letter from the editor
The Customer
Experience
Often, when we think of HR, we think about all of the internal,
important, big-picture responsibilities they have
in managing an organization’s workforce: keeping culture
healthy and employees engaged, developing training
programs, aligning talent management with organizational goals
and much, much more. However, we cannot forget that HR has
a direct impact on frontline workers, such as your retail associates,
sales team, baristas or cashiers. Since your frontline workers
can have the biggest affect on your customer base’s perception of
your brand, it’s critical that HR is supporting those employees and
making sure that they are living your brand values.
In this issue’s cover story, we spoke to one of Canada’s leading
customer experience experts, Marc Gordon, about the integral link
between corporate culture and employee training; Gordon references
recent news headlines about Canadian company Lululemon to show
what happens when frontline employees either don’t live the company’s
espoused brand or don’t seem to be trained effectively. The way
your frontline employees treat customers directly translates to your
bottom line (and in some cases can result in a social media firestorm
that can prove difficult to tame), and so HR must be actively involved.
That article starts on page 20. In our other feature article, read about
the new world of sales and how it implicates HR, starting on page 24.
To all of our readers, I hope that you are making the most of the
summer months. We will be back with a new issue in September, focusing
on Canada’s greying workforce. And of course, October brings
my favourite issue of HR Professional every year: our annual employment
law edition.
Make sure you’re following HR Professional on Twitter, LinkedIn
and Facebook to stay up to date. I also want to remind anyone interested
in submitting an article proposal to me can visit our editorial
submission guidelines page on HRProfessionalNow.ca.
As always, I can’t wait to hear your feedback.
Happy reading,
Jill Harris
866-953-2182
jharris@lesterpublications.com ■
THE MAGAZINE OF
HUMAN RESOURCES
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
VOLUME 34 / NUMBER 8 AUGUST 2017
Publisher: Jill Harris, Lester Communications Inc.
Managing Editor: Liz Bernier, HRPA
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As the premier HR association in Canada, HRPA is internationally recognized and sought
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EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
Jason Beeho, Levitt LLP
Dean Bulloch, MBA, CHRE,
School of Business & Hospitality,
Conestoga College Institute
Cheryl Fullerton, Corus Entertainment Inc.
Julie Giraldi, OMERS
John Hamovitch, Intelex Technologies
Paul Klein, Impakt
Dr. Claudette Knight, DBA, Msc., MBA,
Meridian
Charles Marful, Ernst & Young
Nan Oldroyd
Anthony Papa, Federal-Mogul Motorparts
Laura L. Randell, B.A., CHRE, SEEC
Schulich School of Business
Jose Tolovi Neto, Great
Place to Work® Canada
HR PROFESSIONAL is published twelve times per year for the
Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA).
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4 ❚ AUGUST 2017 ❚ HR PROFESSIONAL