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ISSUE 6.02

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

CONTENTS

@HRD_Canada facebook.com/HRDCanada

SPECIAL REPORT EDUCATION GUIDE 2018

UPFRONT 02 Editorial

The importance of gaining perspective

32 FEATURES

20

ACCOMMODATING MENTAL HEALTH

What do employers need to know from a legal standpoint about making mental health accommodations?

HRDC gathered six of Canada’s leading HR leaders to talk about the challenges facing HR in an era of rapid change

A TECH PIONEER

How design thinking is transforming HR’s approach

08 Employment law update

Can a company sue for defamation if its reputation is maligned online?

10 Recruitment update

Recruiters are increasingly using social media to win over prospective employees

13 Opinion

36 INSIDE HR

A look at Hilton’s three-pronged approach to employee well-being

Why freelancers are key in the modern workforce

FEATURES 34 The unspoken benefit of a retiring workforce

Faced with retiring baby boomers? Co-op students can help fill the void

44 Artificial intelligence versus intelligence augmentation

McAfee’s Chatelle Lynch has broken down barriers for women in the technology field.

She shares her story with HRDC

14

06 News analysis

Is long-term planning dead in today’s fast-paced business environment?

FEATURES

PEOPLE

A global view of parental leave policies

12 Head to head

SPECIAL REPORT

2018 HR LEADERS ROUNDTABLE

04 Statistics

How the latter can help HR practitioners enhance their jobs

PEOPLE

40

FEATURES

TIME FOR USERFRIENDLY HR TECH Today’s HR tech tools are delivering the kinds of experiences employees have grown accustomed to in their daily lives

47 Career path

Seizing every opportunity led Jim Steffler down a path that culminated in HR

48 Other life

Sara Saliba harnesses the power of dance

HRMONLINE.CA CHECK IT OUT ONLINE www.hrmonline.ca

IFC-01_Contents-SUBBED.indd 1

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23/05/2018 12:04:13 AM

UPFRONT

EDITORIAL www.hrmonline.ca

It’s all about perspective

O

f all the wonderful case studies and insightful talks given by HR leaders at an HR event I attended in March, one anecdote in particular sticks in my mind. It’s not necessarily a new concept, but it’s certainly unique.

Picture yourself on a dance floor with a balcony perched above it. Your focus is on having fun with your friends, ensuring you don’t bump into anyone else, and soaking up the music and atmosphere. You work up a sweat as you swirl around the floor.

Now imagine that instead of dancing on the dance floor, you were watching other people dancing from the balcony. A new location means a different perspective: You’d spot patterns of behaviour you had previously missed; perhaps you’d notice some people not dancing at all, others

It’s critical to get the balance right between being in the thick of it on the dance floor and taking a strategic view from the balcony who stepped off the dance floor when the music tempo increased, or some who appear quite out of sync with everyone else, seemingly following the beat of their own drum.

Applied to the business world, of course, the message is that sometimes it’s beneficial to step back from the action and take a wider view. It’s critical to get the balance right between being in the thick of it on the dance floor and taking a strategic view from the balcony. One view should enhance the other. If we rely too heavily on one, it tends to cloud our judgment and decision-making ability.

The temptation for overstretched HR leaders is to remain on the dance floor – to get swamped with everyday tasks, which, while still critical, could perhaps be delayed or done by someone else. It’s crucial to pencil in some quiet time each day to remove yourself from the daily grind and review what you’re doing against where you would like to be going. Create an opportunity in between your daily tasks to take stock.

Right now, take a few moments to determine how your time is split between the ‘dance floor’ and the ‘balcony.’ If there’s too much time being spent in either location, it’s time for a rethink. And finally, don’t be afraid to ask others on the balcony how you are behaving on the dance floor.

Iain Hopkins, editor

SUMMER 2018 EDITORIAL

SALES & MARKETING

Editor Iain Hopkins

Senior Business Development Manager Sarah J. Fretz

Senior Writer Emily Douglas Writers Libby MacDonald Joe Rosengarten Hannah Go Copy Editor Clare Alexander

CONTRIBUTORS Alec Bashinsky Michael Horvat Rob Bromage

ART & PRODUCTION Designer Marla Morelos Production Manager Alicia Chin Advertising Coordinator Ella Dayandante

National Account Manager Andrew Cowan Vice President, Sales John MacKenzie Associate Publisher Trevor Biggs Marketing and Communications Manager Melissa Christopoulos Project Coordinator Jessica Duce

CORPORATE President & CEO Tim Duce Office/Traffic Manager Marni Parker Events and Conference Manager Chris Davis

EDITORIAL INQUIRIES

iain.hopkins@keymedia.com

ADVERTISING INQUIRIES sarah.fretz@kmimedia.ca

SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES

subscriptions@kmimedia.ca tel: 416 644 8740 • fax: 416 203 8940

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Human Resources Director Canada is part of an international family of B2B publications and websites for the human resources industry HRD CANADA hrmonline.ca HRD ASIA hrdmag.com.sg HRD AUSTRALIA hcamag.com HRD NEW ZEALAND hrmonline.co.nz

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

23/05/2018 12:14:05 AM

PMS 7549C

Managing Mental Health in Your Workplace Mental illness is the leading cause of disability in Canada. We work with employers to create a safe, healthy and supportive workplace.

Where do you start?

We can help.

Having the right policies in place that

Our Workplace Law Group provides advice

facilitate discussion on mental health is the

and training on creating and maintaining a

start to the accommodation process.

harassment-free workplace, and crafting an accommodation process that works for both employees and your organization.

For more information on our newsletters and complimentary HRPA-accredited webinars, or to register for our annual Workplace Law Summit, please email rsvp@airdberlis.com.

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23/05/2018 12:14:08 AM

UPFRONT

STATISTICS

Taking your leave Employee expectations around parental leave are changing, and company policies are evolving with them IN THE name of attracting talent, many companies have expanded their parental leave policies well beyond the traditional maternity leave model; more than a third of organizations worldwide now have a broader definition of parental leave that includes paternity and adoption leave as well.

The evolution of leave programs can be

64%

of companies worldwide provide maternity leave only for a birth mother

24%

of companies provide leave to the primary caregiver, regardless of gender

seen as a reaction to wider social changes. For example, adoption leave is becoming more popular as the public’s idea of ‘family’ expands to include same-sex parents. Globally, 29% of companies offer adoption leave beyond what the law requires, and 87% of companies offer same-sex couples the same adoption leave as opposite-sex couples.

89%

of fathers consider it important for a company to offer paternity leave

PARENTAL LEAVE WORLDWIDE The amount of parental leave mandated by law varies widely across the globe. The contrast is sharp between pro-welfare nations such as Sweden, which offers parents up to 480 days per child, and those such as the US, where paid maternal leave is optional and only 14% of employers extend the benefit.

44%

of companies report that eligible employees use their statutory paternity leave

Sources: Global Parental Leave Report, Mercer Select Intelligence, 2016; The New Dad Report, Boston College Center for Work & Family, 2014

WHAT’S COVERED?

MOVING TOWARD INCLUSIVITY

Approximately one in three companies surveyed reported having a global parental leave policy covering multiple types of leave; only 19% had a policy that covers all four types of leave: maternal, paternal, adoption and parental.

As benefits begin to play a more significant role in attracting talent, many companies around the globe are broadening their parental leave policies to ensure inclusivity.

DO YOU HAVE A GLOBAL PARENTAL LEAVE POLICY COVERING MULTIPLE TYPES OF LEAVE?

36% Yes 52% No but considering 12% No,implementing one

LEAVE TYPES INCLUDED IN GLOBAL POLICIES Maternity leave

94% Paternity leave

76% Adoption leave

73% Parental leave

67% 0%

Source: Global Parental Leave Report; Mercer Select Intelligence, 2016

4

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Source: Global Parental Leave Report; Mercer Select Intelligence, 2016

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No paid leave Less than 14 weeks 14–25 weeks 26–51 weeks 52 weeks or more Source: Is paid leave available for mothers of infants?, World Policy Analysis Center, 2018

A WORLD OF ENTITLEMENTS

WHAT ABOUT DADS?

OECD data on total paid leave entitlements available to mothers, which includes both paid maternity leave and paid parental leave, reveals that Canada’s entitlements are slightly below the OECD average, but still considerably higher than other English-speaking countries.

Paternity leave is not required by statute in many countries. The US has the highest percentage of companies allowing paternity leave above what is required, despite no legal obligation to do so.

80

73.4

COMPANIES OFFERING PATERNITY LEAVE

70 60

62.3 55.2

52 52.8

50

42.6

50 42.3

18

20 10

18 7.6

Europe, Middle East and Africa

26.8

OECD average

Canada

Australia

Length of parental leave entitlements (weeks)

41%

12.1

7.7 New Zealand

41%

Asia-Pacific

Global

0 0 0

0

33%

34.7 30.9

27.4

Americas

55.7 42.6

39

40 30

53.6

58

UK

US

Average payment rate of national average earnings (%)

Denmark

Germany

38%

Sweden

Full-rate equivalent (weeks) 0% Source: Key characteristics of parental leave systems, OECD, 2016

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

Source: Global Parental Leave Report; Mercer Select Intelligence, 2016

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UPFRONT

NEWS ANALYSIS

Start with the end in mind Design thinking has been heralded as a way to transform how businesses operate – and it’s finally seeping into the HR arena

DESIGN THINKING is an innovation tool that Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design has formalized and taught to engineering students since 2006. While it’s not a new approach, what is new is its application outside of product development. In 2018, the concept has begun to make serious inroads into the HR space.

In short, design thinking – also called human-centred design – is a problem-solving process focused on solving the needs of a specific group of people, such as customers or employees. It aims to match people’s needs with what is technologically feasible and what a viable business strategy can convert into value and market opportunity.

inputs to solve those needs and then test potential solutions to ensure they work.

“Keeping the end customer at the heart of each stage is critical,” Pangas says. “Applied to HR, design thinking puts employee needs and emotions at the centre of the design of processes and solutions.”

Pangas says design thinking tools can be applied to any challenge where you are solving something for a human – in other words, everything HR does. She has seen HR teams apply it to rewards, performance management, learning and development, HR services, and career management.

Examples include Cisco, which has used design thinking to develop its HR strategy,

“Design thinking puts employee needs and emotions at the centre of the design of processes and solutions” Jennifer Pangas, HRHack Jennifer Pangas, an experienced HR professional who consults on organizational design and design thinking via her company, HRHack, says design thinking may sound ‘soft,’ but it’s a very scientific discipline with clear steps to understand needs, seek broad

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and tech company Atlassian, which has used it for its performance management approach.

Liam Hayes, chief people officer at engineering firm Aurecon, says his focus in 2018 will be on redesigning the firm’s employee experience. To this end, he recently recruited

an industrial designer with an innovation background to join his leadership team in order to embed design thinking into the employee experience.

“If we had to do it as an HR team, with our HR knowledge, the danger is we’d end up with a similar outcome to what we have today,” he says. “We’re challenging ourselves to do something different, and really working with our senior leaders to look at this from a holistic point of view. We’re not looking at the employee experience just from the HR point of view, but at all elements that impact the employee experience, and making sure it aligns with and supports the type of client experience we want to deliver as a business.”

The goal, Hayes adds, is to challenge how HR engages with the end users of its services and work backwards from there. “That human-centric approach is taking us down a very different path than anything we’ve done before,” he says.

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HOW TO GET STARTED Starting small – perhaps with a key challenge like a redesign of performance management – and expanding from there is key to successful adoption of design thinking. HRHack’s Jennifer Pangas recommends that when selecting a challenge, it helps if you can answer “yes” to these three questions:

1

Does the challenge have people at the centre (e.g. employees, leaders, high performers)?

2

Is the challenge big enough to have a number of different possible solutions?

3

Do we have a stakeholder environment in which we can experiment with new innovations?

“The last question is potentially the most difficult one to meet,” Pangas says, “but in my experience, is critical so you can really use design thinking to its full benefit.”

Pangas emphasizes that design thinking is not just about engaging employees; it can also involve bringing in leaders or experts from other fields to solve the problem.

“I encourage my clients to engage people who will bring completely different thinking, particularly when ideating potential solutions,” she says.

that are so overinvested in their original model that they miss and even ignore the changing needs and desires of their clients.

“The key to long-term law firm success is balancing the need to fully exploit what currently works with the need to explore new ideas,” Kowalski says. “Design thinking law firms are those that achieve that balance;

“These are firms that continually reassess if they’re moving in the right direction by truly empathizing with clients” Mitch Kowalski, author, The Great Legal Reformation The impact can be massive. In the legal profession, for example, design thinking is completely revamping traditional business models. Canadian hought leader and author Mitch Kowalski has spoken at seminars on how design thinking can be used in law firms

these are firms that continually reassess if they’re moving in the right direction by truly empathizing with clients.”

