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Dec 6

Anne completing the Ocean Lava triathlon.

From the Other Side of the Triathlon: A Message from our Win4Youth Ambassador Anne

The Win4Youth program brings Adecco Group employees, associates and clients together to share their passion for sport and to have a positive impact on the lives of young people around the world. Anne Nguyen was one of two members of our Canadian Adecco Group family selected to represent the Win4Youth program in October’s Ocean Lava triathlon in Lanzarote, Spain. Here is Anne’s last blog as 2018’s Win4Youth ambassador.

After the triathlon, I was able to reflect on the reason I wanted to become a Win4Youth ambassador. Growing up, I was heavily focused on academics and never truly got to experience what it was like to participate in extracurricular sports or group activities. Because of this, I have always felt like I missed out on being part of a community that wasn’t made up of my immediate family or friends. Even though I was hesitant, I jumped at the opportunity to apply for the Win4Youth ambassadorship because I knew it would help me get active and expand my connections within the Adecco Group globally.

This program has far exceeded my expectations. Not only was I able to complete an Olympic-distance triathlon, I made lifelong friends from all around the world. Together, we conquered the hardest bike course in the history of Win4Youth which created an unbreakable bond between us (#weareWin4Youth and #alumniproud for life!). Even though my journey as a 2018 Win4Youth ambassador is nearly over, I am still going to help motivate and be a voice for the underdogs. After all, if this couch potato can turn into an athlete, you truly are capable of anything you put your mind to!

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Dec 3

Showing appreciation for your staff this holiday season

Showing Appreciation for Your Staff During the Holiday Season

It might be a holly jolly season, but the holidays can also be a stressful period for your employees. Juggling work with a busy personal life can leave colleagues feeling less than merry. Spread some cheer this holiday with some festive staff appreciation tips courtesy of your staffing experts at Adecco!

 The holidays tend to throw a wrench into normal business routines and practices. Whether it’s the substantial increase in business, or the stress of balancing a busy work period with an even busier social calendar, the build up to the end of the year rarely feels like the most wonderful time of the year. Help your organization conquer this stressful period, while motivating your staff to continue working hard with a few festive staff appreciation hacks!

Give thanks

A simple thank you is the easiest form of staff appreciation. Show your team your true gratitude by acknowledging their hard work and dedication within your organization. Recognize the individual skills that make each colleague an asset to the company. After all, a little appreciation can go a long way in building staff confidence and loyalty to your company.

Be flexible with work hours

Part of the stress of the season is the balancing act between work and the increased personal obligations many of us have around this time. Alleviate this stress by offering employees flexibility with their work hours. Encourage your employees to take an afternoon off, a longer lunch break or the option to start later or finish earlier in the day. This gives your staff a little flexibility when they find themselves trying to balance their work/home life during this busy period.

Get festive with your staff

Consider the holidays as a time to build your relationship with your staff. Allotting as little as an hour a week to indulge in festive snacks, decorations or holiday music can lift the spirits of your colleagues. You can also introduce some friendly competition with a cook off or arrange a cookie exchange. Even taking a few minutes for a festive group picture can be a nice change of pace for your employees during the busy season.

Celebrate traditions

Each member of your team is different, coming from varied backgrounds and celebrating many different traditions. What better time than the holidays to celebrate these differences? Ask your staff to share their traditions and work to build them into your holiday celebrations. This will lead to a more inclusive holiday experience and work environment for all your colleagues.

A holiday party THEY want

It’s easy to make an executive decision on a staff party, but are you taking into consideration what your team would enjoy? Whether it’s great food, games or a relaxing day away from the office, take the time to talk with your employees about what they would enjoy for a holiday party. Not only will the holiday party be better received, employees will greatly appreciate the consideration.

 

Follow Adecco’s tips for staff appreciation during the holiday season and not only will you build a stronger relationship with your staff, you will also be setting your organization up for a successful new year.

Nov 22

Woman speaking while seated at boardroom table

How to Get Started with Succession Planning

As employers prepare for the many baby boomers heading towards retirement, succession planning is essential to avoid large knowledge gaps and business disruptions. To get you started, we’re sharing three strategies to start retirement-proofing your organization.

