Human Capital magazine issue 8.1

human capital

HC issue 8.1

Teambuilder:

Profile:

airbus china

Royal bank of scotland

HR IN

2010 Hot trends and priorities

Online social recruitment

NES Workplace flexibity

Employer branding

Leadership development

Plus: Improve corporate health + grow the bottom line

EDITORIAL The elephant in the room

S

ocial media is the elephant in the room that nervous business leaders have been ignoring, even as it grows bigger and bigger with each passing month. The statistics are now overwhelming. Not only is Twitter the world’s fifth largest job board (if all jobs publicised are tallied), but in 2009, 50% of Australians surveyed had a social networking profile, up from 45% in 2008 (Forrester Research).

However, according to a 2009 Inspecht Sources of Talent Report, only a few industries in Australia have caught on. The accounting industry tops the list of industries using social media for recruitment, with 43% of firms using it, followed by education and training (21%), and banking and finance (8%), while HR and recruitment ranked 12th, with only 3% of organisations recruiting through social media.

This is not a straightforward issue for HR professionals to deal with. Alongside the obvious reputation risks involved in engaging in this space without first doing homework, there are other concerns that it may bring judging and discrimination earlier on in the recruitment process without any basis for it. There are also battles for those in traditionally conservative professions – such as legal – who want to try something new yet have no ‘runs on the board’.

How important is it for HR to keep up with the changing demands and expectations of employees and candidates? When interviewed for the feature on p18, Richard Spencer of communications company Daemon Group relayed an anecdote about a former employee who actually used Facebook to resign from her position. Spencer noted with amusement that, for her, it was a completely natural thing to do. She even suggested that colleagues put a ‘gone fishing’ sign on her desk. The underlying message seems clear: employees will use this space regardless of whether their employer endorses it or not. Is it worth fighting it? And if not, how should HR professionals engage successfully with it?

In the first person…

“Credibility in this space is huge. What users of social media really dislike is people trying to sell advertising messages without buying the advertising space. What people really like is genuine engagement” – Richard Spencer, chief executive, Daemon Group, on the social media revolution (page 18)

“I have built the first and second storeys of the house. We will finish decorating it before I leave, but it’s already fine to add new storeys to the building” – Benedicte Hersen, vice president of HR, Airbus China, on her HR legacy at Airbus (page 52)

“Work time must mean something. And companies that still believe in annual rah-rahs where a financial number is used to inspire the troops will fast disappear” – Simon

editor’s letter issue 8.1

managing director chief operating officer editor journalist production editors

contributors

marketing manager marketing coordinator traffic manager design manager designer photographer senior web developer it/is manager sales director

Mike Shipley George Walmsley Iain Hopkins Daniela Aroche Carolin Wun Katrina Fox Moira Daniels Carroll & O’Dea Lawyers Chifley Business School The Next Step Chandler Macleod Group Danielle Tan Jessica Lee Stacey Rudd Jacqui Alexander Lucila Lamas Thilo Pulch Kevin Kim Colin Chan Justin Kennedy

Editorial enquiries

Iain Hopkins tel: +61 2 8437 4703 iain.hopkins@keymedia.com.au

Advertising enquiries Sophie Knight tel: +61 2 8437 4733 sophie.knight@keymedia.com.au

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tel: +61 2 8437 4731 • fax: +61 2 8437 4753 subscriptions@keymedia.com.au

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www.keymedia.com.au Key Media Pty Ltd, Regional head office Level 10, 1 Chandos St, St Leonards, NSW 2065, Australia tel: +61 2 8437 4700 fax: +61 2 9439 4599 Offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Toronto www.hcamag.com Copyright is reserved throughout.

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

Hammond, author and founder of Bastion Brands, on the future of employer brands (page 28)

“Everything that has happened to the organisation is regrettable, but actually the work is very, very interesting” – Brian McLaren, head of HR, Asia, Royal Bank of Scotland Group, on his toughest year (page 48)

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this issue

inside

HUMAN CAPITAL

HC ISSUE 8.1

TEAMBUILDER:

PROFILE:

AIRBUS CHINA

ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND

12 Cover story: 2010 –

HR IN

Back to the future?

2010

What’s in store for HR professionals in 2010 and beyond? Over a series of articles Human Capital looks at the hot trends across several HR functions

HOT TRENDS AND PRIORITIES

ONLINE SOCIAL RECRUITMENT

NES WORKPLACE FLEXIBITY

EMPLOYER BRANDING

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

Plus: Improve corporate health + grow the bottom line OFC_spine_FINAL.indd 61

22 New year, new priorities:

11/12/2009 11:47:20 AM

Leadership in 2010

Not only have leadership priorities shifted following the GFC, so have the methods being used to groom leaders to take on those priorities. Pia Lee provides a leadership forecast for 2010

18 Expert insight: To be or not to be social ?

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Teambuilding: 2010 and beyond

Forget about job boards and dismiss print advertisements.

The future of candidate sourcing lies with online social media. Iain Hopkins reports

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Believe it and they’ll come

& diversity 46 Equity Proving that one person can

Why do some brands strike a chord not just with customers but also employees? Simon Hammond examines employer branding past, present and future

Fiona Webster examines whether traditional teambuilding is still appropriate and viable in the post-GFC world

make a difference, even when it comes to the daunting challenge of fair treatment of people at work, Human Capital talks to Stuart King

Improve corporate health and grow the bottom line

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As with any business strategy, employers should not expect immediate results from a corporate wellness program. Those that stick with it will see the results speak for themselves, writes Penny Lovett

Road to HR success

42

Road engineering is not ‘sexy’. This is the perception held by a majority of the high school and university students that are the future of the workforce. The Austroads National Skills Marketing Plan presents a fresh approach to HR attraction strategies

regulars 4 In Step 6 Legal 8 Training & development 9 Corporate culture 11 Ask the experts 48 Profile 52 Teambuilder

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

Send through your comments to editor@hcamag.com

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What does this mean for 2010?

instep HR Career Experts

Page 4

2010 – What’s in store for HR?

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t this time of year, articles are in plentiful supply in the HR press about what is in store for the following year.

In the last Instep for 2009, we will try to add some value to this popular topic.

First, what happened in 2009?

The interesting thing about the HR recruitment market in Australia over the past year was that it was a snapshot of the total employment market. The unemployment rate has not reached the levels expected by the Reserve Bank or predicted by most economists. It has hovered around 5.8% for a good part of the latter half of the year. This does not infer that people aren’t hurting, but the big picture is better than most people thought it would be 12 months ago.

Similarly, as a percentage of the total HR market, not that many HR professionals lost their roles due to economic downturn pressures. This means the supply side was not as deep and as wide as many employing HR Directors and companies imagined. The main issue in the HR market, and most other professional disciplines, was that the demand side was very, very soft (particularly in the first six months). This meant that excellent HR professionals who found themselves in the market through no fault of their own, found 2009 very difficult as roles simply dried up!

The area that was most significantly impacted with very soft demand over 2009 was the early career HR market. This is not good news for the future supply of HR professionals.

In a year or so, when HR Directors are looking to recruit HR professionals with 3+ years of experience, they will encounter increasing degrees of difficulty.

What were some of the other real shifts in the HR recruitment market between 2008 and 2009? First, internal Recruitment roles decreased from 16% to 4% of the HR market. OD and L&D roles went from 25% of the market to 20%. On the flip side, Remuneration roles doubled from 4% to 8% and ER/IR roles increased from 1% to 3%. The other big mover in the total HR market in Australia was that HR generalist roles increased from 51% to 59% of the HR market.

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It is too early to suggest that all the consequences of the GFC have washed through for individual industries and companies, but most commentators believe that the worst is over. Therefore, what can be safely predicted? yy IR will still be in demand. The reality is that pure IR specialist roles make up a reasonably small percentage of the overall market.

The implications from the changes in employment legislation are still flowing through and this, combined with an emboldened union movement, should create significant IR work in 2010. yy Remuneration will still be counted on. For listed companies, remuneration has been the main HR issue for 2009. Board Remuneration Committees are hyper-sensitive to understanding what their short and long-term programs look like through the lenses of both shareholders and the media. Management teams have been portrayed as having their “snouts in the trough”, and both shareholder groups and the media are having their say. yy Back on track with OD/L&D. As already mentioned, the percentage of roles in the Organisation Development and Learning space did drop in 2009. This is not surprising. The roles that did exist had an orientation around sales development. The culture and leadership space did take a back seat. This trend is starting to reverse as companies seem to be refocusing on their culture drivers in preparation for a market pick up and their need to quickly address potential staff retention issues. yy Recruitment roles will increase. There is expected to be a big jump in employee churn at the start of 2010. Due to a significant increase in disengagement over the past year, (as reported by the Corporate Leadership Council and others), many employees will be more active job seekers in 2010. This will articulate into more roles in all areas, as people who had previously “hunkered down” create vacancies. yy Business as usual for HR Generalists. Roles that have been focused on change management, downsizing, cost rationalisation and performance management will need to refocus on building quick solutions to tackle problems of employee engagement and retention. This is a demonstrably better range of problems to be focusing on.

2010 a better year all round

Irrespective of the role that an individual HR professional plays, one thing is for sure, the HR function will be at the front of organisational change over the next 12 months, as companies start to build for an improvement in trading conditions.

The big question is, “what will be the general impact on the number of HR roles on offer?” The reasonable conclusion is that like most areas of professional expertise, there will be a jump in roles in 2010. The question for HR Directors is, “have they done enough to ensure engagement in their own teams?”

Craig Mason is a Director with The Next Step, a specialist consulting practice in the human resources market.

For information call (02) 8256 2500 or email cmason@thenextstep.com.au website: www.thenextstep.com.au

Recent HR Market Moves supplied by The Next Step

Bankwest has appointed Brigitte Fairbank as Head of HR – Retail Division. Previously Brigitte held senior HR roles with Qantas and PepsiCo Australia/The Smiths Snackfood Company.

Venessa Mahady has joined NAB as People & Culture Business

Anne Cummins joins Fidelity International as Associate Director

Brie Muston has accepted the role of HR Manager with

- HR. Previously Anne held senior HR roles with Macquarie Group.

Mirvac recently appointed Brad Moore as HR Director, starting with the organisation in 2010. Previously Brad held senior line and HR roles in the Aviation Industry.

Partner. Venessa has a strong HR generalist background gained in Australia and New Zealand.

Delaware North Companies. Brie was most recently with Adesse during which time she took a leave of absence and worked as the HR Manager for MFP Associates (Shelter for Life International) in Afghanistan.

John McAlpine joins MLC Wealth Management in a senior HR

Virgin Money has appointed Carolyn Back as HR Manager.

Previously Carolyn was HR Director Corporate Services for Fairfax Media.

Chris Hare has recently accepted the role of Head of

Gillian Davie has recently accepted the promotion to General

Catherine Harris has accepted the role of Senior HR Consultant

with Slater & Gordon. Catherine was previously with Foxtel where she held the role of HR Business Partner.

PMP Limited recently appointed Penny Mabbutt as Group General Manager People and Culture. Previously Penny held the role of Pacific HR Director with LexisNexis.

Robyn Hearps joins Tenix Alliance as HR Development

Bridy Sargant will join Heidelberg Australia as HR Manager.

role. John has previously worked with ABN Amro in Australia, Asia and the US.

Remuneration with NBN Co Limited. Chris was previously with Mirvac Group where he held the role of Group Remuneration & Development Manager.

Manager. Previously Robyn held senior HR roles with Chubb Australasia, Suncorp and the Commonwealth Bank.

Manager HR with Progressive Enterprises Limited in New Zealand. Gillian has been working in the role of HR Operations & Remuneration Manager for Woolworths.

Bridy started her career as a solicitor with Clayton Utz before moving internally to an HR role.

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

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Legal Experts

Page 06

Drugs & Alcohol at Work

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n employee who is affected by drugs and alcohol in the workplace presents a risk to themselves, other employees, customers and your business. Costs to the business can include increased sick leave, damage to property, injury and reputational damage. But what can you do about it?

Can I test employees?

An employer’s Occupational Health and Safety obligations are generally viewed as paramount when compared to an individual employee’s privacy concerns, at least where the employee is working in what is called “safety sensitive” work (eg, using heavy machinery, working at heights, driving or flying or with flammable materials). Where disputes have arisen in Australia in the past over whether the employer should be able to undertake such testing on employees, industrial tribunals have upheld the employer’s right to do so where “safety sensitive” work is involved.

Ideally, the right to undertake drug and alcohol testing should be a specific part of an employee’s employment contract with their employer, or part of an enterprise agreement at the workplace, but in the absence of such instruments, employers will have to establish that such a right is impliedly justified in the employment relationship, including being a “legitimate business purpose” of the employer.

What should be in my drug and alcohol policy?

An employer’s drug and alcohol policy has to be developed to meet the needs of its particular workplace or places and the type of work involved – there is no “one size fits all”.

There are a number of key elements and questions that have to be addressed in developing and implementing a policy on this highly sensitive issue: 1. When will testing be conducted?

2. How will testing be conducted?

3. What will happen to the results?

4. What if an employee refuses to undergo a test?

5. What if an employee returns a positive test?

The drug and alcohol policy should also be openly communicated to employees. All employees should be given a copy of the policy and asked to sign an acknowledgment that

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they have read, understood and accepted the policy. It may go without saying, but it is equally important that the policy is actually followed on each and every occasion. If the policy is altered for one employee, then other employees are entitled to expect the same leniency.

What if an employee refuses?

The first matter that should be determined is whether an employee is actually refusing to take a test. They may merely wish to speak to their manager, union representative or legal advisor before undergoing a test.

If an employee does refuse to take a test, the first step for any employer should be to find out why. Drug and alcohol testing is obviously an invasion of privacy, albeit one that has been generally accepted as reasonable. Therefore, an employee who refuses should be treated with sympathy. Most policies provide for a refusal to take a test to be treated as a positive test.

What if an employee returns a positive test?

There are many factors that can affect a drug and alcohol test.

Therefore, it is important first of all to ensure that the test is actually positive by conducting a second test. This should be done at a doctor’s or pathology office.

The implications for a positive test should focus on rehabilitation, rather than discipline. An employee should be offered counselling and assistance in dealing with what most likely is an underlying problem. Depending on the type of work, it may be necessary to stand an employee down whilst they are undergoing treatment, to avoid endangering the employee and their colleagues.

If an employee returns a second positive test, then disciplinary action may be considered up to and including dismissal. Before a decision is made to dismiss an employee, however, they should be given the opportunity to present their position and this be taken into account in determining the most appropriate action.

Testing and responding to the use of drugs and alcohol in the workplace are very sensitive matters. The legitimacy of an employer’s actions can only be determined on a case-by-case basis. Having a well-constructed, detailed policy that is focused on rehabilitation, is implemented fairly and uniformly, and is understood by all employees will go a long way to ensuring, firstly, that employees are satisfied with their treatment under the policy and, secondly, that your actions are upheld as reasonable in the event of a dispute. www.codea.com.au Michelle Wright Solicitor Level 18, St James Centre 111 Elizabeth Street Sydney NSW 2000 Phone 02 9291 7100

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Training & Development

Page 8 Professional Development Experts

LIFELONG LEARNING: A 21ST CENTURY IMPERATIVE

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n our great-grandparents day, the job you started in at 15 was the job you retired from at 70 or so. The work changed slowly if at all, and you learned on the job. If you were fortunate enough to have a skilled occupation, you were apprenticed for the first few years of work.

As work became more complex, apprenticeships became diplomas and degrees, but the mindset remained: what you studied at the start of your chosen career was all the formal learning you required for your working life. Formal graduate qualifications or specialist courses taken mid-career were for the ambitious only. In this century, however, no career path will run so straight.

New skills will be required for continuously changing technologies and markets; tasks seen as essential now will become redundant. The rewarding jobs in 2030 – some say half of all jobs in 2030 – do not yet exist. Most people will switch career paths many times in their working lives.

From a matter of choice for the ambitious few, formal learning while working has become a necessity for a productive and rewarding career. Employers have often recognised this first.

To prepare a workforce for change, major employers seek out and support structured learning, investing in full knowledge that while some skills might ‘walk out the door’, the productivity costs of an untrained workforce are higher.

The development plan has become a core feature of the performance review (and frequently the cause of most embarrassment on the part of the employee in the review discussion). Governments worldwide are subsidising work-based education, and providing income support to mature-age learners.

The Rudd Government’s Productivity Places Program is a case in point.

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So, if lifelong learning is a necessity, what learning is best – especially when continuous change may render obsolete in ten years a skill acquired now? Here are some basic rules: First, skills that make lifelong learning easier – thinking skills, communication and writing skills, basic numeracy – are not only a good place to start, but refresh capabilities at any time during a career. Thinking skills stimulate new ways of looking at the same tasks, preparing the individual or the team to prosper under change.

Second, every working life, whether comprising serial careers or an occupational path adapting to continuous change, is enhanced by committing to regular, structured learning. A good rule is to take the equivalent of two weeks’ intensive learning once every five years. In the intervening five years, the challenges will have changed, and so will the best strategies to address them. Just as important, without a regular and structured program, there is always a human tendency to drift back into comfortable (an ineffective) ways; in effect, to unlearn.

