Human Resources Director 14.09

HIGH-END HR Recruitment tips from HUGO BOSS

HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTOR HCAMAG.COM ISSUE 14.9

THINKING OUTSIDE OF THE SILO The Ulrich model’s next iteration FUTURE OF WORK Assessing speed to capability, risk and cost in a new era

2016 HR SALARY &Remuneration JOBSbenchmarking GUIDE for you and your team

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EDITORIAL www.hcamag.com SEPTEMBER 2O16 EDITORIAL

SALES & MARKETING

Editor Iain Hopkins

Marketing & Communications Manager Lisa Narroway

Journalists John Hilton Miklos Bolza Production Editor Roslyn Meredith

ART & PRODUCTION

Business Development Managers James Francis Steven McDonald Dale Ashworth

CORPORATE

Design Manager Daniel Williams

Chief Executive Officer Mike Shipley

Designer Marla Morelos

Chief Operating Officer George Walmsley

Traffic Coordinator Freya Demegilio

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

EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES iain.hopkins@keymedia.com.au

SUBSCRIPTION ENQUIRIES tel: +61 2 8011 4992 subscriptions@keymedia.com.au

EXPERIENCE REALLY DOES MATTER FOR A recent interview I went to the new and gleaming office space of a start-up financial services firm. Purely in terms of physical appearance, it ticked all the boxes: open plan, office dog, pool table, coffee maker, and even staff trained as baristas.

Clearly a lot of money had been spent to present a certain image to visitors. However, it took me just 15 minutes to sense that something was ‘off ’. People weren’t smiling. The company representatives I was talking to seemed on edge. More disturbingly, the HR manager seemed petrified of saying the wrong thing. Even more damningly, the office, for all its perks, seemed soulless.

The soul of a workplace – if such a thing exists – is about the people who work there. A workplace without a soul cannot call itself ‘peoplecentred’. It reminded me of the concept emerging in workplaces today called ‘employee experience’. The physical environment is a major part of the employee experience, but it’s not the only part.

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Human Resources Director is part of an international family of B2B publications and websites for the human resources industry HRD MAGAZINE CANADA iain.hopkins@keymedia.com.au T +61 2 8437 4703 HRD MAGAZINE SINGAPORE hrdmag.com.sg HC AUSTRALIA ONLINE hcamag.com HRM NEW ZEALAND hrmonline.co.nz

It took me just 15 minutes to sense that something was ‘off ’. People weren’t smiling The employee experience is the view that everything is connected within an organisation and everything has meaning within the workplace. What role does HR play in such an organisation? It is HR’s job to ensure the sum total of all these meaningful events, practices and processes come together to bring home high performance.

The best example is Airbnb, which recently redefined its HR function.

Mark Levy was appointed to the new role of chief employee experience officer. His role oversees and connects everything the company does with its “workplace as an experience” vision, which is central to its culture and customer-centric approach. Levy’s role combines traditional HR functions of recruiting and talent development with marketing, real estate, facilities, social responsibility and communications. If Levy was in charge of that start-up I visited, the physical ‘look’ of the office would have been just one component of his efforts to create the ultimate employee experience.

Importantly, the employee experience approach is at the core of business success and can be applied within all workplaces – not just those funky tech companies with plenty of money to spend.

Iain Hopkins, editor

Copyright is reserved throughout. No part of this publication can be reproduced in whole or part without the express permission of the editor. Contributions are invited, but copies of work should be kept, as HRD Magazine can accept no responsibility for loss.

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SEPTEMBER 2016

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

CONTENTS 46

HRDirector_au +Hcamag HumanResourcesDirector

UPFRONT 01 Editorial

Can your company benefit from enhancing the employee experience?

04 The data

A new report features everything HR professionals need to align worker salaries to the market FEATURES

18 COVER STORY

THE FUTURE OF WORK

Our guide to how you’ll source talent, what you will pay for it and what it will do for your business

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2016 HR SALARY & JOBS GUIDE

The 2016–17 HR jobs market will be both good and bad, depending on which side of the employer/candidate fence you currently sit. Find out what’s in store for you and your team in HRD’s annual Salary and Jobs Guide PEOPLE

HIGH-END HR Finding, recruiting and retaining great talent is a universal problem, even for world-renowned brands like HUGO BOSS

06 News analysis

C

Despite the Ulrich model being fundamental to HR for over 15 years, like all business structures and functions, it too must evolve

08 Upfront: Legal

‘Gig economy’ to bring new legal risks

10 Upfront: Technology

What can HR do with the office technophobe?

PEOPLE 12 Head to head FEATURES

A NEW ERA FOR PUBLIC SECTOR CHROs

A new ‘success profile’ is showing the way forward for public sector CHROs

Should there be more senior HR directors on corporate boards?

56 Other life

The CEO of Rawson Group, one of NSW/ACT’s largest home builders, gets away from it all by taking to the sea

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F

FEATURES

TIME FOR CHANGE

Enterprise bargaining reform must enhance productivity, writes Anthony Wood

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STATISTICS

SEPTEMBER 2016

REMUNERATION & SALARY REVIEW

WPI, EC AND CPI: THE KEY ELEMENTS DRIVING REMUNERATION

A new report features everything HR professionals need to align worker salaries to the market MONEY MAKES the world go round and the HR field is no different. Getting salaries right is key to both attracting and retaining the right workers, so keeping an eye on market conditions is absolutely essential. According to data from a recent Mercer survey, the Australian market actually remains relatively stable despite the doom and gloom of Brexit, the US election and other global events.

For the past six months, salary movements for incumbent workers have remained steady

2.3%

Remuneration sentiment index which measures feeling of remuneration and the job market

at 3.0% across the country. However, certain industries have fared better than others, with employees in banking and finance, the high-tech industry, life sciences and certain manufacturing sectors receiving above-average salary increases. At the other end of the scale, mining & metals and retail & wholesale both experienced below-average salary movements.

Here is an outline of other remuneration trends in Australia over the past year.

3.1%

4.6%

GAUGING AUSTRALIAN SALARY INCREASES

Consumer goods Energy

28% 33%

32%

Retails & wholesale Services (non-financial)

38% 34%

31%

Note: Numbers may not total 100% due to rounding

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Stable2 Contraction3

15% 34%

32% 90%

6% 3% 38%

Expansion1

61%

48%

Other manufacturing

46% 32%

35%

23% 48%

16%

High-tech Life sciences

26%

2.0%

WPI March 20161

EC increase (August 2016)2

South Australia

2.2%

3.5%

WPI March 20161

EC increase (August 2016)2

Movement in employment costs for executives remaining in the same position (same incumbents)

In August, 46% of individuals received an above-market salary increase over the previous six months. This was up from the 41% measured in July, meaning that for two months in a row the percentage of employees experiencing higher than market increases was greater than those at or below market conditions.

Overall

2.0%

3.0%

Seasonally adjusted GDP in March 2016

Increase in starting rates for new executive hires

Western Australia

20%

1

Number of individuals

receiving above-market salary increases 2

Number of individuals

receiving salary increases in

30%

line with the market 3

Number of individuals

receiving below-market salary increases

SALARY RANGES FOR HR PROFESSIONALS The latest Hudson report, compiled from sources across Australia, shows the average salary ranges for select senior HR professionals. These are base salary approximations and exclude extras such as superannuation, bonuses, incentive schemes or stock options.

HR director/general manager Senior HR manager HR manager Senior HR business partner HR business partner/ consultant OD manager L&D manager Remuneration & benefits manager ER/IR manager

$180,000–$350,000 $160,000–$300,000 $120,000–$200,000 $140,000–$180,000 $90,000–$140,000 $130,000–$200,000 $130,000–$160,000 $120,000–$180,000 $120,000–$180,000 Source: 2016 Hudson Salary Guide: Human Resources

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CONSUMER PRICE INDEX*

Northern Territory

2.1%

3.0%

WPI March 20161

EC increase (August 2016)2

Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth Hobart Darwin Canberra

Queensland

1.9%

3.0%

WPI March 20161

EC increase (August 2016)2

0.9 1.4 1.5 0.7 0.5 1.2 0.0 0.8 *Change by location, year to June 2016

New South Wales

2.1%

3.0%

WPI March 20161

EC increase (August 2016)2

Victoria

Tasmania

2.2%

3.0%

WPI March 20161

EC increase (August 2016)2

2.4%

3.1%

WPI March 20161

EC increase (August 2016)2

Australian Capital Territory

1.8%

3.5%

WPI March 20161

EC increase (August 2016)2 WPI = Wage Price Index Annual change in wage and salary costs for employees

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Employment cost (EC) includes base salary, cash allowances, benefits and fringe benefits tax (FBT) but excludes variable reward

2

PRACTISING FLEXIBILITY Employers are thinking beyond remuneration and are now considering total rewards packages including L&D offerings and other benefits. According to Mercer’s 2016 Australian Benefits Survey, 62% of organisations have flexible work practices, policies and initiatives in place and an additional 16% are in the midst of developing them for the workforce. The study found a clear trend towards accommodating different lifestyles and ensuring employee needs are met even at the highest levels.

No flexible working hours offered

2% 1%

Time off in lieu

63%

65% 71% 70%

Incidental flexitime

Compressed working week

18% 16% 8%

Rostered day off

12%

Job sharing

Management

53%

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4. ‘Lunch ’n Learn’ sessions with lunch provided

22%

Part-time employment

0

3. Free boot camps, yoga or Pilates classes

Senior executives

11%

20

30

40 % of organisations

50

66%

60

As competition ramps up, more organisations are trying to think outside of the box with regard to benefits. Will these more creative ideas fit in with your firm?

1. Summer hours (eg finishing work at 3pm on Fridays in the summer) 2. Sleep pods

59% 58%

Ongoing flexitime

TOP FIVE MOST INNOVATIVE BENEFITS FOR 2016

70

80

5. Healthy lunch day or healthy lifestyle reimbursement *all statistics sourced from Mercer’s 2016 Australian Benefits Review except where otherwise noted

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UPFRONT

NEWS ANALYSIS

THINKING OUTSIDE OF THE SILO Despite the Ulrich model being fundamental to HR for over 15 years, like all business structures and functions, it too must evolve. Miklos Bolza talks to leading HR expert Norm Smallwood about how HR should structurally shift to become even more strategic

CREATED IN 1999, the Ulrich model forms the foundation of modern-day HR and has allowed a generation of professionals to shift the HR function from administration to strategy. Change is always constant, however,

more about the Ulrich model and its future than anyone on Earth except for the model’s namesake. Even in recent publications, Ulrich himself has examined the way HR should transform. “Sometimes when I read these

“In companies where HR focuses on building those capabilities, HR is a significant player in the business and contributes to investor confidence” Norm Smallwood and some are saying it’s time for the Ulrich model to evolve. One of these advocates for a new type of HR structure is none other than Norm Smallwood, who co-founded The RBL Group with Dave Ulrich in 2000.

Smallwood has co-authored eight books with Ulrich and as a result perhaps knows

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critiques of Dave, they’re really critiquing stuff he wrote like the Ulrich model. That was 1999 and it’s 2016. We’ve written eight books on this stuff,” Smallwood says.

From HR to investor confidence Change is needed to bring HR into a more

strategic position where senior HR leaders can actually accomplish business goals and boost investor confidence, Smallwood says.

This shift has been spurred by business trends over the past several decades.

“Before 1980, earnings or financial results accounted for about 95% of stock price. From 1980 until now, financial results or earnings accounted for about half of share price, so that’s a significant shift.”

Intangibles account for the remainder of a stock’s price, Smallwood says. This is because instead of looking to the past to determine how a company will perform, investors started to look to the future. This has led to four factors that could impact on investor (and customer) confidence: • Delivering on earnings • A clear and compelling business strategy • Technical core competencies aligned to the business strategy • Aligned social or cultural capabilities to create uniqueness “These kinds of social or cultural capabilities are things like innovation, efficiency, speed, customer connectivity, collaboration, leader­ ship, and talent. We looked at that and said, ‘Gee, who’s responsible for that part of it?’ Of course, the answer is HR.” Because of this, HR lies at the true foundation of how a firm can build investor confidence, Smallwood says.

A matter of capability Companies like Google are classic examples of organisations that have realised this change of focus and acted upon it.

“The [now former] head of HR at Google, Laszlo Bock, has been really focused on building a culture that’s consistent with what I’m talking about. The culture at Google is around learning and innovation. And who is responsible? A HR guy.”

There are six different value propositions which business strategy can be built around: low price, great service, innovation, speed, quality performance, and customer

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connectivity. Each of these corresponds to specific capabilities.

“In companies where HR focuses on building those capabilities, HR is a significant player in the business and contributes to investor confidence,” Smallwood says. “The best companies know this and really play to that. They don’t only do it but they talk about it. It becomes a part of how they talk to investors, customers, etc. You’re not talking about HR now; you’re talking about a culture.”

This means HR needs to shift from traditional activities such as L&D and performance management and move towards business capabilities such as innovation, efficiency, speed, collaboration, and customer connectivity.

Each firm should choose two capabilities to focus on and build these until they are world-class, Smallwood says. The rest should be aligned with industry parity. The challenge is knowing how to integrate the various HR practices to align with these particular competencies and culture.

“These kinds of social or cultural capabilities … we looked at that and said, ‘Gee, who’s responsible for that part of it?’ Of course, the answer is HR” Norm Smallwood Breaking out of the silo Smallwood cites the story of one firm – a medical services company – which shifted completely to this new HR model, creating centres of expertise around the primary focus of innovation. To do this, they answered three foundational questions: 1. Which topics of innovation are most critical to our business?

2. Which participants should we involve in the conversation?

3. Which forums should we work in with our leaders?

The company held internal innovation conferences around these identified topics

NORM’S FOUR STEPS TO HR TRANSFORMATION

TRADITIONAL HR MODEL From: HR activities

To: Organisation capabilities (Deliverables)

1. Understand critical business issues from the perspective of the business.

Recruiting Performance management

Internally focused HR activities

Compensation Training & development

to put their plans into action. “It was both content and process facilitation around driving that while keeping the innovation vibe alive,” Smallwood says.

As a result, HR became more focused on the business. With HR organised around one or two capabilities, people weren’t trying to optimise HR activities any more.

“They were optimising their capabilities as a team in a more interdisciplinary approach because they were organised, measured, rewarded and developed like that. They weren’t siloed any more. They were focused on a different thing, which was to build that capability.”