As baby boomers create their retirement plans, employers are faced with overcoming the challenges of the knowledge and skills gaps that will be felt within their organizations once this occurs. To address these challenges and facilitate organizational knowledge transfer and continuity, it’s vital to identify and develop your organization’s future leaders. Help ensure that your company stays ahead of the (retirement) game with the following strategies.

1. Be proactive

Early detection is key. In order to plan and identify skills gaps, you need to initiate conversations with employees approaching retirement age. Build the conversation into an annual review and set reminders to follow up with colleagues who weren’t certain about their retirement plans.

2. Identify your successor

The size of your organization should be a consideration when determining succession strategies. Larger businesses can opt to promote from within their existing talent pools, but small to medium sized businesses may have a smaller pool to pull from, and can be left with larger gaps as a result of employee retirements.

Promote from within

More than simply selecting and promoting a candidate based on seniority, it’s important to learn about a candidate’s ambitions, goals and future plans. This will ensure that you are selecting a professional who is motivated to stay and develop within the organization. Employing personality and career assessment tools within your talent management process can help uncover those essential soft skills and personality traits that are challenging to identify but important to finding standout employees.

Look outside your organization

Based on the size or experience of your existing talent pool, promoting from within may not be a viable option. Your staff may not be ready for a corporate role, or you may not have been provided with enough notice to develop your future potential leaders. In selecting an external candidate, look for applicants that come from a similar industry and corporate culture. Not only will it make the transition easy for the new employee, but it will also minimize the disruption to existing colleagues.

3. Develop potential leaders

Once you’ve identified the candidate, it’s time to begin grooming them for their future roles. For employees who are new to your organization, make sure to allow a healthy training period with the retiring colleague to ensure a smooth transition for the organization as a whole.

Take inventory of skills

Begin by creating detailed job descriptions and skills lists for all existing employees approaching retirement. Consider the colleague’s full range of hard and soft skills or personality traits that have helped the colleague become so successful in their role. Try to gauge the skills your organization will require down the road based on the company’s development trends. This will help you gain a realistic understanding of the training required to get your successor up to speed.

Invest in career development tools

Developing your candidates is an investment and so, as an organization, you should be prepared to invest in career development tools such as training and online courses to help your candidate reach their full potential. Compare their current skills status to the inventory of skills created for the retiring individual to help build a training plan.

Create a mentorship program

Although skills can be gained through extra education or additional training, job knowledge can be trickier to transfer. Creating a mentorship program provides a direct opportunity for knowledge sharing amongst the retiree and their successor. Not only is mentorship critical for knowledge transfer, it enables the promoted mentee to receive feedback on career and interpersonal skills, ultimately increasing their self-confidence and placing them on track for success in their new role.

Without succession planning and a knowledge transfer strategy in place, your business faces the risk of losing critical organizational knowledge, potentially causing disruption to your day-to-day business operations and your company’s overall success. For more tips on succession planning, or for help in finding your team’s next successor, contact your local Adecco branch today!

Lēad Blog is part of Adecco and Roevin Canada. Hire your perfect team, or get more staffing advice from our experts.

Nov 19

2019 Adecco Salary Guide

2019 Compensation Trends

As the end of the year quickly approaches, it’s time for employers to look towards 2019 with an eye on emerging salary trends. From attracting and securing top candidates to remaining competitive within your marketplace, having the salary trends that will affect you most right at your fingertips is key. With these trends — and Adecco’s 2019 Salary Guide, where we’ve provided benchmark salaries for over 150 job titles — we’re here to help guide your organization into a prosperous new year.

When it comes to compensating your employees, it’s essential to consider the trends impacting the labour market in general and your organization’s competitiveness in particular. Whether it’s the newly-negotiated USMCA, the candidate-driven labour market or provincial- and industry-specific trends caused by varying economic factors, staying on top of these emerging trends will help you better predict what’s required to remain competitive in a candidate market.

Below, we’ve gathered some of the top salary trends for 2019, which are underscored by the expected increase in Canadian salaries by around 2.6%, predicted by the Morneau Shepell annual survey of trends in human resources. This rate is consistent with salary rate increases in 2018 and the current inflation rate.

