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editor’s letter ISSUE 8.5

managing director Mike Shipley

chief operating officer George Walmsley

editor Iain Hopkins

journalist Daniela Aroche

production editors Carolin Wun

Moira Daniels

contributors Carroll & O’Dea Lawyers

Chifley Business School

The Next Step

Chandler Macleod Group

Frontier Software

marketing executive Kerry Buckley

marketing coordinator Anna Keane

traffic manager Stacey Rudd

design manager Jacqui Alexander

designers Paul Mansfield

Jonathan Phillips

photographer Thilo Pulch

senior web developer Kevin Kim

it/is manager Colin Chan

sales director Justin Kennedy

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EDITORIALAnd for my next trick...

Remember self-managed work teams? How about total quality management? It seems that each month brings a new management or leadership fad designed to make work simpler and more efficient. A quick glance at my work desk reveals just how over-populated the management book market is. There’s

always a new trick up the sleeve of some guru or consultant.Why do we care? We seem to be fixated with wanting to emulate successful leaders and capturing the

fallout from their greatness. According to Pia Lee of LIW3, this is often a form of ‘great man’ leadership, where the ‘great man’ leads from the front and everyone else blindly follows. “It’s time to stop asking ‘how can I be like them and become more successful?’ and start asking ‘how can I make those around me successful?’ ”she says.

This month’s cover story produced a wide range of reactions from those asked to contribute their thoughts and ideas. While some were quite willing to share their insights on the latest fads and fizzers, others took great umbrage and claimed that the last thing HR needed was another consultant-driven topic to waste time and money on.

In some ways both parties are correct. Without these ‘hottest trends’ to stir some debate, seemingly worthwhile examples of better practice might slip through the cracks; if nothing else, it stirs the brain cells and may just get a couple of HR professionals thinking ‘what if we tried this…’ But at the same time, there’s no question that a lot of smoke and mirrors also accompanies the latest fads.

Yes, human beings do like to overcomplicate matters.Yet many of the latest trends and fads can be boiled down to this: if it sounds too easy

it probably is. Worthwhile results take real leadership and behavioural change, and by definition that takes time. To quote Rosemary Howard from AGSM: “The buzzy things may be great to get people’s attention but you’ve still got to put in the hard yards.”

In the first person…“The trouble for HR is when the management team is also receiving all these messages and then asks: ‘Are you looking after this? What are we doing about it?’ ” – Brett Reid, head of talent, Bupa Australia, on the pressure to take up the latest fads (page 18)

“We’re certainly not born with optimism or pessimism. These are patterns of thinking that are learned over time” – Dr Cory Middleton on building resilience and developing a winning mindset (page 36)

“[Casual workers] may see their job as temporary – which it is in some cases – and as such they may not be engaged in the change process” – Adrian Jackson, HR manager, Secure Parking, on the HR challenges of a casual workforce (page 52)

“We apply the same principles and minimum standards, but the identity and style of each property is different. We encourage that autonomy; no one believes in having a single monoculture” – Paul Clark, group director of human resources, Mandarin Hotel Group, on encouraging a diverse work culture (page 44)

this issueINSIDE

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18 Cover story: What’s hot... and what’s notMost management/leadership fads can be boiled down to a few fundamental truths. Iain Hopkins looks at the winners and the losers from the past five years

12 Engagement: My heart will go on (elsewhere)Human Capital talks to five experts about their top tips for recapturing the hearts and minds of disengaged workers

Letters to the editorDo you have a burning HR or people management issue you would like to share with others? Would you like to share your thoughts on the challenges you’ve faced and how you’ve overcome them? Want to kick off some debate about your industry? If so, Human Capital would like to hear from you. Send through your comments to editor@hcamag.com.

4 In Step

6 Legal

8 Training & development

9 Corporate culture

10 HR technology

REGULARS

Getting ready for climate actionThe world is still yet to create a universal ‘cap and trade’ market system for carbon emissions. But businesses should be using this time to prepare, and HR should be in the driver’s seat. Paul Howell explains

Book excerpt: Why people failIn this extract from Why People Fail, author Siimon Reynolds provides some tips and techniques to maximise productivity

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HR Career Experts 4Page

instep

Craig Mason is a Director withThe Next Step, a specialist consulting practice in the human resources market. For information call (02) 8256 2500or email cmason@thenextstep.com.auwebsite: www.thenextstep.com.au

The profession that is responsible for developing retention strategies for organisations may have an issue in its own backyard. How long do HR professionals stay with one company on average? Apparently, not long, according to

some recent research. In this month’s Instep, we look at the average tenure for HR practitioners and what influences these results.

Markets pick up, retention an issue againNo question, the employment markets are improving. Retention will start to be an issue for many businesses, particularly for those at the front of the recovery cycle.

The HR market is no different from the overall employment market. Already there has been a clear pick-up in activity levels in the early and intermediate HR markets. Demand has increased for skilled HR professionals under the $150,000 mark in Australia, and turnover is starting to increase. This raises the questions of how long HR professionals stay with one company and why they move.

HR – here for a good time, not a long time!The length of time an HR professional stays with their current organisation was one of the areas looked at in a national survey conducted by The Next Step in late 2009 of almost 2,000 HR professionals, from all levels and from all sectors.

Overall, the results were very interesting and certainly tell a story about the HR profession in Australia: • A total of 63.3% of all HR professionals have worked for their

current organisation for less than 2 years. Of this group, 26.3% had less than 1 year tenure and 37% had between 1 and 2 years.

• At the other end of the spectrum, only 12% of HR professionals have worked for their current organisation for more than 6 years. One-third of this group or only 4% of the total HR community have over 10 years with the one company.

• Under a quarter (24.7%) have worked for their current organisation in the standard expected range of 3–5 years.These figures would seem to indicate that there is an issue to be

looked at in terms of why HR professionals in Australia don’t stay with the same company for very long. Before we look at some of the reasons for this, there is some further analysis that can be done on who leaves first.

Which HR professionals move first?Analysis of the average tenure of HR professionals has been further dissected; firstly, by levels of seniority and then secondly, by the size of employing companies.

Levels of seniority A reasonable premise is that HR Directors would be more stable than those in their early and intermediate HR careers. The results seem to support this view, with 74% of HRCs and HR Business Partners, and 64% of HRMs, having less than 2 years’ experience in their organisations compared to only 45% of HR Directors.

Size of organisation It would be expected that larger organisations would have more stability as they can offer more career opportunities. Results do indicate big companies have longer tenure employees, but it’s not by much!

Some suggestions on why HR professionals don’t stick around could include the following:• Structural change – Some companies fiddle with their HR

structures almost continuously on a quest to ‘get it right’.• Small team size – Most HR teams are lean and roles are not often

available to offer new challenges.• Poor team management – HR leaders coach others to lead their

teams but don’t always apply these principles in their own teams.• Interest driven – HR is an interest-driven and passionate profession.

The upside of this is also the downside: if a company doesn’t fit, HR professionals move on.

A final comment: Given that HR leaders are tasked with ensuring employee turnover is minimised, a focus on their own backyard would be a good start.

HR – A QUESTION OF TENURE

Title (seniority level)

Less than 1 yr @ current company

1–2 yrs @ current company

Over 5 yrs with current company

HR Director(sample size 227) 13% 32% 24%

HR Manager(sample size 332) 25% 39% 11%

HR Consultant/HR Business Partner(sample size 265)

35% 34% 8%

Size of company

Less than 1 yr @ current company

1–2 yrs @ current company

Over 5 yrs with current company

Up to 1,000 employees 29% 38% 8.5%

1,000 to 5,000 employees 25% 39% 11%

Over 5,000 employees 23.5% 31.5% 16%

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Recent HR Market Movessupplied by The Next Step

Pip Russell has joined Schneider Electric (Australia) as Group General Manager – Human Resources. Pip was previously the Senior Director, Human Resources – Asia Pacific with Schering Plough. She replaces Kirby Grattan who is moving internally to France taking on a Global HR position.

Annie Milner has joined Jemena as a Senior HR Consultant. Annie brings to this role a wealth of experience gained in a variety of industries in both Australia and the UK.

Matthew McSweeney has commenced as HR Director with Bureau Veritas. Matt has enjoyed a strong career with Transfield Services most recently in the role of General Manager – Global Resourcing & Workforce Planning.

Kirstin McCully has accepted the role of People Development Business Lead with Origin Energy. Prior to this Kirstin was with AXA Australia as Senior Learning & Leadership Development Consultant.

Clive Peter has recently joined ANZ Bank in a Senior Manager HR role within the Corporate division. His previous experience has been gained within Shell, Ford and BHP Billiton.

Steve Hill has joined Geon as the GM, Recruitment and Organisation Development. Previously, Steve has held senior HR and OD roles with Stockland, Qantas, CBA and ANZ.

Fiona Spender has joined the newly opened local office of the leading global legal firm Allen & Overy as the Head of Human Resources & Business Services – Australia. Prior to this, Fiona worked in senior HR and Resourcing roles for Clayton Utz.

Anne-Marie Holubinskyj has joined Perpetual as the GM of Organisational Development. She formerly worked for Westpac for over 10 years in a highly successful career in line management, project management and HR roles.

Phillip Irvine, the former COO of Bartter Steggles, has been appointed as the HR Director of Visy Industries. Phillip started his career in HR before moving into line roles with GE and Unisys prior to joining Bartter.

Karen Carpenter has joined ING Australia as the HRM for IT, Legal, Shared Services, Strategy, Marketing. Karen previously held senior roles in HR at AMP, Mallesons and Optus.

Jon Smiles has joined PPG Industries, the world’s leading coatings company, as the HR Director across Australia and New Zealand. Prior to this, Jon held senior lead HR roles in companies such as Orica, Kodak and NAB.

Wayne Robertson has joined Wesfarmers General Insurance Limited as the Head of Learning & Development. Wayne was formerly the L&D Operations Excellence Leader at Ernst & Young.

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

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Legal Experts 06

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“WORKPLACE RIGHTS” AND “ADVERSE ACTION” – FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN OR SIMPLY NOT YET KNOWN?

The Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), which commenced on 1 July 2009, introduced some new and enhanced provisions relating to the protection of what are called “workplace rights”.

These provisions provide an alternative basis upon which legal proceedings can be commenced by employees against employers where they are subjected to “adverse action”. However, in the nine months since the commencement of the Act, there has not been a huge wave of claims. Is it because employees fear the unknown quantity of new legislation or are they simply unaware that such rights exist?

What is a “workplace right”?An employee has a “workplace right” if they: y have an entitlement under a workplace law, Award or Agreement; y are able to initiate or participate in a process or proceedings under a workplace law, Award or Agreement; or

y are able to make a complaint or inquiry in relation to their employment.

What is “adverse action”?An employer takes “adverse action” against an employee by: y dismissing the employee; y injuring the employee in his or her employment; y altering the position of employee to the employee’s prejudice; y discriminating between the employee and other employees; or y threatening or organising to take such action.

An employer is prohibited from taking “adverse action” because the employee: y has a “workplace right”; y has or hasn’t exercised a “workplace right”; y proposes or proposes not to exercise a “workplace right”.

Nor is an employer allowed to take “adverse action” to prevent the exercise of a “workplace right”.

Consequences of taking “adverse action”Where an employer takes “adverse action” against an employee for a prohibited reason they will have contravened a civil remedy provision (unless exceptions apply), and proceedings may be commenced against them. For example, if an employee was

dismissed because they were regularly absent from work due to illness and took personal leave (ie exercising a “workplace right”), the employee would be entitled to commence proceedings.

Remedies availableAn employee who believes that they have suffered “adverse action” for a prohibited reason may seek relief as follows: y Where dismissed – if the employee alleges the dismissal was for a prohibited reason they may commence proceedings at Fair Work Australia (“FWA”) within 60 days of termination (NB late appli-cations may be accepted in exceptional circumstances). FWA must conduct a conference (eg using mediation or conciliation), but if all reasonable attempts to resolve the dispute have been or are likely to be unsuccessful, a certificate to that effect must be issued. The employee will then have 14 days to lodge an application to have their claim determined by a court.

y Other “adverse action” – if the employee alleges that they have suffered “adverse action” (other than dismissal) for a prohibited reason they may commence proceedings at FWA, or make an application directly to the Federal Court or Federal Magistrates Court, within six years of the alleged contravention.

Where an employer is found to have contravened a civil remedy provision, the Federal Court or the Federal Magistrates Court may make a range of orders against the employer, including: y an injunction; y compensation; y reinstatement; y a pecuniary penalty (up to $6,600 if the employer is an individual or up to $33,000 if the employer is a company).

These claims are not subject to the same limitations as unfair dismissal claims. For example: there is no upper limit to earnings; there is no requirement to have six months’ service; different rules do not apply to “small business” employers; and the onus of proof has effectively been reversed, so employers will have to prove that the action was not taken for the reason(s) alleged.

ConclusionCourt proceedings may be commenced by any employee who believes they have suffered “adverse action” for a prohibited reason: clearly, there is potential for a great number of claims. However, so far only one matter has proceeded to full hearing and judgment.

The reason for the lack of such claims is not known, but it is likely that many employees simply don’t know about the availability of such proceedings, and those who do may be reluctant to bring a “test case”, particularly where unfair dismissal proceedings are also available. Accordingly, employers should continue to exercise great caution when dismissing employees or taking other “adverse action” to ensure that they do not contravene civil remedy provisions, and thereby expose themselves to court proceedings.

Claire BatemanSolicitorCarroll & O’Dea LawyersLevel 18, St James Centre111 Elizabeth StreetSydney NSW 2000Phone 02 9291 7100

www.codea.com.au

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Training & Development

Professional Development Experts 8

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SUCCESSION PLANNING

“If you don’t know what you are looking for, you will never know when you find it.”

It has always intrigued me that, given Australia’s typically tight labour market, a system as vital as succession planning is not as well understood and as well executed by the majority of Australian companies as you may think.

In my experience line managers do not need to be told the benefits of succession planning, however they do require the support of the HR team to derive bottom line benefits.

Who should be included?Many succession planning systems are aimed at manager level and above, due to time and cost constraints. While understandable, it is worth considering how and indeed who assesses the capability of your workforce to promote supervisors and first line managers. Unless you have a glass ceiling between the shop floor and managerial roles, this group of people will ultimately become the leadership gene pool. More importantly, given that your front line workforce has the greatest customer interaction impact, wouldn’t it be prudent to ensure they have the best leadership?

What does succession planning mean anyway?It can mean anything from filling vacancies in the existing structure to creating a pool of super-humans. Whatever your approach, unless everyone involved is clear on the objective and how levels of work complexity differ throughout an organisation, matching human capability with the work of the role will prove problematic. Be wary of job titles; it can never be assumed that a job title accurately reflects the work that a person is actually performing.

The importance of a common languageDiscussing people’s capability for promotion requires a valid, simple and commonly understood language. Without a shared language, succession planning discussions can quickly degenerate into anecdotal story swapping as to whether or not a person is “ready” to be considered for a more complex role. Be wary of overly complex behavioural and values based assessment criteria. While

behavioural traits are vital for success, be sure not to overlook knowledge, technical skill and cognitive ability. Real leadership is as much about being competent in the work role as understanding high level social behaviours.

Who makes the call?Without doubt the biggest risk to succession planning is a lack of understanding as to who is accountable for assessing potential. It is a commonly held myth that line managers are reluctant to promote people who have equal or greater competence than they do, in order to not be shown up. For a succession planning system to work effectively, the manager’s manager must be accountable for assessing potential. This shift in focus of your succession planning system may make an enormous difference to your organisation overall, as the manager two levels up takes a greater interest in getting to know team members’ current and future capabilities. Promotions may become less about the ‘halo effect’ and more about factual data demonstrating what has been achieved.

