Environmental Scanning

Forecasting the Future with MEC

by
expatpostcards/Shutterstock

The marketplace for the current retail industry is competitive and challenging. It also provides us with the opportunity to analyze the realities that businesses face in order to stay alive. MEC, formerly known as Mountain Equipment Co-op, is a case in point.

MEC is a Canadian outdoor equipment and clothing sales retailer with a targeted consumer base. Customers are members who can purchase a lifetime membership card to buy high-end adventuring products. If we were to apply one of the corporate strategies from our HR planning studies, MEC would most likely fit into the ‘differentiation strategy’ category. Established in 1971, MEC continued to persevere successfully until 2019, when it faced multimillion dollar losses as reported by the CBC.

As noted in the CBC article, MEC faced numerous environmental challenges. Again, if we were to apply our HR planning studies to this case, we would see that an environmental scan of the strategic business challenges facing MEC include both internal (organizational and staffing structures) and external (online and big-box store competition) impacts.

In January 2020, MEC announced the implementation of significant staffing and structural changes in response to the aforementioned financial and retail losses. As noted in this article, which summarizes their proactive strategic business initiatives, MEC appears to be implementing a ‘turnaround strategy’ in order to increase its organizational viability.

Part of this new business plan includes the need to convert a number of existing part-time or casual roles to full-time, permanent employment positions. This step provides an example of the need for HR forecasting, which must take into account the current HR supply measured against the future HR demand for human capital. With the implementation of this kind of staffing strategy, both the number of employees, and the corporate knowledge that these employees bring to their roles, should be retained, and will increase profitability and much-needed viability.

In order to survive, any business strategy that is focused on the need for change comes with the expectation of success in implementation, along with an escalated level of risk. It remains yet to be seen how these changes will all play out in this real-time application of human resources and business strategic planning for MEC.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What other types of business strategies could MEC use in order to remain viable in the current marketplace?
  2. What type of staffing strategies is MEC using to bolster employee support and confidence?
  3. What are ongoing environmental risks that MEC must consider in order to remain viable?
  4. If you were to apply a SWOT analysis to MEC’s new strategic directions, what would be the results?

Mission, Vision, and Values

by

Digital Saint/Shutterstock

The mantra of mission, vision, and values has been at the core of most modern-day organizations for many decades. Even though many organization’s mission, vision and values statements are sometimes lost from creation to implementation, they are still very important to their success and defined culture.

Many are saying that in the upcoming digital transformation of the workplace, culture will be even more important to organizational success than it is today. According to Edgar Schein, Professor Emeritus at the MIT Sloan School of Management:

“The only thing of real importance that leaders do is to create and manage culture. If you do not manage culture, it manages you.”

Many organizations have great products, but if they don’t proactively manage their culture, bad things happen. Remember the Volkswagen emissions scandal?  Here is an excerpt from VW’s mission statement:

“We assume responsibility regarding the environment, safety, and social issues. We act with integrity.”

I think most would agree that knowingly falsifying diesel emissions is not in alignment with the mission statement.  How does an organization’s culture get so off track? If you believe Schein, VW failed to manage their culture and they paid dearly for the misalignment, some say up to $33 billion for the scandal.

Cecile Alper-Leroux, Vice President of Human Capital Management (HCM) Innovation at Ultimate Software, believes we need to reorder how we manage our organizations. Vision still comes first, and she also believes in putting culture before strategy. She believes culture is the true driver of any organizational strategy.  (Click here to read her article)

Discussion Questions

Research a company from a traditional industry and compare it to a new hi-tech company. Compare their mission, vision, and values.  How do they define each of the workplace cultures?

As a new HR professional, do you think workplace culture will be more or less important in organizations that are undergoing a digital transformation?  Support and defend your position.

HR Must Haves: Diversity and Inclusion

by

Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock

HR Must Haves: Diversity and Inclusion

We live in challenging times. Perhaps this is a statement that could have been made at any point through history. From an organizational scanning perspective, however, current political, technological, social, and global economic factors seem to be having an immense impact on the strategic Human Resources environment.

The Human Resources practitioner can access an overwhelming number of factors, resources, and pieces of information that need to be processed from a strategic management perspective. Sometimes it is difficult to discern which factors need the most attention and how they might contribute to successful Human Resources strategies. High on the list of current topics are the issues of corporate diversity and inclusion, which have had an impact on business practices around the world.

