Human Capital magazine issue 9.03

HC

THREE REWARD & RECOGNITION MYTHS P.46 » INSIDE HR AT GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY P.50 » BUILDING YOUR BPO RISK PROFILE P.54 »

HUMAN CAPITAL MAGAZINE | www.hcamag.com

ISSUE 9.03

Fine-tuning leadership

Cutting out the white noise

HRSUMMIT2011 SHOWGUIDE INSIDE »

EDITORIAL

Networking: Yes, it’s good for you

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am not a natural networker; in fact the thought of ‘working a room’ fills me with a fair amount of trepidation. However, it’s a skill I have aimed to develop during my professional life and I can now say that I am slightly more comfortable when undertaking this task.

That’s a good thing, too. In an age when online social networking seems to have swept the world, I was reminded recently of the benefits of face-to-face career networking when I met up with Robyn Katz and Heather Edelstein of TalkPoint, which is perhaps the pre-eminent HR networking organisation in Australia.

TalkPoint is a place where heads of HR can meet with peers to share, learn, find out what’s what, ask questions, and enhance their knowledge and ideas. In essence, they learn from each other.

So what makes a good network? Robyn told me a number of factors come into play. Probably the most important is its diversity, its size and the willingness of participants to share their experiences. In addition, the quality and depth of the issues discussed, and the facilitation, structure and purpose of face-to-face meetings all come into play.

TalkPoint membership is strictly limited to that top tier of HR professionals, ensuring that the quality of debate and the range of issues covered remains very relevant to its members.

What do TalkPoint participants gain apart from broader HR knowledge and a solid sounding board for the issues they are facing? Perhaps more than anything, Robyn says they can – if they so desire – gain lifelong friendships.

It’s kind of nice to know that it’s possible to share the ups and downs of professional life with trusted friends working in the same industry.

On that note, I hope to meet as many of you as possible as you’re ‘working the room’ at HR Summit Sydney on 6–7 April.

Iain Hopkins, editor

EDITOR Iain Hopkins

SALES & MARKETING NATIONAL COMMERCIAL MANAGER Sophie Knight

COPY & FEATURES

SALES MANAGER Sarah Wiseman

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Charlotte Mortlock

SENIOR MARKETING EXECUTIVE Kerry Corben MARKETING EXECUTIVE Anna Keane

PRODUCTION EDITORS Carolin Wun, Robin Hill, Jennifer Cross

TRAFFIC MANAGER Jessica Jazic

ART & PRODUCTION

MANAGING DIRECTOR Mike Shipley

DESIGNERS Douglas Jeans, Paul Mansfield

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER George Walmsley

CONTRIBUTORS

CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER Colin Chan

Carroll & O’Dea Lawyers, The Next Step,

HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER Julia Bookallil

CORPORATE

SALES DIRECTOR Justin Kennedy

Frontier Software, CPP Asia Pacific

Editorial enquiries Iain Hopkins tel: +61 2 8437 4703 iain.hopkins@keymedia.com.au Advertising enquiries National commercial manager, HR products Sophie Knight tel: +61 2 8437 4733 sophie.knight@keymedia.com.au Sales manager, HR Products Sarah Wiseman tel: +61 2 8437 4745 sarah.wiseman@keymedia.com.au Subscriptions tel: +61 2 8437 4731 • fax: +61 2 8437 4753 subscriptions@keymedia.com.au Key Media www.keymedia.com.au Key Media Pty Ltd, regional head office, Level 10, 1 Chandos St, St Leonards, NSW 2065, Australia tel: +61 2 8437 4700 fax: +61 2 9439 4599 Offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Toronto www.hcamag.com 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 HC can accept no responsibility for loss.

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CONTENTS

Inside this issue

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12 Cover story: Leadership clarity Through all the static of leadership gurus, jargon, debate and junk theory, it can be hard to keep track of what leadership is really all about. Iain Hopkins gets down to the nitty-gritty

33 HR Summit showguide Everything you need to know about the number one HR industry event of the year happening over 6–7 April in Sydney

46 Job well done Simple acts of recognition in the workplace can have incredible benefits at little cost when used appropriately in conjunction with tangible rewards. That much we know. Yet many organisations still get it wrong. Human Capital busts three myths that have flourished around reward and recognition in the workplace

54 BPO: Through the looking glass Before starting a BPO program, Asheesh Mehra recommends executives take a look in the mirror and ask themselves several tough questions. The end result? A BPO risk profile

Regulars 4 In Step 6 Legal 10 The Forum

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Letters to the editor Do you have a burning HR or people management issue you would like to share with others? If so, Human Capital would like to hear from you. Send through your comments to editor@hcamag.com. Alternatively, express your thoughts on the readers’ forums at www.hcamag.com

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CONTENTS

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HR Career Experts

HR & LEADERSHIP – PRACTISING WHAT WE PREACH?

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R practitioners have a well-worn saying – we’ve all used it with our business leaders: – ‘employees join businesses, and leave leaders’. We’ve all seen how the lack of effective and authentic leadership within a business can cause things to unravel and people to leave in droves.

For a number of reasons though, HR doesn’t always follow its own advice – we are stifling our own leadership pipeline and risk creating a leadership vacuum within HR structures.

In this month’s InStep, we examine the reasons behind this, and discuss what HR functions and individual practitioners can do to ensure the next generation of HR leaders continue to be developed.

The shrinking HR leadership pipeline Put simply, there are fewer opportunities for HR practitioners to become leaders of the function in the business world of the 21st century. There are several principle reasons for this: »» HR structures have changed. Increasingly over the past five or more years, HR functions within medium and large organisations have moved towards the Ulrich Model, which typically sees a smaller number of HR generalist positions working in a ‘business partnering’ mode – and often with few or no direct reports. This, combined with the fact that HR Operations and often the specialist HR disciplines are increasingly outsourced or reduced in size, which thereby reduces the number of people leadership positions within HR structures. »» HR is ‘lean and mean’. The fat has long since been trimmed out of HR functions. HR people are spread more thinly and are working harder than ever before. Again, this reduces the opportunity for HR people to lead teams and grow into leaders. »» HR practitioners are not being groomed to lead.

Partly because of the aforementioned structural issues, and partly because HR does not always adopt the practices it preaches to the business, the leadership pipeline in many HR functions is being stifled. There are often precious few opportunities to gain key management skills such as people leadership, budget management and financial skills, and the ability to match wits with the most senior executives within a company, until the person has reached the top of the tree.

What’s the answer?

In the absence of formal protocols, there are still a number of steps that aspiring HR directors can take to ready themselves for the top job. They include: »» Lead HR in a smaller company. HR practitioners in large organisations who aspire to a senior leadership role often find leading the function in a smaller company the best stepping stone.

Leading a smaller function may not allow the opportunity to manage a large team, but it will typically bring autonomy and exposure to the full range of decision making, as well as exposure to financials and the most senior leaders within a business. »» Gain line management experience. Increasingly the smarter organisations are realising that giving their talented HR people stints in business roles gives them access to financial management and managing larger teams, and makes them better practitioners when they return to HR. »» Take on difficult assignments. Measures such as managing remote, cross-business projects; mergers and acquisitions or even simply taking on the most difficult client group within the business and ‘nailing it’, can provide invaluable people management experience and exposure to the financials of a business and its most senior leaders. »» Network furiously. The power of a broad, active network can bring invaluable exposure to industry trends, influential decision makers and job opportunities that may never be opened up to the broader market if you are in the right place at the right time and in touch with the right people!

The last word All is not lost, but HR departments and individual HR practitioners need to act now to ensure that we continue to develop the senior HR leaders of the future. Aspiring HR directors will increasingly need to take proactive steps to manage their own careers, whilst the HR directors of today need to ensure that they are investing in HR talent and that HR is ‘eating their own cooking’ to ensure the leaders of tomorrow are in place and ready to go when the time is right.

Adam Wilson is a senior consultant in our permanent recruitment team in the Sydney office.

For information call (02) 8256 2500 or email awilson@thenextstep.com.au or visit www.thenextstep.com.au

Recent HR Market Moves supplied by The Next Step

After holding the role of Human Resources Director at DLA Phillips Fox for eight years, Jan Roberts has joined Grant Thornton in the role of Head of People & Culture.

Replacing Jan Roberts at DLA Phillips Fox is Kate Weaver, who has been promoted to the role of HR Director. Her prior position was Head of HR Operations with DLA Phillips Fox. Kate has been with the company for seven years.

SAI Global has appointed Leigh Wilby as their Learning Product Manager. Leigh was previously employed in senior L&D Manager roles with Australian Life Insurance and previously with AMP.

Paul Landy has been appointed Chief Officer of Human Resources at QSuper. Paul has enjoyed a successful career with Suncorp, most recently in the position of Executive Manager Remunerations, Employee Relations and Occupational Health and Safety Manager of HR Projects.

Toys R Us has appointed Vanessa Lorford-Brown in the role of Head of HR. Vanessa has previously held HR Director level roles within a variety of industries including Not-for-Profit, FMCG, aviation and telecommunications.

Gayle Philpotts has been appointed the Acting Human Resources Director of iNova Pharmaceuticals. Gayle previously played a pivotal role in leading the human capital aspects of the Pfizer /Wyeth acquisition.

Mission Australia has appointed Glenn Cotterill as their Head of Remuneration. He was previously employed as the Compensation & Benefits Manager of Canon.

The winner of the 2010 David Ulrich AHRI HR Leader of the Year award Susan Ferrier has joined KPMG as the Head of People, Performance & Culture. She previously held the role of People & Culture Director with Allens Arthur Robinson.

Mark Algie has accepted the role of Queensland HR Director for APN News & Media. Most recently Mark was employed as the Northern HR Manager for Tenix Group.

M+K Laywers has appointed Traci Eathorne into the role of HR Director. Traci brings to this role a wealth of HR management experience gained within organisations such as Bristol –Myers Squibb and Mayne Group.

Joining Kmart in the role of National Training and Development Manager is Michelle Vassos. Michelle most recent held the role of Head of People & Culture with Thomas Duryea Consulting.

By supplying Market Moves, The Next Step is not implying placement involvement in any way.

Legal Experts

AVOIDING ADVERSE ACTION: DEALING WITH EMPLOYEE ENQUIRIES

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ince the passage of the Fair Work Act (2009), employers have been obliged to consider the myriad of changes enacted by the legislation, particularly in relation to the National Employment Standards and the expansion of the Unfair Dismissal jurisdiction. However, it is perhaps the new General Protections available in relation to ‘adverse action’ and ‘workplace rights’ that ought to demand the most attention from employers. The potential for the exercise of workplace rights to be followed by adverse action and the operation of the reverse onus on employers means that employers need to adapt their HR policies to avoid falling foul of these new provisions.

Under Part 3-1 of the Act, it is unlawful for an employer to subject an employee (or prospective employee) to adverse action on particular grounds.

These grounds include personal characteristics of the employee, absence due to illness or injury, coverage by particular industrial instruments, or the exercise of a workplace right. A workplace right is essentially defined as a benefit, role, responsibility or remedy arising under a workplace instrument but also extends to the making of a complaint or enquiry in relation to the employee’s employment. By operation of the latter workplace right, an employee may be bestowed with additional industrial protection if that employee makes a complaint or enquiry with their employer in relation to his or her employment. If that employee is then subjected to adverse action (which could include dismissal or action falling short of dismissal such as a prejudicial alteration to the employee’s position), then that employee may be entitled to bring a General Protections claim against the employer. The employer then bears the onus of proof in establishing that the action taken was not for the reason of the complaint or enquiry.

What this means in practice is that an enquiry or complaint to an employer by an employee exercising a workplace right could operate as a pre-emptive ‘shield’ should the employment relationship subsequently break down. Previously, if an employment relationship broke down irretrievably due to an employment dispute, an employer was entitled to invoke the doctrine of frustration and terminate the employment with the giving of the appropriate notice (subject to Unfair Dismissal considerations). By virtue of Part 3-1, such a termination may be unlawful if the breakdown www.hcamag.com

arose due to employer action taken following an enquiry regarding employment. Furthermore, as any purported change to an employment position may well have resulted in an enquiry or complaint by the employee, the potential for these claims to arise is very real, particularly so with respect to vocal or disgruntled employees.

The Federal Magistrates Court has recently ruled on one such adverse action claim in the case of ALAEA v Qantas Airways Ltd & Anor [2011]. In this case a Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer (LAME) employed by Qantas (and a Brisbane-based member of the ALAEA) exercised workplace rights by making enquiries with his manager regarding certain shift allowances whilst on an overseas roster.

The employee also complained about allegedly poor assistance provided by Qantas in relation to a health issue suffered whilst on duty overseas. Following this enquiry and complaint, the manager was said to have ordered the suspensions of all overseas rostering for Brisbane LAMEs until they confirmed in writing that they agreed with their existing shift allowances. The employee was also allegedly advised that “the guys who accept their conditions… are the ones who get asked to go away next time.” It was held that the suspension of overseas rostering for the Brisbane LAMEs was a detrimental alteration of their employment terms and constituted discrimination between them and other Qantas engineers. It was also held that the comment constituted unlawful coercion and a threat against the exercise of the employee’s workplace rights. Accordingly, Qantas has been ordered to pay a civil penalty under the Act. The above case and the broad scope of the jurisdiction obliges employers to stay abreast of developments in this new jurisdiction to ensure that any action taken in dealing with active or vocal employees does not give rise to adverse action claims. Carroll & O’Dea can advise employers in relation to potential areas of liability in this area. www.codea.com.au

Helen-Anne MacAlister, Associate & Peter Doughman, Solicitor Carroll & O’Dea Lawyers Level 18 St James Centre 111 Elizabeth Street Sydney NSW 2000 Phone 02 9291 7100

HRIS DEPLOYMENT OPTIONS HR Technology

QUESTION: Our IT department has suggested

that while reviewing our HRIS solution we should consider the deployment options that are available.

Can you explain the various options and outline the best one?

ANSWER: This is shrewd advice you have

received from IT. The functionality of the application you select is vital, and it is also imperative that you understand the various deployment options available. The deployment option that is right for your organisation depends on your business strategy and organisational goals. The ideal one should transform service delivery and support growth within the enterprise. Some deployment options provide growing organisations with added agility, enabling them to adopt new business models and expand faster. Investing in a solution that allows you to move between deployment options as your organisation evolves or requirements change will maximise the potential impact of the system.

Keeping up with the jargon that relates to software deployment can be daunting, however, as new terms are added regularly that describe another change in the way software or services are delivered.

Simply put, software deployment relates to where the software is located and who handles the processing.

Software deployment can be broken into three main categories: in-house, outsourced and software as a service (SaaS).

In-house is the model that most organisations are familiar with. It is called in-house because the software resides on a client’s own server at their premises, with all processing managed by internal resources.

The in-house model is low risk and provides the client with maximum control of their data and hardware environment. Most vendors provide an in-house model which ensures a plethora of payroll and HR applications are available. Cost of ownership can be considerable when you include internal infrastructure and support expenses – these may include database, server and data centre labour costs.

Software as a service (SaaS), also known as “cloud computing” or “hosted”, is probably the most confusing, as everyone has a different definition and service levels differ from vendor to vendor.

Simply put, however, it allows organisations to run applications across the internet. The vendor manages the software and hardware at their data centre with their resources. The customer is able to access the application through the internet and pay either a flat monthly fee or pay per use. www.hcamag.com

SaaS is rapidly growing in popularity. It lets organisations manage their costs more effectively and reduces the need for IT infrastructure and resources while providing scalability.

The attraction of SaaS, or cloud computing, is set to increase. Gartner predicts that worldwide cloud services revenue will reach US $148.8 billion (USD) by 2014. With this sort of growth expected, many vendors are investing in the technology and infrastructure to ensure they can support this next generation of business users that require access to workforce data any time and anywhere.

For many customers, the decision to move to a SaaS model is financially driven – rationalisation of headcount and a lower cost of ownership are resonating at board level and can’t be overlooked.

The outsourced model can be broken down into many parts – from fully outsourced, partially outsourced and business process outsourcing.

Payroll outsourcing has been transforming payroll service delivery for organisations of all sizes for many years. It removes the processing burden from internal resources, allowing them to focus on more strategic workforce issues.

HR outsourcing operates in the same way, ensuring that HR is more scalable and able to deliver workforce initiatives that convey value at board level. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) allows the client to outsource elements of their processing that may be cumbersome or time consuming – for example, if timesheet collection and input is burdensome, this element can be outsourced. With BPO, the processing can be handled at the client site or off-site at the vendor’s location. Outsourcing all or part of your payroll and human resource processing can provide scalability to smaller teams and reduce service delivery costs.

When reviewing HRIS solutions, understanding the jargon surrounding the various deployment options can be daunting. By comprehending the basics, you will be able to more easily decipher the terminology and uncover what services and costs are associated with the various offerings.

The solution that you eventually choose should automate manual processes and facilitate effective work practices. Look for a deployment platform that can improve business agility, reduce management complexity and deliver value for money.

Nick Southcombe General Manager Frontier Software Pty Ltd (03) 9639 0777 www.frontiersoftware.com

THE FORUM Talent strategy

Tip 1 – Understand the strategy and the resulting business plan, otherwise it’s difficult to ensure the HR function is aligning frameworks, programs and practices to help the business

Hand in glove How do you believe HR should be tying talent strategy to business strategy and what are you doing about this in your company? We asked three experts to give their top tips

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By Kellie Reeves, director of people & culture, Dimension Data Australia

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ncreasingly the success of organisations in Australia and many other economies around the globe is dependant on how well they manage their talent. This is particularly so for those operating in the knowledge industries.

In these organisations there is a ripe opportunity for HR to add enormous value by partnering with their leadership teams to source, secure, develop, engage and retain the best talent.

The clear starting point is the business strategy: how is the organisation going to be unique, how is it going to differentiate itself to compete and sustain that position over time? Once an organisation’s path is set, it typically moves quite swiftly into business planning mode. This is key. Without a sufficient understanding of the strategy and the resulting business plan, it is difficult to ensure that you, as the HR function, are aligning your frameworks, programs and practices to enable the business.

Once the business strategy and plan are understood, the real work begins. Through a comprehensive information gathering and consultative process, HR should build a talent plan that addresses the following: • What are the skills, experience and culture we will need to succeed in the future?

• Where will we need these skills to be based?

Is location important?

• What number of people will be required and what are the horizons?

• How will we source these skills in the marketplace?

• How will we grow our own talent?

• How will we ensure that our talent is engaged?

• How will we ensure that our talent is retained?

At Dimension Data, as a global IT solutions and services provider, we consider these questions as we set our three year strategies and business plans. We work locally and globally to understand how best we can attract, engage, develop and retain talent, and critically, the right talent. In our business, we have responded by introducing a range of talent initiatives including building competency frameworks, identifying high potentials, targeted learning and development planning, career planning, leadership development and graduate programs. Ultimately, it is about finding the right mix of programs that work for your business and in your industry, that will position your organisation for success.

THE FORUM Talent strategy

Tip 2 – Build a comprehensive and holistic framework to view talent in your organisation

By Damian O’Sullivan, talent consultant, worldwide partner talent, Cisco Systems Australia

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t Cisco, we believe tying talent strategy to business strategy is crucial. In fact, it is so important that we have extended this strategy to our partners. Cisco works with a large ecosystem of partners with whom we collaborate to deliver our products and solutions to the customer, so consulting with partners on their talent practices is a natural progression of the support we offer them.

We have an entire office, the Cisco partner talent office, dedicated to supporting partners in building and developing their human capital practices using the Fit4Talent Lifecycle as a comprehensive and holistic framework to view talent in organisations.