How far should the net be cast?The net should be cast as wide as possible; you cannot afford to miss high potential people – you are potentially training them for your competitors. Nor should you expect the most capable people to be the most obvious to spot. Your ability to accurately fill a position will be far greater from internal candidates who you know well rather than from external candidates.

Systems integrationSuccession planning as a basic minimum should be fully integrated with your performance management, remuneration and development system. If you are using different terms and rating systems your line managers may not appreciate having to wade through your systems. If you are telling people they are highly regarded and giving them basic pay increases, they may not believe you. If you are promoting people to more complex leadership positions without appropriate skill development, they may not thank you. In fact, succession planning (creating a pool or filling shadow charts) is now more a subset of a system that should be known as succession management.

Contributed by Bruce Highfield on behalf of Chifley Business School.Bruce was a former founding executive team member for Virgin Blue Airlines.

Phone 1300 CHIFLEY | 1300 244 353 Visit www.chifley.edu.au

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Workforce Advisory & Management

Evolving your Workforce 09

Page

A recent survey undertaken by Chandler Macleod for a client organisation analysing staff perceptions of training needs uncovered the somewhat predictable outcome – that

staff were strongly seeking more training to help them perform well in their job.

Managers regularly receive requests from their people relating to attendance at various “soft skills” training courses such as time management, supervisory skills, negotiation, assertiveness or dealing with stress. Requests also, of course, come for various technical or IT training.

Managers can sometimes be placed in a difficult position if the firm is not very clear about a number of important factors relating to people development, which really should be thought through from a strategic perspective to maximise the benefit to both the employee and to the employer. Managers then are often faced with making ad hoc training approval decisions, based on a blend of reward, retention, budget or development perceptions, often not well thought through and frequently without the necessary planning or strategy underpinning such decisions. Saying “no” or “yes” to an employee request for training should be clearly underpinned by a number of key factors, which ought to be planned and budgeted for by the firm and well understood by its employees long before the request hits the manager’s desk or inbox. These factors include:

1. Identification of unique skills or attributes required by an employee through an ongoing developmental performance management process

2. Clearly articulated core, required and extension competencies for all levels and roles in an organisation, best expressed through a competency or capability framework

3. Clarity around “new skills” required for initiatives or projects identified through strategic or operational planning

4. Capability extension development required for succession planning

Organisations and managers need to be proactive in identifying developmental areas with their people and discuss these with

CAN YOU SAY NO TO EMPLOYEES SEEKING TRAINING?

employees regularly, rather than simply relying on what might seem, to an employee, like a “good course” at the time.

People development really ought to be strategically considered and planned amongst and alongside other critical HRM initiatives such as performance management, reward and recognition, succession planning, recruitment and selection and workforce planning, with the competency or capability framework placed as the core benchmark or “hub” for all such initiatives. In doing so, people development becomes a properly planned component of HR strategy contributing to the achievement of the HR strategy for the firm and thus contributing to the organisation’s strategic direction from a people capability perspective.

As well as properly planning the specific development needs of the organisation and its people, it is also important to decide on the best developmental approach for each individual or group. Whilst off-site training often springs to mind as a tactic of first choice, there are many developmental approaches which might yield similar or greater benefit. In the above mentioned survey, the people of the surveyed company identified internal training sessions delivered by their managers and peers as being the most sought after training option. For succession-based development shadowing, mentoring or coaching, undertaking an acting role or the inclusion in a team project could be more effective than external training.

The learning and development challenge for firms then is to take and leverage the general enthusiasm by employees for regular off-site, classroom-based training and ensure that any development which occurs is well planned and aligned with both the organisation’s and the individual’s specific developmental needs to achieve identified requirements for a current or future job or project.

It is also critical to consider the most effective approach to development. That may be classroom training through to coaching, shadowing or joining a new team for a specific project. It’s a simple formula but it is all too often overlooked in the regular planning phases of organisations, manifesting itself as an employee’s knock on the door to request of an “on the spot” manager to “go to a training course”. There really is a better way.

Shawn KetPartner and General Manager Consulting, Queensland

www.chandlermacleod.com

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ISSUE 8.5 Quest - insight

ACCOMMODATING THE EXTENDED STAY TRAVELLER

For over 20 years, Quest Serviced Apartments has worked with HR professionals to provide accommodation for business travellers working away from home for extended periods.

Quest’s Extended Stay Department supports those who are responsible for relocating their workforce with streamlined processes and fast confirmation of bookings. With more than 125 properties across Australasia in CBD, suburban and key regional areas with close proximity to head offices and business centres, there’s sure to be a Quest to service your needs.

Q What are the needs of the extended stay workforce?

This guest has specialised needs. They generally stay for extended periods of time and require accommodation that feels like a “home-away-from-home”. They may also need social and cultural support to ensure that they feel looked after and comfortable in their new environment.

QHow does Quest’s accommodation meet the

requirements of this group?Quest is perfectly suited to extended stay guests. The typical apartment is modern and spacious, with separate bedrooms, a living room, comfortable couch, stylish decorations plus dining table – all necessary for those who have to make the accommodation their own home for a period of time.

Quest also offers full laundry facilities, fast resolution of maintenance issues and dedicated work areas in apartments, with broadband internet access to ensure that the extended stay traveller really does feel comfortable.

QWhat dining options does Quest provide to this group?

Guests are welcomed with a stocked pantry of goods they have specifically requested, and a fully-equipped kitchen, which means that they can prepare their own meals, saving money normally spent on expensive restaurants and mini bars.

Guests can also access other dining options, including well-priced breakfast packs and charge backs at selected local restaurants.

QWhat special support does Quest offer global business travellers?

Very often, extended stay travellers come to Australia from overseas, sometimes alone or with families. They may need kitchen appliances like rice cookers, or baby baths and high-chairs for their children. Quest happily provides everything needed for a pleasant stay, plus more.

Extended stay travellers may experience isolation in their new environment, so feeling welcome at

Quest is important. Quest franchisees own and operate the business, and take personal pride in supporting and befriending guests in need. They put travellers in touch with local interest groups, or arrange BBQ and networking events to make sure guests connect.

Quest can also customise welcome packs and letters from the traveller’s own company to further personalise the extended stay experience.

We thank you for your patronage at the recent HR Summit, Sydney, 28–29 April 2010

Further information

Whether you’re booking accommodation for three days, three months or more, contact Quest’s Extended Stay Department, call 1800 232 384, e-mail esd@questapartments.com.au or visit www.questapartments.com.au

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news ISSUE 8.5

While the February unemployment figures looked mildly encouraging,

Peter Gleeson, executive general manager, recruitment for Chandler Macleod Group, has urged employers to be wary of several of the figures quoted.

“You do need to look behind the figures, and to me they are not as encouraging as they could be – it’s not job creation,” he said.

Gleeson claimed that there is still a vast population in Australia who are ‘underemployed’. “I refer to them as the ‘employed poor’ because they’ve got a job but it’s not what they need from a fulfilment point of view, and also from a earning capacity point of view,” he said.

The ABS figures also indicated that 11,400 jobs were created, but Gleeson feels this is misleading: “Of those 11,400 jobs, 11,000 were taken up by part-time workers, so really only 400 full-time jobs were created. That indicates we’ve got a huge amount of capacity that’s not showing up in the figures,” he said.

According to Gleeson, this creates an interesting scenario for both employers and employees. “We have this situation

where both sides have got expectations that are probably not right for the current market conditions,” he said.

On one hand, employees during the GFC undertook jobs they didn’t really want or coped with jobs below their standard in life. Gleeson feels these people are now looking at the improved market and are keen to move. “The reality is, however, if they look at themselves they would realise they haven’t upskilled. Job roles have changed so they think they’ll be marketable, but there’s been no upskilling over the past 18 months. Do they have the ability to still perform at that level when things improve? If they’re still relying on their existing skill set they’ll be lucky to move on, perhaps even lucky to stay at the level they were prior to the GFC.”

In addition, employers are “deluded” if they think they can simply replace these people or get people at a higher skill level at the same cost as during the GFC. “For employers, the bottom line is you must have a strategy around this. You can’t just react to your own market conditions and wait for the business to come in.”

Time for a deeper look at employment figures

While employees can finally look forward to bigger pay increases this

year, salary growth is yet to return to the pace seen before the global financial crisis.

Mercer’s Market Issues Survey of 258 organisations has revealed that salary increases are gathering momentum after 18 months of subdued movement. Growth in fixed pay is forecast to rise by 4% over the next two years. However, it won’t be as high as the 5% rises seen prior to the downturn.

Martin Turner, principal in Mercer’s human capital business, said that while the economy is improving, employees should not expect organisations to play ‘catch-up’ with salaries. “Both parties must understand that recovery isn’t instant. If employees have faced pay freezes and now expect

NEWS Pay increases back on the agenda in 2010

Job categories still able to attract a premium above the market median include:Supply and distribution 4.8%Finance 4.7%Engineering 4.4%Construction 4.4%Scientific 4.3%

Job categories which are below the median include:Sales 3.9%HR 3.8%Technical 3.6%Customer service 2.8%IT 2.7%

Employer confidence reboundsAustralian employers’ sentiment has

surged again to reach the highest level of confidence seen since March 2008, according to the latest Hudson Report, Employment Expectations survey.

Results for the April–June 2010 quarter show that Australian employer sentiment has reached a high not seen since the onset of the downturn. Employer confidence has now grown a further 2.4% with a net 31.5% of employers reporting plans to increase their permanent staff levels during the April–June 2010 period. This is the strongest level of sentiment since the March quarter of 2008 and marks the fourth consecutive quarter of rising confidence.

Best employers in Australia

Microsoft Australia, Dimension Data Australia and Express Data are

the winners of the 2009 Hewitt Best Employers in Australia and New Zealand. RedBalloon, Insurance Line and Trilby Misso Lawyers were next in line in the top six Accredited Hewitt Best Employers.

The Hewitt Best Employer Study involves a diverse range of businesses and sizes, and they all have an absolute commitment to becoming a best employer. Overall, 110 organisations and 37,000 employees were involved in the process.

Tim Powell, MD of Hewitt, said employees of the Best Employers listed were nearly 50% more likely to think their organisation motivates them to contribute over and beyond than the general population. Fifty-three per cent said the way their organisation manages performance keeps them motivated to achieve company objectives.

organisations to make up for it, they’ll be disappointed. However, a resurgent jobs market means employers need to retain staff, so they’re feeling the pressure to increase salary budgets,” said Turner.

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ISSUE 8.5 the forum

Human Capital talks to five experts about their top tips for recapturing the hearts and minds of disengaged and worn out workers

MY HEARTWILL GO ONJust not with you

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the forum ISSUE 8.5

Tip 1: Clear communicationBy David Croston, principal of Inside Research and author of Employee Engagement: The People-first Approach to Building a Business

The GFC generated a seismic change inside many workplaces. For employees

working in companies that had revenue and profit lines decimated by the economic downturn, the impact was dramatic. These employees quickly found that their higher-order needs no longer seemed quite as important; security and stability became the order of the day.

When a workforce focuses almost exclusively on its low-order needs, motivation levels typically fall away. This is a death spiral for engagement, with mounting insecurity and anxiety draining away what little enthusiasm remains. The upshot? Shifting employees out of survival mode is now a core challenge for HR.

While this is a complex issue, the solution lies largely in the hands of the leadership team. They need to dial up the frequency and volume of communication. When things get tough, employees want to believe the people at the top have a plan to deal with it.

I recently spent time working on a ‘mood and mindset’ study at a large multinational. The business had done it tough through the GFC, leaving employees feeling that they’d been through the wringer. They were finishing 2009 without a clear sense of what the future held. Was it something to look forward to or something to fear?

The leadership team is now working hard to address this problem, by communicating a compelling vision of the future. The team is not treating this as a one-off exercise. To rebuild confidence they know they need to repeatedly drive their message into the heart of the business.

They are finding that the most effective communication occurs inside intimate discussion groups. These sessions provide the workforce with an opportunity to both look towards the future and leave the past behind. By participating in these

sessions employees are developing a sense of involvement and ownership, which is a pre-requisite to their engagement.

The GFC unquestionably delivered a shock to the system and the psyche of many employees. As with most business problems, strong and visible leadership is the best remedy.

Tip 2: Re-establish asense of certainty, status and relatednessBy Melinda Forsythe, client services advisor, People Solutions

In the aftermath of the GFC, as organisations saw demand for their

services and/or products declining, we witnessed drastic reactions in many businesses including restructuring and downsizing.

While the leadership in some companies remained cognisant of the need to protect their brand as well as the emotional wellbeing of employees, via providing outplacement and career transition support in the case of redundancies, there remained a missing link – protecting the engagement of employees left to re-build the business.

One of the key issues during transition is that of certainty. In our individual and team coaching, we attempt to quickly identify a team project or task that is within the teams’ control, thus regaining an element of certainty.

But certainty is not enough; team, as well as individual dynamics and responsibilities are often challenged during periods of change. This can lead to the damage of an individual’s sense of status and relatedness, both in relation to the organisation as well as to other team members.

Team members need to know how they will contribute and feel recognised and valued. Once we have identified a team project, we can look at how each team member will contribute to its achievement. A simple, non-threatening way to do this is through the application of an assessment suite that establishes a common

Research shows that highly engaged companies:• produce on average 29% more revenue• are 50% more likely to have above-average customer loyalty• are 44% more likely to turn above-average profits than less engaged companies*

Follow up research showed similarly positive impacts, with engaged organisations being:• 56% higher in customer loyalty• 50% more productive• 33% more profitable• 44% higher in retention rates**

* Izzo, John B. & Withers, P. ‘Values Shift: The New Work Ethic & What it Means for Business.’ Prentice Hall Canada, 2000** Weir, J. HR.com. 2003. Reporting findings of ‘First, Break All the Rules’, by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman and ‘Now, Discover Your Strengths’, by Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton.

What’s it worth?

Shifting employees out of survival mode is now a core challenge for HR – David Croston

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language and understanding about such things as individual work preferences, values, coping styles, etc. By encouraging the understanding and respect of different team members and their role in the new dynamic, we hope to re-establish an individual’s sense of status and relatedness.

Another important aspect of our work during this time is one-on-one coaching with the team leader. The leaders’ ability to communicate information, pace individual team members based on coping styles/preference and to set and celebrate team milestones, are all important at this time. Coaching provides support to the leader as well as challenging them to maintain the elements of certainty, status and relatedness that are critical to an individual’s engagement.

Tip 3: Engage and empower managersto re-ignite employeesBy Allan Watkinson, principal at Gallup Consulting

M anagers play a critical role in creating an engaging environment for their people. At Gallup we consistently find

that people join organisations, but leave managers. Quite simply, having a bad manager can lead to a miserable experience at work. In contrast, having a great manager can bring out the very best

from an employee. One of the reasons that only 18% of Australian employees are engaged*is that managers are often focused on the wrong things.

Many of the key factors influencing someone’s engagement are core management activities such as setting clear objectives, giving regular recognition and praise, providing frequent feedback on performance and encouraging personal development. Many managers see these activities as an additional burden on top of an already busy day job. However, the best managers recognise that spending time with their people to create an engaging experience is their day job.

HR has a critical role to play in the selection and development of great managers. The first step in this process is to educate the business about the true role of a manager and then to promote a culture where managers manage, not do.*2008 Gallup study

Tip 4: Make employee goals HARDBy Mark Murphy, CEO and founder of Leadership IQ

N ew research from Leadership IQ reveals that engagement starts in an unexpected place: the yearly goal-setting. In light

of this recent information, here are four tips for setting goals that will excite and engage employees. Make their goals HARD:

» 1. Heartfelt – “My goals will enrich the lives of somebody besides me – customers, the community, etc.” A goal also has to be bigger than ourselves in order for it to really motivate and engage an employee. Walking 10km may not seem interesting to many, yet millions of people take part every year in 10km walks to raise money for charities.

