot of these rules are so complex, and a lot of these rules have been developed over so many years that it’s quite easy to actually interpret them incorrectly,” Kroser says. He also acknowledges that the multi faceted Australian playing field is one of the most challenging and intricate compared with those in most other countries in the world. Referring to the overarching attitude as a “level of complacency”, Kroser says
companies need to refrain from placing the complete onus and pressure on the expertise of the payroll and HR department. Rather, he advises that they go back to the governing body or association that drew up the awards and request that an audit be done. “Make sure that your interpretation of every rule within an award is exactly the same as their intended interpretation when they wrote up the award originally,” Kroser says, adding that it may also be a good idea to engage an industrial relations lawyer to validate the audit in writing so that absolute clarity is reached. However, he says an employer could “still end up going down the same track” because the IR lawyer or an awards specialist might also “interpret it in a slightly different way than what was intended”.
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“We can have 20 retailers on an identical award ... and all 20 retailers can interpret it slightly differently because a lot of these rules are so complex” David Kroser, managing director and founding partner, RITEQ But what happens if the findings are too much to bear? Massive compensation figures of $5.4m, $5.7m and $2m are just a few that have hit the headlines as a result of underpaid staff. In reflecting on a wide range of situations that RITEQ has experienced as part of its requirement gathering process, Kroser says: “There are people in the organisation at a
pretty senior level that are aware of these failings but are in many ways concerned that if they bring it to the fore, what that might mean in terms of back pay.”
It’s all in the data Data has never been more crucial for companies today, yet it is still undervalued in a world where business growth and
return on investment are measured by the dollar sign. “Companies that use data and the stories it tells to identify potential non-compliance and make decisions are effectively using principles based more on science than intuition or guesswork,” Kroser says. “The ones that are making decisions based on their gut feeling, or what they think is the right decision, are generally the companies that are falling foul and in some cases struggling to stay afloat.” But he also affirms that, once an employer is guided through how to properly measure the value of data, in terms of the results it brings to effective rostering, productivity, and doing more with less, they’re not going to want to take the software out of the equation. Finding a workforce management
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provider that has a deep level of experience in award interpretation and delivering data insights is just as important. As the market becomes inundated with software competitors increasingly wanting to capture the visually mesmerised millennial, RITEQ maintains its standing as a leader in the field for its expertise in award interpretation and leveraging data insights to drive exceptional company results. “Delivering visually appealing graphs that don’t go beyond helping sell a solution has always come second to our focus of ensuring
balance between different areas of your life has become so critically important, and none more so than at work,” Kroser says. The inherent value of data extends to its ability to identify detrimental work patterns. “What might be the reason for that?” Kroser asks. “Is it the employees? Are they suffering from workforce stress? All of these sorts of things come into play, and now into workforce management systems, being that they are able to track patterns of time that people work, including things like not taking enough time off, and fatigue.”
“[Those] making decisions based on their gut feeling ... are generally the companies that are falling foul and in some cases struggling to stay afloat” David Kroser, managing director and founding partner, RITEQ
RITEQ RITEQ develops workforce management software designed to simplify and automate your workforce management processes. RITEQ Workforce Manager (WFM) is scalable and modular, allowing your company to optimise rostering, control labour costs and maximise accountability with cost-effective time and attendance.
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that we deliver true and measurable value to our clients,” Kroser says. Whether it be keeping pace with compliance law, enhancing rostering to achieve profitability, or introducing a high level of automation of manual tasks once done by a human, Kroser says: “The power is in the stories that data can tell, and then turning those stories into actions that efficiently find where problems exist and provide the most effective solutions.”
Coding work-life balance Australians are a hard-working bunch – in fact, in 2017, according to an Australian Institute for Health and Welfare report, we sat in the bottom third out of 35 other OECD countries for work-life balance, mainly as a result of working long hours. “I think we’ve reached a stage in the evolution of the world where finding a
RITEQ’s tech-powered TLC will also be heading in the direction of helping to understand the mental wellbeing of employees, with several developments in the pipeline. “The next frontier in terms of workforce management is definitely how we use artificial intelligence and machine learning to make these systems smarter and able to make decisions that are better decisions than a human can make,” Kroser says. It sounds like a future that could increasingly turn away from human intervention, as such systems are only expected to get “smarter and smarter” the more they’re deployed for the job at hand. However, Kroser is careful, almost reluctant, to use the term ‘AI’ in conversation. “It’s almost like having a robot behind the scenes to solve problems provided by some critical decision-making,” he says.
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FEATURES
INSIDE HR
The shift towards team culture As HR undergoes a shift from procedural management to driving organisational culture, Fiona Crawford, general manager of HR at InfoTrack Group, sits down with HRD to discuss this change
ON HER desk, Fiona Crawford has a Post-It note that simply reads “Remove the noise”. For the general manager of HR at InfoTrack Group, it’s something of a mission statement – a distillation of the larger role that HR plays in the workplace. “If that’s what I can do and allow people to
Olympian in softball (silver in 2004 and bronze in 2000), along with a BA in Sports Studies (majoring in psychology, marketing and science), her background in teamwork provided her with a unique perspective when she made the move to her current field. “I’ve always been fascinated with teams
“Whenever we do something new, we need to make sure we ‘pressure test’ it to see where it adds value, and who it adds value to” Fiona Crawford, InfoTrack Group be as effective as they can be, then I’m doing my job,” says Crawford. Certainly, the evidence would suggest that it’s been a successful approach. Crawford’s list of accomplishments is impressive, both inside and outside of HR. As a two-time
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and how people behave in a team setting,” says Crawford. “My background was in softball, so I spent a lot of time pulling players from all over the state or country together and finding their optimal operating rhythm to perform at their best.”
