Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER May 2, 2016 6 NEWS RECRUITING FINANCIAL PROFESSIONALS? O er positions to over 200,000 Members Highly targeted advertising Immediate matching resume database access FOR MORE INFORMATION, cpacanada.ca/CPASource TELEPHONE•416 204 3284•EMAIL•TGardiner@cpacanada.ca 14-126a_EN_CPAsource_fullpagead_9.625x7.indd 1 1/5/2016 3:24:31 PM and profits, including the devotion of significant time to nurturing leadership and talent, the encouragement of leaders to foster employee engagement and the development of pipeline successors for leaders and top talent. "e correlation was so clear, so strong," said Heather Combs, Washington, D.C.-based chief business development officer at HRCI, which certifies human re- sources professionals on an indi- vidual level. The study found companies with HR practices certified on an organizational level outper- formed the stock prices of rele- vant indices by 51.17 per cent over five years. ose same companies showed growth rates of revenue increasing by 20.9 per cent while the relevant industries increased by 6.9 per cent in the same period. Similarly, organizations em- ploying more than five certified HR professionals outperformed the stock prices of relevant indi- ces by 57 per cent over five years, found the study. Those same companies showed growth rates of revenue increasing by 32.9 per cent while the relevant industries increased by 7.9 per cent in the same period. Organizations with certified human resources professionals were more favourably rated on employer review and assessment platforms such as Glassdoor and Kununu, the study found, and also showed stronger stock perfor- mance and compounded revenue growth rates. "We needed to find quantitative proof of the profound impact HR best practices and HR practitio- ners have on the results of com- panies," said David Plink, CEO of Top Employers Institute in Am- sterdam, which certifies HR prac- tices on an organizational level. The quantitative correlation between HR best practice and improved business performance is not surprising, said Bill Green- halgh, CEO of the Human Re- sources Professionals Association (HRPA) in Toronto. "at's really what HR is doing these days, not just providing HR services but providing services that improve the success of the company," he said. "When you look at successful companies, it comes down to peo- ple. People, at the end of the day, are the only sustainable differen- tiator. Anybody can buy technol- ogy and you can copy other pro- cesses, but what you can't really do is buy people's commitment and engagement." e ability to harness the en- ergy and innovation of employ- ees is the surest path to success, said Greenhalgh, and human re- sources policies and programs are necessary tools in that process. By incorporating HR best practices into its strategies, a company can increase engagement to push business performance. "e only way companies can survive and prosper is when the people they employ see them- selves as partners in the organiza- tion," said Greenhalgh. "You can buy people's time but you can't buy their engagement. It has to be something else. People are the sustainable advantage and if you can't keep them, if you can't retain them, you're just not going to succeed." e fact that the study from Top Employers Institute and HRCI fo- cused specifically on certification — both at an organizational and individual level — did not surprise Greenhalgh. "It comes down to training," he said. "Certification means you have to keep up-to-date, and so you're always learning new tools and techniques, new skills. It re- quires a commitment to a lifetime of learning." In fact, research conducted by the HRPA in the past — as well as the organization's experience working with human resources professionals — "totally" supports the study, said Greenhalgh. Unfortunately, the results of the report don't include a step-by- step program to improve business performance, said Plink. "Organizations must have the initiative to improve their poli- cies, the ambition to be the best employer they can be and to have the best people on staff," he said. And while a focus on human re- sources best practices can lead to the hiring and retention of qual- ity employees, it is important an organization never becomes set in its ways, said Madeline Avedon, associate partner, talent, rewards and performance at Aon Hewitt in Toronto. "ere's the sense, right now, that a lot of organizations — es- pecially from an HR perspective — are looking to simplify, they're looking to streamline and they're looking to create consistency in the employee experience," she said. "And HR is having this chal- lenge right now in 'How do we cre- ate consistency and align to best practices but, at the same time, how do we innovate and how do we differentiate ourselves?' Be- cause those two concepts can be very opposing." Blindly adhering to best prac- tices without considering the individual needs of an organiza- tion can often lead to stasis, said Avedon. "In some ways, best practices lock in what we thought was the right thing to do in the past," she said. "ere is this idea that it can kill innovation because it doesn't give you the leeway to think differ- ently. We need to break through that wall because you have to think differently." e first step to thinking dif- ferently, she said, is to understand what makes an organization dif- ferent. By gathering as much infor- mation as possible, employers and human resources professionals can create strategic best practices that address what needs must be met in order to propel the business forward and then adapt employ- ment value propositions to be in alignment with those needs. "It's really about helping leaders understand their teams and their workforce needs," she said. "at's why there is so much excitement around big data. It's really about HR stepping up and helping the C-suite understand that it can make fact-based talent decisions if it has the data and it's not about a hunch, it's not about intuition, it's really about the facts. Data and analytics are changing the dialogue between human re- sources and the business. at evolution could bring about more best practices, and more strategic best practices." Increasing growth rates of revenue STUDY < pg. 1 Organizations with certified HR professionals were more favourably rated.

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