Human Resources Director 13.07 by Key Media

EMPLOYMENT LAW SPECIAL REPORT 2015 HR TECHNOLOGY What you need to know about wearables

HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTOR HCAMAG.COM ISSUE 13.7

DIGITAL DISRUPTION More than a blip on the radar

BUILDING A BETTER YOU YOUR GUIDE TO:

Easing expat executive transitions | Improving gender equality | Handling office politics Creating an effective employer brand | Performing under pressure | Managing millennials

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EDITORIAL www.hcamag.com JULY 2015 EDITORIAL

SALES & MARKETING

Editor Iain Hopkins

Marketing & Communications Manager Lisa Narroway

Journalists Chloe Taylor Hannah Norton Production Editor Roslyn Meredith

ART & PRODUCTION

Business Development Managers James Francis Steven McDonald Gareth Scott

CORPORATE

Design Manager Daniel Williams

Chief Executive Officer Mike Shipley

Designer Marla Morelos

Chief Operating Officer George Walmsley

Traffic Coordinator Lou Gonzales

Managing Director Justin Kennedy Chief Information Officer Colin Chan Human Resources Manager Julia Bookallil

EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES

When good design pays off AS I STROLLED through the games room my ears adjusted to the unaccustomed shrieks of laughter emanating from those lucky souls playing table tennis. I then wandered through the kitchen, where chefs busily tended to a late afternoon snack. Before strolling through the well-equipped gym, I had to catch myself. This, I reminded myself, was not some day spa; it was a legitimate place of work. Specifically, it was LinkedIn’s new office in Sydney’s Martin Place. It’s one of many that HRD has come across in recent years. Suddenly it’s cool – and very desirable – to have a smartly designed office. It’s a place to show off not just to candidates but also clients. People want to hang out there.

iain.hopkins@keymedia.com.au

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Suddenly it’s cool – and very desirable – to have a smartly designed office Of course, there are benefits to employers too. According to a US survey by Gensler, office workers believe they would be 21% more productive if given a better working environment. Almost half say they would log an extra hour per day under such improved circumstances. More than 90% say the quality of their working environment affects their mood and attitude to their work. And in case you’re wondering, 62% of US office workers have ‘great respect’ for leaders who work in an open-plan environment with their teams rather than in private offices. Take a look around your office environs. Are you inspired? Finally, eagle-eyed readers may have already spotted our legal special report in this issue. You asked for it; we’ve delivered. You wanted us to provide in-depth coverage of Australia’s ever-changing employment law landscape. In this issue you’ll find handy tips on everything from restraints of trade to managing ill and injured workers, through to working with mediators and employing interns. We hope you find it informative.

HRD MAGAZINE CANADA iain.hopkins@keymedia.com.au T +61 2 8437 4703 HRD SINGAPORE hrdmag.com.sg

Iain Hopkins, editor

HC AUSTRALIA ONLINE hcamag.com HRM NEW ZEALAND hrmonline.co.nz 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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JULY 2015

CONNECT WITH US Got a story, suggestion or just want to find out some more information? HRDirector_au

CONTENTS

+Hcamag HumanResourcesDirector

UPFRONT 01 Editorial

Can the design of your office really make much difference to employees’ productivity and even their health?

04 The data

Engagement and culture in the ‘Glassdoor era’

06 News analysis

COVER STORY

THE ULTIMATE HR LEADER, 2015

Digital disruption is forcing HR directors and business leaders to change the way they engage their employees – and none more so than in the L&D space

PEOPLE

POSTER CHILD FOR HR BEST PRACTICE

Few industries have undergone as rapid change in as short a time as the media industry. HRD talks to one market leader about HR’s role in riding the crest of change and fostering a culture of innovation

Is HR too focused on data and analytics right now, at the expense of other endeavours?

FEATURES While thousands of executives from overseas arrive in Australia every year to take up positions running Australian companies, the failure rate remains high. How can employers smooth the way?

PEOPLE

IN PERSON

HRD chats to Ambrosia Humphrey, Hootsuite’s VP of talent

FEATURES

LEGAL SPECIAL REPORT

From restraints of trade through to managing ill and injured workers and an update on bullying, HRD presents its 2015 legal special report, written by Australia’s leading law firms

56 Head to head

12 Halfway round the world (and turn left)

HRD presents a series of features looking at how HR leaders can add value to their organisations

PEOPLE

48 Finger on the pulse: What you need to know about wearables

2015 has been branded the year of ‘the wearable’, but sceptics are doubtful. While wearables have taken off in the personal lives of consumers, their use in the workplace has remained harder to crack. Chloe Taylor reports

HCAMAG.COM CHECK IT OUT ONLINE

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THE DATA

JULY 2015

Engagement and culture in the ‘Glassdoor era’

Canada

United States

increasingly visible for all the world to see. Given the harsh spotlight of today, which Deloitte has branded as the ‘Glassdoor era’, a company’s culture can become a competitive advantage – or its Achilles’ heel. HR professionals are taking note. In Deloitte’s Global Human Trends 2015 study, in which 3,300 business and HR leaders from 106 countries took part,

-30

CULTURE AND ENGAGEMENT: CAPABILITY GAP BY REGION

How are engagement and culture being impacted on in today’s ultra-transparent corporate world?

THE CULTURE of an organisation is

-25

-33

Culture and engagement is the most important issue companies face around the world. Eighty-seven per cent of organisations cite culture and engagement as one of their top challenges, and 50% call the problem ‘very important’.

engagement and culture was classified as the number one challenge facing global companies. Two-thirds (66%) of HR respondents reported that they were updating their engagement and retention strategies. Along with decreasing readiness, Deloitte’s data also showed substantial capability gaps in engagement and culture across countries and regions (see map).

The Deloitte Human Capital Capability Gap is a research-based score that shows HR’s relative capability gap by looking at the difference between respondents’ average ‘readiness’ and ‘importance’ ratings for each trend, indexed on a 0–100 scale. It is computed by taking the ‘readiness’ index score and subtracting the ‘importance’ index score. For example, a trend with a readiness index score of 50 and an importance index score of 80 would produce a capability gap of -30. Negative values suggest a shortfall in capability, while positive values suggest a capability surplus.

STATUS OF RETENTION AND ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY

RESPONDENTS’ RATING OF THEIR ORGANISATIONS’ HR PERFORMANCE

In response to the global engagement threat, two-thirds (66%) of HR respondents report that they are updating their engagement and retention strategies, or have already done so.

Only 5% of respondents rate their organisations’ HR performance as excellent. Deloitte suggests reskilling HR is a critical business issue that must be addressed confidently at the CEO level. HR and business leaders must have the confidence to reimagine, reinvent and reinvigorate their talent and HR functions.

50% 2015

10%

22%

32%

31%

5% GPA: 1.6

40%

38%

30%

2014

10%

24%

31%

30%

5% GPA: 1.5

28% 20%

16%

10% 0%

Mexico

18%

2013

14%

23%

Currently updating

Outdated

21%

3% GPA: 1.3

Underperforming Updated in the past 18 months

38% Getting by

Adequate

Good

Excellent

No strategy Note: Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding

Graphic: Deloitte University Press | DUPress.com

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CAPABILITY GAPS IN SELECTED COUNTRIES Brazil

-31

Netherlands

South Africa Italy

-32 United Kingdom -24 Germany -25 Belgium

France

Mexico Belgium

-27

Spain

Japan China

-30

Japan

-32

Australia

-22

Netherlands Spain

Italy

-34

India

United States

-28

India France

Brazil

Canada

-43

Germany South Africa

-35

Australia

United Kingdom

-31

China -55

CAPABILITY GAPS BY REGION -29

Americas

North America

-36

Latin & South America

-25

Nordic countries

Europe, Middle East, and Africa -29

Western Europe

Only 7% rate themselves as excellent at measuring, driving, and improving engagement and retention. And only 12% believe their organisation is excellent at effectively driving the desired culture. Deloitte calls this a “new and systemic problem for organisations worldwide”.

33%

38% fair

poor

-34

Africa

-27

Asia

Asia-Pacific -32

Oceania

-5

-37

Southeast Asia

Source: Deloitte University Press | DUPress.com

TOP TIPS ENGAGEMENT STARTS AT THE TOP: Make engagement a corporate priority, and modernise the process of measuring and evaluating engagement throughout the company. Benchmark the company, strive for external recognition as validation of efforts, and reinforce to leadership that the engagement and retention of people is their number one job. MEASURE IN REAL TIME: Put in place real-time programs to evaluate and assess organisational culture, using models or tools to better understand where it is strong, where it is weak, and how it really feels to workers. MAKE WORK MEANINGFUL: Focus on leadership, coaching, and performance management to help employees make their work meaningful. Reinforce the importance of a coaching and feedback culture, and teach leaders how to be authentic and transparent.

good

16%

-37

Central & Middle East Western Europe

RESPONDENTS’ RATINGS OF RETENTION AND ENGAGEMENT PROGRAM CAPABILITIES

excellent

-31

-43 -35 -34 -33 -32 -32 -31 -31 -30 -30 -28 -27 -25 -25 -24 -22

LISTEN TO THE MILLENNIALS: Their desires, needs, and values will shape the organisation’s culture over the next 10 years.

no program

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UPFRONT

NEWS ANALYSIS

Digital disruption: More than a blip on the radar Digital disruption is forcing HR directors and business leaders to change the way they engage their employees – and none more so than in the L&D space BUSINESS LEADERS have heard the term ‘digital disruption’ so often it has slipped into the everyday vernacular. Yet hearing about it and understanding its repercussions are two separate matters. HR is not immune – and it’s the L&D space where the greatest strides are being made. Deloitte’s white paper, Digital Disruption: Short fuse, big bang?, highlighted the impact digital disruption is having on business, especially in relation to cloud computing: “Cloud computing is joined at the hip to digital business. As business functions are better defined, and aligned to processes and data rather than with enterprise systems, they can be enabled by a wider range of services which don’t necessarily reside within the enterprise. Digital services delivered through ‘the cloud’ usually start with niche functions, such as expense management, and quickly extend through HR, finance and marketing. “Cloud-based services make IT more flexible, allowing users to store information, software and shared resources in data centres that are accessible via the Internet. Because they are external, cloud services allow companies to reduce the computing

infrastructure they own directly and, in turn, the size of the teams required to manage it.” L&D in a digital age Digital disruption in corporate L&D revolves around accessibility. The key differentiator is the reach that technology affords L&D departments, especially in an age when working from home, connectivity on the road, and BYOD initiatives are commonplace. Kath Greenhough, Skillsoft’s manager, consulting services, says: “It’s the ability to reach these employees, and for them to reach back into the organisation, no matter where they are, and to capitalise on the infrastructure that’s in place in order to deliver content, where this becomes game changing.” When it comes to technology and learning, mobile and social also enter into the equation, but Greenhough believes accessibility is the key to learning in the 21st century. How well prepared are employers to embrace this era? Greenhough has seen examples at both ends of the spectrum but concedes that most employees now expect this from employers. “It’s broader than Gen Ys when you think

of the people around you using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or shopping on Amazon or eBay. They’re bringing that consumer knowledge into the workplace. They expect to be able to jump on and find that information 24/7 just like what they do with movies or music or whatever,” she says. Yet there can also be restraint on the side of the employer – and rightly so. “There is a conscious need to curate the content to ensure employees are learning the right content that supports business initiatives,” Greenhough says. For front-end users – the learners – this should all be seamless. “Organisations are providing guidance in terms of what learners need now, what they need tomorrow, and what they might need in terms of remedial support. It might seem at the front end for the employee that there’s a massive cloud of content there, but at the back end there’s been a lot of effort put into profiling and packaging that content together – whether it’s a course, a book, a video – to position it in a way for the user to consume,” says Greenhough. This requires careful consideration of learner preferences; it’s no longer enough to

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DIGITAL SNAPSHOT #1

DIGITAL SNAPSHOT #2

Australia would gain between $1.4bn and $1.9bn annually if just 10% of the country’s employees were to telework half the time, says Deloitte Access Economics

Nearly half of all organisations (48%) plan to offer mobile apps to customers in the next three to five years, compared to 18% now

$1.4–$1.9BN SAVINGS ANNUALLY TO THE AUSTRALIAN ECONOMY

TELEWORKING HALF THE TIME

10% OF AUSTRALIAN EMPLOYEES

50%

10%

ALL AUSTRALIAN EMPLOYEES

ALL ORGANISATIONS

48% 2016

18% Source: Deloitte Access Economics Impacts of Teleworking Under the NBN’, 2010, p111

2012

simply digitise a textbook. Some people will learn from reading, others from watching a video, others from a face-to-face classroom teacher, and others want to be tested and have a chance to explore. “When we’re building our content our instructional designers are taking all of those different experiences into account: who is our target audience, what is the subject, and therefore what is the best information approach to this,” says Greenhough. Distance no barrier Of course, digital learning also collapses geographical boundaries. Those who used to travel the world on the speaking circuit – the thought leaders and industry experts – are now accessible at the touch of a button. Skillsoft, for example, has commercial arrangements with the likes of GE leader Jack Welch, whereby his filmed videos on what made him successful, or communicating values and vision, can be accessed by anyone, anywhere. “It’s now available not just to the executive level of the organisation, but down through the middle managers to the first-level leaders and even emerging leaders. The technology has shortened the distance to these thought leaders,” says Greenhough.

Just-in-time learning in practice Accessibility also implies learning can be carried out at a time that suits the learner. Just-in-time learning has become a buzzword: small chunks of learning delivered on an ‘as needed’ basis. “Just-in-time becomes really important when you’re pressed for time, such as when you’re balancing multiple tasks because there’s been a reorganisation or a change in direction and all of a sudden you’re doing new things you haven’t done before,” Greenhough explains. “It’s almost like a quick overview or the executive summary of what you need to know.” Just-in-time is also being used when an employee has learned something and then has either forgotten it or needs to refresh it. “As adults we’re slowly getting better at knowing where to go for information,” says Greenhough. “When we’ve been in the workforce for several decades we don’t have to sit exams at the end of our year; we know where to go to get that information – and just-in-time does support that need for content on the go.” John D’Hooghe, group manager corporate services at Dialog Information Technology, has witnessed first-hand the impact of digital disruption on L&D.

