Cissy Pau, Principal Consultant of Clear HR Consulting Inc. in Vancouver, BC, was contacted by Canadian Business magazine for human resources expertise for a recent article in how to coax your employees to share their ideas and encourage innovation.

Some tips that Cissy Pau shared included ensuring that management is willing to listen to ideas and providing rewards to those employees whose ideas are implemented.

Vancouver-based Clear HR Consulting is a human resources consulting firm that provides HR services to small- to medium-sized businesses, and can help you encourage your staff to share their ideas and be innovative.

Most employees think nothing about checking their work email on their Blackberry after they leave the office for the day, but is this creating an overtime pay liability for their employer? According a recent article in Business in Vancouver (Issue 997, December 2-8, 2008), companies should have policies in place to address this matter.

According to Ian Cook, BC HRMA’s director of HR knowledge and research, companies need to make it clear when employees are and are not at work, and what the expectations are around that. Employers need to set parameters to keep from paying overtime.

Gwendoline Allison, a lawyer with Clark Wilson LLP, believes that companies without Blackberry policies may still be liable for claims by employees for additional compensation. She finds that employers need to be clear when employees are required to be available and how they will be compensated for being available.

Blackberry usage outside of normal hours of work is not only a possible overtime pay issue for employers, but also an employee wellness issue due to added stress and pressure, which is best addressed with company policy and guidelines.

Clear HR Consulting was recently contacted by BC Business Magazine for an article on “How to Establish Fair Compensation”. This article has just been published in the October 2008 issue of BC Business Magazine.

Cissy Pau, Clear HR Consulting’s Principal Consultant, provided advice and commentary on the factors to consider when setting the pay rate for a new staff member, including:

• determining whether the position should be permanent or fixed term;
• looking at the roles and responsibilities of the position; and
• conducting internal and external pay comparisons.

If you need assistance in how to establish fair compensation for your new or existing employees, or for other HR services, please contact Clear HR Consulting.

Statistics Canada’s annual Workplace and Employee Survey found that Canadian employers who offer their employees performance bonuses have higher productivity and customer satisfaction and keep their employees longer than those employers who don’t offer performance bonuses. 

Yet, the numbers of Canadian employers who offer performance bonuses decreased from 40.1 per cent in 1999 to 36.9 per cent in 2005.

So, if your company is looking to improve employee productivity, raise customer satisfaction and lower employee turnover, than consider adding or amending your reward and recognition system to realize these benefits.  Guess what? Clear HR Consulting can help you with that!

The internet is now making salary information more transparent and available, which can be useful for companies to know what the market is for similar positions, and what employees may potentially be looking for when negotiating a salary for a new position or getting a raise in an existing one.

But how open should your company be with the salaries of your staff?  The Christian Science Monitor, an internationally-recognized publication, recently looked at this question, and Cissy Pau, our Principal Consultant, was quoted in the article, which appears on our media page:

“Sharing specific information about employee salary and benefits is definitely something we do not recommend,” she says. “It raises issues of confidentiality and privacy, and the potential for office gossip and rumors around whose salaries are posted.”

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According to a recent survey, one quarter of B.C. respondents would take a pay cut for a shorter commute. The article goes on to report that Canadians spend an average of 63 minutes per day commuting round trip between home and their workplace.

This is further evidence that pay isn’t the most important factor for the attraction and retention of workers. The accessibility of your company location to critical transportation nodes, like rapid transit stations and highway interchanges, that shorten the commuting times of your staff, may make your company more attractive.

And of course, there’s also the telecommuting option, which takes away the daily commute altogether.

What are the geographic regions that you’ll be drawing your staff from?  What are the best transportation routes to access these workers? Is your workplace located near these routes? These are some factors to consider when deciding on a location for your workplace. 

Remember, pay isn’t the end all and be all to find and keep great staff - they may be willing to take a pay cut in return for a shorter commute.

We’re often asked how important pay is to find and keep employees in your company. What we find is that you must pay your employees fairly based on market conditions, but you can never win if you compete based on money alone.

We think an excellent and very public example is going on in the National Hockey League (NHL).  Mats Sundin is the most coveted free agent on the hockey market.  He was offered $10 million per year in salary by the Vancouver Canucks, which would make him the highest paid player in the NHL, even though his production isn’t the highest and he’s already 37 years old and is in the twilight of his career.

Now if pay was the most important factor, Sundin would have jumped for the pay cheque immediately upon receiving the offer on July 1.  However, we’re now at September 9, and he is nowhere near close to making a decision as to which team he wants to play for, or whether he wants to play hockey at all next year.  

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