Human Resources Director 14.07

BIG DATA = BIG OPPORTUNITIES Discovering the data scientist in you

HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTOR

DESTINED TO FAIL? HR’s role in technology rollouts

HCAMAG.COM ISSUE 14.7

LEGAL SPECIAL REPORT From unfair dismissal to reasonable working hours

NAVIGATING A GLOBAL HR MATRIX HR at NBCUniversal DS AUSTRALIAN HR AWAR HRD14.07_Cover+spine_FINAL_SUBBED.indd 2

Finalists revealed!

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EDITORIAL www.hcamag.com JULY 2O16 EDITORIAL

SALES & MARKETING

Editor Iain Hopkins

Marketing & Communications Manager Lisa Narroway

Journalists John Hilton Miklos Bolza Production Editor Roslyn Meredith

ART & PRODUCTION

Business Development Managers James Francis Steven McDonald Dale Ashworth

CORPORATE

Design Manager Daniel Williams

Chief Executive Officer Mike Shipley

Designer Marla Morelos

Chief Operating Officer George Walmsley

Traffic Coordinator Lou Gonzales

Managing Director Justin Kennedy Chief Information Officer Colin Chan Human Resources Manager Julia Bookallil

EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES iain.hopkins@keymedia.com.au

MOVING THE DIAL ON D&I ‘GOOGLE ADMITS gendered interview question’; ‘LinkedIn data reveals major lack of gender diversity in IT’; and, perhaps slightly tongue in cheek, ‘Lack of diversity in hipster-dominated media industry’.

These are all headlines that appeared over the last month on HC Online. Clearly, we’re still struggling with diversity & inclusion in our organisations. The question we ask in this issue’s ‘Head to head’ (see p12) touches on this topic: has D&I been too much talk and not enough action?

There are many variables to consider in any response to that question.

Some industries – like IT for example – simply don’t have enough females coming through the K-12 and tertiary education system. It’s a problem much larger than any one company, requiring action from governments, education providers and the wider public.

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Encouragingly, there will always be market leaders who push the boat out that much further However, that’s not to say action is not being taken – many organisations have introduced innovative D&I initiatives in recent times. Many of them have featured on the pages of HRD – SAP, Brown-Forman, Fujitsu General and Boeing Defence Australia being just four.

Encouragingly, there will always be market leaders who push the boat out that much further. In June, eBay became the latest significant global employer to create an executive role dedicated to D&I, when it named Damien Hooper-Campbell as its first chief diversity officer. Prior to that, Hooper-Campbell was the first global head of D&I at Uber.

Closer to home, business law firm Hall & Wilcox has joined the Victorian Government’s pilot program to stamp out unconscious bias in recruiting. Other participants include a range of government agencies, the big four accounting firms, the Law Institute of Victoria, Melbourne University and Westpac bank.

Of all the areas HR can ‘move the needle’ on, it’s D&I. HR can and should be a facilitator and driver of change.

HC AUSTRALIA ONLINE hcamag.com HRM NEW ZEALAND hrmonline.co.nz

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Iain Hopkins, editor

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JULY 2O16

CONNECT WITH US Got a story, suggestion or just want to find out some more information?

CONTENTS

HRDirector_au +Hcamag HumanResourcesDirector

UPFRONT 01 Editorial

26 FEATURES

INSIDE HR

14

Instead of a ‘top down’ approach to corporate health and wellbeing, DEXUS Property Group has empowered its people to come up with innovative solutions

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COVER STORY

HR AT NBCUNIVERSAL

From handling a complicated global matrix structure to grooming the next generation of leaders, HR in one of the great media and entertainment companies is never dull.

Iain Hopkins chats to their regional head of HR

Which companies are leading the way in D&I?

04 The data

Rewards, benefits and superannuation

06 News analysis

Why do so many technology implementations fail, and how should HR be involved?

08 Upfront: Technology Spying for the greater good

10 Upfront: Leadership

The rise and rise of mindfulness

PEOPLE 12 Head to head

Are employers all talk and no action when it comes to D&I?

56 Other life FEATURES

LEGAL SPECIAL REPORT

Aussies like to give of their time and expertise when it’s needed most – as HR professional Laura Kenny has demonstrated

HRD presents four features touching on critical issues facing HR, including reasonable working hours, unfair dismissal and representation before the FWC

20 FEATURES

THE DATA SCIENTIST IN YOU

Peter Szilagyi provides a comprehensive guide to unlocking the data scientist within every HR leader

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48 SUPPLEMENT

AUSTRALIAN HR AWARDS

HRD reveals the finalists for the industry’s night of nights

HCAMAG.COM CHECK IT OUT ONLINE

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STATISTICS

JULY 2016

BENEFITS, REWARDS & SUPER REWARD AND RECOGNITION

A new report reveals whether employer benefits and reward & recognition programs are hitting the mark “ALWAYS TREAT your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers,” said Stephen R Covey, author of the best-selling book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. So just how are employers treating their employees? Company benefits and appropriate and fair reward & recognition programs remain the mainstays of corporate retention strategies.

Indeed, according to Sunsuper’s 2016 Australian Employee Insights Report,* more than a quarter

49%

percentage of Australians who will turn to their employer first for information about their super

72%

percentage of workers who don’t know that the current standard super guarantee rate is 9.5%

LEADERSHIP CHARACTERISTICS Surprisingly, when it comes to the characteristics Australians value the most in a leader, education qualifications (2%) and previous experience (3%) have very little to do with it. Top of the list is integrity, followed closely by trust and being good with people. Here’s what they value: 27% integrity

of Australians say benefits are one of the most important magnets a company can offer.

A benefit growing in importance is employer support around superannuation. Although there are limits to what employers can and can’t advise employees on in relation to their super, more people will turn to their employers for information about super than any other source.

Here’s a snapshot of benefits and reward & recognition expectations from Sunsuper’s report.

71%

percentage of employees who feel they are not regularly rewarded and recognised for their performance

18%

percentage of workers who receive higher super contributions as a benefit – despite 43% saying it is the benefit they’d most value

SUPERANNUATION ASSISTANCE Nearly half of surveyed Australians say that higher super contribution rates would be one of the most valued benefits a company could offer. Higher-income earners ($130k plus) were three times more likely to know the standard super rate than lower-income earners (<$40k). Of particular note, some 49% of Australians are likely to turn to their employer first for information about their superannuation.

33% Employer payroll/HR team 31% Internet search 12% Employer website

23% trust

Although most organisations have some kind of formal and informal reward & recognition program, more than two thirds (71%) of employees said they were not regularly rewarded or recognised for their performance. Gen Y’s said ‘career progression’ was the way they most wanted to be rewarded for good performance.

WHERE DO AUSTRALIAN WORKERS GO FOR INFORMATION ON SUPERANNUATION?

11% ATO 4% Friends and family

19% good with people

2% Work colleagues 2% Direct manager

10% good business vision

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5% ‘I wouldn’t know where to start’

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HOW DO AUSTRALIANS WANT TO BE REWARDED? 32%

Acknowledgement

WHO FEELS REGULARLY REWARDED AND RECOGNISED FOR THEIR PERFORMANCE?

26%

Monetary bonus

By company size (number of employees)

22%

Career progression

34% Yes 66% No

A day off

7%

20–99

7%

A gift or token of appreciation

2%

Instant reward

2%

Other

25% Yes

32% Yes 68% No 100–499

75% No 500+

By generation 32% Yes

30% Yes

68% No

24% Yes

70% No

Gen Y

Gen Y

76% No

Baby boomers

By gender 31% Yes

69% No

Male

COMPANY BENEFITS When employees were asked what company benefits they valued most, flexible work hours/options (53%), financial bonuses (51%) and higher super contributions (43%) were the top three. This changed when split by gender: men rated financial bonuses as the best incentive (51%); women voted for flexible work hours/options (59%). The biggest areas of improvement in terms of employee demand and employer offerings are ‘higher super contributions’, ‘financial bonuses’ and ‘free onsite gym’.

Benefits currently offered

Benefits most preferred

1

Flexible work hours/options (41%)

1

Flexible work hours/options (53%)

2

Training and personal development opportunities (41%)

2

Financial benefits (51%)

3

Salary packaging (37%)

3

Higher super contributions (43%)

4

Social events/activities (30%)

4

Training and personal development opportunities (38%)

5

Leadership development programs (24%)

5

Salary packaging (34%)

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Financial bonuses (22%)

6

Employee health & wellbeing initiatives (25%)

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Discounts on company-offered products (21%)

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Corporate private health insurance packages (24%)

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Higher super contributions (18%)

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Leadership development programs (21%)

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Health & wellbeing initiatives (17%)

9

Social events/activities (17%)

10

Corporate private health insurance (16%)

10

Free onsite gym (15%)

27% Yes

73% No

Female

PERFORMANCE PROCESSES MISSING THE MARK Sunsuper found that just 48% of Australian workers found the performance review process and feedback received useful. Here’s why: 47%

‘I’m not directly rewarded based on my review’

34%

‘My company isn’t prepared to pay more for above average performance’

27%

‘My manager doesn’t recognise the value I add’

36%

Of the 84% of people who have regular performance reviews, most (36%) only have them yearly. However, employees who have a performance review at least every six months are the most likely to find the process useful.

*Based on a survey conducted by Sunsuper and Galaxy Research of 1,000 Australian employees aged 18–69 years who worked in businesses with at least 20 staff surveyed.

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UPFRONT

NEWS ANALYSIS

DESTINED TO FAIL? Around 50–75% of all HR technology rollouts are destined to fail. Surprisingly, it’s not so much the technology as the change management process that fails to deliver ESSENTIAL PREP WORK PRIOR TO ROLLOUT Understand the business and the challenges it is currently facing through a business discovery process.

Develop a plan for how the technology will be implemented not just from a technical perspective but also from an operational and people perspective.

Do your homework. Make sure your business requirements have been scoped out with your vendor of choice and the system can functionally do what you need it to do.

Get your data ready. Spend some time cleaning up the data you will be importing (including financial, employee, customer, vendor and inventory information). Your vendor should provide you with templates to assist in getting your data into the right format for importing.

Assign an internal project manager who will work with the implementation team that can oversee the project plan, milestone completion and ‘check in’ meetings to ensure the project stays on track.

Understand the end-user training requirements and have a ‘go live’ training plan in place.

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HR TECHNOLOGY is big business. The 2015 KPMG HR Transformation Survey, administered to nearly 800 organisations across 37 countries, found that investment in IT systems was set to skyrocket in 2016. The report stated that 30% of organisations had plans to completely replace their legacy HR systems, while 40% were going to move their operations to cloud-based solutions. A further 12% said their HR technology budgets would marginally increase.

any change management program, the implementation of new HR technology needs to be managed carefully, says Stephen Canning, CEO of JCurve, a cloud ERP software provider. Canning adds that often it’s the people side of technology implementation that is not given the attention it needs.

“The reality is, it will be people using your new technology, and it will come down to how well they can integrate it into their everyday operations which will determine how successful the technology is and the resulting ROI,” he says.

Part of the problem is resistance from already time-poor workers who then have to learn new systems, processes and procedures that come with new technology.

Another challenge is when there is no clear plan for how the technology will be introduced and the impact it will have on the business.

“New technology will undoubtedly change the way operations are carried out, and a strategy needs to be developed to outline how the business will deal with the change,” says Canning. “For instance, who

“It’s not unusual to hear ‘But we have always done it that way’ during an implementation” Stephen Canning However, Gartner has reported that although these systems will experience incredible growth in 2016, a sobering 50–75% of all HR initiatives fail to deliver. That’s not because the technology is necessarily wrong (this is only responsible for 5–10% of failures), but because it doesn’t create the results that people in the business have been promised – nor does it provide the right level of visibility in terms of data output.

Other causes of failure rest solely on the shoulders of the people involved. Like

will map out the affected processes and procedures and be responsible for creating new ones; when will staff be trained on the new systems; and what other areas of the business will be affected?”

Overcoming resistance If new users do not adopt the new system and processes, the technology implementation will likely fail or at least not live up to expectations. Canning says training may not be a one-off activity,

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TOP TIPS FOR SUCCESSFUL TECH IMPLEMENTATION 1 Understand what business problems you are looking to solve.

2 Focus on the key areas that are the most important to address first, instead of trying to do everything at once.

3 Get key stakeholders on board early.

4 Appoint a project manager and ensure there is a

clear project plan in place that defines what needs to be done, by who and by when.

5 Have a training plan in place for key users of the new system.

6 Communicate, communicate, communicate – what problems are you solving, what is the plan and how is the progress going?

particularly if the system is one that has a depth of advanced functionality that can be utilised once users are familiar with the core functions.

“At JCurve our training requirements have evolved,” he says. “Our most popular training styles include individual client online go-to meetings scoped to their specific needs, one-to-many refresher webinars, and our self-help knowledge base. We are also seeing an increasing use of forum-based knowledge sharing, and we are looking at how we can leverage this approach for our clients too.” (See boxout on p6 for more advice on essential ‘prep work’.)

