Cannon on what's real and what's hypothetical

By John Geddes - Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 12:14 PM - 0 Comments

At a news conference a few minutes ago, Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon declined to answer direct questions about Canada’s position on child soldiers on the grounds that the questions were hypothetical. But Cannon did declare that Canada is imposing tough sanctions against North Korea by curtailing economic ties.

But doesn’t he have it backwards? Canada is, in fact, a signatory to the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, part of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, so the government’s stance on child soldiers—thrown into question, of course, by the Omar Khadr case—is a matter of real concern. Those economic links to North Korea, on the other hand,  are mostly hypothetical.

Good job, coach

By Claire Ward - Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 12:08 PM - 0 Comments

Blend Images/CP

Liana Carniello is the human resources manager at the Sheraton Centre in Toronto, the flagship hotel of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc. (Canada), and she’s about to move up to director of human resources at a sister hotel. She credits her company’s mentorship program for helping her advance from the front office operations job she started in five years ago, and now she’s giving back. Today, she’s on the other side of the desk, mentoring a shy Filipina housekeeping attendant. When she’s not folding sheets and fluffing pillows in one of the hotels 1,400 rooms, her protege—who holds a master’s degree in statistics—is training for advancement. She hopes to take on a more challenging role at the company, either putting her math skills to work in a revenue management role, or taking on a leadership position in hotel operations. The pair is halfway through Starwood’s Associate Development Program, which matches line-level employees with management leaders to nurture their career goals. Carniello is inspired by her colleague’s ambition: “I told her, when I leave this property, I’m taking you with me.”

This hands-on coaching approach—as well as a serious commitment to ongoing training, be it through education subsidies and internal courses and programs—is helping companies score well with their employees when it comes to performance and development. “Historically, the mentor might have been lecturing or telling the employee what to do,” says Lindsay Sukornyk, an executive leadership coach with over a decade of experience consulting with top global enterprises. Sukornyk has noticed a shift to coaching in the last few years, which has empowered employees to take control of their careers. “I think of it as leadership 2.0,” says Sukornyk. “It’s more of a dialogue, more collaborative.”

At EllisDon, the Mississauga, Ont.-based and employee-owned construction firm, employees get a one-on-one career discussion at least once a year, outside of their performance reviews. And their bosses listen. “Over the last few years, we’ve been having discussions with our leaders about how to have effective career-based conversations,” says Janine Szczepanowski, vice-president of leadership and entrepreneurial development. “Last year, we extended that coaching to our employees as well.”

Your tax dollars at work

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 12:08 PM - 0 Comments

The Board of Internal Economy has tabled its latest report of MP expenses. The second biggest expenditure line: ten percenters. Seems the Canadian public was charged $10,182,707.71 for the printing of partisan flotsam during the last fiscal year.

Fair and flexible

By Tom Henheffer - Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 11:57 AM - 0 Comments

Fuse/Getty Images

When it comes to attracting and retaining top-notch employees, rewards—pay, benefits and programs for retirement savings—are often the bottom line. After all, everyone has to pay the rent. And for many companies it’s a way of differentiating themselves from the competition. Take, for instance, Conexus, a small credit union in southern Saskatchewan. “We know Saskatchewan is a little hot in terms of the market,” says Delia Ermel, the company’s interim executive vice-president. So, she says, “we want to make sure we attract the best and brightest.” To do that, the company offers full medical insurance, a pension plan with matched contributions and annual bonuses when it meets yearly business goals. Management reviews the reward packages annually and makes minor tweaks, then keeps the staff abreast of changes through an annual update. On top of regular vacation time, Conexus offers 72 hours a year of flexible “Your-Time,” which employees can use to do whatever they want. And the company emphasizes a flexible work-life balance, giving employees time to work out of the office, get to doctors’ appointments or take care of their family. “We like to take a holistic approach to our rewards,” says Ermel. “What motivates me may be totally different than the person sitting next to me.”

Alison Konrad, a professor at the University of Western Ontario’s Richard Ivey School of Business, says that’s the right idea. “Employees are more diverse in the kinds of needs they bring to employers,” she says, “so a narrow set of benefits isn’t as effective as a broader array.” She says remaining fair and flexible is the best way to keep employees happy. Ermel says that’s exactly why her company is doing so well. “We try to stay as open-minded as we can,” she says, adding that as a result, “we’ve got a motivated and engaged workforce.”