» 2. Animated – “I can vividly picture how great it will feel when I achieve my goals.” For a goal to help people achieve great things, that goal has to leap off the paper. It has to be so vividly described that people can feel how great it will be to achieve it. It has to sing to them, to touch the deepest recesses of their brain. When is the last time your goals did that?

» 3. Required – “My goals are absolutely necessary to help this company.” The goals had better be aligned with the organisation’s top priorities, and their successful completion vital to the bottom line, in order to compel employees to give their discretionary effort.

» 4. Difficult – “I will have to learn new skills and leave my comfort zone to achieve my assigned goals for this year.” For people to achieve great things, and enjoy it in the process, their goals must stretch them beyond their current abilities.

The final tip goes hand-in-hand with HARD goal-setting:

» 5. Provide employees with learning opportunities. You’re asking for trouble if you assign difficult goals and then leave employees with no resources to learn the necessary skills.

For people to achieve great things, and enjoy it in the process, their goals must stretch them beyond their current abilities – Mark Murphy

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Tip 5: Build a strong networkof change agentsBy Alison Tickner, partner of Oliver Wyman Leadership Development and head of its Asia-Pacific business

R e-engaging with colleagues across an organisation can be accelerated by selecting, training and supporting a group of

change agents across the different parts of the organisation. In our experience, two levels of change agent are most common:y Centralised change agents working with the leadership team

to orchestrate engagement across large parts of the organisation – typically senior leaders who sponsor engagement for a strategic purpose

y Dispersed change agents who act as the local catalysts for engagement across the organisation, acting in concert with their colleagues and in a way to suit the particular needs of their constituency

The two levels work well in combination, creating a strategic and tactical balance in the engagement effort.

By ‘change agent’, we mean an individual who meets the following criteria and has the time and inclination to make a difference:  y Credibility and respect from colleagues in the organisation as

a role model for the organisation’s values y Experience and analytical skills to solve complex business

problems y Interpersonal skills to lead others through change such as strong

communication skills, empathy, perseverance, flexibility and an ability to deal with conflict constructively

y Enthusiasm for engagement and improvement

Specific criteria will vary by context, but in our experience the essential characteristics remain consistent.

So, what does the role include in terms of responsibilities? There are at least three areas of responsibility we focus on in developing change agents: y Change leaders – enabling engagement in a part of the

organisation by removing barriers and sharing insight through a change agent community

y Change ambassadors – being the advocates for engagement and winning over the reluctant

y Coaches – supporting people managers at all levels to create more engaging dialogue with their teams

y Change agents need to be trained to work consistently and supported with tools to work collaboratively (ie, through online communities). Regular communications keep them working together so they can continue to be catalysts for engagement across the organisation. HC

Have your sayVisit the Human Capital website at www.hcamag.comfor your chance to post comments and spark debate among your peers

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function into a strategically positioned core element of the business can be understood by what the Value Creation Group refers to as ‘Value Relationship’.

The strategic HR leader must be able to form an individual relationship with the primary client and deliver total solutions through highly integrated (networked) activities and interventions for real value to be created. Once HR has demonstrated real value, it positions itself strategically and can offer a definite contribution to business outcomes and goals. Some elements of the relationship value concept are starting to emerge within more advanced HR functions.

The primary clientThe first step in applying a Value Relationship approach involves identifying the primary client of HR. Value Creation Group defines the primary client as the “client that HR chooses as being fundamental to its success.” In most cases, the primary client will be either the CEO or executive group. Critical skills required at this point by the strategic HR

leader relate to sophistication in assessing and handling political

landscapes.

How can HR leaders contribute to business outcomes and the bottom line? Jim Cummane and Sonia Martinez reveal the key is in creating real relationships with HR’s ‘primary clients’: the CEO and executive group

RELATIONSHIP BUILDERS

traditional HR products and services in an effort to reduce costs and, in doing so, they lose the potential strategic impact of effectively aligned HR.

What is the difference then, between a HR leader that has been successful in bringing HR to a strategic level within the organisation, and those that find themselves marginalised?

The strategic HR leader creates value through viewing relationships within the organisation in a completely different way, and has a skill set where technical

knowledge is not necessarily the paramount priority.

The process of developing

the HR

HR has often struggled to demonstrate its strategic value and contribution to organisational success and thus

its impact on bottom line results. HR is often marginalised when the strategic agenda is discussed or is excluded from key decision making. Worse still, it

has become easier for organisations to

outsource many

Strength of character is critical for the strategic HR leader in being able to lead an honest function that can adapt and mould itself to the business and the desires of the primary client

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RELATIONSHIP BUILDERSThe primary client’svalue model The second step, understanding the value model of the primary client, can only come about when the strategic HR leader has been able to clearly identify that their primary client is in fact the CEO or executive group. Ordinarily, HR may attempt to identify needs of the business and provide responsive products and services. However, strategic positioning can be achieved to a greater extent when the client’s value model is established and understood. A value model will express what is most important to the primary client, which may relate to how business activities are carried out or the business objectives themselves. For example, pushing down responsibility for results at every level of the organisation, or integrating opportunities for innovation within the workforce demonstrate elements of a value model that should influence HR interventions.

The value model is not to be confused with organisational values, although they will influence the primary client’s value model. Examples of skills required at this stage include active inquiry and observation, partnership building, and analytical ability.

Position HR interventionsThe third component of the strategic HR leader’s role is to position HR interventions within the value model of the CEO/executive or primary client. This requires the strategic HR leader to have the ability

to identify the relative importance of the primary client’s value model elements

and their impact on HR decision making. Interventions that do not

support the primary client’s values are at risk of being

assessed as non-strategic. Thus,

it is the value model

that shapes HR’s agenda, which in turn determines capability of the HR team.

Furthermore, if the strategic HR leader is to enhance relationship value, there must be significant integration of activities across the HR function that leverage the primary client’s values, ensuring holistic solutions and interventions that align all HR sub-disciplines. Necessary skills for the strategic HR leader would include developing high capability teams with inherent flexibility, managing complexities, effective decision making, diplomacy and negotiation expertise.

As goalposts and business objectives can change very quickly, HR must be able to seek feedback and be open to change themselves. Interventions must be followed through to success, and insights from all activities harvested to build a more resilient function. Strength of character is critical for the strategic HR leader in being able to lead an honest function that can adapt and mould itself to the business and the desires of the primary client.

This approach to HR alignment is not easy, and takes dedication and skill. However, where managers and practitioners do not apply these concepts, HR will always be sidelined as operational rather than strategic. HC

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Jim Cummane is director and Sonia Martinez is principal consultant at Value Creation Group. For more information visit www.valuecreation.com.au

About the authors

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Creating a heterogeneous workforce – making diversity a living value

HR as internal regulator/watchdog on areas such as executive pay, ethics and fairness in the workforce

Using social networks like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook in recruiting and utilising virtual teams of employees who communicate through video-conferencing, e-mail and SMS

HOT

What’shot.(and what’s not)

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Last year marked a century since the birth of Peter F Drucker, the writer and management consultant whose teachings on management

remain de rigueur for business theorists and practitioners. His words retain their wisdom five years after his death and seven decades after the publication of his first book.

It’s not unusual upon reading the latest management book to come across a theory articulated by Drucker decades before. In a world that worships fly-by-nighters, that’s quite something. So what is it about Drucker? His most enduring ideas fly in the face of conventional wisdom – and perhaps that’s in part why he still seems so fresh.

Drucker’s most important insight came in the 1950s and concerned the role of the corporation in society. In this sense he jumped the gun on corporate social responsibility by a good 40 years. “The business enterprise is a creature of

a society and an economy, and society or economy can put any business out of existence overnight,” he wrote in 1974. “The enterprise exists on sufferance and exists only as long as the society and the economy believe that it does a necessary, useful, and productive job.”

Also relevant today – amidst ongoing debate about excessive executive remuneration – is Drucker’s clarity on what it takes to be an effective manager of enterprises and people.

Drucker took swipes at the celebrity chief executive. “Every CEO, it seems, has to be made to look like a dashing Confederate cavalry general or a boardroom Elvis Presley,” he wrote in 1988. But real leadership “has little to do with ‘leadership qualities’; and even less to do with ‘charisma’. It is mundane, unromantic, and boring. Its essence is performance.”

Drucker noted that real leaders show respect for people and their work. He

Corporate microblogging to improve the flow of information around an organisation – see Yammer, the software-as-a-service version of Twitter

CEOs personally driving the learning agenda so that learning cascades down throughout the organisation – see GE and Pepsico

Creating meaningful measures of performance for HR. Focus less on activities (eg number of staff in training programs) and more on how HR is building organisational capabilities

Despite the hype and flurry of interest that surrounds any new management/leadership fad, most can be boiled down to a few fundamental truths. Iain Hopkins looks at the winners and the losers from the past five years

maintained that nothing destroys that as efficiently as excessive CEO compensation. As he stated in a 2004 Fortune interview, the remuneration inequality between rank and file employees and senior executives creates disillusionment among mid-level managers, and erodes trust between the organisation and society.

More than anything, perhaps Drucker’s philosophies come back to this simple truth: less is more. Regular contributor to Human Capital, James Adonis, summed up the jaded thoughts of many observers of the ‘latest and greatest’ management trends with this comment: “We don’t need a movement on ‘transformational leadership’. Let’s just build meaningful relationships with people in our team. We don’t need to do ‘speed networking’. Let’s just source the right connections rather than vomiting our elevator speech onto strangers. We don’t need to implement ‘talent management

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strategies’. Let’s just identify the unique skills in every employee and bring those out at work.”

The danger with these trends and fads, Adonis notes, is that they become outdated very quickly. Or they become so worn out that people get sick of hearing them. Or managers follow them just because they’re popular without thinking carefully about whether they’re the right fit for their organisation.

“What we don’t need is another management trend,” he says. “Let’s just treat people like they’re valued people. Everything else falls into place.”

Adonis is not a lone skeptic. Brett Reid, Bupa Australia’s head of talent, says that HR professionals spend a significant amount of their time avoiding the fads, and those who spruik them. “Most of the new fads are promoted by a consultancy or someone who has something to push. What tends to happen is 18 months after

Brighton-Hall notes that it’s no longer enough for leaders to work just on intellectual capital or emotional/personal capital. Now they also need to consider social capital to build that generational leadership.

“Really competent leaders are now working across functions, across generations, across expertise in a really adaptable and flexible way,” she says. “There’s also a real ability and courage to take personal initiative amongst leaders today. What they do best is excellent communication, and that leads to the demise of ambiguity. Everything is so flexible these days that you need people in leadership roles who can make it sound very easy and very clear. If we get too clever and too complex, too macro if you like, it becomes meaningless.”

So, how do leaders achieve maclarity? Murrell suggests that executive coaches can help – the external cheerleader/motivator/wise counsel/mentor keeps people accountable to the big picture. In addition, he suggests:• Writing out goals to be achieved

each day• Undertaking the hardest, biggest and

most strategic goals first• Leaving the smaller ‘micro’ details last,

or even better delegating out to someone else, for example someone in an admin support function

• Focus on HPAs – High Payoff Activities. Those are the most strategic and have the highest payoffs, yet they also take the most effort and create fear of failure in leaders

“When focusing on the big picture challenges don’t take on too many – keep them to three at most. If the list is longer, demotivation and frustration starts because it’s simply not achievable,” Murrell says.

Developing ways to incentivise employees without cash by considering rewards holistically to include career development, training and other intrinsic work factors

Employee referral programs – implemented correctly – accounting for up to 40% of recruitment needs

Interim managers – the perfect stop-gap for hard-to-fill roles

“Being a leader is about the individual

ability of the person; leadership is the capability throughout the company. Leaders matter; leadership matters more” – Dave Ulrich

the first wave of hysteria you end up with around 10% of what you first started with that is quite useful.”

Without wishing to add to the management and leadership ‘white noise’ of further fads, Human Capital presents five solid thought pieces to get the brain cells ticking. And we end with some ‘fizzers’ that sounded great on paper but died in practice.

1. Maclarity While this might sound like a Scottish whiskey, Thomas Murrell, director of 8M Media Communications, says it’s actually the ability to focus on macro or bigger picture issues with an absolute clarity of thought. “Speed of change, information overload and multiple tasks will provide major distractions for managers in 2010. There is a trend for managers to go straight to detail or outcomes rather than spending time and energy on strategy,” he says.

Micromanaging, Murrell adds, is not the answer. These words are echoed by author and leadership thought leader Dave Ulrich, who has recently started talking about STEPED – Social, Technological, Economic, Political, Environmental, Demographic – trends in a global setting. “When people understand the context – the why – they can create the how and the what,” he says.

Rhonda Brighton-Hall, senior vice president of human resources and communication at Luxottica, says that understanding the ‘why’ is half the battle – particularly given the rapidly changing demographics of the workforce. “The workforce of the next few years will be very different to what it’s been in the past,” she says. “We’ve had to pick up multi-generational leadership, which we’ve not had to do before. It’s fitting the pieces of leadership that work best for that.”

WARM

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Bored room bingo: Talking the talk

2. The end of uni-polar leadershipLast month’s profiled HR professional in Human Capital was Dulise Maxwell, executive director of people and culture – corporate at Queensland Health. Commenting on leadership issues, Maxwell noted that leadership is a state of mind evidenced by behaviour – not merely a position or job title. “That means anyone can demonstrate leadership behaviours – they can be cleaning floors or working in a call centre, or they can be a CEO of a company – but the empathy, integrity, the desire to encourage others to do their best can be demonstrated by anybody,” she said.

In essence, Maxwell was envisaging the end of uni-polar leadership, whereby power and authority rests only with the very top executive (or executives). Instead of unipolar leadership, which is usually

associated with command and control in hierarchical organisations, leadership is dispersed throughout the organisation. It’s a fundamental redefinition of leadership, but given the complexity and uncertainty inherent in today’s business environment, and the high degree of agility and adaptiveness required, it’s the only answer.

“We talk about the difference of leader vs leadership,” says Ulrich. “Being a leader is about the individual ability of the person; leadership is the capability throughout the company. Leaders matter; leadership matters more.”

Pia Lee, CEO of LIW3, says her company urges leaders to start with one question: where are you going? In other words, what do you want to achieve? “If you ask organisations what they want to achieve through leadership they would say that they want sustainable performance.

This is simply not achievable when leadership is held by the few,” she says.

Here’s why. Firstly, Lee says that sustainability cannot be achieved because ‘the few’ will inevitably move on at some point leaving the next generation hopelessly ill-equipped. If there really is a war for talent, then that war will be lost by organisations who hold the reins too tightly. “What talented person just wants to follow the orders of a lone genius?” she says.

Secondly, Lee maintains that performance itself is no longer possible without distributed leadership. Organisations are now operating in complex environments, they are geographically dispersed and they need to respond rapidly to changing customer needs. “How can an organisation be nimble and responsive if all decisions

At your next meeting, tick off how many of these terms and phrases are used

Synergy Touch base Blue-sky ideas Let’s take a moment Moving forward

Strategic fit Revisit Solution Fast track Core competencies

24/7 Paradigm Big picture Result driven Core business

Best practice Churn Empower Client focus Brainstorm

Knowledge base Relationship Leverage Business model Collaboration

Bottom line Business model Take that off line Relationship Mindset

Innovate Client focus Think outside the box Churn Do lunch

Fly it up the flag pole Result driven Take that on board Touch base Robust

Fast track Let’s take a moment External forces Revisit No-brainer

‘Serious games’ as part of L&D programs – while they are entertaining, the main purposes of serious games are to educate, inform or convince the player of something important

Employer of Choice for Women. Why is this still a differentiator in 2010?

