Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER CANADIAN HR REPORTER March 24, 2014 March 24, 2014 12 NEWS NEWS Ashton College | Vancouver, BC 604 899 0803 | 1 866 759 6006 w w w. a s h t o n c o l l e g e . c o m Equip yourself with the knowledge and qualification to obtain a licence for international talent recruitment. "I joined the immigration consulting program so that we had a licenced presence in the immigration market, which ties into our international recruitment and search business." Peter Meingast, CHRP, IPMA-CP | Private Consultant in HR & Foreign Recruitment, TPD Immigration Consultant Diploma Program, 2008 Immigration Consultant Diploma Program: Full-time | Part-time | Online Bowes Group in Winnipeg. Employees have to realize their comments, even if said jokingly or off handedly, can be perceived dif- ferently by diff erent customers. So a comment such as this one could be ignored by one customer but off ensive to another, he said. "It's in the eyes of the beholder." On the other hand, an employer also has a duty to make sure em- ployees are not subject to abuse and disrespectful behaviours from customers, said errien, "so it's a double-edged sword." Training concerns When it comes to training, Sears' code of conduct deals with major areas such as the proper use of company assets, confl icts of inter- est and protection of physical and intellectual property, said Power. ere's also a workshop about respect in the workplace dealing with mutual respect, harassment, workplace violence, inappropri- ate behaviour and bullying, along with tips on what managers can do to create respectful workplaces. In-person training usually means an employee has to wait for a class and there are enough people to join, he said. "(It) might not be able to take place until after they've been working for awhile," said Power. "Online allows an individual em- ployee to take the course before they even start their fi rst shift, so it's timely and effi cient for us too. Employees can also forward ques- tions to someone with experience who can answer for them." Every Sears associate has to complete both online courses annually, along with exams at the end, and employees must ac- knowledge they've read the code of conduct in their annual perfor- mance reviews. While that's adequate, he said, sometimes you're in the situation and as much as you know the the- ory, you really have to practise it. "( is incident is) probably an opportunity for us — certainly in that store, but even across Canada — to re-emphasize with our em- ployees how important behaviour is, especially with customers and fellow associates," said Power. "It gives us pause to make sure that we reinforce this with everybody." Retailers really need to train their teams on diffi cult situations and how to handle themselves, and role-play scenarios can help, said Hutcheson. " at's the type of stuff , you don't know how you're going to handle it until it gets there." But while role play can be ef- fective, there is no assurance an employee will react the same way given a situation in real-life, said Power. There are a million ways to play the Sears situation and it's all about getting the unhappy customer off the fl oor, said Janice Martin, a business coach at Mag- num Consulting in Vancouver. "When you're faced with a ticked-off customer, you're not thinking of the role-playing you did months ago in training. You're thinking, 'Man, this guy's making us look bad, how do we shut him up?'" Managers often go through in- tense confl ict-resolution courses, but that doesn't necessarily reach lower-level workers, she said. "Confl ict resolution is typically trained and used internally but more and more companies will have to bring that to the level of customer service to capture sales." And there are limits to the types of training off ered. " ere's lot of sensitivity train- ing going on, however, I believe it's all about leading by example. It's about showing sensitivity in a day-to-day environment with your employees, which will trickle down to how your employees now treat your customers," said Mar- tin. " e training is only as good as the followup and the authenticity." ere are four types of training retail employees probably have to go through, according to er- rien: customer service, respectful behaviour, diversity in the work- place and sensitivity training. "It does not provide a bullet- proof vest against possible situa- tions occurring but if employees are more aware of what they can see... and they are given training on how to de-escalate a particu- lar situation, then any company is going to be ahead of the game," he said. Social media's impact While social media has an impact, an incident like this still would have spread by word-of-mouth before, said errien. "In this day and age, your two friends are more like 2,000 and it just goes crazy within minutes of something happening," he said. "I don't think that there's necessarily a greater concern for employers to want their employees to be more polite and courteous than before, but I guess the concern is