human capital magazine issue 8.8
DESCRIPTION
The magazine for people who manage peopleTRANSCRIPT
Inspire
HCHUMAN CAPITAL MAGAZINE | www.hcamag.com
TAPPING INTO THE PASSIVE JOB MARKET P.10 »
DEALING WITH WORKPLACE INVESTIGATIONS P.20 »
INSIDE HR AT GLAXOSMITHKLINE P.44 »
Best practice examples
IN EVERY ISSUE:
Profile case studies
The forum Expert opinion columns
Topical news briefs
ISSUE 8.08
Engage your
your organisation
HIGH PERFORMANCE
ISSUE
imagination
Impr
ove
EDITORIAL
1www.hcamag.com
EDITOR Iain Hopkins
COPY & FEATURES
JOURNALIST Daniela ArochePRODUCTION EDITOR Carolin Wun
PRODUCTION EDITOR Moira Daniels
ART & PRODUCTION
DESIGN MANAGER Jacqui AlexanderDESIGNER Paul Mansfield
CONTRIBUTORSCarroll & O’Dea Lawyers, The Next Step,
Chandler Macleod Group
The fish rots from the head down
I ’m always bemused when I see HR-related stories in mainstream media, peeking through the tabloid headlines. Of course, last year redundancies made headlines, and prior to that there was a steady stream of articles
relating to the war for talent. June 2010 seemed to be a bonanza, however. Not only was there quite serious debate raised by the government’s much-delayed, even more talked-up paid parental leave legislation, but also attention-grabbing headlines such as ‘Corporate bonding a waste of time’ (and 156 reader responses) and ‘Google pays gay and lesbian staff more’, but also ‘Shamed DJs boss found hiding out in US’.
It was that last story that took flight. The tale of the CEO’s misadventures and inappropriate behaviour caught the nation’s attention and rightly so. No one likes having their dirty laundry aired in public (except perhaps Lindsay Lohan) but it becomes acutely embarrassing when the reputations of whole organisations are also dragged into the mud.
If anything positive can be drawn from the story at least it shone a light on the prevalence of sexual misconduct in the workplace.
Yet, as much as the Mark McInnes’ debacle can be condemned as ‘what not to do’, at least some aspects of the David Jones corporate machinery shifted effectively into gear following the revelation (whether or not the incidents were known about and not acted on before is another matter). As our story on succession planning on p.34 points out, DJs did not fall on its face but instead had McInnes’ replacement ready to go within days of the announcement. Time will tell if he is up to the task.
While we don’t have news on the latest celebrity hook-ups, elsewhere in this issue you’ll find some meaty features, including a look the inextricable ties between innovation, productivity and high performance. Without one, it seems you won’t get the others. In addition, our feature on p.24 looks at that oft-neglected HR tool – the corporate careers website.
SALES & MARKETING
NATIONAL COMMERCIAL MANAGER Sophie KnightSALES MANAGER Sarah Wiseman
MARKETING EXECUTIVE Kerry BuckleyMARKETING COORDINATOR Anna Keane
TRAFFIC MANAGER Stacey Rudd
CORPORATE
MANAGING DIRECTOR Mike ShipleyCHIEF OPERATING OFFICER George Walmsley
SALES DIRECTOR Justin KennedyCHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER Colin Chan
HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER Julia Bookallil
Editorial enquiriesIain Hopkins tel: +61 2 8437 4703
[email protected] enquiries
Sophie Knight tel: +61 2 8437 4733National Commercial Manager, HR Products
[email protected] Wiseman tel: +61 2 8437 4745
Sales Manager, HR [email protected]
Subscriptionstel: +61 2 8437 4731 • fax: +61 2 8437 4753
[email protected] Media
www.keymedia.com.auKey Media Pty Ltd, Regional head office,
Level 10, 1 Chandos St, St Leonards, NSW 2065, Australiatel: +61 2 8437 4700 fax: +61 2 9439 4599
Offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Torontowww.hcamag.com
Copyright is reserved throughout. No part of this publication can be reproduced in whole or part without the express permission of the editor. Contributions are invited, but copies of work should
be kept as HC can accept no responsibility for loss.
Iain Hopkins, editor
2 www.hcamag.com
CONTENTS
Inside this issue
12 Cover story: High PerformanceMuch like the search for the elusive Holy Grail, the search for high performance at individual, team and organisational levels is rarely successful. Iain Hopkins asks why – and unearths some tips to get you and your company to the chequered flag first
20 No means noIn an age of equality why does sexual harassment still occur? Human Capital looks at the cultures and behaviours that foster it and what can be done to prevent it happening in your workplace
24 Anatomy of a websiteMike Beeley runs through the good, the bad and the ugly of careers websites
30 Who’s up next?Nothing is guaranteed in life except death and taxes. To that one might add ‘change’. The business world is no exception. Yet while succession planning is the ultimate risk management tool in HR’s armoury, few organisations invest time in doing it well. Author Leigh Riley provides some tips
Letters to the editorDo you have a burning HR or people management issue you would like to share with others? If so, Human Capital would like to hear from you. Send through your comments to [email protected]. Alternatively, express your thoughts on the readers’ forums at www.hcamag.com
Regulars
4 In Step
6 Legal
8 Corporate culture
10 The forum
30
24
4 www.hcamag.com4 www.hcamag.com
ALL CHANGE! Interim HR Managers to the rescue
Change! This is one of the key words currently seen on most job advertisements in the HR market. So how is HR going
to support this increase in demand by business? Interim HR management is a great solution.
The interim HR market The interim market in Australia is maturing but is still behind the level of sophistication that has been developed overseas, particularly in the UK. However, it is one that is growing significantly and rapidly. Why? Because interim or contract resources bring either a broad range or a specific set of skills which exactly meet business needs at that time.
Many HR professionals have made the conscious career choice to manage their careers as interims and engage in this project-style work. In The Next Step’s recent HR Viewpoint Survey of almost 2,000 HR professionals from all levels and all locations, more than 15% of respondents suggested that career interim management and HR contracting was their preferred employment option.
Not surprisingly, the HR Viewpoint Survey also indentified flexibility to be an important driver for HR professionals – which can be hard to achieve in corporate roles. This was underscored by the fact that over 63.9% of HR practitioners said in the survey that they worked over 40 hours a week and only 8% work on a part-time basis.
Change as a skill set Another clear message from the HR Viewpoint Survey was that HR practitioners at all levels believe that the most valued skill set for success in the current business environment is Change Management and Cultural Change. More than 32% of HR professionals said that this area is the most important for their career development in the post-GFC economy.
Interim management as a solution Many HR functions operate in a lean structure and it can be challenging to release employees from the day to day in order to focus on the future. Given a clear brief, an interim HR professional can help to quickly define, develop and implement a change program away from the demands of the day to day.
The nature of interim management means measurement is essential to success. Unlike a permanent employee, an interim knows that a contract assignment does not necessarily give an
opportunity to develop their skills. Rather, they are there as an expert.
The clear difference between a professional interim and a temporary resource is the disengagement from a project, ensuring all knowledge is retained by the business.
Top tips to manage interims1. Be clear about your requirements. It may be simply
backfilling a role but if they are undertaking a project, clearly identify what you expect them to achieve.
2. Provide a full written brief for the role. This way you will only see candidates who have the most relevant experience.
3. Define the deliverables.4. Induct your Interim Manager. If you induct your
Interim as you would a permanent employee, the sooner they start making the required impact.
5. Appraise them. By defining the deliverables you can set milestones to appraise them against.
6. Use the full range of your Interim Manager’s skills and experience. They have honed their experience in a range of organisations with experienced HR professionals. Their support and advice can be beneficial during a decision making process.
7. Ensure you have a clear ‘wind-up’ plan and that all information is handed over and documented.
A successful Interim knows their skills and markets themselves on delivery of results. But this career path isn’t for everyone! An Interim will often not be around to see the results of their labour, especially during a cultural change assignment. Someone new to this style of working may miss this aspect. They may also miss the collaborative team environment. The interim has to be able to deal with an ambiguous future. With uncertainty at the end of every assignment, an Interim has to manage these peaks and troughs.
The final wordThe Interim HR Management and Contracting market in Australia is growing as practitioners and organisations see substantial benefits. For practitioners it can provide challenge, variety, flexibility and substantial rewards. For organisations, they can source very specific skills and knowledge for a set period of time when they need it – a great outcome!
HR Career Experts
Jo Skipper is the Executive Contract Team Leader with The Next Step Sydney Practice. For information, call (020 8256 2500 or e-mail [email protected]: www.thenextstep.com.au
5www.hcamag.com
Recent HR Market Movessupplied by The Next Step
Matt Ballard from Port Otago in New Zealand recently commenced as HR Manager, Organisational Development at BHP Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA Coal) in Brisbane.
Rebecca Jurgens has been appointed HR Manager with Honeywell in Brisbane. Rebecca was previously with UGL as Talent Manager.
Carolyn Noumertzis has accepted the role of divisional HR Manager with Coles Supermarkets. Carolyn has a wealth of HR experience gained within organisations such as Foster’s, Oz Minerals and Pacific Brands.
Deborah Lam will join Deloitte Private as HR Manager. Deborah has enjoyed a successful HR career with the Foster’s Group and Coles.
Makarand Tare has commenced with Millward Brown as Chief Talent Officer – for the Africa, Middle East & Asia Pacific regions. Makarand’s most recent role was Head of Organisation Performance, OTC ANZ/AMEA with Novartis Consumer Health Australasia. He is now based in Singapore.
Nick Murphy has commenced as Senior HR Business Partner – Operations with Kraft Cadbury. Nick is an experienced senior HR practitioner having worked with brands such as Visy Industries, PMP Limited, Unilever and BHP.
Maha Koraiem has been appointed Head of HR, Specialised Lending & Loan Product at ANZ Banking Group. Maha moves from the Head of Investment Bank, HR role at JPMorgan Chase.
Rick Browning has joined Campus Living Villages as their HR Manager. Prior to this, Rick held HR lead roles with Royal Caribbean International, Sydney Opera House and Mirvac Hotels.
Philip Ingram will join Computer Services Corporation as HR Executive. Philip’s most recent role was with Unisys as the Senior HR Business Partner – IT Outsourcing.
Melissa Irwin has accepted a role with Integral Energy as Performance & Rewards Manager. Prior to this Melissa was with Maximus International and Imprint Global.
Karen Appleby joined Merck Sharp & Dohme as HR Operations Leader. Karen was previously the Acting General Manager Stores HR Operations at David Jones.
Jennifer Schembri has been appointed Senior HR Business Partner with Visy Industries. Prior to this Jennifer was the Strategic Human Resources Business Partner at Honeywell.
ClearView Wealth Limited has announced that Scott Alomes has commenced with them as Head of Marketing and Human Resources. He has held senior HR executive roles at Suncorp, CBA and nab.
By supplying Market Moves, The Next Step is not implying placement involvement in any way.
6 www.hcamag.com6 www.hcamag.com
CAN THE NEW “TRANSFER OF BUSINESS” PROVISIONS WORK FOR EMPLOYERS??
Compared to the provisions in the now repealed “Work Choices” amendments to the Workplace Relations Act 1996, the
Transfer of Business provisions contained in Part 2-8 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (“the Act”) provide greater certainty and flexibility for employers in a time of rapid change in modes of employment.
The former provisions required the courts to determine on a case by case basis the ‘character’ of the business in order to determine whether there had been a “succession, assignment or transmission” of it.
Whether a transfer of business has occurred no longer depends on the application of the common law ‘business character’ test. Nor is it essential that there be a sale of business or assets of the business. Instead, the new provisions focus on whether employees (there must be at least one) transferring from the old employer to the new employer will be doing the same or substantially similar work and whether there is a ‘connection’ between the two employers.
The “connection” exists between the two employers (or entities associated with them) if: » the new employer owns or beneficially uses some
of the assets, related to the transferring work, which were owned or beneficially used by the old employer: s311(3);
» the old employer has outsourced the transferring work, being performed by one or more transferring employees, to the new employer: s311(4);
» the new employer has ‘in-sourced’ the transferring work which was previously outsourced: s311(5); or
» the new and old employers are associated entities at the point in time when the transferring employee commences work with the new employer: s311(6).
Section 313 provides that where there is a transfer of business, transferring employees who were covered by an enterprise agreement, workplace determination or modern award with their old employer will remain covered by those instruments exclusively and indefinitely (at least until the instrument terminates or is replaced), during their employment with the new employer. This contrasts with the 12 month limit imposed by Workchoices on the life of the transferred instrument. Section 314 provides that any new employees who are employed by the new employer to do ‘transferring work’ will also be covered by the ‘transferable instrument’ with the intention of ensuring that workers performing
the same work are employed under the same terms and conditions.
But arguably the most important provisions of Part 2-8 are those found in Section 320, which gives Fair Work Australia a very broad discretion to vary a transferable instrument in a number of ways, including enabling a transferable instrument to “operate in a way better aligned to the working arrangements of the new employer’s enterprise”: s320(2)(c). Importantly, Part 2-8 allows a business that is considering a purchase or takeover of another business to apply to FWA in advance of the proposed transfer, seeking an order that the old instrument not transfer. FWA has shown that it is willing to assist in these cases.
In exercising its powers under sections 318, 319 and 320, FWA is required to take into account several factors in deciding whether to make the order sought. These factors include: » the views of the new employer and the employees
who would be affected by the order; » whether any employees would be disadvantaged
by the order in relation to their terms and conditions of employment;
» whether the transferable instrument would have a negative impact on the productivity of the new employer’s workplace;
» whether the new employer would incur significant economic disadvantage as a result of the transferable instrument covering the new employer;
» the degree of business synergy between the transferable instrument and any workplace instrument that already covers the new employer.
A 2009 survey of HR managers conducted by the Australian Human Resources Institute reported that only 7% of respondents thought that the transfer of business provisions would benefit their organisation. However, in several cases, FWA has demonstrated its willingness to modify the usual operation of the Part 2-8 provisions if the circumstances of a particular transfer warrant such a departure. Usually it has been employers who apply to FWA for these orders.
In any transfer of business situation, specialist advice should be sought about how the Fair Work Act will apply to staff transfers, and what options are available to tailor arrangements to suit the business.
Legal Experts
Janine Smith, AssociateCarroll & O’Dea LawyersL 18 111 Elizabeth St SydneyPhone 02 9291 7100
www.codea.com.au
8 www.hcamag.com
GETTING THE JOB DONE…
We are re-entering familiar territory when it comes to the challenge of sourcing talent. It’s a topic that is at the
forefront of the minds of practically every manager responsible for employing and retaining staff in today’s organisations.
Other topics associated with attracting and retaining talent include organisational agility, risk management, accountability and governance – from board and CEO level through to the middle and line management. All of these issues impact the return on human capital investment made by the organisation in what basically comes down to as ‘getting the job done’.
Getting the job done is big business, regardless of the size of your organisation. The reality of getting the job done is that without the talent, the job can’t get done. Yet what continues to be underestimated in the talent dilemma is the impact of organisation leaders in the attraction and retention of talent.
