'It's not about getting something down on paper and sticking to it, but having a guiding principle and adapting as we go,' says Susannah Crabtree
When Susannah Crabtree moved from HR consulting to in-house HR, she had one concern: Would it be too cyclical and less inspiring?
Fortunately, those concerns quickly disappeared.
“Consulting is always about the most and greatest thing. And [in HR] it’s an extremely pleasant surprise to find that, in fact, there are new challenges that come up every single day,” says the senior vice-president of people and culture at Export Development Canada (EDC).
Being at the seat of the table of a strategic organization and an executive team means the HR team has an opportunity to do more than just the cyclical or operational elements of HR, she says.
“We’re really invited to help set the people strategy of the organization, which is really the most important part. Without people being engaged and empowered, we're not going to achieve what we want to achieve.”
As a result, with more than 25 years under her belt, Crabtree can look back and say the HR path has definitely been rewarding.
“HR is actually a really exciting career and really, really meaningful and can make a measurable difference — day to day and year over year.”
‘Roundabout journey’ into HR
After attaining an Honours Bachelor of Science in psychology and mathematics from McGill University, Crabtree’s path into HR was “a bit of a roundabout journey,” she says, in starting her career as a pension and benefits actuary in the consulting space for five years at Hewitt Associates. She consulted with Canadian and British organizations, working closely with HR and finance teams.
“Early on, I started to have the perspective of HR driving organization from the view of my clients. So… that set the foundation.”
The second part of Crabtree’s career involved leadership roles in HR consulting for about 20 years, heading up pension and investment teams for global consulting firms such as Odgers Berndtson.
“I spent time as the managing partner of executive search firms which was valuable experience in terms of some of the other aspects of HR I wouldn't have known as well — like succession planning and governance and leadership.”
She also led the talent consulting practice for Mercer in Canada, saying that being a member of the executive team with a talented team and great client exposure “rounded me out.”
Transferring consulting skills
In July 2023, Crabtree joined EDC to lead their people and culture team. The organization has about 2,300 employees, with roughly 1,500 in the national capital region and the rest in a few locations across Canada and globally. A credit agency, it offers commercial solutions to help Canadian exporters and investors expand their international business.
And she says she felt ready for the role, given her consulting experience.
“In addition to the subject matter expertise that I would have gained across all of those areas, I… developed a keen sense of business operations strategy and seeing how the people agenda really impacts business strategy,” she says.
“Sitting on a cross-functional executive team to lead a business, which I also do now in my role, was really great transferable experience.”
Being the most senior HR advisor to an executive team taught Crabtree to listen and to learn critical thinking skills, she says.
“When you're helping to select the CEO of an organization, you have to understand how that business works. And executive search consultants have a real opportunity to go deep into business strategy with their clients.”
HR priorities at EDC
One of the big HR priorities at EDC is technology, according to Crabtree, in terms of keeping up with the changes, through training, to make sure they don’t fall behind.
“There's a real cultural implication to that because people understand that, but it also means changes to their day to day and how they're thinking and being comfortable — in an environment of discomfort and uncertainty.”
EDC deals with clients every day who are coping with these challenges, she says.
“Our people see firsthand what that means and… it’s very easy… to get caught up in the day to day of that. And it's very important not to let that set the stage for workforce planning,” says Crabtree.
“So, what we're trying to do is to think longer term on the strategic workforce planning.”
3 pillars of organizational strategy
That means looking at how to enable organizational strategy, which is closely linked to what customers are going to need over the next 5, 10, or 15 years, she says: “It’s a much bigger picture.”
The organizational strategy at EDC has three main pillars, says Crabtree, which include the skills and competencies of the future.
“For us, it's not necessarily about reducing the size of our work but more changing the type of work that people do to be much more strategic and enabling them from an operational perspective to do great things.”
Also a pillar is leadership, in giving current and future leaders more tools so they can enable their workforce to use good judgment and be empowered, she says: “All those good things that we need our people to do in order to really move at the speed and scale of business.”
Thirdly, there’s operational excellence, says Crabtree, citing the need to update technology and processes that “can be quite cumbersome” by focusing on streamlining and efficiencies.
“Operational excellence, especially in HR, means that our employees are going to have a better experience and they're thinking more about their jobs than about how they navigate through HR elements of EDC.”
Importantly, this new strategy is not inflexible and changes when needed, she says.
“Truthfully, some of these things have already started to morph a little bit, but in a really positive way. So, for me, it's not about getting something down on paper and sticking to it, but having a guiding principle or north star and then adapting as we go to make sure that we're meeting the needs of the organization.”
