HR leaders from TTC, Niagara Casinos talk about evolving role in crafting corporate strategy
HR leaders are finding themselves having more sway in their organizations, according to a recent study.
In a survey of 260 CHROs across Canada by International Workplace Group (IWG), 86 per cent say their influence in the workplace is at an all-time high, while eight in 10 say they are working more closely with their company’s C-suite than ever before.
“The expectations on HR, and people and culture leaders, has evolved to be a lot more strategic and business focused — and effective HR people have always been business focused,” says Matt Hopkins, executive director, people, at the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). “HR is being relied upon as part of the discussion about approaches on business decisions or operations insofar as the people impacts and the cost of those decisions, and what alternatives might be possible.”
In addition, the survey found nine in 10 CHROs describe themselves as trusted senior advisers to their CEOs, with nearly all saying their role strongly influences profitability (96 per cent) and productivity (95 per cent), as well as talent recruitment, long-term retention, and culture (each 95 per cent).
For Hopkins, the shift is noticeable from when he first became an HR leader, particularly at the TTC.
“We're very embedded with the organization’s strategy and our HR leaders are brought in sooner than maybe we would have been before,” he says. “And while we're not past it, we're starting to get better at not coming to HR once the bad things have already happened and instead bringing them us in at the front end to be part of the plan.”
HR involved in strategic planning from start
Hopkins is describing a change in influence with the organization’s strategy rather than a change in title — an observation shared by most Canadian HR leaders in the IWG survey. With HR and labour relations input being pulled into initial planning at the TTC, it increases the range of options leaders can consider and reduces the likelihood that people impacts become a late-stage issue, he says. “That’s helping with having more long-term success in terms of talent acquisition and retention,” he says.
At Niagara Casinos, vice-president of HR Colleen Falco describes a similar movement from her role of providing downstream support to co-creation of strategy with the executive team.
“My role is significantly different now because HR is driving strategy together with the rest of my peers on the executive team — when I first entered into senior HR leadership roles, we were more of a supporter or what we would call a back-house support function versus driving strategy,” she says.
Falco’s framing puts HR influence in the same category as other executive responsibilities: setting direction rather than just executing it. She also distinguishes more strategic influence from abandoning foundational work, noting HR still carries compliance, governance and de-risking responsibilities.
Hopkins recalls disinterest in bringing employee experience several years ago, and how much that has changed.
“People were like, ‘What's that? Who cares,’ and I remember a senior leader asking me 'Why are we even doing this? Is it just because somebody wrote it in the corporate plan?'” he says.
“And that same leader later [became] one of the big supporters of getting the employee experience program off the ground and helping with inclusive leadership principles, diversity, and equity — there's just an evolution of understanding the importance of these things at that level.”
Credibility comes with data expectation
In the IWG survey, CHROs point to what business leaders are prioritizing: boosting productivity (68 per cent), recruiting and retaining top talent (65 per cent), and supporting employee wellbeing and happiness (62 per cent). HR’s increased influence is paired with an increased expectation to quantify progress and tradeoffs, particularly in senior-level forums, according to Hopkins.
“You're not going to show up to the table and say, ‘In my experience’ or ‘The policy says’ — you're going to have to come with metrics, KPIs, or cost benefit assessments,” he says. “HR is just another business function now, so you have to do your work, you have to make case studies, you have to think about the business, and you have to look at the impact and the ROI.”
Hopkins believes that influence depends on being able to show the likely effect of a decision and to compare alternatives, including costs, while also linking that requirement to capability-building inside HR, where teams may need systems and upskilling before analytics become routine.
Falco’s view of data is broader, focused on connecting workforce information to business choices. “I think one of the most important things for leaders like myself or people who are in positions that can help influence or inform strategy is making sure you understand the data and that you're providing meaningful data,” she says. “Yes, there are things like turnover analysis, attrition, but those are the very basics.”
Interpretation and analysis, not just reporting
According to Falco, the influence is in moving from reporting to interpretation of information, pointing to the need to connect demographics, retirement trends, succession readiness, and performance capability, to decisions about whether to build or buy talent and what programs will support the organization’s strategy.
Hopkins agrees, noting that he and his team now spend more time thinking about how they do things, rather than what they’re doing or the outcome.
“It's not making people hold to the process — like compliance or risk aversion — it's designing the process around the outcome,” he says. “We have to be challenging ourselves that way, and that's because with that seat at the table comes higher expectations, and for what HR is responsible is growing, so we have to know a little bit about everything.”
“We have no choice but to work smarter rather than harder and figure out where those opportunities to do things more efficiently and effectively are possible, so that we can free up our time to take on those added responsibilities,” adds Hopkins.
Employee experience as operating priority
At Ottawa-based RVezy, head of people and culture Céline Maasland connects her increased influence with organizational leadership to formalizing employee experience as a company goal.
“I'm definitely much more involved with the senior leadership team than I was before, and I think there's much more of an interest to have me involved,” she says. “I’m invited equally into the room, and I think people are really thinking much earlier about employee experience — in the last year, especially, we've really highlighted employee experience as a pillar for the company.”
According to Maasland, there’s been a structural change in her organization, where employee experience isn’t treated as informal culture work, but rather as a pillar tied to the organization’s goal-setting framework.
“Now people are really starting to realize the importance of the employee experience and making sure that people aren't just getting their work done but are satisfied and happy with the work that they're doing,” she says. “And I think there's a much more of an interest in making sure that we have a culture and a workplace that people are really enjoying, so it certainly has made my job easier being involved in those conversations at an earlier stage and having it at the forefront.”
Maasland also describes how that more strategic expectation changes day-to-day priorities, particularly in a small HR function such as RVezy. “I'm a team of one here, so at the end of the day, I'm doing everything people-related typically — but just as that strategic focus has increased, I've certainly had to figure out how to prioritize the work, do a little bit more, and figure out what I can delegate,” she says.
Leveraged to drive business success
Falco agrees with the need to strike the balance between traditional HR functions and involvement in strategic initiatives. “We embed the strategy into everything that we do, which can be as simple as working through our strategic plan in advance of the year, which aligns up to the property plan, which aligns to the corporate or enterprise-wide strategy,” she says. “But as my role has changed and I've gone to different levels within the organization, there’s a reduction in the day-to-day and moving to the more strategic role —you're still guiding the team, but you're also developing strategy, with all of it intertwined.”
For Falco, HR leaders whose departments are just relying on processes that don’t support the effectiveness of the organization, it’s “HR gone rogue.”
“Any business that’s people-based — which is almost all businesses — and if it's a large organization, if you’re not leveraging your HR team to drive business success and they don't know and can't answer questions that are fundamental to the strategic goals of the organization, then it's time to revisit what your HR team is doing,” she says.