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INFOTRACK GROUP AT A GLANCE Established in 2000 Head office in Sydney, state offices in Brisbane, Gold Coast, Canberra, Melbourne and Perth
500+ employees Spans legal and conveyancing, corporate and accounting, banking and finance, consumer, real estate, mercantile and debt collection, surveying, property valuation and government
Careers in transition However, the actual shift to HR would come after Crawford’s playing career came to an end. She was working in corporate team building, delivering seminars to organisations looking to enhance their workplace culture. One hotelier was so impressed by her seminar that she was immediately offered a role at the organisation. Intrigued by the challenge, Crawford accepted. “They didn’t really have an HR department at the time, so it was a baptism of fire,” Crawford says. “Early on it was very mechanical – getting compliance in order, making sure proper procedures were in place, all that sort of stuff.” Others might have been overwhelmed, but it proved to be a formative experience. Crawford was uniquely placed to pioneer a new culture in the workplace that would enable staff to perform at their best – both as a team and individually.
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INSIDE HR
“With better data, you can demonstrate the ROI and have clear metrics around what you’re doing, why you’re doing it and how it adds to the business overall” Fiona Crawford, InfoTrack Group Several years in the hospitality industry were then followed by eight years in the automotive industry. Eventually, Crawford branched out into consultancy, providing her skills to organisations on a freelance basis. It was this consultancy that would eventually lead her to InfoTrack Group in 2015. “I wasn’t really looking for another fulltime role, but I met Stephen Wood [chairman of InfoTrack] and John Ahern [CEO], and was fascinated by the company’s potential. I walked out of the meeting, rang my husband and told him that I had to work there.”
Working to enable people At the time, InfoTrack Group consisted of around 130 employees, with only one other dedicated HR staff member. Much like Crawford’s first role in the business, it was a trial by fire. However, the advantage was that many of the processes could be built from the ground up. From very early one, Crawford says, staff were made aware that she was there to enable them across the whole of the business. “We haven’t just taken products off the shelf,” says Crawford. “We’ve worked strategically with the CEO to build bespoke programs
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for the business. Going in, I had lots of great ideas, but we wanted to make sure that we were actually delivering what was needed.” This is an ongoing process, too. Just recently, Crawford helped undertake a “stocktake” of the business to see if organisational needs were still being met. “Nothing was broken per se, but staff wanted a greater focus on personal development, work-life balance and CSR,” she says. Turning this desire into action, Crawford helped develop an InfoTrack wellness program – ‘Be Me’. “There’s lots of public conversation around mental illness at the moment, so we wanted to flip the switch and focus on mental health instead,” Crawford says. “We
want employees to be the best version of themselves that they can be, so we’ve run a number of programs to that effect.” While the programs are obviously geared at encouraging employee retention, Crawford says they still have benefits, even if employees leave further down the track. “We always want to make sure people have a positive experience working here. So even if they do leave for other opportunities, initiatives like Be Me give them a chance to reflect on the opportunities and positive memories that InfoTrack Group has given them.” On the professional development front, Crawford describes the legal and conveyancing industry as going through an “interesting phase”.
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THE WELCOME PACKAGE One of Fiona’s key innovations has been updating InfoTrack’s induction plan for new employees. These days it includes a ‘see you soon’ postcard sent two weeks before the new hire starts; a welcome gift on the first day; team introductions, including coffee with the CEO; departmental inductions; and a gift package upon completion of the probation period. It’s a way of making new employees feel not only welcome but special – something that’s particularly crucial when looking to settle a new hire into their new routine.
“Over 50% of employees are millennials, but we’ve got a pretty broad range outside of that – our youngest employee is 19, while our eldest is 80,” she says. “Additionally, we’ve got people from more than 30 different cultural backgrounds in the office.” Accordingly, new programs and initiatives need to cater for a similarly broad spectrum of employees. A recent example is the Australian government’s gradual rollout of legislation that requires numerous manual conveyancing processes to become automated. Crawford has therefore been heavily involved in developing programs for reskilling, retraining and upskilling a variety of employees within the business, as well as creating new procedures. “Whenever we do something new, we need
to make sure we ‘pressure test’ it to see where it adds value, and who it adds value to,” says Crawford. “Additionally, we need to make sure it’s strategically aligned to where the business needs to go.”
Shifting public perceptions Yet this change is also emblematic of other changes occurring in the industry, too. There’s a public perception of HR as being largely procedural, oriented around ‘hiring and firing’. But there’s a shift going on in the industry: the focus has shifted to driving a better workplace culture, reward and recognition schemes, and providing a more holistic view of work. “There’s been a big push towards automation in general, and lots of HR managers get
worried that they’re going to find themselves out of a job,” Crawford says. “But I see it as an opportunity to enable our industry to not get bogged down in operational issues.” She also feels that the shift towards automation – and the data and metrics it can record – gives HR managers a better case for justifying costs to the business. “HR is a cost to the business, and traditionally it’s been difficult to justify some of those costs in specific terms,” says Crawford. “But with better data, you can demonstrate the ROI and have clear metrics around what you’re doing, why you’re doing it and how it adds to the business overall.” Perhaps even more importantly, it gives her optimism about the future of the industry – and her place within it. “One of greatest compliments I’ve ever been paid was that I wasn’t a ‘typical HR manager’,” Crawford says. “I like to think I bring a sense of practicality to HR, and I know I add value to the business through the initiatives I put in place. What I do enables staff.”