Vanilla ‘Employer of Choice’ status’ and bland EVPs

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Positive psychology – the ‘happiness’ factor. Take it with a pinch of salt. Make rational decisions based on all the facts, not whether it feels right

‘Old school’ HR job titles: HR director doesn’t cut it anymore. Try ‘director of people and culture’ instead

Fair Work Act – yet more IR changes

Age demarcation: Baby Boomers, Gen Y, Gen X, Gen Z

have to be ‘run up the line’? Command and control styles stifle engagement and strangle the life out of innovative thinking,” she adds.

“Is command and control outdated? Well, consider this. Answering your phone with a 1990s-sized brick would be considered almost laughable today given the advances in technology,” Lee says. “So by the same token, using leadership practices that were effective in the previous century for today’s world of complexity is surely worthy of a knowing smile and resolve to update to a newer ‘model’.”

This is no easy task, especially since some of the more damaging actions taken during the GFC included stripping out middle managers and ‘flattening’ org charts in an attempt to enhance efficiency. This meant that a single manager could have anything from 20 to 150 direct reports. 

“There’s evidence that during the GFC decision making reverted to the top because it was more about crisis management,” confirms Rosemary Howard, executive director and co-joint professor, AGSM Executive Programs. “That doesn’t give you the best outcomes in terms of staff engagement, getting innovative ideas into the organisation, and encouraging customer focused efficiency. It’s very constraining.”

Not only does this top-heavy approach present major challenges in terms of succession planning and career development (where do people progress to except out the door?), typically managers don’t conduct any type of performance review with employees, because they do not know the individuals well enough to accomplish a review, and the volume is overwhelming.

Instead, organisations must focus on leadership as a role rather than a

Brighton-Halls adds that this is something Luxottica has attempted. “Business moves so quickly, and besides, you can’t have just one leader because everyone these days stands for different things – there are so many stakeholders. We tell leaders not to make people disciples to you; instead make the organisation mean something to them.”

3. Outsperting and crowdsourcingWhile the term outsperting may cause some to blush, it’s not what you may think. It has nothing to do with sexual dysfunction and everything to do with the strategic ability to outsource new talent, ideas and insight through engaging experts when and as required. Murrell notes that this could be a coach, mentor or someone with expert skill. Of course, this is hardly a new concept. Organisations have been outsourcing functions to consultants for years – but a fresh twist has been added by the concept of crowdsourcing.

“Usually outsperting is done for a set project, challenge or problem that needs solving,” Murrell says. “This is where managers and leaders need to be well networked, have high ‘social capital’ and have the ability to sort the real from the flaky.”

Indeed, HR service delivery has changed dramatically over the past decade. Transactions that used to be performed in-house are now typically outsourced – shifting senior HR’s focus from internal transaction processing to managing a complex mix of offerings from in-house resources, shared services, offshore and outsourcing vendors, portals and employee self-service.

With purse strings still being closely guarded in 2010, HR will need to continue

“The trouble for HR is when management

also receives [messages about hyped-up fads] and then asks: ‘Are you looking after this? What are we doing about it?’ ” – Brett Reid

function, as well as individuals within their spheres of influence. HR should be attempting to focus on creating an organisational culture that demands – or at least provides opportunities for – leadership of all employees.

“Leadership in organisations needs to redefine to maximise its value in today’s world,” says Lee. “Too often organisations have relied heavily on the ‘great man’ theory of leadership, which is essentially flawed as it relies on individuals rather than on the ‘force multiplier’ effect that can be achieved by unlocking the potential of everyone in an organisation.”

However, having leadership at all levels does not mean a convergence of roles. In fact, that is a facet of unipolar leadership where power rests with the few who attempt to do the jobs of everyone at all levels. Instead it’s possible to have both alignment and differentiation. “Leaders need to exchange and develop their leadership skills as they ascend their organisation’s pipeline, creating a diversity and depth of leadership capacity that optimises success,” says Lee.

COOL

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The countless ‘I’m a leadership guru – do-it-my-way’ books which adorn bookshelves today

Treating employer branding as merely a marketing exercise

Just in time supply – the skills shortage killed this strategy

Yearly or twice yearly performance reviews

HR as cost centre, handling still important but purely transactional tasks

to do more without permanent increases in staffing. Thought leading organisations will use project management principles to guide their contracting and outsourcing processes, leveraging project managers’ skills and knowledge in schedule, risk, requirements and quality management to remove uncertainty.

“The ability of HR to think strategically and then act technically very quickly is the reason why we’re successful or not. People in HR can swan around giving you an interesting theory but it’s not really effective. It’s about people who can give you the strategic thinking and then practicably action it. That, in a way, could be called project work,” says Brighton-Hall.

However, outsourcing key HR functions is not for everyone. Reid says that very little is outsourced at Bupa. “We tend to take an evidence-based approach to these things,” he says. “There are some elements of HR practice which are commoditised and some which have a high value return. I believe it depends on your business. We’re a health insurer which means a chunk of our capital is tied up with our people. That means that from a strategic point of view, giving away the sourcing of our talent is probably the worst thing we could do. Another industry sector might be different – it’s about strategic alignment and what will deliver the best value for the business.”

The game has also changed in the last two years. Web 2.0 has paved the way for emerging technologies such as cloud computing and virtualisation, which are now readily being adopted in offices across the nation. Increasingly, businesses have been reassessing the way they source and share information. Of the new wave of Web 2.0 inspired developments, crowdsourcing – a combination of the

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words crowd and outsourcing – has been attracting plenty of attention.

Crowdsourcing is essentially a way for organisations to outsource problem-solving. It involves an online community submitting solutions and then undertaking a vetting process to identify the best solution.

Through crowdsourcing, organisations are able to engage a wide range of experts to explore problems and find answers at comparatively low cost, and generally with greatly increased efficiency. Nonetheless, there are some concerns.

“The value of crowdsourcing is obviously being able to throw the problem out there to a large community, for very little cost, but there are genuine issues regarding intellectual property which need to be addressed. For instance, how do you decide whose intellectual property it is when the end solution is derived from an amalgam of ideas? When 50 people workshop an idea as a community, I see ethical problems if all the parties involved are not rewarded in some way,” says Steve Shepherd, operations director of the executive recruitment division of Randstad.

Shepherd says participants should also consider the implications of sharing their knowledge in an open forum where competitors are likely to be lurking. “Since crowdsourcing exposes a participant’s intellectual property to the entire online community, even ideas which are not ultimately adopted by the organisation are shared with other participants – many of whom are likely to be competitors,” he says.

Whichever way expert ideas are sourced, it’s HR’s job to benchmark cost and quality against the market’s most efficient providers.

According to Deloitte’s publication Strategist and Steward: The Evolving Role of the Chief Human Resources Officer, the c-suite doesn’t really care who provides their service, as long as it’s cheap and effective. Of course, HR should know everything about their function and to anticipate their HR operating requirements – even before they do.

bet’. Oversee development, testing, and rollout of HR systems and infrastructure

• Manage HR data, reporting and analytics. Identify people-related data and analyses that are critical to the company’s business strategy. Market those reports within the company, helping c-suite and other leaders understand and act on the insights

4. Customer-centric HRThe days of HR’s siloed internal focus are over. According to Ulrich, customer-centric HR is about ensuring that HR connects to those outside the organisation, not just those inside. “The real customers of HR are the customers of the company,” he says. “This means that HR’s work inside the company should be connected to customers outside the company. We want to be the employer of choice of employees our customers would choose. Staffing, training, compensation and other practices should reflect customer views.”

Furthermore, Ulrich notes that this should be a key component of the ‘leadership brand’ – that the criteria of what makes an effective leader should be consistent with customer expectations.

When online retail giant Amazon purchased online footwear and apparel retailer Zappos in 2009 for US$850m, many wondered what Amazon (already the market leader) would gain from the deal. The answer was simple. Zappos, which will retain its separate brand and its own staff and culture as part of the deal, brings killer customer service. And as Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh has repeatedly stated, he only hires people who are passionate about what Zappos is about: customer service.

Research suggests that these so-called ‘intangibles’ – employee competence, commitment, passion and energy – make up a significant chunk of the market value of publicly traded companies. ‘Nonthings’ such as leadership, talent, innovation, skill and vision are also included as part of these intangibles – and HR has a key role in developing them.

This is not a new concept. Reid notes that ‘customer-centric HR’ is largely a

“You need people in leadership roles who can make it sound very easy and very clear. If we get too clever and too complex, too macro if you like, it becomes meaningless” – Rhonda Brighton-Hall

Deloitte notes the key processes for HR as a service delivery and vendor manager include the following:

• Determine the HR service delivery model. Structure the HR function to manage a truly global workforce

• Determine the right mix of delivery channels – eg shared services, HR portals, external vendors and employee self-service. Identify HR processes that are good candidates for outsourcing and prepare a rigorous business case

• Design and foster the optimal connection between HR and the company. Serve as a single point of contact for all HR services

• Identify and select external vendors. Establish selection criteria and a formal scorecard. Lead the selection process, conducting due diligence and checking references

• Structure and manage vendor relationships. Negotiate contract terms and approve the statement of work. Oversee the transition of people and systems as needed. Monitor vendor performance

• Oversee operational HR activities • Demand a high level of quality and

efficiency for all in-house HR services• Manage in-house HR technology

development. Keep abreast of technology developments. Advise senior leadership about HR technologies that warrant a ‘big

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cover story ISSUE 8.5

Abundance summary

Challenges (crises evident in today’s world)

Responses (key concepts and disciplines responding to the crises)

Principals of abundance (synthesis and extension of current thinking)

Declining mental health and happiness – increasing rates of depression, anxiety and addiction, resulting in higher cost of benefits and lost productivity

Positive psychology – focus on what is right, not what is wrong; identify and build on signature strengths

Build on strengths (capabilities in an organisation) that strengthen others

Increased environmental demands (social, technological, economic, political, environmental, demographic) – a shrinking pool of natural resources and an erosion of trust in large institutions

Social responsibility/organisation purpose/individual motivation – include social responsibility as part of organisational purpose and individual motivation

Have organisational purposes that sustain both social and fiscal responsibility and align organisational purposes and individual motivation

Increased complexity of work – technology, globalisation and demographics create more complex work environments

High-performing teams – understand dimensions of a high-performing team

Make high-performing teams high-relating teams

Increased isolation – increasing numbers of people who live in social isolation from each other; the erosion of neighbourhoods and social groups

Positive work environments – create positive work cultures through stories, rituals, and policies

Create positive work cultures that affirm and connect people throughout the organisation

Low employee commitment – a large percentage of employees feel disconnected from their firm, resulting in lower customer satisfaction and productivity

Employee engagement – create work processes that engage employees

Develop employees’ competence and engage their commitment, but also shape their sense of contribution

Disposability and change – lack of long-term commitments to people and things leads to leaving, not learning

Growth, learning, and resilience – bounce back after setbacks and create a learning culture

In the face of change, use principles of growth, learning and resilience to persevere with both people and products

Hostility and enmity – win-lose paradigms crowd out win-win solutions

Civility – demonstrate respect by honouring and valuing differences

Honour differences in what helps individuals feel happy, cared for, and excited about life

rebranding of strategic alignment – ie aligning HR strategy to corporate strategy. “It’s probably slightly more focused right now but it’s something that everyone has been saying HR needs to do for the last two decades,” he says.

Indeed, Ulrich told the US Society of Human Resource Management via their

HR Magazine in 2005 that research has shown that HR professionals from high-performing firms have substantially greater knowledge of external factors, such as customers and investors, than do their counterparts in low-performing firms. Furthermore, HR professionals from high-performing firms are much

more likely to account for external customer requirements in the design and delivery of HR practices than their low-performing counterparts.

How can this value to external stakeholders and customers be achieved? Ulrich suggests three areas HR professionals should work on:

Source: The Why of Work by Dave & Wendy Ulrich

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ISSUE 8.5 cover story

• Develop customer literacy Know who the customers are and why they are buying from you. Who are the five major buyers in the markets you serve? Why do your target customers buy from you? What combination of service, value, reputation, product features, convenience, innovation or quality keeps them coming back?

• Think and act like a customer and a competitor As a customer, do you like the way the company treats you? Buy your firm’s products without telling anyone where you work. Use competing products. As a competitor, identify the weak links of your firm’s offering that a rival might go after.

• Engage target customers in HR practices Belief often follows action. Including targeted customers in HR practices can increase customer commitment to the firm. For example, customers can be involved in designing the content of performance appraisals and training programs. Many HR professionals are finding creative ways to include customers in HR practices.

For example, for staffing, an airline attempting to make flying more enjoyable invites finalist candidates for flight attendant jobs to audition in front of a panel of frequent fliers. Alternatively, a restaurant selecting a chef asks target customers to taste recipes of the finalists and vote for their preferred chef.

5. Meaning through workNumber five on the list perhaps presents the biggest shakeup of conventional thinking. As Ulrich explains, in the 1990s business leaders worked on competence (ability and skills); then during the 2000s it was commitment (engagement); now, he argues, leaders need to help employees find meaning.

“Making meaning makes cents and business sense,” he says. “When employees feel meaning from their work, they are more productive, customers are more connected, investors are more confident and communities more positive. Leaders are the primary meaning makers within their companies. They have the obligation to create what we call abundant organisations.” 

Ulrich says that leaders:• set direction that others aspire to • help others participate in doing good

work and good works• communicate ideas and invest in

practices that shape how people think, act and feel Ulrich regularly encounters leaders

who formulate great strategies, structures, and processes but may overlook the heart and soul that make organisations meaningful places to work. This is the topic of his new book (co-written with Wendy Ulrich) titled The Why of Work (available through McGraw-Hill in June).

In the preface, Ulrich argues that in organisations, meaning and abundance are more about what we do with what we have than about what we have to begin with or what we accumulate.

“It’s about finding the resources to deal with our challenges rather than about having unlimited resources to make work easy or effortless. Work will always be work – sometimes monotonous or routine, sometimes stressful to the max – but we believe work can still contribute more than just money to our lives. Leaders can develop the resources to make employees work harder and to make work work for employees.”

Ulrich adds that there is a strong business case for helping people find meaning at work. As employees find meaning, they contribute to the broadest purposes for which organisations exist (and to which Drucker alluded to all those years ago): creating value for customers, investors and communities.

Ulrich writes in The Why of Work: “The search for meaning adds value in two senses of the word. First, humans are meaning-making machines who find inherent value in making sense out of life. The meaning we make of an experience determines its impact on us and can turn disaster into opportunity, loss into hope, failure into learning, boredom into reflection. The meaning we create can make life feel rich and full regardless of our external circumstances or give us the courage to change our external circumstances. When we find meaning in our work, we find meaning in life.

Positivepsychology

Civility and happiness

Growth, learning, resilience

Employeeengagement

Positive work environment/ organisation

culture

High performing

teams

Social responsibility/ organisation

purpose/ individual motivation

Abundantorganisation

Source: The Why of Work by Dave &

Wendy Ulrich

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cover story ISSUE 8.5

“In addition to inherent value, meaning has market value. Meaningful work solves real problems, contributes real benefits, and thus adds real value to customers and investors. Employees who find meaning in their work are more satisfied, more engaged, and in turn more productive. They work harder, smarter, more passionately and creatively. They learn and adapt. They are more connected to customer needs. And they stick around.”

Ulrich notes that organisations that are meaningful in both these senses of the word are ‘abundant organisations’. An abundant organisation is a work setting in which individuals coordinate their aspirations and actions to create meaning for themselves, value for stakeholders and hope for humanity at large.

FizzersIt’s true – HR loves its fads and latest theories. Unfortunately, sometimes these sound great on paper but absolutely fizzle when put into practice.

“From the more recent and hyped- up ‘Gen Y’ phenomenon to the archaic yet still prevalent ‘total quality management’, people seem to get hooked on these pithy phrases that either generalise or overcomplicate simple matters,” says Adonis.

