Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER April 17, 2017 16 EXECUTIVE SERIES Available Risk-Free for 30 Days Order online: www.carswell.com Call Toll-Free: 1-800-387-5164 In Toronto: 416-609-3800 Has your workplace met all requirements under the new Bill 132? New Edition Pocket Ontario OH&S Act & Regulations 2017 – Consolidated Edition © 2017 Thomson Reuters Canada Limited 00243CP-A86353-CM Your peers rely on this best-selling pocket resource for invaluable guidance on workplace safety law. From preparing job hazard analyses and creating safety training programs to developing anti-harassment policies and performing violence risk assessments – the new 2017 edition of this best-selling resource will help your organization meet all your OHSA obligations, including the new requirements under Bill 132. To see what's new, go to www.carswell.com/pocket-ohs eBook available for web browser or download to your desktop, laptop, iPad or Android tablet.* Learn more at carswell.com/proview *eBook not available to trade bookstores, third-party distributors, academic institutions, and students. Order # 987844-65201 $23.95 Softcover approx. 1080 pages March 2017 978-0-7798-7844-4 Also available in French. Call for details. Also available Large format edition with tabs Order # 987846-65201 $23.95 Softcover approx. 780 pages March 2017 978-0-7798-7846-8 Also available Shipping and handling are extra. Price(s) subject to change without notice and subject to applicable taxes ' e most responsive to change survives' Jeanne Meister lead the SCN audience on a wide-ranging, eye-opening and hair- raising romp through the challenges and opportunities of the future workplace. Meister quoted Charles Darwin: " e most responsive to change survives." is, I feel, was the heart of her presentation. If the issues and insights she raised are true — and she certainly has the data — then she was being far too gentle on her audience. Let there be no misunderstand- ing: HR is due for an overhaul so radical it will make management consultant David Ulrich's "strate- gic partner" innovation seem like a mere course correction. Meister listed the now familiar forces of change: the multi-gen workforce, the impending "diver- sifi ed" workforce, the rise of semi- autonomous, intelligent technol- ogy, and the mass customization of employee experience. (Inter- estingly, she left out the network- versus-hierarchy bugbear). In response to those forces, she asked: "How can we break HR so that we do a better job?" A pow- erful question, too softly posed. Like so many roles in the future, we will need to dramatically re- imagine and redefi ne our roles and ourselves, erasing silo walls and connecting ourselves directly to the success of the organization. Meister repeatedly stressed that all workers, including HR, need to adopt a new mindset: "Your team does not have the right answer." I take that to mean that the edges of our expertise are getting fuzzier as our environments become more complex and interwoven. e human capital job is be- coming porous; increasingly, we must reach out into IT, analytics, facilities, other stakeholders and, most importantly, to each indi- vidual employee in order to fi nd, engage and retain talent. We will fi nd that stakeholders will simul- taneously reach back into us, blur- ring the distinction between func- tions and roles, and forcing us into "constantly living in a beta stage." The effort to achieve that change in mindset alone is a stretch. And, despite Meister's off hand " is doesn't mean that everyone in HR is losing their job," the re-skilling to support that mindset will inevitably be beyond the reach of some of us. I concede that a Harvard Busi- ness Review-worthy speaker would bring big-brand examples such as PWC, Cisco and Mastercard, but I regret that Meister did not at least nod toward the future of the workplace at the vast majority of organizations that are small and medium-sized. ese are compa- nies that are big enough to have effi ciencies like an HR generalist, but not small enough to be nimble. ey will be on the back-end of the wave of change that's coming. I wonder what the hybrid employee experience is going to look like, where an employee at a small man- ufacturer — whose exposure to HR will remain the punch clock — has a spouse contingently working for a big fi nancial who's getting real- time HR feedback via a chatbot? Michael Clark is director of business development at Forrest & Company, an organizational transformation fi rm with 30 years' experience in de- veloping the organizational and lead- ership capacity in organizations. Michael Clark ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS But Darwin might be at play already in IT: Organizations that have created a chief digital offi cer position don't necessarily appoint an IT executive in this forward- looking, strategic role. Are we going to see the same with HR? White: Absolutely. e con- stant debate in HR is about the split between tactical-administra- tive and strategic activities. As I listened to Jeanne, it struck me that employee experience of- fers the opening that will allow HR to shift focus — but the natu- ral alliance is with marketing, not fi nance, as many argue. From an operational perspec- tive, customer and employee ex- perience support each other; their execution and measurement are complimentary. As employee experience gains traction, it is conceivable that the accountabilities of the chief mar- keting offi cer and CHRO might fall under one executive function in the future, rather than two. HR can shift focus MINDSET < pg. 15 sources needs to embrace going forward. " e goal is now: How do you translate this focus on customer experience to employees?" she said. "How do we evoke these same emotions with our employ- ees? Because that's the opportu- nity. How do we create deeper emotional bonds with various segments of employees so we can not only retain them, but engage them and ensure they bring their best self to work each day?" HR professionals need to rec- ognize what their job is — help- ing their organization win in the marketplace by taking responsi- bility for creating the overall vi- sion of employee experience, said Meister. "For HR, it's a new and excit- ing opportunity to move outside of your silo and to develop part- nerships with marketing, IT, real estate and internal communica- tions," she said. "Your role is to be a workplace activist. It's not the strongest that survive or the most intelligent, but the most respon- sive to change." FUTURE WORK < pg. 14 'Be an activist'

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