Aligning policy with the pace of change

A sports psychologist turned chief people officer at Hoyts Group spoke to HR Leader about how HR departments can drive meaningful policy reforms and what this looks like in the current climate.

In a recent epiode of The HR Leader Podcast, Jodi Paton (pictured), chief people officer at Hoyts Group, spoke about the highs and lows over the past decade for staff, whether it’s even been more difficult to oversee the HR function, the need for new approaches to driving business reform, and reframing her own perceptions about successful implementation of reform.

The way younger workers work

Paton found that younger workers are not designing their lives around work, but instead, trying to see how work can fit into their lives.

“I think that [the] post pandemic era has really been a period of recalibration. I think there we're seeing…some clear generational differences in terms of expectations,” she added.

“They're looking for organisations that are going to support them in terms of finding that meaningful purpose, flexibility, personal growth…and I think that's a real opportunity for organisations to kind of rethink that employee experience,” Paton said.

Paton noted that HR departments must manage this “fourth industrial revolution” by looking at opportunities amid the convergence of factors such as AI, work and technology, and figuring out what role they play within it.

A difficult time

Paton pointed to the impact of the pace of change when it comes to technology and AI, which is “flipping the lead” in terms of what work looks like and how we work.

“I think there is a real opportunity in terms of [the role] that we can play in terms of understanding how we redesign, how it gets done, unlock its value, how do we collate some of that transformation, whether it's with our IT teams or other key stakeholders, to make sure that [doing] it in the right way,” Paton said.

Paton noted that using traditional models, such as the Ulrich model, can slow HR departments down as the present HR space is a “much more fluid environment”.

Thus, she emphasised that HR professionals must look to have more T-shaped capabilities – breadth across the employee life cycle, but also in communications, AI, sustainability, and legislative changes.

Understanding the ‘why’ in policy

Paton stressed that HR departments must focus on how policy supports the experience that organisations want their people to have at work.

She recommended that HR departments must create their policies in line with “the kind of workplace that we want to build our culture, [as well as the] behaviours that we expect from our leaders as well”.

“If people can understand the ‘why’ in terms of what we're doing, they're far more likely to embrace that change and hopefully role model it rather than just seeing it as a top down directive.”

“That seems to get much more traction in terms of the way that something's introduced across the organisation.”

Carlos Tse

Carlos Tse is a graduate journalist writing for Accountants Daily, HR Leader, Lawyers Weekly.