Source: Optus Future of Business Report, 2012, p8

DIGITAL SNAPSHOT #3 60% of chief information officers surveyed* feel that the cloud is important and warrants a strategic response worth undertaking – almost double the number of CIOs who felt this way in 2010

33% 60% 2010

TODAY

Source: IBM Global CIO Study, p15

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UPFRONT

NEWS ANALYSIS “Dialog is seeing more and more requests from its employees for access to mobileenabled training, especially for tablet devices,” he says. “The main reason is to enable employees to access training whilst commuting.” His firm also had a challenge familiar to countless other employers: a need to continually enhance and update the skills and knowledge of the firm’s consultants due to the evolving nature of IT. Employees wanted access to learning quickly, in a userfriendly way. “The evolving nature of IT means it’s crucial that the learning provider can offer training and learning programs for ‘new’ offerings, quickly,” says D’Hooghe. One such example at Dialog is Splunk, a platform for big data analysis. However, the firm recognised it had to enhance not just

exams on completion of courses, and 90% of Skillsoft licences were activated within a year, indicating high engagement with the learning programs. Making it work How about the technology infrastructure? HR and IT teams are increasingly working closely together, and Greenhough sees this collaboration escalating in the future. “There has been a real shift in CIO roles becoming partners with the business, and obviously that includes HR. Now there’s also such a compelling business value proposition from learning – how it affects performance and drives competitive advantage – so the two departments must work hand in hand.” She returns to the ‘accessibility’ theme: “Our advice to customers is to make the content as accessible as possible through

“It might seem at the front end for the employee that there’s a massive cloud of content there, but at the back end there’s been a lot of effort put into profiling and packaging that content together” Kath Greenhough technical skills but business communication and ‘soft skills’. In September 2013 Dialog partnered with Skillsoft to launch the Dialog Academy, which hosts training and development programs for all Dialog employees. Although Dialog had attempted to launch its own Moodlebased learning management system (LMS), a decision was made to tap into Skillsoft’s large learning library of IT and business skills courses, using the Skillsoft Skillport platform. The reception from Dialog employees has been encouraging. Ninety-five per cent of consultants and almost all managers reported being ‘satisfied’ or ‘highly satisfied’ with the Dialog Academy. Further, all training participants passed the required certification

any means, whether it’s an embedded link that’s delivered via text or delivered via email to the mobile phone. And then behind the scenes the digital learning infrastructure will be underpinned by one or more learning management systems.” The beauty of an LMS is data. L&D and HR professionals can analyse user data and understand where they are on their competency development or qualification framework. They can see if compliance tasks are being completed; they can see where tomorrow’s managers might come from. The list is endless. “It’s so much more trackable than it’s ever been before, regardless of what it is – a book, video, course, an online mentoring

chat system. We can get a great picture of the learning going on in any organisation today,” says Greenhough. Her number one tip for any HR professional looking to capitatalise on digital L&D is to ensure there is strong buy-in from executives. “You need the executives to feel it internally in order to get that time and endorsement and ultimately that funding. That also includes IT: they need to be providing the right infrastructure to reach employees. Everything else kind of falls at that hurdle if you don’t get it right,” says Greenhough.

MAKING THE MOST OF L&D DIGITAL DISRUPTION Rosie Cairnes, regional director at Skillsoft, outlines top areas where HR directors can integrate digital into talent management programs to improve productivity: 1. Organisational restructures: “HR teams are struggling with re-engaging workforces following organisational restructures. L&D delivered digitally at the right time in the right way through information and learning technology, videos and books hosted on an LMS can help to realign the ‘survivors’ with future organisational goals.” 2. Mobile learning: “The ‘Bring Your Own Device’ [BYOD] revolution has enabled employees to be more flexible in their approach to work. In the L&D context, employees aren’t restricted around when and where they complete L&D requirements; they can learn anytime and anywhere that suits their work environment and outside priorities.” 3. Talent accessibility: “Digitalisation has enabled

employees to more easily tap into global talent networks and programs that would otherwise remain inaccessible to them.” The public’s interest in TED talks is one example of the desire to learn from the experience of others ‘first-hand’. Providers such as Skillsoft offer ‘Welch Way’, a program delivered digitally through an organisation’s LMS, which taps into US businessman Jack Welch’s leading training on corporate leadership development.

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PROFILE

STEVE REID

Poster child for HR best practice Few industries have undergone as rapid change in as short a time as the media industry. HRD chats to one market leader about HR’s role in riding the crest of change and fostering a culture of innovation SINCE ITS acquisition of EyeCorp in 2012, which leapfrogged oOh! Media from the third-largest player to the market leader in all key segments (airports, road and retail) in the out-of-home advertising industry, the company has retained its market-leading position. And everyone knows what happens with leaders: they are sought out as the leading lights, and the expectation is that they will forge new ways forward – or fail in their attempts. Simultaneously, the media market over the past decade has undergone dramatic change. Steve Reid, HR director at oOh!, says the entire media industry has been touched by digital, and outdoor advertising has been at the forefront of this change. oOh! operates more than 2,000 digital screens Australia-wide, and 30% of its revenue comes through digital advertising. Part of the challenge for oOh! has been maintaining revenues in existing business operations, while launching brand new parts of the business that capitalise on digital. For example, digital allows the company to work directly with clients in real time. Advertising campaigns can already be tailored to the demographics of the passing traffic, and the company is tapping into television commercials and neuroscience to grow its market share. “We’ve had to create things that haven’t traditionally been part of a static billboard world,” says Reid. For Reid, the transformation is akin to the pace and frenzy around “getting stuff done” seen in start-ups. “It

feels very start-up, and that really comes back to the digital piece coming in. People are having to reinvent what they do. There are so many things in our three-year strategy that we’ve never done before.” For oOh!, the move to digital is a rapid evolution rather than a complete transformation. Reid notes that HR “definitely has a role to play in this digital transformation”. This includes working to identify future needs in digital capability, building internal and external talent pipelines, and ensuring the company develops the right skill sets.

“The company has a strong entrepreneurial streak, with innovation at our core”

Wider change in HR

Reid has worked in the telecoms and banking/finance sectors. He sees distinct similarities with the media. “I’ve worked in some very fast-paced, high-change environments, and the current media landscape is no different,” he says. “The whole industry is going through a massive period of transformation. The thing that has struck me most is that HR in media has, for the most part, been very operational and transactional – but this too is slowly changing.” Reid has witnessed other media companies, either in the outdoor space or elsewhere, employing a different level of HR professional. “All companies are struggling, from the capability and talent perspective. That alone means they’ll need to be operating more strategically, and it will drive a different line of thinking.”

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STAYING AHEAD OF THE CURVE Here are Reid’s top tips for mapping the future: Have a vision. “Our CEO [Brendon Cook] is incredibly visionary, and he’s always trying to think five years ahead. The best analogy is we want to make sure we’re the next iPhone, not Nokia or someone who gets overtaken.”

Give customers what they need before they know they need it. “For us it’s changing our physical signage to digital signage. It’s about us thinking ahead to what clients potentially might want, and then saying, how do we ensure we have the right processes and systems to support that, and culturally are we set up with the right talent who have the right thinking to actually drive that?” Fine-tuning innovation

Photo credit: Thilo Pulch, pulchphotography.com

A “different line of thinking” will also drive oOh!’s future success. The company has traditionally always been a market challenger. Reid and his executive colleagues hope to continue this culture of innovation. “The company has a strong entrepreneurial streak, with innovation at our core,” he says. “There is a young dynamic mixed with some strong history of the static billboard media industry that we grew out of. As we’ve grown and become a market leader, some of our challenges have been adding process and rigour to our culture without losing that ability to innovate and act quickly.” Reid notes that innovation starts with permission to have ideas and to do things differently. The willingness to allow things to fail is the challenge. “The challenge in a commercial environment is knowing how far to go, and then to learn from mistakes,” Reid says. Formal processes can help. oOh! has an innovation challenge every year in which employees vote on ideas put forward by their colleagues. The company will then fund the best ideas and the ‘idea generator’ receives a cash bonus. The company is divided into six crossfunctional ‘houses’, and competitions are housed throughout the year. In addition, ‘hack days’ allow people to get together to brainstorm and come up with ideas, which are then pitched in small teams. Finally, Reid is introducing a leadership development module on mindfulness, which he hopes will shift the thinking of business leaders. “We want to move from an ideas, action-style environment – ‘I’ve got an idea, let’s go do it’ – towards having more circuit breakers. ‘You’ve got an idea, but what other ideas are there? How do we refine it to something that will work?’ It’s showing people how to prioritise and then action it. We also need to test, learn and fail fast.”

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YOUR GUIDE TO...

EXPAT TRANSITIONS

Halfway round the world (and turn left) While thousands of executives from overseas arrive in Australia every year to take up positions running Australian companies, the failure rate remains high. Between 25% and 50% of all contracts are terminated, and almost 50% of expatriate marriages end in divorce. Iain Hopkins outlines how employers can smooth the way

“WHY DO they want me to fail?” These exasperated words from an expat executive who recently arrived in Australia sum up the feeling of many new arrivals to these shores. Intentional or not, and despite the perception of being laid-back and egalitarian, Aussies can be an unforgiving bunch. Yet while adjustments to a new cultural world might be the undoing of plenty of executives, these are in fact just one of many ‘transitions’ that expat executives must cope with. Fail on any of them and an executive’s tenure may be a lot shorter than anticipated.

A walk in the park? Multinationals are reasonably adept at moving employees around the world. Indeed, Padraig O’Sullivan, managing partner of executive transition specialists O’SullivanField and author of Foreigner in Charge, suggests the mobility aspect is usually handled well – that is, the recruitment phase, organising the visas and transportation, finding the accommodation, organising the schools, and ensuring return flights home are booked. Where they underestimate Australia – which remains a highly attractive destination for overseas workers – is

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simply regarding the number of transitions an executive has to make. “People see Australia as being an easy country to move to, relative to Bangladesh or Mongolia or France or other countries, so they assume that just arriving here is enough. They underestimate all the other transitions that need to occur for an executive to be successful. They don’t understand why so many expat executives fail,” he says.

Beware of transition overload O’Sullivan suggests it’s critical for business leaders, particularly HR directors, to appreciate that expat leaders are coping with a number of transitions – often at the same time and many for the first time. Take a Paris-based head of marketing who is promoted to the general manager role of their company’s Australian affiliate. Here are some transitions to consider: • Increased responsibility Their role increases in responsibility from a functional to a general role. They are now required to sync across multiple functions. Their previous functional expertise, while useful and having served them well to the point of being promoted to this role, could hinder their success if overreliance on this area hinders an ability to adopt a general management approach. They need to elevate and expand thinking and perspective in a horizontal fashion as opposed to the old vertical fashion.

• Increased visibility Becoming the country head brings a level of visibility to external stakeholders that expatriate leaders may not have experienced before. Depending on their sector and industry specialty,

• Cultural transition The cultural transition from one country to another can be daunting. Expatriate leaders are often surprised at the impact of the cultural transition to Australia. Some expats suggest to O’Sullivan that their experience of moving to an Asian-speaking country is easier, as they at least expected cultural differences. The assumed level of familiarity with Australia for leaders from English-speaking countries is deceptive. They expect it to be easy, but it is not. For leaders who come from non-English-speaking countries, learning to lead in English can add an extra dimension of complexity.

Not as simple as it seems It’s this last point – cultural transition – that becomes even more complicated when leadership is factored in. O’Sullivan cites several examples of Australian culture’s “schizophrenic approach” to leadership. For example, on one hand Australia is very egalitarian, yet we expect our leaders to be very competent and in control; on one hand we’re very informal and casual, yet we expect our leaders to be informed and good at what they

do; on one hand we expect to be involved in many of the decisions, but we expect our leaders to lead. “There’s often confusion about how we lead in Australia, and when you’ve come from another country where you might have a more traditional hierarchical approach and you expect that approach to work in Australia, you may struggle,” says O’Sullivan. The mixed messages continue: “I often say to leaders that they’ve got to be able to give clear direction and at the same time value teamwork; they’ve got to be able to adhere to ethics and retain a sense of creativity and innovation; they’ve got to have very solid experience and yet not come across as being the expert; they’ve got to be formal in terms of having processes, yet informal in terms of personal leadership. “Aussies who have never worked overseas don’t understand these nuances; it’s just what you know. But if you come from overseas it can be very confusing,” says O’Sullivan. Fortunately, most multinationals will offer cultural integration training as part of the expat package. This might be a halfday or full day of training. The problem, O’Sullivan suggests, is it often happens too late. “Most expats would agree this sort of cultural training is useful but it might be even more useful if it occurred earlier – not two months after they arrive in the country.”

A TRADITIONAL APPROACH TO EXECUTIVE TRANSITION Executive coaching is a well-utilised mechanism for supporting executives in transitioning into a role. Learning to elevate the level of thinking that needs to be employed, the level of leadership to the new position, and the level of influence across the organisation is as much a nurtured and learnt framework as it is a natural ability. Traditionally, an executive coach will focus on the role only and will not take into account the multiple transitions the executive is experiencing. There are more supportive ways:

Familiarity and adaptation to new role and functional level

• Increased complexity The level of complexity dramatically increases, and often the number of direct reports. Using our Paris example, this person would typically move from having 20 to 30 reports to being responsible for 300 to 500 reports in Australia. The implication is that how things worked in the old scenario is not necessarily going to be appropriate or effective in the new.

they may now be asked to represent the organisation at political meetings, with statutory regulatory authorities and other external stakeholders. This requires a unique approach and skill set.

Role support Support into new role Step up in leadership Executive coaching No support Minimal interventions Read books on Australia Limited onboarding Relocation support

Integrated support Fully integrated program Focus on all transitions Commercial outcomes Based upon international research Culture support Education on new country Short programs Individual support Spousal support

Familiarity and adaptation to new culture

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EXPAT TRANSITIONS The basics O’Sullivan suggests that most traditional approaches to executive transition will take several key steps, both pre-move and once the expat has arrived. Everything pre-move will largely revolve around the mobility aspect: undertaking a pre-move visit to the new destination, organising schools and accommodation, being clear on transport to and from home. While these might seem obvious, O’Sullivan suggests it doesn’t always happen. “In Australia there are no overt expatriate communities like you’d find in Singapore, so having local help upfront on the ground is so important,” he says. Once the executive arrives, there are other simple steps an employer can take. Firstly, a new leader meeting, whereby the new leader and the team they’re leading gets together for half a day in the first or second week of the new leader starting. The objective is for the team to understand the leader in terms of their history, where they’ve been before they came to Australia, what their decision-making style is, and how they like to lead. It works the other way too – the leader should aim to understand the history of the team in terms of how they got to where they are, how they’ve made decisions along the way to this point, and so on. “I find just that meeting alone can be organised by the HR director and it can save the team at least six to nine months in trying to figure it out – and it can be done in the first week,” says O’Sullivan. A second easy tip is for someone – possibly the HR director – to obtain permission from the leader to make suggestions and correct mistakes. “In the first week, any new person will make mistakes, and these mistakes might be magnified for an overseas executive. It might be mistakes around the language used – it could be anything. Take the new leader aside and ask for permission: ‘Are you OK if I take you aside and point out these mistakes?’” Lastly, don’t forget the spouse, who may be a professional themselves and has given up their job to relocate overseas. “If the spouse is unhappy executives go off the rails very quickly,” says O’Sullivan.

