Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER May 16, 2016 FEATURES 17 Kithio Mwanzia president and CEO of the Guelph Chamber of Commerce The Ontario-based group has nine employees W hen it comes to defi ning the sharing economy, there doesn't have to be a singular defi nition, according to Ki- thio Mwanzia, president and CEO of the Guelph Chamber of Commerce in Ontario. It can be about peer-to-peer networks, robust co- operatives, using community bonds as a fi nancing tool, shared initiatives or leveraging app technology to bring it all together. "Sharing economy really is the utilization of mul- tiple tools to be able to draw value out of par- ticular products and services that haven't existed before," he says. Technology along with a tougher economy could be behind the growth. "Technology has really enabled this type of outreach and expansion," says Mwanzia. " ere's also a great interest in a pluralistic approach to fi nancing. Crowd-funding was probably one of the biggest starts to it, now community bonds are a valuable component." And when it comes to the sharing economy, the consumer is highly empowered. "A lot of it is based on ratings, ratings that are provided and how the consumer responds to a particular service has lots more equity than perhaps it did before, so it's the empower- ment of consumers and the expansion of technology," he says. And from the perspective of Guelph, there's a community aspect to it where people feel greatly connected to their community because they have the chance to invest in it, says Mwanzia. Citing examples such as Rover, where people can share parking spaces, or Dozr, where people share construction equipment, "it's just a diff erent way for ingenuity and technol- ogy to add value," he says. As for the people involved, it's less about contact or temporary work and more about people being entrepreneurial, says Mwanzia. "It's spurred on a very interesting sense of entrepreneurship in the actual players in the shared economy." When it comes to a person working for Uber, for example, "you have an entrepreneur in their vehicle by virtue of the agreement they have, so there isn't that contractual employee relationship. It's an entrepreneur within the specifi c network of the technology that's of- fered, to be able to share this resource," he says. And looking ahead, there will probably be more hybrid approaches. "You look at the sharing economy as a network connector, essentially, and how you participate in that network is going to have to be a hybrid beween old and new. I don't think it's possible to overlay old principles on a brand new model, and that's OK — it's OK for the model to evolve, there's value in that, there's value to the model being a hybrid of both old and new. Business model innovation is one of the most important ways that we actually make signifi cant progress and that's what happening right now, it's business model innovation, the extent of which that network is able to connect all of those elements together," says Mwanzia. And this growing entrepreneurship brings many benefi ts. " e capacity, the power of entrepreneurship to think nimbly about challenges and how to solve those challenges, to operate beyond… conventional thinking, to be creative, all of that emerges out of a sense of being entrepreneurial. at principle is now applied, you'll have people who are serial entrepreneurs, constantly thinking creatively and strategically and so on and so on, and that culture is bred through what we're seeing now in the new model," he says. But there is a need for a level playing fi eld for both new entrants to the market, through business model innovation, and incumbents. " at can't be overlooked. But we can't also overlook the fact that there is an opportu- nity for more nimble, more creative, more risk-taking and out of that emerges signifi cant benefi ts when it comes to economic capacity, new inventions, new business process, all those things," says Mwanzia. And the role of human resources is a big one. "We can't take this leap without the guidance of people that have expertise in thinking about this, have thought about a variety of both risks and challenges and opportunities. So the profession, the HR profession, will play a very important role in helping to guide that level playing fi eld," he says. "When it comes to policy informing that is well-balanced, the HR community will play a very important role in designing the right framework to actually make sure that we're not cannibalizing but we're actually advancing, so they'll play an important role in ensuring that there is progress versus having an adverse impact. "We (don't) want to get caught up in the excitement of a new and innovative approach but forget about the fact that sound public policy still needs to be established to ensure that there's a level playing fi eld when it comes to business opportunity and the fact that we want this to be a net positive, not see a cannibalizing versus this being a net positive from the perspective of this community." Kithio Mwanzia The Ontario-based group has nine employees W hen it comes to defi ning the sharing W hen it comes to defi ning the sharing W economy, there doesn't have to be a W economy, there doesn't have to be a Wsingular defi nition, according to Ki- Wsingular defi nition, according to Ki- W thio Mwanzia, president and CEO of the Guelph Chamber of Commerce in Ontario. It can be about peer-to-peer networks, robust co- operatives, using community bonds as a fi nancing tool, shared initiatives or leveraging app technology to bring it all together. "Sharing economy really is the utilization of mul- tiple tools to be able to draw value out of par- ticular products and services that haven't existed before," he Rick O'Connor president and CEO of Black Press Group The Surrey, B.C.