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HR MATTERSPEOPLE LEADING BUSINESS

Issue 23www.hr-matters.info July 2013PP 14525/06/2013(032679)

BRETT TERRY : WE LOOKED HOLISTICALLY AND BOLDLY AT THE

CULTURE WE WANTED TO SHAPE

THE BUSINESS OF RECRUITING TRANSFORMED

FIVE STEPS TOWARDS EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

FUTURECASTING

TRANSFORMING THE PERCEPTION OF HR

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

PLANS

SPECIAL FEATURE

PLUS

With a track record spanning more than a decade and established clients in key sectors, CnetG is well-positioned to help you take your business further. Our regional presence will help you gain a foothold into Asia, Europe and beyond. An executive search fi rm counting Fortune 500 companies among its client base, we view executive placement as building organizations.

We never take our eyes off the ball.

Customer Orientation | Integrity | Excellence | Teamwork | Communication | Enterpreneurship

Executive Search and SelectionEnergyIndustrialPharmaceuticals & FMCGCorporate & Investment BankingHR & FinanceCommercial

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July 2013C o n t e n t s

Be curious about the business that you work in and the business environment in general.– Noel McGonigle

26

Entrepreneurs overestimate the power of their idea or technical skill and underestimate the value of proper management systems and execution to reach the result they want.– Jonathan Raymond

Knowing a job title in a social media or external online search is no longer enough without context.– Dave Mendoza

The key thing is that we started this journey mindful of the scale of our ambitions balanced against our starting point and resources available. – Brett Terry

31

21

44With a track record spanning more than a decade and established clients in key sectors, CnetG is well-positioned to help you take your business further. Our regional presence will help you gain a foothold into Asia, Europe and beyond. An executive search fi rm counting Fortune 500 companies among its client base, we view executive placement as building organizations.

We never take our eyes off the ball.

Customer Orientation | Integrity | Excellence | Teamwork | Communication | Enterpreneurship

Executive Search and SelectionEnergyIndustrialPharmaceuticals & FMCGCorporate & Investment BankingHR & FinanceCommercial

golf image courtesy of arielc@

stock.xchng

THAILANDT +66 2259 6924E [email protected]

SINGAPORET +65 6829 7035E [email protected]

MALAYSIAT +603 7665 0050E [email protected]

CNetG_July2013.indd 1 4/19/13 5:24 PM

FeaturesWorkforce Trends

14 Decidiphobia: Getting Today’s Digital Natives to Think for Themselves

Robert W Wendover asks whether we can figure things out without a menu of choice.

Organisational Change

16 The Organisation Development Cycle (Part 2)We continue with Part II of a two part article where Alison France explores

the stages of the OD cycle.

Courage

18 7 Courageous Conversation Questions to Apply at WorkSandra Ford Walston explains how ‘challenging’ conversations can test us in an uncomfortable way.

Positive Psychology

19 The Unexamined Life of Missed Goals and Postponed DreamsSulynn Choong asks : Do you realise how the insidious subconscious programming of habitual patterns make up the powerful mental software that runs your life?

Recruitment

21 Futurecasting: How the Rise of Big Social Data is set to Transform Hiring Best Practices GloballyEntirely new business intelligence resources are changing the way we think about career progression and creating talent pipelines to meet corporate hiring objectives. By Dave Mendoza.

HR Practitioner

26 Transforming the Perception of HRAzzurri Communications’ HR Director, Noel McGonigle, talks about the change management programmes he oversaw which culminated in recognition at the 2013 HR Distinction Awards for the pivotal role played by the HR team.

Best Practice

31 9 Best Practices that Directly Impact your Business’s Ability to Reach you Profit TargetIf you are interested in maintaining sustainable growth,

considering effective online prospective or how to take your business to the next level, read about the

‘Ownership Stack’ – it will directly impact your business.

Special Feature - Learning & Development

33 Why not make an investment where it matters most?Four HR leaders talk about the value of the Personal Development Plan.

Trends

37 Experience more important than educationSome of the key findings from the Randstad Q2 WorkMonitor Report.

Talent Management

38 The Anointed Ones – The Talent ConundrumIdentifying the key factors talents look out for in an organisation. By June Hamid.

Building Leaders

40 Don’t Beat Up a Dead HorseWhy is it that most businesses and HR leaders refuse to dismount the dead horse? Asks Roshan Thiran.

Engagement

44 Brett Terry : We looked holistically and boldly at the culture we wanted to shape and set our course.The Alzheimer’s Society shares how they took some important steps towards further engaging their people.

Governance

50 Role of Internal Audit in HR Governance Vijayam Nadarajah shares how internal audit adds value to HR governance.

In This Issue09 News13 Featured Blog Victorio Milian

23 Lit You Already Know How to be Great. A Simple Way to Remove Interference and Unlock Your Potential – At Work and At Home

26 HR Practitioner Noel McGonigle

30 Diary44 Q&A Employee engagement

49 Ladder

HR Matters July 2013 | 3

July 2013Products and Services featured in this issue

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

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On the Cover : Perception

Rowena Morais, [email protected]

…Unless we become aware of these patterns, much of our life is unconscious repetition. In short,

we can dream and speak of our potential for greatness but if we do the same as we did yesterday, and have done for the last ten years, the outcome would be the same.” – Sulynn Choong.

Sulynn comments that it is easy for us to

continue doing as we have done. However,

any quest for self-actualisation or to realise our

potential must begin with mindfulness of beliefs,

thought and action. And if you think about it,

mindfulness is really not so much a useful skill

but an absolute necessity in our increasingly

frenetic, ‘busy’ lives.

As Robert Wendover discusses ‘decidiphobia’, the young people entering our workforce

today are faced with many challenges. One of them is learning to figure things out without

having all the choices laid before them. Mindfulness will help them make more sense of their

situation.

Noel McGonigle, Group HR Director for Azzurri Communications, the featured

HR personality in this issue, shares how there are times when the job is fast changing or

ambiguous. You need to get used to working with limited information. You need to know

how to use what you have to craft a plan for moving forward.

Mindfulness is key. It involves coming to terms with what you know and what you don’t

know. In our role as HR leaders, mindfulness is absolutely critical to what we do, as we grow,

develop, nurture and engage people from within the organisation.

In this issue :-• Alison France continues with Part II of her article looking at the Organisation

Development cycle; • Dave Mendoza shares how we can accurately predict where and how future and

current job candidates are likely to perform best – with futurecasting;• The State of the Business (SOBO) 2013 Report examines nine best practices that have

a direct impact on a small business’s ability to reach their profit target;• Four HR leaders share their ideas on the value of the Personal Development Plan to

identify and address both short and long term development goals; • Brett Terry reveals five steps taken by Alzheimer Society in their journey towards

greater employee engagement; and much more.

As always, hope this gets you inspired. Happy reading!


July 2013Contributors | HR Matters

Noel McGonigle served in the Royal Air Force for 22 years in a variety of operational and human resource appointments. Noel joined Azzurri in 2006 and is responsible for all HR activities, including Health and Safety. He is passionate about leadership and employee engagement. Azzurri has seen

its employee engagement scores improve year on year and has been shortlisted for a number of HR awards, including winning Best Reward and Benefits Strategy in 2010 and a Distinction in Change Management in 2013.

Robert Wendover has been researching and writing about workforce trends for over 20 years. Managing Director of the Center for Generational Studies, he is author of nine books and a regular contributor to electronic and print media. He has served as a special advisor to the American Productivity and Quality Council (APQC) and served on the management faculty of the University of Phoenix.

Mike Morrison is the Head of Global Training – Project Unity at Damco. Based in Copenhagen, Denmark, Mike is an experienced Organisational Development professional. Mike runs and leads several online communities; the largest is on LinkedIn and has more than 21,000 members.

Sandra Ford Walston is known as The Courage Expert and innovator of StuckThinking™. She is an internationally recognised speaker, learning consultant, author and entrepreneur for twenty years. Sandra instructs at the University of Denver on several programmes and is the internationally published author of three books: COURAGE, STUCK and FACE IT! 12 Obstacles that Hold You Back on the Job (2011). Check out www.sandrawalston.com.

Chris-James Cognetta MSIT, LPC-Intern is an award winning instructional designer and independent training and development expert with more than 25 years of experience in the creation of blended learning solutions. He has honours awards and affiliations from the National Institute of Staff and Organisational Development, the Ford Foundation and many more organisations for the creation of innovative and groundbreaking programmes.

As a business psychologist and HR professional, Alison France has a passion for using positive methodologies to shape the attitudes of leaders and organisations, enabling them to achieve profitability. Alison has facilitated organisational change initiatives as well as designed and delivered award winning leadership development programmes. When not working, Alison enjoys riding her two motorbikes on UK roads and European tracks.

Vijayam Nadarajah has worked in insurance companies and banks for more than 18 years. Her extensive experience in operations, internal audit, investigation and risk coupled with leadership, drive and passion for good governance, control and corporate behaviours has seen her through a series of commendable achievements in the appointments that she has held.


July 2013HR Matters | Contributors

Dave Mendoza is a multi-award-winning talent acquisition thought leader and global speaker. Recently, he was a Finalist for the HROA’s Trustee Award ‘North American Thought Leader, 2013’. He has also earned awards for ‘Excellence in Sourcing

Innovation’ and ‘Most Strategic Use of Technology’ Awards. He recently authored ‘Futurecasting: How the Rise of Big Social Data API is Set to Transform the Business of Recruiting’.

Sulynn Choong is a positive change consultant and coach working with organisations to energise their workforce for outstanding performance. Combining practical corporate experience with evidence-based research in positive psychology, she assists CEOs in evaluating their organisations’ existing and proposed change initiatives for coherence, congruence, relevance and positive impact.

Roger Brooks is the Executive Director of Training & Development for Safeguard Business Systems. Roger also serves as the Board Chairman for Girl Power 2 Cure, Inc., a 501c3 non-profit organisation whose mission is to make Rett Syndrome the first curable neurological disorder. His motivation is his daughter, Juliana. Girl Power 2 Cure, Inc. works to support the more than 500,000 girls and women currently suffering from Rett Syndrome.

Junaida (June) Dato’ Dr Abdul Hamid provides HR management, customer service, team building and related training and consultancy for multinationals, GLCs and the government arena. She is not merely a facilitator, but an excellent communicator, business coach and now an entrepreneur. As a Consultant Trainer, she has facilitated and trained more than 3,000 staff in core HR and soft skill areas.

Bob Holliday is the Director, Product Training & Curriculum Development for Boehringer-Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. He has 18 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, with more than 13 years in pharmaceutical training. He has held numerous roles in training from Product Training Manager and Specialty Skills Training Manager to Head of Global Oncology Training and has lead training for over 25 product launch meetings.

Brett Terry is Director of People and Organisational Development at Alzheimer’s Society UK. His passion lies in understanding people at work and he is particularly interested in the opportunities and challenges presented by multi-generational workforces, a topic he has addressed at numerous strategic conferences. Outside of work Brett is a keen wildlife photographer.

Roshan Thiran is CEO of Leaderonomics, one of the fastest growing consulting firms in Asia. Prior to this role, he was the Director of Global Talent Management with Johnson & Johnson. He was also with the General Electric Company (GE) for more than 12 years, working in a number of roles. Roshan is a certified coach and is also certified in numerous training programmes including Myer-Briggs Type Indicator, Change Acceleration Process, WorkOut, Strategy Workshops and Finance education.


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HR Matters | News

NEWS

LONDON | The CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development, celebrated its 100th anniversary on 6 June. To mark the occasion, for the last few months it has been asking its members and prominent thinkers in the world of work to reflect on their vision for the future of work, the workforce and the workplace.

Contributing to the CIPD’s ‘100 thoughts’ project, Michael Davies, CEO at the UKCES, highlighted the need to reverse elements of Taylorism, in order to redistribute power between managers and front-line workers to rebuild trust and boost agility and performance. In his piece, he argues: “The businesses that survive and thrive will be those which recognise the changing nature of consumerism, and hand power to their staff to meet this challenge”.

SINGAPORE | Professional job seekers can find out exactly what they’re worth with the Salary Checker app, launched in May by recruitment consultancy, Robert Walters. It draws on data from the firm’s market leading Salary Survey and allows users to :• determine their own market rate • see how this compares with other sectors and cities/countries

and globally • view salary trends over time.

The app is an upgrade to the first version – launched in 2011 for iPhone and iPad which received more than 200,000 downloads – and covers thousands of job types globally. New features include easy-to-follow bar charts and graphs, with users able to configure the data to their local currency. The app may be downloaded from the Google Play Store or the iTunes Store.

CIPD Centenary : Hr leaDers refleCt on tHe future of Hr anD tHe worlD of workPublication of a series of perspectives on the shifting work and workplace challenges and opportunities shaping business and working lives for the next 100 years

fInD out How muCH you are wortH wItH new salary CHeCker aPPApp hits number one in app charts

Comments from other contributors included:• “The future of HR is to drive the value of people through

valuing people. This calls for community, trust, leadership, insight and innovation.” Karina Rook, HR Director, Canterbury College

• “The classic work-life balance will become a phrase of the past - work will be life and life will be work, there will be no delineation.” Mike Campbell, Group Director Europe, easyjet

• “We need to spread what HR already knows - that good employee relations is one of the biggest untold economic growth measures.” Frances O’Grady, general secretary, TUC.

The contributions are available to read on the CIPD website at www.cipd.co.uk/cipd-hr-profession/centenary/100-thoughts.aspx.


News | HR Matters

NEWS

LIVERPOOL | The City of Liverpool has shortlisted the Human Resource/Organisational Development provider, Thirsty Horses Ltd, for two prestigious Business Awards. This fast-growing company has captured the imagination of private and public sector organisations across the UK by proving the out-dated ways of top-down ‘Performance Management’ can be turned on its head to great effect.

Thirsty Horses’ lead product - INSPIRE - enables employees to willfully own all aspects of their personal performance and

KUALA LUMPUR | Despite Malaysian firms’ investment in the digital, creative and marketing sectors, salaries have either dropped or stagnated. font talent, which specialises in recruitment across the digital, creative and marketing industries, released in June the latest findings from its ongoing salary survey which compares wages, benefits and retention rates across gender, job function and country.

