Many employers are presenting a broader picture of compensation and benefits to candidates, ensuring they appreciate the competitiveness of their employee benefits package as well as their salary. To enable organizations to gain a better understanding of how their benefit programs compare to those of competitors for key talent, Hewitt Associates, a global human resources consulting and outsourcing company, has recently released Benefit SpecSelect.

Benefit SpecSelect is a web-based tool that provides employers with access to comprehensive information in the following major benefit areas:

• Health care (medical, prescription drugs, dental, vision, hearing, and post-retirement medical)
• Retirement income (defined benefit and defined contribution)
• Disability (short-term and long-term)
• Death (basic and contributory employee life, dependent life, survivor benefits, and retiree life)
• Time off with pay
• Work/ life balance
• Flexible benefits

The Benefit SpecSelect database currently houses the details of benefit programs at over 400 major Canadian organizations. Employers that provide their own program information and pay an annual fee can access the online information. They are able to determine what particular competitors offer; compare their programs to others in the same industry, geographic area or with the same number of employees; and gain access to prevalence data. The choice of comparator groups rests entirely with the SpecSelect subscriber.

"We find that many employers are taking a ‘total rewards’ approach and want current and prospective employees to recognize the value of their entire employment package, not simply the salary," says Karen Sciarretta, a senior benefits consultant in Hewitt’s Vancouver office. "If they’re not offering more money, but have better benefits, that might tip the scales in their favour and convince a great candidate to join the organization. Benefit SpecSelect provides employers with the information they need to ‘stay in the game’ when it comes to competing for talent."

For more information on Hewitt’s Benefit SpecSelect tool, please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call 1-888-439-4880 / 416-225-5001, ext. 5850.
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Hewitt Associates provides leading organizations around the world with expert human resources consulting and outsourcing solutions to help them anticipate and solve their most complex benefits, talent, and related financial challenges. Hewitt consults with companies to design and implement a wide range of human resources, retirement, investment management, health management, compensation, and talent management strategies. Hewitt has offices in 33 countries, including Canadian offices in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary and Regina, and employs approximately 23,000 associates who are helping make the world a better place to work. For more information, please visit www.hewitt.com/canada.

Ready or not, here it comes! The holiday season is quickly approaching and although many have already started buying for family and friends, business associates should also be included on your shopping list.

The GCGC has retail stores in both Ancaster and Collingwood, ON and an international on-line business. Based on past experience and the knowledge obtained from years of initiating corporate gifting programs, the following is The Great Canadian Gift Company’s Top-10 List as to why you should be acknowledging your customers with a corporate gift:

1. Your business will stand out from the competition.
2. It’s good customer relations and maintains customer retention.
3. It will create a 'point of contact' via hand delivery and/or an appreciative contact following receipt of the gift.
4. Common courtesy of business appreciation.
5. Everybody loves sweets!
6. It builds and enhances business relationships.
7. Early arrival before holiday madness sets in will enable your gift to stand out.
8. It’s good for office morale.
9. Positive Brand Reinforcement – Products can often be branded with your logo or you can incorporate some of your products within the contents of the basket.
10. Corporate gift giving programs can offer significant discounts over purchasing similar products in standard retail stores.

 
Click here or here to view a showcase of some of the GCGC’s Holiday gift baskets, which, if ordered before November 20th, come with a 15 per cent discount.

"In a slumping economy many companies have cut corporate gifting. But, the fact your company is still sending out gifts indicates that you're on solid footing, you appreciate  your customers, and it simply makes good business sense," says Glen Miller, vice-president of sales and marketing for the Great Canadian Gift Company.

For more information, visit www.thegreatcanadiangiftcompany.com.  

ADP, a leading provider of HR, payroll and benefits administration services, now offers its first app, RUN Powered by ADP mobile payroll, on the App Store.

First introduced in 2008 and hailed by PC Magazine as "exceedingly simple to understand and use," RUN has been continually enhanced with direct client feedback, bringing it to the point where business owners can now run payroll in just three seconds. The RUN App is available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, and allows business owners to take the ease and functionality of RUN wherever they go.

 "Within the next two years, we're going to see businesses spending 35 per cent of their IT budgets on mobile," says Gary Butler, ADP president and CEO. "The fact is, the definition of 'the office' is changing. With smarter devices and faster networks on our side, ADP continues to invest heavily in bringing our trusted solutions to clients wherever they choose to work."

A recent ADP Research Institute survey of small business owners nationwide indicates that small businesses are leading the way in this trend toward increased mobility. In fact, nearly all small business executives surveyed (90 per cent) indicated that they spend at least some time outside of the office for business, averaging nine hours a week or 23 per cent of a 40-hour work week. Of that 90 per cent, nearly 30 per cent indicated that time "on the go" is increasing.

