Senior HR leaders chime in about 2009 and 2010
Editor’s note: We asked six senior HR thought leaders from the Strategic Capability Network (SCNetwork) to comment on the world of HR in 2009, what may happen in 2010 and the state of the profession. What follows is a mix of fascinating commentary covering a range of topics to put HR on solid footing for a great year ahead. For more information about SCNetwork, visit www.scnetwork.ca.
David Wexler
Leadership lessons from the recession
Year end is a time to reflect at a macro level on the Strategic Capability Network’s three core themes for powering results through people — strategic capability, organizational effectiveness and leadership in action.
Sadly, as the results of the recession have demonstrated, not much has changed with respect to any of these topics. What happened when the economy went into a recession? Business and HR leaders trotted out the same old tools in our arsenal for managing through this:
• Cut discretionary spending, including training budgets.
• Cut back on employee programs.
• Lay off staff.
• Reduce severance benefits.
• Implement hiring and promotion freezes.
• Enforce salary freezes.
• Force vacations.
In other words, we kicked our employees when they were down and justified it by saying it wasn’t as a result of anything that leaders had done wrong. Rather, it was just bad luck because of the economy.
That’s not leadership. That is not organizational effectiveness. And that is definitely not building strategic capability. It’s traditional, tactical and mostly reactive business and HR leadership.
Where are the truly strategic leaders? They are the ones who have the courage to push back when conventional wisdom says to cut staff. They are the ones who disregard the financial treatment of severance payments and see the merit of keeping paid staff around until business picks up. They are the ones who understand, fundamentally, the long-term success of an organization is dependent on the engagement and productivity of employees and these, in turn, are dependent on creating a culture of trust, empowerment and mutual respect.
They do exist, they just don’t get much attention. I have heard of organizations where leaders have taken pay cuts to keep staff on. There are organizations that offer stock options in exchange for pay cuts to help workers through the tough times. There are organizations that reduce profitability targets or eat into cash to retain employees. There are organizations that find creative ways to repurpose employees to help with production and revenue goals.
I think HR is at a crossroads. We have been there for a long time. But perhaps this time we are going to choose the right route. It’s time for HR to demonstrate numeric literacy and talk the language of business. Many of us are already doing this. It’s time, though, to ensure everything we do — our publications, communiqués, conferences, teaching and programs — reflects this.
It is time for us to talk about the return on investment with respect to human capital, such as the negative revenue and operating profit implications of losing high-performing employees to turnover. And to talk about the investment return for paying above market salaries, for investing more by hiring the best, and the efficiencies of reducing hierarchy and empowering employees more. We can do this. We just may not be in the habit of doing it.
Our HR metrics need to find their way into the annual reports. Investors need to be thinking in terms of “promotion from within,” “employee engagement survey scores” and “retention rates” when considering investing in a company.
It’s time for HR to take a seat at the table. No more whining about why we are not there.
Boards of directors and compensation committees need us now more than ever. The public appetite for compensation excesses is waning. Boards need us to help them improve governance, succession planning, teamwork, compensation and other HR practices.
No one will ask for this help, though. It is up to each HR professional, regardless of her level in an organization, to think and act as a business partner.
David Wexler is a senior HR strategist who has led global HR for financial services and technology operations. He is currently head of HR at Electronic Arts Canada in Burnaby, B.C. He can be reached at [email protected].
Jon Hamovitch
HR challenges for 2010
While our priorities have not changed significantly over the last few years, the importance of addressing them in a meaningful and transparent way has become more critical.
To be sure, recruiting the right talent has become somewhat easier as the supply and demand curve has loosened and we’ve had to worry a little less about innovative compensation programs and leading-edge development activities.
A slower economy and higher unemployment have put less pressure on HR executives to explore more cost-effective recruitment programs or revisit performance management systems. But the jobless recovery is making even our best talent more fearful of job loss. Many employees are concerned about another year of salary freezes, modest increases and disappointing bonuses and our colleagues want us to invest in their development. It’s not surprising, in light of such instability and unpredictability, the workforce is stressed and mental health problems are taking a huge toll on workplaces and the economy.