Overall, figures showed that despite women being more likely to hold a degree or higher than their male colleagues, their median salaries remained lower. The exceptions were amongst the advertising account directors and creative directors surveyed.Malaysia country manager Priya Bala says this may be due

tHIrsty Horses sHortlIsteD for PrestIgIous BusIness awarD

salarIes DroP aCross malaysIa’s DIgItal, CreatIve anD marketIng seCtorDespite Malaysian firms’ recent investment in the digital, creative and marketing sectors, salaries have either dropped or stagnated

development using contemporary easy to use software, including accessibility on all hand-held devices. Moreover, this activity drives great ‘real-time’ strategic workforce data that enable leaders to get to grips with their organisation, its direction, pace and levels of employee engagement. This increased ownership at all levels, combined with increased levels of visibility, make the HR/OD holy grail of ‘culture change’ a tangible and measured journey rather than something organisations crave, and often plan for, but rarely truly deliver.

More details on the Business Awards can be found atwww.downtownliverpool.com/events/2013/COLBA/. Visit Thirsty Horses at www.thirsty-horses.com

to men being more likely to remain in their jobs for six years or longer, and the fact that men are more likely to receive company-paid training than women. She added that the digital, creative and marketing industries are often guilty of long hours, and Malaysian women with family commitments are more likely seek a better work-life balance, such

as a government position, which further reduces their chances of achieving pay parity within the creative and digital sector.

For more details, download the font Market Pulse June 2013 report at www.hr-matters.info.

Men continue to receive higher salaries than women despite holding the same qualifications.

PRIYA BALA

RAY PENDLETON,CHIEF ExECUTIVE THIRSTY HORSES LTD


You’re in business to succeed — to set ambitious goals, drive growth and achieve results. Getting there requires vision, resources and above all, the brightest talent.

As a world-leading specialist recruitment & HR services firm, Randstad is a company built on a deep network of sourcing expertise that crosses industries and geographies. Our vision is to help our clients achieve a constant state of ‘talent readiness’ with the best recruitment and talent management solutions in place, ensuring you have the right people, in the right jobs, at the right time — for today and for the future.

With over 17 years experience in Malaysia, our consulting team are specialists across:

To get connected to the brightest talent in Asia Pacific today, visit: www.randstad.com.my or contact us in Kuala Lumpur on +603 2036 6666 or Penang on +604 638 1050

• Accounting & Finance• Banking• Business Support• Contact Centre • Construction, Property & Engineering

• Human Resources• Information Technology• Life Sciences• Sales & Marketing• Supply Chain

You’re in business to succeed — to set ambitious goals, drive growth and achieve results. Getting there requires vision, resources and above all, the brightest talent.

As a world-leading specialist recruitment & HR services firm, Randstad is a company built on a deep network of sourcing expertise that crosses industries and geographies. Our vision is to help our clients achieve a constant state of ‘talent readiness’ with the best recruitment and talent management solutions in place, ensuring you have the right people, in the right jobs, at the right time — for today and for the future.

To get connected to the brightest talent in Asia Pacific today, visit: www.randstad.com.sg

connecting the brightest talent with the best companies across Asia Pacific

HR Matters - June 2013.indd 2 24/6/2013 11:31:58 AM

Report | HR Matters

KUALA LUMPUR | In an effort to find out what’s on the minds of senior business leaders this year, BTI Consultants announced in May 2013, the launch of the Executive Outlook Report 2013. An annual survey of CEOs, Directors, Chairpersons and VPs across Asia Pacific, the Americas and Europe focused on innovation and business viability, key findings from this survey indicate :• 88 percent of all business leaders have a positive outlook for

the economy and are expecting business growth this year; 33 percent are expecting significant growth.

• Business leaders based in Asia-Pacific have far higher expectations of business growth compared to those in the Americas and EMEA regions.

• More than half of the leaders surveyed (52 percent) believe that ‘cultural issues’ within the organisation itself are the main barriers to innovation and business growth.

• Leaders of organisations with a structured, proactive approach to innovation are far more positive about their 2013 revenue outlook— 45 percent of those with a proactive approach are expecting significant growth in their revenue this year, compared to just 23 percent of those who are focusing their efforts entirely on core business activities.

• 36 percent of business leaders measure and attach KPIs to business viability initiatives.

ImProveD BusIness growtH anD ProfItaBIlIty exPeCteDExecutive outlook report indicates significant turnaround in global business activity, consistent with other signs of improved business optimism

AmericAs And emeA

APAc

Despite the challenging business environment of 2012, and the ongoing uncertainty on global markets, the majority of business leaders have a positive outlook for the growth of their business in 2013. What stands out from the research is that those organisations with the greatest positivity going into 2013 are those with a proactive approach to innovation.

exPect growth this yeAr

88%

forecAst significAnt growth

34%

hAve A ProActive APProAch to innovAtion

42%

believe their comPetitive Position is unchAllenged

11%

feel AccountAbility for growth is too nArrow

22%

business decline outlook

23%

business decline outlook

3%business growth outlook

92%

business growth outlook

55%

meAsurAble goAls And AllocAted resources to Protect long-term initiAtives towArds innovAtion

focus on incrementAl innovAtion focus on core business Activity only

AmericAs And emeA

Global firm

Global firm

Global firm

Multi-national

Multi-national

Multi-national

Local conglomerate

Local conglomerate

Local conglomerate

Non-profit/Government/

GLCs


GLCs


GLCs

outlook by region

APProAch to innovAtion by comPAny tyPe

APAc

51%

37%34%

50%

27%

12%

20%17%

47%46%

30%

20%

1.5%

0% 0%5% 5%

4%

gdP growth forecAst 2013–2018 gdP growth forecAst 2013–2018

executive outlook2013

More than half of the leaders surveyed (52 percent) believe that ‘cultural issues’ within the organisation itself are the main barriers to innovation and business growth.


WHO • Human Resource consultant, writer

and speaker based in New York City.

• Maintains a HR blog at

www.victoriomilian.com

THe HR InTeRvIeW Victorio frequently works with two distinct client groups-

emerging HR talent and seasoned HR professionals. With

emerging talent, he offers practical advice on how to successfully

navigate the job market. He does this by helping HR job seekers

align their online and offline personas so as to better promote

the person’s unique value proposition. For seasoned Human

Resources professionals, Victorio conducts an ongoing HR

Interview series on his blog. This showcase gives practitioners

the opportunity to discuss how they do what they do.

GeT InvOlved !With the HR Interview series, Victorio is seeking dynamic

Human Resources practitioners from across the globe. He

would be especially interested in connecting with those that

operate in any of the countries within the continent of Africa.

If you or someone you know is interested, please reach out to

[email protected].

HR Matters | Blog

FEAT

UREDBLOG

Victorio Milian

VICTORIO MILIAN

My advice to young aspiring HR practitioners is... don’t ever let anyone devalue your work. Not everyone (senior

leaders, other business functions, the public) understands the value of a qualified and competent Human Resources professional. Ensure that you have what it takes, not only in providing quality services to those you work with, but also in how to effectively articulate your worth with conviction and firmness. Do great work, surround yourself with great people, and it becomes difficult to fail.

LONDON | Companies are losing an annual average of 24 days of extra working hours by not allowing employees to work from home, according to the latest research by video conferencing service provider UCi2i. The claim, based on a poll of 1,000 office employees in the UK, highlights the benefits to individuals of having a flexible working environment and the ‘overtime’ they put in as a result. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the study also finds that colleagues back in the office struggle with the lack of transparency with 1 in 4 believing those who do work from home ‘cheat the system’. Overall, 84 percent of those surveyed said they were uncomfortable with their colleagues not working alongside them, highlighting that better forms of communication between working locations is vital for a productive and happy workforce.

To address this, UCi2i launched in early July, a simple and easy-to-use personal video collaboration tool for business-quality video communications, called ‘V-Book’. The platform allows instant face-to-face communication and collaboration with colleagues and customers at the click of a button regardless of location or the device they are using.

As a result of the research, UCi2i has found that as many as 94 percent of UK office workers work better when they work from home despite stating they were not equipped with the appropriate technology to communicate with fellow colleagues (85 percent).

When asked why working from home is so successful, reasons that were given included: peace and quiet for productivity (26 percent), spending the time they would be travelling to the office, working (18 percent) and allowing the ideal work/life balance (13 percent).

The survey, conducted in June 2013 by Censuswide, shows an increasing desire in office workers to be equipped with suitable communication technology to allow them to work from home.

ComPanIes enCouragIng workIng from Home gaIn an extra montH of work Per emPloyee eaCH yearBut fear of lack of transparency and colleague collaboration issues remain barrier to mass adoption


L

Workforce Trends | HR Matters

Let’s face it. Advances in technology have always been a mixed blessing. It is no different with today’s digital applications. On one hand, they save us hours and energy on the tasks that used to require manual labour. On the other, they delay, impair and degrade the development of complex reasoning skills. This is especially true among the so-called digital natives, those who have come of age immersed in electronic messaging, work-type applications, and non-stop entertainment.

While some may protest this gross characterisation, there is ample evidence to support it. Scientists have been able to replicate these effects in a variety of settings. Educators observe it among their students. Employers complain about it in the workplace. The result of all this is what I call “decidiphobia,” a fear of making decisions when outside a menu-driven environment.

Most of those with decidiphobia don’t display this behaviour in obvious ways. It is not apparent to passers-by. No one seeks federal assistance because they are afflicted with this terrible disease. But it lurks in the minds of those around us.

What does it look like? Here are a few examples:

enDless questIons – When the ‘parade’ in your office gets out of hand, you can probably attribute it to decidiphobia. After all, the first inclination of a person who fears making a mistake is to ask the individual in charge for assistance.

exPeCtIng to see oPtIons for all DeCIsIons – When you learn to navigate through the day with your thumbs, mouse and screen, it is only natural that you would expect a menu of choices for

every decision. But making judgments in ambiguous situations can be downright debilitating.

DIffICulty wItH extraPolatIon – For those who learned through trial and error, figuring out the process of ‘if this, then that’ comes easy. When the development of this type of reasoning is delayed due to a reliance on menu-driven options, young adults struggle to deduce what appears to be common sense to others. Some may argue that learning to use software requires trial and error technique as well. But it’s not the same when there’s no escape key.

aBsenCe of sItuatIonal awareness – Employers wonder why some young people simply stop when they’ve completed an assigned task, rather than look around for other things to do. But for those who have gotten used to having all instructions and possible

answers presented, the urge to look outside of the immediate focus does not occur to them. Besides, they need to check Facebook™.

Does decidiphobia afflict all digital natives? No. There are lots of individuals who have learned to thrive outside of the digital environment. This may be due to upbringing, culture, a lack of available technology and other factors. Unfortunately, the increasing pervasiveness of

this technology is inculcating many people under 30 with a belief that all answers can and should be found on a screen. Is decidaphobia a matter of intelligence? Definitely not. Brokers at Wall Street firms tell of Ivy League graduates pestering them for specific instructions on routine matters. Teachers complain of common grammar and syntax errors because of a reliance on SpellCheck™. Supervisors express surprise that young professionals get stuck when they can’t find what they need on-line. Business owners wonder why the young tech whizzes they hired can’t think through everyday conundrums on their own.

Whose fault is all this? Everyone’s. Digital natives are a product of the culture in which they come of age. As society has embraced the lure and convenience of digital applications, the emerging generation has been immersed in this technology almost from birth.

Decidiphobia: Getting Today’s Digital Natives

Figuring things out without a menu of choice. BY RobeRt W. WendoveR

But making judgments in ambiguous situations can be downright debilitating.

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HR Matters | Workforce Trends

Numerous studies have demonstrated the ease with which young people assimilate to the intuitive nature of software. From this, they have learned to manipulate information at lightning speed, but only within the realm of technology.

While all this wizardry requires judgment, most of the decisions involved are retractable through the escape, back, and undo keys. No so with choices outside of the computer environment. Is it any wonder then, that decisions with permanence can intimidate them? Technology is not the only culprit in this equation, but it is certainly a major contributor.

So what’s the cure? How can employers instill an orientation of self-assured decision making within their workplace? Here are several practical strategies:

teaCH tHem to solve ProBlems. No kidding! It is ironic that few in society are ever taught a framework for problem solving. Instead, we are left to ‘figure it out’ as we come of age. That served so-called digital immigrants well in the era prior to menu-driven software. But the lure and distraction of these applications have misled digital natives into assuming that anything worth knowing can be found on-line or through a text to their friends. When it comes to discerning ambiguous situations and making decisions that have impact on those around them however, the solutions cannot be found on a screen. Consider your environment and initiate a discussion about how decisions can be made effectively. Simply having this kind of ongoing conversation can begin the process of developing confident problem solvers.

emPloy tHInk-alouDs. A favorite strategy of educators, this means asking those posing questions to think through their problem out loud in front of you. This accomplishes three objectives: 1) It allows you to reinforce and praise what the person is doing well; 2) It provides an opportunity for you to correct mistakes in their thinking or assumptions; 3) It forces them to think all the way through the issue rather than relying on someone else to provide an answer. While you may find this to be awkward at first, those asking endless questions will learn to adapt quickly.

always Have a lIst. This would seem to reinforce the habit of asking endless questions. But in an effort to manage time wisely, inform those you supervise of what other tasks can always be completed. In the process, you teach them to make choices and reduce the office parade at the same time.

exPlaIn tHe BIg PICture. The more people understand how they contribute to the overall effort, the more they will infer what needs

to be done and how to resolve routine problems. Show them how the organisation functions financially. Teach them the ins and outs of how individual products are designed, created and sold. Explain the concept of overhead and its impact on profits. Ask them to critique the work they are assigned and how it fits into the big picture. You may find that they have some ideas for efficiency, but were hesitant to speak up.

wItHDraw your suPPort. Sometimes it’s just easier to give someone the answer. Do this enough however and you will have fostered an overreliance on your judgment and instructions. Use the other strategies in this article to stem this behaviour.

