Absolutely fabulous
Learning in the workplace can be a valuable staff retention tool, as one ad agency has found

Fabulous. You’ve got an enthusiastic staff, everyone is having fun and they’re doing great work. But they’re keen to learn more. What do you do?

If you’re Martin O’Halloran, chief executive at advertising agency, DDB NZ, you build them a “university”. Not only do you put senior staff in the front of the room, but you also invite outside teachers from places like the Auckland Performing Arts School (to help with courses on presenting creative ideas, of course).

Stealing talent is an everyday thing in advertising and O’Halloran wanted to make the Auckland office the kind of place that people wouldn’t want to leave. So he listened to staff surveys that showed a desire for training and development and established DDB NZ University within the company. It is run and structured like a real tertiary institution with its own dean (O’Halloran) and faculty professors.

Some of the courses — like “DDB Springboard”, which teaches staff how to look brainy in front of clients — are compulsory, but most are optional. They include the likes of smarter ways to manage stress, the art of getting your own way, and champagne campaigns on beer budgets. Sounds a tad more interesting than ordinary university fare.

No wonder staff have taken to the courses on offer with a vengeance. In 2004, DDBU’s inaugural year, 16 courses were offered and reached 280 registrants (some employees took more than one course).

O’Halloran is delighted. And not just with the attendance rate; since DDBU opened its doors, O’Halloran boasts that the New Zealand office has shot to number one globally in training and learning within the DDB Group, and offices in Australia, Singapore and Eastern Europe have copied the prospectus. Even the HR folks in the US are rethinking their training courses.


Finding Mr/Mrs/Ms Right
Hiring the right people for the right jobs is an important element of becoming a best place to work

Lorraine Male has no one to blame but herself if she wakes up one day and wonders about her fit at market research company Colmar Brunton. After all, she answered the recruitment ad that read “Strange Woman Wanted”. Male is, for lack of a better word, the workplace “mum”. She’s based in the staff kitchen, where she makes lunches, greets employees and bakes treats to send to clients.

While Male may be willing to share her great recipe for pecan pies, when it comes to hiring, there’s no such magic formula. Common advice from the Top 20, though, is the obvious “put the right people into the right place”.

Gabrielle Carman, director of HR at Colmar Brunton, admits the ad that enticed Male wasn’t politically correct. But, she’s quick to point out, one of the key things in hiring is to be upfront about the kind of business you run.

Finding a perfect fit starts with the wording of the ad, but once you’ve got piles of CVs, take a lesson from adventure learning school, Outward Bound, where the recruitment structure is quite unique. Instructors are on fixed-term three-year contracts, making every year a big one for hiring.

Selected applicants are brought to the Outward Bound school in Anakiwa for a five-day induction course. Technical skills are assessed, but also “we look at each one as a person and assess their ‘softer side’ — their attitude, values and facilitation skills, their ability to cope, relate to others and teach,” says school director Steve Hall.

And they don’t always score so well. In April 2004, for example, there were 50 applicants; 11 did the course and only three were hired. The school needed more instructors than it hired, says Hall, but it was determined to take only the best. So, while it keeps searching, the gaps are filled with former staff who are available for contract work.

Okay. It may not be practical for your organisation to bring in potential hires for a five-day live-in interview. But not hiring just to fill in numbers and picking staff with hard skills and shared values can cross over. Hall also uses that induction time to be brutally honest about the job. “We’re incredibly honest, so people come here with eyes wide open. Things about the job are going to be tough. We try to be objective and give them time with other instructors. If they’re chosen, they know what they are coming to and are really keen.”

How do you know who the right person is? “That’s the million dollar question,” says Sue Matson, area leader at PeopleWorks, the human resources unit of Flight Centre. “There’s an X factor. If you don’t have the right person to start with, with the right attitude, it ain’t gonna work.” Consider rewarding your recruiters; part of the commission for the hiring team at Flight Centre is based on the drop-out rate for new hires.

It comes back to chief executive John Balmforth’s mantra at insurer AMI: “recruit for attitude, train for skill”. If you pick the people with the right mindset who respond to your culture, then everyone will read their job description and, like Lorraine Male in the Colmar Brunton kitchen, exclaim, “That’s me!”

Supersized
Managing growth, particularly rapid growth, is hard in any organisation but big can be beautiful

As chief executive you’re not sure of everyone’s birthday unless reminded by HR and it’s pretty unlikely that you know the name of the receptionist’s dog, but that doesn’t mean a big place can’t be a best place to work.

Take a look at Flight Centre. For the third year running, Flight Centre has ranked in the Top 20 (number 12 this year compared with nine in 2003 and eight in 2002) and has also rated the highest among the large (400 plus employees) organisations in all three years.

