BCjobs Blog

Facebook has 500 million, Twitter 190 million, LinkedIn 70 million. It’s undeniable that social media has changed the way the world communicates. The business community has embraced new media, with marketing and sales leveraging a variety of platforms to connect with and engage their customer. In many cases companies have also worked on perfecting their employer brand, attempting to appeal to potential recruits through Facebook and LinkedIn. But what have companies been doing for their current employee base?

Total wellness recognizes that all thoughts, words, and actions affect one’s overall health and well-being. Wellness is an integration of the mind, body, and spirit, permeating all areas of a person’s life—including work. This idea is further supported by Sorrentino’s definition of wellness: the achievement of the best health possible in the physical, emotional, social, intellectual, and spiritual dimensions of one’s life. Many theorists describe wellness as a holistic and comprehensive concept that involves interdependent balance of five dimensions: physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, and social health.

Every organization at some point in time will have to announce some type of change in the workplace. It’s right up there with death and taxes – we can count on it!
The changes may be new or updated technology; changes in leadership (a new supervisor hired in a department); or changes in policies for one reason or another.
The way in which changes are communicated will determine how successful the changes are understood and adopted by the employee group. Having been involved in a number of change initiatives in various organizations I can tell you with from experience, communicating effectively is a must!

Ever consider offering flexible working? If you’re like 88% of Canadian companies, you are already. Flexible working, whether telecommuting or allowing employees to work schedules that are personally customized, is part of the evolution that is taking place throughout the modern workforce. The workplace has evolved. As the traditional definitions of ‘work’ have changed, so has the way it gets done.
Mobile workforces, where work is conducted outside of the office environment, is becoming increasingly popular. In 2010, 16% of the global workforce was employed in mobile working situations and it is expected that by 2020, this number will increase to 35%.

If the employees who currently hold key or critical positions within your organization were to leave tomorrow, would there be any qualified and/or experienced employees prepared to assume their role?
As the demographics of the workplace continue to shift with employees of the baby boomer generation quickly heading towards retirement, many organizations are struggling to answer this question. Succession planning is the process of identifying and developing internal employees with the potential to fill key or critical organizational positions.

With more and more folks becoming aware of human rights and anti-bullying legislation coming into effect (Quebec, Ontario and Saskatchewan have passed provincial legislation against bullying and BC now has an advocacy group – http://bullyfreebc.ca) there has been an increase in complaints being brought forward concerning bullying, not only to employers but also to human rights council.

When we think of workplace conflict, most of us probably cringe. No one likes to deal with conflict. But…conflict can actually be good. From conflict comes growth. The trick is to discover how to manage conflict so that it stays healthy and doesn’t go down the path of destruction. If we allow conflict to get out of hand, we can unknowingly create a toxic workplace and that is certainly something we want to avoid.

The quest for employee engagement has been front and centre in the business world for several years; however, there still seems to be a lack of understanding or will on the part of leadership to take the advice being given by those who have researched the topic.

Have you ever had to work with an employee to improve performance? Have you ever felt like you were at the end of your rope with an employee who just didn’t seem to ‘get it’?
Coaching an employee may be an opportunity for a win/win situation. While it may seem that you’ve tried everything; trying to understand what the blocks are for the employee, I wonder how many of us think about coaching as opposed to considering discipline, as a way to achieve our goals.