Canadian HR Reporter

2 NEWS January 13, 2014 CANADIAN HR REPORTER Managers set tone Quotas disliked FLEXIBILITY < pg. 1 because it triggers the strongest form of gender bias there is in today's workplace," she said. But the stigma for men is even harder to overcome, said Williams. "Flexibility stigma for men is even stronger, actually. But it operates quite differently," she said, adding that studies indicate the stigma is a different form of gender discrimination. "(Studies have shown) men who requested flexibility were viewed much less favourably than men who didn't. They were viewed as poor workers, and the poor worker stigma was completely explained by the fact that these men were seen as 'too feminine'… They were seen as having feminine personality characteristics and, therefore, were seen as less deserving of various organizational rewards, like promotions." Stigma can come from variety of sources So is this stigma coming primarily from the management level or does it stem from the collectivelyheld stereotypes of peers and coworkers? Often, it can come from both, said Williams — or sometimes, neither. "It depends — sometimes it's not coming from anywhere. Sometimes it doesn't exist," she said. "There are organizations where there really isn't much of a flexibility stigma. So it's not impossible to correct this... Where it exists, it can come from supervisors, it can come from managers or peers, or both." Perhaps the most significant barrier is when the stigma is coming from managers, according to Laura Croucher, national lead of people and change solutions at KPMG Canada in Toronto. Through KPMG's involvement with WORKshift Canada, a social enterprise advocating for flexible work solutions, Croucher has found managers are the ones who set the tone for flexible work. "The biggest barrier really is our front-line managers. The reason for that is, in many organizations, there's a value to being seen… we've got to move from valuing being seen to valuing results," she said. "The challenge is that middlemanagers or front-line managers haven't necessarily had the training in terms of how to manage virtual teams and how to manage people virtually. And that requires new skills and different practices, so they need help in terms of their own learning and development in order to be able to institute this well." The issue is further complicated because managers really vary in terms of their openness to flexible work, said Sweet. "When we start to think about managers' willingness to support flexibility, that varies tremendously from work unit to work unit. So even if an organization has a policy that's very supportive of flexibility, it can get censored on the manager's desk, because they're almost always the gatekeeper." Inform, educate team Managers and senior leaders can make a big difference when it comes to how flexible work will be perceived, said Williams. If they don't inform and educate their team and plan work processes effectively, it will usually foster resentment among the "flexible" worker's co-workers. "Often, this is just the result of bad HR practices. If you allow someone to go part-time (and) you don't replace the hours and you dump those hours on their peers, guess what will happen? So some of the resentment just is a reflection of poor management of part-time schedules," she said. "This is one of the reasons it's important to design flexible work arrangements so they're not available only for mothers — they're available if you can make the business case for a flexible work arrangement." Get more from your managers and teams with – Fast, and to industry – Holistic approach – and training – , professional and ESL for New Canadians – coaching/ workshops – communications – Jumpstart new and – and more! Call: 416-429-7935 | Visit: 3VCommunicationsskills.com BOARD DIVERSITY < pg. 1 but there seems to be a lack of demand or leaders willing to take the first steps to identify directors beyond their own networks who aren't necessarily CEOs," said Pamela Jeffery, founder of the CBDC. Out of 11 directors on its board, Intact has four women, said Dussault. "Our objective is to have the best talent available on our board, so the whole idea of diversity is to ensure that we are tapping into the broadest talent pool available," he said. "So obviously if you are focusing on white men, your pool will be less than 40 per cent of the population of talent available out there." approach where every few years there's a few more women — or is there a way to accelerate that?" Many corporate boards also look for candidates who have been prominent CEOs, but that mandate rules out 98 per cent of women, said Jeffery. "We're calling on directors to change the criteria so that it is skills-focused, as it always has been, but not positionally focused on 'former CEO' as a lead criteria," she said. "Given the complexities of business in today's world, boards are looking through a skills-based lens when they're looking for new directors." Credentialism can become a barrier to a larger pool of people, said Jai. "You need to think seriously about what competencies or credentials or experiences truly are necessary to provide the right mix of skills amongst your board members. Not every board member needs to have all the skills." No excuses Lists such as Diversity 50 and Women on Board Source from Catalyst Canada are helping to make qualified women more visible for board opportunities. "This takes away the excuse… Comply or explain no more excuses," said Jeffery, In looking at ways to boost the adding six candidates on Diversity