In Conversation With Kim Madigan

Kim Madigan, Vice-President, Human Resources, CN, shares her perspectives of the major human resources (HR) challenges facing the company. Managing a staff of 150 HR employees across the United States and Canada, Madigan’s office is responsible for workplace compensation, pensions, benefits, talent management and labour relations. And her perspectives might just surprise you. Do you think CN, as a large organization with over 24,000 employees, is static? In the past five years, CN has hired 14,000 employees. As a result, nearly 40 per cent of the workforce is now from “Generation Y,” the youngest cohort currently entering the workforce. Some of the greatest challenges are recruiting and retaining these employees, and finding a balance between their desires for short-term incentives and built-in flexible work schedules with those of older unionized employees, who tend to favour traditional pension benefits and seniority for shift scheduling.