For some time now, a new way of working has been making its way into Human Resources: shared or multi-employer human resource managers (HRMs). Details on these new professionals follows.
Halfway between external consultants and full-time employees, shared advisors most often work under severalpart-time, permanent work contracts with different employers. The formula is a good for everyone—employers benefit from the services of a professional for a smaller budget, and the human resource advisors can gain a greater variety of experience, be involved in many types of challenges simultaneously and advance in their careers more quickly.
According to Sandra Provencher, a certified human resources professional (CHRP) in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, the trend is clearly on the rise. “The more systematic consideration of organizational problems in the ongoing search for better productivity among small- to mid-sized businesses leads to greater use of human resources professionals.” For this Human Resources manager of three companies, who handles organization, internal communication, payroll, benefits, training and coaching assignments, the critical size is between 25 and 60 employees. These are companies for which external consultants are almost prohibitively expensive, and which cannot afford an experienced full-time HRM. In addition, the shared human resources advisor brings a fresh and objective point of view to the organization.
The types of assignments handled by shared and full-time advisors are exactly the same. They depend above all on the person’s skills and the employer’s requests. Young professionals tend to concentrate in recruiting and staffing. That’s how Nadya Bouchard, a Montreal CHRP, made the leap this past September. After a significant stint in recruiting for an agency, she now splits her time between several employers facing recruiting problems. In addition to helping SMBs meet their staffing needs, large multinationals such as Sandoz or Johnson and Johnson sometimes use an extra resource to manage mass recruiting campaigns.
“Our collaboration is particularly effective in the change management phases,” says Nuria Claro, a certified human resources consultant in Montreal, who spent almost a year with high-tech firm Purkinje on a part-time basis. The company had just been acquired by U.S. investors and was in a phase of growth and sustained reorganization. At the same time, we had to hire new people, train existing personnel, coach and sound out all the teams, and finally, manage a labour standards file. These important tasks required the expertise of a professional, and could not be performed by a regular HRM in a company of that size.
How does one become a multi-employer HRM? “By chance,” says Nuria Claro, who started consulting after her position with a large accounting firm was cut. Although she considers the experience of working for several employers very positive, she succeeded in finding a full-time job as recruiting manager for KPMG. For Nadya Bouchard—partner on the Humania* team—and Sandra Provencher, it’s above all something you do because you want to, motivated by the desire to be your own boss and make better use of your time. The experience is very fulfilling, they believe, as long as you are very good at managing your time and are able to adapt very quickly to different work environments. “A word of caution—you sometimes have to say ‘no,’ if you don’t want to be swamped with work,” warns Sandra Provencher.
On a practical level, a shared human resources advisor has a home office and a work area negotiated with each employer. Various remuneration arrangements exist: a salary prorated to the number of hours worked is the simplest method, but sometimes an hourly rate or flat fee for the type of work carried out can be used. For recruiting assignments, the employer’s resources are used (CV banks, advertising), and the CVs belong to the employer.
*About the L’Équipe Humania: Founded by Daniel Langlois, L’Équipe Humania simultaneously meets the human resources management needs of some 50 small- to mid-sized businesses in Quebec (www.equipehumania.com).