Echoing this, Karen Cariss, co-founder and CEO of PageUp, says traditional hierarchical organizational structures will soon be a thing

of the past, replaced by new organizational designs that better facilitate teamwork, agility and collaboration. She cites design thinking as one of six workforce management trends to be aware of in 2018.

“As more and more companies hire employees across different time zones, working on multiple projects and using various media, organizational design will evolve to accommodate a more fluid work stream,” Cariss says.

Regardless of how the methodology is used, there is a common set of traits among design thinkers. The first is a beginner’s mindset, whereby technical expertise is replaced with curiosity and exploration. Design thinkers also must have a willingness to take risks, managing the risk by finding ways to test cheaply and efficiently, and viewing failures as critical learnings. Finally, they are employee advocates – HR must believe that listening to employees will open up new ways to truly motivate and engage them.

“Not all HR leaders are necessarily looking for disruptive solutions,” Pangas says, “but they are always looking for impactful ones.”

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23/05/2018 12:24:26 AM

UPFRONT

EMPLOYMENT LAW UPDATE NEWS BRIEFS Alberta: How will Bill 30 impact your organization?

Employers in Alberta should brace for changes to the province’s Occupational Health and Safety Act [OHSA] and Workers’ Compensation Act, courtesy of Bill 30, which is scheduled to take effect on June 1. “One of the big talking points of the OHSA amendments is the introduction and expansion of what is defined as ‘health and safety,’” said Cristina Wendel, partner at Dentons, who explained that the new legislation will expand the definition to include not just physical health and safety, but also psychological and social wellbeing, including issues such as bullying, sexual harassment and domestic violence.

Employers should exercise caution when docking pay

According to lawyer Matthew McCarthy, an associate at Ogletree Deakins, employers deducting money from employees’ wages should tread carefully.

“In Ontario, generally speaking ... there are three big headings under which deductions are legally permissible,” McCarthy said. “The first is statutory deduction; the second concerns deductions ordered by a court, such a garnishment order; and the third concerns ones authorized by the employee themselves – i.e. staff benefits, training programs or payment plans. Employers cannot legally make deductions for the production of faulty work.”

How HR should handle religious accommodation requests

Employment lawyer Jean-Alexandre De Bousquet says employees requesting accommodation for religious reasons must have a legitimate basis for the request. “Some religious requirements are well-known, while others are more obscure; the most important issue that they’re not entirely fabricated,” De

8

Bousquet said. “For instance, a human rights tribunal sided with Muslim employees working in kitchens who refused to taste food that could contain pork when asked to by their employer.

However, courts have sided against individuals of the Rastafarian religion who stated that their faith required them to smoke marijuana … The duty to accommodate is a two-way process, in which both sides need to participate in good faith.”

Can you legally refuse an employee’s vacation request?

Vacation requests can sometimes be inconvenient for employers, but can they legally refuse a request for time off?

“Technically yes, an employer can refuse to grant a vacation request submitted by an employee and ensure that an employee’s vacation is taken at a time that is acceptable to the employer,” said Stephen Shore, partner at Ogletree Deakins. “But employers should consider policies that give employees some advance notice, stipulating times they can book vacations. This reduces any uncertainty between the two parties regarding what they are legally obliged to do.”

What to do when employees behave badly outside of work Today’s social-media-connected world has led to more and more employees being let go due to ‘infringements’ they committed outside of work. “An employee can be fired for something they did outside of work on a without-cause basis,” said Ryan Watkins of Whitten & Lublin.

However, he added that to terminate an employee for cause, an employer would need to show that the conduct has harmed the employer’s reputation, rendered the employee unable to perform his duties, made other employees unwilling to work with him or her and will cause the employer difficulty in directing its workforce.

When can HR sue for defamation?

Negative word of mouth can spread like wildfire on social media, but what legal recourse does HR have in dealing with it?

The topic of defamation in the age of social media is one that has the propensity to strike fear into the hearts of even the most seasoned HR professionals. But what actually constitutes defamation? And what steps can an employer take to defend its reputation?

“For defamation, the legal test for determining it is if words were used that could lower a person’s reputation in the eyes of a reasonable person,” says employment lawyer Ryan Watkins of Whitten & Lublin. “These must be comments that are negative toward someone or some organization.”

There are two types of defamation: the written form, which is called libel, and the oral form, known as slander.

“The words have to specifically reference the person in question – that is, the person who is being slandered,” Watkins says. “And the words have to be published or communicated to another person to be able to be considered defamation.”

So, when can an employer sue an employee for defamation? “The best example would be after an employee’s employment has been terminated, and that employee then goes around saying negative things about their former employer,” Watkins says. “They might be claiming that the employer didn’t treat their employees well, or they participated in criminal activities – basically, any negative commentary focused on the employer.”

From a defence perspective, Watkins warns that an employee has many options to fall back on.

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“The most prominent one would be that the statements they made are actually true.

So, if the employee said, for example, ‘I was treated badly by my employer because of X,’ and that turns out to be true, if an employer tries to then sue said employee, the defamation claim cannot stand.

“Another defense is ‘absolute privilege.’

This comes into play in a court setting – if

“The legal test … is if words were used that could lower a person’s reputation in the eyes of a reasonable person” an employee says something that could be considered defamation, it wouldn’t really stand. Courts want people to testify their beliefs truthfully and honestly as to not hinder any hearings; there’s a defined privilege that comes with this scenario.”

Watkins adds that a third defense is called ‘qualified privilege,’ which occurs if the employee has an interest in making the statements and the employer has a vested interested in hearing them. “If there was no ill will behind it, then that would dispel the defamation claims,” he says.

As to how an employer and an employee can protect themselves from the threat of defamation, Watkins says it’s all about being mindful and respectful.

“Try to avoid general statements,” he says.

“Unless you know for certain what you’re saying is true, don’t try to puff it up. Secondly, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all. If you’re not saying anything negative, then you won’t get into trouble.”

Q&A

Elizabeth Traynor Partner, labour and employment group SISKINDS

Years in the industry 19 Fast fact Before becoming a labour lawyer, Traynor had ambitions to become a midwife

Drug testing and employers’ rights Where do employers stand in regard to random drug testing?

The consistent message we’re receiving from the courts is that drug testing is fundamentally contrary to an individual’s right to privacy and dignity. Taking an individual’s body fluids is very invasive.

Generally, when employers ask me if they can drug-test their workers, almost always the answer is no. The only time we’re seeing the courts and human rights tribunals support drug testing is where several factors are met.

Which factors in particular?

Well, it has to involve a safety-sensitive position. That doesn’t mean just driving a forklift or driving a truck – the courts have singled out areas such as mining or working on the tar sands. Maybe we’ll see that interpretation for construction sites sometime in the future.

However, your average office job is not going to be considered a safety-sensitive situation.

It’s generally accepted that for employees in very isolated situations – i.e. the tar sands, where employees are away from their families and their homes for a long time – there’s often a level of substance abuse. And even in these cases, there’s still no permission to do random drug testing. However, employers are able to justify post-incident testing.

How reliable is testing for cannabis?

Employers face something of an issue in this regard. The technology we have for testing for cannabis use is not effective. The tests can identify that an employee has used cannabis, but there’s no way to identify the timeline for that or any impairment. So really, that’s of very little use to an employer if the only answer from drug testing is a positive or a negative.

What advice do you have for employers in dealing with cannabis at work?

The first thing employers ought to do is create a policy. We’ve been saying that for years and years – you need a policy that deals with drug use in the workplace. The best way to conceptualize this is to think about marijuana as you would alcohol.

Employees aren’t permitted to come to work drunk, so don’t permit them to come to work stoned. Even though alcohol and cannabis will both be legal, employers don’t have to allow their staff to come to into the workplace in an impaired condition. The policy needs to address impairment in the workplace. That will apply to cannabis, to alcohol and to other types of drugs, both legal and illegal.

A step many employers overlook is a simple one: just sit down with the employee in question and be transparent. Explain how you’ve identified some issues they’ve been exhibiting and express your concern. Ask if there’s any way you can help and give them some support.

www.hrmonline.ca

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23/05/2018 12:25:07 AM

UPFRONT

RECRUITMENT UPDATE

Are you overlooking a key recruitment tool?

While one-on-one interactions still matter, social media is doing a lot of the heavy lifting in recruitment

footprint, including their various other social profiles, contact details, blogs they’ve written, Quora interactions and more. However, Zapar notes that, in the past year or so, LinkedIn has banned the use of these aggregators on its site, leading to users’ profiles being suspended or deleted entirely, but they will still work on other social sites.

Regardless of the tools used, social media

“Social media should be a key component of your overall recruitment strategy”

From Facebook posts to Instagram likes, social media is king when it comes to talent acquisition. But how can HR and recruiters harness all that energy and channel it into the hiring process?

“Social media should be a key component of your overall recruitment strategy,” says Kathleen Teixeira, digital media manager for HR at Loblaw. “The reality is that job seekers are using social media every day.

Whether you’re using it to communicate your job postings or to source talent, the need to leverage social media for recruitment should be crystal clear.”

NEWS BRIEFS

Using digitalization to enhance the candidate experience is nothing new, but the emerging HR tech on offer at the moment also lends a hand to improving a company’s brand and visibility in the eyes of potential new hires.

Stacy Zapar, a 21-year recruitment veteran and founder of Tenfold and The Talent Agency, is an advocate of social aggregator tools as a means to reach out to candidates.

These tools – including Google Chrome extensions such as Prophet, Hunter and Hiretual – pop up as a sidebar on social media sites and will show the candidate’s entire social

Majority of job seekers lie on their résumés

A recent survey from CVLibrary found that 92% of job seekers have gotten away with lying on their résumés; 71% claimed they landed a job as a direct result of that lie. The report highlighted five distinct areas where candidates are most willing to deceive, including employment gaps (71%), dates of employment (34%), salary (21%), work experience (13%) and responsibilities in their previous job (11%). Despite these findings, 90% of employees said they believe it’s ethically wrong to lie on a résumé; 69% blamed it on over-expectant recruiters.

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remains a powerful way to enhance the employer brand. “In today’s hyper-connected world, managing the employer brand and employee value proposition has become an HR priority,” Teixeira says.

Thanks to the growing impact of social media and rating sites like Glassdoor, she says, the talent experience is central to the employer brand. Almost any person who comes in contact with an organization – from job applicants to current and former employees – can influence its brand perception.

“According to LinkedIn, candidates’ top obstacle when searching for a job is not knowing what it’s like to work at an organization,” Teixeira says. “Job seekers are reaching out to current employees for direct testimonials and reading reviews online at various stages of the hiring process.”

Research shows ageism in hiring is rife A new study from job-search platform Jobsite demonstrates that ageism is a major issue in the modern workplace.

The study found that unemployed candidates aged 55 to 64 are likely to have been have been out of work for more than two years.

In fact, older job seekers are twice as likely to be looking for a job than their younger counterparts, mainly due to redundancy.

Jobsite found that 47% of job seekers in this age group are unemployed; in addition, 53% said they have never received feedback from their job interviews.

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Q&A

Carolyn Levy President, Randstad Technologies RANDSTAD CANADA

Years in the industry 11 Fun fact Outside of work, Levy is an avid volleyball player who has played for both competitive and recreational teams for 25 years

The personalized approach to digital hiring How is technology changing the candidate experience?

According to our recent survey, the majority of employees find it overwhelming looking for a job with all of the digital options available. A further 64% of Canadians, regardless of the technology they have access to, still crave that face-to-face interaction with people. Forty-one per cent of candidates are still feeling lost, despite all of the tools available when they start their search. In general, job seekers can quickly find a role without any support, which means the consensus is they prefer a personalized approach when looking for a new position. In fact, 89% of candidates believe a more personalized approach is of value, and 77% said they would like some help from a professional who knows their industry well.

It’s also interesting to see how many candidates are applying on the move, rather than sitting behind a desk. Forty-five per cent of job seekers are researching and applying for roles on their mobile devices, which represents a large hike in the past few years. Despite this, 63% of candidates say it’s more difficult now to find a job than it used to be, and 62% find it hard to stand out from the crowd online.

Do you think there’s an over-reliance on technology in the recruitment process?

I would translate it the other way and say there’s an under-reliance on how employers use tech and incorporate the human approach alongside it. They’re

Tattoo bias sways recruiters from candidates

According to recent research from LinkedIn, four out of 10 recruitment professionals admitted to rejecting a good-fitting candidate because of a noticeable tattoo. While 60% of recruitment professionals believe the bias against tattoos and physical image has decreased over the years, nine in 10 employers think a candidate’s tattoos could limit their career progression. When quizzed on their inking bias, 47% of recruiters said it was because of an industry-wide intolerance, while 46% said it showed a lack of professionalism.

so excited about all of these new digital advancements that are bringing in so many more CVs that they may be overlooking the human methodology behind sourcing the right kind of candidates.

