Are you a new leader or a business with leadership staff?

Have you invested in leadership training? If not, you could be at a disadvantage!

Effective leadership is critical to business success. Our leaders must know how to listen effectively, to guide, inspire, and to motivate our staff.

Many times our businesses struggle with understanding why they have so much employee turnover. Some don’t truly understand, that employees don’t leave businesses, they leave bad managers.

Have a business that is struggling with employee turnover? Take a look at your leadership team – consider leadership training and coaching. New to leadership or struggling in your role – take steps to learn how to be more effective in your role. Your people will thank you, you will become more successful in your career, and the business will benefit in a positive manner.

Have you noticed a difference in your recruiting cycles during the Pandemic?  Some job postings are flooded with applications while others certainly receive little response.  Why is this and what can you do about it?

Some of the reasons around the fluctuation in applicants have to do specifically with the job.  Some jobs are in high demand right now and therefore the amount of applicants to these types of positions are much less than what they would be pre-pandemic.  We also believe that some people who would normally be an applicant are taking advantage of the Infectious Disease Leave renumeration and spending time with family, rather than seeking a new job.

If you are advertising for a job that is receiving very few applications, you may have to re-think your strategy.  Some things you can look at:

• Consider advertising on different platforms i.e. industry specific job boards
• Utilize social media.
• Encourage management and staff to add open postings to their LinkedIn profiles, or to otherwise share via their own social media.
• Implement a referral bonus policy (if not in place already) where a bonus gets paid to an employee who recommends a candidate who then is hired and passes their first 3 months.
• Consider co-op programs – it is a chance to get a head start on candidates before they have graduated and before the enter the job market where there is more competition – and an added bonus, it allows you – the employer to “try them out” first without having to commit long term.
• Look internally – can you promote, a current employee – maybe provide them with a bit of mentoring or coaching as needed to fulfil the duties of the role and hire to replace their position instead?
• Is your application process cumbersome?  You may be losing applicants who don’t want to bother with all the extra application steps.
• Hold a job fair (may have to be virtual right now…).
• Consider an open house (again – may need to be virtual).
• Remember – marketing your company as a great place to work can make an impact.  You want people to already know about your company and be waiting for an opportunity to join.

These times call for creativity and thinking outside the box.  What can you come up with to get a “leg up” on the competition?  Understand that during these times, you may have a longer recruitment cycle – so build in time.  Also remember that often, you are looking to attract applicants that are already in jobs – what is it that you can offer that is “better” than what they have already in place?

Dig in, put on the “innovation hat” and make things happen!

Career planning in the workplace – it’s kind of like succession planning.  Many employers don’t tend to think about it until all of the sudden they are in a situation where they need to fill an open position – then they wish they had spent time working with employees and their career path, grooming them for potential openings that fall in their area of desired growth.

Yes, it is an investment to work on career plans with employees and to pay for or subsidize continuing education, however the benefit can far outweigh these initial costs.

6 benefits of implementing career planning in your organization:

• Reduction in turnover
• Reduction in recruitment costs
• Increased morale
• Promotion of a learning culture – more educated staff
• Less business disruption from employees leaving
• Improved productivity

Sometimes I hear concerns from employers about investing time and money into educating their employees and the worry that they might leave the company.  I have two responses to this:  1 – “What if they stay?” and 2 – Ensure your education policy has a claw-back stipulation in place such that if they leave your company within X amount of time, they owe Y amount back to the company from their education costs. 

What does a company that invests in education say to the employee?  Well, it says that they are dedicated to seeing growth in their people, it shows commitment to continuous learning, it shows that employees are an important asset and worth the investment.  This is also very attractive to job seekers and may assist in the recruitment process to pull good people away from other offers or opportunities if they see a commitment to growth and development.

Invest in your people, they are your most important asset.

As a company, you have done the right thing to help protect your employees from potential exposure to the COVID-19 virus.  Most likely, you have put a policy in place that states that employees may not come in to work if they are feeling ill. Your policy also states that they may not come into work if they have someone in their household who is feeling ill.  You have noted that they can’t come to work for 14 days if they have been exposed to the virus or have the virus.  Finally, your policy also states that if they or any family member has been out of the country, they must isolate for 14 days and not come to work during that time.  These have been great steps at protecting your employees.   BUT…employees are not listening. 

Many of our clients have been frustrated at the number of employees ignoring these policies and coming to work ill or after exposure.  We believe this is mainly due to the employee feeling extreme pressure financially to keep working.  People are afraid of losing their home or not being able to pay their bills – or both.  We must police this situation closely and send employees home. 

Today, we have heard the announcement of banks providing mortgage relief.  The Prime Minister has announced an increase in the Child Benefit Amount, a supplement GST credit to lower income families, EI for those who do not qualify and Emergency Care benefits.  As well, those individuals owing income tax will have until August 2020 to pay. We hope that employees will now feel some release of pressure and that this will directly impact their decision to respect their workplace policies and minimize risk to others.

