Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER November 27, 2017 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 Liberals seek to tighten workplace harassment rules for businesses, Parliament Legislation meant to give employers clear course of action to deal with allegations Consider workplace safety in legalized marijuana rules, groups urge 'What are employers' rights and responsibilities?' Violence against front-line hospital staff on rise: Survey Union wants enhanced legal protection for workers who report incidents to superiors Report: Workers' comp boards overfunded by $6.8 billion 'Overcharging employers unfair, unproductive and unnecessary' Canadian film, TV leaders to meet about industry's 'prevalent' sexual harassment Hope to implement practical, concrete measures to tackle misconduct Irving Oil pleads guilty, fined after probe into 2013 Lac-Mégantic disaster Ordered to pay $4 million after pleading guilty to 34 counts stemming from investigation Top Canadian spy calls behaviour 'unacceptable' after report uncovers bullying Low morale, negativity draining energy of employees, managers: Executive summary AROUND THE WORLD U.K.'s May sets out rules for her party on harassment, bullying Says Parliament needs to take more responsibility for protecting workers Tokyo company gives extra holidays to non-smokers Perk compensates for smoke breaks taken by colleagues In a first, New York bans salary questions to fight gender pay gap Employers that ask subject to fine of up to US$250,000 Job cuts could boost populists, German minister tells Siemens ousands of jobs may be slashed as company overhauls power and gas business Digital strategy IBM Canada's Bridget King sheds light on the shifting world of campus recruitment hrreporter.com FEATURED VIDEO LeNoury Law Proactive Advice to Management Employment Lawyer of The Year James LeNoury B.A. (Hons) M.A. LL.B 416-926-1107 • Toll Free 1-877-926-1107 • lenourylaw.com More women in manufacturing could address skilled-trades gap But misperceptions, male-centric culture, focus on work-life balance among barriers to recruitment and retention, finds report BY JOHN DUJAY MANUFACTURING represents a great career option for young women wanting to get into high- tech industries, according to an action plan released last month by the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters (CME) association and the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC). But it's an uphill battle: Women account for 47.5 per cent of Can- ada's total labour force, but only 28 per cent toil in manufactur- ing, said the 58-page report Un- tapped Potential: Attracting and Engaging Women in Canadian Manufacturing. Currently, women make up less than 10 per cent of skilled produc- tion workers across Canada, and less than one-quarter of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) workers, according to Lesley Lawrence, senior vice- president for Ontario at BDC in Toronto. "We need to dispel the myth that manufacturing is kind of a dirty, dark, archaic type of in- dustry that maybe women have a certain perception over, whereas today we know it's about technol- ogy, robotics, the computer de- sign of tomorrow," she said. "We need to do a better job of engaging young women, obviously." Potential obstacles So, what is stopping women from entering the field? Work-life bal- ance may be one issue, according to the report. "Entrepreneurs need to be fo- cused on supporting, promoting and inspiring women and being aware of the work-life balance and family commitments, and understanding it is a priority for women," said Lawrence. Women have specific chal- lenges, according to Anita (Patil) Huberman, CEO of the Surrey Board of Trade. "It is different for women than it is for men, and that's a reality," she said. "Until employers understand that, I don't think things are going to change." One innovative company is considering implementing a "mom schedule" so women can work fewer than 40 hours a week, according to Allison Grealis, president of Cleveland, Ohio- based Women in Manufacturing (WiM), which has about 1,000 individual members representing approximately 500 manufacturers. "ink of the talent that is sit- ting at home; for example, many moms who have advanced de- grees in engineering or science and mathematics who, because they wanted to raise children and be more active in that process, are opting not to work or can't find a place of employment." Another issue identified in the report is that the industry tends to be "so male-centric that women don't want to work there, and yet because it's so male-centric, we need women to work there," said Rhonda Barnet, president and COO at Steelworks Design in Pe- terborough, Ont. As a result, the CME hopes to change certain factory-floor cul- tures and break down barriers "so that women know that it's being talked about, there's a lot of atten- tion on it so companies are chang- ing. And I think just even starting the conversation will get more young girls interested in walking through the door," she said. "ey see it as a progressive workforce." Employers need to collabo- rate with universities, business associations and the CME, and should begin public relations campaigns so manufacturers make it plain