SPOUSAL AND FAMILY SUPPORT It’s easy to forget that it’s not just the executive going through these transitions but their family as well. The families have left their homes, known environments, schools and friends and landed in Australia. Most arrive looking forward to the experience and fully intend to make the most of their overseas assignment. Yet studies suggest that between 21% and 57% of families fail to adapt on international assignments, which greatly impacts on the executive. According to O’SullivanField, there are several strategies an employer can try: Increase awareness and manage expectations This involves increasing the awareness in the family of what is likely to be experienced. With this insight and knowledge it is then possible to make plans to help minimise the impact, recognise it when it does turn up, and quickly take action to address the feelings and situations when they arise. It can be beneficial to discuss these issues early on, even as part of the decision-making process about moving. A discussion working step by step through the following points can shed light on potentially problematic areas: •What is my current state? Discuss and identify the important factors, people and situations that contribute to the expat partner’s sense of identity. Consider both professional and personal contexts, as well as any voluntary and community groups and hobbies or leisure activities. •New surroundings Once the key areas have been noted, look for similar situations in the new country. Will there, for example, be opportunities to pursue the same leisure activities or join groups of like-minded people? •What is the gap? Now look for the gaps between what the expat partner relies on in the home country for their sense of identity and what will be available to them in Australia. Solutions There are a number of ways to handle these challenges. Excellent resources such as Bryson and Hoge’s book, A Portable Identity, can be used as a self-guiding tool. Alternatively, using a mentor or a coach to help test the thinking, realities and pragmatisms of the thinking can be invaluable in establishing realistic understanding and expectations. From this base it can be powerful to be ‘forewarned’ and therefore proactive about what actions to undertake to minimise the disturbance and successfully embed the family into the new location and have a brilliant expat experience. A holistic approach for 2015 and beyond Rather than the more traditional piecemeal approach to executive mobility, O’Sullivan recommends a more integrated approach. His firm’s recommendation is the PALDER framework, which covers a 14-month framework stretching from pre-arrival through

to review. “To me, this is a far more holistic and comprehensive model that helps the leader, the leadership team, the organisation and the family across a 14-month timeframe,” O’Sullivan says. The following are six major transition phases associated with the PALDER framework, each requiring key skills and expected outputs.

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YOUR GUIDE TO...

EXPAT TRANSITIONS Phase 4: Decide

P A L D E R

Key skills

Pre-arrival

Arrival

Listen & learn

Decide

Energise

Review

-12 to 0 weeks

0 to 2 weeks

2 to 6 weeks

6 to 12 weeks

12 to 20 weeks

20 to 52 weeks

Assess mandate and own capability

Deliver clear message

Listen to range of inputs and ideas

Develop lead team and decide on organisational strategy

Create sense of accountability & execution

Reshape and renew towards evolution

Output

Preparedness

Presentation

Perspective

Phase 1: Pre-arrival This phase is predominantly consumed with the executive being considered for the new role, interviewing and negotiating the offer. The transition starts here. Being considered for a new expatriate role implies the candidate has been enjoying a successful career and there is a belief that they are capable of taking on an expatriate role.

Phase 2: Arrival While the arrival phase is the one that is full of excitement and nervousness, it also often feels the most daunting. Ideally, a pre-start and a start

Purpose

Performance

Program

date will have been negotiated, which will allow time to settle in both the expat and the family.

Phase 3: Look, listen and learn The waves of change increase dramatically. Once the announcement has been made about taking the role, the new leader begins to actively learn everything possible. However, many expatriate leaders lay the foundations for their failure during this phase. They hugely underestimate the importance of taking time to fully understand the organisation, its culture, operating environment and industry environment, and to ask pertinent questions before making assumptions.

“There’s often confusion about how we lead in Australia, and when you’ve come from another country where you might have a more traditional hierarchical approach and you expect that approach to work in Australia, you may struggle” 16

During this phase, the feeling of change decreases. This is often expressed as the point where ‘I start to feel like I know what I’m doing in my new role’. The events typical of this phase include the leadership team mandate session, strategy work-up sessions, paint the lobby projects, communication plans, town hall and cascade meetings. It is also during this phase that leaders will decide about the people on the team.

Phase 5: Energise In this phase the leader experiences the challenges of change kickback and resistance as they attempt to execute the mandate. It is often at this stage that the family are feeling culture shock as they face the stark reality of ‘we don’t know many people here, we are alone’. The overall adventure is not quite as exciting as it might have been! O’Sullivan’s experience with working alongside expat leaders is that this is the second most common phase when they make their mistakes.

Phase 6: Revise, reshape and renew The last and longest phase is called ‘revise, reshape and renew’. The key context for this phase involves reviewing the organisation and progress to date, reshaping where needed, and constantly renewing the energy required to achieve the objectives.

Harness the buzz Remember, a new arrival in Australia brings with them excitement, fresh eyes and different ways of doing things. It’s up to employers to ensure this early enthusiasm doesn’t get quashed during the expat’s tenure. “Think more broadly than just the cultural transitions this person is undertaking,” suggests O’Sullivan. “Yes, that’s a major component, but it’s not the only one.”

Padraig O’Sullivan’s Foreigner in Charge is the definitive book for senior executives and spouses of expats. Published July 2015 | RRP $32.95 | By Kerryman Media

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YOUR GUIDE TO…

IMPROVING GENDER EQUALITY

Forget the glass ceiling – it’s now the glass ladder Gender inequality in the leadership ranks doesn’t only impact on women – it creates an imbalance that can erode company culture and prevent organisations from getting the most from their talent. How can organisations address this issue? Alison Tickner offers some advice

THE COMMITTEE for Economic Development of Australia has been researching the issue of women in leadership for several years. It has found that many women in middle to senior management roles continue to encounter barriers to equality at work. Women in Australia are earning less than ever before. Government figures show that in 2015 the pay gap has widened to 19.9%. When bonuses, allowances and overtime are factored in, that gap widens to 24.7%. The Australian government’s Workplace Gender

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Equality Agency (WGEA) commented that these figures show women are clearly not accessing the same opportunities as men. While the results are disheartening, there are steps business leaders can take.

Women in Australia are earning less than ever before. Government figures show that in 2015 the pay gap has widened to 19.9%

Do women want to be leaders? I believe there is no lack of ambition among women in the workplace. As a leadership consultant working with major clients, I partner with clever, capable, confident women across a wide range of organisations. However, I also see and hear the things that discourage some women from really going for leadership roles. Research shows that prejudice exists. The Australian Human Rights Commission found that one in five working women have experienced sexual discrimination in the workplace and half of all working mothers reported discrimination during their pregnancy, maternity leave or on their return to work. Workplace culture is an issue too. As the WGEA has previously pointed out, there is still a ‘macho’ culture across many Australian organisations, and a legacy of workplace

cultures built on ‘the male breadwinner model and gender bias’. As a result, women often gravitate to support roles that usually pay less and lack influence.

Addressing the dearth of role models It can be quite difficult to enter a tier of management or to lead in an industry in which your gender is poorly represented. The most recent Australian Census of Women in Leadership found that women hold just 9.7% of key executive positions in the ASX 200. I applaud the many women leaders who are proactive role models, speaking out to encourage women both inside and outside their organisations to forge ahead in their careers. Many women leaders act as

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mentors to other women and offer valuable advice and insights. Mentoring initiatives and diversity programs have helped to encourage more women into leadership roles. Such initiatives work best when they are fully integrated into company culture. Real change happens when you start tackling unconscious bias alongside the introduction of any official guidelines.

Optimising leadership development opportunities Women (and all employees) expect employers to offer opportunities for development. And more and more they expect to be able to choose their own learning journey. So HR leaders and employers should offer a range of opportunities that individuals can tailor to suit their needs.

IAN TRAL AUS

Official Publication

Organised by

Event Partner

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IMPROVING GENDER EQUALITY In her bestselling book Lean In, Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg comments that women can be more reluctant than men to go for a role if they don’t have a great deal of relevant knowledge or experience. So, as well as putting a mentoring program in place, it can be beneficial to encourage potential women leaders to develop a wider business understanding beyond their own area of expertise. This can involve anything from ‘show and tell’ sessions between departments, to shadowing more senior colleagues in other parts of the business, to more formal secondments. Ensure that women in your organisation know exactly what skills, qualifications and experience they need to become effective leaders. Just as importantly, what attributes and behaviours do they need to demonstrate? All of these things can be developed. A combination of formal learning programs, mentoring and coaching can develop strategic thinking and communication skills, as well as boost motivation and engagement. Encourage women in your organisation to seek feedback from others. This helps to identify strengths as well as areas for development. Align this to any personal development planning program you have in place. Nobody should ever feel they have to become a different person in order to succeed. One of the biggest shifts we’ve seen in leadership in recent years is the need for transparency. So encourage your potential women leaders to be open and honest. It’ll help them to carve out roles they love and are passionate about.

What’s in it for business? It’s not just women who benefit from equality in the workplace. Organisations benefit too. In an increasingly competitive global marketplace, the need to attract, develop and retain talented people is a critical business challenge. It makes sense to encourage as many people into your talent pool as possible. A great way to attract people is by offering a flexible and fair working environment in which everyone is valued.

TIPS FROM THE FRONT LINE A June roundtable debate, hosted by Sonia McDonald of LeadershipHQ, asked top business leaders about real solutions to achieving gender diversity in Australia. The debate revealed there was more to building an inclusive and diverse workplace than simply developing policy. The group revealed how attitudes, actions, accountability and culture played a vital role in making policy work. Here are three top tips from the panel: Assess and address cultural attitudes. Megan Houghton, CEO, CitySmart, Brisbane City Council’s sustainability agency, recommended that organisations should realistically assess their cultural attitudes before they implement change, to identify their conscious and unconscious biases. From that point, she added, employers could develop specific strategies to reshape the workplace and adjust the talent cycle. She added that it was not a question of a glass ceiling limiting how far a woman could progress but rather a ‘glass ladder’. It’s not that women can’t make it to the top; they can and do. However, it’s a longer, harder climb, usually without firm support along the way – so what women face is more of a glass ladder, not a limited ceiling.

Don’t underestimate leadership pipelines. Peter Birtles, CEO, Super Retail Group, actively champions change within his group of companies. Super Retail Group is building a pipeline of female talent so that more women reach senior operational roles. It runs a program called Women in Leadership Development and has a target of 40% representation of women in management by 2019. Birtles recommended flexible work practices as being crucial but said they had to apply to male as well as female employees. He also promotes mentoring and coaching and tries to attract women who have the capacity to lead but need more experience.

Make it relevant. Martin Moore, CEO, CS Energy, told the group that corporate Australia was not taking enough action. He believes that while many companies spend money on D&I, if the policies are not immediately relevant to the women in the company, or are perceived to be ‘tokenistic’, they can do more harm than good. He also stressed that company culture was far more important than policy and strategy, stating: “Leadership drives culture; culture drives performance”. He added that whatever action was taken would need to be fit for purpose, and directly relevant to the industry, geographic spread, and demographics of the organisation. A diverse organisation, he noted, should consider not only gender but age and race, as well as thinking styles and cross-industry experience.

A final word Employees, customers and other stakeholders are becoming increasingly discerning. Most people want a successful working life that provides meaning as well as money. Most of us, whether male or female, want to get rid of barriers to career success. We need more

business leaders who will stand up and help us do it.

Alison Tickner is managing director, Asia-Pacific, at Cirrus. She can be contacted at alison.tickner@cirrus-connect.com.

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EFFECTIVE EMPLOYMENT BRANDS

Who’s in demand? Does your organisation stand out from the crowd? Do candidates – even passive candidates not currently looking to switch jobs – know anything about your company? If the answer is yes, it’s probably a testimony to your employment brand as much as it is to your employees’ advocacy THESE ARE the key factors considered in LinkedIn’s annual ‘Most InDemand’ list of employers. Tapping into the insights gleaned from the professional network’s 364 million members worldwide (seven million in Australia), the ranking measures how soughtafter a company is, based on its reach and engagement scores. Four Australian-based companies made the local top 10 this year, with BHP Billiton appearing on the list for the first time.

AUSTRALIA’S TOP 10 MOST INDEMAND EMPLOYERS FOR 2015 1. Rio Tinto 2. Google 3. BHP Billiton 4. Microsoft 5. Leighton Contractors 6. Qantas 7. Apple 8. Chevron 9. Lend Lease 10. Thiess This year’s list offers some interesting insights into what makes a desirable and sought-after employer: • Of the 10 Most InDemand Employers in Australia, companies from the mining, oil and energy industries were most prevalent, appearing four times on the list. • Australian professionals have a unique perspective of which companies are

attractive, with homegrown companies taking the lead. Results in Australia were in stark contrast to the US results, which saw ICT and e-commerce companies such as Google, Apple and Amazon taking the top places. • Professionals in Australia increasingly think that tech is hot. While mining, oil and energy companies were dominant in the local top 10, companies from the tech sector have moved up the Australian list since 2013,

most notably with Apple jumping eight places and Google and Microsoft moving up one and two places respectively. • All the top 10 companies have at least 9,000 employees each, and most, if not all, also have operations outside of Australia.

Reach and engagement How did these employers make the grade? It comes down to two key elements: reach and engagement (see below).

INDEMAND METHODOLOGY LinkedIn started with:

30+ billion interactions on the site Country rankings were filtered to only the interactions of members in the country. These interactions were put into two categories:

Reach

Engagement

Are members familiar with your company?

+ Non-members connecting to your employees

+ Non-employees visiting your company/career pages

+ Non-members viewing your employees’ profiles

+ Non-employees following your company

To level the playing field, LinkedIn removed interactions from paid products and adjusted for company size. It then calculated reach and engagement scores and averaged them to arrive at a company’s InDemand score. For example:

90 + 100 2

95 (InDemand score)

Finally, all scores were ranked to reveal the most InDemand companies.

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VOTE FOR ME

“Employees can be a company’s strongest advocate and marketing tool, so it’s important not to underestimate the power of positive employee ratings and reviews” Diarmuid Russell In terms of ‘reach’, this is about assessing how familiar professionals are with a company. It’s the equivalent of asking, “Have you heard of our company?” It is assessed by two data points: firstly, non-employees connecting to a company’s employees; secondly, nonemployees actually viewing employees’ profiles. Engagement revolves around this statement: “I’ve heard of you, but now I’m interested to know more and specifically I want to know about the career opportunities in this organisation”. Again, two data points

are assessed: the number of non-employees looking at a career page or company page on LinkedIn; and secondly, non-employees following a company. Followers of a company are those who are essentially seeing what’s really going on within an organisation. They want real-time updates about what’s happening in that organisation. It’s the number of ‘followers’ a company can gather that particularly interests Tim Grogan, talent brand strategist at LinkedIn. “Once, the power was held by certain stakeholders

who would act as gatekeepers or introductory parties to an organisation. Today, employers are able to build direct relationships in a scalable way with prospective candidates.” The “follower ecosystem”, as Grogan refers to it, is about creating awareness, giving people the transparency to understand more about what a company does, what it’s like to work for, and what the success stories are.

