The following questions and answers are from the most recent Workplace Dilemmas and Remuneration Remedies columns which run in alternate issues of Employment Today. If you have a question for either of our experts, send us an email.
Workplace dilemmas
Surveying HR performance
I am keen to develop a questionnaire for our middle and senior managers to survey their opinions of how HR is performing as a business partner. Do you have any questions you consider are a ‘must ask’?
A questionnaire is one way—also sitting down and talking to the stakeholders is another. That feeds into the question below—regarding HR practitioners and curiosity.
The first thought I had when reading this question was “Why do you need a survey?” If you are a credible business partner, you will know what your stakeholders are finding useful or what they’re not. We don’t see the GM of sales or production finding the need to send questionnaires to others in the business to establish how they are performing as business partners—and that is exactly what they are too.
They let their business contribution speak for itself (or not) so why does HR insist on asking if they are performing the role they are employed to perform. Why does HR feel the need to ask everyone else to give them a performance appraisal?
If you are truly a business partner, then you will understand your stakeholders’ part of the business, what their key drivers and measures are, and what keeps them awake at night. Then you will be working with them to deliver the measurable and tangible results that help them and the business as a whole.
If you still feel the need to send out a questionnaire, then I suggest you base it on the HRINZ Competency Framework and ask questions around that, covering:
- Business knowledge—understanding the value chain, value proposition and people value;
- HR delivery—staffing and recruitment, performance management, development, remuneration, health, safety and wellness, HR measurement, legal compliance and legislation;
- Personal credibility—effective relationships, achieving results, personal communication;
- Strategic contribution—culture management, change management, strategic decision-making, customer focus, market connection;
- Business technology—linkage to plans, effective data analysis, facilitations skills.
By asking around the core competencies, you will identify the opportunities for development of HR skills and knowledge. You can then identify and close the gaps rather than asking people to rate your performance.
Getting curious
I recently read a blog about curiosity. Apparently a CIPD survey of senior HR practitioners found it was the behaviour they performed least well in. The writer goes on to say he often asks audiences at HR events if they have visited a client/customer in the last 12 months and the overwhelmingly majority have not. What are your thoughts on this? Is it important for HR to get out of their office and engage more widely?
The Michael Moran Blog starts with the comments “Curious is defined as an active interest in the internal/external environment, continuous professional development and improvement in self and others at both the organisational and individual levels. Curiosity is open-minded with a bias to learn and self enquire.”
The comments really pick up, I think, on what I have said in the first question about sending out a questionnaire about business partnership.
When was the last time you asked a manager what keeps them awake at night? In fact when was the last time you got out of your office and sat down with a manager and asked them about their business, about their cost to serve, the margin they make on their products, or asked to view the customer surveys that almost all businesses undertake with their external customers?
Why would you want to know about customer feedback? Well, HR has the role of recruitment, selection, training and development, attraction and retention. How do you make sure you are employing the right people, training them effectively and retaining them so that they meet the needs of your external customers? After all, without customers (whether profit or not for profit) you don’t have a business!
If you were having a conversation with a manager in the business, can you talk in the language of their business? Do you understand the value chain of your business?
I have often asked HR practitioners how many of them provide graphs on staff turnover, absenteeism, leave accruals and balances, etc to managers in their business. Very often all the hands in the room will go up.
I then ask—so what is the graph telling them? How much is staff turnover costing their business, what’s the cost of absenteeism not only in dollars but in terms of lost productivity? How much has the leave liability increased in the last 12 months and what additional cost in dollars to the business is this equating to? Very few hands go up! But they have produced some really nice, colourful graphs.
The importance of putting dollars on these metrics is not only because you can, but also because these costs have an impact on the margin, cost to serve, productivity measures and EBITDAF of the company as a whole.
My last question for this year and this article is: when you are out and people ask you about something going on your business that has nothing to do with the HR functions, can you credibly put the business case for the decisions made on behalf of your company? If not, why not?
—Answers by Karen Boyte, general manager human resources for TrustPower in Tauranga.
