Canadian HR Reporter

CanaDian hr reporter november 17, 2014 feaTuRes 15 Centre for Mental Health in the Workplace Great-West Life www.workplacestrategiesformentalhealth.com Canada's Safest Employers awards are presented by Canadian Occupational Safety magazine, a Thomson Reuters business and a sister publication to Canadian HR Reporter. Launched in 2011, the awards recognize Canadian companies with outstanding accomplishments in promoting the health and safety of their workers. Visit www.safestemployers.com for more information. And the winners are… On October 28th, firms from across the country were honoured at a special gala event to celebrate the winners of Canada's Safest Employers 2014. This is the fourth year for the prestigious event which honours firms with top health and safety practices. Two of the awards have a strong HR focus — the Psychological Safety Award and the Wellness Award. GOLD SILVER Congratulations to the winners of Canada's Safest Employers 2014 Rann Sharma Toronto-based global head of culture, Free the Children The charity has about 350 employees in North America and 400 overseas T hese days, ceOs are defi nitely expecting more from human resources, according to Rann sharma, global head of culture at free the children in Toronto. and that's been evident at her employer of nine years, which has grown very quickly. "What started off as very transactional activities — you know, personnel management, staff fi les, things like that — quickly grew for us to be able to evolve very quickly," she said. " e legislation side is very important, the guide- lines, the so-called industrial relations are very im- portant but, as the business has grown, our CEO has needed our HR team to understand how the business works. at's really, really important… I've worked very hard to ensure that we're not seen as a transactional department but a strategic one." At Free the Children, the role of HR has always been about facilitating business activities, under- standing where the opportunities lie in these areas and helping facilitate that, said Sharma, "while also ensuring that we're being compliant and we're taking care of all of those other transactional pieces." Fortunately, the organization appreciated the role of HR from the start, she said. "I always had a place at the senior leadership table so I could learn about the type of business growth that we were hoping to achieve, the type of people that we needed to hire to be able to make that hap- pen; to be able to understand the evolution of our markets, and to be in discussion about what's hap- pening and what is the value of what we're hoping to bring? So, to me, that's a fundamentally diff erent piece than checking off someone's health and well- ness form which, again, is very important but, at the same time, when we're trying to build and develop business goals, the people aspect, the people strat- egy is very crucial to that." But are HR professionals ready for that? A lot of the new graduates are still holding onto the transac- tional pieces, said Sharma — even though those are important too. "A lot of HR professionals that I've interviewed have been in a corner somewhere, far removed from the business, far removed from the day-to-day activ- ity, operating in a silo." Recently, the HR department at the 750-employee charity was split in two, with one side devoted to people operations and the other devoted to culture. Formerly the director of HR, Sharma now heads up the culture side. "I saw an opportunity in saying, 'Just as we market to our customers and we market to our clients and all of the external pieces and we have a very developed brand and people really understand us one way… wouldn't it be amazing if we could take that same lens and that same approach to our internal stakeholders, our staff ?'" If HR really wants to be seen as a strategic busi- ness partner, it needs to understand what it is the CEO wants to do, what senior directors and hiring managers want to do, and almost be a chameleon, said Sharma. " is is what I think is lacking a bit because you have to be dynamic enough to convey a sense of care and passion for the people strategy, but you also have to understand that, at the end of the day, it is a business that you're trying to move forward and you're trying to grow, and understand- ing all your stakeholders is very important. And, I get it — the legislation and the compliance is so important but I think sometimes people get stuck in that and it road- blocks everything else." SPLITTING SPLITTING

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