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By Lisa Gordon

Denise Hayes has never been one to back away from a challenge. It’s a trait that serves her well in her current role as chief human resources officer at Moneris, Canada’s largest point of sale payment processing firm.


With offices across Canada and the U.S., Hayes is responsible for leading a 40-person team in delivering the human resources strategy for the company’s 1,800 employees.

HR Professional caught up with Hayes to discuss some of the lessons learned during her 26-year career in HR.

When did you decide you wanted a career in human resources? Describe your first job in the field.
Denise Hayes: I was working in the travel industry, and I had worked for three different travel organizations. The different management styles, the leadership and the culture of those organizations and how they interacted with people intrigued me. It piqued my curiosity and I ended up going back to school to study human resources. Ironically, my first HR job was back in the travel industry. It was a generalist role, but it had a high focus on employee relations and also analytics.

Describe your current job. What are your main areas of responsibility?
DH: Moneris is a financial technology company. We are the number one debit and credit card payment processor in Canada, and among the top 10 in North America. I have HR responsibility for North America, and this means having an HR strategy with a high focus on talent management, which is both attracting and retaining key talent for the future evolution of the organization. I also work very closely with our CEO and my peers to ensure our work is aligned with the business strategy. It’s a broad mandate, with a broad scope of responsibility.

What do you love about your job?
DH: I really like that it’s challenging because of the scope and complexity, and I love having a North American view. It’s a rare opportunity for a Canadian organization to be the head office, growing a business in the U.S. That creates a whole different set of opportunities and learning. It’s very rewarding from that perspective. I personally need complexity and interesting work to keep me motivated, and I certainly haven’t been disappointed.

What are the challenges you experience in your job?
DH: The challenge is really driven by the industry – the payments industry is changing very rapidly. We’ve gone from cash to debit and credit, and now paying with our phones and mobile wallets. We need to keep ahead of that trend and how the world is evolving around the payments industry, and have a lens on the future in terms of HR impacts and skill sets, and how to change within the organization to support our merchants. What kind of talent do we need to recruit, and how do we develop them? The world is moving faster and so we need to move faster, too.

What's key to leading HR during a difficult time for a client organization?
DH: I think focus is very critical and so is staying calm. When an organization is going through a difficult time, they often look to HR to set the example. HR is in the role of helping people through the challenge. For HR to remain focused and empathetic, and also realistic about the situation, is really critical to success.

What skills are important for success in HR?
DH: Demonstrating broad business acumen is important. I often read about HR having to struggle to get a seat at the table, but to me that is a given. Building credibility by knowing the business, while also building relationships at the same time, is very important.

What tips do you have for new grads or those in entry-level HR jobs who want to move up the ladder?
DH: Knowing the industry that you are working in and being up on other issues besides HR is important. The one thing that has worked for me over the years is asking, “What business problem are we trying to solve?” You really have to focus on the business issue and then back away to determine what is possible and what is not, from an HR perspective.

What's the future of HR?
DH: I think HR needs to be more fast-paced to keep up with business. We’re hitting a lot of change in workforce demographics and employees with different expectations. One leadership style does not fit all, so being nimble and coming up with creative solutions is important. HR has come a long way in leveraging technology, but we have to go even further. Our workforce today is comfortable in a mobile, social space so our way of interacting with our employees and our workforces needs to evolve along those lines. It won’t be the only way we interact with our employees, but it will definitely be one way. We have to be looking ahead, not in the rear-view mirror.

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