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LEADERSHIP
Becoming your own leader As the industry aims towards diversity at the top level, finding an individual leadership style doesn’t have to mean forgetting who you are
THE ROOM erupts – an applause that may never cease – and you realise your breath is caught. You’re in awe of the poise and confidence of the HR director who has managed to capture the attention of an entire room, and at the same time you’re grappling with the question: what type of HR leader will you become? A few things immediately come to mind,
shortcomings and any beliefs, which might not fit into the ‘strength’ or ‘power’ mould, must be tightly locked away. Will you then be able to stand as the lighthouse for others in the storm, at your fullest potential, when the time comes for it? But that’s far from the reality of becoming a turned-to leader of today. Finding your unique leadership style as an HR director
“People don’t trust leaders who appear to have never experienced hardship. People want to follow someone who lives in the real world and understands them” Karlie Cremin, director, Dynamic Leadership Programs Australia but they’re just a list of lived-in habits and natural responses, which you wonder whether you will need to completely shed on the job in order to ‘become’. There’s a sense of loss intertwined with such a rehashing: the idea that past
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is more about comfortably embodying who you are, putting your best skills forward, and leveraging the experiences of the past in order to understand and meet the needs of differing audiences. “Certainly, feeling the gravel on your
face instils empathy, and can teach you a lot very quickly,” says Karlie Cremin, director of Dynamic Leadership Programs Australia (DLPA). “However, if you speak from a wound, or live in fear, you aren’t likely to lead people to a good place. I think people also don’t trust leaders who appear to have never experienced hardship. People want to follow someone who lives in the real world and understands them.” Out of DLPA’s industry-acclaimed bespoke leadership programs has emerged The Feminine Leader – a program geared towards making it OK to be feminine in a male-dominated environment. Women are empowered to create and market their own leadership brand. “The program is really about being comfortable being yourself and finding the value of bringing your uniqueness to work,” Cremin says. Having developed the program from “things she wished to have known from the start”, Cremin is admirably candid about her own process of “trial and error”. “I became a manager very young, and without a great deal of support finding a style per se. I learned what worked mostly by seeing the effect of what didn’t. Eventually I did work with someone who was very supportive in more actively shaping my leadership style,” she says. In discussing ‘style’, Cremin says she really means the ‘default position’ one is naturally inclined to return to in times of stress – her own default being “command and control”. “That said, it is only a preference,” she says, explaining that her style comes from her individual work history and the types of environments she has been exposed to throughout the span of her career. But Cremin also allows her style to fluidly shift and adapt so she can achieve the best possible results – and the style she chooses is determined by who is receiving her focus and guidance at any given time.
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A voice for many For Cremin, understanding your audience is critical to an HR leader’s success. “Effective leadership has to be about who you are leading and what you are trying to achieve. It’s never about the leader,” she says. Over the years, Cremin has been influenced by a handful of HR directors and their charisma – one of whom left a lasting impression on her. “I knew one female HRD who just had a way of engaging people,” she says. “Honestly, she could talk to people about anything, and she was so positive it was hard not to be positive too, even if you wanted to be resistant.” The success of that leader, she believes, was likely born out of her ability to make people feel “heard and seen”.
Pioneering change Winning support for HR programs can often see HR directors working through the bouts
of resistance that often come with change. But Cremin says such challenges can be overcome if leaders are open to adapting their pitch. “Some organisations still feel uncomfortable talking about the economics of people. Ultimately, if you want strong support across the business, people will need to clearly understand the economic effect of the program, how the program will impact the business, risks and opportunities associated with the program, and the risks of not doing the program,” she says. Cremin explains that while a finance director is likely geared towards understanding the costs and benefits of a program, an operations manager is more inclined to want to know how the program will affect processes and the experience of staff. When it comes to building robust internal networks, she says it’s “really a matter of
showing people that you have heard them, understand them, and are part of their team trying to solve the problems that affect them”. In saying this, Cremin highlights the benefits of HR directors being well versed in “behavioural economics”. Exposure to other sides of a business allows for a broader perspective on business processes to be realised, and the context of decisions to be unearthed. This includes knowing how to effectively communicate decisions to different groups across the organisation. Encouraging teams to focus on strategy achievement – something Cremin says should be given more relevance than simply existing as a “stuffy document on the shelf ” – also requires HR directors to thoughtfully tend to each individual in the organisation. “The most critical thing in engagement is people understanding and believing that their actions matter,” Cremin says.
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Bouncing back Cremin isn’t immune to the career hurdle. In acknowledging that there is sometimes merit in walking away, rather than betting more than you are prepared to lose, she says resilience is one of the universal attributes of a great leader – even more so in an industry that she recognises as involving “some really personal and really charged things at times”. It’s their “ability to be unflappable and not
scope” and turn away from introducing past “bones of contention”. Being a leader also comes with managing a tighter schedule. Having mastered her own, no matter how busy it gets, Cremin hands down a few sure-fire tips: keep your to-do list to no more than five items; order these based on their value to the business; and plan the day ahead first before opening your inbox, as “you are better equipped
“Effective leadership has to be about who you are leading and what you are trying to achieve. It’s never about the leader” Karlie Cremin, director, Dynamic Leadership Programs Australia
DLPA DLPA is a bespoke leadership and business development program provider that drives strategic objectives and unlocks the potential of current and emerging leaders. With corporate strategy at the heart of programs, our team works closely with clients to identify key barriers to their success, develop leadership skills, and empower people to reach higher levels of performance. Contact: info@dlpa.com.au or 1300 766 339.
