Canadian HR Strategy

21 participation. News, photos and individual views can go viral. Social recognition RBC had had recognition programs for years but hadn't adapted its approach to take social media and social networking into consider- ation. Its peer-to-peer social recognition platform started as a pilot to better understand how it would function and alleviate concerns about the openness and lack of control it represented. When the platform was made broadly available, there was no large rollout or mandatory usage requirement. It was a low-profi le launch consisting of a single email. e utilization by individuals to say "thank you" to peers and colleagues has grown steadily. Individual trial, word-of-mouth and employees receiving recognition all contributed to this acceptance. ere was no fuss — just a design for engagement and viral growth. Make it relevant, just-in-time CBC developed an elearning tool with a high degree of fl exibility, adaptability and ability to respond to business needs. It also used creativity in engaging both those who share information and users. In developing the tool, called the Exchange, CBC leveraged technology it already uses on a daily basis to enhance elearning. e Exchange provides access to manuals, how-to videos, men- toring advice, a toolbox, best practices, scenarios on standards of practice and examples of new technology. It is geared to just-in- time access with short modules — average individual use is six minutes. Classroom learning still occurs but technology is being highly leveraged to help the business and people succeed. Word-of-mouth still compelling Beanfi eld Metroconnect, an entrepreneurial telecom, experienced growing pains. With two co-founders, there was not a single voice at the top. Key senior staff had expectations based on the com- pany's days as a startup, when things were diff erent. Hiring practices that favoured young rebels, rather than fi ll- ing business needs, resulted in poor hiring decisions. Successful growth was impeded by tension, confusion, diff ering expectations and staff turnover. But a personality assessment taken by one co-founder sur- prised him with its insight on how his behaviour might impact the company. Rather than compelling the team to take an assess- ment, he talked about his personal insights and, as a result, some individuals were interested and decided to complete the assess- ment. ey found their results helpful. Positive comments led to others trying the assessment tool. Nothing was forced and existing tensions were not exacerbated. With insight into why individuals behave the way they do, and what needs to be in place to support people and the business, for- mal processes were introduced to promote clear direction. Role expectations relevant to the current and growing company were articulated and a systematic hiring process was developed. Word-of-mouth, the most basic form of going viral, taps into human curiosity and need for engagement. Technology provides low-cost, anytime, broadly accessible platforms for conversations — for recognition or learning — with an opportunity to increase engagement across the organization. Karen Gorsline is SCNetwork's lead commentator on strategic capability and leads HR Initiatives, a consulting practice focused on facilitation and tailored HR initiatives. Toronto-based, she has taught HR planning, held senior roles in strategy and policy, managed a large decentralized HR function and directed a small business. She can be reached at gorslin@pathcom.com. The next level (Leadership In Action) By Trish Maguire F rances Hesselbein, president and CEO of the New York- based leadership institute that bears her name, once said: " e fi rst item in your budget should be learning, educa- tion and the development of your people." All four presenters at a recent Strategic Capability Network event provided real-world variations on how they are making her conviction a reality. Dan Armstrong, co-founder and CEO of Beanfi eld Metro- connect, exhibited the importance of leaders fi nding an eff ective balance between passion, vision, focus and consistency, without abandoning innovation. Introducing personality assessments to senior leadership has helped break old habits and patterns. On introducing a customized culture strategy leader survey, leadership at Points International was provided with fi rst-hand evidence that a new set of competencies would successfully shape the organization's culture along with a redesign of leadership roles. On the elearning front, Elizabeth Lancaster, director of English services training at CBC, talked about maximizing human capital eff ectiveness, with the English services training team leveraging in-house experts for training content, development and delivery. Activating collaboration and inline business partnerships, the team is routinely leveraging the comprehensive expertise of tech- nical and editorial staff . A fi nal example where technology is re-energizing a low-cost, high-impact HR tool is RBC's peer-to-peer recognition platform, cra ed as an integral, yet separate, program within a broader HR strategy around employee engagement. By tracking metrics, Steve Richardson reinforced that there is a direct correlation be- tween greater recognition, improved employee engagement and increased performance. A lesson to be found in RBC's example is the importance of collecting data that enables leaders to quantify things that are of- ten not quantifi ed. HR leaders may also want to consider: Are internal HR metrics capturing all the information? Are we tying them back to sources and cross-referencing the data? Is the data relevant to company performance or is it satisfying an internal HR metric? Trish Maguire is a commentator for SCNetwork on leadership in action and founding principal of Synergyx Solutions in Nobleton, Ont., focused on high-potential leadership development coaching. She has held senior leadership roles in HR and organizational development in education, manufacturing and entrepreneurial organizations and can be reached at synergyx@sympatico.ca.

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