Reid agrees. He points to the obsession with generational differences as being the classic example. “A whole industry sprouted up about how to manage Gen Y and how we should treat them like a different species. When you deal with this you realise that, yes, there are some differences between generations, but on 95% of things they are the same. That was a flash in the pan – two or three years of the Western world crumbling because of Gen Y – and it hasn’t happened.”

On a lighter note, Reid recalls one recent ‘expert’ who was spruiking primate leadership, which involved using research done with chimpanzees and promoting that as something to take fundamental learnings from. “Unfortunately a large part of your job in HR is to be a bullsh*t filter,” he says. “The trouble for HR is when the

management team is also receiving these messages and then asks: ‘Are you looking after this? What are we doing about it?’”

Reid adds that many ideas simply don’t last long. Self-managed work teams (a self-organised semi-autonomous small group) is one example. “For a while that was the way of the future. Everyone was going to be doing that. And that’s largely gone, but in some companies it’s still being used. It’s like everything – what fits your commercial need. It’s having that critical view of ‘what’s this person trying to sell me here?’ ”

Howard notes that while it’s not necessarily a ‘failed methodology’, Lean Six Sigma for operational improvement withered on the vine because “it’s plain hard work”.

“To actually go through and improve operational performance and get processes as efficient as possible is hard work. Some companies would have tried that once and then never touched it again because it didn’t provide the results,” Howard says. “We’ve potentially thrown the baby out with the bathwater on that one because whether you call it Six Sigma or not, you really should be going through your systems and processes to ensure they are creating the maximum value at the lowest cost and least waste.”

Brighton-Hall adds that one fad that is rapidly receding into the past is the over-reliance on process metrics. “People

now measure whether you can get the job done. They don’t care whether you need 62 different competencies to do it. We went to results metrics as opposed to process metrics and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Certainly I need to understand the processes but measuring everything in the middle was interesting for us and took a lot of headcount – but it’s not really interesting to the business,” she explains.

Murrell notes that ‘chainsaw management’ made a disturbing comeback during the GFC, including the previously mentioned ‘command and control’ management styles. He cites Al ‘Chainsaw’ Dunlap as an example. Once known as the darling of Wall Street, the self-proclaimed ‘shareholders’ friend’ delighted in sacking people, closing plants and ruthlessly cutting costs. It was only when he became embroiled in an accounting scandal that his career came to an end. In 2002 he was effectively barred from ever running a company again.

Although many leaders throughout the GFC were restrained about where cuts were made, there were still some who cut to the bone.

On a less damaging scale, Murrell feels that many executives are also ‘networked out’ and are simply networking for the sake of networking. “People are starting to become more cynical about networking that is shallow and transaction-based only. Perhaps this is driven by the huge growth in network marketing companies that have sprung up like mushrooms. People are adding more rigour to their networking activities as they become more time poor. They are looking for more structured and focused networking and looking to build deeper relationships. Expect a move from transactional to relationship based networking,” Murrell says.

Human beings, it seems, like to overcomplicate matters. Reid concludes by saying that HR is essentially about two things: ensuring engagement and commitment from people, and good solid leadership. “If you can do those two things, that’s what it’s about – the rest is just delivery of those two things.” HC

“From the hyped-up ‘Gen Y’ phenomenon to ‘total quality management’, people seem to get hooked on these pithy phrases that either generalise or overcomplicate simple matters” – James Adonis

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ISSUE 8.5 sustainability

The world is still yet to create a universal ‘cap and trade’ market system for carbon emissions. But businesses should be using this time to prepare; and HR should be in the driver’s seat. Paul Howell explains

THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE GETTING READY FOR CLIMATE ACTION

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sustainability ISSUE 8.5

Joseph Fourier can boast a lot of discoveries to his name. The French mathematician was an expert in the science of heat transfer and

conduction, creating a number of laws that engineers still live by today. But it was his discovery of heating on a planetary scale that could yet be his most important. In 1824, he argued that gases building up in the atmosphere could translate into the gradual warming of the earth. Nearly 200 years later, this ‘greenhouse effect’ has earned the attention of the world’s political and business leaders – enough for them to consider entire new economic models through which to limit the build-up of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere.

This came to a head last December, when an extraordinary summit of the United Nations tried to negotiate an international treaty to curb emissions. While the watered-down agreement that was eventually signed-off on has failed to inspire many climate change activists, the meeting did signal an intention for world action. Leaders have agreed on the basic strategy, but are currently hung up on the finer details.

For business, whether it is located in New York, Hong Kong, Mumbai or Vanuatu, this should be seen as an

opportunity. Rarely does the world change with such advanced notice. If, or when, a compulsory international market for carbon emissions comes into being, it will be those organisations that prepared earlier that will thrive. For HR, it means acting now to drive a more sustainable approach to business activities, reducing energy use through all departments and considering new solutions to old problems. Because, as Fourier may well have known 186 years ago, this is a problem that just isn’t going to go away.

The job for business The business case for action on climate change can be a fairly simple one. With or without a fully-fledged trading system, every ounce of carbon emitted into the atmosphere will soon have a price attached. It might be a so-called ‘carbon credit’, or it could be a government-imposed tax, but there’s no doubt polluters will be asked to contribute more to this invisible cost. As will their customers.

By getting a head start on reducing dependence on these factors, employers can save money now – but even more when the inevitable price rises materialise.

There is also a talent-related reason to take immediate action. Awareness

and responsiveness to the climate change problem is increasingly considered part of an organisation’s employer brand. For a great deal of talent, particularly the skilled, educated and mobile staff that organisations have grown to rely on, climate change is a burning issue. Employers that are seen to be responding to it positively can expect greater attraction and retention rates for their best people.

It’s something the Ford Motor Company has woven into its overall mission statement. “Sustainability is one of our core values at Ford,” spokeswoman Jennifer Moore tells Human Capital. “We have led by example on a variety of environmental topics ranging from water reduction, waste avoidance, energy efficiency, and greenhouse gas reduction.”

As an automotive manufacturer, Ford obviously has a bigger than average carbon footprint. But Moore says that also gives it a lot of room to make reductions to its overall emissions, both in terms of how its vehicles operate, and their manufacture and assembly.

“We have long recognised that climate change is a global challenge and one that we can play a part in addressing,” she says. “In 2008 we spelled out how we planned to reach our goal of reducing by at least 30% the greenhouse gas emissions from our new vehicle fleet by 2020.”

She says Ford is now recognised as an industry leader in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from manufacturing operations. “Ford has reduced carbon dioxide emissions by over 11% since 2007, and by over 44% compared to 2000.”

Sustainability is also high on the agenda of fast-moving consumer goods manufacturer Henkel. Kasper Rorsted, chairman of the Henkel Management Board, tells Human Capital it not only helps the multinational attract and retain talent throughout the world, it also earns its respect among customers and retail partners alike.

“Long before sustainability became a mainstream issue, Henkel consciously

Far from the all-encompassing treaty that many had hoped for, the final agreement signed in Copenhagen on 18 December last year is essentially a set of non-binding emission reduction targets for countries involved. Here are the salient points:• Developed countries will commit to economy-wide emissions targets for 2020

– these should have been finalised by 31 January• Developing nations will implement ‘mitigation actions’ to slow growth in their

carbon emissions – these should have been finalised by 31 January• The world will aim to raise US$100bn per year by 2020. This funding will

provide help for developing nations reducing their emissions growth and finance ‘projects, programs, policies and other activities’ in developing countries related to climate change mitigation.

• The world will reconvene in 2015 to assess progress towards the goals. These include an endeavour to limit worldwide temperature rises to 1.5°Celsius

The Copenhagen Accord

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ISSUE 8.5 sustainability

took it on board, giving it the high priority due and integrating the associated requirements within its general business processes,” he says.

Henkel actually throws open its books to key stakeholders so they can directly understand the ways it reduces the environmental impact of its business activities. “Henkel’s approach and long-standing commitment to the sustainability issue have made us an attractive partner for the industry and our customers.”

The job for HR The business cases are clear, and many organisations are going out of their way to make an impact. But these are more often the exceptions than the rules. Particularly in Asia with its heavy manufacturing base, businesses overall have been slow to make any real reductions in their environmental impact.

In these cases, it should be HR driving the necessary change. It is, after all, a natural place for HR departments to get involved with their organisations and business strategies. As well as the employer branding benefits, a focus on environmental concerns can build teamwork and camaraderie. Many of the best energy-reducing initiatives come from the lower and middle ranks of an organisation.

HR departments that are responsible for internal communication also have a role to play, particularly in multinational organisations.

Moore says the creativity and input from the team level provides much of the drive for Ford’s successful emission reduction programs. “Much of this success comes from teams implementing best practices shared throughout our global organisation,” she says, noting that worldwide internal communication is also at the heart of the initiatives. “Our environmental professionals meet regularly via audio or web conference, and in person annually, in order to share ideas and exchange best practices.”

• Assess where you stand: NABERS Energy is an industry recognised tool to help building owners and tenants across Australia benchmark their greenhouse performance. For more information on assessing the carbon footprint of your office, visit the CitySwitch Green Office – www.cityswitch.net.au/

• Take practical steps: Use the Green Office Guide – a guide to help you buy and use environmentally-friendly office equipment. Download from http://www.environment.gov.au/index.html

• Get educated: The Monash Sustainability Institute’s Green Steps @ Work program is available to people already in the workforce in an intensive two-and-a-half-day format with an in-built workplace project. The workplace benefits include the capacity to collect eco-footprint data, develop energy efficiency, implement carbon reduction or waste minimisation action plans and instigate staff behaviour change programs. For more information visit: www.monash.edu.au

• Build towards a common goal: Celebrate World Environment Day, 5 June 2010 – visit www.unep.org/wed/2009/english/default.asp

Resources for HR

Eugene Tay, founder of Green Future Solutions, a Singapore-based environmental consultancy, says HR is also needed to communicate environmental programs throughout the organisation, ensuring staff see the direct connection with the business itself.

“HR can improve communication on the reasons and benefits for going green,” he tells Human Capital. “If the reasons and benefits are not clearly communicated to employees from the start, staff end up not being motivated and treat green practices as extra work for them.”

Don’t wait for the worldWhile the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen last year failed to create a worldwide carbon-trading system, many smaller scale carbon trading blocs are developing.

One of the first legitimate systems still operates in the US. The voluntary Chicago Climate Exchange (CCE) asks members to create legally binding emission reduction targets. Those that pollute more than this are forced to buy ‘credits’ from other members who succeeded in reducing their emissions below their target. That voluntary system

has been repeated with exchanges now also operating in China, Canada and Europe.Ford, the only automotive manufacturer involved, says the CCE, has proven an excellent learning experience in advance of a wider system in North America or the world. It is now preparing to adhere to the compulsory European Union Emissions trading scheme. “We learned a lot from the CCE and developed a Global Emissions Manager database that ensures environmental metrics such as carbon dioxide emissions are tracked consistently around the globe,” Moore says.

She notes that it is these sorts of internal improvements that should allow the car maker to flourish if and when a full carbon trading scheme is implemented.

Other large multinationals are seeing that same light. Léo Apotheker, ex-CEO of SAP, a provider of business software, says the business imperatives are visible now, and delays will only add to the cost of creating greener organisations. “We, as business leaders, cannot wait for global regulations to be agreed upon and put into practice,” he recently blogged. “We must act today as carbon management and sustainable business will only become more critical over time.” HC

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opinion ISSUE 8.5

Any move towards corporate sustainability requires a deep-down culture change and the adoption of new practices across

almost every area of the organisation. For HR, it requires identifying the

contribution that people management policies and activities can make towards a more sustainable environment. This is commonly referred to as ‘green HR’ and it encompasses a very wide spectrum, ranging from simple direct action such as using less paper through to complex activities such as carbon offsets.

The challenge for HR is to turn these green HR activities into policies that have a positive effect on the perceptions of your employees, consumers and the press.

The most successful approaches to green HR start with the design and implementation of a medium to long-term sustainability strategy which is based on the internationally-recognised Triple Bottom Line (TBL) methodology. Green HR strategies improve organisational performance because workers who can explicitly think and act to create TBL abundance also create cohesive, agile organisations, fast enough to overcome crises, manage risks and seize opportunities in the current economic and business environment. Once in place, a TBL-based strategy creates the anchor for visible as well as practical sustainability initiatives, now and into the future.

However, TBL requires commitment. It has to be embedded in the organisation at the individual, team and divisional levels rather than preached by top management. In reality, it demands substantial and continual organisational change management. This is why sustainability strategies are typically medium to long term. It takes some time to get them right.

This does not mean that HR can't introduce sustainability measures in the short term. While strategy is being developed there are many incremental steps

that can be taken to create an immediate reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Within recruitment, for example, online onboarding can eliminate much of the environmental impact caused by HR’s traditional use of massive amounts of paper. It ensures that every user is subject to the same experience and offers considerable financial benefit by reducing costs associated with sending starter packs or delivering personal induction sessions

Voice and video conferencing offer dramatic reductions in learning and development travel demands. In addition to minimising environmental impact, these technologies offer time and cost benefits resulting in immediate productivity gains.

eLearning is a simple and cost effective way to develop once but execute many times, training large volumes of people for a lower environmental impact. When used as an overall knowledge distribution and measurement medium (and not just as an HR training tool), eLearning becomes a way of distributing information to customers and suppliers as well, thereby reducing the impact across your people, planet and profit.

Too much paper is being used to conduct, measure and complete the annual or bi-annual employee performance management cycle. Moving to an online performance management system can eliminate this just as online employee self-service systems remove the need to print payslips every month.

Company portals or intranets offer improved collaboration and are ideal replacements for policies and procedures manuals, newsletters and other printed forms of communications.

The move to organisation-wide Green HR will take time but it starts with simple visible steps such as these. Remember to engage your staff in the greening process, create an environmental culture, reward and support environmental behaviour and don’t forget to change manage the process.

Andrew Roberts outlines what HR can be doing to raise green awareness in the office

GREEN HR: GETTING PRACTICAL ABOUT WORKPLACE SUSTAINABILITY

About the author

Andrew Roberts is human capital solutions manager, ComOps. For further information, visit www.comops.com.au

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ISSUE 8.5 employee discipline

Addressing employee

discipline requires

tact and skill.

Human Capital looks

at when and how to

flash the red card

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employee discipline ISSUE 8.5

PENALTY TIMEN

obody, save perhaps the most sadistic managers, ever wants to carry out disciplinary action. But everybody

acknowledges the need for it to be done. Without repercussions, inappropriate or loss-leading behaviours get repeated, nothing is learned and the organisation is doomed to follow a downward cycle of side effects.

The onus usually falls upon HR – for valid reasons. HR works with and for the people of the organisation. It is only fitting that this department is in charge of enforcing the company’s disciplinary policies. Reasonable or not, it is still an area that HR professionals list as the most burdensome and unpleasant of their responsibilities.

This may be why the topic of employee discipline is often overlooked by employers, particularly in organisations

that pride themselves on high levels of trust and engagement. “We’re like a family,” says many a corporate staff handbook. But even the most positive and empowering of employers need to have ground rules in place. And this mentality – while appropriate for the purposes of employer-employee bonding – should not hide the critical need to enforce those codes of conduct.

When it comes to the more typical infractions – repeated lateness, or over indulging in internet usage – the most common excuse is one of ignorance. “I didn’t know it was against the rules,” can be a common refrain.

Using social networking sites during office hours is a good example. Employees who peruse their Facebook or Twitter accounts at their work stations probably don’t consider it an offense and indeed – in many organisations it wouldn’t be. It can be

considered a victimless offence with an impact on personal productivity but no wider implications for the organisation.

One Brisbane office worker says she was genuinely surprised to be sent a warning letter for repeated use of personal e-mail at her workstation. “I figured if they didn’t want us to use those sites, they would block them,” she says of management. “Nobody explicitly told me it was against the rules, and it wasn’t like I was hurting anybody.”