With RUN, clients can:

•         Enter and review payroll information for employees and contractors.
•         Pay via checks or direct deposits.
•         Calculate earnings and deductions as well as federal, state and local taxes.
•         Review hours and earnings to confirm accuracy before payroll is processed.
•         Preview payroll liability and cash required, and confirm funds to be withdrawn.
•         Review reports from the current and previous periods in real time.

The RUN Powered by ADP® mobile payroll App is available for free from the App Store for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch or at www.itunes.com/appstore/.

For more information or to purchase RUN Powered by ADP® mobile payroll, visit www.adp.com/mobilepayroll or call 1.800.CALL.ADP (1.800.225.5237).

For more information about ADP, visit www.ADP.com.

Web-based stress management program for employees empowers businesses to increase productivity and reduce absenteeism by addressing the $300 billion issue of stress in the workplace.

Mental Workout, which offers web-based programs that inspire and empower people to live better lives, and Stephan Bodian, the bestselling author of Meditation For Dummies, recently announced the release of ‘Freedom from Stress’, a comprehensive, user-friendly program developed to enable businesses to reduce stress among their employees.

’Freedom from Stress’ is a web-based program that offers five effective, scientifically proven strategies for eliminating stress and enhancing overall well-being. Users can apply the strategies in sequence, each building on the next, or they can begin where they feel inclined and stick with the strategies that work best for them to build their own personalized stress-management program. The program can be used at the employees’ convenience and can be accessed anonymously.

The program includes a video introduction to stress, a personal stress evaluation with progress tracker to measure improvements, a stress journal to identify personal stress triggers, tips for dealing with stressful situations, suggestions for lifestyle changes, and a total of 18 guided exercises and meditations that can be downloaded to a mobile device, computer, or CD for optimum accessibility.

The author and narrator of the program, Stephan Bodian, is an internationally celebrated author and meditation teacher and a licensed psychotherapist with expertise in stress management and positive psychology.

Freedom from Stress is available for $9.99 (U.S.) at www.mentalworkout.com/store/apps/freedom-from-stress/web. Volume discount pricing available upon request.

In an effort to support training compliance related workplace violence and harassment (Bill 168) as well as alcohol & drugs in the workplace, Ontario Trucking Association (OTA) and Corridor Interactive have partnered to deliver Ontario trucking employers toolkits to support legislative compliance. These toolkits are user friendly and most importantly, meet government requirements.

The training content for the Workplace Violence toolkit was authored by recognized experts Glenn French of the Canadian Initiative on Workplace Violence and Dr. Barbara Benoliel of Preferred Solutions.

"No longer can employers ignore destructive workplace conduct, be it physical violence or harassment," states Glenn French of the Canadian Initiative, adding that "currently the spotlight is on Ontario’s Bill 168 which places new and onerous obligations on all employers, regardless of size or industrial section."

Effective June 15, 2010, the Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act changed, placing on employers significant responsibilities to protect workers from workplace violence and other forms of abuse. This includes protections from physical acts of aggression such as assaults and threats; generalized harassment, which goes beyond the protections currently offered under the Human Rights Code and domestic violence. These are sweeping changes to current legislation, requiring employers to take all reasonable steps to ensure employees are safe regardless of where they work and while at work.

Under the new legislation, employers are required to have in place a comprehensive violence prevention program that includes a corporate policy on violence/harassment prevention, an organizational risk assessment, reporting and investigation protocols, emergency response measures and training for all employees.

"The OTA recognized that since alcohol & drug training was delivered in the mid 1990’s, there may be many new supervisors who are not compliant with the regulated training requirements. There are others who need to review their responsibilities and procedures to meet them. Distinct from the program for supervisors of regulated drivers, a separate course provides training for supervisors of non-regulated staff. Both courses support an employer’s health and safety obligations," states Barb Butler of Barbara Butler and Associates.

Butler went on to comment, "We recognize that the primary audience for a carrier’s training program may be for supervisors of DOT regulated drivers. However, increasingly carriers are extending their alcohol & drug policies to other parts of their organization, where supervisors still need appropriate tools to implement those policies – the OTA e-learning offering provides an efficient and economical training method." Butler is Canada’s preeminent alcohol & drug authority and sole author of the learning content.
Ensuring your compliance
"Although alcohol & drug compliance and the requirements of Bill 168 appear daunting, our partnership with Corridor has resulted in the development of easily applied resource toolkits for all workplaces that have an interest in legislative compliance. These innovative products make Corridor an industry leader in e-learning," comments Joanne Benac, vice president membership administration and accounting of OTA.

Training practices meet compliance requirements and it provides managers and supervisors with the necessary tools and skills to ensure legislative compliance throughout their organization. From Tips and Guidelines, through to providing leaders with the necessary forms, checklists and audit requirements; these toolkits are a leader’s one-stop resource. It provides compliance in a turnkey and affordable fashion for all employees, without unnecessary complexity.

