Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER JUNE 2019 20 NEWS expectations and needs. "You have to know what the profile of your employee is. De- pending on the industry sector, or the type of workers you have, the needs will not always be the same," said Gagné. ere are no mandatory meas- ures to the certification. "e whole thing, we want to keep it as simple as possible. Our position really is we're there to help companies to innovate, and move forward and (reach) those best practices," he said. "But we want to ensure, of course, that adding the seal has meaning. So, we have to put some controls as to how." e network realized it could not just come up with a list of detailed measures that everybody had to put in place, said Gagné. "ere are too many variations in the realities of the different sec- tors. So, at the very basis, these measures have to be discussed with employees, and have to cor- respond to the specific needs of your employee group." ere is no one size fits all to the certification, said Dorval. "You have to do and to show and to put in place measures, but not necessarily the same from one employer to the other. But you have to have several measures that are between different categories. Some of them will be related to days off for balanced work, and some others will have to also im- plement better communication, compensation. Some others will offer services such as kindergart- en, so they are different things… because every (workplace) has their own situation." Employers would have to of- fer family-work reconciliation measures in at least four areas: the organization of time and the workplace (such as remote work or flexible schedules); support for employees (such as daycare); leaves (paid or unpaid) for family responsibilities that exceed the minimum standards; and adapt- ability of work organization (such as having replacement workers when needed). As for the last area, quite fre- quently, cross-training is being offered by employers, said Bragge. "Where before individuals used to just get a specific job and an HR manager put out a job description, it was for one particular skill set, and one particular role. Now, we're starting to see, particularly in the smaller to mid-size compa- nies... companies who say, 'OK, I need somebody who can do x), y), z). But I need somebody who has the aptitude to do something else.' So, you're seeing... a little bit more of that lateral movement within organizations — it helps the turn- over and helps manage the work- flow… so that the morale is higher, and people are getting an oppor- tunity to try different things." But when it comes to employ- ers offering more than the mini- mum required by employment standards, there has not been much movement around issues such as elder care or adoption, she said. However, more employ- ers are starting to be more flexible around vacation. "Negotiating on an extra week of vacation is becoming quite popular," said Bragge. Employers looking to be grant- ed the Quebec seal must also des- ignate an administrator to take charge of the program, and cre- ate a chart showing the different measures they have taken around work-life balance. Companies that qualify under these criteria will be granted per- mission to use the seal of recog- nition for one year, which will be renewable. e annual fees range from $200 to $3,000 depending on the size of the employer. ose that do not qualify or need some help to get started on the initiative can consider a train- ing and support program offered by the network this fall. their contract, said Ed Canning, employment lawyer and partner at Ross & McBride in Hamilton, Ont. "Until (Bill 148) came in… there had never been anything requir- ing employers to pay sick days to non-unionized employees in the province of Ontario," he said. "(Now) we're back to the world as we knew it." Culture matters Prior to making a decision, em- ployers must examine company culture and determine what ex- pected norms are — they may vary widely between office workers and machine shop staff, said Ventrella. "You need to know your work- force and know what will fly. If you're simply just changing with the law, just turning a blind eye to what employees want… you'll still have a problem." "You have to know your cul- ture," she said. "Everything clicks together puzzle-style. You want the pieces to all fit together, such that you're always going towards your strategic goals as an organi- zation. Never just look at that one piece in isolation of other things." Corporate or salaried environ- ments likely have some type of paid sick leave policy in place for retention purposes, but it always depends on what the employer can afford, said Ventrella. And since Bill 148 wasn't around long, some workers may understand if the PEL benefit is removed by their employer — though it could be a good oppor- tunity for a simultaneous wage increase, she said. For employers that are able to continue offering paid sick leave, flaunting those additional ben- efits is perfectly acceptable, said Ventrella. "is is not the time to be a si- lent hero," she said. "If you're doing more than you have to, make sure employees know that. You need people to feel good about where they work because that affects their atten- dance, their intentions to stay, their quality of work." Mid-size employers often have a formal policy that gives staff five to 10 paid sick days annually — a recommended period for of- fice environments, according to Canning. Some even choose to offer sick pay for up to three months, until long-term disability activates, he said. "If five or 10 days are abused, you're not going to lose a lot of sleep over it. If three months is abused, that's an expensive enterprise." Small employers may not have a sick-leave policy, choosing to of- fer paid leave to longtime employ- ees on a case-by-case basis, said Canning. "As part of employee manage- ment and morale, pulling back on two sick days a year is certainly going to make the employer look cheap," he said. "I would tell them to take that money they might have put into sick pay and put it into increased wages for their employees, be- cause I think it's better for their business to do so." Advice for HR Sick pay is most effective when it is not "overly generous" as it can be "onerous to administer and ad- judicate, and is subject to abuse," said Canning. "Its about retaining employees. Having a decent sick pay plan can give comfort to employees and is part of their consideration in re- sisting jumping ship." For those employers that do remove paid sick leave from staff compensation packages, corre- spondence could be as simple as an all-employee memo highlight- ing the recent changes to provin- cial legislation, he said. But such a move could result in ill employees continuing to re- port for duty and bringing germs into the office, even though social pressures indicate it is not appro- priate to do so, said Ventrella. For this reason, employers should never consider rewarding perfect attendance, she said. For employers considering shifting policy because of one particular employee's abuses, it is better to address that worker than disengage others as a result, said Ventrella. Complying with legislation should be every employer's de- fault policy — but then every business has different needs, said Wozniak. "It's a best practice to analyze your specific business environ- ment and your operational needs and implement a policy that adequately reflects the reality," he said. "It takes some care and thought, and sometimes you may determine as an employer that you should offer more than the statutory minimums." "You may find that the mini- mums are either all you can af- ford or all that you need. Not ev- ery decision is popular, but you do your best as a business to try and make all the parts of the enterprise work." Employers should always have a detailed process in place to track employee absences and statutory leave entitlements, said Wozniak. Building in allowances for un- avoidable employee absences helps workers maintain work-life balance, he said. "These things happen, and more and more people have dual- income earners and kids and it be- comes very difficult to juggle your work life with your family life," said Wozniak. "e ESA tries to strike a balance. Obviously, people are going to disagree about what that balance should look like." "e act recognizes that you have to build in a certain number of days or build in a contingency for illness because it happens and it's unavoidable. Every year, peo- ple get sick. It's just a fact of life." Sick pay can be 'onerous to administer, adjudicate' 'e measures must be discussed with employees' BILL 47 < pg. 3 QUEBEC < pg. 2 "Having a decent sick pay plan can give comfort to employees and is part of their consideration in resisting jumping ship." "From a retention standpoint, you're going to see a higher level of output." Upon taking office, Ontario Premier Doug Ford quickly moved to reverse legislation affecting employers in the province. Credit: REUTERS/Carlo Allegri Variety of options Sample measures for work-life balance: • flexible hours • shared work • flexible vacations • on-site daycare • virtual health care • replacement workers • group discounts • compressed workweeks Source: Réseau pour un Québec Famille

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