The Cisco Fit4Talent Lifecycle promotes and supports efforts along the entire lifecycle of our partner’s employees, with an emphasis on business alignment and leadership at all phases. Most importantly, the Lifecycle assists our partners to better align their talent strategy with their business strategy. They do this through these key phases: • Workforce and business planning • Attraction and hiring • Onboarding of new talent • Learning and development. Aims to develop strong skills and build employee satisfaction.

• Coaching and mentoring. Builds a company’s internal development capacity and lowers costs.

• Succession planning. Enables an organisation to identify talented employees; provide experience to develop them for future higher-level responsibilities.

Tip 3 – Monitor current and future talent needs

By Lindy MacPherson, general manager, organisational development and human resources, Data#3

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he most important thing an HR manager (and their team) must do is intimately understand the company’s strategy. The HR team also needs to be continually looking over the horizon to assess what the future strategy might be, to ensure that talent programs not only align with what is needed now, but what will be needed in the future.

Our approach at Data#3 is simple: without a clear business strategy we will not attract or retain the best talent in the market; without a commitment to the growth of talent we won’t achieve our company strategy; without our people understanding how their talent contributes to the company strategy, we will never achieve our strategic outcomes.

We have a very clear business strategy that states the KPIs for the company; these are then reflected in our position descriptions, our people’s work plans and development plans. We believe it is vital that our people understand which duties they undertake on a day-to-day basis, and what professional development activities they commit to, contributes to success for them personally, for their business unit and for the company strategy.

As an organisation in the ICT sector, our talent strategies are critical to the success of our company.

We must ensure that they are relevant to both our people and to our company KPIs. Offering business and technical qualifications along with online courseware and books, as well as formal mentoring programs, retains and grows our talent, and enables us to achieve our business strategy. HC

“The clear starting point is the business strategy; how is the organisation going to be unique, differentiate itself to compete and sustain that position over time” – Kellie Reeves

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COVER STORY Leadership

Leadership clarity Through all the static of leadership gurus, jargon, debate, and junk theory, it can be hard to keep track of what leadership is really all about. Iain Hopkins gets to the nitty-gritty

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COVER STORY Leadership

I

t seems disingenuous to start an article on leadership white noise by quoting from a ‘leadership guru’ but in this case it is warranted.

Leadership speaker and author John C Maxwell once commented, “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”

Sounds daunting, right? Is it any surprise that many leaders trip and fall? It’s apparent that if someone is promoted and is suddenly responsible for a group for the first time – in other words, they become a leader – there is no magical switch to prepare that person for the role. As change gets more complex and timeframes ever tighter, sometimes it’s handy to go back to basics and be reminded of the home truths of leadership.

Defining leadership

When Human Capital asked its LinkedIn group members for their thoughts on the issues and pitfalls surrounding leadership development, it was surprising how fundamentally simple (in theory) many of these pitfalls are to avoid.

Dr Timothy Pascoe, founder of VECTOR Leadership, says it’s crucial to be clear on the definition of leadership and to distinguish between ‘leadership’ as an activity and a state. “Being a leader is not some divine state; rather it depends on day-today actions. In the current situation, with the people I’m leading, do they want to follow me? Just because I was a good leader last week doesn’t mean I’m a good leader next week,” he says.

Via the forum, Jay Hedley, managing partner at The Coaching Room, took this definition further. “From our experience with organisations

and executive teams over the past decade, most executives aren’t clear on what leadership actually is (experientially), making it almost impossible to assess any level of effectiveness in leadership. Most executives don’t realise that leadership doesn’t actually exist – and that they end up chasing the rainbow (called leadership) trying to find a pot of gold that just isn’t there.”

Echoing Pascoe, Hedley explains that leadership is a process that supports an executive’s being and doing, rather than a thing. The word ‘leadership’ is a nominalisation (a pseudo-noun) rather than a real noun (like ‘car’ or ‘Sydney’). As a process, leadership needs to be collectively conceptualised (intent), modelled (strategy), demonstrated (actioned) and evaluated (measured) in order to be understood.

This ‘uncertainty of leadership’ prevents executives from communicating clearly, directly and effectively with their leaders/managers and vice versa. In other words, executive-to-manager communication tends to focus on actions, and is often devoid of any meaningful intention (the organisation’s intention, the team’s intention, the executive’s intention).

Clearly, this means it’s important that leaders first know themselves: that they provide ‘personal leadership’ before moving towards team or organisational leadership.

So what is personal leadership? Author Greg L Thomas (Making Life’s Puzzle Pieces Fit) describes personal leadership as “the desire of an individual to take charge of his or her own life. Personal leaders realise that leadership is not a position or title, but an outlook on life and their role in the world… If personal leadership had a motto it would be this, ‘Before I seek www.hcamag.com

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COVER STORY Leadership

to change or motivate others, I must first learn to change and motivate myself. I must first become the change I wish to see in others’.”

Personal leadership involves living in balance, living according to your personal values, accepting responsibility for your life, living with a deep sense of purpose and striving towards a personal vision.

Pascoe notes that one key characteristic of great leaders – from Lawrence of Arabia to Charles de Gaulle – is that so many of them knew what they wanted to become from early on in their life; they wanted to influence events. However, they first had to lead themselves. “The first person you must lead is yourself. If you don’t know where you’re going, if you don’t have a vision to be a better leader, then the HR department will run themselves ragged to get you there and probably fail,” he says.

How to attract followers

Another theme emerged from Human Capital’s LinkedIn discussion: the idea of the ‘fellowship’ and the notion that leadership starts not with the leader but the followers. Pascoe says it doesn’t matter what the job title is – CEO, MD, team leader – if you look over your shoulder and no one is coming along for the journey, then you’re not a leader.

However, acknowledging this is not enough.

It’s important to then ask what makes those people follow. “In this day and age most people don’t follow you because they’ve been chained to you or they would be fired if they don’t follow you. They follow because they are committed. What holds them back from that commitment? Normally it’s because they don’t understand where you’re taking them, or they’re unsure of the journey and whether they can do it,” Pascoe says.

Does this mean a leader must be all things to all people? Yes and no, says Pascoe. Yes, in the sense that they need to have certain policies that are common to everyone – such as a ‘this is where we’re heading’ vision and shared goals – because the team can’t go three places at once. But no in terms of dealing with and explaining this to individuals, in order to connect with their concerns. “For example, I might know the sort of person you are. Perhaps you like new things and relish new challenges, or perhaps you don’t. There must be an agreed culture but how I interact with each member of my team can be tailored to their specific concerns and the sort of person they are,” Pascoe explains.

Right place, right time Taking this self-awareness further, history abounds with examples of the right leader in the right

The great 8 competencies of leadership Transformational: leadership focus Creating and conceptualising

Transactional: management focus

Developing the vision

Analysing and interpreting

Leading and deciding

Sharing the goals

Interacting and presenting

Adapting and coping

Gaining support

Enterprising and performing Source: SHL

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Functions

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Delivering and success

Supporting and cooperating Organising and executing

COVER STORY Leadership

circumstance – Churchill during World War II, and more recently Queensland premier Anna Bligh during the flood and cyclone disasters. In both instances these leaders excelled during times of crisis. Yet prior to the floods, Bligh’s political career was in decline, while it’s doubtful Churchill would have excelled during peacetime. How important is it to be the right leader in the right circumstance?

Stephanie Christopher, national director of SHL, says it’s not uncommon to have a mismatch, but it’s more important to consider whereabouts on the cycle of change the organisation is. “Yes, you could have someone who is very much about procedures, structures and compliance, and tried and tested ways of doing things, when really what the organisation needs is a clear direction.”

Christopher adds that it’s much easier during boom times to look like a good leader, but when the chips are down strong leadership is far more easily identified, while poor leadership – perhaps based solely on charismatic style but found lacking in substance and delivery – stands out.

“We talk about a functional model, which is more about leaders getting the job done, and one of the most important things about that is you can really measure leadership by the impact it has on the organisation. From there, we talk about transactional and transformational leadership,” says Christopher.

Transformational leadership isn’t necessarily about being charismatic or being a people person. It’s more about transforming the organisation, setting direction, driving change, and communicating very clearly with the organisation about what needs to be done (Anna Bligh did this very successfully during the Queensland flood crisis).

Transactional leadership is primarily about the execution (and making sure that systems are in place), ensuring there is specialist expertise available to get the job done, and making sure there is follow through. Christopher says that a true leader displays traits of both a transactional and transformational leadership. “You must consider what is right for the moment. During the [global] financial crisis, some organisations needed that pure execution – ‘We’re

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COVER STORY Leadership

Stephanie Christopher

“You could have someone who is very much about procedures, structures and compliance, and tried and tested ways of doing things, when really what the organisation needs is a clear direction” – Stephanie Christopher

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going to get this done, we’ll stick to our process, and we’ll get through this’. But ultimately it’s that mix of transactional and transformational that gets results,” she says.

Psychometric tests are particularly helpful in order to establish one’s leadership preference, but Christopher cautions that a personality assessment should be based on defined competencies.

“The first step whenever you’re assessing is to define what you’re looking for in the first place,” she says. “Assessment just for the sake of it doesn’t mean anything. Define what leadership looks like, what you need leaders to be doing and the kind of leadership you need, and then assess against your definition.

That’s how we can determine leadership preference.

Everyone can act out a preference. For example, if someone has a preference for execution but the situation requires stepping up and being a stronger communicator and leading change, then they might be able to act out a preference for a period. However, it’s most likely that under pressure someone would go to their natural preference.”

Does being a transactional or a transformational leader have an impact on the skill sets required to do the job well? Christopher says it may not be about different skill sets, but rather different priorities.

SHL advocates ‘the great eight competencies of leadership’ (see box, page 14), and under these are the competencies or behaviours required from a transformational side and a transactional side. The skill sets sit additionally on top of that.

“What you would look at in terms of leadership development would be what does the organisation need? That’s number one. Secondly, what does the leadership group look like? It’s very rare that there is a sole leader, so look at the whole team based on what the organisation needs. If you have a leader who’s very strong, with definite preference towards transformational style, make sure that within the group you have transactional people as well.”

Plan to lead While psychometric tests and Leadership Skills Inventory (LSI) or Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessments are useful as a springboard for development, they don’t generally present a way forward. In fact, Pascoe believes that business people plan everything except how to be a leader. The priority actions to be taken as a leader are not clear and leaders get too bogged down in past actions or methods rather than what might work now.

Pascoe, in developing his Leadership Action Plan, starts with the followers. Specifically, he asks what are the key concerns or questions holding the followers back from being fully committed and engaged.

“I have my particular six questions – they are not intended to be exhaustive – but they are enough to cut into the problem,” Pascoe explains. “It starts by looking backwards – so which two of those six questions do you think your colleagues and followers would say you’d be most effective in answering?

It then moves to the next part – in choosing two specific questions, which action areas do you think you’ve been taking effectively? That gets you into this mode of addressing the followers’ concerns, and also gives you positive feedback. Then it flips it, so looking forward, which two do you think your followers would suggest you focus more effort on?”

Pascoe’s six questions are: hh The vision question. Where are we going, and why? hh The energy question. Can we do it? hh The culture question. Yes we get it, yes we can do it – but how should we behave? hh The task question. How far have we got to go on this journey? What are the output expectations and metrics? What are you expecting of me? hh The organisational question. Where and how do we all fit in? I may know I’m following you, but I can see all these other people – how do we all relate? It’s about building teams and relationships. hh The renewal question. What if our world erupts?

What if everything goes pear-shaped? It’s about demonstrating my ability and creativity as a leader to resolve that and build their capacity.

COVER STORY Leadership

Other approaches Malcolm Dunn, director of executive development services at AGSM Executive Programs, is a strong advocate of using coaching in leadership development, but he believes even more strongly in helping someone through their process of change.

Coaching can play a role in that but he warns it should not happen in isolation. “For some people, coaching is not the right thing,” he says. “If they are not ‘coach-ready’, if they are not change-ready, then life needs to create the crisis and they need to start the process to recover from it.”

The mantra, ‘learn from past mistakes’, is all well and good but Dunn says humans rarely take heed of this; rather than ‘how do we stay in this state of selfawareness and learn to be different’ we move quickly to dampen down anxieties and then move on without learning anything.

“That’s part of what a coach can do, they help people to sit in that state and extract the learning from a state of vulnerability,” Dunn says. “Tools such as Myers-Briggs can be useful because they can be a wake-up call. A 360 can often be a kick in the pants.

Expert insight

How would you define what leadership is, as opposed to what management is?

David Wakeley (pictured), CEO of the Australian Institute of Management (AIM) for NSW/ACT, says: “A long time ago, a greater leader I worked for said, ‘Leadership is about predicting the rain and building the ark. Management is about getting the animals on two-by-two and, once afloat, wisdom is making sure the elephants don’t see what the rabbits are doing’.

“There is a lot of truth in that. Leadership is about looking to the future and identifying opportunities and potential threats – and building the appropriate solution (ie, the ark). In effect, this is the act of formulating strategy and the difference between good leaders and great leaders is that not only can the great leaders formulate strategy – they can also take the team on the journey of the strategy and engage each member of the team in the execution of the plan.

“Beyond formulating strategy and engaging a team, the third key role of every leader is to build other leaders rather than building a team of followers. Every organisation needs leadership skills at every level and it is a long-term weakness of organisations that they are full of followers to the one leader at the ‘top’ of the organisation.”

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But the conversation around that is perhaps more important. A coach with that instrument can say, ‘How do we interpret that, what can we take from that?’ That sort of self-reflective conversation starts to change the way that people think, for managers to start to become leaders.”

Dunn notes that he sees many instances where people start self-sabotaging behaviours, picking fights, just waiting to be caught out. Only then do they become ready for an intervention. However, Dunn adds that coaching by itself can take years before it gets transformational change from a person.

An hour-and-a-half a month doesn’t shift people.

“Some sort of intervention where you pull someone out of their system and allow them to deeply reflect, learn and understand differentiation of themselves, and learn who they are and how they are, I believe is really important,” he says. “The problem is if you only do that, when they go back into the system, there is a strong peer-norming affect and they may fall back into the system. Coaching is really important from the support mechanism [for people] to remember the consciousness that was developed and to retain that when they’re back in the crucible.”

Another approach is peer-to-peer learning. The Executive Connection (TEC) is an international membership organisation bringing together CEOs who meet regularly in groups of up to 16 to share their knowledge and address business issues and opportunities. Each TEC group is facilitated by a carefully selected and professionally-trained chair, who also meets privately with each TEC member for an individual one-to-one discussion every month.

TEC also presents professional speakers to expand on wide-ranging topics. “It’s a combined coaching/ mentoring/peer group/professional speaker situation,” explains Jack Graham, TEC’s NSW regional chair. “It’s all about creating better leaders.”

Graham admits that while this peer-to-peer learning is appealing to many CEOs, they must be the type of person who is prepared to come to the table and say, ‘I’ve got a problem, I’d like your opinion’. “Some CEOs don’t let anyone in and this wouldn’t be right for them,” he says. Regardless, Graham believes the responsibility lies with both the leader and their employer to determine the best

COVER STORY Leadership

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COVER STORY Leadership

development approach. “I think it’s both the leader and the company who should take responsibility,” he says. “If I owned a company and you were the CEO I would certainly want to see you improve yourself for the benefit of the company, and for your own sake.

I’d be concerned if you said, ‘Been there, done that so I don’t need further development’.”

Learn from the greats?

What other ways are there to develop leadership skills? One overriding theme from Human Capital’s LinkedIn discussion made it clear what not to do: over-rely on the seemingly never ending insights from leadership gurus – ranging from Jack Welch to Steve Jobs – to provide answers to leadership problems. Graham agrees that it is possible to learn from these people, but he urges leaders not to fall into what he calls ‘past matching’. That is, relating a problem the leader has encountered in the past to a problem someone else may be having today. “The circumstance you’re talking about will be different to the circumstances facing this other person,” he says. “That doesn’t mean you don’t draw on your experience – of course you do – but you draw on your experience by saying, ‘This is what I know from the past, what part of this makes sense and can it help you?’ Jack Welch is hugely successful but you shouldn’t ape him. I’ve heard people quote Jack – for example, he said you must get rid of 10% of people every year, but if you did that you’d end up with nobody left. Maybe what he meant was you need to weed out the dead wood. Look at the principles and what might work in your circumstance.”

Take time to reflect It’s not unusual for executives to blame a lack of time as their reason for shying away from self-reflection.

Graham doesn’t believe this is a valid excuse. He urges executives not to fall victim to time pressures associated with 24/7 connectivity and the compulsion to make immediate decisions.

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“Just don’t do it,” he says. “A lot of things take care of themselves. If you delegate and hire competent people, you’re not going to get all that time-stress.

A lot of leaders create their own problems. Then they start to become autocratic. It’s not about being complacent, but you must have trust. You can monitor without interfering, but you must have good people. If you haven’t got the right people then you have to tell them what to do.”

For Dunn, creating this space goes much deeper.

If part of leadership is about helping others achieve outcomes, he says, it’s important to know how to create an environment in which that can occur.

“We spend a lot of time with task or skills mastery,” he says. “We become experts in a functional area, or display technical capability. We get promoted up through that and suddenly wham!

– the first decision as a manager is to delegate. But this is still a logical, structured approach to dealing with the world because it’s hierarchical and process driven. But as we get more into leadership, we move into the stage of self-transcendence and create an appropriate environment for others to develop.

Rather than telling them what to do, it becomes ‘what is it you would like to do and how does this collectively achieve an outcome?’ It’s a very different set of skills, coming from a different part of the brain.

It’s a beautiful stage of growth for everyone, and a necessary stage.”

As a final tip, Graham says that in countless small ways, leaders can also develop others. Beyond all the leadership theory and jargon, this mentoring role, he says, is crucial. For example, he suggests that when someone approaches you as the leader with an issue or a problem, send them away unless they present one possible solution, or a way forward. “In doing that you’re helping them develop,” Graham says. “You’re not helping them if you just tell them what to do. Some CEOs think that listening is waiting to speak, whereas I would suggest if you’re listening, you must listen!” HC

FEATURE MBAs

Weathering the storm: MBAs in the 21st century

MBAs were once the most desired post-graduate qualification. After a few shaky years, what are business schools doing to ensure their return to glory is permanent?

N

elson Mandela once said, “you don’t need to have a degree to be a leader – or a man”.

Few would argue with one of the most influential leaders of the 20th (and 21st) century.

And while it’s also true that no degree could claim to cover the functional, technical and interpersonal skills required to be a great leader, an MBA is certainly a step in the right direction.

Or is it?

While it used to be the shining jewel in postgraduate qualifications, the MBA’s reputation has been tarnished in recent years.

Professor Chris Styles, associate dean (executive education), University of Sydney, says that research conducted by the university and others suggests that the perception is that the MBA has become too technical and does not include enough about how to become a good manager and leader. “Students often come out of an MBA knowing a great deal, but not necessarily being able to do much,” he says. “Many of the standard MBA programs also miss the opportunity to help students develop as people, that is, increase their self-awareness, develop vital skills, and broaden their perspectives. These are all critical qualities to be an effective manager and leader.”

These thoughts are echoed by Malcolm Kinns, Australasian general manager of Edinburgh Business School (EBS), the Graduate School of Business of Heriot-Watt University. Kinns says there

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was a backlash against MBAs following the GFC, with the harshest critics claiming they were little more than networking vehicles and that they failed to teach specific skills.

He adds that many MBAs had also become too bogged down in finance-oriented subjects and did not do a proper job of instilling broader business understanding in students.

“It’s those subjects that allow people to then take those more generic skills across a broad range of disciplines, and then potentially focus on specific areas like finance, etc, depending on which industry they’re in,” says Kinns.

“MBAs have tried to channel everything into that financial aspect. That’s not the case in every MBA, but I believe the reputation got a bit tarnished across the board because some [schools] attempted to do that.”

