TLOMA Today

My fellow TLOMA members!

I hope you have sufficiently recovered from the US Presidential Inauguration and the first presidential weeks have treated you fairly.  I had it taped and fast-forwarded it to the juicy bits only but I am still depressed, almost clinically.  Depression is sometimes defined as the total absence of hope. Hope is supposed to die last but vanity seems to be giving it a run for its money this time.  Did you know that DT is the first US President who is a member of the WWE Hall of Fame?  I find this astonishing - he finds it awesome, as one radio station reported.  For our millennial TLOMA members out there, a radio is the annoying thing your parents used to turn on, in their car mostly, which played the songs of its choice, in complete and utter contravention of your human rights.

Donald chose to have his first dance as President to Frank Sinatra’s song “My Way” to emphasize, once again, that it is his way or the highway.  My presidential inauguration is still pending, however, when the time comes for me to receive my auguri, I’m choosing Drake’s “We Started From The Bottom Now We Here”.  It will be awesome and we will be fantastic!  For our long time TLOMA members and lifers, Drake is a Canadian rapper named after a popular west-end hangout. And, just to be sure, a rapper is a random wordsmith, immaculately coiffed and completely devoid of grammar.  He does capture the spirit of this administration, though, with lines like “I done kept it real from the jump”.  Ah, keeping it real – it’s a whole separate topic in itself but for now, let’s stay on change.

Last time we talked, we talked about the relentless pace of change that humankind is experiencing in its constant quest for progress.  However, it didn’t always used to be like that.  For most of humanity’s existence change was very slow, historically almost unperceivable.  For example, if Sleeping Beauty fell asleep in the year 1017 and Prince Charming woke her up five hundred years later in 1517 very little in the world could have surprised her.  But if she fell asleep in 1517 and woke up in 2017, she would be totally shocked to discover a world that has completely changed.  Surely not as shocked as someone who has just emerged from a coma to discover that Donald Trump has been elected president of the United States, but I digress?

Until the early 1500s, when the Scientific Revolution started, all pre-modern traditions of knowledge asserted that all that is important to know about the world was already known.  The almighty gods or the wise people of the past possessed all the wisdom which they revealed to us in the scriptures and oral traditions. It was inconceivable for ordinary mortals to think that these ancient texts could be missing some crucial secrets of the universe.  Of course, there was always the odd dissenter who would occasionally make a crazy claim like "the earth is round" but they would quickly be declared heretics and burned at the stake.  And then things started to change.  A change very possibly accelerated by the discovery of the New World.  Realizing that we were ignorant of the existence two thirds of the world allowed us to acknowledge that there was much we didn't know.  The Latin word ignoramus literally means "we don't know".  A new era of contemporary observation and experimentation to obtain new knowledge was gradually ushered in, but this would have been impossible until we admitted ignorance and challenged the "absolute" truths. 

But why am I telling you all this and what does it have to do with TLOMA?  Everything.  At our 2016 Conference one of our keynote speakers, Ron Tite, said "To implement change one has to first be honest with oneself and admit what needs changing."   This is a universal truth we humans discovered five hundred years ago but seem to forget every time we face change.  Let me plug the 2017 TLOMA Conference here:  We invite smart people who say things,  sometimes profound things which will reenergize you and reinforce you for your own struggles with change.  The 2017 TLOMA Conference is going to be held from October 25th to October 28 at Deerhurst Resort.  Join us, it will be awesome! 

Speaking of change, several people have completed their terms serving TLOMA and I want to thank them personally:  Paul Page - Past President; Pamela Harris - Human Resources SIG Leader; Earllyn D'Souza - Technology SIG Leader; Louise McNeely - Volunteer Coordinator.  To all of you, a big thank you on behalf of all your peers and myself for all of the time and hard work you put into making and keeping TLOMA great! 

In closing, if you haven’t done it already, go see the movie La La Land.  Your soul will thank you.

Sourcing talent is one of the most vital aspects of a business and each year businesses struggle to attract candidates who will positively impact their business.  This past year was no different for the legal sector in Toronto, as law firms competed for an ever-shrinking pool of top talent.  

