The CHRO agenda: The strategic business partner

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The CHRO agenda: The strategic business partner

Diversity: Conversations about change

Diversity is integral to Epiroc’s drive to recruit talent with a broader range of skills and experience. The benefits are indisputable. “When you bring people together in an atmosphere of curiosity and respect, you can create fantastic insights. It helps remove your biases as a person and as an organization, and that facilitates personal and organizational transformation,” declares Penser. “So, we try to pack as much diversity into our ecosystem as possible.”

HR is spearheading that effort. The CHRO and HR leadership team is responsible for scrutinizing and improving every aspect of the firm’s people processes, from the wording of job adverts, to where roles are advertised, to candidate selection processes. But they also have a role to play in evolving recruitment culture within the company. “It starts with the realization that we have blind spots and weaknesses because we’re too narrow at a certain level,” he says.

Epiroc recognizes that it has a particular challenge around gender diversity, says Penser. While the company’s management team is increasingly diverse and headed by a woman – Epiroc’s president and CEO, Helena Hedblom – the wider employee base is predominantly male, as is typical of engineering firms. That is changing, however, albeit gradually. In the past four years, he says the proportion of women has risen from 15% to 20%.

As with any program of change, CHROs can expect some resistance around diversity initiatives. In this case, which comes from men, who have collectively benefited from the status quo. “Some come back and say, ‘What opportunities are left for me?’ or say this is positive discrimination – that we’re recruiting women because they’re women, not because they’re competent,” Penser says.

He regards such reactions as a natural part of the journey of change and believes CHROs should engage with resistance, working to change mindsets. “Part of what we’re trying to do is to have really good conversations around this – to explain why this is important,” he says. CHROs can get the message across using role models and leadership development and training, among other tools.

Penser has been working to create ambassadors who can facilitate conversations about diversity, a strategy he has developed in response to his own experiences of racism. “My hypothesis is that, generally, racism is based on ignorance,” he says. “The same is true of other forms of prejudice.” He believes that “learning by meaningful conversations” can open people’s eyes. For instance, one company within the Epiroc group facilitated conversations between groups of recent hires, highlighting behaviors in the male-dominated environment that women found unacceptable. “This sort of experiential learning through dialogue is an extremely important element of the diversity [drive],” he says.

He is adamant that CHROs should not be concerned about raising tensions around change initiatives. “If we have no tension in our organization, we’re not innovating,” he argues. “It’s like stress. You need to have a certain level of stress, as it creates the energy to move forward,” he adds. “We’re deliberately challenging our ecosystem through acquisitions and hiring new talent as part of our transformational journey. But we try to make sure we frame it the right way and channel the energy towards constructive solutions.”

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