2. Understand the financial, marketing and economic framework around the new model.

OD Benefits

NEW HR MODEL To: Organisation capabilities (Deliverables) From: HR activities

Leadership

Talent

Efficiency

Recruiting Performance management Compensation Training & development OD Benefits

Targeted organisation capabilities

Collaboration

3. Design the organisation to deliver value to the business rather than just to HR.

4. Invest in the skills required to drive business value in addition to being individually effective.

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UPFRONT

EMPLOYMENT LAW UPDATE NEWS BRIEFS Casual work may count towards redundancy payouts

A landmark ruling by the Fair Work Commission has clarified when casual periods of service count towards redundancy entitlements. The majority ruling said that casual staff who become permanent through a conversion clause and are made redundant later can have their prior casual employment put towards the final payout.

Commissioner Ian Cambridge opposed the decision. He called it “folly”, saying it could open the way for casual employees who later become permanent to have other entitlements, such as annual or personal/carer’s leave, calculated from when they started casual employment.

Senator Cash slams legal union ‘stunts’

Employment Minister Michaelia Cash has criticised the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) for its decision to bring the government before the Fair Work Commission.

“Rather than concocting various stunts which unnecessarily delay public servants receiving pay rises, the CPSU would better serve their members by ensuring they receive the additional wages to which they are entitled,” she said.

The union was only interested in organising “endless industrial action”, she said, rather than helping gain pay rises for the public servants they were meant to represent.

Employer group urges action on workplace reform

The head of the Australian Mines and Metals Association has expressed his disappointment that, during the election campaign, the Coalition failed to acknowledge the Productivity Commission’s recommendations for workplace reform.

“The government’s commitment to combating union lawlessness and corruption is positive, but to assume this should be the last word on

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workplace reform would do Australian employers, employees and the wider community a profound disservice,” Steve Knott said.

Instead, he said the government should focus enterprise agreements on matters relevant to employers and employees rather than on how the unions do business.

Mining firm pleads guilty after workplace fatalities

Copper Mines of Tasmania (CMT) has pleaded guilty to a workplace safety charge over two deaths that occurred in 2013. The case has been adjourned for sentencing in November.

Peter Walker, general manager of care and maintenance, said the firm regretted the incident. The company had been in contact with relatives of the workers to inform them of the plea, he added.

CMT is also going through a second court case over the death of a third worker who passed away in 2014.

Operations at the mine have since been suspended.

Putting the ‘fair’ in procedural fairness

Two recent cases have demonstrated how an employer’s failure to afford procedural fairness can be rendered unfair in an otherwise valid reason for dismissal.

The recent decision by the Fair Work Commission in Jimenez v Accent Group T/A Platypus Shoes (Australia) Pty Ltd [2016] FWC 5141 clarified that investigation documents may face scrutiny in unfair dismissal proceedings, and Hayes & Ors v State of Queensland [2016] QCA 191 confirmed that while an employer has an obligation to investigate alleged misconduct, there is also a duty to support the employee who is under investigation.

The decisions highlight that failing to provide procedural fairness may not only override an otherwise lawful reason for dismissal but may also ground claims that result in an order of damages against the employer.

‘GIG ECONOMY’ TO BRING NEW LEGAL RISKS As the number of independent contractors grows, HR will have to work even harder to remain legally compliant With greater numbers of independent contractors and the rise of the ‘gig economy’, it will be increasingly difficult for HR to stay legally compliant, said one legal expert.

John Tuck, practice group leader of employment, workplace relations and safety at Corrs Chambers Westgarth, said that the ‘fissuring’ of the workplace was one of the key issues businesses would have to face in the future.

The term ‘fissuring’ was coined by US law professor David Weil and describes how functions which were originally managed internally have since split from the business.

Typically, these functions are handed to smaller business units which compete against each other.

One common example is large corporations overseeing complex supply chains containing multiple partners that manage individual functions such as franchising, outsourcing and contracting.

“As more Australian businesses embrace disruptive technologies, the question will inevitably be raised: how well suited is our system of workplace regulation to new models of service provision?” Tuck said.

The increased popularity of peer-to-peer work is a continuation of this evolution, he said. Since this work is typically task-based, though, it may change the nature of the employment relationship.

“New peer-to-peer platforms such as Deliveroo and 99designs offer benefits to workers such as flexible working hours or a way to supplement income,” he said. “But the fact that workers may

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like these new modes of work and actively seek them out does not diminish the importance of compliance.”

Instead, legal issues must be carefully examined, especially with newer models where traditional work arrangements may not apply.

In fact, these legal challenges are already coming to light here in Australia, with law firm Maurice Blackburn planning on taking Deliveroo to court for alleged “sham contracting”.

“The fact that workers may like these new modes of work and actively seek them out does not diminish the importance of compliance” Under the Fair Work Act, the company’s Australian delivery riders and drivers should be seen as employees rather than individual contractors, said Daniel Victory, senior associate at the firm.

“These riders, often young students, get rostered on to shifts, they wear uniforms which in some cases they have to buy, they must attend training, yet they aren’t guaranteed a minimum wage,” he added.

“We’ve seen contracts where they are advised to buy their own insurance because they can’t access WorkCover if they are injured on the job.”

However, Deliveroo country manager Levi Aron has said that local workers can earn much more than the minimum wage. Typically, riders opt for a flat rate of $10 per delivery and work in high-volume areas.

“It’s led to this misconception that we’re paying people $10 an hour, but we never want that to be the case,” he said.

Q&A

Athena Koelmeyer Principal and director WORKPLACE LAW

Fast fact Following the Fair Work Act, an enterprise agreement must contain a ‘consultation term’ which requires the employer to consult employees about any significant workplace changes that will have an effect on them. This also mandates employee representation during consultation.

WHEN ENTERPRISE AGREEMENT BARGAINING TURNS UGLY What techniques should employers use in difficult enterprise agreement negotiations?

In these negotiations, the relationship that an employer has with their employees is going to dictate how easy or hard the whole enterprise bargaining process will be. For an employer who may have had difficult relationships with their employees in the past, going in with genuine clarity about what they want and why they want it is important. Most of the time, when negotiations go off the rails, it’s because there’s a deeply entrenched suspicion or distrust of the employer.

Another thing is not leaving communication with employees solely in the hands of the union. The employer needs to make an effort to get out there in front of its employees to promote its position. Unfortunately, not many employers do this because it does require effort and also a change in the way you communicate.

What are the common pitfalls for employers during enterprise agreement bargaining?

One pitfall is that employers don’t pay enough attention to their obligations to bargaining in good faith. There are very clear provisions in the Fair Work Act about what this means, eg responding to the other side’s offers in a timely manner, attending meetings at reasonable times, and treating everyone with respect during the course of the process. If employers are feeling like it’s all too hard and fail to meet these obligations, they might wind up before the Fair Work Commission with an order to bargain in good faith. You’re behind the eight ball at that point because you’re being compelled to do what you should have done anyway.

The other thing is from time to time employees will take industrial action. Employers can take their own industrial action in response but they need to make sure that they do it the right way. This is a structured dance in accordance with the provisions of the Fair Work Act. Employers who lose their temper and start chaining up the gates without giving the proper notice will again just wind up in difficulty with employees, their agents or the union, and with the Fair Work Commission.

If the negotiation ultimately fails, what should the employer do then?

Some people might say that you should just do nothing. Just like any other commercial negotiation, you can’t force parties to agree.

If you can’t come to an agreement, then you can’t. If there was an old enterprise agreement, it will simply continue in place until such time as a new agreement is made or somebody applies for the Commission to terminate the old one. Obviously that’s less than ideal, but just because you can’t come to an agreement about something like a percentage pay increase doesn’t mean that the employer can’t give one without having an enterprise agreement in place.

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UPFRONT

TECHNOLOGY

ATTACK OF THE TECHNOPHOBES In today’s increasingly diverse workplace, what can HR do with those averse to new technology?

use technology,” Tarrant said.

“Before exploring this option, full training needs to have been offered to the employee, along with the opportunity to discuss their reasons for refusal.”

The new technology may also require modification for the employee. Alternatively, reallocation of duties may be considered for certain high performers, she said.

“People or organisations who fail to take an openminded approach to technology may find themselves irrelevant in the near future” HR will typically find that staff have a wide range of attitudes and abilities when it comes to technology.

“We are experiencing technological advance­ ment at an ever-increasing rate of change and the vast majority of us will have software and gadgets we are currently unfamiliar with,” said HR consultant and tech specialist Pauline Tarrant.

With a variety of comfort levels among employees, technophobia exists, she said, adding that HR managers cannot simply assume that those entering the workforce are all tech-savvy.

“People or organisations who fail to take an open-minded approach to technology may find themselves irrelevant in the near future.

NEWS BRIEFS

Technological advancement is not a fad, and thankfully most workplaces and most employees realise this and Luddism is not widespread.”

HR must strive to fully understand what holds people back, Tarrant said, as people may have legitimate concerns that should be addressed.

For instance, people learn skills at different speeds, meaning patience must be employed to retain an employee’s confidence.

In some extreme instances, however, disciplinary action may be required.

“Disciplinary action up to and including dismissal is something that is only warranted if someone is incapable of performing the requirements of their role, or refuses to

Tech shift required to attract new talent

With millennials destined to become the next generation of business leaders, HR is focusing more on using online platforms to attract younger candidates, says the latest research.

Transforming the Talent Acquisition Function: APAC Research Report by Alexander Mann Solutions found that 78% of HR executives surveyed cited social media as an effective tool to bring in new candidates.

The study also found that these platforms are more effective when combined with simple messages around the firm and transparency through regular comments and feedback.

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“Within a situation like this it is also important to understand how much technology has changed the role. If the nature of the role has been substantially changed, then this may trigger a redundancy situation.”

Surprisingly, those who struggle to come to grips with new technology may actually spur positive steps in the workplace, Tarrant said.

She recounted an example of technophobia positively disrupting one mentoring program.

Although the scenario commenced with older workers teaching their younger employees, the situation was soon reversed, with the younger employees ‘mentoring’ their seniors on the new technology.

Video interviews gain traction

Video interviews for job candidates are on the rise as digital technology continues to revolutionise the process of recruiting.

Interviewing via video can give companies wider reach by allowing recruiters to look at more candidates, speed up the hiring process, and reduce costs.

Major firms, including Goldman Sachs, Cigna, and IBM are just a few of the companies using the technology to recruit, and video interviewing software producer HireVue says it hosted nearly three million video interviews last year, up from 13,000 five years ago.

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Q&A

Sam Canavan Country manager – AU/NZ SPORT HEROES GROUP

Fast fact The typical fitness enthusiast strives for 10,000 strides a day, or about 8km. However, only 43% of women and 53% of men say they get enough steps in during the day.

MERGING TECHNOLOGY AND HEALTH & WELLBEING How can technology and exercise be integrated in the workplace?

Why would you recommend that HR merge these two together?

There are many ways to integrate technology and exercise, but here are three main principles we always keep in mind:

Digital transformation affects all companies, and all departments within those companies. HR is already being rapidly transformed by digital innovation.

You don’t hire today as you did only a couple of years ago. Your wellness program now leverages new technologies, which happen to also be used sometimes by insurance companies themselves. HR and technology have already merged. That’s a fact.

The myriad benefits of physical activity are especially advantageous in the workplace, as exercise enhances cognitive capacity, solidifies information retention, promotes positivity, and significantly heightens overall productivity. Workplaces across the world are attempting to compel employee exercise through various initiatives as part of their wellness programs.

The trouble is these programs are often uninspiring, overly complicated, inflexible, and impractical.

They’re also typically fragmented: one yoga class here, one new recreational soccer team there, one personal training session or discounted running race entry at other times. Our offering promotes a compelling, integrated, and straightforward way to entice employees to exercise more. The barrier to entry for staff is extremely low – there’s no software to download, or convoluted process to follow; employee activity is tracked through their preferred GPS-based application or wearable, with the data seamlessly integrated to be used for a range of wellness program initiatives.

» Jump on the BYOD trend: You don’t want to force your employees to use a specific app or device. Give them the choice – it will be easier for them, and less costly. Besides, it will ensure a much higher participation rate and faster implementation. » Create seamless experiences: Simple user experience is key to ensure that anybody can take part in the Connected Sport Experience. You need to include everybody and provide a simple and compelling experience. Technology should enrich the sport experience to make it more social and more fun. » Define a purpose: Technology and sport is much more than providing the ability for people to track their progress and live a healthier life. Combining technology and sport is one of the great unifying tools, bringing people together from across the spectrum of a business to compete in a fun way and contribute towards a greater good. It is key to tell a story that matters for each company; about the impact that company wants to make on the world. You need to inspire people to mobilise them into action. This is the secret of engagement, as well as change at any scales.

Most CEOs fail to see value in people data

Only 4% of CEOs recognise the value of predictive analytics, says a global research paper conducted by PwC. “A big part to this lies in the maturity of people analytics in HR functions – which is relatively low,” said Martijn Schouten, director of PwC South East Asia Consulting.

While most HR functions use data to report on basics such as inflow, turnover and L&D costs, “creating insights, trend analysis and predicting developments of human capital” using predictive analytics is unfortunately not yet commonly applied, Schouten said.

Should staff use emojis in the workplace?

More than six in 10 senior managers say emoji use is acceptable either all the time or in certain situations, according to research from staffing firm OfficeTeam. These figures are approximately the same for standard employees, with only 33% saying they never use emoticons in their communications.

“Emojis and emoticons are showing up just about everywhere,” said Brandi Britton, OfficeTeam district president. “While using these symbols can help employees convey their feelings and personalities in written communications, they can also be distracting and appear unprofessional.”

Pokémon Go rant gets employee fired

An Australian employee working for a property portal in Singapore, 99.co, has been fired after leaving anti-Singapore comments on Facebook that many netizens found offensive. In the post, he complained the country had yet to receive the popular mobile game, Pokémon Go. “We are a proud Singaporean company and do not condone such language or behaviour, hence we have since terminated his engagement once the incident came to light,” CEO and co-founder of 99.co Darius Cheung wrote in a statement responding to the online backlash. www.hcamag.com

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PEOPLE

HEAD TO HEAD

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

Should there be more senior HR directors on corporate boards?

With HR under-represented on corporate boards, is it time for more HR leaders to step into these sought-after positions?

Peter Hartnett

Head of people and culture Sanitarium Health and Wellbeing I think this is a very fair statement. The importance of having a strong, constructive and authentic culture as an advantage to a business is widely understood now more than ever. There is enough evidence out there that having a business that looks after, involves, and connects with its people means having a more sustained business.