related to the scrutiny that customers are giving, given that everybody's got video capability in their pockets these days." Bad publicity has always been a concern for companies, but it's a bit more obvious now because of the ability to capture an incident on video, said Hutcheson. "A bad experience was viral be- fore too, just not to the same ex- tent that it is today," she said. "Ex- emplary customer service should be the backbone of any retail or- ganization and they shouldn't be striving for it just because of the fear of social media." ere shouldn't be any diff er- ence in employees' behaviour, regardless of who's watching or fi lming, according to Martin. "A good employee wouldn't be fearful of being on social media because they would be honour- able and not put their company or their job in peril, in jeopardy — whether they're being recorded or not." In a way, the social media as- pect of the altercation is irrelevant because inappropriate behaviour is inappropriate, whether it's be- ing fi lmed or not, said Power. And even before social media, employ- ees and customers would have re- ported this kind of behaviour and appropriate action would have been taken by Sears. But social media can make for a diff erent timeline. "With social media, we certain- ly know it can increase the likeli- hood of it making to the public faster than we used to and, you know what, we deal with that," he said. "Social media is part of today's world and, yes, sometimes it leads us perhaps to do things faster than we would have in the past — but we would have still have dealt with them." Social media speeds up timeline for bad publicity Social media speeds up timeline for bad publicity "Exemplary customer service should be the backbone of any retail organization and they shouldn't be striving for it just because of the fear of social media." VIRAL VIDEO < pg. 1 from the inside, said Dunne. "We have to hire people for potential, we have to take bets on people," she said. "Our great- est leaders are talent builders, so the people that spot great talent accelerate their development, know how to get them to the next level and are unthreatened by hir- ing someone who could be better than them one day. All of that, we try to build into the culture of the organization." Leaders who don't buy into that philosophy and block talent can be called out, said Dunne. "It's like, 'You're great. You've been leading this team for four years and you've never hired or developed any- one who can do anything more than what they've been hired to do. At some point, that starts to dim your star. And we need someone in your role who can do something more than just their job,'" said Dunne. Engagement still an issue Hendry wrapped up the con- versation by talking about en- gagement, something he said still seems to be an issue across all industries in all parts of the world — "What are we missing?" he asked the panellists. ere are two individuals at ev- ery organization who really can dictate whether the organization has high engagement or low en- gagement — and that's the CEO and the CHRO, said Bell. "If those two people aren't emo- tionally committed to the engage- ment fi le, it doesn't happen," he said. "It doesn't happen on its own, and those are the two most critical people. You could probably do it without the chief HR offi cer if the CEO was committed, but not the other way around." ere's no question the CEO has to drive engagement, said Dunne. "You need people to under- stand and connect to what the organization is trying to achieve," she said. "Part of it is conveying the logical connection between an individual's work and the goals of the organization. ey need to know how their part fi ts in. But then you need to earn emotional commitment, because rational commitment is not enough. 'OK, I get it, but am I actu- ally going to do any- thing about it?' You need that emotional commitment." And that emo- tional commitment can be harder to get from younger work- ers, said Dunne. "The y 're more aloof. They're not approaching an or- ganization with a really long timeline," she said. " eir loyalties are a little dif- ferent. ey're very open to mak- ing change. ey're proud to have worked at a great place — but they don't need to stay there forever." Hunter said building the emo- tional attachment at her hospital is a bit easier because many health- care workers care so deeply about their calling. "But it could still be a crumby organization where you're doing what you do, so the organization has to be great," she said. Hunter pointed to strong brands — such as Apple and Star- bucks — where people are buying the "why" of the product and not necessarily the "what" — "If you can fi gure out why your people are there or you have a really compel- ling purpose for your organiza- tion beyond shareholder value, it's a lot easier to have employees engaged." Calling out leaders Calling out leaders ROUNDTABLE < pg. 8 "Younger workers are more aloof. ey're not approaching an employer with a really long timeline."

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