Margaret Clark, Senior Director of HR for Canada, Oracle Corporation
By Laurel Hyatt
Founded in 1977,
Oracle Corporation brands itself as “the world's largest enterprise software company.” With annual revenues of more than US$9.4 billion and some 43,000 employees globally, the company, which is based in Redwood Shores, California, offers its database, tools, and applications products, along with related consulting, education, and support services, in more than 145 countries around the world.
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Margaret Clark
Oracle Corporation
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Oracle Corporation Canada Inc., founded in 1984, is headquartered in Mississauga, Ont. and has approximately 1,100 employees in Canada.
Margaret Clark, Senior Director of Human Resources for Oracle Canada, is the company’s most senior human resources leader in this country. Workplace Today caught up with her to ask about the HR challenges facing the company in today’s tighter high tech market.
WT:
What do Oracle employees in Canada do? In other words, do they only, say, work in sales and marketing, or do they do product development, do you have any manufacturing facilities here, etc?
MC:
All of the above, except for manufacturing. At Oracle we have employees who work across a number of areas including sales, both direct and indirect, marketing, finance, consulting, HR, product support, and development. We also have Oracle University, which is our training line of business.
WT:
What would you say is your biggest HR challenge at the moment?
MC:
I think it’s no secret that Oracle is a highly dynamic company where change is certainly a constant. In order for us to always be at the forefront of innovation and to properly service our customers’ needs, this has really become a necessity for us. Helping employees deal effectively with that change on a very regular basis is probably one of our biggest HR challenges. This very much has been the culture of Oracle—to have a lot of change.
An example would be Oracle’s drive to become a truly global organization. As a result, the number of employees who report to managers remotely has significantly increased, so it’s become even more imperative that HR work closely not only with the employee, but with the manager, to ensure that both parties clearly understand what their roles are in this context.
WT:
Very few high tech companies were unaffected by the slowdown in the market. Did you at any point have to lay off employees in Canada?
MC:
Yes we have, but if you look at the bigger picture, in any given week, somewhere in Oracle, employees will leave the company and new employees will join. We’re regularly re-evaluating the business critical staffing requirements as part of our ongoing efforts to consolidate our operations and to eliminate redundancy in different parts of the company and also to increase our technological time.
We are always adding new headcount in key areas of the business and we continue our recruiting efforts to pursue growth markets. Recently we hired a number of individuals in Canada to support our sales team for Oracle University. We have hired approximately 60 to 70 people fairly recently in that particular line of business and a year ago we hired well over 100 people in a 10-week period as a result of an expansion in another one of the lines of business. We’re constantly hiring as we re-evaluate the business requirements.
WT:
It sounds like you’re never going to have a stasis where nothing is happening—you’re always going to be adjusting in some areas and hiring in others.
MC:
That’s right. This is something Oracle has always done and they’ve done very well. So I think we’re fortunate in that we haven’t had to do the massive layoffs so many other companies have experienced not just once, but many times over the last couple of years.
WT:
I’m sure you must do workforce planning exercises. Do you have a crystal ball that says, “OK in a year or two we might be doing some substantial hiring so that we have a net gain of jobs”?
MC:
No, I don’t have a crystal ball. I wish I did! We haven’t been at our current level of employee headcount often in the history of Oracle Canada and I think that’s indicative of the fact that net-net we still seem to be growing.
WT:
I wanted to ask about the slogan that Oracle has as being “the world’s largest enterprise software company.” Being so recognizable, do you get a lot of job applicants?
MC:
Yes, we still receive a large number of applicants and I think there are several reasons that account for that. One would certainly be that Oracle is renowned globally as a provider of innovative and high quality enterprise software. We’re also an extremely well managed company that consistently has met its financial expectations and continues to profit even during these tough times for the IT industry. Also, as consolidation continues in the IT industry, Oracle is one of the few companies that most people will agree will be around for many years to come. Oracle is well known as an exciting employer that provides very competitive remuneration and ongoing growth opportunities.
WT:
One area of potential candidates would be recent graduates from the IT field. They’re looking around for employment choices. Do you think they’re attracted to a bigger company because it might be more stable than a small one? In other words, has the lustre of working for a start-up maybe worn off for these young people?
MC:
Certainly the lustre of working for a start-up or small company has worn off. With the current economic climate, coupled with the anticipated industry consolidation, working for a company like Oracle that is strong, stable, and economically responsible is certainly a very attractive proposition for many new grads and employees. Oracle is unique in that not only is it a large, successful company, it is also one that is driven by a strong commitment to innovation and industry leadership, which, as you know, many IT graduates find very exciting. That’s really the kind of company that they’re looking to start their careers with.
I think the industry attracts a certain kind of individual. People who thrive on innovation, change, and complexity are attracted to a company like Oracle and are attracted to the high tech industry. I’ve always said that 50% of making the right hiring decision is whether or not the person is going to be the right cultural fit. And that’s not the case for everyone. Those people who want exciting, challenging, fast-paced, constant change are going to seriously consider a company like Oracle.
WT:
Is another advantage of working with Oracle being such a global company? Do your employees have a lot of opportunity to work elsewhere?