It continues to be evident that although the consequence of the GFC lessons are being felt across the organisation, the corresponding response to the lessons are not necessarily being reflected throughout the entire organisation, starting at the top.
Organisations today need a different style of leadership. For many leaders, the experience of the GFC was a first and therefore leadership skills were tested. Those leaders that fared best were those who had previous experience in challenging times, were strong and effective communicators, engaged effectively with their people and did not go into ‘reactive panic’. They were able to effectively balance long-term needs with short-term crises action and took steps that secured customers, key talent and focused on core business.
There are common focal points or experience requirements that people who operate at the top leadership level need to possess. Complementary to experience are interpersonal skills. Industry experience and competent commerciality do not equate to being an effective leader today. You must be able to listen, allow others to do, accede to a consensus view, support and not unduly intrude yet conversely pursue strategic direction and respond to changing markets diligently and lead the organisation and its people with you, along the journey.
Today the overarching strategic focus of the majority of organisations is ‘growth’. Our research shows that the emerging leaders of today have considerably more experience in high visibility, risk and business growth as a result of what has been identified as being critical to those organisations that survived the last 18 months. Competencies and experience are all very well and good, however it is critical to have a clear view of what the success profile of the particular leadership role within an organisation is. Having a structured process in place that evaluates the key experiences relevant to the role, the types of business and leadership challenges likely to be faced now and over the next 3–5 years, is essential.
Having a clear view of structured and objective leadership evaluation processes as well as an in depth review of the leaders’ strength and development needs will put organisations in the best position to appoint and review leaders confidently, against competencies and performance indicators that are relevant to the strategies of the organisation. Some types of assessments that can give levels of assurance include a combination of business simulations, structured interviews and psychometric testing which provide a holistic overview of an individual leader.
The lessons learnt have resulted in various organisations understanding the importance of technical systems and operational processes in recruiting and retaining key talent. However, in addition to these fundamentals is the ability to deliver on the company strategy through the faultless execution of appointing the right leaders, implementing effective HR practices and connecting a culture that is conducive to high performance. The leader’s ability to provide clear and regular communication of the company’s vision, the ability to manage stakeholder relations, implement effective risk management strategies that provide for contingencies and that mitigate risk, whilst maintaining solid returns on investment, is critical.
All of this requires leaders to engage their people in the vision and to ‘get the job done’. It seems obvious, but before leaders can engage others, leaders must first be engaged in not only the company vision and the ways of doing things around here, but in the way they communicate the vision, walk their talk and behave towards their human capital.
Workforce Advisory & Management Evolving your Workforce
www.chandlermacleod.com
Isn’t that what it comes down to?
Craig McCallum
9www.hcamag.comwww.hrsummit.com.au
»» Measure»and»shape»ORGANISATIONAL»CULTURE»to»drive»performance»
»» Implement»sustainable»PEOPLE»SYSTEMS»that»align»with»STRATEGY»
»» Improve»ENGAGEMENT»and»RETENTION»for»business»renewal»and»growth»»
»» Manage»TALENT»and»LEADERSHIP»POTENTIAL»through»HR»strategy»
»» Understand»the»real»impact»of»FAIR»WORK»»
»» Enhance»the»role»of»HR»in»ORGANISATIONAL»CHANGE»
»» Learn»coaching»techniques»to»create»a»HIGH-PERFORMANCE»workplace»culture»
»» Measure»your»progress:»HR»BENCHMARKING»for»best-practice»
»» Harness»the»benefits»of»WORKFORCE»DIVERSITY»
»» Implement»effective»REWARD»AND»RECOGNITION»initiatives»
»» Gain»insight»into»EMERGING»TRENDS»in»HR»management
SKILLING UP HR PROFESSIONALS TO MANAGE TALENT,
PERFORMANCE AND CHANGE
HR SUMMIT IS RETURNING TO BRISBANE!
EVENT PARTNER EVENT CHAIR EXCLUSIVE LEGAL SPONSOROFFICIAL
PUBLICATION
ORGANISED BY
Your chance to hear strategies and stories for HR success from leading
Queensland-based and national organisations
•»Diageo»Australia»•»Queensland»Health»•»Port»of»Brisbane»•»Seymour»Whyte»
Constructions»•»Teys»Bros»•»Mercy»Health»•»AMMA»•»Livingstones»Australia
&»more!
EARLY BIRD OFFER! REGISTER & PAY BY 20 AUGUST AND SAVE over $200!Find»out»more»and»register»online»now»at»»
www.hrsummit.com.au
BRIS_HC808_Ad.indd 1 20/07/2010 1:08:52 PM
10 www.hcamag.com
THE FORUM passive recruitment
Out with the old, in with the newWhile everyone is atwitter about using social media as a recruitment tool, branding opportunities that this presents are not being embraced. Human Capital talks to three experts about how to use your employer brand to target passive job seekers
Tip 1 – Embrace consumers as part of your potential employee communityBy Brett Minchington, chairman/CEO of Employer Brand
International (EBI)
With the increasing fragmentation of channels used by a company to promote, ‘What it’s like to work here,’ and ‘What’s in it for you,’ it pays to ensure the employment experience you promote to passive job seekers (who represent the majority of the available talent pool) through your communication touchpoints is matched by what you can realistically deliver upon in the employment experience. A central focus of your strategy should be the accurate reflection of your employer value proposition (EVP).
Companies such as Microsoft, Zappos, Electronic Arts, Dell, Sodexo and Starbucks are leading the way in targeting this audience by building online communities on platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to promote their employer brand.
Starbucks have a global community of more than eight million followers on Facebook and nearly one million on Twitter, which they use to connect and inform and engage with their community, many of whom are passive jobseekers. When Starbucks post job openings in these channels, community members are likely to already have positive brand associations of what it would be like to work there. You can hear them say, “If I’m looking for a job in a coffee house, Starbucks is the one I want to work for!” The community is further expanded if members promote job openings via word of mouth.
The lines between the expression of the corporate, consumer and employer brand are becoming increasingly blurred and companies are beginning to realise the benefits of including consumers as part of their potential employee community. If you recruit an employee who is already in love with your products you get the best of both worlds – an engaged employee and brand ambassador. Visit any Apple store and you’ll see what I mean!
THE FORUM passive recruitment
11www.hcamag.com
Tip 3 – Develop peer-to-peer communication through employees past and present to help bring a brand to lifeBy Nat Cagilaba, account director of communications agency
Daemon Within
Your employer brand lives in the hearts and minds of employees present, past and future. It is their actions and words, not the advertising and marketing messages, which bring your employer brand to life. We’ve all heard it said that ‘employees are our greatest resource’ – for targeting passive candidates they most definitely are. By developing peer-to-peer communication through your employees present and past, any corporate message is instantly personalised and validated.
As a starting point, I would focus on: » Personal recommendations
The power and influence of your ‘employees present’ cannot be underestimated. Having them identify key talent to fill skills gaps internally not only tells you that these candidates have the ability to do the job but also are likely to have a good cultural fit. Your employee referral scheme shouldn’t just be about reward but also be an ongoing conversation about the needs of the business, with everyone understanding the goals they are working towards and what is needed to get there. » A great working environment
How many words and how much time does it take to explain why your organisation is a great place to work? If a picture is worth a thousand words then how many more is a video worth? And how many more are 10 videos worth? Don’t tell people, show them – Google has done this to great effect which is maybe why we all talk about their employer brand as nirvana. Video has it all; the people they would work with, the working environment, and that little extra something that is difficult to put into words – culture. » Development opportunities
‘Employees past’ say as much about your organisation as those currently working there. When it comes to career development, you can tell candidates what you offer, but where your alumni have moved on to delivers an even more powerful message to ‘employees future’ about the impact of the development your organisation offers. What they say about their previous employer says a lot about the culture, too. Your alumni engagement program can also drive referrals and even boomerangs, as the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. HC
We’ve all heard it said that ‘employees are our greatest resource’ – for targeting passive candidates they most definitely are
Tip 2 – Dispense with traditional forms of job advertising and embrace social mediaBy Toby Marshall, managing director of online marketing agency
Lead Creation (www.leadcreation.com.au)
Firstly, I would like to challenge the term: ‘passive seekers’ was originally coined by the newspapers to sell hugely expensive job ads in the weekend papers. The ad salesmen argued that the big advertisements worked as they attracted the browsers—and maybe they did prior to the explosion of social media.
Today, everybody is ‘actively seeking’ a new job to some extent – we are on a continuum from ‘desperately seeking’ to ‘nothing will shift me’. Social media tools put our job search into our own, less passive hands. The days of broadcasting job vacancies, of telling and selling, are virtually over. However, the giant ads cling on due to the media’s market power and the ignorance of employers who buy them.
It reminds me of the lingering death of television advertising, which is a huge waste of money given the low cost media now readily available. Something my son who works in advertising hates hearing!
So, step one is to stop the redundant Saturday paper advertising and start embracing the ‘here and now’. With the huge savings, create a powerful campaign on LinkedIn or Facebook. You then have a presence that grows more powerful with the simple click of a mouse.
Creating a strong social media presence might involve new people on your team, those not imbued with a sales culture, of ‘shouting’ at people. Rather, people who enjoy engaging, helping, sharing and educating through mediated channels of communication – your social media ambassadors. Social networks provide them with a platform.
However, organisations need clear strategies to make these new tools effective. Working with our clients, it’s usually tough to get them to think differently and to create clear objectives so that time is not wasted. Social networks provide a global megaphone that resonates far afield – AND the opportunity to completely stuff up, so tread warily.
12 www.hcamag.com
COVER STORY peak performance
H as there ever been a more abused or misunderstood phrase than ‘high performance team’? It’s the lofty goal
of just about every organisation, but few ever reach it – possibly because the definition remains infuriatingly fuzzy.
Rosemary Howard, executive director and co-joint Professor, AGSM Executive Programs at UNSW, concedes that the term does get bandied about with abandon, yet she has a surprisingly succinct definition.
“Someone colloquially expressed it as being a champion team rather than a team of champions. In other words, the whole has to be greater than the sum of the parts,” she says.
Howard believes there are three crucial elements that make up a high performance team:
»» Capability»– a wide array of capability in the team in terms of knowledge and skills
»» Diversity»– ideally the composition of the group should represent and reflect the community that the team is going to serve
»» Behaviours»and»ability»to»work»as»part»of»a»team»– this means having the interpersonal skills and ability to have honest conversations
Karen Colfer, managing director at Kelly Services, says that many people assume high performance is just about the obvious – for example, productivity – but this is actually just part of it. “High performance is a principle; it speaks to engagement, organisational pride and personal and collective accountability. A high performing team or individual will always aim to achieve more than is expected. You do this because you believe in the company, its leadership and its long-term goals,” she says.
Yet even with the definition clarified, there are other stumbling blocks preventing peak performance. Firstly, Howard maintains, life has become even more complicated: everyone is being asked to operate in a world where capital – human
Much like the search for the elusive Holy Grail, the search for high performance at individual, team and organisational levels is rarely successful. Iain Hopkins asks why – and unearths some tips to get you to the chequered flag first
High
13www.hcamag.com
14 www.hcamag.com
COVER STORY peak performance
and otherwise – is expensive. Organisations must be even more productive and efficient with what they have. “You’ve got people who are stretched and being asked to do too much, so you must have really good labour productivity, which means you must have good engagement of your people,” she says.
Secondly, people are managing in environments with more uncertainty and more global cross-cultural issues – meaning clarity of goals and objectives has never been more important.
Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, many organisations are operating relatively short term. “During the GFC companies of course had to survive, but if you’re just looking short-term what you’re doing is not necessarily systemic or sustainable,” says Howard.
Howard believes the top teams at the moment “can walk the walk and chew gum at the same time” – in other words, they ensure the short term fits into the long-term agenda.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the stumbling blocks preventing the high performance goal.
Team dynamicsEveryone in the workplace has at some time or another struggled to work as part of a team. Personality clashes and lack of leadership are often cited as the main reasons for the failure of teams to take flight. However, Edmund King, program director at Mt Eliza Executive Education, Melbourne Business School, has worked on a new theory called the ‘Hunting Territory’, which is a new way of defining relationships between team members.
King says that most team conflict is based around the structure of a team, or the overlap in roles between team members, rather than the different personalities of the team members.
“People tend to think that in order to improve relationships and cooperation between team members, all you have to do is to improve communication skills,” says King. “The Hunting Territory method recognises that we are territorial animals. The method helps to identify the territorial situation and strike an agreement around it, while also assisting in drawing up agreements regarding communication scenarios. We also identify the quality of communication, and the flow of information within the informal network of the team.”
For example, King recently worked with the state CEOs and general managers of a leading Australian sports body which was suffering from extensive in-fighting. King says that most conflict is healthy as long as it works in a particular way, but in this case conflict was occurring because job roles were only scantily covered in position descriptions and there was insufficient clarity around overlap in accountabilities. King’s solution for this particular team was to initiate meaningful conversations that clarified job roles and accountabilities.
“In-fighting naturally occurs around the territories, autonomies, the hierarchy and between sub-groups after the formation stage of team life. However, when the focus is on performance, conflict can be healthy, and can also help to identify and reward good performers. Healthy conflicts also pushes people to be creative,” says King.
“A meaningful conversation means concentrating on the task and not being torn apart based on personality” – Edmund King
15www.hcamag.com
COVER STORY peak performance
Alongside clarification of roles and jobs, King says that meaningful conversations can help to remove the ‘personality’ from the equation to focus instead on the subject at hand (see page 19). “Often a lot of conversations have a subtext to them where it might be more about point scoring. The conversation becomes the sword and the shield, so to speak. A meaningful conversation means concentrating on the task and not being torn apart based on personality. Those prejudices will still be there, but it’s not a matter of having to be best friends or liking someone; it’s the level of respect that’s critical,” he says.
King says a fatal error for leaders is to assume the team dynamics are fine – especially in the early ‘honeymoon’ stage of new teams.
“It can be quite blinding in some ways because often when a team starts off there is a lot of positivity around the process, people are confident and socially quite happy to work with one another, and it’s a bit like people going to a dance for the first time – everyone is on their best behaviour. This could be misleading for a leader, thinking they’ve got everyone on board. It’s at that stage where there needs to be clarity of values, ground rules, behaviours that will be acceptable or unacceptable, and clarity of task and role.”
Does being too rigid around boundaries stifle creativity and innovation? King believes the opposite to be true. “Once you’ve built that in, that’s when you can start to move towards best practice benchmarks, and people become far more creative because they’ve built up the basis of their relationships – it’s built around respect and not necessarily just interpersonal skills,” he says.
InnovationOnce upon a time Australia was a breeding ground for innovation. Not so any more. In fact, the Society for Knowledge Economics* has pinpointed six
“For me the two [engagement and performance] are inexplicably linked. An organisation will never reach peak performance if we haven’t won the heads,
hearts and minds of our people. If all we’re looking for is the heads, and we constantly tell them what to do we’ll slip back to an authoritative style of management. No organisation in the 21st century will survive on that model” – Dulise Maxwell, executive director, people and culture (corporate) QLD Health
“While the individual’s characteristics are an important factor in creating a high performing team, without the underlying dynamics to support the concept, it will ultimately
fail. We are well aware of this at Doltone House, and thus are constantly nurturing a positive and productive environment in which people can succeed in both an individual and team sense” – Christopher Dan, group HR manager, Doltone House
“People can only sprint for so long. When you really get to know your people, you start to learn about their different strengths and also their desires and what drives them.
