Work Safe BC

Creating and managing a safe and healthy workplace involves everyone. For workers to be truly engaged in health and safety, they need to know their employers, supervisors — and the organization — value their well-being and input.

Create and maintain open lines of communication

As an employer, your goal is to make sure workers, supervisors, and managers feel comfortable talking about health and safety. Listen actively to what your workers and supervisors are telling you, and respond in a timely and appropriate way. If your workers know you are open to listening to, and addressing their questions and concerns, they will be more likely to let you know if there are any unsafe conditions or behaviours in the workplace.

Your workers can be your eyes and ears on the frontline to report health and safety concerns, solutions and suggestions for improvement.

Knowledge is power

Take advantage of your frontline workers’ and health and safety committee members’ knowledge by including them in health and safety activities. This sends a message that safety is a joint responsibility and everyone has a role to play.

Some examples of activities to engage in together, to get everyone at the workplace thinking and talking about health and safety, include:

• Conducting workplace risk assessments
• Departmental health and safety planning
• Developing safe work procedures
• Conducting workplace inspections
• Conducting dedicated workplace health and safety investigations
• Safety crew talks

When workers are encouraged to participate and take ownership in health and safety issues, they will follow safer work practices and be more likely to speak up if they see something or experience a situation in the workplace that may be unhealthy or unsafe.

For additional resources, visit these links:

• Creating a Key Risk Inventory for Your Workplace: Engaging Your Workers to Help Manage Risks
• My Health & Safety Resources

By Ingrid Vaughan, MySmart HR & Leadership

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the workload in your growing business but paralyzed by the thought of hiring someone to help? It’s one of the most common small business dilemmas. Expanding your team can be scary, but when you recognize you can’t (and shouldn’t) do it all, finding the right person to step into your weaknesses and free you up to work on your strengths is the best business strategy you can employ for growth.

My first hire as a solopreneur was an admin support person. I knew I needed help, but the thought of bringing someone on was terrifying. What if I hired someone and then didn’t actually have enough work for them? What if I hired the wrong person and it made things worse? What would happen if I let go of the details and control of every aspect of my business? If you’re on the cusp of growth, here are some tips for knowing who, how and when to hire.

Be patient – it doesn’t always work the first time.

My first two hires didn’t turn out because I lacked clarity about what I needed. It wasn’t until I got very clear about the skills I needed, the hours I had to offer, the specific tasks that needed doing and the type of person I needed who would complement my personality, that I found the perfect person to help me grow.

How do you know when you’re ready?

1. When your business or clients suffer because your weaknesses are overtaking your strengths.
2. When your workload no longer becomes manageable.
3. When you’re feeling stagnant and in a holding pattern in your business.

Contractors or employees?

Initially, I could only offer 5-7 hours a week so hiring a contractor was the best choice for me. I only had to pay for the hours they worked, didn’t have to pay source deductions and had the freedom to end the relationship based on the contract if things didn’t work out. I still love collaborating with other professionals at a really high level.

This works well for consultants, but what if you have a storefront, retail, restaurant or other business that requires “boots on the ground”? According to Revenue Canada, you can’t hire contractors if they are required to work on your premises, use all your equipment and supplies, and work according to a schedule you set. If that’s you, employee status is necessary, so be sure you factor this into your decision. If you do hire employees, make sure you enlist the support of an accountant or bookkeeper who can ensure you’re complying with employment standards.

If you feel the push to expand, it means you’re rocking it in your business and most importantly, you’re moving towards working in the place where you’re at your best and offering your clients the highest value. When everyone else on your team is also in their zone, you have an unstoppable force that will propel you and your business forward.

Times Colonist, Geoff Johnson, January 29, 2023

The B.C. Labour Market Outlook for 2021 to 2023 lists active listening, speaking, critical thinking and reading comprehension as the top skills of the future.

But social perceptiveness, judgment and decision-making were also deemed as important skills for most job applicants, especially for leadership positions.

Some of these skills like decision-making ability and critical thinking are not surprising, but others like social perceptiveness and monitoring are not as common in leadership and employee interview checklists, and are regarded as “soft skills.”

The movement toward employers valuing “soft skills” is reflected in the Conference Board of Canada’s Employability Skills 2000+, which includes, along with science, technology and mathematics skills, communication, problem solving, positive attitudes and behaviours, adaptability and working with others.

But as Dr. Jo-Anne Clarke, dean of continuing studies at the University of Victoria, asks in a 2022 article in B.C. Business magazine: “How many job advertisements list ‘ability to tune into the feelings of others’ as requirements? Not many,” she says, “but it’s a vital leadership skill. There’s a well-known saying that ‘people don’t leave bad jobs; they leave bad bosses.’”

No doubt that’s why UVic, as part of its continuing studies program, recently launched a new micro-credential course called Essential Soft Skills Training, which Clarke sometimes describes as the “greatest hits of people skills,” because it equips learners with foundational knowledge and tools required when moving into leadership roles.

In the same B.C. Business article, Clarke explains that dividing competencies into hard and soft skills can be limiting because the lines are blurring, saying: “Future leaders need educational programs that take a more integrated approach to skills development, which is why we embed both into our curriculum design.”

Academics and business people who were surveyed agreed that “soft skills” describes non-technical abilities that depend on traits such as emotional intelligence, values and work ethic. While people can improve their soft skills through learning and practice, these talents are largely seen to depend on candidates’ innate dispositions and pre-established beliefs about accountability and respect.

This raises the obvious question as to whether a “soft skills” leadership or employee style is a personality trait, or whether it can be taught and learned.

In the B.C. Business article, Clarke addresses the question head-on, saying: “As an educator, I lean towards the notion that people can learn and develop leadership competencies. Every new situation you encounter is an opportunity to act, reflect and learn.”