HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTOR HCAMAG.COM ISSUE 13.10
MISSION: POSSIBLE How Vodafone came back from the brink
POSTGRADUATE STUDY To support or not to support?
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THIS TIME IT’S PERSONAL Your liability under the FWA
HAVE YOU GOT WHAT IT TAKES? The rise of the engaging leader
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EDITORIAL www.hcamag.com OCTOBER 2015 EDITORIAL
SALES & MARKETING
Editor Iain Hopkins
Marketing & Communications Manager Lisa Narroway
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ART & PRODUCTION
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CORPORATE
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Less talk, more action required I’VE NOW SPOKEN to countless HR directors within prominent organisations who keep circling back to one key challenge – and in 2015 it’s both surprising and shameful that this should be an agenda item: gender inequality. Michelle Ridsdale, profiled in this issue, suggests the root cause of gender inequality in the IT sector is multifaceted and has no easy solution. Fundamentally, in this industry sector at least, there are simply not enough women studying what they need to study to gain entry. This is not just at university level but earlier, at primary and high school. Young girls are still simply not expected to enter such a profession, and are led towards humanities subjects. Indeed, she notes it’s a much bigger issue than one organisation can hope to change – any solution will require input from the government and the broader community. A second HRD, this time from the manufacturing industry, surprisingly suggested that, somewhat to her chagrin, the oft-maligned notion of gender quotas was actually working in her organisation’s global operations. While she is a staunch advocate of women being
Prescriptive measures like quotas do have one possible benefit: they are not forever hired, promoted and developed based on merit alone, she did concede that prescriptive measures like quotas have one possible benefit: they are not forever. Indeed, she noted that once critical mass is reached – in other words, once the number of women in senior roles is reached – it will become self-sustainable. There will be no going backwards. She also suggested, correctly, that HR plays a critical role in making this happen, whether that’s through encouraging and ‘normalising’ flexible work practices, or acting as mentors for others in the organisation. With women making up a fair percentage of the HR workforce, this seems possible. “If not us, then who?” she asked. “Bit by bit, we’ll get there.” Let’s hope there’s less talk and more action in the immediate future.
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Iain Hopkins, editor
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OCTOBER 2015
CONNECT WITH US Got a story, suggestion or just want to find out some more information?
CONTENTS 20
HRDirector_au +Hcamag HumanResourcesDirector
UPFRONT 01 Editorial
Why is gender inequality still an agenda item in 2015?
04 The data
In an era of global workers, where does Australia rank and what do employees gain from international assignments? FEATURES
THE ENGAGING LEADER
COVER STORY
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What if you could accurately identify the leaders who create the most engagement in your organisation?
26
PEOPLE
MICHELLE RISDALE
HRD chats to Readify’s people director about boosting female participation in her industry
54
FEATURES
EXPERIENCE OR EXPLOITATION? Interns have long been a staple of the workforce – but are you unknowingly exploiting these workers? Chloe Taylor asks the experts
42
PEOPLE 56 Head to head
What innovative benefits or rewards programs are employers implementing to boost engagement and loyalty?
14 Postgraduate study: To support or not to support?
Hopefully your employees have weighed the pros and cons of further study – but have you? Here are some considerations to ponder, including the burning question: should you fund study or not?
30 Designing the employee experience
Good, bad or indifferent, Brett Minchington and Lisa G Morris outline how, with employer branding, experience is everything
FEATURES
THE TIME HAS COME
Employers can’t wait any longer to utilise workforce analytics. HRD provides a comprehensive guide
2
HR professionals should be aware of increasing instances of personal prosecution under the Fair Work Act
FEATURES
MISSION: POSSIBLE
Vodafone has been through a traumatic six years. Iain Hopkins talks to Michael Stanley, one HRD who has seen it all
06 News analysis
HCAMAG.COM CHECK IT OUT ONLINE
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THE DATA
OCTOBER 2015
A GLOBAL WORKFORCE
International assignments can be a valuable retention tool, but just how mobile is the 2015 workforce? DESPITE BEING an increasingly expensive location to live in (see map at right), Australia remains a magnet for foreign talent, especially in marketing, finance and IT. According to the 2014 HSBC Expat Explorer Survey, Australia ranks 12th for expat experiences globally. It finished particularly strongly in categories such as ‘better quality of life for children’ (3rd), ‘organising healthcare’ and ‘organising finances’ (2nd) and ‘ease of adapting to local work culture’ (1st). Less enticing was the ‘economics’ category,
74%
of companies require a clear statement of assignment objectives before funding an international assignment
85%
of companies with a short-term assignment policy cover daily living expenses
TOP 5 REASONS FOR TAKING AN INTERNATIONAL ASSIGNMENT International assignments can present great career opportunities for employees, and can fill skills and competency gaps for employers. Here are the top five reasons for taking such an assignment:
which ranked Australia 9th in terms of household income, 20th for personal disposable income and 13th for satisfaction with the host economy. Mercer reports salary movements have remained stable since 2013/14 and into 2014/15, sitting at around 3.5%. This means Australia is increasingly reliant on its reputation as a ‘lifestyle’ destination. Here’s a snapshot of trends for the global workforce, based on surveys by Brookfield Global Relocation Services, Ernst & Young and PwC.
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Building international management expertise/career development Launching new endeavours Technology transfer
4
the average expat assignment costs up to four times more than what a local employee would cost
Just as foreign exchange costs create headwinds for many multinational organisations, currency fluctuations – driven by economic and political unrest – are contributing to the cost of expatriate packages for those on the front line of globalisation in their organisations. Mercer’s 2015 Cost of Living Survey finds that factors including instability of housing markets and inflation for goods and services impacts significantly on the overall cost of doing business in a global environment.
While each employer has its own criteria for selecting international assignees, the vast majority view this as a way to reward – and hopefully retain – high-potential employees. Top criteria for selecting international assignees high-potential employees previously expressed a willingness to go on international assignments had rare skills had a previous international assignment had a cultural ability or skills
0
Filling a managerial skills gap Filling a technical skills gap
1.5–4.0 x
the number of host locations per organisation predicted by 2020 (a 50% increase from 1998)
TOP 10 MOST EXPENSIVE GLOBAL CITIES
20
40
60
80
100
40
60
80
100
Key candidate competencies assessed during selection flexibility/adaptability technical skills leadership skills cross-cultural communication family suitability
0
20
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TOP 10 1 Luanda, Angola 2 Hong Kong 3 Zurich, Switzerland 4 Singapore 5 Geneva, Switzerland 6 Shanghai 7 Beijing 8 Seoul 9 Bern, Switzerland 10 N’Djamena, Chad
12
3 59
207
203
16
7 8 6
204
205
2
10
4
Sydney New York City 12 London 47 Melbourne 48 Perth 31
16
1
206 48
31
47
The least expensive global cities – bottom 5 203 Skopje, Macedonia 204 Tunis, Tunisia 205 Karachi, Pakistan 206 Windhoek, Namibia 207 Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
HOW LONG IS THE AVERAGE ASSIGNMENT?
ROI
Just as important as the assignment is the return home. KPMG reports there has been an increase in the number of organisations implementing re-entry strategies for returning employees, with internal career planning/job placement strategies towards the end of the assignment being the most popular options.
Just 14% of companies formally measure ROI. The main reasons for not conducting ROI analysis include not knowing how to achieve it (48%) and ‘no time’ (15%). Sixty-seven per cent of companies defined ROI as “accomplishing assignment objectives at the expected cost”.
50 40 30 20 10 0
6 months to 1 year
1 to 2 years
2 to 3 years
3 to 4 years
4 to 5 years
More than 5 years Sources: Brookfield Global Relocation Trends, 2013; KPMG, Global Assignment Policies & Practices Survey, 2013; Talent Mobility 2020, PricewaterhouseCoopers
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UPFRONT
NEWS ANALYSIS
THIS TIME IT’S PERSONAL HR professionals should be aware of increasing instances of personal prosecution under the Fair Work Act “IS THIS RIGHT…? Should I be doing this?” HR professionals and others may have had this thought cross their minds while implementing employer decisions and policies or managing grievances and disputes with employees. But after all, you’re only doing your job or carrying out orders. And in any case, the employer will be the only one on the hook for any liability arising from the matter … or will it? A case that went before the Federal Circuit Court in June presents a timely warning to HR professionals: you can be held personally liable, and have penalties imposed upon you, under the Fair Work Act 2009 (FWA). In this case, a breach of the National Employment Standards (NES) during a process of dismissal landed the HR manager in trouble. The manager, employed by ACI Operations, gave an employee one month’s notice of termination as opposed to the five weeks he was entitled to. It was found that the HR manager in question was “involved” in the company’s breach of the NES. “The HR manager failed to provide notice in accordance with the NES,” says Deivina Peethamparam, director at People + Culture Strategies. “The employee was entitled to five weeks’ notice, and the HR manager effectively gave four weeks’ notice.” Peethamparam adds that the way the decision stands at the moment, the HR manager has been found to have contravened
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provisions of the FWA in relation to paying notice under the NES. The decision over whether a penalty will be imposed upon the HR manager will be determined at a later hearing. “It’s quite a simple mistake – effectively all the court found was that the notice was a couple of days short,” Peethamparam says. “This is a really timely reminder that HR managers carry great responsibility in their
Ignorance no excuse ‘I was just doing my job’ has never been a satisfactory excuse for HR professionals to use, notes Mark Diserio, partner in the Lander & Rogers workplace relations and safety team. “Ignorance of the law or claiming that you were just following orders is not – and never has been – a defence under the FWA,” he tells HRD. “If you’re being directed to do something that you have concerns about or know is not right and you let it go, you’re putting yourself at risk. Anyone who finds themselves in this situation should not just voice their concerns but ensure that they put them in writing to the person responsible for the direction, showing that they disagree.”
Accessorial liability under the FWA The FWA requires that an employer must not contravene a provision of the NES; a term of a modern award; a term of an enterprise agreement; an adverse action or discrimination provision; an unfair dismissal compensation
“Ignorance of the law or claiming that you were just following orders is not – and never has been – a defence under the FWA” Mark Diserio roles to comply with the law – and courts are sending a clear message that if you fail to meet those responsibilities, you could face personal prosecution.” According to Peethamparam, the Fair Work Ombudsman sees personal prosecution as an important operation of the FWA, with a “number of cases” having a similar outcome. HR professionals have, for example, also been found to be involved in contraventions by employers in failing to provide a Fair Work Information Statement in accordance with the NES. “Given how high-profile this case is, it might show that courts and regulators are becoming more active in this space,” Peethamparam speculates.
order; or breach other provisions, such as by failing to provide a payslip. The FWA defines these kinds of provisions as a “civil remedy” provisions. For each civil remedy provision, employees, organisations, inspectors and other specified people can bring a proceeding in court in relation to a contravention. Under the FWA, “a person who is involved in a contravention of a civil remedy provision is taken to have contravened that provision” (see s.550(1)). A person is involved in a contravention of a civil remedy provision if, and only if, the person: • has aided, abetted, counselled or procured the contravention; or • has induced the contravention, whether
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PREVENTATIVE ACTION Clearly, prevention is always going to be better than the cure. “If there’s a problem, best it be discovered by you rather than being brought to light by a union or regulator,” Deserio says. Minimising the risk of such proceedings can involve a number of obvious and not so obvious actions, such as: • knowing and meeting your FWA obligations (remembering ignorance of the law is not a defence) • performing regular workplace audits (‘health checks’) in your business to ensure minimum legislative and award/agreement obligations are being met, and requiring contractors to undertake the same in their businesses • seeking appropriate professional advice if in doubt • ensuring that relevant company employees have appropriate training in the inherent FWA risks and how to deal with them • including appropriate provisions in agreements with contractors • raising issues in writing with managers and supervisors • considering appropriate insurance by threats or promises or otherwise; or • has been in any way, by act or omission, directly or indirectly, knowingly concerned in or party to the contravention; or • has conspired with others to effect the contravention (see s.550(2)). These are commonly known as the “accessorial liability” provisions of the FWA. “Maximum fines for breaches after 31 July 2015 are $54,000 for a corporation and $10,800 for an individual, as well as possible orders for compensation resulting from the breach – generally pursued when the employer is in liquidation or impecunious,” says Diserio.
Company officers HR professionals should also be aware that they may be held personally liable even if they are not company officers. “The accessorial liability provisions in the FWA are broad and can apply to anyone
who is ‘involved’ in the contravention. For HR practitioners, this means the scope for being found liable for a breach of the FWA is much wider than many people realise,” Diserio explains. According to case law, a person who has accessorial liability: • must have knowledge of the essential facts constituting the contravention; • must be knowingly concerned in it; • must be an intentional participant based on actual not constructive knowledge of the essential facts although constructive knowledge will occur in cases of “wilful blindness” but not “honest ignorance”; and • need not know that the matters in question constituted a contravention. It might be commonly thought that because such accessorial liability provisions also exist in the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), then somehow the FWA provisions are also
restricted to officers of a corporation, but this is not the case. “A person doesn’t have to be a company officer or have any managerial responsibility to be liable,” Diserio says. The FWA accessorial liability provisions are also likely to apply to company employees apart from HR practitioners. Procurement personnel and operational personnel, who may be directly involved in the outsourcing or procuring of work through other contractors, may also be at risk. Line and senior managers may also be at risk in actions taken or decisions made that lead to adverse action proceedings. Peethamparam advises HR managers to keep up to date with employment law and seek advice when necessary. “You might have ticked all of the boxes, but running your actions by your legal counsel can give you peace of mind. No one intends on breaching the law, but courts expect HR to comply with legislation.”
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EXPERT INSIGHT
WORKPLACE RELATIONS
Brought to you by
SETTING THE BAR FOR ‘ACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOUR’ Lisa Burrell outlines why it’s so essential to set performance expectations within the employment relationship – before minor issues become major issues MOST HR practitioners will attest to some variation of “people don’t leave jobs, they leave managers”. From studies outlining the impact of poorly behaving or performing colleagues, through to job satisfaction factors, a lack of management action when required is a consistent theme that can significantly impact on employee engagement. HR practitioners understand the importance of resolving formal complaints to mitigate risks, and often these complaints take centre stage. Time pressures and conflicting demands facing most people managers and HR practitioners mean that sometimes informal complaints are not given the same level of attention, and the question that we find most often arises is how to best approach the ‘low-level’ behaviours that are not deemed significant in and of themselves? These usually relate to a pattern of poor behaviour or performance that over time will have a significant impact on the working environment and productivity of the team. These can – over time – create a new set of accepted behaviours within an organisation. The first step to address these ‘low-level’ behaviours is having a shared understanding of what will and will not be accepted. Behaviours we consistently see displayed by employers of choice are: • Expectations come from the top: Senior management live and breathe the values
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of the organisation and lead by example • Clear policies and procedures: Both people leaders and employees know what is expected of them, as well as what is expected of their managers and peers – and what to do, or where to go, if there are issues • Training: People leaders are equipped with the confidence to have difficult conversations • On-the-spot management: People are ‘pulled up’ at the time of issues. This doesn’t need to be every issue, every time, but patterns of behaviour must be raised and managed in real time • Self-management is expected and endorsed: Employees also have the confidence and imprimatur to address issues directly, and expect the same of their colleagues HR can play a significant role in shaping these behaviours and outcomes. While in an ideal world these elements will be driven throughout an organisation, it can be equally applicable to teams or divisions – where we have seen HR provide tangible benefits – at a localised level. The key factors for HR are: • Ensuring a clear framework is in place through policy, procedures and training – while the aim with low-level issues should always be to remediate rather than terminate, procedural adherence in managing discipline and terminations appears to be an ongoing
stumbling block for employers • Actively testing decisions and management plans for consistency of application – playing devil’s advocate, testing for bias, and delivering the ‘objective’ viewpoint can be an invaluable resource for a manager who may be frustrated or worn down • Supporting managers to have difficult or courageous conversations, including working through complaints that can arise from these, and dealing with them effectively Although time pressures often make it difficult to address some of the ‘low-level’ behaviours that seem insignificant in isolation, lack of management action when addressing these issues can lead to a compounding negative impact on employee engagement. Given the potential impacts, addressing issues early on should be a priority, and once equipped with the right tools your people leaders will have the confidence to have difficult conversations. For more information, contact VECCI at: vecci.org.au Lisa Burrell is general manager of the Victorian Employers’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VECCI). VECCI is Victoria’s most influential employer group, servicing over 15,000 Victorian businesses per annum. An independent, non-government body, VECCI was founded in 1851 by the business community to represent business.