Specific to the Toronto market, Hays found that more than half (57%) of respondents in the legal sector say that it is moderately to extremely difficult to find the right skill sets in candidates for current opportunities. Just a few years ago, a legal job posting would get numerous qualified responses, but many hiring managers will know that today that is not guaranteed. There are a number of reasons fueling this, but according to the views of those in the industry, over a third (36%) see this skill shortage as being due to fewer candidates entering the industry. Another third said the available candidates lack the training needed for the positions they are applying for. Close behind, at 22 per cent, are respondents who see capable candidates leaving for other industries.

While there are challenges on the hiring front, overall business activity in the legal sector has been positive.  A large number of respondents (45%) said that they saw an increase in business activity and 57 per cent expect that increase to continue through 2017.  This increased business activity translates into a positive outlook for headcount as most respondents (61%) believe the next year will see constant staff levels, while a quarter believe there will be an increase.  But the question remains, with the pool of qualified candidates becoming smaller by the year, how will firms set themselves apart to attract the top talent and keep pushing their business forward? 

Nearly 100 per cent of Canadian professionals are on at least one social media network, and more than half use them as tools to hunt for employment. As the hiring market gets tougher, employers need to stand out from the crowd, but less than a quarter are using social media to find talent. According to the Hays Canada Where People Are report, employers tend to favor generic online job boards, post-secondary career sites and traditional online ads, while candidates gravitate to social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. When businesses do use social media to recruit, they’re often talking to the wrong people. That’s because they’re missing a crucial step in building those networks. Most are talking to their clients and consumers, not potential candidates, and of the candidates that are in their network, only about 10 per cent are good quality.

This is a problem that almost every company in Canada, including law firms, faces. They rely on job advertisements to attract the best candidates, when in reality, often the best candidates aren’t even looking for a job right now. You may have heard the term ‘passive’ candidates, compared to ‘active’ candidates: this terminology categorizes every potential candidate in the market. At any given time, only 10% of employed candidates are actively searching for a job – that means that a staggering 90% of today’s professionals are passive. Can you guess where the best people are usually hiding?

A number of law firms over the past few years have taken the initiative to rebrand their image. They have modernized their look and made their websites easier to navigate. As a prospective client, this is fantastic, but as a passive candidate, this new and streamlined look does nothing to tell me about the company culture, firm initiatives and career development.

While some law firm websites do have this information, it is often not easily found. With this in mind, it is important for firms to create a content plan that engages your top candidates with information that is interesting and relevant to them. Further, sharing non-job-related content now to build interest and engagement with potential employees means that when you do have a job to post, they already know who you are, and know that it will be relevant to them. By posting information that’s relevant and interesting, your company can position itself as a subject matter expert and trusted source of advice. The benefit of using content to engage with your audience is that when you do have a role posted, you’re engaging with both active and passive candidates. 

Small and medium sized employers often don’t have the profile that large employers and brands have. Social media can be a great leveler if you take the time to find the people who could become customers or employees, and start a conversation with them that is about mutual interests.

The good news is the solution to this problem is really simple. Build a content plan, start posting the information that your network will find absolutely invaluable, and you’ll find the right people. Unfortunately simple doesn’t mean easy – but if it was easy then everyone would be doing it.

A reduction of the EI waiting period is expected to take effect January 1, 2017. Supplemental unemployment benefit and top-up plan administration will be immediately affected, and short-term disability and sick leave plans may also be impacted. Are you prepared?

As we reported in May of 2016, the 2016 federal Budget proposed a number of changes to the Employment Insurance (EI) regime, including a reduction in the waiting period that must be served before EI benefit payments begin. Most notably, the EI waiting period has been reduced from two weeks to one week by way of amendments to the Employment Insurance Act (EI Act) that are expected to come into force on January 1, 2017.

On October 15, 2016, draft amendments to the Employment Insurance Regulations (EI Regulations) were published. The draft amendments clarify how the shorter EI waiting period will impact supplemental unemployment benefit (SUB) plans and maternity/parental leave top-up plans. The draft amendments also address how the shorter waiting period will impact sick leave or short-term disability (STD) plans that qualify for the EI premium reduction program.

