Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER March 21, 2016 8 NEWS Learn about next-level diversity. www.triec.ca/next-level "I worked with TRIEC to introduce mentoring, deliver cultural diversity workshops to our HR staff, and organize a networking event with immigrant professionals. As a result, we diversified our team, strengthening our ties to ethnic local economies, resulting in new revenue opportunities." Angela Agostino, Founder & President, AAA Human Resources Partnering Services Inc., former Director, Human Resources, Pitney Bowes Canada Counting on human resources Are executives actually asking for big data – and is HR marketing the ROI? BY SARAH DOBSON WHEN it comes to numbers, is there still a demand for big data — and are executives actually ask- ing for it or is HR marketing the return on investment? ose were the questions asked by Ian Hen- dry, president of the Strategic Ca- pability Network and vice-presi- dent of HR and administration at Interac in Toronto, at a roundtable of senior HR leaders hosted by the Strategic Capability Network (SC- Network) in Toronto. It's a good question when it comes to the C-suite, said Norm Sabapathy, executive vice-pres- ident of people at Cadillac Fair- view in Toronto. "I can generate all kinds of people data and insights but if they don't need it, they don't care about it and they don't see how it fi ts their context, then I think HR can make itself look foolish by trying to demonstrate HR can measure things," he said. "I try to fi gure out 'What is the root cause problem we're solving? And what specifi c data will I bring to sup- port a higher quality solution?'" Cadillac Fairview trains people around being better coaches, for example, and to measure success, rather than evaluating training attendance and satisfaction, it evaluates a cross-section of 100 people every quarter to gauge the frequency and quality of the coaching, from the perspective of the coachee, to see practical results and manage the conse- quence side of the behaviour they're seeking, he said. " e executives are very inter- ested to see this data because it's actually one of our six company- wide objectives and we're mea- suring results in a disciplined and consistent way... and it's simple, it wasn't a complex big data ex- ercise… but it was something meaningful in the context of the business outcome we're looking to achieve." HR provides data at Cadillac Fairview to help make better de- cisions, said Sabapathy. For ex- ample, in measuring performance calibration, HR was able to dem- onstrate a normally distributed pay-performance link, including areas where performance was skewed and where top performers should have been receiving more versus clustering people's perfor- mance around the mean, he said. "It's about helping business leaders make better decisions and learn how to self-correct through better data, versus controlling and micro-managing. HR plays an im- portant role here and generates real value for the business." Executives are interested in large investments, so they want to see the value they get out of that investment, said Heather Briant, senior vice-president of human resources at Cineplex Entertain- ment in Toronto. " ey're also very interested i n data to demonstrate the eff ec- tiveness of the leadership pipeline capability." Data is part and parcel of criti- cal thinking, said Suanne Nielsen, chief talent offi cer and corporate secretary at Foresters in Toronto. "You have to bring data to say, ' is is going to help the business achieve x by increasing productiv- ity, by doing this, by doing this…' You have to bring evidence to make proposals." Data can be brought to bear to identify problems, said Nielsen. For example, in the old days, an HR consultant would say, "You have a bad leader here" and while intuitively they know that leader is not a good leader, they couldn't bring evidence to bear, she said. But now they look at issues such as turnover or absenteeism to paint a picture and provide proof. At RSA Group, HR is having to up its game in terms of its ability to produce business cases and num- bers to support its decisions, said Mark Edgar, senior vice-president of HR at RSA Group in Toronto. "It's not enough to say, 'It's the right thing to do' or 'Other people are doing it.'" But some employers may want to go further, he said, citing as an example one expert who created a monitor employees can wear to track all sorts of things including their body movements and the people they spoke to. " is guy had all this data to crunch and to correlate it to per- formance and wellness, and it was pretty out there. He told us it was 'the next big thing' and I know some organizations are into that but you need to be pragmatic. At times, I still struggle to get an FTE report — so, like many organiza- tions, we're not quite ready for that level of insight." Data is the equalizer of conver- sations, said Kim Carter, head of HR at Maple Leaf Sports & Enter- tainment (MLSE) in Toronto. "(It's) evidence-based and numbers-driven — you're not ar- guing a point, you're just showing the facts. So I fi nd that my team has been incredibly receptive to it and so when you open the door, they want more … they are just constantly looking for more in- sightful and meaningful data, not just spinning your wheels, but to improve understanding." It's great if HR is initiating the charge for big data, said Hendry. "With HR maturing in terms of its relevancy and importance and bringing to bear evidence of the contribution we're making, which I think is critical for us… we've got to be astute." Strategic HR And when it comes to HR and strategy, do we understand our strengths? asked Hendry. "How much are we actually providing value from a strate- gic thinking component? When thinking about talent strategy, how does that link to strategy vis- a-vis refi ning to diff erent business lines? Can you, for example, pres- ent ideas on how your measured organizational competencies can build strategy, leverage strategy?" March 21, 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 and administration 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 third of a three-part series, the panellists talk about the continuing importance of big data, along with HR's strategic value. PANELLISTS: • Ian Hendry, president of SCNetwork and vice-president, HR and administration, 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 Group • Suanne Nielsen, chief talent offi cer and corporate secretary, Foresters SHIFTING > pg. 12 "My team are constantly looking for more insightful and meaningful data to improve understanding."

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