‘Strategic HR’ is a term that’s often bandied about, but what does it mean in practice? Craig Donaldson speaks with John Taya about how Main Roads WA went about making HR an integral part of its business
‘Strategic HR’ is a term that’s often bandied about, but what does it mean in practice? Craig Donaldson speaks with John Taya about how Main Roads WA went about making HR an integral part of its business
Main Roads WA is a public sector organisation managing and maintaining 17,000 kilometres of highways and main roads across the state of Western Australia. Employing about 1,000 people, Main Roads developed an integrated five-year HR strategy called the ‘Dynamic Resourcing Strategy’ in 1999 to ensure a strategic and planned approach was taken to organisational change.
Other key objectives of the strategy included harnessing people and business management in the corporate direction, assisting to break down functional barriers, facilitating work arrangements critical to a decentralised organisation and an increased the focus on people and their ability to handle change.
Building the business case
A cost-benefit analysis was carried out on the Dynamic Resourcing Strategy, which found that it would deliver considerable cost savings.
John Taya, HR director for Main Roads WA, says that without the strategy, Main Roads would’ve been unable to deliver on business objectives such as road projects infrastructure projects. “We had traditionally worked on the assumption that you could buy technical expertise in from outside, but we could see that we would have to develop it internally to meet future business needs or we would run into some real problems. If it wasn’t done, then the organisation was going to be in dire straights,” he says.
Taya, who forms part of the corporate executive at main Roads, says the Dynamic Resourcing Strategy was driven very much from the executive level.
A strategy roadmap
The Dynamic Resourcing Strategy incorporates various components of the HR management function, which is illustrated in the integrated HR framework (see diagram).
The overall strategy consists of three components: preparation, development and placement of employees, Taya says. The preparation component covers organisational strategies designed to attract and retain good performers, while development and placement of employees aims to equip Main Road’s employees to meet both organisational objectives and their individual needs and provide them with the skills to perform key functions across the organisation. The placement of employees is the final stage in the Dynamic Resourcing strategy, although this is an ongoing initiative in line with organisational forecasting. Having the right people in the right place at the right time is essential for Main Roads to achieve corporate objectives, meet everyday operational requirements and have the capacity to take advantage of opportunities as they arise, says Taya.
Achieving corporate objectives
Taya says Main Roads’ objective was to create an organisation that would embrace the change in business focus and position it for the future. Given that Main Roads has been in existence for 70-odd years, those who felt uncomfortable with the new direction of Main Roads were allowed to leave with dignity and adequate financial remuneration, Taya states.
This was achieved through a ‘spill & fill’ restructure in which all positions were declared vacant. However Main Roads created some 900 positions which were clearly identified at the outset and quarantined for people who previously held positions in the organisation. In this way valued employees were recognised for their skills and commitment and given the opportunity to be a part of the new organisation, says Taya.
“When we began the staffing of the new Main Roads we recognised that we had a lot of very good people in the organisation who wanted to stay and who we wanted to keep and support and complement them with other high calibre people with the required skills,” he says.
After consultation with key customers, Main Roads determined its organisational focus would centre on road-related safety, economic and social benefits to the State and road users, meeting the needs of the community and business and fulfilling Government’s expectations in service and accountability.
“We embraced the challenge and planned our achievement of these objectives through aligning our corporate planning, people management, business planning and recognising critical events,” says Taya.
Workforce planning
The Dynamic Resourcing Strategy consisted of a blueprint to assist Main Roads in recognising the need and process of recruitment, deployment and the development of staff. From this model, a workforce planning framework was created that encouraged the recruitment of more graduates and trainees as well as improving learning and skills development of employees through a learning and development program.
“With the workforce planning, we looked at some best practice models in this area. And to be perfectly honest, we found it a little deficient,” says Taya. “So what we had to do was modify something that suited our organisation, and in doing that we found that we got exactly the type of system that suited our purpose.”
Taya says key objectives of the workforce planning framework include:
· The integration of delivery/business planning with human resource planning for the organisation.
