HR Professional - August/September 2008 - (Page 45)

The Home Depot encourages creativity, innovation and improvement of productivity, and those are things that people want to be a part of. Do we recognize these things enough? No. But we do work really hard at it. HRP: How are you going to communicate and instill those values to a completely new and different culture? AV: When I was asked to run The Home Depot China, I insisted on building a local leadership team. We found Yves Chen—he had experience with multinationals and opening supercentres in Asia—to run the operation, and built a team around him to develop the customer model to go forward. For the ﬁrst six months we concentrated on communicating The Home Depot’s values to our 3,000 employees. The Chinese have been very receptive of our values. I think because the ﬁrst money we spent was on the employees. We cleaned up the store’s lunchrooms, added new bathrooms and made adjustments to their salaries, which hadn’t changed in years. This was the key to gaining their respect. HRP: Why is the time right for Chinese expansion? AV: The Home Depot has had great success in Canada and Mexico, but the company was looking for the next frontier. The economics of going into Europe was marginal, so Asia seemed to be the right place to go. China has powerful growth and expansion opportunities. China has 45 cities— each with a population of over a million—and a city with eight million people is considered small. Look, 300 million people have moved from rural areas into cities in the last 20 years—that’s the population of the United States! While their economy has slowed recently, it’s still showing a GDP of just under 10 per cent. A byproduct of this growth is that the Chinese people now expect the services that are available in the west. HRP: What is The Home Depot’s plan? AV: We currently have 12 stores in northern China that were part of the Home Way chain we took over 12 months ago. Right now, we’re evaluating the prototype to go forward, but the size of that market is phenomenal—to the tune of hundreds of stores. We have to do it pragmatically and economically. But we’re very excited by what we see so far. The home market in China is very different than it is here. Seventeen years ago there was no w w w.H RThought L eader. c om More than of candidates falsify their resume Prevent frauds and manage risks while selecting the right people. As one of the most trusted pre-employment firms in Canada, we provide you with comprehensive reports to help you hire the right candidate. Our tailored exit interview program assists you in the management and retention of your best employees. 22% What we do: .: .: .: .: .: reference criminal and civil record credit scoring and bankruptcy diploma, accreditation driving record, immigration status, international security . : exit interview Contact us today, for a safer work environment: 416.915.9500 ext.3799 800.353.2049 ext. 3799 or infopreemployment@on.garda.ca Visit our new web site: gardaglobal.com 370749_garda.indd 1 A u g u s t / S e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 85/28/08 45 11:00:50 AM http://www.garda.ca http://www.HRThoughtLeader.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of HR Professional - August/September 2008

HR Professional - August/September 2008 Contents Editor's Letter Contributors Leadership Matters Upfront Legal Compensation Human Capital The New Frontier On Message Strategy HR 101 Interview with Annette Veschuren Talent Management Training Work/Life Balance Off the Shelf The Last Word

HR Professional - August/September 2008

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