Change in focus MBAs of the future need to address these shortcomings. Guy Ford, deputy dean, Maquarie Graduate School of Management (MGSM), says that MBA curriculums are undergoing regular review to ensure they are contemporary and fitting in with the needs of managers. While it’s unlikely that the more established players in the MBA market – those with finely tuned programs in the first place – would have felt it necessary to make knee jerk changes to the

FEATURE MBAs curriculum to counter global events such as the GFC, Ford says in some instances that event did provide a wake-up call for many students to become actively involved in their workplace, and to learn more about issues such as market cycles and corporate governance. “Most students come to us saying they want to get to the next level of the business.

They know what the problems are because they’re practising managers themselves, and they want to think of solutions that cut across finance, strategy, operations and legal,” he says.

Beyond that broader understanding of business and improving leadership skills (both are a given), Ford says that students now look to MBAs to build a “global mindset”. This is about demonstrating where the material found in the course takes into account not just the local situation but also integration across global economies.

“People have thrown around globalisation for a long time, but what you really need to be focusing on is equipping these leaders to have a global mindset. That means not just having an international perspective but also having the ability to take into consideration the views and expectations of others outside your immediate area of influence.

A lot of people think global mindset means ‘I’ve got to do a course in Hong Kong’ but it’s more than that. For example, [you need to ask] from a finance perspective do I understand the HR perspective, and do I take into account the strategy perspective?”

Styles feels that MBA providers need to put a greater emphasis on experiential learning – learning by doing; the refinement and acquisition of managerial and leadership skills; as well as personal development. “I think we’ll also see more issues or problem-based approaches to curriculum development rather than a program design dominated by discipline-based approaches. Core disciplinary knowledge is critical, but it has to be placed in the context of the issues and problems managers need to solve,” he says.

Critical and strategic thinking is another core ability that MBA programs in the future will need to address. “As we increasingly work in an environment where there are no set textbook solutions to the novel, unforeseen problems we are presented with, the ability to ‘work the problem’ in new and creative ways is going to be important,” Styles adds.

Along these lines of ‘strategic focus’, the ability to create value is also on the agenda. Ford says that increasingly the onus is on business schools to show that on completion of a course that the student can create sustainable value in the area in which they’re in, rather than just providing a straight profit motive or market share motive. “You can certainly be the biggest in the market but not the most valuable – and

following the GFC, ethics, citizenship and corporate social responsibility must be infused in programs as well. It’s always been there but needs to be brought to the forefront,” Ford says.

To that end, MGSM has become a signatory to the UN Global Compact, one of 9,000 companies worldwide. MGSM now upholds strict principles of responsible education. These are broken down into human rights, corruption, the environment, etc. “We get students to do a number of sessions on these topics,” says Ford. “We present ethical dilemmas they will face, or perhaps have already confronted.

It might be a simple thing – for example, ‘I’ve got a decision to make and if I do this it’s probably going to be in the best interests of the company, but will also involve significant job losses and other problems’.

How do we get the balance right? How do we meet the often conflicting needs of stakeholders?”

Working with business & industry With employers often funding students to undertake MBA study (Ford says at least 50% of MGSM students get some form of funding from employers), it’s hardly surprising to find that learning outcomes are being closely monitored. Both student and employer are keen to have something practical that can be applied as soon as they get back to the office.

Interestingly, Ford notes that many organisations are seeing further education as a crucial part of their retention strategies. “They want to get their employees up to scratch but they also want to keep them,” he says.

A trend in the US is seeing employers requesting that tertiary educators provide degrees that take longer to complete, so rather than part-time over two years they’d prefer it to be part-time over four years.

The reason being that, Ford explains, employers want their people to stay with them for a while. “Employers don’t want them to rush through and be swamped by all this knowledge and then perhaps come out and be offered a great job somewhere else,” he says.

The top MBA schools build on their business partnerships and networks, from the organisations involved in advisory committees, to the businesses that sponsor students, through to the organisations offering internships or recruiting students.

MGSM’s full-time students are heavily involved in internships, which forms an important part of their engagement with industry. An internship for MGSM is not like the US model where someone towards the end of their degree gets a job for summer and gets work experience. As Ford explains: “When you have people in their mid-30s who are already senior managers themselves, aspiring to become CEOs, they want to go in and work on a project of strategic importance, and they actually have the firepower www.hcamag.com

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FEATURE MBAs to do that. Internships in a big management school are about taking their knowledge and industry experience and applying it to a strategic problem in an organisation. This is a nice way for a school like us to engage. We can go to large businesses, even smaller ones, ask what problems they have, and whether they would be interested in getting a top quality investment banker or whatever the case may be. We can then place the student with them

on the project. It’s win-win. The firm gets the work done, often under confidentiality agreements and the students are not paid, and the students undertake a major piece of work that is one of the electives in their program.”

Rethinking learning goals Given the close ties between employers, students and business schools, it’s hardly surprising that

Who’s the best in Australasia?

Source: QS Top MBA

The QS Global 200 Top Business Schools list – which is the preferred list of most international employers – originated in the early 1990s as an alternative to business school rankings.

This list is compiled from an annual survey of HR managers and line managers with recruiting responsibilities at companies around the world.

Each year employers recommend new schools to be added to this list, which other employers around the world can then rate and comment on.

QS also collects comparable data from all the schools which it audits and then makes it available to interested parties so they can compare them. For the full list and other details, visit www.topmba.com

Regional ranking 2010

Average salary

Class size

Avg GMAT score

Avg years work

Top 20 business schools

Country

INSEAD Singapore

Singapore

1

N/A

N/A

Melbourne Business School

Australia

2

$112,302

105

664

5

NUS Business School

Singapore

3

$75,291

105

664

5

AGSM

Australia

4

N/A

65

664

7

IIM: Bangalore

India

5

$30,000

N/A

780

2

IIM: Ahmedabad

India

6

$66,888

310

770

2

CEIBS

China

7

$50,863

180

691

5

HKUST

Hong Kong

8

$115,535

120

655

6

Indian School of Business

India

9

N/A

570

710

5

NTU: Nanyang Business School

Singapore

10

$69,680

94

671

6

Macquarie GSM

Australia

11

$113,796

35-45

500

10

IIM: Calcutta

India

12

$27,500

N/A

500

2

Monash University GSB

Australia

13

$85,000

9%

550

8

S. P. Jain IMR

India

14

$27,500

180

680

2

Tsinghua University

China

15

N/A

123

650

6

University of Hong Kong

Hong Kong

16

$70,000

53

657

6

University of Technology Sydney

Australia

17

$68,000

353

550

4

Sydney Business School

Australia

18

$102,500

99

500

2

Australian National University

Australia

19

$63,000

72

630

7

Bond University

Australia

20

N/A

61

580

8

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FEATURE MBAs Chris Styles

“As we work in an environment where there are no set textbook solutions to unforeseen problems, the ability to ‘work with the problem’ in new and creative ways is going to be important” – Chris Styles

the onus is now well and truly on tertiary education providers to ‘prove their worth’. Ford says that in the past it may have been good enough to throw an information session and conclude by saying, ‘We produce good leaders’.

When asked how this was done, a sufficient answer might have been ‘We’re university professors, we know about these things’.

Or the answer might have been, ‘We have some electives in this area’.

Today, that’s not enough.

“If you say, ‘We’re turning out leaders’ the audience asks you to prove it. They want to see where this is being assessed in the program, how student learning goals are being set in that area, and how they are being tested for it. Learning outcomes and assessment programs have become really important in business and management schools. These days you need to indicate where students had to undertake a specific set of tasks, risks or assessment items.

These may have been right across the program – they don’t have to be in a particular unit of study – but they are being separately assessed according to set criteria – in this case the student’s ability or potential to become a great leader.

Ford provides a telling example. A university once made grand claims in their mission statement that they turned out good communicators. On closer inspection of the assessments, one project did indeed require students to do a presentation. However, the presentation was only worth 20% of the total mark, so in theory a student could get 0 out of 20 and be terrible, but still pass the course, and do quite well – and still the university could claim they turned out good communicators. “There’s been a change in this area, the burden of proof area. It’s forced faculties to focus on the learning goals,” Ford says.

Change in delivery It’s no surprise to learn that MBA providers are rethinking the format of learning delivery and are taking advantage of technology such as iPads and smartphones as blended learning.

EBS, which offers elements of its MBA via tablets, is at the forefront. Kinns believes it’s all about

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selecting the tools which can deliver better academic outcomes. “It’s all about the academic approach and best method of delivery – but I certainly don’t think technology should be used for technology’s sake. I’m a great believer that technology is an enabler. It’s about analysing the various elements to teach and then finding the best medium to do that.

Certainly iPads, smartphones and other devices are very relevant as potential platforms but I don’t think they’re the only answer. We’ll try to offer it in the most relevant format for learners,” Kinns says.

Ford also expects to see increased use of tablet technology in the MBA classroom, for the simple reason that it is so convenient. “For students, all the material can be immediately downloaded and they can have access to the readings and the other materials they need before the class and during the class. They can then jump to a spreadsheet, they can look something up as part of a discussion – there’s no doubt in my mind we’ll see more of that,” he says.

MBA providers are also moving cautiously towards providing blended learning elements in their courses. The MGSM program is based on 40 hours face-to-face for each of the units undertaken, and Ford believes this is still what students want. “Most of the people getting into our course have had five years of management experience, they are in their 30s, and they’re there for two things – the content, and for networking and interaction with others.”

Ford notes that the ability to collaborate with likeminded individuals from different industries and backgrounds, and to work together on a major project can result in lifelong relationships and networks.

“With blended learning it’s really important that you get the blended part right – that is, it gets used where the content allows for people to be away from the classroom. In many instances, these are areas which are more foundational skills-based – perhaps something in management science or financial analysis. There’s a certain amount of material students can do without being in the classroom, although we’ve always believed the classroom should be available for those who want to do it that way. The online [element] is offered as an option.”

Ford adds that even in the skills-based courses it’s still important to have some component where students come in for a day or two, to argue, to debate, to exchange experiences.

“There’s nothing like the cauldron atmosphere of an amphitheatre for throwing an idea out there.

Once you get to the more transformational part of the degree, into leadership and strategy, it’s hard to make that online,” he says.

As anyone who has been in the cauldron of frontline leadership would attest, textbooks are great, but nothing tops one-on-one interaction. HC

FEATURE MBAs

www.hcamag.com

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TRAINING CEO Institute

Reaching the top The CEO Institute has partnered with Mt Eliza Executive Education to create a Certified CEO (CCEO) Program. Human Capital interviews Esmé Alfred, CCEO program director and Dr Robert Burke, Mt Eliza Executive Education program director, about this exciting new development Human Capital: Why is it important for CEOs

to have some kind of official accreditation?

Esmé Alfred: Many significant roles in an organisation are traditionally held by accredited individuals – for example, CPA for finance specialists.

CEOs are charged with leading the business and should be equipped with an appropriate accreditation, which is a measure of confidence that they are equipped to perform this role. High quality accreditation boosts a CEO’s self-confidence and recognition for the investment in self-development.

Combining accreditation with the CEO’s life experience can positively impact the success and sustainability of a business.

For external stakeholders, accreditation enhances confidence in the CEO’s capability to lead the business. Lastly, for those they lead, the CEO communicates the value and importance of ongoing professional development, with real benefits to the business. If the CEO can invest in themself, it confirms to the rest of the organisation that ongoing development is permitted, encouraged and valued.

HC: The course is designed to appeal to the needs of those who have been in a CEO position for long (but who may not have tertiary qualifications), as well as to prepare new CEOs for the role EA: There is also the category of CEOs who already have tertiary education but lack it in a business discipline – as well as the category of existing CEOs who have a never-ending quest to learn. All categories need ‘futures’ thinking, which the program includes.

Robert Burke: ‘Futures thinking’ is an essential business practice and is absolutely vital for CEOs. Although it is an essential business practice, very few people know how to do it effectively and therefore miss out on how futures thinking contributes to the bottom line. The CCEO Program will show participants how to do this.

HC: What practical components are there in the course, and how does this assist participants in their current roles?

RB: The CCEO program is very practical by providing

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direction and vision. The leadership role is one of creating stability. Addressing problems of the past that led to current organisational and economic problems, with the assumption that we can learn from this and avoid these problems in the future, is perfectly understandable, necessary and desirable.

However, it is only part of the solution. The CCEO Program is practical, and it directly addresses an organisation’s needs – it’s not fantasy.

HC: How is the course structured?

EA: The four modules are: »» Module 1: Managing tomorrow’s opportunities – this four-day module helps participants determine their business strategy by thinking more deeply about planning further ahead. It shows participants how to set a shared vision of the ‘future for growth’. »» Module 2: Being the effective leader – this fourday module deals with the practical world of leading one’s self, the team and the organisation.

Motivation, incentive and performance are all linked. The module demonstrates that an effective CEO must foster leadership and talent. This must become your legacy. »» Module 3: Managing today’s business – time will be spent reflecting on where you are and where your organisation is going; this will lead to setting effective personal and business goals and strategies. This four-day module, dealing with ‘next practice’ in managerial excellence, is crucial in learning how to make decisive change to the way the organisation is operating. »» Module 4: Engaging external constituencies – this final three-day module deals with the effective management of external relationships.

Participants learn to develop strategic communication that supports the change process within the organisation. It focuses on negotiation, presentation and crisis management skills. »» Two days are allocated to final assessments and graduation, totalling 17 days for the full program.

HC: We often hear of COOs and CFOs moving into CEO roles, but rarely HR directors. Could this course assist HR professionals?

EA: Absolutely! We’re seeing executives in other career paths (sales and marketing, for example) view this program as a serious option for them. Imagine going for a CEO job and being rejected due to lack of preparation for the role. This course changes that.

To download the CCEO Program Brochure, visit http:// ceo.com.au/cceo/html

TRAINING TMLE

Short but punchy Stuart Miller, CEO of vocational education experts TMLE, talks about its short course offerings TMLE provides a wide range of vocational educational offerings. Can you outline a couple of your most popular training courses?

Stuart Miller: TMLE Pty Ltd has traditionally been aimed at training tailored to councils and council officers; however, our reputation for quality, engaging training has allowed us to expand our course into a number of corporate and client-based fields.

HC: What sort of short courses are you finding are most in demand by HR professionals?

SM: We’ve found that things such as Conflict Resolution, Workplace Fatigue Training and Frontline Customer Service have been hugely successful. We are also known for designing courses that fulfil specific client needs.

HC: You work in niche areas – how closely do you work with clients to develop your courses?

SM: Most of our professional development courses have been designed for, and developed due, to a customer’s or client’s needs. We don’t believe in generic, off-the-shelf courses as one style definitely does not fit every client.

HC: Conflict resolution is a major issue, especially with high instances of workplace bullying. Can you outline what’s involved in your course?

Human Capital:

Our training in these areas centres on scenariobased situations. We don’t simply lecture, we get people involved and make it realistic. By doing this, the participants are actively involved in the learning process.

HC: TMLE also offers a ‘Train the Trainer’ course.

How popular is this for HR professionals who also need to take on L&D responsibilities? What’s involved in that course?

SM: Our ‘Train the Trainer’ course is an introduction to the fundamentals of classroom teaching and in-house training. It is a great program for organisations who need a pool of trainers. We were also recently awarded accreditation to deliver courses for the NSW Institute of Teachers. We feel it gives us a fantastic base to deliver our trainer course.

HC: Who are the courses taught by, and where do they take place?

SM: Our courses are delivered by industry specialists and can be delivered on-site at our clients’ premises anywhere in Australia, or in our training rooms.

HC: What qualifications do participants have at the conclusion of one of your courses?

SM: We offer nationally recognised, VETAB accredited courses, professional development courses as well as short information sessions. Our VETAB accredited courses are generally aimed at councils and council officers, while our Professional Development courses are particularly aimed at the corporate environment.

SM:

For further information, visit www.tmle.com.au

www.hcamag.com

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TRAINING secondnature

Death by PowerPoint?

Human Capital talks to Belinda Huckle, director of client partnerships at secondnature about creating an interesting, invigorating presentation Human Capital: Would you be able to briefly

outline secondnature’s course offerings?

Belinda Huckle: We have 16 ‘platform’ programs.

These include four levels of presentation skills programs aimed at C-suite executives through to graduates. We also offer a range of communication skills programs such as Make Meetings Matter and Cross-cultural Communication Skills for Global Leaders. Our interpersonal skills program include Influencing for Results, Managing Tough Conversations, DISC and MBTI profiling and Team Building for Performance. We refer to them as platform programs because we tailor every program we run to meet the specific needs of the industry, business and the individuals that we work with.

HC: HR professionals are always looking to become more effective – how important is the ability to present well in meetings?

BH: In order for HR professionals to be effective they need to have a ‘seat at the table’ – being able to influence those at the highest level of the organisation, ideally at board level. So they need to be able to present their ideas and recommendations confidently, fluently and with authority. As with all presentation and communication skills, the

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relevance of the content and how it is framed is as important as the confidence, assertiveness and authority of the delivery.

HC: We’ve all heard of ‘death by PowerPoint’.

Why do you believe so many presentations fail?

BH: This is one of our favourite topics and one which we explore in depth in our programs. There are five main reasons why presentations fail. They are: 1. Presenters think it’s all about them and their content, whereas successful presentations are all about the audience and their needs. The more you understand your audience, the more you can tailor your content to suit them, and so the more compelling and persuasive the presentation will be.

2. Presenters believe audiences will remember everything they say. In fact, the maximum number of messages an audience usually remembers is between three and five. So as a presenter we need to be crystal clear about what those three to five messages are and we need to make sure we clearly emphasise them so they become memorable. At secondnature we explore a range of techniques in our programs that executives can use to add emphasis, interest and impact to their message – and make sure they are retained by the audience.

3. Presenters consider their slides to be the main deliverer of the information, when in fact presenters should be the main conveyor of the message – slides should just be there in a supporting role. We believe it’s not ‘death by PowerPoint’ that is the issue. In fact when used in the right way, PowerPoint can be extremely effective. Rather, we argue it’s ‘death by bullet point’ and by that we mean people simply put far too much information on their slides. We discuss ‘Seven Visual Principles’ which draw on worldwide best practice for developing PowerPoint slides that enhance the presenter and their message rather than drowning them [in detail] or boring the audience.

4. Presenters resist audience involvement, whereas we believe presentations should be all about the audience. So we help people develop the techniques to confidently involve their participants.

5. Presenters all too often finish their presentations by asking, ‘Any questions?’ Presentations should be a journey of logic – and it needs to have a final destination. A presenter’s final destination should express what they expect from their audience – such as a call to action, thought or emotion, plus a motivation. This combination of reaction and motivation ensures the presenter compels their audience to deliver the results they want or need. HC

For further information about secondnature’s course offerings, visit www.second-nature. com.au or email info@ secondnature.co

TRAINING TMLE

www.hcamag.com

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EXPERT INSIGHT

Deeper insight into 360-degree feedback

“T

his must be a mistake!” “I can’t believe my team said this about me.” “I know who made that comment – he is referring to a one-off situation.” Comments like these are sometimes heard in connection with 360-degree feedback engagements, and typically from key talent who have been selected as the beneficiaries of this form of advanced development experience.

Unfortunately, an advanced development experience is not what is necessarily delivered. The issues generally lie in program design and in the need for an appreciation of cultivating personal insight.

The importance of design Indeed, the use of 360-degree feedback instruments can be of tremendous value in support of employee development engagements. When implemented well, individuals can appreciate the tangible behavioural insights gained from receiving feedback from managers, peers, direct reports and other key stakeholders.

However, when 360-degree feedback initiatives are not implemented well, individuals can suffer.