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let things get under their skin”, she says. While Cremin is inspired by people’s strength and their ability to continue viewing the world with compassion despite their hardships, she believes what sets great leaders apart is their ability to push boundaries one step further than others – even after they’ve picked up the pieces. “What is the genuine probability of each outcome?” It’s the fundamental question Cremin advises HR directors to ask when they find themselves having to navigate stormy seas. This is an approach found to be just as useful when working through conflict management. Opening dialogue on a regular basis is considered by Cremin to be the best form of prevention against conflicts arising, but in the event that they do, she tells HR directors to not take it personally. “When you engage in the personal nature of conflict, your ability to creatively problemsolve and think clearly is significantly eroded,” she says. She also advises directors to keep the conflict bound to “the immediate
to prioritise your workload based on your agenda, not someone else’s”.
Succession planning Part of being a successful HR director includes identifying talent early on and providing training at every level of the organisation. Otherwise, “you can still end up with gaps”, Cremin says. Rather than “focusing on replacing a person or position”, she believes “it’s more a matter of ensuring the organisation has the biggest and broadest possible talent pool and skill inventory, and ensuring the structures are in place to utilise them”. “Agility is key in any succession planning,” she adds. While Cremin finds it rewarding to see someone “really hit their stride and come into their own”, she finds it challenging to step back when she sees people obstructing their own success. “We all have to tread our own path, and it takes maturity to not want to do it for people. I’m still learning,” she says.
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DIGITAL STRATEGY
Rizing to a new HCM challenge With Synchrony Global winning both SAP SuccessFactors ANZ Partner of the Year 2018 and SAP APJ Partner of the Year 2019, and being acquired by Rizing LLC, there is the promise of exciting changes afoot for human capital offerings around the world. HRD sits down with Synchrony to find out more SINCE ITS foundation in 2015, Synchrony Global had marked itself out as an innovative organisation on the HR landscape. With a focus on solutions that aimed to provide best practice cloud processes, innovative technology and robust operational services, it was
Operate and Improve services. In addition to being recognised as an SAP and Cloud Innovator for developing accelerated SAP SuccessFactors methodologies, Synchrony also created a portfolio of SAP Qualified Partner-Packaged Solutions, offering out-of-
“With our install base now comprising more than 900 active clients, we can provide a statistically significant sample across many industries” Luc Hédou, CEO, Rizing HCM a company that catered for the entire employee life cycle – from attract to hire to retire. Traditionally, Synchrony’s 360-degree approach to cloud HR and payroll services and solutions had been provided through three main divisions: Business Consulting, System Integration and
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Global acquired by Rizing, LLC and join the Rizing HCM business. We will now see the companies’ offerings brought to an even wider audience, in Australia and 11 other countries around the world. Darcy Lalonde, previously chairman and CEO of Synchrony Global, has been brought across to Rizing HCM as president of Asia-Pacific. With the name currently changed to Synchrony – A Rizing HCM Company, and with a more formal rebranding to occur in April 2019, he’s quietly optimistic about the promising future of this new joint organisation. “At Synchrony, we set the goal to be a leader and bring world-class human capital solutions across the Asia-Pacific region,” says Lalonde. “With Synchrony joining Rizing HCM, we are excited to deliver Synchrony’s award-winning solutions on a global scale to organisations of all sizes, while simultaneously providing clients worldwide with our implementation capabilities, product and industry expertise, and a full suite of Ongoing Platform Support and continuous improvement services.” Luc Hédou, CEO of Rizing HCM, is also optimistic about the venture. “As one of the fastest-growing SAP partners and recipient of the SAP SuccessFactors Partner of the Year award for APJ in 2017, we could not be more thrilled to bring Synchrony into the Rizing HCM family,” says Hédou. “By leveraging the broader organisation, we can accelerate the growth both in the region and globally, providing tremendous value for our customers. Coming together under one brand will provide clarity and purpose to our customers, prospects and partners.”
Tackling the modern challenges of HR the-box, preconfigured cloud HR and payroll solutions that were modular, flexible, scalable and able to be implemented rapidly. It also provided access to SAP SuccessFactors’ enterprise-grade HR management capability to organisations of all sizes. However, January 2019 saw Synchrony
Cloud implementation has become an increasingly crucial part of many organisations’ HR strategies as a growing number of companies look towards reducing reliance on physical storage. Clients deploying cloud HR solutions such as SuccessFactors expect implementations that are fast, affordable,
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INNOVATING ANALYTICS FOR BETTER CONFIGURATIONS
and as minimally disruptive as possible. This is something that has been at the forefront of the mind of Mike Ellis, EVP of Sales APJ, as Rizing HCM has outlined its new endeavours. “Increasingly, our clients are seeking measurable, outcome-based implementations that directly align to their business performance objectives,” says Ellis. “Understanding, measuring and recording useful data that can drive business outcomes is more important than ever.” Although simple enough on paper, there are numerous practical challenges involved in designing and implementing a solution to achieve HR transformation and cloud adoption. Rizing HCM sees this as a key area of both current and future innovation for the
Mike Ellis, EVP of Sales APJ, attests that “analytics are one of the most crucial aspects of effective HCM Solution configurations”. They not only provide groundwork but enable teams to effectively remain on course for meeting their objectives. “Identifying what’s valuable in a configuration starts with analytics,” says Ellis. “We may have a line of sight, but in many implementations we see project leads get off-track when dealing with nuanced decisions.” Still, there are options available for addressing these issues and helping to keep project leads on track. “Our Cube analytics, supported by the buy-in of our client executives, can help better inform decisions to proactively influence business performance outcomes,” says Ellis.
