Human Resources Issues for Senior Management
Issue link: https://digital.hrreporter.com/i/699912
14/CANADIAN HR STRATEGY on how well or poorly they do that job," he says. "They should be considered team members... but certainly you don't want to get into bene ts packages and guaranteed salaries — it's 'Here's what you'll be asked to do, here's how you'll be compensated for it and when we're done, thanks for your time.'" As for HR's role, they have to be like brokers, says Couch. "They have understand what is required, what the value of that is, and make ongoing offers… (and) making sure you don't lose this person to another company for the six months you would need them." HR professionals would also have to be like "networking nin- jas," he says. "If your head of HR does not have a database or a LinkedIn pro le that has thousands of people in it so they can pull that skillset out tomorrow, networking is going to be critical. So if your HR person is stuck in the of ce all the time and they are not out and about meeting people, going to conferences, see- ing what's out there, what's available, what sort of services are there, good luck trying to nd them." RICK O'CONNOR president and CEO of Black Press Group The Surrey, B.C.-based company has 1,800 employees in Canada Years ago, Black Press Group consolidated a number of newspa- pers into a cluster, printing all of them in one location. That was before today's "gig" economy but still involved the use of infor- mation technology to optimize HR, according to Rick O'Connor, president and CEO of Black Press Group in Surrey, B.C. "Most of our human resources assets were geographically based but with technology, we're nding that essentially certain parts of our HR element are now being shared right across the spectrum, regardless of geography," he says. "We're able to essentially take a smaller group of employees in a more highly productive environ- ment and essentially do the work… in a more ef cient manner." But in the publishing world, a gig economy doesn't necessarily work because of the daily or weekly schedules, says O'Connor. "(We) still need to have scheduled employees, so the gig econ- omy doesn't really help us, in the sense of people just bidding on speci c jobs," he says. "We have contracted out work to third-par- ty companies that have bid on the work and they're based in the Philippines or India, but we nd we're better off to do that locally because of communication issues, so we do the same concept but we do it internally, enlisting employees." For the most part, Black Press in Canada tries to hire employees as opposed to contractors, says O'Connor. "We're such a large company, there are expectations of us and some of those extend to things like pension obligations and ben- e ts and that sort of thing, and I think today's employee is de - nitely looking for those things." As for the growth of the sharing economy, that can be explained by improvements in technology, which help to make processes more streamlined and ef cient, along with a tougher economy, as people look to cut costs. But the regulatory environment is also behind the change, he says. "Part of it comes down to the regulatory environment for labour becoming more and more complicated, so I think people look at it and go, 'Hey, the fewer employees we have responsibility for, the better.' And I can see all three points of view melding into a single direction and that is you're better off with fewer employees and you're better off with those employees not having bene ts and that sort of thing. But, ultimately, I worry about, when we take that approach, the quality of the work and the stability of the work," says O'Connor. "And (contract employees) don't necessarily have the back- ground, familiarity and experience, and so I'm a rm believer that you just need to be ef cient, you need to have your own people dedicated to the enterprise and they need to be top-qual- ity employees." In a deadline-based business, there's no room for error, he says. "Because of that, you just need to make sure the employees know what they're doing." And while boosted creativity and innovation are touted as bene ts in a gig economy, with new people for each project, the same can be true with new employees, says O'Connor. "One of the things that you nd with the new age workforce coming into our industry is that they are very innovative but they also don't stay long, they're turning over a lot quicker than I think the previous generations have done and… when you deal with turnover, you also get the opportunity to bring in people that bring new skills and ideas." And while there may be savings for employers because they don't have to offer perks such as health bene ts and pensions, liability is a big factor, he says. "It takes a little while for somebody to learn a job — when they come to us, it takes three to six months to really get up to speed, do whatever job it is at the expectation level we want, and so I think it would be very dif cult to run a newspaper publishing business with that cast of characters changing every week." Another potential downside is the lack of comradery that builds in a traditional workplace, says O'Connor. "When you get a group of reporters, sales people, sitting to- gether, planning together, strategizing together, they feed off each other and you get way greater content developed, you get more sales. To have those people only interchanging through email or… phone calls, I don't think would be as good." Plus, people are looking for stability in employment, particu- larly after economic downturns, he says. "People are looking for steady employment or a steady contract or something they can rely on and fall back on, as op- posed to gigs here and there because, at the end of the day, it's all about supply and demand."