Experienced managers may choose to reject the feedback and the exercise will represent a waste of time and money; whereas less experienced high potential employees may have their confidence shattered and career trajectory derailed through receiving their first dose of candid feedback, without appropriate support mechanisms put in place. In each of these cases, the individuals may not have been sufficiently prepared with the requisite self-awareness to openly accept the feedback – an issue which can be addressed through the design of the development experience. Fortunately, such preparation can be facilitated through a layering of psychometric instruments supported by focused development activities such as coaching.

Layering psychometric instruments So what is meant by layering psychometric instruments? This involves a process of structured administration and feedback of relevant personality, behavioural, and/or intelligence assessments, in order to help an individual build their self-awareness.

When designing a layered process to psychometric assessments, it can be useful to administer and debrief the instruments in order of how confrontational they are: from lowest to highest.

That is, to first provide feedback from instruments that may be answered by the individual without strain

or judgment. Ipsative instruments are an example of this, where the individual is asked to simply select the option that they most prefer from a series of choices.

There is no right or wrong response. From ipsative instruments, normative instruments may then be considered. These are typically trait or capabilitybased assessments which compare and rate an individual’s response against a normative population.

This form of assessment is more evaluative, hence may be received by individuals with less comfort than ipsative measures. Finally, a form of assessment which can be particularly confrontational is one which incorporates the perceptions of others; for instance a 360-degree feedback instrument. Overall, the goal of this process is to increase an individual’s self-awareness in an appropriately paced and constructive manner.

While there are a number of instruments which could be considered for building a foundation for receiving 360-degree feedback, two which are often teamed together are the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) and the FIRO-B® instruments.

The MBTI® instrument will provide individuals with increased insight into understanding differences in communication style, processing of information, decision making and managing commitments, whereas the FIRO-B® instrument is focused on wanted and expressed needs such as inclusion, control and affection.

Appreciation of difference Together, these instruments can provide the individual with increased self-awareness of their intrapersonal and interpersonal orientation, as well as areas for personal growth. Perhaps of equal benefit is that they are also provided with a model and a language for appreciating individual differences, leading to an acceptance of areas they have in common with their colleagues, and importantly, where there may be areas of potential conflict or tension.

Armed with deep personal insight through having received feedback on the results of selfreport assessments, individuals become much better prepared to receive and accept the findings from a 360-degree feedback engagement. We cannot, however, rely just upon selecting the right tools for the job. An individual’s engagement, understanding and their application derived from the development process will be enhanced through being supported by a qualified and experienced practitioner.

About the author Cameron Nott, Managing Director of CPP Asia Pacific, trains people development professionals in the appropriate use of psychometric instruments and delivers executive coaching and development engagements to senior leaders and teams. For more information please contact CPP Asia Pacific on (03) 9342 1300 or visit www.cppasiapacific.com

Innovative HR strategies to optimise people performance

EVENT PARTNER

PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY

E D I U G W O H S L A I C I OFF www.hrsummit.com.au

www.hrsummit.com.au

EVENT PARTNER

8:00am Registration opens

8:30am Opening remarks from the Chairperson Talent attraction strategy & assessment Jeff Thompson, CEO, jobwire

• Reduce recruitment costs through effective interviewing and hiring the right people • Decrease staff turnover through improved workplace culture and retention of key staff • Diminish conflict in the workplace and improve communication • Advance relationships between managers/business owners and employees • Increase employee engagement and therefore greater productivity and profitability • Improve and develop the people management and leadership skills of managers • Avoid performance plateaus

1:00pm Luncheon reception on the Expo floor (conference delegates only) 2:00pm LEADING FROM THE FRONT: TOP STRATEGIES FOR WORKFORCE PLANNING AND DEVELOPING LEADERSHIP FROM WITHIN YOUR TEAM

Career path development, opportunities and succession planning Professional training linked with international experiences Formal and informal knowledge-sharing Open communication channels and collaboration Communicating the EVP message

Amy Stanley, HR director, Coca-Cola South Pacific 10:45am Refreshments and networking break on the Expo floor Hosted by: HP Consulting

CASE STUDY

Jasmine Stringer, national HR manager, general counsel & company secretary, Mazda Australia

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3:00pm THE ROI OF WORKPLACE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION Mercy Health is a large healthcare provider employing over 5,000 people and is leading the way in workplace equity and diversity in Australia. The organisation has implemented a range of initiatives and practices designed to promote flexibility in the workforce, which have earned Mercy Health a host of awards and industry recognition in recent years, and resulted in an impressive staff retention rate of 98%. This session will provide you with insight into the business case for diversity and inclusion. Focus on: • How flexible workplace initiatives can benefit the organisation as well as the individual • Integrating diversity into the organisation’s attraction and retention strategy Kate McCormack, director people, learning & culture, Mercy Health 3:30pm Refreshments and networking break on the Expo floor 4:00pm WORKSHOP: THE BUSINESS OF YOU – THE CALL FOR LEADERSHIP • Facebook or LinkedIn – which profile is closer to the truth?

• Exploring self leadership – is decision-making really a part of leadership?

• Building Gen Y Talent – ambitions versus capability in a social networking world

WORKSHOP

11:30am WADING THROUGH THE TALENT POOL: A “MAZDA WAY” CASE STUDY ON THE LINK BETWEEN TALENT AND CORPORATE VALUES Mazda Australia Pty Ltd is one of the most successful Mazda subsidiaries in the world. To attract and retain top talent, Mazda uses an effective approach to select employees and invest in rising stars. The company utilises the seven guiding principles of “The Mazda Way” which summarises the perspectives that are vital for every Mazda employee to bring to work every day, including integrity, continuous improvement (kaizen), self initiative, and collaborative learning (tomoiku). This case study will highlight the importance of a workplace culture in recruiting and retaining staff and the right balance between external recruitment and internal promotion.

Ben Reynolds, leader, workforce strategies & Dinah Rajan, senior consultant, workforce strategies, Marsh

CASE STUDY

• • • • •

2:30pm MANAGING INSURANCE COST AND ENHANCING EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY Employers are faced with a myriad of workforce challenges in today’s environment. Workplace safety regulations are constantly changing and becoming more complex, workers’ compensation premiums continue to rise, there is increasing business pressure on employee performance and productivity, and competition for talented individuals has never been stronger. Marsh will discuss the relationship between occupational health and safety, workers’ compensation, employee benefits and wellbeing programs as a means of growing value in your workforce whilst reducing your insurance spend.

EXPERT COMMENTARY

CASE STUDY

Hear how Coca-Cola invests in the growth of their internal top talent to accelerate business growth. Focus on:

• Determine the best leadership style for your organisation • Identify current and potential leaders from within the team • Pinpoint leadership gaps • Develop succession plans for critical roles • Set career-planning goals for potential leaders • Create a skills roadmap for future leaders • Build a retention program for current and future leaders Vanessa MacBean, head of people and communications, ABC

Avril Henry, CEO and executive coach 10:00am BUILDING A GREAT PLACE TO WORK: LEVERAGING AN EFFECTIVE EMPLOYEE VALUE PROPOSITION (EVP) Coca-Cola employees have good reason to be cheerful. They benefit from a wide range of programs and workplace initiatives that encourage flexible working hours, enhanced collaboration and work-life balance. Turnover is low (5.2% over the past 12 months) and management credits a strong employer brand, open communication and career development as a cornerstone in retaining their best people. BRW rated Coca-Cola South Pacific as No. 18 in their competitive list of Best Places to Work 2010.

• Explore legal responsibility and consequences of bullying and harassment in the workplace • Discuss the potential liability for employers, directors and managers under legislation • Take lessons from recent cases and some practical guidance to minimise risk • Implement a workplace policy that includes a process for reporting and investigating complaints and grievances quickly and confidentially Mark Sant, partner, Gadens Lawyers

CASE STUDY

KEYNOTE COMMENTARY

9:00am THE ART AND SCIENCE OF MANAGING PEOPLE Driven to make a difference in the way companies value their human capital, Avril Henry delivers this interactive and thought-provoking workshop on innovative strategies for people management. This session targets senior HR professionals responsible for leading teams, and is designed to improve their communication and people management skills. Learn how to:

EXPERT COMMENTARY

DAY 1: 6 APRIL 2011

12:15pm BULLYING AND HARASSMENT IN THE WORKPLACE: BUILDING A ZEROTOLERANCE CULTURE Workplace bullying claims are on the rise. Studies show that bullying can have severe psychological consequences for victims and, as many recent cases have shown, it can also carry massive fines for employers, organisations and even individual employees. This session provides legal solutions to combat bullying and harassment of any kind.

Geoff Rosamond, group managing director, Human Group

MAIN CONFERENCE AGENDA 5:00pm Networking cocktail function on the expo floor (free to attend) All attendees will receive an Expo Passport at the registration desk and are encouraged to visit exhibitor booths and collect stamps. Return your completed Passport to the registration desk by 1pm on Day 2 to enter the grand prize draw. The prize will be awarded at 1:30pm on Day 2.

8:45am Opening remarks from the Chairperson

KEYNOTE CASE STUDY

9:00am SEAT AT THE TABLE: INSIGHTS DIRECT FROM THE C-SUITE ON HOW HR IMPACTS BUSINESS STRATEGY Suncorp believes that HR is an integral part of its overall strategy and values HR as a cornerstone of global leadership. As a Top 25 ASX-listed company with over $95bn in assets, Suncorp has more than 16,000 employees operating in over 450 locations across Australia and New Zealand. In this opening keynote session, listen to an open and honest dialogue between the CEO and HR business partner on how they work together effectively to promote Suncorp’s values and increase revenue through employee engagement and career growth.

• • • •

Hear how the HR director implements the CEO’s vision Learn how HR can impact long and short-term operational strategy Gain insight into how CEOs and HR directors can work together effectively Discover how HR partnerships can impact bottom-line performance and revenue

INTERVIEW

10:00am WHY DIVERSITY MATTERS AT THE EXECUTIVE LEVEL Diversity has been a hot topic for Australian employers in 2010. Recently, the ASX released its much-awaited Exposure Draft of the proposed ASX Recommendations about gender diversity on boards. The proposals mean that publicly-listed companies will need to consider reviewing existing policies, or creating new ones, around board composition and companywide diversity initiatives. In other key legislative developments, the impact of new positive obligations on employers under the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic) means all employers with national or Victorian operations should consider whether their business should take additional steps towards achieving diversity in the workplace. This in-depth interview of Elizabeth Broderick by Jane Seymour, workplace law partner with Gadens Lawyers, will shed light on the business case for diversity in senior positions and provide tools for compliance, including what a best practice diversity policy should look like.

Elizabeth Broderick, sex discrimination commissioner and commissioner responsible for age discrimination, Australian Human Rights Commission 11:00am Refreshments and networking break on the Expo floor

CASE STUDY

11:30am HR RENEWAL: MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY’S ALIGNMENT OF HR PROGRAMS AND SERVICES WITH THE ORGANISATION’S STRATEGIC PLAN AND CORE BUSINESS Macquarie University’s HR Renewal Program is a group of projects being undertaken to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of core HR processes and better meet the needs of the university. Four key areas will be highlighted, including innovative “onboarding” initiatives that create a consistent, welcoming message to new employees and a successful “Return to Work” program that supports a worker’s transition back into the workforce. Learn how HR has enabled and contributed to the overall growth and success through initiatives such as:

• • • • • •

How to build, manage and maintain a niche online talent community Fostering a sense of innovation in your employer branding message Social media governance: understanding the boundaries iPad, iPhone and Blackberry: focusing on mobile recruiting Talent management case studies How to use metrics to evaluate social media recruitment success

Mariah Gillespie, social media strategist, JXT Consulting 1:00pm Luncheon reception on the Expo floor (conference delegates only) 1:30pm GRAND PRIZE DRAW ON THE EXPO FLOOR! 2:00pm CREATING HIGH-PERFORMANCE TEAMS AND LEADERSHIP COACHING Rebel Sport Limited and Group Companies employ over 3,000 team members nationwide. Building a high-performance team takes a lot of hard work and skill, to blend the different personalities, abilities and agendas into a cohesive unit willing to work for a common goal. Behind every great team is a strong visionary leader whose job is not to control, but to teach, encourage and organise when necessary. In this session, gain top tips on how to create a solid team game plan and become a business coach. Learn how to: • Develop common goals • Set ground rules • Communicate • Promote curiosity • Establish urgency • Keep score • Reward and recognise Tracy Mellor, group general manager, Rebel Group Ltd 2:45pm DEMYSTIFYING WORKPLACE MENTAL ILLNESS AND LEADING WITH EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE • Identifying and defining psychological injury in the workplace • Prevalence and types of common mental health issues in the workplace • Early warning signs of mental illness • How managers deal with employees suffering with mental illnesses • How to overcome mental health taboos in the workplace • The role of leadership and culture in managing mental illness • Resources to deal with mental health issues • Building resilience in the workplace to overcome mental health issues

EXPERT COMMENTARY

Jane Seymour, partner, workplace relations, Gadens Lawyers

12:15pm UNDERSTANDING, MAXIMISING AND LEVERAGING SOCIAL MEDIA IN RECRUITMENT AND EMPLOYER BRANDING With nine million Australians using social networks and spending more time on social media than any other country in the world, the importance of forming an online recruitment strategy is essential. Social media has shifted the recruitment landscape by connecting candidates, recruiters and businesses together. Tools such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn are allowing us to be more creative in connecting with people, while candidates are increasingly turning to these tools to learn about organisations and the positions they have available. Explore:

CASE STUDY

Mark Milliner, chief executive, personal insurance & Ed Cooley, HR business partner, personal insurance, Suncorp

Tim Sprague, director, human resources, Macquarie University

EXPERT COMMENTARY

DAY 2: 7 APRIL 2011

• Return to work • Casual and seasonal workers program

Rachel Clements, director of psychological services, Centre for Corporate Health

3:30pm Conference concludes

• Recruitment renewal project • On-boarding initiatives

www.hrsummit.com.au

SPONSORED BY

8:00am Registration opens Directors Forum delegates are invited to attend the first two keynote sessions in the Ted Hopkins Room with the Main Conference delegates and will then be escorted by HR Summit staff to the Sonar Room after the morning break.

8:30am Opening remarks from the Chairperson

Talent attraction strategy & assessment

KEYNOTE COMMENTARY

9:00am THE ART AND SCIENCE OF MANAGING PEOPLE Driven to make a difference in the way companies value their human capital, Avril Henry delivers this interactive and thought-provoking workshop on innovative strategies for people management. This session targets senior HR professionals responsible for leading teams, and is designed to improve their communication and people management skills.

Learn how to:

Avril Henry, CEO and executive coach

CASE STUDY

Hear how Coca-Cola invests in the growth of their internal top talent to accelerate business growth. Focus on: • • • • •

Career path development, opportunities and succession planning Professional training linked with international experiences Formal and informal knowledge-sharing Open communication channels and collaboration Communicating the EVP message

12:15pm CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN ACTION: HR’S IMPACT ON ACQUISITION INTEGRATION The ability to integrate acquired companies successfully is the most important factor influencing acquisition success. On 24 December 2008, Aussie announced its acquisition of Wizard Home Loans from GE and between January and April 2009 the merger of the two companies was implemented. In this session, hear how the acquisition strategy was implemented and the Aussie culture, values and brand reinforced. Learn how Aussie decided to communicate and manage change during the integration process. Explore: • • • • • •

1:00pm Private luncheon reception for Directors Forum delegates The Deck Restaurant 2:00pm CONNECTING TALENT WITH OPPORTUNITY – HOW LINKEDIN IS CHANGING THE TALENT ECOSYSTEM • The social media landscape – Social vs professional networking • The new “Profile of Record” – Why managing your professional identity matters • New strategies to win the war on talent • Trends in talent acquisition – From post-and-pray to building a virtual talent pipeline • Build your employer brand and reach high-value professionals on LinkedIn

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Develop leadership capability Proactively manage the talent pipeline Fast-track high performers Promote and support diversity Strengthen benefit platforms Deliver operational excellence

3:30pm Refreshments and networking break on the Expo floor 4:15pm WORKSHOP: EFFECTIVE WORKPLACE CONVERSATIONS Competitive business environments require leaders to focus on business outcomes while also being supportive of their people. This interactive workshop will develop participants’ ability to engage in effective conversations that help set expectations, maintain relationships, lead employees and achieve desired business results.

WORKSHOP

Steve Shepherd, general manager, Randstad

• • • • • •

Joanne Allen, managing director, head of human resources, Citi Australia/New Zealand

10:45am Refreshments and networking break on the Expo floor

11:15am Opening welcome to the Directors Forum from the Chairperson

Steve Barham, director of hiring solutions, LinkedIn

2:45pm SHARPENING THE COMPETITIVE EDGE IN HR AND BUSINESS STRATEGY HR is embedded in Citi’s core business strategy. Hear from a powerhouse in HR leadership as she shares Citi’s strategies on how to identify and promote high performers, create a flexible and inclusive workplace and align HR strategy with business performance. This case study spotlights a holistic approach to alignment and leadership. Learn how to:

Amy Stanley, HR director, Coca-Cola South Pacific

Directors Forum delegates will be escorted by HR Summit staff from the Expo floor to the Sonar Room.

Bringing two companies and two cultures together Achieving maximum buy-in and commitment Maintaining core standards of leadership and collaboration Creating a values definition for the new organisation Maximising team member engagement in the new organisation Status report on acquisition: how far have we come?

Lynda Harris, general manager – people, Aussie

CASE STUDY

10:00am BUILDING A GREAT PLACE TO WORK: LEVERAGING AN EFFECTIVE EMPLOYEE VALUE PROPOSITION (EVP) Coca-Cola employees have good reason to be cheerful. They benefit from a wide range of programs and workplace initiatives that encourage flexible working hours, enhanced collaboration and work-life balance. Turnover is low (5.2% over the past 12 months) and management credits a strong employer brand, open communication and career development as a cornerstone in retaining their best people. BRW rated Coca-Cola South Pacific as No. 18 in their competitive list of Best Places to Work 2010.

Christine Leahy, associate director HR services, GlaxoSmithKline Australia

KEYNOTE CASE STUDY

• Reduce recruitment costs through effective interviewing and hiring the right people • Decrease staff turnover through improved workplace culture and retention of key staff • Diminish conflict in the workplace and improve communication • Advance relationships between managers/business owners and employees • Increase employee engagement and therefore greater productivity and profitability • Improve and develop the people management and leadership skills of managers • Avoid performance plateaus

Learn more about GSK’s HR leadership initiatives to help employees reach their full potential, invest in a recognition framework, and align their HR practices toward the core business strategy.

CASE STUDY

Jeff Thompson, CEO, jobwire

CASE STUDY

DAY 1: 6 APRIL 2011

11:30am STRENGTHENING HR LEADERSHIP AND ALIGNMENT GSK has built a solid and highly respected business culture around the core value of leadership and a focused strategy on the recruitment and retention of great people.

DIRECTORS FORUM AGENDA Explore: • Understanding the effective use of conversations in a workplace context • Learning how effective conversations contribute to business results • Building relationships of trust with stakeholders while setting expectations • Handling confronting conversations • Communicating with poor performers to increase performance • Gaining confidence to “tell it like it is” without jeopardising relationships • Conducting key conversations during change and restructuring

5:00pm Networking cocktail function on the expo floor (free to attend) All attendees will receive an Expo Passport at the registration desk and are encouraged to visit exhibitor booths and collect stamps. Return your completed Passport to the registration desk by 1pm on Day 2 to enter the grand prize draw. The prize will be awarded at 1:30pm on Day 2.

DAY 2: 7 APRIL 2011 Directors Forum delegates are again invited to attend the opening keynote sessions in the Ted Hopkins Room with the Main Conference delegates and will then be escorted

by HR Summit staff to the Sonar Room.

