HRD 2014 Education Guide

SUPPORT EMPLOYEE EDUCATION MAXIMIZING THE BANG FOR THE BUCK

2014 EDUCATION GUIDE WWW.HRMONLINE.CA ISSUE 2.2

HR IN THE KNOW THE BEST EDUCATION OPTIONS FOR HRDS HARD LESSONS ON SOFT SKILLS INTERPERSONAL INSTRUCTION

CORPORATE CATALYST Learning to re-imagine HR with Global Knowledge’s Scott Williams

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CONTENTS

4 | Don’t Skip School HRD investigates how organizations are making the most of educating employees 8 | Transforming HR leaders The right courses and qualifications can enable HR leaders to take the next step to transform their careers and their organization

11

11 | Learning to re-imagine HR The “new normal” for business is constant change. Leverage learning and development to build an agile, adaptable workforce to survive and thrive.

issue

2.2

26 | Hard lessons on soft skills Soft skills are increasingly in demand, but are organizations doing enough to improve their employees interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence?

READ MORE 18 | Leaders for the future 22 | Developing complete executives 30 | Prepare your employees for learning 32 | MBA gender inquality: What can HR do?

22 04 APRIL 2014 | 1

EDUCATION / TRENDS

WORKFORCE TRAINING TRENDS

Most organizations support employee education in some form, but Canada is still playing catch-up with global leaders. HRD looks at the latest trends in employee education from around the world.

Almost one-third of workers took jobrelated courses Employer support included providing training, paying for fees or transportation and providing flexible work schedules.

But here’s a look at people taking courses with no employer support:

RATE OF PARTICIPATION IN JOB-RELATED TRAINING Canada Sweden

29%

Denmark

45%

46%

44%

U.K

4%

10%

49%

1993

2002

2008

RATE OF EMPLOYERS OFFERING SOME FORM OF SUBSIDIZATION:

100%

Austria

34%

44%

23%

24%

41% Switzerland

France

U.S.A

80%

Finland

14% Germany

60% 40% 20% INDUSTRY PARTICIPATION RATES

10% 0

500+ employees

200-500 employees

Less than 20 employees

GOAL OF TRAINING BY AGE GROUP

2 | APRIL 2014

73%

45-64 years: 73% wanted to improve job performance or knowledge

Health occupations:

Primary industry:

Social science, education and government service occupations:

Sales and service occupations:

62.3% 60.7% Natural and applied sciences occupations:

51.4%

33.1% 29.8% Trade, transport and machinery occupations:

29.6%

Management occupations:

50.6% Processing, manufacturing and utilities:

24.6%

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LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT / BEST PRACTICE

DON’T

SKIP SCHOOL When employee engagement recedes, educational initiatives that motivate – and retain! – have to be brought forward.

Anna Sharratt hones in on those strategies yielding the strongest results

4 | APRIL 2014

Employees aren’t the happiest lot these days. Many point to longer working hours, as employers cut positions, leave them open, and freeze wages or cancel bonuses. According to Aon Hewitt’s 2013 Trends in Global Employee Engagement, “While engagement levels have increased slightly from 2011 to 2012, these critical aspects of engagement are still falling short – overall, only 60 per cent of employees are engaged and less than 60 per cent want to stay or go above and beyond.”

But when times get tough, one of the first things companies often do is cut their education and training budgets. “During turbulent times and uncertain forecasts, many organizations react with decreased investment in their talent,” reads the Hewitt paper. “Smart leaders realize that times of economic crisis actually present some of the best opportunities to invest in employee engagement in order to stabilize the organization through the tough times and be ready to capitalize on eventual growth opportunities.”

The good news: Many companies have taken that advice to heart. Plus,

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they’re continuing to expand their training initiatives to keep their employees happy, skilled and, hopefully, less likely to jump ship. Here’s what strategies are currently in play.

1

MAINTAINING AN EDUCATIONINFUSED CULTURE

At Ceridian – a specialist in human capital management, payroll administration and employee assistance program (EAP) provision – educational initiatives are a big part of corporate culture. The firm, which has 10 offices across Canada and over 100,000 clients in 50 countries worldwide, is committed to furthering employee education at every level of the organization, through tuition reimbursement, softskills training, manager and leader training, and product-specific training.

“In our knowledge-based world, people need to know knowledge-based skills,” says Kelly Allder,

Ceridian’s vice-president of HR programs in Toronto.

“We’re a strong proponent of education.”

Allder says that the organization’s educational initiatives are so engrained in corporate culture that they’re frequently touted at employee interviews.

“It’s definitely highlighted as part of our total compensation package.”

Setting aside an annual educational budget at the beginning of the year, Ceridian’s educational initiatives can be divided into three key parts, says Allder.

She explains that one stream is product-specific training, which involves development of skills related to the firm’s HR solutions and which is aimed at frontline staff.

Another provides soft-skills training to frontline staff and managers to ensure business processes run smoothly. Here, skills around conflict resolution, dealing with difficult people and email etiquette are developed and honed.

APRIL 2014 | 5

LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT / BEST PRACTICE

19%

of employees say they have unmet training needs

59%

of employers offer some form of workplace training

$705

per employee was spent on learning and development in 2012

The third stream funds manager and leader training, which deals with performance management – giving emerging managers the tools to become better leaders.

Ceridian fully reimburses its employees for courses taken through its own channels – or outside the company. It also pays for specific courses that apply to certain staff members. “Two hundred employees are CPA-certified, and we reimburse them for those courses,” says Allder. “It’s important that they continue to develop.”

The take-up has been good. In 2013, there were 121 employees who took advantage and had their tuition reimbursed, with the average cost of these courses being $1,400.

The company has also worked hard at making skills training appealing to its staff. It promotes its training programs annually at its Learn at Work week in September. It has also broadened its delivery of these programs, offering courses in person, via teleconference or through a webinar (in French and English, across multiple time zones). The idea is to make it as simple as possible for employees to grow their skills.

But Ceridian states that it’s by no means a freefor-all. Employees are expected to commit to a certain number of courses in certain fields, such as accountancy, and must get certain grades to qualify

“The partners really just generate dialogue and help them think of things they hadn’t thought of before” for reimbursement. “You have to demonstrate and show your marks at the end,” says Allder.

She notes that Ceridian is now exploring gamification, which is a way of reinforcing skills by having employees play games – and then answer questions to increase knowledge. The employees can pick what game to play, gain points, compete against colleagues via a leaderboard, and cash those points in. “It is able to reinforce key concepts of training,” says Allder. “And it adapts to the learner.”

6 | APRIL 2014

Currently, 200 sales reps are in the process of trying out the new system, with managers next on the list. The program will likely be rolled out to other parts of the company later in 2014.

The overall result of Ceridian’s educational initiatives has been a low staff turnover rate of 8 to 9 per cent, observes Allder. “I can’t say training has not impacted that,” she says. “We’ve always invested in our employees.”

2

HAVING SENIOR MANAGEMENT BE MORE ACCESSIBLE

Deloitte’s management training is enviable, the outcome of the consulting powerhouse’s big commitment to management training. It runs manager and senior manager programs that take employees offsite and put them in direct contact with senior partners at the firm. “It’s been hugely successful,” says Diana Bartolic, partner, Talent at Deloitte in Vancouver, adding that the firm’s retention rate is 85 per cent. “Over the last few years, we’ve really stepped up the game with these programs.”

