Canadian HR Reporter

October 5, 2015

Canadian HR Reporter is the national journal of human resource management. It features the latest workplace news, HR best practices, employment law commentary and tools and tips for employers to get the most out of their workforce.

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CANADIAN HR REPORTER October 5, 2015 2 NEWS Recent stories posted on www.hrreporter.com. Check the website daily for quick news hits from across Canada and around the world. WEB O N T H E ACROSS CANADA Use of medical marijuana at work poses challenges: Experts Recent B.C. case illustrates limits for employers Canadian cities drop in annual ranking for expatriates Vancouver falls 23 places with dollar weakening against U.S. Universities should stop paying ex-presidents big salaries: Nova Scotia minister Asks education ministers to call halt to such contracts AROUND THE WORLD Workplace bullying may increase risk of suicidal thoughts: Study 800,000 people worldwide commit suicide annually 2.3 million people respond to posting for 368 low- level offi ce jobs in India Candidates with PhDs, advanced degrees lining up for errand- running jobs e power of resilience How can resilience completely change a person's experience of work? Andrew Soren, an expert on positive psychology and leadership advisor with BMO Financial Group, sat down with Canadian HR Reporter TV to explain. hrreporter.com FEATURED VIDEO Full-time | Part-time | Online Give your HR practice the added advantage. Immigration Consultant Diploma Program FOR INFORMATION & APPLICATION: 604.449.4788 or 1.866.609.0936 www.ashtoncollege.ca Qualifying as a regulated immigration consultant allows you to assist and represent foreign talent in the immigration process. Employers looking to improve branding eff orts: Survey Focusing on greater sophistication, consistency, measurement BY SARAH DOBSON WHILE THE concept of em- ployer branding has been around for awhile, employers are become more dedicated to the cause — and sophisticated in their eff orts — judging by a report by the Blu Ivy Group. Two-thirds of Canada's largest employers started developing an employer brand strategy in 2015, found its survey of 100 HR and C- suite leaders, in partnership with Glassdoor. And among those with a strategy in development, many expressed a desire to improve on the levels of sophistication. It all started as recruitment marketing, said Stacy Parker, co- founder and managing director of Blu Ivy in Toronto. "But as leaders are starting to see this big shift in how important the culture and people alignment and the engagement and pro- ductivity issues are, they are now starting to see the big needs," she said. "What leaders are looking for is the impact on engagement and customer loyalty and retention." IBM's brand strategy is to be a great company and, therefore, a great brand, said Katherine Faich- nie, IBM Canada's HR leader in Toronto. " e goal is to make informa- tion about our company more shareable, so IBMers will amplify, comment, create content around it, contribute their expertise, en- gage with each other, their com- pany and in the communities they live and work," she said. " e real potential of this idea is to unlock the power of human-to-human connections, for infl uence and ad- vocacy. And do this in an authen- tic, engaging way that's consistent with our brand." ese days, the truth gets out, so it's all about transparency and authenticity, said Graham Don- ald, vice-president of insight and brand strategy at Day Communi- cations in Toronto. "You have to be what you say you are," he said. " at consis- tency between their reality and what they say about themselves is critical." Amazon, for example, found it- self in hot water recently when its external brand didn't necessarily match its internal brand, accord- ing to a New York Times article. " at's really the whole basis of employer branding is to recognize that this isn't a customer, it's an employee, so it's a diff erent mes- sage that needs to be put together," said Donald — but that doesn't mean an employer brand can't be aspirational in nature. "It should be aspirational — in other words, it's not factually who you are now, it's also where you're headed and what you're trying to become, and that's the extent to which an employer brand can be used to direct the internal culture to say, 'We're trying to be more this way.' But that can't be a com- plete departure from your reality." Consistency concerns ere are problems around con- sistency in employer branding, ac- cording to Blu Ivy. ree-quarters (76 per cent) of the organizations acknowledged managers and leaders have not been trained on the employer brand, employee value proposition and employer promise — leading to "a massive gap" in what is being promised and what managers are delivering. "What happens is you've gone through all of this eff ort of iden- tifying the value proposition, de- livering a promise, doing a lot of great talent communications but managers don't know the value proposition because it hasn't be- come a part of the culture, they don't know the promise and they don't know how to deliver it with consistent experience," said Parker. Diverse roles within an organi- zation, such as a warehouse and offi ce, can lead to diff erent expe- riences with the employer brand, said Donald. " at can be very damaging, to have these huge inconsisten- cies between the experience of one group and another, and this is where the employer brand goes far beyond a communications ex- ercise and is much more a cultural exercise." Shared brand responsibility puts a greater emphasis on inte- grated communications and con- sistency of communications at IBM, said Faichnie. Employer branding Six things IBM Canada has learned, according to Katherine Faichnie, HR leader Brand and culture are indivisible: One of our senior leaders, Sandy Carter, likes to say, "Culture eats strategy for breakfast." Listen: Our jam sessions have shown that crowd-sourcing employees' ideas helps strengthen the brand and gives employees a real stake in its success. Stay authentic: Don't base success on a product or technology but on the refl ection of corporate character — and defi ne that fi rst before you expand brand responsibility outside marketing. Don't be afraid: Don't be afraid to give up some control of the brand in favour of having employees take a greater ownership stake in its success. Collaborate: Collaborate even more than what you think is required. Trust: Trust your colleagues and employees to be interested in maintaining brand health and help them understand what that means and the role they can play in the brand's success — if required. IT'S > pg. 3 190 Reasons Membership with the Canadian Payroll Association is essential. Canada's 1.5 million employers count on payroll professionals to annually pay $865 billion in wages and taxable benefits, $290 billion in statutory remittances, and $163 billion in benefits - all while complying with 190 regulatory requirements. Start enjoying your membership today at payroll.ca Member Benefits Include: ✔ Unlimited access to the Association's #1 service, Payroll InfoLine This member service answers over 38,000 inquiries per year. ✔ Member pricing for Professional Development Seminars and Webinars Over 20 topics covered in seminars across Canada. ✔ Payroll Resources at payroll.ca and printed publications l Legislative Compliance Rates Sheet l Payroll Best Practice Guidelines & Checklists l Timely legislative updates via electronic e-Source TM 90 of Canada's top 100 companies count on the Canadian Payroll Association membership for their payroll compliance knowledge

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