Canning maintains that some employee resistance is inevitable – it’s not so much that people get attached to legacy technology but that they do get accustomed

to a certain way of undertaking work.

“The status quo is one of our biggest obstacles to implementations,” says Canning. “While business leaders recognise that the business is inefficient, the task of migrating to a new system seems too large and too hard when their staff are already very busy. It’s not unusual to hear ‘But we have always done it that way’ during an implementation.”

Gaining buy-in from key stakeholders early on is vital to reducing the resistance and educating them on the benefits they will gain in their roles, as well as on how the company will benefit as a whole. Once the implementation is nearing completion, Canning recommends there should be a plan for ‘go live’ user training to help users get up to speed quickly too.

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UPFRONT

TECHNOLOGY NEWS BRIEFS Buried under paperwork

Organisations in Australia and New Zealand are drowning in a sea of administration that is wasting $56bn per year – which equates to a loss of $3,900 per year, per employee, per organisation.

The astronomical figure comes from a study by The Workforce Institute at Kronos and Coleman Parkes Research.

The study found that workers across the two Antipodean nations are being swamped by non-essential tasks that could easily be automated.

It said too often employees are burdened by outdated systems, which are often even paper based, when new systems are available that could be saving money, time and resources.

Employees out, robots in

Multinational electronics company and Apple supplier Foxconn has replaced 60,000 employees with robots in a factory near Shanghai in Kunshan, China.

“The Foxconn factory has reduced its employee strength from 110,000 to 50,000, thanks to the introduction of robots. It has tasted success in reduction of labour costs,” Xu Yulian, head of the Kunshan government’s publicity department, told South China Morning Post.

However, Foxconn is not alone.

Since September 2014, 505 factories in Guangdong province have invested extensively in robots with the aim of replacing thousands of employees.

France takes drastic action to limit emails

In an effort to cut back on the volume of emails being received, France is planning to push through a Bill that will regulate work emails and give employees a legal “right to disconnect”.

President Francois Hollande says his party is serious about the problem

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of “permanent connection”.

Under the legislation, companies of more than 50 people will be obliged to draw up a charter of good conduct, setting out the hours – normally in the evening and at the weekend – when staff are not supposed to send or answer emails.

All hail the augmented human

As part of its Future of Business series, MYOB has published a special report on The Augmented Human. It looks at a future in which biology and technology blend together to provide the workforce with a range of physical and mental enhancements.

Some of the key predictions on the future of business in Australia included wearables shifting to embeddables – tiny devices that will be placed within our bodies. These devices could be used to overlay our existing vision with a wide range of real-time data or different visual spectrums, like infrared.

The widespread use of human augmentation could influence an individual’s ability to perform tasks, or enable them to work in more extreme conditions.

New tool tracks workplace giving

An online reporting tool has been launched as part of the One Million Donors campaign, which aims to see one million Australians giving to charity through the workplace by 2020.

Richard Murray, CEO of JB Hi-Fi, one of the participating employers, said: “This new online platform allows employers to benchmark the progress of their workplace giving program against other employers across the nation. This is a huge step forward for employers who want to immediately see how staff are contributing and to measure the collective social impact effort of employee giving.”

Further information can be found at www.1mdonors.org.au/.

SPYING FOR THE GREATER GOOD Scanning work emails is nothing new, but Goldman Sachs has taken its email surveillance program to the next level, as Miklos Bolza reports Details of Goldman Sachs’ automated email surveillance program have been revealed, providing an insight into how the financial giant keeps tabs on employee communications.

CNBC recently obtained a full list of phrases that the company’s compliance department flags for specific scrutiny. While this is an automated process, staff later review the flagged emails and determine whether they signify a problem.

The document was supplied by an anonymous source and contains 180 phrases flagged as potentially dangerous. While it was written in 2008 – and Goldman Sachs has updated its terminology since then – it still offers a glimpse into how the big financial corporations track staff to ensure compliance.

“We deploy cutting-edge technology and exercise the utmost care to protect confidential information, secure data and provide high-end client service,” a spokeswoman for Goldman Sachs told CNBC. “The firm’s monitoring efforts reflect our commitment to upholding the highest standards of professionalism and integrity.”

Attorneys for Goldman Sachs described the document as “a lexicon of terms and phrases used by the firm’s compliance department for surveillance of the electronic mail of certain employees”.

One banking industry expert told CNBC that email monitoring was common in the financial sector. “It’s not just

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email; it’s about using key words to monitor social media as well. What the institution is trying to do is to flag activities that may be illegal or may represent insider trading.”

Employees of Goldman Sachs told the news outlet they had been informed beforehand that their emails were being watched. The system also warned staff if an email contained a swear word, with the individual having to click a box to show they were aware of the expletive before the email could be sent.

“What the institution is trying to do is to flag activities that may be illegal or may represent insider trading” Examples of flagged phrases on Goldman Sachs’ list include: • don’t worry I’ll take care of it • embezzled the account • found numerous/several errors/mistakes • give you a piece of the/my commission • I’ll/I will work it out • I/Goldman Sachs/the firm/we will make up the losses • split the difference • supposed to be the top/best financial company • you must/have to buy this stock Despite the abundance of phrases containing swear words, the list makes it apparent that employees are being watched for specific types of concerning behaviour – argumentative conversations, disputes over finances, or certain general communications containing expletives.

Q&A

Rob Wells Managing director Australia & New Zealand WORKDAY

Fast fact In a recent IBM study, 63% of C-level executives worldwide thought cloud technology was the most important business tech to keep an eye on over the short term. Mobile technology, the second on the list, is also essentially cloud-driven.

HR TECHNOLOGY: TIME TO UPGRADE? Do you believe HR technology should feature in the HR budgets of organisations?

HR professionals face an interesting challenge. They are working with legacy systems that weren’t built for the work we are doing today. Modern organisations today need agility, but most systems are too rigid to accommodate this. They were designed to only store basic information about the workforce.

The challenge is that you can’t say to the business, “I want a new HR system”; it’s not about that. It’s about understanding what the system could do for the entire business and then building a business case that is based on hard returns.

Companies like Workday help our customers to build these business cases and then come back after they go live to measure the value that has been realised.

In most companies the biggest cost in the business is the cost of the workforce, and so HR professionals should be delivering a system that delivers enormous value to all aspects of the business – through intuitive mobile functionality the employees feel engaged and culturally aligned, and through analytics the management get a much deeper insight into the costs and capabilities of their teams.

The side effect is that the HR professionals also get a great modern HR system.

What do you believe are key considerations for an HR professional choosing a new technology platform?

When choosing a new technology platform there are some key considerations, including: » Is it a unified system? You don’t want a number of different systems trying to work together – so many HR professionals have adopted point solutions to manage recruiting, performance or learning and then found they don’t provide the enterprise-wide view they were striving for. » Does it have embedded analytics? So often data is pulled from multiple systems into a data mart – or more often into Excel to manipulate. As soon as you do that, data integrity and security is compromised. » Can those analytics be predictive? » Is it simple to use and intuitive? » Was it designed to always be delivered in the cloud and with a mobile-first strategy?

You then need to look at the implementation. What are the stages and what type of support is offered? What happens with upgrades?

Look at the whole ownership experience – ease of upgrade, visibility of product road map, support, and overall customer satisfaction of the vendor.

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UPFRONT

LEADERSHIP

THE RISE AND RISE OF MINDFULNESS Ford Australia is the latest major employer to embrace mindfulness as a key component of its leadership programs

committed to fostering an organisational culture where a strong sense of ‘family’ exists, good relationships are valued, teamwork is internally motivated, people feel genuinely valued, and empowerment and employee involvement are inherently part of our nature,” he says.

Whickman says Ford Australia is leading the charge in connecting mindfulness with business practice, both inside and outside the company.

“We have already committed to another 100

The research showed that people who took steps to train their minds were able to make decisions with confidence and clarity The ancient Buddhist practice of mindfulness is finding its way into modern workplaces, with many corporate boardrooms embracing the link between mindfulness and better business practices.

Leading law firm Herbert Smith Freehills and travel industry veteran Flight Centre Travel Group are just two examples of organisations using mindfulness for employee and leader development. Mindfulness is a way of paying attention to what is actually happening in our lives; becoming present through greater awareness of our thoughts, emotions and physical sensations.

NEWS BRIEFS

Research from The Resilience Institute has shown that training our mind is highly correlated with resilience or the ability to bounce back from adversity, manage change and thrive. Specifically, the research showed that people who took steps to train their minds were able to make decisions with confidence and clarity.

Graeme Whickman, president and CEO, Ford Australia, says his company has started offering mindfulness training to employees to help them declutter their lives of daily distractions as Ford pushes an aggressive new innovation agenda at its local and international facilities. “We are

Execs play essential role in culture change

An independent review has found a culture of widespread sexual harassment within the Victoria Police and is a wake-up call for organisational leadership to champion cultural change.

The review, delivered by the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, found a high level of tolerance for sexism and sexual harassment throughout the Victoria Police, especially among supervisors and managers. It suggested a key factor to change this would be a committed executive team prepared to spend time listening and learning rather than jumping straight into treating the symptoms.

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Ford managers to engage in mindfulness training, on top of the 82 who have already completed the phase one training program, with discussions to look at offering it to all employees.”

Australian Ford engineer turned psychologist Phillip Chen Yi Mei launched the company’s first mindfulness training locally in early 2015, and participation in the program has jumped by 125% following a successful phase one pilot program.

Ford’s mindfulness course involves four days of off-site training during which employees are taught to cultivate personal wellness, provision effectiveness and integrate mindfulness in dayto-day activities.

Leader behaviour critical to successful change

Getting leaders and managers on board is fundamental to the success of any change management strategy.

However, Toni Greenwood from the Australian Institute of Management says resistance is often most visible among the upper levels of an organisation. This reluctance can have a crippling effect on the teams underneath senior leaders and frontline managers.

“What I found has worked is upskilling your managers or key influencers to have meaningful authentic conversations with people,” she said. “Leadership behaviour is the single most effective and cost-efficient way to infuse new behaviours in the organisation.”

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Q&A

David Brown Partner, human capital lead DELOITTE

Fast fact According to Deloitte, organisational design ranks fourth as a leader priority in Australia (87% viewed it as ‘important’ or ‘very important’), yet globally this is the number one priority, cited by 92% of respondents. In Australia, the priorities are leadership (94%), culture (94%) and engagement (88%).

TIME TO PREPARE FOR ‘POSITIONAL POWER’ Were there any surprises for you in the results of Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends 2016 survey?

From an overall perspective, both locally and globally, it’s the pace of change around two tectonic plates coming together. One is all the technological and digital disruption; the other is the broader talent dimensions of the millennials and the gig economy [contingent workers]. The implication for leaders becomes how to respond to those changes.

At the same time it was a pleasant surprise to see the perception of the HR team’s capability has improved. With the size and quantum of change facing businesses, it was great to see that people believe HR is meeting the challenge. That improved perception is possibly due to leaders understanding the importance of creating value out of their human assets and therefore having a bit more empathy for what the HR function needs to do.

Have businesses finally come to terms with the unique traits of millennials?

One third of millennials say they will leave their current employer within a year, and two thirds say the same within five. You’re seeing churn. People are more interested in the experience they’ll get, so it’s more about the experience than the title. I’m seeing the rise of personal power over positional power.

That revolves around employee empowerment – in their career paths, in their L&D, and so on. That starts

Male execs ‘sitting on the fence’ on gender balance

New research from Melbourne Business School has shown that, unsurprisingly, male executives with a daughter are more likely to be committed to gender diversity in their organisation – though, overall, male executives appear to be ‘sitting on the fence’ about achieving gender balance in the workplace.

In a series of interviews with more than 40 male executives, it was found that the majority of those who joined Male Champions of Change, an advocacy group, were merely ‘bystanders’ who were neither actively implementing change nor resisting advances in gender diversity.

Board diversity still lacking

to also change the way in which we’re interacting with people. We’re starting to see our workforces much more as volunteers than employees, and so the whole nature of the employment relationship, the psychological relationship, is starting to take over from the traditional legal relationship of employer/employee.

It seems employers have only just got their heads around millennials and now they are moving to leader roles…

The good news is millennials are better placed to know how to interact and lead Gen Z because they are already more attuned to personal power and influence as opposed to having to use positional power.

Leadership was the top priority listed in this year’s survey. What are we referring to when we say leadership?

The specific reference is leader capability, and it’s that old saying that people are looking to their leaders to be someone to believe in and someone to believe in them. When you talk to the C-suite, 26% will say they’ve got strong leadership in place. However, when you drop to the mid-level of individual contributors, only about 5% of that group says we have the right leadership in place, which is much lower than the rest of the world. That in itself shows that having capable leaders is the critical issue for Australian businesses.