The programs – held in Dallas, Texas, at Deloitte University, the firm’s massive learning facility – last 2.5 days for New Manager, and 3.5 days for Senior Manager, the two programs offered. The skills training focuses on management responsibilities in a global environment, managing new clients, effectively handling employee issues and keeping clients happy. Each year, 250 to 300 managers and 150 senior managers from Canada complete the program.

The courses focus on real-life examples and on simulations of various scenarios managers are likely to encounter; and they’re taught by partners at the firm. “From a mentorship perspective, that’s really how our people learn the best,” says Bartolic. “Our people really value the time they spend with leadership.”

That’s because employees are presented with ideas and information that are not generic and onesize-fits-all in nature – but rather come from individuals who have dealt with challenges at Deloitte – and employees learn key tips that they can then share with up-and-coming managers at the firm.

The partners “really just generate dialogue and help them [the employees] think of things they hadn’t thought of before,” says Bartolic.

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Deloitte also supports executive MBAs, though a strong business case needs to be presented by the employee, observes Bartolic. And an agreement is put in place to ensure the employee stays on. “We don’t like to think of it as golden handcuffs,” she says. “But there would be an expectation that a person would stay for a period of time.”

3

TAILORING EDUCATION STRATEGIES WHEN TIMES GET TOUGH

Molson Coors has had a tough period over the past few years, says Bree Ranieri, vice-president of HR in Toronto. “We had a really challenging year last year,” she explains, after the firm experienced some leadership changes and “profit margins that were under pressure.”

The result: Two consecutive years of no bonuses for employees and a fear on the part of management that long-time staffers would head for the door. So Molson Coors didn’t slash its educational and training budget to save money. Instead, it took a long, hard look at its employee population.

The company continued training for its frontline workers, comprising brewery workers at four facilities across Canada as well as sales staff. “We have a very robust functional training program,” says Ranieri, adding that it encompasses skills development, leadership training and safety training.”

Molson Coors also maintained its two management training programs, one aimed at managers and the other at directors.

Then it looked at keeping its staff from leaving.

“We put together a retention program that was really quite simple,” explains Ranieri. “It identified employees who were highest priority from a retention standpoint.”

She says the strategy zeroed in on three groups: the high performers, those in a critical role with lots of historical knowledge, and those staff members with high future potential. These employees were surveyed by their managers, who determined what motivated the employees, what they sought within their roles or within the company, and what it would take to keep them happy – and around for the long term.

The needs articulated by the employees were myriad. “It might be development. They might be

PARTICIPATION IN JOB-RELATED EDUCATION AND TRAINING

OH, CANADA! PERCENTAGE OF PAYROLL SPENT ON TRAINING AND EDUCATION

3.43%

2.34%

1.57%

South Africa

U.S.A

Canada

interested in getting an executive MBA,” says Ranieri.

Going forward, “dedicated leads have to have regular contact with that individual,” she says. And the educational and career wishes of these employees were largely granted.

The outcome was a positive. “It was less than 5 per cent of that population that left,” says Ranieri. “The crux of our retention program was to understand the motivations of each employee for staying.”

46% Denmark

45% Sweden

44% United States

34% United Kingdom

29% Canada

CANADIAN COMPANIES TRAIL WORLD IN L&D TRENDS Canada is under-performing in workplace learning in comparison with other countries.

In the last few years, Canada slipped from 12th in the world to 20th in terms of the priority employers place on training their workers.

The rate of participation in job-related training in Canada is only average compared to other countries, and is below that of some of our competitors.

As a percentage of their overall payroll, U.S. firms spend about 50 per cent more on training than Canadian firms.

While overall participation in adult training is increasing in Canada, this masks a number of issues of concern: • Employer-sponsored training in Canada has been stagnant. Participation rates and firms’ spending per employee have remained virtually the same in recent years.

• Worker training is highly concentrated in Canada, among younger workers, those with higher education and skill levels, and workers in larger firms.

• Measures of “essential skills” show that workers in Canada have lower levels than what is needed, according to international standards, to participate in the knowledge economy. Adult literacy levels in Canada have remained virtually unchanged over the last decade, with over 40 per cent of adult Canadians lacking the literacy and numeracy skills they need.

• Basic skills training remains at the bottom of training priorities (only 2.2 per cent of total training expenditures).

APRIL 2014 | 7

HIGHER EDUCATION / HR IN THE CLASSROOM

TRANSFORMING HR LEADERS INTO

BUSINESS LEADERS

Like the cobbler’s barefoot children, sometimes HR is last on the list for education and training, but the more HR knows, the better it can strategically advise and direct organizations towards better outcomes

While HR leaders ultimately shoulder responsibility for training and developing employees, they also need to keep their own skills up to date. Doing so is a way of meeting changing demands, say experts, but also, to be quite frank, a way of “future-proofing” their own careers.

“Competitive demands are changing. Disruptive technologies are being introduced. The world is not staying static,” said Hugh Arnold, an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management as well as the academic director of several executive education programs on leadership and human resources.

“Organizations need to ensure, across the board, their leaders are developing [and] continuing to be challenged.”

HR leaders clearly need to be keeping up with best practices in their field. But exposing themselves to the latest thinking and innovative approaches is table stakes, said Arnold. These days, they need to take that step further and develop themselves in order to contribute as senior leaders.

“All members of the leadership team, but HR members in particular, need to be taking a strategic view of the organization and how their piece of the organization can contribute to the strategic success of the business,” said Arnold. “It’s not good enough 8 | APRIL 2014

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to keep [your head] down and just run a good HR function.”

Developing leadership skills in talent development is a key area for HR leaders, he said. Talent management systems have become more sophisticated, and HR leaders need to be thinking proactively about what they can do to develop the individual or collective skills required by the organization.

Rotman offers a four-week modular program, which provides an overview of the HR function.

“What we felt was missing [are] … the strategic HR capabilities and skills required by people who are in or likely to be in very senior HR management positions,” said Arnold.

As a result, Rotman is now delivering a five-day Strategic Human Resource Management Program, which covers the ways in which HR strategy needs to link to business strategy.

Components of that program address talent management, including the ability to assess performance and potential; linkages between performance and compensation; different measures and analytics affording an understanding of potential gaps in HR processes; and coaching and culture building.

“Organizations doing the best job of leadership are doing this in an increasingly systematic way – they’re not leaving it to chance,” said Arnold. They’re putting processes in place (on at least an annual basis) for senior leadership to talk about high potentials and ensure there’s a plan for their development.

Another aspect of leadership development considers the legalities around the HR function. Osgoode Hall Law School, at York University, offers a Certifi-

cate in HR Law for HR Professionals, which entails five one-day modules. These modules help HR professionals understand the laws governing the employment relationship and legal risks that can arise in the workplace.

“There’s a definite need for legal training for non-lawyers,” said David Thomas, senior program lawyer with Osgoode’s professional development certificate programs.

“We attract a senior crowd – they’ve got some of the best problems you can face, and they want a practical solution.”

Anecdotally, Thomas has found HR professionals are using the certificate to increase their knowledge and refine their skills in order to train others within their workplaces (the course provides materials they can adapt for in-house training), as well as to move up in their career.

The program also addresses relatively new issues, such as how social media are changing the workplace – including the use of social media at work or by HR during the hiring process. In addition, it helps HR leaders keep up to date with the law in specific areas such as workplace health and safety.

This type of training can help HR leaders when they need to go to in-house counsel. “They can recognize if there is a problem, and when they need to get help, and what they need to put in place,” said Thomas.