How does it do it? The company has over 700 employees in New Zealand but it is still “a collection of 100 small businesses, all heading in the same direction and with a common purpose”, says Sue Matson, PeopleWorks team leader at Flight Centre. Because of the strict commission pay system, “Flighties” as the travel agents are called, are primarily concerned with providing good service to their local clients and businesses.

The philosophy of small business teams and geographical ownership is echoed by Roger Bell, chief executive at insurance giant Vero. Sitting in an Auckland ivory tower where the head office is situated, it would be easy to lose touch with the hundreds of employees dotted around the country.

That’s where “Pauline in Timaru” comes in. Pauline Dore has been with Vero for eight years, works in sales support and has become the iconic face in the field. Dore is thrilled that when she emails the big cheese, Bell emails back — his accessibility makes her feel part of the big picture. And Bell values her opinion, too. When he considers implementing a new idea, he asks: ‘What would Pauline in Timaru say?’

Not every “big” organisation is spread around the country. The idea of building small companies under one large umbrella is more than a concept at Fisher & Paykel Healthcare. The physical layout of the F&P campus in East Tamaki is divided by focus groups — everyone from engineers and designers to sales and marketing who are working on the same project sit together. It makes for better communication and teamwork, says chief executive Mike Daniell.

F&P’s growth (expected to double in five years) will create a plethora of opportunities that don’t exist now; this anticipated growth has spurred more formal coaching and mentoring programmes than those that had been in place.

Not surprisingly, being big is a benefit when it comes to having a future in the organisation, the number one driver in this year’s BPTW survey. This month, Flight Centre is releasing its online “My Career” programme. Previously launched in Australia and the UK, My Career helps staff plan the rungs in their personal ladders. Just plug in your current job and the one you want next (or eventually) and back comes a step-by-step timeline of skills to gain and how to achieve your career goals. Sue Matson, who is aiming for something global for her next position, says that as the company became bigger, the opportunities grew, but weren’t always as visible. My Career aims to give all employees equal opportunity to advance and to more clearly see their options.

AMI’s John Balmforth says there are some basic rules to looking after your staff that apply no matter what size your organisation is. “Recognise your staff are people first with their own desires and goals. Then create an environment where they can achieve their personal vision as well as help you achieve yours.” Call it the big picture.


Back on top
Cut your staff by 65% and vault back into the Top 20? GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) did

Pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline has entered the Unlimited Best Places to Work survey every year since it started in 2000 and, in all but 2003, has placed in the Top 20. That’s not to say it completely bottomed out after a major upheaval and restructuring in 2003 — it still ranked above average as a place to work among those surveyed. And this year, GSK is back on top at number nine.

Realising the company couldn’t depend solely on getting its drugs funded by the government drugs buying agency Pharmac, managing director Lisa Bright led the pharmaceutical company through a change in 2003 that resulted in significantly fewer employees and a more entrepreneurial culture. The workforce was reduced by a whopping 65% between 2003 and 2004.

“While going through the restructure, people didn’t necessarily like what was going to happen,” says Bright, “but they understood why. There was a lot of hurt and upset, but [staff] felt informed.”

During the transition, Bright focused on giving staff as much information as she could, as quickly as possible and on recognising success rather than focusing on the negatives. Believing in the company’s goals and having clear, shared values have always been important, she says, but they took on a new significance during the downsizing.

True enough, being the one to hit the road isn’t nice. But those staying behind lost friends and co-workers and were grieving too. Often, says Jan Bibby, head of HR, groups developed a rigorous plan with workshops and coaching for the ones who remained. It must have worked. GSK increased its scores in all sections of the survey by between five percent and 12%.

Keeping the mantra of the company “do better, feel better, live longer” at the forefront was instrumental during the restructure, says Bright. As was reminding staff that the medicines GSK sells (treatments for, among other things, depression, asthma and diabetes) really do make a difference in people’s lives. Though the environment was tough, when patients came to visit and letters of thanks were shared with staff, that warm and fuzzy feeling turned into motivation and reminded everyone why they were there.
Warm fuzzies — now if you could bottle that.

HR Initiative of the Year
The School of Hard Rocks
Using rocks as a symbol of both truth and the workplace culture at Hosting & Datacentre Services has proved such a hit, customers now want in on the act

Walk into the foyer of the Albany office of Hosting & Datacentre Services and you’ll see rocks proudly displayed: red ones for customers and gray, individually-named ones for staff. Rocks have been used to symbolise the workplace culture at HDS since Roger Cockayne and Wayne Norrie’s management buyout of Hitachi Data Systems in 2002. The two executives bought a 51% controlling stake and Hitachi 49% of the joint venture company, which sells computer storage hardware and data centre services.

After the buyout they radically changed the corporate culture from the sort that often accompanies multinational organisations — politics, backstabbing, and competition — to common sense, respect and honesty. “We decided if we were going to risk everything to buy the company, and we did, then we were going to have fun along the way,” Norrie says. “Misery would be replaced with fun.”

