HRdownloads Blog

Imagine you come to work one morning and receive a voicemail from a distraught employee: they are the victim of an act of domestic violence. Suppose further that your company does not offer sick leave, or that the employee used up what they had the last time this happened. Even so, they need time to find a place to stay—maybe call the police and a lawyer—and they need time to process what happened. How would you support this employee?

At one time or another, most workplaces have had someone who pushes the panic button at the first sign of smoke. You probably know the type. They’re the person who comes to your office wanting you to drop everything for a non-urgent situation they’ve rated an 11 out of 10. They’re the doomsayer in the meeting harping on the negatives or taking up time unnecessarily imagining worst-case scenarios that are unlikely, but could happen. Many times, the workplace alarmist is someone quick to overreact, panic over trivial matters, or distract their colleagues with a non-crisis that they label a “Code Red.”

Though common wisdom suggests we should check our emotions at the door when we head to work, our feelings don’t go on vacation just because we’re on the job. Despite our best efforts, most of us have experienced a flash of anger or a burst of tears at work, either due to job stress or events at home. Crying in front of co-workers or storming out of a meeting can be embarrassing for employees, but such events also present an uncomfortable challenge for managers. How should you respond to an employee’s temper in a status meeting, or another employee’s tears when they receive constructive criticism?

Until recently, the HR focus has been on Millennials entering the workforce, and how to help them make the transition into their careers. But now that Millennials are the largest cohort working today, and many of them have moved into management positions, a new crowd of fresh recruits is making its first tentative steps into employment. Who are these young people? What do they want? How do you manage them? And how can your company make sure that it positions itself as an employer of choice for these up-and-comers?

Recently, HRdownloads asked our clients about their experiences providing references for former employees. The poll results revealed some interesting insight. This information may help your organization decide how it will handle references, and what you need to do to better protect your organization against claims by former employees affected by negative references.

Recreational marijuana use is scheduled to get the green light in Canada next summer, which has many employers nervous about the law’s possible side effects on the workplace, from health and safety issues to employee attendance and productivity. These and other concerns have many Canadian employers and HR professionals feeling uncertain about how to meet the challenges of the 2018 reforms.

Your company needs to post a job which may require occasional driving. It seems logical enough that you would include “must possess a valid driver’s licence” under requirements, right? Well, you could be treading into some murky HR waters. Is the requirement bona fide, what does this mean, and why is it important to your business? In HR speak, a BFOR (or bona fide occupational requirement) is a qualification or requirement that is absolutely necessary for the proper or efficient performance of a job. BFORs are contained in job descriptions and detail the essential qualifications required of your employees.

Alberta workplaces are in for some significant changes once a series of legislative updates to the province’s Employment Standards Code come into effect. Alberta’s Employment Standards Code was last updated in 1988, and the rapidly changing nature of modern workplaces prompted the government to examine the legislation. As a first step, the government requested input from stakeholders. In total, nearly five thousand online survey responses were received from businesses and individuals. Based on these responses, a series of changes to the Code were introduced in a bill that the government states will support family-friendly workplaces, modernize decades-old legislation, and align the minimum employment standards with the rest of Canada.

It’s not surprising that relationships develop in the workplace, since many employees work together for eight or more hours a day, and usually share common interests. In fact, a workplace office romance survey conducted by Vault.com in 2016 reported that half of respondents confessed to having a relationship with a colleague.

It’s summertime, and with the warm weather and longer days, your workplace might start to look a little emptier. All those unstaffed desks must put a damper on productivity, right? Yet some studies suggest that taking vacation actually improves employees’ productivity, and that unused vacation time is a drain on organizations across the country, regardless of their industry or size.