When I joined Queen’s IRC in 2006, I was appointed as Director of the Centre for a five-year term. I was renewed in 2011, and I am delighted to report that I have again been reappointed as Queen’s IRC Director for an additional five years.
I am proud of the work we have done at Queen’s IRC in the past five years. Our practitioner-focused research has included the State of HR in Canada, the State of Labour Relations in Canada, as well as the State of HR in the Caribbean. We have continued to provide relevant articles authored by subject matter experts in our E-News and Research Briefs newsletters, and we have an extensive collection of articles on our website.
In the past five years, we have continued to expand our programs to more cities across Canada and help many organizations through our custom training options. We established a partnership with the University of the West Indies, enabling us to share our knowledge with HR professionals in Trinidad and Barbados as well as across Canada. I have had the opportunity to speak at conferences on topics such as raising the bar on HR, succession planning and the future of work.
We are in a time of fundamental change in the workplace. At the IRC, we remain committed to developing new programs to address the needs of human resources and labour relations professionals as they navigate the new world of work. I hope that you will stay connected with Queen’s IRC and our work, as we continue to develop and deliver programs and research that will give you the skills that you need to thrive in the future. The next five years promise to be exciting and I look forward to continuing my work with the IRC.
Aligning HR Strategies to Create Business Success Lessons Learned Over 30 Years
Philip C. Wilson, CHRL, CHRE, Director Corporate Services, DST Consulting Engineers Inc., 2016
I have personally witnessed HR’s evolution from the back room to the board room, from tactics to strategy, and to assuming ownership of the business and its outcomes. The HR profession has advanced dramatically since the days when I began my career as a recruiter, and we certainly have come a long way from the days of the “Personnel Department” managing things like payroll or vacation requests, and reporting into finance and accounting. I am proud of this evolution which I refer to as the professionalization of the human resources profession.
I have been most fortunate to be part of some great Canadian companies such as CAE Electronics, Bell Northern Research, Northern Telecom and CIBC where I gained both global HR and business expertise. Recently I became the Director of Corporate Services of DST Consulting Engineers Inc. I support the CEO, the senior leadership team and all our employees through the delivery of aligned HR strategies that support the business in achieving success.
So how does an HR Practitioner start their journey from entrant into the profession to becoming a CHRO or CEO? Well there are no steps to skip. First you need to develop your HR and business acumen. Whether you decide on an individual specialist or generalist career track you must roll up your sleeves and learn your craft and the business. To be successful as an HR practitioner you must both master core HR services and develop a structured holistic business alignment strategy that I refer to as the HR Framework.
Is Transparency a Recipe for Innovation?
Dr. Bastiaan Heemsbergen, Organizational Psychologist, 2015
Innovation is a key driver in organizational sustainability, and yes, openness and transparency are a recipe for innovation. But, according to Tapscott and Williams, "when it comes to innovation, competitive advantage and organizational success, 'openness' is rarely the first word one would use to describe companies and other societal organizations like government agencies or medical institutions. For many, words like 'insular,' 'bureaucratic,' 'hierarchical,' 'secretive' and 'closed' come to mind instead."(1) And yet a few months ago, The Tesla Model S just became the world's first open-source car. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motor Vehicles, shared all the patents on Tesla's electric car technology, allowing anyone – including competitors – to use them without fear of litigation. Elon wrote in his post "Yesterday, there was a wall of Tesla patents in the lobby of our Palo Alto headquarters. That is no longer the case. They have been removed, in the spirit of the open source movement, for the advancement of electric vehicle technology."(2)
In the public sector, terms such as open government, citizen sourcing, and wiki government are also akin to the notion of open innovation and transparency. As Hilgers and Ihl report, "a good example of this approach is the success of the Future Melbourne program, a Wiki and blog-based approach to shaping the future urban landscape of Australia's second largest city. The program allowed citizens to directly edit and comment on the plans for the future development of the city. It attracted more than 30,000 individuals, who submitted hundreds of comments and suggestions (futuremelbourne.com.au). Basically, problems concerning design and creativity, future strategy and local culture, and even questions of management and service innovation can be broadcasted on such web-platforms."(3) The authors suggest that there are three dimensions to applying the concept of open innovation to the public sector: citizen ideation and innovation (tapping knowledge and creativity), collaborative administration (user generated new tasks and processes), and collaborative democracy (improve public participation in the policy process).
Queen’s IRC a Winner for Labour Relations Training
We are pleased to announce that Queen’s IRC has been chosen as a winner in the Canadian HR Reporter Readers’ Choice Awards for Labour Relations Training.
The Readers’ Choice Awards identify the HR vendors and service providers that excel at what they do. Nearly 150 companies were honoured in 64 different categories and over 17,000 ballots were cast in total.
For an overview of our professional development training, from the perspective of our participants and speakers, please check out our Queen’s IRC Video.
Copyright 2016 Queen’s University IRC, Robert Sutherland Hall, 138 Union Street, Kingston, ON K7L 2P1
Call 1-888-858-7838 | Email IRC@QueensU.ca | Visit us online at irc.queensu.ca
When I joined Queen’s IRC in 2006, I was appointed as Director of the Centre for a five-year term. I was renewed in 2011, and I am delighted to report that I have again been reappointed as Queen’s IRC Director for an additional five years. 
I have personally witnessed HR’s evolution from the back room to the board room, from tactics to strategy, and to assuming ownership of the business and its outcomes. The HR profession has advanced dramatically since the days when I began my career as a recruiter, and we certainly have come a long way from the days of the “Personnel Department” managing things like payroll or vacation requests, and reporting into finance and accounting. I am proud of this evolution which I refer to as the professionalization of the human resources profession. 
Innovation is a key driver in organizational sustainability, and yes, openness and transparency are a recipe for innovation. But, according to Tapscott and Williams, "when it comes to innovation, competitive advantage and organizational success, 'openness' is rarely the first word one would use to describe companies and other societal organizations like government agencies or medical institutions. For many, words like 'insular,' 'bureaucratic,' 'hierarchical,' 'secretive' and 'closed' come to mind instead."(1) And yet a few months ago, The Tesla Model S just became the world's first open-source car. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motor Vehicles, shared all the patents on Tesla's electric car technology, allowing anyone – including competitors – to use them without fear of litigation. Elon wrote in his post "Yesterday, there was a wall of Tesla patents in the lobby of our Palo Alto headquarters. That is no longer the case. They have been removed, in the spirit of the open source movement, for the advancement of electric vehicle technology."(2) 
We are pleased to announce that Queen’s IRC has been chosen as a winner in the Canadian HR Reporter Readers’ Choice Awards for Labour Relations Training. 
