Canadian HR Reporter

April 3, 2017

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 April 3, 2017 NEWS 17 Labour law research just got faster, easier and more comprehensive. LabourSource™ on WestlawNext® Canada combines the most robust collection of grievance arbitrations with court and board decisions, expert commentary, legislation and collective bargaining-related content – with Canada's most advanced search engine. A single search delivers the content you're looking for, whether it's case law, legislation, commentary, or legal memos. You can then filter your results to get exactly what you need. With LabourSource, you'll always be confident that your research is complete and that you haven't missed anything. Experience the benefits • Prepare winning grievance arbitrations and labour board applications • Successfully negotiate favourable collective agreements • Stay up to date on the latest labour-related decisions, industrial relations and economic news Legal content that is labour focused, not labour intensive Introducing LabourSource™ on WestlawNext® Canada See the LabourSource advantage View a demo at westlawnextcanada.com/laboursource 00224EP-A47770 to play, such as developing a na- tional skills strategy. "ere has been a much lower amount of spending in terms of government and employers in skills development and training opportunities," said Thirgood. "at is an area where employers can step up. I think employers will probably need to start thinking about how they can invest in their employees in things like preparing them for the changes that might come." "e economy is shifting and the labour market is going to be dramatically different. ere are a lot of gaps to be filled in areas like skills training." Preparing your staff for the transition to robot workers could be more difficult than it appears, said Sean Mullin, executive direc- tor of the Brookfield Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Toronto. "It's very hard to predict exactly what future skills are needed at a specific job level, particularly as technology is changing," he said. e common characteristics of jobs least susceptible to automa- tion should be assessed and criti- cal skills identified — such as cre- ative problem-solving, judgment and emotional intelligence. Accordingly, HR could begin to highlight those needs in the recruitment process in an effort to hire workers who are more equipped with skills that can adapt to a changing world — a move that could help reallocate a company workforce following fu- ture automation, said Mullin. Even if a job description does not specifically have a 100 per cent requirement for those skills, em- ployers may want to look at a fu- ture employee with that in mind, he said. "ey have skills that are gen- eralizable and adaptable and can be applied to other areas in a way that would be much more flexible than the average worker." Despite no legal obligation to do so, employers may find prepar- ing staff is beneficial, said Froud. "If the individuals are prepared and educated in a way that they are taking up activities that ro- bots are not currently perform- ing, then you're going to have a happier human workforce that isn't railing against the changing world," he said. Predict future skills ROBOTS < pg. 7 issue is not fully understood by employers and employees. "I don't think that people are aware that these dynamics are go- ing on. I think two things are pos- sible: One is they think it's going on in the world, but not in their own organization; and (two) they think they are immune because they are good people," said Kaplan. ere may also be a fatigue that helps tamp down any enthusiasm to address it. "People have heard so much about it, they are kind of sick of it at the moment we need to make that next push," she said. "I am not saying people are consciously discriminating — the point is we are all socialized, in a way, to de- value women's contributions in the economy." Unintended biases are "just built into how we see the world play out unless you're very careful about being conscious of them," said Kaplan. "ere is study after study after study that shows: Whether we are thinking about whether to hire someone, whether we are consid- ering to promote them, whether we are considering to invest in a female-led startup — whatever category we want to talk about in the economy — we tend to deval- ue the female contribution." For the most part, experts be- lieve biases are unintentional but "it's not about intention, it's about outcome and impact," said Pau- lette Senior, president and CEO of the Canadian Women's Foun- dation in Toronto. "e better question to ask is 'What is the impact on the people who work for us?' such that we can address it from there, as opposed to 'Well, it's not really what we in- tended' because, intention or not, it becomes irrelevant in terms of impact." "Working people are very much aware of the biases. ey may not know all the rudiments of it, they may not understand all the struc- ture in terms of how it came to exist, but I think they know. And women have known for a very long time. Women see it in their work