A good portion of the lost productivity resulting from poor mental health can be alleviated through effective management. Ensuring strong leadership, clear and candid communications and a supportive culture may be the most critical HR challenges. If HR professionals only do a few things well in 2010, they should be the following: helping managers to lead by example, being credible to employees and painting an honest picture of the organization’s future.
The most effective HR technology, the best onboarding or online training programs and the most sophisticated succession planning processes will not yield the same organizational benefits as setting clear and measurable goals, cascading them thoughtfully and helping all employees understand how they can best contribute. While it appears to be a simple task, in reality, it is quite difficult.
We need to bring our CEOs on board and convince executives that broadcasting their metrics and measurements to all employees is advisable. We need to coach those executives about open communications. We need to partner with our finance and communications functions. We need to train and mentor our own staff so they in turn can support mid-level managers. And we need to do this while we also pay attention to absenteeism, manage the H1N1 virus, follow up on incomplete performance reviews and fix payroll problems.
Jon Hamovitch, a commentator for SCNetwork, is vice-president of international HR at AOL in Toronto.
Helen Bozinovski
Ask not what your corporation can do for you
Nearly half a century ago, President John F. Kennedy implored a nation to show personal leadership in driving the agenda for change in America. He triggered a call to action that galvanized the country to dream big — land on the moon, tackle civil rights and challenge foreign threats to a free market society. The message was self-reliance, accountability and contributing to the greater good to make a country great.
The message of individual leadership is more relevant now than ever. We’ve come through 2009 largely with our economy intact and our prognosis for recovery good. What is surprising is how Canada has weathered the financial storms relative to our cousins south of the border. Many point to our astute banking sector, resource-based industries and conservative fiscal management but I wonder if Canadians have bred something unique within our nation — borne of an immigrant culture, rich in diversity, hardy, capable, resilient and, unlike our American friends, more willing to work as a team and sacrifice for the greater good.
Corporations, like countries, also thrive when individuals demonstrate personal leadership and resilience. Most corporations are in survival mode, depending on employees to deliver against 90-day plans that are strategically oriented but tactically executed to achieve short-term results.
In 2010, for organizations to thrive, we need to be focused on three things:
Building a change-resilient culture: This means hiring and developing people who are naturally confident, optimistic, resourceful and self-reliant but also know how to work as a team to overcome obstacles.
Make people leadership matter: Leaders must have a personal touch. Connecting with individuals, and what matters to them, is at the heart of engagement.
Engaging people with an organization’s ambitions for change: This means engaging every individual as a partner, in a discussion of the strategic priorities, competitive landscape and the agenda for change.
In the past, leadership was the domain of executives on the top floor with employees waiting patiently for direction. In today’s organizations, the fog may not lift fast enough. That means, leadership needs to come from within, with every employee being both inspired and empowered to ask: “What can I do for my corporation today?”
Helen Bozinovski, a commentator for SCNetwork, is senior vice-president of HR at Aviva Canada in Toronto.
Anne Berend
Time to integrate the global enterprise
The elements of good, global leadership are changing — partly because of the evolution of organizations and partly because of the global economic crisis.
One aspect that has not changed is work never stops — poor economic conditions make this even more of a reality — demanding not only technical skills but business acumen. And where trust, fostering networks and enabling collaboration have traditionally been the focus, being able to deal with ambiguity is now front and centre. In the new economy, the need to communicate on multiple fronts, at the same time, is the norm.
More than one year ago, the challenge was to find leaders for growth markets, either locally or through relocations. Those challenges are still present: Long-term international assignments have been augmented by lower-cost options and shorter time frames. They provide a great opportunity for top talent to benefit from development in a growth market and for the growth market to leverage and learn from major market successes.