How can employers harness both tech and the human touch?

The digital side can help with the match, ensuring that, as an organization, you have the right tools to help analyze the data that comes in. However, employers should still leave the ultimate decision to the HR department to ensure that the candidate is the perfect fit in terms of culture and experience. If you consider why people leave their roles, it’s mainly down to their direct manager and the environment they’re in. So having that vetting process after the initial application is essential.

What future tech trends do you foresee in recruitment in the next five years?

Technology will continue to dominate the future of work: artificial intelligence, deep learning and robotics, augmented reality, and digital will be integrated more and more into workplace and recruiting processes. I also think the lines between the home and the workplace will be blurred, which will translate into an even more diversified, flexible and mixed workforce with contract and part-time workers, further confirming the marked paradigm shift toward what we call the gig economy or the ‘Uber-ized’ workforce.

First impressions matter to potential employees

First impressions count in an interview – for employers as well as prospective employees. Research from Robert Half found that more than half of candidates have made up their minds about a role before the interview has ended. A further 24% said they made a decision in the first five minutes of the interview.

Prospective hires stressed that time is of the essence in the recruitment process as well: 58% of candidates will turn to alternative options if an organization leaves them waiting too long without an update.

Game of Thrones actor stars in hiring campaign

In a bid to fill 300 positions globally, SodaStream International has released a recruitment video featuring actor Thor Bjornson of the TV series Game of Thrones alongside SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum. Entitled “Join the Revolution,” the video highlights the company’s values through a series of comical exchanges between Birnbaum and Bjornson. “Our video is delivering a strong and clear message: If you think you’ve got what it takes to join the revolution, please reach out,” Birnbaum said.

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23/05/2018 12:25:46 AM

UPFRONT

HEAD TO HEAD

Is HR strategy a dead concept in today’s world?

In an environment of constant change, is the idea of a three-, five- or 10-year plan a thing of the past?

Joyce O’Donnell Maroney

Liz Stretch

Mathieu Baril

Executive director Workforce Institute at Kronos Incorporated

Chief people officer ATB Financial

Manager, business development DDI Canada

“An HR strategy is more important than ever, especially in the current climate of low unemployment. Effective HR leaders will identify the talent required to support the overarching strategy of their organization.

They will check in with their workforce to understand the employee experience they are delivering and educate leaders about their opportunities to improve that experience. They will help senior leaders prioritize the people investments required for success, which can run the gamut from manager effectiveness assessments to investments in better technology. Finally, they will partner with their functional peers to ensure meaningful execution of the talent strategy.”

“As organizations adapt and prepare for an uncertain future, HR strategy is key to supporting a rapidly changing business world. Set the course with a long-term vision and focus on people, performance, learning, innovation and recruitment.

However, it is important to remain flexible. Be prepared to pivot and redirect efforts and resources as needed. This helps prepare team members to align with and meet the demands of the business. A solid strategy will ensure organizations attract, develop and engage talent, positioning the organization to achieve long-term sustainability and short-term success while maintaining a positive company culture.”

“As markets are disrupted at unprece­ dented speed, senior executives are reprioritizing resources and adapting business models through ever-faster iterations of change. An HR strategy not shaping a nimble workforce that can quickly adapt and accomplish this should be dead.

Given the scope of the challenge, forward-thinking firms now have a leadership strategy that doesn’t rely on hierarchy to ‘move the mountain.’ Instead, they generate leadership behaviours across all levels so a broader range of individuals up their games, proactively face adversity and help their teams achieve common goals.”

RACING TO STAY RELEVANT According to Darren Linton, CEO of transforming New Zealand-based brand Yellow, the pace of change in today’s world has forced HR departments to rethink how they approach strategic planning. “I used to talk about strategy rather than execution, but I think it’s harder these days to have three-year plan and a set strategy – it’s more about how your organization can execute in the next quarter, the next six months, maybe the next 12 months,” Linton says. “It’s so critical for everybody to see change, particularly when you’re going through a transformation – you need to be able to see almost quarterly development. When I started my career, we used to sit down and write three- and five-year strategies because the world didn’t move quite so fast. Now, so much is changing around us, and you need people who can help you execute in order to stay relevant.”

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23/05/2018 12:27:02 AM

UPFRONT

OPINION

GOT AN OPINION THAT COUNTS? Email editor@hrmonline.ca

Why use freelancers?

Freelance marketplaces will define the agile, efficient workforce of the future, writes Alec Bashinsky THE WORKFORCE is shifting. Freelance marketplaces, or open talent networks [OTNs], present an excellent opportunity for workers to have more enjoyment and autonomy in their career, while also empowering businesses to increase efficiency.

At a recent breakfast event hosted by Nvoi, an online marketplace for the contingent workforce, I met with representatives from companies including EY, Coca-Cola and Audi.

We discussed the impact of current market trends – including shrinking talent pools, changing employee behaviour and a shift toward variable-cost models – on the work­ force and workplace, as well as traditional organizational and management structures.

We assessed that using open talent networks had the potential to not only future-proof businesses against the disruption of these trends, but also allow them to become agile enough to adapt to new technologies, societal changes and functional demands as needed. The following are three key examples of how companies can benefit from open talent networks.

1

Adapt to the changing nature of work

Advancements in technology and artificial intelligence are rewriting how and where people work, as well as the type of work they do. Automation, for example, might establish a need for higher critical thinking and soft skills as technology takes over more routine tasks like customer service.

Consistent with the group’s thinking, Josh Bersin, a consultant with Deloitte and a world leader in HR tech circles, explained in an interview with the site Undercover Recruiter that his company had recently conducted a

survey of more than 10,000 businesses globally, 45% of which said they expect to be “fully automated” within the next three to five years.

At the same time, workplaces are becoming far more agile, globalized and fluid. This means businesses need to account for the decline of fixed geographical offices, more flexible work hours and increasing employee demand for a simulative environment. We concluded that in the near future, businesses will require more diverse and specific highquality skills, such as AI development, than ever before.

Subsequently, the room agreed that a job for life hasn’t been the norm since the 1990s.

For businesses operating with purely longterm employment models, this means an increased risk that they will not be able to retain or attract quality staff.

Open talent networks allow workers to access a breadth of experiences with a range of commitment periods, while ensuring businesses are connected with people who are genuinely interested in the project at hand and have the best skills for the job.

Bypass the financial pressures caused by traditional recruitment and operational models

3

By relying on the contingent workforce, companies can embrace and let go of specific skills as needed. This on-demand approach means businesses only pay for what they actually need and avoid the excessive fees of a recruitment firm.

Further, many specialized roles are not efficient as full-time placements. For example, a startup with less than 10 people doesn’t need to employ a full time IT professional, as it only

Using open talent networks has the potential to future-proof businesses against the disruption of coming trends Freelance marketplaces enable companies to tap into diverse skills on an as-needed basis, allowing them to effectively fill higher-order skills gaps as they arise, while retaining the power to streamline processes and cut costs when necessary. OTNs are also digital, meaning a business can hire a contingent worker in a different geographical location if need be.

2

Fulfil employee demand for higher autonomy and job satisfaction

During the discussion, we noted that a growing number of workers, particularly millennial workers, are seeking diversity of experience rather than focusing on climbing to the top.

They prioritize having the time to enjoy their earnings and aren’t satisfied with the prospect of doing the same job for a number of years, especially if the role isn’t flexible.

requires IT skills in specific circumstances; the work is more suited to a contractor. OTNs like Nvoi are low-cost, cut out the middleman and fulfil skills gaps in as little as 24 hours, saving businesses both significant time and money, as well as the long-term financial commitment of taking on a full-time worker.

By directly connecting prospective workers and employers in a digital environment, open talent networks bypass the costs associated with traditional hiring processes, heighten a business’ agility so that it can manoeuvre around technological disruption, and help fulfil changing employee expectations.

Alec Bashinsky is a non-executive director at Nvoi and Deloitte’s regional talent leader for Asia Pacific.

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23/05/2018 12:27:33 AM

PEOPLE

GLOBAL HR LEADER

A tech pioneer Chatelle Lynch heads global HR operations at cybersecurity firm McAfee and was appointed to the company’s board before she turned 40. A passionate advocate of attracting more women into technology fields, Lynch chats with Iain Hopkins about her career LIVING BY the maxim that HR professionals in 2018 must be business leaders first and HR professionals second, McAfee’s senior vice-president and CHRO, Chatelle Lynch, has built her career around not just understanding her organization inside out, but also “knowing the numbers.” Lynch started her career as a compensation specialist and has found that data provides a different level of credibility when she’s dealing with other datadriven individuals.

“Using that data to help explain why HR decisions are made has been invaluable,” Lynch says. “That’s the language other professionals speak, so my belief is HR should also speak that language. For example, when you’re trying to hire quickly in a very dynamic and competitive market where there is already a shortage of talent and where people are already under pressure to meet numbers and get roles filled quickly, you want to help people understand that this is not just an HR process designed to slow down what they need to do. Showing them the bigger picture with data is critical. It provides great insights into so many areas.”

Born in Australia but now based in Texas, Lynch has been a long-standing employee of the cybersecurity firm. She joined McAfee in 2005 and worked her way up to global head of HR in 2015. Today she leads the HR func-

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tion for 7,500 employees in 50 countries.

During her career at McAfee, Lynch has been involved in various M&As and also a major divestiture – all while raising five children. She is a strong advocate for the growth, empowerment and success of women in what remains a male-dominated industry.

HRDC: What sparked your interest in the HR profession?

At that time I’d just finished my degrees, and I admit I didn’t really know what HR was. The company thought I showed potential, and they put me in an amazing highpotential program. I was able to get rotations through every function in HR over a six-month period. It was great exposure. I fell in love with HR and the ability to influence business decisions through people.

I ended up at McAfee, starting as a

“There are not enough females in the pipeline for the tech industry, and if we don’t change that, we’re not going to see numbers in tech improve” Chatelle Lynch: I’d always had a fascination with the US, so when I was at Deakin University in Melbourne, I applied for a US student exchange program and was accepted. It was just a six-month opportunity, and when I got back to Australia I said, “I want to go back; I’m not done with America yet.”

I wrote to as many companies as I could think of, and the company that accepted me [engineering/construction firm Fluor Corporation] profiled where I’d sit best. They decided to put me in the HR department.

compensation analyst. I had a great mentor who recommended getting really good at one or two areas of HR so that when you walk into a room, no one knows more about that topic than you do. For me, those two areas were compensation and M&As. I tried to learn those two areas inside out.

HRDC: What is McAfee doing to attract more women into the industry – and, by extension, the company?

CL: There are simply not enough females in

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23/05/2018 12:27:58 AM

PROFILE Name: Chatelle Lynch Company: McAfee Role: CHRO HR experience: 17 years Previous roles: »»Head of HR, Intel Security »»Vice-president, HR, McAfee »»Vice-president, global rewards and HR operations, McAfee »»Senior director, corporate compensation, systems and services, McAfee »»Director, global compensation and HR services, McAfee »»Manager, global compensation, McAfee »»SR compensation analyst, McAfee »»Compensation analyst, McAfee »»HR generalist/manager, Fluor Corporation Qualifications: »»Bachelor of arts and bachelor of science, journalism, Deakin University »»Bachelor of applied science, Deakin University »»Exchange student, Colorado State University

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23/05/2018 12:28:08 AM

PEOPLE

GLOBAL HR LEADER

the tech industry. There are also not enough females in the pipeline for the tech industry, and if we don’t change that, we’re not going to see numbers in tech improve.

We’ve taken a two-pronged approach.

First, we are concentrating on the pipelining of diverse talent from early ages. We’ve looked at our processes and the approach we take to the talent market to ensure we’re doing as much as we can on the recruiting side to bring female candidates in front of our managers when we’re recruiting.

For example, depending on the areas of expertise and functions, the recruiting and analytics team have gone out on location and asked the question: With the available

By 2020, there will be a shortage of 2 million professionals in cybersecurity. Given the rate at which threats are moving, we’re urging governments, universities and colleges to get more involved, whether through more funding or changes to curriculum, to groom future cybersecurity talent.

HRDC: Can you outline what McAfee’s WISE Affinity Group is?

CL: WISE stands for Women in Security, and it’s one of our employee-run networks. We have around 1,000 members in the group globally. Importantly, it’s not just women involved in the group; it’s also men, at all levels. We run mentoring programs and

“Using data to help explain why HR decisions are made has been invaluable. That’s the language other professionals speak, so my belief is HR should also speak that language” female talent, should we be getting a 50/50 male/female split in interviews, or in this market, should it be 40/60 female/male?

Whatever it is, we’re holding our recruiting team accountable: they need to track it and ensure they are getting female candidates into the pipeline. Then, depending on the numbers we’re told about availability of talent for those roles, we’re trying to ensure that female talent makes it through to the second and third interview stages.

