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Benefits and Pensions MonitorDebbie Fedyk Director of Human Resources Alcon Canada Inc. Debbie Fedyk is the director of human resources at Alcon Canada Inc. where she oversees the strategic and daily operations of the corporate human resources department. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Western Ontario, received her C.H.R.P. designation in 1992, and is currently pursuing her dual CCP and CBP certifications. Her 15-year career in human resources has been primarily as a generalist practitioner with special assignments in recruitment, training and development, and labour relations. Creating a governance structure is more than just processing a document. This is one of many lessons learned by the pension committee at Alcon Canada Inc. “As we became more astute in our responsibilities, we realized that governance was something we really had to understand and embrace to adopt,” says Debbie Fedyk, director of human resources. Fedyk joined Alcon Canada in 1996 and one of her first undertakings was to review the company’s pension plan. Established in 1959, Alcon Canada markets ophthalmic pharmaceuticals, surgical products, instrumentation, and contact lens care products. The company’s headquarters is located in Mississauga, Ont. and it employs 210 people across the Canada. It is a subsidiary of U.S.-based Alcon Laboratories Inc., which is owned by Nestle. It has 210 employees and only a small handful of retirees. It has a compulsory Defined Contribution pension plan in which the employer provides the contributions, although employee contributions are allowed. During the initial stages of her review of the pension plan, Fedyk received support from the U.S. corporate office, which suggested the company form a pension committee. The parent company also helped Alcon Canada to develop a mandate for the committee. The pension committee was formed in 1997. By 1999, the issue of governance came up and a subcommittee consisting of four pension committee members was formed to create a formal governance structure.
Better Left To Specialists “About a year later, we gave up and handed the project over to our pension advisers,” says Fedyk. The team realized that it did not have the knowledge, expertise, or time required to execute such a large undertaking. “We realized some things are better left to the specialists.” By November 2000, the first draft of the governance structure document was complete. It was during the review of this document that the pension committee realized this wasn’t something they could just sign off on. The committee found the terminology was legalese and often ambiguous. “As we became more knowledgeable in pension committee functions, we decided that this was something we needed to embrace more deeply. So, we basically tore it apart line by line to make sure we understood everything. And that took a long time.” In November 2002, “we finally got the sign off from our board of directors. Now we have a document with a governance timetable in place.” Fedyk realizes, however, that implementing a governance structure is an evolutionary process. “It’s something that we’re going to continue to improve on.” Yet, Alcon Canada has already had some key learnings through the emergent structure. The project “was a good audit for us as we discovered some inconsistencies between interpretation of mandate, plan documents, plan language and applications.” It also provided the company with documentation of processes and guidelines as well as the impetus to establish new guidelines that need to be drafted to ensure consistent quality. Fedyk says the governance structure is adjunct to many other sectors of the company as well. Because Alcon Canada is a fairly small company, Fedyk sits on many committees including the pension committee, the quality management committee, and the privacy task force. She foresees the need for some type of governance structure for each of these sectors. “And I see these all feed up into what’s now out there as corporate governance.” Four Pillars With the pension review behind her, Fedyk is ready to focus on another area of the human resources department. “We have a concise strategic plan which helps us guide our objectives and helps us determine what we should be focused on. Obviously, legislature will always play a role in our environment and will always dictate some of our priorities. However, through our Vision 2004, we focus on four pillars: the customer, the people, financial performance, and operational effectiveness. Each of these pillars dictates goals.” And, based on these pillars, Fedyk’s next venture will be on the benefits side. |
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