company, primarily through a methodologyas-a-service approach. “Our customers’ cloud HR implementations often involve the use of offline spreadsheets to store configuration parameters,” says Ellis. “With such a rudimentary tool, requirements are insufficiently documented, the ability to audit does not exist, and there is no comprehension of an overall global template.” A methodology-as-a-service approach can therefore change client outcomes in a
measurable way. Blueline and Cube are new product innovations that fulfil this function at Rizing HCM. Customers receive an implementation template – similar to a Model Company – as a first iteration. Workbooks can be automatically generated, which is a key element of any SAP cloud solution. “Blueline offers a solution that standardises the methodology, takes approvals online, and provides the ability to store requirements,” says Ellis. “If a field changes in the solution configuration, you
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have immediate visibility to the impact of that change.”
Smarter solutions Ellis also notes that businesses typically have lots of HR data available to them, but what they really need is actionable, ‘smart’ data. Smart data enables insights, which ultimately lead to business impact. This begins with a successful ‘go-live’ and continues with the realisation of business outcomes. “That’s our primary driver for building the Cube technology,” says Ellis. “We’re keen to help our clients elicit transformative data that combines talent insights with business performance and operations information ultimately into one actionable data set.”
a significant role to play in the success of other businesses. “With our install base now comprising more than 900 active clients, we can provide a statistically significant sample across many industries,” says Hédou. “This is real, empirical data. It’s not a marketing ploy; it’s the foundation of true data-driven decision-making.” Clients are able to go beyond simply assessing data from the install date; historical data is obviously of critical importance too. Every client needs to address its own history, but how this is handled can impact the length of and any risk involved in a SuccessFactors implementation. “With the Cube archiver for SuccessFactors
“We are excited to deliver … awardwinning solutions on a global scale to organisations of all sizes” Darcy Lalonde, president of Asia-Pacific, Rizing HCM
ABOUT RIZING HCM Headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Rizing HCM has become one of the strongest partners in the SAP SuccessFactors ecosystem, through their combined end-to-end experience and leading number of global implementations. With the addition of Synchrony Global, Rizing HCM has over 900 customers, making it one of the largest, and most qualified, SAP SuccessFactors consulting firms in the world.
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The adaptability of the program has been a key factor in its success. Its ability to recognise industry-specific statistics plays an important role in its wider appeal to clients. “As we look at our large SuccessFactors install base, for example, the Cube AI functions can recognise standard practices for capabilities across industries,” says Ellis. “For example, we would know that 80% of retail clients have a certain configuration that supports retail needs such as mass hiring and contingent labour. Over time, we can visually present those practices specific to clients and help them accelerate their adoption of SuccessFactors innovations.” It’s a sentiment echoed by Hédou. With the organisation’s expansion over recent years, Rizing HCM has been able to collect a broad range of data that in turn has
HR, companies can look at historical records concurrently, and that eliminates the need to load that data into Employee Central,” says Ellis. “It also ultimately allows the decommissioning of expensive legacy applications, accelerating the project ROI.” Combining the methodology-as-service of Blueline with the power of Cube analysis of HR operations ensures not only a successful go-live but continued success as the solution is updated and evolves throughout its life cycle. It’s an approach that has been a crucial part of Synchrony’s past success, and will remain important into the future. “It’s a fine line between transitioning to global specialists while still retaining your roots,” says Ellis. “However, we’re still bringing our innovative approach to solving client problems. In the long run, it’s only going to change client relationships for the better.”
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DIVERSITY
Building a more connected workforce Developing connectedness and engagement in the workplace is critical to long-term business success. Robby Kwok, vice president of people at Slack, outlines some of the key ways organisations can tackle this important issue ‘CONNECTEDNESS’ IS sometimes seen as a soft metric by HR managers. We’ve all taken part in team-building activities that are inspiring on the day but immediately fade when employees return to the daily grind. As a result, managers are discouraged
company, which means it’s in employers’ best interests to encourage positive employee engagement. Not to mention that, in 2019, 50% of the global workforce will be made up of millennials: a new generation of workers with different expectations around the tools
Having a transparent, connected team enables knowledge workers to stay aligned to the strategic priorities of their company from investing in projects that don’t seem to have a clear return on the company’s bottom line. But connectedness is an area in which HR leaders need to be investing. Research shows that employees’ attitudes towards work can directly impact the success of a
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and perks that enable them to maintain a productive and pleasant work environment. Connectedness is one of the most critical markers of employee engagement. But where to begin? Well, there are specific ways that connectedness and engagement can be more effectively defined. The organisations that
invest in them are the ones that will benefit in the long run. A more connected workplace means a better culture, which leads to happier employees, greater teamwork and less staff turnover. So, how can HR leaders better support the connectedness of their staff?
THE FOUR KEY COMPONENTS OF CONNECTEDNESS In the workplace, there are four key components of connectedness. Employees are continuously assessing them, both actively and unconsciously.
Do I feel like the work I’m doing is important? No matter where a person sits in the hierarchy of an organisation, they want to feel like their work matters. You can move
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Slack Vancouver office
into deeper, more existential territory pretty quickly with this line of questioning, but in the more immediate sense it simply refers to whether or not they feel like they are making a contribution on a day-to-day basis.