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COVER STORY
MICHAEL STANLEY
MISSION: POSSIBLE Any HR professional will tell you a merger can be a recipe for disaster. However, it’s unlikely those same HR professionals have gone through anything quite so traumatic as Vodafone’s last six years. Iain Hopkins talks to one HRD who’s seen it all
THERE’S AN undeniable brightness to Vodafone’s Australian headquarters, located on the seventh floor of the award-winning Coca-Cola Place in North Sydney. Not only is the company’s eye-catching branding everywhere, but there is also genuine good feeling. The receptionist smiles and laughs with passers-by; team members huddle together in conversation, but all with smiles on their faces. For a company that has been through thick, thin, thinner, and recently back to thicker, it’s something of a surprise. Michael Stanley, HR director at Vodafone Australia, is not surprised; he’s delighted. A veteran of the company, his infectious enthusiasm is written across his face. His 10 years at Vodafone have taken him from Australia to New Zealand (where he was the HRD for five years), to the UK (where he was the global HR director for Vodafone’s international commercial business for just under two years), and finally back to Australia for the last 18 months. “I feel like I’ve lived the Vodafone dream,” says Stanley. “I’ve had fantastic experiences both personally and professionally, which is part of what I love about Vodafone being a big global organisation.” That’s not to say it’s all been smooth sailing…
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Change starts – and keeps going Since 2009, the company has been on a remarkable change journey. It started nicely enough: a merger between Hutchison 3 (the Hong Kong-based mobile industry disruptor) and Vodafone Australia. It was hailed as a move that would help cover Vodafone’s bases before the impending smartphone revolution. “The two organisations came together for
“Mergers are complex and difficult, and like any relationship you need to learn about each other; you need to learn how to trust and respect each other, and there’s always a sense of discovery in that process of coming together.” Following the merger, the company rebranded as Vodafone Hutchison Australia. Today, the Australian operations are owned 50/50 by Vodafone Group and Hutchison
“For any merger to be successful you need to create something new. If you’re going to be the same, you wouldn’t have merged in the first place” the simple reason of creating greater value for customers – so to win market share and to provide an alternative to Australian mobile consumers. It’s easy to understand why the companies would come together both commercially and from a customer perspective,” says Stanley. HR was, naturally, heavily involved in the planning pre-merger. There were detailed, well-developed, well-thought-out plans for the merger on both sides.
Group, “two of the largest telco providers in the world”, says Stanley. “It’s a very interesting situation to be in.” So far, so standard for most mergers. However, what happened next Stanley says he “would not wish on anyone”. In short, the freshly minted company suffered from a devastating network crisis. While Optus and Telstra had anticipated the smartphone revolution sweeping all before it and had been preparing for the surge in data
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COVER STORY
MICHAEL STANLEY that transformation process, and the results were already encouraging. Our network is truly world class and performing very well. The turnaround in customer experience and the feedback that we’re currently receiving from customers is again a source of great pride. The value in our products and services and our determination to drive value into the Australian market is excellent. We’re growing customer numbers and growing revenues, which is telling us we’ve been successful against that particular endeavour. From a company perspective we’re back,” Stanley says proudly. From the people perspective it’s also an exciting time. The actions taken when a company is in recovery mode compared to the
In August 2015, Vodafone network-related complaints were down 53% YOY following a $3bn investment in customer support initiatives and infrastructure, including building one of the fastest 4G networks in the country. Sustained YOY revenue growth has been driven by an increasing customer base with a higher ARPU (average revenue per user). In addition, over the past 12 months the company’s retail arm has opened 50 new stores and created 280 new jobs. Gross service revenue YOY
Feb-15
Mar-15
Apr-15
May-15
Jun-15
Feb-15
Mar-15
Apr-15
May-15
Jun-15
Jan-15
Dec-14
Nov-14
Oct-14
Vodafone Hutchison Australia customers YOY
Jan-15
Dec-14
Nov-14
Oct-14
Sep-14
Aug-14
Jul-14
Jun-14
May-14
Apr-14
Mar-14
Feb-14
Jan-14
12
(5)%
Sep-14
Gross service revenue
5% 0%
Aug-14
Jul-14
Jun-14
May-14
Apr-14
Mar-14
Feb-14
15% 13% 11% 9% 5% 3% 1% (1)% (3)% (5)% (7)% (9)% (11)% (13)%
Recovery begins Although Stanley was overseas during the grimmest times of the network crisis, he was aware of what was happening. In 2012, the company introduced a major program whose name says it all: the Three Year Transformation Program. The company focused on three key areas: to get the network up to world-class performance; to focus on products and services that offered a worry-free customer experience; and thirdly, to create a memorable experience for customers. “We’ve achieved fantastic results against those three. I came back to Australia during
actions taken when a company is growing – which is what’s happening today – require a fundamental shift. “It’s important for us at this point in time to recognise we need to shift people practices and mindsets to go hard at growth,” Stanley says. “With growth comes a lot of opportunity. It gives us the possibility of investing more deeply in our people, particularly developing skills and capability, which is something that has been done pretty much on the fly and in a reactive way in recent times.” Stanley and his team are planning a much deeper approach to development. “We’ll invest much more heavily in leadership moving forward, and we’ll continue on that cultural
BACK FROM THE BRINK
Jan-14
usage for several years, Vodafone had focused on the merger. When the surge of data demand hit, Vodafone’s resources were stretched; base stations could not be built or upgraded to cope with the demand. More than two million customers left the network between 2010 and 2013. Calls dropped out, data was slow, and coverage was patchy at best. ‘Vodafail’ became a common punchline to countless jokes around Australia. “That actually shaped the merger and the integration in a way that you wouldn’t wish on anybody,” Stanley says. “I also believe the crisis recovery in lots of ways shaped the integration of the two companies.” HR was again front and centre throughout the process of guiding and transforming the business. “For five years this business went through significant restructures that were really tough for all employees. We were downsizing throughout it all,” Stanley says. “When I reflect on that time, what stands out for me is the commitment, the dedication and hard work of people through what was an incredibly challenging time.” Stanley suggests this was a tribute to several things: a very strong culture; openness and transparency around everything that was happening; and a deep commitment to treating people with respect and fairness. “HR are the champions of that process, even though it’s delivered by many people. That was HR’s unique contribution throughout the transformation, and it continues today as we get our house back in order.”
(10)% (15)% (20)%
VHA customer numbers
Source: Vodafone Media and Analyst Briefing, August 2015
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transformation to harness the possibility of growth, to tune the organisation around its focus on the customer.” To cite just one initiative that is acting as a platform for the culture shift, the Upside Down Organisation is a means of empowering front-line employees to act as the voice of the customer. “It’s looking to systematically engage our call centre and retail agents, identifying the key challenges from a customer perspective and empowering our front-line agents to take an active role in understanding, analysing and coming up with recommendations on how to improve our products, services, processes, and our network.” So far the Upside Down Organisation has produced “amazing results”. “The simpler we
for all intents and purposes – the face of Vodafone. Some 40 people work in the HR team, which includes a training function and internal comms. Stanley is in the somewhat unique position of knowing Vodafone both pre- and post-merger. “Any merger has to change a company, so it is without doubt a different company today,” he says. “But what’s healthy about that is for any merger to be successful you need to create something new. If you’re going to be the same, you wouldn’t have merged in the first place. And you can’t go through that transformation experience without some pain and without people having to make adjustments.” What’s seen the company through “some pretty rough times”, he says, has been the
“We’re growing customer numbers and growing revenues … From a company perspective we’re back” can get the process for listening and actioning their feedback, the better we’ll be. I see this as what’s next for Vodafone and HR: looking at simple, cost-effective ways to empower our people to be the difference, to be the competitive advantage for the company.” On a “less sexy” but still important note, Stanley says that now the dust has settled on the merger and network crisis he will also be looking at HR systems, processes and technology. “Obviously these were not focused on or invested in – the company had other priorities,” he laughs. “We’re still working in quite a bespoke and manual way to bring things together. I’m comfortable with that. I think that was the right decision at the time. What I’m really looking forward to as we grow and harvest the momentum we currently have is investing in new systems to support productivity moving forward.”
Culture: the glue that binds Today Vodafone employs 3,000 FTEs and around 6,000 ‘partners’ who are employed by other organisations but are for customers –
employee experience. “Both Vodafone and Hutchison are very human organisations,” he says. “It’s unique to walk into an environment that is so friendly, welcoming, smart and focused on execution. What I say to people who are interested in joining us is this is a place where people really want you to be successful and really go the extra mile to ensure you get there. I haven’t worked in many other places that harness that drive towards valuing people and their contributions.” While employees are invited to be the best they can be, that comes with an expectation: this is not a place where people can come and sit and cruise. “It’s unforgiving of poor performers, but you just wouldn’t work for Vodafone if you wanted a highly predictable, safe, cruisey sort of workplace,” Stanley explains. “If you want a place that has a lot of hierarchy and administration and where status is important, there’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s not Vodafone.” Unsurprisingly, Stanley is keen to take the positives from the experience.
FROM THE FRONT LINE Michael Stanley shares his top two transformation tips: 1. Mergers are really exciting. Make a choice – be up for the challenge; be in it. There are elements that are very challenging and hard, so have a mindset that expects that and finds value in it. 2. Appreciate that there has to be flexibility for all parties to create something new. Try to make sure the culture you’re building and enabling is a culture that welcomes the new and derives energy and satisfaction out of co-creating something, as opposed to defending old ground. HR plays a unique role in setting that up for the whole organisation: you need to be on the front foot. You need to be active, to look for it anywhere and work out how to address it. Often the easiest way to address it is just to name it. It’s a simple process of being able to say, “What’s working well? Where are the gaps?”, and being brave enough to confront those gaps, not to shy away from them because they’re too hard or too messy.
“What I’ve observed through this process is that it’s been an opportunity post-merger to strip back,” he says. “We have quite a simple HR offering, but it’s very focused on what we’ve seen as the key drivers or levers for allowing the company to get through what it needed to and focus on the enablers of growth. “At every point on this journey we’ve been really clear what the priorities are, and the priorities have been the health and performance of the business, the experience and satisfaction of our customers, and the support and recognition of our people through that.” Mission accomplished.
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FEATURES
EXECUTIVE EDUCATION
POSTGRADUATE STUDY:
TO SUPPORT OR NOT TO SUPPORT?
Hopefully your employees have weighed the pros and cons of further study – but have you? Here are some considerations to ponder, including the burning question: should you fund study or not? THE BENEFITS for companies that have employees who have undertaken or are undertaking postgraduate study are well documented. Not only are these employees better qualified, but they also tend to be more rounded and motivated. And for many companies, sponsoring employees to undertake postgraduate study can also be a good retention tool, securing qualified employees for the long term. However, supporting postgraduate study is not without its challenges. There are a raft of issues that employers must consider before committing, not least of which is the decision about whether or not to fund or partly fund this study on behalf of employees.
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Operational challenges For Kevin Jameson, director of the Macquarie Applied Finance Centre in Sydney, some issues are purely operational – they are what he describes as “trivial and obvious but also important”. He warns that if these are not handled well, it can work against the intention of the employer – which is ultimately to encourage continuous learning and retain employees. “It can be very simple things we might not think about,” he says. “Consider exam time or assignment time, which can be busy and stressful for students. They’ve likely got full-time jobs; often they’ll have partners, family, those types of commitments – so study is undertaken in the evenings or on weekends. Just a bit of awareness around
those priorities can go a long way.” Jameson notes that, for him, best practice is simply providing time to study – be it annual leave or specific study leave entitlements. “There must be some preparedness to work with the student during those peak periods,” he says. “This has to be two-way, but open communication is helpful.” Jameson adds that large employers in particular might have a number of students studying simultaneously. Attempting to build some form of cohort experience can only be beneficial. “Even if they’re not studying the same program it can still be helpful,” he says. “Having a relationship with people who are going through the same stresses and strains that you are can actually help mitigate some of those strains.”
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POSTGRADUATE STUDY: FAST FACTS • About two-thirds of Australian postgraduate coursework students study part-time, many of them because they have jobs that could help them pay for their education. About 10% of domestic part-time postgraduates are sponsored by employers.* • Around 20% of bachelor’s degree graduates immediately go on to further study (either part- or full-time) and many others do so at some point later in their careers. In 2011, more than a quarter of all enrolled higher education students were studying at postgraduate level.** • The number of people aged 15–64 who have postgraduate qualifications nationwide is only 6.2%, as opposed to the 15.8% whose highest qualification is a bachelor’s degree.** • The median reported salary for all postgraduates was $79,000 ($85,000 for males and $72,000 for females).^ *Grattan Institute, University fees: what students pay in deregulated markets, 2015 **Graduate Careers Australia’s Postgraduate Destinations 2011 report ^Graduate Careers Australia’s Postgraduate Destinations 2013 report
“My impression is that those who are funded value their employer more and there is usually an improved employer-employee relationship as a result” Kevin Jameson Strategic challenges There are also strategic issues to consider. For example, most employers will agree to support study for the simple reason that they want to invest in their employees. Yet that also means they must be cognizant of ROI. “Clearly, one of the problems for employers is this question: we’ll invest a lot of money in an individual; how does this
pay off ? It’s a highly strategic question for employers to deal with,” Jameson says. Further questions include how the employer selects the participants or makes the decision to fund those individuals for further study. Secondly, at what point in their career do they do it? Jameson categorises postgraduate courses as being either “pre-experience” or “post-
experience” programs, depending on whether students undertake them immediately after completing their bachelor’s degree or after gaining some work experience. “With post-experience programs there’s much more chance that the theory will integrate with the practice,” Jameson says. “For high-quality people with high potential, funding further study is absolutely appropriate and a valuable retention strategy. My impression is that those who are funded value their employer more and there is usually an improved employer-employee relationship as a result.” He adds that if employers are funding early-career employees, the risk is that the employees might undervalue that support and “make poor decisions”. “Whereas if it’s aimed more at mid-career employees, those
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FEATURES
EXECUTIVE EDUCATION
IS IT FOR YOU? Returning to study? Great! Just be aware it’s not easy, as Christine Burton, associate professor at UTS, conveys. “It’s always hard. Everyone struggles with balancing out their lives with work and everything else. I don’t pull any punches about that when I’m talking to prospective students. It isn’t a walk in the park – it’s a huge time investment and I think sometimes people go into it underestimating that. It’s one of the things you learn as part of the hidden agenda of doing postgrad study. It’s about managing time. It’s also about delaying gratification: you can’t see your friends as much as you’d like to, and you must negotiate and consult with your family about doing a course like this. It’s not just the individual students undertaking it; it involves their whole family.”
who are more bonded to the organisation and have more of an investment in the organisation, they can actually get something out of the study that’s relevant to the workplace. Day by day it’s useful to them.”
