In this podcast we speak about his broad experience as an HR director, his take on advancing an inclusive workplace, and keeping staff engaged and motivated while working in hardship conditions.
"People talk about diversity and inclusion and diversity is the ‘easy’ thing to measure. You know, how many different nationalities, how many different genders, people living with disability, Indigenous, sexual orientation, et cetera. And that's easy, or it's not totally easy, but it can be easier to measure whether or not those people have a voice in the decision-making or the running of the organisation, that's the inclusiveness part. And that's a little bit harder to measure. Now, there are some tools that we have that are more effective than others. One of the ones that we use, I think, quite successfully in IOM is a biannual global staff survey where we actually explore these issues. And we've designed certain questions around that. And there are probably around a dozen questions out of 80 that are involved in inclusion in that. And so we can get an inclusion index, if you like, about how inclusive we are as an employer. Obviously, that's a perception survey, but perception is more powerful than reality in a lot of things."
One other element is the positive impact the Covid pandemic may have had on staff wellbeing initiatives.
"I think when we reflect back on the pandemic, maybe in 10 years time, we'll see what a catalyst it was for change in organisations in the UN, in HR. Certainly, I think it gave us a very strong focus on wellbeing and the real importance of looking after our staff. It's interesting and anecdotally in our headquarters locations, it was young singles living by themselves that were struggling a lot with the pandemic. And curiously, people who were actually surrounded by family often did the best during that process. So I think the pandemic taught us many, many lessons. The importance of staff well-being, the importance of communication. I mean, the importance of having a buddy system in life."
We discuss the future of HR in international organizations and of course, we take this opportunity to have Micheal advise on essentials when you are considering applying for the IOM.
We found it an interesting and exciting discussion, also leaving us with an important lesson from his mum:
"One of my great role models in my life was my mother, who was an exceptionally short woman, but a very, very good teacher. And she never had any disciplinary problems in classrooms. And I remember I asked her once, what's your secret? And she goes, well, it's easy. In every lesson, I recognise something good about every student at least once. And I often take that philosophy forward in life."
Enjoy!