Becoming a ‘candidate first’ employer While Grogan concedes it’s difficult to isolate specifically what one company is doing better than another – and all employers on the list can leverage their employment brand off their wellestablished consumer brands – there are certain elements that push these companies ahead of the pack. Chiefly, these companies take a ‘candidate first’ approach. “Organisations undertaking a candidatefirst approach understand that candidates make decisions about career change in a vastly different way today than they have in the past,” says Grogan. “Candidates want transparency; they want to research whether that organisation is the right one for them to join. These companies are becoming more accessible to candidates.” The growth of employer review sites like Glassdoor bears this out. Sites like TripAdvisor and Yelp have demonstrated that consumers increasingly trust their counterparts – and the general public – in their decision-making. That logic is now making headway in the employment market. “I’m not sure I’d say I’m surprised, because there’s a basic need for the type of insights we provide,” says Diarmuid Russell, senior vicepresident and general manager international, Glassdoor, when asked about the site’s rapidly expanding user base. Currently, Glassdoor has a membership base of over 30 million people around the world, generating eight million reviews and reports on salaries and culture covering over 400,000 companies. While Russell admits a damning employee (or former employee) review of a workplace can be a “wake-up call for some employers”, he views such feedback as an opportunity.

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EFFECTIVE EMPLOYMENT BRANDS “Today’s job candidates are more sceptical of what employers are ‘selling’ them today, and Glassdoor quickly highlights where there are gaps between the image that a company has created for itself and the reality of what employees think. However, employees can be a company’s strongest advocate and marketing tool, so it’s important not to underestimate the power of positive employee ratings and reviews.” He adds that Glassdoor has had numerous companies and clients tell them that they’ve been able to attract candidates because of their engagement on the site. “Embracing transparency demonstrates that a company is willing to listen, to learn and to improve, and that is very appealing to a prospective employee,” he says.

TURNING A NEGATIVE INTO A POSITIVE Here are Glassdoor’s tips for responding to reviews: 1. Respond promptly (monthly or quarterly). On the Glassdoor site, for example, you can set up company alerts that email you when new reviews post. 2. Welcome all feedback. Whether comments are positive or negative, acknowledge them in a non-defensive way. 3. Address specific issues. By being receptive to concerns, you give reviewers a sense of satisfaction that they contributed to positive change within your company. A nice touch is giving reviewers a confidential email address or phone number they can use to contact you about specific concerns. 4. Be considerate. Whether the topic is compensation, career growth, or management reputation, a considerate response builds candidate trust. 5. Promote the positive. Responding to positive reviews about your company or adding employee testimonials to your career page enhances your employer brand, not just for jobseekers but for current employees as well. Next steps Clearly the traditional ‘company first’ approach – ‘here’s a company website, if you want to work for us, go to that site’ – no longer cuts it.

CASE STUDY: LEND LEASE HRD chats to Michael Vavakis, group head of HR, Lend Lease, about making the LinkedIn InDemand Employers top 10 list HRD: What makes your company stand out from the pack? Michael Vavakis: When Dick Dusseldorp founded Lend Lease, he pioneered a ‘triple bottom line’ view of construction, where environmental and social outcomes were given the same priority as financial results. I’ve come to understand that it’s this belief that sits at the core of our DNA. I believe being a part of Lend Lease is to understand that, if we make everything we do ‘matter’, we will lead the way in safety, diversity, innovation and sustainability. This brings us closer to achieving our vision to create the best places, which will ensure continued success for both our shareholders and our employees. Recognising that our people are our differentiator has led our Global Leadership Team to work together on our people strategy. Our aim is to build upon our high-performing values-based culture where all of our people can experience inclusion and have the opportunity to be their best. A key initiative delivering quick and measurable results for us is our focus on having flexible workplaces. HRD: How much involvement have you had in your branding initiatives, and what’s the standout feature from those branding efforts? MV: As a member of the Global Leadership Team, I’m deeply involved in how we communicate to our employees and those who will potentially come to work with us. Our branding initiatives are led by our group marketing team, and together we make sure our employment branding initiatives are embedded into all facets of our employment experience – from before they join us, on their first day, and each year to follow. We’ve seen some great benefits from bringing our employment brand to light and have some exciting new initiatives rolling out very soon. A recent standout for me was a series of videos showcasing the rich history of Lend Lease. This video really highlights the connection of our past to our present and to our future success, as well as the strong values-based culture we operate in. HRD: How regularly do you revisit your EVP and, as a flow-on, your employment brand? MV: We refreshed our EVP in 2011 and are currently in the process of an update to both our EVP and its alignment to our employment brand. I think it’s vital to continually test and refine our offering to ensure the EVP both supports our managers and our employees through access to rewards and benefits that sit outside remuneration, and then how this feeds into our employment brand by helping us to attract great new talent who are motivated and energised by what we stand for and offer as an employer. HRD: How do you believe your company stands to benefit from being called an ‘InDemand’ employer? MV: Being recognised as an Australian InDemand Employer helps us to celebrate our success and the people who got us here. The added benefit is improving our employment brand, which will help us continue to attract and retain the very best talent. We’re really excited to see people around the globe taking the time to get to know our business and our people through a tool like LinkedIn. While we appreciate the recognition, I’m equally excited by the prospect of more people understanding our business, our vision, and how what we do connects to better outcomes today and for future generations.

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“You need to allow candidates the space to socialise, and create opportunities for them to engage with your brand and let them know what it’s like to work for our company. It’s about being more thoughtful about how people want to engage with the company. Then it’s about building the follower ecosystem.” Proactive employers might even have a 12-month communication strategy so they can continue to drip-feed relevant information to candidates. This can take the form of blog posts, polls, multimedia clips, thought leadership pieces, company achievements, and so on. These all combine to create a recognisable and effective talent brand. “LinkedIn’s value proposition is about engaging active talent but also engaging the high percentage of members who are passive talent. Companies that invest in the

ecosystem of their company and career pages are good at proactively communicating to members,” says Grogan. According to information from LinkedIn, strong employer brands can halve a company’s cost per hire, and companies with stronger employer brands have a 28% lower turnover rate than companies with weaker employer brands. For employers that aspire to make future InDemand lists, the two key criteria – reach and engagement – will naturally favour large employers. However, Grogan suggests that any employer can start by understanding the power of their people. “Ensure your employees understand the digital footprint they can create on behalf of their employer. Their own professional networks can help to boost candidate views and follower numbers. They can become employer ambassadors,” he says.

Secondly, InDemand employers recognise that talent management has moved away from a reactive stance – ‘we’ve got an open position; let’s fill it’ – towards a proactive stance; that is, building awareness of a business through its talent brand and being mindful of the areas of the business that are critical to future growth. Grogan suggests the InDemand list can be valuable for employers that want to get a proxy of how they are perceived against their competitors. “Quality talent is a key point of competitive advantage,” he says. “But how do you compare what you’re doing with what your competitor is doing? It’s difficult in isolation. Data points like this are a valuable way to compare how you are performing, or to assess any talent strategy change that has been implemented. It’s a validation that you’re heading in the right direction.”

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MILLENNIALS

SIX THINGS you need to know to lead the PlayStation generation It’s not the case that millennials are from Mars and everyone else is from Earth, writes Martha Maznevski. She provides six practical tips for leading the so-called PlayStation generation

I DIDN’T know what I was getting into before spending five years on the front line finding out what makes millennials tick. The research I read before I became director of IMD’s MBA class in 2009 didn’t prepare me to lead members of the ‘digital cowboy’ generation, those born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s. We’ve all read plenty about millennials before: they are used to being told they are good all the time, from a young age. They are not ready for real-world setbacks. All they want is instant gratification. They lack loyalty. The list goes on. While there is some truth to some of these characteristics, they can also describe previous generations. The stereotype of a millennial is a digital version of what 20-year-olds have been like since the Industrial Revolution.

Here are the six things I learned that today’s leaders need to know to really harness the power of millennials.

They learn through experience. We don’t call them the PlayStation generation for nothing. They grew up playing a lot of video games without using instructions. They learned to make it to the next levels of these games by dying over and over again. They can be like that in their professional careers too. They throw themselves into new experiences without a lot of planning, and learn by failing. They expect a leader to play the role that the walls and cliffs do in a game. Leaders should be aware of this and help point out the potential pitfalls of certain courses of action, both before and after.

Their lives are non-linear. The world has always been complex and volatile for this generation. They have witnessed the Asian financial crisis, climate change, 9/11 and the war on terror, the 2008 financial crisis, all before becoming established professionals. This generation has never seen the world as a safe and coherent place. They will have non-linear career trajectories and they know it. A lot of them will go back and forth between traditional employment and entrepreneurship. For a large part of their lives they have been reading on the internet, focusing on one subject one minute and something completely different the next. Previous generations learned in a more linear way by reading books from start to finish. For leaders this means that millenials are prepared for complexity. They don’t know

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Power is distributed and control requires permission. In other words, millennials don’t put up with bad bosses. They don’t listen to authority if they don’t agree. This might seem like a challenge, but in the long run the sooner people stop accepting poor leadership, leaders will have to improve. Everyone will benefit. The lesson here is: don’t be a lazy leader. Make sure that your millennial employees understand why your organisation and team are doing what they are doing. Don’t just say “Do it because I said so”. Also, don’t neglect leadership development. Keep investing in your leadership capabilities so that you can motivate your millennial employees.

We don’t call them the PlayStation generation for nothing. They grew up playing a lot of video games without using instructions anything else. Older managers may have a hard time adapting to the new normal.

They are loyal – but to principles and not to people. This is where some of the accepted wisdom about millennials comes into play. They appreciate personal development. They love new opportunities. But they will not follow your lead just because you are the boss. Instead of desperately developing loyalty to your leadership or your organisation among your team of millennials, you should focus more on developing and communicating the principles and purpose behind your organisation’s work, no matter whether it is a company, an NGO or a government agency. Millennials need to know that they are working to make the world a better place. They believe there is no success without sustainability for individuals, organisations, society, and the environment. If you can

convince them in an authentic way that what you are doing is principled, they will get behind you. Assumptions about privacy, boundaries and roles are fluid and permeable. This can be good and bad. We have all heard horror stories about young adults suffering the consequences of what they post on social media, like that friend of a friend who got fired for calling their boss a jerk on Facebook. But it can work in a positive way. Not submitting to antiquated hierarchical structures allows millennials to think creatively and find business opportunities where others might not imagine there are any. While leaders should watch out for unintended consequences, they should also encourage younger employees’ creativity in order to think beyond the established way of doing things.

Millennials are not good at boring but necessary work. They don’t like to concentrate on boring tasks that lead to mastery and that build character, if those tasks don’t have a clear benefit. In order to develop expertise and wisdom in any industry, people have to invest in non-glamorous grunt work to get to know their sector by heart. These types of experiences also help build patience to work through a problem until it’s solved. Today’s senior managers should put in extra effort to show the digital cowboys why the hard work is important. Leaders need to make sure that entry-level talent know that having a deep understanding of the different aspects of an industry will help them in more senior roles later on. Companies and organisations by and large have been good at getting millennials in the door for a while now, but they have been more challenged in getting them to transition to higher levels of responsibility. If senior managers follow these six pieces of advice, they can tap into millennials’ strengths and help them become the next generation of leaders.

Martha Maznevski is professor of organisational behaviour and international management at IMD business school, Switzerland. For further information on IMD, visit imd.org.

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YOUR GUIDE TO...

OFFICE POLITICS

OFFICE POLITICS: How to know if the hill is worth dying on Office politics can seem like war. If that’s what it feels like to you today, then the question you need to answer is whether this particular hill is worth dying on, says Cindy Tonkin IT’S JUST A HILL. But it is your hill. It’s a strategic hill. You don’t know if you want to be a hero. And if you really need to be a hero to keep this hill, you could be dead already. Let’s get concrete for a moment! This ‘hill’ could be that your boss caves every time a client criticises your area and you have to pick up the pieces, backtrack and rework things. It could be that you need to take time off outside normal days and your boss doesn’t believe in that kind of stuff. Maybe you are convinced that following current strategy will shut off the company’s main source of income. It’s not about the hill as such. It’s whether you will be the hero who takes the hill and goes off in a blaze of glory, or whether you will live to fight another day. Here are five questions to help you decide.

Question 1. Who is your buddy? In every good war movie the hero has buddies. From The Magnificent Seven to The Dirty Dozen via Platoon and Saving Private Ryan, it’s the people supporting you to take the hill that make the difference. So, the first

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question to ask is, who is your buddy? Who is on your side? If you are the only soldier standing up to the corporate psychopath, the only one trying to fix the supply chain problem or to reconfigure the roster, then you need some buddies before you start your assault.

Question 2: Who will see? The second question is, who will see you? And who should see you? If you are behind enemy lines and are about to blow up the bridge before dawn, then it’s important that no one sees you. On the other hand, if this assault is an action designed to flush out the friendly locals, make sure it’s visible enough that those who understand what your action means can find you. In real-world terms, if you want to be seen, consider some well-placed, strategically crafted questions at a work in progress meeting as a first salvo. If you don’t, then ask the same question one-on-one, starting with the lowestranking person with power. Ideally you will gain an ally, and you won’t be blamed if they ask the question again themselves.

Question 3: What’s the escape route? The third question is, what’s your escape route? Don’t blow up the bridge if you have no way of crossing it yourself. Or at least blow it up from the side you want to end up on. In corporate terms this means you need to put your feelers out into the market. Update your LinkedIn profile. But first turn off those notifications that tell your boss you’re updating! And talk to agents. Often. Just in case. Don’t wait to be found. Have lunch with your old boss and colleagues. Renew your network – just in case you need more allies, a safe house or an escape route! As a sidebar: if your boss is part of the problem, consider giving their name to the agent!

Question 4: What does reconnaissance tell you? Before soldiers blow up any bridge they go on a reconnaissance.

Maybe your strength is your ability to find the positive, transform people’s ideas, or just that you are resilient. Find your strengths and play to them. And let your weaknesses alone. They won’t help you here Reconnaissance is French for recognition. It literally means ‘re-know’. So, if you have a political issue that you want to broach, a hill you have to take, go check out the territory. Re-know current policy. Re-know who supports it. Re-know the players in your industry. • Is what you want already happening somewhere in your organisation? • Is it happening somewhere in your industry? • How does what you want align with industry best practice? • How do your systems and procedures support it (or not)? Check out how big this hill really is. If you don’t know anyone to ask in your industry, then that’s a weakness you need to patch up pretty quickly!

