Including Contract workers in workplace policies and training

HRNC assists employers with what is the best fit for their company.  Workplace policies should address the contract worker as opposed to a full-time employee.  Contract workers have the potential to be both an asset and a liability for the company.  They are more likely to leave after training has developed them.  However, if there is a slow down for the company - they make it easier to deal with than terminations.  If they are willing not to receive benefits that reduces costs as well.  I understand that the information technology sector has difficulty keeping full-time employees because workers prefer contracts only.www.hrnc.ca

A most interesting solution to human resources sharing has been met by Hannah McKinnon, of www.peoplepooling.ca.  If companies sign up for membership to share some of their employees during slow times - they also have the opportunity to share another company's employees when they have an extra project. What a great way to keep our human resources maximized!

Injuries, Performance, Hiring and Return to Work: Due Diligence

Human Resources professionals know the value of ensuring your company does its due diligence and maintains thorough, organized records of the many employee related issues that tend to come up in the workplace. There are several reasons for this. First it’s your source for information on just what’s happening in your workplace; who’s performing well, who’s performing poorly? Are injuries going up or down? Who’s missing time and why?  When you compile the data recorded over 6 months, a year, five years etc. you can really learn a lot about your own workplace, see where you can make improvements and if your improvement measures have worked. In addition when your employees come to you for a raise or time off what do you have to show them as justification, have you maintained records of when staff have been off, have you kept performance reviews? Without documentation you don’t have much to base your decisions on. This leads to maybe the most important point regarding the need to keep up on your due diligence. Every year there are thousands of claims made to the Ontario Human Rights Commission and the Ministry of Labour regarding health and safety claims, wrongful dismissals and discrimination in hiring to name a few but many of these claims are proven to be false and business owners are spared thousands of dollars in severance pay and fines simply because they have conducted their business properly and have the documentation to fall back on when needed. Make sure that you’ve done your due diligence, keep good records and have had employees sign off when their acknowledgement is needed; it’ll save you many headaches and there’s a good chance it could save you some money. 

John Ruyter, HRNC