When an employee calls in requesting the day off - do we have the right to ask if they are sick and request some details? Similarly, we have a policy that allows for 2 sick days per year to be used for 'family sick time'. What rights do we have to request confirmation that a family member was indeed sick?We have collected the most frequently asked questions regarding Human Resources here. Please review this list before asking a new question.

1. How do we attract younger workers?
2. How do we motivate staff beyond the limits of our collective agreement?
3. How do we benefit from the experience of our older employees? 
4. How do we attract youth volunteers?
5. I am trying to put together a brief Policy and Procedure manual for a cafe social enterprise.  Can you provide some advice on where I could find information on the internet on topcs such as inventory control, financial accountability (practices and , etc. controls)?
6. We have a 2nd hand store run by volunteers and are moving to a paid manager model. Where can I find Retail Store Manager Job Descritions and also a list of competencies for developing other job descriptions?
7. When defining our employment categories, would you advise including a type called "Manager" that specifically indicates the policy inclusions and exclusions in the manual. For example, our Managers may be excluded from overtime benefits but receive other paid time off benefits like birthday off, cultural days and personal days.
8. When an employee calls in requesting the day off - do we have the right to ask if they are sick and request some details? Similarly, we have a policy that allows for 2 sick days per year to be used for 'family sick time'. What rights do we have to request confirmation that a family member was indeed sick?
   

 

Frequently Asked Questions 

1. How do we attract younger workers?

We all know that despite tough economic times there will be some level of labour shortage in BC in the next 10 years. Filling this gap requires attracting younger workers to join and stay with our organizations. However the younger workers have a wider range of options, different work expectations and require a different approach than was used in the past.

The key to attracting younger workers is choice and awareness. Younger workers believe they have a choice about who and how they work. They are more willing to exercise that choice and are comfortable moving when it looks like a better choice may come along. To attract younger workers you need to be clear about what they are getting by choosing to work for you. What value will they bring to others? How will their contribution impact society? What is special and distinctive about working with your organization.

The second step is awareness. You will only attract younger workers by having a presence where they interact and gather information. Very few Gen Y's read newspapers or traditional media. They expect to receive information from the web, through their phone or their social network. To attract them they need to know about you so you need to find a way to get your information onto Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn and more.  

2. How do we motivate staff beyond the limits of our collective agreement?

Providing any kind of cash or inkind incentive beyond those stated in the collective agreement can cause more trouble than harm. However this does not mean you have no motivational tools. It remains true that most people work because they need money. However most people work hard or well because they feel appreciated, they feel the work they do has value and they believe they are being treated fairly. How your line managers behave and interact with their unionized staff can make a huge difference to the level of motivation and energy invested in the work. You may find investing in the skills and abilities of your supervisors a good way to enhance the motivation in your line staff.  

3. How do we benefit from the experience of our older employees?

This is a crucial question for many organizations who have a lot of organizational knowledge and ability locked up inside the heads of their more long term staff. One of the biggest barriers to tapping into this knowledge is motivation. Many people keep their work information in their heads as an insurance policy. If no one knows how to do what I do then I will be safe in my job. In order to benefit from the experience of your older employees you need to re-write this rule. This first step is to set an expectation for sharing, coaching or mentoring a younger employee and then put in place processes to support and track the transfer of knowledge. Consider fun incentives such as competitions for the best older/younger team or provide bonuses or recognition to the workers who are most sought out for advice. These actions help turn the sharing of expertise into a source of pride and reward and move it away from being a source of job security.

One of the best processes for transferring knowledge is mentoring or work shadowing. Teaming up an older worker with a younger one, establishing clear roles for each and then setting goals related to the skill development of the younger worker puts the focus on the right outcomes and makes it clear how each member of the team contributes. It is also important to establish the additional value and prestige which goes with being selected as a mentor.

 

4. How do we attract youth volunteers?

Recruiting volunteers is tough - there is no way to make it easy. Below are a few suggestions to support you in making sure the time you invest recruiting is leading to the best possible outcomes.

Tip 1: Start with your existing volunteers. Over the last 5 years many organizations have developed referral programs recognizing their existing people know good people and that this is an accessible source of potential new volunteers. Launching and running this type of program works best if there is some form of incentive (tangible or intangible). The benefits are that your existing volunteers do the finding and attracting work leaving you to run the organization and onboard the new people.

Tip 2: Make your volunteer attraction tactics really powerful. Instead of posting volunteers wanted posters everywhere frame the poster as an offer or a benefit e.g. "Want to feel like you are making a difference?" Or "Want to meet great people and do meaningful work?" You might want to adjust these to match the purpose of your Enterprising Non Profit. In effect you are "selling" the opportunity so think about your adverts. Your existing volunteers are a good source for finding out what makes volunteering with your organization special and valuable. Have them help re-design the poster. Think about including quotes from them about what they value in their volunteering experience.

Tip 3: Make it personal. Once you have your volunteer value captured in an advertising poster you need to connect with the people, who connect with the people you want to volunteer. What ever youth or other relevant interest groups you have meeting in your area get to know the people who lead them and ask them to promote your volunteering opportunities. Having a trusted figure promote your organization as a place to volunteer can only increase your chances of increasing your volunteer group.

A second way to achieve the same effect is to have your younger volunteers post about their experiences and volunteer work on their facebook pages.

Tip 4: Track where and how you connect with new volunteers and put your energies into the most fruitful areas. If it is posters then increase the number of places you put up posters. If it is referrals then continue to run regular campaigns and change up the incentives to keep it fresh. If they come at the suggestion of a particular champion in your community then make sure you keep in touch and show your gratitude.