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Remuneration remedies
Is Christchurch the next new micro market for pay?
As if Christchurch employers haven’t got enough to worry about with the ongoing uncertainty of aftershocks, many are beginning to realise that spiralling pay rates for jobs in hot demand are going to be a real challenge.
We recently conducted a survey of 40 medium-large businesses with operations in Christchurch which identified some trends to watch.
Are there skills shortages in Christchurch and if so, where are they happening?
Over half (55 percent) of companies surveyed said they are experiencing skill shortages specifically in the Christchurch area and these are as a direct result of the Christchurch earthquakes.
Not surprisingly, these shortages are being reported in job families that have connection to the Christchurch rebuild, eg, engineers, electricians, trades staff and also insurance personnel and call centre operations.
Are Christchurch-based employers losing staff because of the earthquakes?
Twenty-two percent of our survey participants said yes. The reasons given include that some people are moving away from Christchurch as a result of the earthquakes, some have lost staff because of a downturn in business, and some commented that they are losing staff because of head-hunting practices by other organisations.
We hear rumours about poaching of staff and bonuses and other enticements being made to attract or keep staff. Is there any basis to these rumours?
Without a doubt many organisations have implemented a range of initiatives in order to combat turnover, stop the poaching of key staff and/or to attract key people into jobs. This tends to be specific to certain job families, ie, civil and construction, project managers and trades staff—all of which are in hot demand right now because of the Christchurch rebuild. We have had cases reported to us where people have been offered up to 50 percent more in salary or been paid big bonuses in order to move or stay with companies.
Are Christchurch-based employees getting bigger pay increases this year relative to others in the organisation?
Nineteen percent of organisations surveyed have made higher pay increases to some staff based in Christchurch. These tend to be selective and specifically to retain key people and to recognise the challenges of working in tough conditions over the past year.
Where are these companies recruiting staff from if skills are in short supply?
Just over a third of companies are recruiting locally but almost all survey participants said they are casting the net wide. About 35 percent are seconding staff into Christchurch from other parts of the organisation and 25 percent said they are recruiting internationally to find the right people. Only a small number of companies admitted they were activity targeting talent in the market by head hunting.
What other types of allowances or inducements are being made to staff that aren’t the norm?
Apart from the obvious such as sign-on and retention bonuses, there are a great deal of hidden terms and conditions being offered that aren’t as easily identified. These range from:
- Accommodation allowances;
- Higher duties allowances;
- Hardship allowances;
- Relocation allowances;
- Project bonuses;
- Fixed-term premium allowances;
- Travel;
- Disruption allowances;
- Family assistance packages;
- Childcare assistance packages;
- Extra paid time off.
The social issues as a result of the earthquakes are yet to be fully realised. What are organisations saying about the issues most affecting their staff or their business?
These tend to fall into categories—those issues facing employees directly and those facing the business as a result of the impact on staff. We have provided some of these below.
Employee issues:
- Increased levels of anxiety over future potential earthquakes and aftershocks;
- Staff shortages causing increased workloads and pressure on employees;
- Stress caused through financial pressures as many face paying for rental accommodation as well as continuing to pay mortgages;
- Increased commute to relocated offices;
- Employees unable to get house insurance on their new homes;
- Reluctance to work in multi-story buildings;
- Reluctance to spend time away from family on business;
- Reluctance to work night shifts as they don’t want to be away from family.
Business issues:
- Employees resigning due to the increased distance of office locations to their families;
- Poaching of staff affecting the delivery of operations;
- Decreased productivity levels due to employee stress and as a result of employees requiring extra leave to deal with earthquake-related issues (eg, supporting family, arranging rental accommodation);
- Many offices have been relocated into smaller offices across multiple sites resulting in fractured team environments, less team cohesion and decreased employee engagement in some cases.
Ask the expert
If you have a remuneration question you would like Susan to answer, contact info@dsd.co.nz
—Answers by Susan Doughty, director of DSD Consulting Ltd, specialists in remuneration and rewards management.
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