In order for this to happen, however, there needs to be focus – it does not happen by accident. To this end, it is important that businesses recognise this at the highest level by creating diversity and having the ‘people’ function represented.

I would also balance this by saying this cannot be just about people. If an HR professional is on the board they need to ensure they understand and can contribute to all areas of the business, including finance, sales, marketing and operations.

Nicole Gower

Gregory Robinson

Director of human resources Macquarie University

Managing partner Blenheim Partners

In our recent thought leadership paper, The Challenges of Attaining Growth, we highlighted the need to expand out from the traditional board competencies of legal and accounting to competencies such as HR and people skills.

However, while these additional competencies are valuable, the core competency of all potential non-executive directors is business acumen. Unfortunately, many ‘purist’ senior HR directors may not have had the line management and P&L experience required as a base to effectively contribute to the issues addressed by boards.

In addition, it can be argued that many board members with line management experience can supply HR competencies they have developed in these roles. Thus while senior HR directors are not widely represented on boards, in many circumstances their competencies are.

Speaking from the perspective of an HRD on a corporate board, I would say absolutely. The inclusion of HR at the board level sends a strong signal about the value that the organisation places on people.

It also demonstrates, in a tangible way, an understanding of the connection between people and organisational strategy, and good decision-making practice.

Of course, a seat at the board table brings with it responsibility. The HRD needs to contribute as an equal member of the board and not solely as an HRD. Finally, while the HRD has an important role to provide thought leadership for executive colleagues on people matters, they need to resist the urge to become the sole owner of the people, culture and leadership agendas.

These are collective accountabilities of executives and leaders more broadly.

SURVIVING THE BOARDROOM: DOES HR HAVE WHAT IT TAKES? A research paper by Blenheim Partners and MGSM, The Challenges of Attaining Growth, found that only 1% of non-executive directors in ASX 100 companies come from an HR background. Of the business leaders surveyed, however, it was found that the majority would be open to exploring future board directors with a broader base of corporate backgrounds than those traditionally preferred. One survey participant suggested the type of HR director most suited to a board would be one with experience as head of a division where they had P&L responsibilities prior to moving into HR.

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FEATURES

ENGAGEMENT

10 INGREDIENTS FOR A WINNING WORKPLACE HR professionals are acutely aware of the benefits engaged employees bring to an organisation, but what lies behind the figures and how can you apply the theory to your workplace?

“TO WIN in the marketplace you must first win in the workplace” – those are the words of Doug Conant, CEO of Campbell’s Soup. Few leaders would disagree, but how does one create a ‘winning workplace’? ORC International’s 2016 Global Perspectives research, a global survey of over 8,800 employees across Europe, North America

The survey found employee engagement in Australia remained steady at 66% this year. In the UK and US the figures sit at 58% and 72% respectively. In Asia-Pacific there are further variations, with Hong Kong a low 49% and Singapore sitting at 53%.

However, it’s what sits behind the engagement figures that perhaps holds the

“There are three elements that these CEOs talk about: their talent, their cash flow, and their customer engagement” Oliver Rust and Asia-Pacific, provides some clues.

With an eye on not just the theory but also the practical application of its employee engagement research, ORC International asked participants to identify what makes a ‘winning workplace’. The core messages have been distilled into 10 essential ‘how to’ tips for creating a perfect workplace.

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most interest for HR professionals.

Oliver Rust, Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Engine Group, talks to countless CEOs annually, and they invariably say that talent management is critical to their business. “There are three elements that these CEOs talk about: their talent, their cash flow, and their customer engagement.”

So how can employers create more engaged employees and customers – and in so doing, maximise their company’s financial results?

1. Create ‘superfans’ Superfans are employees who are advocates of their organisation both as a place to work and as a provider of products and services.

Forty-seven per cent of Australians believe the best way to find out what an organisation is like as an employer is to ask its employees.

Encouragingly, 71% of Australian employees would recommend their employer’s products and services and 66% would recommend their organisation as a place to work.

In Hong Kong the stats are even less inspiring: 32% of people in Hong Kong think that the best way to find out what an organisation would be like as an employer would be to ask its employees, 53% would recommend their employer’s products and services, and 49% would recommend their organisation as a place to work.

The situation is slightly better in Singapore: 41% think that the best way to find out what an organisation would be like as an employer would be to ask its employees, 59% of Singaporean employees would recommend their employer’s products and services, and 58% would recommend their employer as a place to work – both up since 2015.

“Today there’s a blurring of the lines between consumer and employee perceptions around brand,” says Wendy McInnes, Managing Director, Employee Research, ORC International.

McInnes cites companies like Google and Zappos as being adept at encouraging employees to talk positively about the workplace on online and social channels – and this has a natural flow-on to better customer service.

Just as importantly, these organisations

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listen when employees don’t talk positively about the company.

2. Manage, engage and inspire people in the here and now Long service is less important to employees today. Indeed, 45% of Australian employees say they would move employer every few years to get the best career opportunities rather than staying in one company for a long period of time.

Other parts of Asia-Pacific are more positive: in Hong Kong 52% of employees say they would move employers every few years to get the best career opportunities; in Singapore the figure is 58%.

The goal is therefore to create an environment that allows people to perform at their best (see box below for further tips).

3. Empower leaders For McInnes, leadership is perhaps the most important of ORC International’s top 10 tips.

“Leadership is a key driver of engagement but what we’ve found is that despite all the resources pumped into leadership development programs, we’re not getting much traction,” she says. “Of course, going to a three-day leadership course doesn’t necessarily mean you invest in those behaviours when you go back in the workplace. There’s an important role for executive coaching and having

leaders role-model those behaviours on a day-to-day basis.”

McInnes also talks about the “liberation of leadership”. “Organisational structures have flattened out; leaders can be all throughout the organisation. We need to be leading through influencers and collaborators rather than through fear, authority and competition. The focus needs to be on authentic, agile and focused leadership.”

However, there’s a problem: workers in Asia-Pacific do not trust their leaders. Just 54% of Australian employees say they trust and respect their leaders, compared to the global average of 60%. In Hong Kong and Singapore the figures are 50% and 58% respectively.

Results show that the bigger an organisation is, the greater the mistrust. “This comes down to transparency and context,” says Rust. “Sometimes company objectives evolve and that’s fine – organisations need to stay competitive and agile – but I also believe there’s a need to communicate these changes far more effectively. The frequency with which you engage the younger generation needs to change. These workers want feedback instantaneously; they want it in a less structured manner and they want it delivered through multiple channels.”

Indeed, Rust says communication is essential to build authenticity. “If you look

TOP TIPS FOR MANAGING PEOPLE IN THE HERE AND NOW Communicate a strong sense of purpose. Create passion and commitment to the organisation’s vision and purpose through a compelling strategic narrative that everyone can relate to.

Design your onboarding program to get people working at their best quickly. In the induction program include: an immersion in the purpose of the organisation; an opportunity to connect with leaders; and advice and help building support networks.

Invest in people’s learning and development and give them opportunities to stretch and grow, even if you are concerned they may move on before you have had your returns.

Provide a healthy workplace in which people can work sustainably. You don’t want them to burn out, so work at providing wellbeing support.

at the traits of leaders today, it’s moved from the leader being someone who knows all the answers to a more communal approach, an emotional engagement approach,” he says.

“And the single most important attribute of a successful leader today I believe is communication. If you can communicate to employees how they are impacting the end business – that is, the clients and customers – then they will see it, they’ll get engaged with it and will do whatever they can to deliver on it.”

4. Show appreciation and value Two thirds of Australian employees feel valued for what they can offer their organisation and 74% think their organisation respects individual differences.

ORC International suggests that purpose and meaning can be brought to employees’ work by demonstrating the value they bring to the business. Be fair in action and words so all employees, regardless of who they are or where they work, feel they are an integral part of your organisation’s success.

“Leaders need to use various means to recognise people for good work,” says Rust.

“It’s not one thing; it’s not giving them a gift voucher or sending them off on a junket. It’s not just about financial reward. Sometimes it’s as simple as a ‘thanks for your hard work’. It’s the combination of each of those factors that helps to reinforce the message the customer is critical; it recognises that this employee is changing what we’re doing as an organisation and is fuelling the brand to be more adaptive to this environment. Or they might be accelerating a new idea for innovation, or reducing a process in the business.”

5. Win with words Only 40% of Australian employees think the communications they receive from their employer excite or inspire them. Regionally, the figure stands at 38% for Hong Kong

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FEATURES

ENGAGEMENT

TOP TIPS FOR DEVELOPING TRANSFORMATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS Treat your internal communications as seriously as your external communications. Plan your strategy so messages connect; talk to people in a human tone of voice; and make communications an open conversation.

Use a variety of channels to provide clear and concise information to employees.

Understand the channels that work best for your audience and pick the channel mix to fit the messages you want to get across.

Don’t forget about face-to-face communications. Team briefings, town hall meetings and opportunities to meet with leaders face-to-face are still the most impactful methods if you want to influence behaviour. Use digital methods but not at the exclusion of human contact.

Create opportunities for conversation. Provide channels for employees to share their ideas, ask questions and give opinions. Ensure there is a feedback loop so they can see what happens to their comments after they have been submitted.

employees and 47% for Singapore employees.

In addition, just 53% of Australian employees think the communications they receive are open, honest or help them do their job better (46% and 55% for Hong Kong and Singapore employees respectively). Positive perceptions of communication effectiveness declines down the organisational hierarchy from senior leaders to non-managerial employees.

6. Support today for a better tomorrow Technology has blurred the line between work and life, which means work can be done anytime, anywhere. But this means companies need to pay closer attention to how they deliver wellbeing so that all employees, regardless of when, where or how they work, can do so sustainably.

Unfortunately, Australian organisations are getting worse at communicating what they offer in the way of health and wellbeing, with just 55% aware of what’s on offer, down three points since last year. Consequently, almost one fifth (18%) don’t think their organisation cares about their health and wellbeing.

Hong Kong organisations are also getting worse at communicating what they offer in the way of health and wellbeing (41%), down

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four points since last year. Employees in Singapore are more positive: 54% think their organisation does a good job of this.

7. Create a line between employees and customers The growing dominance of social media is bringing employees and customers closer, for better or worse. How customer-centric you are has a notable influence on employee engagement, and how engaged you are impacts on the customer experience.

In Australia, for example, 56% of employees working in a non-customerfacing role are engaged, compared to 69% of employees who work directly with customers. In Hong Kong, 41% of employees working in non-customer-facing roles are engaged, compared to 51% of employees who work directly with customers. In Singapore, the figures are 49% for non-customer-facing roles and 58% for customer-facing roles.

If their organisation is perceived to be customer-centric, all employees, regardless of their role, are significantly more engaged.

A critical step is to ensure employees are empowered to make decisions around the customer experience. “The companies that excel with customer engagement are those

that allow employees to take part in the decision-making process,” Rust says. He cites a financial services firm as an example. This firm allows call centre operators to handle – and act upon – customer complaints. “At their own discretion those employees are allowed to offer a compensation voucher or discount of up to US$200. In environments like this, customer satisfaction increases dramatically because issues are dealt with straight away and the complaint does not escalate.”

Despite the perception that HR is too distant from any client or customer interaction, McInnes says the function can play a critical role. They can, for example, create a clear vision of what customercentricity means for the organisation and empower and inspire those who work at the organisation to exceed customer expectations.

Even those who don’t usually have direct customer contact can be given opportunities to work on the front line, to ‘mystery shop’ or try new products and services.

Most importantly, HR can share stories and examples of great customer experience.

This will have a double impact – showing the employees delivering that experience that you value them, and demonstrating to others what ‘great’ looks like.

8. Care at any cost Sixty-two per cent of Australian employees are confident their senior leaders would not place cost or schedule ahead of safety.

Employees working within transport and logistics, professional services and government are the least likely to agree.

Although 72% of Hong Kong employees say workplace safety is an important consideration for their organisation, only half are confident their leaders would not place cost or schedule ahead of safety.

Employees in Singapore are more positive: 60% are confident their leaders would not prioritise cost or schedule over safety.

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9. Encourage ideas, but expect some of them to fail Fifty-three per cent of Australian employees believe their organisation values creativity and innovation. However, 23% of employees don’t think their organisation recognises the role failure plays in innovation or that it learns from mistakes.

In Hong Kong, 47% of employees believe their organisation values creativity and innovation. More employees think their organisation recognises the role failure plays in innovation (49% – up from 44% in 2015), but there has been no change in the proportion that think it learns from mistakes (47%).

In Singapore, 58% of employees believe their organisation values creativity and innovation. More employees think their organisation learns from mistakes (53%, up from 50% in 2015). The proportion who believe their organisation recognises the role of failure remains stable at 47%.

“There’s never been a greater pace of change than today, and that will continue,” says McInnes. “It’s volatile and unpredictable. There’s competition and disruption popping up everywhere, and without innovation you will struggle to survive – that’s not technology and the products and services you offer but channels

“There’s never been a greater pace of change than today, and that will continue. It’s volatile and unpredictable” Wendy McInnes to market, policies, even new job roles. For example, five years ago you wouldn’t have had someone in HR focusing on analytics.”

Organisations can firstly encourage and inspire employees to come up with innovative solutions to work-related problems. Use suggestion boxes, regularly reach out for ideas on a particular challenge, and encourage ideas at every opportunity.

Secondly, people need to be given time to innovate. Set challenges, create teams to solve them, and then recognise employees when they come up with new and innovative ways of working.

Finally, communicate that failure is part of innovation and manage it constructively.

Use examples of when things didn’t go to plan as opportunities to learn, not as reasons to reprimand.

10. Provide opportunities to develop Fewer Australian employees believe they have opportunities for personal growth and

TOP TIPS FOR ENCOURAGING DEVELOPMENT Provide different channels for learning, not just structured training programs, such as opportunities for work shadowing, work experience or formal secondment into different teams/departments.

Provide clear guidelines for development, with regular progress reports. Ensure opportunities are communicated fairly and transparently to all employees, not forgetting employees who work non-standard hours.

Provide training for managers on discussing performance and providing constructive feedback during formal and informal performance conversations.

Ensure all employees have an annual performance review as well as quality conversations throughout the year and ahead of the appraisal process so they have a clear understanding of how they are performing.

development in their organisation (58% compared to 66% last year). In addition, a quarter of workers are not convinced they’ll have an opportunity to get a better job in their current organisation. Regionally, the figures are also uninspiring. In Hong Kong just 49% of employees believe they will have the opportunity for growth and development (down from 58% last year) and in Singapore the figure sits at 57% (down from 60% last year).