To fund or not? The burning question, of course, is whether or not employers should be funding the study. In Jameson’s experience, there is not one model or strategy that works, but he notes the involvement of employers in funding postgraduate study has “definitely declined in the past 10 years”. “Even if I go back to 2005, employers funding employees in a fairly unencumbered way was still quite common. It’s now less common.” The reason for this decline is hardly a surprise. During the GFC, L&D was considered a discretionary expense and was therefore cut. It hasn’t come back in a serious way. “I can’t speak for every employer, but my sense is it’s more a privilege now than an expectation,” Jameson says. “It’s much more targeted now – perhaps only for high-potential employees – and even then there might be an encumbrance around the funding. It might be a co-funding as opposed to outright funding; it might involve some clawback in terms of the employee staying with the organisation for a certain amount of time after the degree.” Interestingly, some of this might be cultural. The Macquarie Applied Finance Centre teaches courses in Singapore and
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China, where student expectations are different. In Singapore, Jameson says, people regard education as an investment in themselves. He says there is even less employer funding of study in the island state, yet this is not a problem for those living and working there. “People see themselves investing in their own human capital,” he says. “In Australia it’s an impediment to study. People have this expectation that if it’s not funded then they’re not going to study. Yet virtually any person who wants to study can study. There’s a fee help structure in place, so you can get loans. The calculation is really one of personal investment – ‘If I put this amount into it, what do I get over a period of time?’” Far more effective, Jameson feels, is reframing the equation so that further education is both a reward and a retention tool, particularly for high-potential employees. “The employee gets the benefit of the education, but they also get the benefit of knowing the employer is thinking carefully about their role in the organisation. It’s not just a financial transaction. I’m not saying if it’s done purely as a financial transaction it’s got no value – but I believe it has far less value than if such education is viewed as part of a development plan for the individual. “If you’ve got a program independent of any development plan for the employee, I think you’ve gone down the wrong path and you risk not getting payback. You haven’t built that thoughtful, deep relationship with
the employee that plants that seed with the employee: ‘I want to be here in five years’ time because I’ve got this relationship with my employer who clearly understands me. We’re working together to enable me to take on bigger roles with the same employer’.” While there’s still no guarantee the employee won’t leave the organisation, Jameson says a development plan might stretch for two or three years, increasing the odds of them staying. “You’re working with the employee to build a path that will roll out over a number of years.”
Agnostics beware If Jameson has one golden rule for employers it’s this: do not be agnostic about development choices. “I talk to a fair few employers and there aren’t many who will take an active role in helping their employees decide what to study. Even if they are helping to fund the study, there is a fair amount of agnosticism.” He would much prefer it to be part of a deeper discussion between the two parties, which clearly outlines what the benefits will be in the short term, medium term and long term. “I think it’s valid for an employer to say, ‘It’s not unreasonable for us to ask what is going to give us payback in the short term’. You don’t want a highly commercial type of arrangement; it’s not like training where you might see payback the next day, but if someone is working in a large bank, for example, and undertaking a Master of Applied Finance, they’re going to find it useful virtually from day one.” Indeed, Jameson draws a distinction between training and educating. He believes educational institutions must be responsive to industry and business; however, there’s a limit – with too much pandering ‘education’ transforms into ‘training’. “To me, the difference between training and education is the latter still has value in five or 10 years’ time – you’ve given people the scaffolding to incorporate the world as things move
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on, as things change. You’ve given them the framework to develop their understanding. Training tends to be much more onedimensional in the sense we teach you a bunch of skills and if that changes it’s bad luck. You’ll need to come back and do it again because you haven’t got the framework.” Echoing Christine Burton from UTS, Jameson says any decision about supporting employees undertaking postgraduate study should not be taken lightly. “One of the biggest issues people face is that they forget good masters degrees are not trivial,” Jameson says. “If you’re going to do it, it will take some work and effort. Most people who are funded are in the 25–30 age range, so a lot of them are beginning to settle down and focus on their career development – this tends to put a lot of pressure on them. Our experience is that the main reason people don’t succeed in their degree is because they’re trying to manage the pressures of balancing study with work and family.”
“Far more effective is reframing the equation so that further education is both a reward and a retention tool”
MAKING THE CHOICE What should employers be looking out for if they are confronted with a request by an employee to fund postgraduate study? 1 Look for courses that have a high degree of practical exposure and lecturers who have real-world experience. Get your hands dirty. Research and understand the pros and cons of particular
2 programs or courses – they all have strengths and weaknesses. What are the likely benefits to the employee and the employer? Are there reputational issues to be aware of?
3 Gauge the program with the employee and education provider as there is room for creative direction in most study programs. Most education providers will also be flexible if exams fall during a time when a student is travelling for work, etc.
4 Keep it targeted. The days of widespread employer financial support are gone. Instead, use your hi-po programs to provide the support to those employees who are truly beneficial to your organisation.
5 Consider the geographical location of the campus. If most employees are based in the CBD, does the campus offer facilities there as well?
Offer flexibility and understanding, particularly around exam time and
6 assignments. Large employers with multiple employees studying simultaneously might benefit from in-house study groups.
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FEATURES
SUSTAINABILITY
BUILDING TOWARDS A BETTER TOMORROW Is it possible to embed and operationalise a sustainability strategy into the culture of an organisation? Jacquie Fegent-McGeachie believes so, and provides her tips TODAY MANY organisations in Australia have in place proactive commitments to minimise their impact on the environment and actively give back to the community. Sustainability considerations are increasingly becoming core to the operating philosophies of leading organisations. Research demonstrates that a strong track record and reputation for corporate sustainability can help attract top talent and retain existing employees, as well as achieve cost reductions through efficiency gains and risk minimisation. However, as expectations of corporate Australia increase around what it’s doing to help curb climate change and respond to other pressing social and environmental issues, it can be challenging for organisations to bridge the gap between current performance and desired performance. One challenge many leaders face is embedding and operationalising their sustainability strategy within the fabric of their organisations. This includes securing broad-reaching buy-in from employees
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across all levels of the organisation to enable the desired, and then ongoing, performance around sustainability.
Where to start? A good starting point is for sustainability practitioners and HR practitioners to form a closer working relationship, as a strong relationship can reap plenty of mutual benefit. Sustainability and corporate social responsibility programs can be a great complement to an organisation’s people strategy when executed well, particularly in terms of showcasing how an organisation’s values are put into practice; contributing to the employee value proposition; and injecting purpose and meaning into employees’ work. In turn, HR practitioners can assist in providing formalised structures to help operationalise sustainability within an organisation – such as by providing staff with training and development; incorporating sustainability into the onboarding process for new employees; offering incentives and recognition for sustainability achievements;
and having policies that promote worker cooperation and involvement with the company’s environmental objectives. In fact, there is a new area of academic study focused on green HR management (see box below).
What next? Here are four tips on integrating sustainability practices into the workplace culture:
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Secure and showcase support from the top of the organisation
Vocal internal support from the organisation’s leader (and other function leaders) around sustainability is critical, as they send messages into the organisation about what is deemed important and what is valued by employees.
Identify and recruit organisational sustainability champions at a range of levels
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Champions are individuals who attempt to introduce or create change within an organisation.
GREEN HR MANAGEMENT Develop green organisational ability. This includes ensuring that recruitment and selection of new employees reflects the organisation’s commitments and values around the environment, and putting in place environmental knowledge management systems. Motivate green employees via performance management and appraisal, and pay and reward systems. For example, incentivise longterm thinking and strategies – particularly those with benefits for the environment and the community more broadly – versus short-term thinking and strategies that put the numbers above all else. Provide opportunities for employees to develop tacit knowledge around sustainability issues and strategies, and enable employee involvement in these types of initiatives. Source: Renwick et al, 2013
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Champions need to be effective business partners and clear communicators
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It’s important to remember that, historically, business management education has not incorporated environmental management or sustainability into business education. Therefore business leaders may need sustainability champions to partner with them to help them understand the issues and provide counsel on how the business might respond. It’s also extremely useful if your sustainability champions are able to set out the business and broader benefits of the sustainability project. Also, critically, champions need to be able to garner support and take people on the journey with them – not alienate or bamboozle people.
Apply a tried and tested model for driving organisational change in order to integrate and operationalise sustainability
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Successful champions are able to influence important players in their organisations to envision the strategic importance of their ideas. However, organisations can’t rely on one or two
people to champion sustainability. A raft of people across an organisation, at all levels and at all different sites and locations, are needed to champion sustainability issues.
JOHN KOTTER’S 8 STEPS TO SUCCESSFUL CHANGE
Institutionalise the change Consolidate and build on the gains Create short-term wins
Empower people to act on the vision Communicate the vision Develop a clear shared vision Create a guiding coalition Establish a sense of urgency
Corporate sustainability is a relatively new area in business management; however, the area of organisational development and change management has been around for more than a century. A leading thinker in the space, John Kotter, published his seminal work, Leading Change, in which he set out his ‘8 steps to organisational change’ (see box, left). If businesses are serious about embedding an employee mindset and practices that consider the environment and community impact in everything done across all functions, then why not consider adopting and applying a formal change process? The more organisations can mobilise and influence change both within and outside their organisations, the brighter the future for all.
Jacquie Fegent-McGeachie is director of public affairs, communications and sustainability at Kimberly-Clark Australia and New Zealand. Kimberly-Clark recently won the Minister for the Environment’s inaugural Cleaner Environment Award and also the Banksia Award for Leading Large Organisation in Sustainability.
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FEATURES
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
THE ENGAGING LEADER What if you could – through a combination of engagement and assessment data – accurately identify the behaviours, mindset and personality types of your leaders who create the most engagement? AS AN HR practitioner, you probably already do some form of assessment of employee engagement (or satisfaction) and also some form of personality profiling and assessment. Do the two ever meet? Or do these chunks of information and insight sit separately from each other? It’s likely the latter – but this might soon change. Predictive assessments have been a staple of recruitment for some time, but this has rarely if ever been applied much beyond the recruitment space. However, with research from Aon Hewitt, it’s now possible to apply similar concepts to leadership development.
‘Getting’ engagement Backtracking slightly, HR has traditionally
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been blighted by poorly defined metrics and ROI for many of the initiatives they drive. Has that also been the case with engagement initiatives? It’s a ‘yes’ and ‘no’ response, says James Rutherford, principal within Aon Hewitt’s performance, reward and talent division. “On the ‘no’ side, which is broadly positive, engagement has resonated with business leaders in that it’s logical to see that people who are emotionally and intellectually connected with their organisation will be more motivated to do more for those organisations. Coupled with some external factors around the fact that increasingly the value of organisations is being determined by intangibles, suddenly you get leaders
understanding that engagement is almost a proxy for productivity.” On the ‘yes’ side of the ledger, which is broadly negative, Rutherford says that where business leaders don’t ‘get it’ is where they believe engagement is an individual‘s responsibility. “They don’t understand that for an employee to be engaged we actually need to provide them with an environment that they can thrive in.” Also on the negative side of the equation, many organisations have struggled with how they connect engagement to organisational performance. “Models of engagement where you’re just measuring engagement but are not connecting it to measures of performance either at individual, team or locational
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The one consistent theme that most organisations understand is the impact leaders have on engagement, a fact that is well supported by research level, create a barrier to the acceptance of engagement as a measure of people productivity and broad employee motivation,” Rutherford says.
Leaders and engagement It seems the one consistent theme that most organisations do understand is the impact
leaders have on engagement, a fact that is well supported by research. “We’ve known for a long time that leader behaviour and perceptions of leader effectiveness are vitally important to engagement,” Rutherford says. With that knowledge, Aon Hewitt has conducted research combining two of its
areas of expertise: research on engagement; and employee assessment – understanding personality types, observed behaviours, etc. “The starting point was asking whether we could combine those two areas of expertise and create something interesting. What if we could look at a large number of leaders who create high engagement and understand more about them, in terms of personality, how their teams perceive them, and so on?” Three foundational pieces of information have emerged from the research, which form the ‘intrinsic side’ of the model: • These leaders were able to identify a series of critical experiences – work history, particular periods in their
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FEATURES
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
careers or lives – that have shaped them and had considerable impact on them as leaders. These leaders identified times when they were stretched and taken out of their comfort zone. Related to that, they identified great periods of learning from those experiences; something of a reflective mindset was apparent in these leaders. • These leaders have a high degree of self-awareness, which centres on some key guiding beliefs. Firstly, a clear sense of purpose: purpose regarding their roles within their organisations, but more deeply and intrinsically, their purpose as leaders. They also hold a clear sense of responsibility. That responsibility may relate to the success of the organisation but also to the success of the individuals within that organisation; a people-centred responsibility rather than simply a responsibility just to shareholders. • These leaders also have an astute understanding of the importance of relationships – not surprising when we’re dealing with something like engagement.
Then there’s the ‘observed side’ of the model: the displayed behaviours. “There are a set of behaviours that all leaders can learn from and are reported by the followers of these engaging leaders,” says Rutherford. The Engaging Leader model is not meant to be a checklist for how to be an engaging leader. The experiences, beliefs and behaviours ‘show up’ differently in each leader. What is consistent, however, is how these leaders bring their experiences and beliefs to bear in order to engage. They will: Step up and take the lead. There’s very clear ‘ownership of leadership’ and clear leadership positioning – as opposed to some leaders who may be more passive.
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Energise. These leaders want to create a connection to the organisation in order to create a sense of a compelling and exciting future.
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Connect and stabilise. Increasingly we expect a higher degree of connectiveness and interaction with leaders. Do followers feel
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they are able to do that? Similarly, in times of ambiguity, many organisations face change. Do the followers have that sense of calm stability that enables people to connect to the leader even if they feel uncomfortable or ill at ease?
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Serve and grow – by empowering, enabling and developing their people.
Stay grounded – through humble, open, candid and authentic communications and behaviour.
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Is it possible to replicate these behaviours? “Yes, absolutely,” says Rutherford. “However, behaviour change is not easy. Through education and awareness – many leaders who are working with coaches will focus on behaviour change – you can start to see the tangible impact you might be having on your team.”