The draft amendments to the EI Regulations contemplate a transitional period of four years to allow time for SUB plans, top-up plans, sickness and STD plans to become aligned with the new rules. However, despite these transitional provisions, there will be an immediate impact on the administration of most SUB and top-up plans as of January 1, 2017. In this FTR Now, we discuss how your organization can prepare to implement these important changes. 

Background: The EI Waiting Period is Reduced

The current EI regime requires that claimants wait two weeks before they can start receiving EI benefits. This “two-week rule” was amended in June of 2016 by Bill C-15, the Budget Implementation Act, 2016, No. 1, omnibus federal legislation implementing a number of reforms outlined in the government’s Budget. Specifically, section 208 amended the EI Act and reduced the current two-week waiting period to one-week. While this particular amendment is not yet in force, announcements made by the federal government indicate that this change will take effect January 1, 2017. Benefit periods that begin before January 1, 2017 will continue to be subject to the current two-week waiting period.

The EI waiting period change will only impact benefit periods starting on or after January 1, 2017. For example, employees who start a pregnancy leave before January 1, 2017 would serve a two-week waiting period, while employees who start a pregnancy leave after January 1, 2017 would serve only a one-week waiting period before their EI maternity benefit payments begin.

The total number of weeks of EI benefits payable will not change; claimants will simply be able to start receiving EI payments one week earlier than they do under the current rules.

The shorter waiting period will apply to all types of EI benefits – i.e. regular, special and fishing. The most commonly used special EI benefits include maternity benefits, parental benefits and sickness benefits. 

We focus below on the interaction between the reduced waiting period for special benefits and the plans that many employers have in place to supplement their employees’ income for pregnancy, parental and sickness benefits. Similar issues will arise for SUB plans established for layoffs and other periods of absence during which regular EI benefits are payable.

SUB Plans and Top-Up Plans

There is a general rule that payments received by an employee from an employer while receiving EI special benefits reduce the EI benefit otherwise payable. 

SUB plans (usually in place for layoff or periods of illness or injury) and top-up plans (usually in place to cover periods of leave because of pregnancy, the care of a newborn or newly adopted child or compassionate care leave) are exceptions to this general rule. The EI regime allows an employee to receive both a full EI benefit and a supplemental payment from the employer without reducing the amount of the employee’s EI benefit payment. To qualify, the employer’s SUB plan or top-up plan must meet certain conditions. One of the conditions is that the combination of the payment from the employer and the EI benefit cannot exceed a certain percentage of the employee’s normal weekly earnings. For SUB plans, EI benefits combined with the supplemental benefits cannot be more than 95% of normal weekly earnings. For top-up plans, the limit is 100% of normal weekly earnings. 

SUB plans and top-up plans, including plan terms contained in collective agreements and employer policies, often contain explicit wording about the length of the EI waiting period and/or the time period during which the supplement is payable. The reduction of the EI waiting period from two weeks to one week may not align with the current SUB plan or top up plan language. Depending on how the SUB Plan or top-up plan is currently worded, employees may claim an entitlement to receive a combined payment greater than their normal weekly earnings in the second week of a leave or may receive supplemental benefits for a shorter period of time than is currently the case. 

There may also be ambiguity about the amount or number of weeks of supplemental benefits due. This could occur where, for example, a maternity EI benefit top-up plan specifies that the employer will pay a specific percentage of the employee’s normal weekly earnings during the first two weeks of the leave without reference to an offset for EI benefits received during that period, or where a parental top-up plan comes into effect after a 17-week pregnancy benefit period (two-week waiting period plus 15 weeks of EI maternity benefits), leaving the employee without a supplement for the 17^th week. 

The charts below illustrate typical entitlement for maternity leave under a top-up plan, and how a reduced waiting period will create potential periods of ambiguity or overlap with respect to entitlement, which must be addressed:

As explained below, the draft EI Regulations contain a four-year transition period that would allow EI benefits and supplemental benefits to exceed the normal SUB plan and top-up plan limits on combined benefits in the week immediately following the waiting period, without resulting in a reduction to the employee’s EI benefits. Notably, this transition rule does not require higher supplementary benefit payments than the SUB or top-up plan otherwise provides and does not correct for the concern that the plan terms may result in the supplemental benefits being payable for one fewer week than is currently the case.

