Canadian HR Reporter

www.hrreporter.com 47 a profession asking deep introspective questions about how we update our HR and labour relations policies to reflect a new world. "The challenges of recruitment, retention, talent management and, most importantly, succession planning run through the survey answers," says Stephanie Noël, director of the Queen's IRC. "There's layers to these challenges, but they're being driven by issues of generational turnover and an aging population. Organizations are seeing their boomer workforces retire and are looking to recruit top talent from the next generation. But millennials come with a whole different value set and might not come to an organizational culture that's largely served baby boomers." Noël sees a need in the survey answers for organizational self-assessment. It's hard to do, now, in the midst of an ongoing crisis, but she says the care and time taken by respondents in answering these survey questions reflects a shared commitment to the industry among HR professionals and a shared desire to move the industry forward. To do that, Noël says, HR leaders need to ask themselves what skillsets they're really requiring in order to deliver on their strategic priorities. That means determining what talent is required to achieve those goals and where, generationally, you can find it. If it will take a younger workforce to meet those challenges, it may require a cultural retool or a different approach to benefits, vacation and work flexibility that reflects millennial sensibilities. Much of that work is organization-specific and every organization is about its people. In Canada, we saw how companies, governments, every organization needed HR professionals to guide them. So much of the weight fell on HR and they shouldered it." The biggest opportunity emerging, Noël says, is that HR has a seat at the table like never before. Subsets of the profession such as workplace safety have become utterly essential, but senior leadership is listening to all its HR people right now. As well, the generational change highlighted by the survey poses as many opportunities as it does challenges. This is a chance for HR leaders to help remake organizational culture for the better. In adopting tech and AI skills, they can move data to the core of their processes. In retooling hiring and benefits to serve a new generation, HR can ensure their teams can adapt to a post-COVID world and meet all the strategic goals of the future. In bringing in these new voices and reflecting a new generation, too, HR can assess past failures in equity, diversity and inclusion and work to rectify them, helping to create a stronger organization in future. While the survey answers are still being analyzed, Noël's first takeaway is of an industry that's been put through the wringer but is coming out on the other side strong and committed. HR professionals see challenges ahead, but they see the opportunities that come with them and they now know, having spent the summer moving mountains, that they can do just about anything. "I want to thank everyone who participated," Noël says. "Our centre exists on the generosity of the HR community and we will continue to strive to answer some of these big questions, help HR professionals and lead them as they grow professionally." CHRR requires a talent management strategy that begins by asking the right questions. Even with unemployment numbers skyrocketing, organizations are finding shortages of top talent. Noël says organizations need to work out where their top talent will come from, whether that's a knowledge transfer between different generations of employees or attracting people from the right training programs. Other survey respondents highlighted different ongoing challenges posed by both these generational changes and the COVID-19 pandemic. The role of technology, remote work and flexible work has been accelerated by the pandemic, but it was a looming challenge before. HR leaders need to balance a stated desire among employees to work flexibly, facilitated by tech, against the long-term wellness of these employees. Bringing work home with you can be a double-edged sword for an employee and it's on HR to look out for employee wellness in these situations. The survey also asked HR professionals about how they see their own roles and work in the organization. Since the last survey in 2013, a growing percentage of respondents are remaining in their roles for longer. Noël says this could reflect more job satisfaction among HR professionals or a shrinking job market for HR professionals outside of data- and AI-driven roles. Despite all the challenges HR professionals see in their organizations and their own roles, Noël says the initial survey results speak to opportunities for HR professionals who just proved their undeniable value as they guided their organizations through the pandemic. "The need for HR pros during a crisis like this is paramount," Noël says. "In May and June, while the respondents wrote in their answers, we learned that Stephanie Noël is director of the Queen's IRC

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