By setting them new challenges, new focuses – even if only one – and giving them different responsibilities/tasks regularly, you find they’re always on their toes as they don’t have time to get bored” – Nic Monteforte, operations director for Fitness First NSW
HR on high performance
16 www.hcamag.com
categories where Australia is slipping in terms of global innovation: » Collaboration and value networks (notably
between businesses and researchers) » R&D – notably business investments into R&D, as
well as availability of scientists and engineers and the ‘brain drain’
» Public expenditure on education » Leadership, culture and management at the
workplace level (specifically, the number of businesses that innovate, and their capacity for innovation)
» Broadband subscribers and technological readiness
» The business environment and regulation (specifically, the burdens of business regulation and total tax rate)
Howard is not surprised at these areas of weakness and points to the fundamental composition of Australia’s economy as a contributing factor. “A large percentage of our economy is in the government sector, and governments are highly structured with lots of processes. Therefore they tend to be less innovative than private sector organisations. That’s a massive generalisation but I think it’s a fair one. Secondly, large Australian organisations tend to be fairly bureaucratic. Those organisations that are highly structured will not
Is it possible to create both a culture and a climate of innovation? Alison Tickner, partner at Oliver Wyman Leadership Development, provides six tips:
Tip 1: Make innovation a priorityCommunicate clearly that innovation is critical to your organisation’s success. Make it part of your vision and strategy. Develop a plan that outlines the processes, procedures and behaviours to ensure that support is provided for innovative ideas to be successful.
Tip 2: Develop a customer perspectiveEncourage leaders and employees to view your organisation through your customers’ eyes. Customer meetings, competitive analysis, industry events and awareness of how the wider public perceives you will challenge assumptions. Use this improved awareness to respond to customer needs in new and creative ways.
Tip 3: Idea generationEmpower and incentivise employees with developing new ideas and using their own initiative. Set objectives and goals to reach the new targets and deliver a clear sense that there is a new way of doing things.
Tip 4: Identify the big levers to pullInnovation in most organisations is driven by clear ‘levers’. These might be finance, core processes or product performance. These big levers accelerate the innovation process, so define what they are and focus on them to drive innovation.
Tip 5: Create an open cultureFear creates a destructive block for the act of communicating new innovative ideas. The most critical factor in driving out fear is the behaviour of leaders. Encourage leaders to create an open, supportive and trusting culture where risks can be taken and boundaries explored.
Tip 6: Recognise both successful and unsuccessful innovatorsRecognising failure as well as success can be difficult to put into practice. However, it’s important to understand why individual efforts may have failed – could they have done something differently, or did they fail due to circumstances beyond their control? Do not seek to apportion blame. Seek to understand what support people need to succeed, and then set clear parameters for how success will be celebrated so that this is equal and fair.
Eliminating fear of ridicule and creating an open climate where individuals feel free to raise new ideas through leader support can lead to a supportive and open culture for innovation.
“Employees can help with the ‘how’ once given the opportunity to buy into the ‘where’” – Rosemary Howard
A climate for innovation
17www.hcamag.com
COVER STORY peak performance
foster high levels of innovation.” Indeed, many of Australia’s larger businesses are heavily skewed towards financial services and mining. Howard notes that those sectors, particularly mining, have a much lower level of research and innovation than is found in the sectors that flourish in Silicon Valley, for example.
What’s the answer? What can individual organisations do? Howard believes it comes down to the level of ‘loose-tight fit’, of having processes but making sure they’re no tighter than they need to be, so that innovation and creativity is not constrained for people at all levels. It also means leaving command and control leadership types in the past. “You must also have accountabilities that are delegated down the chain as far as possible so that everybody feels responsible for thinking out of the box, not only for the customer but for systemic innovation around how things can be done differently,” she says.
There is also a trend towards open collaboration and using the internet and online forums such as ‘crowdsourcing’ to get clients and employees
designing the products and services of the future. “In many fields, the product development is moving towards client interface and involvement – and that’s very exciting. But that’s another reason why Australia might be a little bit behind – the percentage of our economy online lags behind many other countries,” Howard says.
Another possibility is utilising a halfway house – perhaps a business unit or division – to take chances and act as an incubator for the larger entity. For example, Telstra’s broadband initiatives were led by Big Pond, which had a different culture towards development than the parent Telstra.
EngagementAll of the forementioned is null and void if employee engagement is low. Unfortunately, the situation is worsening. Every quarter, Hewitt gauges the percentage of organisations that have a greater than 4% increase in engagement versus the percentage that has a greater than 4% decrease in engagement. For the first time in a decade of measuring engagement, in the last quarter the percentage with
18 www.hcamag.com
Dr Clark Perry, a director at rogenSi, says there are 11 common characteristics of leaders who develop high performing teams.
Drives to ENGAGE & CONNECT their people with the team’s overall mission. Develops a compelling emotional connection towards goal achievement. Connects people to that vision daily.
Excites people to adopt INSPIRING STANDARDS of excellence. Encourage individuals to drive towards exceptional results rather than just ‘good enough’. Promotes accountability among team members.
Inspires the team to MASTER their inputs as a means to achieving the desired team results. Celebrates/rewards MASTERY as it occurs.
Actively RECOGNISES STRENGTHS in people. Catches people doing well and openly recognises them for it.
Demonstrates TRUST. Creates an environment of trust, where individuals feel encouraged, believed and empowered.
Always REFLECTS SUCCESS back onto the individual efforts from the team. Builds self-belief in the team; actively attributes team success to the talents of individual team members.
Displays GENUINE EMPATHY. Shows understanding and compassion with people and the challenges they face.
Looks to COACH PERSPECTIVE. Coaches team members with the way they perceive/respond to pressure and change.
Is POSITIVE & OPTIMISTIC. Listens to the language that their people use. Is on the lookout for opportunities to help them turn negatives into more empowering and positive perspectives.
Develops TASK INTELLIGENCE. Purposefully looks to get their people involved in challenges they know will develop their task expertise.
Sets CLEAR GOALS and expectations. Establishes and communicates clear/concise goals to help people maintain laser-like focus under pressure.
declining scores was greater than the percentage with increasing scores.
“Intuitively, you could suggest that this result has something to do with the GFC, the way people view how change was managed, the way people feel about deals and promises being broken,” says Jason White, Hewitt’s head of HR excellence, leadership and talent management. “In concert with that, people are seeing and hearing about skills shortages and greater opportunities in the market. From an engagement perspective it means they are more willing to look at opportunities and consider movement.”
The best employers, White says, are working towards the concept of ‘authentic leadership’. Senior leaders in these companies are very visible, are active in being out and involved with their workforces, and communicate consistently about whatever changes are occurring. The best employers used the downturn as a chance to create
opportunities for high performers – for people to tackle new challenges, or work on strategic projects.
“In organisations where engagement has fallen, we’ve seen the emergence of the ‘us and them’ notion – the great divide is back. Quite interestingly, at the same time we’ve seen a reduction in the levels of senior leader engagement. If the senior leaders aren’t engaged, whatever the score is for that group, typically you see a cascading effect down from there,” he says.
What are the wider implications of disengagement? While there is no confirmed direct relationship between engagement and employee performance – there are other factors involved that will impact on performance – White says that all other factors being equal, high engagement has a positive impact on performance at individual and team level.
“We’ve done analysis on organisations in sales and service areas that shows that there are low performing groups with low engagement, and high performing groups with high engagement, but in some cases there are highly engaged groups that are underperforming. This is where you start to see other combinations of factors in the work environment that can dilute the conversion of engagement to performance. It can be things like capability, or systems and processes, or competitive activity. It’s important to maintain a wider context when we think about engagement and performance,” White explains.
One thing is certain – disengaged workers are disconnected, don’t care, and will proactively work against the organisation.
It also doesn’t require significant financial outlay to engage employees. White says that the key for those companies scoring low engagement is for people managers to focus on flawless execution of simple development strategies. “For questions relating to ‘I have a performance plan’ or ‘I’ve had a career conversation’ or ‘I get regular feedback’, some organisations only have one in four employees answering favourably. All that’s required there is for people managers themselves to be engaged because they need to apply some discretionary effort to have that extra conversation or pat someone on the back. It’s so important that the basic stuff gets done well,” says White.
LeadershipA debate about high performance would not be complete without touching on leadership and the shared vision great leaders can create. Howard
Traits of effective leaders
19www.hcamag.com
COVER STORY peak performance
believes strategy development should be shared because if people at all levels are passionate about where an organisation is going they need to have the opportunity to buy into that. “It does start with the top team – not just the leader – to lead the way and interpret the strategic direction. But then they must genuinely engage and consult with others. The people in the organisation know the details of their organisation better than anyone on the top team. That’s the way to get people passionate about the future,” says Howard.
There’s also a trust issue at play. Leaders must trust their employees enough to consult with them and ask for their input. “Leaders don’t have all the answers, and even if they know broadly where they want to go they won’t know every detail on how to get there. Employees can help with the ‘how’ once given the opportunity to buy into the ‘where’,” Howard concludes.
“High performance cultures rely upon trust, robust dialogues, and an environment in which it’s ok to challenge each other. All of that fosters an environment of innovation,” says White. HC
Use the following simple conversation to prevent conflict from flaring and shifting back to the subject at hand. It involves three steps and can be used both at work and at home.
When you have a problem, stop and frame it in the following way:“When you do [X – put in the issue], I feel [Y – put in the emotion]. Next time could we [Z – put in the future step].”
The language you use in those brackets is factual, emotionless language, almost like a police report.
For example: “When you e-mail the president of our company in New York with our problem, it makes me feel like an idiot and I’m embarrassed that he sees our problems. Next time, could you talk to me first before you e-mail outside of the country?”
*How Do We Fare? Barriers to Innovation in Australia produced by The Society for Knowledge Economics
Removing the interpersonal from work
20 www.hcamag.com
FEATURE Sexual harassment
W hile the media lapped up the salacious details
regarding the resignation of David Jones’ CEO Mark McInnes for sexual misconduct, the incident shone a much needed spotlight on harassment in the workplace and opened up countless talking points around office water coolers.
For example, if McInnes had been extorting money out of female employees in return for promotion and other advantages, he probably wouldn’t have just been sacked – he’d be in jail. However, because of McInnes’ reputation as a ‘ladies man’ playing the field, it was just accepted as a normal part of corporate life.
Secondly, it painted a bleak view of the potential corporate culture at David Jones, especially if the old maxim ‘the fish rots from the head down’ holds true. How do patterns of behaviour contribute to corporate culture? How do organisations track counterproductive behaviour? If a person is identified as being one who commits inappropriate behaviour, will they continue to be a risk to the organisation if they are promoted? If so, what can be done to get them to change their behaviour, or leave the organisation?
Jo Kamira, principal, WISE Workplace Investigations, agrees that such indiscretions at the top level are often overlooked and accepted – primarily due to fear. “There can be a power imbalance and it takes a very brave person to raise issues of inappropriate behaviour by a member of the senior executive,” she says. “Inappropriate behaviour is also often excused when the perpetrator is someone who is seen to ‘get the job done’. Many employees are fearful of making a formal complaint about sexual harassment against senior executives, as the issue could prove a career killer for them.”
Bernie Althofer, managing director, EGL I Assessments, notes that for many who have been subjected to sexual harassment or even bullying, once the resolution options are explained to them, or they find out what the costs are (personal and financial) for taking formal action, the matter just dies. Others then perceive that the alleged offender managed to get off the hook, and the behaviour continues, ad infinitum.
“There is an imbalance in many organisations where the CEO generally has considerably more power than those below him/her,” Althofer notes. “Decisions by individuals to report any form of inappropriate or counterproductive behaviour are generally not taken lightly, but the culture of an organisation plays a considerable part in deciding what is tolerated, and unfortunately this can lead to a culture of tolerance.”
Althofer adds that individuals in any form of executive position must understand that their behaviours in both the public and private life are under constant scrutiny. If their behaviours do not align with the values espoused by the organisation, any transgression will be reported accordingly.
“It’s also important that the Board know that, from time to time, they should ask for data about the incidence of inappropriate workplace behaviours,
and take action if they have concerns about the actions of the CEO or other members of the
executive,” he says.
Drawing the lineWhile senior executives clearly need
to model appropriate behaviour and be seen to ‘walk the talk’
it can put HR in a difficult position. Where is the
line drawn about office liaisons that are not
exactly harassment but may still
involve exploitation?
FEATURE Sexual harassment
21www.hcamag.com
“Exploitation is a two-way street,” says Kamira. “Is the manager exploiting their position for a liaison with a junior or is the junior exploiting the relationship with the manager for a benefit? Workplace relationships can’t be stopped, but exploitation can be, depending on company policy.”
Althofer says that office liaisons may have an impact on the work environment – for example, distractions, gossip and related issues, especially given that human beings are relatively social in their work approach. Organisations therefore need to have clearly defined policies about sexual harassment and bullying so that individuals understand what does and what does not fit into this framework.
“Unfortunately, ‘office liaisons’ can go drastically wrong as happened with Brodie Panlock and Café Vamp in Victoria*. Each situation has to be judged on its merits, and line managers
play a crucial role in monitoring the ‘mood’ of the workplace. They should step in where conflict starts to occur and take decisive action,” Althofer says.
Education, training, strong policies and leadership can also help. Kamira says the last is particularly important. “An organisation is only as good as its leaders and their behaviour. Employers must also make sure their policies and guidelines relating to inappropriate behaviour are clearly written and accessible to all staff and managers.”
Yet whilst the development and implementation of policies and procedures in relation to sexual harassment and workplace bullying can be the first
step, a long-term proactive and preventive view should be taken. This starts
with the recruitment, selection and placement process
and flows through to performance
management processes.
means no
In an age of equality why does sexual harassment still occur? Human Capital looks at the cultures and
behaviours that foster it and what can be done to prevent it happening in your workplace
22 www.hcamag.com
FEATURE Sexual harassment
HR practitioners and line managers are regularly being called upon to conduct investigations into complaints by staff members, corresponding with the increasing number of stress-related workers compensation claims that relate to inappropriate workplace behaviours.
Complaints are frequently complex and consume large quantities of time and management effort.
Courts and Tribunals are frequently criticising organisations that undertake poorly executed investigations. In a recent example, an employee who was sacked on harassment claims has been reinstated and paid lost earnings based on the decision made by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) that the company did not follow appropriate procedures for investigating and dealing with the harassment claim.
The AIRC found a lack of credibility in relation to the allegations, and inconsistent and inaccurate evidence offered in the written account made by the company’s HR manager. By contrast however, the employee’s evidence was considered clear and consistent.
The AIRC stated that the company had failed to initiate a proper investigation into both complaints and instead accepted the accusations at face value. The employee was denied natural justice in that he was not provided with full details of the allegations against him nor was he afforded an appropriate opportunity to respond to the allegations.
