Canadian HR Reporter

pM40065782 Ro9496 September 8, 2014 INSIDE EDITING GOOD, LAWYERING BAD Former head of HR at the BBC laments over-lawyered emails she wrote to staff – calls them 'crap' Money for nothing Is a guaranteed minimum income feasible? page 3 Supersized ruling U.S. McDonald's decision ruf es franchise model page 5 Medicated staff Prescription drug abuse is on the rise page 13 page 2 Corporate Outplacement Services CMScareers.ca Leaving made Easier HR_Reporter_SmallAd_2014_Layout 1 1 THe penSion poliCe MiSfiTS Montreal police officers donned funky pants, hats and put stickers on their uniforms and patrol cars as workers and the Quebec government drew battle lines over a proposed reform of municipal pensions. Late last month, about 250 municipal workers stormed Montreal's city hall and ransacked the building in a rowdy pension protest. Municipal pensions in the province are facing a $4-billion funding shortfall. Credit: Graham Hughes (CP) Hiring managers a thorn in HR's side Working with hiring managers, fi nding cultural fi t among greatest recruitment diffi culties for human resources professionals: Survey By Liz BeRnieR sKILL sHortAGes, candidate supply and qualifi cations pose sig- nifi cant recruitment challenges, to be sure. But they're not the biggest diffi culty most HR departments report — that distinction goes to HR's internal partners, the hiring managers. ey're among the biggest re- cruitment challenges HR profes- sionals face, according to the 2014 McQuaig Global Talent Recruit- ment Survey of 600 HR profession- als. Fifty-three per cent identifi ed issues with hiring managers as one of their top three recruitment challenges. It has a lot to do with a couple diff erent factors, according to Ian Cameron, managing director at the McQuaig Institute in Toronto. "One is all hiring managers are super busy, doing a-million-and- one different things. So to get involved in the hiring process to the level that they need to be re- quires a fair amount of time." It's understandable that hir- ing managers have many other responsibilities and demands on their schedules, but snagging the best candidates is often a matter of timing, said Ken Graham, director of training and professional servic- es at Adecco in Toronto. "Hiring managers are busy but the best candidates don't stay on the market long. And often the best candidate is lost in the pro- cess if the hiring manager takes too long to make a decision or if there's too much back-and-forth between the hiring manager and HR," he said. "Hiring managers don't hire of- ten so they're not used to the pro- cess — they don't know what the current labour market is like, they don't know whether they've got the time to sit back, relax and view the candidates, because there's a copious amount of candidates on the market, versus if it's a very tight labour market and they've got to work very quickly." Another challenge is potential skill gaps around interviewing, said Kelly Allder, vice-president TIGHT > pg. 12 Should HR be split in 2? Proposal to separate administration, strategy unpopular with experts By SaRaH doBSon IN oUtLINING tHe conten- tious idea that HR should be split into two and the CHRO position eliminated, Ram Charan stirred up considerable discussion re- cently. A Dallas-based business advisor and author of 15 books, Charan wrote an op-ed piece in the July-August issue of the Har- vard Business Review in which he said it's time to say goodbye to the HR department. Many CEOs are disappointed with HR people, he wrote. While they would like to use their CHROs the way they use their CFOs — linking people and numbers to di- agnose weaknesses and strengths in the organization and advising on the talent implications of com- pany strategy — most CHROs are process-oriented generalists. "What they can't do very well is relate HR to real-world busi- ness needs," said Charan. " ey don't know how key decisions are made and they have great diffi culty analyzing why people — or whole parts of the organization — aren't meeting the business's perfor- mance goals." As a result, it would be best to eliminate the CHRO position and split HR into two strands, he said. One would be administrative, primarily managing compensa- tion and benefi ts, and report to the CFO. e other would focus on improving the people capa- bilities of the business and report to the CEO. is would be led by high-potentials from operations or fi nance who would build their experience and eventually move to horizontal or higher-level line management jobs. " e proposal is just a bare out- line. I expect to see plenty of op- position to it," he wrote. "But the problem with HR is real. One way or another, it will have to gain the business acumen needed to help organizations perform at their best." But Ian Cullwick, vice-president of leadership and human resources research at the Conference Board of Canada, totally disagrees. For one, he's been really impressed with the calibre of CHROs he's met, he said. " ey are indeed businesspeople and putting the needs of the busi- ness fi rst. So they're strategically 'Ban the box' campaign raises questions By Liz BeRnieR It's AN accepted best practice that employers should make diver- sity a priority within their organi- zations, but the focus still tends to remain on a few select groups. Visible minorities, women and persons with disabilities are au- tomatically included in the list when we think about what it takes to build a diverse team. But what about people with a past criminal conviction record? e growing success of the "Ban the Box" campaign in the United States has raised questions about how employers can best approach the issue of criminal records in the hiring process. South of the border, Ban the Box is urging employers to remove questions about criminal convic- tion information from application forms, so prospective employees have the chance to display their skills and qualifi cations before be- ing asked about past off ences. The campaign has seen pRoTeCTIoNs > pg. 10 wHy > pg. 12

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