Corridor powers a wide range of innovative and practical applications designed to train employees on the critical workplace issues of the day. Applications cover New Employee Orientation, Leadership, Diversity, Leadership, Accessibility, Health and Safety, Hours of Work, and many more. From concept through to launch and ongoing support, Corridor’s Learning Systems deliver measurable ROI.

To learn more about Bill 168 and OTA programs, visit www.ontruck.org.  

Canadians can measure their own stress level by taking the Mood Detector test at www.mooddetector.ca or on the National Mental Health Week Facebook page (CANMentalHealth). They can also receive tips on how to enhance their mental health by subscribing to the National Mental Health Week’s Twitter.

The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) has now released its program for North American Occupational Safety and Health (NAOSH) Week that runs May 2 to 8.

With "How Safe Are You?" as the theme for 2010, CCOHS has produced a selection of free webinars and podcasts on workplace violence, the impact of injuries, and promoting health and safety through social media. The programs were developed for workplaces to use during NAOSH Week to raise awareness of these important issues and to ultimately improve the health, safety and well-being of workers.

Webinars:
Ontario Bill 168 - Violence & Harassment in the Workplace. Jessie Callaghan, Senior Technical Specialist, at CCOHS explores the ideas, implications and applications regarding this Ontario Bill and how workplace policies and procedures will be affected. This webinar is available on demand.

Short but Tweet: Ten Twitter Tips for Health and Safety with Krista Travers, Marketing Communications Officer at CCOHS, on Tuesday, May 4, 2010 1:00 p.m. EST. The free, 30-minute webinar will aim to give Canadians a better understanding of Twitter’s potential and how it can be used to enrich and promote health and safety in the workplace. This is a live event.

"CCOHS has had a history of adopting emerging technologies in order to make information about health and safety available to Canadians. What we are currently exploring with social media tools now is a continuation of this spirit," says Krista Travers, marketing communications officer at CCOHS. "Twitter is one such tool we use to get health and safety messages out there. Along the way we've learned some lessons which we think will be helpful to others who are considering or just beginning to use Twitter."

Podcasts:
Violence and Harassment in the Workplace: Jessie Callaghan, Senior Technical Specialist, at CCOHS discusses workplace violence and harassment - how to protect your employees, tips for prevention and the new requirements under Ontario Bill 168.

Workplace Injuries: A Personal Story: Bill Bowman, a victim of a workplace injury shares his personal story and how he and his family were impacted by the tragedy. Bill also describes the work of Threads of Life, an organization that provides support to families affected by workplace tragedies.
 
NAOSH Week strives to focus the attention of employers, employees, the general public, and all workplace safety and health partners on the importance of preventing injury and illness in the workplace, at home and in the community.

NAOSH Week is an annual initiative led by the Canadian Society of Safety Engineering (CSSE) in partnership with the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS), Labour Program, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC). NAOSH Week continues to be a truly continent-wide event, celebrated in Canada, along with North American partners in the United States and Mexico. For more information visit www.naosh.org/.

The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS), a Canadian federal government agency based in Hamilton, Ontario is Canada’s national resource for the advancement of workplace health and safety. CCOHS promotes the total well-being – physical, psychosocial and mental health – of working Canadians by providing information, training, education, management systems and solutions that support health and safety programs and the prevention of injury and illness. CCOHS partners and collaborates with agencies and organizations from Canada and around the world to improve the quality and quantity of resources and programs, as well as expand the breadth of usage of occupational health information to many different segments of society. For further information, visit www.ccohs.ca.

Kroll, a leading risk consulting company, recently deployed an upgraded eSignature technology that improves the efficiency of the background screening process. Kroll says the technology makes it faster for clients to initiate background check requests, helps to improve turnaround time, and reduces associated screening costs.

Since most background screening information sources, like employers and educational institutions, require that applicants sign an authorization and disclosure form, report turnaround time is directly related to how quickly screening pro¬viders receive this form. Therefore, the longer it takes for an applicant to get the form to the screening provider, the slower the background check will take to process.

Integrating an electronic signature into the process helps significantly with reducing turnaround times of such checks; however, many sources do not honor the typical "click to comply" signature offered by some web portals. Instead they require a true forensic – or "wet" – signature that is the equivalent of a traditional ink signature.

To meet this requirement and provide its clients and their candidates with a quicker, more user-friendly experience, Kroll implemented an eSignature solution in which applicants literally create their signature using a computer mouse. Modeling the same action people do every day in grocery and retail stores, Kroll’s eSignature technology dramatically improves turn¬around time and meets the most stringent of legal compliance and security standards.

