telecommuting

Three popular articles this week on HRinfodesk

November 8, 2018 Yosie Saint-Cyr, LL.B. Managing Editor Employee Relations, Health and Safety, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Payroll, Pensions and Benefits, Wages and Compensation

The three popular articles this week on HRinfodesk deal with maximum pensionable earnings and Canada Pension Plan contribution rates for 2019, smoking and vaping signage and fringe benefits.

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Three popular articles this week on HRinfodesk

June 28, 2018 Yosie Saint-Cyr, LL.B. Managing Editor Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, Health and Safety, HR Policies and Procedures, HRMS, Human Resources, Human Rights, Payroll, Pensions and Benefits, Recruiting and Hiring, Union Relations

The three popular articles this week on HRinfodesk deal with an Ontario labour arbitration decision in which the arbitrator ruled personal emergency leave entitlement is in addition to any floater days allowed under a collective agreement, a recent HRTO decision which held there is no absolute right to use medical marijuana in the workplace, and a recent survey that found job seekers, while enticed by work from home options, are also aware of the pitfalls.

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Revoking telecommute agreement a constructive dismissal

March 1, 2018 Stringer LLP Employee Relations, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Notice, Damages and Settlements, Payroll

Employers should seek legal advice to ensure they are not altering essential terms and conditions of employment in attempts to improve performance. This is especially the case when dealing with long term employees who have never received negative feedback on performance or been subject to performance management.

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Does management limit engagement?

September 16, 2013 Adam Gorley Employee Relations, Human Resources, Payroll, Pensions and Benefits, Recruiting and Hiring, Training and Development, Wages and Compensation

“Disengagement is not an employee problem. It is a hangover from the Industrial Age that invented a middle tier in companies so useless and intrusive that a cartoon strip called Dilbert is the best picture we have of how it functions.” Those are the words of author Chuck Blakeman. What do you think?

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Six in ten workers around the world would telecommute full-time

July 30, 2013 Christina Catenacci Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, International HR Law, International Payroll, Payroll, Pensions and Benefits, Recruiting and Hiring, Union Relations, Wages and Compensation

Career advancement website HowDoIBecomeA.net recently featured an infographic on trends in telecommuting around the world. Apparently, one in five workers globally telecommutes frequently, and seven percent of workers work from home every day. Research shows that six in ten workers worldwide would telecommute full-time if their employer allowed it. Why do employers not allow it? In Canada, about 37 percent of workers say their employer needs them to be at their workplace…

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Recent studies outline benefits and risks of telecommuting

June 14, 2013 Occasional Contributors Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Payroll, Privacy and Security, Wages and Compensation

The workplace landscape has drastically changed, and we’re not just talking stand-up desks and exercise balls for chairs. It might come as a shock that as of 2010, over 2.6 million Americans telecommute. That’s over 20 percent of the U.S. working adult population. On a global scale, 20 percent telecommute, and 10 percent of those telecommute everyday…

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The value of working from home questioned: Whether to implement flexible work arrangements or not?

April 1, 2013 Michele Glassford Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, Health and Safety, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Human Rights, Payroll, Pensions and Benefits, Recruiting and Hiring, Wages and Compensation

The recent decision by Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer to ban working from home for “Yahoos” has been both widely criticised and applauded. The decision has been criticised for undermining the growing trend toward telecommuting and other flexible work arrangements which enable employees to better balance work/life challenges, especially important to women with children […]

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Workplace flexiblity outside of Silicon Valley

March 5, 2013 Marcia Scheffler Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, HR Policies and Procedures, HRMS, Human Resources, Human Rights, Union Relations

The recently publicized news regarding the ban of telecommuting at Yahoo has ensued in a debate about the benefits of flexible work from home versus the requirement to come into work. However the first thought to cross my mind was that this flexible work arrangement only applies to a very small and privileged sector of employees. For example, working in healthcare, I am very aware of the fact that this debate doesn’t apply to nurses or personal support workers.

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Yahoo CEO tells employees: stop telecommuting

February 27, 2013 Yosie Saint-Cyr, LL.B. Managing Editor Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Payroll, Pensions and Benefits

The news trending in the last couple of days is that Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer announced, in an internal memo, that the company will no longer allow telecommuting. As a result, Yahoo employees with work-from-home arrangements will be required to work out from a company office. The memo was leaked by a very irked employee and sparked debate on the pros and cons of working from home.

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Winter-weather policy, do you need one?

February 22, 2013 Yosie Saint-Cyr, LL.B. Managing Editor Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Payroll, Pensions and Benefits, Union Relations, Wages and Compensation

Our last poll asked readers: Do you have a winter-weather policy to handle challenges the weather will bring that might prevent employees from getting to work? Out of 319 respondents, 161 (50.47%) of respondents said no and 90 (28.21%) said yes (29/9.9% of respondents already cover it in policy). Only 68 (21.32%) answered they did not know they needed one. So do you need one or not?

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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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Workplace accommodation: what about before birth?

July 10, 2012 Adam Gorley Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, Health and Safety, Human Resources, Human Rights, Payroll, Pensions and Benefits

When an employee is going to have a child, an employer needs to prepare for the worker’s eventual leave of absence, particularly if the employee is the mother, but increasingly for fathers, too. But important changes happen to expecting employees long before their baby is born, and employers should understand this and consider how these changes will affect the workplace.

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Withdrawing arrangement to accommodate disability a bad and expensive idea

June 17, 2011 Christina Catenacci Human Resources, Human Rights

I recently read an excellent case that sends a strong message to employers who attempt to abruptly change telecommuting arrangements, especially in the case where the employer had been previously accommodating the employee due to a physical disability. Simply put, it is a really bad idea, one that could cost at least $18,000.

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Were the G8/G20 summits worth it? Tell us about your experience

June 28, 2010 Adam Gorley Employment/Labour Standards, Human Resources

Now that the big do is over, and the security fences are coming down in Toronto and Huntsville—hopefully—let’s take a moment to reflect on how all the hubbub of the G8/G20 summits affected local businesses.

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When employers are more progressive than employees

April 7, 2010 Adam Gorley Employment/Labour Standards, Human Resources

As if you didn’t have enough to worry about with the weak economy and trying to hold onto your job: more employers than ever in the United States are offering their employees the benefit of flex hours, but their employees are refusing to take advantage for fear they’ll get the axe! Recent research in the US by the Center for Work-Life Policy has found that fewer workers are accepting offers of flex-time—scheduling their own hours combined with working from home—because they feel the need to be present in the office to make sure their employers know they are working, even if the employees are in fact more productive working on their own schedules.

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