Canadian HR Reporter Weekly

January 10, 2018 Published weekly by Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. CUSTOMER SERVICE Tel: (416) 609-3800 (Toronto) (800) 387-5164 (outside Toronto) Fax: (416) 298-5106 customersupport.legaltaxcanada@tr.com www.thomsonreuters.ca One Corporate Plaza 2075 Kennedy Road, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M1T 3V4 Director, Media Solutions, Canada: Karen Lorimer Publisher/Editor-in-Chief: Todd Humber todd.humber@thomsonreuters.com (416) 298-5196 Editor/Supervisor: Sarah Dobson sarah.dobson@thomsonreuters.com (416) 649-7896 News Editor: Marcel Vander Wier marcel.vanderwier@thomsonreuters.com (416) 649-7837 Sales Manager: Paul Burton paul.burton@thomsonreuters.com (416) 649-9928 Circulation Co-ordinator: Keith Fulford keith.fulford@thomsonreuters.com (416) 649-9585 ©2018 Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher (Thomson Reuters, Media Solutions, Canada). ese two challenges will require HR policy re- views, according to Michael Grodinsky, partner at Borden Ladner Gervais in Montreal. Companies need to be prepared to invest re- sources into existing policies and reporting proce- dures to ensure they can cope with a harassment complaint, he said. "Employers need to have a proper handle on the situation," said Grodinsky. "It's not only sufficient to have a reported policy buried somewhere in a hand- book, I think it needs to be accessible and it needs to be publicized and it needs to be prominent." While the decriminalization of marijuana is not necessarily earth-shaking for HR, it is an issue for employers, he said. "What this will become is a hot-button topic where people need to remind employees of the rules regarding safe and sober conduct at work." Labour churn Employers should also brace for increased staff churn, following a calendar year in which corporate success was not matched with appropriate hiring or pay raises, said Louisa Benedicto, vice-president at Hays Canada in Toronto. A reliance on contingent workers, coupled with forecast pay raises of less than three per cent for permanent staff, could erode morale and increase stress among workers, according to the 2018 Hays Canada Salary Guide survey. As a result, staff turnover will be a major factor this year for organizations, said Benedicto. "We've got great market conditions. We've got people feeling dissatisfied in their current posi- tions. Salaries haven't been growing as much as they would like them to," she said. "You add in the fact that there's going to be high demand in the market… there's going to be a big retention issue on people's hands if they don't take precautions to stop that." For the past decade, employees have been happy to simply have a job, and have not been very con- cerned about small salary increases, said Benedicto. "But I think we're out of that now," she said. "Vacancies are being created. It's kind of the per- fect storm, when you couple in the fact that you've got a slightly more disengaged workforce than nor- mal. en, yes, you would expect people to start wanting to move." HR should review salary structures to ensure pay levels are competitive, said Benedicto. Addition- ally, emphasis could be placed on benefits such as work-from-home opportunities, increased training, or improved company culture. Changing workplaces Adapting to change also remains a front-of-mind issue for HR this year, said Paula Allen, vice-pres- ident of Morneau Shepell's health solutions and research group in Toronto. "e pace of organizational change, and the fre- quency of it, is increasing like no other time in his- tory," she said. "We have disruptive business models, competition with globalization, and a very different opportunity to do business in a different way, given technology." "ere are all sorts of things that are requiring ev- ery business to take a really hard, close look at itself to see if it needs to modify. And almost everybody is saying that they do." HR may turn to artificial intelligence (AI) and au- tomation to streamline tasks and increase opera- tional efficiency, said Allen. Mental health and a shift to strategic operations are also in-focus topics, according to Morneau She- pell's Trends in Human Resources report, which sur- veyed 370 Canadian organizations. "When you have a workplace that's always going through change, that puts strain on people," she said. "at constant change is a potential risk. And the other side of the coin is that organizations — in order to manage this changing market landscape — need people to be at their best." 'This will become a hot-button topic' 2018 < pg. 1 ON THE COVER Marijuana activists in Toronto in 2012. With the expected decriminalization of marijuana in 2018, employers will need to remind employees of the rules regarding safety at work, says Michael Grodinsky of Borden Ladner Gervais. U.S. challenges somewhat similar Legislative changes, sexual harassment claims, and cybersecurity are the top issues facing companies south of the border, said Beth Zoller, legal editor of XpertHR in New Providence, N.J. Employers will continue to grapple with uncertainties as the country's administration attempts regulatory overhauls of systems such as immigration, tax and health care, she said, citing data from an XpertHR survey of 1,000 American HR practitioners. "Employers have a lot to deal with in terms of understanding this complex patchwork of all of these laws," she said. "There's a state of confusion and unknown, but I think things are becoming clearer." Other challenges identified for HR include policy creation around workplace violence, and the continued rise of the gig economy, said Zoller. "The role of HR is definitely more important than ever," she said. "The way people work has really changed… There's a lot to consider and HR really needs to take an active role in understanding what these issues are, how they can prepare and really reduce employer liability."

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