-based company has 1,800 employees in Canada Y ears ago, Black Press Group consolidat- ed a number of newspapers into a clus- ter, printing all of them in one location. at was before today's "gig" economy but still involved the use of information technology to optimize HR, according to Rick O'Connor, president and CEO of Black Press Group in Surrey, B.C. "Most of our human re- sources assets were geo- graphically based but with technology, we're finding that essentially certain parts of our HR element are now being shared right across the spectrum, regardless of geography," he says. "We're able to essentially take a smaller group of employees in a more highly productive environment and essentially do the work… in a more effi cient manner." But in the publishing world, a gig economy doesn't necessarily work because of the daily or weekly schedules, says O'Connor. "(We) still need to have scheduled employees, so the gig economy doesn't really help us, in the sense of people just bidding on specifi c jobs," he says. "We have contracted out work to third-party companies that have bid on the work and they're based in the Philippines or India, but we fi nd we're better off to do that locally because of communication issues, so we do the same concept but we do it internally, enlisting employees." For the most part, Black Press in Canada tries to hire employees as opposed to contrac- tors, says O'Connor. "We're such a large company, there are expectations of us and some of those extend to things like pension obligations and benefi ts and that sort of thing, and I think today's em- ployee is defi nitely looking for those things… B.C. is still a competitive market and you need to off er things like benefi ts and pensions to employees to induce them to work for you." As for the growth of the sharing economy, that can be explained by improvements in technology, which help to make processes more streamlined and effi cient, along with a tougher economy, as people look to cut costs. But the regulatory environment is also be- hind the change, he says. "Part of it comes down to the regulatory environment for labour becoming more and more complicated, so I think people look at it and go, 'Hey, the fewer employees we have responsibility for, the better.' And I can see all three points of view melding into a single direction and that is you're better off with fewer employees and you're better off with those employees not having benefi ts and that sort of thing. But, ultimately, I worry about, when we take that approach, the quality of the work and the stability of the work," says O'Connor. "And (contract employees) don't necessarily have the background, familiarity and experi- ence, and so I'm a fi rm believer that you just need to be effi cient, you need to have your own people dedicated to the enterprise and they need to be top-quality employees." In a deadline-based business, there's no room for error, he says. "Because of that, you just need to make sure the employees know what they're doing every night or every day their task is assigned to them." And while boosted creativity and innovation are touted as benefi ts in a gig economy, with new people for each project, the same can be true with new employees, says O'Connor. "One of the things that you fi nd with the new age workforce coming into our industry is that they are very innovative but they also don't stay long, they're turning over a lot quicker than I think the previous generations have done and… when you deal with turnover, you also get the opportunity to bring in people that bring new skills and ideas, so I do see that as an advantage, whether it comes through turnover or a gig economy." And while there may be savings for employers because they don't have to off er perks such as health benefi ts and pensions, liability is a big factor, he says. "It takes a little while for somebody to learn a job — when they come to us, it takes three to six months to really get up to speed, do whatever job it is at the expectation level we want, and so I think it would be very diffi cult to run a newspaper publishing business with that cast of characters changing every week." Another potential downside is the lack of comradery that builds in a traditional work- place, says O'Connor. "When you get a group of reporters, sales people, sitting together, planning together, strategizing together, they feed off each other and you get way greater content developed, you get more sales. To have those people only interchanging through email or… phone calls, I don't think would be as good." Plus, people are looking for stability in employment, particularly after economic down- turns, he says. "People are looking for steady employment or a steady contract or something they can rely on and fall back on, as opposed to gigs here and there because, at the end of the day, it's all about supply and demand." May 16, 2016 Rick O'Connor The Surrey, B.C.-based company has 1,800 employees in Canada Y ears ago, Black Press Group consolidat- Y ears ago, Black Press Group consolidat- Y ed a number of newspapers into a clus- Y ed a number of newspapers into a clus- Yter, printing all of them in one location. Yter, printing all of them in one location. Y at was before today's "gig" economy but still involved the use of information technology to optimize HR, according to Rick O'Connor, president and CEO of Black Press Group in Surrey, B.C. "Most of our human re- "It would be diffi cult to run a newspaper business with the cast of characters changing every week."

• Cover