The Candidate Market

Despite the slight rise in the Canadian national unemployment rate in 2018, which crawled up to 6%, the labour market continues to be candidate-driven. By the end of Q2 2018, Canada’s job vacancies stood at 547,300, an increase of 87,100 (18.9%) year over year. With a small candidate pool and growing need for applicants, companies face greater competition to attract and retain top talent, resulting in the need for employers to reassess their compensation strategies to remain competitive within their respective industries.

Defining Compensation

Compensation continues to shift due to strong competition within labour markets. Traditionally, compensation packages included salary, vacation pay, benefits and retirement plan contributions. Today, employers that face strict budgets are forced to get creative with their compensation strategies, turning to perks and incentives such as flexible work hours, telecommuting, workplace wellness programs, advancement opportunities and profit sharing to secure top candidates. By making a healthy work/life balance part of their compensation package, these employers take advantage of cost-effective alternative compensation strategies to remain competitive.

Provincial Trends

Within the provincial breakdown of salary increases, BC and Alberta lead the nation in average salary increase at 2.8% and 2.7% respectively. Quebec is projected to be right around the national average at 2.6%. Ontario falling slightly behind the average at 2.5% is perhaps a reflection of Premier Doug Ford’s amendment to Bill 148, freezing the Ontario minimum wage at $14 until 2020. Other provincial salary increases range from the 2.0% to 2.6%: Newfoundland (2.0%), Manitoba (2.3%), New Brunswick (2.3%), Saskatchewan (2.6%) and Nova Scotia (2.6%).

Industry Trends

Although on average, employers have acknowledged 2019 plans to increase salary ranges by 1.9%, different industries can expect varying 2019 compensation trends. Higher salary increases will be seen in industries such as real estate, rental and leasing (3.8%), with industries such as professional, scientific and technical services following closely behind (3%). Other industries that can expect to see a slight raise in salaries include education services (3%) and public administration (2.8%). These increases may be in response to below average increases over the past few years, finally catching up to other sectors in 2019. Sectors such as finance and insurance, manufacturing and retail trade are expecting a steady increase (2.7%). Industries that are anticipating lower than average increases include information and cultural industries (1.5%), health care and social assistance (1.7%), and arts, entertainment and recreation (2.1%).

Looking to stay on top of changing compensation trends? Let Adecco’s 2019 Salary Guide break it down for you. With benchmark salaries of over 150 job titles, you’ll be able to assess salary competitiveness in your industry and province. Click here to receive your free digital copy.

Lēad Blog is part of Adecco and Roevin Canada. Hire your perfect team, or get more staffing advice from our experts.

 

Nov 8

two people shaking hands

Salary Negotiation Tips for Your Next Job

Just about everyone knows their ideal salary figure when starting their job search, but does your work experience, position and location warrant that number? Finding a happy medium between your desired salary and what your future employer’s budget allows can be a complicated procedure. So how can you ensure your dream job comes with a competitive compensation package? Check out our guide to negotiating a fair salary.

The interview process is stressful but impressing an HR department to make a positive hiring decision is only half the battle. After all, getting the job means nothing if you aren’t fairly compensated for the new role and responsibilities. Read on for our salary negotiation tips to help ensure your dream job comes with a matching compensation package.

Facts are your friend

Getting what you’re worth can only happen when you know what that is. It’s not enough to have a number in mind; back it up by researching the salary ranges in your labour market as a good starting point.

Websites such as Payscale.com, Glassdoor and the Government of Canada – Job Bank will provide you with salary ranges of positions based on experience and location, often with a breakdown of comparable companies. This will give you a better understanding of industry pay standards to help guide your negotiation. Salaries will vary not only by industry and experience but also by size of company and region of employment. Make sure to consult the appropriate salary information for the job specifications.

Self-assessment

Be critical about your skills, experience and how you measure up as a candidate in the industry. Gaining a better understanding of whether you are above average, average or still developing will help you set realistic expectations in your field.

Check out our Salary Guide for salary ranges for your job, experience, company size and location. 

Negotiating at your best

Once armed with an honest self-assessment and reliable sources of data about salaries in your field and region, its time to put these tools to work to ensure you get what you’re worth. Rarely will you lose an offer by negotiating a higher salary, but if you absolutely cannot afford to lose a job offer, wait for them to discuss salary first and delicately suggest a higher number.