Question 5: What are your special skills?

whistle, are you a ventriloquist, or do you have a friend in intelligence? Do you have a good heart, an eye for a bargain, or a lot of great connections? Ask yourself what makes you different, not just in terms of solving this political problem but also in terms of your value to the organisation. How can you use this special skill as leverage? This isn’t just about your LinkedIn profile. It may be your family that will get you through. Or your loyalty. Maybe it is your ability to find the positive, transform people’s ideas, or just that you are resilient. Find your strengths and play to them. And let your weaknesses alone. They won’t help you here. There are also some things not to take into account in your hill assault. When considering whether or not to take this hill, these things should not come into the equation: • I can’t afford to be a hero • It’s not good for the team • HR should look after me • This shouldn’t happen • Why me? Every time you weigh the pros and cons of taking that political hill, assemble your buddies, make sure you’re seen (or not) by the right people, get your escape route clear, do some reconnaissance, and work to your strengths. In the end hills don’t matter. Integrity, courage and connections within your platoon matter. Get to it, soldier! Rider: I have never been to war. All I know about war I have learnt from my slim knowledge of war movies. Please take this metaphor in the way it is intended: as a tribute to soldiers who have worked hard and sacrificed their lives and livelihoods so that others may live better lives. Cindy Tonkin helps your team be more politically astute. Find out more at politicalacumen.com.au/wisdom/.

Every soldier has a special skill. Can you

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YOUR GUIDE TO...

HANDLING PRESSURE

PERFORMING UNDER PRESSURE Understanding that we don’t need to ‘be better than our best’ when the pressure is on helps us manage these moments more skilfully, writes Michael Bell JUST OVER 10 years ago, I left the security of a global multinational organisation to start up my own business. Soon the pressures of my new reality descended like a tsunami. Luckily for me, I had performance expert, friend and long-time mentor Dr JP Pawliw-Fry from the Institute for Health and Human Potential (IHHP) in my corner, and he coached me through this challenging time. As I reflect on this tumultuous yet exciting period, my biggest challenges stemmed from managing the uncertainty that accompanied my career change and my new

corporate executives rise to the occasion and perform under pressure. In fact, JP (and co-author Hendrie Weisinger) recently published real-world case studies – as well as proven strategies to maximise performance under pressure – in the New York Times best-selling book How to Perform Under Pressure – The Science of Doing Your Best When it Matters Most. The book is based on a study of 12,000 people and explores the science behind the debilitating effects of pressure. Interweaving empirical studies

The most successful business people have learned to thrive, despite the daily pressures they face, and have developed a range of strategies that help sustain them over time role as company director. With JP’s guidance, I learned to worry less about circumstances and more about my response to them. Fortunately, I’m not the only one to benefit from having JP in my corner. He’s built a career – and global research and training organisation IHHP – on helping Olympic and professional athletes and

and neurological research with first-hand accounts from athletes and executives, the book offers a fascinating exploration into understanding – and overcoming – pressure in our work and personal lives. Weisinger and Pawliw-Fry define a highpressure situation as the ‘perfect storm’ in which all three of the following consequences

of our actions are at play: yy the outcome is important yy the outcome is uncertain yy you are responsible for, and being judged on, the outcome

Debunking the pressure myth The key finding from their research? Nobody performs better under pressure. I know this is a tough fact to swallow. Many of us will point to those unique individuals (often our sporting heroes) who seem to rise to the occasion and perform better when the chips are down. The legendary Michael Jordan of the NBA may come to mind. Certainly ‘MJ’ performed better under pressure … didn’t he? The cold hard fact is that he didn’t! In study after study, the performance statistics demonstrate that when the pressure is on, metrics fall, even with

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legendary athletes. What Jordan did do, and what sets him and other ‘clutch’ performers apart from others, is this: they perform closer to their best in pressure moments. What I find most interesting about this fact is that understanding that we don’t need to ‘be better than our best’ when the pressure is on helps us manage these moments more skilfully.

How does the pressure of uncertainty play out in the workplace? William Bell, general manager of Infinity dealership of Peoria, Arizona, describes how the pressure of uncertainty impacts on his organisation – his sales and leadership teams – and his industry at large. “The reality of performance measures in the automotive sales industry is this: yesterday’s successes don’t matter nearly as

much as today’s results. Successes are quickly forgotten; yesterday’s failures, on the other hand, have ‘a long tail’. If we have had a good run of sales to target, month on month, then one poor performance may be seen as an anomaly. But only until the next month’s sales are calculated. When you’re having a tough month, you’re tempted to look back and point to how well we did last month, but no one cares. What we are always measured on – what truly matters – is this month’s sales. “On the last night of the month, we stay back until midnight or one o’clock in the morning making sure that all sales are recorded and reported. Then we are all back here at 7am the next morning, the first day of the month. The sales manager walks up to the big whiteboard in his office and erases all evidence of last month’s sales. The team looks up to see we are now ‘0 for 70’ (sales to target), or ‘0 for 95’, whatever the target might be. Over time, month in/month out, this can be exhausting. “It’s tough, but it’s how the industry works; you get accustomed to it, or you get out. When you are successful, it is extremely gratifying; but when you’re struggling, it is extremely taxing. ‘Yesterday’s hero, today’s zero’ is a saying that sums up the industry. ‘What have you done for me lately?’ is another saying that points to the pressure we all feel each and every day. ‘Sure, you’ve had eight good months this year, but what are you doing for me today?’ “Where the culture is to be the best of the best, to win at all costs, even one failure (one bad month) is not acceptable. The result is high staff turnover. Very few can take the pressure over the long term.”

Pressure solutions Professionals across all industries must learn to perform well under pressure if they want to succeed. The most successful business people have learned to thrive, despite the daily pressures they face, and have developed a range of strategies that help sustain them over time (even though most aren’t consciously aware of it). In How to Perform Under Pressure, these techniques are called ‘Pressure Solutions’ – actionable techniques to implement in pressure moments that help maximise performance and successes.

KEY TAKEAWAYS Four of the 22 Pressure Solutions from the book How to Perform under Pressure include:  Don’t try to be better than your best. So often in pressure situations, we feel that to avert catastrophe we need to morph into someone we’re not – a ‘superhero’. This is precisely what is so crippling about a pressure moment – the belief that we need to be better than we are, when deep down we know that’s not possible. The realisation that we don’t need to be better than we are is powerfully liberating, and absolutely critical to maximising performance under pressure.  Recall you at your best. A member of your sales team is anxious about their sales figures. After reassuring her she’ll hit target, she’s still anxious. Instead, ask her to imagine a time when she had a successful run of sales – when she topped the sales ladder – and ask her to reflect on that experience. This approach is far more helpful as it instils confidence based on track record, allowing them to maximise their success.  Realise you have multiple opportunities to succeed. This presentation, sales call or interview isn’t your only chance at success. There are plenty of other opportunities. Your entire future doesn’t hinge on this one moment.  See potentially positive outcomes. After experiencing a significant change – an accident, job loss, etc. – pessimistic people view the situation as permanent, becoming depressed, angry and bitter. Optimists, however, believe that good times will persist and bad times are only temporary. Believing that bad times are short-lived makes it easier for optimists to try harder, recover from setbacks and be more resilient. How might applying these insights help you better lead and inspire others to be their best when it matters most? Michael Bell, director Asia Pacific at the Institute for Health and Human Potential, is an expert on leadership and performance. Michael has extensive knowledge and experience as a speaker, coach and trainer, specialising in the topics of emotional intelligence and performing under pressure.

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EMPLOYMENT LAW Special Report 2015 With Australian workplace laws constantly changing, HR professionals must ensure their organisations remain compliant. HRD presents a guide to seven key areas p34 Managing ill and injured workers p36 Legal mediation p38 Anti-bullying legislation review p40 Post-employment restraints of trade

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p42 Leave, loading and legislation: A mid-year review p44 Employment termination p46 Unpaid interns

www.workplacelaw.com.au

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LEGAL SPECIAL REPORT

ILL AND INJURED WORKERS

BE PREPARED: Managing ill and injured workers Campbell Fisher outlines how HR can respond to one of the more challenging aspects of the role: the management of ill and injured workers MANAGING ILL and injured workers can be complex and confronting. For example, as workforce demographics and medical treatments change, less familiar ailments (such as dementia, anxiety disorders and even diabetes) are becoming more commonplace. Several recent tragedies have also amplified community awareness (and, arguably, legal expectations), particularly regarding mental health. Fortunately, sensible risk management strategies can significantly reduce the

risks. Today, case managing an ill/injured worker may require a team of specialists, deploying pre-planned (yet adaptable) response pathways. This needn’t be complex or expensive. However, common sense and well-intentioned processes can fall apart quickly without input from legal, medical and organisational experts. Unfortunately, when things do go wrong, the costs can be commercially, personally and professionally crippling – for everyone involved.

Catch 22 Some key legal considerations are set out in the (very) simplified summary table on p35. In isolation, each of these may seem relatively straightforward, but real-life scenarios are rarely simple. Decision-makers frequently face uncomfortable catch 22s, where trying to comply with one duty may trigger liability under another. For example, if a worker’s mental illness triggers unacceptable conduct, you may wish to separate them from others (eg by sending

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SIGNIFICANT LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS WHS Common law Leave and temporary absence

Duties to eliminate risks to health and safety, so far as is reasonably practicable Duties of care to workers and consumers, particularly the vulnerable (eg the young, elderly, disabled, unsophisticated) Employees may take paid/unpaid leave for a protected period without risking dismissal (longer for workers’ compensation matters)

Workers’ compensation

How you manage an ill/injured employee can impact on your claims history and premium calculations

Alternative duties

Providing alternative duties is required under most workers’ compensation schemes – but, if poorly managed, this may add complications (eg obligations to provide alternative duties indefinitely)

Anti-discrimination

Prohibits ‘less favourable’ treatment because of illness or injury and mandates reasonable adjustments for disability

General protections

Prohibits ‘adverse action’ against workers because of illness or injury (even if it seems ‘fair’ or ‘equitable’)

Unfair dismissal

Dismissing an ill/injured worker can be unfair – even if they can’t perform the inherent requirements of their role and/or their workers’ compensation claim is no longer ‘premium impacting’

Injured worker reinstatement

Some workers may be entitled to request re-employment in the same or a different role within two years after dismissal (eg if their condition improves)

Privacy

Employers aren’t completely exempt from privacy laws – collection and management of health information is strictly regulated

Common sense and well-intentioned processes can fall apart quickly without input from legal, medical and organisational experts them for treatment, or even dismissing them). Failing to act may trigger claims by other parties, but taking steps that affect an ill worker could trigger discrimination, adverse action, unfair dismissal or other statutory liabilities.1 It might even exacerbate their illness, and in the worst cases push them ‘over the edge’.

Generally, key decision-makers make better decisions if, at each turning point, they have access to the most up-to-date information and options. This includes advice from legal, medical and other expert advisers. With that in mind, here are our top five tips for helping your decision-makers improve the odds.

When navigating this complexity, there will rarely be right or wrong answers, and the best process is unlikely to be risk free. Instead, it will usually involve a series of informed risk-benefit decisions, made whenever the situation changes.

If you don’t know, ask Gone are the days when it was ‘better not to know’. Today, information technology makes risks more foreseeable, and courts expect proactive enquiries. If you are missing key information, ask. For example, recent cases reinforce the right to have an employee medically examined, to assess capacity and risk.2

Be clear and specific At every turn, ensure you can explain clearly who is doing what, when and why. If in doubt, ask more questions before you continue. This quick safeguard can prevent enormous complications later: there’s nothing worse than trying to defend an outcome in court if you can’t clearly identify who made a decision or why.3

Remember your values Don’t let the law’s complexity dominate your decision-making. Certainly, you need a full understanding of the risks and alternatives, but the law doesn’t provide signposts. Use your organisational values and priorities to choose between (lawful) alternatives.

Be prepared Cut down response times by planning ahead. For example, identify the most likely illness/injury scenarios for your workplace; prepare ready response tools (eg flow charts for your decision-makers, template communications to workers, etc.); and identify a team of internal and external experts that you can trust to work together quickly and effectively when required. 1 2

See eg Applicant v Respondent [2013] FWC 7421.

See eg Australian and International Pilots Association v Qantas Airways Ltd [2014] FCA 32;

Grant v BHP Coal Pty Ltd [2014] FWC 1712. 3

See eg RailPro Services Pty Ltd v Flavel [2015] FCA 504 (22 May 2015), where the employer’s defence was

complicated because a decision was held to be made by three persons acting jointly, only two of whom gave

Top 5 tips No right and wrong answers

evidence; and where two reasons (one of which was unlawful) were effectively ‘merged’ together.

Slow down Timeframes needn’t be prolonged, but rash or poorly articulated decisions will usually backfire. Keep a cool head, set realistic timeframes upfront and, if necessary, adopt interim strategies to ‘buy time’.

Campbell Fisher is managing partner and solicitor director of FCB Group and can be contacted on 02 9922 5188 or cjf@fcbgroup.com.au.

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LEGAL SPECIAL REPORT

LEGAL MEDIATION

The alternate route: Legal mediators Alison Shaw reveals the untapped potential of legal mediators in resolving workplace disputes HR MANAGERS are no strangers to conflict. According to Daniel Dana, president of Mediation Training Institute International, 60â&#x20AC;&#x201C;80% of all organisational problems stem from strained employee relationships. Conflicts arise in the workplace due to personality clashes, difference in perceptions, disagreements and even discrimination. Interpersonal problems between co-workers, staff and managers, or employees and customers, can lower morale on the job, cause depression and raise absenteeism â&#x20AC;&#x201C; all of which can hamper productivity and affect organisational performance. Worse still, for the business overall, is the cost of losing good staff. HR managers bear the weight of assisting staff and the business through the emotional turmoil and range of workplace issues. However, legal mediation can assist businesses in enhancing their workplace reputation by resolving disputes as they arise, which affects the health and wellbeing of all staff and avoids any costly court processes while preserving relationships that are vital to the business. Below are five reasons why having a legal

mediator will benefit your organisation when the need for conflict resolution arises.

Legal mediators understand the alternative processes â&#x20AC;&#x201C; in particular, litigation As lawyers as well as mediators, legal mediators know that resolving disputes through litigation can be a meticulous and stressful process for clients. Cases can linger in the courtroom for months, while significantly increasing the expenses of both sides in the conflict. Furthermore, an adversarial approach is used in dispute resolution, adding animosity between those involved and destroying their relationship. Typically, a resolution through court is also one-sided, leaving one party on the losing end. With the needs of your employees and managers being paramount, good lawyers are likely to recommend alternative processes such as mediation, where those involved are empowered to achieve a win-win solution to their conflict in a short amount of time. For professionals and employers involved in workplace disputes, this can preserve the relationships and minimise disruption to their

work and day-to-day operations, and is also a lesser expense for the organisation.