The AIRC said there were “significant deficiencies” in the company’s investigation and therefore the company had no reasonable basis on which to make their decision to terminate the employee’s employment.
What then, are some key do’s and don’ts of an investigation? The following list contains a few of the matters that may impact on investigation outcomes:
Workplace investigationsDo
Make sure that you have clear ‘terms of reference’ defining the scope of the investigation, and responsibilities of the investigator
Ask, am I the right person to be undertaking this investigation? Do I have the objectivity, time and skill?
Start any investigation with an ‘empty head’ – too frequently parties to a workplace incident will have biases
Ensure you follow the principles of natural justice, in particular towards the rights of the person being accused of inappropriate behaviour
Remember that the process can be very stressful and time consuming; a poorly conducted investigation can damage workplace relationships for many years to come. Haste can result in an unjust outcome. An investigation is often an educative journey for the parties who will need time to reflect upon their actions
Make a finding in relation to each and every element of the allegation(s). No one should be left with a cloud of doubt hanging over them
Record in your report not only the allegation but the arguments and/or supporting evidence given by both the complainant and the respondent
Ensure there is a clear and logical connection between the evidence, your findings and any conclusions you might make. Demonstrate in your report that you have properly considered all of the material evidence
Emphasise to all parties the need for confidentiality throughout the process, ensuring secure storage of any documentation
Don’t
Undermine your independence, resist pressure to make the finding you think is wanted by the organisation
Put too much weight on hearsay
Give undertakings to the parties that you will maintain confidentiality in relation to their evidence/comments. You may not be able to keep such undertakings
Make comments that might be interpreted by the parties as bias
Accept what you are told without testing against evidence
Try to deal with a matter rationally without acknowledging and dealing with emotional responses from the parties being interviewed
Indicate your impressions prior to completing the investigation. You may actually change your initial impressions during the course of the investigation and upon the discovery of further evidence
Pro-offer advice that has not been asked for or make a finding that a person has acted unlawfully. It is not the role of the investigator to determine if a person has acted unlawfully. You might find that their actions or behaviour “might be capable of being characterised as unlawful by a relevant court or tribunal.”
An investigation process can have long lasting impact, so ensure due care is taken and investigators are equipped with the skills and resources to focus on achieving the best possible outcome.
About the authorJohn Boardman is director of workplace relations, iHR Australia
Ensure there is a clear and logical connection between the evidence, your findings and any conclusions you might make
FEATURE Sexual harassment
23www.hcamag.com
The Board, CEO and executive must lead by example and take decisive action when allegations are made. “[They should] investigate immediately, and fall on their own sword if required,” says Althofer.
In addition, Althofer suggests the following: Ensure there is unswerving commitment from the top about creating an understanding and acceptance of an organisational culture that does not condone, accept or tolerate any form of inappropriate workplace behaviours Develop systems and processes that communicate Court, Commission or Tribunal decisions so all employees understand what is and what is not acceptable. Line managers and supervisors play a pivotal role in ensuring that leadership is carried on throughout the organisation Provide regular ongoing L&D for all levels – including the Board, CEO and executives Undertake regular audits and reviews of the policies by testing employee knowledge Ensure that the Board includes an agenda item to address inappropriate workplace behaviours, just
as they would do for health and safetyAs a final word, Althofer suggests that Boards,
CEOs and executive ensure that they have an excellent working knowledge of the emerging Work Health and Safety Act, and in particular those sections that relate to who is an officer, the meaning of a workplace and what is a workplace.
“It’s important for everyone to understand that people make up organisations, and whilst accountability is a trump card, individuals have responsibilities and this includes treating others with respect and dignity. It’s not just the responsibility of HR to prevent all forms of counterproductive behaviour such as sexual harassment or bullying/harassment, but the responsibility of everybody. No does mean no,” he says. HC
*Four men responsible for the relentless bullying of teenage
waitress Brodie Panlock – who later killed herself – were
convicted and fined a total of $115,000. The four defendants
pleaded guilty in the Melbourne Magistrates Court to failing to
take reasonable care for the health and safety of employees.
“It’s not just the responsibility of HR to prevent … sexual harassment or bullying, but the responsibility of everybody. No does mean no” – Bernie Althofer
24 www.hcamag.com
FEATURE Careers websites
There is much talk about what makes a great website, and a wide variety of opinion around how they should look and function, so I am
starting this review by busting a few myths:
•»A terrible website is worse than no website• You don’t have to build your site to cater for
dial-up connections• Using modern technology and software is
not a luxury• Your audience will think you’re dull if you have
a dull site • Great sites invariably won’t be built with tiny
budgets• Your mate’s 15 year-old cousin is not a commercial
web-developer• You do have to review your website more than once
every five years
The beauty or attraction of a website is highly subjective, so we will stay away from trying to determine what makes a site attractive or not. We aim in this article to give some practical advice around what a site should include, what should
Mike Beeley explains the ins and outs of a careers website and how it should fit into your HR strategy
website
its function be, what we consider to be entry-level features and how it fits into your sourcing strategy.
What is a careers website?A careers website is a self-contained site which focuses on the careers offered by employers. It is designed within corporate guidelines to mirror the look and feel of the organisation’s main website, but has a standalone URL (Uniform Resource Locator, or unique address) and can be hosted and maintained separately by HR.
Why are they important?The three main sources of traffic on any corporate website are:•»Customers•»Shareholders»or»media•»Potential»staff
Anatomy of a
25www.hcamag.com
1.»First»signsRecruitment ads (eg, press, online,
outdoor, indoor, radio, TV, on-campus, in-transport
4.»First»meetingRecruitment ads (eg, press, online,
outdoor, indoor, radio, TV, on-campus, in-transport
2.»ViralWord-of-mouth recommendations,
direct marketing, online, PR, employee referral program, alumni
5.»First»contactThe interview and assessment
process
3.»First»real»scrutinyPreferably a stand-alone, sticky and engaging microsite, dedicated just
to marketing us to talent. Interactive, enlightening, informative, impressive
7.»First»day»Are they made to feel welcome, are
they expected by everyone, do they have business cards, etc?
6.»Job»offer»or»decline Whatever the decision, the way we do it makes friends or enemies
8.»First»monthInduction, onboarding, early
training. Do they all confirm the expectations created on the way into
the organisation?
9.»From»here»to»retirement»Ongoing training, personal and
career development, communication, engagement tools, support, career
progression, etc
START
END
Chart 1: The journey into your organisation
Why then do we often cater so appallingly badly for the last group? Well, because HR is usually so poorly represented on any site-planning committee, the ‘Careers’ component is buried under ‘About us’.
If we consider that a website is the single most important research tool that potential candidates use in selecting an employer (a recent candidate media consumption survey we conducted for a major Australian energy company revealed that 19% of 16–25 year olds only use the corporate website as a means of assessing their potential employer) this seems to be major oversight.
Where do they sit in the talent attraction strategy?The careers website is the point at which our target audience will confirm or blow apart their perception of us as an employer. (See Chart 1 above.)
Chart 2 shows how the careers website fits into the key internal components of an effective talent sourcing strategy.
What makes a good one?Well, first we must acknowledge what our goals for the site are and what the expectations of our target audience might be.
Websites have come a long way since the first clunky, and frankly boring, sites appeared in the early 1990s. Over the last 20 or so years, (most) sites have gone through several generic evolutions of purpose, as shown by chart 3 on p26:
A website is a dynamic, moving, virtual representation of your company online – a 24/7 shop window of your organisation which people enter and leave (sometimes forever) at will, mainly without your knowledge. It must be a living, breathing representation of what you would like your company to be – it must be as good as your best salesperson and as credible as your CEO. It might be the first
Workforce»plan
Attraction»strategy
Employer»brand
Selection»process
Onboarding
ERP
SOLUTIONCHALLENGE
Talent»»map
EVP
Careers»microsite
CRM
Internal»comms
What roles do we need to fill? When do we need them?
Where are the skills: a) within Australia b) globally?
How do we reach them?
What do we say to them?
What do the communications look like?
What do we want them to do?
What do we do once they express interest?
How do we manage them?
How do we secure them?
How do we keep them?
How do we get more of them?
Chart 2: Effective talent sourcing strategy
Source: ReAgent Employer Marketing
Source: ReAgent Employer Marketing
26 www.hcamag.com
FEATURE Careers websites
and last time someone you want to meet gets close to you.
But some site owners seem to think that a static online brochure with a few stock shots of people standing around a computer/wearing hard hats/hi-vis jackets/doing high-fives/smiling into a phone/generally looking unrealistically happy with reams and reams of text-based testimonials from staff are going to impress people.
This is the perfect opportunity to showcase your culture and celebrate your staff – get them involved. Have some unscripted videos of staff talking about you and get them to show visitors around, just as if they were really in the building. Include a career-path chart for graduates to show how their career with you over the next five years might develop. Include information about the facilities near your offices, transport (so they can see how easy the commute is compared to their current employer) and details of local child-minding centres.
Not only will you impress your target audience with the thoroughness of your research and willingness to think of their welfare, but you’ll save your recruitment team from having to answer all these questions manually.
The impossibly rapid pace of development in the online environment has conditioned people into expecting more and more from websites. Gone are the days when people are impressed by the ordinary – only the extraordinary will do.
Here are the key basics:
•Clearly articulate the purpose of the site
•Build the business case and get a decent budget – tens of thousands, not dollars
•Own it – don’t let Marketing or IT bully you into submission
•Understand where it fits in with the other components of your sourcing strategy
•Track its success
•Measure it against your direct and indirect competitors
•Measure it against what the internet is capable of delivering
•Get professional help from providers with a strong track record in building careers websites
The essentials
• Online brochure • View jobs• Apply for jobs• Submit resume
• Video testimonials• Career path calculator• Grad zone
• Games• Viral tools• Competitions• Feedback blogs• Live Q&A
INFORMATION INTERACTION TRANSACTION RELATIONSHIP
One-way Limited»two-way Long»term»two-way
1st 2nd 3rd 4thShort»term»two-way
Chart 3: Website evolution
Source: ReAgent Employer Marketing
FEATURE Careers websites
27www.hcamag.com
Any selection of the best websites is, of course, a moving feast – every day many new sites crop up around the world so it’s almost impossible to keep completely current.
However, here are a few that we like very much (because we built them) and some we begrudgingly admit are good, even though they were created by others:
Made around these partsPB ReAgent designed and built this site for Parsons Brinckerhoff in early 2008 to attract rail engineers and associated staff primarily from the UK to Australasia. Particular emphasis was made on helping the transition for UK-based rail engineers to Australia by providing the living and working data that they needed to feel comfortable with an overseas move and also to persuade other stakeholders in the decision-making process. www.pbrailjobs.com.au Origin Energy Produced by ReAgent to attract people in from Australia and overseas, particularly from Aberdeen and Alberta. The site gives lots of information and help on various aspects of settling in Australia and
the roles available. www.welcometoabrighterfuture.com.au
Lloyds International They needed a whole team of banking IT specialists to disengage their systems from Bankwest after the sale to CBA. We weren’t allowed to produce a standalone site so instead spent money on a high-quality video piece which we promoted online and through a targeted local campaign using, amongst other things, 25,000 coffee cups in Sydney’s CBD near other banks’ offices. www.hbos.com.au/projectcatalyst
And here are some great careers sites from the UK: www.t-mobilecareers.co.uk/
www.logica-graduates.co.uk/
www.makeitrbs.com/
www.nationwide-jobs.co.uk/home/graduate
www.ngdp.co.uk/government/
www.sis.gov.uk/output/careers-1.html
www1.orange.co.uk/sales/
Show me some good ones…For some examples of extraordinary sites, which don’t allow any of the usual myths or precedents to restrict them, try these:
www.toyota-screensaver.ruwww.thinkingspace.economist.comwww.thefixers.com/www.malecopywriter.com/www.hboimagine.com(This last one takes a while to load – but it’s worth it).
These sites all challenge the norm of what we expect, use video/Flash to bring the medium alive, and stimulate more than one of our senses. They all show how websites are more closely related to television shows than printed brochures.
As the employer marketing industry matures and the bar is raised across the world, so we will need to respond to the competition and adjust our opinion of what is ‘good enough’.
When you honestly appraise (or better still, ask someone else to) your site against your direct and indirect competitors, which do you think yours is – ordinary or extraordinary?
How do we know what’s effective?The best way to find out if something is working is to measure it. And don’t just measure the volume – track the quality, too.
Of course it’s impossible to directly attribute any specific hire to the quality of your careers site, but we can measure the drop-out rates of those who clearly don’t agree with our opinion of our site.
We can also use our site to track the effectiveness of the media we use to drive traffic into it – although to track anything more than Visitors and Applicants leaves too much to variables.
But if you want to hear an honest and agnostic opinion of the quality of your site, ask your existing employees. These are possibly our most important audience, as we often look at our own employer’s website to figure out if we’re in the right company.
Ask the top applicants coming in whether the website helped or hindered their decision to apply – don’t just assume that every part of your employer brand communication strategy is working.
And ask the CEO if she/he is happy with your careers site representing your organisation to your potential talent audiences, particularly the CEO of your strongest competitor. HCAbout the authorMike Beeley is CEO of ReAgent Employer Marketing. For further information e-mail: [email protected]
28 www.hcamag.com
RECRUITMENT woodside energy
Woodside is an independent Australian oil and gas company playing a key role in supplying energy. It is one of the world’s
leading producers of liquefied natural gas, helping meet the demands for cleaner energy from Japan, China, Korea and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region. However, there’s been no escaping the skills challenge that has hit all players in the mining and engineering sectors. Woodside, anticipating significant skills challenges as it continues work on several ‘mega projects’ over the coming years, has taken matters into its own hands by revamping its careers website.
“We have a strong LNG growth strategy. We are already planning for an expansion of our Pluto project, and are seeking to develop a further two LNG projects – ‘Browse’ in Australia’s Kimberley region and ‘Sunrise’ off the northern coast. We are looking for talented people to join us and we need to start building those competencies now,” explains Ben Davis, resourcing & diversity manager, Woodside.
A new brand marketing campaign has been developed to target potential candidates. Woodside’s resourcing strategy is focused on developing local Australian talent; however, for particular skill sets
Facing the major HR challenges that significant projects bring, Woodside Energy has invested time and money into a new look careers website
and experience, this is supplemented with talent from overseas.
“We didn’t want one message going out to an international audience and one to an East coast and local audience. In terms of the pitch it was subtly different, so our advertising in Perth is around ‘the life you love’ and overseas and East coast it is ‘the life you want’. In other words, you’re living it and want to join us, or you want to live it so join us,” Davis says.
Davis adds that although Woodside will always focus on growing local talent there is also recognition that, at least in the short term, the company will need to supplement its workforce with highly skilled labour from overseas. The careers website was identified as being a natural portal for potential candidates to learn more about the company and life in Western Australia.
“I’ve spent several years overseas and believe that Australia is not really that well known, Perth even less so. We needed to get that message out there so candidates could learn more about Woodside, the exciting opportunities we provide, and what it’s like to live and work in Perth and Karratha,” Davis says.
