HR and Hockey (yes, we're Canadian)

The Stanley Cup finals are upon us. TribeHR is an unabashedly Canadian company, and we couldn’t be more excited. Alas, my beloved Habs have been knocked out by the hated Boston Bruins, so I'm left to grudgingly support the Swedish twins.

Professional hockey is a business with an interesting set of HR challenges. Even independent of the business component, properly managing any hockey team offers a number of lessons relevant to strong human resources practice. Consider:

It’s important to track your stats.

Who scores the most points? They should be getting the most exposure, the best opportunities, and the big contract. Who is struggling? Find a way to help them succeed. You can’t do any of this without tracking statistics.

Diversity matters.

 There’s an argument, in pro hockey, that a team without enough Canadian players will not succeed in the playoffs. While much of what Don Cherry says borders on racism, the argument for diversity is well established and well supported. Having a diversity of genders, cultures, and abilities brings a variety of experiences, which promote creativity and reach a wider audience. Plus you don’t want a team full of bench warmers.

Training is key.

Even the hardest worker needs a good coach in order to excel. And the best coach won't succeed unless the players are willing to work hard. Knowledge and motivation are critical to success in any discipline.

Location Location Location.

The NHL struggles to find a balance between hockey-crazed markets, markets with a large population base, and cities where players want to work and live. If you want to attract and retain staff, you have to meet their lifestyle needs. If you want to attract customers, you need to promote your product where there's demand for it.

Be careful off the ice.

Think you can completely separate your personal life from your work life? Think again. Hockey has countless examples of off-ice behaviour, deliberate or accidental, affecting the entireteam. If your employees aren’t careful, they could attract negative media attention.

Sometimes management needs to intervene.

Sean Avery is the case in point. When off-ice behaviour becomes too much of a distraction, management needs to step in. Players need to be disciplined, or even traded. As an organization, when incidents become too severe or too frequent, you need to be prepared to dole out progressive discipline, or cut people loose.

Teamwork and culture make all the difference.

Teams that don’t get along don’t succeed. There’s a reason they lock themselves up in hotels, travel on the same bus, and get rid of the bad apples. While you should be careful about overdoing it, everyone needs to be able to work together.