Stay flexible

Consider alternative compensation bargaining chips such as a signing bonus, vacation time, the option to work from home or biannual reviews. Not only does this give you the ability to negotiate a better compensation package that best suits your lifestyle, it also demonstrates your flexibility to your future employer.

Still nervous about how your potential employer will react to negotiation? Reiterate your enthusiasm for joining the company and the position. Use phrases such as “I am really excited to work here” and “I appreciate your offer” and follow up with a request to consider a higher salary based on your skills/experience or research of the industry.

Regardless of whether you are met with silence or pushback, don’t let your confidence or enthusiasm dissipate! According to an analysis by Salary.com, avoiding salary negotiations can cost employees big in lost wages over the course of your career. Which makes this the million dollar question: are you really going to settle for less than you’re worth?

Lēad Blog is part of Adecco and Roevin Canada. Find and apply to your dream job, or get more career advice from our experts.

 

Nov 5

Man at desk with 3D printer

The Growing Skills Gap in Additive Manufacturing

Additive manufacturing (AM) is set to enhance innovation while providing financial benefits and efficiency improvements across the engineering landscape. Yet, despite this vast potential, the skills gap in AM — and STEM more broadly — poses a threat to the competitiveness of Canadian organizations worldwide.

Additive manufacturing (AM) broadly describes the technologies that build 3D objects by adding layer upon layer of material. This includes 3D printing, rapid prototyping, direct digital manufacturing and layered manufacturing. A growing trend in engineering fields, AM is a cheaper, waste-minimizing form of manufacturing that gives designers improved control over components manufacturing.

As AM takes hold in manufacturing processes, it will become increasingly important for Canadians to learn and adopt these practices in order to stay relevant and competitive on a global stage.

Competing in a global arena

The Canadian government has already taken steps to promote AM within the Canadian marketplace. In the past few months, the federal government has invested millions of dollars into additive manufacturing facilities, creating more jobs for Canadians and protecting our global competitiveness.

The May 2018 announcement of a $14 million investment from the federal government plus an additional $7 million grant from the government of Ontario to advanced manufacturing company Burloak Technologies puts that company on the path for global AM leadership. Similarly, the announcement of up to $21.1 million for TEKNA Plasma Systems Inc. from the federal and Quebec governments will allow TEKNA to increase their manufacturing capabilities to remain competitive globally. The projects are set to create 295 and 170 jobs for Canadians, respectively, while promoting AM within the industry.

Overcoming the skills gap

For organizations to stay competitive within their field they must review their workforce structure to take advantage of new technologies and to ensure they’re not left behind. Unfortunately, as the additive manufacturing field grows, there is strong competition for a limited talent pool. Few candidates, paired with constantly evolving AM technologies, materials, and practice, mean employers face growing gaps within their workforce.

To stay competitive globally, and help bridge the skills gap, employers should focus on promotion — evangelizing the benefits of AM will help draw attention to both the innovation itself and the skills required by this new technology. Other ways to help find and develop the talent necessary to take full advantage of AM include:

Training/re-training – Promoting from within can be a great way to help boost colleague moral while bettering your workplace culture. Consider offering online training programs or providing existing employees with financial assistance to develop their knowledge of additive manufacturing technologies.

Education initiatives – Organizations may consider visiting local elementary and secondary schools to promote the STEM fields to today’s youth, and at the same time encouraging the next generation of workers to explore careers in additive manufacturing that they may otherwise disregard.

Apprenticeships – There are many benefits available to employers by partnering with post-secondary institutions to offer apprenticeships for students or graduates within STEM fields. Not only do apprenticeships yield a positive return on investment by creating employable, trained candidates, they also help your organization build a relationship with educational institutions and students in these fields, effectively pipelining new talent for future employment.

The lack of suitable candidates in this field highlights the increasing importance of education, training and skills as AM technology continues to transform many industries. Interested in a STEM position to join the revolution? Talk to your local Roevin office today!

Lēad Blog is part of Adecco and Roevin Canada. Hire your perfect team, or get more staffing advice from our experts.

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