Canadian HR Reporter

January 27, 2014 Testing key to benchmarking HEALTH RISKS < pg. 2 people were effectively managing their risks at the time of testing, 39.8 per cent of the people who had been previously diagnosed with high cholesterol still did not have their risk under control, while 42.4 per cent of those with hypertension were still above Health Canada's recommended norms and 54 per cent of those with high glucose were still within at-risk ranges. Cost-effective approach Biometric testing is the key to accurate cardiovascular risk benchmarking and plays a pivotal role in employee education and wellness program planning, said the report. "It's more costly, obviously, than launching a lunch and learn or health fair — there's a lot more involved, employees have to take "It instills the fact that the employer actually cares about the employee." an hour off work so there's a productivity issue — but the returns are well worth the investment of time," said McCaig. "It should not be seen as (an) expense because every one of your wellness initiatives will stem from that aggregate report afterwards." Most people don't know their cholesterol numbers so it's about having that information, having that conversation, so they can set goals around them, said Chidester. "We really encourage people to be involved in their health, so we do think that risk assessments are very valuable for people to participate in," she said, adding her organization's 700 employees are encouraged to take the Heart and Stroke Foundation's online risk assessment. "Up to 80 per cent of premature heart disease and stroke is preventable… but we do have to have an understanding of what our risk factors are, and because our risk factors are connected with our lifestyles, the more information we have, the better," said Chidester. A risk assessment can bring any concerns to the forefront, said Cindy Hitsman, senior director of business development at VON (Victorian Order of Nurses) Canada in Ottawa. "It does help people to recognize that these are some factors." Full picture needed But one test may not provide a full picture, so it's about what people do with the information, she said. "If you're just going to take your blood sugar one day or your blood pressure, any one given day, it could be anything, so there really does need to be a baseline and followup thereafter... so getting that information and sharing it with your health practitioner is pretty important. And making sure you're following through." And while many diseases can take years to take effect, that doesn't mean employers should ignore the risks, said Hitsman. "It instills the fact that the employer actually cares about the employee and, in that sense, it does increase people's productivity and their likelihood they're going to continue working in that workforce," she said. "So there are cost implications — a healthy employee is a productive employee, an active employee is a productive employee — so by employers showing employees that they care enough and really want their employees to be healthy, it helps their bottom line." 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 – NEWS CANADIAN HR REPORTER and more! Call: 416-429-7935 | Visit: 3VCommunicationsskills.com 9 Use fair, transparent policies GENDER BIAS < pg. 2 have to think about why we come up with the conclusions that we do... and step back and be a little bit more objective and develop the rigorous criteria that we can look at and rely on and make better, more objective decisions." Too often, women who demonstrate high potential are deemed too young or not ready to assume a critical development role, and millennial women are less likely (45 per cent) to be identified as high potentials than their male peers (53 per cent) even though they are more likely to be high performers (74 per cent) than men (66 per cent), said Overcoming Barriers to Leadership for Young Women, which is based on two 2012 surveys (of 1,241 millenials and generation Xers) and interviews with women. As a result, managers and organizations often take a less active role in helping women advance. Early career women also have fewer opportunities to be mentored, coached, take on job rotation assignments, gain line management experience or access professional development training, found the Conference Board report. Since a certain amount of this is happening on an unconscious level, it's all the more reason to have policies that are transparent and proactive, said McInturff. "Just addressing it on a complaint basis isn't going to work. When you're really trying to address a dynamic that's so entrenched in the way we think about ourselves and others, transparency is the key and being proactive is the key." Organizations should put fair and transparent talent management policies and practices into place, said the report. These include: rigorously matching high potentials with key roles using competency models; providing unconscious bias education to all talent assessors; and making performance evaluations more positive and open. "Leaders can get tremendous training to understand their judgments and perceptions and why they make them, and to make them more comfortable managing across differences and assessing talent on really good robust criteria," said Wright. "You can has changed in 25 years in terms of women still needing to fight harder for opportunities. And 74 per cent of the female respondents said that although it is more common for women to be in leadership positions today, they still need to work much harder than men to get ahead. "I was surprised there was still that amount of pessimism, that females just don't feel that they are competing as well with men when applying for jobs," said Boswell. "There still is that perception about what a woman's job is versus a man's job; there's a bit of societal undervaluing of wom"It's about en's skills and the work communicating so that that they take on." Almost three-quarpeople perceive that ters (72 per cent) of the there's an opportunity." respondents said men still dominate the worktake a look at each practice and force, found the survey of 1,500 try to see how this unconscious Canadians, and those 55 and older bias has crept in." were more likely to agree (82 per It's also important to be really cent) compared to those aged 18 clear about the career paths avail- to 34 (66 per cent). able in an organization and what But the generational differences kinds of skills and experience are understandable, said Wright. people need to get there, she said. "(Graduates) don't perceive that "Women were more likely than there's an issue to the same extent the men to say that that kind as gen X and boomer colleagues, of opportunity was not clearly and why would they, because communicated, so women aren't nothing's slowed them down so hearing that encouragement," said far," she said. "There's this percepWright. "It's about communicat- tion inequality is a relic of the past ing so that people perceive that — but about four or five years into there's an opportunity." their career and the workforce, progression stalls and things Monster report aren't unfolding as planned (and) then they begin to react." reveals unequal outlook That pessimism was also evident But in speaking to women's orin a recent Monster.ca survey that ganizations, McInturff said she is found many women still feel they seeing more of the positive. need to work harder than men to "I'm not seeing discourageget ahead in the workplace. Forty- ment, I'm seeing women who feel four per cent of women (and 28 that there's an injustice and are per cent of men) believe nothing very keen to address it."

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