Building talent poolsWoodside has typically used a balanced recruitment approach, primarily involving direct sourcing via newspaper advertisements, and recruitment agencies. While these elements will remain, the key now is to use strong branded advertising focused on key value propositions to drive people to its
CASE STUDY: Woodside Energy
RECRUITMENT woodside energy
29www.hcamag.com
careers website. “We group our advertising together so we have one consistent value proposition going out. We’ll still use agencies, but we should see that reliance decrease,” he says.
Woodside partnered with ReAgent Employer Marketing to work on the website over a three-month timeframe. Internally, Davis collaborated with recruiters, corporate affairs, legal, and investor relations to bring all the relevant material together.
Davis notes one crucial element of the website’s success is the clear articulation of the Karratha location and what it’s like to live and work there. Importantly, instead of using huge amounts of words to get the message across – as per the text heavy ‘job description’ style print ads of the past – the team has opted to use video footage of employees at all levels, including a Q&A with the CEO.
Ease of access to information was also critical. “You’re one or two clicks away from where you want to be and don’t have to wade through countless pages,” says Davis. “We also wanted information on graduate recruitment and Indigenous employment to be clear and easy to find.”
An important consideration was enabling candidates to do it all from the website, from sourcing information to submitting CVs. “Candidates can do everything from the site,” says Davis. “It connects back into our applicant tracking system so when you click on our website it takes you into that portal.”
For the time being, the Woodside website is avoiding online forums and tie-ins with social media. Davis acknowledges that those tools are great for candidates but can be a nightmare for administrators. “We would rather focus our energies on delivering an exceptional candidate experience. Building talent pools allow us to reduce the recruitment process timeline and match candidates to the right opportunity. This is our priority,” he says.
ROIAlthough the site has only been active from 2 March, it appears to be working well. The recruitment cost per hire has dropped from 11% to 8%, which essentially pays for the investment in the entire branding initiative in just one quarter.
“We’ve had feedback from candidates, saying it’s a fantastic site with great information,” Davis says. “The recruiters are also saying they’re not being asked as many questions. I think if candidates can go to a website, find out more, gain that interest and engage in the growth strategy of an organisation, it makes it a lot easier to recruit them.” HC
30 www.hcamag.com
FEATURE succession planning
Who’s up next?
Most listed companies appreciate the importance of arranging a corporate succession plan and tend to be well
prepared for most circumstances that could affect the upper 2% of executives. This is considered one of the most basic of management strategies, but considering modern workforce trends and with the GFC making the ‘unexpected’ increasingly more expected, the modern succession plan needs to broaden its focus and consider a few new issues if it is to be effective.
The recent sudden death of Queensland businessman, Ken Talbot, along with the entire board of Sundance Resources in a plane crash whilst on a mining exploration trip to the Congo, reminds us of why there is the need for formal succession planning. While the Talbot Group chairman, Don Nissen is a likely candidate to fill Talbot’s shoes, no succession plan exists, and the decision will ultimately be made by Talbot’s grieving wife; a tough call by anyone’s standard. Until that decision is made, the sizeable privately owned Talbot Empire, which has estimated worth of $965m, remains in limbo, along with the fate of several other Australian companies with which Talbot was associated.
If we compare this with the ease at which top performing David Jones CEO Mark McInnes was succeeded by Paul Zahra when McInnes fell from grace recently, we can see succession planning operating smoothly at the top level of an organisation, as it does in most well-prepared organisations. The David Jones board did not hesitate at choosing insider Zahra in favour of sourcing an outsider to replace the departing talent. While David Jones did not envisage that there would be a need to exit the young CEO for some time, they were fully prepared with a deliberate succession strategy. There are never any guarantees, and Zahra still must be proven as the right choice for the top job,
but the point is that he’s been groomed for more than 12 years to fulfil the task and with the replacement swiftly in place on a Friday it was business as usual for David Jones come Monday.
Failing to adequately prepare for the sudden gaps in the sub-executive levels of an organisation usually means heavy pressure on the HR department or external HR consultants to fill them as quickly as possible. This can be an expensive exercise, particularly when the business can be held to ransom by candidates because it is desperate to fill the gap quickly, and can also impact on efficiency while the position is vacant and as the new person goes through a period of adjustment.
31www.hcamag.com
FEATURE succession planning
This situation can be avoided with a little forward planning and by creating a culture where the future direction of the organisation is openly discussed and also negotiated on an individual level. Some organisations take one or two steps towards a corporate succession plan – they have annual performance reviews and perhaps throw in a question or two about where the employee hopes to be in two years time, but that’s the extent of it and usually little is done with this information. When looking at workplace succession planning, the most common breakdowns:
Poor»employee»communication. Employees do not usually converse with their managers about their career aspirations, and therefore their managers frequently lack understanding of employee goals. This is a hurdle for management who must work at structuring and aligning staff development plans to organisational needs. Mismatched expectations are costly to individuals and to the organisation.
Lack»of»structure»to»identify»potential»breakdown.»Businesses frequently have no structure in place to identify staff that potentially represent a flight risk and don’t identify the consequences of key staff members leaving the organisation.
Training»breakdown. Frequently managers have not trained or prepared other employees to take over critical roles in the organisation. If a person in a key role suddenly walks out or is forced to leave, there can be a gap in performance for some time, affecting profitability and market confidence. Recovery time can be extensive from such an occurrence.
Management»secrecy. Past management styles have kept the details of the succession plan for their organisation secret, however this is no longer thought to be relevant or appropriate. Effective communication by management of the opportunities available and providing opportunities for employees to express their desire to be considered as candidates
for these roles can have a positive effect on employee retention and motivate their willingness to develop.
Creating a successful succession plan for all levels of an organisation is about taking advantage of the current situation. Consider the following: » Assess employees for the personal competencies
that are required for success at each organisational level, and then map these to the existing corporate objectives, ie, where is the organisation now in terms of personnel skills requirements.
» Define how personnel competencies will be measured by listing the attributes of every role at every level, with a plan to enhance the experience and development of each person involved.
» Visioning of the corporate future is essential to identify the organisation’s forward strategic objectives. These must be identified in a way that enables all participants to clearly understand the part they must play in achieving the corporate vision.
» Articulate at every level the guidelines and parameters required to determine the personnel competencies that are required of every role to deliver at the next level in alignment with the corporate vision.
» Narrow the gaps between where personnel are now, with a plan to up skill towards where they must be in future to achieve the corporate forward planning vision.
» Test and measure the outcomes to evaluate corporate effectiveness. All the procedures in the world are only as good as the actual resulting outcomes that the processes are meant to achieve. So many corporate good intentions lose momentum when there are no formal measures in place.
» Align the objectives of staff to the organisation’s objectives. Lack of purposeful alignment is a common problem that fragments the productivity
Nothing is guaranteed in life except death and taxes. To that one might add ‘change’. The business world is no exception. Yet while succession planning is the ultimate risk management tool, few organisations are doing it well. Leigh Riley provides some tips
32 www.hcamag.com
FEATURE succession planning
and efficacy of an organisation. Clarity about the organisation’s objectives can enable personnel to align their purpose or choose an alternative path a lot sooner, saving company time and money.
» Gauge the ‘return on effort’ (ROE) to the organisation. To measure this, the organisation will need to determine the cost involved with delays in recruiting and full induction of employees, as well as the impact of discontinuity. These costs should be compared with the cost and time taken to fill a vacancy from within the organisation due to an effective corporate succession plan being in place. The difference is the ROE , an effective quantifiable measure of the value of implementing the corporate succession plan.
» Engage management at all levels from the Board down. Each must understand the key role they will play in implementation. In most cases:• The Board’s purpose is to conceptualise and
instigate the corporate succession plan and to oversee that it is operational.
• The managing director is responsible for actioning the corporate succession plan of the organisation. As the helmsman of the corporate ship, the managing director is responsible for directing the ship according to the charted course and can influence greatly the strategies undertaken to ensure the corporate objective and vision is achieved.
• Senior managers act in the capacity of second in charge to enforce the orders and to guard implementation of the corporate vision. Senior managers are personally responsible for establishing the talent development objectives and measuring accountabilities of the personnel to those parameters.
• HR managers must act as the navigators to ensure the objectives are on course and aligned with corporate objectives. HR provide legal guidelines and advice, and set the parameters of the course to overcome impediments and challenges.
• Divisional managers are responsible for identifying, engaging, grooming and maintaining talent for each department.
• Personnel are accountable to understand their own personal agenda and to determine whether it is aligned with the organisational vision. They must be proactive in developing their skills in a manner that will improve their purpose within the organisation.
It’s also important to note that management maintenance of accurate data with details about employee skills and talent enables corporations to conduct talent mining activities to source people from within. This can be a significant time and cost saving exercise involving less risk with minimal disruption, as the cultural fit is already evident and employee strengths, weaknesses, style and personality have already been tried and tested.
Developing your corporate succession plan is a positive strategic action that you can take right now to overcome the disruptive, costly and time-consuming issues that we’re seeing in the modern workplace. Planning will allow you to develop your personnel to competently meet the changing needs of your organisation over time, and empower your organisation to recover from loss of human capital at an escalated rate, ensuring that corporate performance can be maintained for optimal outcomes. HC
About the author:Leigh Riley is the author of the first book of Australian case studies on succession planning, Your Business Succession, which provides strategic, tactical, practical and educational support for business owners. More information and free book chapters are available at www.YourBusinessSuccession.com. Coming soon: Your Corporate Succession
While this preparation at the top 2% of the organisation is essential, today it’s also important to consider the other 98%
While preparation at the top 2% of organisations is essential, today it’s also important to consider the other 98%. Why? There are four main reasons:1. On average, half of organisational operating
costs are now budgeted to meet human capital expenses. If the largest part of the corporate budget is spent on a combination of remuneration, training and systems to maintain the development of that human capital, it makes sense to formulate strategies to retain the talent.
2. The worldwide trend of ageing business leaders and the workforce in general means organisations need to start thinking about who will step up to fill the shoes of outgoing employees and how this process will be streamlined.
3. In the current marketplace, employee mobility is so high that there is a clear need to ensure continuity of services with minimal disruption and swift integration.
4. The GFC has expanded the pool of middle managers within Australian organisations – in theory, this equates to more talent from which to choose to fill higher roles, but only when managed effectively.
Looking after the rest
DIVERSITY Indigenous recruitment
33www.hcamag.com
O ur thirst for faster, better and cheaper services is driving the evolution of technology, and in particular the internet,
into a world of real-time connectivity and lightning-fast bandwidth. It is here, where the once clear and distinct traditional boundaries of delivery, and command and control relationships, are set to blur, if not disappear altogether. Welcome to the cloud.
Cloud computing is a metaphor for the emerging version of the internet. It’s where providers deliver a variety of IT-enabled capabilities as on demand services, on a pay per user basis. Of these, the SaaS model is perhaps the most widely utilised. This involves the delivery of an application through a browser to a large number of users. Most payroll and HR vendors have a SaaS version. A variation of this is Platform as a Service (PaaS), where the vendor delivers a development platform, accessed via browser, that allows you to build an entire application running on the vendor’s infrastructure and delivered to your users. There are service providers that offer integration standards, known as APIs, enabling developers to exploit specific functionality, rather than delivering full-blown applications. A well known example is the integration of Google maps to location centric applications. Finally, there are vendors who use the utility model to offer storage and processing through virtual servers, accessible on demand.
While the economies of scale, agility, scalability
and focus are tempting, migrating to the cloud introduces a whole new set of challenges that include security, control, flexibility and availability. At this stage, these form a barrier to widespread adoption, certainly in the SME space. However, there is a growing trend towards deploying the virtualisation model, in-house. This is effectively a private cloud and, in many ways, can be viewed as a safe and intermediate step towards embracing the greater cloud.
In terms of impact, there are a number of trends affecting the workplace where the cloud solution is both the catalyst for change and also the solution to these changes. The demand for work-life balance, globalisation, mobility and the generation mix mean that companies not only have to be more effective in terms of sourcing, developing and retaining talent, but also embracing and offering opportunities for new technologies and work styles. Also, social media is set to be the main vehicle in the way we find work, learn, collaborate and communicate. Finally, I think we can all agree that the mobile phone will soon be the dominant web device.
These set the stage for a very interesting environment, and to remain competitive and capitalise on these trends, a business can no longer rely on traditional computing systems and models .The cloud, although in its early days, offers a cost effective, integrated virtual infrastructure where a collection of services, all centralised, are consistently available and offer access to a new generation of best of breed human capital services.
Given the amount of money invested and attention companies like IBM, Microsoft and Google are giving to cloud development, we will soon experience an explosion of integrated applications and services that address all the disadvantages. For the business it’s not a matter of if you migrate, it’s a matter of when will you migrate?
FORECAST: INCREASING CLOUD
VIEWPOINT HRIS
Ari Kopoulos is national sales and marketing director for EmployeeConnect. For more information, visit www.employeeconnect.com
We keep hearing how the cloud is set to change the way we work, but what is it and what benefits does it bring to the business? Ari Kopoulos provides some insights
34 www.hcamag.com
FEATURE HRIS
Advocates of on-demand technology – sometimes known as cloud computing or SaaS – are locked into eternal debate with advocates of on-premise software. Human Capital weighs the pros and cons of both
Head in the cloud?
Is HR technology moving on-demand?
35www.hcamag.com
FEATURE HRIS
The GFC posed interesting dilemmas for HR professionals on many levels, but perhaps none more so than choosing HR technology.
At a time when budgets were stretched to their limit and CEOs were looking to cut overheads, justifying the HR team’s time and resources became more important than ever.
However, the initial layout for a big software project can be huge and in many cases updating existing systems was viewed by many as a ‘non-urgent’ task to be put off until more secure financial times.
Now that the economy has improved, how should HR choose between the myriad of technology delivery models on offer? Nick Payne, Australian country manager at NorthgateArinso, notes that the average HR manager needs to be able to respond to the rapidly changing HR requirements of a business, and that means downsizing or upscaling technology quickly.
“Now is a good time for managers to be looking at alternative models of software delivery, including software delivered ‘on-demand’, which can be well suited to periods of static or slow economic growth,” says Payne. “Monthly bills rather than a large initial payout are an attractive proposition for the finance team, and broadband internet is now standard across business. This combination means that HR managers should be taking a serious look at the on-demand delivery model for support processes.”
Going on-demandOn-demand technology is nothing new. It comes under several different names – cloud computing, utility computing, Software as a Service (SaaS) – but all have the same basic attributes. Thanks to companies like salesforce.com, it has already proved it can work for applications like CRM and marketing. However, there’s no reason why HR shouldn’t enjoy the same benefits.
Further confusing the issue is the fact that some on-premise software providers now offer a ‘hybrid approach’, which may allow for their software to be installed on customers’ machines or accessed via the web. They may focus on delivering their software over the internet, but put customers on a dedicated copy of the application. Hybrid backers say their products offer benefits such as improved data
security and more customer control over software settings and the timing of upgrades.
The initial decision – whether to buy a system or use SaaS or ASP (Application Service Provider) solutions – should not be taken lightly. However, Rick Verloop, managing director of payroll and personnel software provider HR3, says it’s “horses for courses”.
