Human Resources - Summer 2019 (Vol 24: No 4) - HR and the future of work!

New Zealand’s Magazine for Human Resources Professionals

Summer 2019

HR and the future of work!

PLUS: HRNZ Summit Review Work in Sync How Your Staff Could Help to Cut Your Business Emissions HR in an Agile World

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INSIDE THIS ISSUE 2

From the HRNZ Chief Executive Top of mind. Nick McKissack

3

From the Editor Kathy Catton

Features 6

HR and the Future of Work An insight into emerging trends in the workplace – Gihan Perera

14

Work in Sync Why the way we work matters to our wellbeing – Lauren Parsons

32

Leadership Insights Chris O’Reilly looks at the death of command and control

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HR Professionals Lisa Oakley summarises her thoughts on creating a safety cu lture

42 Productivity Daniel Baun

Regulars 4

News Roundup

12

HRNZ Member Profiles Marcus Waters and Rachael Trimble

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Employment Law Sarah Cates

36

Get Chartered

37

PD Programme

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Professional Development Spotlight Cheryl Tansey

48

Regional Roundup Kerry Tattersall

49

Student Perspective Josh Winter

Insights

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Research Update Nick McKissack

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Learning and Development Corporate learning versus formal education – Angela Bingham

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Am I Managing?

Natalie Barker

30

Immigration Law update Rachel Mason

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HRNZ Summit Kathy Catton reviews HRNZ’s Queenstown Summit on the vision for the future of HR

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Neonatal Trust Easing the return to work

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Human Nature Making sense of change – Bernie White

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How Your Staff Could Help to Cut Your Business Emissions Kate Ferguson shares valuable tools for reducing your carbon footprint.

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Developing Current Talent into Future Talent Aenslee Tanner explores the ways to develop talent

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FROM THE HRNZ CHIEF EXECUTIVE

Top of mind...

Nick McKissack is Chief Executive of HRNZ. Nick is passionate about people development and sharing the success of members and organisations leading the HR profession in New Zealand.

"You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say we will never forgive you. We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not."

J

ust a snippet of Greta Thunberg’s speech to the UN. She has a powerful message, and within it is a call across generations for rapid and substantial change.

Greta Thunberg is a strangely polarising character. Her call for change makes a lot of people feel pretty uncomfortable. Which, of course, is her intention. I have a feeling there are a lot of us who need to get used to these feelings of discomfort and the idea of making fundamental changes to the way we live.

I had similar feelings when the Extinction Rebellion protests were happening in Wellington. I resented the disruption and the ‘in your face’ nature of the protesting, but, on another level, I completely understood why they were taking this approach.

A whole generation is emerging that believes in activism and is prepared to make a stand for the things that matter to them. Climate change is

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absolutely one of those issues that matter.

When it comes to the issue of climate change, there seem to be three different camps. There are those who whole-heartedly believe we are facing a crisis and are prepared to take action – the Greta Thunberg’s of this world. We also have the climate change deniers who claim it’s all ‘fake news’. Finally, we have those who kind of believe it but either can’t see how they can make a difference or prefer to avoid the issue because they fear the personal sacrifices they might have to make.

We are increasingly going to see a collision of these three perspectives in all areas of society, and our workplaces are no exception.

There are some serious realities for all employers who will be faced with both consumer activism and employees who put increasing pressure on their employers to adopt sustainable business models.

For HR professionals, now is the time to start leading change in their workplaces towards sustainable business practices. This isn’t about ticking boxes to satisfy the ‘greenies’; it’s about fundamental and difficult change. It will get personal.

HR people are used to driving change and are often called upon when the change is hard, but the drive for sustainability is going to

be different. This will be a change driven by the people, which will place pressure on those with the most to ‘lose’ to make transformative changes to their business models. If ever there was a time for HR to take that seat at the table and contribute to the solutions we need, then that time is now.

I guess the first step we each need to take is to decide which camp we’re in: are we the activist, the denier or the avoider? Once we’ve decided that, we need to determine whether we believe we can make a difference. One thing’s for sure, the first steps to failure will be to decide you can’t make a difference and then do nothing. I think Greta is asking us to decide that we can make a difference. I’m in.

Nick McKissack Chief Executive HRNZ

MANAGING EDITOR Kathy Catton Ph: 021 0650 959 Email: kathy.catton@hrnz.org.nz

From the Editor W

e have reached that time of year when the pace of life ramps up another notch. On the horizon, you might catch a glimpse of your annual holiday, but mostly we are consumed with Christmas festivities, secret Santas, and ensuring employees have a safe and enjoyable Christmas party. One thing is for sure, we are just weeks away from 2020, and most of us are wondering how the year passed so fast.

It’s fair to say that the future is upon us before we can take a second look. This issue of Human Resources magazine explores the future of work and the role HR can play in this evolving world.

As we heard at the HR Summit in Queenstown at the end of October (featured on page 20), HR has an excellent opportunity to be at the forefront of bold, progressive business decisions. With a focus on the ‘H’ in HR, the summit helped over 65 HR professionals build a practical vision for the future of HR. We share insights here.

In addition, we are lucky enough to have Gihan Perera, futurist and consultant, share his thoughts and research on the future of the workplace (page 6). And, because our lives are always changing, we have two new columns in this issue. At HRNZ, we are committed to supporting charities and will feature a different one in each issue,

focusing on an HR topic. This issue is the turn of The Neonatal Trust, and how it supports parents’ return to the workplace after the birth of a premature baby.

More and more operational managers and leaders are reading our magazine. So, to appeal to this changing readership, we are running a regular column, titled ‘Am I Managing?’, which offers a lighthearted look at real, everyday HR challenges that line managers are facing. Thanks to Natalie Barker of Southern Cross Health Insurance for providing her delightful spin on the world of HR. As hectic and harried as preChristmas is, I hope you find a quiet moment to put your feet up and enjoy this read. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the HRNZ team. We look forward to seeing you next year.

ADVERTISING & SPONSORSHIP Steve Sheppard Ph: 04 802 3954 Email: steve.sheppard@hrnz.org.nz DESIGN Selena Henry, Crux Design Ph: 022 417 6622 SUBSCRIPTIONS New Zealand: $150 for four issues, including GST. Overseas: NZ$200, including airmail postage.

SUBSCRIPTION ENQUIRIES Email comms@hrnz.org.nz PUBLISHER Human Resources is published quarterly

by Human Resources New Zealand PO Box 11-450, Wellington Ph: 0800 247 469 comms@hrnz.org.nz www.hrnz.org.nz Twitter: www.twitter.com/hrnz www.linkedin.com/company/hrnz The views expressed in Human Resources are not necessarily those of Human Resources New Zealand, nor does the advertisement of any product or service in this magazine imply endorsement of it by Human Resources New Zealand.

Copyright © Human Resources New Zealand Inc.

Volume 25 No 4

ISSN 1173–7522

Kathy Catton Managing Editor kathy.catton@hrnz.org.nz

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NEWS ROUNDUP

Winning workplaces for women

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our of New Zealand’s leading employers and one outstanding individual were named as the winners of the sixth annual YWCA Equal Pay Awards at a celebratory function in Auckland on 12 November.

and Culture, Shaun Philp, said that the company’s success in designing and implementing flexible work and a zero pay gap strategy reflects a whole organisation commitment. “The Chorus Board and Executive team fundamentally believe that gender pay equity is a central principle to our broader belonging strategy, which is why we’ve taken an active approach to managing gender-equal pay,” he said.

Gender pay equity is a central tenet to our broader belonging strategy.

Chorus and She Sharp founder, Dr Mahsa Mohaghegh, were both recognised as champions of equal pay in the 2019 Awards, which acknowledge best practice in creating gender-equal workplaces.

“We subscribe to the philosophy that equal pay is a social justice and an important economic issue. The focus on gender balance across Chorus (and, in turn, pay equity) has benefited all our employees and the workplace in several ways. It is hugely satisfying internally, from a leadership and People and Culture team perspective, to see the progress we are making – it’s important we now take a role in the wider business community and share what we are doing to support others also to make progress,” Philp added.

The judging panel was very impressed with Chorus’s internal and external communications, which include publishing its gender pay data in its 2019 Annual Report.

Judging panellist, Kirsten Patterson, Chief Executive of the Institute of Directors, described the Chorus entry as a holistic programme that has achieved tangible results across the organisation.

The Supreme Award has been won

by Chorus, which also took the Leadership and Progressive awards.

Chorus General Manager for People 4

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“Chorus has set a well-defined strategy and is making significant and meaningful progress against the objectives in a measured and transparent way. The Board level leadership for their gender pay

journey is commendable, and their transparency by providing genderequal pay data in their annual report is an encouraging trend many other organisations could similarly adopt,” she said.

Companies that have diversity at the Board level do better than those that don’t.

Workplace Programme Lead of The Y Auckland, Zoe Brownlie, said that the awards play a critical part in closing New Zealand’s gender pay gap.

“Some companies are making great progress in this area – they know that embracing diversity – including attracting and retaining a range of women in the workforce – pays dividends to their bottom line. We also know that companies that have diversity at the Board level do better than those that don’t. Over the past six years, we have seen a rise in companies addressing their gender pay gap and the number of new entrants and new sectors represented in 2019 is proof of this,” she said.

YWCA Auckland (The Y) is a charitable organisation with a heritage of providing free community programmes in Auckland for more than 132 years. The Y is part of the world’s largest women’s organisation, a global network of 25 million women leading social and economic change in more than 100 countries worldwide.

The Champion Award, which recognises an outstanding individual driving equal pay in an organisation, was awarded to AUT Senior Lecturer, Computer Engineer and Founder of She Sharp, Dr Mahsa Mohaghegh.

Her work addressing the gender imbalance in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) field and raising awareness of the

importance and value of diversity and equality in technology has affected thousands. She founded She Sharp as a non-profit women’s networking group in 2014 to provide encouragement, support and learning for women in the STEM field, and those considering joining it. She Sharp runs eight to ten networking and development events each year for high school girls, female tertiary students and professionals from within the industry.

The On the Journey Award was won by Xero, which entered the awards for the first time. Judges praised its rigorous and scientific mindset in addressing gender pay equity and noted the employee feedback channels were being effectively used to refine and improve its remuneration framework. The judging panel commented that it’s no surprise Xero dominates the Cloud accounting landscape.

Waikato-based Wintec won the Innovation Award with its Wintec Industry Sharing Experience (WISE) programme, which lets staff and students form valuable partnerships with employers through both industry secondments and industry teaching partnerships. Judge Rob

Campbell described Wintec’s entry as an excellent public sector corporate initiative that reflects sound organisational strategy and passion from those delivering.

Auckland Council‘s Kia Puawai initiative demonstrated the wider social impact of the Council’s commitment to improving employment outcomes in South Auckland and won it the Community Award. Its customer services department initiated a highly successful partnership with Work and Income Manukau and the Solomon Group to bring local unemployed people into its contact centre workforce. Judges applauded the programme as a significant stepchange in how women in South Auckland are supported to enter (or re-enter) the workforce and improve the financial position of their families.

On 3 September 2019, Statistics New Zealand announced that the official gender pay gap was 9.3 per cent.

This is the third-smallest gap since the series began 20 years ago. In comparison, the gender pay gap was 9.1 per cent in 2012 (the lowest on record) and 9.2 per cent in 2018.

While the gap has closed over the

past 20 years, on average, women in New Zealand are still paid less for an hour’s work than men.

PepsiCo New Zealand, maker of Bluebird snacks and global snack brands, Doritos and PepsiMax, has been accredited to the YWCA Auckland’s Gender Tick programme, joining other leading Kiwi companies that rank among the best places for women to work. At PepsiCo New Zealand, 50 per cent of the New Zealand leadership team are women, and 52 per cent of the manufacturing team are women.

Ali Hamza, General Manager of PepsiCo New Zealand, said, “We are delighted to receive this accreditation, to be joining a programme that is focused on promoting gender equality”. Mr Hamza says the company strategy includes 100 per cent pay equity, flexible work practices and 16 weeks’ paid parental leave in addition to the government paid parental leave.

The company is also a member of Diversity Works New Zealand.

We subscribe to the philosophy that equal pay is a social justice and an important economic issue.

Bluebird Office staff

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THE FUTURE OF WORK GIHAN PERERA

HR and the future of work. You've got this!

By Gihan Perera

Business futurist, Gihan Perera, takes an in-depth look at the emerging trends facing many organisations today and what we, as HR professionals, can do about them.

W

hen Steven Hankin of McKinsey & Company consulting firm, coined the phrase “the war for talent” in 1997, the USA was enjoying strong economic growth, and the best employees could take their pick of places to work.

Today, we have a new war for talent, as organisations face a faster, more volatile and less certain future.

Technology, globalisation, and generational shifts are changing the very nature of work, and the power has shifted again to the best employees – as the evidence shows: • finding high-quality talent is the top challenge for HR leaders in 2019 (XpertHR) • nearly half (45 per cent) of employers are experiencing difficulty filling open positions (Manpower) • eighty-three per cent of leaders ranked ‘attracting skilled resources’ as a top-three concern (Deloitte).

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In this environment, the role of HR has never been as important. In high-performance organisations, the HR function plays a vital role in understanding the future of work and advising the rest of the organisation.

Here are four main trends facing many organisations now and how HR professionals can take a proactive role in facilitating change.

The role of HR has never been as important.

Flexible work

For the past 200 years, the office has been the workplace of choice for knowledge workers. Everybody in a team came to the same office at the same time to work the same hours every day. It was not just more comfortable, it was essential for getting work done. The office was where the files were stored, the secretarial staff were available, the meetings were held and so on.

Technology has removed many of those restrictions, and employees everywhere want to choose when, where and how they work.

• Seventy-five per cent of UK employees want more workplace flexibility (Powwownow).

• Forty-seven per cent of Australians would accept a pay cut in return

for being able to work from home sometimes (Robert Half).

