Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER May 30, 2016 12 NEWS CONNECT TO ATLANTIC CANADA'S LEGAL NETWORK Stay connected with the 2016-17 Atlantic Legal Telephone Directory. Order your copy today. Visit www.carswell.com or call 1-800-387-5164 for a 30-day, no risk evaluation New Edition Perfectbound • June 2016 $44.50* • L7798-5929 ISBN • 978-0-7798-5929-0 Multiple copy discounts available *Plus applicable taxes and shipping & handling (Prices subject to change without notice) The 2016-17 Atlantic Legal Telephone Directory connects you to your legal community providing accurate and essential legal contact information in all four Canadian Atlantic Provinces. Each year find new and updated names, mailing addresses, email addresses and phone numbers for lawyers and law offices. Get quick, easy access to: • Law and Barristers' Societies • Courts of Appeal • Federal Court of Canada • Government of Canada departments • Judicial districts and judicial officials • Incorporated Municipalities • Land registration and information services • The Associations of Land Surveyors • Law Foundation • Provincial government departments • Boards and Commissions • Law Related Services, Institutions and Organizations • University law faculties ... and much more. president of HR at Fidelity Invest- ments Canada in Toronto. "ese things were done spe- cifically to ensure that mostly managers understand that their job is to encourage and listen to new ideas. So I think for us, we're in a good place that way." Enhancing recruitment and re- tention is the third greatest ben- efit of role rotation (18 per cent), according to the survey. "What used to be a more ex- pected path of joining a company and staying a very, very long term in the same job for an extended period is not as appealing, and I think when people have fresh op- portunities to consider, they will embrace those and get a chance to enrich their career opportu- nity with that organization," said King. However, a rotation program should be used widely by an em- ployer, according to Leduc. "ere should be a demonstrat- ed history of development within the organization, whether it be self-study, whether it be formal courses, whether it be learning on the job. But job rotation is not the tool to turn an unhappy employee into a happy employee. It's a tool for skills development." Accelerated professional devel- opment and strengthened succes- sion planning tie for fourth (12 per cent each) as the greatest benefits of job rotation, found Robert Half. "By having a healthy internal job rotation environment, in theory, you should always have potentially a candidate or two to consider an opportunity when it becomes available, and whether that's somebody in the imme- diate succession line to the job that's available or somebody in a different area of the organization but has had a job rotation through that function, maybe you've just increased your pool of potential internal candidates," said King. When the rotational program was launched, Sun Life Financial identified a gap in its future talent pipeline and realized it needed a way to identify and develop future leaders early on, said Delamere. "rough this program, we hire a select group of graduates and develop them to become the fu- ture leaders of our business." Challenges, best practices Despite the benefits of job rota- tion, there are also costs, uncer- tainties and risks, said Leduc. For example, there can be concerns about favouritism, a lack of under- standing by leadership or greater injury rates because of employees moving into new areas, he said. It can also be a strain for man- agers, said Lupi. "It's very challenging to do, it's not easy to do, to make it work… Getting the buy-in from the man- agers — it's a pain for them, hav- ing to train somebody every four months." At Fidelity, leaders have come to realize that the energy, enthu- siasm and ideas of the rotating people outweigh the disadvan- tages, said Godfrey, "but it's taken a while to demonstrate that." Support from managers is key, said King. "Everybody is trying to get their primary function done and their primary duties and responsibili- ties so… for a line manager who has an employee in their group who is probably one of their bet- ter-performing employees who is aspiring to learn more about the balance of the organization through a job rotation opportu- nity, it's hard to give that person up because they're an integral part of your team, so… it has to be sup- ported across all levels of the orga- nization in order for it to be a real, meaningful program." e program also needs to be structured effectively so when it doesn't work out, there's a recall mechanism, said Leduc. That means paying attention to how employees are selected, what they need to exhibit, what their rates of pay will be and what happens if and when they go back to their previous position. "ey also need the opportu- nity to say, 'is isn't working for me.' Whether it be the change in demands, which is impacting their family life; perhaps a lack of understanding of the position and the fact that it's just not a good fit; the lack of career pathing or the misexpectation about the career pathing. So both parties need to be able to have that dialogue upfront and have that dialogue through the duration." Fidelity's assessment is relative- ly transparent, said Godfrey. "We make sure that the manag- ers they're working for are shar- ing that information with them and they understand if they have any deficiencies and what their strengths are, so they can actually share with us what their desired outcome would be as well." e rotation program allows a successful person to quickly move through the ranks based on meri- tocracy, results, productivity and performance — and it's all mea- sured, said Lupi. "e reporting is very transpar- ent where they're having successes and if they decide at some point through the process that that's not really the job for them, that there's something else in the organization that they're better suited to, we look for those opportunities as well, so it does allow us to act as a feeder for other areas when the time arises." Succession planning among benefits ROTATIONS < pg. 3 the other person's job ends is re- ally important. And it's not always easy to do that," she said. "Just de- lineating those responsibilities can become a challenge." Not every occupation lends itself to different people doing it, said Dunne. "It's just not viable (sometimes). at can often be overcome with a little bit of planning," he said. "e biggest barrier is often the people — are they the type of people and have they got the skill set to be able to do the smooth hand-off and make it work?" she said. "Companies that have done some good work on talent man- agement and they really know their people have an advantage because they can pick out which ones have the knowledge and the ability to be able to work in that type of environment — which is very different because not only do you have to do the job, but you also have to co-operate and collaborate." Employer brand, reputational risk One important aspect of offer- ing work-sharing arrangements is the boost it can provide to an employer brand — when employ- ers demonstrate they are doing everything possible to avoid lay- offs, that can go a long way with employees, said Culo. "e more progressive compa- nies are the ones that think about employment branding," she said. "So many companies have invested so much over the past seven or eight years… now they've invested so much into the person, they're already got the character fit, they've got that unique com- bination that fits their culture. It's a huge thing to walk away from." More people are really appre- ciative of that, said Culo. "We're interviewing candidates and maybe they have been laid off, but they can see that the com- pany invested a lot of effort up to that point, and it really was a last resort." is kind of program demon- strates a company really does care about its people — they're not just expendable, said Pau. "If it's done properly, it dem- onstrates a certain level of caring and concern for your staff. It ac- knowledges that 'We know that times are tough, but rather than cutting you completely, we're go- ing to still try to maintain your employment,'" she said. "How you treat employees when times are tough is a truer sign of a company's character than when times are really good and you're flush with money… when times are tough, how a company reacts and how they treat their staff is a true sign of their character." Employees appreciate option WORK SHARING < pg. 2

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