Values McInnes has one further tip: underpinning all of the preceding areas are organisational values. She says that amid massive change, having clearly articulated values can help steer the ship.

“Those values touch on everything else – customer centricity, leadership, how we communicate – so getting the values right and embedding them in everything you do is essential.”

ORC INTERNATIONAL ORC International is a leading provider of true intelligence that is at the heart of our client’s decision-making.

Through uncovering what truly engages people around the world, we provide specific actionable solutions that bring our clients closer across customer, employees, marketing and strategy.

ORC is part of the Engine Group, which is an end-to-end marketing services company. To learn more, visit www.ORCInternational.com.

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ANNUAL REVIEW

HR SALARY AND JOBS GUIDE

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QUIET OPTIMISM: 2016 HR SALARY & JOBS GUIDE The 2016–17 HR jobs market will be both good and bad, depending on which side of the employer/candidate fence you currently sit. Find out what’s in store for you and your team in HRD’s annual Salary and Jobs Guide

IF YOU’RE recruiting HR team members, 2016–17 is a good time to be doing it. However, if you’re the one making the move, the news is not quite so bright. Those are the key messages from recruiters in HRD’s 2016 HR Salary and Jobs Guide. In most instances, the volume of candidates outweighs the number of jobs – meaning employers can pick and choose the best of the best.

While there are a number of reasons for this imbalance, a common cause can be traced all the way back to the GFC when HR layers were stripped out of organisations and multiple roles were merged into one.

Since then, ‘doing more with less’ has become second nature to most HR practitioners. As always, there are exceptions to the rule, as Ciaran Foley, head of Frazer Jones Australia, points out: “The level of seniority and the particular HR specialism are two factors to consider. It would generally be true to say there are

more senior HR candidates in the market than there are jobs. This can be attributed in part to the example outlined. We’ve also experienced a number of regional roles that used to sit in Australia moving offshore, with Frazer Jones’ Hong Kong and Singapore offices working on those roles.”

In the junior to mid-level range the balance between candidates and jobs isn’t as pronounced, Foley says.

“Candidates move jobs more readily at this level, thus creating more opportunities.”

Generalists Foley says the generalist market has been stronger this year compared to the last two sluggish years. Again, the junior to mid-level generalist roles have been particularly busy.

“There has also been senior-level hiring, with a

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ANNUAL REVIEW

HR SALARY AND JOBS GUIDE

IN THE NEXT 12 MONTHS, DO YOU ENVISAGE BUSINESS ACTIVITY WILL…

noticeable trend of some companies trying to source very senior HR roles through direct advertising,” he adds.

Lisa Morris, senior regional director at Hays, has also seen an increase in demand for qualified HR professionals with generalist experience. “Businesses recognise the value these professionals can add to overall staff engagement,” she says. “HR generalists are also able to take on many of the operational responsibilities of busy HR departments to free up more senior practitioners to focus on strategy, planning and change management.”

Jennifer Rees-Gay, manager – HR, Sydney, at Robert Walters, says the ‘hot’ roles in the generalist space in the Sydney market are HR managers in the $120–$140k base range and HR adviser roles in the $75k–$85k range across all temp, fixed-term contract and permanent positions. “We have also seen increased demand for HR business partners,” she adds.

7% decrease

23% remain the same 70% increase

“Organisations have established a business partner model, supported by centres of excellence. In response to this shift, we’ve seen increased demand for HR generalists with the ability to align HR to business unit objectives.”

Morris has also seen this increased demand for HR business partners and adds that employers in NSW, the ACT and Victoria are looking for candidates who are true business partners and who are very focused on talent, development and leadership.

However, while HR business partners at the $80k–$90k level (plus super) are in very short supply, there has been an increase in immediately available and experienced senior candidates looking for salaries between $100k and $150k.

It’s important to note there are geographic differences in demand to consider. In Western Australia, Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory, candidates with

WHAT ARE THE KEY FACTORS DRIVING YOUR BUSINESS ACTIVITY?

49%

41%

36% 24%

Current economic conditions

20

Consumer/business confidence

Projects driven by government

Capex investments

13% Currency/forex rates

7% Interest rates

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generalist backgrounds should now find it easier than specialists to secure their next role since they can cover a range of functions.

For example, an HR adviser could now also be responsible for internal recruitment, learning and development and ER/IR. Generalists should also be aware that

HR models and implementing shared service functions,” she says.

“You only have to look at some of Australia’s biggest companies to see new HR leaders in place,” says Foley. “2016 has seen more senior HR movement; however, in comparison to the number of candidates

There’s strong demand for recruitment professionals as organisations build larger teams to capitalise on improving business conditions over the past year employers have been hiring more candidates across HR with a commercial background rather than a traditional HR background. “Candidates who can demonstrate their ability to achieve KPIs, who understand the bottom line, and who have a solid knowledge of wider business practices are valued,” says Morris, who adds that HR professionals who are able to create and drive workforce strategies around diversity and flexibility will also continue to be sought after.

Senior roles Of all job roles, the last few years have been particularly tough for senior practitioners.

HR director and CHRO candidates have struggled to find roles matching their expectations and experience levels. However, there are subtle indications that this might be changing. Rees-Gay says 2016 started off “with a bang” in the senior HR space – especially within banking. “There has been significant movement as a result of changing

available, the senior HR market could still be described as sluggish or patchy.”

Morris agrees that this market remains industry-led and is heavily influenced by broader macro-economic conditions. “In the public sector there are still a number of senior skilled roles available, often on projects that are cost-related, such as change management for system or process improvements,” she says.

Robert Walters has seen opportunities for CHROs in the NFP and state government environments. These opportunities have come from a refocus on a customer-centric orientation and HR productivity.

Likewise, in Canberra, the Australian Public Service’s agenda around agility, efficiency and digital innovation has led to departmental reviews of staffing and IT innovation. Along with these reviews HR in Canberra is seeing a higher demand for change specialists at the director level, HR specialists at the assistant director level and workforce data analysts at APS5/6 level.

HR HEADCOUNTS Over the last 12 months, have permanent staff levels in your HR department...

18% decreased

42% remained the same

40% increased Over the coming year, do you expect permanent HR staff levels to...

10% decrease

45% remain the same

45% increase

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ANNUAL REVIEW

HR SALARY AND JOBS GUIDE GENERAL HIRING TRENDS

HOT ROLES HR business partners – Of all the generalist roles, these are the most buoyant. Organisations are keen for business partners to work closely with senior leaders to develop tailored people strategies aligned to the organisation’s business strategy. Hays reports that business partnering is becoming more relevant to organisations wanting to break down silos and promote greater collaboration across their workforces.

HOT

Almost two thirds of employers (64%) experienced increased business activity over the past 12 months, with 70% expecting further increased activity in the year ahead.

Staff levels are up too, with 40% increasing permanent HR headcount during the last 12 months.

This outstrips the 18% who decreased it.

Meanwhile, 45% intend to increase their permanent HR headcount in the year ahead, far exceeding the 10% who expect to decrease it.

The use of temporary or contract staff will also increase in 20% of HR departments, exceeding the 11% who expect their use of such resources to fall.

L&D roles – The trend away from workforce expansion within organisations and towards workforce upskilling has resulted in increased demand for L&D and training professionals. Contract opportunities in L&D and training across the country continue to offer competitive hourly rates.

HOT

Work health & safety and occupational health & safety – These roles are in demand, especially in the construction sector.

HOT

In light of salary expectations it’s ironic that 32% of employers say salary and benefits have a major impact on their employer brand, up from 25% last year.

60% say skill shortages will impact on the effective operation of their business or department.

Source: Hays 2016 Salary Guide

Specialist roles Demand for professionals in specialist roles predictably varies from specialty to specialty.

Morris says NSW, the ACT and Victoria in particular are seeing more specialist roles being advertised. However, specialist roles in WA, Queensland, SA and the NT are few and far between – and those that are available are in the area of work health and safety and injury management.

Another change over the past year, according to Morris, is employers increasingly asking for candidates with like-for-like industry experience; employers are requesting similar industry backgrounds. For example, an FMCG organisation will only want to interview candidates with FMCG industry experience.

What’s the status for other specialist roles?

Internal recruitment roles are “hot”, says Foley. “There are lots of roles, lots of movement.” However, he adds that a good

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internal recruiter can be hard to find. “Some companies have moved away from the RPO model to bring their talent acquisition in-house. Others have increased the size of their talent acquisition team.” Rees-Gay adds that specialist recruiters with IT, finance and government experience are highly sought after in the Sydney market.

Employee relations advisers, employee relations managers and industrial relations specialists are also in demand. “We are seeing an increasing need for specialists to represent the business in engaging the workforce and stakeholders in best practice and negotiating with staff and employee groups,” says Morris. “Restructures in certain states have also led to a need for specialists who can focus on performance management, grievances and disciplinary management. An in-depth knowledge of Fair Work and investigations is expected even for entry-level roles.”

IR/ER professionals – These skills will continue to be in demand, especially in Canberra as agencies negotiate and implement new employee agreements.

HOT

Injury/RTW managers – Employers are focusing on prevention. Hays reports that good injury management specialists and return to work specialists can have a huge impact on insurance costs.

HOT

HOT

HOT INDUSTRIES

As Australia continues to move away from its reliance on the resources sector and heads towards a broader economic recovery, Robert Walters predicts salaries will remain relatively stable outside those sectors facing significant skills shortages. In particular, federal and state government activity will drive hiring activity for construction, engineering and legal professionals.

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SALARY COMPARISONS FOR PERMANENT ROLES Hays ($)

Robert Walters ($)

Hudson ($)

Frazer Jones ($)

2015 HRD median ($)

2016 HRD median ($)

% change

HR director (large employer)

280,000

295,000

265,000

250,000+

248,800

210,000

-15.6%

HR manager (large employer)

180,000

162,500

160,000

185,000

170,300

171,875

0.9%

HR business partner

120,000

125,000

160,000

125,000

130,600

132,500

1.5%

Role

HOT

Senior HR adviser/consultant

85,000

97,500

85,000

107,500

95,100

93,750

-1.4%

HR officer/adviser

65,000

76,500

75,000

87,500

75,500

76,000

0.7%

HR coordinator/administrator

55,000

65,000

62,500

62,500

63,100

61,250

-2.9%

-

-

-

57,500

56,300

57,500

2.1%

HR graduate HOT

L&D head

220,000

-

-

200,000

210,000

210,000

0.0%

HOT

L&D manager

140,000

147,500

145,000

135,000

151,400

141,875

-6.3%

HOT

L&D specialist/consultant

95,000

102,500

110,000

100,000

96,500

101,875

5.6%

HOT

L&D coordinator

65,000

-

92,500

72,500

76,700

76,667

HOT

L&D instructional designer

130,000

107,500

100,000

90,000

111,300

106,875

-4.0%

Trainer

85,000

-

-

102,500

84,200

93,750

11.3%

Rem & ben head

200,000

232,500

150,000

205,000

216,900

196,875

-9.2%

Rem & ben consultant/specialist

0.0%

100,000

100,000

100,000

140,000

115,300

110,000

-4.6%

Payroll manager

-

-

-

115,000

110,000

115,000

4.5%

HOT

IR/ER manager

160,000

120,000

150,000

155,000

161,100

146,250

-9.2%

HOT

IR/ER specialist/consultant

110,000

-

105,000

107,500

106,700

107,500

0.7%

Recruitment manager/head of talent

125,000

135,000

120,000

185,000

156,500

141,250

-9.7%

Recruitment specialist/officer

90,000

100,000

95,000

92,500

93,400

94,375

1.0%

HOT

WHS/OHS head

210,000

180,000

135,000

250,000

230,200

193,750

-15.8%

HOT

WHS/OHS manager/consultant

140,000

-

100,000

165,000

131,700

135,000

2.5%

HOT

WHS/OHS coordinator

90,000

90,000

62,500

107,500

91,700

87,500

-4.6%

Health & wellbeing manager/officer

110,000

-

-

-

-

110,000

N/A

OD manager

140,000

136,500

165,000

200,000

153,800

160,375

4.3%

OD specialist

110,000

130,000

105,000

120,000

115,000

116,250

1.1%

Workforce planning analyst

110,000

107,500

120,000

-

103,000

112,500

9.2%

Change manager

180,000

175,000

-

200,000

186,800

185,000

-1.0%

Injury/RTW manager

100,000

-

-

125,000

110,000

112,500

2.3%

HRIS manager/consultant

90,000

-

185,000

175,000

167,500

112,500

-32.8%

HOT

HRIS specialist/analyst

1.9%

-

-

-

92,500

90,800

92,500

Diversity manager

150,000

-

-

-

-

150,000

N/A

Diversity consultant

110,000

-

-

-

-

110,000

N/A

HR change manager

-

175,000

-

-

-

175,000

N/A

Average

130,340

126,413

-3.0%

Hays: Figures are the median from a lower and upper range (eg $160–$170k); all figures are Sydney-based for companies with >1,000 employees; all salaries exclude superannuation.

Robert Walters: Figures are for Sydney permanent roles, taken from the median of a lower and upper range; figures are basic salaries inclusive of superannuation but exclusive of benefits/bonuses unless otherwise specified.

Frazer Jones: Figures are inclusive of superannuation and exclusive of incentives and other benefits. Figures are for ‘large’ organisations.

Hudson: Salary ranges the median from a lower and upper range. They relate to base salaries and exclude superannuation/bonuses/incentive schemes/stock options.

While we have taken great care, these salary ranges can only be approximate guides, as there are often specific circumstances relating to individual companies. Contact your recruitment agency for additional information.

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1/09/2016 3:23:31 PM

ANNUAL REVIEW

HR SALARY AND JOBS GUIDE

FLEXIBLE WORK

Does your workplace allow for flexible work practices?

Enterprise business analysts have been in demand since the start of the calendar year – both on a permanent and interim basis. “These candidates are required to help identify actionable strategies related to workforce planning,” Morris says.

Work health and safety (WHS)/ occupational health and safety (OHS) specialists have been in demand since the first half of this calendar year, and following a long period of stability these specialists saw increased demand from employers in the construction sector – for both temporary and permanent roles. “This trend was in line with increased construction project activity,” Morris explains. “Indeed, we expect to see continued need for WHS candidates this year for roles in government and blue-collar industries, with construction leading the charge.”

Yes 82% No 18%

Combined HR/payroll managers are highly sought after, and Morris says the increase in “dual roles” is an emerging trend. “Candidates who possess both HR and payroll knowledge and experience are in short supply. Candidates tend to have skills and experience in HR or payroll, not both,” she says.