MC:
I’d say so. Certainly Oracle is truly a global company. Many employees in Oracle are part of what we term the “virtual team” and their colleagues are spread right across the globe. We’ve had many employees transfer to Oracle Canada from other countries and we’ve seen Canadian employees go on to experience new opportunities internationally. That happens all the time.
WT:
A little bit closer to home, do you recruit on campus anywhere in Canada?
MC:
We don’t at the moment. Up until about a couple of years ago, Oracle had a very exciting intern program that was devoted to actively recruiting approximately 20 to 30 new grads each year. And these were permanent, full-time hires. However, with the economy performing the way it has over the last few years, we’ve stopped this program for now, although we still do hire grads on a case-by-case basis if there’s a good fit between the role and the candidate.
WT:
We’ve all heard the stories about the perqs that the high tech firms had in the boom times to try to find and keep talent. What do you do to compete with the pizza parties and the foosball tables?
MC:
Well, we have the pizza parties. In addition to offering competitive remuneration, we offer benefits such as employee stock options. We have an employee stock purchase plan, we have a company-matched registered retirement savings program, and we also pay for most benefits for employees. We provide financial and lifestyle seminars and extensive employee professional development opportunities. Our head office facility includes an on-site cafeteria and gym, as well as an on-site daycare. But no foosball.
WT:
You were mentioning stock options. Do you think that they’re viewed the same way by high tech employees in general as they might have been two or three years ago?
MC:
I think stock options are seen as a longer term income opportunity whereas a few years ago they were definitely seen as an opportunity to make a lot of money very quickly. Employees still value the stock options; however, they realize it will take longer now before they realize the significant return of previous years.
But they’re still of value.
WT:
In terms of setting the HR policies for Oracle Canada, do you have a fair bit of autonomy here or are a lot of the strategies centralized from California?
MC:
I’m pleased to say for the most part, yes, I have full autonomy for HR and HR policy within Canada.
Due to local market conditions and the various trends and different legislative requirements in Canada, we really need to have this flexibility. That being said, I am a member of the global HR committee that sets worldwide HR policy and certainly there are some policies that are implemented globally such as standards in maintaining HR data, treatment of international assignments and relocation, development of variable compensation plans, etc. These kinds of policies are established at the global level.
WT:
I think there are some instances where you really have to adopt policies here in Canada. Just off the top of my head, I can think of the maternity leave provisions here, which are completely different than in the U.S.
MC:
Exactly. A greater example is our pay equity legislation in Ontario and now in Quebec. You don’t have this anywhere else in the world and it’s always a challenge to educate managers outside of Canada on some of the things that are very unique and very specific to managing people in Canada. We’ve had pay equity at Oracle Canada since 1991.
WT:
The last questions I had deal with your own career. How does you position fit into the management of Oracle’s operations in Canada?
MC:
I report directly into Joyce Westerdahl, and she’s the Senior Vice President Human Resources for Oracle Corporation globally. Joyce reports directly to the Chief Financial Officer, Jeff Henley, for the corporation.
WT:
Have you always worked in HR?
MC:
For the most part, yes.
WT:
How did you get started?
MC:
That’s taking me back quite a way. My first job was working in a sales environment and I was always interested in the employee issues. I really just got drawn into it. I was intrigued by the challenges and decided that was what I wanted to pursue in the longer term.
WT:
Have you always worked in the high tech field?
MC:
No; however, I’m in my 17th year with Oracle and prior to that, I worked in the insurance industry. I was also in executive search for a number of years prior to joining Oracle. Oracle has been my only experience working in the high tech industry.
WT:
You say you’re in your 17th year. Sometimes we think of high tech being a really new industry, yet there are some players who’ve been around and predate the Internet and all of that sexy, dot-com start-up stuff. What is it about Oracle that has kept you with the company for that length of time?
MC:
If you were to ask me when I first joined the company what I’d be doing two years, five years, 10 years down the road, I don’t think in my wildest imagination I ever would have thought I’d still be working at Oracle or even in the industry. I joined the industry at a time when individuals didn’t plan to work in IT for more than a few years—it was really unheard of.
But for me Oracle has been very fulfilling, very satisfying. It attracts a certain kind of individual who really thrives on change and the kind of challenges that we are faced with. I think something that may be unique for HR at Oracle is we are truly, truly engaged in the business. For many years we’ve heard about HR wanting to bring value to businesses, but that’s something that we have actually been doing for a very long time because we are so engaged.
I’ve always been part of the executive committee for Oracle Canada. I think when you have that kind of respect and you’re able to partner with the business like that, coupled with the culture here, I’ve not seriously looked outside of Oracle in the 17 years that I’ve been here, because I truly believe that there’s no other company out there that can offer me the challenges and experiences that Oracle has been able to and I believe will continue to in the future.
WT:
You were mentioning if I’d asked you 17 years ago what you would be doing in five years, you wouldn’t have dreamed you’d still be there. If you can look at this point in time and say what would you like to be doing in five years, what would you say?
MC:
Other than retirement? (laughs) I think that as long as it continues to offer the change and the challenge and the professional growth that I feel I’ve enjoyed over the years, I truly can’t imagine doing anything else or being anywhere else. I just don’t think that there are a lot of companies out there, certainly none that I can name, that would continue to offer to me what Oracle has for so many years. And I mean that sincerely.
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