An Employment Agreement serves as a foundation of the relationship between employers and employees. The landscape of the workplace is constantly evolving due to various factors. Furthermore, the spirit of the Employment Agreement may not match the language used as time goes on. Reviewing Employment Agreements on an annual basis helps to ensure that they remain fair, compliant, and reflective of current needs for a number of reasons: Legal Compliance and Changing Laws Employment law is not static – employment standards, human rights laws, and occupational health and safety regulations are frequently updated.  For example, minimum wage rates, vacation entitlements, or overtime rules can change from year to year...

In the fast-paced business world, effective performance management is crucial for the ongoing success of a business. Let’s explore the key strategies that can help businesses optimize employee performance and cultivate a thriving work environment. Setting clear expectations: Establishing transparent expectations is the key for effective performance management. By clearly communicating roles, responsibilities and standards it will help your organization provide a foundation for employee success. By setting clear expectations, organizations empower their workforce to understand and fulfill their roles with confidence. Performance Metrics and KPIs: Define measurable Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to identify employee performance accurately. These metrics serves to guide employees towards their organizational goals. Well-defined...

Social Recruiting is a modern approach to the recruitment process that leverages the use of social media platforms. Social Recruiting helps identify, attract and engage with potential job candidates. The following are a few key points related to social recruiting. Platform diversity: Recruiters use a variety of platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to meet and connect with potential candidates. Job Postings: Employers and recruiters may post job openings on their social media platforms such as LinkedIn, to extend the reach of job listings beyond traditional job boards. Employee Branding: Many companies use social media to showcase their culture, values and work environment. By doing this,...

Relationship Marketing is all about cultivating lasting connections with your customers. Instead of chasing one-time sales, it’s about building trust and loyalty through exceptional experience and personalized service. Let’s dive into the importance of focusing on Relationship Marketing Internally, so we can continue to drive value for customers externally. Let’s explore the importance of treating your employees as internal customers. Your employees are the backbone of your organization, with that being said, here are some ways an employee can continue to succeed: Satisfaction: A happy team is your secret ingredient to success. Motivation: Inspired employees bring that extra sparkle to both your inside, and outside connections. Involvement: When...

When a company has a set vision, values, and mission it gives a direction for all future communications and goals. Having these ideals known within the company can help create a cohesive team and a united environment. The language we choose to use can say quite a lot about a company. What comes to mind when one says that a company is respectful and honest? Hardworking and professional? Efficient and effective? We have preconceived notions related to these words and deciding which ones we use in our communications can project different images of a company. These carefully chosen messages can also change the way clients and coworkers interact...

A core part of human resources management is being on top of employee engagement. Disengagement is a common risk, which is why it is important for leaders to identify signs of engagement versus disengagement and how to improve the latter. Individuals engaged in their work may be optimistic, selfless and solution-oriented. They may go above and beyond what is expected of them and show a consistent passion for learning. When credited with praise, they pass that credit along to other team members. When they are in the wrong, they are accountable and accept constructive criticism.   Disengaged individuals tend to be pessimistic, self-centered, negative and egocentric. They may...

Acknowledging and rewarding an employee’s good behavior is a great way to increase motivation, improve performance, and retain top talent. Recognition comes in many forms, but when looking at ideas for rewarding your team, why not give extrinsic and intrinsic motivators a try? Extrinsic rewards are tangible motivators, like offering pay raises, bonuses, and benefits. Monetary benefits can instantly motivate some employees to work towards the reward, especially since money directly impacts one’s quality of life. As nice as they seem, these kinds of rewards tend to have short-term effects, and can be costly if expected to be continuously given.  This may also be difficult for some smaller...

Unfortunately, resignations are unavoidable in the workplace, and can be uncomfortable for both parties. Knowing the rules of resignation can make these conversations much easier for both the employee and employer and may avoid a potential claim to the organization. An employee’s resignation is usually clear and is not normally subject to interpretation. It can be as simple as “I’ve decided to stay home for the next few years to take care of my family”, or simply “this job isn’t working for me”. In situations such as these, the conversation won’t likely leave room for ambiguity, however if this conversation is not followed by a written letter of...

  In my past experience, performance management strategies have increasingly been dreaded and criticized for being too complicated. Often I’ve heard people say “there are too many forms to fill in” or “this is so much work and there are too many issues to address.”  One of the common misperceptions is that an entire year of an employee’s progress and challenges has to be crammed into one meeting at performance review time. However, successful performance management is about tracking development, working towards goals continually, and addressing things as they come along throughout the entire year. Managing one’s performance should be on-going, throughout the year. Here are some suggestions...

Vacation time is an entitlement to employees across all provinces in Canada. Apart from being an entitlement, it is also considered to be a benefit in attracting and retaining employees.  Each provincial employment standards set a minimum vacation time to be provided to employees – most of which outline a minimum of two weeks’ vacation per year to start. However, 62% of employers in Canada offer more than the minimum requirements to new employees[1]. New executives may be offered a minimum of four weeks of vacation time[2]. The amount of vacation a company chooses to offer will often be considered as part of the total compensation plan. Once...