While there are short- and long-term programs available at post-secondary institutions, some organizations are custom-designing their own leadership courses.

APRIL 2014 | 9

HIGHER EDUCATION / HR IN THE CLASSROOM

RBC, for example, has created the Foundations of Financial Performance program in collaboration with Western University’s Ivey Business School to equip its next generation of senior leaders with financial and business acumen skills required for success in an evolving world. (RBC established its relationship with the school more than 20 years ago and has a long history of providing customized learning solutions across the organization.)

The Foundations of Financial Performance program is three days in length and designed to strengthen the participant’s understanding of key business platforms, their financial performance and drivers, and how the various platforms contribute to enterprise positioning and performance.

Our businesses are transforming at a faster pace than ever before, and our leaders are expecting us, as HR leaders, to understand the business and have a perspective on more than just HR-related initiatives “To help our employees obtain these skills, we collaborated with Ivey to develop a program that explores the key drivers of our financial performance, how different business units contribute to our enterprise strategy and performance, and the challenges and opportunities affecting our future growth,” said Pragashini Fox, vice-president of Talent Management with RBC. Not unlike most senior-level positions, the role of senior HR leaders is changing. The HR business partner role at RBC, for example, originated as a liaison position between the HR function and business leaders.

“Today, HR business partners directly advise and support leaders as they make human capital decisions and focus on strategic activities such as executive coaching,” said Katerina Goros, vice-president of Human Resources with RBC. RBC is also investing in specialized skill sets for its HR centres of expertise as the demands of its organization evolve. It has established, for example,

new professional centres, like change management and strategic workforce planning – centres that just a few years ago did not exist.

Most importantly, though, RBC is looking to foster leadership with HR staff. Doing so includes developing leadership skills related to challenging the status quo and being transformational change agents, said Goros. Key areas of development include building strategic thinking and consultative-like skill sets.

Russ McNally, senior HR business partner at RBC, is a former “student” of the Foundations of Financial Performance program. And he says having a strong understanding of RBC’s overall financial performance and key strategies is critical to his ability to think strategically when helping the business make more-informed HR-related decisions.

“Our businesses are transforming at a faster pace than ever before, and our leaders are expecting us, as HR leaders, to understand the business and have a perspective on more than just HR-related initiatives,” said McNally.

Indeed, his role as an HR business partner has allowed him to develop his overall business and financial acumen, in addition to analytical thinking.

He spent most of his career in a centre of expertise, and this deliberate developmental move was intended to get him working closer to the business.

In addition to on-the-job learning, McNally took the Foundations of Financial Performance program to net new skills. “I have spent my career in HR and have never worked directly in the business within RBC,” he said. “I have a master’s in an HR-related field and not an MBA.” Through the program, he learned about crucial factors and thought processes in making important decisions for RBC – and he also learned how to read financial statements and speak the business’s language.

While McNally believes the best learning occurs on the job, this type of formal training was a “perfect complement” to in-job learning. “It took me out of my comfort zone. Because of that, I learned a lot,” he said.

“I really think the role of HR is evolving, and our business partners need us to be true strategic partners,” McNally said, adding that it’s an exciting time to be in the HR profession. “Programs like this one, in addition to using roles like mine as development opportunities, are going to make the HR function more valuable to organizations.”

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LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT/ AGILE WORKFORCE

LEARNING

to re-imagine

HR The ‘new normal’ for business is constant change, and anyone who can’t keep up will be left behind. HRD learns how organizations that leverage learning and development to build an agile, adaptable workforce will survive and thrive

It’s a strange new world where Marketing controls more of the technology budget than IT, where the cloud is becoming universal and siloes are breaking down between business functions. How can an HR director plan for a future no one can predict? The key is in training a capable, adaptable workforce ready to adjust to new work conditions.

NEW REALITIES “We haven’t really hit a steady state; we’re just in this world of constant change,” Global Knowledge Canada’s president Scott Williams says. “We tend to read about specific challenges such as the financial crisis or managing millennials.

Those are true, but it’s like saying the fever is the flu. It’s one symptom. Those are data points in a world of constant change.”

As silos break down, different functions have to build new capabilities.

Marketing needs IT knowledge, and IT needs to understand the needs of other

12 | APRIL 2014

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functions so it can facilitate solutions, says Tejas Vashi, director of Product Strategy and Marketing at Learning@Cisco.

“Threaded throughout are things like business understanding and return on investment,” Vashi says.

“IT needs to be sure they’re saying here’s how we can solve it from a technology perspective, and here’s the return on investment. They need to understand the business components.”

As these silos break down, organizations have more opportunities for collaboration, but they need to leverage that opportunity into a better work solution.

For example, to increase sales five per cent, you could hire more sales people, or you might be able to leverage better technology to allow sales people to process orders while on the road in real time.

Organizations that want that competitive advantage are taking steps to get the most from their teams.

HR leaders play a key role in implementing and facilitating this convergence by ensuring that employees have the right training available to them.

Cross-functional knowledge and an understanding of how their role contributes to the business function give employees a better opportunity to collaborate outside their department and add value to organizational changes.

ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS Williams sees a parallel between HR and IT, as both adapt to the new business world, moving from service bureau to business partner – and they’re not done yet.

“I think HR’s in a really good spot, because my feeling is that HR is going to be able to step up and be a business enabler,” Williams says. “There is a skill set and rigour in HR, and it’s important for HR professionals to not just be partners with their stakeholders but to enable their stakeholders.”

Historically, HR has been a transactional role.

Now, most companies have recognized the value HR can bring strategically, but it’s up to HR to step up and enable its peers in other business functions to

be more efficient, effective and collaborative.

Finding a better answer is usually about asking better questions, Williams says. When Global Knowledge builds solutions for clients, the IT and business skills trainer doesn’t tell clients what they need but asks about their symptoms.

“We try to bring a methodology to help the client articulate what their real business needs are,” Williams says. “They might only have symptoms that they can describe, such as retention problems, but we bring an ability to help unearth the underlying reasons for that.”

For example, if an organization is struggling to retain customers, it could be that the underlying issue

“I think HR’s in a really good spot, because my feeling is that HR is going to be able to step up and be a business enabler” Scott Williams, president, Global Knowledge Canada

APRIL 2014 | 13

LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT/ AGILE WORKFORCE

TRAINING THE TELUS WAY Even when budgets are cut and belts are tightened, TELUS protects funding for learning and development. It’s just one signal to TELUS’s 40,000 employees that the company values their skills and wants to ensure they’re as effective as possible.

“We operate in a dynamic, continually changing marketplace in terms of the technology, regulatory environment, customer needs,” says Andrew Turner, TELUS vice-president of Performance Culture. “Technology and any strategy we have can be and is often copied by competitors. Really, it’s only the execution that will differentiate you, and that comes from our people and our culture.”

The TELUS Leadership Philosophy (TLP) framework creates a model for everybody to do the right thing for the company, customer, team and community, says director of Enterprise Learning Dan Pontefract.

“In order to achieve organizational amplitude, we need to build aptitude,” he says. “The myopic, hierarchical way organizations historically have been run is frankly no good for tomorrow’s customer and tomorrow’s organization.”

TELUS recently reduced the number of its education partners from more than 300 globally to a more select number of organizations that are aligned to its strategy and understand its objectives.

“Global Knowledge certainly has become the number one partner for my team at National Learning and Development,” says director of Training, National Learning and Development Michelle Gaites. “We initially sat down with them when we started building this department and said what does ‘good’ look like? My team’s goal was to build a really robust set of curriculums. We have found their capability to scale up and scale down, to parts of the pipe, or owning the whole thing is very professional.”

