Jul. 10, 2017 "The shifting landscape of human resources": Today I found this article by Janet Candido in the Globe and Mail:
As with most industries, HR is not immune to disruption; today’s transformation is giving rise to a new tier of business leadership JANET CANDIDO
Principal of Candido Consulting Group, a company providing human-resources services across North America
When I network with young people who are considering a career in human resources, I always ask them why they are interested in HR. What attracts them? What do they hope to accomplish? The answer is, most often, “Because I want to help people.”
At the other end of the hierarchy, I was once told by the chief executive of a global firm that, after having been encouraged to add a woman to his allmale leadership team, he decided to create a vice-president of human-resources role, because “that’s a nice job for a woman.”
At the other end of the hierarchy, I was once told by the chief executive of a global firm that, after having been encouraged to add a woman to his allmale leadership team, he decided to create a vice-president of human-resources role, because “that’s a nice job for a woman.”
A woman’s role?
The perception of HR as a woman’s profession persists. This image that it is people-based, soft and empathetic, and all about helping employees work through issues leaves it largely populated by women as the stereotypical nurturer. Even today, these “softer” skills are seen as less appealing – or intuitive – to men who may gravitate to perceived strategic, analytical roles and away from employee relations.
On the upside, the propensity to equate female attributes to human resources has made it the only profession in which women have outpaced men in the upper ranks – at least in number.
According to an HR study in the United States, women represent 73 per cent of HR manager roles, and 55 per cent of C-suite HR executives – just edging out men. But that may be the closest to gender parity we’ll get, given 2014 statistics from the U.S. Department of Labour that reveal men earn up to 40 per cent more than their female counterparts in HR, for similar roles across both junior and senior levels.
Radical shift
The downside is that the HR profession has suffered from a lack of credibility – until now, that is. The times are changing, something both women and men studying or working in HR need to understand. As with nearly every other industry, HR is not immune to disruption.
Business needs are changing radically, as are expectations of HR from within the top ranks at large, well-run companies. This change has created an opportunity that places HR in a valuable, new leadership position. As the 2017 Deloitte Global Capital Human Trends survey highlights, thanks to the digital age and an agile mindset, employers are demanding new skills from HR professionals, through the leveraging of technology for more data-driven insights and talent analytics and employment experiences. These skills are imperative for HR to deliver value to the business – and across the organization.
Business needs are changing radically, as are expectations of HR from within the top ranks at large, well-run companies. This change has created an opportunity that places HR in a valuable, new leadership position. As the 2017 Deloitte Global Capital Human Trends survey highlights, thanks to the digital age and an agile mindset, employers are demanding new skills from HR professionals, through the leveraging of technology for more data-driven insights and talent analytics and employment experiences. These skills are imperative for HR to deliver value to the business – and across the organization.
A quick scan of recruitment ads for senior HR roles already reveals this shift. Reskilling the stock of HR talent is critical and may be why an earlier Deloitte report found an increasing trend for chief executives to bring in non-HR professionals to fill the role of chief human resource officer.
This supports my own experience that often when a male executive is responsible for HR, he didn’t get there through the HR ranks and may in fact have no HR background, but got there because of his business acumen.
This supports my own experience that often when a male executive is responsible for HR, he didn’t get there through the HR ranks and may in fact have no HR background, but got there because of his business acumen.
While these new skill requirements will surely appeal to a wider male audience, the reality is that HR professionals will need to combine both those “softer” people skills with “harder” business and analytical skills, not one or the other. Men and women in HR need to elevate their performance if they are to succeed moving forward.
For example, performance management, including coaching and developing top talent for leadership roles, is more important than ever. Balancing intuitive ability with strong analytical skills and fluency in business strategy will be key in making recommendations at the board level.
For example, performance management, including coaching and developing top talent for leadership roles, is more important than ever. Balancing intuitive ability with strong analytical skills and fluency in business strategy will be key in making recommendations at the board level.
So how can we attract more men and women to the profession who possess the necessary business and analytical skills, in addition to people skills, and who are interested in contributing at a strategic level in order to effect change? How can we support women on the path to the C-Suite? And how do we reposition the role of HR in many organizations to be more strategic?
Raising expectations
Companies of all sizes would benefit from education and direction on how to use and maximize their HR employees, from the junior level up.
Start by putting an HR consultant on the board and an HR person at the leadership table. Demand strategic vision from both and the use of hard metrics to provide relevant insights to the business.
Now is the time to change your expectations of HR and begin to include it in discussions early – and often. HR needs to be seen and positioned as integral to the business and employers must set expectations – for women and men – to be strategic businesses leaders, not just coaches or party planners. Employers need to underscore and promote diversity on the path to the top.
Men need to feel greater acceptance in a traditionally female environment, but both men and women equally need to be trained and supported in their transition, with executive mentors to follow, in order to be successful.
"Combining HR and finance to improve productivity metrics": Today I found this article by Russell Wong in the Globe and Mail:
Russell Wong is chief financial officer, ADP Canada.
Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman, in his critically acclaimed book The Age of Diminished Expectations, wrote, “Productivity isn’t everything, but in the long run, it is almost everything. A country’s ability to improve its standard of living over time depends almost entirely on its ability to raise its output per worker.”