A new report by KPMG for the ASX Corporate Governance Council has revealed that true gender diversity in business remains elusive.

The report observed nearly 600 entities in Australia during 2015. It divided these entities into three main categories: S&P/ ASX 200 (197 entities); ASX 201–500 by market capitalisation (200 entities); and ASX 501+ by market capitalisation (200 entities).

Among the top 200 companies, just 22% had female board members. Only one of these (Medibank) had a majority of females on its board.

A dearth of leadership skills, says study

Forty-one per cent of the workforce believe their skills are just average or below average on five key competencies, according to an analysis by Leadership Management Australia (LMA) of 3,000 responses to its online DIY competency test. Executives had the highest average competency rating (3.7 out of 5), followed by middle managers (3.6), employees (3.6) and frontline managers/supervisors (3.4).

The LMA says a “disturbing” result is that 35% of executives/senior managers, 40% of middle managers, and 47% of frontline managers/supervisors rated their leadership skills as average or below average. www.hcamag.com

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PEOPLE

HEAD TO HEAD

GOT AN OPINION THAT COUNTS? Email hrd_editor@keymedia.com.au

Are employers all talk and no action on workplace D&I? Have we reached a tipping point where true D&I is no longer a ‘nice to have’?

Rob Phipps

Chief people officer KFC Australia At KFC Australia our culture is key to our business. Alongside inclusion programs, such as promoting a flexible workplace and paid parental leave, our culture is the true driver of diversity.

Our People Promise ensures that employees can Be their Best Self, Make a Difference, and Have Fun! We’re proud that over 50% of KFC’s restaurant general managers are women.

Promoting a flexible workplace and work-life balance are essential components of delivering diversity.

Employers must invest in programs that foster diversity and inclusion.

In order for these programs to be meaningful, they must be at the heart of a company’s culture.

Sarah Dunn

Head of people resources Adobe Asia Pacific Great ideas should come from all areas of a company, and it is critical for employers to cultivate strong, diverse workforces to ensure that employees feel encouraged to bring their best thinking to work.

Adobe has always strived to attract and retain great talent. We continuously invest in diversifying our networks and expanding the ways in which we interact with current as well as future employees.

For instance, we recently announced significant enhancements to our parental leave benefit. This initiative is just one aspect of our diversity strategy which allows our employees to balance their home commitments with their career goals.

Alla Keogh Head of people MYOB

Many businesses make genuine efforts in this space, particularly in the tech sector, where D&I challenges are exacerbated.

Where organisations are setting firm targets and communicating those targets to their stakeholders, creating proactive strategies around attracting, developing and promoting diverse talent, making their leaders accountable, and being genuinely prepared to change their work practices, there is clearly action being taken, and that action pays off.

At MYOB, we have a clear set of targets and objectives when it comes to diversity and inclusion. In the past 12 months we have made significant progress, achieving one of the highest proportions of women in tech roles and leadership positions in our industry. We are similarly committed to other aspects of diversity.

D&I: ARE WE GETTING ANYWHERE? ABS 2015 data shows that women are still dramatically underrepresented in leadership positions across business, despite high levels of education. Data from PwC shows that, globally, the share of incoming women CEOs at the world’s 2,500 largest companies fell to 2.8% in 2015, the lowest since 2011. Indeed, 82.7% of Australian CEOs of non-public sector organisations are men. The stats on other areas of D&I – including disability and cultural background – suggest that, despite some positive gains, there is still plenty of work to be done to improve D&I outcomes.

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PROFILE

NBCUNIVERSAL

ENTERTAINING THE WORLD What do the films Despicable Me and Jurassic World, the TV shows Nowhere Boys and Barracuda, and Universal Studios theme parks have in common?

They are all under the NBCUniversal umbrella. HRD discovers the ins and outs of HR in one of the world’s great entertainment entities

ON A flying visit to Australia and ensconced at NBCUniversal’s harbourside headquarters in Sydney’s Millers Point, Susana Garcia Bernal, the company’s VP human resources, Asia Pacific, sat down with HRD to discuss the challenges and opportunities for HR in a global media/entertainment company.

HRD: Can you briefly outline how HR operates at NBCUniversal?

Susana Garcia Bernal: NBCUniversal has country HR business partners in the major locations in which they operate. We have centres of excellence and subject matter experts based at our main hubs or headquarters. As an example, we have Comp, L&D and TA in Singapore offering support across Asia-Pacific businesses.

HRD: Can you outline some of the key challenges of HR in a global ‘matrix environment’?

SGB: In Australia and New Zealand we currently have six businesses in our portfolio: Universal Pictures, TV Networks and TV

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Distribution Australia and New Zealand, TV Production (Matchbox Pictures), CNBC and Home Entertainment. All our businesses share the same NBCUniversal vision, strategy, credo and values. Our overarching HR strategy applies to all our businesses. It is, however,

strong spirit of collaboration and a deep passion for what the company stands for.

HRD: On the flipside of that, what are some of the positives that can flow from being a global organisation?

“More than ever before – and not just for NBCUniversal – Asia-Pacific is a region where everyone is keen to do business or grow” adapted in order to capture the uniqueness, strategies and challenges of each business, in each market. Each business has a global or hub head of HR who maintains strong connections with the country HR business partners. In countries like Australia and New Zealand, where we have multiple businesses and where we work with different time zones, our work can be challenging. Although the ability to manage multiple stakeholders and to multitask is fundamental, the absolute key to the success of our international and global HR team is the

SGB: The greatest positive is that we are all connected. We have regular catch-ups via video conference; we have an HR newsletter, and a number of HR groups on our internal social media system, ‘Wave’. We share experiences, we meet once or twice a year at the hub level, we collaborate, and we foster a real sense of being one team, despite the distances between our countries.

Another positive of being part of a global organisation is that our employees have access to international opportunities. Our

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Clockwise from top left: Jasmine Bahen, director, talent, Asia Pacific; Shalin Ho, director, reward and HR, Asia Pacific; Heather Matla, HR manager, SE Asia; Susana Garcia Bernal, VP HR, Asia Pacific

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PROFILE

NBCUNIVERSAL GROOMING THE NEXT GENERATION OF LEADERS

Susana Garcia Bernal with Demetra Crockford, HR manager ANZ, NBCUniversal

annual talent review process enables us to identify high performers and highlight those who wish to relocate. We then endeavour to find opportunities for them. There are several examples of HR colleagues who have relocated for new opportunities, which is incredibly exciting.

HRD: As a regional leader, how do you prioritise the global, regional and local needs of the workforce?

SGB: It’s important in my role to be connected with the business at the country and regional level whilst ensuring AsiaPacific is represented at the international and global level. More than ever before – and not just for NBCUniversal – Asia-Pacific is a region where everyone is keen to do business or grow. This is particularly true for markets such as China, India, Japan or the English-speaking and pan-regional markets.

Keeping up with internal and external developments in the industry is a necessity, and there is a great interest right now around local content and digital solutions.

We set up our HR regional strategies, looking at our talent experiences and journey with NBCUniversal.

Talent attraction, development and retention are our key areas of focus, and underpinning the strategy is our vision of ‘Making NBCUniversal an even greater place to work for our employees’. Through applying both the strategy and vision, the team and

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I can readily focus our efforts and question what we do.

Lastly, I’m very fortunate to have a great HR regional team, both at the country HR business partner level as well as the functional regional level here in Singapore, London and New York. The country HRBPs manage their country – or countries – independently. We have experienced and trusted HR partners, which is a huge benefit to me, as they will be doing the right thing by both the employee and the company. This is also true at the functional level. We have real experts that are not only adding value in their areas but help me in my continuous journey of having a voice at that international level. We work together as a single team.

This is something you cannot compromise.

For this reason, we are very selective about who we bring into the team.

HRD: Do you encounter cultural differences when your role covers such a wide region (ie Asia-Pacific)?

SGB: English is not my first language. I’m an introvert Spaniard in Asia so my background and culture may be foreign to people in this region. I’ve been fortunate to have previously worked in multiple countries and industries and over the years I’ve become naturally adaptable to different environments, which helps me to navigate this challenge.

I think seeing the person in front of you as a whole, personally and professionally, and

NBCUniversal recently launched a comprehensive leadership development program. Susana Garcia Bernal outlines what this involves and how it fits in with the global HR matrix.

“In April this year we launched the Asia-Pacific regional Talent Lab Space in Singapore. NBCU has a global approach to learning, with existing Talent Labs in New York and LA and, most recently, in May, London.

“Talent Lab provides a suite of L&D experiences that are uniquely designed to develop and engage our people to deliver for the future.

“The experiences cover talent at key transition points in their career, such as when they start with the company, when they become new managers, and when they are taking that step up to becoming a leader, helping to: ALIGN Align talent that is new to company, or new to role, to the expectations, business and culture of NBCUniversal.

BUILD Build the core media skills, business acumen and capabilities needed to drive the business priorities forward.

ACCELERATE Accelerate high-potential talent to create, invent and deliver the future of media.

“The first Singapore Talent Lab experience, ‘LEAD’, kicked off in April and included attendees from Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea.” effectively communicating, in a style that works best for her/him, is a skill that cannot be underestimated.

Paying attention to the small details goes a long way. Don’t serve food at a town hall if half of your team are in the middle of Ramadan. Embrace the local festivities, such as dressing up for Deepavali or arranging a team Lo Hai for Chinese New Year.

Be curious. Ask your people what is/isn’t appropriate. Generally everyone is happy to share with you about their culture.

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PROFILE

NBCUNIVERSAL HRD: Diversity & inclusion is a critical part of NBCUniversal’s HR strategy.

What specific initiatives do you have in place?

SGB: Each country has its own local initiatives aligning with our global strategy.

In Australia, we launched OUT, our Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transsexual group.

This group has a presence in the US, Singapore and London. Our biggest event so far was our collaboration with beyondblue in this year’s Sydney Mardi Gras parade, where a group of employees and TV talent marched to support a great cause.

We are also increasing our presence in women’s groups, aiming to offer mentoring opportunities for women in media.

Social responsibility is also close to our hearts. NBCUniversal dedicates a day each year, called NBCU Comcast Cares Day, when all staff work with a local charity for the day. We also participate in a number of other local charity events throughout the year, for example Fitted for Work in September.

HRD: Looking ahead, what is the company’s biggest HR challenge and how will you navigate that challenge?

SGB: A key challenge for us in the region is attracting and developing talent to be a first-inclass digital organisation, for candidates and employees – particularly amongst millennials.

We are focusing on pipelining talent and increasing our brand awareness with initiatives such as our Campus to Career Program (C2C), which has been very successful in Singapore.

This program attracts the best students in targeted universities, and during the six months at NBCUniversal we help them to get ready for the marketplace. This is a great way for us to connect with millennials and their thinking, both as talent as well as consumers. We tap into the C2C Alumni network to fill our entry-level roles and keep in contact with them as they progress in their career. We are currently developing the same program in Australia and looking forward to welcoming our first interns in the next few months.

Creative thinking and digital upskilling are key topics in our talent development discussion;

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we will be introducing reversed mentoring in this area in Australia too, as it has been successful in other countries.

We’ve made progress from an employee

engagement point of view and will continue to focus on this, looking for ways to keep increasing the NBCUniversal employer brand in key markets like this one.

COMPANY SNAPSHOT NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment television networks, a motion picture company, television production operations, a television stations group, theme parks, and a suite of leading internet-based businesses. Here’s a timeline of key events in the company’s history

1912 Carl Laemmle’s Independent Moving Pictures Company merges with five other film companies to create the Universal Film Manufacturing Company, headed by Laemmle. For the first time, a single entity encompasses all facets of the movie industry: production, distribution, and exhibition.

1920 Industry innovator David Sarnoff sends a memo to his boss at the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America, proposing a broadcast radio network whereby “events of national importance can be simultaneously announced and received”, and “baseball scores can be transmitted in the air”. His vision became a reality in 1926, with the founding of NBC.

1939 NBC begins regularly programmed television service.

1964 Universal Studios Tour opens for business.

1986 GE buys RCA for $US6.4bn. At the time, the deal was the largest non-oil acquisition in US history.

1989 NBC launches CNBC – a foray into the new cable TV industry.

2004 NBC and Universal join together to create NBC Universal. The new company includes a broad portfolio of broadcast networks, NBC and Telemundo; widely distributed cable networks such as USA Network, SCI FI, Bravo, CNBC, and MSNBC; the Universal Pictures movie studio; a television production studio; theme parks in Hollywood and Orlando; and television stations in major markets across the US.

2011 Comcast and General Electric finalise their agreement to form a joint venture – under the name NBCUniversal – consisting of NBC Universal businesses and Comcast’s cable networks, regional sports networks, and certain digital properties and unconsolidated investments.