Does my work connect to the progress of the company and make a difference? Beyond day-to-day tasks, staff need to feel that what they’re doing impacts a larger whole. This is particularly important for remote-based workers and subsidiaries of global companies. Having a transparent, connected team enables knowledge workers to stay aligned to the strategic priorities of their company, resulting in more coordinated teamwork and the ability for an organisation to be agile – something that’s increasingly important in our fast-paced world.
CONNECTING REMOTE EMPLOYEES A common concern among remote employees is that they don’t always feel part of the team. But there are a number of ways to make them feel more at home, particularly during meetings, says Kwok. “For example, if we have a meeting where one employee needs to dial in, we’ll suggest having everyone who is participating dial in instead,” says Kwok. “This helps keep the meeting environment more equitable, and aids in building better connection across the whole team.”
Am I learning? Am I given the tools to get better at my current role, or does it teach me a new skill that may be useful elsewhere?
workplace. This will not only keep employees connected but provide them with the latest tools and learning opportunities to maximise employee engagement and retention.
Humans are naturally curious creatures. This curiosity has taken us from the Bronze Age to the Space Age in a few thousand years. Smart businesses will be investing in research and tech tools to keep up with the ever-changing
Camaraderie: Do I like my co-workers? Do I enjoy their company? Do I learn from them? The Slack Future of Work Study reported
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DIVERSITY
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that employees seek stronger bonds with colleagues, and work connections are central to satisfied teams, even among distributed workers. During a given week, it’s not unusual for employees to spend more time with their co-workers than their immediate families, so it’s essential that teammates get along, especially with remote working set to become the future norm.
Other metrics that HR managers should pay attention to include: Attrition rate: Ideally, employees should have the ability to deliver a higher rate of revenue over time, as they’re more connected and accordingly more productive. But if revenue is going up and the attrition rate is also up, you need to find out why.
Staff need to feel that what they’re doing impacts a larger whole. This is particularly important for remote-based workers and subsidiaries of global companies HOW CAN MY EMPLOYEES BE BETTER CONNECTED?
ABOUT SLACK Slack is a collaboration hub for work, no matter what work you do. It’s a place where conversations happen, decisions are made, and information is always at your fingertips. With Slack, your team is better connected. To find out more, visit www.slack.com.
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No doubt a few HR managers reading this have already recognised areas where there’s room for improvement within their own organisation. When it comes to developing workplace connectedness, there is no one-size-fits-all solution; it’s an ongoing balancing act. We do employee engagement surveys to check the pulse of our workplace. We ask employees around 60 questions which cut across key indicators for a happy workplace. They’re slightly tailored to allow for employees in different locations and with different periods of tenure, but broadly speaking these questions gauge Diversity and Representation, Inclusion and Belonging. We also look at employee and team output – is there a correlation between a highly engaged team and their output? In theory, you would expect to see more and better work coming from a team with this make-up.
You can’t look at these metrics in isolation. You also need to look at the attrition rate in comparison to the industry average, and at a breakdown of people you don’t want to leave versus those who are managed out. Acceptance rate: It’s worth considering the acceptance rate of prospective new employees. Candidates will often talk to current employees before they make a judgment call as to whether they accept the role. If candidates are consistently saying no, there may be some internal issues around connectedness that need to be addressed. Internal transfers: People want to be constantly challenged and grow within a company – and employees who love a company will find ways to stay. This may take the form of a promotion, or a shift to a different department. If an employee is moving around internally by choice, rather than leaving the company, this is a positive sign.
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FEATURES
ENGAGEMENT
Why your ‘open door’ policy is a joke Brian de Haaff explains why true transparency and engagement requires more than merely telling employees your door is always open THE BIG boss strolls into the big corner office. “Remember, my door is always open,” she calls out to the team. If this sounds like the start of a bad joke, that’s because in a way it is. ‘Open door’ policies are usually empty gestures. If you have to tell people that you’re open and accessible, then it’s probably not true. And you have a transparency problem. The so-called open-door policy is a corporate cliché – a relic that should be left in the past. Of course, there are times when the intention behind the cliché is sincere. But the issue is that few team members will actually take advantage of that open door. If you’re a leader in title or action, you must be the one who steps up and engages. There’s no substitute for proactive engagement. A Gallup survey revealed that when managers don’t regularly meet with employees, only 15% of their employees feel engaged. Managers who regularly meet with their employees almost triple that level of engagement.
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Saying your door is open is a triviality. You must make a real and sustained effort to demonstrate transparency, accessibility and collaboration. When you show (not tell) people they can come to you at any time, they believe it and act on it. Here’s how the best leaders foster openness and communication:
Share the plan Most people want to know that their day-to-day tasks and to-dos are meaningful – directly contributing to the overall success of the company. To make this connection, everybody on the team needs to understand the plan for achieving the organisation’s higher vision. Strong leaders openly share the plan. Doing so builds a sense of belonging and transparency.
Give feedback Scheduled one-on-one meetings are great, but when something demands immediate attention, don’t wait to start a conversation. Be direct and specific
with your language and your recommendations. Doing so builds trust, making it more likely that people will come to you the next time they want an honest and productive perspective.
Ask questions Be curious about the actual work the team is doing, but also about attitudes towards it, difficulties and any surprising learnings along the way. Take advantage of all your means of communication – collaborative workspaces, instant messages, video chats. Be inquisitive. You won’t need an open-door policy if you go to your team with questions instead of waiting for them to come to you.
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Saying your door is open is a triviality. When you show (not tell) people they can come to you at any time, they believe it and act on it Stay responsive If somebody comes to you with a question or request, do you get back to them quickly? Pushing concerns to the side sends a signal that your team members need to go somewhere else for answers; that, essentially, your door is shut. Yes, everyone is busy. But being accessible and responsive lets your teammates know that you care to help.
