Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER March 7, 2016 NEWS 17 HR Manager's Guide to Employment Files and Information Management: Legislation and Best Practices uniquely addresses the management of all types of employee information throughout the employment lifecycle, from recruitment to termination. Employment information and documentation management carries legal requirements that protect an organization from litigation, and are essential to the creation of sound policies for efficient, effective, and ethical business practices. Easy to read and understand, this new guide provides Human Resources professionals and others who deal with employee files, either electronically or in paper format, with: • Key legislation and emerging case law • Best practices in the areas of privacy, records retention, human resources information systems (HRIS), and information security • Practical guidance, tools and templates, such as sample policies • Information on all Canadian jurisdictions Available risk-free for 30 days Order online: www.carswell.com Call Toll-Free: 1-800-387-5164 In Toronto: 416-609-3800 Order # 986618-65203 $70 Softcover approx. 100 pages April 2015 978-0-7798-6618-2 Shipping and handling are extra. Price(s) subject to change without notice and subject to applicable taxes. 00228VC-A49657-E98871 New Publication HR Manager's Guide to Employment Files and Information Management: Legislation and Best Practices A Canadian HR Reporter Special Report Howard A. Levitt, B.A., LL.B., and Tanya Neitzert, B.A., CHRP Brought to you by: and the Privacy Act. Legislation specific to genetic information is necessary because of the potential for discrimina- tion, said Bev Heim-Myers, chair of the Canadian Coalition for Ge- netic Fairness (CCGF) in Kitch- ener, Ont., adding the information data scientists can glean is very complicated. "I don't think you could edu- cate and train employers enough to understand the information the way they should and not use it in a judgmental way. It's frightening to think employers might have access to that information and misuse it." e results of genetic testing do not belong in the hands of insur- ers or businesses, even as more employers are exploring the possi- bility of using genetic testing in an effort to make health and wellness programs more efficient, she said. "People don't really understand it yet," said Heim-Myers. "is in- formation probably creates more questions than answers. But an employer could see that a person has a predisposition to Alzheim- er's disease or Parkinson's disease and think, 'Gee, I don't want to employ this person because in the future they're going to be a drain on my benefits package.'" Multiple reports available 23andMe, a personal genomics and biotech company based in Mountain View, Calif., provides genetic information to consum- ers. e company offers reports on health, traits and ancestry to Canadian customers through a process known as genotyping, said media relations representa- tive Andy Kill. While genetic sequencing ex- amines the entire genome, ge- notyping looks at specific points or variations of the genome, and 23andMe examines 700,000 unique variations, he said. Health reports from the com- pany include genetic risk factors — which describe variations in the genome that can impact risk for various diseases such as Al- zheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease — and inherited condi- tions, which describe carrier sta- tus, said Kill. Additionally, drug response reports are available as variations of the genome can impact how an individual reacts to certain types of drugs. is is of interest to em- ployers as it can impact health and wellness programs, he said. "e science behind the reports, it's always advancing, but it's pretty mature at this stage as far as the genotyping process," said Kill. "We have a high threshold in our testing process where, if we can't say with a very high degree of certainty that you have a certain variant, we will report that as what we term a 'no call.' It's a fairly well-established scientific process." Canada unique But there are concerns about the way genetic information could be used in the future. "Canada is rather unique in the Western world where it doesn't re- ally have legislation that protects against genetic discrimination," said Peter Engelmann, partner at Goldblatt Partners in Ottawa. Canada is the only G7 country without protections in place for genetic information. Currently, an employee experiencing dis- crimination based on genetic information would have to file a human rights complaint. ese is- sues become increasingly difficult because of the perceived discrimi- nation involved, he said. "It really is perceived in the sense that, in the vast majority of cases, just because you have the gene doesn't mean you necessar- ily get the disease or that you get the symptoms that are associated with the disease," said Engelmann. "Employers have to be very careful if they get this informa- tion because it doesn't necessarily mean someone is disabled from working. In many cases, people with a number of illnesses are to- tally asymptomatic and perform their work without problems." Legislation specific to genetic information is necessary because