COMPANY NAME

Large EmployersADP CanadaJazz Aviation LPKillam Apartment REITKlick Inc.Lifemark Health GroupNB PowerNestlé Canada Inc.PenneconPfizer CanadaShaw Communications Inc.TD Bank Group

Mid-Sized EmployersAéroport de Québec Inc.Allnorth Consultants Ltd.Back in Motion RehabCBCL Ltd.Ingredion Canada Corp.Innovation Credit UnionInnovative AutomationLutherwoodThe Town of East GwillimburyTriovest Realty Advisors Inc.

Small EmployersActive InternationalAlberta Recycling Management AuthorityArrow Engineering Inc.Association des employeurs maritimesBenefits by DesignBig Bang ERPBridgeableCanadian Canola Growers AssociationCANARIE Inc.CBA CanadaCMHA of New BrunswickDavis OrthodonticsDeluxe PayrollEfficiencyOneEvolocity Financial Group Inc.FIRST Insurance Funding of CanadaGibraltar Solutions Inc.GoSecureGroupe RobinIndellient Inc.InvestorCOMJostle Corp.Loopio Inc.MacLean LawMainstreamMunicipality of the County of CumberlandN.B. Assoc. for Community LivingOpenRoad CommunicationsPolarSklar Wilton & AssociatesUtil-AssistVoices.com

Source: Morneau Shepell

B8 G THE GLOBE AND MAIL . | TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2018WORKPLACE AWARD

BUSINESS STRUCTURE SMALL MID-SIZED LARGE

Privately owned MacLean Law Innovative Automation Klick Inc.Publicly traded Deluxe Payroll Ingredion Canada Corporation Pfizer CanadaNot-for-profit CANARIE Inc. Aéroport de Québec Inc. *Governmental Municipality of the County of Cumberland The Town of East Gwillimbury NB Power

Source: Morneau Shepell, The Globe and Mail. *No winner in this category for 2018.

Flexibility is top of the mindthis year: flexibility in theworkplace, flexibility in em-

ployee relations. This can meaneverything from varied officehours and working from home tocreating a more adaptable officeculture and open-door commu-nication.

All of that sounds great. Yet fit-ting flexibility into rigid workdeadlines and everyday de-mands, that’s the real trick.

Here are some ways in whichthe 11 category winners of the 2018Employee Recommended Work-place Awards, created by TheGlobe and Mail and Morneau She-pell and presented on March 20 torecognize excellence in achievinga healthy, engaged and produc-tive work force, are putting flex-ibility to work.

LEADERS LEADINGBY EXAMPLE

“It’s never just one thing. It’s notjust flexible work arrangements,or virtual work — or, for instance,we have Friday afternoons off 52weeks a year here at Pfizer. I cancheck a box that we offer them,but I think flexibility is moreabout a mindset.

“It’s really about culture, and Ithink that’s what makes a differ-ence. If you give everybody Fridayafternoons off, but none of theleadership team leaves before 5p.m. on Friday, the message yousend to your organization is thatyou don’t believe in it [flexibleFridays]. So, for me, it’s all about amindset, and it’s all about a cul-ture.”

— Laura Larbalestier, vice-president of human resources atpharmaceutical company PfizerCanada in Kirkland, Que. Winner,large publicly traded organization.

OPEN COMMUNICATION

“Unless something is highly con-fidential, [employees] knowwhat’s going on, from things go-ing on corporately to plans for thenext year. When there is lack ofinformation, people make thingsup, and it’s not usually positive.

“So, formally, we have quarter-ly town halls, where we let every-one know up front what hap-pened last quarter and what we’reworking on for the future. Andthen informally, it’s an open-doorpolicy.

“Anyone can come in and askany question.”

— Scott Foster, director of salesand marketing at payroll compa-ny Deluxe Payroll in Cambridge,Ont. Winner, small publicly tradedorganization.

EMPLOYEE MEETINGS TO DISCUSS STRESS (WITHOUTMANAGERS)

After a guest speaker came to thecompany to talk about mental-health issues, as part of the BellLet’s Talk program to open up thedialogue, employees began to dis-cuss their own issues.

“Quite frankly, I would say that‘shocked’ might be an under-statement on how willing peoplewere to discuss mental-health is-sues.