Employers will need to consider how the shorter waiting period impacts the design and entitlements of its employees and how best to amend the plan terms or to administer the plan to provide the intended level of income support until an amendment can be made effective.

EI Premium Reduction Program

The reduction of the EI waiting period from two weeks to one week also impacts the EI Premium Reduction Program (PRP). The PRP permits employers to use a lower EI premium rate when the employer provides a STD or sick leave plan that meets specific requirements set out in the EI Regulations. The PRP is a voluntary program designed to recognize the savings to the EI Operating Account resulting from the employer paying sickness benefits for the first number of weeks of an employee’s illness or disability. These plans create savings since the employer’s plan becomes the first payor and fewer EI sickness benefit claims or EI sickness benefit claims of shorter duration are made. Employers must submit their STD or sick leave plan for the approval of Service Canada in order to obtain the lower EI premium rate (5/12 of which must be shared with employees in a manner consistent with the EI Regulations).

Under the existing rules, a STD or sick leave plan that qualifies for the PRP can include an elimination period of up to 14 days before STD or sick leave benefits become payable. This 14-day elimination period corresponds with the current two-week waiting period. The EI Regulations will be amended to provide that the maximum elimination period is seven days, in order to align with the new one-week waiting period for EI benefits. As a result, employers with STD or sick leave plans that have an elimination period of more than seven days will no longer qualify for the PRP rebate. The federal government has indicated that this is likely to impact only about 15% of employers who currently qualify for the PRP, since most sick leave or STD plans already have less than a seven-day elimination period. For employers who are affected by this change, the draft EI Regulations do provide a four-year transition period to allow ongoing participation in the PRP as explained below. 

Employers will want to weigh the savings resulting from lower EI premium rate available under the PRP against the expected additional cost of changing their STD or sick leave plan to commence benefit entitlements one week earlier. Changes to the STD or sick leave plan may also have implications for the employer’s LTD plan eligibility or benefit period. 

Four-Year Transition Period 

Given the complications that may flow from the reduction in the EI waiting period for employers with SUB or top-up plans, or who currently qualify for the PRP, the draft amendments to the EI Regulations outline a four-year transition period for plans already in place prior to January 1, 2017. In particular, the transition period is designed to assist employers with plans incorporated into collective agreements or third party insurance contracts by providing time to consider the changes and, where applicable, to amend their plans. 

The proposed transition period will allow SUB plans to temporarily make a supplemental payment that, when added to the claimant’s EI benefit, exceeds 95% of weekly earnings in the week following the one-week waiting period. Similarly, top-up plans will be able to make a payment in the second week of the absence that, when combined with the employee’s EI benefit, exceeds 100% of normal weekly earnings. 

The transition period further provides employers with time to amend their STD or sick leave plans to reflect the reduction of the maximum elimination period from 14 days to a maximum of seven days, in order to qualify for the an EI premium reduction. 

The transition period will end on January 3, 2021, and all plans will need to comply with the amended rules by that date in order to continue qualifying for special treatment under the EI Act. 

Next Steps 

Employers should take steps now to review their STD and sick leave plans, their top-up plans and their SUB plans, as well as their collective agreements, in order to: 

• assess the impact of the reduced EI waiting period
• determine how best to administer the plans during the transition period, and
• identify whether changes to the plans are necessary or appropriate.

If the plans are collectively bargained, employers will also need to determine whether the plans may be unilaterally amended and if not, to develop a strategy around the employer’s intended response to the waiting period reduction. 

This article was originally published in Hicks Morley's FTR Now.

In my many years of consultation with law firms around the globe, I have learned that the most successful firms are those that offer the best leadership for their individual lawyers. One of the most gifted managing partners I ever met made it one of his priorities to conduct an ongoing, never-ending study of what made the individual lawyers in his firm, and the firm as a whole, tick. Being sensitive to the idiosyncrasies of the people you lead, and helping individual lawyers in your firm to refine their practices so that they find them more challenging and rewarding, will result in long-term benefits to the company as well as to individual practitioners. 

Lawyers are among the most ferociously independent people on this planet who have ever chosen to work in groups. Many of us chose the law because we wanted to be able to apply independent thinking, and have a lot of control. We wanted to be able to decide for ourselves how to conduct a matter, and how to serve a client.