Would you support a Canadian Tea Party?

By macleans.ca - Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 11:56 AM - 0 Comments

The right way to think about Maxime Bernier

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 11:43 AM - 0 Comments

The Agenda convenes a panel to sort out the meaning of Maxime Bernier.

Setting the standard

By Tom Henheffer - Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 11:41 AM - 0 Comments

MARTIN MEISSNER/AP

Though the most famous burger chain in the world opened its doors 80 years ago, McDonald’s manages to remain current and innovative thanks in part to its approach to fostering leadership. “People could copy everything about us,” says Len Jillard, McDonald’s chief people officer, who joined the company in 1972 at one of its fast-food joints in London, Ont., “but they’d never be able to copy our people and how we make them.”

All employees—even those flipping Big Macs—are asked to draft their own personal career plans. They’re given the opportunity to go through coaching and career planning classes, and are evaluated on their leadership potential. Some are even sent to Hamburger University, an advanced employee training school in Illinois. The company also has a Leadership Institute, an online training community. “Nobody can declare him or herself a great leader,” says Gerard Seijts, a professor at the University of Western Ontario’s Richard Ivey School of Business. “Leaders have to be developed.”

At Chubb Insurance, which also scores well on leadership, it starts with setting the right example. Ellen Moore, the company’s president and CEO, says the key is remaining transparent, holding managers accountable, and listening to suggestions from employees at every level. The Toronto-based company shares its broad business plans with its workers, and consults them in town-hall style meetings that Moore often oversees. “That level of transparency with your staff,” says Moore, “makes them feel there’s a real commitment from leadership.”

China's wealthy women

By Colin Campbell - Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 11:20 AM - 0 Comments

Mike Clarke/AFP/Getty Images

Zhang Yin is known in China as the Queen of Trash. The owner of Nine Dragons Paper, a recycling business, her fortune is estimated to be worth US$5.3 billion, up almost $1 billion from a year ago. That makes Yin, a 53-year-old former accountant, the richest self-made woman in the world, according to the Hurun Report, which ranks the wealthiest people in China.

Of the world’s richest women, the number two and three spots are also held by Chinese entrepreneurs. In fact, Chinese women dominate the list, holding 11 of the top 20 spots, with an average wealth of US$2.6 billion. Experts say Chinese women have found greater success in large part because they have fewer children and are less likely to stay at home. “There is no other country that comes even close to touching the number of self-made women in China,” notes the report.

Tim Hortons to open in Nunuvut

By macleans.ca - Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 10:54 AM - 0 Comments

Tim Hortons, the unstoppable Canadian donut and coffee chain, is about to extend its reach further than ever before—this time, north of 60. The Iqaluit, Nunuvut location will open in December with a limited menu. The territory’s largest town has grown in recent years from 3,000 to more than 7,200 residents. Tim Horton’s hot drinks and baked goods will sell for about 50 cents more than locations in the south.

Toronto Sun

Not exactly Alcatraz

By Nicholas Köhler - Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 10:40 AM - 0 Comments

Last month, 33-year-old Mount Pearl, Nfld., resident Rick Bennett pushed aside a ceiling tile in the interview room where he was waiting for his lawyer, pulled himself up into the crawl space and briefly fled into the heavens above St. John’s provincial courthouse. Officers with the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary collared him once he collapsed through the ceiling near the judges’ chambers, then dragged him from the building—but not before he’d forced the courthouse’s evacuation, the deployment of the K-9 unit and, perhaps most worrying, an asbestos assessment of the area disturbed by his escape.

Bennett’s illicit exit was just the latest in a string of escapes and corrections slip-ups that highlight the sorry state of Newfoundland and Labrador’s prison system. Two years after a damning independent report noted the decrepit facilities and lack of security—including cell doors that couldn’t lock and 19th-century jails—the escapes raise the question of just how ready Newfoundland is to implement the federal Conservatives’ plans to expand the country’s jails.