• Fifty-three per cent of employees already work away from the office for more than half their week (International Workplace Group).

In survey after survey, flexible work consistently tops the list of employee perks – to the point where it’s no longer considered a ‘perk’ but a basic expectation of the workplace.

This is even stronger with younger people: 50 per cent of Generation Y (millennials) and 44 per cent of Generation Z consider workplace flexibility “very important” in choosing where to work (2018 Deloitte Millennial Survey).

Flexible work consistently tops the list of employee perks – to the point where it’s no longer considered a ‘perk’ but a basic expectation of the workplace.

This shift has important implications for HR professionals who have to manage the change across the entire organisation, including recruitment, employment contracts, technology infrastructure, occupational health and safety, fairness and equal access,

and performance management, to name a few.

HR will also shoulder the responsibility to anticipate and prevent potential problems before they occur. As just one example, although many Australians want more flexible work (as noted above), Mercer reports that 36 per cent of Australian workers worry that flexible work affects their promotion opportunities. Whether or not this is the case (and it undoubtedly is in some cases), the perception of bias creates a potential risk for the organisation, especially if HR hasn’t anticipated this risk.

Brand resonance

In its latest Global Talent Trends Survey, Mercer identified four main trends from leading organisations in 2019. One of them is building brand resonance. The best organisations not only create a marketing brand to attract customers but also a Talent Value Proposition (TVP) to attract the best employees.

the way that is expressed externally through the TVP.

HR is not only responsible for the employee experience internally but also for the way that is expressed externally.

For example, according to the Center for Generational Kinetics, Generation Z’s platform of choice for learning about a company is not Glassdoor or LinkedIn, but YouTube!

Many HR professionals would never have considered YouTube as a recruitment tool, let alone understood how to leverage it as part of their talent strategy.

This example also highlights the complexity of this new role. Just because those in Generation Z resonate with YouTube, it clearly isn’t a priority for other generations.

And this goes beyond generations: How do you connect with women, minorities, contingent workers and so on? Mercer reported that more than two-thirds of high-growth organisations customise their TVP for various groups – significantly higher than the proportion of modest-growth companies that do the same.

Active learning

Just as the go-to workplace of the past was the office, the go-to learning and development (L&D) skills

This is a new idea for many organisations, but with increasing transparency through sites like Glassdoor and social media in general, it’s becoming a vital part of the HR function. It means HR is not only responsible for the employee experience internally but also for

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THE FUTURE OF WORK GIHAN PERERA

development tool of the past was the training room, and for the same reason: efficiency. The traditional training course still has its place, but technology and distributed teams mean other options are now also gaining prominence.

E-learning is growing in popularity, with ATD and the Institute for Corporate Productivity reporting high-performance organisations are investing heavily in e-learning resources. By their estimates, half of these organisations will have most of their learning assets available as e-learning by 2022.

But active learning in the workplace – far more critical in our fast-changing world than ever before – goes beyond digital strategies.

Mentoring programmes are becoming more popular, and with proven results, not only in accelerating the experience curve but in attracting and keeping talent.

For example, Sun Microsystems reported these positive results from its mentoring programme:

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• retention rates were significantly higher for mentorees (72 per cent) and for mentors (69 per cent) than for employees who didn’t participate • mentorees were five times more likely to earn more than their peers • mentorees were promoted five times more than those not in the programme, and mentors six times more.

Another small but growing area of development is reverse mentoring, which turns the traditional mentoring idea on its head. Instead of the more experienced person being the mentor, the more junior person takes on that role – sharing their unique perspectives, experience and expertise.

The Hartford, a financial services group in the USA, leveraged the power of reverse mentoring to reach a new kind of customer, understand the modern workforce and improve its bottom line. Across the organisation, 50 mentoring pairs

participated in the programme, and they achieved outstanding results: • ninety-seven per cent of the mentorees (the senior people, remember) rated it extremely effective for their personal development • just as importantly, 11 of the 12 mentors (the more junior people) in the project’s first wave were promoted within a year • the business implemented new practices that saved time and money, increased social media engagement and boosted internal knowledge within teams.

Unfortunately, many organisations are slow to invest in new L&D initiatives, and it’s already hurting their talent attraction and retention. For example, almost half of Generation Z learners prefer an entirely self-directed and independent approach to learning.

Still, only 20 per cent of L&D and HR leaders reported that they plan to offer this level of self-direction (LinkedIn Learning).

High-performance organisations are investing heavily in e-learning resources.

Artificial intelligence

Of course, no conversation about the future of work is complete without touching on AI. Every indicator shows the integration of AI in the workplace is growing and growing rapidly: • eighty-five per cent of executives believe AI can help them gain a competitive advantage (MIT Sloan Management Review) • employer demand for AI-related roles has more than doubled over the past three years (Indeed) • eighty-two per cent of leaders expect their employees and machines to work as “integrated teams” within the next few years (Dell).

AI is already spreading through workplaces, for example: • AI chatbots answer customer service queries • AI assistants schedule meetings and appointments • AI lawyers read and interpret complex contracts • AI analyses emotions and sentiments in social media posts • AI coaches listen to sales calls to help salespeople improve their skills.

Employee reaction to AI is mixed.

According to MetLife’s 16th Annual US Employee Benefit Trends Study, 56 per cent of (American) employees were positive and optimistic about AI. On the flip side, ‘robophobia’ – the fear of AI, automation and related technology – is real, mainly because AI is so new that nobody really knows how it will affect people and workplaces.

Yet again, HR professionals will be responsible for a smooth transition to integrating AI into their workplaces.

Given the uncertainty about how this will play out, it’s a challenging

task but not an impossible one. For starters, HR professionals can take a proactive approach and embrace AI themselves, rather than taking a hands-off approach and hoping they can react appropriately to problems when they occur. Forwardthinking HR leaders are already using AI for recruitment (screening), onboarding, training and retention (early warning signs of potential employee ‘flight risk’).

What is your role in the future of work?

In this time of massive change in the way work works, HR can play a pivotal role – but only if HR professionals grasp the opportunities.

For all the talk about disruption and innovation, they are both about

change. It’s disruption when it happens to you and innovation when you do it yourself. It’s up to each of us to take the lead, so you futureproof your teams and organisations, and your careers.

HR professionals will be responsible for a smooth transition to integrating AI into their workplaces.

Gihan Perera is a business futurist, speaker and author who works with business leaders to help them lead and succeed in an uncertain but exciting future.

He is the author of The Future of Leadership and Disruption By Design. For more, see GihanPerera.com.

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HRNZ MEMBER PROFILES

Marcus Waters

Marcus has recently been appointed HRNZ Board Director. We caught up with him and learnt a little more about the wonderful world of Antarctica and solving people problems!

1. What do you do in your current role to help your organisation be successful?

I have just started a new role as General Manager of Commercial and Partnerships at the Antarctic Heritage Trust. The role is about growing the Trust’s Inspiring Explorers development programme and sourcing funding streams. Inspiring Explorers is about using the inspiration of Antarctic explorers to encourage young people to explore – fostering the next Shackletons and Hillarys. I was drawn to the role because I firmly believe that our young leaders and influencers will be crucial, if we’re to address the challenges of today and the future, try different approaches and ask “what if…?”. Inspiring Explorers – what a fantastic vision to have!

2. What attracted you to pursue a career in HR? I have always been interested in the ways people work together to get things done. After finishing an MBA at Waikato University, I was employed as an HR consultant on the strength of my training background. As I worked in different organisations over a 20-year career in HR management, I increasingly enjoyed the challenge of advising managers on how to solve their people problems. As my

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experience grew, I became more involved in designing initiatives to build organisational capability, and then leading people and HR teams.

As careers develop, there’s always something new to learn. I think the accelerating change in workplaces over the next 10 years will create challenges and opportunities that are very different from the previous 10 years – it will be fascinating how we, as a profession, respond.

3. What motivated you to apply for the role of HRNZ Board Member and Branch President?

During 2018 I was a member of the HRNZ Southland Branch. I then had a brief spell as Branch President before moving back to Christchurch. Over this time, I could see the great work HRNZ was doing and the important role HRNZ plays in shaping the profession. I wanted to contribute and be involved in steering the future of our professional body. It’s certainly a privilege to represent members and ensure HRNZ not only helps members grow their skills and careers but also influences the way we think about people in the workplace. (By the way, I’ve never liked the term ‘human resources’, I think people are more than just resources.)

4. What has been a highlight in your career to date?

Leading a team of HR professionals to help achieve organisational aims and make the working environment better has been a highlight so far. I’ve also really enjoyed recruiting team members early in their careers, coaching and seeing them grow into great HR professionals.

5. What do you value about your membership with HRNZ? The networks and branch events. You feel as if you’re part of a community with a great purpose. The contacts and connections you develop through membership are precious. If I have a people problem there’s usually an HRNZ member not too far away who’s got a solution.

6. What’s something that not many people know about you?

Taking on the role at the Antarctic Heritage Trust was not such a strange move for me (as an HR person). I have a background in outdoor education and adventure. I was a member of the first team to complete an extended sea kayak expedition in Antarctica, paddling over 800 kilometres down the length of the Antarctic Peninsula. With the same team, I completed the first circumnavigation of the Island of South Georgia by kayak and went on to complete the first all-Kiwi crossing of the Greenland Icecap. I like to think the fact I still have 10 fingers and 10 toes is a testament to good health and safety planning!

7. If you could have dinner with three people living or dead, who would they be and why?

Two would be Sir Edmund Hillary and Sir Ernest Shackleton. I’d love to ask them about their motivations, what kept them going, how they influenced others and some nitty-gritty details about their various adventures. The other would be my grandmother, who I didn’t get to say goodbye to properly.

8. What’s your happy place?

I’d like to say it’s working with an HR team to plan some strategic initiative… but, if the truth be told, it’s probably out back in a wilderness area, climbing a beautiful snow-capped peak or skiing an untracked basin, snow crystals glinting in the sunshine.

Rachael Trimble worked with then offered me a role in recruitment, which I embraced with both arms. Then finding the combination of all of the roles that I had taken on equipped me incredibly well to work in an HR generalist role.

I love the diversity, the interaction with people and being able to add value in a tangible way to people and the business.

Rachael has been Branch President for Bay of Plenty since April 2019 and continues to thrive in her HR career. She shares with us her insights into HR, career planning and longdistance running.

1. What do you do in your current role to help your organisation be successful?

Being new to the horticultural industry, I can use the skills and knowledge I have learnt in other organisations and industries and look at new ways of doing things. One of our greatest challenges is the seasonal nature of our business, therefore being able to offer New Zealanders ongoing employment and development opportunities to attract and retain key talent to the industry as we grow. Our managers are incredibly busy, especially during our packing season, and to be able to work alongside them to help them and their teams be the best they can be is an absolute pleasure.

2. What attracted you to pursue a career in HR? My HR journey is somewhat nontraditional. I am one of those who never really quite knew what I wanted to be when I grew up! After studying laboratory science and then realising I get motion sickness looking down a microscope, I fell into the hospitality industry until I decided what I wanted to be. Sixteen years in the industry in front of house, cheffing, management, auditing and compliance, policy writing and training, of which I thoroughly enjoyed all roles, I decided to do some temp work for a while. The agency I

3. What motivated you to apply for the role of HRNZ Branch President?

To get more involved in the development of HR within the Bay of Plenty brought me into the committee in the first place, then the opportunity to support our talented committee to re-engage and build our membership was one that I have embraced.

4. What has been a highlight in your career to date?

Being able to develop and pilot a leadership development programme for frontline leaders and see it is still running successfully in the organisation over five years later and still has a waiting list for each new programme.

5. What do you value about your membership with HRNZ? I value its ability to share information between professionals and being a part of a team that is building industry profile and capability.

6. What's something that not many people know about you?

I was being coached at one stage in my career and was talking with my coach about feeling like I am good at most things I put my mind to but have never been ‘great’ at anything. She helped me understand that it was my nature to try multiple things and that was OK, and, by doing so, I may never have tried to put all of my energy into the one great thing. This helped me decide to focus, just to see if it worked, and I was able to train and complete my first 100 kilometre running event. I can be great if I choose to put my mind to it!! Just most times, I choose to enjoy trying little bits of everything.

7. If you could have dinner with three people living or dead, who would they be and why?

Wow, I’m not sure I could limit that dinner party to three! My dad definitely; yes, I am Daddy’s girl and love having a chat with him. My grandmother; I never got to know her as an adult, and after bringing up a family of eight on her own (my grandfather passed away when the eldest child, my dad, was 14 and the youngest two), I’m sure the adult Rachael could learn a lot from her. And for a big deep-down belly laugh, Billy Connelly. Sorry for anyone looking for inspirational names and thoughts!

8. What's your happy place?

Up in the bush, runners on and no strict limit on time.

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WELLBEING LAUREN PARSONS

wellbeing and performance

By Lauren Parsons

Wellbeing expert, Lauren Parsons, looks at how we can work together to enhance our sense of satisfaction with work, home and life.

P

icture yourself, returning home after a productive day at work, having completed all of your most pressing tasks, having great energy throughout the day and feeling connected and engaged as part of your wider team. Imagine being home in time to see your kids play sport, cook with your partner or just to relax in your favourite chair, feeling satisfied about the day.

Sadly, this isn’t the reality for many workers who, instead, feel constantly busy, yet go home feeling they haven’t achieved everything they wanted to. Finish times creep later and later, in an attempt to get ahead, but somehow it never seems to make a difference. Meanwhile, families suffer and work–life balance is a constant struggle.

Research shows that the average employee performs only 2.8 hours of productive work each day. Imagine if you could create a workplace culture that supports staff to increase that number so they can be super efficient 14

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and effective and able to head home and switch off, satisfied with the value they’ve delivered in the day.

If you want to improve your own productivity as well as that of your team – and at the same time improve work–life balance – you need to create a workplace culture that empowers people to work in sync with their ultradian rhythms.