Legal mediators use their transferable legal skills such as questioning, listening and negotiation to get to the core issue Lawyers are naturally trained to resolve disputes. They advise clients on how to manage their conflicts, are trained to listen to the facts of the case, and know how to negotiate and arrive at a resolution. The skills of listening, asking the right questions and negotiation become second nature for lawyers through education and practice. This means

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emotions of others as well as their own, accessing the appropriate emotions at the right time, understanding how emotions influence behaviour, and knowing the best strategies for managing emotional situations. Mediators and lawyers who engender strong loyalty from clients, associates and staff or those to whom others typically go for counsel on personal issues, conflicts and complications usually display higher EQ. They are ideal for workplace conflict resolution as they truly hear what the conflicted parties are saying, including the criticism, and are able to respond reasonably and with empathy.

Legal mediators are truly independent, and are distanced from the management of the business and the dispute

legal mediators can effortlessly get to â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;the heart of the matterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; of any dispute, understand the perspective of both sides on the issue, and are equipped to facilitate the discussion and empower everyone to formulate creative solutions. This can be advantageous for workplace disputes as legal mediators can address imbalances in power and allow all those involved to be heard.

Legal mediators are knowledgeable, and can tackle any subject matter Mediation training touches on psychology, sociology and philosophy to understand how

people make decisions and to know the motivation behind their actions. Lawyers are knowledgeable about the law and how it functions. Therefore legal mediators can gain a comprehensive understanding of any dispute and the factors that led to it, and help those involved in the conflict to consider potential options, consequences and outcomes.

Legal mediators have emotional intelligence and empathy

Good lawyers demonstrate high levels of emotional intelligence (EQ) when dealing with clients. This involves recognising the

Mediators have no vested interest in the type of outcome, or the business involved. Their role is to eliminate the dispute, and through mediation they aim to isolate the problem and remove it from the day-to-day workplace environment. They deal with the issue quickly, conveniently and confidentially, in order to prevent it from festering. By having their direct intervention, the dispute can be resolved with minimal loss of productivity in the workplace, and this reduces any tension, stress and unpleasantness it caused in the first place. For the HR manager, this final benefit of using a legal mediator to assist in workplace conflicts means the manager is not seen as biased towards the employer or company, and they maintain their impartiality and independence from the conflict while helping everyone achieve resolution and fixing the problem. SHAW Mediation Australia offers mediation to all clients, from individuals to national corporates, for all types of disputes â&#x20AC;&#x201C; personal, professional, business and commercial. We can mediate any time, in any location nationally, for fixed certain fees, facilitated by nationally accredited mediators with a legal background.

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LEGAL SPECIAL REPORT

BULLYING

TOOTHLESS TIGER OR QUIET ACHIEVER? Anti-bullying laws 18 months on It was launched amid a flurry of anticipation from both employers and employees in 2013, but how effective has the Fair Work Commission’s anti-bullying jurisdiction been? Joe Murphy and Aoife Gallagher-Watson outline the key trends IN THE months preceding the introduction of the Fair Work Commission’s anti-bullying jurisdiction, a deep fear of an onslaught of applications spread among employers and practitioners alike. Eighteen months on, how has the reality compared with the fearmongering hype?

The experience so far In its first year in operation, the Commission received a total of 701 applications for an order to stop bullying. Of those 701 applications, only two anti-bullying orders were made and another 51 proceeded to a decision (most of

which addressed jurisdictional issues). Unaudited statistics from the applications made to the Commission1 indicate: • 85% involved a complaint that had previously been raised with the employer • 74% alleged bullying by a manager • 63% were made by employees between the ages of 30 and 59 • 63% of employers already had a policy in place • 61% were made in NSW and Victoria • 53% were made by females • 52% involved employers with more than 100 employees

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THE COMMISSION’S RESPONSE Results of applications for stop-bullying orders made to the FWC

2 51 156

93 148 Applications resolved during the course of proceedings Applications withdrawn early in case management process Applications withdrawn prior to proceedings Applications closed after a conference or hearing before decision Applications finalised by a decision Orders issued Source: Anti-Bullying Jurisdiction Public Forums Presentation, Commissioner Peter Hampton, 12 March 2015

In writing this article, we have had regard to a number of the significant decisions, including the very helpful decision of SB [2014] FWC 2104 (SB) by Commissioner Peter Hampton, head of the Commission’s Anti-Bullying Panel.

What are the significant lessons that flow from the decisions? Acting reasonably can go a long way The Commission’s decisions in SB and Amie Mac v Bank of Queensland Ltd et al [2015] FWC 774 demonstrate that, in order for the Commission to even consider making an order, it must be satisfied that: • unreasonable behaviour has occurred • behaviour must occur more than once (and can include a range of behaviours) • a reasonable person would consider that behaviour to be unreasonable • there is a relevant connection between the behaviour and a risk to health and safety

Examples of conduct capable of being considered unreasonable conduct include: • the making of vexatious allegations against a worker • spreading rude and/or inaccurate rumours about an individual • conducting an investigation in a grossly unfair manner Proving the behaviour occurred and was unreasonable lies with the complainant While the issue of reasonableness is a jurisdictional consideration, factors to be considered in objectively assessing management action include: • the circumstances that led to and created the need for the management action to be taken • the circumstances while the management action was being taken • the consequences that flowed from the management action However, even where bullying has occurred, unless the Commission is satisfied that bullying is likely to continue or occur again, then the Commission cannot make an order. Such was the case in James Willis v Marie Gibson; Capital Radiology Pty Ltd T/A Capital Radiology; Peita Carroll [2015] FWC 3538, where the Commission declined to make an order against the employer because, after the bullying occurred, its “careful attention to procedural fairness” made it unlikely the conduct would continue. Commission orders can be broad and restrict managerial prerogative Historically, the Commission has been reluctant to interfere with ‘managerial prerogative’ in connection with industrial disputes. The anti-bullying laws require a different approach. In two particular matters, namely Applicant v Respondent [2014] Commission 9184 and Scott Blenkinsop v Blenkinsop Nominees Pty Ltd and Ors [2014] PR555521 [AB2014/60], the Commission has demonstrated the extent of its powers to make orders that will affect the

day-to-day interaction with and management of employees. For example, orders have included requiring persons: • not to make “abusive, offensive and/or disparaging” remarks • not to interact with specific other persons • to make complaints via a particular process and to particular individuals • not to comment on the clothes or appearance of specific other persons • not to attend at a particular part of the workplace at a particular time • not to send any emails or texts to specific persons • to otherwise restrict their email communications As can be seen from the above, the Commission has demonstrated that it will make orders that it considers appropriate to ensure the health and safety of workers that it considers to be at risk.

Where to from here? It is difficult to ascertain exactly why it is that so few applications have resulted in an antibullying order. However, employers would be warned not to be complacent in circumstances where the statistics (and perhaps some anecdotal evidence) suggest that the vast majority of employers were ‘ready’ by having the relevant policies in place and dealing reasonably with complainants both during and after a complaint has been made. A significant number of the applications were resolved during the course of proceedings, which could indicate that the Commission’s dispute resolution processes have had a significant impact on the successful resolution of bullying complaints. The usual advice of ensuring you have policies, conduct training, and act swiftly and decisively, continues to be the sensible approach for employers. 1 Anti-Bullying Jurisdiction Public Forums Presentation, Commissioner Peter Hampton, 12 March 2015.

If you would like further information on how to minimise your exposure to claims regarding workplace bullying, please contact Joe or Aoife on +61 (02) 9458 7005.

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3/07/2015 12:45:03 PM

LEGAL SPECIAL REPORT

POST-EMPLOYMENT RESTRAINTS

Exercising restraint Helen Carter and Lucienne Gleeson outline sensible business practices for controlling post-employment activities PROTECTING THE goodwill of a business, including confidential proprietary information and customer relationships, is increasingly challenging for business owners. In this article we have considered four key areas that can assist employers in taking practical steps upon the commencement of employment to protect business goodwill by fairly (but effectively) restraining the post-employment activities of key employees.

Contract formation date What work was actually carried out by an employee and what experience was gained during the employment is not relevant to whether a restraint provision is enforceable. The court has to consider the reasonableness of the restriction when the contract was formed between the parties, and not at the end of employment. Whether a restraint will be enforceable depends upon what was in the minds of the

parties when the contract was signed. Was it envisaged that the employee would have a client-facing role? Was it contemplated that they would be significantly promoted? Was it known that they would become the face of the business? If the answer to any of these is negative, then a restraint seeking to prohibit the solicitation of clients or other activities for a period post-employment is very likely to falter. Given this crucial date element, we

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to be done specifically for each class of employee. Many employers attempt to define confidential information in very broad ‘catch all’ terms across an organisation, only to find that such clauses are unenforceable as they have not properly tied the definition to the legitimate business interests the employer seeks to protect. It is advisable to maintain a strong workplace policy around confidential information and to enforce the policy, including reminding employees, when required, that particular information is confidential proprietary information. A policy is not only an effective way to demonstrate to your staff your seriousness about confidentiality, but may also strengthen your contractual restraints if challenged.

In this highly technical area of law, prevention is better than cure How big or small an area?

encourage you to pause for thought next time you consider an employee’s promotion or change of duties. Whether that employee is issued with a fresh contract could make or break any protection that your company may intend to have in place post-employment.

Confidential information An employer’s ability to enforce non-disclosure and non-compete covenants will often depend upon the nature of the confidential information in question. It is essential that the contractual document defines the confidential information that the employer seeks to protect with an appropriate level of detail. Often this will need

Some argue that geographical locations are no longer relevant in restraint clauses in a world where businesses are tech-savvy and mobile. Most businesses, however, still operate in a particular segment of a market, such as a region, country, state, city or suburb. The key matters to consider when setting the location in a restraint clause are where the clients, suppliers and direct reports that an employee is dealing with are located. Usually, this will justify a relatively confined area such as a state or major CBD being covered. Occasionally, depending on the seniority and role of an employee and how widely known their reputation is in an industry, a bigger locality could be covered, such as an entire country or region of the world. When deciding how big or small the location covered in a restraint should be, the key measure is ‘reasonableness’ at the time of the contract formation date. While it might

be tempting to cover a large territory such as the Asia-Pacific region, you need to set your sights on something that will hold up if tested. Typically, the states or cities that clients, suppliers and/or direct reports will be based in and that the employee will be communicating with must form the basis of the area set.

What happens if the contract of employment fails? Very few people set out deliberately to breach their contractual obligations. However, it is nevertheless prudent to plan for the worst-case scenario. In NTIB v Howell, the NSW Supreme Court held that once a contract was repudiated by an employer, and the repudiation was accepted by the employee, their contractual obligations against solicitation and competition would be extinguished. For this reason, those employers serious about protecting their interests may wish to think about a separate deed containing the post-termination obligations. This will be unaffected by a repudiation of the employment contract. Deeds will be greatly strengthened by a payment of specific consideration in addition to the normal remuneration under the contract of employment. It is also worth considering vesting shares or share options to the employee rather than cash, as this has the added effect of giving the restraint a commercial element. Commercial arrangements have long been recognised as holding a higher threshold of enforceability than mere employment relationships. In this highly technical area of law, prevention is better than cure. Careful planning at the contract stage and a small investment in a specialist legal adviser can potentially save you thousands in legal fees and lost revenue should a restraint clause be either disputed or held to be unenforceable.

PCC Lawyers is a team of collaborative employment practitioners based in Sydney, with many years of combined knowledge and experience in workplace law, industrial relations, workplace investigations and training.

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2/07/2015 3:29:11 PM

LEGAL SPECIAL REPORT

MID-YEAR REVIEW

LEAVE, LOADING AND LEGISLATION: A mid-year review Lisa Burrell takes a look back at the significant workplace developments in the first half of 2015 and outlines what HR professionals need to know to remain compliant WORKCHOICES MAY be ‘dead, buried and cremated’, but the Fair Work regime that replaced it is continually evolving, and this year is no exception. As with many complex issues, the devil is in the detail and, for HR practitioners, keeping up with case law and legislative developments presents an ongoing challenge.

Leave We have continued to see developments to leave entitlements in the first half of 2015. The cost of ‘getting it wrong’ was recently highlighted by a company that failed to accurately update its parental leave policy. A father was refused 12 months’ parental leave as he wasn’t the ‘primary carer’ – a requirement that existed under the previous workplace relations legislation. As a result, the employer wrongly believed that he

was without the ‘return to work’ guarantee afforded to returning parents. Following a period of extended paid and unpaid leave, the worker ultimately returned to a part-time position (having not been offered his original full-time role) and was made redundant a year later. The company was ordered to pay $170,000 in lost salary and entitlements,1 with penalties for breaches of the National Employment Standards (NES) set down for a separate hearing. The concept of domestic violence leave continues to emerge through enterprise agreement negotiations, employment policies and award considerations. The Australian Council of Trade Unions is pressing claims in the four-yearly modern awards review in an effort to introduce 10 days of paid leave for permanent employees

in relation to domestic violence issues, as well as the right to part-time return to work following parental leave. These claims are viewed by many employer advocates as an attempt to improperly expand the minimum legislative framework of the NES, in effect using the Fair Work Commission (FWC) to bypass Parliament. This hearing is set down for August. In a win for employers, a recent Full Bench decision of the FWC will enable employers to direct employees to take excessive annual leave, provided that safeguards such as capping directed leave to a maximum of two weeks in 12 months are in place. A final decision will be issued following consideration of the proposed model clauses. There are also provisions allowing annual leave to be taken before accrual, and annual leave EFT

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LEGISLATION AND CURRENT REVIEWS  Productivity Commission review into Australia’s workplace relations framework  Inquiry into portability of long-service leave entitlements – Victoria  Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption  Inquiries into labour hire – South Australia and Victoria Bills before Parliament  Fair Work Amendment (Bargaining Processes) Bill 2014  Fair Work Amendment Bill 2014  Building & Construction Industry (Improving Productivity) Bill 2013  Paid Parental Leave Amendment Bill 2014  Fair Entitlements Guarantee Amendment Bill 2014  Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment Bill (No 2) 2015  Fairer Paid Parental Leave Bill 2015

payments to be made within usual pay cycles instead of in advance. The application of section 90 of the Fair Work Act (the Act) relates to the payment of annual leave loading on termination of employment, and this continues to be a highly contentious issue. Modern awards give clear instructions as to whether (or not) leave loading is payable on termination. However, in a decision currently under appeal, the Federal Court determined that the current wording of the Act rendered the different provisions in an industrial instrument unenforceable.2 This effectively requires any leave loading to be paid out regardless of the wording of the relevant agreement. Proposed changes to section 90 to address this issue are part of an amendment bill currently before the Senate. In a potentially far-reaching NSW case,3 the issue of employees receiving ‘dual’ payments from workcover and annual leave has been considered by a Full Bench of the Federal Court. According to the Act, annual leave should not be taken or accrued

except where “permitted” by a compensation law. With the Workers Compensation Act 1987 (NSW) silent on the issue of leave, it was found that the term “permitted”, while “curious”, should be read as “not prevented, prohibited or restrained”.