Broad application Where to next? The insights gleaned from the ‘engaging leader’ can be used broadly. Aon Hewitt is working with organisations to identify who the most engaging leaders are within those organisations.
THE ENGAGING LEADER
GUIDING BELIEFS ff My purpose ff Leadership as a responsibility ff Importance of relationships
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The engaging leader
DISPLAYED BEHAVIOUR ff Step up ff Energise ff Connect and stabilise ff Serve and grow ff Stay grounded
CRITICAL EXPERIENCES ff Stretch ff Learn ff Build self-confidence
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RESEARCH OVERVIEW Aon Hewitt’s research identified that it is a combination of beliefs, experiences and behaviours that have the most impact on leaders’ ability to create engagement within the business. The engaging leader model, which combines insight from Aon’s engagement research and insights gleaned from personality and 360 tools, helps leaders understand: • how they directly impact on engagement in their organisations • how they can work to develop into more effective and engaging leaders • how they can directly contribute to sustained engagement improvement in their organisations This information can also help HR to further refine their hiring processes to create more accuracy; refine their leadership competencies based on proven impacts; and modify their development programs for front-line and middle managers to develop the skills and behaviours that matter most. By running personality assessments, it’s then possible to see what differentiates these people. “What do their teams report these leaders do particularly well, or less well? So we can see what behaviours are displayed and what is in the minds of these leaders who are delivering these people practices.” From there, organisations should be able to more effectively identify future leaders, simply because they now have consistent measurements of behaviours, attitudes and actions they can use. They are also likely to refresh their competency frameworks by
virtue of this insight – and are more likely to promote and hire differently based on the knowledge they then have. This last point is particularly enticing. For example, when an organisation hires an individual, it will soon be possible to accurately predict the impact of that individual on engagement of their teams. “It sounds a little bit like science fiction, but that won’t be an odd conversation for us to be having in several years,” says Rutherford. “Obviously there’s a lot of work that needs to be done, but I’d predict that’s
not too far away. We have the ability to capture the data today, but we probably don’t yet have the ability to integrate that data.” The model, which was developed in the US in 2014 and has involved thousands of research participants, is now starting to be rolled out by Aon Hewitt globally, including in Australia. “This marks almost a starting point; our clients are intrigued by big data, and this for me is the first step towards much broader talent management solutions,” Rutherford concludes.
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS Change starts and ends with individual leaders. So if you’re trying to create an organisation of engaged workers, as a leader, ask yourself: • How energised, motivated and engaged are you in your job? What drives you? • What were your experiences as a leader that made you grow and become engaged? How can you support others in being exposed to similar experiences? • What are your beliefs about the role of the leader? • What are your beliefs about people and work? • How present are you with others? • If not you, then who?
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OPINION
TECHNOLOGY
SOCIAL MEDIA: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY Employer concerns about social media have evolved from it being perceived as a time and productivity waster to something far more sinister. Gary Taylor reports A 2014 report by international legal firm Proskauer on global developments in the employer management of social media offers some helpful insights into current trends. Some 90% of businesses are now using social media for business purposes, which correlates with the percentage of employees doing the same during working hours. In the early days, many employers simply tried to impose bans on what they perceived as a distraction from what employees were being paid to do. Now, the boundaries between personal and professional use are increasingly blurred.
More than just a time waster The research shows that employers’ concerns relating to abuse are less an issue of time distraction for staff but are now, in fact, more worrisome. The survey listed the main types of misuse being encountered and the percentages of employers dealing with such cases: 80% – misuse of confidential information 71% – misrepresenting the views of the employer 67% – inappropriate non-business use
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64% – disparaging remarks about the employer or other employees 64% – harassment
ex-employees and a further 12% contractors or external parties.
’Strategic reputational risk’ Of course, this is not directly the fault of social media per se. Twitter or Facebook are just media that allow people to communicate what they might have said previously face-to-face to individuals or small groups. However, the one-to-millions effect of viral
As a result of the growing number of abuse cases (on top of their escalating impact), 53% of employers in the survey have updated their social media policy in the last year to help manage the risk of this misuse. In fact, it is interesting to observe the risk
The one-to-millions effect of viral communication changes the impact on the employer dramatically, hence the level of concern and response from employers communication changes the impact on the employer dramatically, hence the level of concern and response from employers. There has also been a sharp increase in the number of businesses dealing with abuse cases. And it is sobering to appreciate that while 72% of social media abuse cases for employers involve current employees, 16% involve
committees of some boards turning their attention to the strategic reputational risk, as their reputations can be threatened in an instant by cyber communication. Perhaps the most striking public example of employee leaks was the NSA/Edward Snowden saga in 2013, and the scale of the response from the former employer. This
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made global headlines. Remember, he was a contractor with access to hugely sensitive information.
Some words of caution The emerging wisdom is to not rely on prevailing laws for protection. There are few laws globally addressing the monitoring of social media usage, so one has to rely on country-specific legislation dealing with data
protection, privacy and labour relations. The intersections are tricky to handle. The second caution is to not rely solely on restrictive employer-imposed rules. Having said that, some 36% of employers globally are now actively blocking access to social media sites (up from 26% the previous year.) This might address the concerns about employees not spending eight hours a day concentrating on work only, but cannot address the after-
HANDLING THE PROBLEM The Proskauer report suggests five things employers can do to better manage the misuse of social media: Conduct an audit to benchmark policies and practices related to social media. The sheer pace of 1 technology change demands that the employer’s guidelines must adapt to developments. Training must be a priority. It reduces risk and is more effective in bringing about a voluntary change in
2 behaviour than punitive regulation.
Employers should identify specific risks to their businesses (possibly industry-specific) and deal with
3 these accordingly.
4 Implement clear guidelines – supported by communication and engaging training sessions. 5 Consider the aspect of ex-employees and your response.
hours misuse reflected above. It is reasonable for employers to want their employees to have their minds focused on work, and to not interrupt their work output by slavishly responding to social media alerts. However, the same principle applies to private use of the telephone, smoke breaks and simple presenteeism, when the person is at work but not productive. There are better ways to handle performance management.
Balancing the good and the bad It is sobering to note that 81% of the survey respondents believe that social media abuse will become more of an issue in the future. As employers, we know already the positive value of social media for our business, and for ourselves in our personal lives. But we need to acknowledge the inevitable downsides to these media, and deal with them systematically. #that’sallfolks Gary Taylor is an HR director who has worked for Australian, South African and British multinationals on two continents, including the Middle East. He is registered as a Master HR Practitioner with the South African Board for People Practice, and served as vice president of the Institute of People Management.
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FEATURES
INTERNS
INTERNS: EXPERIENCE OR EXPLOITATION? Interns have long been a staple of the workforce in Australia and New Zealand, but are you unknowingly exploiting these workers? Chloe Taylor asks the experts IN RECENT months, internships have hit the headlines following scandals around pay and conditions. While one Australian law firm ruffled feathers by charging interns $22,000 for the privilege of securing a placement, Melbourne-based Crocmedia was fined $24,000 earlier this year, after the company had interns working full-time for up to a year with no pay. On the international stage, the United Nations caused an uproar in recent months after a young intern from New Zealand publicised the fact that his unpaid internship
had led him to temporarily take up residence in a tent. The debate has, consequently, expanded to become about more than whether or not interns should be fetching people coffee; rather, employers around the globe seem to be finding new ways to come under fire for ‘exploitation’.
Pay provisions So, where do employers stand when it comes to internships? According to Lucienne Gleeson, associate at Sydney firm PCC Lawyers, Crocmedia
breached several sections of the Fair Work Act by not paying its interns. Under the National Minimum Wage Order, says Gleeson, employers are required to pay anyone working full-time a rate at least equal to the national minimum wage – including casual loading, where appropriate. “Significantly, the two individuals were, at the time of their employment, award and enterprise agreement-free,” Gleeson tells HRD. “If they had been covered by an award or enterprise, then it could also have been alleged that the employer breached sections
A HISTORY OF THE INTERNSHIP Internships are accepted by many as an inevitable rung on the career ladder in today’s world – but how did they come to be?
11th–12th century Europe Internships descend from the professional apprenticeships that originated with the European trade guilds of this era. Master craftsmen and tradesmen would take in young learners, who would complete menial tasks. Apprentices served one master for the majority of their teen years, and eventually graduated to roles that provided better wages.
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1890s–1920s Fields such as medicine begin to adapt the practical experience of apprenticeships alongside scientific, lecture-based learning. “There had always been an apprenticeship in medicine, but now it became a standard part of education, an internship,” says Sanford Jacoby, professor at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management.
1918 After the First World War, the term ‘intern’ – previously employed in the medical profession to define a person with a degree but without a licence to practice – becomes a term for a physician in training, as medical school is no longer seen as preparation enough for practice.
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ALL ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP Gleeson advises employers to ask the following questions to determine whether there is an ‘employment relationship’ – and a requirement that interns be paid: ff What work is being done? ff Would the work usually be done by a paid employee? ff What length of time is the internship? ff Is much observation being carried out by the individual? ff Who benefits from the arrangements?
45 [contravening a modern award] or 50 [contravening an enterprise agreement] of the Fair Work Act.” Gleeson warns that if an employer breaches these provisions, it can be liable for penalties of up to $55,000 for each breach.
To pay or not to pay? According to Gleeson, unless interns are completing a work placement as an educational requirement, employers are generally required to remunerate their interns with at least the minimum wage. “Currently, a person that undertakes a ‘vocational placement’ within the meaning of the Fair Work Act is not considered to be an employee, and is therefore not entitled
1960s Internships develop but remain fairly uncommon.
1970s–1980s University faculty members in the US begin to establish internship programs after hearing about them from colleagues at other institutions. Career advisers push internships as a way to get ahead in the job market, while universities offer course credits for their completion.
1980s Victoria Davis, internship director at Vanderbilt’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development, says that when internships began to appear, they were developed by business schools. “When I was in school [in the ’80s] I did an internship,” she tells Forbes. “But it was still quite unusual.”
2009 Time magazine reports that there are as many as 300,000 students participating in some form of pre-job apprenticeship in the US each year.
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FEATURES
INTERNS to be paid for any work they undertake,” Gleeson says. “The key elements of a ‘vocational placement’ are that the placement is undertaken as a requirement of an educational or training course through
one particular case that came close to being exemplary of this: Salad Bowl Ltd v HoweThornley [2013]. “In this case the court found the worker was an employee and should have been paid for their pre-work trial,” Bates explains, adding
Under the National Minimum Wage Order employers are required to pay anyone working full-time a rate at least equal to the national minimum wage an institution such as a TAFE, college or university, and it may be organised at the instigation of an educational institution or the student. If these elements are met then the individual involved is not entitled to receive pay for the placement. “Outside of this arrangement unpaid internships are only legitimate if there is no employment relationship.” Vince Rogers, partner at Ashurst, reaffirms Gleeson’s advice, adding that employers should never assume that interns require no remuneration or support. “Employers must ensure that they are meeting their remuneration obligations,” he says. “There can be arrangements for interns to receive certain treatments under relevant awards or schemes. Any employer needs to check what applies to their industry – the Fair Work Ombudsman would be a logical first port of call.”
Across the ditch “While unpaid internships are globally a hot topic, they remain a grey area under New Zealand law,” says Charlotte Bates, senior associate at Kiwi firm Bartlett Law. “As it stands, internships remain untested here, so there isn’t a huge body of case law around them.” She tells HRD that the main issue in New Zealand is when an unpaid intern could be deemed an employee, referring to
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that past Australian decisions could influence those made in New Zealand’s courts. “The court used the same sorts of tests that overseas jurisdictions have looked at in similar circumstances – this included determining whether the individual was performing work and contributing to the business such that the employer gained an economic benefit from the employee’s activity.” “The judge mentioned unpaid internships, stating that it isn’t impossible to have unpaid
trials, and referred to research in Australia that has looked at unpaid internships.”
Health and safety obligations “The Health and Safety in Employment Act must also be complied with in relation to interns, both unpaid and paid,” Bates says, in relation to New Zealand interns. “The act dictates that people receiving on-the-job training or gaining work experience must be treated as employees.” She also clarifies where employers stand when it comes to volunteers. “For the purposes of the Health and Safety Act, volunteers undertaking regular and ongoing work must be treated as employees,” Bates says. “Employers need to take all practicable steps to ensure the health and safety of other volunteers.” Similarly, Rogers adds that Australian employers’ obligations to interns are not restricted to remuneration. “Aspects of liability, such as workplace health and safety or exposure to harassment or inappropriate conduct in the workplace, are also the responsibility of the employer,” he says.
KEY CONSIDERATIONS Bates gives HRD some key tips for employers looking to take on an intern on either side of the Tasman:
1 Before you engage an intern, look at what you want the intern to do. If you want someone to come in and do work that is an integral part of the business – but you want to avoid paying for it – the internship is not likely to be fair and the intern could be classified as an employee.
There are a number of students who need to complete internships as part of their studies, and many young
2 graduates are prepared to undertake an unpaid internship to get exposure to certain industries. In these
cases, employers should have in mind a program for interns, and remember to keep the timeframe of the internship short. If an internship is unpaid, employers should have a written agreement setting out both parties’ obligations
3 from the outset. This written agreement should make it clear that the internship is unpaid, as well as clarify what the intern can expect to gain from the internship, such as exposure to a particular industry and valuable work experience. Interns require supervision; the intern should have a supervising manager or mentor. It’s about training the
4 intern and exposing them to the company’s work, providing the intern with as much ‘real’ work experience as possible.
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FEATURES
EMPLOYER BRANDING
DESIGNING THE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE Good, bad or indifferent, Brett Minchington and Lisa G Morris outline why experience is everything when it comes to employer branding
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PEOPLE ARE exposed to brand experiences continuously throughout their day, either as consumers, employees or job candidates. The reality is that these experiences are rarely distinctive or consistent, and often don’t deliver what is expected based on perceptions of the brand. At its worst, the impact can be loss of business (customers), accepting another job offer (candidates), resignation (employees), or damage to a company’s reputation (potential employees and/or potential customers). There are many examples of great brands around us, such as Virgin, Apple, Starbucks and Chanel. One consistent characteristic among them is how they make us feel because of the experience we have when we interact with their products, services and/or people. “Happy employees perform at their best,” says Michael Holm, a Danish HR senior manager at Lego. “If they are passionate about what they do, work in a trusting environment with highly skilled colleagues and in a company they can be proud of, then they will provide stellar performance. They are telling a story every day to friends, relatives, networks about work, and if that story is positive they will attract other like-minded individuals to the
company. That is the best and most relevant sourcing platform any company can build on – a positive employee experience is key.” The only true source of competitive advantage for any company is its people and the value they create for their customers. Having high-performing employees who are committed to their work and company and able to innovate and create valued experiences for customers is a critical factor for the sustainability of organisations.
consequent business performance. Great employee experiences, just like great customer experiences, don’t just happen by chance. In leading brands they are supported by an integrated strategy across people, customers and systems. When employees have positive experiences with employers they are more engaged in creating positive experiences for customers, which results in increased sales. This approach is what makes the Apple stores a retailing
Great employee experiences, just like great customer experiences, don’t just happen by chance The concept of employee experience Employee experience can be defined as the sum of all experiences an employee has with their employer, co-workers, supervisors, leadership, work environment, customers and other key stakeholders during their tenure. Experiences influence an employee’s cognition and affection and lead to particular behaviours that positively or negatively impact on an employee’s engagement and
success story at a time when bricks and mortar retailing has been on the decline. The Minchington & Morris Brand Experience Model™ highlights an integrated approach to delivering differentiated experiences by focusing on the Employer Brand Moments of Truth (EBMOTs) in the employee life cycle while being agile enough to adapt to the challenges in the macro environment (see Figure 1).