Project managers and workforce staff are sought too. These roles incorporate project work, and again, HR candidates often have skills in one or the other but rarely in both.

Injury management specialists and return to work specialists are also sought. “Employers are focusing on prevention, and a good injury management specialist and return to work specialist can have a huge impact on insurance costs,” says Morris.

IF YOU DO PROVIDE FLEXIBLE WORK PRACTICES, WHAT DO YOU OFFER? Part-time employment

76%

Flexible working hours

73%

Flex-place 59% Flexible leave options

40%

Job sharing 30% Career breaks Phased retirement

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17% 15%

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1/09/2016 3:23:34 PM

L&D roles are cited by both Foley and Rees-Gay as being in demand, and specifically facilitator roles, as organisations aim to improve their internal systems and therefore upskill their employees.

As for roles that have dropped off the radar, Foley says there have been fewer and fewer remuneration and benefits roles, but this has been the case for the last two years.

Rees-Gay says the Robert Walters HR team has seen consistent demand across the board for all specialist roles, except for remuneration specialists and HRIS analysts – the latter, she says, have largely been absorbed into HR generalist roles.

Morris says certain roles have dropped off in WA, Queensland, SA and the NT, thanks to a number of redundancies, especially in the minerals, energy and resources sectors.

Employers in these sectors need to pay close attention to candidates they wish to retain,

as HR professionals are focusing their efforts on joining more stable sectors – the obvious example is the WHS/OHS professionals jumping ship to the construction sector mentioned above.

COUNTER-OFFERS

Is it your policy to counter-offer staff when they resign?

Other trends HR has often been at the forefront of pushing for more flexible workforces, but is the function itself walking the talk?

Morris says there has been an increase in contingent roles in HR in recent times. “While HR business partners usually work on a permanent basis, most other senior HR appointments are contract roles,” she says.

“The majority of these roles are either strategic, organisational development or change management-focused.”

Rees-Gay of Robert Walters adds that generally candidates are becoming more open to the idea of contracting,

No 62% Sometimes 33% Yes 2%

OF THOSE YOU COUNTER-OFFERED, ON AVERAGE, DID THEY....

46%

12

4%

29% 21% leave anyway

stay longer than 12 months

stay 3–12 months

stay less than 3 months

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1/09/2016 3:23:38 PM

ANNUAL REVIEW

HR SALARY AND JOBS GUIDE

Employers in NSW, Victoria and the ACT are seeing increased demand for specialist and niche roles, particularly within organisational development and change management

as permanent salaries have remained at consistent levels while contracting offers “very attractive rates”.

For all other levels, Hays has seen a balanced mix of permanent and temporary/ contract roles.

“Having said that, temporary assignments are preferred for recruitment and entry-level HR roles,” Morris says.

Again, there are regional differences.

In WA, Queensland, SA and the NT, the majority of commercial HR vacancies are temporary roles. And in the name of agility, the public sector is looking to recruit people on a contract basis, with current restrictions around their average staffing levels.

Remuneration Not surprisingly, with employers largely having the advantage over candidates in terms of supply and demand, HR salaries

haven’t moved much at the senior end of the job market. However, Foley says it has been a different story at other levels where strong candidates are able to negotiate good pay increases as their skills can be harder to find in the market.

Morris adds that despite seven in 10 employers expecting business activity to increase in the year ahead, and permanent headcounts also expected to rise, “cost consciousness remains in vogue” and there are few generous salary increases being offered.

According to Hays, over the last year 16% of employers offered no salary increases.

Those who did receive a salary increase found that their wallets were not that much heavier. Fifty-eight per cent received an increase of less than 3%, 20% saw their pay increase from 3% to 6%, and a lucky 6% received an increase of 6% or more.

AVERAGE HR SALARY INCREASES OVER PAST 12 MONTHS None 16% >3% 58% 3–6% 20% <6% 6%

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However, employers are warned not to be complacent, because employees are starting to take matters into their own hands. As Morris explains: “Forty-one per cent of employees say they’ll ask for a pay rise in their next review. Another 25% are as yet undecided about popping the salary question. Meanwhile, staff turnover has already increased in 29% of organisations.”

The news is brighter for bonuses. Robert Walters has seen bonuses being offered across various markets which may have not previously offered them, in order to ensure retention and improve engagement. Bonuses typically vary between 10% and 25% of package, according to Robert Walters data.

Frazer Jones’ APAC salary survey highlighted that 66% of people were eligible to get a bonus and 56% of people actually received a bonus. Bonuses generally have a mix of individual and company

performance indicators. If a company has not had a profitable year, then bonuses haven’t been paid.

However, Rees-Gay has seen a few innovative approaches to performancerelated short-term incentive schemes. “In most cases, remuneration packages for HR specialists and generalists have been made up of base plus superannuation only. In some instances, senior HR professionals have been eligible for company profitsharing schemes, where they are eligible for a portion of the company’s profits dependent on the overall profitability of the company,” she says. “Completion bonuses are also increasingly being offered for fixed-term contracts to ensure candidates stay until their end date.”

All graphs unless indicated otherwise are taken from Hays 2016 Salary Guide

IF YOU EXPECT STAFFING LEVELS TO INCREASE IN THE NEXT 12 MONTHS, PLEASE SPECIFY HOW:

CONTINGENT WORKERS How often do you employ temporary/ contract staff for your HR team?

28% Exceptional circumstances/never

47% Special projects/workloads

25% Regular ongoing basis In the next 12 months, do you expect your use of temporary/contract staff in HR to...

Full-time permanent 78% Temporary/contractors (through an employment consultancy) 28%

11% decrease

Employment of part-time staff 23% Employment of casual staff 21% Mixture/other (including overseas recruitment and acquisitions) 3% Job sharing 2%

69% remain the same

20% increase

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1/09/2016 3:23:46 PM

SPONSORED FEATURE

SMARTGROUP

THE WIN-WIN SOLUTION TO BENEFITS Houda Lebbos, CHRO at Smartgroup, outlines how employers can deliver benefits that reward employees and meet KPIs IT’S WELL understood that a strategic benefits program that aligns with both the company values and the values of your employees is a cost-of-entry component for a healthy, highperforming culture. Benefits delivered well offer a win-win for employees and employers.

Delivered poorly, they can be a thorn in your side, sucking up valuable HR resources and

employee equity doesn’t need to add to the administrative burden on internal teams.

For a workforce that has a high proportion of middle-income earners, novated leasing can be attractive as it represents an opportunity for them to buy a car for much less than it would otherwise cost. Having a safe, reliable and comfortable car – and one

There’s little point to a program that’s difficult to use, hard to grasp, or that no one knows about Houda Lebbos becoming an expense that’s difficult to defend.

Cost aside, a well-run program will do more than deliver a list of flavour-of-the-month ‘perks’. Ensuring the benefits you offer are what your people (and the people you are looking to attract) care about instantly increases the perceived value of your program.

An employee share plan, for example, is a good choice for private and ASX-listed companies looking to attract talent, and to keep that talent, quite literally, invested in their work. The administration of employee share plans can be fully outsourced so introducing

28

they feel proud of – is important to most people, ranging from those with families to those who work shifts and those who are in a single household.

For some, the workings of employee benefits can seem complicated, particularly when it involves tax-related benefits, so it’s critical that employees are given the opportunity to glean the information they need to engage with confidence.

There’s little point to a program that’s difficult to use, hard to grasp, or that no one knows about. That’s why at Smartgroup

THREE STEPS TO A HARDER-WORKING BENEFITS PROGRAM 1. Make it meaningful (for you and your employees) 2. Communicate for maximum engagement and uptake 3. Streamline administrative process we have a large team of specialists readily available – and often on-site – to educate employees on the particular benefits available to them and at a time that fits their workday. For example, we manage employee benefits for large organisations within the health sector, including hospitals, so we’ve introduced ward visits to coincide with their breaks. We’ve even run sessions at 2 a.m. for night staff who would otherwise miss out.

Likewise, a benefits program that’s timeconsuming and laborious for your team also undermines its value. There will be instances when you’ll need to deliver benefits directly, but other benefits – such as salary packaging – when delivered via a reputable outsourced solution, offer employee support and administration at minimal or no cost and free up your team to focus on other priorities.

There’s no doubt employee benefits are an integral part of your HR strategy, but the perceived value of the benefits, and how they’re administered will make the difference to how successful your program is at attracting, retaining and rewarding your workforce, and meeting your broader people goals.

In 1999, Smartgroup began as the leading salary packaging brand, Smartsalary, and grew rapidly thanks to a business model that places the customer at the heart of everything we do. This customer-centric approach has ensured our continued growth, having expanded to become a leading employee benefits and workforce optimisation service provider. Call 1300 665 855 or visit Smartgroup.com.au to find out more.

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1/09/2016 3:24:32 PM

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1/09/2016 3:24:38 PM

PROFILE

HUGO BOSS

HIGH-END HR Finding, recruiting and retaining great talent is a universal problem, even for some of the world’s most recognisable brands. HRD checks in with the head of HR at HUGO BOSS Australia and New Zealand to discuss the retailer’s innovative people strategies

FEW FASHION brands are as well known or hold as much rich history as HUGO BOSS. The name conjures up a certain level of sartorial sophistication; it is perhaps the ultimate luxury retailer. However, even luxury retailers suffer from some of the same challenges that other, less ‘sexy’ brands and industries might. For Alicia Gangell, head of HR at HUGO BOSS Australia and New Zealand, it’s all about talent – and specifically, finding the right talent.

“Our brand name definitely helps to attract talent,” Gangell says. “The candidates we speak to are genuinely excited by the brand and the opportunity of working for us. It’s really refreshing when we speak to candidates and they share what they know about the brand and why they want to work for us. But even a brand as well known and successful as ours is not immune to the fight for talent.”

30

HUGO BOSS Australia and New Zealand employs some 350 people, split between the corporate head office and the retail outlets around Australia. The lean HR team consists of Gangell, a payroll manager, a training manager, an HR administrator and two HR business partners. Most of the team is based in the head office in Melbourne, with the exception of one HR business partner who is based in Sydney.

Gangell’s job is made somewhat easier by an MD who is passionate about and understands the importance of high-calibre talent. This has been critical to enabling the HR function to invest in this area. In recent years, the company has moved away from the typical active candidate search methods and switched focus to tap into the passive candidate market.

“We’re continually trying to build a strong talent pipeline,” Gangell says. “We also headhunt

PROFILE Name: Alicia Gangell Company: HUGO BOSS Title: Head of HR, Australia and New Zealand Previous roles: HR manager, Harris Scarfe; HR/recruitment consultant, training consultant, program coordinator – L&D, Commonwealth Bank Qualification: Bachelor of Business, Human Resource Management, RMIT

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1/09/2016 3:25:56 PM

PROFILE

HUGO BOSS “I’ve learnt in my career that experience does not necessarily mean superior performance, and some of my best hires have been people who may have been a little light on experience but had the right attitude, passion and potential”

our candidates and mystery shop other retailers to try and find outstanding talent.”

For those unfamiliar with the term, to ‘mystery shop’ involves visiting other retailers and looking for people in leadership or sales roles who impress with their service. Referral cards are handed out and a promise of a confidential discussion is offered. “We’ve recently found someone using this method who is fantastic,” Gangell says. “It’s a very effective way to connect with people with excellent customer service.”

Hiring for attitude and passion Gangell and her MD are advocates for hiring based on attitude and passion. She feels this allows HR to move away from the typical recruitment blinkered approach of round pegs in round holes. “We’re placing less

32

importance on the résumé and more importance on the key attributes of the candidate,” Gangell says. “Rather than making a judgment based solely on a résumé, we’re working with HireVue to engage our candidates via video interviewing.”

While video interviewing is not new, it’s only now starting to gain traction in the Australian market. HUGO BOSS is currently implementing HireVue for its Australian hiring requirements. Candidates can pre-record their interview in their own time, in their own surroundings. Their video interview effectively becomes an extended version of their résumé.

“It’s a new way of assessing if someone is suitable for a face-to-face interview, plus you save time during the recruitment process.

Think of all the times you’ve tried to call a candidate and they don’t answer or you have

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to wait for them to get back to you. You play phone tag. Using this technology, we have the videos all saved ready for viewing. I can sit down and dedicate time to look at them, and have the opportunity to view more candidates.

Also, only people really keen on a role are likely to do a video, so it’s almost like a screening method in itself.”

For HR, Gangell says video interviews allow her team to keep an open mind about where talent should typically come from and what good talent looks like. “I’ve learnt in my career that experience does not necessarily mean superior performance, and some of my best hires have been people who may have been a little light on experience but had the right attitude, passion and potential.”

In addition, the retailer uses group interviews to observe candidates in a team environment – HR, existing leaders and anyone who wants to develop their own skills and learn more about the recruitment process are invited to participate.

HUGO BOSS also uses the Korn Ferry Hay Group Talent Q Assessments in order to design ideal job fit profiles, which Gangell describes as being similar to a trait profile.

“We can benchmark high performers and design a job fit profile based on previous success in a role. This can then be used to make future recruitment decisions.”

It’s win-win because new employees are invited to take the 30-minute online psychometric assessment during the recruitment process. They then receive a personalised session to talk through the results and how they may play out in the role.

“It enables HR to develop a relationship with new employees early on. We discuss their natural preferences and how closely they align to the role. Where their preferences don’t align closely we talk to them about what that might look like and develop strategies to assist them in the role,” Gangell says.

Talent retention Recruiting the right talent is one thing – retaining that talent in an industry some might view as transient is quite another.

While Gangell concedes that people often “fall into” a career in retail, HUGO BOSS is being more proactive by offering internships within its head office. She adds that countless employees started with the company in parttime or casual roles and eventually realised they had a passion for retail so they’ve moved into leadership roles within stores or into the head office in more specialised roles. “It’s really about helping people understand what opportunities are available and that retail is a desirable career to pursue,” she says.

All head office employees are encouraged to spend time in stores – and Gangell herself is about to start a stint at Melbourne’s Preston store. She says this experience is invaluable for keeping in touch with the challenges and opportunities that workers are faced with every day. “Spending time in the stores really helps us understand what team members go through; we perhaps gain a new appreciation for what they do,” she says. “It keeps us close to the stores, and that’s important because ultimately that’s why we’re here.”

Gangell adds that she has undertaken training to work in point-of-sale roles in order to add some value during her time in-store. “I want to be useful,” she laughs. “I don’t want to be a burden.”