Other matters A key decision4 under anti-bullying legislation determined that a worker must be ‘at work’ when the conduct occurs for the provisions to apply (this includes being engaged in permitted workplace activities). In considering the reach of social media, it was determined that it didn’t matter when bullying comments were posted online – the key test was whether the affected employee accessed them ‘at work’. In considering the test for approving a protected ballot order, the FWC Full Bench found that some earlier decisions had adopted too narrow a test and that bargaining for ‘non-permitted matters’ did not mean a union was not ‘genuinely trying’ to reach agreement.5

Finally, while there continue to be developments in relation to drug and alcohol testing, a crucial decision has emerged that supports employers relying on a breach of policy in disciplining or terminating an employee, as opposed to a demonstration of impairment. The year 2015 is shaping up to be a significant one for workplace relations (see boxout). 1 2

Scullin v Coffey Projects (Australia) Pty Ltd [2015] FCCA 1514.

Centennial Northern Mining Services Pty Ltd v Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (No 2) [2015] FCA 136. 3

Anglican Care v NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association [2015] FCAFC 81 .

Bowker, Coombe and Zwarts v DP World Melbourne Limited T/A DP World; Maritime Union of Australia, The Victorian Branch and Others [2014] FWCFB 9227. 5

Esso Australia Pty Ltd v Automotive, Food, Metals, Engineering, Printing and Kindred Industries Union

known as the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU); Communications, Electrical, Electronic, Energy, Information, Postal, Plumbing and Allied Services Union of Australia (CEPU); The Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) [2015] FWCFB 210.

Lisa Burrell is the general manager of VECCI’s Workplace Relations team. Lisa’s team provides advice, representation and assistance for employers in the management of workplace relations and HR matters.

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2/07/2015 3:29:47 PM

LEGAL SPECIAL REPORT

EMPLOYMENT TERMINATION

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organisations have policies related to negotiated separations and medical/fitness for work. zzTerminations resulting from poor performance, unfitness for work, and misconduct are the most time-intensive for individual respondents, with over 65% of those respondents spending several days on each individual termination. zz Performance-based terminations are the most ‘risky’ type of termination, with 36% of organisations faced with actual or threatened legal proceedings following a performance-based termination up to half the time. zz 88% of organisations faced with actual or threatened legal proceedings paid additional compensation at least once in effecting performance-based terminations. zz 60% of respondent organisations sought external advice or assistance, with the average cost of legal fees reported as being between $1,000 and $5,000. zzAt least half of all organisations either

A recent survey has shed light on how, when and why employment is being terminated – as well as the steps employers are taking to remain compliant. Joydeep Hor reports THE PEOPLE + CULTURE STRATEGIES white paper Termination of Employment Practices in Australia marks the first of a planned annual publication providing a forum for benchmarking practices and trends in labour and employment law in Australia. It addresses a gap in knowledge we identified regarding current practices and trends adopted by organisations in relation to terminations of employment, and in particular the indirect costs and the impact on organisations. While an employer can review the number of terminations it effects in any year and any amounts paid with respect to the termination, the information we sought was on the actual time spent by organisations on managing terminations; the ‘real’ reasons behind terminations; upscaling of compensation payments; and legal costs associated with terminations. The white paper provides insights into these practices, and enables Australian employers to explore strategies for managing their costs in relation to terminations and develop an integrated approach to employee separation. The methodology used included a survey entitled ‘Business Costs in Termination of Employment in Australia’, conducted from March to May 2015, eliciting information regarding termination of employment practices over the past 12 months. The survey was directed not only to the PCS client base, but made use of events such as the HR Summit Series as well as various social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook

and Twitter. The survey was completed by 72 respondents representing a comprehensive cross section of employers in Australia.

Key findings zz Redundancies and performance-based terminations make up the majority of terminations effected over the past 12 months. zz A majority of organisations have policies pertaining to redundancy, performance and misconduct, but only a minority of

PERCENTAGE OF ORGANISATIONS THAT WHEN THREATENED WITH, OR INVOLVED IN, LEGAL PROCEEDINGS PAID ADDITIONAL COMPENSATION 100% 88%

80%

70%

60%

40%

54%

50%

35%

20%

30% 20%

16%

0% Redundancy At least once

19% 12%

10%

Performance based Up to half of the time

Over half of the time

15%

Misconduct Every time

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TYPES OF TERMINATIONS EFFECTED OVER PAST 12 MONTHS • 31% of organisations effected five or more redundancies. • 25% of organisations effected five or more performance-based terminations. • 18% of organisations effected five or more terminations based on an employee’s misconduct. • 11% of organisations effected five or more terminations based on a negotiated separation. • 5% of organisations effected five or more terminations based on an employee’s fitness for work. goals may be lacking. The clear articulation of these values at the outset of the employment relationship is a much more effective approach than seeking to question their achievement at the performance management stage. made an employee’s position redundant or negotiated a separation when the ‘real’ reason for separation was otherwise.

The time factor The survey results indicate that a significant proportion of respondents spent several days on each termination. But the time of other key staff within an organisation, such as line managers or senior management personnel, is not reflected in this figure, although they are also likely to have spent considerable periods of time in dealing with performance management, conducting investigations, or ensuring the right medical assessments were undertaken, depending on the type of termination scenario. Consequently, the cumulative time commitment for any organisation is significant.

Upscaling compensation payments and benefits Performance-based terminations are the most common circumstance in which additional compensation is paid when faced with threatened or actual legal proceedings in respect of that termination. Some may be ordered to

do so by the Fair Work Commission, but in other circumstances this may be a step initiated by the employer to provide an incentive for the employee to leave the organisation. This presents a number of considerations for organisations, in particular whether such practices accord with the organisation’s existing policies and procedures, whether senior management is aware of such practices, and whether such an additional payment is in fact warranted in the circumstances.

A real or fake redundancy? Findings from the survey indicate that it is relatively common for organisations to use redundancy to facilitate an end to the employment relationship, rather than terminating the employee for the ‘real’ reason, such as performance or poor cultural fit. Similar practices arise in relation to negotiating a mutual separation, in circumstances where it should have been managed as a performance-based termination. Terminations are particularly challenging where performance may be technically satisfactory but commitment, willingness to work collaboratively and alignment to the organisation’s

Key takeaways Terminations in the workplace remain a costly part of running a business. Employers that do not have a proactive management strategy are not well placed to respond in a timely and efficient manner when difficulties arise in the termination context. As a result, considerable time and resources are then directed to reactively deal with these terminations. A proactive strategic approach, accompanied by the appropriate policies and procedures, can minimise the time and resource drain of managing terminations of employment. A holistic and integrated approach to performance management is part of this proactive strategy, as is the reliance on specialist advice to frame a tailored and cost-effective plan for resolving the matter.

Joydeep Hor is the managing principal of People + Culture Strategies. For the full white paper, visit: peopleculture.com.au.

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2/07/2015 3:30:18 PM

LEGAL SPECIAL REPORT

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INTERNS

www.workplacelaw.com.au

Know your obligations: Unpaid interns Every work team could do with a helping hand from time to time – but employers should be wary of their obligations to unpaid interns, as Athena Koelmeyer explains THE TERM ‘unpaid work’ can describe numerous arrangements, including work experience, vocational placements and internships. Whether unpaid work is lawful will depend on the nature of the arrangement under which the work is performed.

Vocational placements Under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act), lawful unpaid work involves a “vocational placement”. The key elements of such an arrangement are: a) it involves a formal work experience arrangement, with no entitlement to pay; b) it is part of an education or training course; and c) it is an authorised requirement under a law or an administrative arrangement of the Commonwealth, a State or a Territory. Where unpaid work is not performed under a vocational placement, the arrangement can only be lawful when an employment relationship does not exist. Once an employment relationship is established, the individual is considered an employee and is entitled to employment entitlements and benefits such as the minimum wage and the National Employment Standards under the FW Act, and the terms of any applicable modern award or enterprise agreement.

To identify whether an employment relationship exists, a number of factors are considered: i. The nature and purpose of the arrangement – If work is performed to assist with the ordinary course of the business, rather than to provide a meaningful learning experience, it is more likely to be an employment relationship. ii. The length of the arrangement – The longer the term, the more likely the individual will be considered an employee. iii. The significance of the arrangement to the business – The more integral the work performed is, the more likely an employment relationship will be found. iv. The individual’s obligations – If the role is primarily observational and the performance of work activities is incidental to the learning experience, an employment relationship is unlikely to be found. v. Who benefits from the arrangement – The benefit from a genuine unpaid work arrangement should be to the individual undertaking the placement, not the organisation for whom the work is performed.

Unpaid internships An example of a lawful unpaid internship is

where a business provides www.workplacelaw.com.au an individual with a primarily observational role, with no expectation that the person will perform productive work during the period of the internship. In this arrangement, the intern will gain the greatest benefit, it is unlikely that an employment relationship has been created, and the internship is therefore lawfully unpaid. A failure by an employer to pay an intern or other person performing unpaid work but who is in reality an employee constitutes a breach of the civil penalty provisions of the FW Act, attracting a maximum penalty of 60 penalty units (currently $10,200). Further, the court can order the employer to pay the individual for time worked. Back pay can be ordered for periods dating back six years. The recent case of Fair Work Ombudsman v Crocmedia Pty Ltd [2015] FCCA 140 dealt with the issue of the legality of two unpaid interns who sought work in the media industry while studying at university. They were engaged by Crocmedia for periods of between six and 12 months, were regarded as ‘volunteers’, and were paid minimal expenses, despite producing radio programs and regularly working the ‘graveyard shift’ – duties that paid employees would otherwise perform. The Fair Work Ombudsman prosecuted Crocmedia for breaches of the FW Act, finding that the two interns were employees. Judge Riethmuller confirmed that vocational placements were excluded from key provisions in the FW Act. However, Judge Riethmuller determined that the internships were not vocational placements and described Crocmedia’s actions as “exploitative”, imposing a penalty of $24,000 on Crocmedia. As a final consideration, it is important to note that even lawful unpaid working arrangements require compliance with basic workplace laws, including work health and safety, sexual harassment, child protection and, in some instances, workers’ compensation. Athena Koelmeyer is the principal and director of Workplace Law, a specialist law firm focused on providing advice to employers in all aspects of employment law, industrial relations and work health safety.

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APAC H

What are the key strategic issues facing the HR profession in 2015? FIND OUT IN THE AUGUST ISSUE www.hcamag.com

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29/06/2015 AMPM 2/07/201510:19:40 3:31:02

TECHNOLOGY

WEARABLES

Finger on the pulse: What you need to know about wearables 2015 has been branded the year of ‘the wearable’, but sceptics are doubtful. While wearables have taken off in the personal lives of consumers, their use in the workplace has remained harder to crack. Could this be about to change? Chloe Taylor reports WEARABLE TECHNOLOGY has been a hot topic in recent years, with leading tech companies designing products that have become ingrained in daily life. Just last month, Apple released its long-awaited smartwatch, while Google Glass – the tech giant’s wearable computer system – became commercially available in 2013. But what happens when these devices cross into the world of work? Late last year, Kronos conducted a survey which found that three-quarters of employees could see at least one benefit to using wearable technology at work. Researchers also found that 43% of their Australian respondents had used a wearable device for work-related activities.

Why wearables? Researchers at Kronos found that wearable

technology use was becoming more prominent at work, particularly in countries that have embraced personal use. Eighty-two per cent of adults in India and Mexico, and 81% in China, said they had worn technologies such as headsets, smart badges, and barcode scanners for work-related activities. In Australia, less than half of respondents said the same, but 69% agreed that wearables could benefit the workplace. Could Australian workplaces follow the lead of India and Mexico? The consensus is yes, with some caveats. “As it stands, if the data that comes from wearable devices is accessible to employers or to the health insurance provider that a company has subcontracted, they can tell when a member of staff is unwell or stressed and take action,” Emmanuel Tsekleves,

senior lecturer in design interactions at Lancaster University, tells HRD. “Wearables could be – and are – used as an incentive to encourage non-active employees to engage in more physical activity.” He refers to a growing trend at companies such as BP, which purchased a number of wearables and provided them to employees on the basis that the company could access the data. “They use this data to measure how active employees have been – measuring the steps they take each day to lower or increase health insurance premiums.” Deane Hornsby, Kronos Australia’s marketing director, argues that while many people are under the impression that wearables are a fashion statement, they are really more about function – although,

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like Tsekleves, he suggests this is currently limited when applied to the workplace. “Devices such as smartwatches and ID badges, which are being introduced to monitor fitness and health, are starting to collect uncharted data to improve aspects of work such as safety collaboration,” he explains.

WHICH DEVICES WILL WIN AT WORK? According to Kronos’ survey, the top three wearable devices globally that workers claim would be useful in their current workplace position are smart headphones, smartwatches, and arm or wrist computing devices. A third of Australian participants cited smartwatches as their ideal wearable device for work.

“Human beings are very, very creative,” Tsekleves says. “Already we are seeing people who have found loopholes in the system to trick the technology into thinking they’ve been active when they haven’t” Emmanuel Tsekleves “There is a movement towards an ability to look at a device while trying to save lives,” he tells HRD. “Designers are attempting to assist professionals like firefighters to do their jobs without unnecessary risks such as burns or attempting to see through smoke and fire.”

Putting wearables to work

The end of the sickie?

According to Hornsby, different individuals and types of workplace environment will get different benefits from using wearable technology. “The benefits of using these devices varies between organisations and industries,” he says. “Going forward, there will likely be a lot more urgency and service involved.” He gives the example of the retail industry, which could benefit from using wearable devices to track the hours worked by contracted employees. This, he argues, is where wearables can have a “huge impact” by providing measurable data on business activity that relates back to performance. In the healthcare industry, Hornsby says, wearables could benefit workers who are dealing with patients on a daily basis. Equipping the health worker with an input device that they can keep on their person can provide them with specifically timed reminders to clean their hands or take a patient’s measurements. The emergency services might also one day benefit from using wearables, Hornsby speculates.

According to Tsekleves, wearables could also be a new frontier in efforts to reduce ‘sickies’. “The technology could certainly help towards [cutting sickies],” he suggests. “Employers could request that workers present data from their devices to prove that they haven’t been feeling well.” Unfortunately, it is not as straightforward as collecting and assessing statistics, he adds. “Human beings are very, very creative,” Tsekleves says. “Already we are seeing people who have found loopholes in the system to trick the technology into thinking they’ve been active when they haven’t.” But he speculates that people might “think twice about pulling a sickie” if they were aware that technology was monitoring their activity.