Figure 2: Employee Experience Journey Map (assessment of a sample company)
Figure 1: Minchington & Morris Brand Experience Model™ Market environment
100%
Employer Brand Moments of Truth CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
Reputation
Why customers buy and recommend our products/services
Candidate management 1st day
Induction (onboarding)
Leadership & supervisor
Performance feedback & reviews
Economic
EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE Why employees go over and beyond and recommend us
Rejoin Stay in touch
Advocacy Exit discussion Compensation & benefits
Career & selfdevelopment
Employee experience
Legal
Political
50%
Reputation
Environmental
Candidate management
1st day
Leadership & supervisor Induction (onboarding)
Career & selfdevelopment
Performance feedback & reviews
Exit discussion
Compensation & benefits
Stay in touch Advocacy
Rejoin
Employer Brand Moments of Truth (EBMOTs) Social
Technological
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FEATURES
EMPLOYER BRANDING
EBMOTs are the interactions in the employee journey in which employees invest a high level of emotion in the outcome, such as company reputation and/or their relationship with their leader/supervisor.
Employee experience assessment and strategy To design the ideal employee experience journey and evaluate its reality, an employee experience journey map can be a very effective tool. Designed from the employee’s point of view, the map details each interaction or touchpoint at each stage of the employee’s relationship with the organisation. A survey tool is used to rate the employee’s experience at each EBMOT. Simplistically, it’s a way to walk in the employee’s, candidate’s or alumni’s shoes – to describe and understand what each is doing, thinking and feeling at each stage. These employee life cycle stages can be categorised as: • Explore and apply • Join and onboard • Perform, get recognised, learn and grow • Separate • Reconnect and rejoin As candidates and employees evolve their relationship with an employer, they have distinct objectives with different needs and motivators at each stage. Mapping out the overall journey and the touchpoints at each stage aids in identifying any disparity between the ideals and the practical realities of the experience (see Figure 2). It will also highlight the stages or touchpoints that require closer attention in order to create a consistent employment experience that adds value to the customer experience. For example, if the company is poor at developing or rewarding people, most of the hard work and investment in recruiting the best talent is wasted as people cycle through the organisation looking for better opportunities elsewhere.
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KEY FOCUS AREAS To optimise the employee experience across the employment life cycle we encourage you to focus your efforts on the following areas: 1. Be clear on the brand experience you want to create for customers and align the employee experience journey. 2. Train leaders and employees in how to deliver the brand experience and align with your EVPs through supporting systems, processes and policies. 3. Engage leaders across functions at the outset to ensure a consistent approach to managing the employee experience journey. 4. Identify which cultural behaviours need to change to support the employee experience and align systems, processes and policies to support the change. 5. Conduct an employee experience mapping exercise to understand where the company delivers the most impactful experiences and those areas that need improvement, redesign and/or discarding altogether. 6. Develop an integrated communications plan with cross-functional support and training to ensure employee behaviours and attitudes are reflective of the desired brand experience. 7. Identify and appoint ambassadors to role-model the ‘on brand’ behaviours expected from employees. 8. Reward attitudes, behaviours and actions that reflect the delivery of outstanding employee experience. 9. Review the performance of the leadership to deliver an ‘on brand’ experience through quantitative and qualitative feedback provided by employees, and to address any gaps. 10. Remember the workplace is a key part of an employee’s lifestyle so approach the employee experience holistically and manage accordingly. 11. Learn, train and encourage leaders to use technology to enable and support the creation and delivery of signature employee experiences.
Brett Minchington, MBA, is chairman/CEO of Employer Brand International and an international strategist, corporate adviser and educator who has trained leaders in more than 50 cities in 30 countries in person and through the global online Certificate in Employer Brand Leadership course. Connect with Brett at brett@employerbrandinternational.com and on Twitter: @brettminch Lisa G Morris is a principal and a people and change practice leader at North Highland Worldwide Consulting. She develops and implements innovative solutions at the intersection of HR/OD, marketing, and communications across a variety of industries. She specialises in employer brand strategy, employee experience design, employee engagement, and organisational development. Connect with Lisa on Twitter: @LeeseMorris
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FEATURES
CORPORATE WELLNESS
HEALTHY BODY + HEALTHY MIND = HEALTHY CAREER Our bodies are finely tuned machines, yet we tend to drive them into the ground, ignore warning signs, and generally treat them poorly. What if HR could tap into a whole workforce of finely tuned, healthy and active employees? Christopher Paterson reports IN TRUTH, most of us do not fully understand the intricate design of our brain and bodies and, as a result, we are operating at a fraction of our full capacity. Further, what you may not realise is how this may be holding you back in terms of your career and life success. Multiply this across an entire organisation and the gap between current performance and potential performance widens exponentially. Neurological, biological and psychological data shows us that we have prioritised our
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workloads and our success far above our mental and physical wellness. As a result, we have become disconnected with the fundamentals of how the human body functions. This is having an impact on our ability to solve complex problems, come up with new ideas, and push the boundaries for our capability. It is not surprising that it is also inflating our levels of stress and anxiety. While we all have access to a very impressive machine in the form of the
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human brain and body, it’s extremely finetuned. What happens to a finely tuned machine when we put it under sustained pressure? Performance suffers and it breaks down. You’ll see these breakdown signs among your friends and family, your colleagues and staff, and you’ll also see the signs within yourself. While we see the signs, we don’t know a different way, so we keep doing the same things. We do our best and hope things will improve. However, taking time to understand the fundamentals of how we are designed has now become a critical sustainability issue. Changing the way we do things, and working with, rather than against, our body will ultimately allow you to be at your best both in and out of the office.
Career outcomes Our review of the published research shows that individuals who work with this
TOP TIPS FOR BUSINESS 99 Identify ‘wellness champions’ in senior roles 99 Promote positive wellness behaviours with targeted, evidence-based workshops 99 Track wellness factors throughout the year to assess risks and celebrate success 99 Train team leaders to promote and facilitate wellness across their teams 99 Have an integrated corporate wellness plan and measure its effectiveness 99 Have fun with it! too much in the workplace, so let’s call this ‘pressure’ instead. This research proves that a certain amount of pressure enhances performance to the point that is our sweet spot of optimal performance. However, when additional pressure is applied, this creates stress and our performance decreases. Unfortunately, this is the reality
Neurological, biological and psychological data shows us that we have prioritised our workloads and our success far above our mental and physical wellness knowledge experience lower stress levels, greater mental alertness, more energy, higher self-esteem, better memory, greater work fulfilment, less workload pressure and greater concentration. Not surprisingly, this facilitates improved job output, increased creativity and greater overall career success. On an organisational level, imagine a whole workforce of these individuals! This is organisational performance and capability redefined and adds a unique dimension to a company’s market differentiation.
of the modern workplace: 73% of working Australians are operating within this zone. Therefore, our first task is to identify the triggers that are creating this additional pressure, and our next task is to have specific strategies on hand to manage them effectively. It’s not always possible to remove them, but with a better understanding of our neurological and biological toolkit we can get back to our sweet spot of optimal performance.
Wellness toolkit Performance and arousal While the Yerkes-Dodson law shows the correlation between ‘performance’ and ‘arousal’, we try not to use the word arousal
The good news is that the research also highlights the mistakes we’re making and identifies the specific things we can do to be at our best. This data points to three key
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FEATURES
AU
CORPORATE WELLNESS TOP 10 TIPS FOR INDIVIDUALS Get a complete body diagnostic from an integrative doctor to understand your nutritional needs Get moving every 45 minutes Connect with positive people face-to-face Book a mini break away Remove smart technology from the bedroom and replace it with a good alarm clock (no snooze) Wake up at the same time each morning and get your body to some natural light Find that hobby that allows you to unplug and unwind Share your plan with someone The more stressed you are, the MORE you do these things, not less Set a reminder to review your plan once a week for six weeks elements of wellness that all play a role in our work and life success: Cognitive wellness – our brain@work Understanding our brain functionality, particularly the prefrontal cortex (PFC), allows us to unlock the full potential of our cognition. Unfortunately, we currently tire our brain out with low-level tasks and are left wanting when we need to switch into higherorder analysis or creativity. In addition, the multitasking way in which we attempt to work creates unnecessary pressure for the poor old PFC and we fail to produce our best thinking.
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Emotional wellness – our limbic system@work While still in the brain, our limbic system is the centre for all our emotional responses, even mild ones. So every time we’re a little bit worried, stressed or feeling under pressure, this powerful system gets quickly activated and absorbs all of the cognitive energy, decreasing the quality of our thinking and pushing us beyond our sweet spot.
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Six cylinders of wellness In a 2009 review of our career transition clients, we observed that there were two types of people being coached through career change. While both had equivalent levels of intelligence, experience and capability, Group A would navigate change with confidence, resilience and focus while Group B struggled to adapt, took a lot longer to bounce back from setbacks, and experienced higher levels of stress and anxiety. A closer investigation of the factors at play, cross checked with the research, revealed that Group A were simply making better decisions in six key areas of their lives. We call them the six cylinders of wellness and they are: Nutrition, Social Connections, Activity, Time Out, Sleep and Outlets. Last year, we tested a workshop program that educated staff on three of these wellness elements, including the six cylinders. This enabled them to identify the areas that required attention and the specific, practical actions that they could take to facilitate a stronger wellness profile. We found that by making small adjustments staff were able to reduce their stress levels by 8% and their workload pressure by 16%, while also increasing their focus and concentration by 5%.
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Business case In HR, we support staff because it’s the right thing to do, and in an environment where workplace stress and anxiety are on the rise, a focus on wellness is a core element. Alongside the humanistic argument, the data shows that a well organisation will be more productive and creative, with staff who are less stressed, more mentally alert, energetic, fulfilled, focused and successful. A 2014 study showed that while the cost to Australian businesses of mental health conditions alone was $11bn, the ROI for promoting a mentally healthy workplace was $2.30 for every $1 invested (PwC, beyondblue, National Mental Health Commission).
THE BUSINESS CASE IN NUMBERS
73% Australians reporting that stress is having some impact
47% Working Australians reporting that the workplace is a source of stress
$11bn Impact of mental health conditions on Australian workplaces
$2.30 ROI for every $1 spent effectively promoting a mentally healthy workplace
SIX CYLINDER STATISTICS
65% – the drop in fatigue by those who do 20 minutes of low-intensity activity a day 0.1% – the blood alcohol level equivalent resulting from fatigue in Australian workplaces causing accidents 50% – the drop in heart attack risk for those who regularly take holidays 30 – the number of chews required to get the maximum nutrients out of each bite 15% – the increase in your happiness probability as a result of having happy friends 95% of people use brain-activating ‘blue screen’ emitting technology within one hour of bed 7 years – the reduction in life expectancy from sitting for more than six hours per day
Take action On a personal level you will be more successful if you manage your own wellness. On an organisational level, your business will more successful if you can facilitate enhanced wellness profiles for your staff. The pressures that are currently holding you and your staff back are not likely to go away, so inaction is not an option.
Christopher Paterson is the managing director of ALCHEMY Career Management, a firm that supports individuals to transition their career, assists companies adapting to organisational change, and delivers Wellness@Work programs for any organisation wanting to help staff to be at their best. For more information, visit alchemycm.com.au/.
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FEATURES
CORPORATE WELLNESS
CASE STUDY: YOUI From stop smoking sessions to dodgeball competitions, Youi has all bases covered when it comes to enhancing its employees’ wellbeing. Chloe Taylor chats to the head of human capital about his company’s award-winning corporate health and wellbeing program
IN AUGUST, insurance firm Youi picked up the Australian HR Award for Best Health & Wellbeing Program. It’s easy to see why. Simply put, there’s something for everyone. Indeed, Ivan Pierce, head of human capital at Youi, says a key aspect of the program’s success is its breadth. “There’s something in there for every employee regardless of fitness level, age or gender,” he explains. “We are particularly proud of the components of our program where physical activity is combined with fun experiences.” Examples include learn to surf lessons, rock climbing, dragon boat racing, and trampoline dodgeball. “I think people are pretty well informed these days about what’s good for them and what’s not – the real challenge is getting them to take action,” Pierce says. “A proportion of people will wake up early for a boot camp, but others will only get involved if it’s a unique and fun experience.”
YourLife: a holistic approach Youi’s holistic health and wellbeing program is called ‘YourLife’, and is run by the company’s HR manager and a coordinator, who focus on four key components: health, wellbeing, wealth and benefits.
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Health Employees are offered a range of activities, including personal training sessions, ice skating, team sports sponsorship, running clubs and walking groups, among many others. The CEO
alongside the physical activities they can sign up for.
Wealth Youi invites experts on site to lead discussions on topics including finances, saving plans and mortgage comparisons. Employees are also invited to attend talks to help them plan for retirement and understand their superannuation.
Benefits The company runs a benefits program that offers staff discounts on purchases from over 60 organisations. Employees using these discounts save on entertainment, retail, health providers, accommodation, dining, banking and more. Pierce says employees are rewarded for using the activities included in the YourLife scheme. “We track participation in the Health, Wellbeing and Wealth activities and staff are awarded points for each activity,” he says. “We are moving down the path of gamifying the experience, so people can see where they rank
“There’s something in there for every employee regardless of fitness level, age or gender” Ivan Pierce, Youi also leads a group for a weekly jog around the lake close to Youi’s Queensland office.
versus their colleagues, and we also give out random prizes for participating.”
Wellbeing
Cutting sick days
The ‘wellbeing’ aspect of the program delves deeper into employees’ health. Youi offers its workforce the opportunity to take part in activities such as yoga and meditation sessions, as well as on-site health assessments. The health assessments range from healthy age surveys to chiropractic screenings, and include a number of health tests such as heart and biometric health checks. The company also provides staff with perks like nutrition assistance and Weight Watchers to work
“In a call centre environment, flu season presents a risk to our workforce,” Pierce says. “We created a tailored program dedicated to building immunity and preventing the spreading of germs.” This program includes: • Availability of fresh fruit • Soup and juice specials in the cafe • ‘Bed by 9.30pm’ challenge • ‘Drink five glasses of water at work’ challenge
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• Keeping warm with ‘Wear your slippers to work’ day • Free peppermint, ginger and lemongrass T2 tea in all kitchens • Immunity quizzes Through its relationship with Bupa, Youi also runs a voluntary annual online health assessment for the entire workforce. “In our most recent assessment, we had 72% of the workforce participate,” Pierce says. “The program assesses employees’ health and lifestyles, allowing each participant to print their results to discuss them with their GP or other healthcare professional. The results indicated a ‘healthy workplace compared to Australian norms’.”