Source: nbcuniversal.com

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FEATURES

DATA ANALYTICS

THE DATA SCIENTIST IN YOU Big data is unquestionably a big opportunity, but most HR departments have not been able to capitalise on the opportunities presented. Peter Szilagyi provides a comprehensive guide to unlocking the data scientist within every HR leader I LOVE data, I’ll admit it. I know that is not the typical thing for an HR practitioner to say, but nowadays how could you not? All HR professionals, from broad generalists to functional specialists and across all levels, have an amazing opportunity to transform the way we work. There has been much written recently on the opportunities that data enables across sales and marketing, business operations, finance and, of course, HR. The question is, what does it mean for HR and how do we practically take that opportunity and turn it into action?

The volume and speed of data we are dealing with is truly phenomenal, and the interesting thing is that it isn’t static – it’s getting bigger and faster month-on-month, year-on-year. To paint that picture, consider these two often-quoted facts: 1. Over 90% of all the data in the world created by humans since the dawn of time was created in the past two years.

2. There are about 100 hours of video

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uploaded to YouTube every minute, and it would take around 15 years to watch every video uploaded by users in one day.

Let’s review data analytics with some practical application in mind.

The value of data analytics From an HR perspective, operational and workforce data provides a gold mine of information to drive business performance. For example, if we can now accurately predict shopper behaviour, could that data also provide insights into how to predictively recruit, train, lead or reward the customer service team supporting those shoppers?

From a different perspective, another example could be demonstrating how a better diversity mix drives business performance.

While there is no shortage of opportunity, the challenge has been one of capability of the HR function, capacity of the function, and the cleanliness of the data and systems.

A quick search of the data analytics landscape yields literally hundreds of solutions and providers across multiple categories, from data collection to data extraction, cleaning, storage, analytics and visualisation. For the uninitiated, the landscape can be daunting at best and confusing at worst. The data that HR typically works with is often produced from different and disconnected platforms and is often disorganised – sound familiar?

The other challenge is that typical HR reporting, such as on recruitment volume or training attendance, doesn’t necessarily address a business problem (such as ‘why are top performers leaving?’ or ‘is there a cultural misalignment in our merger target?’).

The value of data analytics therefore is the ability to drive actionable intelligence (ie to derive insight). Leading organisations have sophisticated systems in place (technologies, teams, methodologies, algorithms, etc) that present insights far above standard HR reporting. This value comes into spotlight

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for data analytics is a business problem at hand.

The trap otherwise is to conduct an effort without an intended outcome and boil the ocean. This means having a solid purpose, process and product. For those without sophisticated systems in place, the following steps and ‘Cool tools’ (see Table 4, p24) will provide a great jump-start.

First, here are five key steps for conducting targeted data analytics.

1

Understand the business priority at hand

For an HR business partner/generalist this will involve interviewing the business to understand its priorities and concerns. For a functional specialist or shared services team this might involve interviewing both the business and HR business partners (ie all customers of the service).

2

Define the key questions to test

Once business pain points are understood, key questions should be identified and data collected to assess them against. A key question, for example, could be similar to the ones outlined

Table 1 shows a summary of the relationship between reporting and analytics. Where does your organisation fit?

A quantitative road map The examples above show there is no shortage of problems to solve, and therein lies the biggest problem – analysis paralysis! The starting point

3

Gather intelligence (data)

4

Analyse the data

Data can be obtained from many sources (see examples in Table 2 overleaf). Look not only internally for data but externally as well. For example, to answer the question of why top talent is leaving, some of the data to consider can be seen in Table 3 (overleaf).

Some basic knowledge of statistical concepts is important at this point but not a deal-breaker for the new starter. Key questions for consideration are: • Is the data obtained a representative sample (demonstrated through a confidence interval)?

• What does the data show (demonstrated through mean, mode, medium)?

• Does the data show a statistical pattern (demonstrated through correlation, standard deviation)?

TABLE 1: REPORTING VS ANALYTICS Looking backwards...

Looking forwards...

How long will Mike stay with us?

Why does Mike stay with us?

Business impact

when it is predictive. Some examples of data analytics include: • Will a candidate be effective in their role?i Google and its HR team offer a great case study of predictive recruitment and talent.

• Why are female applicants not applying in the same numbers as male applicants for certain jobs? Ericsson and its HR department offer a fascinating case study in this respect.ii • The drivers behind attrition of top performers. McKinsey provides a great example of how to conduct root cause analysis, prediction and action.iii

above: Why is top talent leaving us?; Do we have the right capability in a particular team?

How long has Mike stayed with us?

1. Basic reporting • Functional performance (no. of training courses, no. of recruits filled) • Single data source • Rudimentary tools and techniques

2. Advanced reporting • Reporting dashboards • Metrics/KPAs defined • Multiple data sources • Data not real time • Capability to align reporting • Reporting part of role • Awareness of data cleaning needs

4. Advanced analytics • Business problems attacked using data analytics not instinct • Statistical modelling 3. Basic analytics used to drive insight • Workforce data • Advanced tools and interrogation and insights techniques • Integration across • Integrated data that multiple data sources is pulled real time or • Specialised tools for on demand conducting analysis and • Data governance visualisation and controls • Capability in data • Broad capability across analysis with a few the function and deep • Data may not be real capability within time but procedures in analytics teams place to consistently collect data

Functional maturity

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FEATURES

DATA ANALYTICS TABLE 2: WORKED EXAMPLE – GATHERING DATA TO SUPPORT TALENT TURNOVER ANALYSIS

Qualitative data sources

Quantitative data sources

Internal data source

External data sources

• Voluntary turnover data • Salary data analysis (compa-ratio and salary scale comparative data) • Performance scores and 360 feedback of leaders/managers managing top talent • Employee engagement scores • Organisation and position data

• Benchmarking services such as Hackett, CEB, Bersin by Deloitte, etc • Consulting firms: Mercer, Aon Hewitt • Subscription services: Hay, Hudson, CareerOne

• • • •

As above. Some other services include:

Exit interview feedback Informal mentoring/leader interviewing feedback Formal 360 feedback Employee engagement feedback

Comparable salary data • livesalary.com.au • payscale.com Comparable positional/career data • linkedin.com • livehire.me Ex-employee sentiment data • glassdoor.com • jobadvisor.com.au

There are a number of online tools that can conduct statistical analysis rapidly. These are outlined under data analytics in the ‘Cool tools’ table. Microsoft Excel is a sufficient starting point but requires you to build the associated formulas to conduct your analysis. Many packages on the market now allow you to ‘drag and drop’ – Microsoft’s own Power BI is one such tool.

If you have only limited experience with data modelling, here are some tips for gaining rapid knowledge in statistics: Network with your peers in marketing, IT and finance. Don’t discount that ‘small’ YouTube fact we opened with. YouTube is an open-source gateway to understanding any problem on any topic. On a more structured front, look to build your skill set through a formal course. For example, the best practice insights and technology company CEB has great tools as well as an HR Academy focused on data analytics.

5

Represent the data in a meaningful way

Relate the data directly to the business problems and actions that will address the pattern. The

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‘Cool tools’ table has a number of visualisation and infographic resources that illustrate how to make data visually impactful. If anything, these tools provide great visual patterns to absorb and apply in future situations.

Building organisational capability With this framework in place, wouldn’t it be great

TABLE 3: WORKED EXAMPLE – WHY IS TOP TALENT LEAVING US? Quantitative example Run analysis on attrition against business unit, job level, job type, talent score, to determine if there is a pattern or correlation.

Question: Is there correlation between certain talent groups, roles, years of tenure and attrition? Is there a driver behind attrition that is position-based or leader-based?

Qualitative example Run word clouds on performance data, 360 data, exit interview data and employee engagement data.

Question: What patterns are there with career progression, career development or leader engagement, etc?

same outcomes outlined above. Considerations would be: • Centralised: Dedicated HR analytics team responsible for areas such as data quality/ stewardship, business diagnosis/analysis, data analytics/visualisation • Decentralised: Building capability in data analytics at the practitioner level (ie allowing

Relate the data directly to the business problems and actions that will address the pattern if there was an engine room to conduct this analysis in rapid and parallel fashion to solve multiple business problems? As noted, leading organisations have invested heavily in building capability, and this includes the following considerations: Sponsorship: Senior leaders should be advocates of the importance of building capability and skills across the board.

Structure: Different structures can achieve the

recruitment teams to conduct their own analysis on recruitment issues) • Hybrid: Building capability within certain teams/roles that come together for specific projects as and where needed (ie building capability in workforce planning teams or HR IT/business analyst teams) Talent: Finding appropriate team members to perform in these roles. A key consideration here is that it isn’t all about the data! Data is only as

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FEATURES

DATA ANALYTICS good as how it can be communicated. Therefore skills in data analysis, statistics, problem-solving and communication are important.

Technology: Leveraging and investing in enterprise tools to support data quality, collection, extraction, storage, analytics and visualisation.

Of course different business functions have similar challenges, and so sharing and leveraging investment is a key consideration. IT or marketing will have tools to conduct data analytics that may not be known in the broader organisation.

Start small, demonstrate results and scale: Most HR departments are sitting on a mountain of data and there are many opportunities to identify quick wins. For example, by looking at monthly payroll cycles or annual talent cycles HR teams can proactively reach leaders about the likely questions before they ask them (which in turn should reduce the query volume).

Building your own capability As outlined above, there are a few suggestions

TABLE 4: ‘COOL TOOLS’ Area Data extraction or creation

Description Process of collecting data across multiple platforms internally and externally

Example

Value to you

Automated data collection tools: - astera.com/reportminer-dataextraction-software - import.io/ - grepsr.com

People data is both structured and unstructured, and these tools allow for rapid data extraction of static documents (ie PDFs) or from websites (ie internal or external websites)

Survey and form collection tools: - wufoo.com - surveymonkey.com

Survey and form collection tools allow for rapid customised data collection These tools can take unstructured information and put it rapidly into table format

Data cleaning

Tools to support data cleansing automation

Data analysis/ analytics

Data visualisation techniques and tools take complex data and represent it in consumable format – this allows patterns to be identified

Infographic and design

An infographic is a way to take data and represent it pictorially This representation could be through diagrams, charts, and images that create an impactful message about your data

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- openrefine.org - datacleaner.org - winpure.com

-

statwing.com datapine.com powerbi. microsoft.com tableau.com plot.ly.com wordle.net

Infographic and design: - canva.com - visme.co - easel.ly - infogr.am Comments: - The Australian Financial Review often presents complex data in similar formats - For some fun, if you want an interesting infographic of your own résumé, try out vizualize.me

People data is both structured and unstructured. Data may not be clean, and efforts to clean a data set may take hundreds of hours. These tools can accelerate the data-cleaning process Often we can fall into the trap of using Excel for data analysis. These additional tools offer a simplified user interface and additional functionality to simultaneously analyse multiple data sources Data needs to be both factual and emotional – that is something that will connect with your audience Data visualisation tools make data come to life. Sometimes a quantitative chart is not enough and infographic tools can support building a story

for building depth. You can build it (formally via courses and informally through open source such as YouTube, etc); borrow it (look to partner colleagues and teams facing similar challenges in marketing, finance or IT inside or outside your organisation); or buy capability by working with specialist vendors. An awareness of the data integration and visualisation tools allows you at a minimum to understand how such concepts can rapidly be applied to your role as an HR practitioner/leader, or, more substantially, how to apply these tools in a practical way to drive insight. There are hundreds of tools on the market and they all promise to deliver business insights.

A very important consideration before jumping in is that, as custodians of employee data, we need to be sensitive to what, why and how data is analysed and represented. The sites listed in Table 4 are therefore highlighted to show you the art of possible. As usual, when in doubt talk to your corporate counsel for ‘dos and don’ts’; talk to your IT colleagues about ‘have and have nots’; and talk to your marketing colleagues about who has ‘been there, done that’. Most fundamentally, while Excel and PowerPoint have been staples of corporate life, look to move beyond these tools to creatively deconstruct problems and construct solutions.

Wrap-up HR practitioners have a tremendous opportunity to drive business value. Take the time to partner with your business and understand its pain points.

Build your capability in analytics not only for yourself but for your team. Be creative in how you learn, and of course apply the concepts outlined above. That big data is a big opportunity is not a new concept, but as several consulting companies have pointed out, most HR departments have not been able to really capitalise on the opportunities presented. Let’s change that data point!

References: i

hbr.org/2014/09/predict-what-employees-will-do-without-freaking-them-out/ mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/

ii

our-insights/how-ericsson-aligned-its-people-with-its-transformation-strategy mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/power-to-the-new-people-analytics

iii

Peter Szilagyi is an HR leader in strategy, projects, operations and change.