When you want to be more productive, it’s really a case of enhancing the way you use your energy and effort throughout the day. By structuring the day in blocks of time, synchronising breaks and ‘golden hours’ as an organisation and empowering staff to work with their body’s natural rhythm, you can create huge efficiencies and ensure staff thrive.

Ultradian rhythms

Ultradian rhythms are your body’s natural energy cycles, which rise and fall regularly throughout the day.

‘Ultra’ meaning many and ‘dian’ meaning day, these cycles overlap your circadian rhythm with regular 90-minute upswings followed by a 20-minute downswings.

During the upswing, you can engage in focused, mental activities, after which time your body and brain need a short recovery break to recharge.

Similar to the way your sleep cycle consists of several 90-minute periods that take you through the five stages of sleep, ultradian rhythms take you through peak moments of productivity and necessary moments of rest.

The 20-minute downswing is, surprisingly, the most important aspect of your ultradian rhythm. This is the time when your body needs to take an ultradian break to recharge ready for the next upswing. The challenge, however, is that when we have an important task to complete, it is tempting to keep going and ‘work harder’. But this is actually counterproductive.

An ultradian break should consist of activities that relieve your stress and relax the mind.

When you notice the signs that your body and brain need a break – for example, you feel sluggish, unfocused, easily distracted, tired, hungry, thirsty or uncreative – you can choose to ignore the signals and push through. Your body will then respond by treating this as an emergency situation because, from its point of view, if you’re not listening to the clear cues it’s sending, perhaps this is a life or death situation.

Your body will then kick into fight or flight mode. You have a release of adrenalin and cortisol and experience a ‘second wind’. This is okay from time to time, but when it’s repeated continually, you risk chronically elevated cortisol levels and head yourself towards fatigue and burnout.

Making the most of the downswing

During the downswing, the ideal ultradian break for your body and brain is to recline with your eyes closed. Not sleeping but just resting and allowing your mind to wander.

This allows your brain to ‘defrag’, to file away all of the information you’ve just processed for easy recall.

It allows the brain to come up with the most creative, innovative solutions. As Manoush Zomorodi shared in her TED talk, brilliance comes from boredom, and taking time during the day to do nothing and ‘just be’ is vital to peak performance.

Ideally an ultradian break should consist of activities that relieve your stress and relax the mind. In most offices, however, reclining in a chair uninterrupted isn’t always possible or practical so, if that’s the case, have some sort of change of state instead.

Get outdoors to spend time in sunlight, find a quiet spot where you can focus on your breathing or even spend some time connecting face to face with colleagues.

multitasking has been identified as a myth; when we believe we’re multitasking, the brain is really just switching rapidly, using up neural resources in the process.

Instead of having a scattered focus, identify your top priorities, eliminate as many distractions as you can and aim to complete each task, one by one, in an achievable timeframe. It’s incredibly powerful to set an intention around timeframes to give you a sense of urgency. “I’m going to finish this report in 30 minutes”, “I’ll create this draft copy in 45 minutes”, “I’m going to send these four emails in 12 minutes”.

The Pomodoro technique typically recommends working in 25-minute blocks with five minute breaks in between. Everyone is different, so it’s important to personalise this approach. I find the breaks are slightly too long and prefer to take just three minutes between focused work. These short breaks are an ideal time to add movement into your day.

Short breaks are essential for helping you perform best during your focused work periods.

We know that exercise improves not just health and fitness, but also our mood, motivation, and even the brain’s ability to process information.

You can ‘Snack on Exercise’, as I shared in my 2018 TEDx Talk, by getting up from your desk and doing a lap of the building, taking the stairs or simply doing a deskercise routine or restorative stretch. By doing so, you make yourself smarter – releasing brain chemicals such as serotonin, oxytocin and dopamine.

You will also switch on the learning centres in your brain and be much more innovative, creative and better at problem solving.

Short breaks are essential for helping you perform best during your focused work periods. I recommend using a countdown timer, such as the one on your smart phone, and using my 101 minute cycle alternating between 25 minutes of focused work and 3 minute movement breaks, then after three repetitions, taking a brain break for 20 minutes – which falls nicely in sync with your ultradian downswing: • 25 min focused work: 3 min break • 25 min focused work: 3 min break • 25 min focused work: 20 min restorative ultradian break.

If you completely resist the idea of doing ‘nothing’ use the time to engage in less-brain-taxing tasks. If you’ve been sitting typing, stand up and have a stretch, if you’ve been focused writing, switch to filing or tidying your desk, if you’ve been reading reports stand up and look out the window or make some phone calls.

Making the most of the upswing

To make the most of your productive time, it is important to work in sync with your energy, capitalising on the body’s upswing. Having a single focus is vital. We now know that

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WORK IN SYNC LAUREN PARSONS

never-ending distractions to others throughout the day.

Golden hours work best when there is work time before or after them where people can freely interact, ask questions and get direction, so they’re best to avoid first thing or last thing in the day.

Synchronising to boost connection

As well as synchronising work periods, this approach also encourages staff to synchronise their breaks and down time, creating greater opportunities to connect and strengthen relationships.

Having the countdown timer in front of you creates a false sense of urgency and you are much more aware of where your time is actually spent. You can fit four of these 101 minute productivity cycles into a typical workday and achieve so much more than when you leave your day unstructured, because time typically gets frittered on inconsequential things, eating away at your productivity.

Making the most as a team

Interruptions are often the biggest challenge to great time management and productivity. It takes ten times the length of the interruption to get back in flow and be able to continue working on a task at the same level. That 30-second chat answering someone’s question delays you progressing your own work by another five minutes. Even a 10-second interruption takes you almost two minutes to recover and refocus. Imagine that repeated continually throughout the day.

It takes ten times the length of the interruption to get back in flow and be able to continue working on a task at the same level.

We do, of course, need to communicate and collaborate with colleagues, so how do we achieve 16

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this without creating a perpetual cascade of interruptions that keep everyone out of flow?

Working in sync is, again, the answer, particularly for organisations where staff manage their own schedules, as opposed to being continually bound by customer-facing roles. Some organisations introduce the red flag, green flag system where everyone has a flag (or Post-it Note) visible and when the red ‘flag’ is up that is a signal they’re doing priority focused work and aren’t to be interrupted. For this to work, rules and respect are needed around not keeping the red flags up all day!

Some of the best predictors of productivity are team member’s energy and engagement.

Another concept is to have ‘golden hours’ at set times during the day.

These are predetermined times when no one interrupts anyone else in the organisation, unless there is a crisis.

Then afterwards everyone can go and ask that question or respond to that email. It all comes down to the expectations you set and how they’re communicated and managed.

When golden hours are working well, people naturally focus on having those important conversations before or after the hour rather than creating

Alex Pentland’s research on team dynamics and communication shows that some of the best predictors of productivity are team member’s energy and engagement. Based on that insight, his team recommended that a large bank’s call centre staff take their breaks at the same time, rather than spreading them evenly throughout the day (to keep the same number of staff on the phones at all times, which was the conventional wisdom up until this point).

When they trialled synchronising breaks in one centre, the results were dramatic, with average handling times shortening by up to 20 per cent. As a result, the bank plans to roll out the practice across all call centres and predicts a $15 million productivity increase.

Not only does social connection in the workplace strengthen individuals’ health and wellbeing, it improves team dynamics, contributing to a highly engaged and loyal workforce.

With the current talent shortage, it is more important than ever to create an environment with a sense of belonging, where people love to work and feel strongly connected. This can dramatically lower staff turnover and the huge costs and knowledge loss associated with every staff member who leaves.

Margaret Heffernan, in her 2015 TED Talk, said that, “what motivates people are the bonds, loyalty and

trust they develop between each other”. She stresses the importance of social capital, the reliance and interdependency that build trust within a team, which enables highperforming workplaces and makes companies robust.

Starting to work in sync

Picture the effects of introducing these practices for yourself and within in your organisation. Imagine seeing your team members performing at their best, highly focused and productive, resilient and engaged.

It all starts with a culture change that must be led from the front, with leaders setting the example and inspiring their teams with the benefits that higher efficiency and improved life balance will give them.

Start out by assessing where you could make changes and be sure to focus not just on policy but the ‘unwritten rules’ that may need adjusting. Could you introduce a quiet chill-out space for ultradian breaks? Could golden hours be agreed upon? Could getting up for a deskercise movement break become the new norm?

Your staff need to be informed with the why, as well as equipped with the how, to effectively inspire behaviour change. The result of getting your team to work in sync will be highperforming individuals and teams, enabling your organisation to succeed and thrive.

Lauren Parsons is an award-winning wellbeing specialist, author, TEDx speaker and consultant who helps businesses enhance their staff’s health and wellbeing, creating vibrant, energised, high-performing teams. With 18 years’ experience in health and wellbeing, Lauren believes everyone deserves to thrive.

Founder of Get Fit Feel Fabulous and the Snack on Exercise movement and author of Real Food Less Fuss and Seven Myths to Overcome to Get in the Best Shape of Your Life, she now lives in Palmerston North and travels regularly to speak at conferences on how to boost health, energy and productivity.

Get your complimentary copy of Lauren’s eBook Live Well, Work Well at www.bit.ly/ LPLiveWell.

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A Practical Vision for HR

HR SUMMIT REVIEW KATHY CATTON

HRNZ SUMMIT QUEENSTOWN

By Kathy Catton

This year’s HRNZ Summit featured an impressive list of speakers and a fantastic opportunity for over 70 HR professionals to start to build a practical vision of the future of HR. Kathy Catton reviews the HRNZ Summit, held in Queenstown, at the end of October.

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or some of us, it’s scary to think that 2020 is just a few weeks away. 2020! For all the talk of the digitisation, rapid technological advancement and progressive changes ahead, it is clear to me that the future of work is now. So what better opportunity for HR professionals to gather together to focus on what this means for HR and work together to form a vision of the future of HR? One of the many highlights of the Summit for me was the speech delivered by Jo Cribb, Leadership and Governance Consultant, on the future of work and workplaces.

Not only did Jo take a light-hearted look down memory lane to show how we have already lived through massive technological change (who remembers cassette players and 20

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processing photographic film at the pharmacy?), she also helped us recognise that the very nature of ‘change’ has changed and is changing. Whereas previous changes (industrial revolutions, as an example) changed just one piece of technology at a time (eg, steam, electricity, computing power), the changes we are facing now are affecting every facet of our lives.

Jo quoted from a recent study by the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) stating that, if employers wanted to, they could immediately remove an estimated 9 per cent of jobs from the workplace by using automation. In 10 years, it is predicted as many as 35 per cent of jobs could be removed. So it appears that change is becoming exponential, but we don’t yet know how this will play out.

Jo gave her top seven predictions for what the world of work will look like in the future: 1. fewer managers will be needed, because employees will be expected to be far more selfdirected due to the increase in apps to monitor workers, performance and productivity 2. leadership will become far more critical to draw teams together

3. a wide range of ages will be in the workforce. Potentially 17-to 70-year-olds 4. workers may not physically need to be in the same space. Much more fluidity in working locations and styles will be possible, for example, self-employment, gig workers, portfolio career.

5. people will be learning as they go and will need to upskill continually 6. there will be a scrambling for talent, but a lot of unemployment 7. being ‘human’ won’t change: the need for empathy, connection, humour will remain.

HR has a huge role to play in harnessing technology and humanity.

It’s our choice about how it goes.

Facilitated by Dr David Keane, workshop delegates got the opportunity to explore these ideas further, using a simple framework of looking at what we would like to Keep, Get, Remove and Avoid within our organisation, in the context of workplace changes. Delegates added ideas to Post-it Notes and stuck them on a large central template to share with the group. Examples included removing the ‘command and control’ model of operating, avoiding

historical best practice to make way for getting clear on our purpose and keeping ‘hi-tech, hi-touch’ ways of working.

Katie Williams, HR Director at Vodafone and HRNZ HR Person of the Year, provided us with practical insights into the use of Agile in HR. Katie’s purpose in HR at Vodafone is to “make it easy for our people to do their best”. What this translates into (and considering the future of work) is four main areas: • to automate the manual, repetitive HR work (eg, Vodafone has a Chatbot in its HR Ops team that answers all those common “What’s my annual leave allowance?” type questions) • to relinquish some of the power that has historically come with HR, so managers can make fast, confident, HR decisions • from the top down, have in-depth experiences with the business, which lead to a more employeeadvocated position • to build an HR team that deals commercially on the business, with the business.

For Vodafone, this has meant HR people are becoming expert in one or two areas, at the same time as

being broad in all other areas. Katie described this as being ‘T-shaped people’, for example, masters and experts in one. Although some members in the room articulated that Katie’s agile methods sounded “exhausting”, Katie quoted that HR team engagement and productivity have improved, with greater breadth of capability and contribution and a reduced HR cost to the business.

The ‘workshop’ style afternoon sessions saw presentations from five speakers. Ryan Ghisi, from Xero, talked about a world-class employee experience, using continuous feedback from employees and the market, which has resulted in significant initiatives being put in place that increased engagement, retention, wellbeing and productivity.

Rachel Mason, Partner at Lane Neave Lawyers, talked through the latest immigration changes and what this will mean for the future employment pool of foreign workers (see article on page 30, for more information).

Martin King, Director at Winter Pride, challenged us to look at how we can achieve higher levels of inclusion in the workplace when faced with a broader range of cultural, physical and social needs amongst our

employees. A great ‘take-out’ I got from Martin’s session was that diversity is what your organisation looks like, for example, differences of age, race, gender, and inclusivity is what your organisation feels like, for example, the culture. It is this inclusive culture that is a critical source of competitive advantage for us today.

Bridget Jelley, Registered Psychologist and Director of The Effect, shared the most recent research about mental health and wellbeing in the workplace so we can fully understand the accurate picture of what it is that we have to manage as organisations.

She also challenged us to look at how we can find the right initiative for our organisation in terms of an approach to wellbeing.