While the industry saw complaints increase 26 per cent last year, TELUS saw the number of complaints it received drop 27 per cent last year, thanks partly to a focus on ensuring that employees are trained in soft skills as well as technical capabilities.

“We have specific training built around the customer experience, utilizing surveys and interviews, allowing us to understand what makes the customer happy and opportunities for growth,” Gaites says. “We’ve built content around that, which has no technical aspect at all but focuses on how the customer feels when we’re in their home.”

In the past five years, employee engagement has increased from 53 to 83 per cent. In addition, there has been an increase from 60 to 75 per cent in employees’ positive response to the question “Through learning, have you and your leader noticed a discernable improvement in performance?”

It’s an improvement that TELUS’s Pontefract says is due to improving leadership training and a focus on aligning development to the company’s value attributes – the behaviours that align with TELUS’s company values.

“Overarchingly, we’ve seen an incredible passion, zest and zeal from our team members, being entirely engaged in our organization,” Pontefract says.

KTLO: KEEPING THE LIGHTS ON About 80 per cent of IT resources go to “keeping the lights on,” Global Knowledge’s Scott Williams says. From making sure people get paid to fixing printer problems, the day-to-day, mundane tasks often consume the majority of people’s time.

“Another of the things we try to do is help organizations become more efficient at those mundane tasks,” Williams says. “That frees people and resources up to focus on the strategic tasks that move an organization forward.”

14 | APRIL 2014

is staff turnover as employees leave and the company’s loss of the relationships that have been built.

BUILDING AND MAINTAINING COMPETENCY For many of Cisco’s clients, better training means better leveraging of technology and therefore better results, Vashi says.

“We all know how to ride a bike, but if you don’t understand all the gears, you’re not maximizing the potential,” he adds. “Training our internal people, thousands of training partners around the globe, as well as customers is a critical area for Cisco.”

Effective training not only improves Cisco’s client retention but ensures that those clients are getting the most from their technology, keeping them relevant and competitive. Cisco partners with Global Knowledge to offer this kind of training to customers around the world, at a variety of levels to ensure they are making the most of the technology they have.

Training goes beyond just building competency for today. Forward-thinking organizations are preparing now for employee requirements in the future.

Alberta-based energy company Enmax produces regular strategic roadmaps for learning and development, bringing together skills gap analysis and business unit objectives to determine what the organization will require in the next three to five years, vice-president of IT and PMO Francois Lafortune says. The next step is then to contact a provider such as Global Knowledge to put together a program bridging those gaps.

“We’re trying to teach employees to think for themselves,” Lafortune says. “I’d rather train them on how to identify what’s required themselves than provide one set of training that six months from now will be useless to me.”

LEADING THE WAY TO INNOVATION “Our business requires a lot of agility in how we deliver the services under our mandate,” the director

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We’re trying to teach employees to think for themselves Francois Lafortune, vice-president of IT and PMO, Enmax general of Communications Security Establishment of Canada (CSEC), Lawrence Menard, says. “To do that, we need to have agility, flexibility and responsiveness in our workforce.”

CSEC is moving to an open-concept office, with the option for employees to work anywhere on campus. By encouraging people to move around in the building, the agency is hoping to build a more collaborative environment.

Employees have been largely tied to their work stations, so managers need to be trained in how to supervise, motivate and engage employees they can’t see. The organization’s leadership program includes everyone from frontline supervisors to senior executives, and will prepare them for the coming changes in the work environment.

“We’re looking at more agility and at how we can better use a crowdsourcing approach to solving business problems,” Menard says. “The culture change affects everyone but is also very specific to the leaders in the organization, because we want them to be effective leading employees on the journey towards becoming a more agile, innovative, collaborative workforce.”

It’s easy to let training and development slip when time and budgets are tight, but if HR leaders can focus on ensuring that employees have the skills they need, they bring sustainable change and long-term relevance to their organization.

“There’s never a training emergency. There’s usually some other train going off the track. That’s one of the challenges we have in our business,” Williams says. “It’s a creeping thing – the market or your competition or the world gradually overtakes you, and you become irrelevant. You can’t take your eye off the ball.”

HR leaders are positioned to make strategic learning and development a priority and to facilitate cross-functional collaboration to ensure their organization is agile, adaptable and prepared for future change.

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Our offering includes more than 1,500 courses spanning both the hard and soft skills today’s business needs to survive and thrive.

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Global Knowledge courses are available in person and online, letting you choose when, where and how your people will get the ongoing upgrades they need. Our uncompromising quality has earned us the trust of such industry leaders as IBM, Microsoft, Cisco and VMware. In addition, we have won multiple awards from all these companies, and more.

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Get more out of the you alread Hiring great people is no longer enough. In today’s world, you need employees to keep getting even better.

That’s where Global Knowledge comes in. Global Knowledge is the world leader in IT, business and leadership skills training. We train in scheduled classes, and through dedicated, onsite and tailored formats as well. Plus, we train both in person and online, to let you choose when, where and how your people will get the upgrades they need. Global Knowledge has been in business for the past 25 years, and our uncompromising quality has earned us the trust of such industry leaders as IBM, Microsoft, VMware and Cisco. Find out more. Call our VP of Sales, Shannon Buchanan, at 613-288-8898 today. Because these days, if your business isn’t looking ahead, it’s falling behind.

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HIGHER EDUCATION / FUTURE LEADERS

18 | APRIL 2014

HRMONLINE.CA

LEADING THE WAY TO THE

FUTURE

Leadership and succession planning may be HRD’s biggest concern, but individuals are still getting promoted without the requisite training as managers.

Royal Roads’ Centre for Coaching and Workplace Innovation is giving high potentials that training so key to strong leadership When an employee survey in 2007 showed that the Capital Regional District (CRD) needed a sea change to shake the kind of traditional, siloed corporate culture familiar to so many HR veterans, Sarah Hood, a workforce development and strategies manager, knew it would have to come from the top.

“It was a big initiative, and I recognized that had to start with our leaders,” says Hood, who would ultimately set the agenda for that change at the local government administrative district, which oversees the southern tip of Vancouver Island and the surrounding Gulf Islands.

Her organization was not alone. Employers across the country are struggling to ensure they will have the leaders they need for the future.

“As baby boomers exit the workforce,” says Zoe MacLeod, director at Royal Roads’ Centre for Coaching and Workplace Innovation, “we’re seeing a number of people moving through the chain who don’t have adequate leadership skills, and many who never learned the appropriate management skills to steward the changes required.”

The new centre, which houses many of Royal Roads’ masters-level graduate certificate programs, is focused on leading-edge programming that gives people in organizations the tools they need to lead institutional change.

Promotions often go to individuals who are great at their current role (often technical), but who have

never had any management or leadership training.

It doesn’t help that this leadership crisis is coming at the same time that organizational structure is changing, silos are disappearing, and people who have never been asked to offer strategic insight are now required to be business partners.

“There’s a tendency to be caught up in older hierarchical models of how organizations work, and those are changing,” MacLeod says. “We still have one foot in that world and one foot in the new open, flat collaborative world. We’re trying to balance there and figure out how to transform the way we work, as we work.”

Striking the right balance is a challenge facing individuals as much as it is organizations. Last year, Michelle Dulmadge decided to do something about the fact that her skills didn’t match her career objectives. The AltaGas HR manager had all the transactional and tactical HR knowledge she’d needed in her career to that point, but it wasn’t enough to take her where she wanted to end up.

