Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER February 22, 2016 10 NEWS DRUGS AND ALCOHOL IN THE WORKPLACE COST: $69 + applicable taxes LIVE WEBINAR TIME: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. ET REGISTER ONLINE: www.HRReporter.com/CPDCentre For more Live and On-demand Webinars, visit us online. WEBINAR SERIES Presenter: Katherine Ford Sherrard Kuzz LLP Drug and alcohol testing of employees is a hot- button issue, with various decisions from various courts and arbitrators seemingly contradicting each other at times. Topics to be discussed include: • Understanding Drug and Alcohol Testing • Responding to Drug or Alcohol-Related Misconduct • Drug and Alcohol Policies DATE: February 24, 2016 Ian Hendry Norm Sabapathy Heather Briant Kim Carter Suanne Nielsen Mark Edgar Late last year, Ian Hendry, president of the Strategic Capability Network and vice- president of HR at Interac, moderated a discussion with human resources executives in downtown Toronto. The gathering has become an annual exercise for Canadian HR Reporter and is an opportunity to tap into the minds of senior leaders on the latest HR issues and concerns. In this, the second of a three-part series, the panellists look at the issue of organizational change and how leaders and employees can cope with transformation. 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 human resources, Cineplex Entertainment • Kim Carter, head of HR, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment • Mark Edgar, senior vice-president, human resources, RSA Canada • Suanne Nielsen, chief talent offi cer and corporate secretary, Foresters Coping with change a given in today's workplace: Roundtable A look at how HR can deal with transformations and encourage the right behaviours BY SARAH DOBSON CHANGE is a constant chal- lenge today, that's a given. And HR always has to be on its toes, ready for the next transformation, planned or unplanned, according to senior HR leaders participating in a roundtable hosted by the Stra- tegic Capability Network (SCNet- work) in Toronto. RSA Group, for example, has been transforming the way its business is run, organized and structured, according to Mark Ed- gar, senior vice-president of HR at RSA Group in Toronto. "We spent 2013 working very closely with consultants to in- form the new strategy that we're now implementing. So the biggest thing for us has been managing change, transformational change, which has been interesting." e moves came about in re- sponse to internal and external challenges driven by a new group CEO, he said. "(He) was very much focused around delivering for our cus- tomers and the sustainability of the business from an effi ciency and eff ectiveness perspective, so our expenses were too high to maintain long-term profi tability and competitiveness, so we had to adjust as a result of that." A new CEO in 2014 also insti- gated a new and transformational change at Foresters that meant taking a longer-term view, accord- ing to Suanne Nielsen, chief talent offi cer and corporate secretary in Toronto. "Out of that, the HR role of course is everything to do with people and change, so it's all hands on deck." e previous CEO was retir- ing and while the board initially looked within the organization for an internal successor, it ultimately brought in a new CEO from the United States, she said. "What they discovered through the recruitment process — be- cause you get feedback from the candidates themselves on what they think is happening in the in- dustry and contrasting with your organization — the board became convinced they needed someone who could architect and lead huge transformational change; they thought it was the next evolution of the business." At Cadillac Fairview, the CEO changed about fi ve years ago and that drove a big organizational change, said Norm Sabapathy, ex- ecutive vice-president of people in Toronto. "Our results have really shown it; we've had record-setting results in our business, and some of that is defi nitely attributed to the de- liberate cultural evolution behind those results." Burning platform But aside from a switch in leader- ship, how can change be encour- aged without some kind of dire circumstances spurring it on? asked Ian Hendry, president of the Strategic Capability Network and vice-president of HR for Interac in Toronto. "We talk about being agile but is it a question of simplifying language so people understand it, like culture? What are those things you can do if you don't have a burning platform, how do you create an energy within the organization to do things dif- ferently, whether it's customer service, process redesign, new technologies, operational excel- lence — how do you create that quasi-burning platform?" It's about having people think about how to weather the storm over the long term, said Edgar. "It seems strange that in a world that's ever changed, we think we can plan so far ahead — but peo- ple are trying to. But then the idea of getting everybody aligned be- hind that common goal is the key and people's increasing need for purpose and 'Where's the contri- bution?,' 'Where's the impact?' is where again we have a really big role to play to make that happen. So it's about trying to make people clear on what their contribution is, what their goal is." It's about common language and everything rolling up to that, said Kim Carter, head of HR at Maple Leaf Sports & Entertain- ment (MLSE) in Toronto. "I'm spending a lot of time these days on just internal com- munications and how are we are doing that in every message from the CEO, in setting business pri- orities, in rewarding employees — in everything that we do — and keeping that consistency. "Furthermore, having it be part of that executive table, so we're all on the same page and delivering that message, but also having the programs to follow up with it. So we're being very purposeful about the words that we choose." e "audience" is more sophis- ticated and they want to be spo- ken to regularly, she said. "Seventy per cent of our staff are gen Y and they demand it. ey want to know and they want to be part of the conversation, so it's also being purposeful about how you create the opportunity to have conversations." Change management and the need to get people excited about things is more important today than ever before, according to Heather Briant, senior vice-pres- ident of human resources at Cin- eplex in Toronto. "I don't sense that the typical employee is resistant to change — change is all around us every day, we are bombarded with new ideas and new things all the time, in per- sonal space and the workplace, so I don't think that we have a lot of work to do to convince people that we need to always be inno- vating and changing, I don't think that's unique to the workplace or Canada — people get it." Innovation It's about having a vision and direction and testing different innovations so you're readying yourselves for an uncertain future, said Nielsen. "We just came off an engage- ment survey and the innovation issue came up as a key driver for the first time for engagement, came up in a negative way, be- cause people are saying, '(It's the) cultural part, it's hard to advance ideas in our organization because of bureaucracy and the decision rate and those kinds of things.' So we're trying innovation over here and we're stifl ing it in another part of the organization." Cadillac Fairview is totally on the same page, said Sabapathy. "The world is changing rap- idly but actually getting people to change, fi guring out how to help them want to change and then stick with the change is challeng- ing. ere's still lots of work to do." ere's got to be more disci- pline and support behind it, and that's where HR can show up and do a better job, he said. "We've started bringing more change management resources in-house to build that compe- tency inside because we found a lot of changes we thought were happening weren't really happen- ing like they were intended, and even when they did, it was tough EFFECTIVE > pg. 11 "I don't sense that the typical employee is resistant to change — change is all around us every day, we are bombarded with new ideas all the time... people get it."

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