Employers have a higher confidence level when it comes to workers’ ability to comprehend health and safety policies, than the workers themselves, and this is creating a gap that can increase the risk for workplace injuries.

Canada may not be the greatest country to live in after all, according to a recent Conference Board of Canada survey. And, while Canada is still in the gifted class among nations, it's most recent annual report card is disappointing. The Conference Board report, "How Canada Performs," tells the story of a country moving to the back of the class because of its underperformance in almost all subjects -- economy, environment, society, health, innovation, and education and skills.

In our November 17, 2010 issue, The Conference Board of Canada reported that “Four in five Canadian organizations surveyed by offer employees incentives – such as variable pay, performance bonuses, and annual incentives – to motivate them to achieve performance goals.”  However, according to the board’s report Making Short-Term Incentives Work for Your Organization, most organizations using these types of plans do not measure the effectiveness of their programs on organizational results. Naturally, we wondered why most organizations are not analyzing these programs.

Four in five Canadian organizations surveyed by The Conference Board of Canada offer employees incentives – such as variable pay, performance bonuses, and annual incentives – to motivate them to achieve performance goals. However, most organizations using these types of plan do not measure the effectiveness of their programs on organizational results, according to Making Short-Term Incentives Work for Your Organization.

“With so many organizations rewarding employees with incentive pay, organizations need to do a better job of finding a link between pay plans and business results, to ensure they are getting value out of their incentive programs,” says Karla Thorpe, associate director, compensation and industrial relations.

In the recently released Compensation Planning Outlook 2011, organizations indicated that they expect to spend  on average 11.6 per cent of total base pay spending on short-term incentives, a slight increase from what they planned for 2010 (11.5 per cent).

More than 80 per cent of the Canadian organizations surveyed had an incentive pay program in place for at least some or all of their employees. However, 69 per cent indicated they were not able to assess the cost effectiveness of their incentive plan against the level of performance achieved by the organization, team, or individual.

Although most organizations find it difficult to measure the effectiveness of their plans, they still believe these plans are somewhat effective in achieving their intended objectives, such as driving organizational or individual performance, or linking individual and corporate results. The Compensation Planning Outlook 2011 survey found that about half (54 per cent) of organizations believe their short-term incentive pay plans are effective or very effective. While 42 per cent are ambivalent about the effectiveness of their incentive program, and 4 per cent indicated that their plans are ineffective or very ineffective.

Among organizations that measured the success of their incentive plan, corporate results are most commonly used to determine the plan’s cost-effectiveness (97 per cent).

The Conference Board of Canada conducted its survey of mid-sized and large Canadian organization between January and May 2010. Making Short-Term Incentives Work for Your Organization summarizes the responses from the 130 organizations that indicated they had at least one short-term incentive plan.

Click here for more information. 

In an unsteady economic recovery, organizations are planning moderate base pay increases in 2011. Increases for non-unionized employees are expected to average 2.8 per cent, The Conference Board of Canada revealed while presenting the findings of its 29th Compensation Planning Outlook survey at the recent Compensation Outlook 2010 conference.

“Things are not quite back to business as usual for compensation planners. The economic recovery is still unsteady and burdened by risks from abroad,” says Karla Thorpe, Associate Director, Compensation and Industrial Relations. “The next year will require patience on the part of workers and businesses. Workers cannot yet expect strong wage gains, and businesses have been slow to see improvements in corporate balance sheets.”

In recent years the public sector has outpaced the private sector in base-pay salary increases. This trend is expected to reverse in 2011, with private sector employers planning increases of 2.9 per cent, compared to 2.3 per cent in the public sector (including the public service, agencies and Crown corporations, municipalities, hospitals and schools). Base pay represents the most significant component of total cash compensation, particularly in the public sector.

Projected increases are highest in the oil and gas industry, at an average of 3.6 per cent, slightly greater than the gains expected in natural resources (excluding oil and gas) and construction industries (both 3.5 per cent). The lowest increases – 1.4 per cent on average – are expected in the education and health sectors.

Saskatchewan workers can look forward to the highest average gains in Canada, at 3.6 per cent, followed by Alberta (3.1 per cent). At 2.6 per cent, Ontario workers can expect the lowest average base pay increase.

Less than three per cent of respondents – all public sector organizations – are planning to freeze salaries across all employee groups. In contrast, almost six per cent of respondents to last year’s survey reported a salary freeze for all employees.

Almost every respondent to the survey has an employee pension plan in place. For non-unionized employees, the public sector spends an average of 9.8 per cent of annual payroll compared with the private sector where the average cost is 7.4 per cent. Defined benefit pension plans are far more common in the public sector with 81 per cent of organizations offering this type of plan, compared to 45 per cent in the private sector. The most common type of plan in the private sector is the defined contribution pension plan, with 60 per cent of organizations offering this type of plan.

