Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER October 3, 2016 2 NEWS Recent stories posted on www.hrreporter.com. Check the website daily for quick news hits from across Canada and around the world. WEB O N T H E ACROSS CANADA Commons committee calls for faster pathway to residency for migrant workers But Alberta Federation of Labour disappointed with report Average base pay increases in 2017 projected at 2.2 per cent: Survey Eleven per cent of employers planning pay freeze GM, Unifor far apart in talks as strike looms 2,500 Oshawa, Ont., jobs on the line Wage gap between Canadian men and women narrows with education Educated women make 72 per cent of what men earn: tudy Unifor ratifies deal with Suncor Fort McMurray, Alta., workers agree to pattern deal Alberta securities arm eyes mandating public disclosure of women in exec jobs 'at is the way the world is going': Minister Alberta's Notley says minimum wage increases timely, will not lead to job losses 'We're striking the right balance' Commons finance committee told Liberals will table CPP bill in coming weeks Finance minister to go before finance committee Sept. 19 AROUND THE WORLD Australia's parliament to grill bank CEOs on customer treatment Increased scrutiny over oligarchic dominance of financial industry Merkel wants Germany to get refugees into workforce faster Bosses of biggest companies held to account for lack of action Barclays axes 13,600 jobs in 9 months New CEO focused on cutting costs U.K. jobs market showing 'cracks in the ice' after Brexit vote: Survey Business, finance, construction, utilities report falls in employer optimism Prisoner 'slave labour' protest escalates in U.S. Protesters faced off with riot police denouncing companies that profit from prison workers hrreporter.com FEATURED VIDEO Business travel down: Survey But employees believe face-to-face still most effective approach BY JOHN DUJAY CANADIAN WORKERS aren't logging the same number of miles they used to, according to a recent survey. Employees took an average of 8.95 business trips in the last year compared to 13.36 the previous year, according to a survey by the Global Business Travel Asso- ciation (GBTA) Foundation and American Express. But is that a reflection of a stalled economy, advances in technology or employee prefer- ences? It could be a mixture of all three but, either way, travellers still say meeting face-to-face has the greatest impact. Because of the stagnant econ- omy, mainly due to oil prices, business travel is in a low-key phase, according to GBTA vice- president of research Jeanne Liu in Clifton, Virg. "Business travel spending and costs, when companies are going into more cautious mode, or look- ing at their spending, it's usually one of the first things they cut or reduce," she said. "It's easier for them to do that than to lay people off or make other drastic changes in their business." e Conference Board of Can- ada is forecasting domestic busi- ness travel volume nationally will grow in the 2.5 per cent range for 2017 and in the low two per cent range the following year, said Greg Hermus, associate director. "It's a modest story." For individual companies, growth is heavily tied to profits, he said. "e pool of funding that sup- ports business travel has still been quite constrained," said Hermus. "Companies are still pretty tight." However, two-thirds (67 per cent) of Canadian business trav- ellers believe management con- siders business travel to be very important for their company's financial performance, found the GBTA-Amex survey of 3,500 business travellers from Canada, Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, the United King- dom and United States. And a majority (81 per cent) of travellers said they meet their business goals when travelling. But broken down by age, those aged 55 and over are more suc- cessful (83 per cent) in meeting all their business goals when trav- elling than millennials aged 18 to 34 (70 per cent). at's because older travellers are more experienced and tend to be able to get all goals accom- plished, according to Atalia Dasil- va, vice-president of international public affairs at American Express in London, U.K. "Because they set objectives, it's just experience," she said. "One of the tips is to set mea- surable objectives for the trip and that's what the older travellers are doing, whereas the millennial is a little bit newer to the game." Many millenials will use business travel as a means to spend more time exploring the city after the goals of the trip are out of the way, benefiting because airfare is paid for by the employer, said Liu. "ey really want to take advan- tage of this opportunity to travel." Face-to-face important A majoriy (68 per cent) of Cana- dian business travellers believe technology can never replace meeting with people face-to-face in order to conduct business. is breaks down to 79 per cent for older workers and 52 per cent for millennials. Despite how easy it is to connect virtually, face-to-face meetings are of paramount importance, said Paul Roman, vice-president and general manager of global com- mercial payments at American Express Canada in Toronto. "Technology is advantageous in many ways, but in-person meet- ings foster strong personal rela- tionships that are difficult to form otherwise." Face-to-face meetings are also crucial to globalization, especially in meeting with business leaders in a country such as China which offers a completely different way of life from that of the West, said Dasilva. "I cannot imagine the first or second or third meeting (done virtually). Companies will want to go to China to have those meet- ings because it is such a different culture." Virtual may be the wave of the future, but not anytime soon, said Liu. "Only when there is some sort of cost restraint do businesses go to virtual meetings, not in-person. I think virtual has a role, but I do not see face-to-face meetings go- ing away." Relying on technology is more appropriate when everybody at a meeting knows everybody else, such as internal meetings or among remote workers, said Hermus. "If you are very familiar with the group, that's the (situation) most TRAVEL > pg. 3 Technology is advantageous but in-person meetings foster strong relationships. Credit: Joshua Roberts (Reuters) A Transportation Safety Administration officer checks passengers' tickets and identification at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Aug. 8. Heightened security checks are among the frustrations for business travelers, finds a survey. 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