Canadian HR Reporter - Sample Issue

CANADIAN HR REPORTER November 27, 2017 20 NEWS in the future." e commitment to business partners and senior HR leadership is about making them look smart to their client base, because that's how HR gets in the conversation, he said. "And smart doesn't mean we're showing up with statistics and basic statistics describing popula- tions, it means we're showing up with things that actually matter to the business and we're speak- ing the language of the business. at will vary depending on the kind of organization that you're in. e way that the business tracks themselves and measures success will be highly diverse, but as an HR analytics function, that is your trend line, that is what you should be optimizing towards in order to deliver value." Hiring: Focus on analytics or HR? Of course, people are often lim- ited by budget, said Kochhar, so your first investment is fairly critical. And if you can find an HR analytics individual, that's great, especially if she's got three to four years of experience — she can be a generalist to help build your base from. Alternatively, it's good to find people who have an analytic mindset, and a bit of HR experi- ence, he said, "or even internally within your own company, if you can find people that are interested in HR analytics or analysts that are interested in HR in any way, and pull those people up, that can be a real value-add, especially if they already understand the business to begin with." Hiring a data scientist off the bat, somebody who has an ex- treme capability in terms of the analytical space, may actually not work out, said Kochhar, who hired two data scientists, for ex- ample, but when they started to get into the job, the quality of the data and data governance wasn't quite there to do deep, dynamic modelling, so they were stuck doing advance analytics to a very small layer of predictive analytics, he said. "It's going to vary organization by organization. If you're look- ing to get somebody to start up quickly, adjusting to HR often is the first shock value because we do things relatively differently. But for the longer term, you're going to have to look at what that invest- ment looks like." Howell was not able to hire a team from outside when she was putting together the HR analytics functions due to a limited budget, she said. "So what I did was find people that were already super data users in different areas… kind of islands unto themselves where they are, and I was able to convince the head of HR… to have a couple of those people move into my area… I saw the potential." She has since assigned them client groups across functional ar- eas of human resources based on their areas of expertise and where they came from. e person doesn't necessarily have to have an HR background, but should understand the basics of research design, "someone's who good with numbers and with Excel spreadsheets," said Howell, along with consultation and con- sulting skills. "e good news is I think the market — in terms of recruits in people who have these skill sets — is starting to be developed, so you will definitely find that out there," she said. If you do hire someone who lacks an HR background but has consultative skills, is a good lis- tener and gets out there and un- derstands things, then he can suc- ceed, said Howell. "Where you have the benefits is if you have an HR business partner who comes into analytics (and) can provide that perspective of understanding the business, understanding the issues." But overall, it's a team sport, said Uborcev. "You create teams and you work together towards one thing. If you want to separate it, it depends be- cause then we need to talk about what kind of a shared person, what kind of domain knowledge (goes) with what kind of techni- cal skills... and it will be different project by project." RBC is doing really advanced machine learning, deep learn- ing, system dynamic simulations, building a complex system, while at the same time, building simple, assumption-based models in Ex- cel, he said. "As soon as you focus on the de- cision, on the question that you've got and you need to answer, then you need to find the right stream and what to do about it: who's the best person or what does the team need to be aligned towards, what kind of data do you need to have… to solve that problem?" HR, analytics skills needed CONFERENCE < pg. 7 benefits while providing care to a family member." In terms of accessibility, the suite of EI benefits is being ex- panded to cover a greater range of caregiving situations, said Brown. e benefits will also be easier to access as the list of who is eligible to sign medical certificates is ex- panding to include nurses. "With this change, we expect to provide improved access, partic- ularly for Canadians in rural and remote areas," he said. As for inclusion, the govern- ment is expanding the list of eli- gible family members able to pro- vide care to their loved ones under compassionate care and family care benefits. "By providing choice in paren- tal benefits duration, we're also being more inclusive to address the diverse needs of parents," said Brown. Canadian families are becom- ing more diverse than ever before as the concept of "family" contin- ues to become self-defined, said webinar facilitator Nora Spinks, CEO of the Vanier Institute of the Family in Ottawa. "Families come in all shapes and sizes. Families are dynamic and are continually adapting," she said. "ese days motherhood is more likely to include not only caring for children but also participa- tion in family finances, generating income, employment in the paid labour force... Millennial dads are redefining parenting. ey're more actively involved than ever before." At present, a simple concept of "caring" holds families together, said Spinks. "Caregiving is a big part of fami- lies, whether it's caring for a new- born or caring