Helping smokers quit Youi provides a biannual in-house smokingcessation program called ‘Kick it Club’ (KIC). “The KIC is championed by one of our senior managers who had been smoking for
over 20 years and was motivated to stop by his kids,” Pierce says. “The program is free and includes free GP visits to obtain a prescription for nicotine patches, yoga classes to teach breathing techniques, and discounted hypnotherapy sessions, among many other benefits. “All of this is also available to be shared with employees’ partners, housemates, families and friends, as statistically we know it is easier to quit with additional support.”
Mental health support Pierce recognises that mental health is often overlooked in the workplace, but this was an area Youi wanted to invest in as part of its quest to consider all aspects of employee wellbeing. “Employers certainly have a role to play in normalising these types of issues for their people through open communication and the promotion of avenues to seek support. It probably seems more comfortable to most
employers to promote a fitness class than it does a depression support line, but hopefully that will continue to change over time.” When it comes to mental health assistance, Youi provides support in several ways. Personal support is provided in the form of solution-focused counselling and online support, coaching for managers, support to achieve financial wellbeing, and legal advice and guidance. Youi also holds information sessions that provide strategies to deal with issues such as reducing stress and getting a better night’s sleep. Information is also available from the company’s online tools. Additionally, families are supported: the company runs an annual family fun day. “Last year we celebrated at a local theme park with exclusive access for Youi,” Pierce says. “We had rides, magicians, face painters, balloon makers and more. It was just another way we could support our employees and their families.”
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FEATURES
BUSINESS STRATEGY
THE REINVENTION OF TEAMWORK Technology gives us the power to communicate, collaborate and learn across great divides – but ultimately it remains a tool. The real key to 21st century business success is teamwork, writes Graham Winter DISRUPTION IS the buzzword of business. And why wouldn’t it be when tech-centric companies like Amazon, Uber, Netflix and Twitter are transforming the way we shop, travel, play and communicate? Perhaps your business is trying to disrupt itself? If not, then you can be sure that someone else’s is, and chances are they’re doing it with quite different teamwork practices to what you treat as the norm. Is it technology that’s making the difference inside these disruptive companies? Yes, to the extent that product technology supports their exponential growth. However, in-company everyone has the same access to much the same technology at the same time, everywhere. It’s cheap, easy to use and mobile. And let’s remember that instant messaging, email, smartphones, video, collaboration software and the like are tools and tools only. Where’s the difference?
Share and share alike There’s a clue in the common purpose of many of these new technologies: to facilitate the sharing of information. Indeed, this is exactly why the net was invented in the first place. Social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are popular because people like to share. We have social brains and our evolution has programmed us to connect (because it saved our early ancestors from
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the disruption of sabre-toothed tigers). Even Daniel Goleman, the acclaimed thought leader in emotional intelligence, now speaks of social intelligence. We are genetically wired to engage and share with others and, in doing so, to adapt and respond and learn, which is precisely what the disruptive teams in places like Uber and Dropbox are doing so brilliantly, and they’re doing it with the help (and at times hindrance) of new technologies. Here are six things you might do to lead
The better performers in this digital world derive their focus from the core belief that it’s not so much which collaborative technology they use to share information (the tools are very similar), but with whom and what they (collectively) do with it. Fast disruptors know that technology can be duplicated, but there is one thing that can’t be. In a disruptive world the secret to success remains what it was thousands of years ago: the ability of people to work together towards a shared purpose. In a word: teamwork – but
Technology is the vehicle. It is who you take along for the ride and how you use the technology to share the challenges and opportunities that makes the real difference your team to be the disrupters, or at least the nimble adaptors:
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a more fluid and flexible style that suits a world that has seen its boundaries shatter in the face of globalisation.
Find the secret
We live in an age of information overload, bombarded with data 24/7. We are most certainly sharing and it’s on a global scale that’s faster, more frequent and, some would argue, less meaningful than ever before. The importance of focus can’t be underestimated as we must navigate through the distraction of ‘always being on’.
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Make the secret scalable
While technology and globalisation continue to disrupt the business landscape, they are not so much reinventing teamwork in their wake, but rather scaling it as a capability and culture. The typical company circa 2015 has people dispersed across multiple locations, and issues
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to think as one team, to move as one team and to learn as one team. Think of a flock of migrating geese, which always fly in a V formation. Geese innately know the secret to great teamwork. They have a common destination and work in perfect unison. When a goose drops out of the V formation, it quickly discovers that it requires a great deal more effort and energy. Geese help each other too. When a goose gets sick or wounded, two geese drop out of the formation and follow their fellow member down to help provide protection. They stay with this member of the flock until he or she is either able to fly again or dies. Then they launch out on their own, creating another formation, or they catch up with their own flock.
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arising at the speed of light, which is why teamwork makes the business more than the sum of its parts. Great teamwork scaled across the business makes anything possible. This is why a national 2014 employment survey in the US, as reported by Forbes, found that the skill employers looked for in their new recruits was the ability to work in a team structure. The next-most-important skill was the ability to communicate verbally with people inside and outside an organisation.
3
Accelerate and share the learning
Business has always been a team sport and there are many good reasons for this; however, one now stands alone as pivotal to organisation survival and success. Business is consumer driven (or more specifically, customer experience driven) which means that our teams must be agile, innovative and constantly learning how to optimise that experience for a customer who has abounding choice. Shared learning is the key because working alone or in silos of expertise reduces learning, growth and creativity. When there
is no one to challenge us we simply don’t leverage our experience and ideas.
4
Escape the gravity of hierarchy and structure
Daniel Pink, acclaimed business thought leader, argues that we are now in the Conceptual Age, in which right brain thinking reigns supreme. There is much evidence for this. Pink talks of the necessity for organisational symphony: through empathy, intuition, play and meaning. The disruptive companies are enterprises more than organisations, unencumbered by the gravity of organisational hierarchy, process and division. They play like they’re in the Age of the Entrepreneur: those risk-ready, nimble, well-connected folk who thrive on change.
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Harness the power of the whole team
The leaders of the most successful disruptive companies share their vision and move others to see it too. They’re marvellous storytellers, connecting with others who in turn connect with them. They inspire people
Share the truth
The disruptors share the reality. They are not afraid of the truth. In fact, what they fear most are hidden agendas, silos and the status quo. As in professional sport, they make sure the whole team knows whether they have won or lost and why. The focus is always on what is best for the business, even if getting to the marrow of this takes some tough conversations. The leaders insist that they be challenged. They embrace feedback and tap into the power of their people, because a good idea can come from anywhere.
Make the secret yours Technology gives us the power to communicate, collaborate and learn across great divides. Very few of us do this well. To prosper in today’s markets takes real teamwork, and we are just beginning to harness technology to this end. Beware those who see technology as an end itself. Technology is the vehicle. It is who you take along for the ride and how you use the technology to share the challenges and opportunities that makes the real difference. This is what it’s really all about.
Graham Winter is the best-selling author of Think One Team (Wiley $25.95) – thinkoneteam.com.
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FEATURES
WORKFORCE ANALYTICS
THE TIME HAS COME Employers can’t wait any longer to utilise workforce science and analytics. Leslie Breackell outlines why in this comprehensive guide to building a smarter workforce
IN A RECENT CIPD survey, 75% of all HR professionals commented that once they had attracted talent they struggled to keep it in their organisation. While there are a multitude of studies on the topic of talent retention, the estimated cost of losing talented individuals in your organisation can range from 30% to 400% of their annual earnings. Clearly, we know that losing talent costs
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our organisations significantly. So how can we get better at understanding the characteristics and levers that predict retention so we can intervene before someone leaves? The answer lies in predictive workforce analytics and knowing how to extract meaningful insights from data. Intuitively we understand what a great worker looks like, but what is it that really
makes them great? With analytics, you can pinpoint performance excellence and ensure continued success. Understanding analytics gives HR the power to influence the strategic decisions impacting on their company. However, we first have to take account of the context that our employees operate in today, and the expectations they have of their employers.
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Age of disruption Like most of the business world, the world of work is undergoing dramatic disruption and transformation. Technology has changed and continues to influence everything. As a result, the lines between our work and personal lives have blurred; the world is ‘always on’, and so our ‘return on time’ has become a primary currency – we want to make better decisions faster, and we want to bring our own insights to work. Because of these changes, employees have a new set of expectations, and in most businesses engaging these employees and meeting new expectations is key to success. Today employees want the freedom to work on their own terms, in a location of their own choosing, and from a device they prefer. The way they operate as consumers is how they expect to operate at work too. They still want 24/7 access to information, support and collaboration tools, in order to get the job done. Combine this with the ongoing battle for the best talent, and it’s clear that to attract, retain and motivate employees we need to understand more about our people. What is engaging employees, what is contributing to job satisfaction, what are the indicators of high
performance, and how do we prevent the avoidable attrition of top talent?
Building a smarter workforce At IBM we call this new paradigm a ‘Smarter Workforce’. This is a workforce characterised by the use of big data and analytics and resulting in what we call talent and workforce insights. This allows us to find
An estimated 60% of companies are investing in big data and analytics tools to help make their HR departments more data-driven, yet only 4% of companies have achieved the capability to use data to make predictions patterns in data; to predict and anticipate future outcomes; and to use this insight to engineer better decision-making. Today an estimated 60% of companies are investing in big data and analytics tools to help make their HR departments more data-driven, yet only 4% of companies have achieved the capability to use data to make predictions and take action on future
PRIMARY DRIVERS PROPELLING THE USE OF WORKFORCE ANALYTICS Labour market trends Regulatory and compliance issues
Workforce analytics
Pressing workforce challenges
EXTERNAL DRIVERS
INTERNAL DRIVERS
Shifts in strategic direction Company-wide analytics mandate and maturity
workforce issues – that’s about one in 25 companies. The majority of organisations (over 40%) are focused primarily on reporting and producing metrics for compliance purposes, and fielding ad hoc, historic data requests. The reality is that companies are spending up to two-thirds of their budgets on people, yet many companies are not investing the
Emerging data sources
Source: Unlock the People Equation, white paper, November 2014, IBM Institute for Business Value in conjunction with the IBM Smarter Workforce Institute
time and money to draw insight and really understand the data about these people, and how to leverage people in the best way. Organisations who do this right – who invest and leverage a Smarter Workforce approach – are achieving real outcomes. For example, Leo Burnett Worldwide, a global network of digital agencies, is using workforce analytics to better align the company vision to employee engagement, which has seen an increase from 75% to 88%. For the global network, this has meant lower staff turnover rates, which has had a flow-on effect in terms of cost savings for the business (see ‘Case study’ p45 for more information). By using analytics, Leo Burnett was able to link the work of employees to the culture and brand of the organisation, ultimately increasing engagement and reducing attrition.
What’s holding us back? So it’s clear there are some challenges here, and it begs the question: why are we not making better use of workforce analytics? There seem to be three key inhibitors. A recent study found that 38% of respondents felt it was due to a lack of understanding about how to use analytics to improve the business; 34% felt there was a lack of bandwidth to
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FEATURES
WORKFORCE ANALYTICS While all 10 steps are critical to success, most critically, HR leaders must undertake the following phases:
Set your direction At this initial stage you must establish a clear vision for the workforce analytics function. The vision should focus on supporting business outcomes such as growth, efficiency, productivity, profitability and risk management. The vision will set a clear direction for the workforce analytics team, as well as communicating the aims and objectives to those stakeholders outside of the core team. Once the vision is clearly set it should be tested with other business executives and refined as needed. Source: IBM
Define your approach focus on analytics due to competing priorities; and 28% agreed there was a lack of skills internally in the line of business.
Analytics can deliver a seat at the table However, if these barriers to adoption can be overcome, providing data and insights on people can have significant business benefits. Rather than HR being overwhelmed by data, today’s rapid developments in technology have opened up new analytic opportunities for them. It has become easy for ordinary people to use and make sense of data. New talent insights tools offer real innovation in areas that are important to HR teams in the following ways: 1. Information management enables the merging and integrating of data sources seamlessly across the HR function. 2. Visualisations allow HR leaders to present information with impact. 3. Cloud-based computing has enabled HR analytics to be accessible to broad audiences, with appropriate data-set restrictions by user. 4. Natural language interfaces now
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make the power of analytics available to those who are not trained in computer programming, enabling HR functions to analyse both structured and unstructured HR data. 5. Predictive modelling of HR data maximises accuracy of forecasting.
Action steps to start the journey HR leaders have struggled to find practical guidance on how to effectively implement workforce analytics. In an attempt to address these barriers IBM has developed a 10-step framework for embedding workforce analytics practices in HR. The goal is to provide a simple framework and practical guidance to both HR professionals and business leaders across the first 100 days (see ‘Implementation timeline’ p45). This timeframe of 100 days allows any new role or transformation to have an initial transition period, during which future intentions, initial impressions and expectations can be set in order to determine future success. Adopting this timeframe for analytics pilots can give HR leaders a way to observe and measure initial progress and increase the likelihood of future adoption across the function.
Agree with stakeholders how r e l i a b l e a n d a c c u rat e t h e organisation’s data is, and understand how important this is prior to any analysis, as perfect data sets are unrealistic. For both convenience and cost, it may be worth considering cloud-based technologies to deliver HR analytics software, where you pay for what you use with subscriptionbased pricing. Alternatively, you can consider using third-par ty ser vice providers where it makes sense – there are a few niche talent analytics software business partners in Australia that can help HR functions make the most out of their workforce by applying analytics. Using technology to enable effective storytelling will be a key part of a successful analytics enablement, and visualisation software can quickly help make sense of your data graphically at low cost, and help present a more compelling business case. Cloud technologies will allow access to cognitive computing techniques, where business managers may be able to query data sets with natural language such as ‘What is the attrition rate of my software developers by geographic region?’