Third, learning is a stretch, and learning which is measured – that is, formally assessed for a qualification – stretches better.

Significantly, Chifley’s experience is that employers often prefer to invest in a Diploma or graduate program over a non-assessed program because they can be sure that the learning has taken.

This is not to say that every program undertaken should be assessed. Sometimes a relaxed mind can be a more open one.

Finally, for a century of innovation, there is no better preparation than by stepping outside the comfort zone. If core career or workforce skills are technical or ‘hard’, then the ‘soft’ skills – working with people, teams and performance, communication, negotiation and persuasion, and selfmanagement – will open unseen possibilities. If core skills are at the softer end, then learning something new and technical or ‘hard’, will give the edge and a new context for the application of core skills. Learning anew might even lead to a change in career or business direction. In this century, that can only be a good thing.

Contributed by Neil Edwards Neil is Chief Executive of Chifley Business School

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

Workforce Advisory & Management Page 09 Evolving Your Workforce

Hold on to your seats…

It’s going to be a bumpy ride

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he way an organisation has treated its staff during the GFC will determine how they react when the economy turns.

The reaction of organisations to cut costs over the last 18 months has impacted many talented people. Some decisions such as removing benefits made on a corporate level have impacted staff more than we may realise. It’s not only what the benefits are, it’s what they represent. Staff will remember these decisions and possibly move on. This is particularly difficult when the Leadership of the organisation may be saying ‘if they’re not with us, let them go’. So how do we keep the key talent when the good times roll in?

Employees are saying “if they don’t move my work area to a better position, I’m leaving,” or “if they don’t let me take time off due to all those long hours and weekends I worked, I’m leaving” or “I can get paid more doing less hours so it’s not worth working here any more.”

Research conducted by Chandler Macleod and other agencies strongly indicates a proportionate percentage of ‘loyal’ staff are actively looking for reasons to leave. This behaviour demonstrates employees are feeling more confident about the market and their ability to secure a new role. They held on tight during the tough times and they’re thinking hard about moving on as they are feeling overworked and undervalued, especially if redundancies occurred. A concern for organisations is, if you haven’t looked after employees during the tough times, hold onto your seats because it’s going to be a bumpy ride!

A phrase used in one large multi-national was “consider yourself lucky – you still have a job.” This approach clearly doesn’t value their people or recognise the extra efforts of those staff who have taken on additional responsibilities with no additional benefits, pay rises or compensation – in most cases they worked for reduced benefits.

Generations have their own issues too, ie Baby Boomers need to work longer due to losses with their superannuation and are looking for work/life balance with reduced days or hours. Gen Xs still have family and financial commitments while Gen Ys have finally settled down in their “what about me” approach to their career and development.

The good news is there are solutions to keeping your talent.

This can be achieved by bringing expertise in or developing strategies internally. Here are a few strategic steps an organisation can take to achieve their business strategy by focusing on the key talent they need to keep: yy Focus on the issue of retaining talent should be an ongoing focus, not just a ‘one off ’ in difficult economic circumstances yy Shift the business strategy in relation to current external circumstances and match the associated determination of ‘success factors’ required in individuals yy Identify the style of people the organisation needs to recruit or develop to deliver on its strategy, now and into the future yy Identify skills assessments to identify critical skills needed and skill gaps against key competencies for now and the future yy Implement measurable ‘success factors’ for individuals at the point of recruitment, promotion to assist in identification of potential, leadership development, succession planning and so forth yy Create Job profile roles with key competencies and recruit against them yy Implement or outsource ongoing Leadership and professional development programs that meet your strategic development strategy to meet skills gaps yy Conduct or outsource exit interviews to collect data to find out why people are leaving – or post interviews during their probationary period. Then develop strategies to deal with the issues (see last month’s HC 7.11 issue for more information) yy Run Focus groups with staff to get their ideas around the critical retention issues yy Ask where your key talent want to go in your Company and career coach them to get there yy Develop an in-house mentoring program or source external mentors for your key talent And some quick hits: 1. Include extended leave policies for staff who have been with the company for 3 years+ 2. Allow staff to purchase up to 4 weeks of leave per year on top of their standard leave 3. Implement flexible work arrangements 4. Allow job sharing options 5. Enable remote working 6. Provide corporate treats as appreciation – fruit boxes, team lunches, morning teas, time off, kitchen nibbles, birthdays 7. Give people positive feedback; let people know they are valued whenever you have the chance.

A combination of long-term strategies and getting back to basics may curb the mass exodus we may be confronting in the New Year.

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issue 8.1

news

NEWS Payroll fraud on the rise

H

R and payroll professionals have been warned about a marked increase of payroll fraud over the past 12 months, which experts have said can be attributed to the more challenging economic

environment and financial distress. “Often staff that commit fraud will rationalise it, thinking – ‘well, I didn’t get my bonus this year’ or ‘they don’t pay me enough for my services’,” said Craig Osborne, managing director of Sage MicrOpay.

According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), 25% of people, if given the opportunity, will commit fraud against their employer, however, 90% of occupational fraud goes undetected. Of the remaining 10%, only 20% of those are detected by internal controls. Many small businesses do not have the systems and processes in place to detect payroll fraud.

Payroll fraud affects all types of business.

Recent examples include a NSW private school where the payroll manager was creating fake teachers, using the passwords of five former staff, and a WA beach club where the payroll manager used ghost employees.

Are employers prepared for the ‘new retirement age’?

M

any Baby Boomers find themselves living in what is commonly referred to as the ‘sandwich generation’ – taking care of their children and their parents.

However, an increasing number now find themselves in what has been newly coined the ‘Triple-Decker Sandwich Generation’ – those supporting their children, grandchildren and their ageing parents, thus providing care to three generations of family.

The NSW Equal Employment Opportunity Practitioners’ Association (NEEOPA) recently brought members together to explore this challenge and assess how, as employers, they will need to manage and support the needs of the caregiver. Members of NEEOPA include Westpac, AMP, Australia Post, BlueScope Steel and IBM Australia.

A panel of experts was convened including Gareth Bennett, HRD of Freehills, Kate Sykes (CareerMums), Alison Monroe (SageCo), Emma Walsh (Mums@Work) and Sheila Gosh (WeeWunz). The panel discussed a range of issues and questions including: »» How will this new social demographic affect business? »» Will workplace flexibility and the NES Right to Request make it easier for this generation to stay in the workforce?

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»» How will Boomers working longer impact on the provision of grandparental care that so many working parents have come to rely on (with 65% of families having both parents at work)?

“Although there’s no compulsory retirement age in Australia, we’re psychologically influenced by pension age eligibility and this will lead to mature workers working longer… but wanting to work differently,” said Alison Monroe.

“Given that mature workers represent a third of our total workforce, employers need to understand and connect with this generation and support them,” she added.

However, workforce participation amongst this group could well be stifled if caring for family stands in the way.

ABS data shows that 41% of all employed people provide care. While 75% of this care is for children aged under 15 years, the next most commonly cared for age group is 75 years and over.

Kate Sykes commented: “The need for flexibility is very much a crossgenerational issue likely to affect us all.”

Gareth Bennett concluded: “It’s moved away from being a ‘nice thing to do’ and ‘the right thing to do’. Supporting mature workers and working parents in the workplace is the only thing to do from a commercial perspective.”

Pregnancy hinders career progression: Survey

W

omen in Australia fear falling pregnant will stymie their career, according to research released by CareerOne.com.au. Almost two-thirds of women believe becoming pregnant will have a negative impact on their career.

The research also found three-quarters of female respondents believe it is difficult to both be in a highly paid executive role and raise a family.

The majority of men (73%) do not think parenthood has any impact on their chance of landing a promotion.

In the lead up to a live panel discussion on career issues for women, CareerOne.com. au ran a series of surveys to gauge consumer sentiment on issues such as work/life balance, career progression and mentoring.

Conducted by CoreData for CareerOne. com.au, the research also found: »» 48% of women believe they have been passed over for job opportunities/promotions because of their gender »» When asked why there are more men in senior ranks than women, most respondents stated it was because women weren’t perceived as “tough” enough for a senior role »» Women are more likely to value assertiveness training than men »» Men generally don’t think they need a mentor whereas women are more likely to want one. More than half of women stated that they wished they had a mentor compared to only 29% of men »» Overall, 37% of men don’t think they need a mentor compared to only 16% of women who share the same sentiment Commenting on the research, Kate Southam, editor of CareerOne.com.au said: “There is a strong message here for employers who do not champion family-friendly policies – ‘do more’.

“Employers also need to look at their workplace culture to ensure it is not biased towards male success. Nearly half of our female respondents believed they were passed over for promotion because of their gender.

That might not be the case, but perception is everything when it comes to developing a strong employer brand.

“For women, the message is also clear: develop skills around positioning yourself for promotion. It is up to each individual to make career development a priority.”

ask the experts

issue 8.1

Need advice?

Ask the experts! We would all like to have experts on hand when we need information. This month Bronwyn Maynard, senior associate & team leader at Harmers Workplace Lawyers, tackles a breach of employment contract question Questions?

Got a tough question to ask our panel of HR and people management experts? Send your question through to: editor@hcamag.com

T

his is the situation. I’ve offered a job to someone who lives interstate. They have accepted the job, signed the contract, and have resigned from their previous job and have moved to Sydney – which they have paid for themselves. However, due to internal restructuring, before that person has started, I’ve had to retract that job offer. Can they sue me for losses incurred by my breach of contract?

A

Withdrawal of a job offer can, in some circumstances, enable a person to sue. In one case (Walker v Citigroup Global Markets Australia Pty Limited [2006] FCAFC 101), an individual (Walker) was awarded over $2.3m in compensation in connection with the withdrawal of an offer of employment.

The case serves as a strong warning to all employers.

In relation to your situation, a key question will be: what representations were made to the person in relation to the role?

Claims can be made under the Trade Practices Act for misleading conduct during recruitment. If, when the offer was made, your company knew the restructure was pending, the representation that the role was available may be misleading.

Courts, in that circumstance, can assess compensation by multiplying the remuneration the person would have received had they continued in their previous employment, by the number of years the court considers that employment

If, when the offer was made, your company knew the restructure was pending, the representation that the role was available may be misleading may otherwise have continued (for example, two to five years).

In relation to the costs of the move to Sydney, if that was a lifestyle choice, you may not be liable. However, if the reason for the move was solely because of your job offer, then you could be ordered to cover the cost.

You could also face a breach of contract claim (either combined with or separate from a trade practices claim). Your exposure to such a claim may depend on whether you had guaranteed a minimum employment period. Say, for example, in the negotiations you guaranteed a minimum 12-month employment period, then the court may award damages equivalent to 12 months’ pay.

In light of the above, it may be worthwhile for you to audit what representations have been made to the person, so you can assess your potential exposure to any legal claim. HC

About the author Bronwyn Maynard provides strategic and practical advice to a range of employment and industrial law issues. Call her on (02) 9267 4322 or visit www.harmers.com.au

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2010 issue 8.1

cover story

Back to the f the What’s in store for HR professionals in 2010 and beyond? Over the following pages we look at the hot trends across several HR functions

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cover story

the future? future?

T

he Christmas and New Year period is usually a time for reflection and a chance to take stock. The transition into 2010 will be no different, but many predict that not only will employees be reflecting, they will also be acting. After riding out 2009, many will be looking to greener pastures and taking steps to move there.

So where should HR be focusing their efforts? One comment posted at www.hcamag.com succinctly sums up the concerns of many: “We are extremely concerned about the ‘mass staff exodus’ on the horizon. After a year with no salary increases, reduced bonuses, mass redundancies, cost cutting and a focus on leave reduction in order to survive the GFC storm, we are anticipating a spike in resignations. In fact, after a year with zero resignations, we have received three in the past month.”

The more things change…

Rightly or wrongly, one of HR’s most daunting challenges – retention – was put on the backburner throughout 2009. In 2010 the experts predict it will return with a vengeance.

“2009 was about hanging on. In 2010 people will have the confidence to move and will be considering opportunities elsewhere,” says Peter Tanner, managing director of Randstad’s HR consulting division. “However, I think HR professionals need to be cognisant of the fact that this happens every year.”

Tanner is hesitant to predict how quickly the economy will recover, but

with a steady labour market and two consecutive interest rate rises by the Reserve Bank of Australia – with a third rise occurring in December – workers may start to consider new job opportunities in order to secure the salary they need to cover higher household costs.

Deb Loveridge, CEO of Randstad, believes that despite a small increase in unemployment in October there are signs of an improving employment market.

She believes this will lead to increased movement in the job market over the coming months.

“We’re already seeing signs that the employment market is starting to open up, as employees begin to look for new opportunities after 12 months of holding tight and riding out the economic storm,” she says.

“Over the past year, many employees took the decision to remain in their roles and sacrifice pay increases in return for job security. But with two rate rises in as many months and another in December, people may start to worry about their household finances and feel that it’s time to look for a role with a better remuneration package.”

Loveridge advises employers to revisit their retention and remuneration strategies, with a particular focus on high-performing individuals, to ensure the business remains competitive and prevent a flight risk from those looking for better paying roles.

This is easier said than done when budgets are still tight. Indeed, Tanner believes only a moderate 2–3% pay increase should be expected in most organisations

issue 8.1

in 2010. “People haven’t had increases at all over the last 12 months, but if they’ve been on a four-day week they can reasonably anticipate going back to five days and being paid accordingly,” he says.

Fortunately, Tanner also believes there will be plenty of residual goodwill from employees towards their employers.

“Organisations had to make tough decisions in 2009. In most cases they were the necessary decisions, and during this downturn there was greater reluctance to shed numbers. If they’ve survived this long, employees must be reassured that things will turn around. It’s about building those expectations: ‘we’ll get through it together, and when we get through it these rewards will be there’. That’s what will bind people together – after weathering the hard times, the good times are coming,” he says.

The wider issues

At the broadest level, HR will need to align talent plans to a new economic environment but will also need to seek greater clarity in the employment environment as the Fair Work Act gains

Deb Loveridge www.hcamag.com

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2010

“Retention isn’t all about money. It’s about offering work-life balance, understanding your workforce and understanding why the workforce wants to stay with you” – Rabieh Krayem

Rabieh Krayem

traction and the first round of cases pass through the Fair Work Ombudsman.

The skills shortage will re-emerge as the unemployment rate has not risen as high as expected, while the pressures presented by an ageing population have of course not eased. Staff turnover will accelerate as ‘post restructure prisoners’ stop thinking about changing employers and start acting.

Finger on the pulse

Over the past year, many organisations have restructured, downsized, right sized or rebalanced. Some things went well, some things not so well, but one thing is certain: the employer/employee relationship has been impacted.

“In order to move forward and reengage their workforces, first movers – those who invest in growth as close to the bottom of the economic cycle as possible – are acting on the outputs of exit interviews, employee satisfaction surveys or employee engagement surveys. In many instances, this means running a survey which had been cut as a cost-saving move during the economic downturn,” says Bridget Beattie, regional general manager, Right Management.

Inevitably, as employees sense a turnaround, they will demand the return of whatever was sacrificed to steer through the economic turbulence. As a prime example, HR will need to be aware of the triggers for when to pull people from four days a week back to five.

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“If organisations can’t meet these expectations just yet they need to communicate to the people: ‘we said this, this is the reality, and this is what we’ll do in the future’. People need to feel assured that something is happening. Open communication is the key – you need to talk to people. HR has the role of providing senior management with the keys to go and communicate to people openly and candidly,” explains Tanner.

“Retention isn’t all about money,” adds Rabieh Krayem, managing director, IPA. “It’s about offering work-life balance, understanding your workforce and understanding why the workforce wants to stay with you. Why do people stay with you for five or 10 years? Candidates and existing employees are asking what the company can do for them.”

Re-engaging

Nonetheless, HR should not be lulled into believing that it will be all smooth sailing. Top of the priority list will be the recapturing of the hearts and minds of tired and jaded employees.

However, re-engaging employees takes inspirational leadership. Again, Tanner stresses that open communication is the key. “It’s about being candid and open.

Talk finances with people. An organisation cannot hide whether they are successful or not – people know. Stress what you’re doing and what it means to the employee. Thank employees for their efforts. It could be a simple thing – it doesn’t cost much to have a BBQ or half day off to celebrate that you’ve done something to be proud of.”

Tanner adds that many companies have not offered any training or development throughout 2009. He suggests it may be time to reintroduce some cost-effective

training such as peer coaching or mentoring, or involvement in projects outside someone’s normal work scope.

“Interesting things might be happening in the business as they pull out of the tough times that would really benefit from project work,” he says. “Get people involved, interested and passionate about improving the company.”

Executive remuneration

Executive remuneration remains an extremely sensitive issue emphasised by the GFC fallout and public response.

