Human Resources 101

by John P. Strelecky — International Best-selling Author of The Why Café
Smart leaders don’t recruit the best people, they attract them. Why do they do it? They do it because it makes their lives easier, and their companies more successful. How do they do it? They have a clearly defined corporate Purpose For Existing (PFE), they [...]

The Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission receives many inquiries from employers, employees, job applicants and unions about drug and alcohol testing and about the employer’s duty to accommodate drug and alcohol dependencies in the workplace. Courts and human rights tribunals have acknowledged that drug and alcohol dependencies are medically recognised disabilities under human rights [...]

News Release
HAMILTON, ON (Feb 14, 2008) – The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) is inviting Canadians to take their web survey and weigh in on the issues emerging from changing workplaces.
The workplace and the workforce are changing. The workforce is aging and now includes more women and more ethnically diverse workers. Today’s [...]

Peter Drucker said, “The Salvation Army is by far the most effective organization in the U.S. No one even comes close to it with respect to clarity of mission, ability to innovate, measurable results, dedication, and putting money to maximum use.” Robert Watson —a former National Commander of The Salvation Army in the U.S.— took [...]

Now, just over half a year later, RealPeopleRealStuff’s founders have launched a sister site named VideoJobShop.com, a kind of Monster/YouTube/Craigslist/Facebook mix. For rates ranging from free to USD 25 or more, VideoJobShop.com lets employers post videos describing the work and benefits they offer. To help them, the site contains a lengthy library of pre-recorded videos [...]

How to Win Friends and Influence People is the grand-daddy of all people-skills books. First published in 1937, it was an overnight hit, eventually selling 15 million copies. The book still carries a lot of weight. BNET includes on its list of 10 Underrated Business Books and it is one of the books on The Personal MBA Recommended [...]

Here are some guidelines to conducting effective employee appraisals. The annual appraisal will always be more effective if it is part of an on-going coaching process.
Meeting Set Up

Allow adequate time to complete the review
Put the employee at ease and eliminate distractions. Don’t check your Blackberry during the meeting!
Explain you are there to provide [...]

Employment Standards:
Information on laws and regulations dealing with hours of work, minimum wage, vacation, overtime, rest periods, and more.
Alberta Human Resources and Employment – Employment Standards
British Columbia Ministry of Skills Development & Labour – Employment Standards
Manitoba Employment Standards Branch
New Brunswick Department of Training and Employment Development – Employment Standards
Newfoundland & Labrador Labour Standards Division:
Northwest Territories Labour [...]

NB: I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. This is my understanding after years of experience as a Canadian human resources practitioner. As always, get legal advice that is appropriate to your circumstances.
If you take a look at harassment-in-the-workplace definitions used in organizations, four key elements are most often used to define workplace harassment:

The [...]

These were the five most visited posts for January 2008 at Human Resources 101:

Interview Questions to Determine Behavioural Competencies – Looking at past experience is a strong predictor of future performance. this is a list of questions to help dig into a candidate’s past experience.
Strange Tales From the Employment World – Robert Smithson’s semi-annual list of some [...]