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CASE STUDY: LEO BURNETT WORLDWIDE Leo Burnett Worldwide is a leading brand agency and one of the world’s largest and most awarded creative communications companies, with 96 offices in 84 countries. Leo Burnett employs more than 8,500 people worldwide and works with globally recognised brands such as McDonald’s and Kellogg’s. The agency wanted to analyse people surveys, strengthen its global workforce, drive revenue and increase retention. It wanted to transform the organisation and get people to live the brand and focus on a concept in their culture called ‘HumanKind’. At the core of this corporate culture was a focus on making an impact on the world, while being recognised as an employer of choice among global ad agencies. The HumanKind concept is also the way Leo Burnett articulates its people-focused way of thinking across the global network, driving each aspect of its business. To do this, Leo Burnett wanted a solution to measure the link between business outcomes and the extent to which each agency adopted the HumanKind philosophy and how it impacted on performance and employee engagement. With IBM, Leo Burnett implemented data analytics capabilities so it was able to find a way to link financial and creative results with the company’s overall vision and goals. As a result: • It achieved better alignment to the company’s vision, which in turn equalled better performance and faster growth. • It achieved rising employee engagement scores that linked back to better business results (financial performance went up; top talent retention went up, and they received more creative awards). • The highest-engaged agencies had lower turnover rates by 8.2%, which is a significant savings in an industry where turnover rates are significantly high. Through these results, Leo Burnett saw how analytics helped the company better connect people to the purpose; how its individual contribution matched the big picture – impacting on individuals, teams, the broader organisation and, beyond that, society. Grow your capability Finally, it will be worthwhile identifying HR analytics leaders with a strong mix of both operations and business experience. The analytics team will need a balance of skills, including HR knowledge, analysis expertise and consulting, and over time to build analytics projects that go beyond the traditional HR boundaries to
impact on the business and wider operating environment, and further demonstrate value to the business. Most of all, build momentum through effective communication and influence, supported by communication channels and key messages, so that success is clearly shared with business stakeholders. The huge potential impact of workforce analytics will begin to become clear as the
FIRST 100 DAYS IMPLEMENTATION TIMELINE Setting your direction
Defining your approach
1. Objectives 2. Governance 3. Quick win
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Growing your capability
4. Data 5. Technology 6. Partners
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The ongoing journey
7. Skills 8. Business plan 9. Momentum
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new function gets into its stride after the first 100 days. However, many of the steps outlined in the framework will continue to be highly relevant beyond the initial start-up phase. Most important is to remember that analytics has the potential to give HR an enhanced strategic role in helping the business grow and improve its operational effectiveness. The resulting insights can have a huge impact on the business and its workforce, and should not be underestimated. Sources: Bersin: High Impact Talent Analytics: Building a World Class HR Measurement
& Analytics Function, 2013; www.tanint.com/pdf/cost_of_losing_talent.pdf; Bersin: High Impact Talent Analytics: Building a World Class HR Measurement & Analytics Function, 2013;
10. Implement
90
100
IBM Smarter Workforce Institute: Starting the Workforce Analytics Journey: Your First 100 Days
Leslie Breackell is the client engagement leader – Australia/NZ at IBM Smarter Workforce,
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FEATURES
E-LEARNING
THE GIFT OF TIME HR professionals are typically overstretched and overworked, so any opportunity to save time should be embraced. E-learning might just be the solution to some of the time-consuming ‘necessary evils’ of business operation
LET’S FACE IT, meeting compliance obligations and induction training are not likely to be at the top of any HR professional’s ‘love’ list. Indeed, in HRD’s 2014 Global HR Survey, which asked over 4,000 HR professionals for their views on the profession, ‘identifying risks, regulating and ensuring compliance’ was listed as the second-biggest strategic priority facing Australian HRDs. Many respondents cited lack of time and resources as a key concern in this area. For HR professionals, who are already overstretched and underresourced, ensuring that employees are both inducted correctly and trained
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in compliance issues is just another timedraining exercise. Yet both exercises are a ‘necessary evil’ in business: better to do it, and do it well, than risk either non-compliance or poorly prepared new employees. For Chris Erickson, senior trainer at MicroWay, the reluctance to embrace anything related to compliance comes down to the sheer time and effort required to implement and maintain effective systems to present the relevant content and courses to employees, while also ensuring it is traceable for auditing and reporting purposes.
“There’s usually a very good reason the compliance requirements exist – and if it can be done efficiently and effectively there is a net benefit to the organisation with better-trained personnel too,” he says. He adds that for induction training it’s a “mixed bag” in terms of what employers are doing. “It’s always a constant battle for time and human resources, and in many instances it’s highly repetitive – screaming out for some level of reuse and automation,” he says. In short, both exercises – induction training and compliance training – are crying out for e-learning.
Journey to now Since e-learning’s infancy a decade ago, its growth has been rapid – Erickson likens it to a “snowball effect”. “The current generation of HR managers are well aware of it and many have experienced it as they’ve entered new organisations or followed this growing and obvious industry trend. The efficiencies and benefits are becoming well known,” he confirms. However, there have been significant changes during e-learning’s evolution. In the past, most e-learning solutions were developed by external consultants and service providers because the technologies and tools used to build courses were very specialised and in many cases required programming skills. However, this has changed dramatically with the introduction of software like Articulate STORYLINE 2 (articulate.com), which makes authoring e-learning courses easy enough that staff can build courses using a familiar, PowerPoint-like environment with a few extra elements related to the interactive nature of e-learning. This means it’s easy for a company’s in-house subject matter experts and training teams to produce exactly what they need, when they need it – from the training content itself, through to tests, quizzes or surveys (used to reinforce and confirm understanding). Articulate STORYLINE 2 is the multiaward-winning, industry-leading e-learning authoring tool that has played a significant role in enabling the rapid growth of the sector due to its ease of use.
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Natural bedfellows Erickson believes compliance and induction training are a natural fit with e-learning, particularly when combined with a learning management system (LMS) that provides full access control, allocation, traceability and collation of results for individuals and courses. “Because compliance and induction training always lend themselves to ongoing reusability and often require regular changes and updates, it’s important to ensure this can be achieved quickly,” Erickson says. “E-learning is the ultimate format for both aspects.” Courses produced using Articulate STORYLINE 2 are SCORM, Tin-Can/xAPI compliant – the well-established protocols that mean the courses can be loaded into almost any LMS. This means that regardless of whether an organisation already has an LMS or plans to implement one at a later stage, the content built using STORYLINE 2 will almost certainly work with that LMS.
Time saver Finding a suitable time to complete any form of training can be challenging, particularly for some professionals/roles and where there are large numbers of staff involved. The classic example is induction training when multiple new staff or contractors are joining an organisation. However, there is a component of most induction training that could be completed at home by new starters prior to day one. E-learning allows this to occur. With a link to the content in an email and with the right systems in place, individuals progress through the content, while a collation of their quiz/test/survey results can be used to reinforce and confirm understanding of the content. “In many ways it’s a far more efficient and effective way than providing simple documents,” says Erickson. Importantly, e-learning is an easy way to connect with younger employees (Millennials or Generation Y), who have an inherent desire to interact using mobile technologies – especially in BYOD environments. This blurring of the boundaries between work and social has been leveraged and embraced by some organisations
WHY E-LEARNING? Chris Erickson outlines some key benefits of e-learning: More effective learning techniques. E-learning opens up several powerful options for enhancing learning. In addition to all the different ways content can be presented (ie slides, videos, photo-realistic characters interacting to give real-life context to the text or audio), there are also a wide range of quiz/test/survey options that go far beyond the traditional short-answer or multichoice methods. Simulations involve creating interactive courses, which emulate a system or process. This allows users to learn to use and interact within a safe environment. Gamification is a popular technique in which fun and highly interactive game-like content is created. Research indicates these techniques are very effective at getting learners engaged and improving information retention. 24/7 availability. The content can be viewed and completed anytime, anywhere – which can be more than just a convenience where different time zones are involved. Self-paced. Individuals learn and operate at different speeds and some may already be experienced in some of the topics. E-learning allows individuals to complete modules at their own pace, reducing delays and frustration for those who are able to complete them more quickly, which ultimately leads to productivity gains. Automatic record-keeping. With the right systems in place, much of the burden of maintaining records and auditing happens automatically with e-learning. as it provides them with a flexible workforce willing to interact and complete tasks at times well outside business hours. This also dovetails with the 24/7 availability of e-learning, as commutes to and from work on public transport – now often with free wi-fi – provide a new time window for some employees to complete courses. “A key technology change caused by the rapid spread of mobile devices was the elevation of HTML5 as the primary and preferred format for content on the web and within many mobile applications,” Erickson explains. “Since Apple iOS devices, including the iPad and iPhone, don’t display Flash content [the previously dominant multimedia format] all modern content needs to be in the HTML5 format. HTML5 content is significantly smaller in terms of data size and is much more efficient for bandwidth requirements and device power consumption – important considerations when using content on mobile networks.” Articulate STORYLINE 2 publishes courses in the HTML5 format. This means the courses can be viewed and completed on almost any modern device, including phones, tablets,
notebooks or desktop machines. Because e-learning content is based on modern web technologies, it also allows for the integration of links to external resources – including social tools. For example, Erickson notes that using YouTube to host and serve streaming videos used in courses is a common and effective way to educate employees. Articulate STORYLINE 2 makes this very easy to do. The end result is not just informed and compliant employees but also cost savings. All of the benefits above lead to a net cost and resource savings, especially when the e-learning can be built and maintained in-house by existing staff and training units. Consider that for a moment: compliant employees and costeffective and highly efficient training. What HR professional wouldn’t want that for their organisation? MicroWay Pty Ltd specialises in e-learning authoring tools that enable trainers and their organisations to produce and manage highly effective e-learning courses. MicroWay is the Articulate authorised reseller for Australia and New Zealand and can assist with licensing and pricing locally. Visit microway.com.au, email sales@microway. com.au or phone 1300 553 313 (Aust) or 0800 450 168 (NZ).
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FEATURES
RECRUITMENT
MORE THAN JUST A JOB INTERVIEW A new report from LinkedIn has highlighted just how critical a positive candidate experience is for any potential employee. Jason Laufer reports on what candidates expect in 2015
THE GROWTH of new sectors such as digital, big data, user experience design, social and mobile are driving the demand for strong job opportunities. Not all of this talent is actively looking. LinkedIn’s annual Talent Trends research reveals that 69% of Australian professionals are currently passive and are interested in hearing from a recruiter even if they are satisfied with their current roles. It is also interesting to note that Australian jobseekers need more than just a promise of monetary gain when planning to move roles. Now, the candidate experience is as important as remuneration.
Monetary gain is less important for career-driven candidates Although financial compensation is still very important and cited by 41% of survey respondents as the number one factor when considering a new role, other elements of a new job prospect are increasingly becoming key considerations. A better work-life balance is now considered the second most important element for candidates at 36%, and a good company culture is third at 29%. We have seen an increasing number of companies adapting to meet these needs, making a greater effort in terms of work culture to better attract great talent. We all want to work for a company that
69% OF THE WORKFORCE IN AUSTRALIA IS PASSIVE TALENT Passive 69% Active 31%
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THE REASON WHY RECRUITERS REACH OUT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ROLE SENIORITY IN AN INITIAL MESSAGE ABOUT A POSITION Role seniority Company mission
An executive
31%
Why you’re reaching out
The prospective manager Team member
25%
Role responsibilities
WHO TALENT WANT TO MEET ON INTERVIEW DAY
71% 77%
has a reputation of being a great employer, so a strong talent brand can help companies diminish some of the compensation pressures they may be facing. In order to attract and retain the best talent, recruiters need to think like marketers, aligning their company brand to their talent brand and ensuring the sense of company culture is evident when pursuing new talent.
Interviewee becomes the interviewer Candidates are also using the interview process to size up their potential employers as much as companies are using interviews to vet potential employees. Interviewees expressed that they predominantly wanted to meet their prospective manager during interviewing, with over two-thirds (70%) of professionals wanting to meet their future manager during an interview and 57% saying a postinterview follow-up made for a great interview experience. As much as the interview is a time for the employer to assess the employee, the report discovered that the interview is viewed as an opportunity to also assess the new role, culture and management team. Seventy-six
Recruiter
Others
70%
11% 6% 5% 3%
per cent of candidates in the report said the interview experience was a major factor in deciding whether they joined the organisation or continued their job search journey. Impressions following the interview are just as important for the interviewee as it is for the interviewer. We know that talent uses the interview time to evaluate senior management, but our recent research also found that 52% use the time to get business questions answered and 46% of the talent uses this precious time to veto the company’s culture. I see this as an opportunity for companies to provide more information prior to the interview process via their social channels so candidates can come in with a better idea of the company culture rather than having to form an opinion during the interview.
Feedback is key Candidates are increasingly demanding realtime feedback following their interviews. The report discovered that 94% of Australian professionals want to receive interview feedback in order to assess their own performance but also to gain insight as to what is important at each organisation.
WHAT MAKES A GREAT INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE Receiving post-interview follow-up
57%
Getting business questions answered
52%
Experiencing company culture
46%
Having a conversation with leadership
45%
Having clear logistics (time, locations) in advance
41%
Interestingly, however, only 53% of respondents said they had received interview feedback. Offering interview feedback to talent is one way to show that organisations care about their professional success – regardless of whether they end up working with them. Overall, we’re seeing that in order to ensure talent acquisition proves fruitful for recruiters and jobseekers, the candidate experience needs to highlight the talent brand of the company. Management or senior leadership members need to become part of the interview process, and feedback following the interview is essential. Organisations need to adopt a candidatefirst philosophy. A strong first impression followed by subtle levels of attentiveness will make a difference. The organisations that win top talent today are the ones that know how to surprise and delight their candidates throughout their job search journey.
Jason Laufer is LinkedIn’s director of talent solutions ANZ.
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24/09/2015 2:41:09 PM
FEATURES
GENDER EQUALITY
THE SAME BUT DIFFERENT Avril Henry’s latest book looks at gender equality through a generational lens – and finds some surprising attitudes IN LATE 2014, I had the pleasure of interviewing 91 successful women from 10 countries across four generations, with the purpose of uncovering their stories of unfair treatment based on their gender – an experience rarely, if ever, experienced by men. I asked what women thought about their selfimposed obstacles, and what men could do to support women at work. The intent was to compile a book not about problems and what’s wrong with women, but rather to reveal practical strategies for creating solutions and change management options for creating gender equality for all, women and men. This is not about fixing women – women don’t need fixing; the system and our attitudes do! The result is a blueprint for organisations and individuals, men and women, who want to change the status quo regarding gender equality or the lack thereof, and how to do that.
What different generations think men need to do It is interesting to look at the differences between generations in terms of what women want men to do. Older, wiser women (the veterans and baby boomers who have seen and experienced much in the workplace)
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believe that senior male leaders need to be courageous, changing the culture to be more gender-diversity friendly without being afraid of going against the flow, publicly rewarding those men and women who actively implement diversity, while taking timely, corrective action against those who discriminate against women and engage in sexual harassment and bullying at work. Generation X put it simply and concisely as only their generation do, telling senior male leaders to simply ‘change your mindset and how you see women at work’. The international contributors and Australian Generation Ys have said: ‘Promote more women’. Generation Y expect and will demand that senior management ‘provide equal pay for the same roles, regardless of gender’. If you can’t do this they are almost certain to leave, and quickly, going to another organisation or setting up their own businesses. Note the increasing number of young female entrepreneurs right around the globe today setting up their own businesses, as they do not fear failure to the same degree as earlier generations of women. And they will tell everyone on social media why they left and how you ‘suck’ as an organisation and you personally as a leader.
Do Generation X and Y women have different expectations? Generation X are more sceptical, though they would challenge me and say they are simply more realistic than the overly optimistic Generation Ys and accommodating baby boomers. Generation X believe that women need to challenge the status quo, something baby boomers were reluctant to do as they found it was easier and less confrontational to ‘fit in’ to a male construct. Generation X women also believe they need to define success on their own terms, which may or may not include combining a career with a family. Many women of this generation delayed childbirth to establish their careers first, as this often gave them greater bargaining power when they returned to work regarding their return-to-work conditions. Generation Y want equality at work and in society, and equal pay.