Some additional information on the above:

Emergency Care Benefit:

Introducing the Emergency Care Benefit providing up to $900 bi-weekly, for up to 15 weeks. This flat-payment Benefit would be administered through the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and provide income support to: 

• Workers, including the self-employed, who are quarantined or sick with COVID-19 but do not qualify for EI sickness benefits. 

• Workers, including the self-employed, who are taking care of a family member who is sick with COVID-19, such as an elderly parent, but do not quality for EI sickness benefits. 

• Parents with children who require care or supervision due to school closures, and are unable to earn employment income, irrespective of whether they qualify for EI or not. 

The Application for the Emergency Care Benefit will be available in April 2020 and requires Canadians to attest that they meet the eligibility requirements.  If looking to apply, they can do so: 
 1. Via their CRA MyAccount secure portal; 
2. Via their secure My Service Canada Account; or 
3. by calling a toll-free number equipped with an automated application process. 

Longer-Term Income Support for Workers 

For Canadians who lose their jobs or face reduced hours as a result of the impact of COVID-19 impact, the government is: 

• Introducing an Emergency Support Benefit delivered through the CRA to provide up to five billion dollars in support to workers who are not eligible for EI and who are facing unemployment. 

• Implementing the EI Work Sharing Program, which provides EI benefits to workers who agree to reduce their normal working hour as a result of developments beyond the control of their employers, by extending the eligibility of such agreements to 76 weeks, easing eligibility requirements, and streamlining the application process. This was announced by the Prime Minister on March 11, 2020. 

We will continue to wait for additional measures like rent relief.

The Federal Government is proposing to provide eligible small employers with a temporary wage subsidy for 3 months to be able to support businesses that are facing revenue losses and to help prevent layoffs.  The subsidy amount will be 10% of the employee salary paid during that period up to $1,375 as a maximum per employee.  There is a cap to this subsidy of $25,000.  Our understanding is that businesses can benefit immediately from this by reducing their remittances of income tax withheld on their employee’s salary.  If you are eligible for this small business deduction, this will help somewhat.

Here is a link to more information and more information on what is noted above.

Let’s do what we can to continue to protect our people and our businesses.

As always, reach out if we can help. www.1stophrconsulting.com info@1stophrconsulting.com

March 17 2020 – Ontario has now declared a State of Emergency.

How does this impact employers?

The orders that are given could impact the way you operate your business.  Please stay on top of these orders and ensure that you are compliant.  i.e. orders can and do range from travel regulations, closing your business office or establishment, fixing prices for goods, services or resources, etc.  A state of emergency does have some defined timelines however in reality, it can stay in place until such a declaration is no longer necessary. 

If you are ordered to shut down your physical business office, what do you do with your employees?

If you cannot operate your business virtually – or the shut down includes the entire business virtual or not – you may lay off your employees – they are entitled to a job protected leave of absence without pay  until they are reinstated.  I am ready and prepared to help you prepare a lay off notice and can assist you in notifying your employees virtually either by direct phone call to them or via video conference.

Layoffs generally can last up to 13 weeks, however under special circumstances, they can extend beyond this…we are waiting to hear if the government will look at extending this and granting this pandemic as a “special circumstance”.  Once the lay off time period has been met (meaning the employee has not been recalled to work and the business is not able to recall them at this time, they would be considered to be terminated.  In this case, the employee would be entitled to termination pay.

I have employees who will be devastated financially if there is a lay-off.  What can I do?

A company can always provide some kind of paid leave before enacting a true layoff, however this is a financial investment and may not be in the budget of the company.  The government continues to say that they are actively working on plans to help employees during a layoff or in situations where they cannot work due to reasons stemming from this crisis.  Right now, there is EI.  Employees may also qualify for income replacement.  We are waiting to hear what else might be available.

Can I terminate employees?

No.  You cannot terminate employees due to this crisis.  The employees are protected. 

If you have documentation of performance concerns and were getting ready to terminate them before this crisis arose, are you in a better position and can you terminate in this case?  First, documentation is key, so that is great, however, I would not advise terminating them until this crisis has ended or until they are not protected – and even then, I would add some time before going forward.  It would certainly not be in your best interest to do a termination during this time.

As a company we need our employees to work longer in response to the pandemic, can we do this?

It depends on the situation.  You may be able to do this if it is necessary i.e. to deal with an emergency, if something unforeseen occurs, to ensure the continued delivery of essential public services, regardless of who delivers those services, if something unforeseen occurs, to ensure continuous processes, to carry out urgent repair work to plant/equipment – you will want to look into this further to ensure the reasoning qualifies and is absolutely necessary.

Of course, overtime pay is required (unless the employees are exempt under the ESA).

Please know that you are not alone.  If you need assistance, please reach out to us.  www.1stophrconsulting.com   or info@1stophrconsulting.com

We are all in this together.