Canadian HR Reporter

INSIGHT Vol. 27 No. 3 – February 10, 2014 PuBLiSHed BY Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. One Corporate Plaza 2075 Kennedy Rd. Toronto, ON M1T 3V4 ©Copyright 2014 by Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. All rights reserved. CaNadiaN Hr rePorter is published 22 times a year. Publications Mail – Agreement # 40065782 Registration # 9496 – ISSn 0838-228X Director, Carswell Media: Karen Lorimer - (416) 649-9411 karen.lorimer@thomsonreuters.com publisher and Editor: John Hobel - (416) 298-5197 john.hobel@thomsonreuters.com editoriaL Managing Editor: Todd Humber - (416) 298-5196 todd.humber@thomsonreuters.com Senior Editor: Sarah Dobson - (416) 649-7896 sarah.dobson@thomsonreuters.com News Editor: Liz Bernier - (416) 649-7837 liz.bernier@thomsonreuters.com Employment law Editor: Jeffrey R. 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Address changes and returns: Send changes and undeliverable Canadian addresses to: SuBSCriBer SerViCeS Canadian HR Reporter One Corporate Plaza 2075 Kennedy Rd. Toronto, ON M1T 3V4 ❑ From time to time, we make our subscriber list available to companies and organizations whose products and services we believe may be of interest to you. If you do not want your name to be made available, please check here and return with your mailing label. CuStomer SerViCe Call: (416) 609-3800 (Toronto) (800) 387-5164 (outside Toronto) Fax: (416) 298-5082 (Toronto) (877) 750-9041 (outside Toronto) Email: carswell.customerrelations@ thomsonreuters.com LetterS to tHe editor todd.humber@thomsonreuters.com CHRR reserves the right to edit for length and clarity. February 10, 2014 CanaDian hr reporTer Plenty of reason to be optimistic By most accounts, 2014 is off to a rocky start. I can't make heads or tails of this job market, one that started to burn bright in the latter half of 2013 before the bottom unexpectedly fell out in December. One where employers are struggling to find talent, yet scores of professionals can't find work. At the recent Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA) conference in Toronto, I had the opportunity to hear about both ends of the spectrum. One colleague, fresh back from a trip to the oil sands in Fort McMurray, Alta., spoke of waiting 90 minutes to get breakfast at his hotel because it simply couldn't find enough staff to work the grills and wait the tables. Contrast that to conversations with at least a dozen unemployed HR professionals in Toronto — some seasoned, others fresh-faced recent graduates — who couldn't find any work after months and months of searching. Their frustration was palpable, and some of the students were at their breaking points, questioning why they had bothered to pursue a career in HR. But there's always reason for hope, right? I've always been a glass-is-half-full type, so I take solace in one of our cover stories and thank the HRPA conference for putting everything into perspective with an inspirational closing keynote from astronaut Chris Hadfield. First, the economy. Unemployment is trending downward, and that's good, right? But lower unemployment rates are being fuelled in part by people simply giving up on looking for work, rather than actual job creation — todd Humber eDitoR's notes that's not so good. Job numbers from Statistics Canada had been looking pretty good in the latter half of 2013, but then the bottom fell out in December with a loss of 46,000 jobs. The unemployment rate surprisingly jumped from 6.9 per cent to 7.2 per cent. year, overall, for the job market in Canada. Many companies say they're in a better financial position and expect to add to their payrolls. The financial picture in the United States is also improving — something that can only be positive for a nation that's "sleeping next to an elephant," as former prime minster Pierre Trudeau famously said. And now to Chris Hadfield. The Canadian spaceman — who has been dubbed the most famous astronaut since Neil Armstrong — closed the HRPA conference with an inspiring and passionate speech about his career and his recent time onboard the International Space Station. It wasn't packed with HR references or management advice but In business, as in space, the small things matter. If we all had Hadfield's passion and enthusiasm for work, there would be no end to what we could accomplish. Those are all pretty negative harbingers, even for HR professionals and employers whose recruiting efforts are made a lot easier by weak economies. Sure, a sour economy makes it easier to hire — but it also makes it very tough to grow the business. But you don't have to look any further than this issue's cover story to see why I'm hopeful. (See "'Steady' hiring climate for new year," page 1.) In that story, senior editor Sarah Dobson looks at four different surveys that have come to pretty much the same conclusion — 2014 will be a pretty good WorKPLaCe The 18 I walked out of that session with a healthy dose of perception, delivered by a speaker who has seen the world from a vantage point only a handful of others have enjoyed. He talked about how fragile the Earth was, showing us a photo he took of Mount Aetna erupting in February 2013. He compared the eruption, and all of the planet, to a pot of porridge that has been simmering on the back of an oven for a long time. The surface of the Earth is like the thin film that develops on top of the