Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER JANUARY 2019 24 FEATURES Tzanetakis takes helm of national payroll association I n July, Peter Tzanetakis re- placed longtime leader Pat- rick Culhane as president of the Canadian Payroll Associa- tion (CPA) in Toronto. So far, the transition has been positive, with the CPA continu- ing in its advocacy role amidst multiple provincial government transitions, he says. "At the provincial level, there's been a lot of changes, obviously," says Tzanetakis. "Whenever a new government comes into place and they make changes, that obvi- ously impacts the legislation." "It's been a very busy year, and I suspect it'll continue to be busy in light of some of the changes here in Ontario, but also in the years to come as other governments come into power." e CPA works to infl uence change and then inform members about their legislative require- ments and critical payroll issues, he says. e association provides pay- roll education and advocacy for its membership base of 20,117. In 2019, the CPA will work to professionalize payroll practitio- ners, putting emphasis on certifi - cation and the importance of the function, says Tzanetakis. "When things go smoothly, no one really thinks about payroll," he says. "It's when sometimes things don't go so smoothly that it comes to the forefront." e CPA will undertake a stra- tegic planning initiative in the coming year, looking at changes in the economy, market, technology, and the nature of work, according to Tzanetakis. "We want to make sure that our value proposition contin- ues to stay modern and relevant to members and prospective members." Legislative upheaval is fuel- ling interest in the CPA, says Tzanetakis. "Legislative change is really driving that because, at the end of the day, payroll practitioners really want to make sure they're on top of all of the change that's happening — and change is hap- pening at a pretty rapid pace," he says. "That's really been a driving force certainly this year, and we don't see that changing in the fore- seeable future." Peter Tzanetakis president, CPA SCNetwork celebrates 40 years of thought leadership F or the past four decades, the Strategic Capability Network (SCN) has pro- vided Canadian human resourc- es professionals with network- ing opportunities and thought leadership. e 809-member association sees HR professionals gather for monthly sessions in both Toronto and Calgary to hear from a variety of subject experts on issues facing HR. Later this year, the network will celebrate its 40-year anniversary. Members appreciate the value off ering, and extras are on the way for 2019, says SCN president Su- anne Nielsen in Toronto. CHRO peer forums — groups of about 20 non-competing HR leaders — will be standardized and expanded to more members, she says. These groups meet periodi- cally to provide support and learning opportunities, comple- menting SCN's broader goals, says Nielsen. " ere's lots of interest in this, and we believe this is going to be a key element of our long-term member growth strategy." Over the past year, issues such as diversity and inclusion, the fu- ture of work and the gig economy took the spotlight at the associa- tion's monthly meetings. anks to the work of program- ming chair Mark Edgar — senior vice-president of HR at RSA Canada — SCN's focus continues to meet the needs of senior mem- bers, says Nielsen. SCN chapters in Ontario in Ottawa, London and Waterloo continue to operate informally, she says. And the association operates thanks to the generosity of volun- teers and sponsors, says Nielsen. "We are able to offer great programming for our mem- bers, largely because we have a group of wonderful corporate sponsors." SCN continues to give back to the broader community, and has contributed more than $13,000 to the Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto over the past three years, according to Nielsen. Suanne Nielsen president, SCNetwork Three issues fuel new growth at 70-year-old SHRM W hile 2018 marked the 70th year of operation for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) in Alexandria, Va., a fresh look at the present and fu- ture spurred growth, says presi- dent and CEO Johnny Taylor Jr. That included: the #MeToo movement around sexual ha- rassment; a "very hot" economy leading to an unemployment rate of 3.7 per cent; and low national birthrates contributing to a labour shortage and skills gap. is confl uence of factors cre- ated a unique opportunity for HR, says Taylor, who became CEO in December 2017. "We could have very well run from it, and instead we embraced it and said, 'You know? Actually, there was some pretty darn good HR practice going on. (Is there) room for improvement? Indeed. e opportunity for us here now is to realize how important HR is.'" In 2018, the society gave guid- ance on workplace harassment, created a seven-state pilot pro- gram to develop the country's youngest workers, and pushed employers to broaden their job- candidate pools to include vet- erans and people with criminal backgrounds, he says. SHRM also retooled its brand- ing campaign — previously fo- cused on certifi cation — to high- light the eff ect HR can have on harassment, immigration, skills gaps and workforce management. "What we found was these is- sues spoke not just to HR people… but to actual everyday employees." Through SHRM's campaign, Americans began to understand why HR certifi cations are impor- tant, says Taylor. " ere is no part of us that is go- ing away from our mission, which is our core — HR people," he says. "But it is expanding the com- munication and the branding of it to people who it may not be so clear to them why they should care about HR." Membership has swelled to 306,000 following the "biggest growth year ever," says Taylor. In 2019, SHRM's focus will be squarely on expanding the supply of workers, he says. Employers will need to begin looking at non-traditional re- cruitment opportunities, such as the formerly incarcerated, older workers, immigrants, veterans and those who are disabled, ac- cording to Taylor. "Once you fi nd those people, you've got to train them. It's a great idea to say, 'We're going to open our hiring window to take people who historically were overlooked.' But what you have to acknowl- edge is if you have someone who's been in federal prison for 15 years, you can't expect that you're going to bring them into the workplace and tomorrow, they're going to be functional." Johnny Taylor Jr. president, CEO of SHRM CPHR NL works to combat declining membership numbers F or a province of its size, Chartered Profession- als in Human Resources (CPHR) Newfoundland & Lab- rador should have more than 1,000 members, according to its president. Currently, CPHR NL has 145 members. "Our challenge is that we didn't really grow the members' num- bers, but I think that those mem- bers are fairly loyal because the ratio of people that actually have their designation is much higher," says Leroy Murphy. "Part of that challenge, too, is in St. John's — that's where the bulk of our organization or members are, but we've got to get out to the other areas of the province," he says. "It's very diffi cult to draw those people in when they're a bit more isolated, so we've got to get more increased focus on getting the rest of the province involved." It's a major emphasis for 2019, says Murphy. "Every year, our board of direc- tors is almost predominantly from St. John's. (But) this year, we have somebody from Corner Brook that we will be able to hopefully rely on, and we've been talking about maybe how can we do some events elsewhere." On the positive side, "finan- cially, things have improved" and hopefully collaborations will help this continue, he says. CPHR Canada partnerships have enhanced membership of- ferings, says Murphy. CPHR NL is also hoping that by affi liating with a prominent local university, it will help increase the number of members, he says. "We're working on a partner- ship with the Gardiner Centre, and they're an offshoot of the Faculty of Business at Memorial University. ey do a lot of pro- fessional-development training for industry people and so we're going to partner with them to do a one-day seminar for HR lead- ers... We've never done anything that big before and I think that will help put us on the map a little more here in Newfoundland." Rebranding, which started last year, has helped expand the orga- nization's profi le, he says. " at's gone really well because, coincidentally for us, when we were rebranding, we were rede- veloping our website, so the tim- ing was perfect… at really adds some weight to the recognition of the title CPHR." But eff orts to establish a self- regulation body have not gone as successfully, says Murphy. "We've not progressed nearly as far as we would like, and we're trying to reassemble a new team." " e problem is volunteers in such a small organization... trying to get people to do these kinds of things, is very challenging," he says. "I think this year we're going to be able to really make an actual solid push, because we've gotten past a rebranding, we have our strategic plan, and other elements of our strategic plan are coming together." Leroy Murphy, president CPHR Newfoundland & Labrador

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