2010 will see outcomes from the Productivity Commission’s review of executive remuneration in Australia and a number of legislative changes are pending. Due to these regulatory and governance reforms boards will face greater public accountability for executive remuneration decisions.

The extreme volatility of 2009 exposed executive remuneration programs around the globe. For example, tremendous value has been created and lost very quickly through equity incentives, calling into question the link between executive reward and company performance.

A recent Mercer survey of executive pay trends among the top ASX-listed companies (for July 08–June 09) found a decline in executives receiving long-term incentive (LTI) grants this year and lower LTI values reflecting the decline in share prices in the earlier part of 2009.

“Organisations reviewing executive pay programs will be looking for ways of balancing shareholders’ interests with the need to attract and retain top executive talent,” says Ken Gilbert, Mercer’s head of human capital. Mercer anticipates the following trends in executive remuneration:

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Risk management As 2009 saw company performance affected by natural disasters, the GFC, rising bad debts and budget deficits, accounting firm RSM Bird Cameron is encouraging business leaders to view these warnings as indications that they need to reevaluate risk management for 2010.

RSM Bird Cameron’s director for risk management, Jean-Marc Imbert, shares eight management tips to help businesses survive 2010.

1

Beware of fraud

Organisational changes have increased the risk of fraud. Executive management focused on executing new strategies has become oblivious to potential fraudulent behaviour, and the number of changes to processes and controls is on the rise due to strategic and structural changes. “To address this risk, businesses need to recreate a culture of fraud awareness,” says Imbert.

Businesses should implement an anti-fraud program, perform regular disbursement reviews, and align IT security risk assessment with enterprise relationship management.

2

Scrutinise business relationships

Dependencies on the global economy, pressures to reduce carbon emission and lack of available finance will result in more companies experiencing business disruption from customer and supplier insolvency than at any time in the past 20 years.

Add to this situation the decrease in lead-time between awareness of a solvency problem and ultimate receivership or liquidation.

Boards, audit committees and executives should continue to assess the process for evaluating their suppliers for vulnerabilities, the viability of business partners and reliability of key partners.

3

Review staff requirements

Given the recent signs that the market may be recovering, businesses should evaluate if they have the skilled personnel, IT capabilities and other resources necessary to handle the increase in demand after ‘right-sizing’.

The GFC has placed immense pressure on staff to improve performance, which may motivate employees to take high risks or defraud the system. Businesses should evaluate key performance indicators and identify areas that can expose the company to additional risk or fraud.

Publicly-listed companies are now under intense scrutiny by the media, investors and the general public for supporting policies that reward employees who engage in high-risk behaviour with little to no personal accountability.

Imbert advises the development of remuneration committees to evaluate compensation structures, particularly with bonus schemes, to ensure that they are in line with the company’s risk appetite and investor expectations.

4

Embrace change

5

Review shared services model

6

Accommodate new tax regimes

7

Monitor price fluctuation

8

Prepare for growth

The GFC and climate change have indirectly caused many volatile industries to declare bankruptcy.

Businesses facing uncertainty should assess their risks and identify opportunities to gain an advantage over their competitors.

To reduce risks and stimulate growth, companies may elect to change their structure or offerings.

For example, while some automotive manufactures are focusing on decreasing production, other manufacturers have seen an opportunity to increase their market share by manufacturing smaller, more fuel-efficient cars. This is an example of risk mitigation strategy turned risk opportunity.

An increasing number of organisations are moving to a shared services model as a way to respond to the urgent need for cost reduction.

In addition, shared services providers are operating beyond their traditional scope to take on higher-order activities. Businesses should evaluate their strategy for moving to a shared services model and ascertain whether the changes in process are maintaining stability and integrity of the control structure.

With increased levels of borrowings and budget deficits, governments will have to increase tax revenues from businesses through stricter enforcement of current regulations and the introduction of new taxes.

Rapid changes to company strategy may have misaligned with long-term tax plans already in place.

Imbert says, “boards and executives should help evaluate the level of vulnerability to changes in government tax policies and ensure compliance with applicable regulations.

They should also ensure that the consideration of tax strategies and risk is embedded in the strategic decisionmaking process.”

Companies’ resilience to deal with price fluctuation is going to be a major advantage in 2010. Imbert advises businesses assess their capability to monitor triggers of a high price fluctuation, as well as evaluate the preparedness to operate in this environment.

Capacity building was once the catch cry but cost cutting initiatives and uncertain future demand is causing concern about companies’ ability to deliver when there is an upturn in the economy.

Boards and executives should evaluate the company’s capability and capacity to grow in areas such as access to skilled personnel, matching capabilities to new demands, and ensuring access to key suppliers.

www.hcamag.com

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HR technology Human Capital talks to Nick Beaugeard, founder/general manager for HubOne, about HR tech trends HC: What do you see happening with HR-related technology in 2010 and beyond?

Nick Beaugeard: A big drive in larger enterprises is to have more integration with everything. Many years ago I worked for JPMorgan, and HR had their own network that nobody else could get at. What we’re seeing now is a partnership between HR and IT to start integrating all the systems together, to really make the business more streamlined and efficient, and remove those silos of data.

I’m also seeing a move away from buying the massive product that does everything for your business into buying solutions that solve specific problems that will integrate with the rest of your platform.

HC: In conjunction with Frontline, HubOne has just launched a recruitment solution called the Enterprise Profile Manager.

Why is this cutting edge?

NB: Finding talent in large organisations is a massive challenge. I was seeing a trend where enterprises were starting to block things like LinkedIn and other social media services. I asked a number of CEOs why these were being blocked. Feedback was that firstly, recruitment agencies were using sites like LinkedIn to harvest the best staff from organisations and effectively head hunt them.

Secondly, competitors were using these sites as a good source of intelligence when going into

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2010

competitive bids. So I thought we should write an application that allows you to use similar functionality but solely within the organisation. Something that allows you to understand completely who you have in the organisation and where your skills and experience lie.

HC: What makes it different to all the other talent management platforms out there?

NB: We found that most of the HR tools out there are pretty old.

We tried to bring in a lot of the elements from social interactive websites and Office 10 to make the experience more enjoyable.

HC: What are the benefits for HR professionals?

NB: There are implications for L&D, reward & recognition, career advancement and succession planning. Many HR professionals we’ve spoken to have said that it’s just too difficult to collate up-todate information about employees.

The ability to outsource that to the people who really know it – ie the staff with the skills and experience – really provides a better idea of what’s going on. The goal for employees is to keep their own profile up to date with qualifications and experience, etc, so that when new projects or new opportunities appear, they are the ones approached rather than external contractors or someone else. The implementation is easy. It utilises data most organisations already have in Microsoft active directories, and so on, so the ability to populate it with additional information in terms of sucking in data from resumes and other sources is simple.

»» A renewed call for balance in executive compensation delivery – including a balanced focus on retention and reward, a more holistic approach to performance metric selection and target setting, and even-handed use of short- and long-term compensation elements. »» Organisations will rethink the relationship between risk and reward and, in particular, look for ways to ensure that rewards reflect sustainable performance results so that excessive risk-taking is not encouraged. »» As reward resources continue to be scarce, differentiation of key contributors through rewards and career opportunities will be even more critical. »» Organisations will look for ways to apply the concept of segmentation to remuneration actions and maximise the return on limited reward dollars.

Back to basics

Beattie believes personal accountability is back on the agenda. A ‘back to basics’ sentiment is creeping back into business – how to run an effective meeting, how to run an inspirational performance discussion, how to help direct reports manage their careers and how to have real performance management conversations.

“First movers have recognised that some of the basics have been forgotten during 2009. They’re rolling out development activities to drive strategy execution,” she says.

The 2009/10 budget cycle has seen many support functions (for example, HR, IT, sales) stripped of budget in support of short-term profitability. This is playing out in two ways: business initiatives focused on cost reduction are prioritised, while decisions to invest in talent are delayed.

When it comes to recruitment, HR will remain extremely cautious. Tanner suggests the two key questions to be debated will be:

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“First movers have recognised that some of the basics have been forgotten during 2009. They’re rolling out development activities to drive strategy execution” – Bridget Beattie Do we really need that person? And if the answer is yes, how do we know they’re the right person? “We’ll go back to where we were in the late 1980s/early 1990s when we were much stricter on who came through the door. We’ll move back to psychological assessments and stricter reference checks and verification,” he says.

Talent management

Invariably, HR will also need to consider strategic talent plans and work closely with other business leaders. Krayem stresses that, at the very least, HR should already have talent plans in place for the next three and six months. “It’s very hard to plan after the event so do some crystal ball gazing based on certain assumptions and scenarios. The businesses that will tick along quicker will be those with plans in place,” he says.

Although most organisations discovered the hard way about how best to handle economic pressures, the tough lessons have already been covered. Companies will now look to upsize and downsize in a quicker manner, placing infinite pressure on HR to get the right mix of full-timers and contingent (contract, part-time or outsourced) workers.

A recent survey by Manpower Australia indicates that more than half (51%) of Australian employers do not view contingent labour as a strategic part of their workforce, despite the fact that the economy’s recovery phase will require employers to use contingent staff when demand begins to increase.

“The winners in the post-recovery world will be the companies that leverage contingent workers as workforce accelerators. These employers have mastered the art of managing a flexible mix of permanent and contingent workers to optimise performance, increase speed of execution, build talent capability, keep

fixed costs low and do more with less,” says Lincoln Crawley, managing director, Manpower Australia and New Zealand.

Manpower’s survey, Rules of Engagement: Harnessing the Potential of the Contingent Workforce, suggests that almost 23% of companies in Australia use contingent workers primarily to complete work during peak seasonal periods.

Other reasons for the use of contingent labour include: to cover for employees on leave (9%), to source talent that requires specialised training quickly (7%), and to ‘test drive’ candidates for permanent positions (5%).

According to Tanner, it’s only now that employers are realising the benefits of contingent workers. “It used to be that you had one or two temps when someone was off sick. Now I think there will be more of a temp workforce being used to skill up or skill down as demand requires. You’ll have that core intellectual property that you’ll need to keep in some employees, and the rest will be onhire workers or contractors,” he says.

Crawley adds that a more strategic approach, and one that also serves to enhance the experience of all employees looking to match work with lifestyle, is to start leveraging the contingent workforce strategically to gain access to people with scarce, specialised skill sets, outsource noncore business functions, try out candidates before hiring for full-time positions, and provide longer-term workforce flexibility.

Not done yet

Many believe that HR’s battle to stake out their position on the executive team has been won. Now the challenge is to prove why they should remain there. 2010 will be a critical testing ground for this.

“Finally HR are there, and now it’s about ensuring they still offer value to the organisation. How they do that is with

Bridget Beattie

the human capital piece. I believe HR professionals will have a better go of it in 2010. They’ve been the bearers of bad news and they were usually the ones who fired the bullet. So it’s about them understanding that while it had to be done, now is the time to get on with it and put the business back together,” says Tanner.

To do this, HR will need to be change leaders, and also have the ability to grow and develop these skills in others.

“Leadership has always required a socially, economically and business-aware mindset.

Now, the breakneck pace of change, increasing numbers of direct reports and ‘flatter’ organisational structures demand a new type of leader: one who can drive, lead and navigate change,” says Beattie.

Beattie adds that ‘first movers’ have recognised that every people leader, from the CEO to contact centre team leader, must be change agile. Change Tool Kits have been developed and change agility has become an assessment criteria when promoting, recruiting or redeploying.

“Everyone looks to HR and the leadership they give at that boardroom table,” says Tanner. “Having that enthusiasm and demonstrating the ability to ride with change is critical.” HC Over the following pages, read more about how 2010 will likely shape up for other key areas of HR www.hcamag.com

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expert insight

To be

or not to be social Forget about job boards and dismiss print advertisements. The future of candidate sourcing lies with online social media. Iain Hopkins reports

T

?

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he latest statistics indicate that the sum of all the jobs publicised on Twitter makes it the fifth largest job board in the world.

Yet mention ‘online social media’ to most HR professionals and a quick shadow of concern will cross their faces. From using online social media as a recruitment tool to allowing employees access to these sites during company time, it appears it’s a vexing minefield of uncertainty.

Others – albeit those with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo – remain unfazed by the rapid development of the once-fledgling ‘web 2.0’ into a platform that just about everyone uses.

When the issue was raised with several of the winners in the online job board category of Human Capital ’s end of year poll, Joe Powell, managing director of SEEK Employment Australia & NZ, had this to say:

expert insight “We talk to our clients regularly and we’re yet to see any concrete examples of success in attracting talent via social media.

There’s no doubt it’s here to stay but we don’t think people are going to try and find a job through a network when they can just go to one place with all the jobs.

Both jobseekers and advertisers need to invest significant time on both sides of the fence to uncover and manage interactions through networks to get anywhere.”

Does Powell have a point? And are the wider concerns of HR professionals justified? Human Capital talks to Richard Spencer, chief executive, Daemon Group, and Nat Cagilaba, account director, Daemon Within, about HR and social media.

Human Capital: Should the online job boards be concerned about the rise of online social networking as a recruitment tool?

Nat Cagilaba: I don’t think they should be threatened at the moment. There’s still a separation in where you go for a job and where you socialise. The likes of SEEK are very established but what they need to do is start incorporating these social media aspects into their sites. That’s what’s happening with LinkedIn, and that’s the one site that’s close to giving them any competition. The fact that LinkedIn just announced a new CEO for Australasia shows a commitment to growing their market share.

Richard Spencer: Organisations are also testing social media’s capability to help them recruit because it is cheaper than advertising on job boards.

NC: There’s also a lot of talk amongst recruitment agencies about the relevance of using social media. They are trialling social media as much as possible. If recruiters can source candidates cheaply through social media that will affect revenue of job boards.

HC: How important is it to distinguish between ‘social’ and ‘professional’ online networking?

RS: The two are merging. Social media has become the popular vernacular for the

space, and you would include LinkedIn in that space, even if they are very much about professional networking before anything else. At Daemon Group we’ve now got our LinkedIn accounts on our business cards so we can communicate who we are and what we are to everybody we meet. It’s a great way of demonstrating capability and experience in one URL. HC: Social media is different from the traditional one-way street of job boards or newspaper ads. It seems there are more

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The 7-point plan Richard Spencer presents his 7-point strategy for utilising social media effectively 1. Find out where you stand 2. Know your audience 3. Trust your people 4. Get involved and stay engaged 5. Keep it real 6. Get to the point 7. Measure what you are achieving

“There’s no doubt [social networking is] here to stay but we don’t think people are going to try and find a job through a network when they can just go to one place with all the jobs” – Joe Powell ways to engage with candidates. Would you agree?

what the business impact can be, then they can put budget towards it.

RS: There’s always been a limitation in what you can say about an organisation in traditional job advertising. Social media introduces video and interactive content, and you can certainly be more creative about how you communicate your employee value proposition.

HC: Where should you start?

NC: Many business leaders believe they suddenly have to produce lots of new content. The fact is, they’re doing it all anyway. They’re doing telepresentations and sharing knowledge between business units, so it’s about assessing whether they should record a presentation or webinar and use it for multiple purposes. That’s the key thing – it’s not necessarily more effort, it’s just thinking more broadly in the initial stages.

Once a business sees the value of it and

RS: It’s crucial to put listening posts out to hear what current and former employees are saying about the employer. It also helps to inform you of what the conversations are around the employee value proposition.

Even if employers are not using the space to aggressively recruit or retain, they should be using it to listen and gather information and research.

HC: What’s the most frequently cited concern from HR professionals when it comes to using online sites like Twitter for recruitment purposes?

RS: The biggest single concern is about risk and perception. We hear people say they are reticent about engaging in the space.

Which social media does your organisation use?

2008

2009

LinkedIn

80%

LinkedIn

95%

Facebook

36%

Facebook

58%

Jobster

17%

Twitter

42%

MySpace

13%

MySpace

11%

Ning

10%

Ning

6%

SecondLife

1%

Source: Daemon Group

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expert insight

“Credibility in this space is huge. What users of social media really dislike is people trying to sell advertising messages without buying the advertising space” – Richard Spencer

Nat Cagilaba

are not involved at all, what gets talked about then becomes the truth. Yet it’s that other person’s opinion rather than the corporate opinion because no one is putting the corporate opinion across. It’s better to be involved in the conversation than not because you can help guide and manage perception rather than just live with other people’s opinions of you.

People often don’t think about the listening stage as the first step, yet that is a very low-risk strategy. They jump immediately to posting comments and getting involved from a conversation perspective.

The risk is about engaging in conversation or creating an opportunity for someone to say something bad about you. We’re developing a risk model which will help that process – but the way we counsel clients is to say those conversations are happening anyway, whether or not you are involved in them. Importantly, if they

NC: It’s about having a strong policy as well. A lot of organisations think it’s opening the floodgates, yet a policy will set out how employees are going to interact with social media, what they will do, and how they will react to anything that is negative. It will also outline the organisation’s expectation of their employees on a professional basis, because they can’t obviously move too far into the personal space.

HC: How important is having a clear plan or strategy before undertaking activity in this space?