porridge, while underneath it's scorching hot and eventually little burps come out. Gazing from the space station down to Earth, Hadfield was able to see how thin the inhabitable space for humans really is — just a couple of kilometres of atmosphere and a bit of soil — and how fragile life really is. We're essentially bacteria growing under a sink, he said, and all it would take to get rid of us is for someone to come along with some Javex and a sponge. Hadfield also waved the flag, talking about how lucky we are to live in Canada — and if we didn't think so, try living somewhere else for 26 years, as he has done. Your perception will change. There are few places with the stability and security Canadians take for granted, he said. He talked about the importance of sweating the small stuff, despite many self-help books telling us otherwise. Sweating the small stuff is critical for astronauts — think of the O-ring that brought down the Challenger space shuttle in 1987 or the piece of foam that damaged the Columbia, leading to its disintegration on re-entry in 2003. "We've learned the hardest way possible just how much little things matter," Hadfield wrote in his book An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth. In business, as in space, the small things do matter. If we all had Hadfield's passion and enthusiasm for work, there would be no end to what we could accomplish. That's one of the core messages I took from his speech — to have a real passion for the work I do, but to also take some time to marvel at the world and remember that we're all in this together. EIRD Your TaX doLLars aT WorK oTTaWa — Last year, the federal government spent $2.5 million on a marketing blitz to promote the Canada Job Grant. But there was one wee little problem: The program wasn't in place then, and it still isn't in place now, as ottawa and the provinces have continued to bicker over the details. The pricey commercials — touting that the grant "will result in one important thing: a new or better job" — ran during the playoffs on Hockey Night in Canada on CBC, along with radio and internet ads. do You WanT FrIes WITh ThaT? norFoLK, Va. — a Virginia man was arrested after he walked into a McDonald's and demanded a job application at gunpoint. Tevin Monroe, 31, went into the restaurant and asked the manager for a job application, according to WaVy TV. When the manager said, twice, that applications could only be completed online, Monroe lifted his shirt to reveal a gun tucked into his waistband. The manager told Monroe to grab a chair while she went to get a paper job application — and called 911 instead. Monroe was arrested without incident and charged with brandishing a firearm, carrying a WorKer LaMenTs LaCK oF reTIreMenT ParTY ToronTo — a Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) employee who put in more than 30 years on the job posted a critical video of his last day at work, ranting that he wasn't given a retirement party. ron Mitchell posted the video to youTube on Jan. 4, in which he wandered around his empty workplace. "Management don't give a crap about you, the union don't give a crap about you," he said, before showing a bulletin board that featured retirement announcements for management. in the video, which runs about three-and-a-half minutes, he's critical of the fact the TTC was named a top employer. "obviously, they never asked an employee," he said. in a comment he later posted to youTube, Mitchell said his superintendent contacted him after the video was posted and offered a "heartfelt apology which i will accept." he expressed gratitude for his long career at the TTC and everything his job has afforded him in life, but said he wasn't ready to retire. "i had so much to still offer the TTC to pay back for all the training i received, but felt the past six months that i was not wanted any longer. My skills were being wasted on meaningless tasks and i felt it was time to move." concealed weapon and disorderly conduct. FIred For BeIng roBBed LeXinGTon, Ky. — a clerk at a Speedway gas station was fired for refusing to hand over money to a robber. Betty Green said a man who had just bought some beer handed her a note that read "i don't want anyone to get hurt, take your money in the drawer, put it in a bag and give it to me," according to WLeX TV. The robber lifted his shirt to reveal a gun but Green said she was "in shock" and simply said no. The robber smiled and left empty-handed. Green was fired because Speedway's policy is for employees to hand over the money and hit the panic button in such situations. "right and wrong are important and what he did was wrong. My outcome was right. no one was hurt and i was able to diffuse the situation from getting worse," said Green. oFFICe CoMedIans MaY Be PsYChoTIC LonDon, U.K. — office comedians may not just be funny — they Cre d it : D avid P. S h/ mit Sh ut t e rs to c k might also have psychotic personality traits. researchers analyzed comedians from australia, Britain and the United States and found they scored significantly higher on four types of psychotic characteristics compared to a control group of people who had non-creative jobs, according to reuters. having an unusual personality structure could be the secret to making other people laugh, according to the study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry.

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