Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER June 12, 2017 FEATURES 23 Greg Conner vice-president of HR and corporate secretary at BC Transit The Victoria-based company has about 1,000 employees G reg Conner believes human resources is — or should be — on the cusp of truly signifi cant change. Essentially, the vice-president of HR and corporate secretary at BC Transit in Victoria feels HR should shift the way it provides its services. "We lag behind our colleagues in sales and marketing, and with our external clients. We should be treating our inter- nal clients the way you get treated when you log into your Starbucks app or… any of the apps on your phone — HR should be there." at means, for example, using chatbots for payroll and benefi ts questions. " ose questions can be easily dealt with with automa- tion," he says. " ere is some cost associated with that, but I think there's more value in the services we provide should we start thinking about employees as customers and treat- ing them the exact same way." e 1,000-employee transportation company has four diff erent employee groups and three unions, so consis- tency and effi ciency are important. "If you don't have it all mapped out or you have a new employee, they may get the wrong information because every group's benefi ts and pay and entitlements are diff er- ent, so it's easier to make an error in that way. If you've au- tomated it and you've run through all your screens proper- ly, then you'll be giving everybody the proper information." It's about just-in-time service when employees need it — a valuable proposition for an organization that has many remote workers and people working shift hours. "What we need to do is be there when they need us, and we can't do that through people, we need to do that through tools, apps; we need to embrace the digital world and move into it in a smart way that meets the needs of our employees," says Conner. "Once you start bringing in tools that help all your em- ployees in terms of making sure they have their questions answered when they ask them, it frees you up to do more value-add work, which is more around the strategic side of HR." Overall, there's no question the pace of change has in- creased, he says, as seen with the amount of material facing people every day. "We're much more in a triage mode than we were 10 years ago, and that's a bit of concern, actually, because the more you're in a reactive mode, reacting to the stimuli of 250 emails and texts that come in everyday, the less you're thinking about what the future could bring or should bring. So that's my big concern is that if (we) want to be forward-thinking, we need to do a better job of allowing for and in fact requiring people to spend a certain part of their day on being strategic, and that means getting off email and actually working on what would make us a better place — and it's hard to do." As for potential challenges around multiple generations in the workforce, Conner is not convinced it's a real issue. "In my opinion, we all want the same things, but millen- nials are just better at asking or saying, 'I want to feel part of a team' or 'I want interesting, stimulating work.' Well, we wall want that." And when it comes to the gig economy, that just makes sense, he says, as short-term assignments help people de- velop and grow. " at's really what the gig economy is about, it's people going in and seeing a project to completion, and then going and doing something else. And with each one, you learn how to work with diff erent people, you learn diff erent skills, and that just makes you a better employee, so… I don't fear someone coming in and just doing the job and leaving and going somewhere else. You embrace it and hopefully you create an environment where other people say, 'I want to work there.' at's where the value starts to come in," says Conner. "In no way, shape or form am I saying we're there yet but that's one of the things were trying to instil in my own team." And down the road, automation will defi nitely have an impact on BC Transit's 1,000 buses — it's just a matter of when, he says. "When we get to driverless vehicles, they will still re- quire someone on there because we're a public transport and it's diffi cult for a totally autonomous vehicle to both pick up people with diff erent needs and abilities, and also make sure that they're monitoring and aware of what's go- ing on on the bus at the same time," he says. "It will happen in a limited and fairly drawn-out way, as far as I can see." T hese days, it's not just about the rapid pace of change, but the amount of change that is happen- ing — sometimes at the same time, according to Francine Bolduc, Vancouver-based vice-president of HR at Homewood Health, provider of mental health and addiction services. "And also, (it's about) the impact these changes have on people's capacity to respond and cope with these changes." For HR to be able to deal with these changes, it's impor- tant to be sitting at the executive table and senior man- agement table to be apprised of the business strategy, she says, and to ensure "we have a voice to make sure that we identify early on the potential impact of the change on our workforce... and we also have to keep a very close eye on the culture and the HR matrix, like engagement and absen- teeism, all of that in our management practice." For example, Homewood has implemented a talent management program that will benefi t millennials, such as career pathing and developmental opportunities, along with focusing on succession planning for key critical roles currently fi lled by baby boomers. "We have to make sure we have a succession plan identi- fi ed for these roles, otherwise it will impact our business and our ability to deliver services down the line," says Bold- uc. "So we need to be on the lookout, really be in the know, and being a voice as well to fl ag this for our organization and make sure we are prepared for any upcoming major changes that are coming up." It's important to build up the organization's leadership capacity, so they are trained on change management, on embracing change and how to manage remotely, she says. "(It's about) building our leadership skills and capacity to be able to identify potential issues, and know how to deal with them, and how to best engage their team when changes are coming as well." Homewood has also implemented a program on psy- chological health that talks about change management, along with resilience, stress relief and mindfulness, so people are able to respond to changes and the impact on them, says Bolduc. "We cannot just assume we can implement the change and people will respond and just deal with it, so we have to make sure we equip them with the capacity to respond well and cope well with the change that we are implementing." Being in the health-care fi eld, Homewood has enjoyed steady growth through the years, so the eff ects of a new presidency in the United States or an uncertain economy are not as impactful as they may be on other employers, she says. e 1,250-employee organization has not usually relied on bringing in foreign workers to fi ll vacancies, for example, and when it comes to the gig economy, Home- wood mostly hires on a permanent, full-time basis. "We think that this is creating a greater level of commit- ment to the organization," she says. "What we have seen is an increase in the number of people wanting to work from home, so this is how we need to be fl exible there, and to encourage that level of commitment." e organization is focusing on work-life balance and off ering fl exibility to employees when needed. "Everybody has a busy life, seriously busy… and we look at people in the 'sandwich generation,' how they have to cope with their parents and children, so that's creating a lot of pressure in their personal life. And at the offi ce, we have multiple challenges, (with the) volume of work and tight deadlines as well that people have to cope with, so these pressures, you see more of that," says Bolduc. "And there's less of a clear distinction between home and offi ce — people can work anywhere now and they have access to technology at home or elsewhere, outside of the offi ce, and they can also bring their personal life into the of- fi ce now, with Facebook and other social media," she says. "We know that working from home is not for every job and for everyone, but we have to look at the specifi c circumstances of people and really provide fl exible work options." Francine Bolduc executive vice-president of HR at Homewood Health The 1,250-employee organization has multiple locations across Canada

• Cover