8:45am Opening remarks from the Chairperson

• • • •

Hear how the HR director implements the CEO’s vision Learn how HR can impact long and short-term operational strategy Gain insight into how CEOs and HR directors can work together effectively Discover how HR partnerships can impact bottom-line performance and revenue

INTERVIEW

10:00am WHY DIVERSITY MATTERS AT THE EXECUTIVE LEVEL Diversity has been a hot topic for Australian employers in 2010. Recently, the ASX released its much-awaited Exposure Draft of the proposed ASX Recommendations about gender diversity on boards. The proposals mean that publicly-listed companies will need to consider reviewing existing policies, or creating new ones, around board composition and companywide diversity initiatives. In other key legislative developments, the impact of new positive obligations on employers under the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic) means all employers with national or Victorian operations should consider whether their business should take additional steps towards achieving diversity in the workplace. This in-depth interview of Elizabeth Broderick by Jane Seymour, workplace law partner with Gadens Lawyers, will shed light on the business case for diversity in senior positions and provide tools for compliance, including what a best practice diversity policy should look like.

Jane Seymour, partner, workplace relations, Gadens Lawyers

11:30am LABOUR OF LOVE: HOW EBAY BUILDS ENGAGEMENT THROUGH CORPORATE CULTURE AND EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT Outstanding performance is about enabling people to be the best they can be at work. It is about focusing on people’s strengths and harnessing their unique skills, talents and attitudes and rewarding them for a job well done. Hear from a leading global brand that isn’t afraid to challenge norms on how they select the right people with the right skills at the right time.

Learn how eBay inspires its people to be their best and equips them with tools for workplace resilience and empowerment.

• • • • • •

Encouraging self-managed accountability Communicating and responding to employee needs Implementing a recognition framework Encouraging a flexible work environment Delivering on employee career aspirations Adapting to change rapidly and effectively

Klaus Duetoft, senior regional HR director, eBay Asia Pacific 12:15pm EVOLUTION, ENGAGEMENT, EFFECTIVENESS & THE FUTURE WORKPLACE • Technological innovation constantly changes work processes and principles • Generational and cultural diversity requires more sophisticated physical solutions • Me, Us, We – which notion takes priority?

• Currently the workplace is a vastly under-utilised engagement tool • Designing pre-emptive workplaces for a fast, volatile and unpredictable business environment Peter Geyer, lead strategist, climate workplace environment solutions, Schiavello

1:00pm Luncheon reception on the Expo floor (conference delegates only) 1:30pm GRAND PRIZE DRAW ON THE EXPO FLOOR! 2:00pm

WORKSHOP

Mark Milliner, chief executive, personal insurance, & Ed Cooley, HR business partner, personal insurance, Suncorp

Steve Shepherd, general manager, Randstad

EXPERT COMMENTARY

KEYNOTE CASE STUDY

9:00am SEAT AT THE TABLE: INSIGHTS DIRECT FROM THE C-SUITE ON HOW HR IMPACTS BUSINESS STRATEGY Suncorp believes that HR is an integral part of its overall strategy and values HR as a cornerstone of global leadership. As a Top 25 ASX-listed company with over $95bn in assets, Suncorp has more than 16,000 employees operating in over 450 locations across Australia and New Zealand. In this opening keynote session, listen to an open and honest dialogue between the CEO and HR business partner on how they work together effectively to promote Suncorp’s values and increase revenue through employee engagement and career growth.

11:30am Opening remarks from the Directors Forum Chairperson

CASE STUDY

Chip McFarlane, director, Institute of Executive Coaching

11:00am Refreshments and networking break on the Expo floor Directors Forum delegates will be escorted by HR Summit staff from the Expo to the Sonar Room.

WORKSHOP: LEADING WITH EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE This session explores raw emotional ability in four dimensions – recognising, using, understanding and managing, and their impact on behaviour and performance. It looks at a set of emotional skills both experiential and strategic. The session explores: • The Four Branch Model (MSCEIT) • Pragmatic wrap of assessing ability • Problem solving, working with emotions Jim Grant, founding partner, Dattner Grant

3:30pm Conference concludes

MEET OUR SPEAKERS AT THE HR SUMMIT SPEAKER PAVILION ON THE EXPO FLOOR!

Elizabeth Broderick, sex discrimination commissioner and commissioner responsible for age discrimination, Australian Human Rights Commission

www.hrsummit.com.au

EVENT PARTNER JOANNE ALLEN

head of human resources, Citi Australia/New Zealand Joanne Allen has more than 20 years’ experience enhancing human performance in medium and large organisations across three continents. Among Joanne’s career achievements are the launch of an employment identity strategy and the roll-out of a leading graduate program.

Joanne is proud to have had the opportunity to champion gender diversity initiatives and continue to ‘level the playing field’ including as mentor and coach for senior women, establishing programs developing executive presence and sponsoring facilities for returning new mothers. Joanne joined Citi as Head of Human Resources for Australia & New Zealand in March 2010. As an HR practitioner, Joanne is passionate about developing both the innate and learnt skills and abilities of individuals and empowering people to unlock potential.

STEVE BARHAM

director hiring solutions, LinkedIn Steve Barham heads LinkedIn Hiring Solutions in Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia. He recently relocated from LinkedIn’s San Francisco headquarters to establish its Australian office and to help connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.

Steve has played a principal role in the Softwareas-a-Service industry for over 15 years. In 1995 he co-founded mPower.com, the world’s first online investment advice provider and headed its sales, client service & marketing organisations. Following Morningstar’s acquisition of mPower.com in 2003, Steve joined online banking innovator Yodlee.com, serving as the firm’s accountable executive for all global revenue & client functions, including relationships with American Express, Bank of America, Capital One and JP Morgan Chase.

ELIZABETH BRODERICK

sex discrimination commissioner, Australian Human Rights Commission Elizabeth Broderick was appointed Sex Discrimination Commissioner and Commissioner responsible for Age Discrimination in September 2007 for a five-year term. Lawyer and businesswoman, Elizabeth was the 2001–02 Telstra NSW Business Woman of the Year and Australian Corporate Business Woman of the Year. Elizabeth was previously a partner at Blake Dawson and developed the firm’s business case for flexibility in the workplace. Her efforts contributed to creating a workplace where more than 20% of the law firm’s workforce now uses flexible work arrangements. She has been a strong advocate for Australia’s national paid parental leave scheme and more recently has championed the changes to the ASX Corporate Governance Principles to increase the number of women at decision-making level.

RACHEL CLEMENTS

director of psychological services, Centre for Corporate Health Rachel Clements is the Director of Psychological Services at the Centre for Corporate Health Pty Ltd, a management and psychological consulting organisation based in Sydney. Rachel has focused her career on helping individuals

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function better at work and has a broad range of psychological, management and human resource consulting experience. Rachel is one of Australia’s leading specialists in the area of workplace stress and improving organisational functioning and targets intervention in this area from both an individual and organisational perspective.

ED COOLEY

HR business partner, personal insurance, Suncorp Ed Cooley has been the HR Business Partner for Suncorp Personal Insurance since February 2010. He is responsible for the development and execution of all HR initiatives supporting some of Australia’s leading insurance brands including AAMI, GIO, Suncorp and Apia. Ed is a senior HR professional with more than 25 years’ experience in a range of blue chip organisations in Australia, the UK and Asia. His change management experience covers a broad range of business activities, from start ups, mergers, acquisitions through to large scale organisational restructuring. Ed and his team have been instrumental in the transformation of the Suncorp Personal Insurance business from a brand aligned to a functional business model.

KLAUS DUETOFT

senior regional HR director, eBay Asia Pacific Klaus Duetoft currently leads Human Resources for eBay Asia Pacific.

He has a team of HR professionals in Australia, Singapore, India, Korea, Japan and Greater China, covering the eBay, PayPal, Skype and Classifieds businesses.

Previously he was the founder and principal of Irrelach Consulting Pty Limited, which focused on delivering Outsourced Human Resources Solutions to small to medium-sized organisations. Klaus has gained his extensive human resources experience in industry sectors including the pharmaceutical, FMCG, high technology, eCommerce and mobile telecommunications sectors. He believes in bringing a robust commercially-orientated human resources approach to organisations.

VANESSA GAVAN

founder & managing director, Maximus International Vanessa Gavan, Founder and Managing Director of Maximus International, is an insightful business professional with a passion for developing and transforming organisations through their people. For over 15 years, Vanessa has consulted to an impressive range of leading Australian and international organisations to enhance their business strategies, improve executive and leadership capability, design appropriate organisation structures and deliver whole of business performance solutions. During the past eight years leading Maximus, Vanessa has combined her business experiences with her consulting talent, working with clients such as Coca-Cola Amatil, News Limited, and QBE on significant performance and leadership solutions.

PETER GEYER

lead strategist, climate workplace environment solutions, Schiavello A renowned workplace designer, Peter Geyer has acted for many of Australia’s and New Zealand’s major blue chip corporations and

services firms over a career spanning more than 30 years. He now provides a high-level independent consulting service in strategic design to client organisations, architects and manufacturers.

Since the early 2000s he has been involved from inception with the research and development of a totally new approach to work environment design for Schiavello, Australasia’s largest designer and manufacturer of highly intelligent workplace systems. Climate, launched in late 2010, is the resulting multifaceted platform of product and elements built on the philosophy of diversity in the workplace.

MARIAH GILLESPIE

social media strategist, JXT Consulting Pty Ltd Mariah holds a Masters degree in Journalism & Communications from the University of New South Wales. By utilising social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, she has successfully placed candidates in some of Australia’s leading companies. Realising the significance of these sites in the recruitment space, she joined the JXT team to help recruiters and HR managers implement social media strategies of their own, using the combined forces of JXT’s powerful job board technology, SEO techniques and mobile site development.

CHRISTOPHER GOLIS

lead presenter, Emotional Intelligence Courses Chris Golis’ latest transformation is as a public speaker and trainer on practical emotional intelligence which he began in 2007 after retiring as a venture capitalist. He successfully raised five funds with over $150m under management. He has been a director of some 30 companies and has successfully grown companies that have made significant capital gains for their owners including Scitec, Neverfail, SpringWater and VeCommerce. Based on his three books, Chris has developed seminars and training courses on people skills for technical managers, salespeople and leaders.

JIM GRANT

founding partner, Dattner Grant Jim Grant is a founding partner of Dattner Grant with extensive experience at the most senior levels of international business and as a member of the Executive Teams of several major corporations before co-founding Dattner Grant. Jim is known for his strategic thinking capacity, extensive knowledge of international human resource practices, deep understanding of leadership and how organisations really tick.

He has an uncanny pragmatic ability to manage complex organisational change processes and he merges a creative flair with a deep intellectual understanding of the work he does. His areas of specialty include working with senior executive teams on a wide range of matters, mentoring and coaching executives, and designing and facilitating leadership development.

LYNDA HARRIS

general manager – people, Aussie Lynda has held senior Human Resources roles within customerfocused companies for the last 25 years. While this experience has taken her from large multinational organisations

to smaller privately-owned businesses, a common thread has been her involvement in market-leading businesses with a strong brand. For example, she has worked with Qantas, Avis and now Aussie. Lynda has been General Manager People with Aussie for nearly 12 years. As such, she is a member of the Executive Management team, reporting to the CEO, Stephen Porges. Prior to Stephen’s appointment, she reported directly to the Founder and Executive Chairman, John Symond.

AVRIL HENRY

CEO & executive coach Avril Henry graduated from the University of Cape Town in Accounting and Economics, migrating to Australia in 1980.

Avril’s career has spanned senior roles in Finance, IT, Project Management, Change Management and HR across multiple industries and countries.

In 2002, Avril was one of five finalists in the Australian HR Awards for Best HR Director and in 2006 won the prestigious Lifetime Achievement in HR Award. In 2005, she was a finalist in the Sydney Business Review Business Woman of the Year. Avril’s business was one of five finalists in the City of Sydney Business of the Year 2008 awards.

Avril has been honoured in the 2009 and 2010 Australian Who’s Who of Women, as one of the most inspiring businesswomen and female leaders.

CHRISTINE LEAHY

associate director HR services, GlaxoSmithKline Australia Christine Leahy is the Associate Director of HR Services for GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Australia/ NZ, leading the HR Shared Services team, which supports 1,800 employees. Christine has a strong background in HR and change management, with many years of experience in business critical HR roles for large, multinational organisations throughout Europe, Asia and the UK. Christine has also excelled in aligning HR strategy with business priorities, and leading and motivating high-performing teams to deliver.

VANESSA MACBEAN

head of people & communications, ABC Vanessa MacBean is admitted as solicitor in NSW and has a Masters of Labour Law & Relations from Sydney University. She’s been with the ABC for almost 10 years and is the Head of People & Communications for ABC Radio. She’s a member of the Radio executive team managing over 60 stations and 600-plus employees across Australia and provides daily advice to that team across the full spectrum of people management issues. She is also responsible for supporting managers in the development and application of their own leadership skills while ensuring Radio’s internal communications effort is optimised for staff and management engagement.

KATE MCCORMACK

director people, learning & culture, Mercy Health Kate McCormack has over 20 years’ experience in Human Resources across retail, logistics and health.

Kate provides strategic advice to the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Officers and Executive. Kate is responsible for the development and implementation of the overall Group Human Resources Strategy. Her work involves driving

SPEAKERS initiatives such as Performance Management, Recruitment and Retention, Health and Wellbeing and Diversity across the organisation to engage employees and connect Mercy Health’s mission, vision and strategic direction.

CHIP MCFARLANE

director, Institute of Executive Coaching Chip McFarlane is a Director of the Institute of Executive Coaching, Australia and Hong Kong. He grew up in New York City and has coached internationally in industries such as banking & financial services, pharmaceutical companies, IT, and professional service firms.

His experience ranges over a number of areas of leadership development including training and coaching the elements of inspirational leadership, as well as capitalising on insight and outsight.

He partners with ‘C’ Suite and Senior Executives as they navigate the growing complexity of today’s business environment and balance the paradoxical demands that affect leaders.

TRACY MELLOR

group general manager, Rebel Group Ltd Tracy joined the Rebel Group as General Manager in January 2010 after 18 years in the pharmaceutical industry. She has extensive experience in People & Development roles, and recently held the position of Director of People and Organisation Europe North which involved corporate, strategic, operational and line-ofbusiness accountability across six countries.

One of the most important aspects of Tracy’s role is to ensure Rebel Group attracts, recruits and retains the very best people, with the appropriate motivation, attitude, aptitude and ability to successfully pursue the group’s strategy and vision.

MARK MILLINER

chief executive, personal insurance, Suncorp Mark Milliner has been the Chief Executive Officer of Suncorp Personal Insurance since October 2009. He oversees Australia’s leading insurance names including AAMI, GIO, Suncorp Insurance and Apia as well as the country’s best known niche brands such as Shannons, Bingle and JustCar Insurance.

Using his extensive experience in insurance and organisational change management in Australia and Europe, Mark is today charged with implementing a ‘one team, many brands’ approach to Suncorp’s diverse portfolio of 12 insurance brands. Mark joined Suncorp in 1994 and has worked on initiatives including the merger of Suncorp, Metway Bank and QIDC in 1996 and the integration of Suncorp and GIO in 2001. Today, Mark is a board member of the Insurance Council of Australia.

DINAH RAJAN

senior consultant, workforce strategies, Marsh Dinah Rajan is a Senior Consultant in the Workforce Strategies Practice at Marsh. She has been involved in a range of management consulting activities, including employee relations, corporate restructuring, training and development, performance management, enterprise risk management and business continuity management. Dinah has worked at Marsh for 10

years, in the New York, Philadelphia and Sydney offices. Prior to joining Marsh’s Risk Consulting practice Dinah worked as an HR Generalist in Marsh. She partnered with business leadership teams and guided them through complicated decision-making processes to achieve optimal business outcomes.

BEN REYNOLDS

leader, workforce strategies, Marsh Ben Reynolds is the NSW leader of the Workforce Strategies practice at Marsh and brings over 13 years experience in workers’ compensation, with a strong background in claims, underwriting and account management.

Under Ben’s leadership, the NSW team consults across the areas of workers’ compensation and injury management as well as placement. During his time with Marsh, Ben has assisted many of Australia’s large corporations control their workers’ compensation overheads through strategic claims management and consulting initiatives.

These initiatives include diagnostic reviews, selfinsurance preparatory and licence maintenance services and forecasting and trend analysis.

GEOFF ROSAMOND

group managing director, Human Group Geoff Rosamond is the Group Managing Director of the Human Group Pty Ltd and is responsible for the growth of four operating companies within the group, consisting of Human Potential Consulting, mytraining.net, venuehire. net and Human Events. His experience spans over 25 years in customer facing/management consulting roles across a variety of industries, including Government, Transport, Travel, Telecommunications, Human Resources and has 10 years experience as a Company Director specialising in Learning, Performance and Talent Development.

MARK SANT

partner & head of workplace relations, Gadens Lawyers Mark heads Gadens’ National Workplace Relations Practice group.

Mark has practised exclusively in the area of workplace relations for more than 17 years. He has held senior positions at a number of national law firms as well as the position of legal officer of a peak employer association. Given his background, and his postgraduate management studies, Mark has a unique insight into the issues facing employers in today’s competitive market. He is well known for providing pragmatic and commercially-focused advice.

JANE SEYMOUR

partner, workplace relations, Gadens Lawyers Jane Seymour has almost 20 years’ experience exclusively as a workplace lawyer. She has worked in first-tier national law firms and boutique workplace law practices, servicing a predominantly employer client base. Jane is known for providing pragmatic and commercially focused advice and her down-to-earth manner. She builds long-term relationships with her clients by providing ‘sounding board’ advice on day-to -day issues, as well as support and representation on ad hoc matters if the need arises.

STEVE SHEPHERD

general manager, Randstad Steve Shepherd is considered a thought leader in the recruitment industry within Australia. He joined the industry 23 years ago after arriving in Australia on a working holiday from the UK. Steve has had a varied recruitment industry background and has held business development, branch, state and divisional management roles including a period as Director of Sales and Operations for Asia-Pacific Region which gave him exposure to markets in the US, Singapore, Malaysia, India and New Zealand as well as Australia. Steve is a member of Randstad’s Senior Management team with overall responsibility for the Executive Search, IT Recruitment, Sales and Marketing Recruitment, Communications and Creative Recruitment and Managed Services Divisions.

TIM SPRAGUE

director, human resources, Macquarie University Tim Sprague is the Director of Human Resources, Macquarie University and a Director of the University-owned Company U@ MQ. Tim is a registered psychologist and holds a Masters of Commerce in Human Resource Studies. He has worked in a range of learning and development roles and as a consultant on the design performance systems. More recently, he has held various roles in human resources primarily in the banking & finance sector as well as the role of HR Director at the Australian Graduate School of Management. He has implemented a range of major structural and cultural change programs including a number of initiatives which have maintained staff engagement through contested industrial campaigns.

AMY STANLEY

HR director, Coca-Cola South Pacific Amy Stanley joined Coca-Cola in August 2009 as the HR Director for Coca-Cola South Pacific. Prior to Coca-Cola she worked for Bankwest for nine years in a number of HR roles including Head of HR for the Business Bank and Head of HR for the Retail Bank. In her role as the Head of HR for the Retail Bank Amy was responsible for developing the HR strategy to support Bankwest’s expansion on the east coast – this included developing the Employee Value Proposition and recruitment strategy and negotiating an industryleading Enterprise Bargaining Agreement.

JASMINE STRINGER

national HR manager, general counsel & company secretary, Mazda Australia Jasmine Stringer has been at Mazda Australia since July 2004.

She is currently enjoying a broad role which encompasses General Counsel and Company Secretary, Human Resources and Learning & Development. Jasmine also sits on the Mazda Global HR Team and works on projects of strategic global significance. Prior to joining Mazda, Jasmine practised as a Project and Corporate Finance lawyer at Minter Ellison. When Jasmine is not concentrating on Mazda business, she is a busy mum, running a family of seven children and trying to find time to spend with her partner as well as time to keep fit by cycling on her much-loved road bike.