In addition to significantly improving turn¬around time, Kroll’s eSignature offering provides numerous benefits to organizations, including:

• Reducing paper use since the authorization form is stored electronically and can be produced on demand;
• Eliminating the necessity of main¬taining a hard copy of the form on file;
• Precluding the need for make repeated calls to applicants to obtain the signed authorization form; and
• Allowing for better record-keeping, since the Kroll can elec¬tronically store all necessary documentation with the applicant’s report.

On average, organizations that use Kroll’s Applicant Submission tool can save 7.4 percent in costs each year – which means that employers that order 100 screening reports per month and switch to Kroll can realize more than $5,400 in savings the first year.

Kroll’s Background Screening division provides organizations worldwide with comprehensive screening services that help them make empowered decisions and mitigate risks through industry-leading expertise and cutting-edge technology. For more information, visit www.krollbackgroundscreening.com. 

Microsoft Lync, formerly known as Office Communications Server, delivers a unified experience for both end users and IT by integrating enterprise voice (telephony), instant messaging and audio, video, and web conferencing into a single, integrated communications experience.

"With Lync, Microsoft is enabling Canadian businesses to communicate and collaborate more effectively with employees, customers and partners through a single integrated client across the PC, phone and browser,” says Vineet Parmar, senior product manager, Unified Communications at Microsoft Canada. “At the same time, Lync offers IT the ability to help reduce costs by replacing PBX boxes with Lync while providing the choice to deploy on premise, in the Cloud, or a hybrid of both."

Microsoft Lync can make every engagement a virtual face-to-face meeting, because any interaction can include video and audio conferencing, application and desktop sharing, instant messaging, and telephony. Early beta user Creation Technologies, a Vancouver-based electronics manufacturing services (EMS) provider, has been using Lync to enhance the level of communication and collaboration across the organization.

"Creation has leadership located across multiple sites in North America and China. Given the diverse nature of our locations, initiating a conference and collaboration session required the use of many layers of disparate technologies. Setting up a session was difficult and cumbersome and getting the technology synchronized took too much time. This lengthened our decision making processes. With Microsoft Lync, we now have a single integrated platform that allows simple conferencing and collaboration, thus eliminating the bureaucracy of location," says Douglas Besse, executive vice president and CIO, Creation Technologies.

"With Lync in place we can make better group decisions by getting people together more quickly and efficiently. I can now establish a meeting very easily, seeing full presence and availability.  Joining a session is simple, and with a few simple mouse clicks I can share my desktop, share files and allow collaboration very efficiently - no matter where I am or where my colleagues are located at any given moment."

Microsoft Lync 2010 and Microsoft Lync Server 2010 will be available for businesses of all sizes to purchase on December 1, 2010. Microsoft Lync Online will be available as part of Office 365 next year, with voice capabilities available in late 2011. Lync Online will include instant messaging, presence, audio and video conferencing, and PC-to-PC voice calls.

Microsoft Lync is the new family brand for the products formerly known as Microsoft Communications Server, Microsoft Communications Online and Microsoft Communicator, and now also includes Microsoft Lync Web App, and Microsoft Lync Online. Learn more about Lync at www.microsoft.com/lync.

Established in 1985, Microsoft Canada Inc. is the Canadian subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation, a worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing.  Microsoft Canada provides nationwide sales, marketing, consulting and local support services in both French and English. Microsoft Canada is headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario with MSN.CA offices located in Toronto and eight regional offices across the country. The company supports local communities across Canada by creating innovative technology and partnerships that help people realize their full potential. For more information on Microsoft Canada, please visit www.microsoft.ca.

Select International recently released its “Fit” suite of assessments, a group of 5 brief (10-15 minute) screening tests that are positioned up front in the hiring process. The suite contains customized assessments that target different job sectors, including service, sales, healthcare, manufacturing and transportation.

According to Select International co-founder Matthew O’Connell, Ph.D., there has been a growing market need for short, up-front screen to optimize the hiring process since the time of online applications.

These brief assessments continue to build on the company’s approach of incorporating multiple assessment methods into a single, seamless package. The “Fit” assessments include personality scales, but they are much more than personality inventories; they also include biodata, situational judgment and behavioural intentions.  These abbreviated assessments were designed so that candidates could complete them in 10-15 minutes. In addition, the reports were designed to be easy to interpret and visually attractive.

According to Select International, the goal is for organizations to use the “Fit” assessments to quickly screen out candidates who would be a poor fit for the jobs in which they are applying.

“Our research has identified this as a critical need for all selection systems, and reaction to these new tools has been extremely positive,” said O’Connell.  “We’ve seen that the “Fit” assessments can be an integral part of a company’s selection solution.”

Select International is headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA, and maintains offices throughout North America and around the globe.

For more information on Select International, call 1-800-786-8595 or visit www.selectinternational.com.