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HR Impacting on BusinessHR Impacting on BusinessNine to 9 was the inaugural ‘one day’ HRINZ conference held in Auckland on the 13th May 2009.The conference provided a mix of keynote sessions and workshops all within one day and was attended by people managers from around the country. Here are just some of the highlights…  Nine to 9 was the inaugural ‘one day’ HRINZ conference held in Auckland on the 13th May 2009. The conference provided a mix of keynote sessions and workshops all within one day and was attended by people managers from around the country. Here are just some of the highlights… Dr Roger Collins, Professor Emeritus at the University of NSW, kicked off the full day with his keynote presentation by challenging attendees with the question; “Is what you’re doing today enough to take you into the future? Will your actions cause the future or be a result in the past?” If the changes happening outside of your organisation are greater than the changes within, then your organisation probably won’t survive. Roger says that once the recession is over – and it will end – we can’t go ‘back to the future’, there will be fundamental differences to the way business is done. A glaring example of this need for changing with the times is GM, the largest corporation in the world back in 1973; yet today it is on the brink of bankruptcy. Roger’s presentation centred around equipping people managers with the tools and insights to be able to have more effective conversations with CEOs and colleagues about this change and then framing the way forward – because in change lies opportunity. Roger talked about reviewing our strategies and being aware of threats to our organisations by keeping our ‘eye on the ball’. Are other companies doing business better? Take for example Sony, who dominated the world for years with the Walkman but now Apple has changed the way music is distributed. Sony can’t compete. In our companies we need both the technical and adaptive styles of leadership thinking so we are moving forward, past the recession, whether it is recovery or reinvention, and laying the foundations for growth. Roger warned of the consequences of short-sighted, knee-jerk reactions to the recession which all included ‘cutting back’ in some way (on recruiting, benefits,events, training and employees) and he discussed the implications to an organisation on these strategies. For example, training prepares employees for the future; social events are also knowledge transfers and trust-builders, and cutting back on employees diminishes your capability base and impacts on the commitment of the ‘survivors’. Also keep in mind that how an organisation treats its people in difficult times will influence their behaviour in the future – when they have the opportunity to go elsewhere. Instead, strategic planning for recovery or reinvention, workforce adaption, performance improvement and sustainable implementation were the phases Roger noted as a preferable reaction to ensure an organisation was on the right pathway for growth after the recession. Finally, Roger challenged the audience of people managers if they would be the people leading the transformation of the HR occupational group. Roger sees scope for a new leader to emerge from these turbulent times; incorporating the thinking of HR and finance / marketing and IT – being holistic and client focused. What will be the title of the HR professional in the future? Lynne Miller, Sales and Marketing Capability Leader, Lion Nathan presented a workshop on ‘Driving engagement through employee capability.’ In times of a recession, engagement is more important than ever; engaged employees contribute 20 percent more to the organisation while disengaged employees show up in ‘body’, biding their time for a better job market. According to surveys, low engagement results negatively in dollar terms to the organisation in areas of employee stress, rework and turnover. Lynne discussed three case studies of organisations using capability well including North Shore LIJ with 38,000 employees, Proctor and Gamble and EAP. Key lessons from these studies established ways to build engagement through capability and included mentoring programmes, inspiring leadership, supporting career aspirations of employees, developing and using external networks (P&G execs are job swapping with Google execs and being filmed for reality TV), building a corporate university, and on-site learning places or library. Lynne asked attendees to think about their own capability plans. Start by asking the questions that begin with the end in mind; What is your company’s strategic goal? (e.g. Lion Nathans is to make the world a more sociable place) and what is your company’s people strategy? Next you can ask where are you now and how do you want to get there? James Nation from ACC, gave a workshop on: ‘Solutions to curb the real costs of injuries.’ James outlined case studies to illustrate some of the challenges employers face when it comes to preventing and managing workplace injuries. E.g. culture (“it’s easy to get time off”), recurrent injuries, and nonsupport from management. But if you take into account the REAL cost of an injury – this includes costs of investigation, damage, replacement and productivity – and then take this figure and work out how much your company will need to make in sales and revenue to recover this, you will arrive at a dollar figure that will certainly make managers sit up and listen! For example an $11,900 injury cost for a company with a 10 percent profit margin will require $119,000 in sales/revenue to recover this injury cost. Something to think about! This Injury Cost calculator, as well as registration for free ACC Discomfort, Pain, Injury training, is available at www.accdpi.org.nz Rhonda Wilson, Recreational Services Ltd (Workshop on ‘Wellness – the flexible way’) Rhonda shared candidly about her cancer diagnosis and treatment journey last year and its impact on her workplace, its policies and procedures, and her own role in the HR department. Rhonda asked attendees to think about a similar scenario in their own organisations and what procedures would they refer to; who would they include in the discussions; what external providers would they use and who would deliver the plan to the employee? Rhonda stressed the importance of individualising procedures and policies to the employee and how it was important to her the company conveyed the message that she was ‘coming back to work’, and they did this by keeping her in the loop with emails, newsletters and visits. Dr Rich Allen, President of Green Light Learning, gave a lively keynote presentation on ‘Influencing Stakeholder Audiences’, demonstrating perfectly his message on presentation techniques that will keep audiences attentive and open to learning. Too many presenters fall into the trap of ”my job is to talk and their job is to listen” or “I’ve got lots of information to give in a short space of time so I won’t be stopping”. Rich’s tips included giving less information as your audience has an optimal attention span of only 10 – 12 minutes; using pauses effectively to allow your audience to digest your PowerPoint slide and allowing people to process information by breaking frequently to let them discuss what they’ve just learnt verbally with colleagues at their table. As a bonus, all attendees are now adept in the universal sign language for “whatever”. Peter Smith, Principal with Mercer HR Consulting, took the final keynote spot for the day (now keenly aware of his presentation techniques), on ‘How best to grow talent’, which is best summed up as having the right leader in place and the right future leaders in the pipeline. Peter identified the two enduring challenges for organisations; the external; winning the war for talent and the internal; winning the war for attention (the “heads, heart and guts of your people”) His ‘six ripper ideas’ to grow talent included;
Peter finished by reiterating the first keynote of the day: “To retreat and just survive in these unprecedented times will be an admission ticket to even greater difficulties.” |