As an example, for software and engineering roles in Singapore, we want to see five final candidates, and at least two of them need to be female. We’re ensuring there’s a female interviewer as part of the decision about who we bring into the company. We won’t sign off on the hire unless the diversity metrics have been met.

The problem for us is that our recruiters have to work harder in a very fast-moving industry, because it’s not just about finding qualified female candidates; it’s become about finding qualified candidates, period.

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educational classes, and focus heavily on professional development.

WISE provides the opportunity for women to share their experiences. What we’ve focused on over the last year or so is the men playing more of a role, and encouraging them to see things from the perspective of their wives, their sisters, their daughters. That’s been eye-opening. We’ll continue to ensure it’s not just a female group, but pertinent to men as well. We need men in the workplace to help create better understanding and to model the behaviours we want to see.

HRDC: This is obviously a farreaching issue that needs widespread support to make meaningful change.

Do you feel there’s only so much one organization can do?

CL: Working together is important. I know we’re a business and we’re in competition with others, but I feel like the cybersecurity industry knows we have a greater cause, a greater mission. As an industry, we’re banding

LYNCH’S TIPS FOR FEMALE LEADERS Chatelle Lynch has risen to the top in a maledominated industry. She shares her top career tips with HRDC. Build your brand. “I found early on that

1 I wanted to be known for a brand. What

was my brand going to be? What I found worked for me was delivering on commitments and ensuring that I would go one step further than what I was asked. For example, if a colleague asked for something, I wouldn’t look for someone else to do it; I would do it myself.”

Learn from setbacks. “I moved to the US

2 not really knowing anyone. I didn’t know

anyone at McAfee. I worked my way up to the top job in HR through many trials and tribulations, but I did it by working through setbacks and not letting them define me.”

Back yourself. “Sometimes I think women

3 don’t own their success as much as they

should. I don’t think all women are like that, but when I interact with women and they receive a compliment, for example, they will often shut it down, whereas I’ve been in similar situations with men, and they will totally own it. So while I’m very conscious of remaining humble thanks to my background and how I was raised, I make sure I own my successes. Also, make sure you market your successes as an organization as well.

I made sure I invested in an HR comms team.

We need our employees to know the value HR brings to them, because it ultimately impacts the culture and the working environment.”

together and doing whatever we can to take things forward to government and education and councils we’ve formed. Our CEO is on these councils, alongside the CEOs of our competitors. I’ve seen some great partnerships formed. There’s more of a focus on it, but we need more funding and more cyber­ security professionals ready for the future – both males and females.

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23/05/2018 12:28:01 AM

HRDC

Human Resources Director Canada is Canada’s only magazine written exclusively for CHROs, HR Directors and senior decision-makers

• • • • •

Aspirational cover stories Best-practice profiles and case studies Interviews with international HR leaders Business strategy content Special reports

Find out more and subscribe at hrmonline.ca HRDC subs ad 2018.indd 1 14-17_GlobalHRLeader-SUBBED.indd 17

14/03/2018 12:28:05 10:58:49 AM PM 23/05/2018

HR function of the future Canadian organizations are in the midst of massive change. New technologies, new business models, new acquisitions and new markets will all have a significant impact on the organization and on employees. There may be profound uncertainty about the future, but one thing is for sure – the way people work will certainly change.

The skills and capabilities required of employees will evolve as more and more routine and manual tasks are automated, enabling employees to focus on higher-value activities and decisions. Automation will certainly impact the nature of work – displacing “tasks” and whole parts of jobs, making some jobs obsolete, and introducing new roles and capabilities not previously imagined. In fact, two-thirds of Canadian CEOs believe that artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics will actually create more jobs than it eliminates.1 You can’t transform the organization without also transforming the workforce. It may be time to rethink the people strategy for your organization. Find out more about KPMG People & Change group at kpmg.ca/ peopleandchange 1

Statistics result from the 2018 KPMG Canadian CEO Survey

Contact Soula Courlas National Lead, People & Change KPMG in Canada scourlas@kpmg.ca linkedin.com/in/soulacourlas © 2018 KPMG LLP, a Canadian limited liability partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved. 20344 The KPMG name and logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of KPMG International.

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Achieving mastery across 5 emerging HR “archetypes” We believe the HR function will transform to become the architect of human performance. They will shape the workforce, blending human and digital assets together enabling the enterprise to build the key capabilities required to achieve competitive advantage in a world of digital disruption.

In the HR function of the future, we envision a “call to action” for HR professionals focused on achieving mastery across 5 emerging “archetype” of HR characteristics and capabilities:

The shaper: Understands the talent landscape and shapes the talent mosaic of the future

The futurist:

The modeler:

Sees into the future and reverse-engineers strategies to shape the future

Masters data and analytics in order to help the organization differentiate and innovate

The shifter:

The transformer:

Shifts the culture of the organization to fully embrace agility, empathy and resilience

Transforms the HR function and the organization as a whole

Source: *All statistics result from the 2018 KPMG Canadian CEO Survey.

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5/17/2018 12:28:31 10:53:57 AM AM 23/05/2018

SPECIAL REPORT

HR LEADERS ROUNDTABLE

2018

HR LEADERS ROUNDTABLE HRDC invited a collection of Canada’s top HR leaders to a roundtable at the Spoke Club on Toronto’s King Street West, where the discussion ranged from change enablement to how HR is handling the rise of AI and robotics

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23/05/2018 12:29:23 AM

ABOUT THE SPONSOR KPMG Canada’s People and Change practice helps organizations across the public and private sector drive business value and achieve strategic goals through the optimization of their people and HR agenda. From developing organization strategies and leading transformational change to optimizing the workforce and bringing innovative solutions to the HR function, we bring thought leadership and practical solutions to help leaders develop programs that enable their talent to flourish and meet their business needs.

In Canada, KPMG has more than 60 People and Change practitioners across the country, delivering strategic and operational consulting services. We work together, utilizing a single set of leading practice global methodologies, tools and accelerators to deliver a consistent client experience across multiple geographic locations and different languages. The professionals in our People and Change practice are personable yet professional, and believe that HR programs, policies and processes must be connected into a coherent, value-driving whole. Our team helps drive business value and enhance success through five core service lines: yy Organizational design for performance: Developing, implementing and integrating organizational structures and systems that deliver the capabilities and performance required by the organization’s strategic intent yy Behavioural change management: Accelerating the successful implementation of change by developing strategies that deal with the impact on people from changes to strategy, structure, processes and technology yy Talent management: Developing human capital within an organization to help ensure that the current and future needs of the business are met and strategic goals achieved yy HR strategy and function optimization: Enabling the optimal HR function by transforming the delivery of HR services to utilize leading practices and enable delivery of the organization’s talent and human capital strategies yy Workforce intelligence: Developing the workforce strategy, operations and supports needed to optimize people and organizational performance

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23/05/2018 12:29:27 AM

SPECIAL REPORT

HR LEADERS ROUNDTABLE ROUNDTABLE PARTICIPANTS

Christina McClung VP of human resources and chief of staff to the president Capital One

Helen Ferreira-Walker CHRO Metrolinx

Tania Oppedisano Director of HR Dialog

Anna Petosa VP of people and culture Pelmorex

CURRENT HR CHALLENGES Soula Courlas: Good morning to all of you, and thanks so much for being here. To start with, I would like to find out about some of the main HR challenges facing your organizations this year.

Helen Ferreira-Walker: The key issue for us at Metrolinx is organizational transformation. We are electrifying our GO Transit rail and building new stations that include Smart Track for Toronto. We are going from 1,600 rail trips a week to 6,000, so that is a huge transformation. The people strategy required is both intense and revolutionary. We are looking at our core competencies and all of our talent management strategies and how we can attract the right skills. As we are doing this, two very important things are diversity and inclusion – and having competent and confident employees and leveraging technology as we grow. Partnering with the business in order for them to be able to deliver on their strategies and deliverables is key for us.

Anna Petosa: We had a new CEO who started in September after we moved away

from being founder-led. This has brought a lot of change – not just in terms of leadership, but also in terms of a culture shift. I have always had support from the senior team and our CEO championing what I’m trying to do. The shift is really around sponsorship.

For me, it means the new CEO really embedding himself in all of the programs that we’re trying build. That really does make a difference.

We have four different leadership development tracks within Pelmorex, depending on where you are in your career. Our new CEO visits every one of those sessions and reinforces the messaging. He is an amazing storyteller and always brings in relevant stories.

Christina McClung: I think HR is moving away from being the tactical support function to being in a position where can we lead the business and push them to take a sponsorship role. At Capital One, we have done something similar to Pelmorex in getting all of our business leaders to be accountable over HR initiatives. They push out initiatives directly, with no emails coming from HR inboxes; they are coming from leaders. This has gained a ton of traction, visibility and accountability, which I think is key to letting employees know that these initiatives are part of their role and are expected.

TOP HR INITIATIVES IN THE PAST 18 MONTHS Implemented initiatives for improving line managers’ people management capabilities

Girish Ganesan VP of enterprise HR solutions and enablement TD Bank Group

MODERATOR

Soula Courlas National lead, people and change services KPMG Canada

63% 60%

Re-engineered key HR processes

44%

Refocused the role of HR business partners Implemented and/or further leveraged manager self-service Implemented a new performance management system

Outsourced activities previously handled internally

39% 36% 33% Source: HR Transformation, KPMG International, 2017

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23/05/2018 12:29:42 AM

TOP HR PRIORITIES Top 5 priorities for improving health, engagement and productivity in 2017 Improve employee engagement

Improve attraction and retention of employees with the right skills Help the organization adapt better to ongoing change Improve learning and development programs Improve the physical and/or mental health of employees

65% 56% 55% 48% 47%

% who see this as a priority

“I think HR is moving away from being the tactical support function to being in a position where can we lead the business and push them to take a sponsorship role” Christina McClung, Capital One SC: What’s emerging from this conversation is the power and influence that HR is having across the entire organization.

Girish Ganesan: The transformation at TD Bank is at a different level and complexity, but it is no different from what anyone else is talking about. HR is the enabler of transformation. Obviously we are the owner of our own transformation, but enabling the transformation across the rest of the bank is also important. The key is holding the business and leadership accountable for owning the agenda for that transformation, including the people aspects of it because HR doesn’t need to be the voice of the business.

With the bank, we are in a space where we have to start differentiating ourselves.

Financial services in Canada has been protected for a very long time, and we are now in an environment where fintechs are competing for business and we have to be

prepared to differentiate ourselves. From an HR perspective, it is all about what we are doing for our customers. We have to make sure we are applying a similar lens for our employees because they are servicing our customers.

The bank is investing a lot to build the employee experience of the future and mirror what we do for our customers – things like mobile enablement. A core piece of our transformation is leveraging data that HR sits on and collaborating with marketing and other lines of business towards a big data strategy. As an HR professional, there couldn’t be a better time to be in this profession. We are at the forefront of driving the people agenda forward.

DISRUPTION SC: At KPMG, we conduct an annual survey of CEOs. The recent survey

Top 5 priorities for reducing costs and improving efficiency in 2018 Streamline administration of HR programs

Reduce short-term disability costs Help the organization adapt better to ongoing change Reduce employee turnover Reduce the cost of health and dental plans

43% 40% 39% 38% 32%

% who see this as a priority

Source: Human Resources Trends for 2018, Morneau Shepell

revealed that major disruption is happening and that CEOs are attempting to disrupt rather than be disrupted. With that comes significant change across the organization. How is HR responding to that?

Tania Oppedisano: We are going through a lot of change right now. We are in the year where our strategic plan is ending, so we are in the process of developing our next five-year strategic plan. The great thing is that it is not done in a silo at the partnership level. Our company has 50 partners across Canada, and we have 700 employees who are designers, architects and engineers. We are a very lean organization, and my task is to

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23/05/2018 12:29:34 AM

SPECIAL REPORT

HR LEADERS ROUNDTABLE CEOs ON DISRUPTION

65% say they view technological disruption as an opportunity rather than a threat

68% have taken tangible steps to challenge themselves in the past year

“Initially, HR lacked discipline around leveraging data and building a business case for everything we did, but now that is becoming part of our DNA” Girish Ganesan, TD Bank Group focus on our internal community and see how we can improve that.

Over the past two years, we have changed the focus of how HR impacts people to focus on development as a recruitment and retention tool, working alongside our partners to do that and have them own the development conversations we have. During this process, leaders across the organization are working alongside partners in redeveloping our strategic plan. That means we are not just looking at the customer lens. We are a consultant services company, so our people are really our competitive advantage.

AP: HR used to be where you found the ‘people people,’ a place where we would try to layer the business strategy on top of HR

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Three-fourths say they are capitalizing on the current environment Source: 2017 CEO Outlook Survey, KPMG International

strategy. Now there has been a shift, and we layer the HR strategy on top of the business strategy. We are businesspeople first. It’s about understanding the business and strategy – understanding that from a people agenda to drive it forward.