RS: It’s crucial. It’s about looking before leaping, so the first step of our simple

What does your organisation use social media for?

Source hardto-find skills

2009

To make new contacts

60%

HC: Is ROI tough to prove?

RS: It depends on the measure but it’s not really tough to prove. Because it’s a direct

What type of candidates are attracted through social media?

51% Mid manager

Senior manager 43%

56%

Entry level 72%

To look for passive candidates

34%

51%

Executive

40%

27%

77% 5%

c-level

4%

12% Source: Jobvites Inc 2008 and 2009

www.hcamag.com

RS: Absolutely – consistency is key because it shows interest and longevity but also builds credibility. Credibility in this space is huge.

What users of social media really dislike is people trying to sell advertising messages without buying the advertising space. What people like is genuine engagement. It’s the easiest thing to do, it just takes commitment.

That commitment doesn’t necessarily have to be cost, it just has to be genuine on behalf of the organisation to want to engage former, current and potential employees.

58%

To head hunt

20

HC: It also sounds like it’s important not to set and forget?

51%

60%

To promote open jobs

Other

2008

72%

seven-point plan is listening. Find out what everyone is saying. It’s also about knowing your audience. Where are the people you’d like to recruit or retain more or less likely to be online? If they’re a young demographic are they more likely to be on a Bebo or Hi5 rather than a Facebook or MySpace?

Source: Jobvites Inc 2008 and 2009

expert insight line of sight to what you’re doing and it’s internet-based, it’s all trackable. It’s easier to track an investment in the internet space than it is in any other.

NC: It comes back to having clear objectives about what it is you’re hoping to achieve within this space, and then you can have the metrics around that. If it’s just a desire to be there, then it’s difficult to prove what the ROI potentially is, although it does have the impact of building the brand if nothing else.

RS: It’s about the communication strategy and the brand development strategy before it’s about the individual channels and the accounts. It’s not about technology.

Technology is just the enabler. It’s about the strategy you’re trying to achieve. Rather than attempting to break through on Twitter because it’s hot, your strategy may suggest that Twitter is not the right platform for you. It’s approaching it from the same strategic standpoint as you would any other communications technique.

HC: Where does your careers website fit in with all this?

RS: It’s not necessarily about drawing people back to your careers website but you should be considering using your careers website as a fulcrum, where all the content can run around and be accessed. For example, many clients have built careers sites with video content but I would suggest having the video content on YouTube with a link to it from your careers site so you’re using the power of social media as a networking tool.

Also remember your careers site may be a blog rather than the more traditional hierarchical communication.

NC: Increasingly careers sites are moving towards drawing people to the online application process. As for the content on your site, that’s open to discussion. The traditional content was probably quite static, whereas if we move to dynamic content it’s more cost effective to send that out into the social media space rather than actually building it yourself.

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HC: More generally, how important is it for organisations to have some sort of Facebook or Twitter presence?

RS: It depends on the nature of the organisation and strategically what they are trying to achieve. I wouldn’t suggest it’s mandatory for every organisation to be on Facebook. I would suggest it’s mandatory for every organisation to use social networking from a listening perspective but I wouldn’t suggest social media is right for every organisation to engage proactively. Some organisations will get huge benefits out of Facebook pages and some won’t. For example, any opportunity for a larger organisation to build alumni should be pursued.

NC: It goes back to what is the objective.

A lot of the time it’s a desire to control what is there, or a feeling of ‘we’ll have to be out there because people will be saying things and they’ll be connecting under our umbrella’. Yet if people are setting up Facebook pages and groups without official endorsement, surely that is the biggest endorsement you could possibly have for your brand.

HC: How about the productivity issue?

Should employees be allowed access to social media?

RS: I don’t believe it does have an impact on productivity. There’s a quote from Bill Gates, which I’ll paraphrase: ‘If you’re worrying about the damage to productivity caused from the internet, it’s the same as lying awake at night and worrying about how many pens are being stolen from the stationery cupboard’. The upside productivity benefit of the internet is so far away from the downside that I don’t think it’s worth talking about. Also, if you want to use social media proactively it’s very difficult to cut your employees out.

We’ve been through this before with e-mail. When e-mail came in people had e-mail policies about whether you could or could not use it for personal use. There’s a basic level of acceptance now – yes you will use it for personal messages, the same as you use the phone on your desk to phone your mum every now and then. I believe social media will reach its own hygiene level.

Richard Spencer

HC: I understand Daemon Group uses something similar to Twitter for in-house communication?

RS: We use a product called Yammer, which is the software as a service version of Twitter. It sits inside your firewalls. It’s a great way of using the power of microblogs from a communication perspective and limiting that just to your own employees.

It has improved the flow of information around our organisation. Rather than spending a lot of time wordsmithing a company announcement you just pop in 140 characters without thinking too much about it. The type of information flow changed as well – rather than waiting for a perfect piece of information, people just put material up as they receive it.

NC: The key is the speed of it. You could send out to everyone a message saying, ‘I’m going out to see a client, does anyone know them?’ And you’d get an instant response back.

RS: Many organisations will create company newsletters or magazines and they sit on desks unread. It’s not due to any malice – people simply don’t have the 10 minutes to read them.

A 140 character update takes 3–4 seconds to read. HC www.hcamag.com

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leadership

New year, new priorities:

Leadership in 2010 Not only have leadership priorities shifted following the GFC, so have the methods being used to groom leaders to take on those priorities. Pia Lee provides a leadership forecast for 2010

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eadership means different things to different people, but what is unifying is its critical role as a strategic enabler: this is a key factor in delivering results. In terms of delivering these results, leaders have just come through tough times.

So how do they view their challenges for 2010 and how can leaders be developed to meet these challenges?

We have conducted a survey and spoken to a number of senior leaders to find out.

In April 2009 – the heart of the GFC – a survey of leaders revealed their top four leadership challenges to be:

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1. Developing or improving systems and processes 2. Developing people 3. Ensuring cross-functional collaboration 4. Ensuring clear communication throughout the organisation

By November 2009 – coming out the other side of the GFC – the early results look like this: 1. Developing or improving systems and processes 2. Building and maintaining a positive culture 3. Ensuring cross-functional collaboration 4. Defining organisational direction

While systems and processes and collaboration remain, some interesting changes appear to be on the horizon.

The most obvious change is that while in the GFC, leaders were preoccupied with systems and processes – there now appears to be four equally weighted challenges.

This supports the view expressed by the senior leaders we have spoken to; that 2010 will signal a return to more ‘holistic’ leadership – where leaders will need to have a broad view and bring clarity to a complex and blurred world.

To put it another way, leaders will have to ‘widen the lens and sharpen the focus’. The chief executive officer of a

leadership

major airline summed up this need to take a broad view: “Post-GFC, I foresee a return to profitability and optimism, which should enable leaders to consider more opportunities. Last year, we were very constrained by cost cutting. We have now moved to cost containment, which should always be the case.”

A vice president of a global software company expressed the challenge of balancing apparent contradictions: “I’m not sure yet whether to be optimistic or pessimistic. I see a need to be appropriately conservative balanced with being sufficiently visionary and motivating for people.”

New in the top four is ‘Defining organisational direction’. Our airline CEO says that he feels the organisation needs to improve its alignment while harnessing diversity: “How can we avoid excessive internal conflict? We need the right amount of conflict then get on with implementing actions.”

Our vice president in software sees the challenges in setting direction in the context of the differences in the world economy: “The GFC seems to be over in Australia but not so in the US and UK so this year there will be more localisation of strategies to address local needs and situations. This will act as a counter to the globalisation trend we have seen in recent years.” Both these senior leaders reflect the findings of the survey: leaders need to focus on setting direction and this will involve balance and a complete view of the levers available to them.

‘Systems and processes’ remains resiliently at the top of the list of leadership challenges. This is explained by the HR director of a market-leading pharmaceutical company: “The role of the leader will continue to do more with less,” she says.

“Leaders need to be operational and strategic.” Again, the holistic theme.

Leadership development in 2010

What leadership development is required by organisations to meet these leadership challenges and deliver strong results in 2010 and how best can it be delivered to generate the most effective return on investment?

The ‘what’ of leadership development

In the old days, a manager would reach a certain point in their career and then go on one of the company’s leadership programs. They would return to their workplace, only to find that when their

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empowerment and accountability are cascaded, how decisions are made and who can make them. »» Culture is another part of organisational climate and will be driven largely by the example set by the leaders of the organisation. Defining the desired culture is the

In the coming year, the minimum standard of delivery of leadership development is blended delivery: repeated lessons through a range of media integrated with action learning manager did the program there was a different provider who employed different ideas, different profiling tools and so on.

There was no alignment in approaches, frameworks or language. Today, to achieve organisational results requires organisational leadership. The focus in the coming year should be on aligning the organisation around a shared purpose and clear goals, then building a common language at all levels in order to achieve them. This contrasts with the past way, which seems bent on trying to create the next ‘great leader’ with mysterious powers of persuasion and charisma.

The Leadership Challenge Survey and the senior leaders we spoke to all indicated that development should enable leaders at every level to master complexity and handle conflicting principles: collaboration and decisiveness; global and local; profit and positive social impact. Leaders in the past would choose between these. The leader of the future will see them as false dilemmas and ask, ‘How do we have both?’

Let’s look specifically at the challenges raised by the survey: »» Setting organisational direction, now back on the map, is step one for the leader and maintaining clarity of it at all levels in the organisation is always a priority. Leadership development programs should always be locked into the vision, purpose and values of the organisation. »» Systems and processes form a part of the organisational climate. Shared language around leadership is the essential ‘wiring’ for an organisation and includes how

first step, supported by feedback and a focus on ’walking the talk’. »» Ensuring cross-functional collaboration: once the organisational direction is set and cascaded to individuals, collaboration comes down to competence. In order to collaborate, individuals and teams need a shared goal and a shared process to unite them. Aligned decision-making is a process that can enable the collaboration and the decisiveness that the senior leaders we interviewed were seeking.

The ‘how’ of leadership development

“What is the definition of a lecture?” goes an old university joke. “It is the transfer of information from the notes of the professor onto the notes of the students without passing through the brains of either.” Very funny – but it could equally be applied to development in the corporate world where managers we’ve spoken to all too often see ‘training’ as a distraction from the real world – brought to them by the insistent flashing light of a BlackBerry.

While the financial cost of building capacity has always been a factor, a new consideration is now even more important: time. This was summed up by our pharmaceutical HR director who said: “The challenge for leadership development is that they won’t come – they’re too busy to see the value in ‘training’.” It is clear that the ‘how’ is as important as the ‘what’ in ensuring that learning really lands.

In the coming year, the minimum standard of delivery of leadership www.hcamag.com

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leadership

development is blended delivery: repeated lessons through a range of media integrated with action learning. Good practice up to now has been to add a project after leadership development in order to embed the lessons. In 2010 we will start to see this idea turned on its head: learning by delivering real businessrelated projects rather than the other way round. This approach delivers action learning combined with business innovation that benefits the bottom line. It involves engaging teams in a business-sponsored project delivering the specific leadership frameworks and tools at the appropriate stage of the project’s life cycle. See Figure 1 for details of the ‘Project Learning’ approach.

Examples of where this approach will be particularly effective are:  Executive teams planning and implementing a merger  A team implementing a major IT project  A marketing team building to a major launch  A cross-functional key account team The result of this approach is immediate improvement in organisational results and a team that shares a common language of leadership that can then be deployed effectively elsewhere or the approach can be taken to other teams.

Figure 2: Kirkpatrick’s Learning Evaluation Model

Level 4: Impact How organisational results were impacted Level 3: Application How behaviour changed Level 2: Learning How much was retained Level 1: Reaction How much the program was perceived to be useful

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Figure1: ‘Project Learning’ approach Classic project management phases

Initiating

– Relationship contracting – Purpose, vision, values, – Measures

Planning

– Decisionmaking – Situation analysis – Planning methodology

Executing

– Planning and briefing – Cascading decisions – Coaching & feedback

Controlling

– Black-belt coaching – Leadership styles – Stakeholder context

Closing

– Organisational learning – Stakeholder review – Return on investment

Transformational leadership development delivered at appropriate project phase

Driving organisational results

“If you measure it, it moves” is the battle cry of a UK CEO who took his organisation from poor fourth to strong market leadership in three years. If you are looking for return on investment in development, you will need to measure it. The well-tested Kirkpatrick Learning Evaluation Scale is a simple and intuitive way to approach this challenging task.

The Kirkpatrick model is set out in Figure 2. Level 1 measurement has been used effectively to this point, normally using a ‘happy sheet’ to check participants’ enjoyment and perception of the program.

This is far from a waste of time: research in neuroscience tells us that excitement at the time of learning contributes to retention.

However, 2010 should see the drive for organisational results being matched by measurement competence, all the way to Level 4. This will mean investing in measurement itself.

Executives from the ROI Institute conducted a study of Fortune 500 CEOs to understand the executive’s view of the investment in L&D and the measures of success of that investment. Jack Phillips, chairman of the ROI Institute, concluded that the study revealed “a disconnect between what executives want to see about the learning investment and what they’re provided … for example, 96% of executives want to see the business impact of learning; yet only 8% receive it now. Similarly, 74% of executives want to see ROI data, but

only 4% have it now”. (Chief Learning Officer October 2009) In learning, there is a side benefit to measurement and that is the positive impact of the ‘observer effect’. When people know that what they are doing is being measured, they will do it more. In this case, they will learn more, apply more and have greater impact.

As the world economy sails away from the stormy seas of the GFC, all eyes are strained on the horizon in front.

It would be easy to read this article and think that leaders in 2010 need to ‘focus on everything’ or that leadership development should be cheap, take no time and deliver outstanding results.

One thing is clear: successful navigation requires a leadership that extends from the bridge to the boiler room. Developing leadership capacity is a core requirement, not an elective. To help steer your way through these demands, a few principles will guide you: make the content relevant, bring the delivery as close as possible to real life, and demonstrate tangible results so that leaders see the benefit to them and to the organisation. HC

About the author Pia Lee is director of LIW3, an organisational leadership consultancy. She brings 25 years of experience in education and consulting to global clients. For more information phone +61 (0) 408 973 677 or e-mail pia.lee@liw3.com

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Emotional Intelligence The key to success If you want to get ahead in business, try developing your softer side.

That’s the message from Jan Dent, managing director of Redgate Consulting, which provides leadership coaching and consulting with a focus on Emotional Intelligence or EI. Jan is combining the skills learned through her MBA, which she completed through Southern Cross University’s Graduate College of Management last year, with her management experience in the health sector and her qualifications in speech pathology, adult education and leadership coaching to help people get the best out of themselves and their careers.

And she says developing EI is an essential ingredient for leadership success.

I encourage people to see that their staff are just as important as their paying customers “Emotional Intelligence, or EI, is the ability to identify, assess and manage your emotions,” said Jan. “Contemporary leaders are not just judged on intelligence, training and expertise, but also by their ability to work cooperatively and stay motivated, by their desire to keep learning and

improving, and most importantly on how well they work with others – all of which are EI skills.

“Some people are naturally gifted in EI – Barack Obama for instance, is highly articulate, empathetic, calm and self disciplined. It doesn’t always come so easily to the rest of us, but the skills can be learned.”

People with emotional intelligence typically know how to understand and control negative emotions, are authentic and genuine, are good at conflict management and maintaining a web of relationships and realise the links between their feelings and what they think, do and say.

The four main emotional capabilities of Emotional Intelligence are identified as self awareness (including awareness of your own feelings and their impact on others), self management (primarily of emotions and impulses), social awareness (such as empathy), and social skills (such as an ability to inspire, influence and guide others).

Jan said it was the leadership and human resources subjects she studied as part of her MBA at Southern Cross University that first got her thinking about this powerful set of skills and the

importance of leadership training to teach them.

“Our leadership unit was written by Professor Peter Miller, who is at the cutting edge of what is happening in this area internationally,” said Jan. “The MBA gave me the background I needed, and I wouldn’t be where I am today without it – it is all part of the bigger picture of formal learning and experience which sent me in the direction of leadership coaching.

“Many managers struggle with people issues at work, and hopefully I will be able to go some way in changing that through training in skills such as EI. “Strategies I suggest to develop EI include keeping a daily journal to develop self awareness, practicing listening and watching others to read their emotions, working on developing an optimistic outlook, practising being mindfully focused on the activity you are working on, and taking breaks to have plenty of time to renew and refresh.

“I encourage people to see that their staff are just as important as their paying customers, and by giving them the tools they need to communicate and manage their emotions they can ensure they get the most out of themselves and others.”

For more information contact Jan Dent, Redgate Consulting.

P: 02 6624 2756 M: 0410 063 188 E: jan@redgateconsulting.com.au www.redgateconsulting.com.au

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ABL – advertorial

issue 8.1

The Right to Request Flexible Working Arrangements What does it mean for employers?

From 1 January 2010, a narrow group of employees will have the right to request a flexible work arrangement1 (the RTR) and their employer will be required to grant the request or refuse the request in writing within 21 days2, failing which the employer will be subject to a civil penalty of up to $33,0003. An employer can only refuse a request on “reasonable business grounds”4.