“I wanted to round out my experience,” Dulmadge says. “I had managed all the tactical things, but I wanted to get to a point where I could bring more to the table in terms of a broader strategic understanding.”

Dulmadge signed up for Royal Roads’ seven-month Graduate Certificate in Strategic Human Resources Management.

APRIL 2014 | 19

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HIGHER EDUCATION / FUTURE LEADERS

“There’s a tendency to be caught up in older hierarchical models of how organizations are run, and those are changing” Zoe MacLeod

More and more HR professionals are looking to be at the leading edge of transforming their organizations, according to associate professor Beth Page, but many need to level up their skills so they can offer real insight and leadership.

“Through each experience, people get the opportunity to develop the muscle memory needed to carry that skill, ability and capacity back to their organization,” Page says.

With increased awareness and practice, participants can see how theoretical concepts relate to what they see in their organization and be strategic about how they approach problems.

“This is not about doing strategy or doing leadership; it’s about being strategic and being a leader,” she says.

“I laughed at the Royal Roads motto that it’s ‘life changing’ but, honestly, the whole process is transformative,” Delmadge says. “You go through this transformation and awareness you didn’t have before, and you’ll never unlearn it.”

The courses most in demand are for leadership skills, along with associated capabilities such as communication, conflict resolution, and managing multiple generations in the workplace, Royal Roads associate professor Carolin Rekar Munro says.

“For most of us, leadership is a skill that we develop, and it’s always a work in progress. It’s not something we ever reach because, once we reach the goal, we move forward and set new goals,” she says. The programs she oversees focus largely on self-assessment and self-development, where individuals each looks at their strengths and weaknesses, and seeks feedback and mentoring.

20 | APRIL 2014

“It’s very experiential learning, and a combination of self-reflection, self-assessment, and discussion around how you’re going to take this into the workplace and start experimenting with new ways of leading,” Rekar Munro says.

That in-action aspect, which gives managers and executives the ability to apply theory to their own organizational context, is what drew CRD to Royal Roads.

“We built our own competency model and then asked for a program to be built around it,” Hood says.

“I was very particular about what I wanted. Because I know leadership and because I know the organization, I really wasn’t willing to just hand this over to some educational institute and let them do their thing.”

The Capital Regional District’s first step was defining what a CRD leader looked like, then building a development plan to make that a reality. Then it worked with Royal Roads to develop a residency program for executives, managers, and high-potential supervisors. The final result is the CRD’s award-winning iLead program, which is in its fifth round this year. Even the CAO has taken part.

The iLead program “is absolutely part of our succession planning, because it’s putting everybody at the same level,” Hood says. “They’re talking the same language and understanding what it means to be a leader at the CRD.” Hood can quote the numbers. The CRD has seen employee survey scores for leadership dynamics increase 11.5 per cent in the first year and 10 per cent in the following survey – and it’s witnessing improved problem solving, which shows her the value of the program.

“It’s the little things that are showing up,” Hood says, and “I don’t know if people realize they’re doing [those things] differently.” When the organization was focused on improving internal service in the organization, one of the leaders came to HR and asked for input because HR was one of the internal service departments that was doing well.

“That’s a strength-based approach, bordering on appreciative inquiry. I thought, ‘I bet you don’t even know you’re doing that.’ Instead of learning something and talking about it, people are really doing things differently.”

When leaders don’t just talk about transforming organizations but are enabled and empowered to make change, it ensures their organization stays on the leading edge – walking the walk of change and transformation.

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EMBA / EXECUTIVE DEVELOPMENT

Developing Complete

EXECUTIVES Concordia’s new EMBA is set to prepare the next generation of executive leadership

What will tomorrow’s business leaders be like? The business researchers behind the new executive MBA program at Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business (JSMB) think they have a pretty good idea which characteristics will set the next generation of leaders apart from their colleagues.

Stephane Brutus, associate dean of professional programs at JMSB, explains that development for the next generation of leaders will have to take a holistic approach because, in order to excel, future leaders will have to draw upon a broad range of competences, ranging from more traditional business expertise to interpersonal (soft) skills and, beyond that, to physical and spiritual aspects. “These leaders will be able to understand, work and excel simultaneously in spheres which, in the past, may have been seen as mutually exclusive,” he says. According to Brutus, they will be as comfortable on the global business stage as they are in the offices of a local community organization.

“Top executives will be exceptionally self-aware, particularly about their strengths and development needs,” he adds. “At the same time, they will also be adept at building reciprocal relationships into supportive international networks which they are able to leverage to make smart, informed strategic decisions in potentially uncertain settings.”

Next generation leaders will need to devote attention to honing their abilities in order to meet both the physical and the mental demands of their roles, says Brutus. “Their ability to think creatively and embody an entrepreneurial spirit inevitably leads to success 22 | APRIL 2014

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41%

of JMSB EMBA students are female

63% of Canadian EMBA students receive some funding from their employer

11.4% average salary increase of EMBA students between starting and finishing a program

Lino Saputo Jr., CEO and vice-chairman of the board of Saputo Inc., meets with Concordia EMBA students as part of the JMSB Executive Connects Series.

APRIL 2014 | 23  

EMBA / EXECUTIVE DEVELOPMENT

in a small-business setting or within a large organization.”

Brutus and his JMSB colleagues have come to refer to the archetype of the well-rounded leader as the “complete executive” – a notion that is at the heart of the newly revamped John Molson EMBA. “We wanted to design an EMBA that leveraged the unique expertise at JMSB in support of developing the complete executive,” says Brutus, “and with this new program, I am confident that we’ve succeeded.”

“Their ability to think creatively and embody an entrepreneurial spirit inevitably leads to success” Among the features that set this program apart is a curriculum that covers traditional business fundamentals but does so in a way that also integrates contemporary business concepts. Courses are presented in four, themed terms: Mastering the Fundamentals, Integrating Globally, Thinking Outside the Box, and Leading Change. Each term culminates in an experiential integrative module that ties together the learning of individual courses in a multi-disciplinary and, at times, competitive real-life module. The integrative modules include a business case competition; a structured, for-credit international study trip; a Dragons’ Den–style venture capital competition; and a business consulting project that is meant to wrap up the entire program.

The curriculum is also complemented by a range of supporting features designed to further both the personal and professional development of the program’s students.

The first such module is called the Healthy Executive, which presents an integrated set of activities in collaboration with Concordia’s PERFORM Centre, a world-class research facility with expertise in healthy lifestyle management. These activities range from a custom exercise program, tailored to the physical development needs and objectives of each student, to creating, (and reinforcing) a diet best suited for each student, with the support of dieticians. Consistent with the complete executive’s focus on both physical health and professional growth, the module is designed to enable students to better manage the physical demands of the executive lifestyle.

In a similar vein, JMSB’s LEAD Executive Coaching module gives students access to support from a 24 | APRIL 2014

professional coach for personal and leadership development. Dr. James Gavin, a master certified coach from Concordia’s Department of Applied Human Sciences who helped design the module, says that coaching is an invaluable resource in executive development. “By integrating our LEAD [Leadership Effectiveness and Development] coaching methodology into a cutting-edge curriculum, we accelerate the learning even more.” When this methodology is combined with insights generated for students by LEAD’s use of a 360 instrument developed specifically for the program in collaboration with the Center for Creative Leadership, the results can be transformational. “A further benefit,” adds Gavin, “is that, by experiencing the skilfulness of their coaches in propelling their own development, students vicariously learn a powerful methodology for fostering growth among those they will lead in the future.”

