Canadian HR has a lot to offer global economy: SHRM
Guess which country, alone in the industrialized world, has not faced a single bank failure, calls for bailouts or government interventions in the financial sectors. Yup, it’s Canada,” wrote Fareed Zakaria, a commentator for Newsweek and author of The Post-American World.
Zakaria insightfully recognized much that is right with Canada as a nation. Its banks are well capitalized but more soundly and safely leveraged than American or European counterparts. Housing prices have decreased only one-half as much as those in the United States because overconsumption has been curbed by a more conservative tax code in Canada, whereas consumption is encouraged by mortgage interest payment deductibility in the U.S.
Canada has also built up 12 years of budget surpluses and restructured its national pension system. Health care is cheaper and consumes less gross domestic product (GDP) than in the U.S. and, as a result, Canadians have a longer life expectancy than their neighbours to the south.
There are other good signs as well. The country is world-renowned for its multiculturalism. Canada consistently scores high in numerous international rankings — it ranks fourth highest on potential for inward foreign direct investment, eighth for globalization and 10th for global competitiveness. On the other hand, it ranks 23rd on the Forbes Tax and Misery index and 35th on attractiveness as a global outsourcing location. These various rankings are, of course, relative, but nonetheless insightful in what they highlight: Canada is undeniably global, although to be a more competitive economy there is more work to be done.
And there are specific global human resource challenges that Canadian companies face. Responding to a 2008 survey by the World Federation of People Management Associations on the most anticipated worldwide HR challenges through 2015, Canadian HR practitioners identified five items as the most important in the future for which current capacity was low: managing demographics; managing work-life balance; improving leadership development; managing talent; and transforming HR into a strategic partner.
Followup interviews revealed Canadian executives “were planning to rely on immigration and international rotations and to tap into non-traditional employee pools as mechanisms to manage demographics.”
Referring to the transformation of HR into a strategic partner, Canadian executives “understand that HR has to manage the strain that this shift puts on HR staff, because many of them do not yet have the requisite skills and experience for their new roles,” found the study.
To maintain and improve on its enviable rankings as a global economy and continue to add value to their corporate operations in light of these challenges, what can Canadian HR practitioners do?
Be intentional about globalization. Embrace it. Be proactive and more vocal advocates of globalization in your companies, whether locally or internationally owned.
Canadians are healthily skeptical of American business and cultural influences. With an economy and population one-tenth the size of the U.S. and with 80 per cent of its exports sold to the U.S., it’s an understandable sensitivity. But as the global economy continues to evolve and diversify, more foreign direct investment, innovation and multinational company ownership in Canada is not going to be American in origin, but Indian, Chinese and European.
Develop global competencies. Do this throughout the employee ranks, and especially within the HR function itself. Global business acumen and cross-cultural resourcefulness, sensitivity and agility are skills that are learned and honed. They must be a part of all corporate training and leadership programs.
Expand horizons. Get involved in other aspects of globalization, beyond the mobility of human capital. For HR to transform itself into a trusted business partner, it can and must make contributions to how companies manage the other drivers of globalization such as technology, capital flows, trade, transportation and travel and communications as well as the migration and mobility of human capital.
HR professionals must play a leadership role in influencing corporate as well as national policy decisions related to all of these factors. In the end, any decision is going to require the right people to staff it. Proactively making yourself indispensable to corporate leadership before decisions are made creates efficiencies, eliminates later duplication of effort and elevates the practice of HR to its rightful strategic level.
Speak up. Be vocal to your global counterparts about the valuable lessons that can be learned from Canadian HR experience. Two hot issues for the American HR community are comparable wages and union choice, in which Canadian practitioners have substantial expertise. And Canadian HR practitioners’ experience in Canada with pay equity laws and regulations can be useful to American HR professionals as they work to comply with the recently passed federal comparable-wage legislation in the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Take the lead in sharing your knowledge and best practices globally.