To help retain high performers, the company uses the DDI Leadership Potential Inventory to assess the current state of its talent, where it needs to invest, and how personal career plans can be implemented. In addition, an in-house leadership program uses the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument to assist people in understanding their thinking preferences. A mentor program is offered to each participant in the leadership program, providing a rich learning experience for both the mentor and the mentee.

“Existing leaders can put their hand up and volunteer to be a mentor to our future leaders.

For example, our head of marketing has volunteered as a mentor. An assistant store manager who wants to become a store manager has access to a mentor through this program. It helps us engage our existing leaders but also our future leaders,” Gangell says.

KEY LESSONS Alicia Gangell has worked in two challenging industries – financial services and retail. Here are her two most valuable lessons from those experiences: RETAIL: “In retail the biggest lesson has been keep it simple. The beauty of retail is that it is dynamic and fast-paced. If you want to be successful as a business you need to be able to adapt to the environment when needed. If your processes, procedures, policies, employment agreements, or the structure of your business is overly complex, you lose your ability to be nimble in a changing environment.”

FINANCIAL SERVICES: “This industry is heavily regulated and I learned early on it was critical to arm myself with commercial acumen and gain an appreciation for the type of environment we were operating in. That enabled me to remain credible as an HR professional.

It helped me to understand how to balance the interests of employees , shareholders, customers, regulators and business outcomes.”

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1/09/2016 3:25:57 PM

FEATURES

MEDIATION

TIME TO CALL IN THE MEDIATOR

Mediation as a form of resolving workplace disputes has escalated in popularity in recent times – but can it help resolve that most damaging of environments: the toxic workplace?

34

TOXIC WORKPLACES are characterised by broken relationships, constant conflicts and disputes, bullying and harassment. They are places where the dysfunctional behaviour of those in the workplace is having a negative impact on the services or product that the organisation produces. It’s moved beyond a minor tiff between John and Sally and is now a systemic problem whereby customers aren’t being looked after, patients aren’t being cared for, roads aren’t being repaired or information isn’t being passed between security guards.

Even more frightening, a toxic workplace knows no boundaries – it can seep in from the front line right up to the top.

How can things get so bad? Dr Leigh Hodder, senior workplace relations adviser at iHR, says there are many root causes of workplace conflict. An experienced consultant, workplace mediator and investigator who has trained internal investigators at various organisations, Hodder is also a consulting psychologist with over 20 years’ experience.

She’s witnessed just about every type of workplace conflict and summarises the primary causes of conflict as: • ineffective communication leading to misunderstandings and misperceptions • values clashes, such as perceived work ethic • stress and, in some cases, mental health conditions • behaviour associated with bullying, such as micromanagement, ostracism and rumour spreading While most organisations have dispute or conflict resolution procedures in place, and these are usually well written, Hodder says the problem lies with the implementation.

“People are generally not comfortable in approaching the person with whom they are in conflict,” she says. “This means that they bypass resolution at the ‘local’ level and escalate the issues either to their manager or HR. Many managers feel ill-equipped to assist in the resolution process.”

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Brought to you by

To improve the situation, Hodder suggests organisations should consider providing their managers and staff with assistance in building the following skills: • effective communication • conflict management and resolution • mediation “These skills are critical to positive employee productivity and engagement,” she says.

All about mediation The third option, mediation, has gained ground in recent years as a viable – and successful – way to resolve conflicts before lawyers need to become involved.

Hodder says an organisation should look to engage an independent mediator or

conflicts, Hodder says mediation is a very different proposition. “Mediation can be used as a post-investigation intervention if the complainant and respondent must continue to work together,” she says. “Evidence is not required in the mediation process. There is no focus on who was right and who was wrong. The mediation process does not dwell, in depth, on the issues that led to conflict. It is a process primarily designed to move people to agreement.”

Mediation in employment law Mediation can of course be an alternative to calling in the lawyers, but where does it sit in Australia’s complex workplace law framework? “There is no one law in Australia

“At its heart, mediation is about starting the process of repairing the working relationship between employees”

WHAT IS A TOXIC WORKPLACE? Hodder has encountered both truly toxic workplaces and workplaces with pockets of toxicity that have potential to infect the whole workplace. A toxic workplace has the following characteristics: • low levels of trust • low levels of accountability • little or no sense of organisational community • high sick leave • high turnover • flourishing grapevine, top-heavy in personal gossip • higher than usual WorkCover stress claims • disengaged employees • poor/absent leadership • high levels of unmanaged conflict • lip service to values • strategic and operational deficits • bullying and harassment

Dr Leigh Hodder facilitator when: • the issues are long-standing • the issues are complex • there is a risk of an adverse action • the disputants request one • internal resolution attempts have not worked “At its heart, mediation is about starting the process of repairing the working relationship between employees,” Hodder explains. “Mediation provides people with a safe forum in which they can hear, be heard and reach agreement as to how their working relationship will progress. The primary question I ask people to think about is ‘what sort of behaviours would you like to see in your relationship with this person?’”

While some employers have embraced workplace investigations as a means of getting to the bottom of and resolving

that says, ‘Thou shalt mediate’,” says Hodder.

However, mediation, when done properly, is a legally binding alternative dispute resolution process that is well established within Australian courts and tribunals and is supported by legislation. An example is the Family Law Act, where parties are encouraged to access mediation rather than go to court.

The Fair Work and Human Rights Commission, the Federal Circuit Court/ Federal Court, as well as all levels of State Courts and Tribunals, insist on attempts at settlement before the matter is heard. In the NSW Supreme Court, for instance, the settlement rate is now 46% – and this is only for matters that were actually commenced in the court. The figure is even more impressive when one extrapolates the number of matters that were settled before they got that far.

“Australian industrial relations legislation

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1/09/2016 3:26:56 PM

FEATURES

MEDIATION Brought to you by

MEDIATION TIPS There are several tips for effective mediation. For the mediator, Hodder suggests: • prepare, prepare, prepare • thinking on your feet • being open • focusing on the quality of the relationship • maintaining your impartiality For the parties in conflict she suggests: • being open • being willing to meet in the middle • trusting the process • using empathy

recognises the efficiency of mediation and conciliation, rather than proceeding to costly arbitration in the first instance,” says Hodder.

Indeed, in most circumstances a court or tribunal will be required to certify that mediation and conciliation is unlikely to resolve the matter before exercising its arbitrary powers. An example is section 576(2)(ca) of the Fair Work Act 2009 in relation to the powers of the FWC which reads: (ca) mediating any proceedings, part of proceedings or matter arising out of any proceedings that, under section 53A of the Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 or section 34 of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia Act 1999, have been referred by the Fair Work Division of the Federal Court or Federal Circuit Court to the FWC for mediation.

in the mediation. The mediator synthesises this information and plans the session strategies.

The session The second step is to conduct the mediation session. This, in Hodder’s experience, averages from two to four hours. The mediator follows these steps: • opening statement • venting • issue identification and agenda setting • issue discussion and agreement building • close session

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Post-session The third step involves the mediator finalising the agreement and sending it through to the parties for signing and implementation. The mediator liaises with

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“Australian industrial relations legislation recognises the efficiency of mediation and conciliation, rather than proceeding to costly arbitration in the first instance” Dr Leigh Hodder IHR AUSTRALIA iHR Australia offers a full suite of Workplace Relations and HR Consulting services, Investigations, Mediations and Training services to ensure organisations are compliant with current workplace practices and legislation, while maintaining best practice people management. Our consultants have an average of 20 years’ experience and the ability to provide practical advice with actionable steps.

Contact 1300 884 687 or visit ihraustralia.com.

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Hodder says the mediation process itself is structured and quite simple, usually consisting of three stages.

Pre-session The first step is to prepare the parties to mediate – to set their expectations about possible outcomes at a realistic level, to start them thinking about the desired behaviours, and identify the issues they wish to raise.

The mediator talks to HR about alternative outcomes should the mediation not result in agreement. The mediator meets with each party individually to understand the issues, provide further education about the process and assess the person’s capacity to participate

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HR regarding the success of the mediation.

Having come through the process, participants will be keen to know how enforceable the outcomes are. In terms of workplace behavioural agreements, the agreed-to behaviours should align with code of conduct expectations, so appropriate disciplinary action could and should be taken for breaches of the agreement. “Breaches to the confidentiality of the process should also be subjected to disciplinary action,” Hodder says.

As a final tip, confidentiality is the cornerstone of the mediation process, and participants may be asked to sign a confidentiality agreement by the mediator.

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TEAM BUILDING

TEAM BUILDING IN DISGUISE Forget bowling or laser tag for your next teambuilding event and discover why you should lock your staff in a room instead

YOU’RE LOCKED in a room, the time is ticking down, and it’s up to you and your team to crack the code and escape. While this may sound like a scene from the next Hollywood action blockbuster, it’s actually the basis of the next big activity in corporate team building: escape rooms.

After working with teams from major corporations such as Google, Commonwealth

even better if this can be made competitive so teams can compete against each other to see who succeeds first.”

These activities must also have the full participation of all team members and be structured so no one can simply opt out or sit on the sidelines.

Next, team-building events should be skill neutral, Assice says, so they do not

“Escape rooms are purely about mental capacity and your ability to think laterally to find clues and solve puzzles” Rebecca Assice, Escape Hunt Bank and Woolworths, Rebecca Assice, master franchisor for Australia and New Zealand at Escape Hunt, knows a thing or two about what makes a good team-building event and how organisations can get the most out of these types of activities.

Five characteristics There are five key qualities that make a memorable team-building event, Assice says. The first is a clear objective so everyone knows what they are trying to achieve and what a successful outcome looks like. “It’s

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favour individuals with particular attributes such as physical strength, speed or handeye coordination. “Requiring physical skills can often put off weaker team members and reduce their enjoyment of the teambuilding activity.”

Interaction among team members is also important, and the chosen activity should encourage teammates to share ideas, communication and work together to solve problems and achieve common outcomes.

Finally, the event should be unique. “The activity should be sufficiently different and

intriguing to gain the enthusiasm of team members. It also needs to vary quite a lot from their day-to-day working environment,” Assice says.

A literal break-out event Due to their design, escape rooms stand out from other types of team-building activities for a number of reasons. The sheer uniqueness and novelty of escape rooms is one factor that should pique the interest of employees.

“Many people still have not heard of them and most have not played them before, although they are quickly gaining popularity,” Assice says. “People often turn up with very little idea of what to expect, so there is an element of surprise and mystery to the whole experience beyond the mysteries being solved in the rooms.”

Escape rooms are also universally engaging. Rather than physical skills, the test involves mental capacities such as brainpower, logic and problem-solving skills. This sets these rooms aside from other activities such as bowling, sailing, go-karting and laser tag, which favour the physically fit.

These more physical activities can put people off, especially those who think they may not be able to participate in an adequate way due to their bodily limitations.

“Escape rooms are purely about mental capacity and your ability to think laterally to find clues and solve puzzles. The most successful participants or teams are often not the ones you would expect either.”

Lastly, there is a certain exhilaration to an escape room as teams race both each other and the clock. “Whilst there is no physical skill required, hearts will be racing and adrenaline levels will be pumping as the clock counts down in front of you. Once the team cracks the final puzzle and escapes the

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TRAIN YOUR BRAIN: ESCAPE HUNT CLUES

WHICH BAND IS NOT REPRESENTED? Matchbox 20, Soundgarden, Red Hot Chili Peppers

room the energy level is sky high and teams cannot wait to try it all again!” Assice says.

The thought escapes me One of the most important parts of any teambuilding session is the debriefing afterwards to ensure that participants get the most out of the activity. Escape Hunt provides a structured debriefing exercise for teams to participate in. This is entirely optional and can be done back at the office. It includes analysing how the team interacted with each

WHICH ANSWER IS NOT REPRESENTED? Backward glance

other inside the escape room, in order to look at which techniques worked well and which did not.

During the debrief, participants are asked a series of questions about the competencies that the teams needed to successfully escape, Assice says. This includes: • Strategy • Communication and leadership • Idea generation • Problem-solving • Stress management

Scrambled eggs

Cross roads

• Asking for help • Teamwork • Collaboration “The teams have a chance to discuss these questions amongst themselves and can then share their top three key learnings back to the wider group,” Assice says. “The exercise also encourages the teams to reflect on these learnings and come up with an action plan for what they will change or how they will work differently when they are back in the office.”

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THE RISE OF THE ESCAPE ROOM Part game, part theatre, part teambuilding exercise, escape rooms are now one of the fastest growing forms of live entertainment. From virtual non-existence 5 years ago, the number of permanent rooms world-wide has grown to over 3,000 today.

The Escape Hunt Experience is the global leader in this incredibly popular and fast growing industry and the only group specialising in the unique needs of corporate clients. With over 40 branches worldwide from Sydney to Paris, Tokyo to Houston, Escape Hunt has delivered more than 8 million minutes of exhilarating game time since opening its doors in 2013.

The perfect disguise

Thinking inside of the box

In a 2011 survey, one in two employees reacted negatively when told about an upcoming team-building event. Escape rooms are a great way to counter this adverse reaction as it is really “team building in disguise”, Assice says. “It is so much fun for participants that they won’t even realise they are actually learning or participating in a team-building exercise.”

One reason why employees may react negatively to team-building events is that so many of these activities require

Since escape rooms encourage lateral thinking, it is no surprise that they are being used for more creative purposes in the corporate world. Escape Hunt has been involved in several of these, including brand promotions, post-merger integration activities and recruitment.

Using escape rooms to attract new candidates is currently very popular in Japan, Assice adds, with the trend now shifting to Australia as well. Here, Escape Hunt is positioning itself as a unique way

“It is so much fun for participants that they won’t even realise they are actually learning or participating in a team-building exercise” Rebecca Assice, Escape Hunt

THE ESCAPE HUNT EXPERIENCE In 2015, Escape Hunt held over 1,000 successful corporate events across Australia for a wide range of clients, including small businesses, start-ups, government departments and major organisations such as Google, Commonwealth Bank, Woolworths, KPMG and McKinsey. With branches centrally located in Adelaide, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth – they will work with you to host an unforgettably fun and engaging team experience.

Find out more at australia. escapehunt.com.

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some physical attributes, Assice explains.

Another reason may be that certain teambuilding activities seem almost clichéd – meaning that people find it hard to get excited about something they’ve done before. Escape Hunt and escape rooms in general offer a unique, engaging experience that is guaranteed to garner excellent feedback from participating staff, she says.

