Canadian HR Reporter

www.hrreporter.com 17 "If we say, 'Yes, you can be based remotely' but actually the technology or the platform or the leadership isn't right to enable that working environment, then we're going to set somebody up for failure." Kerris Hougardy, Colliers International enal. And I think that if organizations hadn't recognized before, I'm sure they most certainly do now, that there is a strong strategic partner in HR for a leader and a really valuable resource for employees." HR teams will continue to have to be more agile going forward in terms of how they adapt and flex, because there's so many more changes to come, she says. "Agility, flexibility and adaptability going forward are absolutely key skills for any HR team to adopt. It's certainly something we're going to be investing in in 2021 around agile methodologies, work processes, skills ― it's going to be so important." Lessons from 2020 One of the biggest lessons of the year is how absolutely critical communication is, says Hougardy. "Transparent and authentic commu- nication, regardless of who it's from and the format that it's in, has been one of the key ways that we've been able to really function as an organization across a number of different levels." Whether it's an email from a leader, a webinar, town hall, team meeting, coffee chat or virtual social, "being able to connect people who were feeling scared, uncertain, anxious, stressed, over- worked, sometimes overwhelmed… has been absolutely critical," she says. The importance of employee well-being also came to the forefront, says Hougardy. "It's become abundantly apparent throughout this process that our role in our workforce's lives is not just there to provide equipment or resources to be able to do their jobs effectively from a skills perspective, or from a perfor- mance management perspective, it's as well to provide a broader well-being program or platform for them to be able to tap into." As part of that, Colliers updated its paid time-off policy by giving employees two "BE" days so people can be whatever they want to be, she says. "That enables people to take time out, to focus on their mental health or to volun- teer in their community or to recognize a religious holiday that maybe isn't recog- nized by our stat holidays or go to the spa for the day to… look after yourself." Last summer, the company also worked with a Vancouver startup to provide employees with access to online virtual experiential learning for their young kids. "The feedback we got was phenom- enal. The parents felt that they could take two hours out of their day to be able to do some work or do some laundry or something that was really piling up," says Hougardy. As for training initiatives, Colliers had already rolled out online learning to staff in February 2020. "Our ability to be able to train and develop individuals virtually with the adoption of digital training programs like LinkedIn Learning and others that we can access, as well as creating small workshops or focus groups through Zoom and [Microsoft] Teams, is some- thing that we've become a lot more proficient in and people are a lot more accepting of," she says. KERRIS HOUGARDY, vice president of people services for North America at Colliers International in Vancouver The 2,500-employee real estate company has offices in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and Calgary doubt, 2020 has been a crazy year, says Kerris Hougardy, vice president of people services for North America at Colliers International in Vancouver. But if there's one silver lining, it's that all the hard work from human resources has elevated recognition of the profession and what it can do for organizations. "HR has been thrust into the spotlight throughout this past year, more than any other department or team in any organi- zation. And they've had to deal with so many unknowns, so many changes," she says. These range from workplace health and safety, the shift to the remote work environment, planning a workforce in a downturn economy, elevating diver- sity and inclusion with the rise of Black Lives Matter movement and the mental health of employees, says Hougardy. "There's been some incredibly heroic efforts from HR departments right across the globe. It's been incredibly stressful, really uncertain, often very emotional, but they've risen to the chal- lenge ― HR has just been phenom- NO

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