Canadian HR Reporter - Sample Issue

CANADIAN HR REPORTER OCTOBER 2018 12 NEWS Visit mindsmatter.civicaction.ca today. Powered by Introducing MindsMatter - a free online tool that tells you how to support workplace mental health in under 3 minutes. WANT TO CREATE A MORE MENTALLY HEALTHY WORKPLACE, BUT AREN'T SURE OF THE NEXT STEP TO TAKE? that are in areas that are heavily weather-dependent," he said. "To strip flexibility from those industries is to not understand that there are different needs, and that if you try to put a one size-fits-all solution on it, you are significantly disadvantaging by not understanding the needs of different regions of this province, and different sectors." However, the economic evi- dence has been positive for Ontar- io, with the lowest unemployment growth since 2000, and many busi- nesses saying they're flourishing with increased sales, said Ladd. "e kind of doom-and-gloom scenario that was used by the On- tario Chamber of Commerce to try to create a lot of fear and ner- vousness about these new labour reforms hasn't really come into being, hasn't actually happened. ere hasn't been hundreds of thousands of jobs lost, hasn't been total chaos, it's actually been OK, and in fact the economic story is really good." In many respects, Ontario was not at the forefront when it came to these workplace changes, said Gomez. "Quebec, in many respects, now has a more progressive labour and employment code than us and is doing far better right now. Its economy is really booming; Montreal has the lowest unem- ployment rate of any large city in the country. So, you know, looking to regulation as sort of either the solution or the villain is the wrong way. Yeah, we can definitely look to modernizing regulation but it's not the reason or the thing that's holding Ontario back. It's a much deeper set of issues that have to be threaded together." e chamber's request is short- sighted, he said. "You get into this game of short-term gains and long-term losses and I think the chamber of commerce is doing the same thing on the other side, which is (the case) if they push for this, and the government wants to appease them and sort of be seen as being pro-business and job-creating and productivity-enhancing — all that is dubious, by the way, to repeal a law that businesses have already invested in time to adapt to," said Gomez. "It might give you a short-term win politically, but it just means the next government will then do something very similar... and you get into this game of pendulum swinging." "You have to think more long- term and strategic, and maybe have a discussion about the right kinds of ways to regulate, and adapt legislation for the 21st cen- tury world of work. I think that would be a smarter move by the chamber." 'ink long-term' ONTARIO < pg. 6 have to be in policy — health and safety — but where there's areas of grey, best practice is creating an environment of respect and inclusion." Employers with HR depart- ments will likely already have policy and training in place to en- courage staff towards inclusion, said Kempe. "When you have a professional HR… you bring that level of so- phistication that understands cul- ture, and what drives engagement and a positive culture." A respectful workplace policy would broadly cover the topic of political conversation, said Kreissl. "A lot of times, a respectful workplace policy is going to deal mainly with co-workers, but I think it could also deal with customers and suppliers, or even a code of conduct," he said. "I don't think a lot of organizations have policies on political views or philosophies." Ensuring a non-discrimination policy is in place is important, said Rudner. "It's important to make it clear that you can't discriminate against anyone or refuse to work with anyone because of their politi- cal views," he said. "When you're talking about inter-employee re- lationships, you treat everybody with respect and it doesn't matter what their political views are, or any other factors. And you may not like them, and you may not socialize with them, but you are still required to work with them to the extent that your job requires." Advice for HR Going forward, retail organiza- tions may want to explicitly state they are non-partisan, said Kreissl. "Organizations should have policies that empower their front- line employees to be able to refuse service to people who are racist or bigoted in any way," he said. "But to just refuse to serve someone based on their political views — as long as they're not espousing any hateful kind of abuse — I think that's a little much." Differences of opinion should continue to be expected in a free and democratic society, and dis- cussion of different issues remains permissible — as long as it's re- spectful, said Kreissl. "If you don't allow for differenc- es of opinion, then I think you can run into a lot of problems," he said. "To truly value your organi- zation's diverse workforce, you should be able to allow for some debate and some comment and some back and forth, and for people to even air contrary views, because I think if you try to stifle debate and opinion, or you try to come down on one side, then you can end up getting the situation you're seeing at Google, after the James Damore affair (when an engineer wrote a controversial memo in 2017 about the com- pany's diversity policies)." "You want to try to avoid that," said Kreissl. "You don't want to be accused of stifling free speech, but there's a line. It can't be any- thing hateful, it can't be anything discriminatory. And I also think you have to be very careful when you're doing anything in front of customers or clients, or any- thing spoken on behalf of the organization." HR should also be aware that the prohibitive grounds of dis- crimination vary among jurisdic- tions across Canada, said Kempe. "Depending on what province you're in, and what jurisdiction you're in, the protection of free- dom of political perspective is very different." TRUMP < pg. 7 Diversity requires debate "You don't want to be accused of stifling free speech, but there's a line. It can't be anything hateful."

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