Alec Bashinsky has more than 30 years’ experience in global talent transformation and innovation in professional services, technology and retail sectors. He is passionate about creating high-performance teams and supporting them with the intelligent application of technology. Alec is credited with rapidly turning around the poor fortunes of Deloitte, using key people strategies to triple the company's revenue and instigating gender diversity initiatives.
Alec is one of the few HR leaders considered both an innovator and a pioneer for talent strategies. His recent, highly acclaimed work includes Blowing Up Performance Management, a global project that he leads for Deloitte, and delivering business outcomes in Shaping the Workforce of the Future, also for Deloitte. He has twice been awarded HR Director of the Year and also Human Resources Leader of the Year. Alec and his team have been recognised externally by the numerous awards they have achieved over the years, including HR Team of the Year and Employer of Choice for Gender Equality.
Current work
As CHRO Australia and Asia Pacific Regional Talent Leader for Deloitte, Alec is responsible for driving a high-performance culture, building leadership capability and embedding organisational culture and employee engagement. As Human Resources Director, Alec rebuilt HR teams globally with Deloitte, Cisco, Peoplesoft and Toys R Us.
Alec serves as a non-executive director for the Diversity Council of Australia and is a member of the Advisory Board for I-Lead at the Australian Business School UNSW. He is also a non-executive director for Genos Pty Ltd and a board member of the Deloitte Foundation. Alec sits on the Deloitte Global Talent Executive and has advised a range of Australian organisations, which span from start-ups through to large established companies.
Talking Points
Alec Bashinsky - The Four Pillars
1. WELLNESSAlec Bashinsky - The Four Pillars
• An organisation’s people work under conditions of increasing complexity, ambiguity and pressure on their time and resources. This can reduce people’s capacity to sustain their best work and innovation. In order to maintain a successful business and stay true to our purpose we must create the conditions where people continue to respond positively to pressure, be successful at work, at home and in their communities
• The purpose of a Wellness Strategy
- The purpose of a Wellness Strategy is to promote and support a holistic approach which allows our people to realise their potential both personally and professionally.
The Definition of Wellness (Loehr & Schwartz - The Making of a Corporate Athlete)
Wellness is defined across four dimensions:
1. Physical
2. Mental
3. Emotional
4. Spiritual
Alec will talk to the definitions of each element and how they will link to impact an Organisation’s strategy and outcomes
• The proposed strategy is founded on the high-performance pyramid below, which suggests that to achieve peak performance under pressure, physical wellbeing, emotional health, mental and spiritual capacity must be working together
• Alec demonstrates how Wellness has now become a far more critical strategy for companies in 21st Century as Millennials now view this as a key component to why they would join an Organisation, it’s also directly impacts Talent Attraction and employee engagement and ultimately productivity
• Finally and most importantly Alec will talk about how you can set up a Workagility framework ( rather than Flexibility) which will enable both employees to work in a more agile way yet still deliver effective solutions for your clients
2. RE-INVENTING PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
Alec will talk to Redesigning Performance Management for better outcomes including:
• Re-inventing Performance Management - The case for Change
• Understanding the ‘new’ framework ( not system) - Fuel, Understand, Recognise
• How do we still manage poor performance?
• How does the new PM framework change the way we coach people?
• What are Check-Ins, Pulse Surveys, Performance Snapshots and Talent Reviews?
• How does technology drive this new approach?
• How do we assess the linkage with Compensation?
• What do you need to do to change your current methods?
Alec has piloted this new approach across Deloitte including 7 Countries and some 40,000 employees. He has adopted the new Marcus Buckingham technology to help drive this and eliminated ratings which is driving a new manager / employee relationship and providing strong data to make more effective leadership decisions on promotions & remuneration
3. WORKFORCE OF THE FUTURE
Independent workers, looking for flexible work arrangements, are here to stay
• 70 million professionals (more than 50% of the private workforce) will be independent by 2020 (
• 50% of knowledge work will be performed online by 2020
• 26% projected growth in the number of independent workers (2012-17)
Companies are looking for independent workers at an increasing pace
• 26% increase in the number of independent knowledge workers that companies are planning to engage over the next two years (2011 survey)
• Cloud computing, social media, mobility and other recent technology developments are enabling the emergence of a new type of flexible workforce
Alec talks about the changing face of talent and how the Talent ecosystem is moving to a blend of on and off balance sheet Talent . Why do organisations continue to look to replace FTE’s without looking at alternatives such as OTNs??
The concept is simple:
- The Open Talent concept allows an Organisation to access non-traditional forms of talent in an agile way leading to increased flexibility in workforce composition.
- It is a practical concept that will change the shape of our workforce as we know it to ready an Organisation for future market conditions.
- To do this an Organisation need to design, create and implement infrastructure that will allow them to fully leverage Open Talent.
- This will increase their access to top talent and enhance their operational agility as they move to become an irresistible organisation in the eyes of a rapidly changing, mobile and diverse workforce who seeks customised career growth and flexibility.
4. DIVERSITY & INCLUSION
In today’s world, Organisations need to harness an inclusive culture to drive thought leadership, sophisticated & value add client solutions, a work environment which values people for their creative knowledge and ideas and professional services
market eminence.
The Diversity agenda has now be a key component for many Boards and Executive Leaders however many cannot step beyond the ‘cosmetic’ strategies that don’t impact systematic Culture change. Alec will talk about how to successfully build a Diversity & Inclusion strategy including:
• Gender - how to attract, retain and advance talented women through a combination of targets, development and leadership change
• LGBTI - how to increase awareness and remove bias in the workplace to attract and retain talent
• Inclusive culture - create an respectful and engaging workplace where all people feel their contribution is valued
• Inclusive leadership - drive and shape the inclusive workplace through leadership behaviours
Alec will take you through how you can set up an effective Diversity Strategy by:
• Create a diverse TALENT PIPELINE…to build a diverse cohort of future leaders that enables Organisations to capitalise on their diverse business context
• Unlock potential through inclusion…by leveraging diversity of thought to deliver exceptional organisational performance and meet growth and innovation targets
• How to become the first choice destination for talent