SC: It’s a great time to be in HR because we are really making a difference. The challenge is making sure the business is ready for HR. GG: This is where leading with data comes in. If we operate like a business, we can prove to the business folks that they need to differentiate themselves and do things differently.

Everything falls under talent, whether it’s capabilities, competencies or performance

management and rewarding people. Initially, HR lacked discipline around leveraging data and building a business case for everything we did, but now that is becoming part of our DNA, and that will help the shift.

TO: Right now, we are looking at everything as a firm first. We have amalgamated all of our budgets into one so that we can all overlap with each other. The business is all one function – it’s no longer ‘you are HR’ or ‘you are marketing.’ The key for HR is knowing what to do with that power, how to sit at the table and speak the language and understand data and research that can help push things along.

HFW: We are looking at ‘Metrolinx 2025’ and what that means for us as an organiza-

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WHAT EMPLOYEES WANT DESIRED CHANGES What kind of Flexibility support would you like your Fairness company to give Wellness more of?

POSITIVE WORK ENVIRONMENT Clear leadership What would Fair help you thrive compensation at work?

Compelling careers PERFORMANCE DRIVERS What would help you perform better at work?

Meritocracy (ratings and rewards) Collective goals Source: 2018 Global Talent Trends Survey, Mercer

“For us, it’s about how we build the relationship with our employee, because that’s what they want. Then it’s virtuous circle – the stronger the relationship you have, the more you trust the feedback you get and act on it” Anna Petosa, Pelmorex tion and our people. When you look at what the workplace is going to look like, it is such an exciting time to be in HR. The people agenda is equal, if not ahead of, all of the other agendas from an organizational perspective. Is the business ready for us, and is HR ready to make that transformation?

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SC: The concept of performance management and ratings systems can polarize people. We are now in a society of continuous rating, so it’s

difficult to get away from that type of evaluation. We rate our Uber drivers, and they rate us. There are so many opinions on the topic of performance management. What’s changing in the world of performance management, from your perspective?

GG: I hate writing performance reviews. I totally feel for leaders who complain about the process, particularly when it becomes onerous.

My perspective on the performance management process and framework is that there is no one size that fits all. There are a lot of companies that have made successful transitions from a formal performance management

process to being ratings-less.

At TD, we operate in a highly regulated environment, and we can’t just move into a framework that is totally ratings-less or has no performance management formality. It comes down to what’s right for your organization, and there are so many options out there. The key is to differentiate the performance conversation from the compensation conversation.

TO: We did a test, and we found out that people still want feedback. We tried to go with a ‘view forward’ model, to look forward and not give feedback, but people want conversations about how the past year went. You have to manage performance throughout the year, but it is a culture shift to get people to have those conversations. We now have three check-ins throughout the year, one of which is an hour long, but no rating is given at the end.

It helps people feel fulfilled and then reset their goals based on those conversations.

CM: I agree on separating the performance conversations from the compensation talk. For us, it is also about the whole robust dialogue, about creating a coaching culture and teaching leaders to have transparent dialogue with people around development.

We encourage the sharing of feedback and

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SPECIAL REPORT

HR LEADERS ROUNDTABLE HOW PERFORMANCE RATINGS AFFECT SALARY INCREASES Average salary increase as a % of payroll

Rating Highest possible rating

4.3%

Above average rating

3.2%

Average rating

2.2%

Below average rating

0.9%

All ratings

3.8% Source: Human Resources Trends for 2018, Morneau Shepell

feed-forward to happen monthly. Those conversations are about what we need to do in our work and how things are going. We’ve created an ‘always on’ culture so that when we have longer-term conversations two to three times a year, there are no surprises. We are highly regulated, too, so we cannot move away from a ratings system, but for us it’s about those ratings not being a surprise.

AP: There is little research that shows an annual increase motivates employees. It is actually anticlimactic for employees – the boost lasts about seven days. However, research does show that employees really care about the relationship they have with their boss. Seventy per cent of employees surveyed would actually leave for the same money for a better relationship with their manager or leader. That’s the basis for our performance management. How do we enable conversations to happen? The shift away from annual performance ratings has actually cannibalized the frequency of those conversations.

For us, it’s about how we build the relationship with our employee, because that’s what they want. Then it’s virtuous circle – the stronger the relationship you have, the more you trust the feedback you get and act on it. How do we build those relationships and shift from ‘command and control’ management to leadership that is about coaching and motivating? For us, it’s about those conversations.

HFW: As a government agency, our executive compensation is legislated, so it’s challenging to get away from traditional perform-

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ance management ratings strategies. We are focusing on whether the right conversations are happening on a regular basis and how that ties in with setting and meeting goals.

We are unionized, and our staff does not have a pay-for-performance element, yet what we hear from our employees is that they want to know if they are doing well. They what to know what is working, and without the infrastructure in place, those conversations do not naturally happen.

WINNING CHARACTERISTICS SC: What characteristics does a future leader in HR need to be able to help an organization transform?

CM: It is changing. In my team, the business acumen has got to be there. You have to understand how the business works and the ‘why’ behind what they’re going after. I have largely been an HR leader, but taking on the

role of chief of staff to the president is largely based on understanding the business and being his proxy in particular discussions. So for me, leaning in to understand the business and being a thought leader at the table is needed. It isn’t just handling people questions, but also handling where we need to go across the business.

Being direct is also important. We use the term ‘radical candour,’ where you care about the people around you but you can challenge them directly. You need to be able to speak up and talk about things in a group setting if you want to change a culture.

AP: I strongly believe that HR people should come from the business and the line because I don’t think you can support the business or do it justice if you haven’t been in the trenches. Coaching a manager to have a difficult conversation is one thing, but if you are in the line and in the business, it brings a completely different perspective and set of muscles that you flex in a HR role. I would

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EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT TRENDS IN NORTH AMERICA Top engagement opportunities

Change from previous year

Enabling infrastructure

0

Employee value proposition

-2

Rewards and recognition

-1

Senior leadership

-2

Performance management

-7

Source: 2017 Global Trends in Employee Engagement, Aon Hewitt

today. People also need operational resiliency.

A lot of HR functions are getting good at delivering the basics, but it’s about managing risk and not being risk-averse.

“We can’t always walk into the room thinking we have all the answers because we can learn a lot from different perspectives. The beauty of HR is that there is never just one right answer” Tania Oppedisano, Dialog love to see more HR leaders and practitioners come from the line of the business.

TO: I also think it’s about listening. We can’t always walk into the room thinking we have all the answers because we can learn a lot from different perspectives. The beauty of HR is that there is never just one right answer. You can really build your knowledge if you listen to the group of people around you. That also brings you a lot of credibility.

GG: One characteristic the function of HR needs is to operate like a business. You could have HR professionals who are entrepre-

neurial, but if the rest of the function does not act in the same way, then you’re not equipping them with what they need. The function needs to ensure it’s acting like a business and has that discipline.

For HR professionals, change enablement is key, not change management. Businesses look at HR to help them from a change enablement perspective, and building that resiliency is required, whether that’s through a leadership program or coaching people to make sure they’re on the journey of change and can cope with the constant change of

SC: When you think about HR and the characteristics needed, it’s about mastering capabilities that are core to HR: leveraging data, shaping the workforce, understanding how to design a delivery model in an organization. These are expectations that are not necessarily new, but they take a different dimension because of the rate of change in the business. I think one of the key skills that needs to be brought into HR is being a futurist – looking out five or 10 years and understanding what the changing landscape looks like and bringing relevant pieces into the organization now to shape and influence that future.

GG: It’s so ambiguous when you’re dealing with the business of people. Being predictive and futuristic is hard, and that is why the business looks up to HR. CM: It’s why you have to stay current.

Combine your perspective with resiliency, because if you know where things are going, you can take the punches that might come from the outside world. You’ll be able to more effectively take those learnings and say, “OK, what did I just learn?” and then put it back into your model.

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SPECIAL REPORT

HR LEADERS ROUNDTABLE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT: NORTH AMERICA VERSUS THE WORLD Global North America

Engagement score

75% 70% 65%

64%

63% 60%

55%

64%

65%

61%

63%

62%

60% 59%

65%

60% 58%

50% 2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

Year Source: 2017 Global Trends in Employee Engagement, Aon Hewitt

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION SC: We all understand the value of diversity, but I’m not sure if all organizations are there in terms of building a business case to be more diverse.

What has HR done in to build a strong case to advance the diversity agenda within your organization?

HFW: At Metrolinx, we have a diversity and inclusion strategy that was approved by the board, which we felt was really important.

In creating our business case, we looked at employee engagement, what culture we want to have and best practices.

We believe the best decisions are made when there is diversity and inclusion, and that was our business case. We developed a fourpillar strategy, and we have strategic objectives that we look at every year, and diversity and inclusion was one of the key focuses. That aligns with the provincial focus in terms of gender balance of senior managers. This so important because we are a very white and male organization right now – this is common in the transportation environment.

GG: We have diversity strategy, but for us, it’s about how we make sure the values we stand for internally are linked to our community

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practice. One of the pieces we are grappling with is the intersectionality of diversity. We have been very good at women in leadership, LGBTQ, people with disabilities and visible minorities, but now diversity is a much broader definition than those pillars. Horizontally, how do we look at these pillars and draw intersectionality between them? It’s not about one group over the other; it’s about each and every one of them and defining what diversity means from an individual perspective.

TO: We created a high-potential program where we developed criteria that needed to reflect the diversity of our staff. Everyone wants to have someone come in a talk about unconscious bias, but it’s one thing to hear a conversation about it and another thing when you really understand where your gaps are.

How does that impact how we’re going to change the way we look at and build our teams and promote our people? We are focused on diversity of approach, and we are going to be moving forward with a B-Corp certification process. It’s a lens, like an audit, to see how we are doing and start that conversation in a more structured way.

AP: Programs and committees are fantastic to drive the agenda, but it really comes down to how we get that filter in everyone’s day-to-day. I was having a conversation with a

friend of mine who’s an HR professional who said her company has really strong diversity and inclusion strategy with numbers that look great. But then they had a meeting where the senior team cooked breakfast during Ramadan. Where was that on someone’s radar? All it takes is for someone who is fasting to sit there and feel they can’t participate. It’s great to have a strategy, but really it comes down to the filter with which all of us live life and show up to work. I don’t think we are as conscious of that as we are of ticking boxes on a strategy.

CM: At Capital One, one of the things we’ve done is start at the top and assess any gaps we might have. Almost 50% of our senior leaders are women, and that has created a different type of dialogue and understanding that happens at the senior table. We have spent time as a senior leadership team in a room being self-aware and examining our gaps and looking into how our backgrounds and perspectives are creating an environment that is either of psychological safety or an environment that detracts from that.

TECHNOLOGY – THE ULTIMATE HR DISRUPTOR SC: How can HR use artificial intelligence, augmented reality, machine learning and other emerging technologies to enhance the employee experience and shape the future of talent management? How is new technology being implemented in your organization?

HFW: Being in the transportation field, technology, AI and robotics are changing so much of what we do. But how do we react to that from an HR perspective? Automating as much of our administrative functions as possible is key for us. We are a growing organization; we have grown 10% year-over-year for the last eight years. The old way of doing things is not sustainable, and from a talent perspective, we want to be able to invest in the talent that really makes a difference.

Automating what we do is key; you need that to provide the analytics and KPIs anyway so that businesses can make the right decisions.

GG: From a TD perspective, investment in

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HOW TECHNOLOGY IS TRANSFORMING HR

75%

of organizations that undertook HR transformation have successfully executed complex initiatives such as implementation of cloud HR technology

72%

made changes to operating models alongside their implementation

73%

built a business case with clear measures for success

50%

said intelligent automation will drive significant changes for the business and believe process automation will have a significant impact on the HR operating model

61%

plan to focus intelligent automation efforts on talent management and talent acquisition

57%

will use automation to help with onboarding

Source: HR Transformation, KPMG International, 2017

AI, robotics and machine learning is at the centre of our strategy. While some sort of digitization and robotics always existed, even simple things like a macro in Excel is an algorithm, but the level of sophistication that has kicked in is at a whole new level. From user machinery and robotics perspective, it’s about embracing that but also striking the right balance between where you want robotics and where you still want human intervention. It has really been about where we invest and what comes first, because there is so much demand for this. Most recently, we acquired Layer 6, an AI company.

I have the privilege of running the AI agenda for HR, so the topic is near and dear to my heart. We launched a program called My Two Cents, an ideation program for HR colleagues, and within the span of a year, we have had 500 submissions of how we can leverage robotics and AI. We have already implemented 100.

