Canadian HR Reporter

Canadian HR RepoRteR March 9, 2015 News 13 COST: $69 + applicable taxes LIVE WEBINAR TIME: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. ET REGISTER ONLINE: www.HRReporter.com/CPDCentre For more Live and On-demand Webinars, visit us online. WEBINAR SERIES ACCOMMODATION AND ATTENDANCE MANAGEMENT Learn best practices for managing employee absences and accommodating when necessary TOPICS TO BE DISCUSSED INCLUDE: · Accommodation in a unionized environment · Case studies of organizational accommodation practices · Privacy concerns when dealing with personal health information · Best practices for developing and implementing sound accommodation policies and procedures PRESENTER David Whitten | Whitten and Lublin Employment Lawyers DATE March 18, 2015 David Whitten such as manufacturing, said Marc Saltzman, a Toronto-based tech- nology expert and author. But what is new are the increas- ingly advanced capabilities robots have, and the huge investments some companies are directing to- ward robotics, he said. Such a dramatic boom in work- place robotics will undoubtedly have significant impacts on the workforce, particularly when it comes to low-skill, repetitive jobs. "Robots are best at repeatable tasks. They function the best if there is something that they can do over and over again," said Bryan Webb, COO and CFO of Clearpath Robotics in Kitchener, Ont. "If you have a requirement for flexibility, where your tasks are very varied, and you've got a lot of diversity in the work, then robots are not suited for that." e implications will first be seen in certain job functions such as in manufacturing or factories, said Zinser. "Certainly in some instances you'll see robotics and automation start to take the place of workers who are performing some tasks," he said. "e net result is probably that you start to see some declines in the number of jobs, but those are going to be replaced by more and higher-skilled jobs." Employers may rejoice in the labour cost savings, but there are downsides as well, said Saltzman. "ey don't take sick days, even though they could be down for maintenance. On the one hand, they could help your bottom line over time — even though they're not cheap to buy and implement and to train on," he said. "ey are reliable and they are very efficient because of their speed. But on the downside, it means lost jobs. is is going to be something that the next gen- erations are going to definitely be facing." Minimizing safety risks e cost savings versus lost jobs debate is just one piece of the puzzle — potential health and safety applications are another key consideration. While there are concerns about safety issues the robots could cre- ate, as technology has advanced, that has become much less of an issue, said Zinser. "Another thing we're finding is robots are able to take on... poor ergonomic-type tasks that the human worker had to take on in the past. So because you're able to use the robot for some of those tasks, I think you're actually able to improve the health and well- ness of the human workforce," he said. "e robots don't get tired, so some of the mistakes or errors you might see from the human work- ers who are there for a 12-hour shift or more, the robots are go- ing to be consistent... you remove some of the variability that you've had in the past and some of the risk of injury." Robots are already being used for dangerous tasks in areas such as mining, said Webb, whose company has helped mining com- panies re-map a collapsed mine using a remotely operated robot. Drones are another robotic ap- plication that can eliminate some dangerous tasks for human work- ers, he added. "e best applications for ro- botics are dull, deadly, dirty jobs because those are jobs that typi- cally people don't want to do any- ways," he said. Your friendly neighbourhood office robot Robotics will not stay limited to areas such as manufacturing, fac- tories, mining or oil and gas, said Zinser — we're seeing many dif- ferent applications for robotics in other sectors. "You're starting to see the num- ber of tasks that robots are able to perform expand considerably. So with advances in visioning sys- tems... and their ability to work alongside workers as opposed to behind the cage, like they have in the past, you're actually creating many for situations for robots to be involved," he said. Companionship robots are one application used by hospitals such as the Alberta Children's Hospital, which has a two-foot-tall, child- like robot named MEDi, which helps children with the anxiety of medical procedures such as sea- sonal flu vaccines. Hospitality robots are another application — Yotel, a high-tech hotel chain, uses a robotic arm named Yobot at its New York City location, which helps visitors with their luggage. It may soon be common even for office workers to get a little help from the office robot, ac- cording to Webb. "For example, we've got a cou- ple of tele-presence robots in our office. So what that means is ba- sically if we've got someone who is working from home or work- ing remotely, then they can log in to a robot, and they can drive it around into their meeting. So we have those robots already," he said. We'll soon see other tasks au- tomated, such as mail delivery around the office, cleaning tasks and even night-shift security work, he said. High-tech help wanted e story isn't quite as simple as more robots equals fewer jobs, said Webb — instead, as robots begin to be more common in the workplace, we'll see shifts in the type of worker that is needed. "With new technologies that focus on automation, you'll see a shifting of the workforce. Natu- rally, robots replace certain tasks and certain jobs in the workplace. But what that does is it increases the overall productivity of the organization, and it'll create jobs in other areas of the business," he said. "What essentially we see in so- ciety is robotics are going to allow people to concentrate on more in- tellectual work, and more diverse, creative work." Some lower-skill jobs will likely remain, such as waiters, admin- istrative assistants, hairdressers