Bayer HR chief: empowerment empty without change

Bayer’s Isadore Payne thinks too many Australian companies focus on engagement alone.

Bayer HR chief Isadore Payne says managers from the German parent say ‘we like what you’re doing here’.

Isadore Payne thinks too many Australian companies focus on engagement alone.

Engagement is the buzz word in business and is credited with driving productivity and low staff turnover, but the Australia and New Zealand head of human resources for pharmaceutical giant Bayer says many are neglecting to improve their company culture at the same time.

“In Australia and New Zealand, I see a lot of focus on engagement,” Payne says.

“I think we’re making a mistake. Engagement is great, people say ‘I like the company, I want to stay’, but ask yourself about the culture of the company.”

Payne, who has been in the role since 2012 and in HR for more than 25 years, says his counterparts are fixated on increasing engagement.

He says culture is as important as engagement, and without a positive work environment a business reputation can quickly slide or staff can lose interest.

“Be careful not just to drive engagement,” he says.

“The people that will innovate and drive change need a culture to support that.”

South African-born Payne, 50, moved to Australia in 2004 and now considers himself Australian. In his career he has worked in senior roles in Britain, Europe, the US and Africa for logistics company Barloworld in the “fast-moving consumer goods” industry, and for Kimberly-Clark.

He has been given the task of increasing innovation at Bayer in Australia and New Zealand, where the workforce numbers about 1000 and attitudes differ from the company’s German parent.

“Every country has a special culture and if you look at South Africa, Europe and the US they’re all different,” he says.

“If you look at Australia it’s a well-educated workforce with a good work ethic, but it’s more relaxed and ethics-driven.

“The German culture is more hierarchical … more systems and process driven, and if you give (the Australian workforce) all those attributes and add the more relaxed and informal culture, it works.”

The Bayer workforce is mostly white collar, specialising in research and administration in pharmaceuticals, crop science and consumer care. That differs significantly from the blue-collar workforces Payne has worked with, but he says all people are the same no matter what level of education or role, and good human resources principles apply to all.

Leaders can be created and fostered at all levels of a workforce, he says, and those at the top are responsible for getting the best out of all of their workers and in each different environment. If workers feel valued, he says, they will go that extra mile to contribute.

Pyne says the key to engaging a workforce and improving its culture is communicating and listening to what employees are saying, and by creating an environment where people feel valued. It is advice leaders should consider following because with empower­ment comes engagement in the company’s business, pride in work and a feeling of being valued.

“I was always surprised in my career that if you trust people and empower people, how they respond,” he says.

“It’s all about involving people and empowerment and you’d be surprised how they respond positively. You need to be a lot more conscious about the role of inspiring people to reach their full potential. Trust people, empower people and you’ll get a lot back every time.”

At Bayer, Payne has empowered his workplace by creating five community groups for staff in which they can communicate with each other about improvements, ideas and criticisms, opening conversations about how they can make the company a better place to work. The communities — some with up to 250 members — relate to the company’s brand, innovation, customer relations, business excellence and people.

“If you want to change an organisation join a community and start communicating,” Payne says. “If you’ve got the passion to innovate, we’ve got the size and power to change.”

With more suggestions and involvement from the workers, he says, leadership groups are likelier to change and become collaborative rather than autocratic and wedded to systems and processes. Workplaces become happier because staff feel they are being listened to and suggestions are being taken on board. People feel more confident taking risks and coming up with creative and innovative ideas. Confidence grows.

As an example, Payne says, one community came to him with concerns about being time-poor and wanting to take more leave to spend with family. The company came up with a solution to provide workers with five extra “me” days of annual leave throughout the year, taken one at a time.

“We said they’re for you only, they’re to go and sit on the beach and read a book, to take your grandmother to the doctor’s,” he says. “Talking of a working mother, you take the kids to school, go to work, pick them up, cook dinner. You don’t have time for yourself. When we recruit people and tell them you get five extra days, five more days, one at a time, they’re interested.”

Staff in another community asked for greater communication and involvement with remote workers. So Bayer made a CD and asked remote workers to pick a song. Each song was then labelled with a photo as being from that particular person, saying who they were and why they picked that song.

The communities also recommended reducing red tape in some policy areas, and Bayer introduced a company-owned and banked credit card instead of one managed by individuals, which Payne says is one of only three of its type in the world.

“Our methods are quite unique to Australia,” Payne says. “Bayer (managers) have come to Australia and said, ‘We like what you’re doing here.’ ”