The idea of “honesty” rocks, through which staff could speak out without fear of retribution, came from a Sydney lifeguard friend of Cockayne’s who used to swim with friends to a honesty rock in the harbour where everyone had to tell the truth or be banned for life.

HDS has a formal ceremony where new hires are presented with their own rock. One hopeful job applicant even sent in a pebble, asking if her little rock could join theirs. And when Cockayne was wooing someone for the Brisbane office, which was opened last year, he gave them his own special rock, sourced from a wall near his favourite fishing spot in his native Yorkshire, to stress how much he wanted them to join.

Staff and some customers send emails with the opening line “Rock on” and ending with “Rock off”. And the rocks have a monetary value: now $900. Twice a year management accrue more value to the rock under a profit share policy.

You may think they all have rocks in their heads but consider this: the company’s culture actually wins it business, Norrie claims. And interest from customers and others has led to Norrie (self-titled the chief enthuasiasm officer) setting up a School of Rock to educate customers on how to use them effectively. He’s already been guest speaker to over 30 organisations and 2,000 people on the topic. HDS also hosts a regular Business Fabric get-together for its customers to network and yes, they all have blue rocks.

Of course, the company’s workplace culture is about more than rocks. All staff undergo personal leadership training to help them understand their true potential and goals. These goals are aligned to those of the company at bi-yearly Rock meetings. “The benefit of this training is that staff know who they are, what excites them and whether they are in the right place,” Cockayne says. And the company’s senior management team is going a step further this year, doing further training on how to spark more creativity that will drive new business ideas.

Values are talked about constantly rather than just words pasted above the photocopier. These values — focus, learning, integrity, energy, respect and success — are heard every day and include using commonly used language. “Silly buggers will be called silly buggers,” Cockayne says. But the company also has a mantra “say it positively”. Simple things such as saying please and thank you and the way you communicate with each other, particularly in front of clients, is all spelt out. There have been high performing workers who had to leave because they couldn’t embrace the values. They take it that seriously.

Norrie argues this positive culture has an impact on the bottom line.

In the first year after the management buyout, revenue went up 40% and earnings before interest and tax rose 100% and since then the size of the company has doubled.
In a recent pitch to a prospective client, the company led with its culture rather than selling its services. Norrie reckons technology and the people within an organisation can change regularly but the company culture is the major determining factor in your relationship with customers. That’s why at HDS the culture is as steady as a rock.

HRINZ Award
Hands up, this is the police
HR person of the year Brendon Ryan says leadership is key to reducing crime

Human resources manager Brendon Ryan joined the Counties-Manukau Police last year as a “guinea pig”. It was the first time the police had a non-sworn employee in the role and Ryan, along with another HR professional hired by Auckland Police, were brought in to improve the way staff were managed.

One year later Ryan’s picked up the Human Resources Institute of New Zealand award for HR person of the year — an award he entered because he doesn’t think the police are always given a “fair go”. Ryan came from ten years in the health sector and thinks the police and district health boards share the same client base — they just offer different services.

He found the police good at organising crime scenes and the like but had concerns about how well front-line staff were looked after. “Things are just so damn busy the supervisors, our sergeants, are just constantly trying to manage the day to day activities and sometimes don’t have the time and, in other instances, neither the time nor basic skills, to manage and care for their staff.”

When Ryan started asking hard questions about leading, caring, developing and mentoring staff, he was wide open to being labelled a ‘tree-hugger’ — a polite way of describing the initial reaction to change from a conservative and male dominated culture.

So what has he achieved? Following a senior management restructure, Ryan has written a learning and development strategy ensuring issues like leadership and valuing staff always go hand in hand with the operational focus.

His own HR team came in for a shake-up with a former UK cop hired as learning and development adviser (the first such role in the police nationwide). A health and safety officer from outside the police, who had experience in occupational safety and nursing, was also hired.

Training programmes now include how to lead and look after staff, as well as the usual operational focus. These include a two-week course for potential sergeants and a three-day programme for field training officers — buddying up experienced front-line constables with new recruits.

Ryan must be doing something right because other districts are looking to duplicate his ideas. He reckons it could take up to five years to bring about lasting organisational change in Counties-Manukau, where the average length of service, at 7.7 years, is shorter than other police districts. He’s content to keep emphasising the need for senior management and others to look after the troops. The mission to reduce crime remains the same and Ryan reckons if you look after your front-line troops properly, they’ll do that by default. “It’s not just a matter of providing them with equipment, uniforms, cars and helicopters. That all helps but if they actually feel like they are contributing, and we appreciate what they are doing and the organisation is successful, and that their sergeant actually gives two stuffs about them, and their families, and their homelife, then we’ll really hum as an organisation.”