and bank tellers — basically any job that has a high amount of vari- ability or a changing environment, he said. It will also be easier to be- come an entrepreneur because many basic and time-consuming tasks such as sorting or shipping could be automated. Although the U.S., China and Japan are at the forefront of ro- botics, Canada is also in a good position to be an early adopter, said Zinser. "We'd expect that Canada is going to be a more aggressive adopter of robots than some other countries might be," he said. And the next-generation Cana- dian workforce will have to adapt by brushing up on technology skills and STEM education, said Saltzman. "Definitely, it's a way to future- proof your career." It's still early days, but in the near future, robotics will repre- sent a seismic shift, said Saltzman. "If the Internet was the biggest thing in our generation, I think robotics will be the next big thing for the next generation… there's so much opportunity there." Robotics will increase need for high-tech workers roBots < pg. 1 Employer concerns While the courts may tend to err on the side of flexibility, the same can't always be said of employers. "In terms of employer concerns, I think they're often around the idea that the employee may start working for a competitor, where they may be using confidential information or may be somehow diverting potential customers or consumers or clients to that other business," said Ford. "e other area where I think we see concerns sometimes crop- ping up is an employer's concern that an employee may be moon- lighting at their own job — they may have set up their own compa- ny or they may be running a side business, and using the employer's time or resources." Generally speaking, the golden rule for moonlighting is that it shouldn't create a conflict and it shouldn't interfere with the main job, said Pierre Battah, a New- Brunswick-based management consultant at Battah Associates. "Even if it's unrelated to our business, if you're showing up for work less able to contribute than you would be if you weren't doing your second job, well then, I think there is a general sense that that is the employer's business," he said. In an employment relationship, there are implied duties of loyalty, confidentiality, avoiding conflict of interest, said Stuart Rudner, founding partner of Rudner Mac- Donald in Toronto. "But other wise, generally speaking, you can't ban someone from taking a job outside of their working hours or moonlighting. ere's nothing inherently wrong with that," he said. But things can get a bit more complex when it comes to upper- level employees in management or senior leadership, said Rudner. "When we work with our cli- ents (and) we're dealing with man- agers or upper-level employees, we'll typically put a clause in the contract which says something like 'ey're not allowed to take on outside employment without the approval of the organization.' And we usually add in wording to the effect that 'e approval won't be withheld unreasonably,'" he said. But, at the same time, many organizations want or expect se- nior leadership to sit on boards or volunteer with charity initiatives, said Rudner. Discipline and terminations If an employer's concerns are re- alized, it may be possible to im- pose discipline — but just-cause terminations are pretty rare, said Arleen Huggins, partner at Koskie Minsky in Toronto. "ere's going to be very few circumstances where an employ- ee is terminated for just cause for moonlighting," she said. In the case of a termination, the onus would be on the employer to prove the employee's after-hours activities were inconsistent with their employment responsibili- ties, said Huggins. Perhaps the most clearcut rea- soning for a termination would be around impaired job perfor- mance, said Battah. "(at is), when your job per- formance is suffering and we are able to draw some kind of direct relationship between that and your outside activity. So, to paint a simple picture, you're falling asleep on the job because you've got an evening job somewhere else," he said. Terminations for conflict of in- terest are trickier, said Battah. "As an employer, (you should) have a policy that is clear about the fact the onus is on the em- ployee to advise us, and to keep us advised, as opposed to 'If I don't ask, you won't tell me.'" Whatever the reasoning, the employer would need solid evi- dence its business is suffering det- rimental impacts, said Ford. "In those cases, the employer needs to have pretty clear evi- dence... (of ) the detrimental im- pact on the employer's business and the employee's ability to perform." Transparency and disclosure It's wise for employers to have clear policies around what is and is not allowed when it comes to moonlighting but, at the same time, employees should be trans- parent and upfront in disclosing their after-hours jobs, said Battah. "It's all about transparency. I think it's appropriate for employ- ers, in policy, to simply ask for em- ployees to state if they're involved in any outside activities that could impact either their ability to do their job or that would be some source of conflict," he said. "If those conversations are done transparently and openly at the beginning of an employment relationship, I think it gets every- thing going on the right foot. And then revisit it once in a while. I certainly know of many employers who will kind of recirculate that information either every year or two years." e reality is it's not uncom- mon for people to have to supple- ment their jobs, said Battah. "Given that the nature of em- ployment relationships are all over the map, and full-time, regu- lar employment is no longer the norm, necessarily… we are well- advised — especially at a time when we have some challenges in some sectors in finding people and hanging on to them — I think that would encourage me as an employer to be a little bit more flexible," he said. "Gone are the days where the employer (could) say, 'All of your focus needs to be with us.'" Employers should be flexible mooNlightiNg < pg. 1

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