By Mike Cass

Let me begin by introducing myself and sharing the ‘Coles’ notes’ version of who I am and what I stand for with respect to our profession. As you may be aware, I am the new president of BC HRMA and I look forward to the work ahead.

I have been in the human resources (HR) field over 25 years now and have had the pleasure of working with a wealth of truly dedicated HR professionals – many of whom are long standing members of BC HRMA. What we have all been working towards in our own way is the continuous improvement of our profession and in my new role I look forward to seeing even further evolution. Many senior HR professionals have worked very hard at achieving this change and it is my belief that we have made many advances, our work in this area is not done.

Without doubt, in many cases HR is already at the proverbial ‘strategic’ table. What we continue to strive for, in order to enable the full potential of our profession, is full recognition of our profession at the ‘C’ level. We have witnessed a vast and welcome change in HR over the recent years: one that is well deserved and requisite to our success. HR professionals are being recognized for providing value-added strategic service to the companies that employ us.

As this issue of PeopleTalk is themed towards performance and productivity, how might we relate this to the improvement and recognition of our profession as a whole. In many ways, understanding how these two terms not only differ, but how they interact is very important, especially in these turbulent times.

Most simply, we think of productivity as our output quantity divided by input quantity, this is in its simplest terms. What can drive this equation? This is where performance impacts the result and will increase productivity.

How can we, as HR professionals drive the performance part of the equation? Aligning performance goals and objectives throughout our organizations to drive optimum results is a key to this success. The strategic execution of these performance goals and objectives is through people.

All leaders need to drive organizational effectiveness in order for performance to drive the productivity equation. Human resource professionals will continue to be the ‘drivers’ in this performance equation. All of us, as HR leaders, need to promote and enhance a performance-driven culture. It is through this value-added process that we will continue along our strategic path and help drive the optimum results.

So with that, I offer you, our members, my dedication to continue with the fine work of my predecessors in this ongoing improvement of our profession. BC HRMA’s new board of directors has outlined many strategic initiatives encompassing a multi-year plan that supports this effort. Working from the fundamentals of vision, value and voice, we will continue to introduce and integrate the true worth of HR to businesses and organizations across the province.

On behalf of your Board, I welcome your input and look forward to working both for and with you in these coming years. We have seen many victories and milestones and are on the cusp of even greater things ahead.

Mike Cass
President, BC HRMA
president@bchrma.org

(PeopleTalk Fall 2011)