“So, we set up a series of meet-ings with no management. We setaside an hour once a month

where anybody within the com-pany can sit with a group [of fel-low employees] and have anopen discussion about issues.And once a quarter that sameguest speaker will come in and beengaged in that discussion. It’sbasically peer to peer. We don’twant people to feel intimidated.”

— Steve Loftus, president ofcustom machine manufacturerInnovative Automotive in Barrie,Ont. Winner, mid-sized privatelyowned organization.

GIVING EMPLOYEESPERSONALIZED PERKS

“With everything that we’re do-ing, we try to personalize, so thatpeople self-select into the thingsthat they’re interested in, wheth-er that is a company event or ado-it-yourself workshop, or evena club.

“Our clubs range from Spanishlanguage to rock climbing. Peopleself-select into things that are im-portant to them.

“I would say that it’s a philoso-phy in everything that we do. If Ilook at our renovation in the lastyear, we had a major expansion,and one of the things we focusedon was making sure there was awide range of different work ar-eas.

“Whether it’s an open-collabo-ration space or a high-tech meet-ing room, or a parent room fornursing, it’s all an attempt for usto try to be empathetic and creatediversity, and allow the uniqueidentities of people to come to-gether.

“I ultimately think that’s whatfosters creativity.”

— Leerom Segal, chief execu-tive officer of health marketingand business consultancy KlickInc. in Toronto. Winner, large pri-vately owned organization.

LISTENING CLOSELY TO STAFF AND NEW HIRES

“We openly seek out feedbackfrom staff and take action onthose items based on the feed-back. I think that’s really impor-tant, that people feel they’re lis-tened to. They’re the ones whounderstand the pros and cons of

actions.“We are going through unprec-

edented growth right now. Ourpopulation will more than dou-ble over the next 10 years.

“And so we’re hiring peoplewho have been [in terms of expe-rience] where we’re going.”

— Virginia Hackson, mayor ofthe Town of East Gwillimbury,Ont. Winner, mid-sized governmen-tal organization.

EMPHASIS ON TOTAL HEALTH,BOTH MENTAL AND PHYSICAL

“We have established workingcommittees for each of the fourhealth pillars: mental, physical,work and life.

"We are looking at improvingthe health of our employees ineach of these through existingprograms or implementing newprograms to assist [workers].

“For example, we have justcompleted a half-day training ses-sion for all leadership within theorganization on mental health.Linking total health with safety isa focus for us, as we want to en-sure that all of our employees gohome safe every day.”

— Nicole Poirier, director ofhealth, safety, environment andemergency preparedness for elec-trical utility company NB Powerin Fredericton. Winner, large gov-ernmental organization.

SPONTANEOUS RECOGNITION

“The main initiative that we haveput in place this year to improveour workplace is a recognitionprogram. Colleagues can sendfeedback or a positive commentto other colleagues to thank themor congratulate them for any ac-tion.

“This program promotes spon-taneous and non-monetary rec-ognition.

“It was set up in March 2017,and since then, nearly 600 posi-tive messages have been sent,and a large majority of our em-ployees have participated. Thishas had a very positive effect onthe work environment, and thenumber of acknowledgmentssent through this program con-tinues to increase.”

— Élisabeth Paquin, junior ad-viser, human resources, Aéroportde Québec in Quebec City. Winner,mid-sized not-for-profit organiza-tion.

LESS SEDENTARY WORK

“What we’re focusing on in thecoming year is physical healthand wellness, as well as focusingon supporting our employeeswith new programs.

“So, for example, we’re goingto be working with ParticipA-CTION UPnGO, which is a reallyexciting initiative for us. Gettingour employees moving, increas-ing health and wellness in theworkplace. That’s the next solu-tion that we’re looking at.”

— Tracy Murray, director of fi-nance at the non-profit CANARIEInc. in Ottawa, which helps runthe National Research and Educa-tion Network, a technology net-work for researchers and educa-tors. Winner, small not-for-profit or-ganization.

A CULTURE OF GRATITUDE

“The pressure that our team isunder is intense, and it’s really atestament to the resilience of ourwork force.

“They’re the people who havemade us have a healthy work-place and have come up with theinitiatives and ideas. But they areequally adept at supporting eachother, as they are with [client]families.

“So, [we have] team activities,support each other and celebratesuccesses — more than worryingabout things that haven’t gonequite right.