From a Human Resources perspective, diversity and inclusion are usually part of a series of Human Resources programs that are meant to align with an organization’s strategic plan. While there is nothing wrong with this type of allocation or approach, there is a growing need to move these issues out of the traditional Human Resources space and to incorporate them into the foundation of the organization as a whole.

Josh Bersin provides us with an interesting insight as to why diversity and inclusion need to move out of Human Resources and into the broader corporate strategic plan.

Click here to read the article.

As noted in the article, companies that integrate diversity and inclusion programs as commitments from the corporate level, rather than positioning them as an ‘add-on’ through the Human Resources function, have better business success.

These challenging times call for organizations to take challenging measures.

Discussion Questions:

How are Diversity and Inclusion programs identified in your current workforce?

Does your current workplace have a written statement that commits to inclusion and diversity in the workforce?

If it exists, how would you change it?

If it does not exist, write one that aligns with the organization’s business model.

How will you change HR programs so that issues of diversity and inclusion are not seen as ‘add-ons’ from a strategic planning approach?

 

Upcoming HR Trends, 2018

by

HR trends may not be radically changing year after year, but they are becoming more intense and more critical to organization success. Every year the HR professional should consider what the current success driver for HR is in their industry. You never want to be the dinosaur asking, “does anyone else feel it’s getting colder here?” To avoid becoming obsolete in your profession you need to stay on top of what is happening in the external business world, and reflect on industry trends.

  • Here is a 2017 survey that sums up some of the current HR trends:
  • Less transaction, more strategy
  • Less formal but more frequent feedback
  • Less manual process, more data

Click here to read about the Paycor HR trends survey.

These are not radical trends, nor are they particularly disruptive, but they are important changes in HR. Each one should be reflected upon by the HR professional. All HR professionals should ask themselves the following big questions every year:

  1. Which transactional activity does HR do that is obsolete?
  2. What is the most important area of business strategy I should focus on this year?
  3. How can HR improve the employee performance management system this year?
  4. What HR data should we keep tracking? What data should we stop tracking? What data should we start tracking?

Doing this on a regular basis will keep you and your organization current, and will enable your organization to be proactive instead of reactive. This is what Jim Collins calls the flywheel effect in his book “Good to Great”.

Combine the flywheel concept with a reflective HR practice and there is business success in the forecast.

Discussion questions:

Read the Paycor HR trends and survey. Pick the HR trend you feel is the most important, explaining your decision. In addition, research a company that is a leader with respect to that trend.

Click on this link. Pick one of Jim Collins’ articles and create a 3-minute presentation summary of the topic.

 

Strategic Funding

by

Money talks.

3d rendering robotic hand holding gold coins isolated on white
Phonlamai Photo/Shutterstock

To paraphrase a familiar saying, ‘show me your budget, and I’ll show you what you value’. The allocation of strategic funding sets up the symbiotic relationship between financial resources and organizational goals. Organizations need both the long-term strategic vision and the immediate allocation of resources to achieve that vision for the future.

When organizational planning take place within the broader context of environmental scanning, the future is determined by actions in the present. We can see an example of strategic forecasting through funding when we look to the 2017 Canadian federal budget announcements.

As part of these announcements, the federal government allocated $125 million to develop and promote Canada as a world leader in digital innovation.

Click here to read a summary of the funding announcement.

Click here to read the impact of the announcement on industry. 

From a Human Resources strategic planning perspective, this is a big deal.

The environment of the workplace being shaped now, through both funding and resource allocations is based in the digital world. This means that the workforce will need to understand and develop a proactive approach to artificial intelligence and digital infrastructures. The traditional approach to who performs the work and what work is performed is changing as we continue to deploy digital innovations in Canadian workplaces.

The breadth and scope of the implementation of artificial intelligence and digital knowledge ‎in those workplaces will determine who is part of the workforce of the future. Based on these funding announcements, it looks like the money might be on the robots.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What are the pros and cons of creating jobs that will be needed in the ‘fintech’ industry?
  2. As a Human Resources practitioner, how can you plan for the creation of jobs that are based in artificial intelligence?
  3. Why does Canada need to be part of a push for digital innovation?