Recognise effort Research shows that people are reluctant to ask for help when they have a problem. I would guess that even more stay silent when they’ve done something great. Call out strong efforts and perfect moments – those instances when somebody achieved an ideal state. The point is not to inflate egos but to provide positive feedback and let people know that their
outstanding work is not going unnoticed. Leaders gain the team’s trust by being open and approachable through actions, not empty words. Give everybody equal access, offer real feedback and show no favouritism. Do that consistently and thoughtfully, and you won’t have to tell people you are accessible. No joke.
Brian de Haaff is the co-founder and CEO of Aha! and the author of Lovability. His two previous companies were acquired by well-known public corporations. De Haaff writes and speaks about product and company growth and the adventure of living a meaningful life. For more information, visit aha.io.
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FEATURES
INNOVATION
How to avoid big company syndrome Matthew E. May reveals how to keep the spirit of innovation alive even as your business grows
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OVER THE past few years, I’ve had the chance to work with a number of small to medium-sized companies, mostly private. Coming from a background of working mostly with much larger, publicly traded organisations, the change has been refreshing. Things happen more quickly, ideas flow more freely, and the atmosphere is in general more invigorating. Still, I’ve detected a sentiment, a feeling – sometimes verbalised, but mostly unvoiced. As a business begins to grow beyond a start-up into early maturity, and the danger of survival is replaced with success and more abundant resources, it sounds like this: “Our entrepreneurial spirit isn’t quite what it was when we
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or measured at the organisational level. Therefore, the desire for personal reward and recognition drives an informal system intended to produce a promotion and bonus. These things result in a strong program mentality: sell a program up and request more resources in the form of bodies and budget, regardless of whether it adds value. Approval is assured because it produces a favour owed and supports the boss’s own career ambitions. Objectives now become focused on meeting budget projections. Company expenses then rise faster than sales and add further complexity. That limits
listen for early warning indicators. You can hear big company syndrome start to creep into the language people use when you pitch ideas: “I’m OK with how things are.” “I think this will make things worse.” “We’re already on another track.” “We don’t have buy-in to do this.” “That may work elsewhere, but not here.” “We tried something like this before.” “Yeah, but…” Sound at all familiar? If so, then you need to move quickly and stop the syndrome before it spreads and takes a firm grasp. There are several signs that big company syndrome has a toehold in your business.
If you define innovation only in product terms, you’re leaving enormous potential on the table. Define innovation for the everyman to open up company-wide creativity
were a start-up. Sometimes it’s completely MIA. More and more, we seem to need more money, people and space to innovate. But that’s not how we started. OK, so we didn’t start in the proverbial attic or garage, but we started with a little of everything: money, space, labour. We had a goal and a passion for reaching it. Those limits made us more creative and resourceful than we are today. Today, the addiction to resources is blocking innovation.” That kind of message is symptomatic of what I call big company syndrome, an innovation malaise often prevalent in large corporations. It goes something like this: constant, company-wide innovation is no longer something requested, managed
organisational effectiveness, requiring even more work to execute the program, leading to yet further requests for resources. When costs swell, senior management puts the squeeze on to stem the tide. Speed bumps get erected, usually in the form of additional project approvals. Valuable ideas get iced along with circumspect programs. Eventually, the ability to flex, react and innovate is lost. It’s something many big companies struggle with. Compare that to a young, nimble and hungry start-up organised around customer-focused goals, projects and processes, not functions. Projects have a clear start and stop, so resources are mobilised to match the need. But at some point, the start-up grows up and becomes vulnerable to big company syndrome. So how do you know if your company is heading towards big company syndrome? There are at least a couple of ways. First,
I call them the seven signs of innovation anaemia, and you can course-correct fairly easily if you’re able to recognise them when they appear.
1. Identity crisis Many companies struggle to identify what their innovative strength and style is. Look back at your founding roots to discover your innovation DNA. Are you a human-needs-based innovator? A market-driven fast follower? A leading-edge technologist? Eliminate or radically reduce efforts and initiatives that don’t play to your natural strengths and who you are as an innovating body.
2. Inaccessible definition If you define innovation only in product terms, you’re leaving enormous potential on the table. Define innovation for the everyman to open up
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FEATURES
INNOVATION
company-wide creativity. Try something simple, such as “innovation is the implementation of creative concepts that are both novel and useful”. It’s easy to understand, in user-friendly language, yet with two clear criteria.
3. Unfocused strategy Can you articulate the answers to the essential question of any strategy: Where will you play and how will you win? Like any strategy, innovation strategy is a question of focusing resources, which is something different to prioritisation. It’s the ability to identify what you’re going to say no to.
4. Inconsistent method The ability to consistently take concepts from inception to commercialisation (or value delivery if non-revenue-focused) requires a consistent creative approach. As with the identity crisis issue, pick a method suited to your genetics and culture. For example, if you’re a human-centred innovator, try design thinking.
5. Weak experimentation Remember how you started? Little in the way of resources, running simple, fast and frugal tests of earlystage prototypes in an effort to prove your concept. As companies expand their ranks and founders move further from users, there’s a tendency to adopt a ‘conceive and go’ stance, forgetting the more scientific approach that brought success in the first place. The mindset can’t be “Now that I’m successful, I know what will work and I’m going to ensure it does”. It has to be “I think this may work, so let me try it out”. Never let go of the ethos of experimentation – and if it’s slipping out of your grasp, redouble your focus on rapid prototyping and testing.