number of women on corporate 50 were elected to a FP500 board boards, the Ontario Securities and one to a ForCommission is tune 500 board considering a this past year. "comply or ex54 per cent of "The list is plain" model respondents to needed to make of disclosure it easy for boards where coma CBDC survey to look at candipanies would like the 'comply or be required to dates who are beyond their explain' approach comply with own network." recommended This kind of to gender diversity. practices for database helps gender diversity highlight the isor explain why sue and is an immediate rebut- they have not complied. tal to those who say they can't More than one-half (54 per find any qualified women, said cent) of 357 respondents to a Julie Jai, chair of the Aboriginal CBDC survey approve of such a law section at the Ontario Bar requirement, while 38 per cent Association. said no change is needed and just A candidate on Diversity 50, she eight per cent prefer quotas. was recently elected to the board But the Ontario Teachers' Penof St. Joseph's Health Centre in sion Plan, responding to the OSC Toronto. proposal, said the comply-or"It's evidence there are in fact explain regime is ineffective in qualified women and making achieving a measurable increase them and their profiles widely in female directors. Instead, comavailable on a database just sim- panies should be required to applifies the search process for cor- point at least three female direcporations who are genuinely in- tors, with sanctions for non-comterested in seeking women board pliance, it said, along with having members," she said. "a robust and transparent director Research shows 80 per cent of recruitment process." board seats are held by directors But mandated diversity is too who have been recruited to the heavy-handed, said Jai, who supboards through existing directors' ports the voluntary comply-ornetworks, said Jeffery. explain model. "A typical board would be "It forces every organization mostly male and mostly white to think about it, to make a conmale, and so they typically search scious decision because they do for new directors within their own have to report on it," she said. "It largely white male networks." opens up an opportunity for diaOne of the challenges is people logue about the issue of diversity tend to hire people they know which they may have not had on and people who are like them — their agenda otherwise." they're just more comfortable The path of greater disclosure with that, said Jai. is also the preferred path for "That will change because, for Dussault. example, as more women become "If you have to explain what's members of corporate boards, your view on diversity, why you're then they will be among the group doing it or not doing it, I think of people who are asked, 'Is there it will lead to a deeper thinking somebody who you know who about what you're doing within will be a good fit for this board?'" the organization," he said. she said. "I would be concerned that "Boardrooms have been domi- mandated diversity might lead to nated by men for a long time and just meeting the numbers and not it will just take a while, but I guess doing the real changes that are rethe issue is how long will it take quired… greater disclosure is the if we wait for this sort of gradual smarter way to approach it." NEWS BRIEFS Provinces fail to reach deal with Ottawa to enhance CPP OTTAWA — The federal and provincial governments failed to agree on a deal to enhance the Canada Pension Plan (CPP). Some provinces want to boost payouts by obliging workers and employers to make higher contributions. But the feds said asking people to pay more when the world economy is still fragile makes no sense. But Ontario will find a solution to bolster retirement savings — which will likely mean an Ontario pension plan, according to provincial finance minister Charles Sousa. Auditor finds OPG salaries, pensions, bonuses push up Ontario's electricity rates TORONTO — Salaries, pensions and bonuses at Ontario Power Generation (OPG) are "significantly more generous" than for comparable positions in the civil service and have a financial impact on the cost of electricity, according to auditor general Bonnie Lysyk. OPG has cut staff by 8.5 per cent but increased the size of its executive and senior management group by almost 60 per cent since 2005, said Lysyk in her annual report. "The employeremployee contributions ratio at OPG has been around 4:1 or 5:1, significantly higher than that 1:1 ratio" in the public service. For more on this story, see the Jan. 27 issue of Canadian HR Reporter. Canada Post phasing out door-to-door delivery to cut big losses OTTAWA — Canada's postal service will phase out urban home delivery within five years and hike the cost of postage stamps to try to stem soaring losses. The government-owned corporation reported a 2013 third-quarter loss of $109 million before tax. It must also deal with a $6.5-billion deficit in its pension plan. About 5.1 million urban households get door-to-door mail delivery. This will be replaced by community mail boxes. Canada Post employs around 55,000 people and the changes will involve a cut of 6,000 to 8,000 staff, mainly through attrition. hrreporter.com FEATURED VIDEO The future of unions in Canada's private sector Canadian HR Reporter recently moderated a roundtable discussion on the future of labour relations in the private sector. In this video, panellists discuss the PR problem unions may or may not have and what can be done to overcome it.

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