Canadian HR Reporter

Canadian HR RepoRteR november 17, 2014 8 News NiagaraInstitute.com conferenceboard.ca Tools for Leadership Success Niagara Institute Leadership Training • Publications • Webinars Sylvia Ceacero, CEO of the Na- tional Association of Federal Re- tirees in Ottawa. "If you are forced or encour- aged to save towards your retire- ment, you will (do so)… Other- wise, as the research has shown, very few of us have the (luxury) of being able to put 18, 20 per cent of our current salary towards our retirement," she said. Financial literacy e situation is further compli- cated by employees' widespread knowledge gaps when it comes to retirement savings and financial literacy, said MacBride-King. Almost four in 10 survey re- spondents said they don't know how much money they will need for their eventual retirement, she said. "We have a lot to do in our or- ganizations to help educate peo- ple, and to help ready them for their eventual retirement," said MacBride-King. "Some people didn't even know they had a (workplace) plan, so we've got a lot to do in this context." Financial illiteracy should be a shared concern, said Susan Eng, vice-president of advocacy for CARP in Toronto. "Unfortunately, this isn't only the individual's problem be- cause… being afraid and being illiterate at the same time is a formula for concern (for) us as a society," she said. When people haven't saved ad- equately, it impacts everyone, said Eng, causing increased reliance on social safety nets, less buying power and strain on the economy. "All of these things are nega- tives that come as a direct result, frankly, of people not being aware of what they need to retire ad- equately (and) not taking action early enough." Employers are trying different approaches to boost financial lit- eracy within their organizations, said Koo. "ere has been a reluctance from employers to offer broader investment advice but I think there are always going to be em- ployees who, no matter how much education you do, they're always going to want more advice." In the survey, communication and education ranked among the top things employees want from their organizations, said MacBride-King. "ey said, 'We want to ensure that… people have access to some sort of retirement savings plan in the first place,'" she said, along with a fair income that allows them the flexibility to save money. "Other than that, the number one thing they thought was most important was to provide staff with the tools to make those de- cisions. Do more to help people prepare psychologically for tran- sitioning from one era of their life to another era." Employees looking for communication, education ReTiReMeNT < pg. 3 questions that need an answer." There are a variety of situa- tions where it's really safer to have employees remain in a building, rather than evacuate, according to Ann Wyganowski, vice-president at HZX Business Continuity Plan- ning and director of the Disaster Recovery Information Exchange in Toronto. ese can include a bomb threat, gun violence, gas leak, severe weather or even a quarantine for Ebola. "You can't force somebody to shelter in a place but you can cer- tainly make recommendations for their personal safety," she said. However, most employers are not prepared. "I'm seeing a real weakness in that many employers are prepar- ing for, say, a fire evacuation and not really training employees in much more than that," said Wyganowski. "A lot of employers don't teach employees what to do in those type of situations, they don't pre- identify where is a safe room to go, with no window, a door that locks, perhaps somewhere where you can remain out of sight and not make yourself a target." Schools are well-versed when it comes to shutdowns or lock- downs — but employers aren't, ac- cording to Paul Guindon, CEO of security services provider Com- missionaires Ottawa. "We have had ample time to better prepare ourselves, across the board," he said. "But in many cases, unfortunately, it's not until an event such as last week that people do then react and better prepare themselves. But, boy oh boy, we have had all kinds of indi- cations, going way back, back in the 80s, if not longer," he said. "It's less now a matter of 'if ' but rather a matter of 'when.'" Until the events in Ottawa, peo- ple had become complacent about the risks, said Wyganowski. "We're not as risk-aware that way, as people are in the United States, because we haven't expe- rienced those kinds of attacks in the past." It is a very real risk to any orga- nization, "whether it's a lone wolf terrorist or disgruntled employee or somebody that's just has gone over the edge," she said, citing as an example the arrest of the To- ronto 18 group of terrorists in 2006. "Everybody's kind of (think- ing) 'at was done and dusted' — they don't really expect that there's more of them that are go- ing to pop out of the woodwork." e industry of business con- tinuity and emergency planning has seen a real downturn in the last little while as people are not updating their plans or are cutting budgets, said Wyganowski. "People did a lot of pandemic planning, for example, just before the H1N1 (outbreak) and now everybody's 'OK, well, we had a pandemic, that's that.' And I'm seeing many organizations are not keeping their pandemic plans up to date — even with the kinds of risks out there with Ebola." Tips to prepare EDC has three main exercises it goes through to be prepared, said Taylor: a business continuity plan when systems shut down; a communications crisis plan when the company is subject to an in- tense line of questioning; and an emergency response plan, which kicked in during the Parliament Hill shootings. Obviously, the safety of employ- ees is the main focus, he said, and the first step is to assess where ev- eryone is so there's a call-through that goes out to leaders. "It's the leader's job. Regardless of the size of your team, you find out where all your employees are and make sure you can account for them, and then that rolls up into the higher levels, so then we have a corporate view of where everyone is," said Taylor. Communications are sent out to employees through an inter- nal website, which was updated several times during the Ottawa shootings, and there are digital panels throughout the office that are also updated. e challenge is conveying official information quickly while balancing a lot of hearsay, he said. Employers should conduct a proper internal and external risk assessment ahead of time, said Wyganowski. "e density of the population and the number of public ven- ues really increase your risk, but people don't pay a lot of attention to whether or not the consulate from the country where the ter- rorists are coming from is in the floor above them, for example. "They don't pay attention to who their neighbours are; they don't pay attention to the types of events that take place, like parades or street closures — the kind of thing that would lend themselves to that kind of incident," she said. Basic training sheets can also be given out and department managers, at monthly staff meet- ings, can talk through one emer- gency procedure each time to in- crease employee awareness, said Wyganowski. Training is also important to ensure employees are ready when an emergency actually happens, she said. "You need to do drills. If you don't do those kinds of exercises regularly, then it's hard." It's like a fire drill — if you never practise a lockdown, on a regular basis, people won't know what to do, said Guindon. e basic principle is to mini- mize or mitigate the risk, he said. "ere (are) processes, policies and equipment that you can have in place ahead of time that would mitigate those risks." And it can be fairly inexpensive, said Guindon. "Obviously, you may need some specific equipment, some alarm systems, some public address system — it really depends on the building," he said. "And, in many cases, it's not a huge cost when you're talking about protecting a large amount of people in an urban centre." Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers is applauded in the House of Commons in Ottawa on Oct. 23. Vickers was credited with shooting the suspect during a shooting incident Oct. 22, in which a gunman killed a soldier and ran through Parliament shooting before being shot dead himself. it's like a fire drill — if you never practise a lockdown, on a regular basis, people won't know what to do. LOckDOwN < pg. 1 Risk assessments, training key to preparations "we have a lot to do in our organizations to help educate people and to help ready them for their eventual retirement."

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