HR leaders from Recipes Unlimited, Trimac Transportation and the ROM discuss strategy at HR Leaders Summit
The workplace is evolving at a rapid pace, and HR leaders are being called upon to do more than simply adapt — they must fundamentally rethink the practices, mindsets and policies that have defined the profession for decades.
In a panel discussion at this week’s HR Leaders Summit in Toronto, the conversation focused on what HR needs to leave behind so they can move forward to meet future needs of their organizations. The session — which moderator Taylor Valée, Director, Enterprise Group Solutions at People Corporation, described as a “Marie Kondo-type of session” — challenged participants to tidy up outdated HR mentalities and focus on how to embrace the future.
The panel also included Julie Denton, Chief People Officer and Chief Technology Officer at Recipes Unlimited, Krista Pell, Chief People Officer at Trimac Transportation, and Manuelita Cherizard, Chief Human Resources Officer at Royal Ontario Museum (ROM).
Rethinking organizational design: from headcount to curiosity
Valée raised traditional organizational design as a key area where thinking must change, noting that the rise of AI is forcing a shift in how HR leaders think about teams and talent.
“When you think about traditional organizational design, it’s very structured, very process-oriented, it’s about FTEs and budgets, and having a forecast of headcount,” she said. “But it’s often not about skills-building, futures, or challenging the way that you work.”
It’s no longer about having your people managers manage teammates, it’s about having people managers managing AI bots," said Valée.
"It allows you to shift the skills within those teams,” she said adding that HR has to look beyond the organizational chart and focus on the individuals who are curious and challenge their ways of working, then restructuring work to help them do more — particularly in the context of AI as a tool being integrated into every function.
Denton noted that the traditional way of looking at performance is a look back, rather than thinking about where the organization is going and what upskilling or training is needed to ensure people are realizing their full potential. Performance is about what a someone did last year and isn’t a measure of what they’re capable of doing, she said, noting that “the future lies in lean[ing] into the potential axis, not the performance axis.”
Talking business, not jargon for clarity
Everyone in the panel stressed the need for HR to shed its insular language and speak the language of business. “One of the things [to leave behind] is the belief that HR talk and HR language are part of the solution — we need to talk business talk and speak the communication language that your clients need,” said Denton.
Denton said that when she started talking business language, it shifted how she was viewed as a business partner and the perceived value HR adds to an organization. “As soon as I’m talking to some of our new grads or someone fresh from a schooling course, the language comes out and I’m like, ‘That’s a completely foreign language to everybody’ — that’s often how we lose the value that we bring,” she said.
“HR really needs to be looked at as a business function rather than a cost centre, and I think that mind shift needs to happen across the entire organization,” Denton added. “But it starts in HR and how we approach it ourselves, thinking of it as really a pillar of the business strategy.”
Cherizard described the challenge of leading teams through change when some are comfortable with the status quo. “We know change is hard and we know that when the change is being proposed or isn’t under people’s control, it’s important to communicate why we’re changing, what’s in it for you as a team, and what will be some of the advantages?”
She stressed the importance of clear communication and transparency, noting that “saying you’re going to have a seat at the table is of no use for some leaders who aren’t at the table, so, for them, it needs to be something they understand. Change means moving forward with different expectations, and that may not be included in the whole case or had to be considered before.”
“And give people an opportunity to see if they are able to get on that journey — some will self-select and determine this is not for me,” said Cherizard.
Embracing ethical AI and telling data-driven stories
The panel addressed the issue of organizations adopting AI at a fast pace, agreeing that HR must lead on ethical governance and data stewardship.
“Ethical AI governance is really one of the most important things that the HR function is going to have to tackle,” said Denton. “Making sure that people have the information that their role would otherwise allow them to have, and not necessarily more — for example, sensitive customer information shouldn’t be in the hands of folks who don’t need it for their role.”
Denton described her organization’s approach to AI data, noting that they use AI in the context of their own safeguarded domain rather than open AI. “The queries that are within our domain are for our information, and it knows the role that you have and what information you have access to, so if you don’t have access to a file that it’s querying, you’re not going to get the answer.”
HR may have to leave administrative and transactional roles completely behind to move toward strategic business partnering, according to Pell.
“There's still a balance between HR and people in culture and it's hard to leave that admin, payroll, benefit, and transactional piece behind,” she said. “To leave it all behind, that may mean we're not accountable for payroll anymore and that's okay — And for us to leave that behind, that means asking that, when we look for our next business partner or our next people and culture team member, what automation skill set do they bring?”
Moving from policies and policing to trust and growth
The panelists called for HR to move away from rigid policies and the urge to police employee behaviour.
“Every time someone comes to me and asks, ‘Do you have a policy on this?’, my nature is to say, ‘it’s probably broken even if we just wrote it,” said Pell. “If you’ve been in the digital practice long enough, you know that we try to create these perfect scenarios to fence all the things that we need to do, but the need is great leadership with smart, intuitive outcomes and good decision-making.”
Pell framed it as an “abundance mentality:” “If we leave behind the concept of we’re going to discipline or protect certain things and instead we’re going to teach and grow, we’re going to spend a lot more time growing and putting the organization in the right cultural and capability mindset.”
Pell referred to how leadership in one of her previous organizations addressed its flex-work model as an example. “I remember going to a meeting of other executives and everybody was saying, ‘How do you believe them, how do you track, how do you report?’” she said. “I just remember sitting back and saying, ‘We don’t, because we’re hiring adults and they have to do what they’re going to do’ — we’re not entrusting them with our billion-dollar company if we have to track when they’re walking in.”
“During COVID, everything that came about with regards to where people were, the choices people were making, who was in the office, and who was or wasn’t really vaccinated — it came down to trust,” said Denton. “And you really need to instill a sense of trust within your teammates. If you forget policies, just ask somebody, is that the right thing to do in this situation, and nine times out of ten, they will self-correct.”
“But you really have to build an infrastructure of trust,” added Denton. “We don’t want to police as there’s no value in policing — focus on building a culture of trust and the rest will follow.”
Looking towards curiosity, business partnership
The panel’s closing message for HR leaders was that, in order to look ahead they have to leave behind outdated structures, language, rigid policies, and micromanagement, with the future of HR being about curiosity, business partnership, ethical stewardship of data and AI, and, above all, trust.
“I encourage you to use those tips from Marie Kondo and look at cleaning up your mindset in terms of what you want to leave behind,” said Valée.