For employers, it is possible to position an Escape Hunt activity as a fun and mysterious afternoon, keeping the details secret so employees are surprised once they arrive on site. Additionally, most Escape Hunt branches offer food and beverage packages either on site or at nearby bars so employees can relax and spend some social time together after (hopefully) escaping the room.

to bring in graduate talent – conducting group assessment in a novel manner that distinguishes one firm from the rest.

“Using escape rooms, the graduate recruitment process can become a dramatically different experience where candidates have to solve challenging problems by working effectively together under significant time pressure. Observers can be in the rooms with the candidates to see how they behave and interact together, and all rooms have CCTV so assessors can watch the videos when back in the office.”

In this way, employers can scan for desired competencies in a real-time manner, especially since teams are under significant pressure to escape the room. Firms can also get a lot of free brand exposure, with candidates raving about the fun, unique recruitment experience they have gone through once it is completed.

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FEATURES

BENEFITS

DIVIDE AND CONQUER While marketing departments have been segmenting their communications for years, it’s only now that HR is catching up. HRD looks at how the right messages to the right employees can reap significant dividends HOW OFTEN has your HR team slaved over the words of some form of internal communication – perhaps announcing a new benefits or incentive program – only to have the subsequent take-up of that program be disappointingly low? It’s something Tracy Mellor, managing director ANZ and group people director at Reward Gateway, has experienced time and time again in both her

never particularly interesting. That’s not to say HR missives can’t ever stand out from the mountains of communications most employees receive daily.

“What we’ve found works best is a blended approach,” says Mellor. “A hub where we host all comms in one space that’s easy to use. And mobile is key – everything has to be available and beautiful too, on

“Don’t bother sending group emails to large cohorts of people with something you really want them to read” Tracy Mellor HR career and her consulting career.

“The question I’m most often asked is ‘how do I get our people to read emails?’ The answer is you don’t!” she says. “Don’t bother sending group emails to large cohorts of people with something you really want them to read.”

She adds that the open rate for HR emails is unsurprisingly low. Why? Because they’re

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mobile – so you can catch them on the bus or at the bus stop or on the train, or just anytime when they’re wanting to read something.”

Once everything is in one spot, Mellor suggests HR needs to determine how else they can catch people. Is it Instagram?

Twitter? Facebook? Sometimes it’s even

good old email if you’ve got a one-liner that grabs attention.

The right message for the right audience Of course, knowing which platforms to use is one thing; getting the message to connect to the target audience is quite another. While marketing and PR/communications teams have fine-tuned sophisticated ‘segmented’ approaches to communications, HR has generally been slower to take this on board.

However, Mellor says one significant benefit of technology is the ability to segment communications. “It doesn’t have to be ‘one size fits all’,” she says. “Everyone should consider what they’re communicating and how, when and why they do it.”

She cites the example of McDonald’s, which has embraced this concept. “[McDonald’s Australia director of people and culture] Hayley Baxendale and her team do a great job of segmenting their communications, ensuring their Licensees, Head Office and the Crew get the appropriate messages. Why do they do it? Because they are three really different cohorts of people and it would be silly to burden everyone with information that’s irrelevant.”

McDonald’s goes one step further to ensure that the needs of the different groups are met: it segments its benefits too. “It would be inappropriate to offer discounts on things like wine and beer to their Crew, but it is appropriate for their Licensees, so they use technology to ensure the right people see the right benefits. And they’re ‘lovin’ it’!” Mellor says.

It’s not just about age; geography matters too.

“It’s important to provide access to lots of different options, as what works in Mackay doesn’t necessarily work in Wagga, and you don’t want to create benefit envy –

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BENEFITS IN FOCUS something else I did wrong at Rebel,” Mellor recollects. “Everything was very metrocentric, and those in regional areas felt left out. If discounted shopping is one of your benefits, then not everyone has access to the big stores. Access to online shopping is really important too – particularly as we’re trying to stretch everyone’s disposable income, wherever they are.”

Here is a three-step guide to segmenting HR communications.

Step 1: Know your objectives The critical first step in creating a segmented comms strategy is to know your objectives.

For example, Sally Parke, head of people at Krispy Kreme, is very clear on this when

Mellor says it’s critical for HR to be aware of the different needs and wants of a workforce when it comes to benefits. This became apparent to her during her time as HR director at Rebel. The young workforce employed at Rebel had completely different needs to those who had been with the company since it opened in 1985.

“This was brought home to me when one of our team was awarded an ‘experience’ voucher for doing a great job. She called me to say thank you, but politely ask if she could swap it for something else. When I asked her why, she said. ‘I’d rather feed the family than spend 200 bucks on skydiving’ – I hadn’t thought of it before in that way,” says Mellor.

she’s communicating about the company’s health and safety training: it’s not so relevant for those people in head office – they have an Engagement Hub – and she segments it so that the store people see the ‘training tile’ (a technical term for a dynamic part of a website) on their website and the head office workers see something else.

Mellor says there are many reasons

why HR may decide that a one-size-fitsall approach does not work. For example, Reward Gateway has customers who have salaried staff and hourly paid or award employees. Other customers are currently renewing their Enterprise Agreements and have chosen to segment their communications by state. “As it’s so complicated anyway, why have everyone

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ANALYSING YOUR MESSAGES Debra Corey, group reward director at Reward Gateway, outlined the concept of segmenting employee communications in her book, Effective HR Communication. Here, she outlines how to review your existing employee data.

Collecting and analysing your data willl help you develop your communication segments.

Marketers do this using two approaches: a priori and post hoc.

– A priori segmentation approach is based on widely known data, so what we already know about our employees. For example, age, gender, work location, work patterns, salary, etc.

– A post hoc approach is a bit more difficult to collect as it requires input from your employees on their needs, interests, etc.

Decide which will give you the most robust data to analyse so that segments can then be created.

An example is a retail company looking to launch a new benefits program. In reviewing their three employee groups (stores, head office and distribution centres) they found they had very different needs regarding age, income and preferences. By analysing this data they were able to segment their communications to specifically meet the needs of each of these three diverse audiences.

REWARD GATEWAY Reward Gateway provides employee engagement technology to the world’s leading companies. Over 1,200 clients, including Optus, KPMG and McDonald’s, use the company’s products to attract, engage and retain the best employees. The company’s products power employee communications and employee recognition.

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reading through everything – or why send out lots of different emails when you can just segment your website by state and show people what’s relevant to them?” she says.

Step 2: Review your data Mellor says employee involvement is critical to success. “We’ve just done some really interesting workshops with 12 people from each country around the Reward Gateway world. We tasked everyone to ask their friends and family what they liked in their companies so we got as much information as possible, and then we got busy with the groups and Post-it notes.”

Employees were asked to rank what was important to them in Reward Gateway’s

Step 3: Create the messaging When you launch something that’s new or different you have to ensure that everyone knows what’s happening. For Reward Gateway’s recent benefits review the company created ‘benefits champions’ and ensured that they were totally au fait with everything that was changing and how to apply for all benefits. They also created managers’ briefing notes and presentations and held manager briefing sessions. Finally, using their own online portal, they created a ‘SmartHub® tile’ on benefits to ensure that the right people got the right information. They also created videos, Q&As and an infographic – to ensure that everyone had at least one touchpoint with one form of communication.

“What do you want to achieve and how can you connect with as many people as possible in a way that works for them?”

Tracy Mellor current offerings, and they were then asked what else they’d like to see. Suggestions were worked on to see what could be added within the budget.

The company put its benefits into five different categories: Fairness, Balance, Choice, Wow and Easy – and these principles were fed into everything within the benefits portfolio.

“This turned out to be an interesting exercise in more ways than one, because we actually then took away one of the benefits which was number one for some people,” says Mellor. “When we applied our principles, we realised that it wasn’t ‘fair’ to the majority of our workforce and only a small handful of people actually benefited from something which used up a disproportionate amount of our total benefits allocation – so we used the budget to create a ‘wellness pot’ for everyone instead.”

The key question to ask While more sophisticated HR messaging seems like common sense, Mellor stresses that there are times when it’s appropriate to tailor the message to different groups, and times when this is not appropriate.

“Sometimes a unified message is more important, with links that go off to detail for different groups. In fact, it’s a good idea to question why we treat anyone differently at all. So, my take-home message is to ask: what do you want to achieve and how can you connect with as many people as possible in a way that works for them?”

If you would like to talk about employee engagement solutions you can talk to Tracy Mellor, Reward Gateway group people director, on 0434 336 830 or Kylie Green, Reward Gateway sales director, on 0407 944 289; rewardgateway.com.

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FEATURES

WORKFORCE PLANNING

PEAK HUMAN? How you’ll source talent, what you will pay for it and what they’ll do for your business is undergoing a revolution. Ravin Jesuthasan looks at the future of work ARE WE approaching ‘peak human’? To understand what that means, let’s think about what happened to the horse. As recently as the early 20th century, horses were still central to the way we lived our lives and, indeed, how we

there’s definitely an enhanced supplementary role for robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) – and that’s having an impact on the way companies will look at sourcing, employing and paying people.

We are seeing the disaggregation of jobs into activities and the ability of talent platforms to provide skills on demand, significantly reducing the frictional cost of employment worked. With only the train as competition, they were transport; essential for agricultural processes. But around 1910 they were replaced by machinery; ‘peak horse’ had come and gone.

Today, we’re seeing a rapid change in our work processes, and the possibility of peak human needs to be considered. I’m not saying all human jobs are going to be replaced by technology, but

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For many organisations, the future relevance of their business will rely on quite different elements than those that underpin their work now. Regardless of whether your business is manufacturing, financial services or health care, your future is likely to hinge on the ability to use digital media and emerging technologies in a way that is

core to your business model, rather than a peripheral enabler.

This means that companies need to solve the problem of how to go about developing capability to harness these new technologies, which may require a fundamental change in skill sets of the people working in the business, and a new approach to acquiring scarce talent.

Three metrics We are working with organisations to show them how to look at the future of work by addressing three core metrics: • Speed to capability – How do we get to capability as quickly as possible?

• Cost – HR budgets and salary budgets are tight; how do we achieve capability for as little cost as possible?

• Risk – How do we develop new capability by taking on as little risk as possible (think fixed cost) and manage the risk of the ‘rapidly declining half-life’ of our people’s

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current skills? Will the skills we have spent millions of dollars acquiring and developing become obsolete at an increasing pace?

It’s important to start by looking at the jobs your organisation will need in the future and pulling them apart into their components. Having people work beyond a traditional employment model can often help you achieve outcomes on these three metrics that far exceed what could be achieved if you went out and hired talent in a traditional way.

Let’s look at an example from the future of banking, which is undoubtedly digital. If we use the example of an Android software engineer as a critical job in this future, there are three key elements: core programming, integration of technology with existing company and client systems, and change management – the understanding of how the technology might be used by various stakeholders (leaders,

employees, customers) and the resulting implementation to ensure adoption.

Traditionally we would go out and hire one person to do all three elements. But by pulling the job apart we can deliver a solution in relation to the three key metrics that is one fifth of the cost, less than a third of the time, and almost no risk to the business model because it can be done with virtually no fixed cost.

In addition, if we hired employees to do this work, the risk would be significant because the technology change that is driving the business change will make the skills of this group and the technology developed redundant at an accelerating pace.

This shift represents a fundamental change to the theory under which companies have been operating up until now in hiring their teams. As you can see, we’re not talking about the 30% (on average) savings that companies have been achieving through outsourcing by moving an entire process

out of the company. This is a change of the type of magnitude that allows for significant disruption.

So, what is changing the world of work?

We’re seeing: ÎÎ Democratisation of work – Increasingly, work is being fragmented and pushed around the world to be done in the most efficient way. ÎÎ Technological empowerment – The exponential rise in the power of computing is transforming work in a significant way.

A McKinsey report1 recently indicated that the combination of these two factors is leading, worldwide, to a deficit of 40 million people in skilled roles and a surplus of 90 million in unskilled jobs. We’re not talking blue versus white collar here; any job that is highly routinised is something that, increasingly, AI and robotics will replace.

Some research suggests that up to 47% of jobs could be replaced by AI.2 We don’t think

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FEATURES

WORKFORCE PLANNING

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR AUSTRALIA? The forces of change that are driving organisations around the world to think differently about how they get work done are present in Australia now, and will only grow stronger in the future.

Willis Towers Watson and Oxford Economics3 research predicts that Australia will have a deficit of talent by 2021, with the most significant shortages in managerial and professional workforces. These deficits are occurring as we transition from a resources-led to a services-led economy, which will require our organisations to be more innovative to enable them to compete.

It’s likely that the skills needed for companies to compete will be scarce and expensive in Australia; those organisations that solve the challenge of how to organise work and use the new talent platforms will be able to move more quickly, with less risk and much lower cost.

A logical starting place for organisations in Australia would be to conduct a work scan that looks at jobs which they are finding difficult to fill, or more routinised ones (think certain accounting jobs) where there is a sense that the cost of work internally may exceed external options. Once the position is identified and the full life cycle cost determined (cost of acquisition, development, rewards, etc), the job should be disaggregated into its core activities and each activity analysed against the range of potential alternative sources of work (talent on a platform, independent contractors, AI, etc) again, using the three metrics of speed to capability, cost and risk.

For employees in Australia, the same risks and benefits of the future of work that are present in the rest of the world will be at play. Australian employees, with their high levels of education, should be well positioned to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the new talent platforms and future of work.

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whole jobs will necessarily be replaced at this level, but the routine elements are likely to be impacted. Imagine a marketing manager who spends 30% of their time analysing data and making pricing and product decisions based on that. This work can be done by a machine, so, in future, this person either does 30% more of other work, is paid 30% less or, most likely, there are 30% fewer marketing managers in the organisation.

It’s not all ‘Brave New World’. While some jobs will be made obsolete, new jobs that don’t exist and that we can’t yet conceive of will be created.

The rise of robotics and cloud computing, mobile phones and sensors are fundamentally

or by a project manager on Upwork. The cost of these is all scalable. Again, McKinsey4 has estimated that these talent platforms could significantly increase global productivity.

This is the fourth industrial revolution.

Work can actually be done more efficiently outside the organisation than within it. We are seeing the disaggregation of jobs into activities and the ability of talent platforms to provide skills on demand, significantly reducing the frictional cost of employment.

These twin forces are driving work outside the individual company structure.

Organisations are moving from a physical place where people come in and work from nine to five to a place that organises work and talent.