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Islamists, Iran, and the Green Party: Elizabeth May responds

By Michael Petrou - Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 10:33 AM - 0 Comments

Here’s Elizabeth May’s response:

Here’s my original story:

Jon Stewart's biggest get

By Jaime Weinman - Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 10:32 AM - 0 Comments

Here’s the episode. I wish I could figure out how to embed Comedy Network clips.

Last night was the biggest moment in The Daily Show‘s history, at least in terms of its ability to blur the lines between a silly comedy show and a legitimate news source: the show’s first full-length, in-studio interview with a sitting President of the United States. (Obama has been in the studio with Stewart before, but before he was President..) Obama has been a more talk-show-friendly President than most: last year he was on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,  the first sitting President to sit down with a talk show host. But that was the most-watched talk show on television, which The Daily Show is not, and it was a short, soft interview (though Obama managed to get himself in minor trouble anyway with his “special Olympics” joke). By going on The Daily Show and doing a full-episode segment, Obama was almost anointing Stewart’s show as the equivalent of a prestigious cable news program: something that doesn’t have that many viewers, but has the ability to drive the news and the narrative.

James Poniewozik has more thoughts on the interview and what it says about Stewart’s status as a “real” news personality, rather than just a fake one. Stewart has the luxury that most TV journalists don’t have, of being able to only get serious when he wants to — he can always hide behind his comedian status to preserve his credibility in a tough situation, while real newsmen have no choice but to take everything (even things they may personally consider not worthy of mention) seriously. And Stewart also benefits from not having to pretend to be a policy wonk or political junkie: he can, and did, spend most of an interview asking questions about process issues and Obama’s failure to change the system. A “real” reporter would have to ask more questions about policy and the election horserace, not just because of network pressure, but because the real news’s job is to give more broad-based information.

I think both Stewart and Obama came off pretty well in the interview, even if both were ill at ease — but why not? This was a big moment for Stewart, who really is uncomfortable in situations like this. (I get the impression he really doesn’t want to get politicians mad at him, even though it’s part of his job and he does it. When Meghan McCain was on recently, Stewart seemed genuinely unhappy that her father, once one of Stewart’s favourite people, has turned against him and the show due to the negative coverage he received in 2008.) Obama was uncomfortable for the same reasons that any sitting President facing a tough mid-term would seem uncomfortable. One thing that seemed to come across most clearly is that the health care legislation, and his belief that it sill turn out to be the right thing despite its overall unpopularity on both left and right, is something that’s very much on his mind. Obama isn’t G.W. Bush, but both of them are preoccupied with the idea that history will judge them to have been right. I guess a lot of leaders are.

Obviously, too, Stewart isn’t some kind of firebrand interviewer who asks all the tough questions the Mainstream Media won’t ask. There are many criticisms that didn’t play a big role in the interview, like the biggest criticism of Obama from the left, his record on civil liberties.

One thing the interview left me wondering about is whether the show will ever be able to get George W. Bush. Conservatives actually go on Stewart’s show quite a lot, as they consider it a place where they can get a fair shake from Stewart and prove that they are cooler than people think. But Bush is the only living President who hasn’t been on either Stewart or Colbert. (Bush’s father hasn’t been interviewed, but did tape a message for Colbert’s Iraq show.) I’m certain they’d love to get W., and I’m certain it’s been suggested as part of his book tour, but it seems equally certain that they won’t get him. I think it would be a good idea for him to go, since Stewart would be very nice and respectful (voluntarily) and might help him improve his image.

Idea alert

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 10:31 AM - 0 Comments

NDP MP Irene Mathyssen, on behalf of two high schoolers, tables a bill to ban plastic shopping bags.

“We should ban plastic bags from Canada, because they harm animals, cause pollution in our country, and use a very important non-renewable resource,” the students wrote in their proposal.

In researching their idea the students discovered Canadians use 55 million shopping bags every week. For every bag used, less then 1% are recycled. “Not only do these bags pollute our world they also litter the landscape. After we toss them into landfills the bags clutter our beaches, waterways, oceans, and parks,” the students said.

Breakup sale

By Kate Lunau - Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 10:20 AM - 0 Comments

ISTOCK

Several pieces of actress Anne Hathaway’s jewellery were recently sold in an online auction, pieces given to her by ex-boyfriend Raffaello Follieri, who was arrested two years ago in a multi-million-dollar scam. (Proceeds went to pay back his victims.)