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I found it fascinating how many women have been counselled by other women to temper their ambitions or to be less outspoken, such as the advice received by Anna Bligh during her political career. The Boys Club thrives because men look after each other, and while they still compete with each other, they also look out for each other.
Diversity is part of the business strategy
Women need to support women The one thing on which women agreed 100%, regardless of generation, cultural background or profession, is that women need to support and help other women. Sheryl Sandberg, in a 2013 interview, made a point strongly about this issue of women supporting each other: “One of the most important things women can do working together is to make clear that every bit of work a woman does – whether it’s in the home, in the school, in the community, or in the workplace – is valued as much as the work that men do. Across the board, we are not there.” Throughout my career, I found among some professional women what I describe as a ‘scarcity mentality’, ie ‘there is not enough room for more than one of us here (at the top)’, ‘the pie is not big enough’, ‘I don’t need competition; it was hard enough getting to the top without having to worry about other women’.
Implementation of gender equality across the globe has been stop-start-stop, ticking off compliance checklists and completing compulsory reporting. Real sustainable change has been less than forthcoming. Gender diversity programs aren’t enough on their own. While they provide the initial start, all too often enthusiasm wanes and old habits resurface. In my view, ‘big, bold’ diversity strategies which are separate to the business strategy may win awards, but unless they are integrated into the business strategy and culture of the organisation, it will never be ‘how we do things around here’. Senior males need to take action, not simply talk about gender equality. Small, practical, incremental changes done consistently will create a tipping point until gender is no longer a separate ‘special’ issue. Making people and diversity part of your senior leadership team’s regular business agenda and strategic planning meetings, with equal importance as clients, products and services, technology, operations and risk management, validates people as the organisation’s number one priority. Have the uncomfortable conversations at the leadership table that identify the pragmatic actions that can improve the organisation’s efforts to develop and retain women leaders. The good news is that the rewards are a stronger, more committed workforce that is utilising all the available talent across the economy, and will deliver financial benefits.
Does respect matter to you? I believe that, as a leader, when you take care of the people the profits will follow, but it requires that you take care of all of the people,
THE INEQUALITY CONTINUES… The Gender Indicators series from the ABS includes data from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s world-leading data set for the first time, showing a stark imbalance between women and men at senior levels of the workforce. Data released in August shows that men outnumber women: In organisational leadership roles: 82.7% of CEOs of non-public sector organisations are men. In parliament: 69.5% of federal parliamentarians are men. On government boards: 60.3% of members of Commonwealth boards and bodies are men. On the bench: 65.4% of Commonwealth judges and magistrates are men. In public recognition: 75% of recipients of Companion or Officer of the Order of Australia are men. At the same time, the data shows higher levels of educational engagement and achievement among women than men, including 34.2% of women aged 18–24 enrolled in a bachelor’s degree or above, compared with 25% of men. not just a select group! We have entered the era of mutual respect at work. How respectful are you of women – as another woman? How respectful are you of women – as a senior male leader? Does respect matter to you? As leaders we have the power to change and keep moving forward to a more inclusive future. In the words of the great Martin Luther King, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (1963). I feel the same about equality: inequality anywhere is a threat to equality everywhere. Avril Henry is an executive coach, keynote speaker, author and MD of Avril Henry & Associates, a leadership and management consulting business. Her latest book is Leadership Revelations III: How We Achieve The Gender Tipping Point. Visit avrilhenry.com.au.
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FEATURES
PEOPLE MANAGEMENT
ADAPT OR DIE: HOW GEN Y IS CHANGING THE WAY WE LEAD Gabrielle Dolan provides tips for leading what will soon become the dominant generation in the workforce – and busts some myths in the process LIKE IT or not, Generation Y is changing the way we lead. By 2020, the majority of the workforce will be comprised of Generation Y. Consequently, current leaders need to adapt, or they run the risk of becoming outmoded. Many senior leaders I work with tell me that one of their biggest challenges is to manage and lead Generation Y. Generation Y encompasses people born between 1980 and 1995 (although some ranges include people born as late as the early 2000s). The label followed on from the previous generation’s label of Gen X, and while it is commonly used, this group is often also referred to as Millennials or the ‘dotcom’ generation. If you’re wondering why the classification for generations went from ‘baby boomers’ to ‘X’, it’s due to Canadian author Douglas Coupland and his book Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. The book was ironically about a generation that defied labels by stating, ‘Just call us X’. Seeing that Generation Y isn’t going away, judging them will not help. We need to understand them and adjust the way we
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lead them accordingly, in order to guide organisations that flourish.
They have great expectations Generation Y wants to be challenged; they want to be inspired and they will not accept the status quo. It’s this innate sense of curiosity and their ability to question tradition that has given them the moniker ‘generation why’. With so many options available to this generation, if leaders are not providing a workplace that challenges and inspires them, they will seek to work somewhere that does. This generation has different expectations and beliefs about what they want out of work from their employers. Yes, they want to achieve and be rewarded financially, but it is not just about that. They are looking for greater fulfilment, more personal development, and opportunities to cultivate a well-rounded life. More importantly, they genuinely want to make a difference and therefore take corporate responsibility very seriously.
Aaron is an example of this. He is a lawyer who worked for a global consulting firm for five years. The incentive for the long hours that came with the role was the possibility of a very highly paid job. But he told me that he came to realise that nothing about the senior partner’s life was attractive to him. Yes, they earned a lot of money, but he decided he wanted more than that. He is still a lawyer but now works for a company that has a purpose that he fully believes in. Companies and leaders need to find ways to meet the demands of this generation’s expectations or they will risk losing them.
They are loyal Due to their tendency to change companies at a much faster rate than previous generations, Generation Y has at times been unfairly labelled as disloyal. However, they are simply responding to the environment
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to be more real. This generation is screaming out for leaders to be more real – and they are getting a lot of support from the members of other generations, who see the value in people who lead with authenticity and transparency.
They want to have fun
A mindset of ‘If you’re having fun you can’t be working’ will not serve you well if you are leading this generation they were raised in. Many members of Generation Y saw their parents lose their jobs in the recession of the late 1980s and early 1990s after decades of service. After witnessing the fallout from these job losses, they are not inclined to provide the same level of loyalty to companies that their parents did. When their earliest exposure to the business environment has taught them that the world offers little job security, can you blame them for changing roles more frequently than previous generations? However, just because they are more likely to change employers (the average
employee tenure in 1960 was 15 years; today it is four), this should not be seen as a sign of disloyalty. Gen Ys are loyal. They are loyal to friends and they are loyal to brands. You only have to be outside an Apple store the day before a new iPhone is released to see evidence of this loyalty in the queues that snake down the street and around the block. Leaders need to make Generation Ys feel valued. They need to be more inclusive and transparent in the way they communicate and lead. They need to provide more regular feedback to this generation than they provided to previous generations. They need
Generation Y employees expect to enjoy their jobs. The thought of staying in jobs they hate is absurd to them, and you really can’t blame them. A mindset of ‘If you’re having fun you can’t be working’ will not serve you well if you are leading this generation. When it comes to having fun at work, I think we can learn some important lessons from the Danes. Many words exist in one language and not in another language. One such word exists in the Danish language but not in English – arbejdsglæde. Arbejde means ‘work’ and glæde means ‘happiness’, so arbejdsglæde is ‘happiness at work’. This word also exists in the other Nordic languages but does not exist in any other language group. As a leader, you don’t have to turn into a stand-up comic, but thinking that you can’t have fun at work is misguided and, I would argue, not realistic. This approach normally comes from a leader who is perhaps trying to be the serious boss they think they are expected to be. Being a strict, staid boss is an outdated concept. Being more relaxed and open to the concept of fun is more real and gives you a greater chance of connecting and engaging the hearts and minds of the people that work for you. Generation Y are changing the leadership game. They are looking for leaders who are more collaborative, flexible and inclusive. They are looking for leaders who are more real. Leaders need to adapt to this style or die.
Gabrielle Dolan works across corporate Australia helping leaders humanise the way the lead by being more ‘real’. Her latest book, Ignite: Real Leadership, Real Talk, Real Results, is available online at all major retailers. To find out more, head to www.gabrielledolan.com.
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PEOPLE
IN PERSON
“We need to get to the core of the issue; we need to promote IT university programs to high school and even primary school children”
MICHELLE RIDSDALE Michelle Ridsdale, people director at software development company Readify, is responsible for 204 employees. She talks to HRD about unique recruitment practices and the challenge of boosting the female workforce in her industry
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HRD: How did you first enter the HR profession and what initially drew you to it? Michelle Ridsdale: I started my career in office management and practice management in hospitals. I then entered HR at PricewaterhouseCoopers, so it was an unusual path to take. I went in as an HR consultant for the support services staff, and I guess what drew me to that was I’d been so focused on office and admin management and it seemed like the natural next step. It also allowed me to focus on post-grad studies in HR. HRD: Does Readify have to compete with the other tech companies out there? What puts you ahead of the pack? MR: We are and we aren’t [competing]. Readify only employs the top 5% of applicants.
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Last year we employed 60-odd software developers. We have a very rigorous recruitment program whereby candidates must go through the online code assessment. So while we’re competing for talent we only take the top talent, which means we’re limited in the people we can take. There is also a shortage of talent generally in the sector across Australia. HRD: How does the online code assessment work? MR: Candidates log on to the website and they are given a unique token which identifies them once they submit their results. They go through an online assess ment. Once they pass that, they have the option to submit their details. We then organise a two-hour technical interview for them, which is also conducted online. It’s not until they pass that that they meet HR and state managers. What that means is that we don’t know where they’re from in terms of gender or ethnicity or anything like that. It’s as close to a non-biased recruitment process as you can get. HRD: Gender diversity has been a major issue for software developers. What is your view? MR: We need to get to the core of the issue; we need to promote IT university programs to females at high school and even earlier at primary school. We need to engage the educators in this and get them more aware of what’s available and the opportunities for kids regardless of gender. We’re partnering with universities so that a broader discussion can be held around talent in the IT industry. HRD: Why do you feel women are not interested in this industry? MR: When I talk to teenage girls who are starting to pick their electives in Year 10, even my stepdaughter, she’s asks, ‘Why would I do technology? It’s for geeky boys’. It’s not seen as a cool thing in primary school. Educators are still taking a genderspecific focus with the STEM subjects; they still think girls are more suited to the humanities subjects.
HRD: Has Readify set gender-related goals or targets? MR: It’s really an ongoing project. Setting targets will set us up to fail because we first of all need to get some of these initiatives up and running and make sure we’re partnering with the right organisations to drive this. It’s a government and social issue: how do we change the curriculum; how do we educate the educators? It’s a far-reaching issue and it can’t be done just by Readify – we’re one piece in a far bigger puzzle. HRD: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received, and can you apply it to your work life? MR: Firstly, we can all get caught up in the day-to-day and get very busy, but it’s thinking about your top three things: what are the top three things that will make a real difference to your business, or your personal life, this week? Secondly, give yourself enough time to be successful. Take the time to think about what’s going on around you, in the industry, in the office – and take some time. We can all get caught up in emails and meetings and not allow time just to take a look at the bigger picture. HRD: Finish this sentence: ‘What I enjoy most about HR is…’ MR: The changing nature of HR and really being involved in the business and being part of the business – it’s the commercially focused HR that I love. HRD: Finish this sentence: ‘What I enjoy least about HR is...’ MR: There’s still a lot of traditional HR models out there, and the perception of HR can be that it’s not commercial. That’s just not the case. If you are ahead of the game and you have a seat at the table, it’s just not like that. That perception tarnishes the profession. HRD: What do you enjoy doing outside of work? MR: I love camping, the outdoors, fishing. I also love cooking and experimenting with different types of food.
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MICHELLE RIDSDALE’S CAREER TIMELINE 1998–2001 HR consultant, PricewaterhouseCoopers
Qualifications 2001–2003 Postgrad, business, human resources, Swinburne University of Technology Jan 2003–Nov 2004 Business partner, Country Road
Aug 2007–Oct 2009 General manager, finance & administration, Watermark – Intellectual Asset Management
Aug 2011–Oct 2012 Manager, diversity, Swinburne University of Technology
Aug 2001–Nov 2004 Regional (Oceania) HR consultant, Agfa HealthCare
Nov 2004–Aug 2007 HR manager, Freehills
Oct 2009–Aug 2011 Manager, employee relations, and manager, diversity & inclusion, KPMG
Feb 2013–present People director, Readify
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PEOPLE
HEAD TO HEAD
GOT AN OPINION THAT COUNTS? Email hrd_editor@keymedia.com.au
What innovative benefits or rewards programs are employers implementing?
Megan Bromley (Former) head of employee experience RedBalloon
Puneet Swani Information solutions & rewards practice leader Mercer
During my time at RedBalloon, one of my favourite things to do was to ensure that we really got to know our people. Not just through their job titles and role expectations, but through the big and the little things, including what their dreams were. One of the ways we brought this to life was through our ‘dream catcher’ program. When all employees started, they filled out their dream catcher list – a list of anything and everything – from first-class holidays to volunteering overseas, and owning a surfboard to dining at a top Sydney restaurant. So every month we made one RedBallooner’s dream come true through our monthly Oscar program, which is awarded monthly to the RedBallooner who clearly embodies and has demonstrated living one of the RedBalloon values.
Employers are taking a broader perspective when considering how benefits are defined and thinking beyond traditional benefits such as health insurance and retirement provisions. To better attract, motivate and retain talent, they are offering a range of innovative and creative benefits, which Mercer categorises into four areas: 1. ‘Trendy’ facilities and services such as gyms, fully stocked pantries, games and nap rooms. 2. Broader employee welfare options. For example, massage, concierge services, access to social networks, relaxed dress codes and BYOD (bring your own device). 3. Non-financial rewards – such as karaoke sessions and overseas incentive trips. 4. Productivity-related rewards – two favourites are innovation days, when employees take a break from day-to-day responsibilities to work on special projects or brainstorm blue-sky ways of working; and the provision of unlimited annual leave.
David Hood Country retail manager IKEA Australia In late 2014, IKEA Australia announced the sum of the global funding being contributed towards its employee loyalty program, ‘Tack!’ [Swedish for ‘Thank you’]. The program allows all of IKEA’s international workers who have served five or more years of employment to claim a share of the global funding. Each full-time employee of IKEA Australia is entitled to $3,384 from this year’s contribution, as long as they have been working for the organisation for at least half a decade. All employees who work a full business year with IKEA will have an allocation set aside for them, which will be paid towards their superannuation after five years of service. This is something that can only strengthen our relationship with our people. The aim of Tack! is to build something for the future and give something back to our people by building a long-term relationship with employees.
CREATIVE BENEFITS According to Mercer’s annual Total Remuneration Survey, while salary levels across Asia-Pacific have increased they remain 10% lower than pre-GFC. With budgets under scrutiny, companies are unlikely to increase salaries and may look at creative benefits to make up for this: 60% of organisations said they were looking at reviewing their benefits.
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