What Am I Doing Here? Orientation and Training

 So you’ve hired your new employee and they show up on the first day.  That’s a good start, but will it be their most productive day at work?  Maybe it won’t be. Will it be the day that you decide if this person is going to fit at your business?  This is also not likely. 

However, that first day and the days that follow will be the most crucial time period for the new employee in terms of learning what’s expected, what they are supposed to do, how your business operates and where they fit into the larger picture. 

In making this transition a smooth and efficient process you should provide a company overview, your policies and job descriptions. This can all be told to a new employee but it’s a lot to take in so an orientation package that explains all the important aspects of your business, their job and what is expected of an employee will speed the process up. Included with this orientation package should be what is expected of them and what happens when they choose to deviate from these expectations.  This is so they can avoid any unnecessary behaviours or actions. This type of orientation is an important way to avoid misunderstandings that could cause future problems and creates a smoother transition for all parties involved. 

Training is the next important step and how this is done will vary from one workplace to another but simply expecting a new employee will do things right and in the way that your business normally does them is unrealistic. 

New employees often come into a workplace with either little or no experience in exactly the job that you have them doing.  Perhaps,  the experience they do have gave them different habits or ways of thinking than would normally be expected at your business. 

Training has to be gradual and conducted in more than one way to best deliver your message.  Be sure to take into account that some people will learn better through different methods or at a different pace. Be thorough, expect bumps in the road and make sure you ask for feedback so you know how your employee is adjusting and where they need more help.

www.hrnc.ca

Ministry of Labour: Employment Standards Officers - what they are looking for...

Proactive Inspections

Employment Standards (ES) officers visit businesses across Ontario ‘proactively’, even if no complaint has been filed by an employee. These officers will help you correct areas where your business is not complying with the Act. In most cases, a review of the following 10 standards takes place, which apply to most, but not all, workplaces in Ontario.

• ESA poster
• Wage statements
• Deductions from wages
• Record keeping
• Hours of work
• Eating periods
• Overtime pay
• Minimum wage
• Public holidays
• Vacation with pay

Officers usually provide advance notice of an intended visit. They will review your records and speak to you and your employees. If there are issues of non-compliance they will discuss these with you and, depending on the nature of the violation, they may provide an opportunity to correct them.ES Officers may also issue orders to pay, tickets or lay charges; courts may impose fines.

For more information:  www.hrnc.ca

Southwest Glass Products Inc. Fined $50,000 After Worker Injured

Court Bulletin

Ministryof Labour

12-19 For Immediate Release

March 22, 2012

Southwest Glass Products Inc. Fined $50,000 After Worker Injured

London, ON – Southwest Glass Products Inc., a Toronto glass manufacturer, was fined $50,000 for a violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act after a worker was injured.

On September 9, 2010, at the company’s London plant, a worker was unloading glass sheets from a mechanized conveyor. The worker stumbled and reached out to stop from falling. The worker’s hand made contact with a mechanized roller on the conveyor and was pulled around the roller. The worker lost a finger and a tendon.

A Ministry of Labour investigation found that the employer had installed a guardrail in front of the conveyor but it was removed by workers to make their job easier. At the time of the incident there were no other protective devices to prevent workers from accessing the rollers on that part of the conveyor.

Southwest Glass Products Inc. pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that the conveyor was guarded to prevent access to its moving parts.

The fine was imposed by Justice of the Peace Jacob Bruinewood. In addition to the fine, the court imposed a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge, as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.

Sports, Leadership and Team Chemistry: How can it apply to your Workplace?

As a business owner or manager you probably have a number of people working under you and those people likely work in some sort of team.  There are inherently interpersonal dynamics at play. Your team isn’t that unlike any professional sports team. There will be leaders, there will be the quite dependable ones, rookies and veterans and there may be a couple you`d put on your “trading block” or choose not to resign for next season but the real world isn’t like the sports world and you may be in a position that has you trying to keep everyone moving forward.  The point I’m making is there are different strengths and weaknesses amongst your employees, people who will step up and lead the group, others who you know you can count on for quality results and those that may need more guidance to perform their jobs.   The manager (YOU) need to focus your attention on creating the right work groups and teams to get the best results. If you’re seeing some groups at your workplace struggle while others succeed you may need to consider mixing up your “lines”. Maybe putting your easily distracted employee with a couple quite dependable employees could help focus his or her attention to achieve the right results or maybe a key leader among your employees might be best suited to work with one of your more inexperienced individuals to coach him along, provide the guidance needed and step in when mistakes are made. Team chemistry and the way people interact and play off each other can mean the difference between a championship squad and one that misses the playoffs. Which will yours be? Put on the coach’s hat and see what you can achieve by trying to understand the people in your workplace and who they perform best with.

www.hrnc.ca

Fines for violations of the Occupational Health and Safety Act after a worker was injured

Court Bulletin

Ministry of Labour 12-17 For Immediate Release
March 15, 2012

Manufacturer Fined $50,000 After Worker Injured

Brampton, ON – Surteco Canada Ltd., carrying on business as Doellken-Woodtape, an international manufacturer of plastic edging for use on furniture, was fined $50,000 for a violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act after a worker was injured.
On March 30, 2010, a worker at the company’s Brampton plant was cleaning out a hopper. The worker reached a hand into the hopper while an auger inside it was slowly rotating. The worker’s hand was injured when it was caught by the auger and trapped against the hopper wall.
Surteco Canada Ltd., carrying on business as Doellken-Woodtape, pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that the auger had stopped rotating before the worker began cleaning the hopper.
The fine was imposed by Justice of the Peace Thomas McKeogh. In addition to the fine, the court imposed a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge, as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.

