Genuine Care At The Heart Of People Strategy

HR has been impacted by many unforeseen challenges in the last several years – from the pandemic and hybrid/remote work to escalating talent shortages, inflationary pressures, and environmental and social change.

Quite simply, the work world has been turned upside down and organizations have had to re-evaluate how to attract and retain talent and HR has played a large role in navigating this change. It has acquired a fresh look at how we see people and how we plan for a future that has vastly changed in a short period of time. The good news is that HR engagement early in business strategy planning discussions with senior leadership has become a pillar for many organizations. While this may not have been a natural occurrence only five short years ago, the talent market has required a much more strategic focus to be placed on people.

HR AT THE STRATEGY TABLE

As strategic leader, HR has a larger role to play in the organization outside of the reactionary planning. The opportunity for HR leaders resides in being part of the creation of the business strategy, understanding the challenges and opportunities that the business has in the short, medium, and long term.

At Syngenta Canada, HR is at the table for business strategy development, which is an important part of the planning process to drive successful execution. These discussions help to provide context and nuance on the business’ unique challenges and help to properly align the people strategy. Recognizing that our business strategy is only as strong as our people strategy and has not only allowed for our continued growth year over year but has also proven to be a key to our success in the marketplace and being able to attract and retain top talent across Canada.

PRIORITIZING PEOPLE

Strategic planning is no easy feat; it requires a committed vision to a future that has not yet been realized. An engaged leadership team and their commitment to the ‘people vision’ is the starting point. Many of us have worked for organizations that don’t prioritize care and consideration for people. Earlier in my career, I was led to believe the only way to build a successful organization was to look at people as a ‘human capital.’ I struggle with this notion – what a strange way to build a business. It is a reality that we need to account for productivity and people cost as it is usually the largest spend for organizations; the miss is that people are not a commodity, and our people strategy should reflect a lens of people care and consideration.

HOLISTIC BENEFITS

Talent is no longer simply looking for a job and a company with decent pay and benefits, they want to be inspired by an employer. They want to feel pride in the organization they work for – a values-based company that recognizes the individual and their unique contributions and prioritizes a holistic wellness model. This change in the mindset of potential candidates requires HR leaders to ensure that people strategy is part of the business strategy and vice versa.

Looking forward into 2023 and beyond will involve equal parts visionary work, monitoring the ongoing trends in the marketplace, and creating a progressive edge to evolve our employee value proposition. Leading up to the beginning of the pandemic, the future of work for Syngenta Canada was focused on opening our search for talent across Canada and adopting an ideology of remote and hybrid work as a mainstay for most roles in the company. Fast forward to 2022, and we added six weeks’ vacation for all employees starting day one. It is this type of strategic planning that has set us on a different trajectory to ensure we can attract, retain, and develop our talent while providing some unique benefits before the need to react to the changing labour market.

FUTURE OF WORK

Progressive HR teams understand the business strategy and look at ways unlock talent and focus on what could be in the next three to five years to support the business of the future. It is not about ‘human capital,’ or people as a commodity, but about ensuring care and consideration of people as the hallmark of the strategic planning process. The future of work will be focused on ensuring access for all regardless of location. This also includes an equity, diversity, and inclusion lens on not only systems and processes but how we are able to grow, develop and support our people. If the last three years has taught us anything, it is that the reality that our strategy needs to be a living and breathing plan – something that we acknowledge may have to change quickly and considers people at the heart.