The findings of the annual survey are published in Compensation Planning Outlook 2011: Playing It Safe in the Face of an Unsteady Economic Recovery. The 29th survey, which includes the responses of 384 Canadian organizations, was conducted between June 15 and September 1, 2010.

For more information, visit www.conferenceboard.ca.

The costs of workplace violence and harassment are high, both to the victims and to their employers. A Conference Board of Canada study identifies six actions that organizations can take to significantly reduce the human, financial and reputational costs of workplace violence and harassment incidents.

Canadian organizations face heightened “flight risk” as employees evaluate new opportunities in a recovering economy. Employers cannot afford to be complacent about employee engagement; they need to invest in workforce strategies to both attract and retain employees. The findings of The Conference Board of Canada’s second Human Resources Trends and Metrics survey, released today, provide data and measures that allow human resources (HR) leaders to make sound decisions about their workforce planning.

“The recession gave employers only a brief reprieve from looming workforce shortages and an ongoing competition for talent. A growing economy and an aging workforce mean that it is just a matter of time before pressure in labour markets begins to build again,” says Ruth Wright, associate director, Leadership and Human Resources Research.

“The demand for skilled people never went away during the downturn, and concerns about skills and talent shortages are evident even at the highest level of organizations. Management and leadership development, and succession planning, are high priorities for HR leaders. Many organizations-particularly in the private sector-are identifying key leadership positions for the purpose of succession planning.”

Survey participants are well aware that their workforces are aging. Close to half of the collective workforce in the responding organizations is over the age of 45. Retaining employees and building leadership capacity are among the top challenges facing organizations, along with attracting and recruiting employees. It is therefore not surprising that management and leadership development and strategic workforce planning are seen as priorities both in the short term and over the next three to five years.

Succession management, as well as knowledge transfer and management, are rising as priorities – surpassing even employee engagement in importance. The priority placed on knowledge transfer and management, in particular, has increased noticeably since the first trends and metrics survey conducted in 2005 (as well as other Conference Board surveys).

Indicators of leadership “bench strength” for top executives have remained constant (at about one-half a successor for every senior leadership position) compared to the previous trends and metrics survey. However, succession pools for second-level executives and senior managers (which were even lower in the previous survey than those of top executives) have increased since 2005. More organizations are identifying “mission-critical” positions and are grooming high-potential employees for these roles than they were in the 2005 findings.

The Conference Board conducted its second survey into human resource trends and metrics in late 2008 and early 2009. The findings are published in Valuing Your Talent: Human Resources Trends and Metrics, based on the responses of 167 Canadian human resources leaders.

This publication is available to subscribers at www.e-library.ca.

Only about one-quarter of Canadian organizations feel that their organization has developed a comprehensive wellness strategy, and one-in-ten have not done so at all. This despite a large majority of Canadian organizations that say they take the overall health of their employees into consideration in the design of their benefit programs, according to a Conference Board of Canada survey.

“During tough economic times, organizations face pressure to make cuts to programs viewed as non-essential. Often, workplace health and wellness initiatives are among the first to be cut. However, it is in these turbulent times, where stress is high and employee morale is a concern, that workplace health and wellness initiatives are needed most,” says Karla Thorpe, associate director, compensation and industrial relations for the Conference Board.

“Canadian organizations are at different stages when it comes to workplace health and wellness,” she says. “Some struggle with implementing health and wellness initiatives, while others have successfully integrated health and wellness into their overall corporate strategy and identity. The leading-edge organizations are also making issues such as mental health and ‘presenteeism’ priorities in their health and wellness strategy. ”

This report, Beyond Benefits: Creating a Culture of Health and Wellness in Canadian Organizations, discusses the link between workplace health and wellness programs, employee health and greater organizational health and features case studies of Canadian organizations that have implemented innovative health and wellness practices. These organizations include:

• BC Hydro, British Columbia  
• Lighthouse Publishing, Nova Scotia  
• Pfizer Canada, Quebec  
• TELUS, British Columbia  
• The City of Calgary, Alberta  
• The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario, Ontario  
• UBC Okanagan, British Columbia

The report also includes tips to help employers that are looking to either develop or improve their workplace health and wellness strategies. For example, the report highlights how organizations can move forward by starting small-focusing on the fundamentals before expanding their programs.

This report is part of a series that contains data collected from The Conference Board of Canada’s inaugural survey of 255 Canadian organizations’ employer-sponsored benefit programs. Additional information on extended health-care plans, dental plans, life and accident plans, and paid time off can be found in the recently released report, Benefits Benchmarking 2009: Balancing Competitiveness and Costs. The third report in this series will focus on the subject of disability plans and casual absences, and will be released in spring 2010.

For more information on the report, visit www.conferenceboard.ca/documents.aspx?did=3459. 