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FEATURES

INSIDE HR

YOUR HEALTH, YOUR LIFE, YOUR INITIATIVES Instead of a ‘top down’ approach to corporate health and wellbeing, DEXUS Property Group has empowered its people to come up with innovative solutions. HRD sat down with Dan Cook, general manager, people & culture, and Michael Sheffield, fund manager, to discuss the initiatives

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HRD: Why has DEXUS concentrated its resources on the health and wellbeing of its employees?

Dan Cook: The genesis for this was feedback we received from our engagement and culture surveys around what staff are looking for in their employment relationship. We do the hygiene factors well, staff engagement is 83%, and we’ve got a really strong culture.

People felt we were doing the fundamentals well, but what they were looking for was more of a focus on health. Many of our people have an interest in health and wellbeing, and flexibility. We certainly saw that people wanted to have more balanced work lives – particularly younger generations who are looking to blend work and home.

My generation had quite a strong delineation between work and home: you switched off when you went home. That’s changed. We’ve certainly seen a strong indication from staff that they wanted to bring their whole self to work and were looking to DEXUS to support that.

HRD: What role do you think employers play in the wellbeing of staff?

DC: I think there’s a responsibility but with a business edge to it. We’re looking at it as a productivity tool as well. If we can get people more healthy, balanced, focused, they will be more productive. We also think it’s great for individuals – for their health and wellbeing.

A good example is our executives – we’ve given everyone in the company Fitbits, which can measure heart rate. When executives have a team meeting they’ll check their heart rates at the beginning and map it up on a whiteboard to see where everyone is placed. Is everyone coming in stressed? Is everyone calm before we start making some big decisions on strategy, or what buildings

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FEATURES

INSIDE HR DEXUS WELLNESS IN NUMBERS Number of DEXUS staff = 415* Number of Fitbits taken by staff = 393 Percentage of staff enrolled in the first DEXFit Challenge = 59%

HRD: You’ve created a holistic approach to wellbeing. Firstly, can you outline the WELL Building Standard?

Number of steps walked in Week 1 of the DEXFit Challenge = 14 million

DC: The WELL rating is similar to the green rating NABERS [National Australian Built Environment Rating System], but this is a more holistic approach to what a building does to an individual when they step inside it. There are a few categories to the WELL ratings. It looks at air – what the air quality is within the building; water; nourishment; light – how much natural light comes into the building; fitness; comfort; and mind.

It’s probably the last three which are nontraditional building elements. How do you create an environment where people can be healthy at work? This might mean end-oftrip facilities or standing desks to give people ergonomic flexibility. Then how do you create mindfulness at work so people are actually productive and not stressed? So the WELL rating is taking a holistic approach to what an individual comes to work and experiences, not just from a physical perspective but from an emotional and mental perspective.

Distance walked in Week 1 of the DEXFit Challenge = 10,000km Number of participants in DEXUS Circles = >100 The 2016 sustainable employee engagement rate was 84% Results in health and wellbeing categories have improved significantly, with 97% of employees indicating they were ‘proud to be associated with DEXUS’ *at time of Wellbeing Week

COLLABORATIVE LEARNING DEXUS Circles comprise people from all parts of the business who meet each month to learn and share experiences in a confidential environment. The Circles discuss a broad range of topics, from motivation and career progression to company culture. The latest two topics have been humour in the workplace and stress in the workplace.

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to buy and sell? And they’ll pause every so often when things get a bit heated and check heart rates, trying to ensure they’re not making decisions in the heat of the moment.

So there’s a healthy aspect to it, but we also believe it’s going to lead to better decisionmaking and better productivity.

HRD: Do you do your own research or take best practice research from elsewhere?

DC: A lot of research is coming from the US on this area, so we get a lot of insight from the WELL ratings. WELL ratings are starting to gain traction here in Australia. But we also take a step back and ask what’s good for our employees. What’s coming out of our engagement surveys, exit interviews? We talk to leaders a lot about what they want to see in terms of culture. So it’s probably a mixture of some of the hard science coming out of the WELL ratings and a bit of anecdotal evidence coming from our staff and workforce.

HRD: Talk me through your ‘Wellbeing Communities’.

DC: We set up five Wellbeing Communities, which are based around the framework I described for the WELL ratings. We gave employees the opportunity to drive these communities, rather than management or HR saying ‘Here’s what we think you need for training or for your health and fitness’. We actually let the employees create a charter, come up with funding requirements, build a team and then go after a topic.

Michael Sheffield: From an engagement perspective, moving it from the people & culture team to the people who are the beneficiaries of the programs has been an excellent exercise. People & culture put out expressions of interest for people who wanted to join the communities – therefore you have really committed and enthusiastic people.

In terms of the Benefits and Recognition Community, which I’m part of, we took a step back and, in addition to the engagement survey, we looked at a best practice survey from the US to determine what people actually value. Out of that, the flexibility element was a very strong component.

The interesting thing is people don’t necessarily know that flexibility is a benefit until you say, ‘Well, if you were at another organisation you probably wouldn’t get this.

So how important is it for you?’ We found it’s incredibly important just from a household perspective. Dan talked about young people who think differently about that work-life balance, but there are also parents with kids who really value the ability to leave work early, for example, or to create a working environment at home where they can work a lot more flexibly.

We also undertook a benchmarking exercise to see where we fit in terms of employee benefits and recognition. The pleasing thing was we ranked quite well in terms of the ASX Top 50, but also globally we ranked pretty highly.

Having the communities in place really helped communicate to employees what was available already at DEXUS, and also helped to establish new initiatives.

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FEATURES

INSIDE HR WELLBEING INITIATIVES AT A GLANCE DEXUS has adopted the WELL Building Standard, not only into its client portfolio but also into its own head office.

WELL is the first evidence-based system for measuring, certifying and monitoring building features that impact on health and wellbeing.

It addresses the daily interactions between multiple environmental factors, such as air quality, natural light, acoustics, thermal comfort and active design. WELL addresses wellbeing through implementing strategies and policies to increase productivity and promote holistic lifestyles for employees.

WELL acts as a foundation for all DEXUS wellbeing initiatives; however, the company has taken the additional step of enabling staff to research, decide and implement programs that suit the needs and culture of DEXUS. Five 'Wellbeing Communities’ have been established to focus on Diversity and Inclusion, Mind Body and Nutrition (MBN), Workplace and Social, Professional Development and Careers, and Benefits and Recognition. Calling these groups ‘communities’ and not ‘committees’ is intentional and supports them being self-directed and not driven by a top-down approach. The CEO keeps up to date with in-person quarterly updates from each Community Chair.

DEXUS Wellbeing Week was launched earlier in 2016, with a focus on a supportive/inclusive culture and employee health/wellness. The week was designed and driven by the Wellbeing Communities. The MBN Community recommended an all-of-company solution to engage people with their own health and wellbeing, providing free Fitbits to all staff. The Fitbits are being used to opt in to team and personal challenges and to motivate and engage employees, with the benefit of improving employee health and wellbeing.

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HRD: Michael, can you highlight one particular initiative your benefits and recognition group has introduced?

MS: The Fitbits really tie in with what we’re trying to achieve at DEXUS but also the community. We gave out Fitbits to everyone for free, whether they are parttime, temporary or permanent employees.

Then some of the other communities which we work closely with – the Mind, Body and Nutrition Community, for example – have

report in our annual review profitability to shareholders or what our engagement level is, we can now measure wellbeing as well.

HRD: Tell us about your Wellbeing Week.

DC: Those five communities were each given a day to come up with ideas and generate activity for their community. The D&I community, for example, came up with a cultural morning tea and everyone bought a dish from their country. We had

“People felt we were doing the fundamentals well, but what they were looking for was more of a focus on health” Dan Cook taken up the Fitbit idea and implemented challenges. At the moment we’re in the midst of a challenge where each team competes over a month on how many steps they can do. It’s not about who’s the fittest; it’s about participation. It’s got everyone engaged.

Different teams are competing in a friendly way, and even within the teams people are encouraging each other.

DC: Instead of having meetings around a table we’re seeing teams go for a walk to the Botanical Gardens or down to Circular Quay.

We also thought people might be reticent to opt in. One of the concerns was we want to run these challenges but people might find it a bit intrusive. But we’ve actually got 250– 260 people participating out of around 350 who were given Fitbits. So people don’t feel it’s intrusive or that we’re collecting data for other sinister means.

HRD: This is an important point – you can’t force things upon people.

DC: Very much so. And it’s great that people feel they want to participate. We’re going to get some great data out of this. We’ve got a great corporate dashboard we’ve set up through Fitbit, through which we can track health and wellbeing outcomes. Just as we

a Fitbit challenge, we had speakers coming in around nutrition and ergonomics, we had health checks and a salary packaging workshop. Each day was a different theme. It was a pretty intense week but the feedback was amazing.

HRD: Dan, how has this been from an HR professional’s standpoint, especially if you are used to organising and running these programs yourself?

DC: It’s been challenging from an HR perspective. We’re used to holding the keys and doling out the money and having tight control. We’re used to designing and implementing, and I think if we didn’t have the right culture and high engagement levels it would be more challenging – but people are looking for empowerment, and we give a lot of trust to individuals. In response we get a lot of trust and goodwill back. People end up doing the right thing. It’s probably more challenging for the executive team and the board. They are looking at risk, for example.

We’re still trialling this and we might go left instead of right next year. But the early signs are it’s been great for productivity, great for flexibility. And we also feel we’re getting some great cultural outcomes as well.

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FEATURES

HR STRATEGY

FROM THEORY INTO PRACTICE

Bridging the gap between academic theory and HR practice is an overarching goal of the Centre for Sustainable HRM and Wellbeing – a world-class facility in the heart of Sydney

ACADEMICS ARE likely to be all too familiar with this criticism aimed at them by the general public: How does what you do translate to the everyday world? How does the theory relate to practice? It’s something Professor Thomas Lange, associate dean research and director (elect) of the Centre for Sustainable HRM and Wellbeing at Australian Catholic University, is keen to address – in fact, it is one of the Centre’s overarching objectives.

“Amongst the members of the Centre there is a strong desire to narrow the gap between research, theory and practice. The HR space is such an applied space; the ultimate end user of our research is not really other academics

– it’s practitioners and policymakers out there in the real world. Evidence-based research lends substantial credibility.”

The Centre itself started “as a conceptual idea” in 2014 when Lange joined ACU. It was an attempt to provide unity of purpose for like-minded scholars interested in human resource management and organisational behaviour.

“The thinking at the time was quite simplistic – give it a home, bring people together, because with collaboration the grand total is bigger than the sum of its parts,” says Lange.

Over the course of two years, organic growth has ensured the Centre is now a force

‘YOU DO NOT WANT TO DROP THESE INITIATIVES’ The Centre for Sustainable HRM and Wellbeing is providing empirical evidence linking wellbeing to productivity and a range of other measures of performance. However, its founding director, Professor Thomas Lange, is wary of corporates treating corporate health and wellbeing in a similar way to CSR. That is, when times get tough, these initiatives are dropped.

“CSR provides a good clue,” he says. “It has always been highly commendable and remains so today – but of course in many cases it’s just words. Words are nice to see and read but unless they are followed by actions, not a lot happens. Sadly this seems to be the experience – window dressing.

“In the wellbeing space our research looks much more at actions and what the outcomes of those actions are. I think that’s why it’s become a more powerful argument for practitioners and policymakers than CSR has perhaps been able to pull off. These things do matter to the bottom line; they do impact on productivity. Absenteeism and intentions to quit are heavily influenced by how employers behave towards employees. And if you want to escape a recessionary period you do not want to drop these initiatives.”

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to be reckoned with. “I have to pinch myself, but we have arguably some of the best HRM and organisational behaviour scholars in the world as part of the Centre,” says Lange.

Backing this claim is the fact that ACU’s research in business and management has been acknowledged as being among the best in the nation by the Australian Research Council (ARC). The ARC is responsible for administering Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA), Australia’s national research evaluation framework. ERA identifies and promotes excellence across the full spectrum of research activity in Australia’s higher education institutions. “The ACU truly is world class,” says Lange.

Sustainable HRM So, what exactly is sustainable HRM? Lange says the textbook definition involves the relationship between HRM practice and outcomes that look beyond predominantly economic outcomes. “This definition foreshadows a change in outlook; it provides an alternative to what we’ve all grown accustomed to when we think about strategic HRM: the bottom-line results. We know businesses will not listen unless bottomline results are met. So we usually end up talking about finance. Sustainable HRM takes a slightly different tack and reflects the changing environment in which companies now operate,” Lange says.

This “changing environment” was sparked in part by the GFC and the notion that ‘business as usual’ has become an outmoded concept.

“As a consequence, businesses face a legitimacy crisis. Why? Because maximising profits or shareholder value has increasingly been deemed insufficient for the times in which we live. Sustainable HRM and within it the notion of wellbeing for stakeholders has arguably become an alternative business purpose, one which legitimises

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Centre for Sustainable HRM & Wellbeing

business activity within society and with other stakeholders, including traditional investors.”

