The Canadian Centre for Occupational Heath and Safety (CCOHS) has developed a web survey aimed at getting feedback from Canadians on health and safety issues related to the changing workplace.

For already-stretched accounting departments, waiting over a month for help may seem like an eternity. Yet, a recent survey found it typically takes even longer than that for employers to hire for open positions. Chief financial officers (CFOs) interviewed said it takes an average of five weeks to fill a staff-level role and six weeks to bring a new manager on board.

The survey was developed by Robert Half Finance & Accounting, the world's first and largest specialized financial recruitment service. It was conducted by an independent research firm and is based on interviews with more than 270 CFOs from a stratified random sample of Canadian companies with 20 or more employees.

CFOs were asked, "On average, how many weeks does it typically take to hire for an open staff-level accounting or finance position?" The mean response was five weeks.

CFOs also were asked, "On average, how many weeks does it typically take to hire for an open management-level accounting or finance position?" The mean response was six weeks.

"As the economy rebounds, employers need to ensure they have adequate staffing levels to take advantage of emerging business opportunities," says Kathryn Bolt, president of Robert Half International's Canadian operations. "Over time, companies running with teams that are too lean risk overextending and burning out their employees."

According to Bolt, having a nimble hiring process in place is critical to securing top talent. "The most sought-after professionals always have options and companies need to move quickly to attract and retain the market's top candidates."

Robert Half Finance & Accounting offers managers four tips to make the hiring process as efficient as possible:

    1.  Stay front and centre. Don't delegate the hiring process. You know
        best what you want in an employee. Avoid delays or, worse, potential
        hiring mistakes by remaining closely involved in the process from
        beginning to end.
    2.  Stick to the game plan. Before resumes start coming in, develop a
        method for evaluating them consistently. Using the job description as
        a base, make note of key criteria you're looking for from applicants,
        and search for those same attributes in each resume you receive.
    3.  Get help. Specialized recruiters can help you pinpoint your needs.
        And their networks provide access to people you might not locate on
        your own, including professionals who may not be actively looking but
        would make a change for the right opportunity.
    4.  Don't delay. When you identify strong applicants, don't
        procrastinate. Top performers are in demand in any market. By moving
        too slowly, you risk losing your first choice - and extending the
        hiring process.

Founded in 1948, Robert Half Finance & Accounting, a division of Robert Half International, has more than 365 locations worldwide and offers online job search services at www.roberthalf.ca. Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/roberthalffa.

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. 

Instead of our usual multiple-choice type of survey, this month we asked our reader panelists to share their thoughts on the past and present of health and safety in Canada. Here's what they had to say:

Here's what our 173 respondents had to say:

In September 2008, PayScale, a provider of on-demand compensation data, conducted a cross-industry survey of 2,043 HR professionals in the U.S. and Canada on their attitudes towards common trends that drive employee compensation and pay practices within their organizations. The organization has now released a white paper on the results.

For most organizations responding to this survey things were not nearly as dire as the news made it appear in 2008. Only 23 per cent of organizations reported downsizing their staffs (on average by 11 per cent), while 45 per cent reported increasing their staff. As expected, the majority of downsizing in the first three quarters of 2008 occurred in the construction, real estate, and mortgage finance industries, while healthcare, IT, and energy sectors grew.

On the flip side, even though 77 per cent of organizations grew or remained the same in the first three quarters of 2008, only 28 per cent reported retention as a top concern, and 47 per cent felt it wasn’t a concern at all. Nor have many small organizations adopted single vendor HRIS or talent management systems designed to improve retention and succession planning of employees. Instead, the majority of organizations employing fewer than 1,000 full time employees continue to rely on ad hoc approaches to managing their HR functions of recruiting, compensation, and retention.

With regard to compensation practices, half of organizations continue to conduct market pricing activities on an ad hoc basis (pay structure below market, individual recruiting, or retention needs). The other half set pay on annual or bi-annual benchmarking schedules. As expected, the larger the organization, the more structured the compensation practices and more frequent the benchmarking process, with formalized compensation practices generally starting at around 100 employees.

Summary of results:

• Organization’s employment growth between 2007 and 2008 was not as bad as economic news might indicate. Only 23 per cent of organizations reported downsizing their workforce between the period, while 45 per cent of organizations reported increasing their size and 32 per cent remained unchanged.

• The average decline rate was 15 per cent of the total workforce. Organizations employing less than 100 full time employees declined by 22 per cent while organizations employing more than 100 full time employees reported declining by just 11 per cent.

• Industries that experienced employment growth were Telecommunications, Pharmaceuticals, Banking, Staffing/Recruiting and Human Resource Consulting, Healthcare and Technology/Computers Software. Industries that declined were Real Estate, Hospitality, Mortgage Financing, Wholesale, Insurance and Construction.
  