The last and potentially most important piece about recruiting is to never stop. Even if you have enough people at this time you never know when things will change and it is easier to increase the focus on a system that is moving than to have to generate interest from scratch every time you need someone.

  

5. I am trying to put together a brief Policy and Procedure manual for a cafe social enterprise. Can you provide some advice on where I could find information on the internet on topcs such as inventory control, financial accountability (practices and , etc. controls) ?

Your organization's Policies and Procedures material can have a significant impact on how your organizational culture develops, the ownership your volunteers feel over their workplace and the outcomes you achieve. A two-faceted approach can help you maximize the benefits of creating an operating manual.

Process

Most organizations see the policy manual as a set of rules to be laid-down, communicated and monitored. This is intended to ensure things are clear and fair and gets the job done. It does miss out on the potential benefit that can be gained from involving staff in developing the policies.

I am not suggesting you let staff / volunteers write the policies without some parameters or goals. However research has shown you will get far stronger commitment and compliance, team self-regulation and buy-in if people are involved in developing the rules around how things work. So one piece of advice is not to look at this task as something you need to get written and filed - but to see it as an important step in forming the culture and effectiveness of your organization. Go one policy at a time and keep them really short and simple.

Content

Once you have created a process that will engage your staff constructively in developing your procedures manual, there are a number of possible sources of information about how to create policies and procedures.

1. For general advice and guidance on how to create standard policies and as a resource for certain HR policy templates the link below is a great starting place.

• HR Council for Voluntary and Non Profit Sector: http://www.hrvs-rhsbc.ca/hr-toolkit/home.cfm

2. For information about operating manuals in the restaurant and food service industry, check out the website for the Canadian Restaurant and Food Services Industry. In addition to a wealth of information about the industry, the following link provides guidelines for creating an operations manual.

• Canadian Restaurant and Food Services Association: http://www.crfa.ca/runningarestaurant/runningasuccessfulrestaurant/article07_writinganoperationsmanual.asp

 

6. We have a 2nd hand store run by volunteers and are moving to a paid manager model. Where can I find Retail Store Manager Job Descritions and also a list of competencies for developing other job descriptions?

This will be a significant change.

Below is a link to a site with information on how to develop a good job description

http://www.hrcouncil.ca/hr-toolkit/right-people-job-descriptions.cfm

There is not a common open repository of such job descriptions that we know of. It is an important part of the process for finding the right person to go through and work out clearly what you need in terms of technical skills, experience and inter-personal skills

Here is an approach to get you started on building your own job description.

Try searching for position postings for retail store managers on sites such as "Monster" or "Workopolis" to see how others are advertising for retail managers. Adverts are built from job descriptions and if you look at a series of them you get an idea of common skills and requirements.

Once you have your basic set of ideas it will be important to look at the situation facing your own store and determine what are the unique or key features that you need. Many retail manager positions will be in for profit businesses and it may be important that there is more of a relationship focus in the non-profit sector and that the manager is capable of managing volunteers.

7. When defining our employment categories, would you advise including a type called "Manager" that specifically indicates the policy inclusions and exclusions in the manual. For example, our Managers may be excluded from overtime benefits but receive other paid time off benefits like birthday off, cultural days and personal days.

Yes it is an important piece of risk management to clarify who within your organization is considered exempt and non-exempt and to have clear policies and guidance around how overtime and stat holidays are treated for each of these groups of employees. There have been a number of lawsuits in Eastern Canada where workers are claiming pay for unpaid overtime. Clarifying these entitlements and conditions up front ensures that you know where your organization stands and avoids the messiness of having to work out who is due what in retrospect. This is often time consuming and invariably involves legal advice. Not only important to have the policy documented, but ensure that those covered by the policy have read and acknowledged that they understand the policy.

 

8.When an employee calls in requesting the day off - do we have the right to ask if they are sick and request some details? Similarly, we have a policy that allows for 2 sick days per year to be used for 'family sick time'. What rights do we have to request confirmation that a family member was indeed sick?

This question deals with the whole area of absence management which is worth a book in itself. The core elements of absence management are how do you effectively manage employees' legitimate absences from work without suffering abuse. The best approach is to develop a set of policies and procedures which cover all absences, from sick leave to family leave to compassionate leave. It is important that this policy is in accord with employment standards. For example you must ask for a doctors note, in writing within 15 days of the employee returning to work and in BC employees are entitled to 5 days of unpaid leave for responsibilities relating to their family.

When it comes to leaves and requesting evidence for a leave an employer is entitled to ask for "reasonable proof". However you are not entitled to pry into the lives of your employees family members. For example an employee may state they are taking their parent to the hospital. It would be inappropriate to ask what is wrong with the employees parent. So in your second case above you are not entitled to ask for a doctors note for the parent.

The term "reasonable proof" means that you can ask for evidence to support the reason for absence. However you cannot ask for specific details as this can be deemed as a breach of employee privacy. The best way to tackle absences from work is to have a policy relating to all absences. This means that whenever an employee is absent they have a duty / requirement to inform their manager either prior to the absence or shortly after the absence the reason for being absent. If you want to collect doctors notes then it would be important to write this into the overall policy. Where requesting a doctors note becomes problematic is when you ask for one from some employees and not from others. Whatever procedure you follow it has to be consistent.

So in your first example you can ask for a doctors note - however you will need to ask for one from all employees. And you will need to do so in writing within 15 days of the persons return to work.