ENHANCING COMMUNICATIONS
The largest retailers are working to ensure
change management decisions are not “lost
in translation” on their staff, especially in
far-flung locations. Swinden says that top retailers
are adopting strategic communication
to help “communicate and engage more with
retail operations folks.” The retail giants’ HR
staff also makes regular visits to stores so the
managers and associates obtain a “better understanding
of the ripple effects” of changes.
Swinden says such enhanced two-way
communication processes can only derive
from cross-functional planning involving
HR, IT, merchants and finance at the
table. In the past, retailers’ internal communication
strategies were ineffective due
to business groups operating in silos.
– By John Yuen, Freelance Writer, Great
News for the Biz
PROFESSIONAL AGILITY AND
COMMERCIAL ACUMEN ARE
KEY FOR HR
The changing nature of work is fundamentally
altering both HR operating models
and the capabilities HR practitioners need
for the future, according to the latest HR
Outlook survey report from the Chartered
Institute of Personnel and Development
(CIPD), the professional body for HR and
people development in the UK. Although
the role of the HR business partner has become
more prevalent in recent years, the
report found that many HR professionals
are not developing the skills needed to
fulfill these new responsibilities effectively,
such as commercial acumen, data awareness
and analysis and other specialist skills.
The report surveyed 630 HR professionals,
covering a number of issues and
emerging trends that help to indicate
the current state of the profession, and
measured how HR professionals and employers
are understanding and reacting.
Highlights from the survey include:
■■ Half of HR departments have
undergone a structural change in
the last two years, mainly in order to
enable HR to become a more strategic
contributor to the business.
■■ Three-quarters of HR practitioners
agree that HR understands how the
organization works and how people
practices influence the value chain.
■■ Over half of HR practitioners feel
confident about using data and
metrics to instigate change in the
organization or to improve the HR
function’s effectiveness, but less than
half said their HR function goes on
to draw insight from people data and
communicate it to stakeholders to drive
competitive advantage.
■■ Almost half of HR directors surveyed
said their last job role was outside of
HR and seven out of 10 HR directors
worked in roles outside of HR five job
news
roles ago. This suggests that time spent
learning elsewhere in the business
or rotating in and out of HR could
be valuable in reaching a senior HR
position.
“Our report highlights how much the
HR function has developed in just three
years, when we last surveyed the profession,”
said Dr. Jill Miller, research advisor
at the CIPD. “HR has a crucial role to play
in bringing unique insights about the organization’s
people to business debates,
Apple_2015_v3_HRPro:24Hr 26/01/2015 8:54 AM Page 1
informing strategic decision-making.” ■
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HRPATODAY.CA ❚ MAY/JUNE 2015 ❚ 11