Court Bulletin

Ministry of Labour  12-18 For Immediate Release
March 15, 2012

Con Cast Pipe Inc. Fined $55,000 After Worker Injured

Guelph, ON – Con Cast Pipe Inc., a Guelph manufacturer of concrete infrastructure products, was fined $55,000 for a violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act after a worker was injured.
On August 24, 2010, workers were pouring concrete into a steel form. One worker was standing beside the form and using a remote control to operate an overhead crane to pour buckets of concrete into the form. Without warning, one side of the steel form detached and fell on the worker. The worker suffered multiple fractures and a punctured lung.
A Ministry of Labour investigation found that the welds used to hold the form together were inadequate to resist the weight of the wet concrete being poured into the form.
Con Cast Pipe Inc. pleaded guilty to failing to take the reasonable precaution of ensuring that the form was designed and constructed to resist all loads and forces which were likely to be applied to it.
The fine was imposed by Justice of the Peace Adriana Magoulas. In addition to the fine, the court imposed a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge, as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.

www.hrnc.ca

Facebook is a recruiting tool used by employers.

Here is an excerpt from an article by Kashmir Hill for Forbes.  You can find the whole article at this link:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/03/06/what-employers-are-thinking-when-they-look-at-your-facebook-page/

"While some readers were put off by the idea of being stalked by potential employers, others recognized the utility of tapping into all the information out there about a given candidate.
“If I’m an employer, and it’s legal, and I’m about to make a major investment in someone that I’ll have to work all day with, I’ll use it,” said “gugie.” Puneet Thiara agreed with her: “The costs associated with hiring and training a new employee far outweigh the risk of not doing ALL of your research. You could say it’s similar to me researching a company I am applying for and checking out members of its groups on Facebook to see what kind of people work for the company.”
But other readers want employers to stick to the social networks intended for professional use. “I — and I know many others are with me here — use ‘social networks’ (other than LinkedIn, that is) for just that. Networking SOCIALLY. In my opinion you have no more business examining my Facebook entries than you would crashing a private cocktail party,” wrote a person who spelled “anonymous” in a very eccentric way. “[S]ocial networks should not be used IN LIEU of face-to-face meetings.”
Brettb was of this opinion as well:

[J]udging the character of an individual with such heavy weight on their personal life, which nine times out of ten will never interfere with their professional life, is wrong. The practice of physically sitting down and going through the motions of an interview with a candidate and asking probing intellectual questions while vigorously researching reference data is a much better way to select a qualified candidate. So what if Johnny had a few too many beers one night in Cancun when he was in college and someone took a photo, or if Susie openly supports her local death metal band. Does that make them bad people? No – get to know the candidate if you want to make a judgment of character. See how they handle themselves in a professional atmosphere and if they are personable or rather, someone you feel you can work with.

In my opinion, those who don’t want employers looking them up on Facebook pages are fighting a losing battle.
Christian Miller won the comments section with this remark:

Any candidate worth considering should be smart enough to set their privacy settings in order to hide all content from any potential employer. Anything a competent HR staff can find via google search is fair game.

Good luck, job seekers. And along with polishing your resume, dry-cleaning your interview suit, and researching the companies you’re interviewing with, do pay a visit to your Facebook privacy settings page."

www.hrnc.ca

Village of Point Edward Fined $75,000 After Worker Killed

Court Bulletin


12-16 For Immediate Release
March 6, 2012


Sarnia, ON – The Corporation of the Village of Point Edward was fined $75,000 today for a violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act after a worker was killed.

On January 30, 2010, members of the village’s paid volunteer fire department were participating in ice water rescue training. After doing swimming and floating exercises, the workers were instructed to swim out to a moving sheet of ice, climb it, and ride it down the lake. Some of them could not climb the ice floe and attempted to swim back to shore. One worker, unable to climb onto shore, was pushed by the ice floe under its surface. The worker was trapped under the ice floe for about four minutes. The worker was removed but died due to being trapped in the cold water.

A Ministry of Labour investigation determined that although there was rescue equipment in one of the fire trucks parked on shore during the exercise, there was no equipment readily available to pull the worker onto shore.

The Corporation of the Village of Point Edward pleaded guilty as an employer to failing to take the reasonable precaution of ensuring that adequate rescue equipment was available for the ice water rescue training exercise.

A related charge against an individual is still before the courts and is scheduled for a trial in May.
The fine was imposed by Justice Deborah Austin. In addition to the fine, the court imposed a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge, as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.


www.hrnc.ca