CM: At Capital One, we are on this journey,

“We believe the best decisions are made when there is diversity and inclusion, and that was our business case” Helen Ferreira-Walker, Metrolinx too, and HR is going hand-in-hand with the organization and trying to automate our processes. It comes back to enablement: How we can make it easier for applicants and associates to get things done? That enablement is key. We’ve taken a lead from our CEO, who talks about changing banking for good. We are trying to change the customer experience and take those learnings and implement them for our associates and applicants. We migrated over to Workday about two years ago, and it has been a fantastic journey in automating a lot of things that come with that platform.

AP: I think we are a little bit further back in the journey. We were automating some of our

applicant tracking systems and self-serve for employees, but I want us to be careful that we are delivering value to our employees and not removing those human touchpoints that employees actually want and look for. We find out from our employees and applicants what’s working and what’s not, and then look to how we can improve our processes.

TO: At Dialog, we can’t really rely on job postings for recruiting because of the type of candidates we’re looking for. Forty-five percent of our candidates are referrals, and 30% have gone directly to our website. That’s because our recruiting philosophy takes a marketing approach. We want to become a

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SPECIAL REPORT

HR LEADERS ROUNDTABLE

“It comes back to enablement: How we can make it easier for applicants and associates to get things done? That enablement is key” Christina McClung, Capital One TOP CHALLENGES IN TECHNOLOGY IMPLEMENTATION

47%

Cost/funding Lack of appetite, budget and skills to make required process standardization Disparate underlying IT systems; lack of integration across IT applications and systems

35% 32%

Inconsistent and non-standard business processes make broad automation impractical

32%

Inability to build a compelling and realistic business case for investment

THE FUTURE OF WORK SC: This is a topic that is top of mind for organizational leaders and HR professionals. What does it mean to you?

HFW: For me, it means lots of things. How is technology going to change the roles that are in the organization, because they are going to be so different in the future? How do we adapt to that? Things like workplace design are going to be key. I read a great article about how HR is going to take a stronger role in workplace design because it’s not about infrastructure; it’s about people and how they work and interact.

GG: For me, the future of work means there are not going to be defined lines between work life and personal life and what a human does and what a machine does. Lines will be blurred, so for any leader – not just HR – it will be about having the ability to be agile and essentially being able to deal with ambiguity. For HR professionals, the most important thing is to

37%

Immaturity of technologies

thought leader and get our name out there so people want to work with us. So, investing in robust recruitment software – what does that get us?

27% Source: HR Transformation, KPMG International, 2017

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enable a skills revolution. We have seen an industrial revolution in terms of workplace changes, but the agenda for talent will not change. It might bring different nuances, but HR will still be called upon when it comes to finding the right skills and capabilities that are required for organizations to move forward.

SC: With life expectancy continuing to rise, we will soon see up to seven generations in the workforce. That means it will be important to embrace a continual skills revolution and lifelong learning – engaging people at different stages of their careers. How do we that? New generations have different agendas and different expectations. It will become a skills revolution, like a turbine that needs to be energized to keep moving forward.

CM: I think it will be critical for HR leaders of the future to hone in on the notion of being meaningful and intentional in the way in which they lead their teams. One of the main things is going back to the concept of listening and creating a feedback-rich

“There are not going to be defined lines between work life and personal life and what a human does and what a machine does … so for any leader – not just HR – it will be about having the ability to be agile and essentially being able to deal with ambiguity” Girish Ganesan, TD Bank Group culture. HR leaders should also push themselves to help other people understand what it is they might be trying to create. If you can listen, you can have humble inquires, where you ask good questions to uncover exactly what outcome the person wants.

AP: It’s about your ability to create a relevant and personalized service. I think we will see fewer tactical HR professionals in the future.

GG: Be authentic. Drop the façade that you are an HR leader and start to act like any

other business leader in the room. A lot of time we get bogged down by policies that we are accountable for, and people don’t open up to us as a result.

The second piece is don’t be complacent.

Just because we are in the business of people doesn’t mean you are indispensable.

Continuous learning is going to be very important in making sure you are reskilling yourself. Even if you have an MBA or master’s degree, that is already stale by now because of the way the environment is changing.

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23/05/2018 12:30:09 AM

FEATURES

LEGAL INSIGHT

Accommodating mental health Michael Horvat outlines the constant juggling act required to ensure mental health issues are handled appropriately in the workplace MANAGING WORK-LIFE balance can be a daily struggle for employees who are torn between the demands of the workplace and their own personal lives. Any additional stress – whether it’s financial, medical or emotional – can tip the balance. The daily rigours of working within this balance can affect any employee’s mental health, and for those who also suffer from mental illness, the ability to cope and the need for accommodation are of utmost importance.

There are many tools available to HR

and guidance to help employees maintain (or retain) the balance. Ultimately, professional employee assistance programs should be made available to help any employee get back on track or access the care necessary for treatment.

The duty to accommodate HR professionals have the added challenge of monitoring the impact of accommodation on the workplace itself and having to be ready to address co-workers’ reactions to this

Employers have a duty to accommodate an employee suffering from a disability to the point of undue hardship professionals to assist their employees in either managing their own mental health in the workplace or assisting and accommodating those who need additional support.

Company policies that facilitate discussion and options, as well as provide employees with temporary leave to address their mental health and medical needs, can be the first step.

Additionally, comprehensive health and insurance policies can provide access to third-party professionals, such as therapists, psychologists, addiction specialists and nutritionists, to provide professional monitoring

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accommodation. This can become particularly acute when the employee’s conduct and actions affect their job performance or negatively impact their colleagues.

Employers have a duty to accommodate an employee suffering from a disability to the point of undue hardship. By definition, some degree of hardship not only has to be expected, but also accepted – not just by the employer, but by other employees. Employee morale or the potential negative reaction by colleagues to the type or manner of accommodation afforded to a co-worker suffering from mental

illness is generally of less importance.

Unless there is a true safety concern about a co-worker returning to the workplace (which must be reflected in actual risk), the right of that employee to return to work and the obligation of the company to engage in their accommodation takes precedence. If the returning employee can be accommodated, he or she should be, and the personal attitudes of co-workers, particularly those grounded in discriminatory beliefs or misconceptions related to mental illness, cannot bar that employee’s return.

Awareness programs, such as the Canadian Mental Health Association’s Mental Health Week, provide an opportunity for HR professionals and employers to deliver information and dispel misconceptions associated with mental illness, mental health and accommodation at work. These awareness programs provide support to employees, remove the stigma associated with disclosing mental health issues and encourage employees who may be suffering in silence to seek treatment.

Additionally, the information distributed and follow-up discussion can assist all employees in their understanding of coping with and/or treating mental illness. If employees gain a better understanding of the identification and treatment of mental illness, future accommodation of co-workers is likely to be smoother and more productive.

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Brought to you by

The challenge for HR professionals is to approach directly, in an open and welcoming manner, mental health and the accommodation of mental illness in the workplace Further considerations The obligation of an employer to accommodate an employee coping with mental illness is not, however, an absolute. First and foremost, an accommodated employee is not free to engage in impermissible work behaviour and is not protected from discipline in the event that he or she engages in misconduct that is not or could not be associated with their illness.

In the 2016 Bell Canada v. Unifor case, the Ontario Divisional Court reviewed a decision involving a long-standing employee who had been terminated for engaging in theft in the workplace. The employee had been diagnosed with PTSD and a major depressive disorder.

The arbitrator had mitigated the penalty, reinstating the employee to his position on the basis that his illness and the misconduct were

linked. The court overruled the arbitrator and sent the matter back to be dealt with by another arbitrator.

The court did not accept that the employee’s psychiatrist had found unequivocally that the employee’s mental illness was linked to the thefts. Without such connection (or better evidence of a causal link), the employer would be able to discipline the employee, notwithstanding his medical condition.

The Ontario Human Rights Commission, in its Policy on Preventing Discrimination Based on Mental Health Disabilities and Addictions, described the challenges in accommodating employees with mental illness as follows: “People with mental health issues and addictions are a diverse group, and experience disability, impairment and societal barriers in many different ways. Disabilities

are often ‘invisible’ and episodic, with people sometimes experiencing periods of wellness and periods of disability. All people with disabilities have the same rights to equal opportunities under the Code, whether their disabilities are visible or not.”

The challenge for HR professionals is to approach directly, in an open and welcoming manner, mental health and the accommodation of mental illness in the workplace.

Disseminating more information will prompt discussion and hopefully lead to greater acceptance, which will not only encourage employees who may be suffering to seek treatment earlier, but will also lay the groundwork for an easier transition and accommodation into a work environment that is more knowledgeable, more understanding and more supportive.

Michael Horvat is a partner in the workplace law group at Aird & Berlis LLP. He can be reached at mhorvat@airdberlis.com or 416-8654622. For more information on Aird & Berlis’ complimentary HRPA-accredited webinars and newsletters, or to register for the firm’s annual Workplace Law Summit, please email RSVP@airdberlis.com.

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23/05/2018 12:30:47 AM

FEATURES

RECRUITMENT

The unspoken benefit of a retiring workforce As baby boomers transition into retirement, engaging with junior talent may be the key to long-term hiring success IT’S HAPPENING – the baby boomers are wrapping up their careers, and HR leaders are scrambling to fill the void. As the existing workforce advances up the corporate ladder to fill those positions, you might be wondering how to find the skilled talent necessary to keep up with the level of innovation and advancement that defines the modern business world.

Worried? You shouldn’t be – this is the opportunity your company has been waiting for.

“Employers are leveraging the young talent of today’s emerging workforce to position themselves as innovators,” says Ross Johnston, executive director of the University of Waterloo’s co-operative education program.

Harnessing tomorrow’s talent Johnston is well versed in the realm of emerging talent: UWaterloo is home to the world’s largest co-op program, with nearly 7,000 active employers and more than 21,000 co-op students. Johnston says the trends suggest junior talent is key to long-term hiring success.

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“It’s about to get really competitive,” he says. “Forward-reaching companies are creating hubs of innovation, labs and studios dedicated to solving big problems, and they are hiring students to fuel that innovation.”

A recent study by the Business/Higher Education Roundtable, which surveyed hiring managers at 95 of Canada’s largest companies, found that 83% of those companies participate in co-op programs and other forms of work-integrated learning initiatives to help them identify potential new employees, up from 76% the year before.

“Our employers tell us that students inject an energy into the workplace – their ideas are exciting, contagious and totally in line with the current ‘knowledge economy’ needs that define today’s market,” Johnston says, adding that employers are anxious to access that “difference-making” talent that propels a company forward.

View from the frontline David McKay, who graduated from Waterloo in 1998 with a bachelor’s of environmental studies in urban and regional planning, is

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CO-OP BENEFITS In 2015, the Business/Higher Education Roundtable [BHER] set a bold target of having 100% of undergraduate students with access to some form of work-integrated learning experience prior to graduating. This goal reflects the pace of innovation, disruptive new technologies and rising global competition for talent that today’s graduates are seeing in the labour market.

In these rapidly changing times, it’s a fresh approach to help Canada meet the challenges that exist where business, education and employment intersect. (Read more about BHER’s plan to incorporate WIL into every student’s experience at bher.ca/initiatives/work-integrated-learning-getting-100.)

Other benefits to hiring a co-op student: • Cost-effectiveness: Up to 70% of co-op student wages can be subsidized.

• Flexibility: Students are available year-round and can work from four to 12 months at a time.

• Short-term staffing needs: A co-op student can help complete an existing project, cover a medical leave or start a project that has been postponed.

• Long-term talent development: Hiring co-op students now could translate into great full-time hires later.

“Employers are leveraging the young talent of today’s emerging workforce to position themselves as innovators” Ross Johnston, University of Waterloo one of those former students who made an impact. More than two decades ago, McKay was hired for multiple co-op work terms with MacNaughton Hermsen Britton Clarkson Planning Limited [MHBC] as a student. Today, he is a partner at MHBC. “My work terms provided me with a variety of experiences, which I used to decide the direction of my career,” McKay says of the opportunities that set the foundation for his current-day success. “Co-op terms provide benefits to both the student as well as the employer,” he adds, referencing his involvement from both perspectives.

Johnston says stories like McKay’s are common at Waterloo, but he reminds employers that early connections often yield the best results.

“Making an early connection to co-op student talent makes a difference, particularly for their first work term,” he says. “The first job a student has, that’s the one they remember. That’s often the brand they develop the strongest loyalty toward.”

He says students tend to gravitate toward employers they develop a strong connection with, and many accept full-time jobs after graduation.

McKay recommends hiring students as a means of succession planning. He likes the fresh perspective, energy and enthusiasm students have brought to MHBC and says hiring co-op is a great opportunity to source future employees.

Johnston agrees, and suggests that now is the time to start. “Don’t wait to start developing your talent pipeline,” he says.

“Recruit your next partner or VP today.

Strengthen your company and embed that talent to fuel your innovation. It’s never been more important to build your legacy and keep up with the competition.”

