Philip H. Gennis, LL.B., CIRP, Grant Thornton Limited

The above information has been provided by Philip H. Gennis, LL.B, CIRP, Vice President, Recovery & Reorganization, Grant Thornton Limited. He can be reached at (416) 366-0100 or via email at philip.gennis@ca.gt.com.

Volunteering with a Professional Association - What’s In It for Me?
A BOARD MEMBER’S PERSPECTIVE

In 2006, I attended my first IPM professional development event while assisting a colleague who was the featured presenter. At the conclusion of the event, there was a call for volunteers. At the time, I thought that volunteering with IPM Associations might be a great networking opportunity, so I expressed my interest, became a member of the Canadian Professional Trainers Association and joined the Ottawa Regional Chapter of IPM Associations on their Speakers Committee.

Jaime Moore Canadian Commercial Corporation

What I didn’t realize at the time was that there would be so many other benefits to this volunteer position. Networking was only the beginning.

My original purpose for joining was fulfilled. I have had plenty of opportunity to network. I am a Human Resources practitioner, and I have had the opportunity to meet a variety of people in HR and Management, including speakers, chapter members and other national board members. These individuals provide a fantastic resource to bounce off ideas and situations when something unique has arisen in my workplace or daily role.

Since that day in 2006, I have become the Regional Director of the Ottawa Chapter. This opportunity has provided further benefits and has made my volunteer experience that much more rewarding.

As both the Regional Director and a Speaker’s Committee volunteer, I get the rewarding sense of accomplishment that comes along with the completion of chapter events. After all the work of brainstorming interesting topics, seeking presenters, coordinating with the speaker to ensure that the presentation and materials meet our needs, working with IPM National Office to ensure that the venue is properly set, it is a great feeling to have the event completed and sit back to read the positive feedback from the participants’ evaluation forms.

Having volunteered with other associations in the past, I find that working with IPM’s National Office is truly a positive experience. We get complete support, our voices are heard and our input is valued. With the actual conferences and workshops, all logistics and registrations are handled by the National Office. We oversee our events and can focus on networking with the audience and presenters which I truly enjoy.

Volunteering with an organization such as IPM is also beneficial from a career perspective. Employers look favorably upon individuals who take interest in their line of work outside of the place of employment. By volunteering with an organization such as IPM, you are demonstrating that you are enthusiastic about your career and are serious about continuously keeping up-to-date with the latest trends and information out there. In addition, the time commitment to IPM Associations averages 2 hours per month, which I can easily fit into my schedule as a busy professional and parent of young children.

Through IPM Associations, I have also had the chance to make a number of contacts with individuals in a vast range of fields and expertise. These contacts have come in handy when seeking presenters for my organization or service providers to conduct work in specific areas. It is very comforting to have an idea of what the speaker or firm is all about prior to engaging them to come into your workplace.

The benefits of this volunteer opportunity have not stopped at a business level. I have also enjoyed benefits from a personal standpoint as well.

As both the Regional Director of the Chapter and a Speaker’s Committee member, I have the opportunity to speak in front of an audience at regional events. This provided me practice in public speaking which has assisted me in my daily work when I have had to make group presentations.

I have also been afforded the opportunity, over the last several years, to work with a number of fantastic individuals and have developed some great friendships. Current and past members of the committee get together a few times each year outside of committee meetings to catch up with each other and to enjoy the company of the friends we have made.

As can be noted from the numerous benefits outlined above, my volunteer experience with the Ottawa Chapter of IPM has been both very positive and very rewarding. There has been more in it for me than I originally imagined. I would suggest to anyone out there who has thought about taking on a volunteer position with this organization to take the leap. The benefits are plentiful and the experience will be both satisfying and memorable.

If you have not yet considered the possibility of volunteering, perhaps now is the time. There is opportunity out there, so go after it. You will not be disappointed by what it gives you in return.

Jaime Moore, RPT is an HR Advisor with Canadian Commercial Corporation

Ready, Set, Implement Your HRIS
INEXPENSIVE SOLUTIONS FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED BUSINESSES

Implementation of an HRIS can be an emotional journey, but the rewards are worth the effort, and a solid methodology provides an element of control which tempers the emotional aspect. It is a natural reaction to feel overwhelmed by the upcoming challenge of the Implementation. But take a deep breath, you may be more ready than you think! An implementation doesn’t need to be the roller-coaster ride that you are anticipating.

