Distinguish Yourself From the Crowd: Designing Innovative HR Policies and Practices

1. HRPYR Topic by Table Distinguish Yourself From the Crowd: Designing Innovative HR Policies and Practices Thursday, April 17, 2008

2. What Does Innovative Mean? • Proactive, ability to anticipate • Best in class • Creative, new • Different • Getting at the diversity of the workforce (now and future)

3. What Are Obstacles or Challenges to Creating Innovative Policies? • Convincing leadership • Show the $ • Signing bonuses reduce recruiting time • Sustainability of policies • Discussed frequency of review and roll-out. • Discussed trials • Resistance to change • Dealing with legislation (which isn’t “change friendly”

4. What Are Obstacles or Challenges to Creating Innovative Policies? • Union • Several approaches discussed. • Buzz Hargrove presentation about building trust and win-win bargaining. • Finding the agenda. • Sticking to the collective agreement

5. What are the Differences Between Policies and Procedures? • Some viewed policy as a broad statement, a rule, with practice as the standard. • Practices are more of the “how do we get there”. • Clear trend to size down on the volume of policies in order to improve the comprehension of them as employees. • Clear trend for multi-stakeholder involvement in the drafting of policy.

6. Where Do You Find Precedents? • Benchmarking • ESA • SHRM and also HRPAO’s research facilities • Carswell • Ultimate HR Manual • Policy Pro • The Employers’ Choice website

7. Policies Discussed By The Groups • Car allowance • TBOT has an excellent source of information on car allowance trends • Some participants talked about a regular allowance and mileage • Policy on policies • A lot of concern raised about the volume of policies and simplifying • Creating a main and “Coles Notes” versions

8. Policies Discussed By The Groups • Leave policies • Comment that if you look at the “50 best” you’ll find that flexibility around leaves is what makes them an employer of choice. • One group talked about the challenges of “selling the benefits” of the Canadian environment surrounding leaves. • Flexible work schedules • Some were encouraging staggered hours • Some talked about how to make a “work-from-home” policy work: • Monitoring outcomes vs. hours. • Creating an agreement. • Defining expectations

9. Policies Discussed by Groups • Dealing with inflexible jobs • Compressed work weeks • Laptops for all • Recruitment • Referral policy • Create a hot list (treat differently) • Encourage remote working

10. Policies Discussed by Groups • Showing Innovation • Example of TEC’s Green Policy • Relationship with the environment means • Structure of work is holistic, greater than the client by looking for the opportunity to be innovative • Flexibility of the team • Culture of continuous improvement

11. Policies Discussed By The Groups • Retirement • Innovation means NOT stopping the dialogue about succession. • Looking for alternatives for senior workers • Part-time • Transition to community-based initiatives • Mentorship roles

12. What Are Innovative Ways to Roll-Out Policies? • Using focus groups • 2-stage roll-outs • Tentative with feedback • Final version • Getting Managers more involved in orientation (e.g. Manager review with 1st paystub) • Multi-staged, through orientation. (e.g. a little more every week) • Using fewer words, webinars • Instituting “quizzes” • More use of intranet • Prize-based

13. References • First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman • It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy by D. Michael Abrashoff • Canada’s Top 100 Employers http://www.canadastop100.com/national/ • TEC’s Green Policy

14. Please contact Bonni at (905) 874-1035 extension 431 or at btitgemeyer@theemployerschoice.com with any questions you may have.