Even when the police aren’t involved, it’s common practice to unload reminders of an ex, and a growing number of websites like Ex-Cessories.com and FromMyEx.com are catering to this. The best-known is ExBoyfriendJewelry.com, which is half online auction site, half blog—people post juicy anecdotes about the item for sale, whether it’s a handbag, an iPod or a wedding dress. (“The relationship went from hearts, butterflies and kittens to a collection of self-help books and a therapist,” one writes about a pair of earrings.)

Sob stories have brought extra attention—and traffic—to these websites. After all, breaking up is something almost everyone can relate to, and unlike some relationships, diamonds are forever.

Head of their class

By macleans.ca - Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 10:03 AM - 0 Comments

Getty Images

A – D

Beerbistro, Toronto
Hotels, restaurants & leisure
Benefits by Design Inc., Port Coquitlam, B.C.
Professional services
Bioniche Life Sciences Inc., Belleville, Ont.
Life sciences tools & services
Birchwood Automotive Group, Winnipeg
Specialty retail
Booty Camp Fitness Inc., Toronto
Diversified consumer services
CBCI Telecom, Lachine, Que.
Diversified telecommunication services
Concept Electric Ltd., Calgary
Construction & engineering
Cruickshank, Kingston, Ont.
Construction & engineering
Cybertech Group of Companies,Edmonton
Construction & Engineering
Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Canada, Mississauga, Ont.
Diversified financial services
Desire2Learn Incorporated,Kitchener, Ont.
Internet software & services
DJ Galvanizing, Windsor, Ont.
Industrial conglomerates

E – H

EPIC Information Solutions Inc., Winnipeg
IT services
Forensic Technology WAI Inc.,Côte Saint-Luc, Que.
Software
Furlani’s Food Corporation,Mississauga, Ont.
Food products
Getinge Canada LTD., Mississauga, Ont.
Health care equipment & supplies
Gibraltar Solutions Inc.,Mississauga, Ont.
IT services
Gluskin Sheff + Associates Inc., Toronto
Diversified financial services
Greater Edmonton Foundation: Housing for Seniors, Edmonton
Health care providers & services
Habañero Consulting Group, Vancouver
IT services
Halogen Software Inc., Ottawa
Software
Holland College, Charlottetown
Diversified consumer services

I – N

I Love Rewards, Toronto
Internet software & services
Innovation Place, Saskatoon
Real estate management & development
iQmetrix Software Development Corp., Vancouver
Software
ISL Engineering and Land Services Ltd., Edmonton
Construction & engineering
Kingston Ross Pasnak, Edmonton
Professional services
Maple Reinders Constructors Ltd., Mississauga, Ont.
Construction & engineering
Mennonite Savings and Credit Union, Kitchener, Ont.,
Commercial banks
MKS Inc., Waterloo, Ont.
Software
National Leasing, Winnipeg
Commercial services & supplies
Nintendo of Canada Ltd., Vancouver
Electronic equipment, instruments & components

O – Z

O.C. Tanner Canada, Burlington, Ont.
Commercial services & supplies
Peel Senior Link, Mississauga, Ont.
Health care providers & services
Phonak Canada Ltd., Mississauga, Ont.
Health care equipment & supplies
Protegra, Winnipeg,
IT services
RL Solutions, Toronto
Software
Scott Construction Group, Vancouver,
Construction & engineering
SEMAFO Inc., St-Laurent, Que.
Metals & mining
StarTech.com, London, Ont.
Computers & peripherals
Terracon Geotechnique Ltd., Fort McMurray, Alberta
Construction & engineering
Teshmont Consultants LP, Winnipeg
Energy equipment & services
The CWB Group, Milton, Ont.
Commercial services & supplies
The Personnel Department, Vancouver
Commercial services & supplies
The Works Gourmet Burger Bistro, Ottawa
Hotels, restaurants & leisure
TIC Travel Insurance Coordinators Ltd.,Toronto
Insurance
Unisync Group, Mississauga, Ont.
Textiles, Apparel & luxury goods
Vista Projects Ltd., Calgary
Construction & engineering
Wakefield Canada Inc., Toronto,
Oil, gas & consumable fuels
Windsor Family Credit Union, Windsor, Ont.
Diversified financial services
Wish Mobile Inc., Toronto
Wireless telecommunication services

