Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER AUGUST 2019 FEATURES 13 With unemployment low and multiple generations in the workforce, retention can be a challenge. We talked to 5 HR leaders to fi nd out how they're tackling the issue. By Sarah Dobson E mployee retention has defi nitely become more of a priority these days, according to Brandie Yarish, vice-president of people and culture at Enmax in Calgary. And there are a few reasons for that. " ere's a recognition in terms of the amount of time and expense [involved with] turnover, as organizations are becoming increasingly complex, and the pace of change is accelerating," she says. ere's also a big demographic shift happening across Canada, with baby boomer retirement making it harder to fi nd key talent to fi ll leadership roles, says Yarish. "Any time you have somebody leave the organization with specialized knowledge and skills and you're trying to backfi ll and get business operations running smoothly again quickly, [it] is very challenging." As part of the retention focus, Enmax focuses its energy on employee engagement and moving the needle, she says. "We're coming at it through a proactive way, to go at it strategically to drive a number of outcomes, including retention," says Yarish. "When we focus on engagement, we get a whole bunch of byproducts beyond just retention — we also get to see our safety improve, we get to see our productivity improve and our overall performance as an organization." As a result, the utility has concentrated on leaders and assessing their impact on engagement, she says. "We're really focused on making sure that all of our supervisors have the appropriate leadership skills and experience to provide what's needed to our workforce. So that's a key area of focus for us, as is making sure that our all of our employees understand our vision and our purpose in making them feel like they're part of the organization and part of our overall community." To better understand employee preferences, engagement data can be cut based on age, for example, so that provides some trending numbers, says Yarish. "We are seeing some new values that are coming from those [workers] that are entering the workforce and what really matters to them," such as fl exibility and work-life balance. "I think a lot of the things that the millennials are asking for, the other generations were too fearful to ask for, but they want them, too." e 1,700-employee organization also focuses on recognition, she says. "Acknowledging people for their contribution and making sure that they feel appreciated goes a long way in terms of really making them feel part of something and having a sticky factor in terms of wanting to stay with the organization." e utility also has variable pay programs that are performance driven, says Yarish, "so everybody within our organization is eligible for short-term incentives, which includes all of our unionized employees, which isn't as common. And that's based on hitting corporate objectives, individual objectives, as well as business objectives." Enmax has also prioritized fi lling positions internally, and it completes a talent assessment annually, focusing on succession planning, she says. " ere are development plans that are built in-house for individuals [and] we're regularly monitoring who's available to take on a stretch assignment or the next role. And while we still need to augment with external skillsets, just based on where the business is going, and some of the new skills and experience that are required, we very much do move people throughout the organization and give them the opportunity to grow their careers." But there's one area that could use improvement — improving retention when it comes to diversity and inclusion, says Yarish. " at's another area where Canadian employers have a lot of work to do in developing the specifi c solutions to ensure that we're putting the appropriate supports in place to enable diversity and inclusion and that once we attract people to the organization, they don't feel isolated or that they don't have support to be successful and stay with the organization. So, that's another area where we want to focus… even if we just look at females in the workplace, a really important retention factor would be making sure that we've got good support for women when they come back from maternity leave." Another particular challenge: How to retain the right employees versus the wrong ones, she says. " ere's some employees that, frankly, would be better off moving on. And so how do you ensure that when you're focused on retention, you're focused on the things that matter most to the employees you want to retain, but not making it so attractive and so enticing that, at the same time, you're retaining all of those that really should have left a couple years ago and gone on to something diff erent?" The utility is owned by the City of Calgary and has 1,700 employees Brandie Yarish vice-president of people and culture and CHRO at Enmax Riveted by RETENTION IN FOCUS HR LEADERS TALK

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