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The mindset can’t be “Now that I’m successful, I know what will work and I’m going to ensure it does” 6. Talent mismatch Companies love to move highpotential managers into roles related to managing innovation. They are great at plans and budgets, great at execution, great at growing lines of business. But what do you think they’re going to do when you move them into the messy and uncertain world of pursuing mysteries and creating something new? They’re going to try to plan, budget, execute and obsess over revenue realisation. Remember that innovation is about rapid learning, testing and failure. Keep the convergent thinkers planning and executing, and
keep the divergent thinkers in their sweet spot of ideating and experimenting. Team them when the time is right for a winning combination.
7. Weak ideas A strong idea answers three major questions. Is the concept a good fit for our organisation? Does the concept solve a problem in an innovative way? Can the concept be scaled effectively? For a portfolio of stronger ideas, reverse any of the previous six signs you believe to be present in your company. Like any ailment, big company syndrome is easier to prevent than to correct, and much easier to correct when it’s caught early. Matthew E. May is an internationally recognised thought leader on strategy, innovation and lean, and is the author of five books, including Winning the Brain Game, which encapsulates more than a decade of experience in helping teams develop elegant solutions to difficult problems. Strategy+Business, Rotman Magazine, Fast Company, 99U, and INC.
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PEOPLE
CAREER PATH
TRANSFORMATION EXPERT Throughout her international career, Shiona Watson, now senior director of HR at PepsiCo, has been dedicated to harnessing the power of people Shiona Watson’s global childhood – she was on her first flight at the age of six weeks and moved eight times before the age of three – influenced her choice of a commerce degree, which led to a master’s in HR and industrial relations. “There’s something fascinating about people management – it intrigues me. How to get the most out of people is one of the harder elements of business. Numbers are black and white; people aren’t.”
1998
2001
EXPERIENCES A COMPANY COLLAPSE Watson was in New Zealand when Ansett collapsed. “At 11am I was offered a contract [by the airline’s buyer that had just put Ansett into liquidation] and said no. They put me on the 4pm flight out, as they were cutting financial ties at midnight. For the next month I worked supporting employees. It was an incredibly tough personal experience. “Being part of a significant change beyond my control has made me more empathetic with people subject to such changes.”
2003
TAKES A YEAR OUT
Watson spent a year volunteering as a community development leader in Costa Rica. On her return she chose a new city – Sydney – and took an HR position at Boral. “Working in Costa Rica was a chance to escape my comfort zone and do something outside the corporate world. I was drawn to the program and thought, ‘If I don’t do it now I will never do it’. I felt it would give me an invaluable life experience.”
2015
COMBINES BUSINESS AND PEOPLE In her fourth year after a move to PepsiCo, Watson was promoted to senior director, HR. Two days later she gave birth, then spent the first six months of her new role on maternity leave. “The company said that was irrelevant because I was the right person. In the last three years we’ve transformed the ANZ business.”
STUDIES HR
2000
JOINS ANSETT Watson got involved in the Ansett graduate program through a university contact who was already working for the airline. “She told me I’d be perfect. Ansett was a phenomenal first company to work for – I was given the opportunity to stretch myself; I learnt so much from very experienced people. My second job was HR for the ANZ call centres. At the age of 22 I had my first HR role and my first international assignment. It was a huge step up.”
2002
LEARNS THE IMPORTANCE OF PLANNING During what she calls her “exploration phase”, when she explored non-HR fields, Watson took a call from an ex-Ansett contact who suggested her for a business project development role at the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria. “I learned about planning and project implementation and was responsible for some significant events. I learned the importance of having a plan – it’s 99% sweat and 1% execution. That’s when the rubber hits the road.”
2005
JOINS FOSTER’S Another call from an Ansett ex-colleague led Watson to Foster’s, where the only constant was change. “I had eight roles in seven years. I was given the opportunity to solve situations, create things, try different solutions, and I was able to do that because of inspirational and supportive leaders giving me the runway to come up with ideas, solutions and processes. I was able to get great experience of effectively managing change.”
“We’ve delivered significant business and massive increases in employee engagement. Numbers are black and white, but we’ve harnessed the power of people to deliver phenomenal business outcomes” www.hcamag.com
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PEOPLE
OTHER LIFE
TELL US ABOUT YOUR OTHER LIFE Email hrdeditor@keymedia.com
Steven Osiel spends roughly a day a week maintaining his hives during the su mmer, a nd a day a month the rest of the year
200lb
Typical honey yield from one season; the bees need 60–70lb
8
Number of hives in Osiel’s bee yard
1,000
Number of jars needed to contain the summer’s honey yield
BUSY AS A BEE For Toronto-based strategic total compensation adviser Steven Osiel, caring for his hives is the bee’s knees
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THE SUMMER just past was only Steven Osiel’s second season as a recreational beekeeper. But the strategic total compensation adviser and “chief bee officer” is already selling some of the product of his cottage’s bee yard at Toronto foodie temple St Lawrence Market. The honey crop was so voluminous that he estimates he has also given away 100 jars to friends, as well as to clients as an icebreaker, and so far he has had a universally welcoming response.
“People are so interested in it. I feel very privileged to be an ambassador for beekeeping; it’s a wonderful story to tell.” There’s more to Osiel’s passion than a sweet harvest, however. “I want reason to go out into the forest and play,” he says. “I also love learning about something very different to what I do every day. Beekeeping is challenging, and that keeps me coming back. And the honey is a wonderful reward.”
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