ProCess tHe DeCIsIons maDe. With most workdays a blur of activity, it is difficult to find time to evaluate outcomes. But this is

especially important for those who may be less than confident in their decisions. Even two minutes worth of reflection about the result of their actions can help a digital native better understand how to evaluate situations in the future. Besides, this can present the perfect time for a non-threatening ‘teaching moment’.

ProvIDe sPeCIfIC PraIse anD feeDBaCk. Like it or not, digital natives have come of age inundated with feedback from video games, digital instruction, over-protective parents and the like. Couple this with the impatient world we’ve created and you can understand their demand for ongoing evaluation and reinforcement. You may find that you have to manage these expectations. But the fact that they are hungry for feedback is a positive sign.

The nature of workplace decision making is evolving due to digital influences. We need to be vigilant in marrying the strengths of trial-and-error thinking with the menu-driven processes now before us.

Robert Wendover is Director of The Center for Generational Studies and author of the newly released, Figure It Out! Making Smart Decisions in a Dumbed-Down World. Reach him at [email protected].

The more people understand how they contribute to the overall effort, the more they will infer what needs to be done and how to resolve routine problems.


Organisational Change | HR Matters

IIn my last article, I detailed the first two stages of the Organisation Development (OD) Cycle. This second part of the OD Cycle review will explain the final two stages, Intervention and Evaluation.

INTERVENTIONAn intervention is a structured activity which aims to shift the system towards a different state. The goal of OD can include fixing problems as well as building on strengths to anticipate future changes ultimately altering the status quo, requiring development for everyone involved, often including the client. This is worth remembering as sometimes the client themselves may not consider that they need to change. The practitioner will therefore need to coach the client through the process to raise their awareness and ensure they are fully prepared.

Behind the intervention design are the practitioner’s theoretical assumptions (e.g. action research or social constructionism), ethics and values (e.g. humanism and valuing diversity), their ‘use of self’ (how their presence impacts on the organisational system) and their collaborative relationship with the client. All of these factors combine to create a successful interaction and will be detailed more thoroughly in future articles.

The broad scope and complex nature of OD as a discipline means that OD intervention design itself is a complex process. So the following is an overview of some of the key considerations when designing interventions. A key skill is to think cross-dimensionally when creating the design. It can be useful to use a model as a

A look at the two final stages of the OD cycle, Intervention and Evaluation. BY Alison FRAnce

conceptual framework to aid this thinking. One example is Schmuck and Miles OD cube (1976) above.

This demonstrates cross-dimensional design based on the diagnosed problem, focus of attention and mode of intervention providing a

practical framework to make decisions about the intervention design. Other three dimensional cubes include other considerations such as:• Kinds of change (Blake and Mounton 1985): Acceptant, Catalytic,

Confrontation, Prescription and Theories & Principles;• Intensity (Reddy, 1994): Low, Medium and High; and

A key skill is to think cross-dimensionallywhen creating the design.

DEVELOPMENT CYCLE

THE

ORGANISATION(PART 2)

The Schmuck and Miles OD cube


HR Matters | Organisational Change

Individual Interpersonal Group Intergroup Organisation

• Coaching• Mentoring• Counselling• Life and career planning• Education• Behaviour modelling

• Third party conflict resolution

• Role negotiation• Storytelling from each

side• Role swapping• Partnership work• Interdependency exercise

• Team building• Role analysis• Visioning• Improved decision

making• Unstructured group

training

• Third party peace making • Survey and feedback• Restructuring of sub-units• Intergroup activities to

build awareness and interdependence

• Organisation design• Appreciative Inquiry

summit• Future search• Real time strategic change• Partnership and customer

conference

• Type of intervention (Reddy, 1994): Cognitive, Skill & Activity, Behaviour description, Emotion/reflection and Interpretive.

Obviously, this level of complexity is useful for practitioners to ensure the intervention fits the objective, organisation and individuals involved. However, I find it useful to ask questions of clients using this knowledge as a framework to enable the client to make informed

decisions. Cheung-Judge and Holbeche suggest the following six questions:1. What are the diagnosed problems?2. What are the focal issues (ensure you drill down to specific

detail)?3. What is the focus of attention (individual, pairs, group, intergroup,

organisation, environment etc)?4. What is the necessary level of intensity required?5. What is the necessary intervention role of the consultant?6. What is the mode of intervention (training, feedback etc)?

EVALUATION AND TERMINATIONEvaluation is the final and crucial stage of the OD cycle which both enables OD practitioners to prove the value of their work whilst celebrating the achievements made by the organisation in moving towards its goal. However, the decisions about what to evaluate should be integrated into the beginning of any project alongside

contracting and directly linked to the initial stated purpose of the OD activity. At this phase, the specific metrics (measures of success) should also be identified. In this way, data collection can be integrated into all other stages of the OD work, therefore both guiding future work and making the evaluation results richer and more meaningful.

Cheung-Judge and Holbeche outline the following nine key actions OD practitioners can take to make evaluation an integral part of their work and the culture of the organisation they are working with.1. Align OD programmes to the organisation’s strategic priority.2. Link OD initiatives to the core business results (e.g. money

savings, innovation, service excellence and beating the competition).

3. Build a strategic partnership with other professionals to continually improve your evaluative methodology (e.g. strategy, social research, project management and finance).

4. Continuously educate clients as to the value of evaluation.5. Senior leaders should commission the OD project and define the

metric.6. Senior leaders need to take ownership of evaluative data. 7. Build the habit of having evaluation discussions from the

beginning of the process.8. Always collaborate with clients when defining evaluation and

metrics.9. Write up case studies of good evaluative practice to show others

how to do it.THE ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENT CYCLE[continued on page 48]

Don’t forget the answers to these questions should also be informed by the information you have gathered in the diagnosis phase. Additional considerations include :• Focus on the task where the goal is a specific output such as

an action plan. Or process focus where the goal is how people interact such as dealing with conflict, make decisions etc.

• Structured interventions which are highly planned and the delegates are guided through activities. Or unstructured interventions where the delegates self organise.

Ultimately clients want to understand the mode (or type) of intervention – what exactly can you do to achieve the goal? Below are some examples of OD interventions. Be aware that, depending on the size of the project you are undertaking, you may require an intervention strategy which includes a number of these activities in a planned sequence.

Practically this is more of an art than a science due to the intangibility of some of our work and the need to assign a

monetary value to the development of people.


YSANDRA FORD WALSTONTHE COURAGE ExPERT

Courage | HR Matters

You’re too intimidated to have that overdue conversation so you utilise a form of ambiguity? You’re a manager whose style of managing is hands-off. This way you don’t have to suggest ideas that might offend or be misunderstood. Whether you’re a manager, human resource director or CEO, you are often required (hard-pressed) to engage in the awkward, elusive or tight rope conversations that require courage. These types of ‘challenging’ conversations test us in an uncomfortable way. Why? Because the exchange is more than just applying candour (a cousin to courage)

or being brutally blunt (“Let me be honest with you...”). There’s the old adage “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” This old saying is false. For example, ‘a stone is thrown’ when someone says, “I don’t care how you do it, just get it done!” With the phrase “I don’t care” the receiver is most likely going to have an internal breakdown at work and then one at home. We all want to feel appreciated and valued for our contribution. Because words are so powerful, they can hurt you, but they can also get you positive results at work, such as increased productivity, improved morale, enhanced project effectiveness, a renewed demeanour and reduced stress, to name a few. Most of the time it’s about asking a lot of ‘you’ questions steeped around the obstacles

Courageous Conversation Questions to Apply at Work

that block courageous leadership actions such as intimidation, manipulation or blame. So if you can communicate more effectively with coworkers, you can reshape your work environment and produce the sustainable results you’re seeking. Muster the courage to try these six examples: 1 The founder of my Newfield Network coaching organisation always opened our international conferences or local gatherings with “What’s cooking?” This kicked off an understanding that it was safe to share what was internally going on with that person allowing them to display their courage.2 “How do you imagine this project

progressing?” This question not only engages the person but also decreases stress because creativity and curiosity are being generated, and people are more motivated to speak up. 3 “Is there anything else I can offer you?” and “Do you have any other requests?” Requests and offers allow people to open up and reveal the ‘chatter’ in their head (or what they really want), thus providing transparency in everyone’s communication and removing any awkwardness if someone ordinarily feels hesitant about speaking up. 4 “What was your assessment about the big project we just finished for that client?” Be cautious with your tone. This means you take responsibility for how your language affects others. Your words are a part of your daily legacy—people remember

them more than the action. Will you be remembered the way you want to be remembered?5 “How do you envision accomplishing the task/results?” This response keeps passion alive and perpetuates retentive innovation.6 Because we’re human, we naturally expect the receiver to know exactly what we expect in the outcome and what we mean. Be direct and say, “I have expectations that you will do this and that.” The outcome of unclear expectations? Wasted time that can’t be reclaimed and unnecessary tension in the workplace.

7 If you are working with a prospect/business partner/project manager try, “What do you see our next step to

be?” Using the word ‘our’ in your question leads the client/customer to think of you as a partner when making a decision.

Comedian Lily Tomlin said, “If you can’t be direct, why be?” Think about what type of language you experience in your work environment and what you display. The words we choose can submerge us into negativity or elevate us to a different level of courage consciousness—and take our coworkers with us. That is the power of courageous questions!

Sandra Ford Walston is known as The Courage Expert and innovator of StuckThinking™. She is an internationally recognised speaker, learning consultant, author and entrepreneur. Reach Sandra at [email protected].

Communicate more effectively so that you can reshape your environment

Be cautious with your tone. This means you take responsibility for how your language affects others.


S

Missed Goals Postponed

DreamsAre you simply nothing more than a modern day

zombie living on auto-pilot? BY sulynn choong

HR Matters | Positive Psychology

Socrates’ bold statement “The unexamined life is not worth living” is at once accusing and provocative in that life is a personal quest of personal and spiritual growth which we must choose to consciously take time to examine and reflect upon. In fact, the Spanish philosopher, George Santayana observed quite astutely that “He who does not remember the past is condemned to repeat it.”

Indeed of late, I have become acutely aware, of how ingrained the habit of living by auto-pilot is in most of our lives. It has become so much so that any disruption to routine is auto-directed to stress-mode. Living in the current times where ‘I can only do tomorrow what he/she/they wanted yesterday’ is the norm, is both emotionally draining and mentally exhausting.

We also tend to divert time and energy from nurture of our social, spiritual and physical wellbeing, to boost effectiveness. Net result: ‘I am so stressed.’ ‘I am so tired.’ ‘My brain is dead.’ ‘I have no time.’ ‘I am busy.’ And yet, there is so much that is important in our

lives that is not attended to, just because these things are not urgent e.g. changing that light bulb in the store room, writing up a will to protect your loved ones, or that coveted MBA or PhD, the broken wheel on the tricycle of your now 16 year old son, that promised get-together with old neighbours, and maybe, that guitar you are going to pick up again someday. Not me! I hear you in my head. Yes you! From the time you woke up till this minute, consider how many of your daily tasks and functions have been transacted quite efficiently and smoothly without much conscious thought. We go through the morning routine: brush teeth, shower, dress, eat breakfast (really?) and commute with barely a quick check on time. Most of us have become modern day zombies going through the motion the processes with pre-set safety-cautionary check steps. We feel tired and listless, often hovering between being a little anxious and stressed out - about not doing enough, doing too much, too much to do, no time, too many meetings, other people and their

Living in

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The Unexamined Life of

and


Positive Psychology | HR Matters

idiosyncrasies, and so on. We experience the absence of purpose and meaning in our lives manifested as the absence of moment to moment pleasure or positivity.

The insidious subconscious programming of habitual patterns from repeatedly doing the same sequence of action and making the same response to circumstances makes up the powerful mental software that runs our life. Unless we become aware of these patterns, much of our life is unconscious repetition. In short, we can dream and speak of our potential for greatness but if we do the same as we did yesterday, and have done for the last ten years, the outcome would be

the same. Yesterday, today, forever – our habits lead us to the same.

To advance, to realise our potential, and to self-actualise, we need to mind what we believe, think and do. Examining our life and habits reveals firmly entrenched patterns of behaviour that had evolved to help us cope and deal with experiences in childhood, in school, at work, and daily routine as well as regulate stressors. In the auto-pilot state, our attention is lulled into drift mode, piqued by what’s moving, new, or novel.

The tsunami of technology and consumerism feeds right into the scheme. We seek entertainment, excitement, and enlightenment from outside of ourselves rather then look inside our heads, hearts and

spirit to discern what’s important to us, what’s of value and what we want of Life. Instead of seeking Instantaneous gratification and multi-dimensional stimulation, let us re-visit being fully human - use that amazing mass of grey matter in our heads, cherish the engineering magnificence of our physical body, nurture our fragile yet valiant hearts, and reflect on that which is larger than self that we can draw strength from and give freely to.

start wItH mInDfulness. Be present in the moment e.g. looking into the faces of the people around you and registering their outward expressions of inner dialogues,

or taking time to consider the full human inside the harried colleague whom you have grown accustomed to acknowledging as the typing machine or the financial calculator or the completer-finisher. On a personal note, note the tone of your child or spouse when speaking to you at various times, savour each of the meals you shovel into your mouth as you mull over decisions and issues, or notice how you behave differently at home, at work and at play.

Who are you? Who are you being when you are with others? Other people matter. What relationship patterns do you create?

foCus on wHat you really want. Visualise your Best Possible Self. What would life be like in that ‘someday’ that

you keep putting off, ‘when you have time or money or both’, and ‘if things were different’? Do you know where you are heading? What do you need to do to get there? What are you postponing because you are running on auto-pilot? Identify what you have control over and can change, and make the change. Develop self-awareness and work at self-mastery. Hire a coach.

Do sometHIng DIfferent every Day in the direction of your dreams and goals. Overcome the inertia of auto-pilot, get out of that comfort zone of useful excuses and self-limiting beliefs, and in no time at all, you will gain momentum and be well on your

way to a life worth living far away from the zombified existence of one big integrated system of mal-performing habits. Otherwise, we are choosing by default to live with too many layers and autopilot systems to tweak – which makes change seem impossible.

Change is possible. Stop functioning on auto-pilot. Start what seems difficult right now, the impossible might just take a little while longer!