Could wearables at work become mandatory? Could wearable technology become a mandatory requirement at work? According to Tsekleves, this depends on how popular the devices become in the future.

“For very big companies where health insurance is highly expensive it may be something they request their employees take up,” he suggests. However, Tsekleves says there have been many hypotheses that 2015 will be the year of the wearable – and that “the same was said about 2014, but it wasn’t”. “It depends on the organisation,” Hornsby says. “There may be a point, for example, where certain sectors enforce wearables as a method of providing employees with access to classified information – such as passwords and pin codes – without compromising security.”

Privacy concerns The implementation of wearable technology isn’t as simple as handing devices to employees and expecting them to be used without question. “The main issue stems from the privacy and ethics of having your health data being shared with a third party,” Tsekleves says. “It’s likely that many employees will feel they’re being put into a Big Brother scenario if their health is being monitored. “Another common concern is around security,” he adds. “What happens if the data is hacked?” Tsekleves notes the 2013 case that saw Sony fined US$396,100 when hackers leaked its gaming users’ private data. According to Bryony Binns, partner at Baker & McKenzie, employers’ monitoring of the use of wearable devices in the workplace

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TECHNOLOGY

WEARABLES must comply with multiple legislative regimes. For employers in NSW and ACT, there are specific workplace surveillance laws that extend to computer and tracking device surveillance. “The legislation does not prohibit surveillance,” Binns says. “Practically, it requires employers to be overt, not covert, in the way they collect and use data for the most part – although there is an ability to seek orders for covert surveillance. This involves the use of signage where applicable, as well as ensuring that employees are aware of how and why the data is being collected.” Employee records used in the context of current or former employment agreements are not subject to the usual federal privacy protections that personal data would be outside the employment relationship, Binns explains. “Employer data collection and usage in relation to employee records are currently subject to an exception under the Privacy Act 1988,” she tells HRD. “However, the exception is limited, and only applies to employee records obtained and used in the context of a current or former employment relationship.” For example, if the employer is providing data to a company contracted to provide payroll or insurance, it would be considered as occurring within the context of the employment

relationship. Otherwise, an employer can collect personal data – such as the personal information stored on an employee’s device – with consent. This can potentially be obtained through policies covering the use of employer systems or devices for purposes not related to work. “If data is passed on purely for commercial purposes, then that wouldn’t be lawful – unless there’s been notification prior to the data being collected that this will be done,” Binns adds. “It’s a fine balance between employee privacy and the protection of the employer’s interest, but increasingly the jobs being done remotely are information-based – and that information is the core property of the employer.”

New opportunity, new risks “With every new technology and advancement there are also risks,” Hornsby says. “For those who are serious about implementing wearable type technologies, it’s vital to take stock of why they’re doing it and how this will affect employees as well as customers.” Hornsby emphasises that the devices should be regarded as functional items as opposed to fashion accessories. “In any event, it’s best practice to have a policy around work equipment,” Binns explains. “Ensure that you’re being upfront about what you intend to do with the devices,

as well as providing clarity on what employees can and cannot do with them.” Another element to include in the policy, Binns says, is a clause that makes it understood that the data collected by the device could disappear. “It’s common now for people to bring their own devices to work,” she tells HRD. “Employers are increasingly agreeable to BYO devices, but they do need to think about what happens if those devices are lost or stolen. It is increasingly common for employers to retain the ability to wipe lost or stolen BYO devices remotely – so staff being allowed to use their own devices understand that their data may be erased at the company’s discretion.” Binns adds that organisations should consider whether wearable or other easily concealed devices with recording or photography capabilities should be allowed near sensitive proprietary information, or otherwise in sensitive commercial meetings. In industries involved in technological development and where intellectual property is very important, she says visitors will often be expected to hand in their phones or other smart devices such as wearables. “When you’re starting to think through [implementing wearables], my advice is that the same sort of business risks need to be mitigated in terms of compliance, security,

WEARABLE DEVICES IN THE WORKPLACE: A HISTORY

1982 – Polar heart rate monitors This wireless device brought scientific measurements out of laboratories and onto athletic fields.

1965 – Telemetry systems These devices were designed to allow remote observers at NASA to assess how an astronaut’s respiration, blood pressure, and other physiological functions affected their ability to perform various tasks. These eventually led to applications in healthcare and business.

1991 – Vuman 1 Designed for viewing blueprints, this early smart headgear came with a display that helped architects and contractors work more efficiently.

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regulations, such as OHS, and your own business policies,” she adds. “It makes sense that businesses that have existing policies in place regarding mobile technology should expand upon these to include wearable technology – it’s just a matter of updating.” Binns highlights a further concern: “Another angle that employers need to think about is how employees might use these devices covertly. One of the things that seems to happen quite often these days is conversations being recorded on devices during disciplinary processes.” She advises that it could be much easier for employees to engage in this clandestine activity using wearable devices such as the Apple Watch. “Generally speaking, an individual is prohibited from recording or publishing a conversation that’s private, unless they have consent to do so under state and territory surveillance legislation, although there are some nuances from state to state. In some cases, violating the prohibitions can be a criminal act.” However, there are some exceptions. For example, if someone is protecting their lawful interest, then they may fall within a relevant carveout, depending upon the jurisdiction.

quickly, the extent of what these devices will measure in the future is unpredictable. “At the moment, a lot of wearables use GPS systems, but there’s a few more now which have sensors that can measure how stressed you are,” Tsekleves tells HRD. One sensor that particularly concerns Tsekleves is the ability of devices to monitor blood glucose levels. “This is potentially the most alarming of all sensors, in fact,” he says. “You could say it’s the ‘holy grail’ for the health insurance industry. People can tell what you’ve eaten and if you have a healthy diet, and can penalise your health premiums because of your dietary routines. “On the other side of the coin, for people suffering with chronic diseases such as diabetes these sensors could be useful – even lifechanging. For monitoring health, it would be better for personal use rather than for use in the workplace.” Tsekleves suggests that by putting people into an overanalytical frame of mind in regard to their lifestyle, companies could be producing the opposite effect and damaging their employees’ health.

Implementation advice The future of wearables Because wearable technology advances very

“The biggest question for me is how [wearables can] encourage non-active employees to

1994 – Wrist computer This allowed repair technicians and other mobile workers to enter and analyse data on-site. Components included a simplified keyboard and a display screen. One was worn on each arm. 1994 – Forget-me-not Developed at Xerox Research, this registered movement and interactions to help employees understand where and how they were spending their time.

KEY TAKEAWAYS Tsekleves has the following tips for employers looking to implement wearable technology into their workplace: 1. Conduct a small pilot test on yourself. Invest in a wearable device and try it out; perhaps enlist your family to test the device for a couple of weeks. This will give you an idea of what it’s like to add the technology into your life. 2. Involve representatives of your workforce in the design of the scheme. Employees should have a say; this will result in a much higher uptake within the company. Ensure that the system is created with the employees rather than for the employees. become physically active,” Tsekleves says. He adds that companies might have more success by testing wearables with younger employees, who are more likely to show an interest in new technology and are generally more physically active – meaning that they are less likely to find the devices daunting. “[Designers] have made wearables more of a fashionable accessory,” Tsekleves says. “I think this is what companies should make use of, as employees are more likely to buy into a popular trend.”

2009 – Mindset EEG The first commercial EEG monitor, this device enabled knowledge workers to identify patterns of brainwaves associated with creativity.

2006 – Nike+ A predecessor to Fitbit and Jawbone, Nike+ uses a small shoe-mounted accelerometer to record pace and distance.

2009 – Hitachi Business Microscope This gauges movement so that workers can identify when they’re most focused.

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PEOPLE

IN PERSON

Ambrosia Humphrey Founded in 2008, the social media platform Hootsuite has grown rapidly, boasting more than 800 employees worldwide. The companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s VP of talent talks to Hannah Norton about the HR challenges associated with a company undergoing hypergrowth

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HRD: What’s the number one peoplerelated challenge for Hootsuite in 2015, and how are you navigating that challenge? Ambrosia Humphrey: I would say our number one challenge on the people front definitely comes from the hypergrowth that we are seeing. We are doubling our revenue. We are now in 12 different countries, and so making sure that we are scaling our people side of the business along with the revenue trajectory, and hiring top talent in all of our regions – just like everybody else – I would say are the things that are top challenges. HRD: To what extent is employee retention a problem at Hootsuite? AH: We actually trend at under 5% turnover as an organisation globally. We credit that with a) a lot of hard work, and b) really building a partnership with our employees. Social media as an industry is defining and maturing, and our organisation is hypergrowing, so that creates a high ask on our employees to be able to cope with change and hypergrowth, and a lot of the challenges that come with that. And on the other side, we feel that it’s our responsibility to provide stability where we can, so we offer open, honest and transparent communication and an idea of what our vision is. We’ve created a cultural manifesto that was partnered with former employees and social resources to put in some anchors and some guardrails around ‘this is who we are, and this is how we get things done’. We make sure that as we are scaling and all this change is happening, we are providing frameworks for people to be able to hang on and know that the organisation is a partner to them, not just an employer. HRD: What does Hootsuite do around leadership development in your workforce? AH: We’re just scratching the surface of leadership development. Our organisation is

“Our number one challenge on the people front definitely comes from the hypergrowth that we are seeing” six years old, so we are at that point where we really need to look at career progression of our leadership team and our emerging leaders as well. We’ve adopted programs like Workday, which bring real-time performance management and real-time training resources into the business so that we are able to mobilise our team and give them different resources that they can utilise ... or they can incorporate into their own practices. We also use gamification for recognition. We feel strongly that, as leaders, the larger your team gets, the harder it is to feel connected and know what’s going on. We’ve put in various 360 feedback surveys and pulse checks to make sure our leaders have the resources and insights required to lead their people more effectively.

HRD: Are there any particular skill sets that you focus on in hiring and managing your employees? AH: We see social media as a core competency, rather than just an additional competency. Much like Microsoft was able to make Excel a competency, where everybody around the world had to have it on their résumé, we really believe that in five years’ time social media is going to be like that. So that’s something we screen for. It doesn’t have to mean that they are a social media ninja, but just aligned in the idea of thinking of it as a competency, and something they want to learn about and grow with us on. The second one is really highly aligned to our value structure – on being entrepreneurial, demonstrating humility, and having a really high drive for change and innovation. We are constantly vetting on the competencies around

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PEOPLE

IN PERSON AMBROSIA HUMPHREY’S CAREER TIMELINE Qualifications 2000–2005 Bachelor’s degree, Simon Fraser University 2009–2011 Human resources certificate, British Columbia Institute of Technology

2007–2010 Operations manager, Slant Six Games

2005–2007 Teacher, various locations

2007 Program coordination manager, Global Training Consulting

2010–2011 Support operations manager, Aritzia 2011–2012 Director of operations, Hootsuite 2012–2013 Director of human resources, Hootsuite

2013–present VP of talent, Hootsuite

Hootsuite has more than 800 employees based in Vancouver, San Francisco, London, Singapore, New York, Hong Kong, Sydney and other global locations. Pictured here are offices from their global network

the job, such as the social acumen, and also the values around entrepreneurialism, innovation and passion. Finally, the ability to adapt to change – because in our world the landscape is changing very heavily around us, as it is for everyone in the world. So that ability to move and adapt is something we see as a huge advantage for our workforce. HRD: What do you think is the single biggest issue in the HR space this year? AH: I think there are a lot of challenges that the HR global profession is confronting and coming up with some unique solutions on. One of the challenges is finding the competencies associated with the technology sector – specifically, finding that top talent with those competencies everybody is looking for. On the recruitment side of things, we are

seeing a lot of solutions around branding and a lot of HR software coming into play to help people find talent. In terms of infrastructure, I think one of the big challenges that people are facing comes around the technology in the workplace, and how to adopt that and create infrastructure for that. So, thinking of things like the use of mobile devices in the workplace and how to incorporate that into business, the use of social media and how to bring that into business, and drawing on those different technologies to help provide people solutions. The third one I would say is really learning how to engage and retain the workforce – finding a way to reach your people and making sure they are aligned with your organisation and are going to stay with it.

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PEOPLE

HEAD TO HEAD

GOT AN OPINION THAT COUNTS? Email hrd_editor@keymedia.com.au

Views from the front line

Is HR too focused on data and analytics right now, at the expense of other endeavours?

Dean Sappey HR director Frucor Beverages Australia It’s important to recognise that analytics is front and centre in everything our organisations do, and we can no longer look at it as a ‘nice to do’ in HR. Analytics should be embedded in every people initiative, whether that’s for a proposed project or programs we have alive now. Good analytics allow us to measure our effectiveness, and as HR professionals we need to be confident that we not only develop the right analytical tools but that we are comfortable with what they will tell us. It’s vital that investment in HRIS continues despite the competing priorities in our organisations. The benefits of great analytics can help build a compelling case, and we need to continue advocating with our leadership teams with a strong vision for people metrics and reporting.

Alec Bashinsky National leader, people & performance Deloitte At long last, companies are starting to use data and analytics to better understand their greatest asset: their people. Talent analytics in my view is the foundation of high-impact HR that many organisations struggle to deliver. The increasing availability of data is magnifying the expectations executives have of their HR leaders. Executives are asking questions such as ‘How can we better mobilise our contingent workers where they are needed?’; ‘What is the likely impact on retirements if we change our benefits structure?’; ‘Is the new online safety program reducing work-related injuries and illnesses involving time away from work?’ These and other questions require solid answers from the HR function. If business leaders are data-driven and HR’s data has some credibility, these efforts are made easier.

Amanda Towe Director of human resources Johnson & Johnson No, I think this is a gap in HR and is a capability area needing real investment. Of course, I’m not a fan of ‘analysis paralysis’, and this is a trap to avoid. But too many of us have grown up in HR teams where data-driven decision-making has been absent, and I think we lost credibility as a result. Being able to speak the language of business leaders and measure our people strategies with real and meaningful data is critical. Setting tangible targets and then going after them with passion drives accountability, excitement and a real ‘performance edge’ to our function. With our more contemporary HRIS platforms, the ‘stitching together’ of different data will hopefully become easier. In my own HR team, we’ve recently committed a dedicated resource to HR analytics with a mission to uncover the big-impact insights to inform our HR strategies.

HR BIG DATA AND ANALYTICS In the attempt to fulfil the executive’s thirst for ‘cleverness and metrics’, have senior HR practitioners lost sight of what made them HR in the first place? Research indicates not – there is still a long journey ahead for most HR professionals in their quest to become valued business partners. Indeed, research by DDI indicates that only 18% of the HR function surveyed saw themselves as ‘anticipators’ – using data to predict talent gaps in advance and provide insight about how talent relates to business goals.

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