Technically, he says it’s easier to implement and maintain an SaaS or ASP solution, but there are limitations as well. “It can also be quite expensive to go SaaS or ASP and the loss of control is also a concern for some people. Mostly, I think it comes down to functionality and ‘bang for buck’. Buying a system is normally a fair bit cheaper, but you may need your IT department to perform upgrades, etc. If your IT department is already tooled and skilled to do this, then the economy of scale effect makes this issue negligible.”
Verloop suggests another important consideration when purchasing an HRIS is whether or not the system shares a common database. “You just don’t want payroll information in one database, HR in another, OH&S in another, web information in another, and so on,” he says. “I’ve seen this happen so many times and the outcome is normally the same…information is updated incorrectly, users become disillusioned, and management information takes too long to compile and is often incorrect. It’s just much more efficient and productive to have everything in the one place,” he says.
If separate databases are unavoidable, Verloop says it’s vital that each system has integration via web services or similar tools. “An ‘interface’ is too problematic,” he says. “Open Database Connectivity [ODBC] and other such database reading tools are okay, but can cause data mismatch issues. With web services you can read and write information from one database to the other as well as control the movement of data depending on conditions and actions.”
Migration from legacy systems must also be considered from a time and productivity standpoint. “Most applications can import data from third party systems and spreadsheets but the information often will require some level of user manipulation to massage it into the required format and to ensure the target system can adequately store and report the legacy information,” Verloop says.
n According to a 2009 survey of US and European companies by Forrester Research, just 14% of respondents said they were not interested in adopting SaaS. In late 2008, Forrester found that 29% of companies had tapped HR software through SaaS, making HR one of the business functions that is using SaaS most heavily
36 www.hcamag.com
FEATURE HRIS
The end-userRegardless of the debate over on-demand or on-premise software, one thing is clear: users are much more demanding of workplace technology than they were a few years ago. Payne says that IT used to be a bit of a mystery, and consumers almost expected slow running systems and broken down hardware in return for the ability to automate much of their work.
“Nowadays, we go home and happily log in to Google and Amazon.com, where the interface is easy to use and simple to navigate,” Payne says.
As a result, it’s no longer acceptable to go into work the next day to use clunky, complex technology for work. Most HR professionals aren’t IT experts, and don’t expect to be bogged down in complex procedures. A good on-demand system has got to have a good user interface in order to be successful, Payne suggests.
“Given the amount of time users spend working with a particular system, they need to have a clear screen that can be customised to show the information they require. We also expect applications to ‘just work’ – it should be clear how to access information, and how to save and store details. An intuitive system rather than one that requires detailed training is no longer a nice thing to have, it’s crucial to the success of any IT system used by non-IT people.”
Weighing it up However, it’s important to remember that when it comes to HR support, one size certainly doesn’t fit all. The benefits of an on-demand system are clear, but a business considering an investment should look at all available HR service delivery models, and weigh up the right choice for them.
On-premise software is reliable and scalable, so it is still the model of choice for large enterprises. There was a time when HR modules in large Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementations were cumbersome and difficult to use. That’s no longer the case, although Payne admits there’s still work to be done to shake off this reputation.
Another factor to consider when implementing IT to support HR is what it’s actually going to be used for. It’s often assumed that IT will support the processes and administration that so often weigh the HR team down.
Traditionally, the biggest benefits for HR have been felt when administration tasks like absence requests, tax forms and employee information have been automated.
When researching systems, Verloop suggests getting the needs analysis right. “Too often I see War & Peace-sized RFI [Request for Information] documents that have so much content in them that you’d need a small HR army to administer and maintain the requested HR system. That’s fine if you’re a bank, but most businesses can’t afford a high HR-to-employees ratio, so think about what you really need and what you’ll be able to manage; it will make for an easier discovery, implementation and management process.”
Payne adds that, increasingly, IT is being used to support the more strategic part of HR. He sees no reason to believe that strategic elements of HR, such as talent management and succession planning, cannot be supported with the right IT platform.
As a final tip, Verloop says each vendor should be taken on their own merits: “Biggest doesn’t always mean best; most clients doesn’t always mean satisfaction; pretty doesn’t always mean functional; and expensive doesn’t always equate to quality!”
On-demand technology can help manage costs, and is more easily scalable than some other delivery models. However, different models suit different companies, and Payne suggests that on-premise software has moved a long way from the “expensive dinosaur” it once was. “What is important is that when the right system is up and running, it helps prove HR’s value to the rest of the business at a time when the team is needed more than ever,” he says. HC
Why isn’t your organisation interested in SaaS?
Security concerns
Integration challenges with other applications
Lack of customisation
Total cost of concerns (ie, total cost of ownership)
Difficulty and task of migration or installation
Application performance (ie, downtime, speed)
Complicated pricing models
We can’t find the specific application we need
We’re locked in financially with our current vendor
Don’t know
Other reason
0 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
Source: ‘Enterprise and SMB Software Survey, North America and Europe’, Q4 2009, Forrester
Research
DIVERSITY indigenous recruitment
37www.hcamag.com
BackgroundHR3pay is the flagship product of Melbourne-based software developer HR3 Pty Ltd. HR3 markets Employee Management Solutions (EMS) for the SME and MLE marketplace. HR3 (formerly Datascope Systems) was formed in 1984 and has been developing software for Australian businesses since that time. Their first system, Datapay, was developed in the mid 1980s; this was superseded in 1994 by the Winpay system and by the current HR3pay system in 2003. Winpay is still sold today and for many years was sold under licence by both Pastel (Pastelpay) and SAGE (Sagepay). While HR3 is focused on developing the HR3pay group of products, it continues to maintain and support the Winpay product. With over 1,500 companies currently using Winpay, it’s important to keep them up to date and happy.
While Winpay has been a huge success (over 3,000 licences sold since its release), the HR3pay system isn’t far behind with nearly 1,200 companies using it as their payroll/HR/OHS management solution.
HR3pay
The HR3pay system consists of several different modules (function packs) and a web portal. HR3 applications are developed using MS SQL Server, Embarcadero Delphi, Visual Studio & ASP.NET as the main technology platforms.
The HR3pay system is a full MDI, Win32 desktop application. Client/Server and N-tier architecture allows links with multiple DBMS back ends (including Linux via Firebird). Proprietary
routines eliminate manual database refreshes and remove data lockdowns during database activity.
PayrollThe HR3pay payroll module contains many outstanding features and functions designed to help payroll staff perform their duties quickly, efficiently and without errors. HR3pay Payroll is a date-driven system. This enables the user to reproduce information from any period since the system was implemented. This means there are no date boundaries such as financial years, months and so on. Multi-company and multi-payrun options give the user flexibility and opportunity. Advanced reporting and graphical tools make data interrogation and presentation super easy. Built in workflows and electronic notifications ensure nothing is forgotten.
HRpackThe HR3pay Human Resources Management Module is fully integrated into the HR3pay database. This means payroll and HR data is updated and accessed in one system (not two). The HRpack includes management tools for positions, training, skills, performance, employee property and much more.
OHSpackThe HR3pay Occupational Health & Safety Module is fully integrated into the HR3pay database. Having payroll and OHS data together gives you industry-standard reporting (LTIFR, LTMIR etc) at the click of a button. Incident, hazard and plant & equipment management are all included. Being designed around Australian, New Zealand and International Standards (AS4801, AS1885 and ISO31000) ensures user familiarity and compliance.
HR3kioskThe HR3pay Web Portal (HR3kiosk) gives users web realtime access to all the HR3pay data. Powerful security keeps user access to information in line with company requirements. Employees, managers and function managers can all use the HR3kiosk and its many features and functions. Online timesheets with optional job costing and integrated leave requests add further value to this impressive tool.
FROM TINY SEEDS GROW GIANT TREES
SPONSORED FEATURE HR3
ContactHR3 products and services are available Australia wide. For more information please contact HR3 on 1800 817 191 or visit the HR3 website (www.hr3.com.au) for more detailed product information and company profile.
38 www.hcamag.com
In an urbanised, industrialised world, it’s easy to think that man controls the working environment. Flick a switch and your office gets
cooler. Flick another and any information you want is at your fingertips.
But then the unexpected happens. Earthquakes. Volcanic ash blocking the airspace. H1N1. Such events remind us that economic cycles are not the only cause of uncertainty in business life.
When such disasters occur, many organisations find out – too late – that their business continuity planning was not up to the mark. So how can you make sure that your own business could continue to function during or after a crisis?
1. Plan»before,»not»during,»a»disaster.»The results of neglecting disaster recovery planning
can be dire. Faced with a major incident such as fire, floods, crime, terrorism or IT failure, a high proportion of businesses never re-open, or they close within two years.(1) Even much smaller events can destabilise a business. In Regus’ experience, one of the most common scenarios requiring activation of a workplace recovery plan are problems relating to utilities. A power failure, for example, or a burst water pipe in the offices upstairs, can render your workplace unusable for days. If you don’t have rapid access to alternative business facilities, the consequences can include loss of business and customers, loss of goodwill and reputation, loss of production, loss of data, and cashflow problems.
Moreover, the consequences can last longer than the original problem. The reputational stain of cancelled meetings, unmanned phones, lost data, or chaotic administration systems can linger for months or years.
2. Plan»properly,»and»formalise»your»plans.»According to Ernst & Young, 34% of companies
cite ‘workplace recovery’ as their greatest technical challenge in creating a business plan. So, many will procrastinate.
Over the past year, a series of natural disasters has emphasised the importance of good business continuity planning. Mark Dixon suggests ways to disaster-proof your business
(1)
Axa,
“Bus
ines
s co
ntin
uity
gui
de fo
r sm
all b
usin
esse
s”.
whendisasterstrikes
FEATURE Risk management
39www.hcamag.com
But even if disaster doesn’t strike, the lack of a robust disaster recovery plan can harm a business. Increasingly, large companies’ tender procedures require suppliers to give details of their business continuity planning. Lack of planning can also arouse the disapproval of audit committees and regulators, in the financial services industry especially.
3. Think»about»the»space»you»need. A common solution in business continuity planning is to
use ‘hot sites’, particularly to ensure continued access to business-critical information systems. But this may not cover the issue of where all your staff would go.
At one end of the scale, you may just need desks or meeting rooms. At the other end, an organisation with a wide or global footprint needs to replicate that footprint in its planning. You need access at short notice to suitable workspace all over the world – even when many other businesses are scrambling for emergency space. This space should be near to where your staff live. At a time of crisis, a business should not sap staff morale even further by making people travel long distances to a replacement workspace.
4. Look»for»quality»and»capability.»Equally important in workplace recovery planning is to
find space of a consistently high standard. Your back-up space and facilities should be of the same high quality, no matter what country they’re located in.
The capability to manage logistics is also critical. Using a provider that gets people quickly and efficiently into and out of its space week in, week out offers reassurance on this point.
5. »Be»flexible.»With a mobile, flexible workforce, with staff working at different locations close to
their homes or with customers, there is less reliance on centralised locations. With less reliance comes less vulnerability.
With a flexible or mobile workforce, workers no longer have to work in large traditional offices in crowded city centres. Instead, they can use a laptop to work anywhere – at home, in drop-in workspaces, or anywhere else with high-speed internet access. If one of your locations is put out of action by fire, flood, terrorism or another crisis, many workers will be unaffected and can carry on as usual.
Flexible and mobile working has other major benefits too, such as the potential to reduce real estate costs by up to 60%; and the potential to create a more motivated and productive workforce.
6. Be»green.»Traditional working patterns and traditional business continuity solutions can
involve long commutes for employees. But a lengthy journey to a centralised office – or back-up office – does not make environmental sense when people can work flexibly closer to home.
Even less green are the continuity plans that see employees commuting to a centralised pick-up spot, and then being bussed to a back-up location elsewhere. This is bad for employee morale, bad for productivity, and bad for the environment.
Flexible and mobile working – where employees use internet and wireless technology to work across convenient locations closer to home - renders those long commutes unnecessary. It therefore reduces the company’s environmental impact; reduces its vulnerability to site-specific emergencies; and can reduce real-estate costs as well.
As we see it, any solution that addresses three of the great business challenges of the 21st century – sustainability, costs, and business continuity planning – has to be worth considering. HC
About the authorMark Dixon is CEO of the Regus Group
According to Ernst & Young, 34% of companies cite ‘workplace recovery’ as their greatest technical challenge in creating a business plan
disaster
40 www.hcamag.com
OPINION engagement
Staying engaged at work is a daily decision, a mental tug-of-war. Some days are diamonds and other days are… well let’s just say you’d
rather be anywhere than here!But you can improve the odds of staying, and
encourage key members of your team to stay, by following this simple checklist (give yourself a score out of 20 for each item, where 1 is ‘totally unclear’, and 20 is ‘completely clear’):
1. KSA’s: Are you clear about the KSAs (knowledge, skills and abilities) required for
the job? These can change over time or with different assignments. Perhaps you’re feeling out of your depth. What skills are now required to get the job done?
2. Role: Are you expected to do more (or less) than you were before? Work roles can change
shape. New managers or new team members can change the requirements of the job. Do you know how your performance is measured? Some parameters may have changed without your knowledge.
Should I stay or should I
3. Alignment:»Does the job still interest you? Are your motives, values, and beliefs in
alignment with the values and attitudes practised by the organisation? Can you easily reconcile differences between your personal values and the values expected on the job?
4. Reinforcement:»Are you happy with how your performance is rewarded? Not just financially,
but in terms of meeting your needs and interests on the job? What is it that gets you out of bed to come to work? How satisfied do you feel with the work you do and the people you do it with?
5. Progress: Do you get sufficient support at work to help you get the job done, or do
you face constant roadblocks? Do you feel that you’re progressing towards your goals? Are you accomplishing those things that you set out to do?
Now»add»up»you»score.»»»
go?Unsure if you’re in the right job? Peter Webb urges HR professionals and others to complete a simple engagement checklist
41www.hcamag.com
n Only 20% of people like what they do each day
n Our wellbeing recovers more rapidly from the death of a spouse than it does from a sustained period of unemployment
n People who have the opportunity to use their strengths are six times as likely to be engaged in their jobs and more than three times as likely to report having an excellent quality of life
n People who think their manager is ignoring them have a 40% chance that they will be actively disengaged or be filled with hostility towards their job. For employees whose manager focuses on their strengths, the chances of being actively disengaged drop to just 1%
n A study of more than 1,000 Swedish workers found that those who deemed their manager the least competent had a 24% higher risk of developing a serious heart problem. If they had worked for that manager for more than four years, the risk was 39% higher
Fast facts
Does»your»score»tell»you»whether»you»should»»stay»or»go?
A score above 75 suggests this job fits you like a glove. You were born for this!
A score between 60 and 75 suggests you can manage quite well. The good far outweighs the bad.
A score between 45 and 60 suggests it sometimes takes effort to come to work. You can get by. But you would be tempted by a better offer.
A score between 30 and 45 suggests you’re hanging on by your fingernails. Sometimes it’s good, but mostly it’s bad. You’d probably leave if you could.
A score below 30 suggests you’re already out the door. You might be on the payroll but your spirit has left town. It’s time to move on!