confidentiality policies alone are not enough to protect against discrimination, he said. Even if employers never ask about the results, that information may still become available. "I can't think of an instance where there would be any legiti- mate reason why an employer should be able to ask an employee about the result of his or her ge- netic test, but these things get out," said Engelmann. "Someone puts it on social media or it be- comes available other ways. Busi- nesses can become aware of this information quite inadvertently." Specific legislation is also cru- cial because of jurisdictional con- cerns, he said. In 2015, the senate's Conservative-dominated human rights committee voted to re- move eight of the bill's 11 clauses due to concerns of jurisdiction, specifically concerning the insur- ance industry and how it might be impacted by federal regulation of genetic information incorporated in health and wellness programs. "Would it be helpful to have provincial laws that deal with this issue as well? Probably," said Engelmann. "e problem is when you look at all these other countries that have protections for genetic infor- mation, it's all federal legislation. I think it's because of the national importance that has been given to this topic. It's complicated be- cause, unlike many countries, our health, education and so many of these regulations are provincial affairs." As a result, constitutional chal- lenges based on jurisdiction are more common in Canada, he said. "Insurance companies may well try and fight this," he said. "But I think this version of the bill is more likely to withstand any kind of attack of that nature. You would hope the country would get behind it." Canada only G7 country without protections BILL S-201 < pg. 1 we work with our clients, so many of them leave that out — even if they have an HR department," said Hunnam-Jones. "They think, 'It's a seasonal effort so why do I have to go to all that effort of a proper job de- scription?' But in my experience, it makes a big difference." There are also key consider- ations Home Depot takes into account when it comes to finding seasonal workers that are high- quality talent, she said. "With most seasonal hiring, I would say digital — that's where you're going to find your people. Don't think just Facebook, think everything digital. If you've got a Twitter account, send it out that way — Snapchat, whatever it is. Because if it's seasonal, you're probably going to be attracting the generation that is all digital. " But it's not just about digital — employers should not for- get groups such as associations, university alumni groups or af- filiation groups, according to Hunnam-Jones. "(It's about) all those kinds of things that maybe aren't your typical places to go to fill jobs but where you now need to go to find a mass of people in a quick space of time," she said. It's also a strategic move to de- velop a simple, streamlined sys- tem for collecting data points on a large number of applicants, said Rick Lash, director at Hay Group in Toronto. "Most organizations will use some form — especially for mass recruitment — they will probably use some form of objective data that is relatively easy to collect, but also will kind of differentiate to a degree so you're able to kind of narrow the field in terms of who you want to go forward with." Employers should also consider collecting information about per- sonality types and job preferences, he said. "Some organizations also use an individually completed per- sonality measure that might look at things like preferences, the de- gree to which somebody might prefer more detail-oriented work, the degree to which some- body enjoys working with oth- ers versus somebody who tends not to be all that communicative and kind of keeps to themselves — so that's important to know if you're going to be in some kind of retail environment. You want to make sure that you're hiring people who have a preference for dealing with people as opposed to that being a stressful thing for them to do." Also, when moving from the screening process to the in- terviewing process, recruiters should focus on experience- based questions for seasonal employees — particularly if the people will be in a customer ser- vice role, said Lash. "e interview would usually (look) for the kinds of experienc- es and the kinds of competen- cies that people would bring to the role. And typically the kinds of competencies we would want to target are those interpersonal skills. And an interview that would ask people to talk about their past experiences, for example, dealing with difficult customer situations; past experiences of working on a team; past experiences of trying to solve a difficult problem," he said. "So getting people to talk about what did they actually do — not what would you do, but give me some actual examples." en, you can get a sense of the kinds of behaviours this person is likely to demonstrate, said Lash. "at gives you another data point to decide whether you want to bring them onboard." Simple, streamlined system can collect data points HOME DEPOT < pg. 3 "It's about all those things that maybe aren't your typical places to go to fill jobs."

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