Dr David Keane concluded the day by acknowledging the enormous workload and responsibilities that we carry as HR professionals. He stressed the importance of taking care of ourselves by being clear on how we define our success, being careful about choosing our priorities for 2020 and not getting distracted in our execution of these priorities.

Feedback from delegates was incredibly positive, with particular value gained by the shared activities at each table. It was a chance to ask questions such as “what?”, “so what?” and “now what?”. This led to a sense of being able to walk away with specific strategies for 2020 that were tangible and meaningful.

“The need for a vision that is robust and right is a certainty,” says Nick McKissack, HRNZ Chief Executive.

“But we must be agile in how we obtain it. This HRNZ Summit provided a roadmap on how to build a practical vision for HR. What will the future of work look like and what challenges does this place on HR?” As Katie Williams summed up, “We are at a crossroad in the world of work, and it’s an exciting time to be in HR – as long as you like exciting times”.

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LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT ANGELA BINGHAM

Corporate learning versus formal education:

you can and should have it all

Angela Bingham, Executive Director People and Capability at the Open Polytechnic, unpacks the traditional view of poverty and education, and looks at how formal education and corporate learning both need a place in an organisation’s capability strategy.

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ducation is a pathway out of poverty. We all recognise this, and the research tells us the same. I was doing some reading and found an article in the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology: The impact of vocational education and training programmes on recidivism (Newton et al, 2016 ). It states, “it is clear that levels of education, training, and employment for ex-prisoners everywhere are much lower than for the general population”. Virginia Tech produced research in 2016 (Gault et al, 2016) that single mothers with a post-secondary degree have a 33 per cent lower poverty rate than those without a post-secondary degree.

The Human Sciences Research Council and Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences also 22

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have articles that support the view that education is a pathway out of poverty.

We can’t assume that, because those in the New Zealand workforce are working, they aren’t in poverty or impoverished, mentally or physically.

New Zealand media report the rising cost of living in New Zealand, so much so that we have working families turning to food banks and feeling like they are struggling.

We can’t assume that, because those in the New Zealand workforce are working, they aren’t in poverty or impoverished, mentally or physically.

Poverty in the workplace can reflect the true meaning of poverty (not having enough income to meet needs or a complete lack of means). There are many different forms of poverty.

I suggest we consider a broader definition that is more reflective or inclusive of the New Zealand workforce. Perhaps that connotation is a fixed mindset, a self-limiting belief or imposter syndrome, a more psychological sense of poverty.

Therefore, in a work setting, how about we consider education as a pathway out of poverty, as well as a means of contributing to our capability strategy and our wellbeing strategy.

As Michelle Obama said, “Education is the single most important civil rights issue that we face today”.

So let’s look at the difference between education and corporate learning to help us truly understand how both can support our organisations and our employees.

As Michelle Obama said, “Education is the single most important civil rights issue that we face today.

Corporate learning is learning that enables individuals to meet specific business goals. It is often visionary and provides vital elements that sell to the learner. Most corporate learning initiatives start with answering the question, “what is in it for the learner?”. What is the hook that engages learners’ hearts and minds? Topics can range from compliance, fancy communications, new systems, processes, procedures,

products or more organisational development type changes, values and missions.

Education provides continued professional development pathways for chosen vocations. Also, education offers an opportunity for people to change their world view, invest in themselves and their self-worth, working towards psychological needs. Education is often self-sourced learning (or as a requirement for continued professional development).

Adults are attracted to education because of two main drivers: 1. they are deeply passionate about a topic and want to explore via formal learning, research and then receive a credential.

2. they have a vocational goal that education helps them achieve: nursing, teaching and trades, among others.

Learning and education both have a role in coaxing the growth mindset of the people in our organisations.

Invest in people and invest in the organisation

My plea to you all, as leaders, practitioners and humans interested in developing people, is to think broadly about investing in your people. Consider both corporate learning and education – have them both as crucial strands of your capability strategy. I have spent most of my career in learning and development roles creating, strategising and delivering corporate learning. It is something very dear to my heart. I joined the Open Polytechnic because I wanted to learn about education from an academic perspective.

Essentially your capability strategy will need to answer the question, “what are the capability needs within the organisation and how will they enable business drivers?”. Those capability needs will be addressed by content that you want to push to your people and by content your people will seek out.

Think broadly about investing in your people.

Push versus pull

Traditionally, corporate learning is more push than pull. Organisations push learning out to staff to meet organisational goals and objectives.

In many instances, this is entirely appropriate. However, we know that adults don’t like being ‘forced’ into anything and therefore a lot of time, effort and money are dedicated to changing the ‘optics’ of push learning to appear more like pull learning. That is, employees feel compelled when they can self-select corporate learning. Many large vendors are selling their libraries to organisations so that their staff feel like they are self-selecting or pulling learning in, and then embedding it all together in a learning platform.

We are absolutely no different at the Open Polytechnic. We have a suite of educational courses (the public curriculum) and a partnership with the library of content for the justin-time generic content. Also, there is a series of compliance activities (Whakamana ngā Kaimahi). As you would expect, we are weighted to the education end of the continuum and plan to grow our corporate learning.

Both need to have equal weight in our capability strategy.

The individual’s motivation will be to find meaning or satisfaction in their daily job, build skills for their future career and not just sell for the sake of selling. Therefore, your capability strategy could incorporate: 1. financial advisor qualifications 2. off-the-shelf soft skills training: customer services content on questioning, empathy and listening 3. customised and contextualised specific features and benefits of branded banking products.

What you have enabled is education and learning to be balanced within the capability strategy, thereby investing in the organisation’s goals, individuals’ growth and their future.

“Hapaitia te ara tika pumau ai te rangatiratanga mo nga uri whakatipu.” Foster the pathway of knowledge to strength, independence and growth for future generations.

Common ground – the capability strategy

You all know that adult learners will only learn if they are motivated. It’s the motivation that is the exciting part. The organisation will have the motivation to push learning, and learners will have motivation to pull learning. Your strategy has to provide a balanced scorecard on the motivation of the individual to seek and the organisation to spend.

Quick example

Imagine you work for a bank and you want to grow market share by having a needs-based sales model that understands the customer life cycle.

The organisation’s motivation to invest is to create revenue and profit.

He aha te mea nui o te ao?

He tangata! He tangata! He tangata! Angela Bingham started as Executive Director People and Capability at the Open Polytechnic in October 2018. Before that she held a variety of leadership roles, with an emphasis in learning and development. She has worked for Kineo (Pacific), ACC, Endeavour IT Limited, Rugby New Zealand, Department of Internal Affairs and ANZ, among others. Angela has a strong people agenda, which she has developed from her degree in Community and Family Studies from the University of Otago.

Angela’s philosophies are that an effective leader works for the good of others with a firm foundation in strength-based conversations.

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EMPLOYMENT LAW SARAH CATES

Sarah Cates, Senior Associate at Cullen – The Employment Law Firm, takes a look at how mediation can be used to definite advantage when it comes to matters arising during employment.

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ediation for employment matters is often perceived as a mandated step in the litigation process, or simply a means to discuss a settlement agreement. However, this view ignores the value that mediation can bring to an employment relationship and the full range of options that parties have in respect to how they mediate a dispute.

Conflicts between colleagues

Mediation is commonplace between employers and employees, even when the conflict exists between colleagues.

However, mediation can also help in resolving conflict between colleagues, if used early enough.

Mediation can also help in resolving conflict between colleagues, if used early enough.

Understanding why these conflicts arise informs how they can be 24

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resolved. Causes of conflicts between colleagues can include communication and personality differences, poor performance, disputes over approaches and authority, lack of cooperation, competition for limited resources, differing access to information, systems or structures, or divergent values and interests.

Because mediation is a voluntary process, both employees must agree to attend mediation. Outcomes of such mediations could include commitments from the employees to make changes to the way they work or communicate with each other. Often a representative of the employer participates in some of the mediation process. This is particularly important if systems or structures need to be changed.

Because mediation is a voluntary process, both employees must agree to attend mediation.

Private mediators

By default, many employers use the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s (MBIE’s) publicly funded Mediation Services. However, parties can always elect to engage a private mediator.

Private mediation allows for increased flexibility. Engaging a private mediator will enable you to choose the mediator based on the desired skill set, style and experience for the dispute. You can also choose the date, time, duration and location of the mediation. In a private mediation, it is possible to incorporate organisational culture or tikanga Māori into the process.

Private mediators generally provide a more comprehensive service, including intake interviewing and pre-mediation conferencing, and ‘after-care’ or follow up.

Private mediators are generally available at short notice, which can save operational costs and avoid escalation of the problem or entrenchment of positions. An agreement entered into during a private mediation is usually sent to an MBIE mediator to be certified under section 149 of the Employment Relations Act 2000.

Lawyers

The importance of a lawyer or other representative at mediation will depend on the circumstances.

While engaging a lawyer increases costs, it can also mean better and cheaper outcomes for the employer.

If a dispute not resolved at mediation

is likely to lead to litigation, it is important to have a lawyer present.

A lawyer can advise on how the law informs the matter and provide a mediation strategy and advice. In addition, information from mediation can help with litigation strategy and preparation.

Legal framework

Any statement, admission or document created or made for mediation, and any information disclosed orally during mediation and for the mediation, is confidential and inadmissible in legal proceedings, unless the parties agree otherwise or except as required by law. Public policy exceptions, for instance, unlawful conduct such as blackmail, are not protected. Confidentiality also does not apply to collective bargaining mediations.

Terms of settlement are final, binding and only enforceable in the Employment Relations Authority, if certified by an MBIE mediator. Terms of settlement not certified by an MBIE mediator are only enforceable through the Disputes Tribunal or District Court.

There are limitations to the finality of terms of settlement, and how this ‘full and final’ clause is drafted will

be important in determining the limitations. Terms are only usually full and final in respect of the claims that both parties were aware of at the time they entered into the terms of settlement. Furthermore, the terms cannot be enforced if they contravene the Contractual Remedies Act 1979 and Illegal Contracts Act 1970 or are unlawful at common law.

Creative outcomes

The monetary remedies available at mediation are well known; these include payment of wages, compensation for “hurt, humiliation and injury to feelings” under section 123(1)(c)(i) of the Employment Relations Act 2000, payment of a benefit and payment of an employee’s legal costs.

However, non-monetary benefits can also be helpful to resolve conflict and are limited only by the parties’ imaginations.

Common non-monetary remedies include apologies, exchange of property, certificates of service, a reference, an agreed statement to staff and/or stakeholders and a non-disparagement clause.

Creative outcomes include:

• retraction of warning • conversion of dismissal into a resignation • professional development, training or services • cleaning or sealing of personnel file • agreed on warnings • agreed expectations • counselling • amendment to an employment agreement or position description • change to reporting line • agreement to waive restraints or other covenants • farewell morning tea • an apology recorded only in the terms of settlement • acknowledgement that the employer could have dealt with matters better • acknowledgment of the employee’s distress.

Sarah Cates is a senior associate and mediator at Cullen – The Employment Law Firm. She is also a specialist employment lawyer, negotiator and litigator. As such, she has a thorough understanding of the legal and practical context of employment relationship problems, as well as the needs and interests of parties.

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NEONATAL KATHY CATTON

Supporting those moments of miracles When a baby is born prematurely, life gets turned on its head for the working mother. We take a look at how employers can respond in these moments of uncertainty and upheaval.

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arah Blaney was just 23 weeks pregnant when her waters broke and she was rushed to hospital. After one big push at 5.58 am on 4 March 2013, baby Holly was born and immediately rushed to an incubator, where she was ventilated. She was tiny and her eyes were fused shut. For Sarah, who had just been through an unexpected birth, it was very daunting. Just the day before she had been working as a legal executive for a Wellington law firm, where she documented every six minutes of her day.

From baby steps, Holly is now a healthy young six year old.

Brooker, Operations Manager at The Neonatal Trust New Zealand.

Every year around 10 per cent of all babies are born premature (before 37 weeks’ gestation) in New Zealand. That’s one premature baby born every 90 minutes. The Neonatal Trust New Zealand provides support to parents by helping them in whatever way it can to get through what is usually a very traumatic time.

“The majority of the families that we talk to have all had an extremely understanding and empathetic employer,” says Justine. “Support can present itself early on, say for Dads, where they’re offered flexible working hours or extra leave while the baby is still critical in NICU.”

Luckily Sarah had a supportive employer. They did and said all the right things. They came with flowers, they set up all the forms to start the government’s statutory maternity leave, and they even kept her job open for her.

But what is the requirement for employers? And typically what support do employers offer? I spoke to Justine 26

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Employees may be able to get preterm baby payments, in addition to parental leave payments, if they are eligible for parental leave payments and are caring for a baby who was born live before the end of 36 weeks’ gestation. These preterm baby payments are available for a continuous period of up to 13 weeks and are paid at the same rate as the parental leave payment.

It’s further down the road when the parent is going back to work where more opportunities are available for employers to support the employee with part-time work or working from home or flexible hours, or even extended maternity leave.

“We recommend that employers talk to the family in the first instance, to see what it is that would make the most difference to them. Each situation is different, so there is no one-size-fits-all,” states Justine.

It’s helpful if employers really listen to their employee’s needs and are mindful that, even though their child has been discharged from hospital, the neonatal journey hasn’t ended for most families. Premature babies need follow-up care and appointments for several years, plus they are typically more susceptible to illnesses year-round. It’s also important to remember that these families have been through a traumatic experience, so offering support through an Employee Assistance Programme could be valuable.

BERNIE WHITE CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Human nature

By Bernie White How can we fathom change experiences that are more connected and grounded in our experience of working amongst the reality of a complex, beautiful and often wild world? Bernie White, Change Consultant, based in Wellington, explores the beauty in our human potential for change.

Beyond that surging sea, large stones silently sit. Pool painted with pink lichen. Covering and spotting the rounded edges of quiet greywacke. Light dappled on the stone strewn bottom. Shining on the few white shells. Rippling beneath the forbidding crags of black rock.