Reasonable business grounds may include5, for example: • the effect on the workplace and the employer’s business of approving the request, including the financial impact of doing so and the impact on efficiency, productivity and customer service; or • the inability to recruit a replacement employee or the practicality of the arrangements that may need to be put in place to accommodate the employee’s request.

There is no definition of a flexible working arrangement in the FWA. Types of flexible working arrangements suggested are a reduction in hours of work (eg, to part-time work), a change to non-standard start or finish times, working from home or another location, working split shifts or job sharing arrangements.

Branded as “… little more than guidance for enterprise policy”6, the RTR will in fact pack a punch for employers who ignore its arrival and do not appropriately manage requests from an eligible employee7, namely those who care for children under school age or under 18 years old with a disability, and who have more than 12 months’ service8.

Although the FWA does not provide a mechanism to challenge the legitimacy of any “reasonable business grounds” given for refusing a request (Written Reasons),

the fact is many employers are, or will become party to, a written agreement9 (probably an enterprise agreement) that gives the FWA the power to resolve disputes about “reasonable business grounds”. Further, poorly drafted Written Reasons may serve as a potent tool in an adverse action claim under the FWA or claims under state anti-discrimination legislation or the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth).

If an employer grants a request, its compliance hurdles will continue. An employer must consider if any proposed change in working arrangements will produce a technical breach of an applicable award or enterprise agreement and whether it should or in fact can, enter into an Individual Flexibility Agreement (IFA) to “neutralise” any such breach. Further, any IFA must be carefully drafted to ensure that the parties revert to the “pre-request arrangement” if the employee unilaterally terminates the IFA on 28 days’ notice.

The employer may be exposed to an “adverse action” claim if the employer seeks to revert to the “pre-request” arrangement without the support of an express IFA term that facilitates such action.

Importantly, if more beneficial arrangements than the RTR are available to an employee under state or territory laws, these are not excluded10. This means that employers must deal with the superior provisions available to any employees covered by relevant Victorian legislation11. Unlike the RTR, the Victorian provisions impose a positive obligation on employers to reasonably accommodate requests for flexible working arrangements and it provides an enforceable complaints mechanism if an employee alleges that the employer

has not complied with the obligation.

A national employer may want a national standard for its flexible work arrangements and will therefore need to satisfy the highest applicable standard.

Promised RTR guidelines have yet to emerge and accordingly, employees do not have guidance about how to assess their eligibility to request or how to prepare a request. Employers that do not want to be inundated with ineligible requests and difficult to process requests are advised to set up basic infrastructure to assist their employees.

To that end, Australian Business Lawyers has developed a training package that includes template forms such as an “Employee RTR Eligibility Test“, an “Employee RTR Application” and an “Employer RTR Response”. Australian Business Lawyers is able to provide as much or as little training and “infrastructure support” as is required.

Section 65 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (the FWA) Section 65(4) of the FWA See sections 44 and section 539 of the FWA 4.

Section 65(5) of the FWA 5.

The Explanatory Memorandum for the FWA at page xii 6.

Charlesworth and Campbell “Right to Request Regulation: Two New Australian Models” (2008) 21 Australian Journal of Labour Law 7.

Section 65 (1) (a) & (b) of the FWA 8.

Section 65(2) of the FWA provides that long term casuals with a reasonable expectation of continuing employment on a regular and systematic basis are also eligible.

9.

Section 739(2)(a) of the FWA 10.

Section 66 of the FWA 11.

Section 14A of the Equal Opportunity Act 1995 1.

2.

3.

Australian Business Lawyers Interested parties should contact, Siobhan FloresWalsh at Australian Business Lawyers at siobhan.flores-walsh@ ablawyers.com.au www.hcamag.com

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employer branding

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employer branding

Why do some brands strike a chord not just with customers but also employees? Simon Hammond examines employer branding past, present and future

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hen Google bought expensive billboards advertising the complex computer riddle, ‘first 10digit prime found in consecutive digits of e’, it wasn’t selling Google to customers.

It was talking directly to its future human capital in a discreet, secretive, in-the-club way that did more to build its brand than any over-claiming consumer advertising could have achieved.

The idea was that anyone who could decipher this riddle, which continued on through Google’s website, was the sort of person it wanted working for the company.

It was an ad for new staff that was actually an ad for the brand at the same time.

Welcome to the new world of brand.

The world that has pretty blonde Virgin flight attendants thank everyone for flying and, without any pause for effect, mildly mention that it has been our pleasure to fly with them and if anyone’s travelling with infants, could they please take them with them as they depart.

For the 30% that may have heard it, it was gold. And that’s all it takes to spread great brands. Consumers are more likely to choose a brand based on the passionate

delivery of an employee than they are based on any ad they see. Great staff passion and love for their place of work is infectious. And it has direct results to the bottom line.

The point is, as we enter the second decade of this brave new millennium, great brands are now decided on how great their people are.

It’s that simple. And it’s that important.

In an ever-changing world of a new job every couple of years, it seems we’re all on the lookout for a great place to work, where we can be who we want to be. Thus, the barbeque chatter or dinner party dialogue is crucial in forming opinions about the brands we love. And most importantly, a new friend at a bar who raves about where they work is indeed the best ad that business could ever hope for.

Goodbye to old rules

Business must face the fact that the days of buying market share through overwritten ad campaigns and crass sales tactics is over.

The most pressing global challenge facing business in 2010 is to redefine the ill-informed perception of branding.

As a pure branding agency we are leading the assault to have management teams understand that to lift their brand and achieve greater profit, they must first look to the beliefs that bind their people.

This doesn’t mean we are a ‘people & culture’ company or trainers. We still see our role as brand builders. It’s just that for too long brand has been seized by marketing and advertising departments and kept as their personal plaything, while the entire reason for a business existing goes unchecked.

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Brand is not about logo, livery and ad campaigns. For more than half of my 20 years running creative agencies, we played that game. And by and large it is bloody hard work.

You set about creating the breakthrough ad idea or promotion, which excites customers to visit the retail outlet, only to be met with indifference or hostility from the poor old part-timer who is simply hating the fact that they were last to know.

We launched million-dollar ads without having the very people expected to deliver on the brand promise know anything about it, let alone have it align with their experience or belief.

The lesson for me in all this was to reverse the process and start with a central idea or belief that first unites the internal brand, before exciting the external market.

I called this BE Branding and I’m happy to say some of the most loved Australian brands are now driven by this simple philosophy.

Boost Juice, Westpac, T2, Medibank Private, Mitsubishi, Elwood fashion, Sportsgirl, Pedders, Amcor, Fernwood, ModelCo, Secrets, to name just a few.

At the end of the day, these companies, and a growing elite of others from around the world, are understanding that brand is about a complex and unfakable set of touch points that make me, as a consumer, want to be part of that business.

Living the brand

It leads to big communication ideas, but based on a fundamental belief rather than a short-term opportunistic sales approach.

It also leads to all the decisions being made through one filter. All people in the brand live the brand. Distribution, retail www.hcamag.com

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employer branding

property, manufacturing, HR, promotions – you name it and they all must work from a central belief of why the business exists.

It means our work is wide and varied – but always ideas-based.

Ultimately, when a brand really works, a consumer is happy to wear it, drive it, show it, or talk about it as a badge of honour. In other words, the choice they make enhances who they are.

The Ecko white rhino that says ‘I believe in free speech’; the simple Nike swoosh that says ‘I just do it’; the white dove that says ‘I agree society’s perception of beauty is distorted.’

This is a fine example of the BE Branding revolution sweeping boardrooms and adding value to bottom lines.

Three key words

The simple notion is based on three simple BE words. It begins with the idea that businesses that define what they stand for and what they can BE for their customers (belief) enable both their staff and eventually their customers to emotively connect and feel part of the effort (belonging). From that point a new order of behaviour follows where staff and customers are loyal beyond price and product.

Work time must mean something. And companies that still believe that annual rah-rahs where a financial number is used to inspire the troops will fast disappear The great brands emerging and dominating are great at having their people belong to a well articulated and widely embraced belief. And when we come across these passionate employees, we want in too.

I was visiting The Body Shop recently, one of the pioneer BE brands, and was roaming for a gift when the young girl effortlessly engaged me in something she felt passionate about. It was international child sex slavery, which hit me hard and fast. She also gave me something easy to do about it. I bought the hand cream and felt better for it.

Beliefs have ruled The Body Shop and this is a brand based on the passion of its people. Its Australian founder, Graeme Wise, is the sort of leader that’s crucial to a successful new-age business. He wears his heart on his sleeve and commits most of his money to training, educating and inspiring his people. It’s a tribe, not a business.

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It’s why there’s a waiting list for the next Harley Davidson motorcycle before anyone’s even ridden it. Harley is a BE brand, based on the power of its human capital to live, breathe and BE Harley. It’s also the reason Harley refuses to send its manufacturing offshore. Its people count.

Then there’s the Apple empire. Its advertising impact is minimal, compared to the effect it has through the way it behaves. From retail passion to rock god status surrounding Steve Jobs, Apple is a belief brand. It stands for something and its devoted customers feel they belong to the brand. All you have to do is watch the comings and goings of an Apple retail store as devotees play with the new toys and discover new things they can share and do. It’s another tribe.

But it doesn’t have to be the size of Apple, nor a sexy industry like design. It

can be a legal firm where every partner shares the same belief of what they’re trying to BE for clients. One such law firm I worked with decided they were ‘fighters’.

They believe in the fight to the end for the customer. That’s pretty powerful stuff that rallies staff and excites clients. It can be a chain of cafés that show what they think is important to stand for. In one case they mustered around the belief of connection, which meant every staff member started every day trying to help every table enjoy the moment and have a real connection.

Creating a great brand should be the primary focus for every business, big or small, as it is the foundation stone to the way any business is identified.

The Gen Why change

The reason this revolution has begun and the reason it won’t go away is the growing army of under-30s who are demanding more than their Baby Boomer parents.

They don’t see their lot in life to work hard, provide or question too much.

They see their role to right wrongs, to explore options and to reject old ideas that hem them in or make them feel worthless.

This is a shift in society that has come about through a new generation but is being embraced by all generations.

Work time must mean something. And companies that still believe in annual rahrahs where a financial number is used to inspire the troops will fast disappear.

These days, employees want to be inspired with a sense of the cause, the mission and the belief. They demand to know where they’re going and most importantly, why.

They also reject over-worked mission statements and unreal corporate speak.

They love the genuine article and leaders who work from a clear moral compass.

They’re happy to give everything to

employer branding

something that means everything to them.

So they need to know the why.

In my 21 years of advising brands, this remains the most missed part of the equation: why.

Why does a company believe that what it’s doing is important? Why should its people feel passionate to work hard?

These questions have been largely left unanswered, as incentives and competition have been used to get staff going. However, every piece of research conducted on employee satisfaction rates money and incentives down the list well under purpose and meaning.

We want what we do to count.

Personal branding: The next boom

Another huge influencing factor on this belief trend is the rise in personal branding.

Since the 1990s and the information explosion we have become savvy to the ways of branding and by natural flow-on, we have learnt how to brand ourselves.

Kids are naturals at this. They quickly create their own brand with music, clothes, sport and the ever-growing social networking world.

They effortlessly form tribes and choose other brands that fit with them.

This is what Rolf Jenson talked of when he wrote The Dream Society and suggested the new age is about the storytellers who can create brands that in turn add to the power of personal brands.

The new ‘brand’ world is about substance and belief as employees everywhere ask themselves and their employees more probing questions about what they want to do with their 50 hours a week.

The trend is sweeping through multinationals with scary speed as the new

workforce of under-30s are demanding the business they work for does more than merely sell stuff – they want to stand for something.

They want to go to the pub or meet with friends and family proud of what they do and buoyed by the response from others to the place they work.

Plus, all around us, there are examples of great personal brands. Indeed, it was the entertainers who really taught business about brand. Artists who remain uncompromised and stand for what they believe in enjoy massive loyalty and strong tribal belonging.

It’s always been that way. And now this innate desire in humans to know purpose and direction is set to become the next big industry.

Human brands will dominate thinking and, once understood, will help business motivate staff.

How to rally your human brand

This is all well in theory but how does a business create its human brand power?

Simple.

Step back from trying to ‘market’ your business, and take a good hard look at what it is you believe in. In other words, in your category, what are the fears, desires and frustrations driving customers to the sort of things you offer or do.

If you see it from the customer’s point of view, you can begin to explore what you and your team believe you can BE to fulfil those desires and alleviate the fears and frustrations.

This work is best done collaboratively, with your trusted team, so that you can decide on a belief that will clarify why you do what you do.

This is exactly the approach we take to give businesses their competitive edge and

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provide a human platform from which all decisions can be filtered through.

This belief forms the basis for all communication, first internally, then externally.

And for goodness sake, COMMUNICATE! Too often, internal talkfests end up in a bunch of clever words that are then relegated to the top drawer or are in the meeting minutes.

Great businesses live the belief. It’s up for all to see. It has effect on all decisions and it can be tracked through all those touchpoints.

A belief statement – what you believe you can be for your customers – is the new mission, vision and values all mixed up in one. It should cue a company’s style, tone and character. It should excite and scare with its lofty ideals. It should inspire all who work there to strive to live it.

Internally, the key is inclusion. The staff, the greatest resource any business has, should be the owners of the brand.

And that’s the bottom line. A brand is a collective of people with a common DNA and identification.

Like a football club, you should know when the supporters arrive by the colours they wear, the song they sing and, in many cases, the way they enter a room.

That’s the challenge for businesses right now; for customers to know a business by what it stands for, not merely by what it sells. HC

About the author Simon Hammond is the founder of Bastion Brands and author of CEO of Earth, available through Wiley Australia

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teambuilding

Teambuilding: still worth it?

Fiona Webster examines whether traditional teambuilding is still appropriate and viable in the post-GFC world

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espite Australia’s relative resilience to the global financial crisis sweeping the world during the last 12 months, Australian employers and employees have not escaped completely unscathed.

Many employees have had to endure increased stress caused by restructures, loss of colleagues due to retrenchments, increased workload, burnouts and experiencing ‘survivor syndrome’. As they come out the other side, people are feeling battle weary, unmotivated and guilty that they remain in their roles, while their

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colleagues have had to look for new work.

A whole generation of young workers, who have never experienced the effects of a recession, are finding it difficult to know how to handle it. For older workers who have been in this situation before, they are wondering what’s next for them and their careers.

Many HR professionals are also finding it tough. With a workforce that probably has low morale, many businesses are battling with absenteeism, lower productivity, negative emotions and cynicism from staff who are wary

of management actions and their communication. Managers have to deal with the possibility of significant flight risk of staff as the market begins improving, particularly in those organisations where redundancy has been handled badly.

At the same time, employers are trying to support those who remain optimistic and positive so they can remain that way.

On top of all of this, management will be wondering if their own jobs are safe in the short to medium term.

It is no surprise, therefore, that given this backdrop the concept of teambuilding

teambuilding has fallen down and been completely off the agenda for many HR professionals.

Teambuilding – Is it outdated?

Often associated with sports games or weekends away that have a fun or competitive theme and are usually very costly, many employers and employees view expenditure on teambuilding during an economic crisis as deeply inappropriate. For many who have survived in an organisation after large-scale redundancies, relocation or cost-cutting and who must manage with tightened resources in an unpredictable market are often cynical at such a gesture.

If asked whether they think it’s right that their company spends time and money on teambuilding activities, they would probably say their preference would be for retrenched workers to still have their jobs. Business as usual – taking staff hiking, canoeing, learning the trapeze or navigating the bush – seems inappropriate at best.

But at a time when companies are being forced to cut staff and staff benefits, significant focus and investment should be spent on building strong teams, strengthening morale and improving staff motivation if a company is to emerge from the economic downturn in a strong position to grow.

Staff need to feel they are part of a team that supports them, understands them and is fighting for them through the difficult economic periods. Staff need to relate to the company’s vision and values to see why they are working for their company and why they should be working with management to set up the business for future success. Instead of more talk of better times, employees need to see action taken and preparation for these better times ahead.

Where to begin?

So where do employers begin? How can they implement effective teambuilding programs that will be well received by both staff and those closely managing expenditure?

The best place to start is to ask staff what they want and need, to ensure they remain highly productive and

successful in their role in the organisation.

You can do this by involving them in the process and listening to their perspective without judgment. By observing, listening and reflecting on discussions with staff, employers must put themselves in the shoes of their teams and be open to feedback. By appreciating that the circumstances and reaction of one person may be completely different to another, HR managers will be able to develop programs that are appropriate and meet a range of needs.

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focuses on the following areas: building optimism, resilience, flexibility, empathy, relationship skills and authenticity.