Mitchel Raphael on Jack Layton, Mike Layton, and a pie-baking sister

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 10:00 AM - 0 Comments

All in the family
Mike Layton, son of NDP Leader Jack Layton, is running for Toronto city council in next week’s municipal election. Father and son recently teamed up at the campaign office to serve pumpkin pie to the volunteers who were helping with knocking on doors in the riding. Mike Layton’s sister Sarah Layton baked the pies the night before. Mike Layton is running in the ward that was represented by Joe Pantalone, who stepped down as a councillor so he could be a candidate for mayor (Pantalone has received endorsements from the NDP leader and his wife, Toronto MP Olivia Chow). Mike Layton’s campaign signs are blue and white. The blue was supposed to be sky-blue, but due to a printing error the colour ended being darker and looking, well, like Conservative party blue.

Sunflower politics
Green Leader Elizabeth May is busy knocking on doors in the B.C. riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands. She moved there over a year ago after internal Green party polling showed that that was one of the seats she had a chance at winning. “We give out organic sunflower seeds at the door,” notes May. The sunflower is the international logo of Green parties. She has been handing out the packages for so long that she says people now show her the huge sunflowers they have grown since the last time she visited them. “That’s how I know I’ve been there in the riding for a while,” says May.

Continue…

Cheap n' Fast Comedy

By Jaime Weinman - Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 9:46 AM - 0 Comments

The most important TV-on-DVD release for the rest of the year is Shout! Factory’s The Larry Sanders Show: The Complete Series. The show itself is a classic. There are so many ’90s sitcoms that hold up well today, it almost seems to devalue them; one gets tired of hearing that this or that half-hour comedy was great. But nevertheless, it seems like the ’90s was an era when there was a confidence and a professionalism in the making of half-hour comedy that eludes even some of the good shows today (the reverse applies with drama; some of the dramas of the era — not Homicide, though — seem a little ramshackle now). Larry Sanders was the HBO alternative to mainstream network comedy, but it partakes of the same confidence, the sense that you can follow the writers and performers because they know what they’re doing.

Shandling had tried out all kinds of interesting things on It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, which was wonderful but uneven. When he did Larry Sanders, he’d learned his trade and could apply everything he knew about comedy, storytelling, and show business. Like several other great ’90s comedies, it feels fresh but it also feels like a distillation of experience (sort of like The Simpsons was a combination of experimental energy with the long experience of James L. Brooks and Sam Simon, and Frasier applied a lot of what its writers had learned in previous shows and careers). It looks and feels loose, but it’s actually pretty tight. Today, Curb Your Enthusiasm has some of that same professionalism and skill, but it’s not nearly as ambitious as Larry Sanders was.

One thing that the otherwise admirable DVD set can’t fix, as the review mentions, is the quality of the prints: it never looked very good. I doubt it could be made to look better, since this is one of the drawbacks of the ’90s sitcoms. They were shot on film (except for the talk show segments on Sanders, which are videotape) but edited on video, so there are no original negatives to edit from. I think Seinfeld fixed this by creating new masters for the DVD version; without the money to do that, the video masters are all that exist, and since Larry Sanders was a low-budget show, it doesn’t look pretty.

Still, the lack of visual beauty on a show like Sanders probably helped the show be as good as it was. Paul Simms, one of Continue…

Out of the red

By Kate Lunau - Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 9:40 AM - 0 Comments

Tomas Benedikovic/isifa/Getty Images

The Danube River is famously blue, but after a recent toxic waste spill in Hungary, parts of it were flooded with a sickly red slurry. On Oct. 4, a reservoir wall had collapsed at an alumina plant near the village of Kolontar, releasing over 750 million litres of red mud—a byproduct of turning bauxite to alumina, which is needed for aluminum production. The disaster forced hundreds from their homes and left nine dead. The red mud was waist-deep in some places, locals reported; one witness said it smelled like blood.