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his reminds me of the effortlessness of Nature. And, I recall the effortlessness of yesterday’s meeting. Twelve of us, filling the bland meeting room. Sitting on grey steel and fabric chairs, in a rough circle. Our guest chief executive ready to talk about the Spill. We listen, then talk. Each is contributing a perspective, a thought, a question.

The conversation flows, sometimes laughing, sometimes sombre. Lively talk of mistakes, then doing the right thing. Noticing the unnaturalness of doing the most natural of things, saying sorry. Putting it right, undoing, if he could, the damage done. Despoiled environment and relationships that he sought to restore. How unprepared others

seemed for these simple, natural acts of being human. Seeking redemption by being decent and taking a wider responsibility.

It seems a challenge to be natural in our increasingly unnatural digital world. As we look towards the quickening waves of technology and their artificial intelligences. Washing away human work. Etching new channels for careers. Drawing a line under what has gone before.

Data and algorithm now controlling the future. Standardising and commoditising, measuring and metering the work. Controlling and mastering the future. Blurring the boundary between what is real and what is fake.

It seems a challenge to be natural in our increasingly unnatural digital world.

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.

WB Yeats Yet, we all stand on the shoulders of our technologists and look with awe at what we have achieved through their work.

We’ve talked with three chief executives this year. Conversations without pressure or script.

Unplugged. Reminding us of the power of simply getting together.

Never once mentioning that digital world. Instead, speaking of their organisations’ growing responsibility for the outside world. We’d talked of unintended damage. Unconsciously fraying the social fabric of work.

Losing for many a sense of meaning and engagement with their work.

The possibilities for framing work with a bigger purpose. A more vivid ‘why’. We’d talked of communities beyond the balance sheet. Beyond stark strategies and business plans.

Their organisations becoming more pervious, it seemed, to that outside world. More genuinely concerned about society and the natural world.

Realising that their owns pools were merely a part of a much larger sea, a much larger whole. They didn’t say it, but it felt like we’d all been reading Kate Raworth.1 Navigating through the ‘doughnut’ between our social foundations and our ecological ceiling. A very mature conversation and a consciousnessexpanding experience.

The conversations with these leaders offered a glimpse of a different kind of future. And perhaps not only for these leaders and their organisations.

Maybe there’s something more widespread in the wind, in the water.

A stirring of the breeze. A movement beneath, that gently ripples at the surface. Something of the beginning of deeper change, beyond mere digital possibility. An arc of our human evolution, as Otto Scharmer says, “from the ego-system to the eco-system”. A response to murmurs from human heart and soul. Yearning

Kate Raworth, TED Talk ‘A healthy economy should be designed to thrive not grow’ (www.ted.com/talks/kate_raworth_a_healthy_economy_should_be_designed_to_ thrive_not_grow).

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To be still, slow and deeply see.

To be open and adaptable.

To make sense and imagine.

To act and then reflect.

To connect and hold with empathy. To discern and wonder.

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for a future where work nourishes our human spirit with meaning and purpose. Expanding and enriching our potential. Enlivening those relationships that give life to our days.

Yet, we worry. Can we keep up with this dizzying digital pace? How will the world of work shape our future?

How will we compete? Will there be work? How should we respond to our emerging future? What is the work now that prepares us for any future, I wonder?

Each responsible for holding a safe space for each to look into ourselves, our world and our emerging future.

And be vulnerable and learn.

Individuals and social organisms, endowed with the gift of self consciousness, have the possibility of becoming aware of their own processes, and thus become responsible for their own evolution.

Allan Kaplan

Yearning for a future where work nourishes our human spirit with meaning and purpose.

It seems radical to suggest that we might look into ourselves, as we create our future. Away from all those dancing zero’s and one’s expanding exponentially to Moore’s law. The waves of technology crashing into our lives. To turn back to reclaim a more human-centred future. Less digital, more social. Remembering those things that make us the most social and adaptable creatures ever.

Developing those strengths that will never be digital. Working to amplify our human and social strengths.

Those qualities that distinguish and differentiate us from those machines that we use and increasing populate our lives.

Working to amplify our human and social strengths.

As we hurried out, running late, from that yesterday meeting, we left with a simple encouragement. To be human! Remembering the distinction, of course, that we are never really only human ‘being’, we are also always in a process of ‘becoming’.

This work never ends. We never arrive but are always arriving. It requires a disciplined practice that is better not done alone, rather best done with a community of trusted companions.

Bernie White co-founded Westerly in late 2018 with Kim Chamberlain.

They wanted to create a community for each to regularly pause and reflect on their living experience of work. They also wanted to amplify those human and social qualities that allow us to better respond to the complex interconnectedness of our world of work, to become more conscious and deliberate about our own evolution of thought, action and being, and to be more responsible for the future we create. W: www.westerlywild.com

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IMMIGRATION LAW UPDATE RACHAEL MASON

Upcoming immigration changes for employers Rachael Mason, Partner at Lane Neave, reviews the approaching changes to immigration law and looks at ways employers can prepare now for the transition.

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he government has just released its latest suite of policy changes that will affect employment-related visa categories. The changes are substantial. They will, at least in the first instance, place a significant burden on employers of migrant workers in terms of understanding and preparing for the new policies.

Compulsory accreditation

The new system will require all employers who wish to hire a sponsored migrant worker to apply to Immigration New Zealand for ‘accreditation’. There will be different levels of accreditation, depending on the number of migrant workers an employer hires on an annual basis.

To gain accreditation, employers will need to demonstrate that they are compliant with immigration and employment law, that they have good HR policies and practices and have a proven track record of recruiting, training and upskilling New Zealand citizens and residents, amongst other things. For employers who are high-volume users of the system, there will be additional requirements to commit to training and upskilling New Zealanders and improving pay and conditions.

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Talent visa being phased out

The Work to Residence (Talent) visa will be phased out over the next two years. The first phase of this process has been the increase in the Talent visa minimum income threshold up to $79,560 per annum ($38.25 per hour), which represents a huge jump from the previous threshold of $55,000 per annum. In 2021, the Talent visa will be disestablished and replaced by the Highly Paid Pathway, which has a minimum income threshold set at 200 per cent of the median wage (currently $104,000 per annum).

Tougher labour market test

In regions where it is considered that there is a higher supply of available New Zealanders and in roles that pay below the median wage (currently set at $25.00 per hour), the labour market test is going to get tougher.

Advertisements will be required to state the salary and wage on offer for the role. There will also be an increased expectation for employers to engage with the Ministry of Social Development (MSD). If MSD identifies a suitable candidate, employers will need to provide sound reasons for rejecting them.

Sector agreements

Sector agreements are being introduced for targeted industry sectors where the government believes there is over-reliance on migrant workers for low skilled or low paid roles. These agreements will dictate the requirements to be met by

all employers within the sector who wish to employ migrant workers. They will cover issues such as requirements for being an accredited employer, minimum pay rates, training commitments and so on.

The sectors that have been identified in this regard include residential care (including aged care), meat processing, dairy, forestry, road and freight transport, tourism and hospitality. Indications are that the sector agreements may also be extended to the construction, horticulture and viticulture sectors.

Visa conditions for workers in low skilled or low paid roles

Migrant workers in low skilled or low paid roles will be able to have their family members accompany them to New Zealand. Partners and spouses will have access to a visitor visa. If they wish to work, they will need to qualify under the new system in their own right. Children will have access to domestic student visas (primary and high school only).

The government has also opted to maintain the 12-month offshore stand-down requirement for workers in low skilled roles. This part of the policy limits workers in low-skilled or low-paid positions to a maximum of three years in New Zealand.

Following completion of three years, they are required to leave New Zealand and must remain offshore for 12 months before applying to re-enter. The intention here is to more fairly manage the

expectations of migrant workers in low skilled roles, most of whom will never be able to meet the criteria for residence. The aim is to prevent the situation where they build up substantial amounts of time in New Zealand in a temporary capacity, but cannot secure a longterm future here. It is also considered that three years gives sufficient notice to employers to enable them to recruit and train a suitable New Zealand citizen replacement for the role.

Timeframe

The specific details of these policy changes are still being worked on, and so it may still be some time before the changes are implemented.

However, we expect to see the first changes coming in to play in mid2020, with the main components of the new framework set to be phased in during 2021.

Challenges ahead for employers

Employers could review the following areas in anticipation of the changes:

• ensuring that HR systems, policies and processes are current and in good shape • having a good understanding of migrant workers already in your business, and keeping track of those who are going to be affected by the offshore standdown period and when the standdown will be imposed • working on building good relationships with relevant unions (they are likely to be asked to comment on accreditation applications) • considering options that are appropriate for your business to open up employment opportunities for Kiwis (examples include: traineeships, apprenticeships, partnership programmes with MSD, engaging with local schools and training institutions to help offer opportunities to improve employment outcomes) • reviewing job descriptions and advertising to ensure that these are well drafted

• working on building a good relationship with MSD because it will have an increased role to play in the strengthened labour market test • ensuring that your systems and processes for immigration compliance and checking and tracking employees’ right to work are robust.

Rachael Mason is qualified in New Zealand, England and Wales and has practised exclusively in the area of immigration law for several years. She works with both multinational corporate clients and smaller local employers across a wide range of industry sectors in managing their global and local migrant workforces and developing and maintaining compliance and legal right to work policies. Rachael is focused on providing highquality technical immigration advice that is both pragmatic and commercial. Rachael regularly presents to HR and other professionals regarding immigration policy changes and issues related to recruiting and maintaining an immigration-compliant workforce.

Mark Williams

Partner t +64 3 353 1063 m +64 21 222 2363 e mark.williams@laneneave.co.nz

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Rachael Mason

Partner t +64 3 372 6323 m +64 21 130 6540 e rachael.mason@laneneave.co.nz

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INSIGHTS CHRIS O'REILLY

Can Kiwi leaders learn from Brexit?

CEO at Ask Your Team, Chris O’Reilly asks whether we are living with too much command and control in our lives and how we can get out of it.

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re you sick and tired of hearing about Brexit? I am, even though we live thousands of kilometres away and the impact on our lives here in New Zealand seems tangential at most.

But it has me thinking. Not about Brexit, specifically, but about some of the forces that got Britain to this point. We’re living in an age where people everywhere, and in every part of their lives, want autonomy. That trend has manifested itself in many Brits wanting out of the European Union, and I’m convinced there are parallels for New Zealand leaders and workplaces.

I think it’s time for Kiwi leaders to move on from leadership by command and control and embrace leadership by involvement. In other words, Kiwi leaders need to learn to give up control and let the people who work for them make more decisions.

It’s time for Kiwi leaders to move on from leadership by command and control and embrace leadership by involvement.

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This is in no way an endorsement of Brexit, so let me explain.

Tens of thousands of Kiwis across hundreds of workplaces have now used AskYourTeam, giving us 6.5 million data points and providing remarkable insights into the minds of New Zealand workers, in particular, how they think their bosses are performing.

On the whole, the report card for New Zealand leaders is positive, but there are several areas where they could do better. A look at what Kiwi employees say their leaders do well and where they fall short sends a simple but compelling message – our leadership culture is stuck in a 20th century command and control mindset. To get the best out of our 21st century workforce, it needs to catch up.

Positives: getting buy-in to the big picture Kiwi workers have confidence in their leaders’ strategic ability. On the whole, they’re confident their leaders are taking their organisations in the right direction. They’re also happy with the way bosses are articulating the big picture vision to them, and they understand how their work contributes to that big picture.

Could do better: employee involvement in running the business

On the flip side, the number one issue that Ask Your Team has found in the New Zealand data held is the

sense that workers lack sufficient autonomy to make a meaningful contribution to running the business.

Our respondents said that they don’t feel their leaders consult them before making changes, and don’t seek input on how to improve the business.

Workers lack sufficient autonomy to make a meaningful contribution to running the business.

At the risk of generalising, our typical workplace is still led by an inspirational individual (usually male), who sweeps into the workplace, explains the organisation’s strategy, and then outlines a detailed playbook of what each individual is going to do to make that vision a reality. For the past 100 years, that standard procedure was a sound way to operate. But not anymore.

The rise of autonomy

Just think about it. Many of the significant issues we’re currently grappling with in New Zealand, from the decriminalisation of recreational cannabis to the ‘right to die’, are fundamentally about individuals seeking greater autonomy over their lives. We see it when we switch on the news at night – a lot of the conflicts playing out globally, from Brexit to Catalonia and Hong Kong, fundamental calls for greater autonomy and a reaction against command and control leadership.

You may think it’s a stretch to connect these events with leadership in the workplace, but there are real lessons here, whether you’re leading an entire nation or a team of three. At work, people increasingly expect to be asked how to improve performance, not told how to do it. They expect to see tangible evidence that their perspective has been heard. They want the power to change their workplace. They expect to be involved. They expect more autonomy.

It’s happening where you least expect it. Five years ago, everyone thought Silicon Valley campuses were the most well-functioning, enlightened workplaces on the planet. Now, at companies like Google, we’re seeing a cascade of employee activism against top-down decisions on executive pay, contracts with the US military, cooperation with Chinese censorship and more. And I suspect this is only the beginning.

The lesson for leaders

What this means for leaders is that today’s workers expect the opposite of old-school command and control leadership styles. The great leaders of this era lead by involvement. They measure their success as a leader, not by how people follow them, quite the opposite. Success for an involvement leader is the degree to which they can give the people they lead the skills and autonomy to make independent decisions in their jobs each day, independent of that leader’s command or oversight.

Linda Hill from Harvard Business School puts it this way, “The job of leaders today is to build the stage, not necessarily to perform on it themselves”. The lesson to New Zealand bosses is simple. Get uncomfortable. Let go of control. It’s certainly not easy, especially when some workers are conditioned to ask for validation and approval for the smallest of tasks.

For the HR professionals among us, the challenge is to get the senior leaders we work with to realise that the moment they embrace their weaknesses, they actually begin to emphasise their strengths. The end goal is a shift from leadership by control to leadership by involvement.