environments," she said. Potential solutions for HR, government A good first step for human re- sources departments to take is to collect the data, according to Kaplan, because "lots of organiza- tions have not shed light on what's going on." By looking at something such as a simple correlation between the percentages of women in the organization and how many are being paid in the lower range "(it) might indicate you have a prob- lem," she said. But one department might en- counter pushback from a compet- ing department. "The HR function is saying, 'I want to do this analysis to re- ally understand what's going on' and the legal function is saying, 'I don't want you to do the analysis because if we find out we are not compliant, then it could come up in a human rights complaint,'" said Kaplan. "Organizations from the very top need to develop a commit- ment to do this that is not based on any kind of legal concern, but is based on a human rights concern of really wanting to make sure that people are being paid fairly for their work." Addressing inequality must be- gin at the highest level of manage- ment, said Senior. "e issue of equal pay is be- yond HR departments, quite frankly," she said. "It really is a commitment that the organiza- tion takes. It needs to be a rec- ognition that inequity exists with regards to pay, but also that in- equality also exists." Having more females in leader- ship roles might help, according to Senior, "ensuring that diversity is reflected not just in terms of what people look like, but in terms of the policies and practices that are being adhered to." And once the equal pay edict from above has been firmly es- tablished, it is time for HR de- partments to implement policies, according to Senior. "It's ensuring that as hiring takes place, there are no built-in barriers in terms of HR policies that exist within that organization, because sometimes the practices that we fall into, we don't necessarily lift them up to scrutiny." Pay inequality must also be tackled by the provincial govern- ments, according to the experts. "If the (Ontario) premier is seri- ous about closing the gender wage gap and ending discrimination for equal pay for work of equal value, they would — in their upcoming (Changing) Workplaces Review — address this part-time versus full-time pay issue," said omas. Governments can also imple- ment programs to encourage women to enter male-dominat- ed industries by using improved techniques in high school guid- ance, and by targeting sectors that young women should con- sider, according to Scott Allinson, vice-president of public affairs at the Human Resources Profes- sionals Association (HRPA) in Toronto. "In high school, if they don't get the proper guidance, they actually drop out," he said. "We recommend the govern- ment develop a pilot project that highlights female role models in those sectors and give them the confidence to keep going forward." Traditionally, females were put on a path that would take them into bachelor of arts degrees, and when they come into the work- force, they actually started at a lower wage, said Allinson, citing the 2015 HRPA study Closing the Gender Wage Gap. "Women going into the STEMs field (science, technology, engi- neering, mathematics) when they graduate, and when they go into the workforce, they actually start at a higher wage, and that wage gap is a lot closer than it would be for somebody outside of the STEMs." Slow progress e gender wage gap in Canada is moving slowly toward parity, but a gulf remains in terms of full equality. "It's getting better than what we saw in the 80s, when it was sitting around 70 odd cents on the dol- lar to what males made. Now it's up around 87 cents, (according to) the last StatsCan number that came out," said Allinson. The gap is closing, accord- ing to a March 2017 Statistics Canada report: Women and Paid Work. "We're getting there, but it just takes more education and aware- ness," said Allinson. "e fact that we've seen in the last 30 years how much the gap has started to close, and with more women going into the workforce, and with more women going into the STEMs field, I definitely think in our lifetime, we will get close to being 90 to 95 per cent (gender wage ratio)." But the World Economic Fo- rum released a report in October — e Global Gender Gap Report 2016 — that said, overall, Canada had fallen from 30th to 35th place out of 144 countries, according to Senior. e fight became "stalemated" in the 1990s and the early 2000s, according to Kaplan, after some major gains were made. "We picked the low-hanging fruit, but the tougher work that's going to get the last 20 per cent, that tougher work requires orga- nizational change in structures," she said. "It is going so much slower than anyone thought it would. We are making progress but so much less than what we should, given the amount of talk about it." Addressing inequality should start with leaders LCBO < pg. 3 "Organizations from the very top need to develop a commitment to do this that is not based on any kind of legal concern but on a human rights concern."

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