Rounding out the program’s supporting features is JMSB’s Executive Connects Series. At its core, this is an initiative in which prominent business and community leaders are invited to meet the class to present their frank insights into issues and opportunities facing their organizations and the rest of the business world.

As a distinctive part of this module, each EMBA cohort will be assigned a champion, who will accompany students through their two-year educational journey.

The inaugural champion for the program is Andrew Molson, partner and chairman of RES PUBLICA Consulting Group and vice-chairman of the board of Molson Coors.

Another unique feature of the program is its adherence to the principle of distributed learning. “Students can acquire knowledge or a new skill set on Friday or Saturday, apply it back at their place of work early the following week, and debrief with their classmates at the end of that week,” explains Brutus. This cycle is facilitated by the program’s schedule, which sees classes being held on alternate Fridays and Saturdays.

Brutus says that this incremental approach to learning has proved to be more effective for many students than a format in which learning takes place over several consecutive days on a monthly basis. It also means that the learning is more likely to be integrated permanently into the students’ daily work habits.

Underlying all aspects of the new John Molson EMBA is the notion of developing leaders who are committed to their well-being and that of their families.

“They are driven by continuous learning, says Brutus, by “their personal and professional development, and by making a positive contribution to their work organizations and their communities.”

HRMONLINE.CA

Setting the Stage for

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

THE CASE FOR EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT While “employee engagement” can be difficult to put into words, or action, one thing is clear -- engagement is sorely needed. According to the Ipsos Canadian Management Centre, more than a quarter of Canadians are dissatisfied with workplace communications and 23 percent of employees lack confidence in senior managers. Moreover, just 49 per cent of Canadian workers feel their bosses listen to them.

An engaged employee is enthusiastic about their work, truly cares about the company, and strives to empower others. Going above and beyond is standard practice for the engaged employee – not because they feel they “have to,” but because they want to. An engaged workforce starts with an engaged leader who sets the stage for building a positive culture and support system.

Coaching is a valuable skill set for leaders for a number of reasons, including cultivating positive action, measurable results, and sustainable success.

Research shows a well-substantiated relationship between leadership engagement and employee engagement, including the extent to which employees are committed to the work they do, believe in the values of the company, feel pride in working for their employer, and are motivated to go the extra mile.

Coaching has also humanized the business world by examining inner principles (eliminating resistance or blocks, listening and building rapport, and championing others), an intangible benefit that can yield significant results for employees and the organization as a whole.

“At a core level, Coaching is a methodical process,” says Gary Breininger, president of BGR Coaching & Strategic Solutions in Ontario. “It’s very much rooted in science.”

Breininger explains that a coach is a “thinking partner” instead of a consultant, collaborating, not simply making recommendations and telling them what to do.

COACHING PRODUCES PRODUCTIVITY, PROFITABILITY Coaching can have a positive influence on everything

from internal communications to finances, and has a direct effect on the productivity of people and on the bottom line.

The International Coach Federation (ICF), the accrediting body for the coaching industry, reports 99 per cent of people and companies that use coaches are somewhat or very satisfied with the experience and 86 per cent of businesses earned back their investment in coaching—a number Breininger believes to be low.

Breininger was retained by the president of a wholesaling company with a few hundred employees. Working with corporate leaders, he found they thought the organization was providing the best service quality. Through deeper discussions, team members actually discovered they could be hitting higher numbers and making a two degree difference in their day-to-day processes.

“The only way to create sustainable change is to help individuals change the way they think and feel… help them break through their blocks,” Breininger notes. Not only did coaching help them reduce costs and increase revenue; it also boosted client retention and improved customer satisfaction.

Coaches can work one-on-one with individuals or in groups to garner ideas, Breininger says. He hosted group coaching sessions with 10 leaders, over the course of six months, at a communications agency. The sessions bolstered productivity by 10 per cent— translating into hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings.

“One of the big benefits [of group coaching] is you get the collective engagement and involvement of multiple people,” he says.

As an HR leader, a coaching skills set provides you with a platform for eliciting, understanding, and aligning employee interests and goals with those of your organization. Through a variety of coaching skills, tools, and conversations, you’ll have a powerful means to let your team members know that they’re valued and that they matter.

To learn more about coaching, and coach training, download this FREE insider report, “The 9 Key Considerations For Choosing The Right Coach Training School For You.”, from www.ipeccoaching.com/ The-9-Key-Considerations.aspx.

Julie Anne Christoph CPC, ELI-MP, School Director, iPEC Canada, helps individuals and teams create the outcomes they desire, both personally and professionally.

She is also a Certified Professional Coach and trainer with the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC), provider of the top-rated ICF-accredited coach training school, and originator of the Core Energy Coaching™ process – the most effective leadership framework and change process in use today. The Institute graduates Certified Professional Coaches in the specialties of life, professionals, transition, grief, health and wellness, relationship, small business, corporate, and executive coaching and operates in 17 major cities across the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. Visit www.iPECcanada.ca or call 866.72COACH for more information.

APRIL 2014 | 25

HIGHER EDUCATION / SOFT SKILLS

HARD LESSONS ABOUT

SOFT SKILLS

High-flying execs often command the lion’s share of any corporation’s training and education dollar, but a growing number of HR directors are diverting more and more of that money into improving the soft skills of the rank and file When Jessica started a new job as a receptionist at an insurance brokerage in a small town, she didn’t know she was entering a work environment where conflict would become part of her daily routine.

“It was a small office. There were only six people, five of which were women who were all older than me and had worked together for several years. I came in there, and it was very difficult to make inroads with them,” says the twenty-something (HRD has agreed to withhold her last name).

“I think they thought that I thought I was better than them,” says Jessica, “and I had bigger aspirations than being the receptionist.”

When she indicated on an annual review that she’d like to take on more responsibility and that she’d like to move to the head office, she felt her manager discouraging her. “I encountered the attitude that ‘this should be good enough for you,’” she says.

For the next three years, as she continued to do her job with her eye on moving up, the women in the office froze her out of communications and shunned her attempts to be friendly – even rejecting treats she’d bring in. It got so bad she made use of the employer-sponsored counselling.

26 | APRIL 2014

While corporations are increasingly focused on ensuring that high-potential employees and executives have access to education that will benefit the organization, often the more practical task of fine-tuning employee soft skills is given short shrift.

However, the idea that education of that kind is integral to meeting fiscal and other growth targets is gaining currency among HR directors.

Interpersonal conflict such as that experienced

by Jessica can often be traced back to a gap in employee soft skills like conflict management and communication. And as employee conflict detracts from the employer’s bottom line in terms of lost productivity and employee turnover, it’s essential for HR to ensure that workers have the proper skills to solve interpersonal issues.

“Those skills are really the foundation for everything in the workplace,” says Joyce Odidison, a workplace wellness coach in Winnipeg. “If employees cannot get along and collaborate, it’s almost like you don’t have any employees. There’s so much power to harness in the energy of people working together cooperatively.”

While outwardly not much emphasis may be placed on interpersonal or soft skills, these assets

HRMONLINE.CA

often dictate hiring decisions, at least subconsciously. “People are hired because they are likeable and competent. But what is the part that goes to likeability? It’s all about emotional and social intelligence,” says Catherine Burdett, a professional coach and leadership development consultant with the Emotional Intelligence Training Company in Calgary.