Sulynn Choong is a Positive Change Consultant and the Founder/Chief Engagement Officer at the Asian Center for Applied Positive Psychology (ACAPP).

The insidious subconscious programming of habitual patterns from

repeatedly doing the same sequence of action and making the same

response to circumstances makes up the powerful mental software

that runs our life. Unless we become aware of these patterns, much

of our life is unconscious repetition.


HR Matters | Recruitment

What is Futurecasting? It’s the act of building accessible data

sets for competitive intelligence and talent acquisition

best practices that are sustainable, the emphasis being on

data longevity. The methodology allows for key deliverables to be

achieved even if you don’t have the technology resources of Big Data

with the perennial, mainstay tactics for conducting talent acquisition

within your organisation.

The idea is premised upon a fully cloud-based, open-source platform

application and, concurrently, meant to rehabilitate the inner-

workings of CRMs so they can handle Big Social Data and yield real-

time, easily updated, dynamic candidate and business intelligence

records that accurately predict where and how future and current

job candidates are likely to perform best.

Why does it matter to you, Talent Acquisition Leaders, and

to Corporate CEOs, in their quest for talent? The conclusions

drawn from my research have direct implications for corporate

organisations within the Fortune 500 and ultimately, on a global

scale, are fundamentally significant because the ‘how’ of finding

talent has been built on prior preconceived notions.

As a global talent strategist, the one constant in being of service to

leading employers is that those who win key talent from competitors

are those ‘who care to know and invest in knowing.’ In short, the

potential application of the broad term ‘data’, as I have defined

it, is essentially more so about building ‘knowledge’ to properly

influence the decision-making process of today’s workforce and the

organisations who hire them - and as a direct by-product, companies

can dramatically improve workforce planning.

Knowing a job title in a social media or external online search is

no longer enough without context. The equation to master in the

Futurecasting: How tHe rise oF Big social Data is set to transForm Hiring Best Practices gloBallyAccurately predicting where and how future and current job candidates are likely to perform best. BY dAve MendozA

21st century is about identifying talent of higher quality -with the

added context of their ‘talent ecosystem’ from objectively precise

competitor choices and trending geographical sources that have

been mapped and validated without preconceived notions from

hiring managers and the recruiters they direct and those errors . The

‘We Think’ culture of talent organisations will be a relic to Those

‘Who Know’ and have the datasets to prove and reap the benefits

of strategies based on talent that is mapped and recruiters that are

informed.

CONVERGING TRENDS, EMERGING CAPABILITIESFuturecasting is a concept that’s built on a number of key trends

and developments of recent years. Understanding Futurecasting’s

potential and application is impossible without first understanding

the trajectories of each of these trends.

BIg Data: a collection of data sets so large and complex that it

becomes difficult to process using hands-on database management

tools. Unlocking Big Data can bring huge benefits, as has been

shown in a number of other fields. Today, for instance, techniques

to interpret Big Data help us to spot business trends, measure the

quality of research and combat crime.

soCIal: for billions of people, the rise of social networking has

transformed the way they conduct their personal and professional

lives. LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Viadeo, Xing and Twitter are

among the best known channels, but far from the only ones. And

the sector is moving at a phenomenal pace. Only ten years ago,

Facebook was a site called Facemash with just 450 visitors.

Knowing a job title in a social media or external onlinesearch is no longer enough without context.


Recruitment | HR Matters

Without a blueprint or initial guidance, the organisation that would otherwise embark on a plan to implement Futurecasting – a methodology possible to employ right now – might give up altogether for want of simple first steps. This whitepaper aims to help such organisations jump-start the process. What follows, therefore, are seven steps that are recommended for any organisation looking to take advantage of the Futurecasting methodology.

1 maP tHe organIsatIon’s ProCess

Creating a fully functional CRM begins with mapping out your talent acquisition process, from first contact with a prospective candidate to when they come aboard. If this is not something that you’ve previously worked on within your company, now is the time to make it a priority. How can you know what you need from your system if you haven’t identified it within your process?

2 stanDarDIse tHe organIsatIon’s

ProtoCol

The very first step that any organisation should undertake toward realising more efficient CRM is to create a standard protocol. Initiate a stakeholder-driven effort to establish a workflow process that applies to the entire CRM lifecycle, with each stakeholder’s role clearly established and documented.For instance:• What default fields do you retain vs.

which customised fields need to be created to meet your organisational needs?

• What determines a complete record profile vs. a record that requires additional revision?

• What is the data quality review process

by which incomplete records are reconciled?

• What is the standardised model for geo-locational, industry-specific, or in-house organisational data? What is the standardised model for number-based entries such as postal codes and telephone numbers (no dashes or numbers only)?

• What is the agreed-upon terminology for a tagging system, list titles, and job ID vs. pipeline requisitions?

3 aDD soCIal Data You might claim to be operating within social recruiting. But if you’re not already incorporating social data into the tools you use, you’re missing half the equation. While many systems do not yet have clickable URL fields available by default (such as a link to someone’s LinkedIn profile), you can certainly set them up as customised portions of your candidate profiles.

4 segment tHe organIsatIon’s Data

Because it’s such an important part of CRM, segmenting audiences should be an ingrained process for every sourcer and recruiter. A basic user can easily create simple segmentation, and advanced users can build rules and filters robust enough to allow the CRM to recognise a Twitter URL vs. a LinkedIn URL, if these are capable of being segmented. For instance, an organisation might want to, and would be able to, split lists by those with Twitter URLs and those with only LinkedIn URLs to then push these leads into groups or as followers to a corporate career site or user name. Once the data is segmented, an API facilitates the uploading. Though not all CRMs

currently offer this feature as an off-the-shelf option, it soon will be standard. So start proactively adding URLs: when the CRM has that capability, the organisation can be sourcing immediately.

5 reInforCe ComPetItIve

IntellIgenCe as a workflow

ProCess

Adding an organisation’s own job titles to search for people within the system doesn’t always make sense. In fact, unless the organisation is one of the world’s largest companies or a governmental entity, it makes no sense at all. Ideally, most of the profiles in the system are of passive candidates. Their job titles will likely look very different from those used within the company. So make sure to build in titles for competitor organisations and create a more robust search string – for example, “x” is far more useful than “y” – to account for these discrepancies. In the same vein, consider using notes and tags to discover marks of distinction that competitors routinely give out (e.g. President’s Circle, Chairman’s Club, Catalyst Award).

6 De-DuPlICate anD enforCe Data

qualIty stanDarDs to your

organIsatIon’s DataBase

What is missing is as important as what is found. A 21st century Talent Acquisition organisation spends as much time identifying their knowledge gaps and the administrivia and automation capital to fill them as they do seeking new technologies. What data is missing from the database and talent knowledge libraries it builds are often as critical as the daily output of sourcing new talent prospects. Though not a short or easy process, it is one that every company should do on a continual basis, at

21st century multi-generational workforce challenge to implement a Futurecasting methodologythings organisations should do right now7

BY dAve MendozA


II like the back cover blurb : Each of us has the capacity for greatness. So what is it that’s stopping us from reaching our true potential? The answer : too much interference.This is a different take on how we can approach any attempt at improvement or problem solving. While most approaches are outside in – we look online, we employ consultants, we get a coach – Alan seeks to focus on an ‘insideout’ approach. The argument is that it’s not about going out there to gain new knowledge or a new method. You have everything you need already and it’s more a case of learning to use/tap into the knowledge you already have.

Alan is the founder and president of InsideOut Development, a professional services firm offering training and coaching services. He has spent the last twenty five years as a mental performance/focus coach to top professional golfers, tennis players, musicians and corporate executives. This book covers the basic performance model, GROW, which he helped develop. GROW is an acronym for the four stages of decision making, considered by many to be a gold standard framework for structuring coaching conversations.The book is divided into three parts : Paradigm and Principle, Process and finally, Practice. As Alan describes it, “this book is less about gaining new knowledge and more about getting rid of what’s keeping you from using the knowledge you already have”.

It’s long but packed with calls to try experiments that Alan outlines and a section at the end of each chapter where he poses questions for you to reflect on.

Two things to recommend about the book:Firstly, the focus on execution. It is not knowledge alone that enables high performance. It is our ability to close the gap between what we know and doing what we know. It’s Alan’s belief that our ability to close this gap will have far greater impact on improving our performance than any additional knowledge we may gain. Any book that pays more attention to getting it done, is worthy of your attention.Secondly, Alan helps you to really understand the ideas he puts across through the use of detailed conversations. He breaks the dialogue down, highlighting at the various parts of the conversation, what he thinks of the situation, where he sees it going wrong and how he would approach it. This is very useful because it’s an opportunity to see theory brought to life with examples and detailed analysis.

Overall, I think it’s worth investing your time and effort in. Anything that can help you not to gain more knowledge but instead, how to turn this into action, and how to execute on the plan is well worth your time. Additionally, if you are a self-starter, or someone who wants to help yourself, then this is, as Stephen Covey writes in the Foreword, a ‘truly landmark book on helping yourself and others journey to greatness’. - Ed

HR Matters | Lit

least until the technology does it for us. By identifying and extracting necessary data that is missing or incomplete, moreover by ridding the database of duplicate records, the organisation accomplishes two things: • It determines where and by what

methodology its data needs to be standardised to minimise knowledge gaps (see step 1).

• It saves time and financial resources when looking for records that outlast the routine attrition of your existing talent organisation.

By upgrading the importance of quality validation of your data records – ridding it of incorrect, incomplete or old information and replacing all that with correct, complete, new information – the organisation accomplishes another two things: • It creates URLs for profiles that didn’t

have them before and significantly extends the shelf-life of data regardless of present employers, position titles or relocations that are otherwise not dependable in an ever increasingly mobile global society.

• It serves as the basis of validating fields that are empty, making that profile fully searchable and relevant.

7 reCognIse tHe value of

IntelleCtual ProPerty

With recruiting turnover and contract recruiting a fact of life for many local and global organisations, companies need to realise the value of their data. Simply put, if an organisation pays someone to source data on a daily basis, it must make sure that it keeps that data safe and validated by following the steps listed above.

Excerpted from the Futurecasting whitepaper.

Title : You Already Know How to be Great. A Simple Way to Remove Interference and Unlock Your Potential – At Work and At HomeBy : Alan FinePublished by : PiatkusYear of publication : 2010ISBN 978-0-7499-5578-6Details : Paperback 234 pagesAvailable at : Borders Malaysia RM54.90 and all major retailers

®

FUTURECASTING[continued on page 49]


Updates | HR Matters

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ALIGnMEnT

Kristin KaufmanHIRInG

Carol QuinnCOuRAGE

Sandra Ford Walston

one of your greatest assetsAs an executive, we have two assets which

rival as to which is most valuable to us.

Both our time and our team are the two

most critical components in achieving our

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Courage – C-suIte or CuBe : It matters!Just mention the word courage and you

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WORkFORCE TREnDS

Robert W WendoverLEADERSHIP

Rajeev PeshawariaTHE ROI OF HR

Laura McAdam

traInIng tHe mInD of tHe mIllenIal. tIPs 1 tHrougH 6.In the last post, I took a 30,000 foot view of

the issues with training our digital natives,

the Millennials. Here are the first six, of

twelve, strategies that I and others are

using to better land instruction and content.

tHe otHer Duty of CorPorate governanCeAccording to BusinessDictionary.com,

corporate governance is “The Framework

of rules and practices by which a board of

directors ensures accountability, fairness, and

transparency in a company’s relationship

with its all stakeholders.”

tHe metrICs of HrThe costs of a company’s workforce account

for 40 – 60 percent of its total expenses,

and this percentage increases to around 80

percent for a non-profit company.

HR Matters | Columnists

website snapshotA quick look at posts this July


HR Practitioner | HR Matters

Who: Noel McGonigle, Group HR Director for Azzurri Communications Limited, one of UK’s leading independent provider of managed communication services.

What : Recently won “Best Change Management Programme” at the HR Distinction Awards. The Awards recognise outstanding achievement from leading HR directors.

Where : The Awards were held as part of the 11th HR Directors Business Summit in Birmingham, UK.

Why : Recognition of the HR team who played a pivotal role in managing and implementing organisational transformation. The category was judged on merit in the planning, execution and performance results from large scale change programmes.

When : 2013

In this exclusive interview, Noel McGonigle talks about a number of big changes that took place within the organisation over the last couple of years and how the upheaval and uncertainty was managed positively.

Q| As a relatively young company, thirteen years in the making,

Azzurri Communications is impressive in that it has acquired 16 companies to date and thrived. Managing and working

in a constant state of flux must be an everyday norm for most of you. How do you manage the upheaval and uncertainty?Noel : For me personally, my military background has given me experience with fast changing or ambiguous situations. In a sense, it means getting used to working with the limited information you have and what you can deduct from your experience. You use this information to craft a plan and if there are critical things you don’t know, you need to work out where and who to go to, to get the answers.

There’s a very old military phrase – no plan

Transformingthe Perception of HR

Ex-military man, Noel McGonigle talks to RoWenA MoRAis about how the conflict situations he faced enabled him to manage corporate and organisational change positively and proactively.

survives contact with the enemy. The idea here is that theoretical planning and the work behind the scenes changes as soon as you start taking it forward into reality. Consequently, it’s critical that you remain flexible and that you continually re-evaluate and re-plan. Be prepared to change mid-direction if the plan doesn’t work because there’s nothing worse than pressing on when the plan is failing. Sometimes, you have to go with your instincts as well. Ultimately, it’s better to make a decision and do something than sit and do nothing.

Q| How do you manage the upheaval and uncertainty for your

people?Noel : I guess the key factor for managing it for the organisation is communication. We always have a clear communication strategy, for any acquisition, both for the company being acquired and for ourselves. As soon as it’s possible to commercially start talking about it, we do that whether it’s via email, video or face to face.