A holistic view of wellbeing Wellbeing, whether it’s at an organisational or individual level, is an important outcome of sustainable HRM – not least since it may answer questions of how organisations can attract, develop and retain talent over time.

“Wellbeing has occupied a central role in recent years, not only in the popular press but also in the statistical and policy agenda of many countries around the world,” says Lange, who adds that historically most of the effort to provide measures of wellbeing, not only health-related constructs but also as a broader societal phenomenon, were confined to academic and policy circles.

“The corporate sector has been less involved in this discussion, but there’s now growing evidence that this is about to change or indeed has already changed,” says Lange.

“This is perhaps not surprising. If you look a little bit deeper, organisations have a key role in shaping people’s wellbeing: they produce most of the goods and services that most consumers enjoy, and they provide a social environment for many employees. The quality of the working environment has an influential impact on people’s perceptions and quality of life. Debate around job-life and life-job spillover is becoming commonplace.”

Importantly, this debate has moved beyond mere anecdotal evidence; there is now significant empirical evidence showing these links. Critically, this focus on wellbeing is no longer viewed as a nice-to-have – it’s now an attractive business proposition.

“Studies from the Centre have found quite significant correlation between things like job satisfaction or happiness in the workplace, and job performance,” says Lange. “And literature has linked employee job satisfaction with observed workplace behaviours which

“I have to pinch myself, but we have arguably some of the best HRM and organisational behaviour scholars in the world as part of the Centre” Professor Thomas Lange ultimately matter to the bottom line: absenteeism, organisational commitment, productivity and intentions to quit.”

So-called ‘precedents to wellbeing’, the factors that influence wellbeing, are also worth taking note of. They include elements like trust and perceptions of fairness – two elusive elements all business leaders want to tap into.

Spreading the word With the Centre’s ultimate goal in mind – to be a translator between academia and

policymakers and practitioners – Lange says the implications for policy and practice will always be at the heart of research undertaken by the Centre. Research will be published in journals and magazines, and the Centre will also be holding regular events.

The Centre for Sustainable HRM and Wellbeing will be holding an International Research Symposium in Sydney on the topic of social identity in the workplace and employee engagement on 3–4 November. For further information, visit acu.edu.au/ research-symposium.

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FEATURES

CAREER TRANSITION

EXITING WITH GRACE AND DIGNITY

Redundancies may be an unfortunate fact of life, but there are sensitive and even beneficial ways in which employers can assist exiting employees.

HRD investigates career transition best practice in 2016

“CAREER TRANSITION is not just about the next job. Although that’s very important, it’s a whole lot more than that.”

This comment from Alison Monroe, CEO of Sageco and a 20-year veteran of the

they have become the rule rather than the exception when supporting exiting employees.

“Organisations need to bolster internal competencies within their teams: executives

“It’s not just about retirement being the trigger for transition services; it could be workforce change, redundancy or redeployment” Alison Monroe outplacement services industry, sums up the new approach employers are taking with their exiting employees.

Instead of a few résumé writing tips and interview suggestions, as might have been sufficient in the past, employers in 2016 are taking a more holistic view of career transition. Today, transition services are about being proactive rather than reactive;

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need to lead the change; people leaders need to manage the change; and HR needs to guide and advise and provide the support mechanisms,” Monroe says.

“Finally, the people themselves need to acknowledge that change is constant, but it doesn’t have to be something that is done to them. They can actually embrace and respond to it in a positive way.”

Supporting all employees Sageco itself has undergone significant change in the past five years. Where the firm once specialised in assisting mature-age workers with career transition, and this remains core to its business, its services have widened.

Today, 50% of Sageco’s work encompasses broader business transition services.

Client feedback to Sageco suggested that the same services were required for all employees, regardless of age or level.

It’s not only retirement that is the trigger; there are other times when these services are needed.

“It’s not just about retirement being the trigger for transition services; it could be workforce change, redundancy or redeployment. It could even be promotions where people are promoted because they flourish in their role and are then elevated to a leadership position and they may struggle with that,” Monroe says.

Complex, large-scale changes within organisations, and new technology such as real-time reporting back to clients, have also altered the landscape.

Most significantly, the gap between ‘work’ and ‘life’ has narrowed. Employers are not just concerned about skill and capability gaps or professional development.

They’re thinking of ways in which they can support people around their financial, physical and mental health – areas that might traditionally have been branded as ‘life planning’.

As Monroe states, if an employer supported its people while they were employed with them, the same ‘duty of care’ should extend to them when they are leaving the company.

To meet these challenges, Sageco launched a holistic framework called Envisage (see box). This covers six key areas that are impacted on by change – only one of which is an employee’s career.

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THE ENVISAGE FRAMEWORK Alison Monroe outlines her firm’s groundbreaking transition program: Identity: “This is at the core when people are going through a transition. If they were overly attached to a role or organisation they may need to repurpose and figure out who they are outside of the job. What sort of status and self-esteem does it bring that you need to be aware of when looking for the next role? For mature workers in particular there can be such a sense of identity and status linked to a role. However, it can impact on everyone, regardless of career stage or age.”

Money: “This is not about us providing advice around financial planning, but we’re often a catalyst for people to see a financial planner. This is about people being clear about the future they want and how much money they need to support that future. We’re trying to get people to identify any gaps in their financial literacy so they can address that.”

Career: “This encompasses all of the essentials of self-assessment and career options going forward, and how people can enhance their job search success.

What we’re finding is it’s not a one-dimensional job search anymore: someone may no longer say, ‘Well, I’ve always been an accountant so I’ll look for another accounting role’. The opportunities now are far broader by industry or work type – you might become a contractor or start your own business or join a start-up. We’re finding transitions are not as linear as they once were.”

Health: “We know that one in five people in our population have some sort of mental health disorder or chronic health issue at some point in their life.

The reality is there are several things that trigger these issues and redundancy is one of them. If we ignore the health and wellness aspect, there are issues under the surface that will be an inhibitor for people looking for a new job. We need to work with people and encourage them to optimise their health and wellbeing throughout the job search process.”

Relationships: “This is about identifying who the most important people in your life are – at home and at work – and what sort of conversations you need to have that you are not currently having.”

Future goals: “This is about consolidating all of this work on future goals and being really clear on articulating what success looks like and in what timeframe.”

Diversity in focus Sageco has retained its expertise in assisting mature-age workers, and D&I remains at the forefront of all the firm’s services.

“We’re looking to weave diversity thinking into all aspects of the transition process,” says Monroe, who is a Workplace Gender

Equality Agency ambassador.

Last year Sageco ran pay equity wisdom circles around the country for clients. These are designed to educate, raise awareness and start the debate around the causes and effects of pay inequity, and show ways in which it can be addressed.

“There were very tangible outcomes from those workshops,” Monroe recalls. “One particular HR director said her action off the back of the wisdom circle was to go back that day and talk to her CEO about giving one of their female leaders a $50,000 pay rise to put her on par with male counterparts. And it happened. She got the result. She was able to go back with the data, the evidence and business case and tackle pay inequity.”

This year Sageco has gone one step further by introducing gender pay gap workshops for both men and women. “Obviously men can be the champions of change. Every male who goes through our program can be educated on this issue and keep it top of mind as a manager in the future; or in their personal life – they have female partners, sisters, daughters. If they’re not aware of the issue they can’t advocate for it. For the females in the room the onus is on giving them the capability and the confidence to negotiate a better pay outcome in their next role.”

Outcomes Offering career transition services is in part about risk management: risk to reputation; risk to brand; risk of being sued; even the much more tragic risk of an exiting employee taking their own life. Monroe adds that a good transition program helps breed a conversation culture in organisations; it helps leaders have difficult conversations with staff.

“The way we treat our exiting employees sends a very clear message to those remaining so it can have a very real impact on engagement, retention and of course transition outcomes,” she concludes.

Sageco guides and inspires you through organisational change, transforming the career experience of people at all ages and stages to create a positive future. Our specialist transition solutions help those facing a new future due to redeployment, redundancy and outplacement, retirement, role change or leadership change. For further information, email alison.monroe@sageco.com.au, or phone 1300 72 4343, or visit sageco.com.au.

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FEATURES

BENEFITS

NOVATED LEASES:

A back to basics guide Although novated leases have existed in some form since the early 1990s, new generations of workers may be unfamiliar with how they work.

Here’s a back to basics guide A NOVATED lease has benefits for both employers and employees, but as always, knowledge is key. Here are some fundamentals that HR professionals may want to absorb and pass on to employees within their organisations.

What’s it all about?

A novated lease is an agreement between an employer, an employee and a finance/lease

novated at ORIX, says novated leases have been part of the typical employee benefits on offer since the first novated leases were written in the early 1990s as finance-only instruments.

“By the late nineties, the product expanded to include maintenance and fleet management,” he says.

“Novated leasing is now included in the product suite of most, if not all, financiers and fleet management organisations.”

“Novated leasing is a valid choice for most employees, irrespective of lifestyle or budgetary constraint” Pasquale Petrucci company (lessor) whereby an employee leases a vehicle from the lessor and the employer agrees to take on the employee’s obligations under the lease for the duration of the novation agreement.

The employer makes the lease payments on behalf of the employee, and deducts the amounts from the employee’s pre-tax income.

If the employee ceases to be employed by that employer, or the lease agreement ends, the employee retains the vehicle, and all obligations assumed by the employer under the novation agreement revert to the employee.

Pasquale Petrucci, national manager

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ORIX has offered novated leasing since 1995 and is considered one of the most experienced in the market. Employee benefits of novated leasing include: • flexibility of vehicle choice • potential income tax savings • GST savings on vehicle purchase price and running costs • access to fleet discounts • fuel savings • convenience • easy budget management • flexible lease terms • transferable between employers

Employer benefits include: • attraction and retention of quality employees • minimal administration • no fees (via ORIX) • no ongoing responsibility should an employee leave their employ • policy inclusions can be tailored to suit the business

A snapshot of FBT It’s impossible to talk about novated leasing without mentioning fringe benefits tax (FBT).

While the treatment of FBT has changed over the years, novated leasing is still a costeffective and convenient way for employees to finance and maintain a vehicle.

Most importantly, a novated lease is subject to FBT, a federal government tax imposed on employers on the value of certain fringe benefits that have been provided to employees.

There are several methods available for calculating FBT: • The Statutory Formula Method is a common method of calculating FBT. The Statutory Formula Method uses the base value of a vehicle for its calculation and makes no distinction between private and business use.

• The Employee Contribution Method (ECM) allows a driver to potentially eliminate the FBT liability by making a defined post-tax contribution towards the operating costs of the vehicle. ECM is a useful way of maximising the overall tax effectiveness of a novated lease. ECM benefits employees whose salaries are under $180,000 when compared with utilising the Statutory Formula Method.

• The Operating Cost Method (or Logbook Method) may provide a significant cost saving for employees who use their vehicle for a high percentage of business use. The key to the Operating Cost Method is the management of a logbook.

Service providers in the novated leasing space have adapted their product offerings to

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make novated leasing a viable option for both employers and employees. For example, ORIX offers a number of logbook management solutions that cater to all price points – ranging from the simple and traditional paper-based logbook through to sophisticated GPS options.

ORIX can also provide comprehensive FBT management and reporting, incorporating both the Statutory Formula Method (including ECM) and Operating Cost Method, and includes analysis of the comparative benefits of each method.

CASE STUDY 1: Vehicle price $32,700 Annual travel 20,000km Lease length

4 years

Gross salary

$75,000/yr

Description

Without a novated lease

With a novated lease

Less salary sacrifice

n.a.

$7,383.27

Revised gross salary

$75,000.00

$67,616.73

Less tax on revised salary

$17,421.35

$14,874.12

Less post-tax deductions

$15,609.22

$7,198.00

Take-home pay after tax and vehicle costs

$41,969.43

$45,544.61

$1,300.77 per month without a novated lease

$1,160.58 per month with a novated lease

Where does the employer fit in?

The employer is responsible for ensuring that lease payments are made on behalf of the employee, and for deducting the amounts from the employee’s pre-tax income.

Some service providers have provided technology to help. For example, ORIX’s Tied to Payroll service will integrate with the employer’s payroll system, eliminating reconciliations and completely simplifying the salary deduction and remittance process.

Employees deal directly with ORIX’s dedicated novated leasing team, who have all the knowledge and expertise to answer any enquiries related to novated leasing.

ORIX also provides professional novated education services for all stakeholders and staff at no cost.

Typical employee savings For HR professionals looking to position novated leasing as a true employee benefit, interest must lie in the significant income tax savings to be had by employees. There are three variables that impact on the savings that can be achieved from a novated lease: 1. Income 2. Cost of motor vehicle 3. Annual kilometres travelled The two case studies at top right demonstrate potential savings.