However, it’s difficult to predict if the “likeable” people you hire will get along with each other. Inevitably, HR will encounter interpersonal problems as workplaces become more diverse. The good news, though, is that these soft skills can be taught.

The first step in managing conflict like the type Jessica experienced is to encourage employees to be reflective. “Emotions run through absolutely everything that happens in our lives, so we have to address what we own in all of this,” says Burdett.

“The assessment and debrief is a great way to help organizations say, ‘Hey, where are we at as individuals and groups, and what would be possible if we were operating at a higher level of emotional and social functioning?’”

APRIL 2014 | 27

HIGHER EDUCATION / SOFT SKILLS

IN DEMAND SOFT SKILLS THE TOP ORGANIZATIONAL REQUIREMENTS FOR SOFT SKILLS INCLUDE: LISTENING AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS

From active listening, to competently communicating in times of conflict, better communication skills improve efficiency and productivity in any industry or work environment.

ADAPTABILITY

Job descriptions are rarely stable for long in the current changeable market. Employees who are adaptable and can cope well with change will be more effective in their roles and will be better able to keep up with organizational change.

TEAMWORK

Beyond annual teambuilding exercises, employers want employees who can work well with others without conflict or cliques developing. Establishing a health group dynamic early decreases later problems and improves corporate culture overall.

TIME MANAGEMENT AND WORK ETHIC

Individuals consistently underestimate how long tasks will take to complete.

Training employees to better manage their time, and to prioritize work tasks over personal preferences will improve productivity and reduce time theft.

POSITIVE DEMEANOUR AND PERSONAL IMPACT

With up to four generations in the workplace, misunderstandings are common and can cause serious problems.

It’s vital that employees bring a positive attitude to work to help avoid miscommunications and conflicts.

“If you have an employee read a book or take a workshop, it’s not the same as having a coach. A coach can give feedback and help them further develop their skills and put them into practice”

28 | APRIL 2014

While reading materials and workshops can encourage some self-awareness, Burdett says doing an EQ-i (emotional quotient inventory) assessment and having a debriefing with a certified practitioner is the most effective way for employees to develop self-awareness.

“The assessment and debrief is a great way to help organizations say, ‘Hey, where are we at as individuals and groups, and what would be possible if we were operating at a higher level of emotional and social functioning?’” she says.

The next step would be to use an interpersonal skills coach to guide employees in improving their soft skills. “Research shows that coaching helps employees reach their goals three to six times faster,” says wellness coach Odidison.

“If you have an employee read a book or take a workshop, it’s not the same as having a coach. A coach can give feedback and help them further develop their skills and put them into practice.”

Jessica says that, while her organization did do workshops on improving interpersonal relationships, no followup or coaching was ever provided to aid employees in putting the skills they learned into practice.

“When you think about changing behaviours, developing emotional intelligence is like anything else,” says Burdett. “You have to become aware of it.

You have to know what’s in it for you to actually make a change. You have to come up with a plan and how you’re going to change. And you have to be accountable to somebody to do what you say you’re going to do.”

However, even just putting an emphasis on small things can have a major impact, adds Burdett. “Maybe it’s just about being a better listener instead of always having a reaction. Maybe it’s about stepping back and counting to 10 before you say anything. Little things repeated with consistency over time can have a huge impact,” she says.

Eventually, Jessica did achieve her goal of moving on to the head office. “It was incredibly toxic, and when I finally left, I was much happier,” she says.

Reflecting back, Jessica says she feels she didn’t get off on the right foot with the women because of her shyness. While her counsellor encouraged her to try to interact with her co-workers, it seemed to be too little, too late. “When I started at the new office, I made a point to be more outgoing and friendly,” she says. “And I’m well liked here, and have several friends now.”

HRMONLINE.CA

CHANGE LEADERSHIP, COGNITIVE DIVERSITY AND CREATIVE THINKING TOOLS

Change is constant: technologies, processes, people and methods change and affect our personal as well as our professional lives.

Change can be made easier in the following ways:

LEADERSHIP MATTERS: KEY FINDINGS FROM THE 2014 LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT OUTLOOK

Strong Learning Organizations, Strong Leadership is the 12th edition of the Learning and Development Outlook report, published by The Conference Board of Canada in February 2014.

KEY FINDINGS Organizations with strong learning cultures • Invest more in their learning and development and are realizing greater returns for their investment • Have adopted an approach to learning and development that is more focused on improving organizational culture • Invariably have strong leadership that supports learning and development delivery – leadership development is key.

The Niagara Institute is the leadership development division of The Conference Board of Canada – we know how much leadership matters. Together with our colleagues across the board, we help clients to develop learning and development solutions that enhance competitiveness and support growth strategies.

Learning and Development Outlook is the most comprehensive snapshot of its kind in Canada.

Learning and development professionals in 198 Canadian organizations provided detailed information about the status of training, learning and development in their organizations.

Find this report and other Conference Board of Canada research at www.e-library.ca

Changing Leadership – Work has become more cognitive and less physical while at the same time requiring employees to adapt to constant change.

Leaders can minimize the stress of change by accepting and speaking of the change in positive terms; by presenting the benefits of the change to each employee; and by engaging and informing employees of the change in advance, in order to reduce the anxiety inherent in any change process.

Cognitive Diversity – Given the complexity of workplace problems, teams find better solutions when they draw on different perspectives. Cognitive diversity is defined as an understanding of the different perspectives, techniques and methods individuals use to categorize, predict and find solutions to problems. Tap into the diverse cognitive processes of others and bring increased creativity to change processes.

Creative Thinking Tools – Since change is a constant, it is important to use creative thinking approaches such as these: create a problem statement, visualize outcomes, flush out obstacles, use a force-field analysis, draw on multi-voting methods, create action items, and produce a goaltree diagram to monitor and evaluate performance.

While walking the professional tightrope, stay empowered during change processes by drawing on diverse perspectives and creative thinking tools.

Successful change processes include visualization, mobilization and actualization.

Corporate & Wellness Training Services – We welcome your inquiries. Visit us at www.corporate-training-services.com and www.wellness-training-services.com.

APRIL 2014 | 29

L&D / LEARNING POTENTIAL

Switched

on to

OFF

ON

LEARNING

How can you improve the readiness of your employees to undertake learning initiatives? Lisa Rubinstein outlines one fail-safe approach Globally, companies spend an estimated $135bn p.a. on training and development. However, according to the Wall Street Journal, approximately 90% of new skills learned are lost within a year, representing a massive waste of time, energy and resources, as well as a missed opportunity for companies and employees.

Unfortunately, the majority of organizations do not take into consideration not just the degree to which people are able to process the information being delivered but also the extent to which they are actually open to new ideas and ready to learn. It’s a critical difference that can make or break any initiative.

How can you ensure your people are ready to learn?

SWITCHED ON OR OFF? As opposed to being able to learn, being ready to learn can be defined as a mental state of awareness and responsiveness to your internal and external environment that allows for learning and adaptive behaviour. In other words, to learn, one must be ready to take the time to respond constructively to what is being conveyed and then use it to alter one’s thinking and corresponding behaviour.

When we’re racing to meet that critical deadline, with 300 unread emails in our inbox, and back-toback meetings all day, we’re unlikely to be interested in training on a new IT system. We just want to get things done.

