Tag Archives: Diversity

Do you have to pay an employee for Christmas?

Posted on Monday November 22nd, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Christmas Is A Statutory Holiday.

The Holiday season is nearly here and employees are soon to start asking about Christmas and Boxing Days and paid time-off.  Under the Nova Scotia Labour Standards Code only Christmas is a Statutory Holiday.  While many companies acknowledge Boxing Day with paid time-off, it is not mandatory to do so.

There are five Statutory Holidays in Nova Scotia:  New Years Day, Good Friday, Canada Day, Labour and Christmas Day.  All employers are required to grant their employees the Statutory Holiday off with pay.  Should the Holiday fall on a weekend (eg. Christmas 2010 falls on a Saturday) or another non-working day for an employee (eg. regularly schedule day off or vacation day), the employer shall grant a Holiday with pay on the working day immediately following the Holiday, or on the day immediately following the employee’s vacation, or grant another day on a mutually agreed day.

But what about George Costanza from Seinfeld?  You might remember he did not celebrate Christmas rather he celebrated Festivus.  Though this example is tongue in cheek the fact is that Nova Scotia is becoming increasing diverse and not all Nova Scotians celebrate Christmas.  Regardless of religious belief, race, creed or ethnicity, the Nova Scotia Human Rights Act implies that all employees will get Christmas Day off with pay.  In the event that an employee indicates that they celebrate an alternate religious event, the employer would do well to provide that day off.  Note, if they employer provided pay on Christmas day they would not obligated to provide pay on the alternative day off.

Details of the Festivus Holiday at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS7-jcsB_WQ

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Posted in Human Rights, Regulations, Wage

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Is your business ready for the World Cup?

Posted on Friday May 21st, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Those of you who can remember the Canada/USSR Summit hockey series (La Série du siècle in French) will recall the passion that overtook Canada that September in 1972.   I recall schools closing early and special work arrangements being made so that folks could watch the games.   Everybody was talking about the Summit, it was in all the papers and on TV.   More recently, Olympic Hockey fever captured our collective attention. 

In just a few weeks, another month-long event will capture the attention of a lot of Canadians and of most of the world.   The 2010 FIFA World Cup will start 11 June and will end on 11 July in South Africa.   As important as hockey is to the fabric of  Canadians, soccer has similar impact on the lives of people around the world.  In fact, for a lot of people, the World Cup is a more important event than the Olympics.  

A word of advice: if you are dealing with customers overseas, you’d better check the World Cup schedule before scheduling an appointment or making that all important phone call. 

A recent study, conducted during the 2010 Olympics, showed that contrary to what we might assume, the Olympics did not distract employees from their jobs.   Rather, the Olympics created comradeship and engaged employees in the workplace.  As a business owner, you might want to take advantage of the World Cup to increase employee engagement.  Here are a few suggestions:

1.            Team bonding.   Use the backdrop of the World Cup for team bonding.  Maybe schedule an outing to catch a big game or simply turn on the TV in the boardroom.  Create a World Cup bulletin board where stats will be kept.   Leverage this event and increase team cohesion and morale.

2.            Diversity.  Diversity is good for business, in fact it’s a competitive business advantage.   Where are your employees from? Where are your clients from?  Make it an occasion to learn about someone elses’s culture.   You might consider adopting teams that reflect the diversity of your employee and client bases.    

3.            Consider flex time.  You get the work done and those employees who are die-hard fans get to watch the important games without missing work.  Employees who do not care for soccer can also benefit from the flex time schedule. This is a win-win situation.

By the way, Canada last qualified for the men’s World Cup in 1986.  

Do you have suggestions on how to use the World Cup to your advantage?  We would be pleased to read them.

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Posted in advice, human resources, Small Business

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Diversity and Inclusion – Obligation or Competitive Business Strategy? (2)

Posted on Sunday May 9th, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Our previous post on Diversity and Inclusion has been published in the May/June 2010 edition of Mingle Magazine.  You can read the original text here.  We’ll post a link to the Mingle article once it becomes available.