A chemical soup of heavy metals and minerals (including iron oxide, hence its colour), red mud is highly corrosive; workers in Hungary measured the pH level and found that, in some places, it was as caustic as bleach. It can even be slightly radioactive. (Rio Tinto Alcan’s alumina processing plant in Quebec is the only one in Canada; it has withstood flooding and an earthquake without incident, a spokesman noted, adding that it’s “highly unlikely” such a spill could occur here.) We end up creating 63 million tonnes of red mud each year worldwide, but we still don’t know what to do with it: red mud is typically stored in reservoirs, dried out and buried, but it’s so chemically stable it won’t really break down. Marcel Schlaf, a chemistry professor at the University of Guelph, has a better idea. Red mud, he believes, could help transform bio oil derived from plant waste into fuel.

Continue…

Born in the U.S.A.

By Brian Bethune - Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 9:20 AM - 0 Comments

Keystone Press/ Bob Falcetti/Getty Images

Half a century ago, when religion entered the political arena in the U.S., it was as a matter of tensions between denominations, the kind of flare-up in tribal loyalties sparked by Catholic John F. Kennedy’s 1960 run for the presidency. With a full 30 per cent of respondents telling pollsters that they would never vote for any Catholic, Kennedy had to repeatedly assure voters he didn’t take marching orders from the pope.

But religion itself was quiescent—certainly in comparison to other times in American history, including the present—primarily because both religious and secular Americans held the same conservative views on sexual morality. It’s an era that now seem almost as far in the past as the Inquisition: by 2004, when Catholic John Kerry ran against George W. Bush, the religious tribes had almost vanished and Kerry’s denomination was of little interest to Protestant voters. What counted was how devout he was, and how his religiosity, or lack thereof, affected his policies on the hot-button moral issues of American politics.

How American religion lost its interior animosities (mostly, that is—Mormons and Muslims are still largely outside the tent), while becoming a much more militant side of a deep religious-secular divide, is the key question for Robert Putnam and David Campbell in American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us. To find the answer and to see if current trends seem likely to hold up, the co-authors comb through the two most comprehensive surveys ever done on religion and public life in the U.S., specially commissioned for their book. Campbell and Putnam, the latter a political scientist who rose to fame in 2000 with Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital, get where they’re going all right, and they turn up a lot of fascinating information about America’s ever-evolving religious life along the way.

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Bestsellers

By Brian Bethune - Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

Top-selling fiction and non-fiction titles (week of October 25th, 2010)

Fiction

Non-fiction

LAST WEEK (WEEKS ON LIST)

Who's whistling the loudest while they work?

By Brian Banks - Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

Christopher Furlong/Getty Images/ Eduardo Martino/Panos

Compared to their counterparts in much of Europe, Canadian workers log more hours, take shorter vacations and have to wait longer for full retirement benefits and pensions. Yet it’s in France where workers are occupying refineries and taking to the streets, in a bid to choke off the economy and force the government to reverse a decision to bump the retirement age from 60 to 62. What if these yawning differences between Canadian and European attitudes toward work, employers and institutional entitlement could be quantified, scored and further explained?

In fact, they can, and they already are. Aon Hewitt, the global HR consulting and outsourcing firm that annually identifies Canada’s Best Employers, has all kinds of employee engagement data that allows for international comparisons. What those show is that while improving engagement may be the mantra of human resources managers and consultants the world over, actual engagement scores are far from uniform. Employee engagement, which is ultimately a reflection of companies delivering against the expectations of their employees, is shaped by local culture and history as much as it is best practices. In some cases, it might even point to underlying causes of labour unrest and economic uncertainty.

Continue…

Canada's Best 50 Employers

By macleans.ca - Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 3 Comments

Photograph by Andrew Tolson/ Shannon Fagan/CP

At the core of the Best Employers list compiled by Aon Hewitt, a global HR consulting and outsourcing firm, is employee engagement, which is driven by leadership, rewards, workplace culture and values, productivity and the support of performance and development. The list is determined, in large part, by surveying employees. So Maclean’s asked all 50 organizations (listed alphabetically) what it is specifically that earned them such high marks from their staff.