Q| Have any changes been objected to and how do you deal with

that? Noel : Yes, of course. It’s inevitable especially if change impacts a person’s role or them personally. It boils down to engaging people in the process. When we have the basics of a plan, we use employee

NOEL MCGONIGLE


HR Matters | HR Practitioner

consultative groups to talk about what we intend to do and to get feedback before we move forward. It’s not a big bureaucratic process. But where there are tough decisions to make, such as redundancy or where the shape of the business is changing, we ensure that once we make a decision, we then deal with the people who are leaving the organisation, in a fair and open way. It is important that they are well treated. And it’s just as important that the people who are left behind in the organisation see this as well so that there is no resentment. In 2009, when the business was refinanced, we needed to make 50 people redundant. This took place across the organisation because there was a restructure, but in that case, employee engagement scores actually improved. We could see that it was linked to our communication programme and how it was handled.

Q| Recruitment and retention – these are twin pillars to any talent management strategy. What are your top three focus

areas for attracting new talent and retaining the talent you have?Noel : Our primary focus is retention. We hone in on managers. We want them to be well trained and as equipped as they can be so that they inspire. We have a strong set of values in place and we do expect managers to be role models of these values. The manager is, after all, the single biggest factor in determining how engaged you are in the organisation. We also focus on leadership across the organisation. We ensure that we too are good role models, that we are visible and that we take the time to be available to our people. There’s also a focus on personal growth, by ensuring that everyone not only has a development plan but that they are working to that every year. This is a KPI and a focus area for employee feedback.

And in terms of attraction, we work closely with marketing so that there are positive messages in the press. This is good not just for customers but also presents a branding opportunity. We encourage charitable work to build a community presence so that people are aware of us locally. It also allows us to demonstrate commitment to our community and giving back which then flags us to potential employees.

Q| You served in the Royal Air Force for 22 years in a variety of operational and human resource appointments. Do you

believe that your military experience has had a

huge influence in your work in managing and growing people? Noel : Yes, certainly. There was a lot of leadership and management training in the military for me. I believe that conflict situations provide a much tougher training ground which has had definite benefit for me.

Q| If you could advise an up and coming HR professional in today’s climate, what three pieces of advice would you give?

Noel : Firstly, I would say, be curious. Be curious about the business that you work in and the business environment in general. For us to add value, there needs to be an understanding of how business works, in general, how your own business works and more importantly, what is needed to be successful in that organisation is also very important. Secondly, you need to be a risk taker. Don’t just go by the rules. HR can be quite good at hiding behind the rule book

and that’s not always best for business. So, flex and do what is right for the business. Thirdly, never stop learning. Don’t forget to develop yourself and your skills. Get as broad an experience as you can…in compensation and benefits, in leadership etc. At some point, you might want to specialise, but experience across the board, will allow you to contribute to the HR function and to the business as a whole.

Q| In relation to the Best Change Management Programme at the HR Distinction Awards 2013 - can you tell us

a little bit about these change programmes? How many programmes were in place and how large were they?Noel : There were two or three programmes in place. When the business was refinanced in 2011/2012 and new ownership came on board, there was a desire to streamline the business. And we wanted to support this. One key initiative was improving the sales performance and pipeline. It involved us looking at drivers for sales performance, assessing individuals against the matrix using psychometric tools and identifying areas for individual development. It also meant introducing more development tools for the people and tools to support consultative selling. We were moving from selling products to selling solutions. Therefore, we needed to help our sales people make the transition from product to solution selling. In that regard, we managed assessment, development and delivery of that programme and drove an 18 percent increase in profit.

Be prepared to change mid-direction if the plan doesn’t work becausethere’s nothing worse than pressing on when the plan is failing.


HR Practitioner | HR Matters

Q| There were a significant number of financial and management changes in the financial year till June last year. There

was a refinancing exercise, change of ownership as well as the introduction of a new management team. These changes were reportedly introduced in a short period of time. Are you able to share with us some of your key business strategies to get these changes accepted within the employee base?Noel : All this took place in the space of a few months. The big shift in the last refinancing was having a new Board. There was a new Chief Executive, new Finance Director and new non-executive directors. The key element, I believe, was allowing the CEO and the CFO to meet as many people in the organisation as they could, and being able to communicate their background and their priorities. The message was essentially a positive one and it put the business on a solid footing moving forward. I believe that while there was a bit of a honeymoon period in the initial phase, the markets were challenging

in the UK at the time. So, the external competition really made our people focus on what was happening outside. It was a combination of many factors including the mix of products we had, how the way we were selling was changing, there was more pay as you go and far more happening on the cloud. There was, therefore, lots to respond to and essentially, it kept our people focused and busy. There are legacy issues, of course, but there is a point at which you invest in systems, such as your financial or purchasing systems (that need to be continuously updated or integrated) that take your people to the next level.

Q| It’s a challenge to navigate through these uncertainties and simultaneously keep the flow of the day to day running

of the business. Can you elaborate on a key communication initiative HR embarked on to ensure that the needs of both the enterprise and the individual were aligned?Noel : We’ve reenergised and refocused our product to be more cloud-based. So, there is more pay as you go and customers were also wanting to use their own devices. Consequently, we had security and integration challenges associated with this. While we

wanted to launch our new solutions to the market, we also wanted our employees to understand the breadth of the new solutions too. To do this, we ran two events for our offices in the north of England and also the south. Our CEO presented our vision, values and strategy to go to market. This was followed by a series of five product area demonstrations where these products were showcased and our people were shown how customers were using it. This enabled them to get a sense of what the products involved. We captured it on video and made it available for viewing online internally. We followed this with more in depth workshops for our technical and sales people to ensure they had the support they needed. And there was great feedback from this.

Q| At the Awards above, it was stated that with your resized team and reduced budget, your HR team was able to

successfully transform the perception of HR within the organisation. How was HR viewed prior to this and what do you feel contributed to this feeling?

Noel : I believe that, before this, HR was viewed positively but probably not as commercial as it was after the change programme took place. The programme we undertook was a company-wide programme and as such, it raised the game. It changed the perception of HR from tactical to one of business partner to the company.

Q| What do you see as a key challenge for HR today? How do you feel that this is best addressed?

Noel : I think the key challenge is to keep up with the pace of change in the market and the organisation. You want to do this so that the support you provide is relevant and meets the needs at the time. To do that, you have to be outward facing to the market yet close to the business.

Noel McGonigle served in the Royal Air Force for 22 years in a variety of operational and human resource appointments. Noel joined Azzurri in 2006 and is responsible for all HR activities, including Health and Safety. He is passionate about leadership and employee engagement. Azzurri has seen its employee engagement scores improve year on year and has been shortlisted for a number of HR awards, including winning Best Reward and Benefits Strategy in 2010 and a Distinction in Change Management in 2013.

The manager is, after all, the single biggest factor in determininghow engaged you are in the organisation.


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Diary | HR Matters

DIARYEvent listings are complimentary. If you have an event that you think will be of interest to those in HR, send details at least two weeks before month of magazine issue for inclusion in the print edition. Details can be emailed [email protected].

1 HR Matters presents Talent Management. Raising Your Game2013 HR BriefingsDates : 22 August and 28

NovemberVenue : Menara Star, Section 16,

Petaling JayaInfo : www.hr-matters.info/forum.

htm

2 Asian Shared Services and Outsourcing RevolutionDate : 14 – 15 Aug 2013Venue : New World Makati Hotel,

Makati City, PhilippinesInfo : www.ssophilippines.com/

3 HRDF Conference & Exhibition 2013Date : 3 – 4 September 2013Venue : Kuala Lumpur Convention

CentreInfo : www.hrdf.com.my

4 Careers in Asia | Careers in AfricaInternational Recruitment Summit CalendarDate : 11 – 13 October 2013Venue : Sydney, AustraliaInfo : www.globalcareercompany.

com/doc/2013_calendar.pdf

5 HR Tech Europe 2.013European Conference and ExpoDate : 24- 25 October 2013Venue : AmsterdamInfo : www.hrtecheurope.com

The key thing is that we started this journey

mindful of the scale of our ambitions balanced against our starting point and resources available. This meant we had to map out very carefully the sequence and inter-relationship between the various engagement work streams. Brett Terry, Director of People and Organisational Development at Alzheimer’s Society.

Read more about Alzheimer’s Society journey towards greater employee engagement on page 44.

For more info on getting invited to the Roundtables, call +603 6140 6398.


HR Matters | Best Practice

Best Practices that Directly Impact Your Business’s Ability to Reach Your Profit Target

The Essential Toolkit for Profitability - how each best practice increases the odds of your business hitting your profit target. Excerpts from the State of the Business Owner 2013 report.

wHy Is It CalleD ‘tHe ownersHIP staCk’?“We call it this to make it clear there’s no secret if you really want to feel in control — to “own” your business through and through.

It’s about taking the time to build your foundation — to think about the future and plan how to get there — knowing that every step

you take is a step in the right direction.”

9

MMid May saw the launch of the State of the Business (SOBO) 2013 Report* in which more than 1700 business owners were surveyed across 83 countries. One of the largest global studies of small and midsize business success factors, the SOBO Report (which is now in its second year) aims to gain insight into the challenges that small and midsize businesses face daily. The Report indicated that the cautious optimism noted in their 2012 study was now replaced by untempered optimism about growth this year.

A key finding is the identification of nine best practices that have a direct impact on a small business’s ability to reach their profit target and the fact that each best practice implemented increased the odds of a business hitting this profit target by 6.6 percent.

These best practices – The Ownership Stack - form a universal set of tools, each of which has a dramatic impact on the business.

THE OWNERSHIP STACK DEFINED1 WRITTEN VALUES A clear set of values from your heart, that inspire a team of people who share your priorities and deeply own their responsibilities in a way that frees you.

2 WRITTEN VISION A 2-3 page statement defining what your business will look like, act like, feel like and perform like when it’s treating customers how you want it to, every time.

3 IDEAL CUSTOMER PROFILE A detailed definition of your perfect customers. This includes demographics and psychographic information about how they feel, think, and make decisions.

4 EMPLOYEE ROLE DESCRIPTIONS Signed agreements that define every role — focused on results and values, not tasks and policies. These are the foundation of job ownership and excellence.

5 REVENUE PLAN Plans for generating revenue, and associated assumptions, documented and translated into a twelve month budget that is both realistic and stretches you.

6 WRITTEN MARKETING PLAN A cohesive plan for generating leads, designed to meet your ideal customer where they are, with what they need, in a brand-consistent way.

7 REPEAT SALES PLAN Driven by powerful customer experiences, systems that leverage your existing relationships to sell more and more often to your current and former clients.

8 MARKETING METRICS Indicators that tell you how well you’ve converted people from total strangers to your best customers, so you have actionable data to maximise your impact.

9 BUSINESS METRICS A simple dashboard of strategic indicators to track progress toward your vision, to ensure initiatives have the right impact, and course correct as needed.

For details on sustainable growth, effective online prospecting, how to take your best practices to the next level or to find out how to build your own Ownership Stack, download the SOBO report atwww.stateoftheowner.com.


The State of the Business (SOBO) 2013 Report is produced by EMyth, a global leader in transformational business coaching and PixelSpoke, an award-winning digital marketing agency. Jonathan Raymond, Chief Brand Officer at Myth, who was formerly their Chief Executive talks to HR Matters Magazine.

If you had to choose the most significant finding from the SOBO report, what would that be, and why?

Jonathan : The most important finding was what we’re calling the ‘Ownership Stack’. It was a set of nine best practices - actions like defining your ideal

customer in detail to creating real role descriptions for employees - that have a direct correlation to hitting profit goals. The Report found that each one of these nine tools had a dramatic impact on a business. In fact, implementing each one increased a business owner’s odds of reaching

Best Practice | HR Matters

9 BEST PRACTICES[continued on page 48]

Key Facts

• Over 1700 business owners

participated in the study

• Owner compensation ranged

between $1K-2.5M

• Average gross annual revenue

$4.6M

• Combined revenues of all

participating businesses exceeded

$4.2B

• Participating businesses

employed over 8,000 full-time

workers in 2012

• The median growth rate for 2012

was 12.5%, and the expected

growth in 2013 is 20%

• 65% of participants have owned

or founded at least one company

previously

• The oldest participant was 83, the

youngest was 20, and the median

age was 47

• Business owners from 83

different countries participated.

87% of the survey respondents

were from six English-speaking

countries: United States, Canada,

United Kingdom, New Zealand,

Australia and South Africa

• The median business had been

around for 10 years

stateoftheowner.com

emyth.com

SOBO infographic courtesy EMyth

their profit targets by 6.6 percent, and implementing all nine of them increases their odds by nearly 60 percent. And while some of these practices are not new, what we found compelling was how they can work together to support real and sustainable revenue growth and increased profitability.

From what you’ve seen, what do you believe are the three biggest failings for small and midsize businesses? Jonathan : The first common failing is overconfidence. The SOBO Report found that 85 percent of business owners believe they have a competitive advantage. Given the daunting statistics from the Small Business Administration that only 50 percent of new businesses survive the first five years, this is a very risky attitude. Entrepreneurs overestimate the power of their idea or technical skill and underestimate the value of proper management systems and execution to reach the result they want.


HR Matters | Special Feature LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT

S P E C I AL

F

EA T U R E

Personal Development Plans (PDPs) can be useful for

individuals and teams to identify and address both short

and long term development goals. These plans provide a

systematic approach to continuously developing your skills. We talk

to four HR leaders about noteworthy practices that they have come

across, in crafting or implementating effective PDPs.

make an Investment wHere It matters mostWhy PDPs? In today’s business world, I believe it’s critical to long-

term success to invest in the development of your own PDP and

those of your employees. I have been fortunate to have worked with

and for incredible leaders that made PDPs a

priority of my development conversations. I’ve

led people for more than 17 years, and as a leader,

when you’re able to help others understand the

importance of how investing in yourself, both

personally and professionally, and by how doing

so translates into overall success at work and life, it’s just one of the

many things you do that helps them grow and achieve more. One

way to do this is to make PDPs a priority during one-on-ones.

I believe it’s our job to help foster and facilitate the discussion

about why PDPs are important and then work together (operative

word is together) to craft a plan that addresses both a personal

and professional goal. Keep them simple. Complexity shuts down

even the best made plans. When as leaders we can help connect

the two, commitment to a PDP happens. Research has proven that

life-long learners succeed at higher rates in both life and business.

Over the long-term, fostering focus and attention towards PDPs

with employees nets you the greatest returns on your most valuable

assets - your people. Why not make an investment where it matters

most? It’s what truly sets you apart from the rest.

