Canadian HR Reporter

Canadian HR RepoRteR January 26, 2015 14 News tAleNt > pg. 15 LOOKING TO HIRE? CFA Society Toronto's employment posting service gives you access to over 8,000 investment professionals. Our Career Centre has become the job source for investment employers. WHY NOT JOIN US? For more information: Tel: 416.366.5755 option 4 Email: jobs@cfatoronto.ca www.cfatoronto.ca WANT ACCESS TO HIGHLY QUALIFIED INVESTMENT PROFESSIONALS? NiagaraInstitute.com conferenceboard.ca Tools for Leadership Success Niagara Institute Leadership Training • Publications • Webinars Ian Hendry Norm Sabapathy Heather Briant Laura Dunne Helen Giffen Gathering a group of very senior Hr leaders into a room is always an interesting exercise. Late last year, ian Hendry, president of the Strategic Capability network and vice-president of Hr for interac, moderated a discussion at the national Club in downtown toronto. it has become an annual exercise for Canadian HR Reporter, and an opportunity to tap the minds of Hr leaders on what's coming down the pipeline for the coming year. in this, the fi rst part of a three-part series, panellists look back at 2014 and discuss what's on the horizon for 2015 when it comes to talent management. PANELLISTS: • ian Hendry, president of the Strategic Capability network and vice-president Hr, interac • norm Sabapathy, executive vice-president of people, Cadillac Fairview • Heather Briant, senior vice-president of people, Cineplex Entertainment • Helen giffen, senior vice-president, human resources, MCAp • Mark Edgar, senior vice-president, human resources, rSA Canada • Laura dunne, senior vice-president of human resources, indigo Books & Music talent management high on hr's agenda Senior HR leaders discuss strategies for ensuring the right people are on the payroll BY todd HuMBeR wheN Cadillac Fairview un- veiled its fi ve-year business strat- egy, one of the fi ve key planks was making people and culture a com- petitive advantage. at's music to the ears of many HR professionals. But saying it and actually doing it are two diff erent things, something Norm Sabapa- thy, executive vice-president of people at the Toronto-based fi rm that owns, operates and develops commercial real estate, quickly found out in his fi rst full year on the job. "It sounds awesome, until you look below the surface and talk to people down through the orga- nization to fi nd out what's really happening in practice," he said. "And there were clear gaps be- tween what we thought was hap- pening and what people were ac- tually doing. ere had not been enough focus on systems needed to reinforce and sustain required behavior." That's not to suggest things were sour at the organization — far from it, he said. "Before I arrived, the organiza- tion was spending material time on talent, which is a credit to them because the business has been very successful, and there wasn't necessarily a burning platform for change," said Sabapathy. "No issues attracting people, no issues retaining people, yet they spent time thinking ahead, saying we need to invest around talent. ey got to the 10-yard line, now we're on our way to completing the rest of the 100 yards for a touchdown in line with our fi ve-year business strategy ." He spent a lot of time in 2014 figuring out a five-year people strategy that meshed nicely with the business plan. "And it's not just an HR strat- egy," he said. "It's seen as a people strategy that the business owns versus 'Here's this new HR guy and he and his team came up with an HR strategy.'" A big part of the strategy is fore- casting talent needs in the future. For example, what will the general managers running shopping malls and offi ce towers need to do dif- ferently fi ve years from now? " ey're going to spend time on environmental social governance and things that they never really talked about," said Sabapathy. For managers running malls, the question might be how to best support tenants and their busi- ness models as more sales move online. at could involve creat- ing the right customer experience that gets people into the malls to shop, and then providing WiFi so- lutions that track where they are and giving them information on where to go for specifi c products and deals. Globally, there are numerous challenges as well, he said. at's because a lot of Cadillac Fair- view's future growth is happening outside of Canada. "So what do we need to do when we talk about living our values of client focus, collaboration and in- novation when we're doing land deals and warehousing develop- ment in Brazil or Colombia? It's much diff erent than downtown Toronto," he said. Assessing talent, and ensur- ing the organization has the right people in place to achieve long- term goals, was a theme that reso- nated among the panellists. For Heather Briant, senior vice- president of people at theatre chain Cineplex Entertainment, the strategy is to focus on exist- ing employees and help them to evolve rather than looking for new talent. "It's helping those people who are already committed and tal- ented people in our organization to perhaps change their focus a bit and consider new opportunities," she said. "It's a little diff erent from say- ing, 'You need to fi t this box and if you don't, we'll fi nd someone who does.'" e company has a mature core of employees and a business that is challenged with a lot of digital op- portunities — and high expecta- tions from guests and customers. " ere's always a need for us to be innovating on a three-year transformation journey, but re- ally with very little turnover," said Mark Edgar

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