Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER October 16, 2017 NEWS 9 balance more importantly than any other factors, found the sur- vey of 4,500 employees. But what some employers con- sider a good work-life balance does not always appeal to younger workers, said O'Grady. "Individuals are saying, 'I want a good work-life balance' and companies are responding to that by saying, 'OK, well we can offer flexi-hours or we can offer work- from-home options,' thinking that helps with work-life balance," he said. "But actually, flexible hours and work-from-home are not high up on the list of benefits or investments that employees are looking for." How people are treated on a day-to-day basis is much more important to the younger genera- tion, he said. "When people are saying 'work- life balance,' I think what they mean is 'When I come to work, I want to work hard, I want to do meaningful work, I want to get good feedback, I want to feel like I am being invested in and feel like I am actually getting somewhere but, at the end of the day — which should be five o'clock — I want to get out of here and I don't want to work late. I want my weekends to myself,'" said O'Grady. "Companies need to rethink their own definition of work-life balance." As well, a stronger Canadian economy over the past few years is making more workers look to greener pastures, he said. "A lot of dissatisfaction that we would see happening is just the direct result of a better job mar- ket," said O'Grady, unlike in 2013 when "there was a lot of fear in moving jobs." "You fast-forward to today and now we've had many years of a stable job market, frequently a growing job market, companies giving salary increases; there's confidence in the job market, and you've got individual people who have colleagues who recently left and gone onto a better job and it's all worked out well." "e irony is, the better the job market, the less satisfied people tend to be in their current job," said O'Grady. Dissatisfaction rising Driving the results is a growing level of discontent among many workers as there is a significantly lower percentage of people who are satisfied in their job, he said. Overall work satisfaction has decreased by 19 per cent since the last survey in 2013. And 88.9 per cent of employees would leave their current positions for an ideal job, up from 77.6 per cent in the earlier survey. "Lack of career progression is the number-one reason people cite when they talk about why did they leave their most recent job," said O'Grady. "Some people see career progression as being the job title they have, how many people they are managing, and getting a salary increase, but often what they are actually looking for is professional development." Employees are asking them- selves "Am I learning new things? Have I learned new skills? Am I being challenged in my job? Is the company investing in my abil- ity to do more?" when they con- sider their job satisfaction, said O'Grady. ey want the employer to "not just promote me (but) de- velop me, make me better, make me a more accomplished person." A big part of career develop- ment is challenge and change, he said. "If you want to keep people engaged, you have to think, 'How do we bring change and how do we challenge people in new jobs?' because that really is what profes- sional development is about," he said. "e biggest win they could have is trying to figure out how to bring change and challenge to an individual at work." People are looking for the op- portunity to grow their basket, not necessarily from a hierarchical standpoint, but laterally, accord- ing to Pegi Klein-Webber, direc- tor of corporate communications and people development at M&M Food Market in Mississauga, Ont. M&M offers personal coaching services to employees — and it's appreciated, she said. "ey're not taking it as 'Oh, I have to be coached' as a negative, they are taking it as 'You're invest- ing in my future.'" New recruits are looking for different offerings from compa- nies, and recognition is high up on that list, said Klein-Webber. "The first thing that comes through a conversation is about being valued." M&M has been able to attract a fair number of smart, interesting people from other larger brands, she said. "What the brand really feels and thinks is important to them from a culture perspective." New recruits want access to decision-making, flexibility with work hours, balance in life out- side work, and participation in various experiences at work, said Klein-Webber. "One of the keys things that comes up in conversations is around transparency: Having a five-year vision and being able to communicate that on a regular basis to a potential employee so they clearly understand where the company is going is as important as compensation," she said. "They want to really under- stand the business and what we are doing to grow the business." Fitting in When deciding on whether or not to hire a new recruit, HR should "be honest and try to look for the fit; it may take a little longer and it may seem more difficult to do, but once you have that fit and the person really feels like they belong, and they feel accepted and welcomed into the culture, they'll fight for it," said Agostino De Gasperis, vice-president of people and partnerships at Labatt Breweries of Canada in Toronto. "We don't want to make the mistake of filling it with some- one who won't be happy and they won't thrive in our environment, so better to take a little bit more time and make sure you have a candidate that's not just qualified technically, but then also will feel at home in our