corporate social responsibility

Fostering a culture of gender diversity through human capital practices

March 6, 2017 Marcia Scheffler Employee Relations, HR Analytics, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Human Rights, Payroll, Recruiting and Hiring, Training and Development, Wages and Compensation

Is your organization using the best human capital practices to harness the value of gender diversity at senior leadership levels, including on boards and executive committees? If you are an HR professional or a senior leader in your organization, use this information to #BeBoldForChange on International Women’s Day 2017! Put gender on your agenda!

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Earth Day and Water Day 2016: Ensuring corporate social responsibility when it comes to protecting the environment

April 21, 2016 Cristina Lavecchia Employment/Labour Standards, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Human Rights, Training and Development

In light of Earth Day (celebrated annually on April 22) and World Water Day (celebrated annually on March 22), we thought we would provide employers with a background on the internationally observed days, as well as discuss what can be done to ensure their business is operated in an economically, socially, and environmentally responsible way.

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Fostering gold medal performances in your organization

February 24, 2014 Marcia Scheffler Employee Relations, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Payroll, Recruiting and Hiring, Training and Development, Wages and Compensation

It’s been hard to miss the Olympics, and face it, who would have wanted to miss the exhilarating, elegant and extreme gold medal performances of the 2014 Sochi Olympics! Canadian athletes came out on top of the podium in multiple events including the nail-biting women’s gold medal hockey final and Alex Biloudeau’s flawless repeat gold medal run in moguls skiing. Russia had some incredible performances in figure skating from both an aging star and an emerging one in the team skate event. Both Canada and Russia performed very well in the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

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Could these counterintuitive policies work for your company?

July 11, 2012 Adam Gorley Employee Relations, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources

Flexible scheduling, telecommuting, broad benefit plans, and so on can hardly be considered unorthodox anymore. But what about increasingly creative efforts to make and keep employees happy? It’s old news that Google’s offices feature games, free food and massages in a casual and comfortable atmosphere. Many others have followed suit. Take a look at these counterintuitive employment policies.

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Summertime, social committees and corporate social responsibility

June 12, 2012 Marcia Scheffler Employee Relations, Human Resources

Summer weather is here and as a human resources manager or a front-line manager you may be asked to be responsible for coordinating social or charitable activities, such as the Heart & Stroke Foundation’s Big Bike, the Canadian Cancer Society’s Relay for Life teams, the summer strawberry social or an employee barbecue. How important is good management of social committees or charitable activities? What are the associated risks and rewards for an organization?

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Make AODA training count for more than compliance

April 18, 2012 Marcia Scheffler Accessibility Standards, Employee Relations, Human Resources, Integrated Accessibility Regulation, Standard for Customer Service, Training and Development

The best employers and proactive HR managers will go beyond just meeting the AODA training requirements. You can make the greatest impact for your employees and for your organization by using your AODA training as tool for increasing employee engagement. One way to do this is to carefully design and promote your organization’s AODA program as socially responsible corporate behaviour rather than simply as a compliance-driven reaction…

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Introducing guest blogger Marcia Scheffler

March 20, 2012 Adam Gorley Announcements and Administration, Human Resources, Payroll

We are happy to welcome Marcia Scheffler to our roster of regular bloggers at First Reference Talks.

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Slaw: Federal government launches workplace mental health standards initiative

June 23, 2011 Yosie Saint-Cyr, LL.B. Managing Editor Employee Relations, Health and Safety, Human Resources, Human Rights

Since the economic burden of mental disorders in Canada has been estimated at $51-billion per year, with almost $20-billion of that coming from workplace losses, the Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC) has launched a collaborative project with the Bureau de normalisation du Québec (BNQ) and the standards division of the Canadian Standards Association (CSA Standards) to create a voluntary national standard for mentally healthy workplaces. The standard aims to…

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New guide to CSR for small and medium businesses

January 13, 2011 Adam Gorley Employee Relations, Human Resources

A business research centre at Cardiff University, Wales, has teamed up with the British arm of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants to release a new guide on corporate social responsibility (CSR) for small and medium-sized businesses, called The ABC of CSR for small and medium enterprises. If you don’t mind the Welsh, and can handle reading “programme” instead of “program”, then you might find this guide offers some valuable lessons.

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Employer branding: a hot topic?

December 3, 2009 Yosie Saint-Cyr, LL.B. Managing Editor Employee Relations, Human Resources, Recruiting and Hiring

I recently read an interesting blog post on Brand For Talent. The author, Libby Sartain, says that organizations across the globe are struggling with their reputations as employers. Those employers need to engage their workers as fans, while reaching out for new workers as the economy begins its turnaround. She also asks: is there a difference between corporate branding and employer branding? Well, according to Sartain, there is. While companies such as Apple and Nike are able to rely on the power and strength of their corporate brand to attract talent, this is not the case for companies with less powerful brands.

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