Now, what scores do you suspect some of your team members might get if they rated themselves? Are you doing enough to make each of these factors clear to them? Staff engagement is simply balancing performance with satisfaction. HC
About the authorPeter Webb is an organisational and leadership capability psychologist with an applied research focus in the psychology of wisdom. For further information email [email protected] or phone 0419 418 096
OPINION engagement
Source: Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements, Gallup Press
42 www.hcamag.com
CORPORATE HEALTH employee engagement
Human Capital:»One»of»the»five»essential»elements»of»wellbeing»outlined»in»your»book»Well Being: The Five Essential Elements»is»career»wellbeing.»How»does»this»tie»in»with»engagement»at»work?»Are»disengaged»workers»likely»to»also»see»their»health»suffer?TR»&»JH:»There’s a high correlation between wellbeing and engagement. Our research found that people with higher engagement at work have higher career wellbeing. And they have higher wellbeing in other areas too – they tend to be healthier physically, they tend to get more involved in their communities, and they tend to have higher social wellbeing.
Career wellbeing is so fundamental. If it’s not right it drains other areas pretty quickly and those who are thriving in this element are twice as likely as actively disengaged employees to be thriving in their lives overall. In contrast, people in disengaged workgroups are nearly twice as likely to be diagnosed with depression, have higher stress levels, and are at greater risk for heart disease.
HC:»Why»are»engaged»workers»likely»to»be»healthier»and»‘happier’»in»other»parts»of»life?»What»are»the»psychological/mental»benefits»of»being»engaged?»
TR»&»JH: The most underestimated of the wellbeing elements is probably career wellbeing. When you ask people what affects their wellbeing most, they think of health and wealth.
People underestimate how work influences their overall wellbeing and daily experience. In fact, most people perceive their occupation as being a detriment to their overall wellbeing.
Yet when we started to look back through Gallup’s historical research on this topic, we uncovered a book and research study that was written in 1960 by Dr George Gallup called The Secrets of a Long Life. Gallup studied people who lived to be 95 years and older, and one of the things they had in common is the fact that they didn’t retire at age 55 or 60 – they kept working until they were 85 or 90-years-old. And they said they had fun doing what they were doing in their jobs every day. Having a work environment that focuses on engagement will be one that will more likely have more workers who want to come to work every day because it is joy for them.
HC:»Corporate»health»programs»often»focus»just»on»physical»wellbeing»–»how»important»is»it»to»also»consider»mental»wellbeing?»
TR»&»JH:»One cannot focus on just one slice of their overall wellbeing pie. Thriving individuals really need to have all of their wellbeing elements at high levels. Having the opportunity to participate is key but it’s equally important for employees to also have the ability to participate in a full range of wellbeing programs like community volunteering opportunities, financial planning seminars, and even just encouraging on-site socialising events.
HC:»What»responsibility»do»managers»have»for»the»wellbeing»of»employees,»and»how»can»they»improve»the»situation?»TR»&»JH:»Managers have a key responsibility. If you manage people you have a direct impact on the wellbeing of those who report to you and you can no longer view wellbeing as ‘none of your business’. If you strive to help employees improve their wellbeing you are also creating a more engaged employee and in turn improving the financial outcomes of the organisation.
HC:»Can»we»choose»to»be»more»engaged»in»the»workplace»or»is»it»outside»our»control?TR»&»JH:»A great manager can draw the best out of people by making sure their employees are in the right roles, that there are clear and achievable goals and that there is an open and trusting environment. Teams come together for support due to a poor leader or they form in order to spur and encourage positive ideas because of
an inspiring leader. HC
Further informationWellbeing: The Five Essential Elements is available from Gallup Press and all good bookstores
Human Capital talks to New York Times’ best-selling authors Tom Rath and Dr Jim Harter about the ever-expanding role of work in our lives, and how workplace engagement plays a crucial role in personal wellbeing
Working ourselves to death
Tom Rath Dr Jim Harter
44 www.hcamag.com
PROFILE simon cowl
The rightdose
GlaxoSmithKline’s Simon Cowl has produced the right measure of HR intervention for several major projects. He talks to Iain Hopkins
Simon Cowl, Australia/New Zealand HR director at GlaxoSmithKline, started his professional career as a chartered
accountant. Despite a love of numbers and the commercial aspects of accountancy, he quickly realised it wasn’t a good fit. A move to global consultancy Hay Group confirmed his instincts and provided the foundation for solid HR skills, which Cowl has drawn on ever since. “It was at Hay that I first worked out that my professional love was actually looking at how to extract the best from people and how to make organisations really engaging for people to do their best work,” he says.
At Hay, Cowl started in the reward space, looking at reward structures and variable pay, setting long-term incentive plans – both equity and non equity – and linking that back into competency-based models and then into coaching and OD work.
“It was a great start because Hay Group has wonderful models and tools, all Harvard-based research. I was also working across a number of
different sectors, everything from Country Road in fashion through to the mining companies and everything in between – it was fantastic exposure to different approaches to HR,” he says.
From the rewards space, Cowl increasingly moved into behavioural competency areas and leadership capability. A move to beverage giant Fosters resulted in a six-month project role which involved a McKinsey-led back-of-house review, looking at how to reduce costs and organise and streamline support functions.
Further learning opportunities arose when Cowl moved to the general manager for HR position in the sales & marketing division of Fosters just prior to the company’s Southcorp acquisition. “From a sales perspective it was fantastic because we had to consolidate the sales forces of the two organisations as well as the support infrastructure around that, including HR,” he says.
HR was also involved in setting up sales organisations to support a number of categories
45www.hcamag.com
PROFILE simon cowl
46 www.hcamag.com
PROFILE simon cowl
in the beverages market, looking at marketing programs to get traction through that, while also aiming to revitalise certain brands. Cowl says the criticality of where to invest dollars, and getting the right people in the right roles, were two of the biggest challenges of the integration.
The ongoing culture piece was also crucial. Cowl and the executive team had to determine how best to embrace two vastly different cultures, decide what type of ‘new’ culture to create, and then how to prevent one dominant culture totally swallowing the other. “It was fascinating, challenging HR work,” Cowl notes.
HR transformationCowl joined GSK, the world’s second largest pharmaceuticals company, at the start of 2007. In Australia/New Zealand the company employs 1,700 people, operating across three business units: production, manufacturing and commercial. As HR director for Australia/New Zealand, Cowl has a team of 30 HR professionals.
Keeping up Cowl’s career history of tackling challenging HR issues, GSK has recently undergone a significant HR transformation program. The end goal of this global initiative is to simplify the HR function by moving to a truly shared service structure.
“Previously we had a far more embedded focus within each of the business units. So while HR was ingrained across the three business units and we had consistent policies and processes from a general perspective, there was also a level of inconsistency. Access to HR was more dictated by whether they were physically situated near employees rather than any clever organisation on our behalf,” Cowl says.
“What we’ve done in the transformation is set up one shared service shop which supports every employee across Australia/NZ. We set up a hub for HR transaction known as the HR Response Centre. It is based in Melbourne, and all transactional inquiries through all channels – e-mail, intranet, etc – are handled by this team of four. This gives us bench strength and consistency in the way HR is delivered.”
While there are still aligned HR resources – ie, each business unit has their consultants and generalists – they are fewer in number, and there is a reliance on those people to do strategic and business partnering work. “Small but impactful” L&D, OD and total reward teams support the transactional
operators and generalists. A newly established inhouse model for recruitment was the last piece of the puzzle. “We’ve gone down the path of having an inhouse recruitment team to make sure we really proactively manage our critical roles, and also close the time to fill in vacancies.”
Cowl lists this HR transformation program as one of his most satisfying career achievements. “I’ve been immensely proud of how the team managed an HR transformation process while still keeping the eye on the ball with our customers and not dropping service levels. I like to think we looked cool and calm above water and provided seamless HR delivery, but underneath we were paddling very hard. We’re also the first country to go with the new model.”
The EVP at GSKMore broadly, Cowl concedes that GSK’s Melbourne location is both a blessing and a curse. The majority of pharma companies are based close together in the same geographic region of Sydney, where talent poaching is rife. “You can look over the fence and if there’s a more attractive offer you only have to go one kilometre down the road,” Cowl notes.
However, the downside of the Melbourne location is that the local talent pool is very shallow as many people in the sector invariably end up in Sydney.
“It’s a slightly bigger barrier for us in terms of losing and gaining talent, but by and large the pharma industry is like all others – it’s voracious in terms of the war for talent,” Cowl says.
To ensure GSK attracts the best, Cowl and his team work towards the creation of a compelling work environment. The company’s EVP is ‘GSK in Balance’, which relates not just to work-life balance
In his own words…What do you consider to be your greatest career achievement so far?Getting to the HR director position is something I’m really proud of. There are a lot of very talented people working in HR and to get to this director position is something I’ve worked really hard at. A lot of the key projects and initiatives along the way have also been very rewarding – the integration of Southcorp at Fosters, and the transformation of HR at GSK.
What has been the biggest challenge you have faced in your career?Really understanding HR’s place in an organisation and how it creates value. It’s an ongoing challenge but unless you’re adding value and present this strategically and operationally, you’re probably not maximising the benefit your team has.
Age: 41
Family: Beautiful wife Deanne and dog Winnie
Favourite sports: AFL and cycling
Favourite movie or TV: Good News Week and documentaries of any description
Self-described: Fun and insightful – hopefully!
Best advice ever received: Be true to yourself
Hobbies: Photography and travel
First job/worst job: Washing dishes was my first job and it was not my cup of tea
If not in HR: Foreign correspondent
PERSONAL FILE Simon Cowl
47www.hcamag.com
PROFILE simon cowl
but also the give/take relationship between employer and employee. “We expect a lot out of our employees, and in return we give a lot,” Cowl explains. “We have a reasonably compelling reward proposition but we’re not trying to differentiate ourselves on the basis of remuneration. We offer strong community partnerships and personal development programs, and can provide global opportunities. But it’s not just ‘come to GSK and get all this’; rather it’s ‘come to GSK, perform well and the world is your oyster’. Our value proposition is not just one way – ‘in balance’ is truly what we mean.”
Looking forward, looking backLooking back on his career, Cowl feels that the lessons he learned early on as an accountant have been crucial to his HR success. “I really see the value of that now more than ever: to understand how businesses operate, being able to read financial statements, seeing it through commercial eyes,
“I like to think we looked cool and calm above water and provided seamless HR delivery, but underneath we were paddling very hard” – Simon Cowl
understanding the key drivers and how value is created. It means you can sit at the table and have a conversation about the commercial side of the business, rather than just waiting for the people part. I don’t think an HR practitioner can sit at an executive table without that knowledge,” he says.
However, Cowl is adamant that the future of HR is bright. He says the importance of HRM is becoming more and more critical in business not only because of the struggle to attract and maintain talent, but also because of the pressure on organisations to maximise the resources they have on hand – and with margins being tighter than ever this has never been more important.
“The ability to have HR as a competitive advantage is coming to the fore,” Cowl says. “The challenge with that is you have to be able to deliver, to come up with ways of making the organisation really get the full value of its people – that’s easier said than done.” HC
48 www.hcamag.com
TEAMBUILDER lucinda gemmell
This month’s teambuilder profile has just been recognised as one of Australia’s top employers – yet Lucinda Gemmell reveals there’s more to Diageo than great brands
A shot(glass)
of HR brilliance
a clear message to the market that we set a high benchmark and take significant measures to really value our people. Being recognised as a great place to work reinforces our commitment.”
The primary purpose of the annual ‘Great Places to Work’ study is to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and information among all organisations that have a sincere wish to improve the quality of their workplaces.
Gemmell believes the accolade ties in well with the company’s mission, which is to ‘Grow Share & Grow People’. “Our focus on building a great culture and creating the conditions for people to succeed personally and professionally permeates everything we do,” she says.
“As a business, we use many forms of feedback to listen to what our people say and understand how we are going as a business. We constantly look for ways we can improve.”
Gemmell’s role is to lead cultural, personal and professional growth for Diageo Australia and its 550 employees. This involves listening to the feedback from employees and acting on it to ensure the company continuously improves as a great place to work. It also means orchestrating leadership programs and other personal growth opportunities. Gemmell leads the HR team to focus on clear and
Johnnie Walker Scotch whisky. Baileys Irish cream liqueur. Guinness beer. While these are all well known brands, the name Diageo
may be less familiar to the average consumer. Yet this global corporation trades in more than 180 markets around the world and is perhaps the leading premium drinks business in the world. It’s also a recognised best employer.
Despite having so many recognised brands under its umbrella, Diageo is not resting on its laurels when it comes to employee attraction and retention. This year the company has been recognised as a ‘Great Place to Work’ from the Great Place to Work Institute, moving from number four on the list last year to number two this year out of 160 participating companies.
“Many people adore and identify with our consumer brands and we feel a great sense of pride
in what we offer,” confirms Lucinda Gemmell, HR director at Diageo
Australia. “Equally, we’re proud of what we all personally do that contributes to a fantastic culture and great place to work. Having an external body recognise our people and culture in this way is certainly rewarding. It also sends
49www.hcamag.com
TEAMBUILDER lucinda gemmell
50 www.hcamag.com
TEAMBUILDER lucinda gemmell
impactful commercial outcomes for the business. In fiscal year 2010 these were: » we are a great place to work » our diversity and inclusion contributes to our
business performance » reward and policies are celebrated by our people » our leaders enable people to be the best » sales people have the tools and capability to
exceed plan » everything we do is simple and effective.
The HRD role is part of the Diageo Executive team, reporting to the MD as well as HRD for Asia-Pacific in a matrix structure. The HR Business Partner team works with and supports three functional areas within the organisation – Commercial & Marketing, Manufacturing, and Corporate Functions – and there is also an operational hub that provides specialist tools and solutions across the employee population.
EngagementWhile employee engagement is often viewed as the panacea to resolve all tricky HR issues, there’s no denying good engagement levels lead to good business results. It’s something Diageo has placed special emphasis on. “Engagement needs to be led from the top and be practised through the business by everyone, every day, in everything we do. It’s not just a box that managers tick once a year,” says Gemmell. “We’re an energetic, optimistic and resilient group of individuals, who want to make the most out of every day – this is our culture.”
Diageo engagement spikes in several key areas, which Gemmell outlines here: Recognition: We use a variety of ways to recognise and thank our people to show how much we value them, such as bringing in Three Minute Angels to provide massages, holding annual awards that celebrate people for living the values of our company, and offering a substantial amount of money to spend on life balance or professional development. Communication:»We encourage a culture that is based on open, honest communication. That starts with our managing director and is carried across the entire business. We also encourage people to give feedback regularly. This also builds great relationships. Community/charity:»Our people tell us they love the contribution the company makes to the community in times of need (eg, Victorian bushfires)
and the support we give to charities. For example, we match dollar for dollar every employee’s contribution to a number of chosen charities. Development: We have a strong development program that taps into people’s hopes and aspirations. We leverage individual strengths and find ways to truly ‘release potential’ at work, encouraging a sense that work has more meaning for our people – it’s not just a job. We also encourage our people to make the most of flexible working practices to encourage better life balance. Environmental»responsibility:»We have a strong commitment to caring for the environment, through zero waste to landfill goals, and water efficiency programs, which is something our people tell us they are extremely proud of.