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Diversity and Inclusion – Obligation or Competitive Business Strategy?

Posted on Monday October 5th, 2009 by | 2 Comments

Diversity and inclusion are principles which enrich our lives.  But, as I recently told a colleague, diversity is much more than a mere concept or set of obligations. 

Most workplaces today include diverse social, economic, ethnic, religious and other cultural backgrounds.  An employee’s diverse background largely frames that employee’s perspective on authority, communication and decision making styles, gender roles, responsibility, assertiveness and other traits that deeply affect and determine the success of an organisation. 

Business analysts and leaders agree that, when harnessed and managed properly, diversity and inclusion in the workplace contributes to creativity, productivity and, ultimately, the prosperity of an organisation.  As I recently told that business colleague, diversity and inclusion programs are competitive business strategies. 

Consider three teams of 10 people tasked with problem solving and idea generating:

Team 1:  Everyone has a similar social, educational and ethnic background.

Team 2:  All ten members are socially, educationally and ethnically diverse.

Team 3:  All ten members are socially, educationally and ethnically diverse and have been trained on how these differences affect decision making and communication styles.

In the beginning Team 1 will out perform Teams 2 and 3.  Team 2 will be chaotic.  And, Team 3 will generate few ideas or solve few problems in the short term.

Over a relatively short time, however, Team 1 will be stagnant.  While it is comfortable to work with like people homogenous teams become stagnant fast.  Team 2 will continue to be chaotic.  The real winner will be Team 3.  Team 3 members have been educated on their differences and will capitalize upon these differences.  They will learn what they each have to offer, what others on their team have to offer and how to blend their different approaches to fill any performance gaps. 

The facts are that, over time, Team 3 will out perform Team 1 by more than 50%.  That, my friends, is a competitive advantage. 

To learn more about building strategic teams, capitalizing upon differences and positively impacting organisational prosperity consider attending “Building a Business Case for Diversity and Inclusion”, October 21 at the Halifax Club.  We guarantee it will be time and money well spent and you will walk away with real tools and strategy, not mere concepts.

HR pros is a full-service Human Resources Management company.  For more information on how HR pros can help you grow your business, comply with legislation and develop an HR framework to meet your business’ mandate call today!

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Posted in advice, Diversity, human resources

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Press Release

Posted on Wednesday September 30th, 2009 by | Leave a comment

A Business Case for Diversity and Inclusion

October 1, 2009
For Immediate Release

Halifax, NS  –  Today’s most successful businesses are in tune with one major change in the workforce- more than 64 per cent of those entering are women or people of ethnic minorities.

On Wednesday, October 21, Tanya Sieliakus of HR pros incorporated will share her secrets with Atlantic Canadian business professionals to help them benefit from the changing workforce and positively impact their bottom line. The event, titled: A Business Case for Diversity and Inclusion, will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at The Halifax Club.

“Human Resources (HR) is the number one challenge facing North American companies,” says Sieliakus. “It’s about having the right people, at the right time, with the right skills and knowing how to motivate and engage people to get the most from your workforce.  Sound human resources management strategies are a competitive advantage that tangibly impact the bottom line.”

During this interactive training session, Sieliakus will speak about the importance of diversity and inclusion. Her session will demonstrate how perception and stereotypes, which are often subconscious, impact personal effectiveness and reveal how values, communication styles and non-verbal behaviors can create misunderstanding and conflicts in the workplace.

“Being different isn’t a judgment call, it just means not the same,” she adds.

Sieliakus has been dubbed one of the most technically-astute and competent human resources management practitioners in the Atlantic region. She has delivered diversity training to more than 1000 participants in five countries, and is the recipient of a number of awards including: the national John T. Ryan Safety Award, the ACCESS Nova Scotia award for creating an environment of inclusion, and the USG Award of Excellence.

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Posted in Diversity, Training

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