METHODOLOGY: Two hundred and fifty-one Canadian employers took part in the 2011 Best Employers studies. Aon Hewitt identified the Best Employers and Best Small & Medium Employers based primarily on survey responses from more than 134,000 Canadian employees at these organizations that gauge employee engagement levels. Participating employers were also required to survey their executive teams and provide background information on their people policies and practices. According to Aon Hewitt’s definition, employees are engaged when they “say, stay and strive”: they speak positively about their employer to others, are committed to remaining with their current employer, and are motivated by their organizations’ leaders, managers, culture and values to go “above and beyond” to contribute to business success. On average, 78 per cent of employees were engaged at Best Employers this year. For Best Small & Medium Employers, the average was 81 per cent.

Here are some of the highlights:

A – D
Aecon Group Inc.
Amex Canada Inc./ Amex Bank of Canada
ATB Financial
BBA Inc.
BC Biomedical Laboratories Ltd.
Bennett Jones LLP
Bentall LP
Canadian Western Bank
Chubb Insurance Company of Canada
CIMA + Partner in Excellence
Cintas Canada Limited
Cisco Canada
Clark Builders
Coastal Community Credit Union
Conexus
Co-operators Life Insurance Company
Delta Hotels & Resorts
Dillon Consulting

E – H

Earl’s Restaurants Ltd.
Edward Jones
EllisDon Corporation
Farm Credit Canada
Federal Express Canada Ltd.
Flight Centre
G&K Services Canada Inc.
GlaxoSmithKline Inc.
Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP.
Graham Group Ltd.
HATCH

I – N

ING Direct
Island Savings Credit Union
Ivanhoe Cambridge Inc.
Keg Restaurants Ltd.
LoyaltyOne
Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics
Marriott Hotels of Canada Ltd.
McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada Limited
Meyers Norris Penny
National Bank Financial Group
Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc.
Novotel Canada

O – Z
OMERS Administration Corporation
OpenRoad Auto Group Ltd.
PCL Constructors Inc.
Scotiabank Group
Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc.
Stikeman Elliott LLP
TD Bank Financial Group
The Co-operators
Wellington West Holdings Inc.

A new kind of monster

By Michael Friscolanti, Cathy Gulli and Kate Lunau - Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

Fred Thornhill/Reuters/ Nathan Denette/CP

Lee Burgess, one of four Ontario prosecutors working the Russell Williams case, warned the judge that the evidence to come was “extremely disturbing.” But no words—not his, nor anybody else’s—would ever be enough to brace someone for the gruesome timeline he was about to reveal.

It began with photos. Dozens and dozens of them. Williams squeezed into a pair of Tweety Bird underwear snatched from a little girl’s bedroom. Williams standing in a forest, modelling his latest batch of stolen lingerie. Williams lying on a neighbour’s bed, masturbating beside a large stuffed animal. Williams with a pair of underwear wrapped around his head—like the balaclava he would later don during the brutal murders of two innocent women.

Williams wearing his blue air force uniform, his pants pulled down to expose the bright pink panties hidden underneath.

Frame after frame, hour after hour, the pattern was exactly the same. Williams would stake out houses “where attractive young women lived,” photograph their bedrooms, then their underwear drawers, and then himself. In every shot, he has the same blank stare on his face, as if posing for yet another grip-and-grin for the base newspaper.

Continue…

A friend in high places

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 1 Comment

Getty Images

Whatever the hardships of these last few years, we can perhaps say this much for the Great Recession: it brought us together. At least those of us who still have jobs.

In a recent U.S. survey of workplace attitudes, 61 per cent of employees said they and their co-workers were closer now than they were three years ago. Employers were even more enthused—78 per cent said they felt closer to their teams. This could simply be the metaphorical afterglow at the end of a long and difficult day. But it may also be that the economic slowdown simply accelerated the pace of change in what was already a changing workplace. Whatever the case, to lead a workplace today is to confront new expectations of occupational cohesion and unity.

For sure, crisis has a way of uniting those affected. Leaders can be elevated by the challenge and those under their direction may be all the more eager to rally around. The emergence of former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani in the wake of 9/11 is perhaps the epitome of this. “Sometimes adversity forces leaders to be more than who they have been,” says Glenn Rowe, director of the executive M.B.A. program at the University of Western Ontario’s Richard Ivey School of Business. “And when subordinates see that in their leaders, it helps them to have a better understanding. It may be that the leader worked harder. It may be that the leader did things that they didn’t do before.”

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