Roger Brooks is the Executive Director of Training & Development for

Safeguard Business Systems, a leading manufacturer and distributor of

business products and services designed to help small to medium sized

business owners run and grow their business. Roger’s twelve year career

in learning and development has spanned across industries such as retail,

restaurants and franchising.

for greater engagement, offer sometHIng tHat fIts tHe PreferenCes of PeoPle

When PDPs were first used, in the late 1980s,

their purpose was to help encourage employees

to take ownership of their development for the

first time. Before this, it was trainees and high

flyers that held personal plans, other staff were

at the whims of employers.

Developing single PDP systems for all employees proved difficult

and gaining whole scale commitment even harder. When these

systems worked, they really did add value. One such system I was

leading was developed for London Underground. This provided a

return ten times the cost of implementing the system… just from

one learning intervention, from one manager! That would not have

happened without a PDP. At that point evaluation was stopped!

where it matters most?The case for Personal Development Plans. BY isAbellA chAn

Keep them simple. Complexity shuts down eventhe best made plans.~ Roger Brooks

Why not make an investment


Development Planning

was predominantly a

culture change towards

employees feeling

responsible for their

own development. Over

the four years of implementation, there was

an attitudinal shift that was measurable

through the evaluation instruments we

used. Most employees were enthusiastic

about the PDP approach and its link with

business development. As always with HR

processes, most of the leadership failed to

evaluate their plans initially. As the initiative

came from the top down, the resulting

culture changed such that from the bottom

came accountability for the exercise.

So, how were we successful in implementing

and reaping benefits of these plans?

• The key outcomes sought from

introducing PDPs — including cultural

change — were made clear to all those

involved, and built in at every stage of

design and implementation of these

plans;

• The process used to generate plans was

realistic for the target population;

• Because PDPs were expected to be

derived from performance review,

the design of the review took this into

account and included coaching from

immediate leadership; and

• A planned and realistic approach was

used to support the use of the plans.

Through implementation of PDPs, the

team members felt more satisfied by a

development planning process which took

start IntrosPeCtIvelyThe beginning

of any good

PDP starts with

a s p i r a t i o n s

and strengths/

competencies. For

many years, when working on my

teams’ individual plans, I have advised

that everyone, at least once and often

multiple times in their career, needs to

take a very hard, introspective look at

themselves to assess:

1. How far up the organisation do I

truly believe I can go?

2. What do I need to do to get there?

3. What am I willing to do to get

there?

Answer these questions with the

competencies you have or will need

in mind. Making conscious decisions

about these three questions is the

foundation of any solid PDP. The

answers allow you to focus not on

some pie in the sky potential position,

but on the competencies you have

and want to develop. Further, it will

allow you to focus on what roles those

competencies support and the effort

you will need to take to develop them.

Bob Holliday is the Director, Product

Training & Curriculum Development for

Boehringer-Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals

Inc. He has 18 years of experience in the

pharmaceutical industry, with more than

13 years in pharmaceutical training. Bob is

also retired from the US Air Force Reserves

where he spent 17 of 20 years in training

roles. He holds a BS in Organisational

Management and a MBA in Strategic

Human Resource Management.

Special Feature | HR Matters

Now in 2013, single systems no longer

work. Maintaining any form of bureaucratic

system often costs more to run that it

returns. Due to the pace of change in

business, with many businesses adopting

the 70/20/10 model for informal learning,

recording training is harder than it was

previously. PDPs are seen as a solution - I

do not think they are. The goal (of PDPs)

is to remind individuals of the importance

of taking responsibility, and the values of

having a plan, along with a tool to manage

this. Offer choice and our people have a

greater chance of adopting an approach that

works for them.

What works for one person does not

work for another, some need ‘big picture’

tools, others need detailed planning.

Offering something that appears to fit their

preferences helps to engage individuals,

resulting in better recording. If we want

the 70/20/10 approach, then we must also

realise that we can no longer control what

people do.

Mike Morrison is the Head of Global

Training – Project Unity at Damco. Based in

Copenhagen, Denmark, Mike is an experienced

Organisational Development professional. As a

motivational trainer and coach, Mike has worked

with high performers including international

racing drivers, TV personalities and CEOs.

sHIft tHe resPonsIBIlIty of tHese Plans to tHe emPloyeeAt a large global outsourcing company

based in Dallas, Texas, Personal

Offer choice and our people have a greater chance of adopting an approach that works

for them. ~ Mike Morrison


A

HR Matters | Special Feature LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT

S P E C I AL

F

EA T U R E

Are you considering sending your employees to training programmes? Consider the ideas below, to ensure any programme you sign up for, can deliver the returns you expect.

1 Make sure there is a pressing need for the type of training sought. Determine why an employee needs to attend this training.

2 Create a context for the employee’s training and development. Cross reference this against his career development plan.

3 Enhance the impact of the training even further by helping the employee draw the link between the training programme and his ability to contribute to the accomplishment of the organisation’s business plans and goals.

4 Provide rewards and recognition for the successful completion and application of the training.

5 Connect the employee’s training programme to his job and work objectives. If there is a self-development component in the appraisal process, make sure the connection to the plan is clear.

6 Favour training programmes that are able to demonstrate measurable, clearly articulated outcomes.

7 Make it clear to the employee that the training is his

responsibility - He needs to take it seriously.8 Training providers should provide pre-training assignments,

encourage active participation in the sessions and monitor the application of new ideas and skills upon an employee’s return to work.

9 Train supervisors and managers (either before the training session or simultaneously) so that they know and understand the skills and information provided in the training session.

10 Coach supervisors about their role as departmental trainers. Provide a handy tip sheet that explains, in detail, the organisation’s expectations of the supervisor in support of effective training.

Sunita Devi is a certified Training Consultant. A Learning Consultant for the Blue Ocean Strategy Masters programme, Sunita holds a Diploma in TESOL (Teaching English for Speakers of Other Languages) from the London Teachers & Trainers College, UK and a Masters Degree in Knowledge Management with Asia e- University Kuala Lumpur. Sunita has been published in Parenthink, Education Quarterly and Brand Equity and is currently working on a double PhD.

Tips to ensure Greater ROI on Your Training Initiatives0 1

BY sunitA devi

their wider personal goals into consideration. The practice remains

in place today and it proves to date an appropriate tool for career

fulfillment and succession planning. It shifted the responsibility

onto the individual rather than the company.

Chris-James Cognetta, MSIT, LPC-Intern is an award winning

instructional designer and independent training and development expert

with more than 25 years of experience in the creation of blended learning

solutions. Hailing from New York City and residing in Dallas, he serves

Fortune 1000 and not-for-profit organisations. Chris also serves as an

adjunct faculty member in the Computer Science Department of El Centro

College.

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R people often accept jobs below their level of education.

Other interesting facts from the quarterly survey included:• 64 percent of respondents are willing to move to another country for the right job (higher than the global average of 47 percent);• 57 percent of respondents think that temporary work is for younger people (higher than the global average of 43 percent);• Less than half (44 percent) of the respondents believe that it is good for a company to actively

recruit older people (lower than the global average of 60 percent);• Nine in 10 (92 percent) of the respondents would rather have a temporary job than no job at all (higher than the global average of 88 percent).

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* The survey was conducted between 18 April - 3 May 2013.

Jasmin Kaur has more than 15 years of talent recruitment experience in Malaysia and Hong Kong. As Director, Randstad Malaysia, Jasmin is responsible and accountable for the performance and operational direction for Randstad Malaysia.

HR Matters | Trends

Randstad’s recent Q2 Workmonitor* report showed that for three-quarters (76 percent) of people in Malaysia, experience is more important than education for younger people (aged 25 and below) in securing a job.This figure signalled a shift from the traditional mindset that prioritises education over experience, and highlighted the need for young employees to have a well-rounded resume.

In today’s workforce, employers are looking beyond a young person’s qualifications. They are also seeking the experience the potential employee will bring and how it will help the development and growth of their organisation.Knowledge learnt from a text book is not enough. Young jobseekers need to proactively increase their work experience and skill-set. This can include seeking internship experiences while in school or joining relevant industry groups or associations. The knowledge and skills gained through such activities will give employees more examples to share at an interview, and a better chance of success.The survey of 405 Malaysian employees also found that 63 percent of the respondents believe it is harder for younger jobseekers to find a suitable job, despite three-quarters (74 percent) believing it is good for companies to actively recruit from this age group.

Due to their younger age and limited working experience, it is not surprising that many are of the opinion that this group of jobseekers are facing more difficulties securing a job.However, under the Malaysia Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), much is being done to ensure that the younger workforce is equipped with relevant vocational and business skills. This includes urging university graduates to search for internship opportunities and encouraging them to gain overseas experiences through exchange programmes.

The survey also found that more than three-quarters (73 percent) of Malaysian people believe that young

Experience more important than educationKey findings from the Randstad Q2 Workmonitor Report. BY JAsMin KAuR

Nine in 10

respondents

would rather

have a

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Talent Management | HR Matters

The word Talent appears to be all the rage for the moment.

However, this word and its connotations will need to be a core

part of HR Strategy for corporates for years to come.

As I consult on talent and related areas, it can be quite an interesting

and challenging issue specifically in terms of managing and

developing talents. Simply stated, the effects and benefits of any

talent initiative or programme are a slow burn that can be seen only

perhaps after a year or more. Of course, if it is linked to balanced

scorecards and related dashboards, the results are more immediate

and your talents will give you the desired return on the investment

(ROI).

However, from the perspective of talents, when so identified, the

question asked is - ‘what now?’ Once talents are identified, rigged

up to dashboards, matrices etc, there are then burning questions

which need to be answered.

Often though, as talents are served with the big pictures and plans

that are going to take them places, the very crucial question is often

not asked.

This question is ‘What do you want?’

To answer this crucial question, based on my discussions and

research with clients, employees and talents alike, the following

are some of the key factors that talents look for, whether new to or

within an organisation:

• work lIfe flexIBIlIty - Talents want the flexibility to balance

their life and work. For example, older candidates are often

dealing with ageing parent issues, others are dealing with

teenager, school and university student issues, while younger

workers simply want more flexibility to live, work, explore and

play.

• oPen work Culture – Talents nowadays will be demanding

an organisational culture where there is open communication,

trust, transparency and fairness demonstrated by leaders at all

levels. They will want to know how their work contributes to

the overall goals of their organisation and they want to be part of

the achievement. They want more of a role in decision making,

innovating, and being able to take and be rewarded for planned

risks.

• ContInuous growtH - Talents want to become continuous

learners with opportunities to gain new skills, stretch their

capabilities and try out new roles and responsibilities.

Programmes that support this resolve will sustain talents that

hunger for this exposure.

• CommItment to Csr – Talents will assess your organisation

for its commitment to social responsibility and sustainability.

The TalenT ConundrumIdentifying the key factors talents look out for in an organisation. BY June hAMid

Profiling talents correctly will result in training needs analysis and curriculums that matter.

the Anointed ones –


Candidates want to work for organisations that have a sense of

responsibility toward the environment around them. Creative

and innovative opportunities for employees to volunteer on

environmental causes will be one of the key attractions.

• InDIvIDualIsm - Talents want to be respected and appreciated

for their individualism, for their own personal skills, capabilities

and interests. They want clear direction and clear roles

and responsibilities so that they know where they fit in an

organisation.

• wortHy leaDersHIP –Most important however, is that

they want to be led by leaders who are passionate about their

work, who can support people to get excited about where the

organisation and/or the industry is going, and how each can

contribute to success.

While the above list is indicative, it is by no means exhaustive.

Understanding that these wants are varied across the board is the

first step. Understanding that these wants and desires are also open

to change or evolution is the second step.

HR and Senior Leaders definitely want to understand the profiles of

their Talents, and may then box them in too quickly via descriptive

and personality profiles. This in turn has little or no bearing on their

output/performance.

There is however, a danger in doing this, as it alienates the talent

very quickly, if they find there is an unwavering presumption

or perception of them. Talents are, after all, human beings who

are faced with a myriad of pull and push factors, in this and the

next organisation (that may be beckoning them). The downside of

not understanding Talents may be unnecessary frustrations, de-

motivation and even loss of key talent.

The key to understanding Talents in any given environment may be

addressed as follows:

• ConsIstent CommunICatIon - Develop consistent and

focused communication avenues ie focus groups with your

Talent to discover, define and ultimately manage expectations.

This should be done, as often as felt necessary, as expectations do

change.

• CoaCHIng Culture - Talents should be assigned to appropriate

Coaches and Mentors (and bear in mind that not everyone can be

great coaches!) so that they do not feel adrift. Talents will have

questions, which should be answered rather than redirected to

HR. Talent Management is a responsibility for all, and should be

owned by everyone, top down, within an organisation.

• Proven non DesCrIPtIve/PreDICtIve ProfIlIng – Take the

time to individually assess and profile the Talent to understand

hidden potential, latent talent and motivations. Proven

predictive profiling will demystify this process by bringing to the

fore innate talent or management competencies. These strengths,

when correctly identified and developed, will result in motivated

Talents. It does not make sense to focus on weaknesses or close

gaps as descriptive assessments do, hence an objective scientific

method of profiling needs to be explored. Importantly, an

organisation embarking on this indicates genuine commitment

and support of the individual.

• effeCtIve talent Programmes - Talent programmes need to

be robust and develop potential and strengths, rather than a one

size fits all programme. If developmental needs are not addressed

correctly, talents will lose interest very quickly, no matter how

grandiose the programmes. Profiling talents correctly will result

in training needs analysis and curriculums that matter, to ensure

training dollars are used efficiently.

The above steps are integrative in addressing the ‘what’s in it for

me (WIFM)’ issue which every anointed Talent inherently develops.

The path for Talent Management is surely challenging, but when

properly planned, built and checked, will be doubly rewarding for

all stakeholders.

As an advisor to HR Heads and Senior Leaders in organisations, I

have always emphasised that a deep intuition needs to be nurtured

(via listening, observation, awareness etc) which will result in greater

strategic insight on what will work and what will not. If need be,

refine and redefine, based on crucial feedback from the very Talents

for which programmes are developed. This will be the golden key

that ultimately ensures that the Talent Management initiative will

be successful.