A Methodology

There is comfort in a methodology. It is a thorough approach that provides the assurance that no critical steps will be missed - a tried-and-true recipe, if you will, for the implementation. Every HRIS implementation is different because organizations’ needs are unique, but a methodology is a generic set of steps that you will advance through during the course of the implementation.

Diana Matwichuk Avanti Software Inc

There are many different methodologies. What is most important is that you are following one, and certainly one that is best practice for your selected vendor, and suitable for the size and complexity of your organization.

The following steps are touch-points in an implementation, which may or may not be included in your chosen methodology.

Mapping Out the Current State: Before the Beginning

Before you even get started, it is helpful to have mapped out your current processes and data stores. Perhaps this step was part of your original business case, as stakeholders struggled in their own way to limp along with a prior HRIS solution – whether it was software that you outgrew or a solution pieced together with Excel spreadsheets. If this was not done, it is never too late to do!

Mapping out your current state will provide a starting point to understanding where you are headed and what needs to be done to get there.

Clear Definition of Requirements: The Beginning

Often, the hardest part is just getting started. Keep in mind that you have already taken a first step if you have defined your requirements at a high level or prepared a Request for Proposal. These requirements just need to be drilled down a level deeper in order to provide scope for the implementation. Ensure that you can clearly describe your organization’s specific HR functional and reporting needs.

Being able to provide clarity around your requirements at the point in the methodology where it is required will add an element of efficiency to the project, as it will mitigate the risk of having to backtrack during the implementation.

Mapping out the Future State: the Vision

This may be one of the most critical steps in an implementation, in terms of ultimately transitioning to the new HRIS. Throughout the implementation, your vision of the future state may be your lifeline, propelling you through any hurdles that are encountered along the way.

A vision of the future state provides an emotional level of comfort. In a time of great change, it is an element of familiarity against which you will compare any deviations throughout the implementation. Often the biggest fear of change is rooted in “the unknown”, but a mapped-out future state addresses that.

The future state is derived based on both your communication of the requirements and an understanding of the HRIS product and how it can meet those requirements.

The Build: One Step at a Time

When expectations are realistically set as to the level of involvement that will be required from you during the build stage, then it is easier to manage your time to be able to make yourself available.
Whether your methodology requires your involvement for detailed requirements definition solely upfront or throughout the build, it is good to establish your level of involvement.

HRIS Training: Getting There

This is often the turning point in an implementation, where it all comes together. The configuration has been built, it looks familiar, and you are eager to get on it, play around, explore. But there is also so much to learn, so many intricacies to the HRIS, so much to absorb. Training is an exciting time, and it is good to harness that positive energy, for release in the final stage of the implementation.

Testing: The End is in Sight

Once you get to the testing stage, a feeling of empowerment will likely have occurred. It is as if a transition has taken place with delivery of the database. You have something tangible to work with, even if it happens to be a small part of the ultimate build. You will take solace in pounding away at it to ensure that it will meet your requirements.

Be sure to budget for the time commitment that will be required so that it does not seem daunting. The positive side is that rigorous testing provides you with a sense of assurance that you will be “safe” once you go live.

By this point, the transition is almost complete, and it is evident that the vision of the future state is ringing true.

In Summary

Do you know the real reason why that Payroll person down the hall never has a hair out of place? It’s because her registers are balancing to the penny. But she wouldn’t have arrived at that “place” without having gone through the implementation. And in the not too distant future, your manner too will be perfectly composed as you effortlessly produce stats from your HRIS to support business decisions and the development of HR programs that are strategic and align with corporate objectives.

So take a deep breath. Ready, set … implement!

Diana Matwichuk is an HR Consultant and Implementation Specialist at Avanti Software Inc. She can be contacted at 403-225-2366 x230, or email dmatwichuk@avanti.ca

Bullying in the Workplace
LINK TO POTENTIAL FRAUD

There may not be definitive research linking workplace bullying and fraud, but consider the possibility. No matter how well organizations articulate their ethics and values, if workplace bullying exists, employees may feel threatened, changing their behavior. Some employees may be motivated to commit fraud.

Joyce McGeehan Grant Thornton LLP

Similarly, employees are responsible for performing internal controls and reporting suspicions of fraud, but the reality of coping with bullying in the workplace may alter employees’ behavior. Generally, organizations expect that employees will not commit fraud, will perform internal control activities competently, reducing the likelihood of fraud, and will report suspicious of fraud.