their "workplace culture is open to women," said Huberman. There's a poor reputation among women when it comes to manufacturing not being the best career option, she said. "That myth needs to be changed... We need to be able to present opportunities for women." Skilled trades gap Another concern is the skilled trades gap. Steelworks, for exam- ple, will see about 50 per cent of its skilled workers retiring in the next five to eight years, said Barnet, and "there's not enough young people behind there." "We have this gap in our labour force of people sort of 30 to 45 that there is a very low representation of skilled trades in general, not just in females." e proportion of young work- ers has dropped 75 per cent over the last 30 years in manufacturing, she said. "at's our real issue: Young people have not come through the door at a high enough rate." Increasing the level of appren- ticeships is a potential option to attract more women, according to Huberman, but it is a challenge because some employers are not open to them. "ey should say in their em- ployment ads 'We're willing to train, we're willing to provide apprenticeships,'" she said. "e need for human capital is so dire — especially as our popula- tion ages — the owners are aging, (and) they are looking at business succession." Role models One of the ways to attract more young women to manufacturing is by having them actually see suc- cessful women enjoying careers in trades, said Barnet. "ere's not enough role mod- els out there to demonstrate that women can be successful in man- ufacturing, so we need to do a bet- ter job of demonstrating that, and reaching out to young girls." Successful women in manu- facturing should become men- tors and advocates to "speak and bring visibility to what life is like in manufacturing these days," said Lawrence. And it's not just the morally correct thing to do, she said. "When you have diversity in organizations, it brings, number one, better financial results; it brings increased innovation in organizations, generally higher employee engagement, so orga- nizations recognize that there is a lot of benefits that come from diversity." Human resources can do more to support the effort to attract more women by "asking some of your successful women in those organizations to mentor outside of the organization," said Lawrence. "For HR professionals, it's as- sessing what are your current plans for attraction and reten- tion and development, and then finding partners and other orga- nizations and allies when you are looking for resources to develop your talent. And how better to promote your diversity advocacy than they align with organizations that support women and different segments of the population?" said Grealis. "We see progressive companies having success with attraction and retention when they look at devel- opment plans, as they look at how to give people the right skills for the right job." By 2020, growth of the Canada labour force will be at zero, ac- cording to the action plan Un- tapped Potential. "When we are not growing the labour force, then we have to make sure that we are utilizing the one that we have," said Bar- net, who launched a Women in Manufacturing Working Group through the CME. When it comes to employee engagement, odds are actually in women's favour. A 2017 survey by CME and BDC of 800 men and women found that women enjoy working in manufacturing, and 80 per cent of respondents would choose to make the same deci- sion if the opportunity was posed again. "When women walk through our doors and commence their career in manufacturing, they find it very gratifying and they want to stay there and they want to share it with other people, they will rec- ommend it to other people," said Barnet. "We know once we get them there, we've got a good chance of keeping them there; we're not getting enough women walking through our door." Getting the word out One of WiM's goals has been to better market manufacturers with a "Hear Her Story" campaign that launched in 2012 and has so far profiled more than 50 women, said Grealis. "We walk through a day in their life and we publish these on our blog and through social media, so that educators and students will hopefully observe them to hear what a real day in the life is like for women in manufactur- ing: at their jobs are exciting, they're making really cool things and hopefully excite some young- er women to look at a career in manufacturing." But it is tough to dispel myths, she said, citing the example of her 10- and 11-year-old children who went through a manufactur- ing component in their social sci- ences studies at school and "they still use words like 'factories' and 'pollution'; those things are still kind of ingrained in our history and so I think if we can better showcase what modern manu- facturing looks like — many of them are very clean, they're very high-tech, they are places that rely on automation and their in- terfaces are very similar to tech- nology that kids play (with)," said Grealis. "When you have diversity in employers, it brings better financial results, it brings increased innovation and it brings generally higher employee engagement." SHOWCASING > pg. 8

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