University of Waterloo co-op students are available for hire year-round. Our team is based across Canada and is ready to provide on-the-ground support for your hiring needs. To post a job or learn more about our hiring process, contact us at hire.talent@uwaterloo.ca.

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FEATURES

INSIDE HR

A Hilton Haikou Meilan (China) group photo celebrating the Thrive@Hilton initiative

The heart of Hilton Hilton’s mission is to be the most hospitable company in the world. But it’s what – or who – is at the heart of this mission that is the key to its success WHILE IT’S not uncommon for organizations to claim that “our people are our greatest asset,” often these are empty words. Not so at Hilton, which has a refreshing twist on the phrase.

“Our team members are at the core of our success, so we actually call them the ‘Heart of Hilton,’” explains Brendan Toomey, Hilton’s vice-president of HR for Asia Pacific. “And in order for our business to be successful, we

36

need our team members to have their heads in the right state. So we took a decision to really think: What do we need to do to engage all of our team members? How do we capture their hearts and minds?”

He refers in particular to millennials, who are often looking for out-of-the-box benefits and solutions and constantly thinking about how their work can be elevated in terms of

workplace, culture and purpose.

“We wanted to create an environment where people thrive, where our team members thrive, our business thrives,” Toomey says, “and that is now our overarching employee value proposition in the company.”

To put this concept into practical terms, Hilton has partnered with Thrive Global, whose mission is “to end the stress and burnout epidemic by offering sustainable, science-based solutions to enhance well-being, performance and purpose, and create a healthier relationship with technology.”

Hilton’s belief is that this is not a zero-sum game. Success does not come at the price of well-being; in fact, it’s the other way around – only by putting well-being first can people be properly empowered for success. With this in mind, all of the company’s HR strategies and initiatives are now placed under the Thrive@ Hilton umbrella, which is split into three key areas: body, mind and spirit.

Back to basics When talking about the body, the first thing

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that often comes to mind is living a healthier lifestyle. But Toomey explains that it goes beyond what happens in the body and also means looking at where the body is situated.

He illustrates this point by painting a familiar scenario. “Imagine waking up at six o’clock in the morning and dragging yourself to work. You get to your workplace, and it’s very dull and dim, and you’re hardly energetic and motivated to hand the customers a hearty breakfast.” Hilton is keen to overturn this stereotypical image of a dark and dingy behind-the-scenes space for hotel staff by ensuring consistency all throughout the hotel in terms of quality of space and service.

This can be seen in the Heart of House program, which was designed to provide team members with the same quality facilities hotel guests normally have. “If you were to walk behind the scenes in a hotel, and if you were to go dine in one of our team members’ dining rooms, then you would have a similar experience if you were to dine in one of our guestfacing restaurants,” Toomey says.

Apart from the healthy meals served, the staff dining rooms are also designed in a way that’s conducive to learning and leisure, where team members can bring their laptops and connect to Wi-Fi and do their work or unwind – an environment in which they can really thrive. Team members are also encouraged to take a break, go for a walk when needed and get enough sleep.

Recognizing the influence of the collective in sustaining health and wellness practices, Hilton’s Singapore office introduced a 100day Thrive Challenge, where team members convene to set goals to ‘thrive’ together for 100 days.

Instead of having a ‘one size fits all’ program, each department is given the opportunity to create its own set of challenges as a group to promote better work practices and healthier eating. The idea is to empower the team members to come up with measures that best fit their needs and personalities in line with the Thrive principle, ensuring ownership and sustainability.

“They are doing things in their own world that make them feel good about themselves

THRIVE@HILTON KEY PRINCIPLES Thrive@Hilton is Hilton’s employee value proposition, which aims to enable team members to thrive by growing and flourishing in body, mind and spirit.

BODY »» Building a strong foundation for health and well-being by encouraging team members to recharge while working, and by sharing tips on simple exercises and mindful eating habits to enable team members to feel more energized »» Through programs like Heart of House, Hilton also provides team members with a great environment that inspires them and helps them achieve their goals MIND »» Seeking lifelong learning and mindful leadership by equipping team members with diverse and numerous opportunities for personal and professional growth, while encouraging mindfulness – be it at meetings, in emails or time spent out of office to recharge SPIRIT »» Daring to dream and connect with purpose – Hilton launched a new Thrive Sabbatical Program last July to provide an opportunity for team members to enrich the lives of others or accomplish a personal goal and return to work inspired

“We wanted to create an environment where people thrive, where our team members thrive, our business thrives” Brendan Toomey, Hilton and make them feel healthier,” Toomey says.

“We don’t mandate anything – we don’t tell anybody they must eat healthily or that they must stop drinking alcohol. We provide guidelines; we give them tips. We help them think about micro steps they can take to help start their journey.”

Mind over matter Mindful leadership and lifelong learning are the two components under the ‘mind’ pillar, which Toomey considers the most significant component of the initiative.

The first step in mindful leadership is learning to communicate in a mindful way.

This can be broken down to the smallest things, such as emails and meetings – when and how they are sent out/set up, the amount of time spent on them – and the flow-on effect from these, especially given a general culture that expects constant connectivity through

technology. With Thrive, Hilton is looking to break away from that tradition and create a new culture.

“How people use digital, how they use social [media] in such a way that they can pretty much be on all the time – we think that’s very unhealthy,” Toomey says. “We don’t want that type of behaviour to be the norm. We understand that there may be a need for certain roles at certain times to be connected.

We’re not saying, ‘Just disconnect and forget about your job.’ What we’re saying to our team members is, ‘At the end of the day, you control when you’re on and when you’re off.’”

The idea of flexible work practices also comes into play. While it might be easy to allow remote work arrangements for certain roles, it’s obviously not feasible for a number of jobs within a hotel. So instead of extending the classic work-from-home option, supervisors and managers pay extra attention to the roster

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FEATURES

INSIDE HR

to make sure there’s flexibility, and staff members are given more leeway as to how and when they take time off work.

Toomey extends the concept of mindfulness to the area of mental health as well, in terms of how team members are doing and how leaders respond in turn.

“I think we’re in an environment where you may be working long hours,” he says.

“Maybe you’re not eating as well, maybe you’re not getting enough rest; you get tired, and therefore you’re not as gregarious and happy and lively as you might have been. So we’re working hard to get people to connect the dots between the pillars. They don’t stand alone; they’re all linked.

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“We encourage our leaders to connect, provide feedback, try to uncover, without prying and getting too personal, but just to understand what’s happening in that person’s life that we can support them more with. Our responsibility as an employer is, if we find that there’s some medical concern, then we would provide guidance and support and help point that person in the right direction.”

Engaging millennials in ‘spirit’ “Hilton believes it has this great opportunity to contribute more broadly to the community and give back where we can. That is the essence of why we are doing what we’re doing,” says Toomey about the rationale

behind the Thrive initiative, and the ‘spirit’ pillar in particular, which involves recognizing contributions from within and outside of Hilton.

‘Spirit’ also ties in with Hilton’s aim to be more intentional in engaging the millennial generation. “We find the millennial generation clearly wants to know about us as a company and what we’re doing for the community and the environment,” Toomey says. “Millennials are also keen to be fasttracked and promoted quickly.”

The company has an internal promotion process, an 18-month management trainee program that fast-tracks employees from graduation through to a first-level super-

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HEART OF HOUSE Designed to enhance the team member experience and provide an inspiring environment, the Heart of House initiative has set new standards to improve the back-ofhouse working environment for on-property team members.

Through the initiative, Hilton creates ownable space for team members, where food, lighting, music and even wardrobe are carefully considered in order to drive home the mission to be the world’s most hospitable company.

At Hilton Singapore, for instance, team members enjoy meals prepared by the hotel’s chefs in a team member cafe, which has a pool table and views that overlook the lush greenery on Orchard Road. There are also ‘snooze rooms’ where team members can recharge, as well as a recently revamped staff gym.

“We provide guidelines, we give them tips.

We help them think about micro steps that they can take to help start their journey” Brendan Toomey, Hilton

Hilton teams from Japan, India, China, Singapore and Australia celebrate Thrive@Hilton activities

visory role, along with an elevated program for general management wherein selected millennial employees go through four key aspects of Hilton’s operations within a couple of years and are eventually led to a head of department role – a process that traditionally takes eight to 10 years.

To date, Thrive@Hilton has been a hit with employees. For example, Michael Slaton, VP of finance at Hilton APAC, outlined to HRDC how his team has been actively and enthusiastically engaged in the program.

“The Thrive@Hilton initiatives have become a rallying point for our finance team members to come together and flourish as one in body, mind and spirit,” Slaton says. “We’re

doing more together as a team than ever before, from team outings such as BBQ and karaoke, to setting collective stair-climbing targets that we strive for and share photos of, no matter which part of the world any of us might be in – Singapore, Delhi or Tokyo, just to name a few. We’ve had several team members take on new physical challenges as well – from losing weight to learning how to swim – all the while cheering each other on.”

Looking beyond Hilton Having established what happens within, Hilton is turning its focus outward. To provide millennial team members with the meaning and purpose they want from work, Hilton has created a corporate responsibility program called Travel with Purpose, which provides action grants and resources to create initiatives that are tailored to local communities and their needs. The program includes a global week of service that allows team members to fully dedicate their time and efforts to top causes.

But it doesn’t stop at an annual event. The

company is quick to respond and donate to community needs as they come up at different times and in different geographies, such as with the recent catastrophes in the US. “In the US, with all the floods they’re having, the typhoons, fires – you can imagine what they’re doing around giving back to the community,” Toomey says. “There are donations set up wherein the company matches dollar for dollar what the team members put forward – things of that nature that build our culture and our mission to be the most hospitable company in the world.”

From shaping the mission, vision and values to the Thrive@Hilton initiative as the overall engagement strategy, to leadership development and corporate social responsibility, Toomey says HR’s role at Hilton is to make the embedded practices come to life in order to continuously grow the organization.

“When we’re recruiting team members from outside the company and bringing them in,” he says, “we’re sharing with them our stories about what we’re doing as a company and why they should come and join us.”

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FEATURES

SECTOR FOCUS: TECHNOLOGY

Time for user-friendly HR tech The most valuable workplace tech is seamless – and it doesn’t need an instruction manual, thanks to AI that is increasingly ‘human’ “DON’T BE a slave to technology – manage your phone; don’t let it manage you.” Those words from entrepreneur Richard Branson resonate in 2018 more than ever before. Just about any tech developer will tell you that their primary objective in the creation of new apps and platforms is to enhance the lives of the end users.

transcribe recordings, set Uber rides, search for flights, pull up contact information, and arrange for peer-to-peer introductions.

Zoom.ai aims to help people get up to speed on menial tasks with the ultimate aim of raising productivity. The startup was the winner of the 2017 HR Tech Den, the launchpad of startups in the HR and tech

“We’ve never had a better time than now to transform, powered by the growth of cloud applications and exponential technology leveraging AI, machine learning and natural language processing” Roy Pereira, Zoom.ai The same applies to HR tech. Zoom.ai, a company that develops automated assistants that can manage routine tasks for busy offices, is just one example of a startup looking to transform the user experience. The AI helper is programmed to schedule meetings, set reminders and briefings, generate documents,

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space, and the flagship program of the HR Tech Summit Toronto.

“We build technology that resonates with employees,” says Zoom.ai CEO Roy Pereira.

“We’ve never had a better time than now to transform, powered by the growth of cloud applications and exponential technology

leveraging AI, machine learning and natural language processing.”

Making the workday “more human” is the breakthrough innovation many have been waiting for, Pereira adds. That sentiment is echoed by Philip Grauer, director of product management at CGI. He says the objective of CGI’s Njoyn – a leader in the recruitment management and applicant tracking space – is to ensure that technology makes the employee experience easier, more productive and more enjoyable.

“Technology needs to be designed from the ground up with a high degree of usability,” Grauer says. “It should address real-world problems and aim to simply provide access to the needed data at the point of service.”

This focus on the end user is the result of the consumerization of technology, whereby functions readily available in everyday tech (smartphones, etc.) are now part of workplace tech. This has provided employees with easier and faster access to real-time information that allows them to do their jobs. It also means technology is more intuitive than ever before – today there’s no need for lengthy instruction manuals or training sessions.

“The fact that consumerization has taken place allows new entrants into the market and lowers the cost for users of these services,” Grauer says. “This includes new mobile services, as well as value-added integrations between what were, in the past, distinct stand-alone solutions. Examples of such integrations within the HR world include an applicant tracking solution talking with a background check provider or an applicant tracking solution sharing data with a video interview solution.”

AI and the next wave A reasonably new development being applied to the workplace is artificial intelligence – and again, this has been influenced by consumer tech like Apple’s Siri. Within the recruitment process, for example, Grauer says AI lends itself nicely to automatic chat modules. This

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includes ‘candidate ask’ – where the candidate can ask questions regarding the company and receives pre-defined answers. The chat algorithm will continuously learn based on the questions posed.

