COVER STORY
2O15 HR HOT LIST THE RISING STAR
LEE NORMAN
GENERAL MANAGER – PEOPLE AND CULTURE BECA
A finalist in the Australian HR Awards category for HR Director of the Year, Lee Norman is responsible for delivering people development and talent management services to professional services firm Beca. Norman is also a member of Beca’s Global P&C Leadership Team, responsible for leading a range of transformative projects across the globe. The most significant has been the development of Beca’s global Competency and Career Framework, which underpins all of Beca’s people processes globally. The goal was to ensure consistency in terms of competencies and expectations for any role across the global company. This was a key priority for people who were technically strong but did not want to move into management roles. The framework allows employees to move from one role to another – sideways, or up the ladder – and be recognised for technical excellence.
BOB BARBOUR
PEOPLE & CULTURE DIRECTOR LION Bob Barbour, a veteran of the Lion business, has seen a lot in his 23 years with the company – but perhaps never more so than in the past two years. The senior leadership team, which had remained largely intact for 10 years, changed, and so too did the CEO. Walking the talk, Barbour and his team have worked hard to build change skills into each employee. “The biggest challenge is change fatigue,” Barbour told HRD. “We need to help people cope emotionally, cognitively, physically, mentally – it’s about pace and constant information, at work and outside of work. The key is developing personal resources to help you adapt and adapt proactively rather than reactively. That all adds up to resilience in one way or another.” Lion’s ‘Fuel in the Tank’ program combines initiatives to tackle physical and mental wellbeing, and preaches ‘realistic optimism’, which brings elements of mindfulness and neuroscience to change.
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JOSH CASS
SENIOR HR BUSINESS PARTNER AECOM Engineering/design firm AECOM is a global Fortune 500 company which has within its ranks an acknowledged rising star. Josh Cass took out the ‘Rising Star’ accolade at the 2015 Australian HR Awards. For someone so young, Cass has worked on a wide range of HR projects, including significant organisational change initiatives and largescale cost reduction programs. He has also negotiated enterprise agreements in unionised environments and been involved in complex case management, including general protections and unfair dismissals. Cass continues to provide ongoing formal mentoring to young professionals and has received a grant to study at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark.
ISADORE PAYNE
HR DIRECTOR BAYER AUSTRALIA-NEW ZEALAND Bayer has driven innovation and, by extension, culture change by implementing its ‘community’ concept. While sharing some fundamentals with traditional project management teams, these communities are different; they are organic in that they form and disband once a specific objective or project is created, and they involve all employees in ideas generation. Five communities have formed, which tie directly to the company’s strategic objectives: customer, innovation, brands, business excellence, and people. One example from the people community came out of awareness that employees were time-poor and feeling overloaded. ‘Me Days’ were created, which is five additional annual leave days for people to take during the year; they are free to re-energise in any way they like. “This is based on passion. Passion to innovate, power to change – that’s part of our employer brand,” says Isadore Payne.
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22/10/2015 11:20:43 AM