Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER CANADIAN HR REPORTER March 24, 2014 March 24, 2014 18 FEATURES FEATURES Metrics, mobile apps hot topics for HR technology association Richard Rousseau, President, HRMSP F or the Human Resource Management Systems Professional Association (HRMSP), 2013 was a year to build on its success and reach more HR professsionals than ever. Rather than a professional des- ignation association, HRMSP is designed to help professionals fi nd out more about HR-focused technology and systems. e association has been build- ing more of a following each year, says Montreal-based HRMSP president Richard Rousseau. With an offi cial membership of about 100, the association measures its true reach by the number of cli- ents it connects with each year through educational events held in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City. Last year, the association reached about 4,000 clients — signifi cantly more than the 3,000 clients it reached in 2012, says Rousseau. "HRMSP is about people, pro- cesses and technology," he says. "We gather professionals and practitioners from all organiza- tions of all sizes, from both the private and public sectors." The association also works with product and service provid- ers, says Rousseau, as well as any- one concerned with improving their information management systems. A continuing hot topic last year for clients was HR metrics. "For years, organizations have concentrated on HRIS (human resource information systems), which is mostly just a collection of data from employees through payroll and HR systems," says Rousseau. But this simple capturing of data hasn't helped HR profession- als when it comes to calculating data to support and measure the value of HR initiatives. " To day, e ver y thing ha s changed," he says. " ere are tools we call HRMS (human resource management systems) and they can help senior management bet- ter analyze the data collected from these systems and identify key ar- eas to improve." Mobile applications designed for use with HR systems have been popular as well, says Rous- seau. With these, any employee can link a mobile device with an HRMS to have on-the-go access to her own data, including sched- ules and pay stubs. Also big in 2013 were the prod- uct demonstration days held in Toronto and Montreal. Seeing a new technology in action can help an HR professional deter- mine how well it might benefi t his organization. " ese are always well-attend- ed events. People like that they can sit down and a see a live dem- onstration," he says. e association also aims to pro- vide networking opportunities. "We bring all these profession- als together for a kind of round- table discussion," says Rousseau. HRMSP education events and demonstrations often bring together diverse groups that in- clude HR professionals, payroll managers and IT professionals, among others. What unites the groups "is that everyone is in- terested in HRMS and how to improve their business sector," he says. Learning from others' experi- ences can be an invaluable tool when it comes to making deci- sions about which technology will suit an organization best. "It's not vendors who lead ses- sions or demonstrations," says Rousseau. "It's always someone who went through an experience with his own company when implementing a product and he's sharing what the issues were, how the implementation went and what they would do diff erent if they could do it again." In 2014, the association will be working on improving and ex- panding its website. "We want to make our web- site more user-friendly and even easier to use for people who are looking for articles or names of vendors," he says. " e biggest issue is to have good articles and good references to share." SCNetwork celebrating 35 years Ian Hendry, President, SCNetwork T his year marks an impor- tant milestone for the Strategic Capability Net- work (SCNetwork), according to Ian Hendry, the organization's Toronto-based president. " e signifi cance of this year is that we actually celebrate 35 years of existence. So for a volunteer- run organization that, to us, is a pretty phenomenal achievement," he says. "Our featured event this year is actually a celebration of those 35 years and it's going to be a one-day event that we make available as a freebie to our members, to thank them for their loyalty to us over those years." e full-day anniversary event will focus on diff erent areas of leadership, says Hendry, and while the day will celebrate SC- Network's past, it will also look toward the future. "While it's a 35-year history, we recognize that going forward, ev- eryone in our membership needs to continually enhance their skills and as the world changes, we need to change. e skills that were ad- equate in the past aren't neces- sarily going to be adequate in the years ahead," says Hendry. "It's a unique event in that way and we're going to (discuss) four elements around leadership — the critical skills of leadership that are necessary for success." SCNetwork has about 600 members — but for Hendry and his fellow leaders, it's not a num- bers game. "It's never been about numbers for us — it's really about creating a community, creating a peer net- work, recognizing that we learn from each other. But we really try to introduce leading-edge think- ing that is pragmatic and imple- mentable," he says. "We try and provide rich value because of a lot of the work is done by our members… We're an organization by leaders, for leaders. e people that run our organization are leaders in their own right." Other events this year will continue to demonstrate a strong focus around SCNetwork's three core theme areas — strategic ca- pability, organizational eff ective- ness and leadership. "Our programming will re- ally focus around those things. In March, we're doing teams and how do you deal with dysfunction in an organization," says Hendry. "April is going to be around our 35th anniversary theme event and we've got a number of events that will fi t within those three budgets going forward." eir programming is always popular with members, who know to expect a high standard. "Our members are always very comfortable that we're going to be hitting the mark on the topics that really are on their radar," he says. ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS Breaking down silos Starting small, getting commitment from senior leadership and involving entire organization critical to changing culture By Merril Mascarenhas C hanging an organization's culture isn't easy, and get- ting diff erent leaders, de- partments and managers all on the same page can be like herd- ing cats. But a good starting point is to examine the current culture to identify which ele- ments should be retained — and which need to change. Let's use the example of an orga- nization Arcus Consulting Group recently dealt with that wanted to break down silos within the com- pany. ere are four key strategic imperatives that helped accom- plish this: Connected strategy: A busi- ness and HR strategy that is more connected with the market envi- ronment and refl ective of stake- holder and customer needs. Deeper engagement: A more meaningful context and deeper connection between employees and the strategy. Performance standard s : Clearer performance and pay eq- uity standards and an augmented capacity for the organization to meet these standards consistently. Team orientation: A greater degree of team orientation and integration between various func- tions within the organization. e approach involved four key steps: Understanding internal social systems to break down silos Arcus deployed a best practice model of a culture that correlates strongly with superior organi- zational performance, and the organization was benchmarked against a good-better-best hier- archy of metrics from an existing database. e results were used to identify gaps in the culture and to determine where sub-cultures existed. Fifteen per cent of the informa- tion was acquired in formal (man- agement to staff ) settings, while 85 per cent of the information was acquired in informal (people to people) settings. To validate some of the hypoth- eses from the benchmark analysis, market research was conducted with stakeholders, board mem- bers, employees, HR managers and the workforce in one-on-one interviews and focus groups. e results were shared with employ- ees and the management team. e management team then de- veloped a process for moving the overall culture forward with action plans and performance criteria. A facilitated coaching and mentoring process allowed teams to talk about their reactions to potential change, advantages and disadvantages, and concerns and aspirations. Directors and man- agers then developed a collective vision of the future for the orga- nization and a statement of its CONNECT > pg. 24 A facilitated mentoring process allowed teams to talk about reactions to potential change, advantages and disadvantages, and concerns and aspirations.

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