· A reduction in structural resourcing barriers and the reinforcement of a ‘One Main Roads’ ethos.
· The effective allocation of total resources towards organisational priorities.
· Targeted and sustainable workforce development.
· Enhanced flexibility in solving resourcing problems.
· The adoption of proactive workforce planning strategies.
Leadership development
A key element of the strategy was an increased focus on senior and middle management learning and development. Managers traditionally had strong technical backgrounds, but hadn’t focused on developing their general management skills in the past.
Options for development have extended beyond the formal training avenues into corporate exposure beyond Main Roads including secondment arrangements, additional responsibilities and postgraduate studies.
“We believe that if our management is focused on business outcomes and communicating with our people they will have the capacity to inspire and lift the whole of our workforce,” says Taya.
To increase skill development in its current leaders, a corporate development program was developed in conjunction with the Curtin Graduate School of Business. The purpose of the program is to develop the required leadership and management competencies within senior management, regional managers and potential leaders within Main Roads. As part of the program Main Roads has introduced a ‘Leaders For the Future’ initiative where a diverse range of selected employees identified as potential leaders within Main Roads are invited to participate in the program.
Ten management practices form the conceptual framework for the theme of management and leadership. These include: strategic direction and business management; people performance; negotiation; conflict and dispute resolution; communication and interpersonal skills; risk management; time management; leading and managing organisational change; leadership and planning and resource management.
As all Main Roads senior management groups participate in leadership development, initiatives have also led to a significant culture change within the organisation, according to Taya. “Managers are more inclined now to want to better and empower themselves by being a part of these programs. A lot more people are taking opportunities to accept challenges and accept development opportunities that might not necessarily be just confined to their role.”
Learning & development
Main Roads’ graduate, cadetship and traineeship programs have been increasingly popular. These programs are contributing towards solving the gap that will be left by Main Roads’ retiring workforce, as well as committing to each employees development, Taya says.
A regional e-learning program was developed in partnership with Main Roads and the University of Newcastle, to provide easier access to training programs for regional employees. This initiative uses established internet resources and requires the participants to complete customised projects and assignments that deal with current issues within Main Roads and the workplace. A training needs analysis was conducted prior to the implementation of the program to identify areas that the participants believed they required further development in to ensure the individual and organisation is skilled to meet any challenges that may arise and increase the efficiency of regional offices, says Taya.
Main Roads has also adopted an ethos of measuring the effectiveness of all initiatives and programs. Through implementing an annual employee opinion poll, Main Roads aims to capture employee concerns and effectively address them. The poll has been structured to measure the various elements of organisational change such as culture, commitment and satisfaction. Taya says it is an effective evaluation tool to measure the success of current initiatives and programs, allowing improvement actions to be identified where required.
“We call it rejuvenating the organisation,” says Taya. “Through the programs people are able to almost hit the ground running. Through additional support mechanisms such as mentoring and further studies, they actually start delivering from day one once they hit the operational areas. Whereas in the past we’ve had line managers who were more comfortable with getting more experienced, older people into the organisation – the ones that almost emulated themselves. Now we’re finding is that even our management is thinking that if we bring younger people in we’re really building a future. That’s a mindset change that we’ve only got in the last couple of years. While the thinking was initially very negative, you really get some runs on the board once you get some positive examples of this working.”
Results
As a result of the Dynamic Resourcing Strategy, Main Roads has reduced costs and improved productivity, streamlined operations and increased quality of services, strengthened core business skills, improved and developed overall management expertise and positioned itself to develop a values-based organisation.
The strategy has also improved the decentralisation of operations and assisted in breaking down ownership of jobs or functions. This has in turn led to better utilisation of Main Roads’ workforce and more teamwork. It has also achieved total integration of a number of elements of the HR function and aligned them with longer-term corporate objectives.
“From the time we took the decision to change our organisation we knew we had to be seen to be in total control of our change agenda or face the real possibility of someone else doing it for us,” says Taya.
