Human Resources Issues for Senior Management
Issue link: https://digital.hrreporter.com/i/605961
04/CANADIAN HR STRATEGY EDITOR'S NOTE Todd Humber DIABETES, THE R-WORD RESPONSE – AND A DOSE OF MINTZBERG T here is no theme to an issue of Canadian HR Strategy. The goal of this publication is to educate the C-suite on critical HR issues they may not encounter on a daily basis or to provide a different perspective on com- mon business issues. That holds true with this issue, and here are some highlights: DIABETES IS YOUR PROBLEM The numbers around diabetes are staggering and, from an employer perspective, a little terrifying. Between 2000 and 2010, the number of Canadians with diabetes nearly doubled from 1.3 million to 2.5 million. In the last five years, it has swelled to 3.3 million. That's why it was such an easy decision for Cana- dian HR Reporter, publishers of Canadian HR Strategy magazine, to organize a roundtable discussion on diabetes in the workplace. It's a given diabetics are on your payroll — and that carries a high toll. But a smart organization is a proactive one, and our panellists talked about ways to mitigate the risks of diabetes. Science and the medical commu- nity have gotten better at managing the disease, and many benefit providers can help educate organiza- tions on how to minimize the costs while ensuring workers remain healthy, productive and on the job. THINK BEFORE YOU CUT Nobody likes to say the R word — recession. Tum- bling oil prices led to rough times in Alberta, so we thought it would be helpful to take a look at how or- ganizations are reacting. There are essentially three schools of thought, according to the Hay Group's Andrea Plotnick: • Close your eyes and hope it goes away. • Slash and burn. • Be strategic about the cuts and focus on post-recovery. Obviously, the latter sounds like the best strategy, but it's not always easy to figure out where to invest and where to hack in order to stay alive and position yourself for success when the black ink returns. One of the smartest tactics in bad times is to poach the best talent who may be on the market because a competitor adopted the slash-and-burn tactic. Othertimes, high performers are more willing to jump ship because of salary freezes or other cutbacks. MINTZBERG CHIMES IN Henry Mintzberg is a favourite thought leader of mine — make sure you take 10 minutes and spend some time with him on page 18. Of particular note are his takes on "community- ship" over leadership — we admire organizations "where people love to go to work. They feel a sense of community, they're respected, and so on." That's the essence of culture, and culture is something ev- ery executive needs to care about. That's because whether you want a culture or not, you have one — and you have the ability to shape that culture so it's a benefit to the business, not a detriment. And Mintzberg throws out gems like this — "I've never set out to be the best, it's too low a standard. I set out to be good." His point being that you should be competing against yourself, not others, to be the best you can possibly be at any given task. He also chimes in on former prime minister Ste- phen Harper and the leadership woes at Volkswa- gen. It's pure Mintzberg and it's worth a read. As always, we welcome your thoughts on top- ics you'd like us to explore. Send ideas to todd. humber@thomsonreuters.com. We hope you enjoy this issue. @hrreporter Join the Canadian HR Reporter group