• Only 11.6 per cent of organizations reported that their compensation data budgets declined from 2007 to 2008, while 48.5 per cent reported that their budget had increased. Additionally, 48.7 per cent of organizations reported that they expected their 2009 budgets to increase, while only 9.7 per cent believed that their budgets would decrease in 2009.

• While 2007 industry forecasts indicated that employee retention would be the top HR priority of 2008, only 28.2 per cent of organizations reported retention as their top concern. 26.3 per cent of organizations reported that retention was only one of many concerns and almost half of all respondents, 47.5 per cent, indicated that retention was only a minor concern or not at all.Interestingly, organizations were split between whether employee retention would be an issue in 2009, with 52.5 per cent of respondents indicating that they thought it would be, and only 47.5 per cent thinking that it would not.
  

• The top three reasons that HR professionals reported employees leaving a job were personalreasons, 41.4 per cent, poor performance, 41.1 per cent, and seeking advancement  opportunities elsewhere, 34.6 per cent.
  

• Employee retirement does not appear to be affecting many employer’s recruiting or retentionefforts. Only 15.5 per cent of organizations reported that retirement affected their 2008 staffing efforts and only 21 per cent believe that it will be a factor in 2009.
  

• When it comes to structuring compensation, it appears that organizations broadly fall into twobuckets: ad hoc programs to meet objectives and formal structures. 65.8 per cent of organizations use Salary Ranges to structure their pay while 26.5 per cent set pay on a case-by-case basis. Only 7.7 per cent of organizations reported setting pay using broad bands.
  

• Half of all organizations, 49.5 per cent, adjust their pay structures as needed, while 44 per cent of organizations set their pay every year. Only 7.7 per cent of organizations reported adjusting their pay structures every other year. Of the organizations that structured their pay as needed, only 40 per cent reported doing a benchmarking project in 2007. 62.6 per cent of organizations conduct focal point reviews at a specific time each year, while the remaining 37.4 per cent adjusted compensation on the employee’s anniversary.

• Types of bonuses used vary significantly across organizations. 72.1 per cent of organizations offer incentive bonuses, but only 29 per cent of those organizations offer bonuses across the board. 59.8 per cent of organizations reported using spot bonuses, 27.3 per cent hiring bonuses, 17.5 per cent retention and 67.1 target incentives.

For more on the PayScale survey, visit www.payscale.com.

In our latest reader panel survey, we asked COS readers about their educational and training background and what they are doing, or would like to do, to upgrade their skills as oh&s professionals. Here's what our 152 respondents had to say:

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.

Each year, the Conference Board pits Canada's performance against 17 peer countries - Ireland, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, Finland, U.S., U.K., Belgium, Denmark, Australia, Austria, Japan, France, Italy and Germany - to learn what we can do to sustain a high quality of life and also what should be avoided.

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Watch the video analysis from Conference Board president and CEO Anne Golden.

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The Conference Board of Canada has been assessing Canada's quality of life for more than 12 years in its annual benchmarking report. For the first time, the Conference Board also looks back-in some cases over more than four decades-to examine trends in Canada's performance in the economy, innovation, the environment, education, health, and society. The board set out to answer three questions: Is life in Canada better or worse that it was in the past? How does Canada's quality of life stack up against life in other countries? Will this quality of life will be sustainable in the future?

The analysis shows that Canada's quality of life is slipping:

• Canada's grade for economic performance has declined over the past three decades. Canada has dropped from 3rd spot in the 1970s to 11th place, with a "B" grade in the Economy category. See the overview of the Economy report card.
• Canada has received a "D" for its innovation performance for the past three decades. Canada is not taking the steps to ensure that science can be successfully commercialized and used as a source of economic advantage. See the overview of the Innovation report card.
• Canada generates more waste per capita than any other country in the Conference Board comparison. Canada is also one of the world's largest per capita emitters of greenhouse gases. See the overview of the Environment report card.
• Canada's high-school graduation rate is second only to the U.S., and its college completion is the best among 17 peer countries. Yet the adult literacy skills of four in ten working-age Canadians are inadequate. See the overview of the Education and Skills report card.
• Given increasing rates of diabetes and heart disease, Canada has no choice but to adopt a new business model for health care that focuses on both preventing and managing chronic disease. See the overview of the Health report card.
  
• Canada has 17 times the rate of assaults as the best-ranked country, 7 times the rate of burglaries, and 3 times the rate of homicides. See the overview of the Society report card.

To read the full report, visit http://sso.conferenceboard.ca/HCP.aspx. 

As company health and safety departments plan for the next fiscal year, professional development is an important item on many priority lists. Government agencies and safety associations invest months of planning, and a lot of money, to attract health and safety professionals to their out-of-office seminars, trade shows and conferences, but it's hard to know which of these events will be worth the time and money.