The great leaders of this era lead by involvement.

At a time when calls for greater autonomy are dominating the headlines at home and abroad, it’s a lesson that leaders cannot afford to ignore.

Chris O'Reilly is the CEO and Co-founder of AskYourTeam, a disruptive technology company, revolutionising the organisational and leadership performance space.

E: chris.oreilly@askyourteam.com

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BUSINESS SUSTAINABILITY KATE FERGUSON

How your staff could help cut your business emissions Kate Ferguson, Climate and Resources Manager at the Sustainable Business Council, looks at innovative ways we can reduce our business emissions.

People power

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n October, 170,000 people across New Zealand marched on the streets in support of urgent action on climate change. According to the organisers, School Strike 4 Climate, that’s about 3.5 per cent of the population.

No doubt, many of those protesting were the future employees of New Zealand businesses or the children of current staff. It’s clear the sense of urgency to tackle climate change is rising rapidly, and every sector and demographic in society is now being affected.

At the Sustainable Business Council (SBC), we are seeing an increasing number of our members working with their employees to find new and innovative ways to reduce emissions not only in the business but also at home.

SBC members collectively employ 158,000 full-timers, and this represents a significant opportunity to influence action on climate change.

Imagine if all these people reduced their emissions not only at work but also in their personal lives as citizens?

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attitudes across the country and, ultimately, make a decent dent in New Zealand’s emissions profile.

Schemes to engage staff

Now that many businesses have measured their emissions and started to create emissions reduction plans, the next logical step is to talk to staff and tap into their creativity and know-how. I see a growing number of Kiwi businesses doing this in creative and various ways.

For example, at SkyCity, the team has launched a strategy to help employees measure and offset their families’ carbon footprints. Using the Toitū Envirocare carbon calculator tool, which is free online and simple to use, SkyCity has run multiple presentations for staff on how they can measure, reduce and offset their carbon footprints.

They have also created a financial incentive. For every dollar spent by its employees offsetting their emissions, the company puts one dollar towards a Green Fund, which finances emissions reduction projects around the business. Thirty staff have since gone carbon neutral.

For every dollar spent by its employees offsetting their emissions, the company puts one dollar towards a Green Fund.

Auckland Council has also started to work with its staff, as well as the wider public, to encourage climate action.

In collaboration with Wellington City Council, the organisation has developed New Zealand’s first gamified carbon footprint calculator, called Future Fit (www.FutureFit.nz).

The free online tool encourages its users to measure and then reduce their carbon footprint by choosing a range of easy-to-adopt lifestyle changes. Weekly emails or texts remind users to complete their chosen actions, such as a meat-free day or car-pooling trip. I encourage you to check it out.

When Auckland Council introduced Future Fit to its employees, 480 people saved an impressive 62 tonnes of carbon dioxide over three weeks alone. That’s the equivalent of driving from Auckland to Wellington 453 times.

When Auckland Council introduced Future Fit to its employees, 480 people saved an impressive 62 tonnes of carbon dioxide over three weeks alone.

Then there are the SBC businesses I meet that are encouraging their employees to work from home or adopt flexible working hours, which reduces traffic as well as carbon emissions. IAG and thinkstep actively

encourage staff to work from home or come to work outside of business hours, when possible.

A recent global study from serviced office provider, Regus, suggested that an increase in flexible working practices within New Zealand could reduce levels of carbon dioxide by 900,000 tonnes per year by 2030, not to mention providing benefits to staff productivity and attitudes towards work, which come with flexible working arrangements.

Another remarkable example of a company working with its staff to reduce emissions across the business is at Christchurch International Airport. Its sustainability team has developed an online tool called P1 (Planet One), which sits on the company’s intranet page. It is designed to share stories with the team about all the different sustainability projects the airport is working on.

Users can click on the company’s sustainability pillars, which are carbon, waste, water, energy, noise and land, to see all the actions the business is taking and how they align with their targets. The airport says the project has invigorated its entire team and inspired a bunch of new projects. Remarkably, within four weeks of P1’s launch, 143 ideas had been lodged.

The airport has also set carbon budgets for each business unit, as a way of increasing awareness of the issue across the business. As soon as the company is invoiced for fuel, electricity and travel, the airport’s sustainability team calculates how much carbon has been used, who used it, and then reports that back to each business unit.

Lessons to be learnt

As the sense of urgency to act on climate change grows within the New Zealand business community, I’ve seen several companies launch into a project to engage staff without first taking the time to consider the different factors that lead to success.

First up, I’d suggest when your company starts working on a plan, take the time to understand who in your business has the greatest stake or interest in climate change. You might find it’s your board or your youngest staff members, for instance.

Take the time to understand who in your business has the greatest stake or interest in climate change.

Make sure you also clearly identify what the goals of your project are and what exactly you want your employees to do. Do you want them to come up with ideas to reduce the company’s carbon footprint or would you like them to look at their own emissions profile and make savings?

The private and not-for-profit sectors make up around 83 per cent of New Zealand’s jobs. If small, medium and large businesses work with their staff to reduce emissions, they will be helping citizens tackle an issue they care deeply about and make the changes necessary to transition to a low emissions economy.

Top tips to engage staff on climate change

• Try the free and easy-to-use carbon calculators and tools online, like Future Fit and "Toitū Envirocare.

• Create a financial incentive or rewards system. Some companies have built momentum with spot prizes or green funds to finance projects.

• Build in-house tools, resources and teams who can answer questions and offer innovative ideas.

• Encourage flexible working hours or work-from-home arrangements, if practicable.

Kate Ferguson is the Climate and Resources Manager at the Sustainable Business Council (SBC) – www.sbc. org.nz. Kate worked at the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority and New Zealand Post before joining SBC in September 2014. Her role allows her to grow member capability on emissions reduction, as well as facilitating collaborations to develop low carbon solutions. Kate holds a BSc (Hons) in environmental management from Lancaster University, and spends her leisure time outdoors – either on two feet running or tramping or on the water on a stand-up paddle board.

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Get Chartered!

HRNZ is committed to promoting the highest levels of professionalism in the practice of HR in New Zealand workplaces and encourages all members to aspire to and achieve Chartered Membership.

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hartered Members of HRNZ enjoy the status that comes with demonstrating they have attained a level of professional ability that is respected at a national level by employers and their peers. In addition, Chartered Members are provided with guidance and opportunities to expand and enhance their professional knowledge and expertise through continuing professional development on an annual basis.

A Chartered Member is expected to be a technically competent and personally credible HR professional.

Assessment for chartered status is based on the HRNZ competency framework – Kahikatea,

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ka taea. Candidates need to provide evidence of their independent actions that match the competency descriptors. These are assessed by a panel of experienced HRNZ Chartered Members.

For more information about getting chartered, please visit www.hrnz.org.nz/getchartered Recently Chartered HRNZ Members Samantha Moore

Auckland

2 May

Rebecca Gardiner

Bay of Plenty

1 June

Harry Harrison

Auckland

20 June

Joanna Neal

Taranaki

17 September

Lisa Prinsloo

Auckland

26 September

Erin McNaught

Canterbury

30 October

HRNZ PD programme Summer 2019

The world evolves and there will always be developments and changes in the way in which we approach HR. Professional development is therefore imperative to career progression and enhancement.

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Most of our courses are presented in a workshop format.

They are interactive sessions that provide you with an opportunity to share ideas with others through group discussion and questioning.

HRNZ members receive discounted rates and may be eligible for a travel assistance grant.

t HRNZ we recognise the importance of professional development and the role it plays in our industry. We provide a vast selection of development options, to ensure you can keep ahead of any changes and update your skill set through courses, webinars and conferences.

Why you should take a HRNZ PD course:

Courses are run throughout the year in various centres across the country and range from one hour up to three days. Courses and webinars are open for all to attend.

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applied learning – develop strategies to implement

•

participation encouraged – don’t merely listen

•

network with peers and share experiences

•

continue your professional development

•

detailed course books provided

•

earn CPD points.

Courses subject to change. For the latest schedule please visit hrnz.org.nz/pdcourses AUCKLAND

WELLINGTON

CHRISTCHURCH

30 June

13 August

14 May

15 October

17 June

29 April

Enhanced Interviewing Skills

4 June

2 April

20 August

Holidays Act, Parental Leave and Payroll

12 May

13 May

29 October

Effective HR Communication Employee Wellbeing and Mental Illness

HAMILTON

HR 101: HR for Non-HR People

18 August

5 May

11 August

14 October

HR Foundations

31 March – 2 April

15 – 17 September

18 – 20 February

3 – 5 March

HR in an Agile World HR Manager Human Centred Design

30 July

23 July

27 – 28 May

22 – 23 September

9 – 10 September

2 – 3 June

23 – 24 June

7 May

2 April

Practical Employment Law

29 April

Recruiting Top Talent

19 May

Stratetic Workforce Planning

10 June

24 September

23 – 24 July

16 – 17 March

19 – 20 March

20 – 21 July

Termination of Employment

29 July

21 October

30 June

22 September

Workforce Analytics

22 July

0800 247 469

QUEENSTOWN

18 March

events@hrnz.org.nz

5– 6 November

4 November

hrnz.org.nz/pd

PD SPOTLIGHT CHERYL TANSEY

HR in an agile world How can HR respond quickly and flexibly to our organisations’ ever-changing needs? Cheryl Tansey, international agility coach, seeks to find the answers.

both the private and public sectors, experienced these challenges. So we know first hand how expensive and frustrating it can be to wait three years to discover that what we asked for is not what we are getting.

How flexible is your planning?

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Planning, predicting and setting goals continue to be an incredibly important part of delivering value in Agile. Provided our plans can flex.

Originally designed to help teams deal with the fast pace of digital innovation, Agile grew in the IT department during the early ‘90s, based on a need to respond faster to change.

With change happening faster than ever before, and as we enter the fourth industrial revolution, artificial intelligence and robotics are creating change for humans at every corner. So flexibility in our planning is fast becoming our competitive advantage.

ands up if you’ve heard the Agile word mentioned recently. Keep those hands up if you still have no idea what it really means! It’s okay; you’re not alone.

How quickly can you respond to change?

During the early ‘90s, the average life cycle of IT projects was about three years. In some industries, many more.

This meant it took three years from when a business need was validated to when the IT team could hand over something that would (hopefully) work and would (hopefully) meet that business need.

History shows us that things change a lot over three years, especially in IT. As a result, major software projects became delayed, abandoned or, if they did go live, the customer often didn’t want or need it anymore.

Some of our largest organisations in New Zealand during that time, in 38

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No longer can we predict three years in the future what our businesses will need, nor can we predict what our customers may want. We need to be able to respond to a changing market.

What role does culture play in Agile?

Agile is more than just a new process, team structure or way to work. Agile is a cultural shift in the way we think about people.

Agile is a cultural shift in the way we think about people.

When the Agile Manifesto was created in 2001, the primary goal

was to uncover better ways of developing software by discovering better ways to work. To change the way we work, we must first change the way we think.

The entire Agile movement is based on just four simple values: 1. individuals and interactions over processes and tools 2. working software over comprehensive documentation 3. customer collaboration over contract negotiation 4. responding to change over following a plan.

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

These four values form the foundation of the many Agile frameworks, methods and artefacts that teams around the world now use.

In fact, the five largest organisations on the planet, in terms of market capitalisation, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft, all value responding to change over following a plan.

How does Agile move beyond IT?

Throughout New Zealand, organisations are adopting this new way of working in all areas of their business. This includes finance, policy, legal, marketing, operations, communications and, most importantly, our HR teams.

HR teams are a vital contributor to designing our culture, developing our people, and shaping the way we work.

Across all of our major banks, telcos and energy providers, as well as many of our government organisations, HR is now taking a seat at the table in these Agile transformations and being asked to contribute to the conversation of agility.

What does this mean for HR?

The scope for HR, to enable organisational agility, is widereaching. In my research, I have discovered eight, high-value themes for HR teams to focus on.

Eight themes of Agile HR: 1. organisational design, roles and career paths 2. Agile leadership 3. learning culture 4. employee experience 5. value-based recruitment and onboarding

6. enabling performance 7. incentives, rewards and compensation 8. the Agile mindset in HR.

Where do we start?

To increase the agility of your organisation, I recommend starting with your team first.

Here are a few easy ways to get started.

• Educate your HR team on Agile: Support the specialist learning that your team will need.

• Run an experiment: Choose an Agile framework to test with your team and see what you learn (then iterate on it).

• Get an Agile coach for your team: This will fast track your learning and help overcome challenges as they arise.

• Co-create with your employees: Ask for input and feedback on current work your team is delivering and see what kind of response you get.

Educate your HR team on Agile: Support the specialist learning that your team will need.

As with all change, small regular adjustments to our daily habits create long-lasting embedded change. I challenge you to think of one thing you could do differently tomorrow, to begin shifting your own personal agility.

Cheryl Tansey is an international agility coach on a mission to revolutionise and humanise the way we work. Her primary focus is on developing people agility within fast-changing organisations. As the founder of the Ministry of People, she delivers in-house and public training on Agile HR as well as training and mentorship for Agile coaches.

Want to learn more? Visit cheryltansey.com and keep an eye out for new education programmes landing early 2020.

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HR PROFESSIONALS LISA OAKLEY

How can we truly embrace a safety culture?

Lisa Oakley, Board Member and National Vice President of HRNZ, examines our perception of safety and how we can create a positive and empowering safety culture in our organisations.

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he term ‘safety culture’ was first coined in 1986 by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which introduced the term to describe the thinking and behaviour of those responsible for the Chernobyl accident (International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group). In 1993, the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (ACSNI) Human Factors Study Group defined safety culture as “the product of individual and group values, attitudes, perceptions, competencies and patterns of behaviour that can determine the commitment to, and the style and proficiency of an organisation’s health and safety management system” (Health and Safety Commission).