June Hamid is a Human Capital and Talent

management professional with more than 15

years’ experience in the corporate world. She is the

Managing Consultant of Powerhouse Consulting, a

boutique HR Consultancy. She writes, researches and

reads voraciously on talent and related matters. She

can be reached at [email protected].

HR Matters | Talent Management


T

Building Leaders | HR Matters

The Human Resources function is often regarded with outright disdain. Some believe HR does not add value and others view HR as an obstacle to real business progress. Why is this so? I think the answer lies with dead horses.

I recently read a wise saying from the Dakota Indians, stating that, “When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.” It’s an easily understood statement--if a horse is about to die, quickly dismount, let it die and find a new horse. Yet, as I travel across businesses in Asia and the world, I am constantly amazed at how many HR leaders seem to be clinging on to HR practices and traditions that have outlived their usefulness.

And, instead of ‘changing the horse’ in an organisation (i.e outdated processes, policies or culture), we devise devious methods to keep the ‘dead horse’ alive. Some of the things we do include the following:• Try to change the horse riders instead of fixing the core issue;• Blame the equipment and so buy a stronger whip in the hope that the horse will get up and start running again;

• We start moaning and provide excuses such as ‘but this is the way we’ve always done it. Let’s wait.

The horse will somehow start running’;• Appoint a committee to revive the

horse and to evaluate the rider. Nothing is ever done and the dead horse continues to lounge in our workplace;• Arrange ‘lawatan sambil belajar’ visits (field trips) to

other companies to see how they manage their dead horses;• Blame the riders and implement better training to ‘upskill’ the riders who can’t seem

to get their jobs done and get the dead horse running again;• Hire an expert to teach us how to ride a dead horse. Then we

increase the funding for the ‘dead horse’ thinking that throwing money, resources, time and effort on the dead horse will somehow get it running again. We may even install new state of the art computer programmes which are guaranteed to enhance the dead horse’s performance and productivity;

• Finally, after doing all of the above, we hire a consultant to help diagnose the dead horse problem. After a six month comprehensive study which will include a complete review of every part of the horse’s body, the consultant will tell us what 90 percent of the employees already know – the horse is DEAD!

Sounds familiar? I am equally guilty of these excuses in the past and it is easy looking back and criticising. Blaming the rider is an easy excuse. Many managers use this excuse as it implies that the project he initiated is sound but it is the leadership (not his of course!) that failed. We also often see HR backfilling constantly open roles in teams where there is much attrition. Yet, we never address the core attrition issues.A number of years ago, a senior HR leader of a large organisation approached me to help them ‘fix’ issues with performance. They spent lots of money on consultants with minimal change in behaviour or performance, so they kept changing consultants. It was clear to me that the issue was not frameworks or processes but employee resistance issues. It was comforting to keep riding the dead horse and blame ‘lousy’ consultants, but the core issue could only be addressed once the dead horse was acknowledged.

M&A Many senior leaders believe that if you can’t get the dead horse to perform, harness it to another dead horse in the hopes that they both will suddenly come to life and perform as never before. How many times have you observed this in the business world with mergers and acquisitions? Ironically, instead of becoming better, the two dead horses begin to waddle and stagger, ultimately resulting in an even worse business.The fact is that when the horse is dead, bury it. But most of us somehow still believe if we keep repeating what worked before, miracles will somehow happen and things will change. Albert

don’t Beat Up a dead HorseGive Up on HR practices that Don’t Work. BY RoshAn thiRAn

40 | January 2013 HR Matters

HR Matters | Building Leaders

Einstein repeatedly said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results”. I think dear Albert was on to something there.

FOCUSING ON PAST GLORIESAt its peak, the Roman Empire could claim to control 70 percent of the known world. After centuries of avarice and prosperity, they became weak as they started focusing on past glories, closing the door to external growth, causing a growth of parasites from within including senators, Caesars, pride, as well as a decline in civic cohesion. The same applies to many HR departments and HR processes we see today. Past glories curtail the need to change for the challenges of the future.Michael Hammer, business guru and author adds: “One thing that tells me that a company is in trouble is when they tell me how good they were in the past. Same with countries. I am glad you were great

in the 14th century, but that was then and this is now. The hallmark of a truly successful organisation is the willingness to abandon what made it successful and start afresh.”

Today’s high-performing organisations move so fast that product cycles move in months, not years. People are rewarded for deep expertise, not just the ability to follow directives. And with these changes, the entire HR infrastructure in companies needs to be re-evaluated. Unfortunately, many organisations still cling and cherish the good ‘ole’ days instead of re-inventing themselves and their future.

FEAR OF CHANGESo, why is it that most businesses and HR leaders refuse to dismount the dead horse but continue to practise the same dogma and traditions of the past? All of us fear change, especially change of the unknown. No one likes change except babies in dirty diapers. That is true even when in HR teams. And this fear drives the reluctance of many leaders to maintain status quo. “Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM”. That cliché has mutated from a sales proposition to a strong warning to keep clinging to ‘dead horses’ to ensure your safety and survival.

A key change that needs to take place is for HR leaders to become strategic business partners, aligning to business needs. HR processes have to become continuous, not sporadic. Annual

performance reviews need to move to a constant feedback process. Training has to become experiential. And recruiting for jobs ‘when they become open’, should move to an unceasing talent acquisition and employment branding solution. Yet, in most companies, HR is relegated to the lower echelons of the leadership team partly due to its reluctance to change and move on to new horses.HR leaders no longer have the luxury to allow ‘dead horse’ practices to weigh them down. We have focused on reasons to avoid confronting these issues rather than dealing with them and moving on.

So how do we address our ‘dead horse’ issues? Here are a few steps HR leaders can take to move into the 21st century:1. Identify your HR ‘dead horses’. Is it policies, procedures, or

HR approaches that no longer make sense or have no positive impact on your employees? Is it a technology issue, employee or service concern, or maybe a communication challenge? Focus

on identifying these dead horses in your organisation.2. Take action to deal with the problem and get rid of the dead

horse.3. Get a new horse. Look to evolve your HR function to the 21st

century with innovative new approaches to acquiring, developing, retaining and engaging the people in your organisation.

FINAL THOUGHTSNelson Mandela fought for 27 years for a cause he championed. But when he became president of South Africa, he quit after his first term, even though he could have stayed on. This enabled him to be recognised as a true statesman. Most CEOs or country leaders find it hard to quit when they should, often because pride gets the better of them. Neutron Jack Welch showed scant disregard for GE’s 100 years of legacy and tradition in the 80’s when he closed businesses, streamlined processes and fired people. Like Mandela and Welch, the best leaders know when to dismount a dead horse. HR needs to get serious about identifying stumbling blocks, sacred cows and traditions that hold organisations back and waste no time in the elimination of each. The sooner we start dismounting dead horses, the faster we can move with living horses. And you can be assured that your employees will cheer you on. They are all waiting for HR to change.

Roshan Thiran is CEO of Leaderonomics, a social organisation. He is looking forward to seeing Asian HR teams discard dead horses to become true strategic business partners.

HR leaders no longer have the luxury to allow ‘dead horse’ practices to weigh them down.


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Events | HR Matters

Breakfast Roundtable

KUALA LUMPUR | The Towers Watson Salary Budget Planning Report 2012 – 2013 (General Industries Salary Movement) summarises the findings of their annual survey.

Conducted online in February/March 2013, it is based on approximately 1600 sets of responses covering 18 countries across Asia Pacific.

asIa PaCIfIC salary BuDget rePortFinding from Towers Watson’s annual survey on salary movement and review practices

(L to R) Jaclyn Low, Director of HR at Le Meridien Hotel KL; Sabri Rawi, Faculty, Iclif Leadership and Governance Centre; Hari Menon, Regional HR Director APAC and Country HR Director Malaysia at Alstom APAC

(L to R) Patricia Yip, Deputy GM - Rewards & HR Services, Hap Seng Management Services; Annie Yahaya, VP Client Strategies, Iclif Leadership and Governance Centre; Ahmad Fauzi Yahya, Regional HR Head, Nestle Professional (Asia, Oceania, Africa), Nestle Products

(L to R) Paul Harvey, HR Manager, South East Asia at Franklin Templeton Investments; Shantini Rajaratnam HR Head, SEA region, EMC Computer Systems (Malaysia)

(Seated L to R) Mazlina Saidi, Senior VP Human Capital & Administration at Cagamas Berhad; Patricia Yip, Deputy GM - Rewards & HR Services at Hap Seng Management Services; Vinnie Raviraj, Regional Manager - People Strategy & Talent Acquisition Convergys SEA (Malaysia). Standing L to R :Chin Tuck Piew, HR Director, Gleneagles Medical Centre KL; Wendy Khoo Director, Corporate HR, Symphony House Berhad

Guests discussing issues over breakfast.

HR Matters Breakfast Roundtable The Key To Motivating Subordinates? Stop Trying!

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The closed-door Roundtable was held at Le Meridien Hotel Kuala Lumpur in July 2013.


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HHow was a physically dispersed organisation, challenged by communication problems, a limited budget and lacking the trust and desire to communicate with each other going to ensure it achieved the goals it set for itself? Simply put, by driving greater employee engagement*.

Alzheimer’s Society (the ‘Society’) is the UK’s largest charity working with people affected by dementia. With currently 800,000 people in the UK living with dementia, a condition that affects one in three people over the age of 65, dementia is a significant challenge faced by their community.

The Society has 2,100 paid employees and more than 6,500 volunteers, spread across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Until 2010, these people worked in small, relatively independent units

under a ‘branch’ structure. There was little formal or co-ordinated communication and engagement between them, with the rest of the charity or with their leadership team.

While there was a high degree of passion across the organisation, individuals were not consistently engaged and not aligned to a clearly stated and understood organisational vision and strategy. Ultimately, this was going to affect meeting the organisational goals. The Society soon realised that if it was going to play its part in creating a world without dementia, more work was needed to ensure both employees and volunteers had a shared, unified voice and vision. It was necessary to create one dialogue across the entire Society.

“We looked holistically and boldly at the culture we wanted to shape and set our course. This was not about creating words on paper, it was about creating – and living – the behaviours needed to shape a whole new culture for the Society. From the very top down,” said Brett Terry, the Society’s Director of People and Organisational

Development.

“Our large, dispersed, culturally diverse, internal audience didn’t have the tools, opportunities or indeed, in some cases, the trust or desire to communicate with each other or their leaders. It felt like, at the time, a big ask for people to leave their day job working with people with dementia to spend time ‘talking’ with the Leadership Team – but they did. Better utilising existing and free technology, we refreshed our online channels – email and intranet – and launched discussion forums and a Leadership Team blog. We made sure that we were using language that resonated with all the different microcosms and cultures across the Society,” Brett explained.There were two overarching issues which impacted the success of this initiative. The first one was communication. Most of the staff and volunteers do not use computers daily, and some do not have email

access. Consequently, a multidimensional engagement strategy was required to connect all individuals. This included online, telephone and, crucially, face-to-face mechanisms. Managers communicating key messages was a very important ingredient.

The second was leadership. Touching on how leadership needed to be genuine, Catherine Easey, Head of Internal Communications added that, “Leadership can’t be a tick box activity. The Society benefits from having an active leadership team, committed to engagement. While it doesn’t have to cost money, it costs time”.

STEP 1. CREATE OPPORTUNITIES FOR REAL AND MEANINGFUL DIALOGUE

Q| Can you tell us a bit about your programme, what barriers you faced and how you overcame these?

Brett Terry : We looked holistically and boldly at the culture we wanted to

shape and set our course.How Alzheimer’s Society took five steps towards greater employee engagement. BY RoWenA MoRAis

Leadership can’t be a tick box activity.

Engagement | HR Matters


HR Matters | Engagement

Brett : The key thing is that we started this journey mindful of the scale of our ambitions balanced against our starting point and resources available. This meant we had to map out very carefully the sequence and inter-relationship between the various engagement work streams. We were at a particular point in our evolution where the starting point had to be to start the process of building trust in the leadership by creating a track record of actively listening to our people and acting upon their experiences and expectations. We therefore ensured that we started putting in place channels for our people – paid and unpaid – to communicate with us and meaningfully comment on and shape their working and volunteering environment. Leadership visibility and accessibility, as well as accountability and humility are the cornerstones of our entire engagement programme.

Some early initiatives we introduced included a published email address direct to the Chief Executive, a new Employee Forum co-chaired by the CEO and attended by myself, exit interviews, a bi-annual engagement survey for all our volunteers and staff, Leadership Blogs, online discussion forums, a hard copy magazine for our volunteers and, crucially, creating a Management Team level in the organisation comprising the top 150 managers from across the full Society who come together twice a year to share good practice, establish strong relationships and keep ‘connected’ to the strategy.

STEP 2. CREATE THE BEHAVIOURS THAT YOU WANT TO SEE DEMONSTRATED

Q| You launched your employee engagement programme in late

2010. This was achieved by working in tandem on building a behavioural framework, devising core behaviours for your people and establishing new or

refreshed organisational values. From the beginning, a number of opportunities were provided to help people to participate in the process. Can you tell us more about this?

Brett : We started from the bottom up. Working with focus groups and conducting surveys, we involved staff and volunteers to help determine what behaviours they felt were already evidenced, albeit not consistently, and which were not evidenced across the Society at all but that should be. In total, more than 1,000 behaviours were suggested and we refined this, with our people, down to approximately 50. To take it from a simple document and bring it to life, we incorporated the framework across all aspects of the volunteer and employee lifecycle. This included our performance management system, our job descriptions and person specifications, our annual 360-degree appraisals for directors and our value-based volunteer and employee award programme.

The framework applies to all our people and is cumulative. So, there are behaviours applicable to everyone, volunteers and

employees, and then additional behaviours expected of managers, leaders, trustees and so on.

Catherine : A very important facet of this plan was the language. We wanted to retain the original language used since this was open to interpretation. So we kept testing the language with our people, ensuring the language was accessible and relevant. All in all, this entire process took us about a year to complete.