As opposed to being able to learn, being ready to learn is not simply a function of an individual’s capacity to process and utilize information. It’s 30 | APRIL 2014

actually a function of three interrelated factors that work in concert to influence one’s readiness to step away from current activities to engage in a learning process. This pertains to any learning experience, from a formal program or evaluation, to a casual exchange of ideas or even a momentary examination of current behaviours.

Those three interrelated factors influencing our readiness to learn are our individual capacity for learning; the people around us that influence our mental, emotional and physical well-being; and our internal and external environment.

Our potential for learning can be improved the more ready we are to take in and process new information. That readiness depends on our perspectives that drive current behaviours, how we relate to others and deal with our circumstances.

HIERARCHY OF PERSPECTIVES

EVOLUTION ADVANCEMENT

EQUILIBRIUM

SURVIVAL

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Consider that our perspectives fall into one of four categories: survival, equilibrium, advancement, and evolutionary thinking, together forming a ‘Hierarchy of Perspectives’ pyramid.

The base of the pyramid is survival, which occurs when we are in a situation that triggers a threat state in the brain. This occurs in situations ranging from a new and challenging role, to suffering from an illness or lack or sleep, to coping with a difficult colleague, large structural or strategic changes, or just a simple busy day.

Any situation in which we feel stressed may trigger a survival perspective. The brain experiences a cognitive narrowing as we focus on the immediate and urgent and put aside any consideration of future ideas. This also occurs in new situations requiring focused attention demanding conscious effort and energy.

Next is a state of equilibrium in which one experiences a sense of stability, predictability and order. This can involve anything from settling into that new role, to acclimatizing to the high pace so that we no longer feel stressed, to working in the same role every day for years on end.

The brain craves certainty and is wired to want to predict what will next happen. That sense of certainty triggers a reward response – a release of dopamine, which results in a similar feeling to eating a piece of chocolate or having that first sip of coffee in the morning. It feels good. That response will be more acutely noticed the greater the change in situation. So, receiving your morning newspaper generates less of a reward response than when that new promotion finally comes through.

When we experience certainty, stability and order, we are then able to move forward, take risks and try something new. However, if we are too dependent on certainty and too resistant to change, our readiness to learn will also be very low.

Gaining that sense of certainty enables us to then move forward to the next level, which is advancement thinking. At this level, we are very focused on ourselves. This occurs in situations when you notice that you need to focus on yourself.

You may seek to improve your diet, begin exercising or get more sleep, or to take time off work and recharge your batteries. This is the time when you focus on your needs, which can be very necessary and important. It is also when you will be open to

learning something that will enable you to develop personally or advance your career objectives.

However, there is a dark side to advancement thinking and that is when your focus is solely on yourself, often to the detriment of others. It is when your interest is only in gaining more power, money or status that you risk the kind of narcissistic thinking that leads to a reduced capacity to make the right decisions.

For instance, advancement thinkers in a sales role can produce excellent short-term results but struggle to develop the long-term relationships that are crucial to building a sustainable business as they aggressively pursue that one win. Advancement thinking leaders will tend to be very dominating, autocratic and selfcentred, stifling independent thinking and autonomy.

This type of advancement thinker will be disinclined to be introspective, and closed to learning.

They are highly likely to deflect any perceived criticism or challenge to their world view. These are the bullies, the cheaters and autocrats. Their value needs to be carefully weighed against the damage they can inflict on others and the organization as a whole.

TOP OF THE PYRAMID Finally, at the apex of the hierarchy is evolutionary thinking. When we feel free enough to think about the future and plan, create or dream, we are in an evolutionary frame of mind. This is when we experience success in the wins of the people around us and are focused not just on ourselves but also on the people around us.

Evolutionary thinkers make excellent leaders.

They tend to be self-reflective, with a high resilience.

They seek out challenges or opportunities to learn and grow. Therefore their readiness to learn will be very high and they will be open to any opportunity that enables them to contribute more towards others and the overall success of the organization.

It’s important to have a range of perspectives in any organization, as each level offers valuable thinking and corresponding behaviours. However, there are also pitfalls to be aware of. Knowing where your people are thinking from and what their priorities are will enable you to effectively tailor your initiatives to the specific focus of your target audiences and improve their readiness to engage in the process and learn.

Lisa Rubinstein is CEO of the Institute for Human Potential.

Visit thehpinstitute. com or email lisarubinstein@ thehpinstitute.com.

APRIL 2014 | 31

EDUCATION TRENDS / MBA EQUALITY

MBA PAY GAP:

IS HR PART OF THE PROBLEM?

The MBA is one of the most in-demand degrees in the world, but it’s not immune to gender equity issues. Canada lags the world in reducing the pay gap for female MBA graduates. What can HR leaders do to address the problem?

An MBA was never part of Tammy Quigley’s career plan, but completing the qualification opened doors she never expected. However, a recent study indicates she and her female peers are still fighting against the current to gain equal standing with male MBA grads.

The research from gender equity advocacy group Catalyst finds female MBA graduates earn $8,167 less per year than their male colleagues and are more likely to start in entry-level roles.

The pay gap is far larger in Canada than internationally, where Catalyst says women MBA grads earn $4,600 less on average in their first jobs.

Now working as Chief Quality Officer at a Hamilton home care organization, Quigley uses what she learned in her MBA every day. She’s also seen firsthand some of the gender equity issues in her industry, where 73 per cent of senior managers are women but only four per cent of healthcare CEOs are women, according to the 2012 RockHealth Women in Healthcare survey.

Catalyst’s research finds 72 per cent of female MBA graduates start in entry-level positions, compared with 58 per cent of men – and the divide is consistent even among graduates who said they aspire to become senior executives or CEOs. “To me the pay numbers are a huge red flag. It’s a big sample size, and that’s a significant difference with the average global gap,” Catalyst Canada executive director Alex Johnston says. “I would be concerned about that as a business leader.”

A 2011 McKinsey study finds men are often promoted 32 | APRIL 2014

based on potential, while women are judged on accomplishments. So men with an MBA are likely to be considered high-potential hires, where women will need to prove their worth before getting the same opportunities.

HR directors who want to make gender equity a priority at their organization should first benchmark to know what the situation is and what the problem areas are.

Quigley completed her MBA while working as a ward clerk in a hospital, where the CEO introduced a special MBA program that allowed employees to attend classes on site. Because of the gender split in healthcare there were just two men in the class of 16, one a male CEO. “I do recall that certainly the male CEO in the room was often called upon for his experience, more than the women,” Quigley says. “But I can’t say whether that was because he was a man or because he was the only CEO in the room.”

The Catalyst study finds women are less likely to get to work on high-visibility projects or hold mission-critical roles. They’re also more likely to choose work in non-corporate organizations.

Female graduates cite job security and benefits for choosing the public sector, while others say the nature of the work suited them because they want to make a difference in the world. Statistics also show that women are more likely to end up in senior jobs -- including CEO -- in the public sector than in the corporate world.

“As a business leader I’d be worried about the health of my organization today, but I’d also be concerned about recruiting young graduates in the numbers I want to recruit them because they’re looking at organizations and saying, ‘Do they reflect my values, do I see myself building a career there?’”

Johnson says.

The RockHealth study cites lack of self-confidence as one reason women are not as likely to rise through the ranks. Quigley says she’s been lucky to have some great mentors who talk about seeing her as a CEO and she is conscious of encouraging and recognizing women she works with to help build the confidence they need.

Training high level organizational leaders to offer encouragement and mentorship to all levels in an organization could go a long way toward improving the situation as high-potential female employees gain confidence and recognition within the organization.

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