Whatever the company’s rationale may be for forbidding certain activities, it should communicate the policies clearly to its workforce.

Experts agree that it’s not enough to simply print the rules in a handbook or on a staff intranet and assume employees will read and take note. Instead, rules must be thoroughly and regularly explained.

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ISSUE 8.5 employee discipline

implications are more relevant, whereas lower level staff might relate better to the financial costs of their actions.

Some methods of discipline are simply out of the question and should not be used in any situation, with any member of staff. Openly humiliating employees and punishing them without explaining the reasons are not effective. However, if a person is admonished, it is best to have a neutral person also present. Sankar says there are fewer chances of misunderstanding if there are official witnesses to disciplinary actions.

When HR has to penalise employees, there is also a question of severity. A line must be drawn between minor and major misconduct, so employees know there are increasing degrees of repercussions. Employees should also be aware that repetition of small infractions will naturally warrant more serious punishment.

HR must use its discretion in all disciplinary cases. “You don’t want a situation where you’re handing out warning letters like fortune cookies,” says Sankar.

It’s not you, it’s meDon’t let minor misconduct escalate into a performance issue. Here are some common ‘avoidance tactics’ from managers

People manager unwilling to feel:

So the people manager reacts with the following avoidance behaviours:

Out of controlTells the poor performer exactly what to do rather than asking “coaching questions that risk getting an unexpected answer

RudeIs overly ‘nice’ and withholds negative feedback, but complains to others about the poor performer

Demanding Does the poor performer’s work for them

Unpopular Gives too much autonomy in order to remain ‘mates’/’friends’

Disloyal Puts off giving honest negative feedback to a long-serving employee

CruelDoes not give negative feedback or gives it using vague words so that the consequences of continued poor performance are not clearly understood

Powerless Vents frustration and threatens the poor performer to momentarily feel powerful

Inferior Acts superior. Overanalyses and puts the poor performer down

Bored Glosses over the detail of tasks and outcomes, and doesn’t follow up delegated tasks

Source: Hewsons International

Establishing consequencesWhile knowledge of the policies will deter some employees, many will continue breaking rules until repercussions are felt. Therefore, HR should make it a priority to make employees aware of the consequences. This can be as simple as discussing possible reactions with employees at the time when rules are being established. However, there are a few guidelines in this area as well.

To many employees, as well as HR professionals, ‘consequences’ and ‘punishments’ are practically synonymous. If HR doesn’t distinguish between the two, employees tempted to break rules are likely do so, but simply with greater care to avoid being caught. It should be clear that ‘punishments’ are not the only result of breaking rules. The more significant ‘consequence’ is the infraction’s impact on the company and the other employees.

Consistency is the name of the game – staff of all levels should be disciplined equally. However, an exception should be made when telling staff the implications of their actions. For higher level staff, business

Gerard Sankar, director of Gerard & Associates, believes that face-to-face meetings are important. He notices that he’s in the minority with this preference, especially in a Gen Y-dominated workforce. “Younger HR people are more informal about informing their staff. They prefer to send out the information over e-mail,” he says.

He is more comfortable with meeting staff members personally. In a large organisation, staff can be notified of policy changes in batches. When HR conveys the information personally, few staff members can say they weren’t aware of the policy changes. On the other hand, e-mails can easily be overlooked, especially since most employees’ inboxes are crammed with messages from a wide range of stakeholders. New messages are much more frequent than staff meetings, and therefore make less impact. If the HR department calls for a meeting to discuss policy changes, it is signifying that the changes are important enough to warrant such an occasion.

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employee discipline ISSUE 8.5

Orientation for new staff members is one of the best platforms to establish policies and outline consequences. New staff enter the company as blank slates – if they are fed the correct information from the beginning, there will be no room to backpedal and make excuses for inappropriate conduct later. “For new employees, management is responsible for carrying out a sound induction. Take them through the whole gamut of company relations,” advises Gerard Sankar, director of Gerard & Associates.

HR should also make it clear to new employees that the rules which applied in their previous organisations may not be applicable in the current workplace. Comparisons can be made for the purposes of feedback and suggestions for better practices, but employees should not feel justified in breaking rules just because such restrictions did not exist in other workplaces.

Getting it right from the start

Top five errors in employee discipline

1.Not articulating rules and types of misconduct beforehand

2.Confusing punishment with consequences

3.Confronting employees inappropriately

4. Being too severe/too lenient

5. Disciplining too late

Exceptions must be thoroughly defined to avoid miscommunication. Using lateness as an example, Sankar says there are no excuses. But there are ‘exceptions’, such as an accident or a family emergency.

HR functionsAsk any HR professional why they chose their profession and you’ll invariably hear about the enjoyment of working with people. Many will go further and describe the sense of achievement they get playing a part in identifying and nurturing talents.

Few HR professionals, if any, will say that the satisfaction in their career lies in meting out punishments. For this reason, knee-jerk reactions can occur in HR departments when disciplinary cases arise. These are especially likely when HR doesn’t prepare well-articulated handbooks.

HR professionals who already have too much on their plates might be tempted to sweep small infractions under the rug. Not only is this unethical, it is also detrimental to the organisation in the long run. Employee morale suffers when staff who play by the rules see others getting away with breaking them.

There is also no need for HR to feel overwhelmed, as long as they can engage section heads to assist them in the process

of disciplinary enforcement. Sankar says HR should play a supervisory role here, rather than simply delegating the disciplinary process to other parties.

The role of HR makes a profound impact on employee discipline, particularly if HR knows its place in the process. Sankar says HR departments which function as rubber stamps are not productive. If HR wants to add value to its organisation, it needs to be actively involved in both the good and the less pleasant sides of the function.

And if not? Well, that could be grounds for a warning letter. HC

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ISSUE 8.5 hr insight

What does it take to succeed in life and business? A new tool for HR professionals sheds light on why people succeed and reveals how to develop the ‘eye of the tiger’

TOUGH ENOUGH?

Like it or not, tough times usually result in some questioning of one’s own worth. The GFC is a case in point. No doubt those

who lost their jobs, were forced to work longer hours or were cut back to four-day weeks took a self-reflective look at themselves to understand what they are good at and what they could do better.

rogenSi has taken this concept of self reflection to a new level with a program called Mindset. Central to this program is the belief that people with the mindset of optimism and mental toughness will do better in business and life and that this mindset can be learned.

Registered psychologist Dr Cory Middleton developed the scientifically-based Mindset program after studying world class athletes, business leaders and individuals who had displayed strength of mind and succeeded against the odds. 

Mindset involves a tailored survey-based assessment that can be done on individuals, business teams and leaders. From the assessment they develop training programs to help participants reach their highest potential in the workplace.

Human Capital talks to Dr Middleton about the program.

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hr insight ISSUE 8.5

TOUGH ENOUGH?Human Capital: What did you learn about mental toughness throughout the GFC?

Dr Cory Middleton: The GFC presented a challenge for many employers. Businesses had to change their shape, reduce team size, change focus, get back to bare bones and run a fairly lean ship. There was a lot for people to deal with in terms of friends and colleagues leaving the business but also being asked to step it up a notch. There was that duality of coping with the past but also recognising what was needed to move successfully into the future.

We expected people to take a hit in self belief, and we thought confidence would be shot. But what we actually found was it wasn’t so much people’s confidence that was gone, in fact people still believed in themselves, but it was more their motivation and engagement levels. They lacked belief in their leader’s ability to motivate them or create an environment to motivate them.

Organisations are recovering now but just to rebound to what was done before is not necessarily the right thing to do; there’s an opportunity to actually do something new – new actions, new thinking, new directions for the business. Leaders are not looking just for people to recover but to actually thrive on the opportunity that’s ahead.

HC: Are pessimism and optimism built into a person? Can these mindsets be developed or changed?

CM: We’re certainly not born with optimism or pessimism. These are patterns of thinking that are learned over time. Whether you’re an optimist is not something that’s hardwired and it can be developed. Many people develop it through their parents or their family or

cultural background. As a psychologist myself I’ve had a lot of experience with individuals who’ve had those breakthrough moments – it’s almost like an enlightened moment for them – when they realise they don’t have to be pessimists, that there are different ways of thinking.

HC: How about resilience? Can resilience be developed as a character trait?

CM: We use the terms ‘trait’ and ‘state’ a bit differently in psychology. A trait is something that’s biologically wired and is a permanent way of being. A state describes the behaviours that we can exhibit from moment to moment. So resilience is not so much a trait, more a state. It’s a pattern of thinking that is developed over time, a skill if you like. Once we understand what it looks like, once we understand how to produce it, it’s something we all can achieve.

HC: How does rogenSi’s Mindset work?

CM: Mindset is a confidential assessment where people can provide accurate indications of what they feel about themselves and their pattern of thinking, so they can understand it and look to strengthen it. It’s essentially a training and development tool.

Rather than getting HR people to understand something like resilience and trying to replicate resilience in their business, we actually do it the other way round. We go into the organisation and try to understand what mindset they need to be successful. For example, you might have two companies that have merged together so the mindset that is needed is a one team mentality where everyone is aligned to one brand as opposed to two brands competing with each other. So for that organisation everyone needs their hearts and minds

“We’re certainly not born with optimism or pessimism. These are patterns of thinking that are learned over time” – Dr Cory Middleton

connected on a one team, one vision, one purpose strategy.

Another organisation may have cut back on team members and have to do more with less, so it could be endurance they’re looking for – if they keep going a bit longer they’ll see their way out of the challenges they’re in.

Once we identify the mindset that’s needed to be successful, we benchmark where they currently are. That helps to identify the gaps between where they’re at now and where they need to be. Then we’ll provide the organisation with the strategies to develop the thinking that will make it successful.

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second is the sense of self-belief or confidence, the third is the coping strategies a person has, and the fourth is the control they have over their focus, where they direct their concentration.

When we do programs we typically start in the area of motivation, and when we get the style of motivation right you can go a long way towards setting up your ability to be resilient long term.

You see a greater level of performance achieved long term when people are motivated by what we call mastery. So they take aim at the results but then work back and say, ‘what are elements I need to master in order to produce that performance?’ So they focus on the building blocks along the way.

HC: Could that be mastering the technical components of your job?

CM: Yes. For example, a sales team may have a particular sales figure to aim for. Rather than pushing towards that, they would break it down to mastering the way they

cold call, or the way they talk about the product, or close the deal. If

you’re focused and motivated to be masterful at every step you will

achieve the sales figure without worrying about not hitting it.

HC: What do you do with the results once the

assessment is completed?

CM: It goes into formalised training solutions. We can provide specific strategies for individuals, so individuals can pick up certain strategies to develop a stronger pattern of thinking. We can then

develop solutions for leaders – building the

leadership traits so that they can build an environment

that encourages that strong type of thinking. We make sure

they deliver their messages and guide their people in synch with

the particular mindset that they’re

HC: Is it really a tool for self analysis and assessing where your strengths and weaknesses lie?

CM: Yes it is. It assesses your current pattern of thinking, so you’ll get a profile spread over a radial type graph and you can certainly see where your strengths are, and where you generate your strength of mind from, but also the things that impact on you when you feel a little less confident.

HC: What does this self-awareness mean for the individual? Does this tie in with motivation?

CM: The model measures four things. The research identified that there are four core pillars that drive resilience. One is the way people motivate themselves. The

looking for. We can also provide strategies for the team to work on collectively, which is how they interact with each other.

HC: Where did this area of research come from?

CM: My PhD project was completed at the Australian Institute of Sport where I was tasked with finding out what mental toughness is. To do that, I took a bigger approach than just looking at sport because mental toughness is something we as humans have demonstrated time and time again throughout history.

I looked back on research of people going to war – for example, soldiers and support staff like doctors and nurses. It’s quite fascinating research about how those people coped with that experience and what the protective factors in each individual were that dictated which way they would go in life. Would they go on and thrive or would they be deeply affected by it?

There is also research around families; these tough kids who grew up in an environment of abuse or neglect. Despite that, there was a protective factor – a pattern of thinking – which drove some of them to be successful. Twin studies are always fascinating. Identical twins living in the same house, subject to the same abuse, and one would go on and do amazing things, and the other was never quite the same. Researchers were able to identify the different pattern of thinking which drove success versus troubled times for the other.

The second body of research involved interviewing over 30 world champions in sport. I spent a lot of time with them on a one-on-one basis to really try to get inside their mind and understand how they think when they’re up there doing what they do. We see them on television and they do amazing things and a lot of them make it seem so easy. But behind the scenes, what do they think about when they’re out there, what drives that quality of performance, how can they do it under so much pressure?

Based on all that, we developed a model of mental toughness that measures the protective factors in each individual that generates mental toughness. HC

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ISSUE 8.5 HR budgeting

competitive change and how quickly and effectively they are able to apply their learning and experience.

Why then, do most CFOs still use Industrial Age financial management to measure the workforce? Perhaps it’s difficult to respond quickly to these global changes and for the accounting profession to let go of long held rules, beliefs and assumptions – eg, “if someone resigns we can just get another one”. Having spoken with many CFOs, we are still surprised at how many can’t understand the need to measure human capital effectiveness. Sometimes this is called ‘efficiency’ or ‘productivity’. We see a large part of our role as helping to bridge the gap between the HR department and the CFO.

The human capitalbusiness case Any human capital investment decision must therefore act in two ways. It has to satisfy the people who are the subjects of the initiative, the employees, managers

on being repaid with interest, several times over and in a very short timeframe.

Never the twain shall meet. Financial management has been

around for hundreds of years and has been made to fit Industrial Age requirements – ie, how many things can we build, how cheaply and what can we sell them for? In the Industrial Age, employees were seen primarily as a cost to the organisation. With the emergence of the Information Age, employees are increasingly viewed as a key asset, which distinguishes one organisation from another. It’s not the efficiency of the manufacturing machine that matters so much anymore. In a global marketplace, what matters most is how well our people drive innovation for new products and services, how well they adapt to rapid

HR professionals are people people.

People are constantly investing with their feelings and emotions. When people invest

their feelings, they prefer their human investment to be returned at some stage. If you are supportive of a friend or peer, you would like to think your investment in them will at least be acknowledged or appreciated or possibly returned some day.

Finance professionals are money people. Money demands that it not only be

acknowledged or appreciated but that the investment be significantly multiplied. If financial capital were your friend then it would be an extremely demanding friend who counted even the tiniest of favours and expected them to be returned many times over. Investment money absolutely insists

The HRD needs help with the budget, and the CFO needs help with people – Peter Vlant reveals how to bridge the gap

BRIDGING THE

G A P

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and leaders. Whether this succeeds can be discovered by asking them afterwards. It must also satisfy the CFO, by measuring the financial impact of the initiative and by designing measures of effectiveness to assess the true value of the investment in Information Age terms. This can easily be done by comparing with Industrial Age measures which the CFO already knows and understands. For example, reduction costs, changes in sales figures, gross margin, return on capital or EBIT. The ‘fallback’ for most HR professionals is cost reduction because most people feel they can have a direct impact on reducing costs but have little control on gross margin, for example.

In a nutshell, the business case must determine the financial benefit along the lines of “if you spend one dollar on this human capital initiative, and it improves the effectiveness of the workforce, each dollar will be returned x times within 12 months (and x more times over the next two years).”

Constructing this is not as daunting as it might look. For example, how many dollars would be saved if your recruitment count was cut by 10% next year while still holding onto your most valuable workers and managers? If you could improve leadership effectiveness by 5%, how many times over would the cost be repaid in the next 12 months and how?

A key step is to engage the CEO in your initiative (or the executive with budget authority for your initiative). If you convince the CEO, it will be much easier to engage the CFO. For the CEO, the conversation might start like this:

“Would you be interested in increasing our workforce output by 10%?”

A HR professional might achieve this by initiating a new learning & development program, by implementing a performance management system or by running an engagement survey and enacting plans to deal with disengagement. This is a fairly serious conversation starter so be prepared with a plan of attack.