for our seniors and elders and everybody in-between." Maternity, paternal benefits Under the current EI system, working mothers receive federal support in the form of 15 weeks of maternity leave as a result of pregnancy or childbirth recovery. Following policy changes, how- ever, expectant mothers will be able to file for benefits four weeks earlier than the previous eight- week limit before their due date. "It is providing some additional flexibility to a birth mother, the trade-off being that if you receive your maternity benefits sooner, they're not available (as long) fol- lowing the birth," said Brown. e qualifying standard for EI benefits remains as is, he said. "Workers still require 600 hours of work in the previous year to be eligible, and benefits are generally paid at 55 per cent of the average weekly earnings, up to a cap." Meanwhile, changes to paren- tal benefits will allow new par- ents to choose between a 12- or 18-month leave, said Brown. Parental benefits complement maternity benefits, allowing par- ents time to care for their new child or newly adopted child. e benefit is available to opposite- gender or same-sex gender par- ents, and may be shared, he said. The current standard of 35 weeks' leave remains, at a rate of 55 per cent of average weekly earnings, alongside a new option of 61 weeks at a lower compensa- tory rate of 33 per cent of average weekly earnings. "e difference from 35 to 61 seems like awkward numbers but the difference is actually 26 weeks, which is half a year or six months," said Brown. "is now provides flexibility. We expect that there are many families who will con- tinue to take the 12-month option for standard benefits at a higher benefit rate." No changes to job tenure or no- tification provisions will be imple- mented. "e employer is obliged to provide a job, not the job, when somebody goes off on a maternity or paternal leave," said Spinks. Furthermore, it is important to note that the reduced compensa- tory rate applies strictly to paren- tal benefits, and does not have an impact on maternity benefits, said Brown. "It is also important to keep in mind that parental ben- efits can be paid at the same time or at different times." at's where community ser- vices comes into play, said Spinks. "If there is no available infant child care, then you'll want to take them after one another. But if there is availability... then you may want to overlap your paren- tal benefits and be off as a family." Families will need to choose a preferred method upon applica- tion and will be unable to switch after receiving an initial payment, said Brown. "Once they have received even a dollar of their parental benefits, they're not able to switch," he said. "ey become locked in at that point. e other thing is that parents need to be on the same option." ose on paternal leave when the new rules are implemented will continue to receive standard benefits, said Brown. However, those on maternity leave can still choose the extended benefits op- tion, if eligible. Phasing back to work is possible in combination with EI benefits, as is the sharing of benefits be- tween parents, he said. "With 61 weeks of parental benefits, this does offer new op- portunities in terms of sharing," said Brown, offering a 12-month, six-month split as an example. ere is also only one set of standards, he said. It does not double if a mother gives birth to twins. e current parental leave stan- dard is a 17-week maternity leave — 15 weeks paid alongside a two- week waiting period — followed by a parental leave option, accord- ing to Rutha Astravas, director of special benefits, EI policy, at ESDC. When combined, it adds up to 52 weeks, which could now extend to 78 if maternity leave is combined with the extended pa- rental leave option, she said. Employers will need to recon- sider their top-up programs — currently offered by one in five Canadian organizations, said Spinks. e reduction in the waiting period from two weeks to one means some employees will lose a week of top-up pay, she said. Many employers are now top- ping up for the first six weeks, full maternity period, or the entire leave, said Spinks. Caregiver benefits, leaves A new EI caregiver benefit will provide eligible caregivers with up to 15 weeks of EI while they are away from work to support a critically ill or injured adult family member, said Astravas. is new benefit is the most significant change to EI benefits, she said. "We've really closed the gap for EI benefits coverage in terms of providing that support for criti- cally ill adults." Meanwhile, the Family Care- giver Benefit for Children — pre- viously known as the Parents of Critically Ill Children Benefit — has also been updated, now avail- able to any eligible family mem- ber, rather than only parents. Regardless if the patient in question resides internationally, Canadian citizens are able to ad- minister care while abroad if they are eligible for the benefit and can gain access to a medical certifi- cate, said Astravas. "e EI program, we recognize, is really complex," she said. "It's important to note that you can't receive both the Family Caregiver Benefit and Compassionate Care Benefit at the same time for the same person. ey have different medical standards." e maximum amount of time a citizen can receive concurrent EI benefits is 104 weeks (two years), but does depend on individual cir- cumstances, said Astravas. Option of 12-month or 18-month leave EI CHANGES < pg. 1 Families will choose a preferred method upon application and are unable to switch after receiving an initial payment. Credit: Sarah Dobson Sheritz Sogbesan, HR reporting and analytics manager at Holt Renfrew (from left), hosts a panel at the People Analytics Canada conference in Toronto, with Alexander Uborcev of RBC, Arun Kochhar of Xerox and Linda Croll Howell of Cornell University.

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