In addition, there is ‘candidate capture,’ where the recruitment page will actively welcome and pose questions to the candidate and, based on their answers, route them to the appropriate open jobs. The system will capture key candidate information along the way and thereby minimize candidate drop-out rates during the application process.

Design thinking – essentially, starting with the problem and working backwards to

find a solution – has been critical to this process. “We need to understand the current pain points and effectively address them with new solutions,” Grauer says.

The impact of design thinking might be most profoundly experienced through what Deloitte describes as digital ‘appification.’

Rather than building an onboarding system, a learning system, a performance management system, and a collaboration and coaching system, design thinking brings these solutions together in seamless apps that improve employee experiences across the board.

Designing tech in such a way ensures it remains rooted in real-life challenges. Part of

the criticism of AI is that it lacks the ‘human touch’; it can be frustrating and ultimately result in negative customer (or employee) interactions with an organization. Rurik Bradbury, global head of conversational strategy at LivePerson – a tech company that develops products for online messaging, marketing and analytics – says this is where conversational designers come in.

“Bots can’t learn on their own; they need the right teachers and managers,” he says.

“Conversational designers write scripts for the bots and teach them how to respond to queries. I heard a story about one customer who was messaging a brand and mentioned

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FEATURES

SECTOR FOCUS: TECHNOLOGY

THE NEXT HOT AREA Deloitte reports that the people analytics market grew and matured exponentially in 2017, and this growth is set to continue throughout 2018. Three crucial areas to pay attention to are: Embedded analytics This area of analytics – which makes analyses available as needed without having to generate reports – is the fastestgrowing analytics spending area.

Artificial intelligence Vendors will become intelligence providers, rather than merely analytics providers. Most major application providers are working to deliver pattern recognition, algorithm refinement, machine learning and natural language processing.

Organizational network analysis ONA technology captures data from emails, feedback activities and other sources to understand how people are communicating.

It identifies workflow patterns, bottlenecks and roles.

TECH DEN 2018

HR tech innovators hoping to take part in Tech Den 2018 have until May 30 to nominate their startup. The competition is open to all Canadian independent or non-affiliated companies that are three years old or less by June 26, 2018.

HR tech startups will have a chance to compete for a $20,000 marketing campaign in HRD Canada magazine and HRD Online.

For more information, please visit hrtechsummit.com/toronto/tech-den

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that she lost her husband. The bot responded with, ‘Great! I’d be happy to help you with that.’ The bot misinterpreted her intent and thought she was trying to track a lost shipment. Designers write empathy into the bot so these situations won’t happen. AI still has a long way to go, but we’re well on our way to interacting with AI as if it were a human.”

The future may already be here. Duplex is the latest machine learning experiment to come out of Google. This isn’t your average chatbot. It’s a robocaller trained to book

to “signal in a natural way that it is still processing,” according to the engineers behind the project.

Keeping track For now, HR professionals might be concerned about the limited insight they have into how, when and where employees are using technology. If so, they can rest easy – there’s a tech solution to shed some light on it.

“If you don’t know how your employees are using their software, you really don’t

“Technology should address real-world problems and aim to simply provide access to the needed data at the point of service” Philip Grauer, CGI Njoyn reservations and hold phone conversations on your behalf. The catch: the bot sounds all too human.

Duplex: “Hi, I’m calling to book a woman’s haircut for a client. I’m looking for something on May 3rd.”

Staff: “Sure, give me one second.”

Duplex: “Mm-hmm ...”

The neophyte AI assistant plays the part of a human so naturally when it places a call that the person on the other end of the conversation might actually think they were speaking to a human.

On the back end, Duplex is powered by Google’s advancements in natural language processing, deep learning and text-to-speech technology. On the B2C front, this super bot demonstrates so-called speech disfluencies – the pauses in conversation marked with ‘uhh’s, ‘umm’s and ‘hmm’s – associated with moments of careful thought. This has been deliberately baked into the system for the AI

know whether they’re engaged and productive or not,” says Knoa Software CEO Brian Berns. “User analytics provide crucial insight into how employees interact with their enterprise systems so that organizations can get to the root of any problems and come up with viable solutions.”

Knoa UEM is a user experience management solution that provides full visibility into employees’ interactions with enterprise software, shedding light on application usage, adoption and workflows. With this insight into the actual employee experience, organizations can better understand the process bottlenecks, inefficient workflows and trouble areas their employees face on a daily basis.

“Workers expect user-friendly functionality in their workplaces, and they have a right to expect that,” Berns says. “Enterprises can’t expect employees to be satisfied plodding through decades-old technology when they’re used to intuitive, seamless technology on their home laptops, tablets and cell phones.”

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FEATURES

INTELLIGENCE AUGMENTATION

Artificial intelligence versus intelligence augmentation Most HR professionals are aware of AI, but Rob Bromage, CEO and founder of intelliHR, outlines the emerging field of intelligence augmentation and what it means for HR

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THERE HAS been so much hype around artificial intelligence over the last few years that I think there’s now a bit of fear surrounding it. A lot of people I speak to are still unsure why we need it and what exact role it can play, and are probably wondering, “Will it take over our jobs?”

I recently spoke at an HR conference about Big Data and how HR teams can use AI to leverage all of their human capital data.

There is an enormous opportunity for HR to leverage the latest technology around AI – but, more specifically, there’s also an opportunity to focus on intelligence augmentation, or IA, which is a term not as many people are familiar with.

AI is an autonomous system that can be taught to imitate and replace human cognitive functions. Simply put, the machine completely replaces human intervention and interaction.

IA, on the other hand, plays more of an assistive role by leveraging AI to enhance human intelligence rather than replace it.

What can IA do for HR? When it comes to IA, there’s certainly nothing to worry about – and in fact, there is a massive opportunity for HR to embrace the access to data insights that can be generated.

There’s so much data that flows around an organization – there’s data in exit feedback, goal feedback, performance feedback; it’s

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everywhere. There’s so much content flowing around an organization that even the best HR team could not possibly process and make sense of it all.

With IA, the machine is not making a decision and doing something about it without consulting you; the machine is just saying, “Hey, take a look at this; I think it’s important, so you should pay attention.

That’s the whole concept of augmentation – it’s enhancing, not replacing.

A machine can identify trends and process data in order to make our jobs easier, our staff happier and our businesses more successful.

Even with issues like attrition, we can put an algorithm together to assess flight risk.

people to get a grip on potential risks before they get out of hand.

Do we need AI, then?

It might sound a little daunting, but the truth is that we need AI in HR because it has the capability to do some really awesome things for us and the business.

One form of AI is natural language processing [NLP]. NLP is a computer application designed to understand the human language as it is spoken or written. It can be used to do sentiment analysis by predicting sentiment or underlying emotions coming through in your qualitative data, and that’s pretty amazing. A member of the HR team

Intelligence augmentation plays more of an assistive role by leveraging artificial intelligence to enhance human intelligence rather than replace it For example, if you’re an HR manager sitting in another office, you might not know that Mary in your accounts team has just moved way out to the suburban outskirts because the rent is cheaper. You don’t know that Mary is now taking an extra 1.5 hours to get to work every day and, as a result, her passion for the job is fast flailing. Your people management application helps you to identify that Mary’s address has changed and alerts you that her travel time is now pushed out to 2.5 hours each day. This might give you earlier insight into why Mary’s performance has been slipping and suggest an office transfer or even a salary review.

As you can see, the machine doesn’t do the job for you – it enhances your ability to do yours. There’s logic and an algorithm sitting there, and this is where an all-in-one analytics and people management platform can allow

simply could not sit there and process the mass amounts of data flowing in and around your business, let alone compile a report on it for you at the click of a button.

At the end of the day, AI allows HR teams to see key issues taking place and act on them much more quickly than they would have been able to without it. One of the main reasons we created the intelliHR platform is because we wanted to give HR teams all the tools to manage those issues more proactively themselves.

To put it plainly, I think the ‘now status’ for many HR managers without the right technology is that they are forced to go digging through mountains of data for crucial information, which takes a lot of time.

However, the ‘now status’ with intelliHR is that you can find the data you need at a click of a button and save yourself not only time,

THE DATA THAT MATTERS Critical data is everywhere, and the intelliHR platform can find it for you.

Employee life-cycle processes Onboarding and probation reviews Continuous feedback processes Goal and performance chats Self-reviews and performance reviews Diary notes and discipline processes but also the stress involved in getting to an issue after the horse has already bolted.

There is a massive opportunity to leverage AI in an HR organization, particularly if we look at it from the perspective of IA. I believe the greatest value to a business is the ability to be across all data to the point where you can understand exactly what data is important at any point in time.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that if we want to have the biggest impact, the best way to do this is to make sure we always focus on solving the most important problems. I see AI with IA thinking as arming us with the data that shows us where those problems lie.

Rob Bromage is an HR technology specialist with more than 20 years of experience. He is the founder and managing director of intelliHR, a cloud-based people management platform that allows organizations to maintain a real-time handle on performance, creating a culture that contributes to strategic decisionmaking with data-driven insights.

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PEOPLE

CAREER PATH

PIONEERING SPIRIT Armed with both ambition and resolve, Jim Steffler has never hesitated to seize the opportunities presented to him Steffler took a break from his education to explore the West, gain some independence, ski and make money for university. For four weeks, he walked into the Banff Springs Hotel every day in search of work, eventually making enough of an impression to be hired for a plum front desk position – the first step in what would become a longer-than-anticipated stint in hospitality

1982

GOES WEST

1990

CHANGES LANES

1997

EARNS AN MBA Steffler was part of the inaugural class signed up by CIBC for an MBA in financial services at Dalhousie University. Ever the devoted student, he leapt at the chance to finish his education and was exposed to strategic business thinking for the first time “I saw an opportunity to gain new skills and I went for it.

It helped me become a better strategic thinker”

Steffler was inspired by a CIBC recruitment drive to change lanes, joining the bank as an account manager. CIBC’s program put him through some intense classroom time supplemented with on-the-job learning, but Steffler embraced the challenge of the steep learning curve “It was a very rigorous training program, learning both hard and soft skills.

I’ve never shied away from learning – I was up for the challenge”

2001

DRIVES STRATEGY

2004

When a friend from his MBA class told Steffler about a chance to join HSBC, he seized the opportunity for a position with global exposure and a significant strategy component “That’s when I realized that what I loved was all about being in senior leadership, rather than banking itself.

The industry became secondary; developing new strategies was primary”

JOINS BCAA Hungry for a new challenge, Steffler joined BCAA in a newly created strategic business development position at a time of growth and diversification for the auto association

“I like to be that pioneer who explores new territory and builds; I like to be able to make my position my own and see the outcomes quickly. I was totally accountable – I knew where the buck stopped”

2016

EARNS RECOGNITION In the first year it applied, LGM was named a platinum-level Best Employer by Aon Hewitt Canada – a confirmation of Steffler’s success in his first strategic HR leadership role “We’re in good company on that list. We rated very highly on employee engagement levels because we had a lot of good practices in place – this was somewhere people wanted to be. It validates that we were doing all the right things”

2012

STEPS INTO HR Four years after joining auto finance and insurance provider LGM Financial Services, Steffler took on the role of EVP of HR in the face of rapid growth “I put up my hand and said, ‘We need high-performing talent and a formalized people strategy fast if to get out in front of this growth and succeed.’ I wanted HR at the table. I always admired what HR did for the employee and for the company – if you want bold growth, it starts there”

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PEOPLE

OTHER LIFE

TELL US ABOUT YOUR OTHER LIFE Email editor@hrmonline.ca

Most recently, Saliba joined a hip-hop da nce crew. “It’s more intense tha n a nything I’ve done before,” she says

2

Age of Saliba’s youngest-ever dance student

88

Estimated number of dance competitions Saliba has taken part in

19

Consecutive hours Saliba has put in for a music video shoot

DANCING UP A STORM When she’s not consulting on HR issues, Sara Saliba can most likely be found at centre stage DANCE HAS been a part of Sara Saliba’s life since age 2, when the HR consultant’s parents signed their constantly pirouetting toddler up for lessons. Since then, Saliba has put in up to four days each week studying jazz, contemporary, lyrical, hip-hop, ballet and modern dance, in addition to teaching and choreography.

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But it wasn’t until recently, when Saliba won a scholarship to a workshop that culminated in a dance role in a professional music video, that she “started to get hungry for more.” Dancing in music videos has since become a sideline for Saliba, who has appeared in videos for a number of highprofile recording artists.

While Saliba says performing has helped her in her professional life by making her more comfortable when speaking in front of a group, her love of dance is what keeps her coming back. “Any physical exercise is good for relieving stress,” she says, “but dancing makes me happy anytime – it’s pure happiness and joy.”

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