Another accolade has recently come Diageo’s way. The company took out a Gold ranking in the annual Corporate Responsibility Index from the St James Ethics Centre, which is an independent measure of the impact that companies have on the environment and on society. While this is especially important for a producer of alcoholic beverages, Gemmell sees corporate responsibility and Diageo’s commitment to responsible drinking as a natural fit for the company’s aim to be a leader in everything it does.
TeambuildingDiageo is very much an advocate of ‘authentic leadership’, of having business leaders being very visible among employees, connecting with everyone. Once a year the executive team leads a ‘Roadshow’ event across the company where all employees come together to celebrate achievements and connect and align behind the company mission for the year.
In terms of employee incentives, SODAs (Spirit of Diageo Awards) are an annual reward & recognition program that celebrates individuals and teams for significant achievements. Bonuses are also based on individual and company performance.
“Creating the right culture and being a great place to work allows us to better cope with challenging market conditions.”
It’s also about sustainable growth, with HR finding ways to be simple yet effective in everything they do. “We have a culture of high energy and achievement. As a result, we sometimes want to do it all and do it right now. But staying focused and clear on a few initiatives is something we always aim to do,” Gemmell concludes. HC
“Engagement needs to be led from the top and be practised through the business by everyone, every day, in everything we do. It’s not just a box that managers tick once a year” – Lucinda Gemmell
51www.hcamag.com
TEAMBUILDER lucinda gemmell
HOW TO REGISTERVisit: www.albmasterclass.com
(use promotion code “HC”)
Phone: (02) 8437 4726 E-mail: [email protected]
EXCLUSIVE HC SUBSCRIBER OFFER: MENTION THIS AD AND SAVE 10%
TEAM DISCOUNT: REGISTER 3 DELEGATES AND THE 4th ATTENDS FREE!
TOPIC HIGHLIGHTS• ComplyingwithMODERNAWARDStransitionalprovisions• PreparingfortheNATIONALPAIDPARENTALLEAVESCHEME• UnderstandingEXECUTIVEREMUNERATION,terminationandpost-employmentrestraints• ExaminingprotectionofWORKPLACERIGHTSandyourrole• ExploringEQUALOPPORTUNITYandcomplaintinvestigationissues• FindingoutmoreaboutOH&SHARMONISATIONandwhatitmeans• FocusingontheFAIRWORKOMBUDSMANinvestigation&prosecutionprocess
Register now to get up to date on the changing landscape of Australian employee and workplace relations.
Workshop runs from 8:30am-4:30pm
Melbourne: 15 September 2010
Sydney: 22 September 2010
Brisbane: 18 November 2010
Employee & Workplace Relations MASTERCLASS 2010Proudly supported by
Organised byOfficial publicationOfficial online partner Supported by
EmploymentLawMC_HC809.indd 1 20/07/2010 11:54:56 AM
52 www.hcamag.com
IN BRIEF australian news
Parents finally get paid leave The federal government will launch the country’s first national Paid Parental Leave scheme from January 2011.
Australian citizens or permanent residents will be eligible if they are the mother of a newborn child or initial primary carer of a recently adopted child; and have an individual annual income of $150,000 or less. The leave will be available for all workers, including full-time, part-time, seasonal and casual workers, contractors, the self-employed, and people who have had multiple employers.
The paid leave will be funded by the federal government but delivered through employers. The government will pay the employer upfront, and the employer will then make the leave payments to the employee. Parents will also continue to be eligible to receive paid parental leave from their employer. The government-funded leave can be taken in conjunction with, or in addition to, paid leave provided by their employer.
Employees can lodge a claim up to three months before the expected date of birth or adoption, with the first claims able to be lodged from 1 October 2010. It is estimated that employers will offer (with government assistance) the leave to 88,000 eligible employees each year.
Demand for project workers surges The aftermath of the GFC has created job opportunities for project professionals, with 57% reporting a greater demand for their services in the past year, compared to 78% reporting less demand in 2009, according to the results of a national survey.
The annual survey by Resources Global Professionals indicated consultants who work on a project basis were particularly in demand for process improvement projects – in 2009 it was business transformation and efficiency projects that were the most popular.
The global professional services firm surveyed its Australian senior consultants who work on a project basis on client projects in accounting and finance, risk management/internal audit, information management and human capital.
The three key reasons clients hired project professionals in 2010 were to compensate for lack of in-house expertise (53%, up from 40% last year); lack of available staff to execute projects (43%, up from 40%); and for interim/backfill tasks (20%, up from 16%).
Gen Y dictating workplace policiesA national survey of salary and human resources trends has revealed. employers are continuing to place the demands of younger Generation Y workers ahead of the needs of older staff, even in the face of mounting evidence of an ageing workforce.
The Australian Institute of Management’s (AIM) National Salary Survey 2010 highlights that the average age of the workforce increased in 44.8% of large companies (up from 39.9% in the previous year).
However, only 6.8% of large companies made any changes to their company policies regarding the employment of older workers over the past 2–3 years.This is in sharp contrast to the 9.1% of large companies that were happy to revise their policies to accommodate Generation Y workers.
The survey indicated the company policy that was most commonly changed to accommodate Generation Y was the availability of flexible working hours, followed by performance, training and career development plans.
Tech disconnect: the impact of consumer IT in the workplaceNew research sponsored by Unisys and conducted by International Data Corp. (IDC) shows that consumer technology, such as smartphones, netbooks and social networking sites is used increasingly in the Australian workplace.
The “Consumerisation of IT” research shows that the vast majority of Australian employees (97%) use at least one self-purchased technology device in the course of their work.
It found that iPhones and PDAs are more often purchased personally by the employee, whereas Blackberry smartphones are more often paid for by the employer. Only 30% of Australian employers say they allow access to corporate applications via a smartphone, which is lower than the corresponding global result (48%). Confusion reigns over what technology is used in the office: 80% of employees say they use VoIP whereas organisations estimated only 55% of employees used it, and 25% of employees say they use a smartphone while organisations estimated only 13% of employees use one.
Fast fact: According to Randstad’s Q2 Workmonitor Report, 39% of people still receive work e-mails/calls while on annual leave and 62% are busier before or after a leave day
IN BRIEF international news
53www.hcamag.com
Chinese soldiers are not allowed to blog. The People’s Liberation Army
(PLA) has banned its 2.3 million soldiers from maintaining personal web blogs and websites to protect
them from “online traps” and ensure data confidentiality.
New Zealand: ‘Lim Eu Jin’ or ‘Eugene Lim’? What’s in a name? The ability to get a job, according to NZ immigrants. The Auckland Regional Migrant Services (ARMS) has acknowledged that changing names on résumés is both legal and common, but has stopped short of openly advocating the practice of translating names into English.
Lawton Hakaraia, HR manager for the association, says the practice is a legitimate way of helping applicants to be judged fairly. “It is imperative that New Zealand employers assess these (candidates) on their merits and the content of their résumés, without discrimination based on applicants’ names,” she said. “Its (anglicising names) sole aim is to give simplicity and to make the names easier to pronounce.”
Hakaraia called on employers to embrace diversity, noting that this will be critical in stemming the country’s skills shortage.
UK: men miss out Male graduates in the UK are finding it harder to land a job than their female counterparts, a report by the Higher Education Policy Institute found.
In December last year 17.2% of young men were found to be jobless after completing university, compared with 11.2% of young women.
Unemployment among graduates aged below 24 increased by 25% from 11.1% in December 2008, to 14% in December 2009. At present, men hold just 44% of graduate jobs despite making up half of the graduate population, the report said.
The research pointed to laziness and “general hopelessness” as the main reason for this disparity. Women candidates were found to be more mature and focused in the eyes of employers.
However, the report said that while it was harder for men to find jobs, they still earned higher salaries than women once they started work.
Hong Kong: gaol threatLegal experts have warned errant employers that shortcuts could lead to criminal prosecutions and gaol time. Two recent cases reveal a new willingness to apply maximum penalties to those employers who short-change their staff or delay their wages.
In the first case, directors of an employing company were sentenced to six weeks in prison after failing to pay around HK$37,450 (US$4,800) in wages to one staff member. Another case saw the person-in-charge of an employing company receive a four-month sentence (suspended for 18 months) for failing to pay around HK$177,000 (US$22,700) to five employees.
Sections 23 and 25 of the Employment Ordinance demands that employers pay wages within seven days of the wage period in question, or the date an employment contract was terminated.
Japan: land of the rising ... unemployment rate Japan’s unemployment rate rose to 5.2% in May, up 0.1% from April and exceeding a median market forecast of 5.0%, a report by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said. This marks the third straight month the rate has increased.
The number of jobless remains unchanged from the previous year at 3.47 million, the Ministry said. However, numbers of job openings for those seeking employment improved in May, as the ratio of job offers to jobseekers went up to 0.50 from 0.48 in April. This exceeded economists’ predictions for a 0.49 ratio.
The results are indicative of Japan’s fragile economy, as the export boom has been slow to translate into sustained improvements for workers and families.
54 www.hcamag.com
IN BRIEF workplace law
Each month Greg Robertson, general counsel, Harmers Workplace Lawyers, brings you a summary of the significant IR/workplace law tribunal and court case precedents & findings
Legal representation or not?At least four decisions of Fair Work Australia in this period dealt with the vexed question of whether employers should be allowed legal representation. The Fair Work Act generally only allows a party to be legally represented if Fair Work gives permission, restricted to areas of efficiency and fairness. In each case, however, permission was granted and the reasoning is instructive, as the issue is likely to continue to be significant. The decisions were made in the mining industry, where one could expect the employers to be reasonably capable of fielding experienced human resources personnel. Nevertheless, in two decisions on 1 July 2010, concerning Austar Coal Mining Pty Ltd, Commissioner Stanton accepted company evidence that the employer’s HR Coordinator, on maternity leave, had no advocacy training or experience before the courts or tribunals, nor did her assistant. While the union advocate was not legally represented, he had 20 years’ advocacy experience across a wide range of industrial issues, including unfair dismissal proceedings in the coal industry. A few days later, the same Commissioner came to the same conclusion (Lawrence v Coal & Allied Mining), even though the employer (with 1,500 staff) was a subsidiary of Rio Tinto. Evidence was again brought that HR staff were not legally qualified or experienced in cross-examination or workplace advocacy. The union brought evidence that the company employed lawyers with IR expertise, including a former Freehills partner and a lawyer who had had his own employment law practice.
Consult or face consequencesThe Fair Work Act and some other industrial instruments contain obligations in certain circumstances to consult employees or their unions. While Fair Work Australia has shown it is prepared to make orders to ensure consultation occurs (Independent Education Union of Australia v Mowbray College), the Federal Court has gone much further, imposing penalties totalling $660,000 for failing to consult five unions representing rail employees affected by a planned privatisation (QLD Railways).
Reverse onusA number of industrial provisions provide for “reverse onus” — that is, the employer bears the onus for proving a dismissal was not motivated for a reason
which the relevant statute prohibits. In Stevenson v Murdoch Community Services, Justice Gordon set out the relevant principles before finding that the employer had failed to satisfy the onus in relation to some of the issues (refusing reinstatement but ordering compensation of six months and a penalty of $7,500). The Court saw the steps as: (1) where there is an allegation of termination of employment for a proscribed reason it is sufficient for it to be presumed that the conduct was engaged in for that reason unless the employer proves to the contrary; (2) notwithstanding that, an applicant must prove the existence of objective facts which the applicant contends provide a basis for the respondents’ contravening conduct; and (3) if the applicant proves those facts and alleges that the conduct was carried out for a prohibited reason, then the onus shifts to the respondent to prove, on the balance of probabilities that it was not motivated by a proscribed reason. In Carr v Blade Repairs, Justice Tracey was faced with two very different accounts about what was said to be the reason for dismissal. However, as the company failed to establish a defence as required under the reverse onus provisions, the Court found in favour of the employee, ordering the company to pay almost $25,000 in compensation and a penalty of $1,000.
Adverse actionThere are signs that the Fair Work Act’s “adverse action” provisions are going to be a fertile field for litigation. In AFMEPKIU v Phillips Engineering, the Federal Court granted an interim order reinstating a worker where there was prima facie evidence of “adverse action” in the form of retaliation for being the representative of employees in enterprise agreement negotiations. It is certain that many more adverse action decisions will follow.
Before Fair Work AustraliaFair Work Australia continues to deal with a significant number of decisions concerning applications for reinstatement to employment or compensation for loss of employment. It is interesting that there were a cluster of decisions about applications filed out of time: it is often worth the employer’s effort to contest applications on this ground, provided the employer ensures the employee is properly informed of the decision to terminate. The first applications for variation of the modern awards are now being decided eg, Manufacturing and Associated Industries Award (25 June), the Local Government Industry Award (29 June), and the General Retail Industry Award (9 July).
Failure to comply with the technical requirements of the Fair Work Act continues to see the tribunal reject agreements. One cannot stress too highly the need to follow the legislation!
For further informationcontact Greg Robertson on (02) 9267 4322 or e-mail: [email protected]
THE BACK PAGE compiled by James Adonis
55www.hcamag.com
5 minutes with... James Allt-Graham – KPMGNational managing partner: people, performance & culture
What’s the greatest HR lesson you’ve learned so far?Don’t jump to conclusions! It’s really important to ensure that you gather all the relevant facts before making decisions. Often there are widely differing perspectives on any given issue and it’s critical to capture these, and understand the views and reasons for them, before recommending actions. This helps build trust in the function and ensures appropriate professional standards are maintained.
What’s your favourite people-management tip?Hire the most talented people and don’t lower your standards. Organisations made up of talented people are best positioned to be successful.
What career advice do you have for ambitious HR professionals?People with a range of strong technical and general experiences are often the most effective in managing HR teams. Seek opportunities to build strong technical skills (eg, IR, Health & Safety, L&D).
What’s the main challenge facing the HR industry right now?Flexibility and responsiveness. HR functions – like many other areas – were negatively impacted by the GFC. Our ability to respond to a heating employment market and increased employee expectations, while simultaneously balancing more moderate profitability and limited resources in HR, is quite challenging.
How should HR professionals overcome that challenge?Reallocate resources including upskilling/cross training key people (where skill gaps exist) and do more with less as businesses and the economy emerge through this period of uncertainty. Maintaining a positive disposition, being circumspect of short-term shocks (such as market movements) and sticking to an agenda that will build talent within the organisation will be key elements of medium-term success.
Quote of the month
n 20% of employees are too scared to take a break because they think it’ll disappoint their boss Source: Kit Kat
n One-fifth of workers have thought about resigning during the past six months due to an inadequate work-life balance Source: Diversity Council
Australia
n 65% of workers feel their workload has increased during the past three months Source: Randstad
n Presenteeism cost the economy $25.7bn in 2005/06Source: Medibank Private
Can you believe it?Legislators in an American town called Nottingham voted in June to allow employees to bring their guns to work. Despite an online poll showing that 73% of people support the move, the decision was reversed in July due to public outrage.
“Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall” – Stephen R Covey