company and with our culture." A company's culture can be con- veyed by most HR professionals by being "very inclusive, responsive, to create that passion around a team, and understanding, with a laser focus of what this organiza- tion is doing," said Klein-Webber. Employees are looking for a robust company culture, accord- ing to the Hays survey, but what exactly does that mean? "We challenge people to stretch themselves, to find innovative ways of doing things, whether it's innovative products or adjusting processes internally to change the game, and to really just have an ownership mindset," said De Gasperis. Getting workers to fit in is cru- cial to maintaining a strong culture. "We openly say to folks 'It's not for everyone, but if it speaks for you, we'd love for you to join us and be part of something special,'" he said. "Given the amount of time we all spend at work, you want to do something that you are pas- sionate about, and you want to do something that makes you feel you belong; intrinsically, every- body has that kind of desire." Once an employee embraces the corporate way of doing things and continues working at a com- pany with a solid culture, the pay raises take care of themselves, said De Gasperis. "If people are making a trade- off for culture, if they pick the right culture, they'll excel and the financial rewards will follow." Personal coaching services popular CULTURE < pg. 1 Stulberg, director of talent man- agement at Toronto Hydro, so the students get an appreciation of the different functions of the organi- zation. ey also get a hands-on look at the equipment, tools and vehicles at the organization. "We try to make it as experi- ential as possible," said Clark, cit- ing as an example kids having the opportunity to remotely change the connection on a hydro pole while wearing personal protective equipment. "We try and make it more tactile for them." It's an opportunity to speak to kids early, said Stulberg. "We get to influence the Grade 9 students at a time in their ca- reer where they don't even know what opportunities are available or what educational pathways are available and what options are available for their future — it's early intervention." It's also industry's role to edu- cate students as to their career choices, she said. "For an organization that relies on certified and skills trade and designated professional positions, it's hard because there's a mindset about those types of career choic- es and I think it's incumbent on us to educate what opportunities exist here." Hosting a Take Our Kids to Work Day lets Copernicus Edu- cational Products give back to the community, and makes sense for a company that's involved in the education industry, accord- ing to Kaylyn Belcourt-McCabe, vice-president of Copernicus in Arthur, Ont., which designs and manufactures classroom furni- ture and equipment. "It's really important to expose kids to so many different experi- ences," she said. "It also helps us build and support our company culture and it's a great team-build- ing initiative internally — lots of departments have to work togeth- er to make it work and keep the day flowing. And it's fun for us to have kids again in the office, being an education company — it adds some new life and really gets em- ployees engaged with it as well." Students get to design and develop their own product idea, coming up with a concept — such as a guitar stand — researching it, working on CAD (computer- aided drafting) drawings, going to the factory to see the product being made, and then making a sales pitch at the end of the day. "ey're exposed to a whole different variety of jobs," said Bel- court-McCabe. "It's always a really fun day for us, getting to see what the students come up with is really rewarding at the end of the day, so it's neat to see them so engaged." And while it can be a challenge to take employees away from their regular duties, people are excited to be involved, she said. "ey want to share what they are passionate about in their own jobs. You're not being asked to create a PowerPoint presentation of what you do every day, you're applying it to something the kids want to design and the kids are ex- cited, so I think it's actually a fairly easy pitch that way." At Festo Canada, employees need only give a half-hour of their time, so the commitment is not too demanding, said Iman Sbeit, administrative co-ordinator at Festo in Mississauga, Ont., which manufactures process control and factory automation solutions. e company has participated in the event for 11 years, giving students hands-on experience in various departments, she said, such as building and testing a bi- onic fin gripper or engineering a pneumatic circuit. Students experience a mecha- tronics lab, and then job shadow an employee. It's an opportunity to teach children about the world of industrial automation, said Sbeit. "It's not a dirty job — people think that way when they think of factory automation — but we actually employ highly innovative and technological mechatronic solutions to manufacture every- day goods," she said. "It's a good way to get the kids in to see what it is we do, and that it is people in highly innovative positions that build these solutions." is year's event will take place Nov. 1. Team-building initiatives KIDS AT WORK < pg. 7 A student participates in the Take Our Kids to Work Day at Copernicus Educational Products in Arthur, Ont., in 2016. Credit: Copernicus Educational Products "Employees want to understand the business, and what we're doing to grow it."

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