It’s not all ‘Brave New World’. While some jobs will be made obsolete, new jobs that don’t exist and that we can’t yet conceive of will be created changing the nature of work – creating a human and tech interface that will drastically reduce, for example, the cost of basic assembly in factories (to as low as $1 per day). This is reducing the skill premium on many jobs.

Rise of the ‘robo gig’ economy Indeed, technology and disruption has given rise to a new style of working – the ‘robo gig’ economy.

Research we did with Oxford Economics3 shows skills surpluses in places like India, coupled with a shortfall in much of the developed world. New talent platforms are allowing workers in India to access work opportunities anywhere in the world as the great labour arbitrage that started decades ago further accelerates.

And that allows companies to access skills in a different way. If we go back to our Android programmer example and consider the disaggregated job, we can get the core development done by a programmer on Topcoder, the integration by a partner at a tech consultancy, and the project management could be done by a PMO in the organisation

It’s the move from a fixed set of functions to a malleable set. Deciding which ones get done inside the organisation is a big part of strategy.

This is not without potential problems at the individual and societal level. We see the shifting of risk to employees in things like retirement adequacy, possible underinvestment in training and apprenticeships.

But there are also potential positives, with employees less bound and more able to move and match skills to work and rewards.

References: 1 ‘The world at work: Jobs, pay, and skills for 3.5 billion people’. McKinsey Global Institute, June 2012.

2 Frey, C.B. and M.A. Osborne, ‘The future of employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerization?’, 17 September 2013 3 ‘Global Talent 2021: How the new geography of talent will transform human resource strategies’.

Oxford Economics 2012.

4 ‘Connecting talent with opportunity in the digital age’. McKinsey Global Institute, June 2015

Ravin Jesuthasan is author of Lead the Work and Transformative HR. He is also a global thought leader on the future of work and talent management and is based in Chicago where he is a managing director of Willis Towers Watson.

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HR STRATEGY

A NEW ERA FOR PUBLIC SECTOR CHROS The expectations, accountabilities and experiences of public sector CHROs have changed – a new ‘success profile’ and measurement guidelines are showing the way forward TODAY’S HR practitioner is required to do more than ever.

Customers expect more innovative and integrated product and service delivery.

Individuals seek greater flexibility and autonomy in what they do and how they work.

mix are increasing community expectations, ongoing budgetary and fiscal constraints and a changing public sector workforce profile.

Our public sectors require HR functions with the ability to anticipate future workforce needs and prepare for them accordingly.

Our public sectors require HR functions with the ability to anticipate future workforce needs and prepare for them accordingly Advancing digital technologies continue to alter the requirement for the purely transactional and often segregated HR function in the modern workplace. The HR professional must plan for, shape and support the evolution of workplace culture, and contribute to core business and strategic objectives.

HR in the public sector The public sector HR practitioner is not immune from these realities. Added to the

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Lifting the game The Australian and New Zealand Public Service Commissioners are committed to strengthening human capital and increasing the professionalism of the HR function as a valuable source of expertise and strategic guidance for the public sector.

The Hon. John Lloyd PSM, Australian Public Service Commissioner, commented: “All commissioners have agreed that they will work to help agency heads lift the HR profile

as a driver to realise business outcomes. We will both advocate and take initiatives to achieve a more strategic contribution by HR professionals in our jurisdictions.”

In support of this commitment, the commissioners agreed to develop A joint success profile for Chief Human Resources Officers, outlining the expectations, accountabilities and suggested experiences deemed necessary for an effective and successful chief human resources officer (CHRO), or its equivalent, within public sector agencies.

The six expectations contained in the profile are: • Understand the organisation’s business and its role in public value creation.

• Act as a steward of organisational culture and capability.

• Enable leaders to engage and manage the workforce as a key driver to achieve business outcomes.

• Empower the organisation to make workforce decisions based on evidence and insights.

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“HR needs to be positioned as a key enabler of business outcomes and be in partnership with the strategic and operational areas of the business” • Partner with leaders to develop key workforce interventions to meet changing demands and rising customer expectations.

• Build functional excellence within the HR area to improve credibility and promote customer focus.

The accountabilities include: • Build relationships of trust and credibility, particularly with the agency’s senior leaders and key stakeholders.

• Provide outstanding leadership through significant times of change.

• Empower leaders to gain the utmost business value from the agency’s workforce.

• Design and implement innovative people solutions.

• Inspire change and new ways of thinking.

• Develop coherent talent, culture and leadership strategies.

According to Bronwen Overton-Clarke, ACT Public Service Commissioner and project sponsor, “Good-practice CHROs are those who know and understand the business. They need to be bold, less conservative in their approach and have a range of varied experiences.”

Further to the CHRO profile, an accompanying Guidelines for measuring a joint success profile for Chief Human Resource Officers provides agencies with advice on how they can measure the success of the CHRO role

through its overall impact on the HR process and agency business outcomes.

Overton-Clarke reiterated the need to leverage the expertise, knowledge and good practice already occurring within the HR profession: “HR needs to be positioned as a key enabler of business outcomes and be in partnership with the strategic and operational areas of the business. It shouldn’t be considered a ‘separate’ unit in the business, but an integral and core component of the whole business function.”

The commissioners are clear that the CHRO success profile and accompanying measurement guidelines are not mandatory, but are to be used as a tool for agencies to apply at their own discretion and assist in establishing a common language across the jurisdictions regarding HR capability.

Ultimately it is hoped these resources will play a role in elevating the profile of the HR profession by articulating the role and securing a seat for the CHRO at the executive table, not as a figurehead but as a key influencer and decision-maker.

www.hcamag.com

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FEATURES

LEGAL

ENTERPRISE BARGAINING: TIME FOR CHANGE Any reform of enterprise bargaining must enhance productivity, writes Anthony Wood

IT’S NO surprise that many enterprise agreements contain historic, entrenched terms and conditions of employment that are uncompetitive and out of sync with prevailing market conditions. Many employers in the ‘old’ economy are encumbered by heritage conditions that are extremely difficult to shake off. This is one reason why many Australian manufacturers have been unable to restructure to compete against imports in the global economy. Our local vehicle industry is the perfect example of this.

On the other hand, new entrants to an industry, and employers in the new ‘Uber’ economy, face fewer restrictions in building their competitive business model.

Changing with the times Currently, an enterprise agreement continues in perpetuity even after it reaches its nominal expiry date, unless it is replaced by a new enterprise agreement, terminated on application or terminated by agreement between the parties (and approved by the Fair Work Commission).

To ensure Australian workplaces remain productive, competitive and sustainable, the Fair Work Act should be amended to remove this default position, which does not incentivise unions and employees to agree to sustainable terms and conditions that are within market parameters. Instead, it encourages the pursuit of unsustainable demands, without productivity gains offsets.

Until recently, employers found little success in applying to terminate expired agreements. However, the landmark Aurizon decision in 2015 changed this by exploring the public interest benefits of terminating an enterprise agreement with unsustainable terms and conditions. The Full Bench rejected the notion that it would be inappropriate to terminate an enterprise agreement during bargaining and held that termination of an agreement might actually promote the objects of the Act.

Resetting the default position Although the decision in Aurizon has given

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CASE STUDY: AGL Recently, AGL – the owners of Victoria’s largest base load power generator – applied to the Fair Work Commission (FWC) to terminate the 2012 Loy Yang Power Enterprise Agreement. The agreement passed its nominal expiry date in December 2015 and the employer has been bargaining with employees and unions since then to replace it. If the application is successful, workers will revert to coverage by the Industry Award until a new enterprise agreement is negotiated.

It’s little wonder that Loy Yang is now taking steps to seek the termination of its cumbersome enterprise agreement. It inherited legacy conditions from the Victorian public service that were unproductive and inhibited workplace change. In May 1997, Loy Yang was privatised by the Victorian Government. The result of the process of privatisation was that private power generation sector employers inherited legacy employment conditions that were hugely unproductive, including fixed manning levels and prohibitions on forced redundancies. Without any mechanism to ‘reset’ these terms and conditions, there was minimal opportunity to ensure that the power generators were sustainable following privatisation.

Because of its unique public sector heritage, Loy Yang is a good example of the type of employer that could expect the FWC to apply the Aurizon decision favourably to its circumstances. The company itself has claimed that it requires more modern, competitive and rational terms and conditions in an industry undergoing significant change. However, like any legal proceeding, the outcome of Loy Yang’s application will not be known until a costly and (probably) arduous case before the FWC. This type of uncertainty and delay is just the opposite of what should be offered by a modern enterprise-focused industrial relations system. some hope to business, it cannot be relied upon by most employers. The Aurizon case was based on exceptional circumstances in which the terms and conditions contained in the relevant enterprise agreement were uncompetitive and restrictive.

that were previously made against this reform drop away.

Resetting the default position in this way would deliver productivity benefits and lead to more sustainable terms and conditions, for the following reasons:

Many employers in the ‘old’ economy are encumbered by heritage conditions that are extremely difficult to shake off There is one abundantly clear solution to this predicament – reset the default position so that enterprise agreements automatically terminate either three months or six months after their nominal expiry date, unless the parties agree to extend the operation for a further period (or periods). Now that modern awards and the Fair Work safety net operate to protect Australian workers, arguments

• Firstly, setting a ‘time limit’ on the duration of an enterprise agreement would encourage employers and unions to bargain proactively and effectively to ensure that a new enterprise agreement came into operation before the expiry (and termination) of the old one. This might give rise to harder and faster disputes.

However, it would ultimately encourage

the parties to work more efficiently to come to an agreed position.

• Secondly, limiting the period of operation of an enterprise agreement would likely reset employees’ expectations about their terms and conditions, and encourage them to be realistic about their terms and conditions of employment.

• Thirdly, adopting this solution would enable the bargaining parties to effectively wipe the slate clean and agree to terms and conditions that were appropriate for the workplace, in line with industry practice and relevant to the work undertaken by the relevant employees.

A change for the better The automatic termination of an enterprise agreement would not impact on the current good faith bargaining regime. Nor would altering the status quo mean that employees would not be able to employ the mechanisms under the Act to ‘flex their industrial muscle’ and exert economic coercion to pressure employers to meet their demands.

There is no basis upon which to suggest that terminating an enterprise agreement would lead to the blanket curtailment of employee terms and conditions. In fact, resetting the default position might in fact do the opposite. An employer that is experiencing buoyant times would be more inclined to share the benefits with employees when good times permit, without holding back in fear that once a generous term was incorporated in an enterprise agreement, the employer would be effectively shackled in perpetuity by the entitlements.

Resetting the default position would not only lead to more productive, competitive and sustainable workplaces for employers; it would strengthen Australia’s economic position.

Anthony Wood is an employment partner at Herbert Smith Freehills and section head of the Melbourne employment team.

www.hcamag.com

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PEOPLE

CAREER PATH

CLIMBING THE LEADERBOARD Ilona Charles, chief people officer at Aconex, has navigated a host of roles, fields and industries to become a true HR leader

1990

After graduating from La Trobe University, Charles works at the 1994 EARLY CAREER Transport Accident Commission.

INTO THE She then moves into rehabilitation consulting for Occupational BANKING FIELD Rehabilitation Services. After three years there, she moves on to become A year into her role at WorkSolutions, Charles a founding consultant at WorkSolutions Group, which offers rehabilitation applies to the ANZ Banking Group to become an internal rehabilitation services to employers to assist with work-injured employees. consultant. Commencing in 1994, she quickly progresses to running the occupational health and safety team, which she does for nine months.

1994 1995

NABBING THE PERFECT CAREER PATH Charles spends 15 years at National Australia Bank, averaging a new role every 18–24 months, and finally becomes general manager of executive talent. Career highlights include successfully negotiating an innovative enterprise agreement, heading transformation for the COO, and conducting a groundbreaking gender pay equity audit.

“My biggest learnings during this time were the importance of great leadership, treating people as human beings and with empathy, and the importance of understanding the business in which you operate” 2013

SWEPT UP IN THE TECH FIELD Charles joins Telstra as executive director of HR for the retail business. During this time, she learns about the financial side of business, and is exposed to the speed and momentum of working in such a technology and customer-facing organisation.

“I have learnt over my career to always focus on the biggest business problem first when determining where to start with a new people strategy. It’s this commercial focus with a collaborative approach that facilitates the buy-in of the business”

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DOWN TO BUSINESS While at ANZ, Charles completes a graduate diploma in business administration. Then, believing a business degree will broaden her future career opportunities, she goes on to do an MBA, graduating in 1998.

2010

A CRITICAL CULTURAL ENABLER At Medibank, Charles is appointed group executive of people and culture (later changed to people and performance). She leads company strategy, introduces an enterprise PMO, and establishes an investment committee. She also sponsors a new purpose-built building in Docklands to better facilitate collaboration, enable culture, and drive organisational efficiencies.

“At Medibank, I grew as a leader and gained invaluable executive experience and exposure to the company board”

2016

A CULMINATION OF PAST LEARNINGS Charles commences as chief people officer at Aconex in July this year. In this role, she is able to use her past experience to drive future growth, scale the organisation, and build up culture in an innovative way. Her greatest challenge is to recruit, retain and develop people in the highly competitive markets of IT and tech.

www.hcamag.com

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PEOPLE

OTHER LIFE

630

Length (nautical miles) of the Sydney to Hobart race – that’s approximately 1,170km

7

Number of Sydney to Hobart races Ramaley has completed, “and that’s not going to stop any time soon”, he says

1

Major superstition: “No bananas on board my boat!”

Matthew Ramaley (centre), in action at the Etchell World Championships, Hong Kong, 2015

THE THRILL OF THE RACE The CEO of Rawson Group, one of NSW/ACT’s largest home builders, gets away from it all by taking to the sea WHAT DO you do to unwind after work?

Read a book? Travel? How about maxi yacht racing? That’s what Matthew Ramaley, CEO of Rawson, does – and he relishes the opportunity to take part in events like the Sydney to Hobart race every year.

In particular, Ramaley says he’s attracted to the physical challenge of sailing. “It’s not an easy sport,” he says. “The type of competitions

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I do involve sailing against some of the best in the world, and it takes a lot of hard work.”

He adds that sailing is fantastic for developing teamwork skills and building the capability required to motivate highperforming teams. It also helps his resilience: through sailing Ramaley has found it’s possible to overcome adversity “with plain old hard work”.

“The way you think a race will go when you start is not usually how it ends up. You really have to be able to adapt and overcome challenges. It’s often the same in business – adapt or die, as they say.”

His advice to others? “Don’t wait; take lessons, start planning and stick with it.

There is nothing better in the world than the last 50 miles of a race.”

www.hcamag.com

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