Put into plain English, this culture is made up of multiple factors including psychological – values, beliefs, attitudes; behavioural – methods regarding safety; and situational – policies, procedures and management systems.

Although there is some subjectivity, safety maturity models are often applied to assess safety culture.

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be “pathological / no care” – where employees and employers blatantly disregard safety; or “reactive / blame” – where safety is only considered following an incident; or “calculative / planned” – where some systems are in place to manage hazards; or “proactive” – where there is a focus on safety improvement; and “generative”. This last category is the most advanced and dynamic culture, where safety systems are effective, and worker engagement is high. The changing nature of work in the 21st century and the introduction of new workplace health issues, such as mental health and bullying and harassment, provide an opportunity to consider alternative leadership styles to build a positive, generative health and safety culture.

Models suggest safety culture can be “pathological / no care”… “reactive / blame”… “calculative / planned” or “proactive”.

Real culture change requires changing core beliefs, which is not simple to achieve and takes time. Edgar Schein, the well-known psychologist, has been instrumental in shaping our understanding of how change occurs in workplaces.

Schein extended on a change model defined by Kurt Lewin, which has three steps: unfreeze, change, refreeze. Unfreezing is difficult because a stimulus activates a

change or a need to change the current state, which can cause anxiety or guilt. It is essential to maintain individual psychological safety so that people feel comfortable enough to learn rather than becoming defensive. Organisational culture change first requires change at the individual level. Studies show that transformational leadership inspires change and directly correlates with improved safety culture. David Sarkus explains, “The evolution of safety culture stems from the beliefs, values, behaviours and assumptions of executives, managers and supervisors. These beliefs and values are shared with others who interact and create the organisation’s safety culture”.

Studies show that transformational leadership inspires change and directly correlates with improved safety culture.

To change a safety culture, organisations must first start by defining safety culture as a value within the organisation. Next, the organisation needs to require leaders to model this value, thinking about safety as a competitive advantage and organisational benefit, rather than merely a compliance cost.

Such benefits include increased effectiveness of the health and safety management system, an increase in safe behaviours and a reduction in

incident rates. This would minimise harm to individuals, reduce costs associated with managing incidents, and reflect positively during the tender management process. Once safety is a defined value and priority, improving safety participation through engaging or consulting with the workforce on what safety means to them and their current perception of the safety culture is vital. This would also help to establish a baseline score for a safety culture within the organisation and would help with driving improvements in the environment, equipment or systems.

Think about safety as a competitive advantage and organisational benefit, rather than merely a compliance cost.

A useful tool for this is a safety climate survey that collects data from the workforce around safety culture at a single point in time.

Such an inquiry would measure factors like communication, workload, leadership, teamwork, safety systems and learning. This would provide helpful insight from the frontline teams to ensure that safety programmes and initiatives are targeted to the needs of the workforce. A similar method of obtaining feedback from the workforce and empowering them to become involved in risk management

and providing solutions to safety issues would be to promote an effective observation card system.

This would provide a mechanism for employees to provide safety recommendations, report unsafe conditions or recognise one another for safe work practices. In this way, senior managers can show they are truly listening to what is important to workers and can show they care by being interested and sensitive to the needs of the workforce. This would involve obtaining information from the workforce and not waiting for incidents to happen before addressing concerns but preventing problems before they happen. An effective safety culture requires delegated management of risk, and employees closest to the risks should be empowered to find solutions to eliminating and minimising these risks without the need for constant management intervention.

Employees closest to the risks should be empowered to find solutions.

Further extending on this idea of empowerment would be to harness the influence of supervisors and middle managers and support them to understand their delegated obligations and role in leading safely. By leading with purpose and building trust this promotes decision-making at lower levels of

the organisation, which leads to better safety outcomes and improved engagement and productivity.

Lastly, leaders who understand safety culture also understand the importance of recognition and reward. They show appreciation and encouragement through positive reinforcement. This involves genuine engagement with the workforce, developing personal connections, understanding employees' needs and communicating effectively through empathy, gratitude and support. This approach ultimately inspires people to instinctively care about their own and others’ safety in the workforce, which is fundamental to a positive safety culture.

How does your workplace maintain a generative safety culture? How do HR and health, safety and environment professionals support positive culture change? I would love to hear from you www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-oakley94b876a.

Lisa Oakley BCom, PGdipBusAdmin, MMgmt, CFHRINZ, CAHRI is a Board Member and National Vice President of HRNZ, and Director of Love Your Work NZ. Love Your Work NZ offers customised solutions to people and performance needs through HR consultancy and project work. Lisa has 15-plus years’ experience in human resources and health, safety and environment in large-scale service environments in a range of industry sectors. She is currently studying towards her GradDip in Occupational Health and Safety.

Contact Lisa via LinkedIn.

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PRODUCTIVITY DANIEL BAUN

Eight tips to land your dream job Waiting sucks. Have you ever been excited to go to the airport and wait in the security line? What about waiting to buy tickets at the amusement park only to then line up for a 45-second ride that leaves you queasy and regretful? Exactly.

No one likes to wait.

W

aiting is even more difficult when it comes to our future.

You know that period between submitting your CV and waiting to hear if you scored an interview or not? It’s like the queasy roller-coaster feeling… just without the thrill.

HR professionals, in my experience, are fantastic at supporting others with their job applications. Here are some reminders and tips for when you look at your own career ambitions and goals and turn them into a reality with a great CV and application.

While I have no tips or tricks for handling the actual waiting time (research says how well you cope with waiting depends on how much of it you did as a child… blame your parents!), I do have eight tips for making sure that you submit the best CV and application possible.

Putting your best foot forward from the start will make the wait easier.

That’s a good feeling.

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1. Don’t write to get the interview – write to get the job. Recruiters, as you know, read hundreds of applications and don’t have time to dive into every one. If you fill yours with notions and enticing promises, they’re likely going to skip over you for the candidates who presented themselves with precision, facts and experience.

They need to see your relevance for the position – immediately.

2. Structure your CV. Most hiring managers start with your CV. Be sure to include a good photo (a requirement in many European countries) and clear contact information. Keep the body of your CV structured. A simple spacing error or typo may be nothing in the grand scheme of life, but it says to the hiring manager that you ignore the small details. Each dot and word on your CV says something about you. Make sure they say ‘winner’.

3. Be crystal clear. How clear is crystal? Very. Everything you include in your CV should be written clearly and specifically.

Recruiters are looking for things you’ve achieved and learned.

State exactly what you’ve done at previous positions. Think: Managed a change programme that affected 200 staff, responsible for reducing staff turnover by x per cent. Delivered leadership development

programme to 75 team leaders over six months. Specifics are key.

4. Answer the dang questions!

As a service to both the applicants and ourselves (mostly ourselves) we end all job ads with ‘apply by answering these five questions’. This isn’t a way to take up space on the page – they’re legitimate questions and we’re eager to read the answers.

Job ads that don’t have specific questions are still filled with questions. Find them. Answer them. Ignore them and your chances magically disappear like fairy dust. Poof!

5. PDF. PDF. PDF. Never send your CV or cover letter in .docx or .pages format. Always send it as a PDF. This also allows you to control things like spacing and structure.

6. Be you. It’s more important to be yourself than to be funny.

If you’re naturally funny, it will show. Keep an eye on the tone with which the job posting was written. Was it written with humour? That’s essential to how you can reply. Companies typically want real (inspired) people to apply – not the stiff ‘tell-me-what-I-should-do-andI’ll-do-it types’.

7. Make it personal. Even people applying for communication jobs write ultra-long and ultra-boring cover letters… and it’s not a good look. Catch the recruiter at

the first sentence and they’ll want to know more. Make reading your application worthwhile. Let me see you on the page. It’s a balance between specifics and personality.

8. Edit. Never rush through the application process. Have a friend read through your cover letter before sending. Write it today and read through it tomorrow before sending. Never

toss words on the page and press send… you’ll end up wishing you had added something else or worded things differently.

Essentially, the right person will get the job and the ideal job for you is out there… you just have to find it.

Understanding that doesn’t make the process any easier, but knowing that you’ve given it your all will make the wait a bit more bearable.

And if the waiting-induced anxiety gets totally out of control… there’s always airport security.

your work life.

SUMMER 2019

Daniel Baun is HR Manager for Trendhim ApS. He is also responsible for HR and recruitment in an e-commerce company.

Besides HR articles, he is author of Heartcore Business, which is about having meaning in

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TALENT DEVELOPMENT AENSLEE TANNER

Developing current talent into future talent With the increasingly rapid pace of change and innovation today, terms like talent scarcity, skill shortages, and the global war for talent are commonly seen in business headlines.

Aenslee Tanner looks at what New Zealand organisations are doing to ensure they have access to the talent they need to thrive as technologies and markets continue to evolve.

"Business leaders have a responsibility to ensure that the jobs and opportunities created by these technologies – now and in the future – are accessible to all." – Keith Block, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Salesforce.

The latest research paints a bleak picture.

Adoption of emerging technologies is growing, but workers aren’t prepared

The recently released EY report, Stop talking about the future of work, stated that the proportion of Australian and New Zealand organisations prioritising investment in artificial intelligence (AI) over the next three years is expected to double – a leading indicator of the accelerating momentum towards job disruption. Due to trends like these, the World Economic Forum’s 2018 Future of Jobs report anticipated that, by 2022, at least 54 per cent of all 44

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employees will require significant reskilling and upskilling, yet the EY survey found that only 38 per cent of workers have seriously considered the impact of technology on their employment opportunities.

Talent shortage is seen as a top risk but not a top priority

A 2018 survey by Mercer Marsh Benefits and the Human Resources Institute of New Zealand indicated that 92 per cent of respondents see talent attraction and retention as a top risk. However, less than half think that addressing this risk is a priority for the entity they work for, and few have plans in place to address it.

It appears most organisations are aware that disruption is coming, but they are failing to prepare proactively.

The proportion of organisations prioritising investment in AI over the next three years is expected to double.

Labour supply is down, but organisations are still relying on an external hiring strategy

According to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment Quarterly Labour Market Report from May 2019, the labour supply has shrunk, with overall net migration slowing, increasing numbers of baby-boomers retiring, and the unemployment rate hovering near record lows. Yet the EY report

revealed that only eight per cent of leaders say that skilling their current people is their number one priority.

Instead, 61 per cent of employers seem to believe the market will deliver them the capabilities they require, even though many digital skills are already in chronic undersupply against accelerating demand.

Few leaders are equipped to lead through transformation

EY’s research found that leaders are paralysed, that uncertainty around when and how digital technology will hit their organisation is preventing them from proactively responding.

According to a report by PwC and Harthill Consulting, The hidden talent: Ten ways to identify and retain transformational leaders, 54 per cent of change programmes fail because leaders with the right capabilities are in short supply. Only 8 per cent of individuals in senior management teams profiled as strategists, the minimum stage of development with the capacities to be effective as the change leaders so needed today.

Leaders are paralysed, that uncertainty around when and how digital technology will hit their organisation is preventing them from proactively responding.

Moving beyond paralysis

Rather than continuing to hope against hope that it will be possible

The six ways to lead in the context of a transformation Stage of development/action logic Alchemist

Profiling (%) 0%

Strengths description Generates social transformations. Integrates material, spiritual and societal transformation.

Effective at leading society-wide transformation.

Strategist

8%

Generates organisational and personal transformations. Exercises the power of mutual inquiry, vigilance and vulnerability for both the short and long term.

Later stages

Effective as a transformational leader.

Individualist

33%

Interweaves competing personal and company Action Logics. Creates unique structures to resolve gaps between strategy and performance.

Effective in venture and consulting roles.

Achiever

52%

Meets strategic goals. Effectively achieves goals through teams; juggles managerial duties and market demands.

Well suited to managerial roles; action and goal-oriented.

Earlier stages

Rules by logic and expertise. Excellent in pursuing technical quality.

Expert

7% Strong as an individual contributor.

Diplomat

0%

Avoids overt conflict. Wants to belong; obeys group norms; rarely rocks the boat.

Effective as supportive glue within an office; helps bring people together.

Source: PwC and Harthill Consulting, The hidden talent: Ten ways to identify and retain transformational leaders

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TALENT DEVELOPMENT AENSLEE TANNER

to hire all the people an organisation needs from outside directly, employers must adopt a strategy of investing in developing their current workforce, growing it into the workforce needed in the future.

Starting today.

Employers must adopt a strategy of investing in developing their current workforce, growing it into the workforce needed in the future.

It’s important to remember that technologies such as AI, blockchain and robotics will not only eliminate some jobs they will also create new ones. Just as the creation of social media platforms over a decade ago gave rise to roles for social media managers, and our increasingly digital-centric world created a need for user experience designers, Cloud service specialists and cyber-security managers, so too will today’s emerging technologies create new job opportunities.

Transitioning employees into new roles takes considerable energy and investment, but it can also be less costly and disruptive than letting people go and recruiting new talent.

Research from Gallup indicates that creating development pathways for people can also increase employee engagement and retention, which directly ties to outcomes such as productivity, profitability and turnover.

Where will the funds to cover the required learning and development (L&D) investment come from?

EY’s research suggests that New Zealand organisations are wasting around $250 million of L&D spend annually by focusing too much on growing skills that are relevant for today rather than building skills for tomorrow. Were these funds to be redirected and more effectively targeted, EY estimates the growth in L&D needs could be covered within existing allocations.

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Preparing your current talent for the future

Lack of time, unclear development pathways, cost and a lack of awareness about how technology is changing the nature of work are the main barriers to employees engaging in L&D. Discussed below are three ways to begin addressing them.

Communicate: Raise awareness of impending job disruption by communicating with employees about how technology is changing the nature of work. Collaborate in uncovering the new role opportunities that automation and other innovations will create.

Guide: Provide structured guidance on development pathways based on your organisation’s future needs and matched to individual’s career plans.