The term “global” seems to be disappearing because global is the new reality. And the global concept is evolving — focused on integrating an enterprise that just happens to operate around the world. It sounds difficult but consider the benefits of technology and the connections it enables, along with diversity and inclusiveness in relation to openness to new approaches and experimentation.
Consider, also, the importance of differing expertise and experiences on teams and it makes sense to focus less on global and more on integrating the enterprise. Very few of our systems are the responsibility of a single entity or decision-maker. We need leaders who understand the tremendous value of integrating the enterprise — leadership that pulls across systems.
Anne Berend, a commentator for SCNetwork, is vice-president of HR at IBM Canada in Markham, Ont.
Blair Pollard and Jane Yeretsian
Wanted: Future leaders
The rules of the game continue to change and the pace of the change is increasing. As leaders, what got us here might not land us where we need to be.
Nobody knows what capabilities leaders will need in the unknown, likely very different, future. Building leadership capacity for these challenges is a critical task and a potential competitive advantage. In tackling these questions, a few things become obvious.
First, to ensure we have the right leadership, we need to define the key capabilities needed to deliver on the business strategy, which might be totally different from those of the past. Ensuring we understand them, and how they are represented on the leadership bench, will determine the short-term buy-build strategy.
Second, not all of the leadership capabilities will be new — creating a vision and energizing others around it will always be fundamental skills. But the context within which these capabilities need to be applied is an increasingly complex, fluid and ambiguous environment. How does a leader mobilize a multigenerational workforce with differing value systems and preferences? How does she ensure an established direction while also ensuring the organization remains alert and agile to respond to new opportunities?
Third, experience — one of the best ways for leaders to develop — may not be as relevant. Organizations will need to do better at identifying the kinds of experiences emerging leaders need for future leadership roles. At the same time, we must do better at identifying leadership talent earlier and aggressively develop these high performers through distinct assignments that expose them to a diverse range of challenges.
Finally, with the stakes higher than ever, we need to ensure leaders have what it takes to operate in more complex, fluid environments and successfully demonstrate capabilities in ways not yet required of them. Simulation-based assessments and learning interventions can be very helpful on this front.
By doing all this, we can develop stronger leaders better able to thrive in an uncertain future.
Blair Pollard, a commentator for SCNetwork, is vice-president of organization development at Canadian Tire in Toronto. Jane Yeretsian, a commentator for SCNetwork, is associate vice-president of leadership development at Canadian Tire in Toronto.
Susan Layman
The symphony of effectiveness
No matter how you define organization effectiveness, it begins and ends with people. HR should be focused on producing effective people (and effective leaders) so the organization is effective at producing its intended outcomes on a sustainable basis.
We tend to understand organizations as the dynamic systems they are, evidenced by the research and integrated HR practices that have evolved over time. One of our many challenges is helping align the behaviours and expectations of the people within these dynamic systems and practices so, like a symphony orchestra playing in perfect harmony, clarity and unity of purpose are resonant. When this happens, production is at its peak. Organizations are most effective when harmonization and sustainability become the modus operandi. However, this needs to be achieved without practice since circumstances are constantly changing.
Don’t underestimate the value of role clarity. As with musicians, each section and individual needs to know how to play his instrument and the specific music. Each section has its “first chair” (team leader) to enable synchronicity and, ultimately, the entire orchestra produces a harmonized sound.
The most critical component is leadership, just as no symphony orchestra can function without a conductor. The degree of effective leadership directly impacts organization effectiveness. Here we have one of the highest impact HR opportunities: Ensuring effective leaders are in place and in the talent pipelines. We can also help ensure there is a highly engaged workforce in place, where everyone is compelled to behave as leaders by taking initiative, being creative and continuously learning and improving.
Susan Layman has held numerous HR leadership positions in Canada and the United States. She is vice-president of HR at FT Services in Calgary. She can be reached at [email protected].