STEP 3. SET THE TONE FROM THE START

Q| Once the behavioural framework was in place, it made sense

to think of new recruits next and ensure that you set the right tone for these recruits. How did you do this?

Brett : In a couple of ways. We use our recruitment process to assess both competencies and behavioural ‘fit’. We also introduced a Welcome Day for new joiners.

Catherine : The Welcome Day, held every six weeks, involves new joiners coming to the London office. There was some debate initially about whether to run these regionally or in London. As the majority of our leadership team is based in London, we felt it important that new joiners see the ‘full picture’ of the organisation they’ve joined. It also helped break down some of the myths associated with ‘headquarters’ being an ivory tower where people were sitting around drinking coffee all day.

Q| Is there any one approach relied on more than the others?

Brett : To be honest, I really hope not. We see this as being about the full range of channels, each of which is a crucial component in shaping our desired culture.

BRETT TERRY


Engagement | HR Matters

But we do believe that the individual manager is critical. There are three ‘golden rules’ or pillars that significantly influence the existence of higher levels of employee engagement. These are: trust, emotional connection and workplace climate. The immediate team manager is more likely to influence these three pillars than any other part of the organisation.

STEP 4. CREATE TWO WAY COMMUNICATIONS TO ENSURE DECISIONS ARE UNDERSTOOD AND EMBEDDED

Q| How have you helped people understand the need for decisions and

changes?

Brett : By ensuring that we, as leaders, continually demonstrate the core values we outlined earlier: visibility, humility, accessibility and accountability. Where we need to take tough, potentially unpopular decisions, we do so honestly and directly, evidencing the rationale, standing by our convictions and, where we do get it wrong, acknowledging this. Wherever we can, however, we try and ensure we involve our people, enabling us to take informed decisions, even if unpopular. We cannot pretend to know every aspect of our vast, complex organisation and taking ill-informed decisions in isolation is something we try and avoid.

Catherine: It’s about trust in the decision makers. So, even where a suggestion is not taken forward, it is important that the individual feels listened to. Increasingly, our people trust that their voice will be heard,

and this is crucial in building trust and continued engagement.

STEP 5. DEMONSTRATE ACCESSIBILITY AND TRUST

Q| What were some of the activities you created to build accessibility

of and trust in the Leadership Team?

Catherine : We make sure there’s a good mix of activities. This includes the Leadership Blogs, dedicated email addresses, the Management Conferences, directors visiting services and our CEO teleconference every six weeks where individuals can dial in and hear Jeremy give his view on

the key highlights, activities and future headlines. Our directors also go around the nation every year on the ‘Leadership Tour’ meeting with and engaging with front line employees and volunteers, listening to their experiences and expectations and also sharing with them the directors’ updates on key activities and initiatives currently under way or planned.

Brett : The team is genuinely committed to engagement as Catherine pointed out earlier. But we do need some shepherding on occasion and a lot of the credit goes to Catherine and her team in ensuring we all lead consistently and that we remain on track. We’ve started something big and potentially special here and it was nice to see these efforts recognised earlier this year with the award as every single volunteer and employee deserved that recognition. We are nowhere near done yet though. We need to do so much more if we are to build

a culture and employer brand that attracts and retains passionate people of the highest calibre. It is only through them that we can change the dementia landscape forever.

Q| How do you measure your progress?

Brett: Data is crucial to us and we actively measure engagement scores and trends, exit interviews, turnover, readership of MySociety (our online weekly employee magazine) and so on. The key indicator for me is the score and trend in relation to the statement “I would wholeheartedly recommend the Society as a great place to volunteer/work”. This statement is used in all of our engagement surveys and our exit interviews and I argue it is the most crucial

indicator as our people, including those who move on, are ambassadors of our brand. Pleasingly, scores in relation to this indicator, in both engagement surveys and exit interviews, continue to rise. So, while we have a lot more to do, it’s good to know we’re on the right track.

* This year, Alzheimer’s Society won the highly prestigious HR Distinction Award in the Employee Engagement category. In presenting the award, the judges said “this humble organisation has adopted a unique engagement strategy throughout. It was an excellent example of how existing employees and volunteers are brought together for clarity of vision and a shared voice”.

There are three ‘golden rules’ or pillars that significantly influence the existence of higher levels of employee engagement.


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Best Practice | HR Matters

Any level Individuals Groups Total Organisation

• Interview• Questionnaire• Focus group• Supplier and

customer feedback

• Ability and personality assessment

• 360 feedback

• Self ratings• Interview

• Group interviews

• Focus groups• Cross-group

reviews• Cross-

departmental review

• Survey of questionnaires

• Business performance index

• Operational data

• Partner feedback

Return on investment should also not be overlooked so that we can demonstrate the value of OD work. At a basic level, this simply means calculating the result of a formula:

ROI (%) =Net programme benefits

Programme costs X 100

Practically this is more of an art than a science due to the intangibility of some of our work and the need to assign a monetary value to the development of people. Key tips to achieving this include drawing on the experience of other professionals (e.g. finance and project management) and speaking to local managers involved in the

intervention to find out how they measure the outputs of their work. Ultimately, once calculated, ROI should only be presented as one of the measures of programme effectiveness.

Finally, feedback of the evaluation results should take place collaboratively and with as much sensitivity as the feedback of the diagnostic results as described in part 1 of this article. This is the final stage and should involve taking steps to close the relationships and/or move onto the next ‘piece of work’ starting the OD Cycle again.

The OD practitioner guides their clients through a complex process which requires a high level of knowledge and experience along with continual self development. Hopefully these articles have been a refresher and provided additional structure for those of you working on OD projects.

Alison France is the founding Director of evosis Limited, specialists in Organisational Change and Leadership Development. She is a business psychologist and HR professional with over 15 years’ experience of leading organisational change projects and design and delivery of leadership development programmes. Her

qualifications include an MSc Occupational Psychology (Distinction) and Chartered Member of the CIPD (L&D Specialist) and Certificate of Occupational Testing (Level A and B). Alison has facilitated organisational change initiatives as well as designed and delivered award winning leadership development programmes.

THE ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENT CYCLE[continued from page 17]

9 BEST PRACTICES[continued from page 32]

Ideally the practitioner in collaboration with the client will build their own evaluation framework based on the intervention design to ensure effective evaluation is planned and takes place. Evaluation methods include the following :

Another major failing is a lack of basic financial education and cash planning, which leaves owners highly vulnerable to seasonality, losing a major account, or other things that are difficult to control. The third failing I’d highlight, and maybe the most important, is the gap between how owners say they want to run their business and the way they actually do. You could call it the ‘implementation gap’, where we see a huge difference between how important owners say something is, for example running a business based on their values, and how difficult it is to get employees to engage and meet customers with that same level of service.

Every Owner Wants Growth

IS BIGGER THE WAY TO BETTER?

When asked about their biggest opportunity and greatest challenge in 2013, business

owners overwhelmingly named growth. This led us to ask: does it really make sense

to focus on growth, or is there more foundational “getting your house in order”

work that comes first? Owners’ stated priorities made it seem like this was the right

approach, but we weren’t convinced.

HOW DOES GROWTH ACTuALLY HAPPEn?

There are a variety of factors that go into business growth, and they’re not always

easy to quantify. Not surprisingly, taking a slow and steady approach was important.

But more importantly, the results showed that having the basics in place was just a

start. Next-level businesses were customising and ‘working’ what they had, to build

a more seamless and integrated culture and business.


HR Matters | Ladder

Hash was appointed in April 2013 as the Director for Benefits Practice at Towers Watson Malaysia where he will be responsible for client consulting and development as well as the management of the benefits consulting practice. He has consulted on a wide range of benefits related

issues with organisations across the private and public sector. Hash is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries in the UK.

Dentsu Network Asia announced, in early May, the appointment of Ujjwal Sarao as Regional Head of Talent for Dentsu Asia Pte Ltd. Ujjwal will be responsible for strategy and innovation around human capital, talent acquisition and employee engagement. Armed with two decades of experience in

human resources and talent development, Ujjwal’s prior regional roles include stints at Aegis Media, CNBC Asia and ESPN STAR Sports India.

Edenred India announced recently the appointment of Johann Vaucanson in the position of Managing Director & Chief Executive with effect from 1 July 2013. Prior to this, Johann had held the posts of Managing Director of Edenred Turkey and Edenred Poland. Operating in 40 countries,

Edenred is a world leader in prepaid service vouchers with more than fifty years of experience in corporate and public benefits.

Executive appointment notices can be emailed for inclusion in

this column. Please send details to [email protected].

Put Big Data and Social together, and you get…

BIg soCIal Data: every interaction with social media creates

data points and these, over time, offer the potential to know

individuals and groups within society in far greater detail than

is currently possible. The marketing and research opportunities

of Big Social Data have only just begun to be explored. But the

impact on talent acquisition looks certain to be just as dramatic

as the impact on the wider world of sales and marketing.

In summation, the concept of ‘Futurecasting’ is a NoSql, fully

cloud-based, open-source utility and, concurrently, leverages

Big Social Data to yield real-time, easily updated, dynamic

candidate records, competitor financials and social imprints

that, when combined, serve Talent Leaders with essential data

that accurately predict where and how future and current

job candidates are likely to perform best. Predictive Analysis

will be the natural evolution of knowledge based hiring. The

sooner Talent Leaders globally prepare and build organisational

cultures to embrace data aligned strategies, the more apt they

will be to avoid irrelevance or extinction as compared to their

competitors who recognise the inevitable resources to win their

market share of skilled labour which is in short supply.

For more details about how to unlock the huge potential of

the unprecedented levels of data that we have access to today,

including:

• Big Data’s impact on talent acquisition;

• The strengths and weaknesses of CRM today;

• Building a fit-for-purpose CRM; and

• Big Social Data : the engine of Futurecasting methodology

download Dave Mendoza’s Futurecasting whitepaper from

www.hr-matters.info.

Dave Mendoza is a multi-award-winning

talent acquisition thought leader and global

speaker. He provides talent strategy roadmaps

and customised innovation which promote

the convergence of Big Data, Social Data API

and CRM technologies for many Fortune 500

companies. Most recently, he was a Finalist for the HROA’s Trustee

Award “North American Thought Leader, 2013”.

Hash Piperdy, Director for Benefits Practice, Towers Watson Malaysia

Ujjwal Sarao, Regional Head of Talent, Dentsu Asia

Johann Vaucanson, Managing Director and Chief Executive, Edenred India

FUTURECASTING[continued from page 23] Executive

APPointMents


Governance | HR Matters

T associated communication at all levels. IA partners HR in delivering organisational results – IA gives independent advice to business and management committees on HR and other corporate matters that affect strategies.The Austin Chapter Research Committee, one of the committees under the IIA Research Foundation, in its 2011 report “Improving Organisational Governance through implementing Internal Audit Standard 2110” noted that constant, routine and multiple lines of communication between internal audit and the organisation’s top management and the board is one of the more important elements in meeting the objectives of effective governance.

In my opinion, these communications are beneficial to HR directors and IA as both parties can discuss best practices, ethics, branding, compliance and performance management which are relevant to promote HR Governance. HR directors can discuss untapped opportunities to increase productivity, reduce costs and improve business performance as well as request from IA special audits of HR risks. IA conducts dialogues with CEO and HR directors on HR risks facing the organisation before preparing an audit plan for Board approval. IA discusses with HR management the audit approach, scope of audit and results of field work. IA seeks HR response on audit findings prior to drafting IA reports. In this way, HR can state in reports their views, grouses and success stories in achieving HR targets.

IA can perform compliance, management and integrity audits on HR. It can also investigate HR on wrongdoings. To appraise performance of the Board remuneration committee, IA can audit effectiveness of corporate compensation, executive compensation, workforce planning and organisational restructuring. It is because IA has unlimited access to the organisation that the information audits of HR decision making and processes are made simpler. For organisations where people and knowledge are the competitive difference, IA can assist both HR and Boards to manage governance.

Vijayam Nadarajah is now a freelance analyst on corporate governance and financial matters. In this role, she assists companies to embrace best corporate practices and highlights weaknesses in governance, internal audit and risk management practices. Vijayam is a Past President of the Institute of Internal Auditors Malaysia.

There are several factors that are elevating the importance of HR Governance today –a dynamic economic climate and labour market demand for specialised skillsets, management of global functions, the realisation of returns on technology, the acceleration of the pace of organisational change and improvements in leadership and corporate governance. Effective HR is critical to the success of any organisation; yet, to assess the effectiveness of governance activities, access to highly confidential and sensitive information may be required. Internal audit (IA) is mandated through its charter with unlimited access of corporate data and personal profiles to assist Boards to independently appraise HR Governance.

Regulators in many jurisdictions require Boards to set up remuneration committees to oversee HR and IA functions to provide assurance to Boards on HR governance, risk and control.Alison Hill, Queen University IRC, in his article, “HR Governance: A Deloitte Point of View”, pointed out that HR Governance encompasses the oversight and leadership of HR strategy, related policy and programme results. Hill reckons that the best results on HR are achieved through formal Board governance and internally by CEO and management. Mercer Consulting provided a broader definition of HR Governance which included HR leadership, the management of investments to optimise performance of the organisation’s human capital assets, fulfilment of fiduciary and financial responsibilities, mitigation of enterprise HR risk, alignment of HR priorities with those of the business and HR executive decision making enabled. In short, what Boards need to understand is how the various HR strategies can deliver the human capital targets to achieve critical business targets. In addition to the HR management reports, Boards can be independently and objectively apprised by IA on HR’s contribution to the overall strategy of the organisation.

IA provides analytical comments on accountabilities and ownership for business operations, guidelines for decision making, ways of balancing conflicts, communication flows and HR protocols as well as structures and processes to support them. IA reports provide a balance view of achievements and lists causes of HR failure in business activities – the reports focus on the efficiency, effectiveness and efficacy of people, processes and programmes which are key to achieve corporate goals. IA adds value to HR governance through organisational involvement, assessment, training, professional guidance, and

ROLE OF INTERNAL AUDIT IN HR GOVERNANCE BY viJAyAM nAdARAJAh


A Three Part HR Briefing Series in 201313 March | 22 August | 28 November | The Star Auditorium, Petaling Jaya.

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