Canadian HR Reporter is the national journal of human resource management. It features the latest workplace news, HR best practices, employment law commentary and tools and tips for employers to get the most out of their workforce.
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CANADIAN HR REPORTER CANADIAN HR REPORTER March 10, 2014 March 10, 2014 6 NEWS NEWS IT PAYS TO KNOW Professional Development Mark your calendar for payroll education! With more than 190 federal and provincial regulations and changes each year, staying payroll compliant is one of the biggest challenges employers face. Ensure compliance and reduce the risk of audits and penalties with help from Professional Development seminars from Canadian Payroll Association (CPA). CPA offers seminars for all levels from beginner to advanced. On a variety of topics covering Learning Payroll, Taxable Benefits, Employment Standards, Pensions and more. Check our calendar for a seminar in your area. Learn more at payroll.ca. Call 416-487-3380 ext 118 or 1-800-387-4693 ext 118. Become a CPA member and get preferred rates on seminars. Stay Current Stay Compliant payroll.ca "Enbridge has been a real leader in the area in terms of re- sourcing (positions) devoted to diversity," she said. "I have a team of 3.5 that actually do this work, and this is very unusual. A lot of diversity work is done by people in other roles in organizations, so we've really been seen as leaders in this area of the dedication of resources." Campbell's own position as manager of diversity was created a few years ago to help the com- pany, which has 5,859 employees, deepen its focus on diversity. En- bridge has an employment equity and diversity strategy that sets out the objectives it wants to accom- plish, with a focus on inclusion for diverse employee groups as well as how an inclusive workplace can help achieve business objectives, said Campbell. e organization has two note- worthy initiatives that support women — both within the orga- nization and externally. The Women@Enbridge pro- gram is the company's employee resource group, designed to sup- port career development for fe- male employees, said Campbell. " ey have an opportunity to come together, to do some ses- sional development together… to build relationships, to surface issues and challenges that women face and to bring those forward to leadership," she said. Another initiative is called Fe m i n e n o r Fe m a l e s i n Engineering. " ey have regular events that they hold — some of them are net- working events, which are great, but some of them are also really unique in that they have gone to diff erent departments within En- bridge and had a female engineer present on their role… it's been great because it's shown every- body the incredible value women engineers have at Enbridge and just how varied their roles are within the organization as well," said Campbell. Feminen also has an outreach project that mentors and encour- ages young, female Aboriginal high school students to consider STEM careers — in science, tech- nology, engineering and math, said Campbell. " ey have both that internal networking, professional devel- opment, mentoring support… and also reaching out to the com- munity to try to infl uence young girls' ideas about engineering and who can do it." Enbridge also has an Aboriginal Employment Committee with a mandate to attract and retain Aboriginal candidates, as well as an Oasis Co-ordinator Project, which employs adults with de- velopmental disabilities to help maintain Enbridge's common ar- eas, such as kitchens and meeting rooms. " ey're so dedicated to the po- sition that they're living out loud what we want every employee to feel about working at Enbridge," said Campbell. Sodexo employees refl ect their customers At Sodexo Canada, diversity ini- tiatives are grounded in a solid business case, according to Dean Johnson, Burlington, Ont.-based president and CEO. "It's vital from a business per- spective… really it does two things for us. It ensures that our employ- ees best refl ect the consumers that they serve," he said. "And then, secondly, from a business per- spective, having an organization where people from all genders, religion, race and sexual orienta- tion can come and work for us and feel comfortable… allows us to have the best talent that we can possibly get." Sodexo, which has about 10,000 employees in Canada, has a diver- sity and inclusion council, a di- versity task force and several em- ployee resource network groups. It also provides practical work experience to people with men- tal health challenges through the Willow Bean Café. The organization also has a "disABILITY" strategy that pro- motes the inclusion of adults with disabilities. "We're in the service industry — we tend to have a high turn- over of staff . And if you look at, for instance, the turnover of staff with disability versus others, you'll fi nd turnover is much, much low- er with that part of our workforce," said Johnson. "We fi nd people with disabili- ties are absolutely fantastic at the jobs we put them in. ey want to be part of the organization, they stay in the organization, they grow within the organization, so it works very well for us and for those employees." Recruiting, training and de- veloping Aboriginal candidates is also a priority for Sodexo, as is partnering with Aboriginal busi- ness groups, he said. "We're very focused on doing business with Aboriginal busi- nesses. And there's a ton of Ab- original business across the coun- try that I think is underutilized, undertapped by mainstream Canadian business, and that's too bad. We have a lot of benefi t from that." CIBC makes diversity part of talent development Many diversity initiatives are tied to the recruitment process but at CIBC, the focus on diversity doesn't end after that employment contract is signed. CIBC recently introduced a Manager Diversity Toolkit to pro- vide training for leaders on how to promote diversity throughout their employees' careers, accord- ing to Gillian Whitebread, vice- president of diversity, executive resources and workforce analytics at CIBC in Toronto. "(The toolkit) is focused on helping managers and employ- ees create a diverse and inclusive environment from the stage of onboarding new employees right through to developing them, re- taining them — right through the employee lifecycle," she said. "We've moved away from com- pliance to now we've rebranded to have all of our diversity work be diversity and inclusion. We've also repositioned our function to sit within the talent management area, not within recruiting. We're doing a very good job on recruit- ing, but we need to get better at moving our pipeline through." Throughout every stage of their careers, the organization's 43,039 full-time employees have a number of networks to sup- port them, including the CIBC Women's Network, the Inter- national Professionals Network and the WorkAbility Network, which played an integral part in supporting CIBC's sponsor- ship of the Canadian Paralympic Committee for the Paralympics in Sochi. CIBC's Aboriginal Employment Program, Mosaic Mentorship Program and Assistive Technol- ogy Showcase are other initiatives that have enjoyed overwhelming success, said Whitebread. Creating ongoing diversity ini- tiatives that are integrated into talent development is key for moving beyond the recruitment phase, she said. "A lot of organizations start to do well in the sourcing but they fail to see that you also have to embed it into your development of people once they join your or- ganization," she said. "It's continu- ously evolving." Mentoring, networking help Mentoring, networking help DIVERSITY < pg. 1