“Gratitude is important. Itmakes me happy to go into workevery day to have the team that Ihave around me.”

— Lorne MacLean, founder ofMacLean Family Law in Vancouv-er. Winner, small privately ownedorganization.

FULL WELLNESS PROGRAMS

“Almost half of the employeesparticipated in it. It involved bio-metric screening and a totalhealth index survey [like a check-up and overall health assess-ment].

“It helps them get involvedand realize the areas they are do-ing well in, or areas where theymight need improvement. Peoplewho are more involved tend totake more ownership of theirhealth.”

— Claire Regan, director of cor-porate communications for foodingredients company Ingredionin the Chicago area. Its Canadiansubsidiary is Ingredion Canada inMississauga, Ont. Winner, mid-sized publicly traded organization.

FOCUS ON BRIDGING GAPS WHEN OFFICE IS GROWING

“The Municipality of the Countyof Cumberland has gone throughsignificant change over the pastthree years. We’ve had two othermunicipalities dissolve into us.So, we went from 30 employees toalmost 100 in a very short periodof time.

“We worked hard at bringingeveryone together — three differ-ent locations in a really largecounty — to increase our com-munication, maybe networkingevents after work or at the work-place as well. Our goal was to real-ly bridge a lot of gaps between thedifferent locations.”

— Allie McCormick, managerof organizational developmentand innovation, with the Munici-pality of the County of Cumber-land in Nova Scotia. Winner, smallgovernmental organization.

Winning workplaces put flexibility firstCompanies that takehome awards listen totheir workers, offermeaningful perks anddisplay company-widegratitude

GUY DIXON

Accepting the award for Deluxe Payroll is Nicolas Drapeau, manager of onboarding, centre. With him are RandalPhillips, executive vice-president and chief client officer for Morneau Shepell, and Gillian Livingston of TheGlobe and Mail. GLENN LOWSON/THE GLOBE AND MAIL

Employee Recommended Workplaces

2018 Top Category Winners

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killamreit.com | TSX: KMP.UN

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TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2018 | THE GLOBE AND MAIL . G B9WORKPLACE AWARD

Canadian companies areplacing greater importanceon their employees’ health

and wellness, realizing that thehappier and healthier their em-ployees are, the more productiveand engaged they are at work.The focus is not just on physicalhealth but also mental health.

Organizations are achievingthis goal in a host of ways. TheEmployee Recommended Work-place Award, jointly created byThe Globe and Mail and MorneauShepell, recognizes companiesfor excellence in achieving ahealthy, engaged and productivework force. And it’s an awardbased entirely on feedback fromemployees.

Here’s how it works. A compa-ny’s employees take a surveybased on four pillars: work, life,mental health and physicalhealth.

Employees’ well-being isscored based on their responses,and the aggregate of responsesdetermines their company’sscore. Those companies thatmeet a minimum statisticalthreshold earn the distinction ofbeing named an Employee Rec-ommended Workplace and canuse the award badge to promotetheir company. This is no smallfeat. It means those companieswere in the top percentile amongparticipants and have a work-place that prioritizes health andwellness. In 2018, 53 organizationsreceived the designation Employ-ee Recommended Workplace.

The companies with the bestscores are ranked in their catego-ries, based on size and businessstructure. It’s a unique awardthat’s purely based on statisticsand employee responses. Thereare 11 Top Category winners for2018.

In addition to the employeesurveys, employers completed aquestionnaire in which they out-lined key operating principlesand the wellness programs theyoffer.

Registration for the 2019 Em-ployee Recommended Work-place Award is open at employeerecommended.com.

Staff

How the awardworks

With federal legislation in-tended to legalize canna-bis sale and use expected

to be finalized by this summer,some proactive employers aretrying to get ahead of the game byconsidering workplace policies.

For many, the timing also pre-sents a good opportunity to as-sess other workplace policies,such as those dealing with harass-ment, given the seemingly end-less news cycle surrounding thoseabusing positions of authority.

With 12.3 per cent of Canadians15 and older admitting to marijua-na use, according to a StatisticsCanada report released lastmonth, the time to establish whatwill be tolerated in the workplaceis here. The topic was discussedby a panel of experts at the Em-ployee Recommended Work-place Awards in Toronto lastweek.