BEN THOMPSON

CEO, Power2Motivate Ben Thompson is the Chief Executive Officer of The EI Group which includes EI Legal, OneStopHR and Power2Motivate. He has previously worked in funds management, insurance and technology with various companies in Australia and the United Kingdom. Ben joined The EI Group in 2002 and soon after established EI Legal and OneStopHR. Ben brought Power2Motivate to Australia from North America in 2007 because he believed all Australian businesses deserved affordable access to reward, recognition, loyalty and benefits programs. Power2Motivate now underpins reward and recognition programs involving approximately 75,000 employees across the Asia-Pacific region.

JEFF THOMPSON CEO, jobwire

Jeff is the founder and CEO of jobwire, a national, boutique talent attraction, assessment and early retention advisor. jobwire has been operating since 2000 and has offices in every state and territory in Australia. With almost 35 years’ experience in General Management in retail, logistics and manufacturing, Jeff brings a wealth of knowledge to the solutions offered to employers.

Jeff has been deeply involved in the Human Resources and Recruitment Agency market since 1992. He takes a unique approach to the talent market best described as “the unique and creative use of technology to ensure the right talent is attracted and retained productively and the wrong talent is repelled early in the process”.

GAIL WESTCOTT

senior manager, clinical services, Relationships Australia For over 20 years Gail has been a manager, facilitating teams, services and leading projects for the relationships services sector. As Senior Manager, Clinical Services for Relationships Australia (NSW), Gail provides training, leadership and clinical direction to managers, supervisors and team leaders to manage the organisation’s people and service outcomes for families and communities.

JAMES WRIGHT

key account director, RedBalloon With over a decade of experience in Experiences, James is committed to giving people a good time.

Besides this, James has held a variety of roles in marketing, product development and operational management. He is currently at RedBalloon for Corporate developing their offering and working with key clients on Employee Engagement, Reward & Recognition and Incentive Programs and promotional projects. His broad sector experience includes training and development, experiential marketing, leisure & luxury goods, gifting, travel, b2b, political ideas, financial services, recruitment, property, FMCG and e-commerce. James has also held positions with Chambers of Commerce in the United Kingdom and Australia and worked for a variety of high-profile voluntary organisations.

www.hrsummit.com.au

EVENT PARTNER

FREE WORKSHOPS

MEZZANINE LEVEL

The free interactive workshops are open to all HR industry professionals.

Places are limited for each workshop session so don’t be late!

DAY 1: 6 APRIL 2011 DAY 2: 7 APRIL 2011 10:00am – 10:45am MANAGER AS MAGICIAN: MASTERING THE ART OF RECOGNITION All the studies show that people work harder, are more productive, and have greater enjoyment of their work if they’re recognised for their efforts. Yet with today’s busy demands, it’s a real challenge for every manager to do this effectively and that can have massive impacts on your business – good or bad.

Learn from RedBalloon’s bag of tricks, strategies, tools and techniques: • The importance of recognition and how to deliver it • How to maximise peer-to-peer recognition • The practical tools of the ‘praise trade’ • Why non-monetary rewards work best Presented by: James Wright, key account director, RedBalloon 11:30am – 12:15pm JOBS, LAMB ROASTS, WHOOPING COUGH AND FAMILY NEEDS: MANAGING EXTERNAL STRESSORS AFFECTING STAFF IN YOUR WORKPLACES How do HR managers, line managers and team leaders support staff to manage life transitions, external stressors and other relational expectations, as well as remain focused on their work responsibilities? In this interactive workshop you will learn about some steps to acknowledge, assist and advance discussion in your workplace teams about managing the challenges of external stressors for staff.

• Employees have multiple responsibilities outside the workplace that can be worrying or challenging • Identify the early signs of stress • Learn some ideas to improve your awareness • It’s more than work-life balance, it’s about the first crucial conversation • Help your employees to keep their eye on the job Presented by: Gail Westcott, senior manager, clinical services & Anita Vosper, regional manager, Relationships Australia 2:00pm – 2:45pm HIGH PERFORMANCE CULTURE Maximus works across a range of organisations to deliver organisation-wide culture improvements. This Performance Culture workshop will deliver a snap shot of what some of Australia’s leading organisations are currently doing to propel higher levels of people performance in pursuit of optimal business growth. We will be exploring business performance through a culture lens, specifically looking at alignment between the business direction and the flow on culture and performance approaches adopted. This highly-interactive session will provide attendees with: • Market insight via exposure to research and real-life case studies • Cutting-edge business models and performance frameworks surrounding three key elements of organisational development (performance culture development, talent and succession and technology-enabled people strategies) • Support initiatives including a performance tool kit, and access to Maximus alumni resources • Networking and discussion opportunities with senior business leaders in the field Presented by: Vanessa Gavan, founder & managing director, Maximus International

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www.hcamag.com

10:00am – 10:45am EMPLOYEE RECOGNITION – HOW TO CREATE A SUSTAINABLE PROGRAM WITH A PROVEN ROI We know that positive reinforcement of employee behaviour is essential for effective employee engagement. What’s more difficult is knowing how to ensure this happens consistently and sustainably throughout the business. Drawing on Power2Motivate’s global experience, this presentation gives you a step-by-step guide to establish a reward and recognition program that’s proven to work.

• Learn how to translate corporate values, behaviours and visions into real actions • Understand how to get ‘buy in’ from executives, managers and peers and the importance of CEO involvement to keep the program alive • Learn how to track Return On Investment from an effective Reward and Recognition program • Supported by exciting case studies from Australia and North America Presented by: Ben Thompson, CEO, Power2Motivate 11:30am – 12:15pm PRACTICAL EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE: A REAL TOOL FOR REAL PEOPLE Learn about a practical tool for understanding people’s underlying emotions and temperament.

• Are the future leaders in my organisation really learning how to improve their EQ? • I know what EQ is and why it is important, but do I know how to improve it?

• Is the EQ model used by my organisation non-trivial, scientifically valid and evidence based?

If any of these questions resonate with you, come along and spend 45 minutes learning about a practical tool for understanding people’s underlying emotions and temperament. Over 10,000 people have taken part in the one-day workshop introducing this practical tool for improving your EQ and not one has asked for a refund.

Presented by: Christopher Golis, lead presenter, Emotional Intelligence Courses

Get your Expo Passport stamped at every exhibition booth and go in the draw to win a Suzuki Alto!

MAJOR SPONSORS EVENT PARTNER

LEGAL SPONSOR

jobwire was established in 2000 as a specialist in providing casual staff in the industrial labour market. Less than half a decade later the company has 10 branch locations Australia wide.

A fully Australian-owned and operated company, we have significantly expanded our expertise through organic growth and acquisition to cater to our clients’ diverse requirements as a talent attraction and retention provider.

In addition to short-term, long-term and permanent talent attraction solutions, we have demonstrated our capability in-house, or outsourced attraction and retention strategies for our clients.

Our group provides a business consulting service focused on measurable performance management.

Jeff Thompson CEO

P: 0438 811 112 E: jeff@jobwire.com.au W: www.jobwire.com.au

Gadens Lawyers is a full service commercial law firm with over 100 partners and 1,000 staff. The firm has a significant presence in the banking & finance and property sectors and is well known for its innovative use of technology to improve the delivery of legal services. The Gadens Lawyers workplace relations team is a market leader, recognised by Chambers Global, whose clients include some of Australia’s leading companies. Gadens Lawyers has offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Port Moresby.

Jane Seymour partner

P: 02 9931 4909 E: jseymour@nsw.gadens.com.au W: www.gadens.com.au

DIRECTORS FORUM SPONSOR

GOLD SPONSOR

Randstad is one of the world’s largest HR services organisations – specialising in temporary, permanent and executive recruitment, as well as providing custom-made HR solutions, across the widest range of industry sectors. Our mission is to help people make the right career moves, and businesses to connect with, and to develop the best talent in the market. In short, we aim to play a pivotal role in ‘shaping the world of work’.

As the world’s leading insurance broker and strategic risk advisor, Marsh is devoted to finding the opportunity in risk. We apply a rigorous, diagnostic, total-cost-of-risk approach that helps our clients embrace risk as a core element of their strategy. Our services range from risk identification and assessment, to risk quantification and prioritisation, to risk mitigation and financing.

Marsh has over 1,000 employees across Australia and 23,000 employees in 100 countries worldwide. Marsh is a proud Gold Sponsor of the HR Summit Sydney 2011.

HR Recruitment division

P: 02 8298 3805 W: www.randstad.com.au

Lisa Sharp marketing communications executive

P: 02 8864 7855 E: lisa.sharp@marsh.com W: www.marsh.com.au

www.hrsummit.com.au

SPONSORS STRATEGIC SPONSORS JXT specialises in building and designing recruitment websites and implementing social recruiting strategies for recruitment companies, utilising the benefits of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Our dedicated team delivers cutting-edge job board technology – including search engine optimisation – to get your recruitment website and job ads visible in Google search results. We can take your recruitment website truly mobile by creating a separate iPad and smartphone compatible website for job hunters on the move.

Stuart Marsh national sales manager

P: 02 9955 7170 E: sales@jxt.com.au W: www.jxt.com.au mytraining.net – Corporate Training Reservations made simple mytraining.net is Australia’s premier training reservations system built specifically for the following: • To easily manage training registrations – faster processing with lower invoicing costs • Energise your intranet or learning management system – by adding a full training course catalogue and management process • Cloud-based learning management solution – with managed services for training course delivery Supplied by Human Potential Consulting, a leading Australian management consultancy company

Sam Burridge sales manager

Steve Barham director hiring solutions

Max Garrido strategic marketing manager

P: 1300 130 980 (within Australia) 03 9330 8888 (outside Australia) E: info@schiavello.com W: www.schiavello.com

WORKSHOP SPONSORS RedBalloon offers a range of services to help organisations recognise, reward and motivate their people with amazing experiences. There are more than 2,000 experiences nationwide that provide a fun, innovative and exciting way for businesses to meet their goals. We’re passionate about delivering pleasure to people at work and have done so with great success for many years working with both large and small companies. Visit our stand and get your FREE Reward & Recognition Pocket Planner and test drive our new ‘Big RED Toolkit’.

www.hcamag.com

P: 02 8755 0001 E: matt@redballoon.com.au W: http://corporate.redballoondays.com.au/

P: 02 9425 4999 E: enquiries@ransw.org.au W: www.relationships.com.au Maximus International is a niche organisational development consultancy that offers commercially savvy, unique solutions to maximise people and organisational potential.

We create a measurable and immediate impact to your business and bottom line, and our commercially focused approach to transformation is encapsulated in our philosophy: Better Results. Faster.

Maximus seeks to discover where a business is losing value in its people. This knowledge, combined with our commercial aptitude and backed by robust research, ensures a flawless delivery of innovative and customised solutions.

Vanessa Gavan founder and managing director

P: 02 9216 2800 E: Vanessa.Gavan@maximus.com.au W: www.maximus.com.au

Power2Motivate is Australia’s leading solution for employee reward & recognition, benefits and incentive programs. Top companies around the globe have discovered how easy it is to launch highly effective and motivating programs for their employees, channel partners and customers with P2M. Our breakthrough On-Demand technology, based on a unique ‘Software as a Service’ design, delivers one universal solution with infinite flexibility to drive results. For ease of use, unsurpassed technical leadership and value, and a simple pricing structure, nothing is more powerful than P2M. Mark Robinson general manager – Asia Pacific

P: 1300 853 542 E: mark@power2motivate.com.au W: www.theeigroup.com.au/power2motivate

• Are the future leaders in my organisation really learning how to improve their EQ? • I know what EQ is and why it is important, but do I know how to improve it?

• Is the EQ model used by my organisation non-trivial, scientifically valid and evidence-based?

If any of these questions cause you concern, go to www.emotionalintelligencecourse.com and learn about a practical tool for understanding people’s underlying emotions and temperament. Books and workshops available.

P: 02 8249 8194 E: sbarham@linkedin.com W: talent.linkedin.com Established in 1966, Schiavello is a global company renowned for highly intelligent workplace systems and furniture.

Schiavello develops innovative workplaces with a considered design approach that supports the diversity of the teams and people within organisations.

Engaging in rigorous research in complex business environments which clients will evolve and develop in, Schiavello offers solutions that become a business value-adding tool that can be leveraged to improve business cultures, foster great effectiveness at all levels, and ultimately contribute to the growth of the bottom line.

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Lyn Fletcher director of operations

P: 02 8998 4940 E: team@mytraining.net W: www.mytraining.net Launched in 2003, LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with more than 90 million members representing 200 countries and executives from every Fortune 500 company.

LinkedIn has more than 1.5 million members across Australia and New Zealand.

LinkedIn Recruiter is an enterprise recruitment solution that enables recruiters to connect and engage with passive candidates. Powerful search and communication tools identify and reach highly skilled candidates and built-in collaboration tools enable enterprises to share project information and organise workflow.

Matt Geraghty head of corporate

Relationships Australia is a not-for-profit organisation and leading provider of professional services for relationship support and training – including counselling and relationship skills training for individuals, couples and families. For 60 years, the organisation has been helping people develop and maintain better relationships.

In the past five years, Relationships Australia has provided a range of services to workplaces including Employee Assistance programs, workplace mediations, training in relationship building and negotiating and management coaching.

Christopher Golis lead presenter

P: 0418 222 219 E: cgolisau@gmail.com W: www.emotionalintelligencecourse.com

BRONZE SPONSORS CPP Asia Pacific is the distributor and certification provider of the MyersBriggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) instrument, the world’s best-known and most trusted personality assessment tool.

CPP Asia Pacific helps HR and people development professionals succeed by offering a range of powerful psychological instruments, training and expert guidance, which enables individuals and organisations to be their best.

Liz Serras key account manager

P: 03 9342 1300 E: info@cppasiapacific.com W: www.cppasiapacific.com THOMSON REUTERS e-Recruitment Solutions, are used by over 240 clients globally, across all client sizes and industry sectors. Australian based with global experience and reach, we can assist HR teams to achieve significant cost and administration savings in all areas related to recruitment and vacancy management.

Tim Strachan national sales manager – Thomson Reuters

P: 03 8684 2021 E: tim.strachan@thomsonreuters.com W: www.cvmail.net

EXHIBITORS API Leisure & Lifestyle is the leading provider of employee benefits programs with over 90 years’ experience in implementing sophisticated and successful systems Australia-wide. API’s programs provide an extensive range of over 1,500 lifestyle and financial benefits designed to enhance the employment value proposition and assist with the retention of quality employees.

Kylie Green business development manager

P: 02 9277 6560 E: kgreen@apilifestyle.com.au W: www.employeebenefits.com.au

Operitel Australia is an eLearning solutions company that provides an Enterprise Learning Management System LearnFlex, Custom Content Development and Rapid Authoring tools. We partner with companies to deliver best of breed eLearning solutions to support their learning and development needs. Operitel Australia is a joint venture between B Online Learning and Operitel Corporation.

Sue Fell business development manager

P: 02 9571 6883 E: sfell@operitel.com.au W: www.operitel.com

Charles Sturt University (CSU) is a national university for excellence in education for the professions, strategic and applied research and flexible delivery of learning. CSU offers several courses via distance education and has a proven track record as a distance provider. Our AHRI-accredited Master of Human Research Management and MBA are highly regarded in the public and private sectors.

Maria Farrell course manager

P: 02 6933 2485 E: mafarrell@csu.edu.au W: www.csu.edu.au Founded in Melbourne, Australia in 1983, Frontier Software is a global leader in human resource, talent management and payroll solutions. Their flagship solution chris21 sets the benchmark in functionality and useability.

With support offices in every Australian capital city and key global locations, Frontier Software is well placed to service their 1,600 clients.

Nick Southcombe general manager

Our Managed First Aid Training Services offer a complete solution including: • Workplace first aid risk assessment • First Aid Plan • First class training experience • On-going support with 24/7 access to our secure online database • Email alerts when refresher training is due and reminders of scheduled training Michael Hutcheson first aid training manager

Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT) is a leading provider of insurance-related risk solutions and corporate services. JLT is one of the largest firms of its type in the world, with subsidiaries in over 130 countries.

JLT specialises in bespoke, local and multinational employee benefits packages, including Group Risk Insurance, Health Insurance and Wellness solutions.

Rob Brown divisional manager, employee benefits

Wendy Clarke training development manager

Shirley Keith director

Chris Barton national manager

Sandra Matthews national training manager

Marketing department

P: 1300 729 229 E: marketing@micropay.com.au W: www.sagemicropay.com.au 1300apprentice is a not-for-profit company committed to providing our employees with an opportunity to complete a traineeship, allowing them to learn on-the-job workplace skills and also gain a nationally recognised qualification. We work in partnership with our host employers to ensure our employees become fully qualified and an asset to Australian organisations.

Samantha Leet business development manager

P: 02 9715 7344 E: s.leet@1300apprentice.com.au W: www.1300apprentice.com.au

P: 07 3003 0333 E: smatthews@skillgate.com.au W: www.skillgate.com.au Australia’s largest provider of pre-employment screening, Konekt Workplace Health Solutions provides clients with innovative, task-specific pre-employment assessments that save lives and ensure employees are physically capable of the work at hand. Konekt is an ASX-listed company employing some 300 Allied Health professionals nationally servicing all aspects of injury prevention and rehabilitation management.

Russell Nelson chief business development officer

P: 02 9248 0127 E: chris.barton@asperity.com.au W: www.asperity.com.au Sage MicrOpay is a leading supplier of people and payroll management software and services. For over 25 years, Sage MicrOpay has provided solutions for thousands of Australian organisations of all sizes in various industries. Our systems are fully featured, easy to learn and use, while providing flexible HR and payroll management.

P: 02 9575 4819 E: shirley.keith@cdlinsight.com.au W: www.cdlinsight.com.au Skillgate Learning Centres offers an array of world-class training and support solutions all designed to increase employee productivity, improve compliance with business processes, and build employee’s IT skills. Skillgate’s solutions are focused on reducing training costs while minimising help desk calls.

Skillgate Learning Centres: your choice for designing, developing and delivering performance support solutions.

P: 02 8244 3754 E: wendy.clarke@healthcorp.com.au W: www.healthcorp.com.au

Asperity is an international leading provider of employee discounts that deliver exceptional, measurable engagement to over 400 employers and over 1 million employees. Founded in 2006 as a partnership between an online technology firm specialising in customer loyalty and a communications agency, we’ve become leaders by leveraging our expertise in these areas.

P: 02 9290 6727 E: Rob.Brown@jlta.com.au W: www.jlta.com.au/employee.aspx

Established in 1997 and with offices throughout Australasia, CDL Insight Consulting specialises in providing Australian and New Zealand companies with high impact/low cost people solutions. Our highly innovative online capability is exclusive to CDL and slashes the fees associated with employee motivation, development, retention and outplacement by more than 75% without compromising on quality or outcomes.

P: 03 9639 0777 E: sales@frontiersoftware.com.au W: www.frontiersoftware.com.au Healthcorp is a leading Occupational Health & Safety organisation, providing an extensive range of integrated health, safety and training solutions. With offices in every Australian capital city, Healthcorp is one of few registered training organisations able to provide fully accredited First Aid and Safety Training in addition to Health and Wellbeing Services nationwide.

P: 1300 651 706 E: michaelh@cleanroom.com.au W: www.alscofirstaid.com.au

P: 0439 416 109 E: rnelson@konekt.com.au W: www.konekt.com.au

Multibase and Elcom are innovative Australian technology companies working as partners to assist businesses to achieve their organisational and HR objectives. Based on the secure and scalable CommunityManager.NET platform developed by Elcom, we are experts delivering online induction and learning management systems, intranets, extranets and corporate websites.