Prioritise: Dedicate weekly time for your people to engage in L&D and have leaders in your organisation role model this as a priority. It’s time to shift from the traditional model of learn, earn, retire to one of continuous learning for everyone at every age and stage of life.

Addressing both horizontal and vertical growth needs

"The future of our organisations depends on successfully identifying and developing all leaders to higher [stages of development] so that they can respond effectively to the increasingly complex demands of our times." – Keith Eigel and Karl Kuhnert, Authentic Development: Leadership Development Level and Executive Effectiveness While there are two main dimensions people can grow in, most professional development that organisations are currently investing in is ‘informative’ (horizontal growth) as opposed to ‘transformative’ (vertical growth).

Organisations can support people’s horizontal growth through interventions such as peer-to-peer learning, mentoring, and online courses relevant to the future skill needs of the organisation.

However, research from the field of adult development, such as that conducted by Keith Eigel and Karl Kuhnert, has found that, “All other things being equal (traits, knowledge, skill, and ability), individuals who know, process, decide, and relate at the highest [stages of development] not only respond to life’s dilemmas more effectively, but have an increased capacity to lead more effectively as well”.

The future of our organisations depends on successfully identifying and developing all leaders to higher stages of development.

According to the PwC and Harthill Consulting research, it is transformative development that tends to underpin the development of the strategist capabilities needed to effectively lead business change and, therefore, this needs to be prioritised, especially for leaders.

Engaging in reflective thinking, being exposed to the perspectives of people at strategist or later stages of development, learning about developmental theories, and working with a professional coach are examples of ways to support individuals’ vertical growth.

By investing in upskilling your current workforce and developing leaders to be effective at leading transformation, your organisation will be well placed to navigate the next big wave of disruption.

Aenslee Tanner (PCC) is a certified leadership coach specialising in adult development and Growth Edge Interviewing. Her research-based coaching methodology draws on adult stage (vertical) development and complexity theory, neuroscience, positive psychology and high-performance sport. Learn more at aensleetanner.com.

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REGIONAL ROUNDUP KERRY TATTERSALL

Hawkes Bay Branch O

ur region enjoys wall-to-wall summer sunshine, beautiful beaches and many outdoorbased activities. Not forgetting our sumptuous fruits, our full-bodied reds and rich, complex chardonnays, it’s easy to see why this art-deco inspired twin citied region of Hawke’s Bay is a popular choice for both work and play.

Horticulture, viticulture and agriculture are our primary industries and where most of our employment comes from and, therefore, the requirement for seasonal workers is in high demand. As a region, we are keen to see how the changes in the temporary workforce visas pan out over the next 18 months, as a significant number of employers are registered as a Recognised Seasonal Employer and employ a large number of seasonal workers from overseas.

Over the past year, our HRNZ branch has been revitalised and re-energised, and this is evidenced by a 50 per cent increase in membership and an enthusiastic committee of five people from diverse backgrounds and specialisms.

As a provincial region, most of our businesses are classed as small to mid-sized enterprises, and it’s therefore likely that some businesses don’t have a dedicated HR function or, where they do, it’s usually just one individual. As a consequence, our branch recognises the importance of connecting and collaborating and this is evidenced by numerous interactions between members.

Recently, an HR manager based in Hastings asked a member whose primary role was not in HR, to enable 48

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an opportunity to ‘chew the fat’ and share ideas and experiences.

For a small branch, we’ve certainly had a busy year so far! We’ve held several Café Connect events, employment law updates, hosted Diversity Works NZ and held a series of events based on health and wellbeing. Our most successful event of the year was our mock mediation held very recently, of which we saw many non-HR professionals also in attendance. We are on a mission to promote Chartered Membership, and Lisa Oakley, Board Member and National Vice President, recently ran a workshop for members to help them navigate their way through the process. This workshop was very well received, and future ones are planned for next year.

Our committee will shortly be meeting to plan for 2020 and will, therefore, be seeking feedback from our members as to what they would like from their branch.

If any HRNZ members are visiting our beautiful region and would like to connect, either at an event or face to face, please do not hesitate to get in touch. There will always be a warm welcome, usually a warm sunny day and maybe a glass of something Hawke’s Bay!

Kerry Tattersall is a senior HR consultant for Baker Tilly Staples Rodway, Hawke’s Bay. She has been the Hawkes Bay Branch President since July 2018 and is on a mission to build

an inclusive, thriving peoplefocused community in order to connect, communicate and collaborate.

JOSH WINTER STUDENT PERSPECTIVE

Journeying into Human Resources O

ver the past three years, I have been studying at the University of Canterbury, majoring in Management and Human Resource Management. During this time, I have had various work experiences and was selected to be a Student Ambassador for HRNZ. In terms of insight and awareness of the industry, my role as Student Ambassador has been invaluable.

Like many others, my journey into Human Resources wasn’t straightforward. After leaving Blenheim and venturing to the University of Canterbury, I had no real direction and was daunted by the unknowns of my future. However, this soon changed. After knuckling down and taking on my first HR paper, I was engrossed and eager to learn more. On top of this, I began to feel a strong sense of belonging and assurance in what I was studying.

I have always wanted to work with people. I am an individual who thrives on human interaction and gets a real buzz from uplifting others, hence why I wish to seek a career in HR. My first role in HR was in the Learning and Development (L&D) team at the Citycare Group. I managed to secure an internship where I carried out extensive research to find Citycare a fit-for-purpose e-learning platform. This was fantastic exposure, and I can take a lot away from the experience. I not only gained an in-depth understanding of the seemingly endless e-learning platforms available to the market but how to conduct myself in a professional environment. I quickly learnt how fundamental it is to understand the operating context of each business. Only then could

I create a comprehensive list of requirements to take to potential vendors. Working in a blue-collar industry like Citycare revealed the many different attributes employees have and how HR managers must be aware of their differences.

My second internship was with the Marlborough District Council (MDC) at the Harbours Office. Two projects consumed my time; one on streamlining paper-based processes and another on the workplace culture. I have always been intrigued in workplace culture; how it is created and how it is sustained. The ability to bring individuals together through a shared culture, which ultimately sees employees intrinsically motivated and improve the business outputs, ties in with my ethos of why I have gone down the HR path. As a result of my experiences at both Citycare and MDC, I learnt that HR is inherently transactional, and effective Human Resources Information System (HRIS) systems can streamline traditional processes to make time for more value-added activities. This really struck a chord with me, and I wish to find a role that enables me to delve deeper into the HRIS sphere.

I really cannot stress enough how valuable being a Student Ambassador has been to me. The knowledge I have gained and the connections I have made have both built my personal brand hugely.

The Canterbury branch has been incredibly welcoming, and, for a young aspiring professional, it has fostered a safe entrance into the industry. The daunting task of networking has been made much easier through the monthly branch events.

As part of my ambassadorship role, I strived to build the gap between the academic and the professional.

Talking from experience, I know how intimidating entering the workforce can be. If it weren’t for the internships and HRNZ, I would not be in the same position I am now. To reduce the gap, I held an interview techniques session at the University of Canterbury. With the help of two practitioners, we delivered a session for students, ensuring they present themselves the best they can for an interview, as well as how to build their personal brand. Another practitioner and I from HRNZ also went around some of the tertiary institutes to talk about paths into HR and how there are avenues like HRNZ that can prepare students for the workforce.

Additionally, we are in the process of organising an HR Career Pathways event that will provide students with a chance to reduce that gap even more.

Altogether, the combination of university, work experience and HRNZ has enabled me to absorb so much more about the current HR industry. More specifically, I owe a lot of the relationships I have built with like-minded HR professionals to my ambassadorship role. I am no longer daunted by the unknowns of my future but, rather, am excited at the prospect of working in a profession where I want to learn more and more every day.

My name is Josh Winter, I have recently completed a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Management and Human Resource Management at the University of Canterbury.

Email: winterj138@gmail.com LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/joshwinter-4b1050146 SUMMER 2019

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RESEARCH UPDATE NICK MCKISSACK

The state of HR

technology in New Zealand

At a time when we are leading our people through a period of massive modernisation and digitisation in the workplace, it is important to know the role technology plays in supporting HR functions.

H

RNZ sought to understand in more detail what the state of HR technology is in New Zealand today.

Historically, HR professionals have not been well served by technology solutions, and, hence, HRNZ wanted to understand the challenges and identify how best to support members on their technology choices in the future.

The organisation worked with Victoria University of Wellington and Probity Consulting to conduct this research. Specifically of interest to Victoria University (and HRNZ) was the subject of how the HR community is currently using artificial intelligence (AI).

HRNZ sent a questionnaire survey to over 1,000 members and received responses from 200. Questions looked at what was the purpose of the technology for their business, how satisfied HR professionals were with their current HR technology solutions, what challenges they were facing, 50

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and what plans they have around HR solutions and AI. Although many of us in the HR world are talking about AI, the results told us that very few had any concrete plans to implement AI solutions in their organisations. It is hypothesised that this is because people aren’t at a stage of knowing how to progress it within their organisation. People see the benefits of using AI as improving work–life balance and improving people’s job experience (by taking away the low-level admin, repetitive aspects of HR’s duties). However, it appears a disconnection still exists in knowing how to implement these solutions.

Very few had any concrete plans to implement AI solutions in their organisations.

In terms of the current satisfaction levels of those using a core Human Resources Information System (HRIS), only 13 per cent of respondents were satisfied with their current solution.

This becomes a more concerning statistic when we learn that 50 per cent of these solutions were implemented in the past five years.

It would imply that we are not well served in terms of products on

the market. Complaints around current systems include a lack of relevant product features, poor user experience and low levels of customer support.

Very few had any concrete plans to implement AI solutions in their organisations.

Our survey respondents were generally more satisfied with their stand-alone systems, particularly in the wellbeing arena. It seems then that HR apps designed with one purpose in mind will provide more satisfactory experiences than a core HRIS that attempts to meet a variety of needs.

In terms of their main challenges with technology, respondents cited integration, affordability and organisational support as their top challenges. Members are finding stand-alone systems better in terms of meeting their needs but are then faced with challenges of integrating these different systems, for example, a learning and development solution with a recruitment system. Many HRNZ members are from small to medium enterprises and find the pricing of HR technologies beyond their means.

A wide range of technology products is on the market, but, unfortunately, no one product stands out in excellence. New Zealand is a small market yet has its own individual requirements, so it remains to be seen whether there is a vendor that can meet HR’s needs. It is clear that core HRIS is not meeting members’ needs, and there is definitely room for improvement. Members see potential for growth through technology and application of AI in recruitment and

selection, onboarding, performance management and training.

The next steps from here are to engage with the vendor community and share these results with them and explore the opportunities for products that match the needs of the New Zealand market. HRNZ also aims to create an online space where members can share their experiences of working with HRIS products.

HRNZ’s priority is also to support members through professional

development, to improve support for HR technological improvements.

There is definitely room for improvement.

What we as HR professionals can do is to get clear on what our HR technology requirements are, continue to learn about AI and the future impacts on our organisations, and share our success stories when they arise.

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AM I MANAGING? NATALIE BARKER

Same same, but different Natalie Barker, Head of Transformation at Southern Cross Insurance, shares her musings on the mindsets of the generational groups she leads.

I

had a terrifying thought in the middle of a one-to-one with a team member recently: I’m old enough to be your mother.

I realise that should have been obvious. I’m almost 20 years older than the youngest person in my team, but it had never actually occurred to me we’re from completely different generations. That got me thinking about how I lead. Should I be leading millennials differently? Do they need something different from their experience at work?

So I did what any good leader does. I Googled it.

I read about how millennials, aka Generation Y, seek meaning in their work. They want to know they’re making an impactful difference. They also want flexibility and freedom.

They want to be empowered to shape their work, not blindly follow someone else’s rules. They want connection. They’re social beings who value relationships and need their whole selves to be acknowledged. And, finally, they want opportunities for growth and advancement, for their achievements to be recognised and celebrated.

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But isn’t that what we all want? I know I do. I’m lucky enough to work for an organisation that values all of those things. We talk to our people about displaying exceptional leadership at all levels. We emphasise the importance of purpose, empowerment, collaboration and growth, regardless of whether they are millennials, baby boomers or anything in between. My own leader tells me her role is to develop, coach and serve. She reinforces the importance of connecting with your people at a deep level, so you can get in behind them and support whatever makes them tick.

We emphasise the importance of purpose, empowerment, collaboration and growth, regardless of whether they are millennials, baby boomers or anything in between.

It strikes me that it’s the talking about what’s important that might be one of the differences between those of us who’ve been in the workforce for a while and those with fewer working years under their belt. Millennials seem much more comfortable speaking up about what they want.

I certainly didn’t share my passions and aspirations with my manager in my early career. Maybe that reticence

has a lag effect? By comparison, the millennials I work with tend to be quick to tell me what they want. They don’t hesitate to talk to me about what makes them happy and what they need from me as their leader.

So where did I get to with my musings? Well, I think we’re more the same than different. But it’s those differences that matter – irrespective of when we were born. As leaders, we shouldn’t assume we know what millennials want from us, because no matter which generation you belong to, we’re all individuals.

To my mind, exceptional leaders spend time talking to their people, understanding what they’re passionate about, then bend over backwards to help them succeed.

As leaders, we shouldn’t assume we know what millennials want from us, because no matter which generation you belong to, we’re all individuals.

stuff done.

Natalie Barker is Head of Transformation at Southern Cross Health Insurance. She has been leading people for 15 years and believes that leveraging people’s strengths and passions are the best way to drive engagement and get

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HRNZ 2020 AWARDS Celebrating the Best in HR. Wednesday 26 February 2020, Cordis Hotel, Auckland

NZ HR Awards 2020 Join us for a night of recognition and celebration of the people and organisations that make New Zealand prosper.

The NZ HR Awards Ceremony, a black tie gala dinner is the HR Industry’s night, a night at which finalists are recognised and winners are announced.

Join us to celebrate the best of the best.

Visit hrnz.org.nz/awards-tickets to book

In association with