The purpose of this article is to raise awareness that bullying in the workplace may have an impact on these expectations.

Employees Will Not Commit Fraud

Organizations are routinely cautioned against structuring compensation packages that promote fraudulent behavior. Consideration should also be given to other, less overt influences that may promote fraud, such as bullying. For example, John, a salesperson, is experiencing a dry spell. John is used to exceeding sales targets and having a certain status in his organization. Due to the closure of one of his largest customers, John is well below target. His boss has made a couple of negative and very public remarks to him about not carrying his load. John no longer gets invited to lunches with the boss. Recently, at a sales meeting, there was a general discussion about layoffs at a major customer. John is almost certain that his boss looked directly at him.

Sometimes, bullied employees have a difficult time articulating what is happening to them, particularly if bullying is subtle. Could John’s desire to recapture his former status drive him to falsify invoices to reach sales targets? It’s happened.

As another example, an employee makes a significant clerical error affecting the company’s financial statements. Is it conceivable that the employee would commit fraud to hide the original, honest mistake? It doesn’t seem likely, but what if the employee worked in an environment where mistakes were not tolerated and employees who made mistakes felt their livelihoods threatened?

Most organizations set the appropriate ethical “tone at the top” and undertake specific activities to prevent and detect fraud in the workplace. However, these efforts may be thwarted if the organization condones or does nothing to stop bullying.

Competent Performance of Internal Controls

During fraud investigations, it is not uncommon to see gaps between management’s perception of how internal controls are performed and actual practice. The reasons for the gaps are varied and might include a misunderstanding about the underlying reason for performing the control. However, bullying in the workplace could be another factor.

For example, performing an annual reconciliation, David, a clerk in another division, identifies unusual discrepancies in annual billing figures to a large client. Leslie is the departmental manager, responsible for the client. The first time that David brought the discrepancy to her attention, she was critical of the source of David’s figures and accused him of wasting her time. She would not work through the difference with David. Due to Leslie’s reaction, David started e-mailing the annual discrepancy to Leslie. She ignored his e-mail. David, who was a bit shy, was hurt by Leslie’s reaction and didn’t want to subject himself to another of her outbursts. As a result, there was no attempt to explain or resolve the differences in their figures.

It was to Leslie’s benefit to believe that her numbers, which were higher, were accurate. Although Leslie had no knowledge of the fraud, due to her initial bullying behavior, the fraud continued over a period of three years. Only when the annual difference became too large to ignore, was it examined carefully. It was found to be a roadmap to a fraud engineered by a billing clerk in Leslie’s department. The annual control performed by David identified a problem, but Leslie neutralized the effectiveness of the control through bullying.

Employees Will Report Suspicions of Fraud

Bullying in the workplace can also affect employees’ willingness to report suspicions of fraud. Usually, where there is bullying, there is also a lack of trust. Once frauds surface, we often find that other employees knew about the fraud or at least had suspicions. Reasons for not coming forward may be complex, but don’t discount bullying as one of those reasons.

From the outset, federal investigators in the Bernard Madoff fraud didn’t believe that one man could have engineered a fraud of such magnitude and complexity. Robert Cialdini, a professor emeritus of psychology at Arizona State University and author of several books on the subject of influence, has speculated that inexperienced Madoff employees were bullied into submission by Madoff when they summoned the courage to ask questions about business practices. We might never know definitively what occurred in this case, but we shouldn’t discount the possibility of bullying. And not just bullying of lower level employees, but bullying of federal investigators as well. Bullying can be subtle and in some instances, simply the display of knowledge, power and position may influence behavior.

Think about the employee who is responsible for submitting her boss’ expense reports. Although she knows that inappropriate, personal expenses have been included, her questions about specific items have been met with her boss’ comments that she “doesn’t understand business”. Her self confidence is eroded and she stops asking questions. In a sense, the employee has become an accomplice to the fraud even though she felt bullied into hiding it.

Summary
In summary, seemingly inexplicable frauds might not be quite so perplexing when considering the impact of workplace bullies. Though research is still developing, organizations should work to deter bullying behavior in the workplace and consider it as a factor among many when faced with fraud.

Joyce McGeehan is Senior Manager, Forensic Accounting and Investigative Services with
Grant Thornton LLP in Halifax and can be reached at jmcgeehan@GrantThornton.ca