Canadian HR Reporter

PM40065782 RO9496 August 7, 2017 INSIDE Improving performance While many believe performance reviews are meaningless, it might not be the program that's the problem High-cost housing Vancouver and Toronto looking to lure top talent page 2 Focus on Facebook Company culture key to leadership development page 3 5 generations One-size- ts-all health plans no longer work page 13 Credit: Fabian Bimmer (Reuters) Teelke Meyer receives her food order by a delivery robot in Hamburg, Germany, on May 9. Research shows millennials are shifting away from routine occupations that are facing replacement by automation. page 10 fi nancial well–being View our new video or fi nd out more... mental wellness physical fi tness it's a lot more than discounts the original perks company TM the original perks company TM www.venngo.com/perks 1.866.383.6646 ext.202 Will millennials outsmart robots? Young workers' interests shifting away from routine roles: Research BY MARCEL VANDER WIER THE DEMISE of the future work- place at the hands of robots has been greatly exaggerated, accord- ing to research from Indeed.com, an American-based job-search website. Statistics on Canadian job- seeking interests show millen- nial workers are well-positioned to beat the robots, according to Daniel Culbertson, an economist at Indeed in Austin. e labour force is becoming more educated — 23.8 per cent of workers now have a university degree compared to 18.1 per cent in 2005, he said. Additionally, millennials are showing greater interest in higher- skilled, non-routine occupations that are less likely to face replace- ment by automation. Just one in fi ve workers in the millennial age group (ages 20 to 36) prefers a routine occupation, according to research compiled between Sep- tember and March. Data was collected from In- deed's jobseeker activity, with re- searchers linking users' inferred ages to their interest in broad classifi cations of jobs: non-rou- tine cognitive, routine cognitive, non-routine manual and routine manual. Baby boomers (ages 53 to 71) are 54 per cent more likely to be interested in routine manual jobs — including many occupations at risk of automation. HR JOBS > pg. 6 Supreme Court confi rms employers can terminate workers with disabilities No discrimination found in 2005 dismissal BY SARAH DOBSON IN a recent decision, the Supreme Court of Canada has confi rmed that the termination of an em- ployee with a disability is not nec- essarily a breach of human rights. e June 15 ruling found there was no prima facie discrimination when it came to the dismissal of a man who said he had an illegal drug addiction. ere's no doubt this is an em- ployer-friendly decision in an area not typically known for them, said John Batzel, a partner at Bennett Jones in Calgary. "Really, it puts the onus on em- ployees to disclose their substance use or misuse that could reason- ably lead to impairment on the job, and that's even the case where addiction is an issue… and if an employee fails to comply with an employer's disclosure policy, they can be terminated." e case involved Ian Stewart who worked at the Cardinal River mine in Alberta, operated by Elk Valley Coal. Looking to maintain a safe work site, the company had im- plemented an Alcohol, Illegal Drugs & Medical Policy that ex- pected employees to disclose any dependence or addiction issues before any drug-related incident occurred. If so, they would be offered treatment. If not, they would face termination. Stewart attended a training session reviewing the policy and signed a form acknowl- edging his understanding. Stewart used cocaine on his days off but did not inform his employer. When his loader was involved in an accident in October 2005, he tested positive for drugs and later said he thought he was addicted to cocaine. Nine days later, Elk Valley ter- minated his employment, but Stewart argued, through his union, that he was terminated for being addicted and this constituted discrimination. e Alberta Human Rights Tri- bunal disagreed, saying Stewart was terminated for breaching the policy, not because of his addic- tion. is was confi rmed by the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench, the Alberta Court of Appeal and, more recently, the Supreme Court of Canada. SELF-DISCLOSURE > pg. 8 Contractors in spotlight with legislative changes Alberta, Ontario look to clarify defi nitions BY SARAH DOBSON LE G I SL ATIVE C H AN G E S announced — or expected — in Alberta and Ontario could have a major impact on the contractor model popular with many individ- uals and employers, say experts. rough its Fair and Family- Friendly Workplaces Act, Alberta has changed the defi nition of em- ployee to include dependent con- tractors who work for one employ- er. e change, which takes eff ect Jan. 1, 2018, is part of the Labour Relations Code and will allow con- tractors to unionize and bargain collectively. In Ontario, the government introduced the Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act in June hoping to amend the province's Employ- ment Standards Act and Labour Relations Act. One change would prohibit employers from misclas- sifying employees as independent contractors or treating "an em- ployee of the employer as if the person were not an employee." And if there is a dispute, it's up to the employer to prove the per- son is not an employee. What's behind the changes? There are a number of factors behind the changes, such as a new NDP government in Alberta and concerns about "precarious" workers in a changing economy, said Aly Bandali, CEO of Profes- sional Contractor Solutions in Calgary. "Employers (have been) using this business strategy of bring- ing in these individuals as inde- pendent contractors where they should all have been an employee of the organization, but the only reason they did that was to avoid the signifi cant payroll burden that might come with that. So those situations are what's spurring a lot of the legislation in Ontario and Alberta." EMPLOYERS > pg. 7

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