A new chapter

The past 12 months have been a startling wake-up call for many businesses and staff. Many are reflecting, reassessing and starting a new chapter in their professional and personal lives. A lot of people are feeling down or have spirits that have been squashed and hopes and dreams that have been flattened or changed dramatically. As

Instead of more talk of better times, employees need to see action taken and preparation for these better times ahead During this process, it’s important that employers are aware they could find staff unwilling to open up to HR or line managers about their concerns, fears or anxieties. They may need to bring in someone independent, such as a career coach or career counsellor, or encourage the appointment of mentors inside and external to the organisation if required.

For employers, this communication process needs to focus on building a stronger team by regrouping, debriefing and facilitating the venting of negative reactions. By taking steps towards a positive future one step at a time with genuine and realistic intentions, managing expectations and allowing staff to find a voice, employers will be able to understand and manage negative behaviours appropriately by appreciating different dynamics among teams and sites.

As a result of these discussions, many employers may find it necessary to completely re-think their current teambuilding activities. If the feedback is that traditional teambuilding activities are seen as wasteful and inappropriate in the current economic climate, organisations will either need to adapt their activities or improve the way they demonstrate the benefits such exercises have on people and begin to rebuild the trust and confidence of those remaining in the company.

Specific activity will vary from organisation to organisation but teambuilding will be most effective if it

a result, many are not dealing well with the change and ongoing unpredictability.

Post the GFC, low staff morale needs to be treated differently to the way it has been in the past. Going back to basics will hold managers in good stead but everyone dealing with people in an organisation needs the skills and experience to execute this effectively and convincingly.

As we emerge into the daylight of a new economic reality we will find the rules of engagement between an employer and employee have changed. If companies are to move forward positively and bring their staff along with them, they must realise that their people will need to be supported, engaged, energised and listened to.

Going forward, rebuilding teams will no longer be an optional extra or an excuse for activity unrelated to businessobjectives. It will be a business critical issue that will require time, patience and investment to ensure that those who have ‘survived’ are willing and able to work together with their employers to rebuild their business. HC

About the author Fiona Webster is the national manager of Randstad’s specialist outplacement and career coaching division. Visit www.randstad.com.au for further information. www.hcamag.com

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corporate health

Improve corporate health

and grow the bottom line

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corporate health

As with any business strategy, employers should not expect immediate results from a corporate wellness program. Those that stick with it will see the results speak for themselves, writes Penny Lovett, director of human resources for Bupa Asia Pacific

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istorically, corporate wellness has been viewed as a ‘warm and fuzzy’ or a ‘nice to have’ thing, rather than a significant business resource that can contribute to a healthy, productive and motivated workforce and have a direct impact on employee attraction and retention.

Today, the view is shifting, with many employers perceiving employee health as the linchpin of a business strategy that puts employees first, establishes a positive working environment and actively seeks out initiatives and practices that keep employees healthy and happy at work.

When applied appropriately, this strategy not only impacts employees’ mental, physical and emotional wellbeing, but can also have a tangible impact on an organisation’s bottom line.

Research shows that around six million days are lost in Australia each year due to sickness and employee absenteeism, while poor health causes 12 million days of reduced productivity due to employee presenteeism. And while the sheer size of these figures is concerning, they also represent opportunity: approximately one third of this ‘employee downtime’ can be linked to poor lifestyle choices such as a lack of exercise, poor diet, smoking, drinking to excess, or simply mismanaging known health conditions such as high blood pressure.

However, a successful wellness program will embed improved health behaviours and lifestyle choices within an organisation and help reduce rates of absenteeism and presenteeism. This is best demonstrated by findings coming out of the US, which show that companies that implement wellness programs successfully are receiving a return of $5 in productivity for every $1 invested.

It also stands to reason that when employees are happy and healthy in their workplace – both mentally and physically – they are more present and more productive.

Additionally, we know candidates in today’s employment market understand the value of non-salaried benefits – of which corporate wellness programs can play a significant part. The companies that are able to attract and retain a quality workforce are those that understand the value of employee satisfaction and the impact it has on employees’ engagement and loyalty.

When implementing employee wellbeing programs for Bupa Australia’s corporate clients, we recommend they start by evaluating the existing state of their employees’ health and develop a fact base about their organisation and their employees.

Traditionally, many workplaces prefer to engage an external consultant to facilitate this process, given their

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expertise, as well as the fact their independence helps garner greater cutthrough with management and trust with employees.

Once established, this fact base provides a benchmark that allows for evaluation of the program following implementation. This evaluation is essential for ensuring your corporate wellness program does more than just pay lip service; that is, it has a tangible impact on your employees’ mental, physical and emotional wellbeing. Importantly, it also acts as a vital measurement tool that enables the business to ascertain the return on its investment.

There are a range of tools in the marketplace designed to assess health and wellness. For example, Bupa can provide corporate clients with access to ‘in2life’, an evidence based approach to identify the health status of employees.

Once employees have undertaken the assessment, we can provide insight into employee health via an aggregated, anonymous report that highlights the health risks within their organisation.

Employees are also given an individual report and recommendations; however, we would also encourage companies to offer an incentive for them to undertake the assessment, in order to ensure a robust sample size – 30–40% would be considered a good uptake.

If we provide the company with an employee health insurance plan, it is also possible to look at claimable events and highlight trends that may relate to the workplace. For example, if we see a spike in optical claims in a workplace that primarily operates in an office environment, we could look at ways of reducing the negative impact high www.hcamag.com

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corporate health

Case study: TNT Australia Human Capital talks to Susan Davies, HR director, TNT Australia, about her company’s commitment to employee wellbeing HC: What does TNT offer its employees when it comes to their physical and emotional wellbeing?

SD: Employee wellbeing is only one piece of the employee engagement puzzle but it’s a very important piece.

Our Wellbeing Program is in its third year and this challenges us to be more creative in ensuring that our people continue to show interest, involvement and commitment to their own wellbeing and that of their colleagues.

TNT has a range of initiatives from the global to the very local. Globally, we’re involved in supporting the United Nations World Food Programme which encourages employees to be involved in improving the health of school children in developing countries such as Cambodia. Locally, we encourage depots to undertake specific activities that get people involved, such as No Smoking campaigns, healthy food at regular depot BBQs, ‘focus days’ on particular activities, family fun days and many more.

TNT has also entered into a number of partnerships with community organisations, including Beyond Blue to raise awareness of mental health issues in the workplace – this involved the training of around 600 supervisors and managers. We also support a close relationship with Cancer Council which includes not only fundraising but also provision of free of charge freight for their key campaigns. In addition we support a number of organisations in their annual fundraisers such as Jeans

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for Genes, RSPCA and the Red Cross in emergency relief operations.

HC: Why do you have these initiatives in place? Does the cliché of ‘happy, healthy workers are more productive’ ring true? Have you noticed any other benefits?

SD: ‘Happy, healthy workers are more productive’ is not a cliché. Employee health and wellbeing is not a peripheral issue, it is central to our business.

Business outcomes rely on people. If our employees are in ‘a better place’ physically and psychologically, they are likely to be more productive. This is not only for personal outcomes but also for team productivity and workplace relationships.

As with most initiatives, we have extremely active participants who embed this into the way they do things at their depot and we have those that just run it as ‘a program’. Either way, we’ve found our wellbeing initiatives to have been very effective and worthwhile, being openly accepted by our employees. In some of our locations there has been a marked change in ‘culture’, with the Wellbeing Program a helpful instrument for that change.

HC: Do you track effectiveness of these initiatives?

SD: It’s difficult to track the effectiveness of these programs through empirical data. We rely heavily on employee and management feedback.

We have a cross-functional consultative group to ensure that we are listening to the real needs of our employees and we have regular regional teleconferences across Australia to keep communication channels open. Effectiveness is also gauged by the level of involvement at the depot level.

We’ve also seen an improvement in our engagement scores. TNT conducts

an annual employee climate survey called ‘Engage’ and Australia has one of the highest participation rates across the globe. Over the period of the Wellbeing Program we’ve seen a three percentage point increase in our engagement scores. The improvement cannot be tied back to the Wellbeing Program alone but we are confident that our program is contributing positively to how employees feel in the workplace and the better scores.

HC: More generally, what role do you think HR has in encouraging healthy lifestyles and activities in employees?

SD: HR’s role is firstly to engage senior leadership and have them take responsibility for these initiatives.

It’s important that ‘wellbeing’ and ‘engagement’ are embedded into the business and not just a program that HR runs. As the HR director, I have engaged the executive team in these discussions and the response has been very positive. It’s important to get an ‘emotional connection’, which we did successfully with both the mental health and drug and alcohol awareness programs. Through the facilitation of executive briefings, which included the very personal stories of affected people, we developed a multi-faceted plan and used a number of communication channels to get the message across.

HR needs to act as a conduit, a facilitator and a creator of opportunity.

HR should not take responsibility for employee wellbeing but for encouraging the take-up of that opportunity by managers and employees themselves. This is not to say that HR should make a passive offering but rather a determined and well-argued case for employee involvement and commitment to their wellbeing and that of other employees.

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levels of computer usage may have on employees’ eyesight.

Armed with this information about their workforce, we then work with companies to develop a tailored plan that outlines tangible health initiatives the business can act on to address identified health risks.

For example, your company assessment could highlight that your workforce has a higher percentage of smokers than the national average in a particular demographic. In this instance we could look at introducing a targeted quit smoking campaign. And while many employers may think smoking is a habit that their employees – and they – will only see the effects of years down the track, smoking actually impacts productivity in the immediate sense, as smokers have a higher incidence of conditions such as asthma, flu and bronchitis – all of which can result in absenteeism and productivity issues.

As with any business strategy, you shouldn’t expect immediate results.

When Bupa is implementing corporate wellness programs for its clients, we advise them that it will take approximately three years to see a turnaround in significant performance indicators such as absenteeism and productivity.

Three years may seem a lengthy wait for return on investment in the wellness

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Findings coming out of the US … show that companies that implement wellness programs successfully are receiving a return of $5 in productivity for every $1 invested space. However, any corporate that hopes to implement a wellness strategy that successfully embeds these behaviours into an organisation’s culture must be cognisant that affecting lasting behavioural change takes time. Additionally, this timeframe is compounded by the fact that not all staff will be early adopters – with many waiting to see tangible benefits from their colleagues before they commit to the program.

As each industry and workplace differs, corporate wellness programs that are successful and provide the best return on investment are those specifically tailored to both the employee base and the working environment. A good wellness program will include program objectives, activities and tools for performance measurement. Adaptability is also critical, as you may need to redirect or refocus your program in response to employee feedback or changes in your company’s structure.

It’s essential that any new program is fully integrated with the company’s overall business vision and mission, and that management support is attained for

any program you embark upon. You may also need to develop a business case to convince management that workplace wellness is a viable business strategy.

In this instance, it’s advisable that you can demonstrate tangible returns on the proposed investment – such as reducing illness-related absenteeism or increasing the engagement, retention and the loyalty of employees. HC

About the author Penny Lovett is the director of HR for Bupa Asia Pacific. In Australia, Bupa provides corporate wellness programs to more than 75 companies through its leading private health insurance brands HBA, MBF and Mutual Community.

Lovett has been instrumental in developing and implementing Bupa’s corporate wellness offering.

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Long way from home

international

What keeps expatriates in locations that are isolated and less developed? Deepa Balji Jegarajah finds out if money does all the talking, or if the secret to retention lies in more abstract terms

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ot every country provides the efficient, transparent and ‘livable’ society of Singapore, Hong Kong or Sydney. Indeed, the majority of the world’s economies are considered to be still ‘developing’, not yet at the ‘developed’ status of most of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) membership.

But while currently small, these economies cannot grow without appropriate skills. And that will typically mean foreign talent for many organisations.

Jumping into a developing economy is not for the faint-hearted. The disparity of incomes makes personal security a significant issue. Typical locations can also be affected by pollution, transport problems and an overall isolation from everything that the expatriate has known before.

So what keeps skilled expatriates in these seemingly less desirable locations?

Certainly compensation rates highly, particularly against the low cost-of-living background that many developing Asian nations boast. But there are a wide range of other factors that organisations looking to attract and retain expatriates in the developing world need to consider.

The hard life

Companies that assign staff overseas assignments often take the standard of living in the host location into consideration. Most will incorporate a location allowance into the overall compensation package. Lee Quane, Asia regional director for expatriate service provider ECA International, says localised pay is often called a “hardship allowance” – compensating staff for the

reduced lifestyle and insecurity of their host country.

“At present, approximately 65% of companies worldwide include allowances in their employees’ salaries which are designed to take into account differences in the quality of living between their home and host locations,” says Quane.

He says localisation allowances mean a company can effectively recognise the changes employees are asked to make when moving to certain locations. They can also be used as a motivator – giving employees extra financial incentives to take on seemingly less desired roles.

The tax-free and low-tax environments of many developing countries also attract expats, says Tom Browne, manager of HR practice at Carmichael Fisher. Even if tax rates work against the moving party, many organisations will make up the shortfall.

“Tax equalisation is a well-utilised method of both attracting and retaining expats overseas,” says Browne, who handles a wide range of expatriate contract negotiations. “For instance, a Singaporean working in China will be used to a lower tax regime in their home country. By offsetting the difference it ensures that the China-based Singaporean remains tax-neutral and will not have to personally carry the burden of higher taxes than they enjoy in Singapore.”

Staying put

“Fire the expats,” says Muhammad AlHamdan, head of the Saudi Arabia Labour Office. He is on a mission to increase the rate of job localisation in the Kingdom and has urged companies to retrench foreign staff ahead of any locals in the firing line.

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Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) and Microsoft Saudi Arabia look set to heed the call. They have already announced plans to downsize, and several other companies are expected to follow suit in the weeks and months ahead. Even as the world economy looks set to recover from the credit crunch, future growth is speculative at best – and jobs are still on the rocks.

Research by Zurich International Life shows more than 50% of foreign workers in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are nervous about their personal job security.

Carlos Sabugueiro, CEO, Middle East and Africa, Global Life Emerging Markets, Zurich Financial Services, says expats are also being forced to tighten their belts. “It’s clear that the current financial crisis is having an impact on professional expats,” he says. “Around 80% of people surveyed in the two countries feel their ability to save has been decreased.

“Last year, all anyone could talk about was how to spend their bonuses and the continuing good times. Now they appear

What’s keeping an expat in Saudi Arabia?

Nesa Subrahmaniyan is a Singaporean working in the petroleum industry in Saudi Arabia.

He is married with two kids.

• “I wanted to work overseas for a long time, the Middle East especially because of its booming economies and potential for growth. While I was considering several offers, the one from my current company was by far the best for me professionally and also for my family. The most important factors for me to stay in Saudi Arabia for the long term are a good workplace environment that offers professional growth opportunities, safety and good compensation and benefits for me as well as my family. “ www.hcamag.com

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international

Living in Saudi For some people Saudi Arabia conjures up romantic images of a setting sun, chestnut coated camels and rust-coloured sand dunes. This Arab country is not only the biggest in the Arabian peninsular but also the world’s leading petroleum exporter. It is also home to the national oil company Saudi Aramco.

Shaybah, one of the many oil fields operated by Saudi Aramco, is located in Rub Al-Khali, the biggest sand desert in the world. Shaybah is remarkable in its man-made presence, awe-inspiring in its significance to the world oil market and strangely beautiful considering it is said to be located in one of the most remote, desolate and inhospitable areas in Saudi Arabia, says the Saudi Aramco corporate website.

One tool Saudi Aramco uses in attracting and retaining an international workforce is through the Saudi Aramco Schools. For instance, the Aramco School Board, a task force consisting of parent and staff representatives from across the four communities in which the Saudi Aramco Schools operate, developed a powerful mission and vision statement with the overall goal to be a “pre-eminent school system where students achieve their maximum potential in a culture of continuous improvement”.

Even the school’s mission statement promotes the fact that the education has to be exemplary to “attract and retain an international workforce”. And Saudi Aramco Schools works with parents and teachers to see this through by incorporating the analysis of available data to derive quantifiable feedback on the strength of student learning and to identify areas that need improvement. In addition, the performance of the Saudi Aramco Schools is benchmarked against the external standards of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.

genuinely worried about losing their jobs.” Still, few expatriates are packing up and leaving the dwindling Middle East economy. The survey found 70% of respondents were prepared to see out the tough times in their current location – all seemingly confident about the long-term economic health of the region.

“Professional expats are here to stay and many of those who have spent 10 or more years in the region know that the Gulf has an amazing ability to bounce back very quickly,” Sabugueiro says.

Clearly, there is something more than money – or even just the promise of future money – keeping expatriate professionals in the Middle East, as well as other developing regions.

Taking the kids?

Providing education for the children of expatriates is another way of retaining an international workforce. However, this

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can be a complicated process in several developing nations.

Firstly, suitable schools may not be available. Outside the capital cities of countries such as China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam, international-standard schools are few and far between. Therefore, even if the assignee wants to take their children on assignment, facilities may not be available.

“In many locations, assignees prefer to leave their families at home, including children,” Quane says. “Even if international schools are available, other elements such as poor security, high pollution levels or poor infrastructure may combine to encourage the employee to leave their children at home during the assignment.”