Multibase

P: 02 9805 1911 E: info@mbase.com.au W: www.mbase.com.au Regus is the world’s largest provider of workplace solutions, with products and services ranging from fully-equipped offices to professional meeting rooms, business lounges and the world’s largest network of video communication studios.

Over 800,000 customers a day benefit from Regus facilities spread across a global footprint of 1,100 locations in 500 cities and 85 countries.

Shereen Khan area sales manager – Regus Business Meeting Places

P: 02 9006 1000 E: shereen.khan@regus.com W: www.regus.com.au

www.hrsummit.com.au

EVENT PARTNER

SUPPORTING ABOUT THE ORGANISATIONS VENUE: EXCLUSIVE DIRECTORS FORUM SUPPORTER TalkPoint is a ‘by invitation’ professional development and networking forum for Heads of HR. TalkPoint’s purpose is to reinforce the capability of HR Leaders. Membership includes sharing challenges and ideas with peers, and exposure to thought leaders with relevant, practical experience.

TalkPoint provides opportunities for Members to learn intimately in small groups as well as participate in broader community networking.

Kate Glennon

P: 02 8227 7880 E: kateg@talkpoint.com.au W: www.talkpoint.com.au

SUPPORTING ORGANISATIONS Women on Boards (WOB) is the leading advocate for improving gender diversity on Australian boards. WOB works to improve women’s access to, and opportunities to be selected for, board positions in ASX listed & private companies and in the public unlisted (NFP), Government, sport, rural and community sector.

Louise Krause events & membership manager

P: 02 4362 1333 E: louise@womenonboards.org.au W: www.womenonboards.org.au

Diversity Council Australia (DCA) is the independent, not-for-profit peak body and diversity advisor to business in Australia, solely funded by member subscriptions, partnerships and signature advisory services. DCA’s members are Australia’s business diversity leaders.

Catherine Petterson communications director

P: 0419 447 331 E: catherine.dca@stockland.com.au W: www.dca.org.au

The HR Summit Sydney will be held in the Crystal Palace at Sydney’s iconic Luna Park.

Luna Park Sydney 1 Olympic Drive Milsons Point Sydney NSW 2061 P: 02 9922 6644 W: www.lunaparksydney.com Registration opens at 8:00am

THERE’S STILL TIME TO REGISTER!!

Find out more and contact the HR Summit team today: P: 02 8437 4726 E: eventqueries@keymedia.com.au W: www.hrsummit.com.au

The NSW EEO Practitioners’ Association (NEEOPA) has been supporting organisations to implement quality diversity and equal employment opportunity programs since 1985. Members join NEEOPA to share knowledge, attend regular forums, network with peers and access bestpractice case studies and research.

Alison Monroe president

E: neeopa@neeopa.org W: www.neeopa.org

Since 1946 the world’s most respected companies have turned to Kelly Services for strategic and innovative staffing solutions. Our portfolio of services enables us to meet companies’ staffing needs across all areas including banking and finance, office and professional support, contact centre, executive and management, IT&T, scientific, light industrial, engineering and more.

Paul Chiswick national head of sales

P: 02 9246 6726 E: paul.chiswick@kellyservices.com W: www.kellyservices.com.au

WANTS TO HEAR FROM YOU

OFFICIAL PUBLICATION HC is Australia’s first magazine targeted at senior human resource professionals and top corporate decision-makers. Each month, HC examines the issues that are at the forefront of today’s people strategies and analyses the thinking of those who are at the cutting edge of the industry.

Iain Hopkins editor

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P: 02 8437 4703 E: iain.hopkins@keymedia.com.au W: www.hcamag.com

Visit the HC Magazine Booth on the Expo Floor and share your thoughts, successes and challenges with the HC Editor.

FEATURE Reward & recognition

Simple acts of recognition can have incredible benefits at little cost when used appropriately in conjunction with tangible rewards. That much we know.

Yet many organisations still get it wrong. Human Capital busts three common myths that have developed around reward and recognition in the workplace

Job well

done Myth #1

Reward and recognition programs need to be costly, and include extravagant rewards It’s a myth that reward and recognition programs need to be costly, and it’s also a misnomer that the more extravagant the reward, the better the result in terms of engagement and retention, says Richard Breatnach, managing director and event producer, Workshop Events.

The key, Breatnach adds, is to predetermine and prequalify the ROI of a reward initiative or program.

This is essential to justify any costs and to achieve the best results.

“If a reward program is put in place based on a predetermined ROI calculation, and the ways in which to measure success are apparent, the potential financial benefits can be built into the cost,” he says.

For instance, when using reward and recognition to boost morale in a sales team, to raise performance and enhance sales, the financial outcome will ideally

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cover the cost of the adopted initiative.

There are also ways to create events and activities which seem extravagant but are not in terms of cost, but Breatnach warns that avoiding reward and recognition programs altogether due to cost can have very negative effects on staff.

“If your organisation throws an annual Christmas party, and one year decides the budget can’t be spared so the bash is called off, staff are bound to be disgruntled,” he says. “There are ways around putting on an event on a reduced budget.

Staff will appreciate the effort and understand the financial constraints.”

Indeed, some service providers have dedicated themselves to squashing the myth that reward programs need to be expensive. Ben Thompson, CEO of The EI Group, says he established Power2Motivate (a division of The EI Group) because he could not find a reward and recognition program that cost less than $50,000 to set up. “I wanted to place reward

FEATURE Reward & recognition

and recognition programs within reach of every Australian business and do something about our lower than average employee engagement levels,” he explains.

Power2Motivate has no management or set-up fees. It offers more than 30,000 individual rewards which range in value from around $10 to many thousands of dollars.

It also provides clients with the opportunity to measure their ROI at a granular level. For example, businesses can view and report – at a business unit level – which peer groups and managers deserve recognition for exceptional performance, what that performance was and the extent to which each employee is engaged in the program.

“Behaviour is a function of its consequences,” says Thompson. “When people feel that their efforts are recognised and appreciated through positive reinforcement, their behaviours change and they become more engaged. Extravagant rewards are not the key to engagement, recognition is. Matching social recognition with a tangible reward just increases the utility of positive reinforcement in the longer term.”

Myth #2

The only ROI that matters is financial This is perhaps the biggest myth. As with almost any HR initiative, when it comes to ROI of reward and recognition programs, it’s necessary to look beyond financial return.

Ava Lawler, who as global consultancy director for PR consultancy Text 100 is responsible for the company’s global HR program, says it is near impossible to isolate the exact ROI for reward and recognition programs versus the impact of other HR programs and management behaviour overall.

“Employee engagement and retention are the ultimate reasons for instigating these programs but the behaviour of individuals is influenced by multiple forces and most organisations will take a multidisciplinary approach to impacting on behaviour change,” she says.

However, that’s not to say some measure of financial performance is impossible to gauge.

Thompson notes there are several criteria for measuring financial ROI on reward and recognition.

The first is the percentage of the total reward and recognition spend that is ultimately received by the employees. The higher the set-up costs, management fee and cost of rewards, the lower the value received by employees. Similarly, programs that use gift cards and vouchers as rewards may experience non-redemption or expiry (breakage) of up to 40%.

Some service providers keep breakage to a minimum by refunding unredeemed points when users leave a program. For example, nearly 100% of Power2Motivate’s standard rewards are available at, or below, the recommended retail price. “This means every dollar spent on reward and recognition goes to the employees – not to a consultant, gift card merchant or software vendor,” Thompson says.

The second criteria is the specific target metrics particular to each business – for example recruitment costs, training costs, on-time production, sales, referrals, customer satisfaction, ideas or innovation. “What is relevant in a call centre is not necessarily relevant for an airline – but a clear set of benchmarking KPIs and objectives should be established upfront to enable ROI assessment across the reward and recognition program,” Thompson says.

However, the key is not necessarily how much money is spent, but instead what message is going to be conveyed. It’s essential to understand the message an organisation wishes to convey to staff through an event or program, and the results to be achieved, so success can be measured.

Thompson urges caution, however. He’s noticed that while clients will often connect reward and recognition to the demonstrated behaviour of their business’ core values – which often appear on the company website, brochure and mouse mat – but there is no recognition of the fact that employees try to live and breathe these values in their day-to-day interaction with peers and customers.

“Once core values are converted into actual examples of behaviour then, where appropriate, these behaviours can be recognised and rewarded,” he suggests.

And of course, the same performance measures can’t always be applied for every program, as the ROI may be measured by more subjective means, such as increased loyalty, lower staff turnover, improved morale, enhanced relationships, teambuilding, etc.

“ROI for people programs ultimately comes down to measuring the impact on business success,” says Lawler. “Tracking employee retention statistics, employee satisfaction and measuring the cost of employment and talent acquisition are all important measures for stacking up the value of your HR program. However, the ultimate test is having a clear view on the motivation for your employees not only staying with the company, but for giving it their best shot while they are on the job.”

Lawler cautions that tracking the participation rates in these programs can help understand if people are interested in them, but they may not necessarily provide a good sense on whether they www.hcamag.com

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FEATURE Reward & recognition

are impacting on people’s behaviour. “Specific questions within employee satisfaction surveys and exit interviews that ask specifically about the impact of a program will be the best way to determine the specific impact of the activity,” she suggests.

Myth #3

Reward is far more important than recognition in terms of engagement and retention Not so, says Lawler. “In my experience, recognition is best served warm,” she says. “Regular recognition that is sincere, credible and timely is going to go a lot further in building a trusted relationship with team members than any carefully coordinated and calculated recognition program that lacks sincerity and warmth.”

Breatnach adds that recognition is a crucial component, in that the recipient of the reward needs to feel acknowledged and valued. “If staff are rewarded without understanding the reason why, the effect of the recognition component will be lost,” he says.

“Understanding the message that the organisation wishes to convey to staff through the program is a pivotal part of determining the ROI.” Power2Motivate helps each client design their frequency of recognition and value of rewards but almost all programs include ‘Thank You’ recognition that has no tangible reward value, Thompson adds.

“The golden thread is that employers want their employees to know that the place where they spend the bulk of their waking hours recognises and appreciates their effort,” he says.

Indeed, research from corporate gifting experts RedBalloon* proves not only the importance of recognition but the vital role that managers play in delivering it. It found 52% of employees say not receiving recognition would contribute to them

SMART R&R

leaving a company and that recognition means the most when it comes from their manager.

However, 62% of managers are rated as ‘poor’ or just ‘satisfactory’ at delivering specific and timely praise, and one in five employees do not receive any praise at all, or at best it only happens once per year.

Matt Geraghty, head of corporate at RedBalloon, says, “The first step in the process is to educate managers on the role that recognition can play and how much of a positive and productive impact it can have on their people. The next step is then to make sure that individual managers have the tools to be able to provide recognition in a timely, consistent and personal manner.”

RedBalloon has just launched the Big RED (Recognise Every Day) Toolkit. Each kit contains everything managers need to deliver praise to staff including educational advice, ideas, thank yous and recognition, plus instant rewards.

The toolkit includes: Recognise every day guidebook Recognition theory, best practice and advice.

Know your people workbook Two-thirds of employees are convinced their managers do not know what motivates them to be productive.

The workbook includes templates and forms so the manager can store important personal information about their employees to know what motivates them in order to give meaningful rewards – information such as birthdays, anniversaries, and hobbies as well as how they like their coffee.

Reward coupon booklet For instant rewards such as coffee, lunch or blank coupons to be handed out at the manager’s discretion. HC *Source: RedBalloon’s Reward and Recognition Survey of more than 3,000 employees in Australia and New Zealand

Ava Lawler of Text 100 says a sustainable, successful program needs to be SMART, that is: Specific – Clearly targeting a desired behaviour or outcome.

Measurable – The outcome needs to be measurable so all parties understand what success looks like.

Achievable – The outcomes need to be both realistic and challenging so the reward stretches but it is within reach. The program also needs to be achievable and affordable to ensure that ultimately the program is building on the profit margins of the company by either reducing cost or building revenue.

Relevant – The program needs to clearly relate to the business objectives of the company and to the job description of the individual. All employees need to have a clear sense of ‘purpose’ so that they understand the mission of the company and what their role is helping deliver to the mission.

Timely – All programs need to be timely. They need to be able to relate directly and quickly to an employee’s behaviour so people see a direct and near immediate correlation between their behaviour and the reward they receive.

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“Extravagant rewards are not the key to engagement, recognition is.

Matching social recognition with a tangible reward just increases the utility of positive reinforcement in the longer term” – Ben Thompson

PROFILE Janine Walker

This month’s profiled HR professional believes that issues of gender equality need to be “part of the organisational DNA”. Iain Hopkins talks HR best practice with Griffith University’s Janine Walker

HR excellence in the sunshine state Q

ueensland’s Griffith University is only 40 years old and Janine Walker, human resource management director there, has been at the institution for a quarter of its lifetime.

Her passion for her workplace and the people she works with is palpable, even after all this time.

“Universities are institutions of the heart and magical places where great things go on,” she says.

“People are very attached to them. It’s about passion.

One of the joys is meeting members of faculty who have been teaching for 30 years, who still get a buzz out of every first year student whose eyes widen at some magical point in a class or lecture.”

Gender equality leader Of course, it takes more than passion to run a business, and behind-the-scenes Walker has been integral to Griffith establishing itself as a gender equality leader. Women make up 25% of the university’s senior academic staff, and the goal has been set to become a national leader in this area with a target of having 33% of women in senior academic roles by 2013.

Last year Griffith University was named as Australia’s leading organisation (more than 800 employees) for the advancement of women by The

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Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA). This citation marked the first time a university has taken out the award in this category in the 10-year history of the awards.

“We were just thrilled, but we were also deeply satisfied because in our case it’s about a very longterm, sustained effort by successive groups of leaders at the university,” Walker says. “This reflects, above all else, an enduring commitment to equity in this organisation. It’s a thread that has run through Griffith since its inception.”

Walker is proud to say that Griffith has always been a progressive organisation. When it opened its doors in the 1970s, it had a school of modern Asian studies – quite remarkable for its time.

In recent years, the university has had to keep pace with the population boom in south-east Queensland. “If you stand still at Griffith you can hear the buildings coming out of the ground, and you can certainly count the cranes on the skyline.

The crane index of economic activity is very strong,” Walker says and laughs.

She is not surprised by the university’s stance on gender equality. “Social justice is in our charter.

Equity, social justice and progressive approaches are a hallmark, not just for employment issues but

“Successive leaders at Griffith have understood that equity is also just plain good business.

It’s not just a matter of conscience, it’s also a matter of understanding very clearly what makes a great university” – Janine Walker

PROFILE Janine Walker

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PROFILE Janine Walker

across its business,” she explains. “Having said that, we haven’t been a successful and growing business for over 40 years without also being extremely pragmatic. Successive leaders at Griffith have understood that equity is also just plain good business. It’s not just a matter of conscience, it’s also a matter of understanding very clearly what makes a great university. This award is not for something we’ve done for 12 months, it reflects 40 years of a deeply embedded belief in the DNA of this place.”

Walker believes this is critical. She notes that many organisations have excellent paid parental leave, for example, but there needs to be something to back it up. “You have to be prepared to do what Griffith has always done, which is a willingness to examine closely what it is you’re actually achieving,” she says. “You must be prepared to get hard data, analyse it, and act on it. You can have fabulous parental leave – that’s great – but the reason why we have a return to work rate in excess of 95% from parental leave is not just because we have paid parental leave, it’s because we work very hard at how people return to work. Not just in terms of policy and practices, but in terms of the culture around the taking of that leave.”

Not surprisingly, Walker is aware of the broader issues concerning equality, including the federal government’s efforts to increase female representation at senior level in listed companies.

From 1 January this year, listed companies will be encouraged to disclose two items on their annual reports: the company’s performance in achieving gender objectives set out by the board; and the proportion of women in senior management and employed throughout the organisation.

So does she believe we should now legislate for greater gender balance? “It should be part of the [organisational] DNA but sometimes it’s not,” she says. “I actually think, regretfully, that the time has come to legislate. It’s just not happening fast enough.

There was a time when I would’ve said, ‘No, you must wait for people to make the journey’. But now I think you put them on a forced march, and that won’t hurt as a straight piece of pragmatism. There is also sufficient evidence to suggest that organisations with diversity in their leadership teams do better.”

Major HR issues A significant problem facing every Australian university, not just Griffith, is an ageing workforce.

Walker notes that, having developed some clear thinking about keeping parents in the workforce, “applying that thinking to sustaining older workers is critical”.

The problem is magnified by the fact that higher education in Australia is looking for greater outputs from universities. While mentoring younger workers and introducing flexible work options helps, Walker says these do not address the issue of workplace supply and for academic “talent” to move through to senior academic roles.

“If you start as a lecturer at a university, you are required by and large to have completed a doctorate.

From commencing bachelor studies to completion of a doctorate is probably 10 years minimum – if you are absolutely committed and have no deviation and no time out. So if we say today that we need to grow the academic workforce in a discipline by say, 10% over next five years, it’s a very long pipeline before those people are available to us,” Walker explains.

In her own words…

What are your thoughts on the future of HR as a profession?

I’ve got very plain shoes when it comes to HR. I think what HR does at one level is very simple. We maintain expertise and focus on the area of people in the organisation. By doing that we support and enable managers and leaders.

The fundamental role of HR is about the capability of the organisation. If the HR department is successful, then the leaders of the organisation should always feel confident that the people issues will not stop them getting where they need to go.

I said to someone recently that a successful HR department is one that can tell the university vice-chancellor every day, ‘There’s been no excitement again today, all quiet down here!’ I don’t think we lead change or lead cultures – I think a lot of that is overblown.

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What has been your greatest career challenge so far and how did you manage to overcome it?

Moving out of being an IR [industrial relations] specialist to become an HR leader. One of the problems with being a specialist is, the better you are at it, the more likely people are to pigeonhole you in it. People think that’s all you can do.

I had a mentor when I worked in the public service, who had himself started his career as an IR specialist, so he understood the dilemma.

My mentor supported me to undertake a number of short-term projects and assignments in the organisation which leveraged value off my IR skills but gave me generalist management and broader HR experience.

PROFILE Janine Walker

“It’s not just a matter of knowledge transfer.

We actually need significant proportion of our older workforce to commit to teaching, or continue to be active researchers for longer than they have in the past. We need to extend the life of our existing workforce. Interestingly enough, research undertaken by our super fund, Uni Super, indicates that many university staff want to continue working past the traditional retirement point. Most say they’d like to do it a little differently, with more flexibility, etc. The challenge for us as institutions is to find ways to do that.”

Walker adds that part of the solution is to provide policies around flexible hours, but she feels there also are “hard-edged” issues concerning aspects such as superannuation that also need to be addressed. “It’s more than just ‘let’s give them flexibility’ – it’s not that simple. The more options and choices people have, the more likely they are to continue to engage.

People are pushed out by the lack of choice.”

New developments Walker is a firm believer in HR basics. Her goal is to deliver high quality, cost-effective HR services, and to leverage benefits from Griffith’s significant investments in technology, in order to deliver simple, user-friendly, effective HR services. “You can have all the ideas about HR strategy you like, but if you’re not delivering a fast, effective, high quality, efficient recruitment process you haven’t got a licence to operate the strategy,” she says.

To that end, Walker and her team are putting the finishing touches on a new recruitment centre called Recruit Care. She says that new technology has forced a re-think of recruitment functions.

“Technology has become available which allows us to offer a range of service enhancements around recruitment, online apps, online inductions, and so on,” she says. “The way we organise our office is this: we centralise those functions where the principle value add comes from the innovative use of technology. So we centrally run those processes that are high quality, efficient, cost-effective and standardised. Where the value is added by business knowledge, business partnering, and high quality internal consulting skills, then those services are in our business units.”