HR professionals and employees alike might also be interested to know that novated leasing is no longer an exclusive

Save up to $3,575.18 per annum = $297.93 per month CASE STUDY 2: Vehicle price $56,364 Annual travel 40,000km Lease length

4 years

Gross salary

$195,000/yr

Description

Without a novated lease

With a novated lease

Less salary sacrifice

n.a.

$15,470.30

Revised gross salary

$195,000.00

$179,529.70

Less tax on revised salary

$65,196.10

$57,962.84

Less post-tax deductions

$30,956.42

$12,200.00

Take-home pay after tax and vehicle costs

$98,847.48

$109,366.86

$2,579.70 per month without a novated lease

$2,213.43 per month with a novated lease

Save up to $10,519.38 per annum = $876.61 per month perk reserved for executives; rather it has become a popular and accepted salary packaging benefit no matter the salary, industry or role.

“By providing a range of lease terms, the opportunity to acquire a new or used vehicle and the ability to adjust budgeted items, ORIX ensures that novated leasing is a valid choice for most employees, irrespective of lifestyle or budgetary constraint,” confirms Petrucci.

Indeed, in recent years employers across all industries have been rationalising their traditional ‘tool of trade’ fleet and offering novated leasing, providing employees with more flexibility and choice. Perhaps it’s time to do the same in your company?

To understand more about how much could be saved under a novated lease arrangement, contact ORIX at novated@orix.com.au or 1300 363 993. For further information, visit orix.com.au.

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EMPLOYMENT LAW SPECIAL REPORT

Employment law is constantly changing. To keep you up to date with some of the latest developments, HRD presents its second special report on employment law for 2016. From representation before the FWC to what the term ‘reasonable working hours’ means, over the following pages four vexing issues are covered in detail 40 FWC REPRESENTATION

44 REASONABLE WORKING HOURS

42 UNFAIR DISMISSAL

46 DRUG & ALCOHOL TESTING

The Fair Work Commission’s trend to refuse permission for lawyers and paid agents to represent parties at proceedings continues, meaning HR practitioners may have to run a matter themselves

How can employers sever ties with employees without the risk of raising unfair dismissal claims?

The term ‘reasonable additional hours’ is commonly used in employment contracts, but what exactly does it mean and how can employers remain compliant with relevant legislation?

Drug and alcohol testing in the workplace has always been a tricky area for HR to navigate. What is best practice in 2016?

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LEGAL SPECIAL REPORT

FWC REPRESENTATION

A FAIR HEARING FOR ALL – INCLUDING YOURSELF Richard Williams outlines why it’s critical to give early consideration to the question of representation before the Fair Work Commission THE TREND of the Fair Work Commission (FWD) refusing permission for lawyers and paid agents to represent parties at proceedings continues, which means it is increasingly likely that HR practitioners may have to run a matter themselves. Accordingly, employers faced with claims such as unfair dismissal are well advised to consider the question of representation well in advance of any hearing and follow some fundamental tips if the decision is made to self-represent.

The legislation Section 596 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (FW Act) provides that a person may be represented in a matter before the FWC by a lawyer or paid agent “only with the permission of the FWC”. The FWC may grant permission for a person to be represented by a lawyer or paid agent if it is satisfied that the matter could be dealt with more efficiently or it would be unfair not to allow the person to be represented. On the other hand, permission to be represented is not required if the lawyer or paid agent is

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an employee of the person or is an employee of a union or employer association. This means in-house lawyers and representatives from employer associations and unions are automatically

to be represented by a lawyer in the proceedings. The applicants and respondent jointly argued that permission

The FWC may grant permission for a person to be represented by a lawyer or paid agent if it is satisfied the matter could be dealt with more efficiently or it would be unfair not to allow the person to be represented entitled to appear in a matter before the FWC, regardless of whether they are legally qualified or not.

FWC’s recent approach to representation In a recent unfair dismissal case the FWC denied all parties to the matter permission

should be granted because the matter was subject to a jurisdictional question and was therefore complex in nature and would require cross-examination of witnesses and the application of relevant case law. The FWC relied on a Federal Court decision which reinforced the legislative intent that the granting of permission is “far from a mere

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‘formal’ act to be acceded to upon the mere making of a request” and “permission may be granted ‘only if ’ one or other of the requirements in Section 596 of the FW Act is satisfied’.

The FWC took into account the resources available to the respondent employer and noted that there was at least one in-house HR or IR specialist. The FWC also noted that each applicant employee was a ‘professional’, even though not qualified in HR, IR or law. Additionally, all parties had access to legal representation, which they used to prepare their submissions and witness statements.

Tellingly, the FWC added that there was a “very real prospect that the presence of legal representatives of the parties will lead to less efficient conduct of the proceedings”. The FWC determined the issues were relatively straightforward and did not involve novel issues of law. Despite the fact that the three parties all sought permission to be represented by a lawyer, the FWC concluded that the requirements of the Act had not been met. Ultimately, the FWC was not satisfied that any of the three parties were unable to represent themselves effectively at the hearing.

A second recent example, also involving an unfair dismissal application, found the respondent employer in a situation where it had to represent itself after permission to be represented by a lawyer was refused. Again, the employer argued that permission should have been granted because the matter was subject to a jurisdictional question and was therefore complex in nature. The employer also argued that permission should be granted because it was a small business with minimal knowledge and dealings with any matters outside its industry. The employer relied on the fact that it was the first time it had been faced with an employment law claim.

The FWC focused on the wording “unable” and “effectively” in Section 596 of the FW Act and concluded that the plain meaning was “whether the party seeking

TIPS FOR CROSS-EXAMINATION

Do

Don’t

Only ask questions that will help your case.

Ask a question you don’t know the answer to.

Know the witness evidence in minute detail.

Ask long, complex or imprecise questions.

Know your own strengths and limitations.

Try to be someone you are not.

Use leading questions and leave the witness scope to only answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

Prepare your questions in advance and know when to stop.

Familiarise yourself with the Fair Work Commission’s processes and formalities beforehand. permission to be represented is lacking ability or power to represent itself so as to produce the intended or expected result”.

The FWC’s view was that the plain words did not require representation that created a “striking impression”, or had an “impressive” effect or was “powerful in effect”. The Commission noted the respondent had access to a “paid agent” that they used to prepare their submissions and witness statements in this matter, and therefore the effective case had already been made clear to the Commission through the material filed. Again, the FWC was not satisfied that the respondent employer was unable to represent itself effectively at the hearing.

Lessons for employers The lesson for employers is that even in circumstances where all the parties to a proceedings are jointly seeking permission to be represented by a lawyer, or the employer is seeking permission on the grounds of being a small business, it cannot be presumed permission will be granted. In those circumstances HR practitioners may be required to run the case without notice.

HR practitioners should address the question of representation when first faced with an application that could progress to a hearing. If a practitioner is not confident they could step into the breach if unexpectedly

Rely on evidence that is contradictory to the testimony of the witness being cross-examined without putting that evidence to them for response.

Bicker with or attack the witness.

Cut off a witness’s answer. required to, consideration should be given to engaging a representative with an automatic right to appear in the FWC in order to be sure from the outset the best possible case can be presented.

Advocacy and representation skills in the FWC: Upgrade your skills The Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry is holding two one-day programs to boost the understanding of FWC processes among lawyers, business managers, in-house representatives and HR professionals. During this practical program, the Chamber’s consultants will share their secrets and experience to help you put your best foot forward in defending against claims. The cost is $450 for members and $540 for nonmembers. The sessions will run on 2 August 2016 and 1 December 2016.

For further information, email info@ victorianchamber.com.au, phone (03) 8662 5333, or visit victorianchamber.com.au Richard Williams is the acting general manager – workplace relations at the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The Victorian Chamber is Victoria’s most influential employer group, servicing over 15,000 Victorian businesses per annum. An independent, nongovernment body, the Victorian Chamber was founded in 1851 by the business community to represent business.

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7/07/2016 2:11:46 PM

LEGAL SPECIAL REPORT

UNFAIR DISMISSAL

DOING THE RIGHT THING – UNFAIR DISMISSAL While this remains a tricky area for employers to navigate successfully, Nick Tindley provides his tips on how to successfully sever ties with employees – without raising unfair dismissal claims AS EMPLOYERS, there is nothing more frustrating than having to exert time and resources in defending unfair dismissal claims that really shouldn’t have been made in the first place. Whether it be a vexatious claim without reasonable prospects of success, or a claim that is abandoned once the formal process starts, employers are having to defend (or begin to defend) claims unnecessarily.

There have been, on average, 3,600 unfair dismissal applications made in each of the last three quarters since July 2015. Of these applications, more than half are usually settled at the initial conciliation – without proceeding to a formal hearing. So what does this say about the nature of applications? They are being made by aggrieved employees not wanting to proceed to formal hearings but instead wanting to be compensated for the hurt they have suffered due to their termination. These employees truly believe that their dismissals have been harsh, unjust or unreasonable.

How does an employer go about terminating an employee, while preventing a claim of unfair dismissal?

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It’s important to remember that at end of the day, you cannot stop someone from bringing an unfair dismissal claim. Employers can, however, minimise the risk of a claim by preventing employees from feeling “genuinely aggrieved” after their dismissal. The staff member who has their hours cut due to poor performance, but without being given an explanation as to why, will feel aggrieved, and this may cause them to conclude they have been forced to resign. This staff member is likely to make an unfair dismissal application, even if that application has limited prospects of success.

The key is to manage people away from unfair dismissal. So how do you do it?

I have found that employers tend to focus on minimising the risk of a successful unfair dismissal claim rather than minimising the risk of a claim being made at all. There are ways of discouraging claims, and the key to this is employees not feeling genuinely hard done by. We want to get our employees to the point where they understand they are the

problem – it is because of their actions that they are in this situation.

There are numerous examples of situations in which the way you communicate with staff, the clarity with which you set performance and conduct expectations, and the way you manage and enforce those expectations can change the way the staff member thinks about their situation. Your aim is to bring staff to the point where they accept that the problem lies with them and they are the ones who need to fix it.

The way to do this is to ensure your employees understand what your expectations are, and what will happen if they fail to meet the required standard. If your employees understand what is expected of them, they won’t be shocked or taken aback when they are disciplined for not performing to an adequate standard. The task is making your employees accountable for their own actions, while following proper processes.

Whether behavioural or performancerelated problems exist, you will not be able to get an employee to take ownership of their failings unless they know what your

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We find that employers tend to focus on minimising the risk of a successful unfair dismissal claim rather than minimising the risk of a claim being made at all transparent expectations of them are.

In relation to behavioural standards, you need to ensure your employees have been provided with adequate training on what is and isn’t acceptable behaviour within the workplace. Your employees need to have an understanding of what the consequences are if or when they breach those standards. These standards could include a code of conduct, or a bullying policy, staff purchase/discount policy, reimbursement policy, etc. As an employer, if there is any lack of understanding of the policy/standard, you need to fix it.

If you have stringently set standards, your employees can’t argue that they didn’t know it was the wrong thing to do; neither will they be surprised when they are disciplined for breaches or poor performance.

In relation to performance standards, the business needs to set clear and reasonable expectations and enforce them consistently.

There is no use disciplining employees for poor performance, or failure to meet set targets or KPIs, if those expectations haven’t been communicated clearly to employees from the outset.

All about feedback If an issue arises warranting investigation or potential disciplinary proceedings, you need to get all the facts, and document everything in writing. If something has gone wrong, you need to provide feedback when it is fresh in the minds of the employee and manager.

When delivering feedback, the real key is the mode of delivery. Feedback is designed

to achieve an outcome, not deliver a whack.

It needs to be clear, measured and directed towards the goal of improved performance. If voices are raised, the message is unclear and you can count on the employee missing the point, and quite rightly feeling that they have been subjected to unfair treatment.

It is easy for an employee who has been criticised to feel they have been treated unfairly if that criticism has not come with direction, support and/or training to help them get to where they need to be.

It is also important to seek the employee’s input. It will be very difficult for an employee to feel aggrieved about a performance/conduct improvement plan that they have contributed to the development of. Employees should always be asked how they think the problem can be fixed, and if their solution is reasonable then it should be implemented. It means that if you have to revisit the same issue later you can circle back to their solution and identify where things went wrong.

Being clear on consequences When we get to the pointy end of managing performance or conduct, we need to be clear with employees about what the consequences are of any further failings. This does not mean it has to be a frightening conversation for them.

It can still be conducted in a supportive context, with identification of what the business will do to drive their success. However, it needs to leave them in no doubt of the consequences they may face if they don’t step up to meet the required standards. Remember, tightening up your performance management or disciplinary processes and having the confidence to confront aberrant behaviours will serve your business well in minimising your exposure to unfair dismissal claims.

Nick Tindley is executive manager HR consulting & advisory, FCB Group & HR Assured.

Nick is giving an update on unfair dismissal case law at the HR Summit Melbourne on 27 July. You can contact him on nrt@fcbgroup.com.au or 03 9098 9400 if you have any questions about any issues contained in this article.