Some organisations offer additional leave allowances in lieu of or in addition to hardship payments. “This benefit is often called rest and recuperation leave

and normally applies to locations with particularly adverse living standards,” says Quane. He cites Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Iran and Iraq as four Asian examples, as well as many locations in developing Africa.

As these locations are often not designated as ‘family’ postings, the additional leave allows the employee to maintain relationships with those remaining in the home location.

Managing expectations

Preparing international assignees mentally is another important aspect of retention.

Assignments that inherently involve security risks require staff to be adequately prepared prior to taking them up.

“Security briefings for assignments in locations with a high threat to personal security, such as Jakarta, Islamabad or Karachi, are essential,” Quane says.

“Likewise, pre-assignment preparation is essential to ensure that an employee is mentally prepared and the assignment is therefore successful.”

What’s keeping an expat in Uganda, Africa?

Cheryl Tong, managing director, Pursuit Pte, works with the Singaporean utilities company in Uganda.

• “Africa as a whole offers a valuable business opportunity for Pursuit.

Intermittent blackouts and power outages present excellent prospects for our products. Uganda serves as our footprint in Africa, yet I have still to explore other uncharted regions to expand the business.

• “In less than a year, we almost had a full return on our investments.

We intend to open a technical institute in Uganda to train more locals to be technicians and engineers. This is how we plan to give back to the community.”

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“At present, approximately 65% of companies worldwide include allowances in their employees’ salaries that are designed to take into account differences in the quality of living between their home and host locations” – Lee Quane

Cheryl Tong, managing director, Pursuit Pte, says security is a huge problem throughout Africa. Based in Uganda, she says protection for herself and the business is a vital concern. “Even though our warehouse is fortified with steel bars, thick firewalls, armed guards and attack dogs, thieves still managed to ransack our products.”

For Browne, a number of extras are important additions to the traditional compensation package.

“Compound living, car with driver and, in extreme cases, personal security guards are often used to entice expatriates to stay in environments with very real security concerns,” he says. HC

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What’s keeping an expat in Kalimantan, Indonesia?

Sudhakaran S, general manager, PT Pucuk Jaya, is a Malaysian working in a plantation in Indonesia. He is married with two children.

• “I took up the job offer mainly for better remuneration – as salaries and benefits offered in Indonesia were much better than in Malaysia.

There is a tax-free remuneration package, insurance and children’s education allowances. The career prospects are good too as plantations here are much bigger than in Malaysia and it also gave us an opportunity to start a plantation from scratch.”

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graduate recruitment

Road to HR success Roads engineering isn’t ‘sexy’. Accurate or not, this is the perception held by most of the high school and uni students that are the future of the workforce. To combat this viewpoint, the Austroads National Skills Marketing Plan presents to Human Capital its fresh approach to attracting employees

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n recent years, and still today, fewer students than ever before are opting for engineering-related high school subjects (mathematics and sciences) or enrolling in engineering courses at university, and fewer still are then choosing to specialise in roads engineering or road-related disciplines. These facts have serious consequences for the Australian roads sector, and with similar statistics occurring across much of the Western world, many other economies will no doubt feel similar shortages in their roads workforces.

The National Skills Marketing Plan (NSMP) is a three-phase project aimed at attracting appropriate high school leavers and university students into a roads sector engineering career. The project is being conducted at the national level and takes the form of a promotion campaign and media strategy.

A national approach to capability

Austroads is the peak collaborative body of road agencies (RAs) in Australia and New Zealand. The organisation is a knowledgesharing facility between member

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authorities which conducts strategic research on roads matters of national significance, provides representation in international forums and provides technical input to policymakers. In 2005, Austroads established a Capability Taskforce to deal specifically with HR issues within the Australian and New Zealand roads sector.

The NSMP benefits in a number of ways from operating at the national level.

In this case, the ‘national level’ refers to a combined effort between Australia and New Zealand – effectively one employment market. Firstly, the relative cost to each RA is much less than if states had produced their own campaigns. The reasons for engineering and, specifically, the roads sector declining in popularity among career starters are common throughout Australia and New Zealand, so to segment the research and development of the campaign by state would be to duplicate large pieces of work.

Secondly, a national approach allows for broad streams of promotion, such as internet advertising and national industry publications, to be effective where statebased campaigns may not. As the national

campaign brings interested individuals to a central website and then directs them to the relevant authority in their own state, it makes national media channels relevant.

Online hosting was outsourced to the same creative agency that developed the website.

As Austroads includes both Australian and New Zealand road authorities, separate media strategies were devised for channels in each country, due to separate print media streams and different internet domains.

The same is true to a lesser extent within the Australian states and territories, as each has their own print media streams. The NSMP demonstrates that, when promoting a skill rather than filling a vacancy, a national/collaborative approach is suitable at the research and campaign development stages, and that a more nuanced strategy may be required for each jurisdiction in the campaign’s delivery or implementation.

The National Skills Marketing Plan

The NSMP is a marketing strategy to address the issue of graduate supply in the roads sector. The plan takes the form of a three-phase project: market research into best-practice attraction and recruitment

graduate recruitment

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graduate recruitment

“Prospective candidates thought that roads engineering was relatively poorly paid, had a finite career path, was boring and contracted all ‘interesting’ work out to the private sector” strategies; the development of a campaign based on the outcomes of phase one; and finally the delivery of the campaign through a targeted media strategy.

The plan ultimately aims to influence students at two critical decision points in their pre-career path: a choice of university course – to choose engineering – and, for those who select engineering, the area of specialisation that they will follow based on subsequent subject choices – to specialise in roads-related disciplines. The strategy was primarily to poach talent for the roads sector from the existing pool, rather than to persuade those without a natural tendency towards engineering skills and related subjects towards the profession.

Research found that engineering and roads administrations suffered from a poor profile, or no profile, and a general misperception about the style of work that engineers and road authorities do.

Prospective candidates thought that roads engineering was relatively poorly paid, had a finite career path, was boring and contracted all ‘interesting’ work out to the private sector. This was exacerbated by frequent negative media representations of RAs in Australia and New Zealand.

The second phase of the project was the development of a targeted marketing campaign for secondary and university students. It has four key objectives: yy Assist in increasing the number of year 12 (final-year high school) students to select engineering as a career yy Assist in increasing the number of engineering students who select roads engineering as their elective stream yy Promote career opportunities in the road industry to the target audience yy Improve the perception of a career in roads engineering

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The campaign material takes the form of a series of brand-orientated print media and website advertisements, which direct interested individuals to a central campaign website. The website (www.powersforgood. com.au) gives general information about what candidates can expect from a career in the roads sector and some personal accounts of current graduates in a state RA. This website offers links to the graduate recruitment page of each Austroads member organisation’s website.

Importantly, the campaign drew its talent directly from RAs. This makes the campaign relatable to the target audience.

The three profiles on the ‘Use Your Powers For Good’ website are of individuals from graduate recruitment programs in the NSW road authority in a variety of disciplines. Their experiences are expected to appeal to like-minded students in secondary and university education.

The third phase of the project commenced in early 2009. The media strategy focused on advertising on websites frequented by secondary and university students (such as Google, MySpace and Facebook); print media relevant to studies, student life and the engineering profession; and strategic placement of materials (‘avante cards’ – free postcards printed with advertising material, available at cafés and so on) around university campuses.

Critical success factor: Target audience

The shortage of skilled workers in the Australian roads sector, now and into the future, is due to a number of reasons: an ageing and rapidly retiring workforce; flat graduate growth in engineering and technical professions; global labour movements; and competition from other

sectors. Addressing all of these factors together is likely to be both difficult and ineffective. The National Skills Marketing Plan sets clear objectives as to who it was targeting in order to address a single factor in-depth: students in the latter stages of high school (16 and 17-year-olds), and university students already enrolled in engineering and related courses (18–20year-olds), in an attempt to encourage graduates into the sector.

Within the demographic of 16–20year-old students, the target audience is further refined to be those who have an existing or natural aptitude or interest in roads engineering and related subjects.

Given the relatively modest budget of the project, it was decided that the campaign be levelled at a niche demographic that would yield the greatest interest.

Unlike the sale of soft drinks or discount air fares, enticing people to pursue a career in roads engineering is not a pitch to the mass market. The project was directed at an intentionally specific target audience for two reasons: to enable an appropriately informative and appealing campaign, and to allow for the greatest effect of a limited media budget.

In knowing its audience, the creative firm was able to develop a campaign and media strategy that maximised appeal, both in aesthetic and content, to the most relevant and appropriate candidates.

Promote the benefits, not just the ‘job’

A prominent theme to emerge from the market research and best practice analysis of similar recruitment campaigns around the world was the need to promote the skills, career and less tangible benefits, rather than simply ‘a job’. Campaigns for careers in the military, accountancy and nursing sectors had succeeded in changing popular perceptions about what had been previously viewed as undesirable professions. These successes each largely hinged on communicating not only the personal or financial benefits, but also the societal and environmental benefits that

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your work can be seen to achieve – ‘making a difference’.

On this basis, the NSMP associates the outcomes of good roads engineering – reduced travel times, quality infrastructure and environmentally sustainable development – with qualities found in engineering ‘heroes’. In much the same way that Superman may be ‘faster than a speeding bullet’ and ‘more powerful than a locomotive’ to ensure the safety of the good people of Metropolis, our civil engineer ‘The Excavator’ uses project management and problem-solving skills to provide people with the infrastructure they need to have a greater quality of life and a prosperous economy.

There is a need to communicate to career starters the road sector’s ability to provide them with transferable skills.

The roads sector in Australia was seen as having limited career prospects, little ‘excitement’, lower pay and little scope for travel. The NSMP addresses these concerns individually as part of a broader narrative of what it is to be an engineer in the Australian roads sector. It is important to remember that the strategy was to attract a larger proportion of engineers (and prospective engineers) into the roads sector – to increase the sector as a whole.

The success of the project is not impacted by which organisation(s) or states these road engineers choose to pursue a career in; simply that they are roads engineers.

Engineering an image

The Australian experience highlighted the importance of image and perception in the industry being desirable and its ability to attract quality talent. The status of engineering as a profession had, in Australia, deteriorated from one of prestige in the mid-20th century, to one that was perceived as being unglamorous, thankless and unstimulating.

Almost as important as being stimulating, the roads sector must also be seen as a rewarding and dynamic profession. Industries such as law, medicine and forensic science have all benefited from

a steady stream of television shows that depict their work to be glamorous, sexy and exciting – regardless of the reality of working in these professions. Although television programming should not be the sole (or even a significant) determinant of any individual’s profession, the general perception created by this medium about these occupations has the potential to sway popular opinion. Regardless of the accuracy of the portrayals of these occupations and skills, they nevertheless benefit from a heightened profile generated by such fiction.

In the US, the legal profession (or, at least, legal skills) has enjoyed consistently high esteem. Throughout American history, the ruling elite has largely comprised law school graduates.

The current US administration sees a President, Vice-President, Secretary of State, Attorney-General and Director of the CIA all with law backgrounds. China, where engineer supply is at least meeting demand, is quite different. The current President and Prime Minister, the former President and eight of the nine members of the senior governing body of China come from engineering backgrounds. It is clear that where engineering enjoys a profile of respectability and even importance, the profession will be sought after by its youth.

The Australian experience isn’t just about poor image. It is also about no image. The low profile of the engineering profession and the roads sector is also a significant contributor to the deficit.

A common theme raised in the market research was that RAs received much negative publicity, but rarely any publicity for positive outcomes. This not only served to make a career in the roads sector seem thankless, it also failed to highlight the good work being done by RAs.

Performance measurement

A problem that has emerged as the NSMP campaign is being delivered is that of performance measurement. The marketing project was preceded by a workforce capability analysis that produced some

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data on engineering employment and recruitment rates, and provided a baseline for future comparison. This data is for the sector as a whole and includes too many variables to be a reliable indicator of the success or failure of the NSMP alone. Measuring traffic through the powersforgood.com.au website will give an indication of market penetration, but is considered to be insufficient in quantifying the effective impact the campaign has on the skills shortage.

Traditional marketing performance indicators are measures of awareness, attitudes/opinion, referrals to services, and other measures of actions that could lead to future change. Austroads, as a roads organisation, must focus on more tangible outcomes from our attraction strategies. It is possible that the NSMP could succeed in its objectives, but the shortage of engineering talent remains unchanged. It is also possible that the NSMP could fail to reach and influence its target audience, but the talent shortage could ease for other reasons. As such, simply measuring the levels of engineering capability in absolute terms is not a sufficient performance indicator for a project of this type.

A more specific measure of the true effect of this project is the increase or decrease in graduate position applications.

This could be made more meaningful still by simply surveying applicants as to where they found out about roads sector graduate programs, or what motivated them to seek a career in the sector. Uptake of engineering university courses is also being monitored to give an indication of the campaign’s success and to inform future capability levels in the sector.

We will continue to monitor the levels of participation and demand in the Australian roads sector and structure our HR strategies around the outcomes.

We must be aware that these broad trends are influenced by too many factors to indicate the success of the NSMP, but be satisfied that each share the common goal of an Australian roads sector operating at full capacity. HC www.hcamag.com

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equity & diversity

Policing equity & diversity Proving that one person can make a difference, even when it comes to the daunting challenge of fair treatment of people at work, Human Capital talks to Stuart King

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ad Stuart King pursued his 30year career trajectory, he’d now be responsible for moulding a new generation of Victorian police officers as Superintendent of the state’s Glen Waverley Police Academy.

But two years ago, King rejected that opportunity and resigned from the Force he’d joined as a 17-year-old cadet to run King’s Workplace Solutions (KWS), a nationwide specialist HR consultancy.

Instead of shaping the police of tomorrow, King and his team provide a range of workplace conflict resolution services to corporate and government clients.

It is a career change that had its beginnings with the Victoria Police 1994 drugs raid on the Tasty Nightclub, a popular Melbourne gay and lesbian venue.

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Acknowledged as an attack on the gay community and a gross violation of human rights – during which the 463 patrons were strip-searched and humiliated – one outcome was a successful class action against the police and the awarding of substantial damages. Another was that Victoria Police acknowledged its negative cultural aspects by establishing an Equity and Diversity Unit in 2001, tasked among other issues with changing the internal and external face of the organisation to better reflect the wider community.

Then an inspector with broad experience in operations, strategic projects, training and education and with a growing interest in workplace social justice issues, King became the unit’s senior police manager. “We had to crash through a lot of barriers, not just on behalf of lifestyle groups, but for the indigenous and migrant communities while shaping equity and diversity policies for the force and responding to complaints and educational needs around equal opportunity compliance,” he says.

At the time, the force was dominated by men who didn’t think well of gays and lesbians and shared negative views around their sexual choices. “The experiences took me on a personal journey of discovery, challenge and incredible growth. After all,

I’d grown up in that culture and I took all of its baggage with me into the unit,” says King.

In his search for answers and solutions, he went into the community and found himself working with people he had previously judged. His journey through the complexity of competing organisational and individual cultural needs was to try to determine what equity really means.

“People still believe that the equal opportunity legislation is trying to make things equal,” he says.

“Affirmative action programs for women and minority groups, for example, often set people up to fail, and create resentment among colleagues who were not part of those programs. It’s an issue that lingers, although these days such programs aim to upskill people so they can compete on their merits.

“The reality is that our commitment to human rights is not about equality because there is nothing equal in life. It’s about equity and providing opportunities for all Australians to participate in work and, therefore, life,” King continues.

“Treating others as you would expect to be treated yourself might work among those from a shared cultural background but not in a diverse environment. To

equity & diversity

demonstrate this I take people through the exercise of describing a typical Australian to an outsider wanting to fit in. We discuss aspirational responses, which usually include things like: we are friendly, sporty, laidback, and concerned with a fair go.

Then I ask people to be more specific and define friendly and so on, which leads to a variety of different responses. This exercise demonstrates that it’s unfair to demand people assimilate and be as you are if you can’t describe and agree on what that is. The best you can hope for is integration, which I understood from my own experience.”

King migrated to Australia from the UK aged 13 and settled in Geelong, Victoria, where he describes his home life as a snapshot of English behaviours and customs. Despite the many similarities, he says he was conscious of the difficulties of adapting to a new social environment and of living in two cultures.

In his equity and diversity role with Victoria Police, King visited migrant centres and broader community groups where he faced enormous challenges.

Other Victoria Police initiatives included a raft of strategic responses including appointing gay and lesbian police officers, participating in gay pride marches and having a presence at gay events. The latter activity ironically attracted some media vilification and prejudicial backlash from the broader community.

There was a lot of resistance from within the force and after about two years of pushing for change, King began losing his energy and drive. But organisations outside the police force were taking an interest. Diversity at Work Australia (DWA), a not-for-profit organisation helping indigenous and disabled people into work, approached King to be their learning and business development manager. A one-year secondment became two when King replaced the departing CEO and transformed DWA into a forprofit consultancy.

On his return to the force, King was offered acting superintendent of the training academy with the promise of the

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“We had to crash through a lot of barriers, not just on behalf of lifestyle groups, but for the indigenous and migrant communities while shaping equity and diversity policies for the force” top job. “But I was disappointed in the lack of interest the force had shown in my experiences and felt by then that I’d outgrown the organisation and would be better off pursuing my interests elsewhere,” he says.

