Interviewer: Mahmoud Mansi
“My advice to CEOs would be to do a few simple things to make sure people feel valued. Recognise them for the work they do. Help them to align to your goals, to see how their role fits in and how they contribute to your business plan. Let them know what they do matters”
Louise Ann Wanless
THE INTERVIEW
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HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: How does being an HR in an automotive organisation differ from any other?
Louise Ann Wanless: You will find many of the processes in HR are common across industries with many having a focus on talent management and development, talent acquisition, engagement, organisation design and compensation and benefits. What is critical from an HR standpoint however is to understand your business and know how it works so, as you provide recommendations and solutions to the leaders you partner with, you do so with a solid understanding of what they need and how you can help them improve their effectiveness.
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HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: As a Learning and Development Consultant, do you advise employees in general to rely on the training programmes provided by their organisation, or they should also invest on training courses from their own expenses? How much percentage of their monthly salary should one invest in learning?
Louise Ann Wanless: I believe that organisations have a responsibility to provide their employees with the training they need to do their jobs effectively and grow both professionally and personally. At GM, we are lucky to have one of the largest internal training resources in the world available to us via our GM Learning platform. We also invest heavily in leadership development. In making an individual investment in training, I think that would depend upon the person’s aspirations and the company’s willingness to support these.
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HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: Do you believe that training could handle the problems of any employee within the organisation? Or there might be some hopeless cases?
Louise Ann Wanless: I don’t see training as a panacea for all ills. Training has a key role in helping people develop the skills and knowledge to do their jobs and equip them for greater levels of responsibility but the organisation must support them in terms of implementing what they have learned. Also, training is not the only aspect that employees need in order to be engaged. Leadership plays a key role, as does fairness, recognition, trust and teamwork.
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HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: What were the main success reasons that made you accelerate this way in your career?
Louise Ann Wanless: I have always had a great love for people and I think there is a great deal of personal reward in being able to support others to achieve their potential. We know the great impact that leadership has in terms of the work environment they create and we also know that strong leadership is critical to success. So being involved in leadership development ultimately means you are both helping to create a positive business culture and impacting the bottom line, that’s why I love it.
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HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: Why did you choose to work in Dubai?
Louise Ann Wanless: I’ve actually lived in Dubai since I was child. It’s more like home to me than England where I was born. I choose to stay here because it is an extremely dynamic environment and so culturally diverse.
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HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: How does the HR from where you stand support the mission of General Motors?
Louise Ann Wanless: General Motors strongly values HR and HR has a seat at the table in terms of determining the business direction. People factor very strongly into the way we do things here and we have very strong processes that allow us to ensure that we are considering the right talent for the right roles to equip the organisation to be successful. We also place a very strong focus on culture and creating a culture to win is imperative to our business. HR plays an instrumental role here in driving employee engagement, supporting leadership development and managing change.
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HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: Can you please tell us more about the project you led: “Workplace of Choice” and if you have witnessed any resistance regarding this project? And how do similar projects eventually cause financial profits to the organisation?
Louise Ann Wanless: Studies have shown that companies with higher levels of engagement consistently outperform their competition in profitability, revenue growth and customer satisfaction. In fact, studies show that organisations with engagement levels above 72%, show up to 50% higher shareholder returns than those with average engagement. So there’s a direct correlation between engagement and business success.
The Workplace of Choice survey is the primary way GM checks in with its employees to ask how they feel about the company as an employer and learn what they need to perform at their best to drive business success. We run our Workplace of Choice survey every 18-24 months and open it to all GM employees to hear directly from them what it is we need to do as a business to create an environment where people feel valued and do valuable work. Workplace of Choice is not just an employee engagement survey, it’s all about acting on what people tell us and building culture.
At GM, we have higher than average participation from our workforce on this survey. We believe this is a reflection of the fact that our employees are committed to supporting the business to build a culture to win and believe that the feedback they give is heard and acted upon. In our last survey, in 2014, we surpassed the global average for engagement. Our next survey is currently underway and we are expecting to see even better results.
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HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: What is your advice to CEOs across the UAE?
Louise Ann Wanless: It’s really all about people and the environment you create. My advice to CEOs would be to do a few simple things to make sure people feel valued. Recognise them for the work they do. Help them to align to your goals, to see how their role fits in and how they contribute to your business plan. Let them know what they do matters. Allow them to provide input to help you to drive your business forward.
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HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: Ms. Louise, you have enriched us very much with your words. Thank you so much for this interview.
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