“I have an idea for how we can stop so many people from resigning every year.”

This might be achieved by running an exit survey to better understand what makes people unexpectedly resign – it’s important to write the information down because saying ‘I think’ or ‘I feel’ will usually earn you a polite removal from the CEOs office. An alternate solution might be an engagement survey to see what the employees are feeling right now and to give you pointers about potential remedies for retention. Some organisations go so far as conducting an attachment survey straight after someone new joins the business. This helps them understand the real drivers for attracting new employees and where these expectations are not met.

The above strategies are likely to work because most CEOs understand that both their people and their finances need attention, and maintain them in a complex balancing act.

If you can’t work up both the hard data and the courage to have this conversation, it’s best to engage a trusted senior manager or executive and get their input into how the initiative might be presented to the CEO. There is always somebody who you feel can be comfortably approached.

The people in the HR department are the unrealised heroes of today’s knowledge workforce. Who else can increase organisation output at the same time as helping to reduce organisation costs?

Ideas for your business case worksheetHow much do we spend each year on bonuses and incentives ? If we cut misdirected bonuses by 10% next year, this will add up to $x.

How much do we spend each year on contractors? If we identify 10% of roles which can be converted to full time, this will save us $x.

How many people do we expect to have to replace because of unexpected

resignations this year? If we pay more attention to their career aspirations and manage to stop just a few key employees and managers from leaving, we will save $x on recruiting costs and at least $20,000 per hire by the time we bring them up to 100% effectiveness in their new role.

How much production or service delivery in dollars do we lose each year because of injury or illness? If we cut injury rates by 5% and illness rates by 2% each year, how much production will we gain for those days we have saved (at about $1,000 per day)?

If we can increase employee engagement by 10%, how much can we increase production dollars because more employees really believe in what we do and are willing to spend a bit more time and consideration in their roles?

If we increase employee performance by 2%, how much can we increase gross margin by? How much can we reduce defects by? How much can we improve client satisfaction and ‘stickiness’ by? (Few HR professionals understand the greatest cost to many businesses is the cost to acquire new clients.)

How much do we spend on learning & development each year? If we properly align our L&D to executing the CEO’s strategy, how much will we save in misspent (and unattended) development opportunities and what will be the improvement on hitting the organisation’s targets?

What is the wastage on miscommunication in our organisation? If we improved communication by using 21st century collaboration tools, what can we expect to gain in: » quantity of output or % reduction in

costs per full-time employee » $x in sales opportunities » $x in reduced wastage » no. of days pcm in lost time injuries » % reduction in client churn in client

satisfaction ratings HC

About the authorPeter Vlant is the COO of human capital management company PeopleStreme. For more information phone (03) 9869 8800 or e-mail peter.vlant@peoplestreme.com

Any human capital investment decision must act in two ways. It has to satisfy the people who are the subjects of the initiative, the employees, managers and leaders … it must also satisfy the CFO

ISSUE 8.5 book excerpt

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In this extract from Why People Fail, author Siimon Reynolds provides some tips and techniques to maximise productivity

FROM OVERWORKED EMPLOYEES...TO BUSY BEES

Ever wonder how some people achieve colossal things in their lives? How some men and women hit goal after goal, while others

waste entire years (or even decades) without getting anything major done?

I do. In fact, I’ve spent thousands of hours studying exactly that. And I’ve found that at the heart of most high achievers’ lives is their highly effective use of time.

Plan before you start There’s a tremendous social pressure to be busy all the time. But you need to resist that with all your might and discipline yourself to pause for a while and plan before you start working your tail off.

This is ideally done three ways: planning what you want to achieve in the following year, planning what you need to get done in the next week and, finally, planning your day.

For now, let’s focus on the weekly and daily plans.

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book excerpt ISSUE 8.5

To create a weekly plan, it’s best if you find about 15 minutes on a Friday afternoon or perhaps a Sunday (try to make it a habit by doing it at the same time each week).

Begin by thinking about the most important things you must get done in the next seven days. Not necessarily what’s the most urgent, but what’s the most important – the really high-value tasks. There will typically be between three and seven of these ultra-important jobs.

Then write these weekly key tasks on a piece of paper and put it where you can see it each day. Putting the weekly list where you’ll constantly see it is a really effective way to keep you focused on what’s important rather than getting caught up with the never-ending trivial tasks life bombards you with.

Next comes your daily plan, one of the most valuable things you can do in your life.

Simply write down a list of no more than 10 tasks you should get done that day. You may like to group them into categories, eg, five work tasks, three social tasks and two administrative chores.

Then, simply apply the ABC method of prioritisation. It’s dead easy. If the task is really important and valuable, put an ‘A’ next to it. If it’s reasonably important but not absolutely vital, write a ‘B’ next to it. Finally, if the job is relatively unimportant scribble a ‘C’ next to it. Then discipline yourself to do the As first.

Think 80/20The famous 80/20 rule was originally observed by an Italian economist named Vilfredo Pareto in the 19th century. Basically it shows that in almost any area of life, about 80% of the results come from 20% of the actions.

The breakthrough that stems from this principle is clear: around 80% of what you do hardly matters at all! This is a provocative, even startling theory at first, but soon becomes an exciting one. Because if only 20% of what you do gets you most of the good results, you don’t have to spend countless hours at work. All you have to do is concentrate on the very small vital tasks that really make a difference.

This may seem elementary, but its ramifications are profound. When you start following the 80/20 rule all day long, it is absolutely amazing what you can get done.

Very often just one simple hour’s work spent on that crucial top 20% of tasks will make a massive impact on your results. Just imagine what you could achieve if you spent all day working on that important 20% – you could literally increase your productivity by a whopping 400%!

Rush unimportant tasksIf most of what you do isn’t really of great value, you should rush to finish it as soon as you can. Rushing the unimportant is a powerful method to free up large loads of time, giving you more to spend on the vital few activities that really count.

Now to be clear, I’m not suggesting you cut corners to such an extent that you do a half-complete, shoddy job – merely that you don’t spend ages finessing your work unnecessarily. The truth is that good enough is often good enough, if the task isn’t crucially important.

One way I rush unimportant tasks is to set a time limit on each job. For example, part of my daily ‘To Do’ list might be: » Write article (15) » Call David (5) » Think about China Project (10) » Decide hotel (10)

You can see that after each task I put the maximum number of minutes I aim to spend on it. This stops me from spending ages on jobs just because I’ve got time or they’re easy and fun.

Delegate what isn’t vitalPeople are often addicted to working. But their very industriousness often stops them achieving a lot because they can’t resist doing every task themselves.

Delegation is the antidote to this obsession with doing everything.

There are three levels of delegation, as I see it. Firstly, there’s delegating the unimportant – those tasks that aren’t crucial or lucrative. If you’re in business, the criterion for what’s important is simple: does it make you money, or help you keep clients or staff? If not, flick it to someone else in your organisation if you possibly can.

Next is delegating what you’re not good at. Let’s face it: there are probably only four or five things (at most) that anyone is really excellent at. Many people have just one or two. Think about your own and take a minute to list them here.

Further information

Edited extract from the book Why People Fail by Siimon Reynolds, rrp $32.95 Penguin 2010

I excel at:1. __________________________2. __________________________3. __________________________4. __________________________5. __________________________Finally, we come to the third area

of delegation: delegate what you don’t enjoy doing.

Do what you loveSome people can’t handle this one. They don’t think enjoyment should come into the equation. To them, success is all about ‘no pain, no gain’. I beg to differ. Spending time doing the things you enjoy is crucial to success, primarily because when you enjoy doing something you tend to do it better and for longer.

There’s another important reason why maximising your enjoyment is important. Life isn’t just about money or achievement. Delegating the things that you don’t enjoy is a valid strategy simply because it puts more fun into your life.

So there you have it. A whole stack of methods and techniques you can use each day to maximise your productivity.

Make no mistake – these procedures work. I know, because I use them all myself. If they can help someone as disorganised as I once was to become efficient, they can do the same for you.

On the other hand, if you don’t become a master at time management and life productivity, then you have only one alternative if you seek to excel. And that is to work longer hours than your competition – a tactic that is ultimately both exhausting and boring.

But become a great time manager and you can literally achieve more in a day than some people achieve in a week. And more in a year than most achieve in a decade. HC

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ISSUE 8.5 teambuilder

Business travellers might note that the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group is a relatively young hospitality brand.

While its flagship building, Hong Kong’s Mandarin, has been part of the territory’s business and social scene since 1963, it was not until 10 years later that it took a direct interest in a second hotel, The Oriental in Bangkok. It was at this time that the company blended the two well-known names to form a single group.

Since then, and particularly in recent years, the company has expanded to boast a footprint in some of the most

valued hotel markets in the world. Today, Mandarin Oriental Hotels can be found throughout Asia, Europe and the Americas. And there are more on the way.

Each hotel has a well-deserved reputation for service and style; this has been

made possible because of the group’s strong internal dedication to careful recruitment, development and engagement policies. Now, as the group expands even further afield, it is that commitment to innovative HR practice that makes Mandarin Oriental appear far

TalentTalentHow do you maintain service levels across an international hotel group of 25 properties that is set to double in size over the next few years – while also giving each hotel its own level of autonomy? Human Capital investigates

“We apply the same principles and minimum standards, but the identity and style of each property is different. We encourage that autonomy; no one believes in having a single monoculture” –

Paul Clark

EVERYWHERE

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TalentTalentJacqueline Moyse and Paul Clark

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TISSUE 8.5 teambuilder

and procedures to fit the prevailing employment market and culture. The group’s corporate HR team meet with the senior operations directors for each of the group’s geographical regions five times a year to consider HR deliverables across the 25 hotels and to continually check on the overall HR strategy to ensure it is aligned with the Group’s business objectives.

Unique service staffThe ‘same but different’ concept could also apply to the qualities that Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group looks for in its employees. Clark says his team works hard to create and maintain an employer brand that highlights both the wide range of opportunities available, and the significant empowerment policies in place for even some of the more junior roles.

“The brand plays at all levels,” he says, noting that front-line service employees have just as much need to create solutions as managers, if not more. “There’s always an element of freedom and flexibility; it allows our colleagues to create legendary quality experiences for our guests.”

But simply providing empowerment is not enough. Clark says HR needs to ensure that the group is hiring the right people in the first instance. For this, the group looks for potential colleagues who are able to take initiative, and will relish and deliver on that extra responsibility.

“We’re not looking for people who need to rely on precise guidelines written in manuals,” Moyse says, noting that staff at all levels and functions should be

problem-solvers at heart. “Otherwise, it would be difficult to deliver the service level that is required.”

This flexibility and empowerment also applies at the management level of each hotel. Clark says the group is always looking to consider new ideas and approaches to common problems. “We don’t want to spend a lot of time reinventing the wheel,” he says. “But building on ideas developed by others can also lead to creative solutions.”

A worldwide talent solutionMandarin Oriental Hotel Group may be young, but it is certainly growing up fast. It’s currently in the midst of a rapid expansion that will soon take the organisation from its current status as a 25-hotel adolescent group to a fully-

fledged adult brand with more than 40 hotels under its wing.

Last year saw it open three new properties – in Las Vegas, Barcelona and Sanya on Hainan Island – and complete the refurbishment and re-opening of Mandarin Oriental, Jakarta. Far more hotels are currently under development – the Macau and Marrakech hotels are due to open soon, while current construction will see the brand extend to the Caribbean, Maldives and Moscow.

All this growth poses challenges for the group’s HR department, but also exciting opportunities. “The rapid growth of business requires extensive succession planning,” Clark says. Fortunately, the Hong Kong HR team has developed a

more practiced than its relative youth might suggest.

Same, but differentTake a walk through the grand, ornate lobby of the Mandarin Oriental in Bangkok and you’ll see a very different hotel façade to the dramatic space of the Singapore hotel. Similarly, the modern styling of New York City’s Mandarin Oriental, part of the Time Warner Centre, contrasts distinctly with the more traditional austerity of its sister hotel adjacent to Hyde Park in London.

But both Paul Clark, group director of human resources and Jacqueline Moyse, head of organisational development at Mandarin Hotel Group, point out that there is much more that unites the hotels behind the scenes.

“We apply the same principles and minimum standards, but the identity and style of each property is different,” Clark says. “We encourage that autonomy; no one believes in having a single monoculture.”

Much of the focus is driven from the group human resources department, based in Hong Kong. Moyse says every function and job description – including the HR roles – is underpinned by a unique set of standards and performance indicators. While a chef in Boston will create different culinary delights to his counterpart in Manila, both are subject to the same competencies. Each hotel’s HR team is able to adapt policies

“The brand plays at all levels. There’s always an element of freedom and flexibility; it allows our colleagues to create legendary quality experiences for our guests” – Paul Clark

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comprehensive system to maximise on the potential of its talent worldwide.

PROFILE is a tailored Performance Management and Succession Management system which has been specifically designed to assess colleague performance, determine development needs, identify talent, and plan for succession. An interactive application, it allows both front line staff and managers to input information on each individual’s skills and performance.

This information can then be analysed to carefully plan for further learning and development opportunities, Moyse says. “It’s a two-way process that helps develop people internally,” she notes. It provides for

practical feedback, performance appraisals, and helps to determine learning and development plans and strategies for the entire group.

“The outcome is enhanced career paths and succession planning,” adds Moyse.

This, in turn, links with some of the important attributes of Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group’s colleague brand, Clark says. PROFILE allows the Group HR department to identify potential leaders well in advance of their expected promotion. And with hospitality employees known to be mobile, it also creates a worldwide talent pool for key positions in each Mandarin Oriental Hotel throughout the world.

“The system is doing the job of tracking careers within our group,” Clark says. “It helps us to determine who is ready for the next career step and then actively promote internally.”

In this way, talented managers or potential managers, with the ability to take on more senior roles, can be considered for opportunities in existing or opening hotels. “This communicates awareness that there are real career opportunities for employees, both in their current hotel and within the expanding group,” Clark says, adding, “this in turn creates a notable enthusiasm at all levels, further enhancing service standards and productivity.” HC

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ISSUE 8.5 profile

Phot

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Age: 31

Family: Wife with a baby on the way

Favourite sports: Sailing and motorbike racing

Favourite movie or TV show: Schindler’s List

Self-described: Positive, outgoing, reliable, persistent

and resourceful

Best advice ever received: Your future reality is today’s vision!

Hobbies: Motorbike riding and building/renovating

If not in HR: I don’t know what I would be doing. Seriously!

Personal file Adrian Jackson

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profile ISSUE 8.5

Few HR professionals get the opportunity to launch a role in HR from scratch. But such was the case for Adrian Jackson,

HR manager at Secure Parking. Just three months into his newly-created role, Jackson is savouring the opportunity to mould it into something special. “It’s a greenfields opportunity as far as HR is concerned, and that was one of the things that attracted me to it,” he says. “Every other role I’ve been in has been a replacement role whereby there were expectations on that role as to what it could deliver. This role is a blank canvas and I find that exciting.”

Not that it’s going to be smooth sailing. The pressure is on for Jackson to prove

STARTING Starting the HR function of a company has its challenges but also its share of rewards, as this month’s profiled HR professional reveals

whether the role will pay for itself – “in other words, is it worth it?” he says.

To Secure Parking’s credit, it has at least recognised the need for HR, a realisation primarily driven by a changing industry and the take-up of new technology. “Secure Parking realised that the technology coming on board would change the workspace. All of the employees are used to transacting their customer requests on a manual basis but that’s now moving to the internet, to credit cards and automated paying. Because of that, the main roles we have – carpark attendants – is changing. And with over 700 people in that role, it’s a lot of people impacted.”