And indeed he is. King has consulted to public and private sector organisations for some years and, since leaving the Force in March 2008, has built a thriving national specialist HR consultancy with a focus on resolving workplace conflict and reducing risk around inappropriate behaviours.

“Our training programs explain what is being achieved through equal opportunity legislation and sell the concept of why fair treatment is important. The … services we offer aim for workable solutions and sustainable outcomes for clients,” he says.

In King’s experience, there are two types of organisations: the ‘visionary’ and the ‘gambler’. Visionary organisations embrace a culture of inclusion and respect for the individual whereas the gambler is committed to chance and risk.

KWS applies real cases and stories to underpin its programs and services such as that of two female cleaners working in a mining company – an environment in which relatively tame female calendar girl ‘pin-ups’ were tolerated.

“This is where workplace culture can be tricky,” says King. “New workers coming into the male locker room environment didn’t understand the cultural acceptance of the pictures, showed displeasure and provoked an escalating situation, which peaked when the canteen became a ‘shrine to porn’. It was childish behaviour fed by an immature, negative, risky culture that said, ‘This is our workplace; you have to fit in and accept our culture and if you don’t, then cop this’.”

Following unsatisfactory responses from the union and local management, the women lodged a complaint with the state Equal Opportunity Commission where the organisation was held accountable and fined and, for the first time, individuals were also fined for their involvement. It was a classic case of victimisation, dismissed as trivial by a management lacking backbone and leadership, says King.

Fair treatment is not just about workplace safety, however. It includes having satisfaction, fulfilment and enjoyment through work, says King.

“Generational differences, talent management and workforce sustainability are the biggest challenges facing management today. The employment horizon is about three years for Generation Y and if you don’t invest in them, they’ll go earlier. So it’s about making sure you have a great reputation as an employer.

“As the workplace matures, the driving force of money diminishes for older employees seeking greater intrinsic value from work around fulfilment, enjoyment, challenge, personal development, and the social structures of work.”

These challenging labour market forces bring fair treatment of people at work into sharper focus and the smart organisations are looking at broad programs around workplace sustainability, says King. HC

Further information To contact Stuart King phone (03) 9503 0117, e-mail: stuart@ kingsworkplacesolutions. com.au or visit www. kingsworkplacesolutions. com.au www.hcamag.com

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profile

In the trenches

The HR story behind RBS’ tough year The global financial crisis brought some corporate names into the spotlight – The Royal Bank of Scotland Group being one of those unfortunate few. Brian McLaren, head of HR, Asia, talks about the challenges, demands and opportunities

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t’s hard to give an exact business title for Brian McLaren. Currently, he is the regional head of HR for ABN Amro in Asia, but the coming months will see plenty of changes in the former Dutch bank, not least of which will be a change of name and owner. For all intents and purposes, if not yet in name, McLaren runs HR in Asia for that group – the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).

It’s a common identity issue for the staff impacted by recently-announced sales of parts of RBS’ Asian businesses. As one of the most visible victims of the global financial crisis, it has had to considerably revise its expansion strategies for this region. And that has represented a huge HR challenge for McLaren and his team.

Buying and selling

RBS only had a limited presence in Asia before 2007. With some 2,000 staff across five countries, it had plans to expand slowly, taking advantage of the massive growth occurring in the Asian

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financial sector at that time. But when an opportunity to make serious inroads presented itself, the Edinburgh-based bank was certainly keen to take advantage.

As part of a consortium of three European banks, it purchased the full, global assets of ABN Amro, a Dutch bank with operations in more than 60 countries. As one of the then leading banks in Europe, the deal represented the biggest banking takeover in history.

For its part in the coalition, RBS took over the majority of ABN Amro’s Asian assets and businesses. Only the asset management and private client divisions were kept off the bank’s new asset list, those small pieces instead going to consortium partner Fortis.

Far from the plan for 3,000 staff in Asia, RBS now boasted more than 23,000 staff in 15 different countries. McLaren made the trip from Europe to lead the HR integration.

“We were faced with some challenges on the business integration,” he says. These

Photo: Thilo Pulch, www.pulchphotography.com

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profile

related largely to developing a single HR model across the breadth of the newlyenlarged region. “With 15 jurisdictions, there are more differences than you can imagine.” But with a clear plan in place, McLaren recalls being confident of eventual success. “At that point, life was good,” he says. “Until mid-September last year, that was the plan.”

Mid-September 2008 brought the collapse of Lehman Brothers, and the near-complete unravelling of the world’s financial system. While all eyes were centred on the US and Wall Street, UK banks were also caught up in the storm; possibly none more so than RBS. Already reeling from exposures to falling markets, the credit crunch hit RBS hard. Its share price fell 39% in one day, wiping £10bn off the total value of the business. The UK government eventually stepped in, injecting £20bn into it and other struggling banks – and taking a 70% ownership stake in return.

“It certainly hit RBS very badly,” McLaren says. “The first crisis was just the stability of the organisation.” But once that was secured, longer term plans had to be created – and these included a significant rationalisation of RBS’ Asian assets.

That divestment is unfolding as this report is written. RBS is selling businesses in 10 countries, most of which came from its ABN Amro acquisition. The AustraliaNew Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) has agreed to take on the Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Indonesia retail and commercial businesses, as well as all of RBS’ operations in Vietnam and the Philippines. Meanwhile, the Karachibased Muslim Commercial Bank (MCB) will take on the group’s Pakistan assets.

RBS is still negotiating to sell its retail

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and commercial assets in India, Malaysia and China.

Once completed, it will be left with its global banking, transaction services and wealth management businesses, operating out of six hubs in the Asia-Pacific region: Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Australia, India and China.

“Everything that has happened to the organisation is regrettable, but actually the work is very, very interesting”

Explaining change

– Brian McLaren

How are such radical changes explained to all staff across different business units and countries? “With great difficulty,” McLaren admits.

“Bear in mind that the majority of employees in Asia were ABN Amro employees,” he says. “They’ve joined this organisation which has now had to rely on government support.”

He says in many countries, the company had just celebrated ‘Blue Day’, the day all ABN Amro branches, teller machines and branding were transferred to the blue-coloured RBS brand, before the crisis hit. Having stabilised the organisation, a new strategic plan has now put some of those businesses back on the auction block.

McLaren says both management and the HR team adopted a strategy of revealing everything imaginable. “We’ve been as visible as possible,” he says. “As soon as the intent-for-sale was announced there was a tour of every affected country.

Good or bad news – we tell our people as quickly as possible.”

Of course, regulatory issues mean that it is not always as soon as leaders know a deal is in the works. “We have to be very selective as to how we message things out at the moment.”

While the London Stock Exchange, where RBS is listed, demands

confidentiality up until the point a merger or acquisition is finalised, that is not necessarily the case in some of the countries where RBS was working to sell its businesses. In Pakistan, for example, potential bidders need to declare their interests publicly. Staff therefore knew what was happening, but could not get any official confirmation from the business.

“It was hugely frustrating for a lot of the senior leaders,” McLaren says. “Clearly we knew more than we were able to say.”

That meant that once information was legally transferable, the way and speed with which that communication took place was highly important for employee engagement. McLaren says his team was ready with information packs as soon as each sale was announced – with clear, concise and practical information for all affected staff, as well as customers and other stakeholders.

Keeping staff engaged

Open, timely and honest communication aims to keep staff engaged and motivated during what is a difficult and extended transition period. While he can’t discount the influence of a tough outside job market on RBS’ retention statistics, McLaren says the communication between HR and staff has helped the organisation maintain

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staff numbers – both their heads and their hearts – in such exceptional circumstances.

That has been a particularly tricky task, given the rapid turnaround the company was forced to make. Many staff were required to accept very different bonus arrangements. But RBS’ moves to align incentives more closely to longterm performance were later backed up by world leaders looking into lessons from the global financial crisis. “The principles outlined recently by the G20 are already the norm at RBS, following our review of remuneration back in February,” McLaren says.

With or without bonuses, the majority of employees have carried on with passion and diligence, he says.

Managing ambiguity

Part of the difficulties in communicating every change lay in the long lead times required for mergers & acquisitions of this type to be finalised. In this way, RBS is having to continue to integrate some of its ABN Amro businesses at the same time as it negotiates the onward sales of others.

McLaren says the number of jurisdictions involved means there are some very complicated and high-end tasks involved. “Singapore is probably more straight forward than somewhere like Indonesia which – due to stringent labour laws – is absolutely not straight forward.”

For staff, not only is that a confusing process, but also one with a very uncertain future. McLaren says many staff will transfer to a new owner – but staff don’t yet know their role or who their employer will be. In the meantime, the bank needs its staff to work as hard as ever.

“We are still accountable to a regulator in every country,” McLaren notes. “We

have up to 12 months to continue to run a bank – at a time when people don’t know if they’ll even have a job at the end of it, what that job may look like, and who they may be working for. If there are issues, we’re accountable.”

McLaren says workers within RBS can be divided into three groups of varying levels of long-term clarity. There are those working in ‘core’ sectors of the RBS business, who will stay with the organisation after the sales are finalised.

Others are working in clearly defined roles within businesses that will be onsold.

These people can be confident of their jobs, but will need to wait until the sales are finalised to know their exact position and company.

Then there are those completing ‘noncore’ work for RBS, often centred on the transitions themselves. While these staff are enjoying some unique and challenging job functions, their current roles have little job security beyond the next year.

“How do you ask someone to stay with us who will get fantastic experience in the next 12 months – doing stuff they’ve never done before – but who may have no clarity on their future?” McLaren asks. “A lot of people are wrestling with that thought right now.”

“I’ve never enjoyed the challenge quite so much”

While job security is an important factor, it’s not the only thing in the minds of RBS employees. McLaren says many are attracted to the organisation because of the unique and challenging work the transitions are demanding. In this way, the non-core positions within RBS have actually proven to be quite popular among both incoming and transferring staff.

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Whether it is paving the way for new ownership, or dealing with the unique regulatory hurdles involved with the transfers, the organisation is finding many willing hands for these non-permanent positions. “Everything that has happened to the organisation is regrettable, but actually the work is very, very interesting,” McLaren says. “We have attracted a lot of people who are coming from organisations that have survived pretty well – because of the challenge of turnaround, disposal and run-down.”

That is particularly true for the HR function itself.

“It is the most complicated thing I’ve ever worked on by a long way but I’ve never enjoyed the challenge quite so much,” says McLaren about his own role. “I’m leading a group of people who are proving themselves incredibly capable of stepping up to unknowns.”

That team has worked around the clock for much of the integration and divestment proceedings. McLaren recalls the challenge of developing strategies for three different potential buyers in three different country deals.

“There were different deals, different approaches and different time zones – as the three streams were coming together you really had to be on your toes.

“Doing this with a recently-integrated HR function was harder still.”

However, he says it is something many HR leaders and departments would have experienced over the past year. “Fifty per cent of people working in HR are now doing things they weren’t doing a year ago, and in most cases they have new, interesting and very different work,” he says. “They’re also being very heavily relied upon by the business.” HC www.hcamag.com

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g n gi n Wi IT As Benedicte Hersen, vice president of HR, Airbus China, wraps up her stint in Beijing, she reflects on the challenges faced and solutions developed in bringing China-built aircraft to the world aviation market

O

n 18 May this year, an Airbus A320 took off from Tianjin International Airport for the first test flight. The airliner flew a four-hour circle before landing at the same runway to the cheers of a crowd from the manufacturing company. That successful test flight of the first Chinaassembled Airbus airliner was a big moment for Airbus China; and just as big a success story for Benedicte Hersen, its vice president of HR. She says the company’s people strategies and policies had a lot to do with Airbus’ first product from outside Europe. “[It] was a big milestone for us; an absolute success,” she tells Human Capital. “We knew we could build it here. One of the major challenges was on the HR side.”

From recruitment to learning and development (L&D), to maintaining a productive and relevant culture, Hersen says all HR strategies needed to be adapted for the Chinese setup and business environment. While that presented some significant challenges, the rewards of success have been just as great, says Hersen.

Even the onset of the worldwide downturn – with its particularly

devastating impact on the world’s aviation industry – is unable to dent Hersen or Airbus’ pride. “The aviation industry runs on a cycle,” she says, noting that the current trough is a specific downturn. “Our strategy is much longer term.”

A cultural challenge

For Airbus, China is both an important market and, now, a manufacturing centre and supplier. It opened its Beijing office in 1994 and went on to establish a joint venture training centre there in 1997. The company also boasts a customer service centre (featuring a full range of spare parts for the A320 and A330/A340 models), a joint venture engineering centre in 2005, and, since September last year, a final assembly line production centre in Tianjin.

Creating one culture across each of those locations and functions, as well as the wider Airbus group in Europe, has been a major part of Hersen’s job since joining the China team in 2006. “We need to make sure our HR team and management system are harmonised,” she says. “We aim to make one Airbus community in China.”

This is easier said than done. Hersen and her 25-people-strong HR team worked to www.hcamag.com

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teambuilder certifications. Those courses are only offered in Europe. “You cannot work on an aircraft without proper certification,” Hersen says. “If we want to send our staff to repair anything on a customer’s aircraft, they have to go to Europe to be trained in Airbus standards.”

While those technical staff necessarily take up a large proportion of Airbus’ learning and development program, the office staff are not completely left out.

Hersen says she and the company have also invested heavily in keeping management and communication skills at best-practice levels.

Last year alone, some 200 staff – half of the Beijing campus – completed leadership or communication training within the company.

Benedicte Hersen

find common needs among each company and then adapted policies accordingly.

“In 2006, we had four companies all with different turnovers and different ways of managing HR,” she says. “Since then, we have created two more. We’ve made sure that anything we do for one company in China, we do it for all companies.”

One example is in the area of compensation & benefits. Hersen has worked to internationalise the contracts of staff across all four companies, including the joint venture operations. This has meant more holidays and contractual arrangements for training and other leave, similar to the China operation’s counterparts in Europe.

“We’re pretty aligned with international standards now,” she says.

Building people (who build planes)

It takes a lot to build and maintain a commercial aircraft. Most fliers would therefore be pleased to know that training and qualifications are a must for anyone going near one of Airbus’ products during the assembly stage.

Hersen says skimping is simply not an option. “We have a huge training budget,” she says, noting that travel is an important aspect of its L&D programs.

All technical staff need to undertake specific courses to obtain proper

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Recruitment and internal mobility

Of course, getting people in the door is the first task for any HR department, and Airbus’s team is in a unique position in the Chinese talent market. Hersen says a powerful employer brand is paying off, particularly when it comes to engineering and design talent.

“We’ve never had trouble getting people in China,” she says. “We get very enthusiastic and specialised people.”

They are attracted to the prestige of such a well-known and specialised manufacturer. Airbus’ commitment to training and development certainly adds to the lure, as does the opportunity to work on significant projects.

The economic downturn has further reduced the company’s staff turnover rate, as employees hang on to the security and benefits offered. Hersen says this is now at 3.5% for key positions and falling. Still, the company has avoided the temptation to reduce compensation and incentives, knowing that the upturn will require just as loyal and engaged a workforce as the present economic climate.

“When we need people, we want to treat them properly,” she says. In this way, she maintains the internationalised compensation and benefits policies that have been harmonised across the Airbus operations in China.

The need for recruitment has also been eased by Hersen’s internal mobility

strategies. While specifically targeting current employees for new opportunities has been part and parcel of many western HR strategies, it has been quite a new policy in corporate China. Hersen says local staff have relished the chance to move on quickly to new challenges.

“If you advertise opportunities internally, you multiply the career opportunities for staff,” she says.

Now, some 20% of vacancies are being filled internally, with recruitment costs down 61%.

“Through this process, we only need headhunters for very specific cases,” Hersen says. But cutting external costs is only one of the advantages.

“I didn’t do it to save money; I did it to develop people and as a message to managers. Keep developing people – you don’t know where, you don’t know when; but it will save you,” she advises.

Rewarding moments

That philosophy, and a significant amount of HR work, was among the deciding factors in last year’s China Staff HR Practitioner awards. Airbus’ HR team was nominated in the China HR Team of the Year category. And while it was edged out in that category, Hersen was awarded the coveted HR Director of the Year award.

She says she used the awards as a key motivating tool for her own HR staff. “At first it was a way to nominate our team as a benchmark against the rest of China and the world,” she says. But at some point, they realised their achievements were not simply on a par, but were among the best in the comparable field. “We did a lot of communication on what we have done and the important challenges,” she says. “We realised we had many solutions for realworld challenges.”

Now Hersen will be returning to Airbus’ European operations to transfer some of the ideas and lessons learned from her China experience. She says she’ll miss the pioneering aspect of her Beijing position but knows the operation will remain in good HR hands. “I have built the first and second storey of the house. We will finish decorating it before I leave, but it’s already fine to add new storeys to the building. It will be her role,” she says of her incoming replacement. HC

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