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7/07/2016 2:12:40 PM

LEGAL SPECIAL REPORT

REASONABLE WORKING HOURS

CLOCK-WATCHING: WHAT IS ‘REASONABLE’ ANYWAY? Athena Koelmeyer outlines how the legislation determines whether an employee’s working hours are ‘reasonable’

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THE TERM ‘reasonable additional hours’ is commonly used in employment contracts to describe the hours that an employee might be required to work beyond their ordinary hours in order to fulfil the requirements of their role.

Unfortunately, there is no magic formula to determine whether a certain number of additional hours is reasonable. How then to decide where the ‘reasonable’ line begins and ends? The place to start is the National Employment Standards (NES) in the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (Act).

Under the NES, the maximum number of ordinary hours a full-time employee should work is 38 hours per week, plus “reasonable additional hours” (see Section 62). An employee can refuse to work additional hours if those hours are “unreasonable”.

Helpfully, the NES contains a nonexhaustive list of 10 factors that are relevant to assessing whether additional hours are unreasonable. The most commonly discussed of these factors are set out below:

1

Risk to employee health and safety

In most workplaces, this factor usually concerns fatigue. Fatigue increases the likelihood of workplace accidents and near misses and poses a risk to employee health and safety, especially in physically demanding jobs or jobs that involve driving or the operation of heavy machinery.

The effects of fatigue on mental health are also a relevant consideration. We all accept that employees need downtime away from work to rest. Most modern awards deal with minimum breaks between periods of work, and as a general rule a minimum of 10 hours off work is required between working days (or shifts). This can be used as one of the items for consideration when an employer is trying to determine whether a number of additional hours per week is reasonable (or not).

2

An employee’s personal circumstances, in particular their family or carer responsibilities In most cases, an employer will need to be

appraised of all the matters relevant to the organisation’s operational requirements and the particular employee’s circumstances when discussing additional working hours.

For example, a requirement to work an additional 12 hours per week might be perfectly fine and reasonable for a single employee with no family responsibilities – but

to be expected and, in the circumstances, reasonable.

4

The needs of the enterprise

In some cases the needs of the enterprise may justify a requirement for additional hours to be worked. For example, a peak pre-Christmas sale season in retail

Unfortunately, there is no magic formula to determine whether a certain number of additional hours is reasonable might not be reasonable if the employee is caring for an ageing parent or young children.

However, it is important to note that the mere existence of family responsibilities will not render additional hours unreasonable. In MacPherson v Coal & Allied Mining Services Pty Limited [2009] FMCA 881, the court found that even though additional hours would impact on the worker’s family life, the hours were not unreasonable and the employer was entitled to request the employee to work those hours.

3

Level of employee’s remuneration reflects an expectation of working additional hours This factor is also linked to an employee’s seniority. An employee’s remuneration level, seniority and level of responsibility will be highly relevant when considering whether additional hours are reasonable. For example, senior managers are generally modernaward-free or are paid well above modern award rates, are (obviously) senior within the organisation and occupy positions of responsibility.

These matters and the level of generosity of the remuneration will usually be considered sufficient to demonstrate that the additional hours necessary to complete the duties of the role to the required standard are both

may require employees to put in additional hours to ensure the necessary work is completed. Some positions may also have direct links to the needs of the enterprise – for example, senior managers may be required to work hours that cover the hours when the employees they supervise are at work.

Closing comments Employers are able to require employees to work additional hours, provided those hours are “reasonable”. The factors set out in the NES can be used to determine whether those additional hours are, in fact, reasonable.

Of course, modern awards and enterprise agreements may contain further provisions about when and how additional hours can be required – and what rates of pay apply to those hours (eg overtime).

Ultimately, employers need to familiarise themselves with the NES and their relevant modern award, and approach the question of reasonable additional hours with a step-bystep pragmatic assessment.

Athena Koelmeyer is Workplace Law’s managing director and one of Australia’s leading lawyers in the area of workplace relations. Workplace Law (workplacelaw.com. au) provides strategic advice, representation and training to employers on all aspects of workplace relations.

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7/07/2016 2:28:18 PM

LEGAL SPECIAL REPORT

DRUG AND ALCOHOL TESTING

DRUG AND ALCOHOL TESTING: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Drug and alcohol testing in the workplace has always been a tricky area for HR to navigate.

Anthony Wood provides his best practice tips DRUG AND alcohol testing is being introduced more widely in Australian workplaces as employers have become cognisant of the workplace risks posed by drug and alcohol abuse.

In light of union intransigence and some historical indifference from regulators, it’s not surprising that many employers in relatively high-risk industries are yet to implement testing regimes. It’s obviously never too late to do this. But what are the key things you need to know?

If you’re in a high-risk industry, doing nothing is not an option Despite the plethora of safety laws and regulations, there are no known prosecutions of an employer for failing to implement drug testing outside of the areas already mandated for testing such as transport and mining. Now that acceptance of testing has expanded into sectors such as construction, employers should expect that regulators will take a keener interest in other high-risk industries. Anywhere employees work at heights or with potentially dangerous equipment, employers must expect to be asked about the steps they have taken to ensure the safety of all workers under their control. It’s perhaps inevitable that an employer

46

will be prosecuted for failing to take an obvious safety step such as random or mandatory drug and alcohol testing.

Yes, you have to consult All awards and enterprise agreements impose at least fairly basic consultation obligations which would cover the introduction of drug and alcohol testing. Most employers have formal or informal health and safety committees or consultative forums. In unionised workplaces, you shouldn’t expect either the consultation or implementation processes to be simple.

Employees will typically identify complex and genuine concerns about education, rehabilitation and disciplinary responses which need to be addressed. Ignoring these won’t make it any easier in the long run.

But don’t turn this into an industrial issue Consulting with unions and employees is one thing, but don’t confuse this with being obliged to reach an industrial resolution or having to include your testing policy (or your other workplace safety approaches) within an enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA). Some employers won’t be able to prevent this from happening, especially if they already have a broad

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dispute resolution clause in an existing EBA. Including testing regimes within an EBA effectively dilutes the flexibility that employers crave, while also opening up the scope for the Fair Work Commission (FWC) to intervene in disputes that might arise from time to time.

Understand the purpose of testing There is probably little point in implementing a testing regime if the most dangerous activity facing employees is a paper

subjected to scrutiny in the FWC unfair dismissal jurisdiction, as well as in enterprise agreement disputes. Make sure your policy is simple and employees are made aware of the consequences if they breach it. If the policy is applied in a haphazard or inconsistent manner, you should expect legal challenges. Pleasingly, the trend of unfair dismissal decisions has favoured employers who have implemented and explained their policies and practices to employees. A zero tolerance approach is fine if it suits the circumstances of the employment

Make sure your policy is simple and employees are made aware of the consequences if they breach it. If the policy is applied in a haphazard or inconsistent manner, you should expect legal challenges cut in the stationery bay. A drug and alcohol testing regime needs to be reasonable, taking into account the safety parameters of the workplace. Random testing of employees is really only worthwhile when there is a risk that needs to be addressed. While the FWC has recognised an employer’s right to have a drug and alcohol testing regime to manage safety risks, this right is finely balanced against the employees’ right to privacy in their personal lives, and a requirement that a policy is ‘reasonable’.

Testing for recreational cannabis use, for example, can’t generally provide information about an employee’s impairment – so unless the worksite requires the removal of all risk and zero tolerance, query the reasons for testing in the first place. There are a multitude of specialist testing suppliers in the market – make sure you take professional advice and understand what they can offer and recommend.

Your policy needs to be clear and consistent

and is applied fairly and consistently across the board.

The Full Bench of the FWC, which upheld a zero tolerance approach in the Sydney Harbour Ferries case, famously declared: “The fact is that Harbour City required its policy [to be] complied with without discussion or variation. As an employer charged with public safety it does not want to have a discussion following an accident as to whether or not the level of drug use of one of its captains was a factor. It does not want to listen to the uninformed in the broadcasting or other communications industry talk about drug tests establishing impairment. It does not need to have a discussion with any relevant insurer, litigant or passenger’s legal representative about those issues. What it wants is obedience to the policy”.

Anthony Wood is a partner at Herbert Smith Freehills. For further information, visit herbertsmithfreehills.com.

Drug and alcohol policies are typically

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7/07/2016 2:13:49 PM

AUSTRALIAN HR AWARDS FINALISTS 2O16

Friday 9 September | The Star Sydney A record number of nominations came in from across the HR profession for this year’s Australian HR Awards. Here are the best of the best HRD IS proud to present the individuals and organisations at the forefront of HR best practice who have made this year’s list of finalists.

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7/07/2016 1:51:43 PM

AUSTRALIAN HR AWARDS FINALISTS 2O16

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7/07/2016 1:51:35 PM

AUSTRALIAN HR AWARDS FINALISTS 2O16

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AUSTRALIAN HR AWARDS FINALISTS 2O16

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Sageco guides and inspires you through organisational change; transforming the career experience of people at all ages and stages to create a positive future. Our specialist transition solutions help those facing a new future due to redeployment, redundancy and outplacement, retirement, role change or leadership change.

CONTACT: Alison Monroe, CEO T: 1300 72 4343 E: Alison.Monroe@sageco.com.au W: www.sageco.com.au SIRVA Worldwide is a specialist human resources consultancy company with global reach and local expertise in over 150 countries. To assist with employment-related relocations, we provide innovative solutions for organisations and employees throughout the entire relocation process, ensuring employees are free to focus on their work.

CONTACT: Belinda Seers, Corporate Manager T: (02) 8868 2815 E: belinda.seers@sirva.com.au W: www.sirva.com.au Power Great Performance Solterbeck specialises in engaging and motivating employees and channel partners. Whether you’re looking to develop a new program or re-invigorate your current one, we’ll work with you to achieve best practice in sales and channel incentives, employee recognition and referral programs, internal communication, incentive travel, conferences and events. If you’d like to increase the engagement and discretionary performance of your team, we’d love to help.

CONTACT: Dave Jackson, executive director T: 0419 358 188 E: davidj@solterbeck.com W: www.solterbeck.com

BROUGHT TO YOU BY Key Media organises industry awards and professional development events in association with our leading magazine titles. These include the Australian HR Awards, Australian Mortgage Awards, Australasian Law Awards and the New Zealand Law Awards.

www.hcamag.com

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PEOPLE

OTHER LIFE

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number of countries visited

16

number of hours spent on a public bus from Chiang Mai, Thailand, to Luang Prabung, Laos – her “worst travel experience”

3

number of months spent living and working in Gozo, Malta – her “best travel experience”

Laura Kenny (fifth from left) with fellow aid workers in the Philippines

CITIZEN OF THE WORLD Aussies like to give of their time and expertise when it’s needed most – as Laura Kenny has demonstrated IN NOVEMBER 2013, Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines. More than 6,300 people died and it affected at least 11 million people, many of whom had their homes damaged or destroyed.

As always, Australians were quick to give of their money – and, more critically, their time.

Laura Kenny, at that time an HR adviser to the Australian Red Cross, volunteered and then became a paid aid

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worker to the region. This experience was a game changer for the young HR professional and sparked an interest in travel and experiencing different cultures.

“Volunteering and then being a paid aid worker with Australian Red Cross in the Philippines allowed me to combine my passion for travel while sharing my HR skills and knowledge,” she says.

Since her time in the Philippines, Kenny has travelled under her own steam

and lived in other countries, particularly in Southeast Asia.

“Travelling and living in other cultures instilled in me the importance of adapting to the customs and people of the country you are in,” she says. “Taking the time to learn the local language and customs and never being afraid to ask a question about the best way to handle a situation are invaluable tools I used as an HR professional and are tools I use today as an international aid worker.”

www.hcamag.com

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7/07/2016 2:19:02 PM

2nd International Research Symposium

SOCIAL IDENTITY IN THE WORKPLACE AND EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT 3-4 November 2016, Sydney Australia

This International Research Forum, hosted by the Centre for Sustainable HRM & Wellbeing at the Peter Faber Business School, Australian Catholic University, will bring together leading scholars and practitioners with interests in areas, such as: • Social Values in the Workplace • Determinants of Employee Engagement • Sustainable HRM Metrics (e.g. well-being, engagement, resource usage) • Work-Family Conflict and Organizational Support • Organisational Socialisation • Workplace Dignity • Participative Decision-Making

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• Institutional and/or Cultural Context of Workplace Performance • Managing Workplace Stress Response • Social Capital and Employee Wellbeing • Autonomy and the Role of ‘Voice’ • (Perceptions of) Abusive Supervision and Workplace Deviance

International Journal of Manpower An interdisciplinary journal on human resources, management & labour economics

Australian Catholic University, Peter Cosgrove Centre, Tenison Woods House, 8-20 Napier Steet, North Sydney

Register now www.acu.edu.au/ research-symposium

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