Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER May 29, 2017 NEWS 7 The Canadian Payroll Association's InfoLine is a one-stop shop for payroll compliance knowledge. Fast and reliable answers at your fingertips. Find out how you, your HR team and organization can benefit from InfoLine and other payroll compliance tools. Visit payroll.ca CAnAdIAn PAyRoLL's besT kePT SECRET e effect of these forces on business is startling, said Ulrich. For example, only 60 of the origi- nal Fortune 500 companies still exist. Tech-enabled companies such as Amazon and Airbnb have become the new major players, forever altering the way the retail and hotel sectors operate. In a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world, companies are required to be small, fast and agile, he said. An appropriate cultural mix between mobility and innovation needs to be struck in order to keep pace. Customer experience and net promoter scores are more impor- tant than ever. Additionally, employee wants are changing, with many looking for meaning and purpose above all else. "Does your boss give you a sense of well-being? Does your pay system give you a sense of purpose?" said Ulrich. Perspective matters To be the most effective, HR needs to understand its focus is more along the lines of an architect than chief of operations, he said. Ulti- mately, the line manager remains responsible for decision-making. HR also needs to walk the talk with policies, said Ulrich. For example, if promoting diversity throughout a specific organization, the HR department should model that. e profession has gone from 30 per cent female workers to 80 per cent over the past 30 years, he said — suggesting the scale has perhaps tipped a little too far. "e maddest I've ever been at people in our field is when I see senior HR people not living what we ask others to live," said Ulrich. "HR hypocrisy is just horrible. We should be modelling in our func- tion the values we encourage for others." Additionally, all HR initiatives should begin with overall busi- ness success top-of-mind, he said. Leaders need to frame their busi- ness risks with winning outcomes, not theories. "HR is not about our program- ming and processes," said Ulrich. "It's about the outcome it has with someone else. Leadership is not about who I am and what I think; it's about how I help someone else." Understanding what business requires through a HR lens re- quires a perspective change, fol- lowed by effective outcomes and transformation, he said. In terms of perspective, HR challenges come in the following waves: efficiency, functional ex- pertise, strategy and response to external conditions, said Ulrich. All stakeholders rely on HR — not just employees and line man- agers. Customers, investors, regu- lators and partners are all begin- ning to turn to HR for leadership. When administering internal responses to issues, HR manag- ers should add the phrase "so that" to goals to shift perspective from inside to outside thinking, he said. e profession needs to actively turn its focus from solely HR is- sues to larger attempts to win the marketplace. Ulrich cited inspirational HR attempts — by companies such as Amazon, McDonald's and Walmart — in terms of pivoting and shifting overall focus, as well as innovating within their respec- tive business cores. For example, Walmart recently invested more than $1 billion (10 per cent of its profits) into its employees. HR successfully pre- sented that strategy to its senior executive team by leading with business outcomes, rather than HR-focused ones. Data was pre- sented revealing stores with high- er employee sentiment enjoyed richer profit margins — music to the board's ears, he said. Managing outcomes As the business world shifts rap- idly, what value does the HR de- partment bring to the board table? In terms of talent versus organi- zation, which better predicts busi- ness performance? Research shows 80 per cent of business performance is predicted by the organization, compared to 20 per cent of talent, said Ulrich. "You need good talent, but teamwork matters even more... I find that finding fascinating." Comparing organizations to teams can be helpful, said Ulrich. He pointed out that in almost ev- ery sport, the team with the top scorer only wins the champion- ship about 20 per cent of the time. In the vast majority of cases, solid teamwork easily trumps individu- al star performance. That comparison results in three questions for organizations: "Do we have the right talent? Do we have the right organization? Do we have the right leadership?" e example demonstrated by leadership is critical, with behav- iour often proving more power- ful than rhetoric, said Ulrich. HR should strive to be a well- serving architect of talent, leader- ship and culture, with a side role in anthropology — looking to the future in an attempt to determine what's next. HR professionals should be encouraged to get out of the office and simply observe, he said. "Twenty per cent of the data in the world is called structured data," said Ulrich. "Eighty per cent is unstructured — it's what you observe, it's what you see." In terms of talent, HR should manage confidence, commitment and contribution — getting the right people into their company, then ensuring they are engaged and finding meaning, he said. Finally, culture should be shaped in terms of what a com- pany wants to be known for by its best customers, said Ulrich. "Culture is not an event. It's not even a pattern. It's an identity." Transforming HR Business context needs to have an outside-in focus and outcomes in areas such as talent, leadership and capability need to be appro- priate, according to Ulrich. HR design is also critical, he said. "It should reflect your busi- ness organization." Additionally, HR requires ac- countability in its relationships. "e key to a relationship is not the formal contract — it's the re- lationship," said Ulrich. "Our chal- lenge as CHROs is not getting the structure perfect, it's getting the relationships much better." 'Teamwork trumps individual talent' ULRICH < pg. 1 "HR hypocrisy is just horrible. We should be modelling in our function the values we encourage for others."

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