Christopher Burkett, a partnerat the law firm Baker McKenzie inToronto, says employers have ev-ery right to operate their work-place in a way that ensures thatstaff members are fit to work.Much like an employer wouldn’ttolerate an employee comingback from lunch slurring theirspeech after a couple of glasses ofwine, for example, the same ap-plies to cannabis use.

Communication is key, headds, in implementing any policy.In certain states south of the bor-der where legalization has beenin place for some time, Mr. Bur-kett says that training and aware-ness programs have helped im-prove how workplaces deal withmarijuana use.

“You don’t want to be operat-ing heavy machinery next tosomeone who smoked up,” hesays. “So they make it about re-sponsibility for each other.”

However, much of the difficul-ty with implementing marijuanapolicies stems from its use for me-dicinal purposes.

Daniel Lublin, a partner atWhitten and Lublin EmploymentLawyers in Toronto, says thatwhile it is possible to approachthe subject of marijuana in a simi-lar fashion to alcohol, key distinc-tions must be made.

“The main one is that withmedical marijuana or cannabisuse, there may be a prescription-based purpose or a medical need

to take or ingest marijuana orcannabis,” he says. “…You cannotreally draw the same distinctionwith [alcohol].”

When it comes to an employerasking questions about an em-ployee’s use of cannabis, there arecertain limitations due to privacy.

Jacqueline Luksha, a lawyer atthe Toronto office of Hicks MorleyHamilton Stewart Storie LLP, saysthat there are certain questionsthat absolutely can and should beasked. These might includewhether it is necessary for theemployee to use marijuana onthe premises, is it necessary for itto be used during work hours, andis it necessary to use the kind ofmarijuana containing the psy-cho-active ingredient, THC.

“You’re going to meet a fair bitof resistance because that’s kindof getting into a person’s privatemedical decisions,” she says. “ButI think you can ask those ques-tions and I think employersshould be asking those ques-tions.”

Before asking these questions,there is an onus on the employerto educate itself about marijuana.As Ms. Luksha explains, under-standing the nature of the sub-stance being used and its impacton the human body, one’s atten-tion span and an ability to per-form certain jobs is critical.

“There are lots of other impair-ing drugs and there are lots ofother reasons that someonecould come to work impaired,like fatigue, so you want to becareful that you’re not just draw-ing those assumptions and thatyou understand what kind ofmarijuana they are using,” shesays.

When it comes to harassmentin the workplace, Ms. Luksha saysshe has a simple barometer forwhat is and isn’t acceptable to door say.

“I like to say if you can tell yourkindergartner not to do it on theplayground, you shouldn’t do it atwork,” she says.

But from Hollywood producerHarvey Weinstein on down, thosein positions of authority havedone little to heed that kind of ad-vice.

Mr. Burkett of Baker McKenziesays that people in authorityneed to understand that whatmay appear consensual with a co-worker in the moment may be af-fected by a power imbalance, es-pecially as time passes.

“In order to protect yourselfyou need to put in place a policythat says people in positions ofauthority need to report if they’regoing to be entering into a rela-tionship with a subordinate orsomeone else in the workplace,”he says.

That way if an allegationcomes to light six months later, itcan be framed in the appropriatecontext.

Mr. Lublin says that with all thenegative publicity around harass-ment in the workplace, employ-ers now often terminate first andask questions later. He adds thatsome employers would rather ac-cept the possible legal ramifica-tions of wrongful terminationthan negative publicity.

However, Ms. Luksha says thebest way to combat that is to beproactive. In the current climate,she says, whether it’s rumours oran anonymous complaint, an em-ployer should be running an in-vestigation into it.

However, an employer has tobe able to run its workplace as itsees fit, and Ms. Luksha says

“You can performance-man-age people, you can disciplinepeople, you can assign them todifferent work projects, you cando all those things, and that’s notgoing to be harassment.”

Cannabis concerns at workEmployers try to getahead of legalization bymaking clear policiesthat put safety andrespect for others first

PAUL ATTFIELD

Panelists at the SolvingWorkplace Challengesevent last week tackledmarijuana andanti-harassment policies inthe workplace. From leftare Christopher Burkett, apartner with BakerMcKenzie, JacquelineLuksha, a lawyer withHicks Morley, Daniel Lublin,a partner with Whitten andLublin, and Sean Stanleigh,managing editor of TheGlobe and Mail’s ContentStudio. GLENN LOWSON/THEGLOBE AND MAIL