This rings particularly true today, as more and more competitive Canadian organizations look to better understand productivity and how it’s impacting their work force. In fact, a recent evaluation by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) of the G7 countries’ levels of productivity shows that Canada is the second-least-productive country.
This puts our country at 27 per cent below productivity levels in the United States, and this gap is only widening. The big problem, however, is that most organizations don’t have a clear understanding or definition of what constitutes “productivity,” and even fewer understand how to measure it.
This puts our country at 27 per cent below productivity levels in the United States, and this gap is only widening. The big problem, however, is that most organizations don’t have a clear understanding or definition of what constitutes “productivity,” and even fewer understand how to measure it.
A recent survey of senior financial executives conducted by the Canadian Financial Executives Research Foundation (CFERF), sponsored by ADP Canada, showed that nine in 10 of those polled felt that the key performance indicators (KPIs) their companies had put in place to track productivity weren’t supporting their business objectives – an alarming statistic at a time when other research has shown that almost half (49 per cent) of Canadian workers say they aren’t as productive as they could be at their jobs.
In fact, almost one in five of those companies polled as a part of the Understanding Productivity Through the Lens of Finance study said that they aren’t using the productivity metrics they’re tracking to inform decisions at all.
In fact, almost one in five of those companies polled as a part of the Understanding Productivity Through the Lens of Finance study said that they aren’t using the productivity metrics they’re tracking to inform decisions at all.
If improving success depends almost entirely on increasing output per worker, as Krugman asserts, then this disconnect between employers and employees spells trouble for the Canadian work force.
One of the biggest challenges is that often HR departments use metrics such as vacation tracking, payroll management and attendance as indicators of productivity – each valuable insights on their own, but not truly reflective of work force productivity in most organizations.
The secret to improving productivity – or at the very least, improving the ability to track and understand it – very likely already lies just down the hall from HR, in the finance department.
The secret to improving productivity – or at the very least, improving the ability to track and understand it – very likely already lies just down the hall from HR, in the finance department.
It’s likely that finance and HR are already working together in some capacity – nearly three-quarters (71 per cent) of those polled by CFERF said finance is involved in HR functions such as payroll.
But beyond the transactional, combining the people-focused knowledge of HR with the analytical capabilities of finance can be the special sauce that allows an organization to better determine what defines productivity in their workplace, and how to develop metrics and KPIs to track and improve it.
But beyond the transactional, combining the people-focused knowledge of HR with the analytical capabilities of finance can be the special sauce that allows an organization to better determine what defines productivity in their workplace, and how to develop metrics and KPIs to track and improve it.
Finance departments have more experience extracting value from data by developing and analyzing metrics, and are increasingly becoming more involved in the HR functions of an organization largely through culture, staffing and strategic planning. Coupling their level of data-savvy capability with HR’s ability to understand the people side of the business can and will ultimately lead to better identification, measurement and insights gleaned from productivity metrics.
The reality is that effectively measuring productivity provides numerous benefits for any organization, regardless of size. Respondents of the CFERF survey said the number one area where they would be interested in applying insights from productivity data is to appropriately upgrade employee training and skills.
When correctly leveraged, organizations can identify the key areas where their teams could use extra training and even identify if certain aspects of their existing training models need to be updated.
When correctly leveraged, organizations can identify the key areas where their teams could use extra training and even identify if certain aspects of their existing training models need to be updated.
Other areas where insights gleaned from productivity data could benefit the company include employee engagement, improving work flow design, and expanding or recalibrating the work force.
For example, an organization can determine which parts of the business might be over– or under-staffed, and which employees have the capacity to take on more work. This can grant busineses the ability to make informed hiring and staffing decisions to ensure that they are assigning reasonable volumes of work to their employees. That, in turn, should result in higher productivity and less turnover over the long run.
For example, an organization can determine which parts of the business might be over– or under-staffed, and which employees have the capacity to take on more work. This can grant busineses the ability to make informed hiring and staffing decisions to ensure that they are assigning reasonable volumes of work to their employees. That, in turn, should result in higher productivity and less turnover over the long run.
At the end of the day, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to productivity. In fact, what defines productivity can change from organization to organization. However, what’s true for nearly every organization at the outset is the need to clearly identify what productivity metrics matter to them and then to determine how best to measure against those items.
By combining HR and finance to identify and quantify the metrics that truly matter, an organization is heading in the right direction to finally glean value productive insights from their productivity data.
By combining HR and finance to identify and quantify the metrics that truly matter, an organization is heading in the right direction to finally glean value productive insights from their productivity data.
Flyer4
6 days ago
a little light years behind with this article, I came to canada 8 years ago..and was shocked about the mismanagement here, no concept of HR, Finance etc. the whole company/organization approach. Hiring consultants who have no clue...etc.There is a complete disconnect within HR ( most of them really have no clue here, and are just paper shufflers, do not understand people or even resumes), Finance...production etc. I guess that is why you have so much hidden unemployment. I had to move part of my business back to Europe due to the incredible inefficiencies here ( e.g. the banking system, HR etc.)
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