Differences among the generations in the workplace are more about perception than reality. Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y view other generations more harshly than they view their own. But they are more alike than they realize, according to a recently released Conference Board of Canada study.

According to the authors of Winning the Generation Wars: Making the Most of Generational Differences and Similarities in the Workplace, as the workforce ages and workers from different generations take on new roles in the workplace, employers have become increasingly concerned about the potential challenges of managing a multigenerational workforce. The questions is: how concerned should employers be?

“The generations see one another in ways that mirror many of the negative-and inaccurate- stereotypes,” says Tim Krywulak, senior research associate. “This research shows each generation includes workers with similar personality types, workplace motivations, and social behaviours. Workers from all three generations want respect, flexibility, fairness, and the opportunity to do interesting and rewarding work.”

Negative stereotypes of the three generations include:

• Boomers are seen as less comfortable with technology, less open to change, and less accepting of diversity than other generations;
• Generation X workers are seen as cynical, independent, and easily annoyed by any hint of being micro-managed; and
• Generation Y workers are seen by older colleagues as lazy, difficult to manage, and perpetually prepared to bolt from the organization as soon as another opportunity arises.

 
“Employers need to be aware of these stereotypes, as each can have a negative impact on workplace performance,” says Krywulak. “Perceptions that Boomers are not open to change can make younger workers more reluctant to bring forward new ideas, just as older workers’ assumptions about the purported cynicism of Gen Xers or the supposed “laziness” of Gen Yers can lead to added friction in the workplace.”

To manage the differences in perceptions among the generations while recognizing the cross-generational similarities in workplace preferences, the report recommends three strategies for employers:

1. Implement programs, policies and practices that respond to the cross-generational desires for respect, flexibility and fairness in the workplace;

2. Build a culture of inclusion to address the negative stereotypes about the generations in the workplace; and

3. Learn from effective practices used by other organizations-for example, L’Oreal Canada has an intergenerational training program that brings employees of different generations together to discuss their differences (and similarities).

Findings from this report, Winning the Generation Wars: Making the Most of Generational Differences and Similarities in the Workplace, are based on a literature review combined with a survey of more than 900 workers (including at least 300 from each of the Baby Boom, Gen X, and Gen Y cohorts). The study forms part of the CanCompete project, a three-year Conference Board program of research and dialogue designed to help leading decision makers advance Canada on a path of national competitiveness.

To view the entire report, free of charge, visit www.conferenceboard.ca. 

Ottawa, October 24 - The convergence of Canada’s “temporary” and “permanent” systems is providing a more flexible and adaptive approach to immigration, according to a Conference Board of Canada study, Renewing Immigration: Towards a Convergence and Consolidation of Canada’s Immigration Policies and Systems.

“Canada’s permanent and temporary immigration systems are changing to better address the needs of business, provinces and migrants themselves,” said Douglas Watt, associate director, organizational effectiveness and learning for the board. “These changes are positive steps, but more needs to be done. Canada is competing with other countries for top international talent and a willingness to adjust programs and policies is the hallmark of successful immigration systems.”

In recent years, increasing numbers of temporary workers have been accepted into Canada to fill gaps in labour markets. The following changes demonstrate the convergence between the temporary and permanent systems:

• improvements to Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program, as well as the increasing use of mechanisms driven by employer-and regional-demand for skilled workers, particularly the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP);
• the newly created Canadian Experience Class; and
• improvements to the International Student Program, the Off-Campus Work Permit Program, and the Post-Graduation Work Permit Program.

The Conference Board provides a number of recommendations to make Canada’s immigrations systems more effective, which reflect the global trends in immigration:

• Address the growing importance of skills-based migration to meet labour market needs-Australia has been a leader in this area; the federal government’s Bill C-50 is a positive move in this direction.
• Maintain a robust commitment to humanitarian-based immigration while expanding skills-based migration-there is no need for an either/or choice between them.
• Take further steps to help temporary foreign workers become permanent employees by creating new and improved pathways to permanent residency.
• Harness the growing engagement of employers in immigration-the rapid expansion in size and scope of the TFW and the PNP and other programs demonstrates the growing interest and involvement of employers, but there is scope for greater engagement.
• Increase settlement and integration services, especially in urban areas-The size and diversity of immigrant communities, especially within city-regions, has increased the need for greater support for existing immigrant communities.
• Link immigration programs and practices to other major government policies and strategies-governments are increasingly linking immigration to overarching social, economic, and environmental objectives.

The study, produced under the three-year CanCompete research program, is unique in setting out the myriad pieces that comprise Canada’s permanent and temporary immigration systems. CanCompete, a three-year program of research and dialogue, is designed to help leading decision makers advance Canada on a path of national competitiveness.

The report is publicly available at www.conferenceboard.ca/documents.asp?rnext=2758.