Walker recognises that for new staff members especially, the primary relationship is between that employee and their line manager or academic supervisor. The Recruit Care centre exists to support both parties to get that relationship off to a good start. “People who decide to apply for a position to

PERSONAL FILE

Janine Walker

Age: Let’s just say ‘very experienced’ Family: A grown-up son Favourite sport: I’m a golf tragic. I play badly – and love every minute of it!

Favourite movie or TV show: Right at the moment – The Wire Best advice you’ve ever received: Always put your hand up and volunteer Describe yourself: Very practical Hobbies: Apart from golf? Golf is not a hobby, it’s a life! I have an elaborate garden.

Between the three Gs – golf, garden and Griffith – I don’t have much time!

First job: Trainee industrial officer with the QLD Chamber of Manufactures. I was the first woman ever employed in that job and they thought they were so progressive. It was a big deal for them.

If not in HR: Journalist

Griffith must think we’re an OK place, so they have an initial judgment that we’re a good institution. We want all of their interactions with us from that point onwards to validate that judgment. There’s nothing innovative about having a centralised recruitment centre but, for us, it is right for our business.”

While Walker insists she has a ‘plain Jane’ approach to HR (see box, left), she remains passionate about her profession and the difference it can make.

“What I’m proudest of is the people I’ve grown,” she says. “There have been a number of HR stars here who are so good at what they do. Mentoring and coaching them, watching them grow in judgment and wisdom, has been very rewarding,” she reveals. “Much of HR is about judgment, knowing when to intervene, when to leave alone, knowing what’s a risk and what isn’t, and I see that coming out in my team. You don’t leave much legacy other than growing the function as the organisation grows, continuing to keep it capable and agile. Part of that is growing the people who will continue to do that after you’re gone.” HC www.hcamag.com

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FEATURE BPO risk profile

Through the Through the looking glass looking glass Before starting a BPO program, Asheesh Mehra recommends executives take a look in the mirror and ask themselves some tough questions. The end result? A BPO risk profile

W

hat are your objectives over the next five years?

What’s your appetite for risk?

How quickly do you expect to see a return?

They’re the kind of questions you’d expect to hear from your financial advisor.

But if you’re an executive thinking about outsourcing HR functions, expect to hear some very similar questions from your potential suppliers.

That’s because, just as you have a particular risk profile for investing, you can probably categorise yourself as aggressive, balanced or conservative when it comes to HR outsourcing.

Understanding your risk profile at the start of your outsourcing journey can save you and your company time, money and avoid potential stumbling blocks. So why should you care about Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)?

You should care because a recent survey of 200 C-Suite executives by Forbes Insights in association with Infosys found that six out of 10 respondents recognise the important role BPO currently plays in supporting their business, with the majority expecting this to increase in the next three years.

To prepare yourself for the journey, you need to determine what type of outsourcer you might be.

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A conservative approach Many companies getting started on the HR outsourcing path naturally begin with a conservative approach, and are hoping for a quick win.

A conservative outsourcer is likely looking to take a current process, and find an outsource partner who can take over that work, delivering cost savings as well as some reduced challenges for management.

It’s a straightforward approach often referred to in the industry as ‘your mess for less’, and carries a relatively low risk as well as a lower return.

Typically, the emphasis is on cutting costs by shifting work from your current staff to that of your outsourcing partners, while the processes within the business remain the same.

The gains come from the outsourcer’s lower labour costs and the economies of scale this delivers, as well as productivity improvements through reengineering and automation.

Given how significant labour costs are to business, it’s not surprising this arbitrage can deliver impressive savings – often about 30-40 per cent on the baseline.

Payment to your outsourcing supplier is usually a function of how many full-time equivalent positions are redirected to the outsourcer.

FEATURE BPO risk profile

Just as you have a particular risk profile for investing, you can probably categorise yourself as aggressive, balanced or conservative when it comes to HR outsourcing

The low level of process re-engineering in this ‘your mess for less’ approach means the complexity (and therefore the risk) is low. With knowledge transfer and integration relatively straight-forward, expect to see positive ROI within 12 months, or even less depending on the scope of work.

Keep in mind that there are limits to what HR processes can be outsourced this way. Functions with highly standardised, mature and systems-driven processes such as HR administration and payroll can be transitioned out of the business relatively easily.

Outsourcing processes with an explanatory or advisory component are possible but more challenging such as advising staff on salary packaging options or resource planning. Don’t expect the tier two and three outsourcing companies to be able to deliver this kind of work.

And while the labour cost arbitrage route will deliver a reduction in costs, it is a one-time play. If you’re looking for further improvements, you’ll need to consider additional levers.

Balancing your options If you’re a balanced outsourcer, you’re slightly more ambitious. You want to cut costs, but you’re also looking to improve the way you do things.

You may feel constrained by the way things are currently done within the limitations of your existing systems, facilities and talent pool. You won’t be satisfied with merely replicating existing HR processes, but will want a designed-for-purpose infrastructure.

A common aspiration for the balanced HR outsourcer is to have one system that can smoothly integrate the management of the whole employee lifecycle from hiring right through to retirement, including superannuation.

To do this, you’ll need to find some expertise in

analysing and re-engineering those processes to become more efficient and flexible, therefore positioning the business to jump ahead of the competition.

Be aware that this analysis will mean your project – and the resulting returns to the business – will take longer. Expect the transition to take at least 12 months. However, the business change is also more substantial, which should lead to greater gains.

The operating model is often transaction-based ie. the supplier is paid not on the number of hours worked, but on the units of work completed such as payslips processed or new employees and leavers processed. In essence, this means your outsourcing partner is wearing some of the risk involved in ensuring a more efficient approach to your processes.

Taking the balanced approach requires strong commitment and support of the company’s leadership team to ensure a successful reengineering of processes. Advanced accountability measures must be in place informed by the business case for the project.

Looking for aggressive growth A growth outsourcer is likely to have serious business transformation in mind. You’re looking to liberate internal HR staff to do breakthrough work by outsourcing less traditional functions such as facilitating succession planning. Or you’re looking for new ways to vary HR costs, allowing you to tweak the function in response to demand.

For example, Infosys recently partnered with the Australian and New Zealand arm of a global staffing solutions organisation that was facing a number of challenges.

The company had multiple ageing HR systems to manage contractors and contractor billing. Given the highly cyclical nature of the recruitment industry, www.hcamag.com

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the client needed a solution that could rapidly scale up or down as required, and wanted to avoid large future capital investments in HR systems now and into the future.

Infosys helped migrate several HR functions across multiple sub-brands of the business onto a single platform. The solution, which includes not only technology support but also process re-engineering and outsourcing on a cloud-based software platform, allows the client to ‘pay as you go’.

Instead of investing capital in a data centre and costly software licences, the company simply pays Infosys by the processed transaction, so costs are lower when volume is low. And having a single provider for the technology, consulting and process outsourcing also delivers ‘one throat to choke’ accountability.

However, as the example shows, this won’t be a traditional customer-supplier relationship; your outsourcing partner will need to become deeply integrated into the heart of your business.

Remember that accountability in this model will need to run both ways, and make sure that there is a strong cultural fit between the organisations. You will expect this partner to put some real ‘skin in the game’ – for example, tying its reward to achieving particular outcomes for your business.

Do not skimp on your change management budget – it will be critical to bringing your entire organisation along for the journey.

The potential prize is significant. However, you don’t achieve this kind of transformation overnight.

You’ll choose your outsourcing partner even more carefully, realising that it may take as much as two to three years for complete transformation and stabilisation, and that you can almost certainly expect to hit a few speed bumps on the way, particularly if you’re doing something that’s never been done before in your market or region. A phased approach is probably a good way to test as you go.

Getting started Intuitively, you probably now recognise the type of outsourcer you and your company are. The task is to test and validate this position, and then look to make the business case to other stakeholders in your organisation. Clearly, this is a significant undertaking and – like an investor – you’ll want to seek strong independent advice.

Here is a great place to start. Think about the ‘three Ps’: understand your pain, purpose and plan.

First establish what is really hurting the business.

Then isolate the key business objectives, ambitions and constraints (including your organisation’s appetite for risk and change). And finally, assess how the various sourcing approaches match your profile and needs. HC About the author Asheesh Mehra is the head of BPO of Infosys for Asia Pacific, Japan and the Middle East. He brings over a decade of cross-industry, global sourcing experience, driving business transformation through outsourcing for a number of Fortune 500 companies. He can be contacted at: asheesh_mehra@ infosys.com or visit www.infosysbpo.com.

Summary of common outsourcing characteristics Strategy

‘Run the business’

‘Grow the business’

‘Transform the business’

Operating model

FTE-based

Transaction-based

Outcome-based

Value creation

One-time/ ongoing reduction in total cost of operations No formal value measurement program Integration only within functions

Re-engineered processes

Access to new market/ pools of talent

Business case drives projects with metrics tied to performance IT supports process leadership team in initiatives

Two-way accountability

Controls

IT

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Uses Business Process Management (BPM) solutions to monitor process performance

TEAMBUILDER Tracy Mellor

With a passion for professional development and a knack for using coaching to create high performing teams, this month’s teambuilder Tracy Mellor explains why she loves to get in amongst it with everyone at Rebel Group

Rebel with a cause O

n a day when Sydney sweltered in above 40-degree temperatures in February this year, temperatures at Rebel Sport’s store in Chatswood were also rising – not because of sour tempers but thanks to faulty air-conditioning.

While the store manager diligently set about following correct procedures and doing whatever he could to improve things for both customers and team members alike, word soon got back to Tracy Mellor, Rebel Group’s general manager, people and development. Rather than observe from afar, Mellor immediately paid a visit to the store to try and help resolve the issue. This hands-on approach is a neat summation of Mellor’s views on HR. “From day one I’ve made it my business to visit people, to go into stores and to make sure I understand exactly what the issues are,” she says.

“My HR, training and development and OHS team members have all spent time in the stores. That would be my advice to any HR person – come out of the ivory tower and really get in amongst it to understand what the issues are, listen to concerns and figure out how we can make it easier for people

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to do their job. The people and development teams are here to help. We’re not the department of sales prevention – we’re an integral part of the business!”

Moving in the same direction Mellor says she came across HR “almost by accident” through various sales training roles in pharmaceutical companies in the UK and Europe.

When she joined Rebel Group in January 2010, her primary goal was to consolidate the HR practices and get them moving in the same direction. “Before I joined Rebel, people and development was split – HR and OHS reported into one place, payroll to someone else, and so on. I was brought in to bring all those people-based disciplines together to enable them to work next to the business – less of a silo and more like true business partners.”

How does she define the term ‘HR business partner’? “It means knowing the business, getting your hands dirty, helping out when you need to.

What better way is there to learn than going out and walking the floor or working in the stores?” she explains. Although Mellor concedes that HR

TEAMBUILDER Tracy Mellor

Thilo Pulch, www.pulchphotography.com

Tracy Mellor’s advice to others in HR is ‘come out of the ivory tower’

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TEAMBUILDER Tracy Mellor

Involve team in solutions

Degree of behaviour change required

Commitment Change Act

Motivate

Accept

Involve

Understand

“They are called soft skills, but it’s a misleading title. Often they are incredibly hard to do well” – Tracy Mellor

Inform

Employee impact

Employer action

in Australia is quite different to HR in Europe, and HR in retail is quite different again from anything she has experienced in the pharmaceutical world, she remains a strong advocate for HR “getting in amongst it”.

In the retail sector and specifically with Rebel’s customer-centric focus, that means working directly with store managers to help them run their teams more effectively. “I’d prefer to be working with them rather than working for them,” she says. “They need someone who’s going to support them but not hold their hand and do it for them, so boosting their skills and knowledge of how to manage people properly is critical. I believe that’s also getting closer to a true business partner model.”

Mellor firmly believes that HR will reach that business partner status and adds that her dream is to have every organisation of a certain size have HR representation at executive level. “But they must know all the business terms, all of the financial details that drive the business,” she warns. “You must talk the business language, don’t talk HR.” However, she also urges HR not to lose sight of what they do best. “You can have as many business metrics as you like but unless you’ve got the right people in the right roles, you don’t have anything.”

Indeed, if Mellor has a cause that she is passionate about and that binds her to HR, it’s professional development, particularly in the so-called soft skills.

“They are called soft skills, but it’s a misleading title,” she says. “Often they are incredibly hard to do well.

I have a great team of people working with me who are great at transactional HR, but it’s the development piece and the leadership development piece that really excites me and that’s what we’re developing as a team.”

She’s set a goal of ensuring each store manager in the company has the people skills required www.hcamag.com

Evaluate

Aware

A passion for development

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Support

to do their job and build successful teams. As just one example, she notes that traditionally underperformers would not be managed out of the business, but would rather be managed ‘across’ the business – so the performance issue was never resolved. “It happens because these managers don’t have the skills to have the tough conversations, or to handle performance management,” she says. “We’re aiming to change that.”

Mellor takes a very practical approach to professional development. The first step, she explains, is to convince people that it’s OK to admit they have weaknesses. “You almost give people amnesty to get them to accept that it’s OK to ask for help, it’s OK to be wrong,” she says.

When it comes to leadership development, prior to setting out on the development pathway, Mellor urges people to first look in the mirror. “You need to have a real understanding of yourself before you start looking at the impact you have on other people,” she says. “That, to me, is the most exciting thing – working with people so they understand themselves.”

Creating high-performance teams Mellor has also made headway towards the ideal but frustratingly elusive goal of so many organisations: creating high-performing teams. She concedes it takes a lot of hard work and skill to blend the different personalities, abilities and agendas into a cohesive unit willing to work for a common goal – but it is possible with strong leadership and a clear vision of what ‘good’ and ‘great’ performance is.

“It’s partly about being totally clear about those definitions,” she says. “People must know what they’re aiming for.”

Setting the bar high is Rebel Group CEO John Joyce, who Mellor believes has been critical in helping the executive team understand that there needs to be real accountability and responsibility for everything that people do throughout the business.

TEAMBUILDER Tracy Mellor

Empowerment

Corporate strategy

Corporate objectives

What can What is I do? my role?

How are we getting there?

Where are we headed?

Clarity of role & individual expectations

How am I doing?

Employee commitment

How can I better myself?

Performance management

Personal development

How is What’s in my team it for me? doing?

Teamwork

Reward & recognition

Degree of behaviour change required

“In empowering us, we can ensure that our teams are • Ensure that team members understand what aware of their roles and they accept responsibility is expected of them and accountability for their tasks,” she says.

• Hire the right person Two formalised approaches are helping • Induct new starters effectively to achieve high performance. Firstly, Mellor is • Set performance objectives and appraising using a combination of the Insights preference performance model – which looks at personality and how • Identify training and development needs and people prefer to behave – and is overlaying that appropriate methods of addressing them with the Insights Transformational Leadership • Foster career development Mode (see chart, above right). “It’s not enough to • Adopt succession planning to meet future concentrate on just one facet of leadership – our business needs leaders need to have the capability, understanding • All employees have performance appraisals with and awareness to stretch themselves so that they their own individual goals to achieve in line with deliver for their teams,” she says. the team, department and company objectives.

Secondly, Mellor has embraced John Whitmore’s coaching philosophy and his ‘ask don’t tell’ approach Promoting a coaching culture to managing people (see chart, above left). “It’s not Behind every great team is a strong and visionary enough just to tell people what needs to be done. leader whose job is not to control but to teach, Involve team in solutions You have to educate, involve, motivate and support encourage and organise when necessary. Mellor them before you get them to take ownership for what says that while Joyce has a clear vision of where he they are going to promise to do. Get people thinking wants the business to go, the engine driving towards about their role and they Commitment should take ownership for that vision is coaching. This ranges from traditional the way they do things. Ask them where they want to leadership coaching through to a talent manager who Change Support get to, figure out how that’s going to be achieved and coaches the regional managers. Mellor also fosters a what steps Act need to be taken,” Mellor explains. coaching culture in her own team.

Motivate She notes that the executive and retail teams What does she believe makes a great coach? are working together to map out the responsibilities Accept Involve “You must be able to listen properly,” Mellor says. of all teams to ensure that everyone knows what “You can’t provide the solutions even though you Understand Evaluate might know the answer. Don’t guide them – keep to expect.

The introduction of a job description for every employee has led to a greater consistency in asking the questions. Most people have the answers Aware Inform inside anyway; you just need to figure out how to the business and a competency framework.

The competency framework identifies which unlock that. Patience is also a virtue. You must give Employee impact Employer action behaviours an individual should ideally exhibit to people time to find the answers themselves.” HC carry out a job. Through identifying and defining competencies that predict effective job performance, Interested in hearing more top tips on how to create a solid team Rebel managers can ensure that focus on output game plan and how to become a business coach? Hear Tracy Mellor is carried through into all areas impacting on talk at HR Summit Sydney 6-7 April 2011. performance, such as training, development and recruitment and appraisal.

The competency framework is used to:

HRSUMMIT2011

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INBRIEF Australian news

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THE LAST WORD compiled by Suzanne Mercier

5 minutes with...

Simon Higgins – TOWER Australia Head of HR

What’s the greatest HR lesson you’ve learned so far?

Avoid fads. It’s easy to be attracted to the ‘latest and greatest’ but these things may not resonate with the core needs of the business. In HR, we can send a business off-track by focusing on the wrong things.

Focus on what’s meaningful and validate that our actions add value for our people and the business.

What is your view on diversity, and specifically the current hot issue of gender diversity?

Gender diversity is high on the agenda right now and for good reason. However, you can’t approach diversity as a compliance requirement and expect the business to ‘get it’. It needs to be seen as good business sense, to be incorporated as part of a broader talent management strategy and to reflect the business culture. If you’re serious about managing talent, then that requires you to maximise the number and type of options you have available. Diversity is an essential factor in that.

Your favourite people-management tip?

It’s about understanding the whole person

Quote of the month “A manager can be like a gardener or a puppeteer” – V S Mahesh

and what motivates them. When I start working with people, the main thing I ask when we sit down for a chat is, ‘What’s your biggest frustration?’ and ‘What’s holding you back?’ We then work on how to resolve those issues. It’s about delivering what’s real and meaningful to people – and being real yourself.

What career advice would you give ambitious HR professionals?

Find someone who inspires you. Work inside a business where HR deeply understands what drives the business and is demonstrably valued. Expose yourself to a variety of experiences and challenges.

What’s the main challenge facing the HR industry at the moment?

Sourcing and retaining talent. Driving increasing levels of employee engagement is also a priority. Diversity is high up on the list too. Another key challenge is meaningfully matching people development needs to learning initiatives that genuinely combine to lift organisational capability in support of the core business strategy.

How can HR professionals overcome that challenge?

Be really focused. Identify a few priorities and be clear on what you are trying to achieve from a people perspective.

Understand the business that you are in and don’t diffuse your efforts and productivity.

Can you believe it?

One in five employees has had sex in the workplace, one in three has taken Class A drugs at work, and one in six admit to constantly surfing the web on matters totally unrelated to work.

Source: ‘The Living Dead: Switched off, Zoned out – The Shocking Truth about Office Life’ by David Bolchover

n A study of 5,000 working adults published in the Journal of Applied Psychology suggests that contrary to popular belief, a candidate who has a higher level of intelligence than that required by the job, can be expected to stay longer and perform better than those whose qualifications on paper seem a better fit.

Source: http://www.management-issues.com

n NGOs are the most trusted institutions in Australia, with 65% of our ‘opinion makers’ selecting them as number one.

Meanwhile, Australians continue to be sceptical of the media (32%), which is on par with other developed nations including the UK and US. Source: 2011 Edelman Trust Barometer

n An average of one in six people are bullied at work. Some industries report even higher figures, ranging from 50% to 97%.

Source: Dr Dan Riley, Dr Deirdre Duncan & John Edwards Study

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