The accompanying recruitment of skilled staff, the change management

from scratch

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ISSUE 8.5 profile

can measure the return, not on everything, but on a lot of what you do. You could say: this is what you’ve got right now, this is what we’ve put in place, this is what it cost, this is the end result, this is what you’re saving, and this is your return. I really like that part of HR,” he says.

HR at Secure ParkingThe emphasis in his current role is on project work in change management, workforce planning, and training the workforce. Important side issues are IR and OHS. Secure Parking employs 900 staff, including a large casual workforce – and, for the time being at least, Jackson is the sole HR representative.

The significant number of casual workers does present some challenges to HR, especially relating to “getting the message across”. “When you’re trying to change the way you do things or are putting in place a customer service philosophy, for example, and then training everyone on it, the difficulty is that there’s turnover in your casual staff so it’s difficult to get the message to stick. It’s training leakage. It’s also difficult because people work different hours so there’s no guarantee they’ll be there when the training takes place – so there are operational challenges.”

Jackson also concedes that casual workers might not be particularly interested in seeing change in their role. “They may see their job as temporary – which it is in

What do you consider to be your greatest career achievement so far?Purely from a personal perspective, it would be gaining this role in the face of stiff competition. For me this role consolidated my prior experience and has really said to me, ‘here’s a chance to make a real difference’.What has been the biggest challenge you have faced in your career?Since day one it’s been proving the value of HR practice to the business and then breaking down general resistance to HR. Everywhere I’ve been I’ve had both of those. I’ve overcome that by using two key methods. One of them is clearly demonstrating the value of an intervention by measuring before and after and proving it works. Not having people just take my word for it, but showing them in their language. Secondly, building strategic relationships based on professional respect and trust with key management members. It’s not all about numbers, of course, and I think that proving you’ve got value to bring to the role, and proving yourself over time, helps a great deal.

In his own words…

processes, and the training needs will all be driven by Jackson.

Road to SecureJackson’s education and previous employment experience places him in a good position to push HR forward as a business partner and, indeed, to prove HR’s worth at Secure Parking.

Following entry to tertiary studies in psychology, Jackson says he was slowly drawn to organisational psychology, and thus human resource management. “Prior to gaining my degree I didn’t really have any notion of what HRM was, but during my studies I realised organisational psych was where my interest lay, and through that, HRM,” he says.

Jackson followed up by obtaining experience across psych assessment, behavioural interviewing and other assessment skills, but he was always drawn back to HR. “That’s where I wanted to be,” he says. “I looked at the HR roles and saw that generalist HR was where you could add a commercial value, and where that could be demonstrated by partnering with the business.”

Broader HR and recruiting skills were picked up in a recruitment consulting company, while inhouse generalist HR roles gave him further experience and led to his current management role. “I wanted to put that generalist knowledge on the table to see which projects added value. You

some cases – and as such they may not be engaged in the change process,” he says.

In this case, Jackson is undertaking grass roots change initiatives by getting managers to actively manage staff, to develop them, and to take an interest in career pathways. He notes that the underlying resilient culture helps matters, as it’s largely underpinned by the permanent employees who have been with the company for 10–15 years.

Again, Jackson’s fresh eyes serve him well. “I can see what people have been doing for years with a completely fresh view. With a strong culture, a lot of what people do is engrained in daily decision making. Coming into that, without having anyone to guide my perception, I’ve been able to view what the management decisions are, and how they treat each other and their staff, from the point of view of someone who’s had some experience in these areas,” he says.

The next 12 monthsAs the first HR professional to work with the company, Jackson will be devoting his first 12 months to developing and enhancing an existing suite of policies. “Those policies will define the culture moving forward, so a lot of thought’s been put into that,” he says.

First up is developing an HR site on the intranet – something that will mainly impact the company’s office-based staff and assist managers to get processes and procedures more streamlined. He is also charged with reviewing existing employment contracts, reviewing and adding various policies to ensure compliance, and also assisting managers in keeping their decision making consistent and clear.

Jackson will also be implementing and improving staff induction processes. “At present, different managers have different induction processes so it’s a matter of nationalising and developing something we can use across states,” he says.

During the second half of 2010, Jackson will be developing a workforce planning strategy – so senior management can see exactly where their workforce is

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profile ISSUE 8.5

“[Casual workers] may see their job as temporary – which it is in some cases – and as such they may not be engaged in the change process” – Adrian Jackson

coming from, where their weaknesses are, and what they can do about that. He will also be developing a recruitment strategy.

“My main remit isn’t recruitment at the moment, although I’m sure there will come a time when it’s identified as being part of the workforce planning strategy and succession planning, then we’ll look at it. At the moment we’re looking to convince recruits who are from outside the industry

to enter the industry. Parking doesn’t have a great name. It’s had some bad press and although we’re not associated in any way with the entities receiving that bad press, we’re in the same industry so we get tarred with the same brush.

“Attracting talent from sexier industries might be a real difficulty. You might have a fancy office with a great view and great perks. A lot of that is not available in the parking industry, so it may be tough to compete on that level. Also, a lot of the technology is specific to this industry. In other words, it’s hard to find the transferable skills. That presents training concerns which we will need to address,” he explains.

HR’s futureIn some ways, the challenges Jackson faces at Secure can be viewed as a microcosm of the challenges HR will face in the immediate future. Top of the list is change

management, which Jackson believes will become a key agenda item for many HR professionals. “We’ve got this changing workforce, both in terms of what employers are wanting from employees but also the other way around. That’s conflicting, so this idea of change management will be key,” he says.

Jackson also believes that HR may become more project driven. “In other words, they’ll have to deliver some kind of tangible value to their project, almost having to pay for themselves like an internal consultant model.”

And of course, HR will also experience continued pressure to prove its value. “Everyone is being forced to prove their value,” he says. “In some roles you need to simply run a business, but anything else that’s potentially seen as non-core will need to prove it’s there for a reason. I think HR falls into that category in a lot of businesses.” HC

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ISSUE 8.5 employee engagement

How did eBay manage to move from the tumult of the GFC and into growth mode ahead of the pack? The key is employee engagement, writes Rich Atkinson, human resources director, eBay ANZ

ENGAGEMENT IN ECOMMERCETHE EBAY WAY

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employee engagement ISSUE 8.5

It’s said that a day is a long time in politics, a week can see fortunes reverse in sport and 2009 proved that a year is a very long time in business. Over 12 months, the Australian based

eBay team felt the impacts of the GFC, turned around eBay’s relationship with local users and demonstrated a close to 20% increase in staff engagement (from an already high base). Redundancies were followed quickly by growth into new areas in a rapidly changing sector.

Along this frenetic ride eBay pulled a number of engagement levers in order to reach our goal of building Australia’s favourite place to buy, sell and work.

Culture – the bedrock of engagementI firmly believe that effort put into building the right culture pays dividends in engagement.

Given the fast paced nature of the online world, eBay recruits people who can easily adapt to change and once on board we ensure roles and/or responsibilities change regularly. With line roles staffed by smart, change orientated generalists, it is possible to align the strongest performers to the biggest opportunities.

Building a team that is comfortable with frequent change is not the same as creating numbness to an ‘annual’ reorganisation. A business strategy that evolves on an annual basis ensures that the organisation structures are always broadly aligned. Where a genuinely significant change in strategic direction occurs then transformation may be necessary – I’ll come back to this theme.

One challenge that faces many Australian organisations is creating career paths for specialists where these functions are small or have a very flat structure. At eBay, there have been two lessons on this: » It is imperative to include specialists in the

business planning. Understanding of the business strategy is critical to delivering value. Asking functional leads to own the development of key business strategies has been a good example.

» eBay aspires to move staff between

functional specialist roles and the business unit. Not every lawyer, finance manager or PR specialist aspires to lead a business project or take a line role, but careful hiring and then careful development planning and rotations can create such opportunities.

To reinforce the culture, eBay ties its four behaviours into annual performance reviews. The four values are:

1. Lead completely2. Practice judgment3. Trust each other4. Keep it humanThe fourth behaviour (keep it human)

focuses on the individual’s needs and is strongly supported throughout the organisation. When this is not possible we must be clear why.

eBay now aims to personalise rewards for our people – a parent may appreciate an extra day of leave on their child’s birthday more than a generic retail voucher. There is another upside of this personalisation – it requires managers to show a more caring and personal awareness that has a far greater benefit on employee engagement.

Above all else, eBay believes in the virtuous engagement circle:

difficult time to realign resources against priority activities.

Our greatest lesson from this period was to make tough decisions early. Leadership was adamant that we had one opportunity to make changes and that we weren’t going to undertake a phased approach to role reductions.

This was the first time that many of our people had been within a business undergoing a reduction in force. A number of common concerns were raised:

1. Security – Is my job secure, are more cuts coming?

2. Stability – Where do I fit into the new structure and how do I prioritise my workload?

3. Growth – Will eBay facilitate career progression, growth and development?

4. Critical path – Does my work matter? Does what I do contribute to eBay’s success?

5. Success of the strategy – Do I believe in the strategy/direction the organisation?

To answer these questions and manage the process, eBay again looked to the values. All staff, impacted or not, received a face-to-face meeting with their manager. eBay adopted above market packages and leaders communicated openly the impact of the changes for them. The departing employees spent two further weeks in the business and while not a highly productive time this did, importantly, allow ‘mourning’ to occur and an ending celebration for all. A video presentation including each leaving staff member and an afternoon party were very visible and emotional opportunities for people to say goodbye and come to terms with their new situation. This was relevant for the people leaving and staying.

The key lessons: » Give your people clarity to the five

questions above – these are the bedrock of engagement in tough times

» Keep it human – people don’t engage with a corporate. Remember the individuals and support both exiting and staying staff

» Trust your exiting people. Good people take pride in their work and legacy

» Make time to say goodbye and celebrate your people’s time with the business. This

An engaged workforce

Differential effort & higher productivity

Better business results

The tough times – maintaining engagement during redundanciesIn late 2008, eBay embarked on a global job reduction program. The local Australian business was impacted and used this

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ISSUE 8.5 employee engagement

is important for both leavers and those staying

» Work hard to find alternate roles and go above and beyond in providing external outplacement. This is visible and important for all your staff

Building the business – managing the journey back to growthImmediately following the changes, eBay faced an even bigger challenge, improving business effectiveness in a new leaner organisation and maintaining employee engagement.

The short-term priority was ensuring clarity of strategy and establishing a direct link to new roles. Regular meetings outlined and reinforced the strategy, key projects and accountabilities.

From a leadership perspective, a very directive style was required. With an organisation in shock, leaders stepped out of their consultative styles and adopted a directive approach. This was counter-cultural but allowed activity to continue – the new strategy was formed, people were able to deliver on the priority projects despite the usual daze that follows significant change.

Leaders heard every day that the change was painful and that their people needed more clarity. They continued to apply the engagement strategy, gradually moving back from the directive approach to a more consultative style, where appropriate.

In the weeks following the changes our people undertook an employment engagement survey. While the results were surprisingly positive in a number of areas, including the engagement dimension, they also provided focus for our activities for the coming months. Measuring engagement was a critical first step – “if you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it”.

With clarity on the areas of required focus, eBay set about re-engaging the team: » Focusing on leadership – personal, team

and organisational » Communicating – consistent strategy

updates, team meets, metrics barometer

» Greater flexibility on resource – backing successful projects and prioritising ruthlessly

» Investing in training – leadership, project and resilience skills

» Increasing local innovation – trading on Australia’s reputation as a global innovator

» Involving people in decision making and contributing to strategy

» Re-employing exited staff as the business grows. Well-managed exits can deliver a talent pool for the future

eBay also focused on low cost/high value benefits – study support, celebrating success, increasing sports, charity and community participation, taking on job-support (a person with a disability to undertake office duties), regular themed team events and quiz nights.

The outcomes:Nine months later a second survey was undertaken, demonstrating a highly significant increase in engagement (close to 20%). The activities outlined saw us drive loyalty and retention, create a team of fighters who want to compete and win and built a culture of trust.

Based on our experience at eBay, below are our key lessons for all levels of the organisation:

As an individual Top five things you can do:1. Be self-aware of your own personal

levels of engagement and optimism 2. Strive to find the necessary information

to link your work to the organisational strategy

3. Identify ways to re-engage with your work and sustain your energy and optimism: connect with your peers, manager or others who are able to provide guidance and support

4. Make great efforts to understand the business strategy and intent

4. Get a clear understanding from your manager about performance expectations, deliverables and available resources

5. Learn how to work well under new, changing or different circumstances

As a manager Top five things you can do:1. Communicate, communicate,

communicate 2. Articulate the short and long-term

vision; link the work of the team and the individual to organisational success

3. Set realistic performance expectations and provide clarity and focus on what is expected

4. Take the lead on guiding the team to adapt to new circumstances

5. Recognise and reward employee contributions (in a personal way): encourage collaboration, ideas and problem solving

As a team member Top five things you can do:1. Be supportive of each other by

collaborating, partnering, listening and caring

2. Problem solve broadly; help find solutions for individuals, within and across teams

3. Demonstrate a passion to succeed by sharply focusing on the top priorities needed to succeed

4. Work together to attain necessary information, resources and technology

5. Help each other put the facts of simplification and cost reduction into the context of the organisation/department/team objectives

As an organisation Top seven things you can do:1. Communicate frequently and widely

with employees2. Demonstrate integrity by staying

consistent between both words and actions

3. Cascade/translate strategy into expectations of teams and individuals

4. Make employee growth, career and development a priority

5. Share success stories of how the strategy is on track and succeeding

6. Keep it human!7. Remember that many small consistent

actions have more impact than one big one. HC

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the back page ISSUE 8.5

A hospital in Pennsylvania, US, has stopped employing people who smoke. The new policy, which begins on 1 May at St Luke’s Hospital in Bethlehem, will require the screening of job applicants in the same way other employers test for

drugs. All of those who test positive to nicotine will have their job application rejected. Existing employees are exempt. There are 20 states in America where it’s legal for organisations to have no-nicotine hiring policies in place.

“You do not lead by hitting people over the head – that’s assault, not leadership”– Dwight D Eisenhower

What’s the greatest HR lesson you’ve learned so far?People are the critical interface between an organisation’s customers and the services and products it provides, and a key driver of its external brand. We do that by supporting our people, understanding our business and the environment we’re working in and developing effective HR solutions.

What’s your top people-management tip?The culture of an organisation is critical to its success, and it is its people that creates that culture. That’s why the role of leaders is so important – the way they engage with their teams and lead by example helps to shape the culture. I believe great leaders grow talent by being clear about performance expectations while understanding and demonstrating the need for work-life balance.

What career advice do you have for ambitious HR professionals?The first thing to remember is that 90% of what we do is common sense and balancing

the needs of the business with the interests of our employees. I was lucky early in my career to have the opportunity to move between HR and business roles and can truly appreciate the pressures line-managers face.

What’s the main challenge facing HR?Learning from the lessons of the GFC. During the GFC, the rapidly changing business environment forced us all to be more externally focused and ready for whatever was coming next. I think it’s important for all organisations to be prepared for and supportive of change, because there’s more to come.

How should HR professionals overcome that challenge?Organisations need to be change-ready. We need to think about the resilience of our workforce in a very different way. Many people talk about the wellbeing of employees but I don’t think gym memberships are going to cut it anymore. I believe the only way to build a resilient workforce is by taking an integrated approach that embodies all facets of our EVP.

5 minutes with…Ross Miller – St.George Bank

44% of employers expect their expatriate populations to expand in the year ahead, despite a reduction of 46% in the number of international assignments during the financial crisis. Source: Brookfield Global Relocation

67% of ASX 300 companies have no policies in place to support the promotion of women to executive positions. Source: RossJuliaRoss

A survey of 258 organisations has revealed that average growth in fixed pay in 2009 was 3%, but it is forecast to rise by 4% over the next two years. Source: Mercer

Can you believe it?

General manager, human resources

Compiled by James Adonis

Fast facts

Quote of the month

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