HR’s Next Generation: Observations from Teaching Compensation

I finally got the chance to return to school – not as a student, but as an instructor of two compensation courses: one at Seneca College and the other at the University of Toronto. The students at Seneca are early in their career, pursuing their HR or payroll designation while the students at U of T are graduate students completing their Masters in Industrial Relations and Human Resources.

After just over a year of teaching, I realize I’m learning as much as they are. The first thing I learned is that, despite my expertise in compensation, my knowledge of the tricks of trade, and my many “been there, done that” stories did not necessarily mean I know how to teach. My wife, a grade 4 school teacher, could have told me that, but, of course, I had to learn the hard way.  I ask for a sincere apology from my first set of students, the poor guinea pigs.

But I do have some interesting observations about the upcoming generation of HR professionals.  I also learned of few of my own lessons and I share them with you here.

• Students continue to struggle with the ongoing disconnect between theory and practice.  Perhaps its just part of a teacher’s experience in educating, but I find the disconnect between academia and actual business application to be a little concerning.   In the real world of business, certain behaviours regularly take place side-by-side with the actual practice of the business.  These include the need to prioritize actions based on business needs and objectives, available resources, and, of course, budget.   It also includes certain subtleties such as sensitivity to internal or external politics.  Unfortunately, I found too many students unfamiliar with how to integrate that awareness into their practices; they were not necessarily sensitized, during their earlier academic training, on how to determine where to focus their energies.  I’ve come to understand that I need to help them grasp the practicalities and realities of a real-life human resources professional.

• I became a better communicator.  I had to learn to communicate better in order to teach the mysteries of compensation, pay equity, incentive plan design, market analysis and related areas.  The benefit to me is that I find myself to be a better communicator with my own clients and am more sensitive to ensuring work nuances and project outcomes are clearly understood.

• People rise to the occasion.  They may have gone kicking and screaming the whole way, but when challenged, my students rose to the occasion and did a great job.  Often, diploma content is focused on learning and remembering material as opposed to developing independent and critical thinking, but my students enjoyed the challenge of the latter.  They valued the “ah-ha” moments that occurred when they rose above the basics of the matter and achieved some real learning through their own mental processes. They were not used to it, but did so when asked.

• Self confidence required in business.  Finally, I realized that one of the most important lessons to teach students (and it was the one that was least present before) was self confidence, specifically, the confidence to defend one’s position, speak in front of the class, and challenge another’s point of view. Being spoon-fed or told one is always right does not prepare a future professional to confidently respond to a challenge and defend one’s position. I found that just as important as the actual topic is the need to give students confidence to move forward in their careers and become able contributors to their future organizations. My job as a consultant is to provide effective recommendations and to build my clients’ confidence about how to go forward. So, too, I wish to give this to my students.

There is a lot more I could talk about such as the differences between college and university and opinions about pay equity.  I’ll have to leave that for another blog. For now, I need to get back to marking assignments.

Steven Osiel

VP, Total Rewards