In addition to being independent, lawyers are also highly critical and analytical. When we review a legal document we are always looking for omissions, and thinking about how to improve the wording. We have been trained to listen to arguments with a view to destroying them. In short, by default we tend to approach everything we see and hear in a highly critical and analytical way. 

While these skills are essential to good lawyering, they can get in the way of our ability to be innovative when it comes to building practices that we find personally satisfying. The human brain will not allow us to be critical and analytical, and innovative and creative, all at the same time. As a result, many lawyers get themselves into ruts, where they find themselves performing exceedingly well in practices that they find less than satisfying.  

The lawyers in your firm deserve practices that are personally satisfying while also returning the financial rewards that are commensurate with the value they give your clients. As a law firm leader, you can help individual lawyers to create a vision for attaining personal fulfillment, while also contributing to the law firm as a whole, by providing them with the tools they will need to make those personal visions a reality. 

Here is an overview of some of the approaches that leaders at successful firms around the world have taken to help individual lawyers in their firms create and deploy personal action plans:

• Provide lawyers in the firm with the leeway to create a vision of the kind of clientele and the practice they want within the scope of the firm’s initiatives;
• Offer professional development sessions that will facilitate their moving closer to their goals, by honing skills in such areas as courting prospective clients, cross-selling services, asking for referrals, and transferring clients within the firm;
• Conduct workshops in areas relating to client interaction that many lawyers find difficult, such as handling telephone inquiries, requesting retainer fees, and managing files where fees exceed estimates;
• Build leadership skills for those in situations requiring leadership;
• Help individuals learn ways to combat the pressures of time;
• Work with all lawyers in the firm to make firm meetings more productive and desirable for attendees;
• Offer workshops in practical areas such as billing, managing finances and optimizing the firm’s technology.

Small Bites

When it comes to facilitating skill development on the part of a firm’s lawyers, there is a lesson to be learned from some of the most successful corporations in the world: they have determined that trying to take people out of their work for chunks of time to train them is not as effective as providing small doses of training from time to time on an ongoing basis. Specifically, a training session of one hour – perhaps during lunch once a month – is far more effective than trying to take someone away from their work for a day or two. 

Many lawyers resist being asked to spend weekends or parts thereof in training – and lawyer buy-in is key to the success of training and coaching initiatives. One of the biggest benefits of ongoing training in small amounts is that the real-world experience between sessions can influence the evolution of the training. By way of an analogy, imagine that we trained lawyers first to hit a golf ball off a tee. When we come back for the next session, we can get feedback from the participants as to how the golf game was affected by the previous session. That will allow us to debrief and fine-tune the previous session before going onto the next segment – which might be hitting the ball from the middle of the fairway, and so on. Compare that approach with an attempt to give a lawyer lessons on golf from the tee to the putting green all at one time. Your instincts will tell you which approach will be more effective. 

Lead by Example

The second lesson those corporations teach us is that peers and seniors within the organization must be a critical part of the training process. An outsider may have impressive credentials, but that is no match for the credibility that the top performers within the organization enjoy. The most effective coaching teams include in-house leaders and a gifted outside professional who has both substantial knowledge and facilitation skills, so that optimal results are achieved utilizing those inside top performers.

Law firms with lawyers who have happy and fulfilling careers will prosper. Competitors cannot easily emulate them, and the advantages enjoyed by firms who have worked with lawyers to develop their own personal action plans quickly becomes obvious – resulting in benefits not only in the work environment but also on the bottom line.  

All firms are interested in recruiting and retaining top talent to ensure high levels of performance.  This requires the ability to tap into the motivations of your workforce, which is increasingly becoming more diverse based on a range of diversity characteristics. So, what really motivates employees? The answer depends on who you are trying to engage and the process to do so. Employees are either intrinsically or extrinsically motivated, or may be driven by a blend of both factors. This article explores how workforce demographics are impacting employee motivation; what factors HR and people leaders need to address; and provides leadership tips to spark intrinsic motivators, specifically for different generations.  

Workforce Demographics 

If you look around your firm, you will see a diverse mix of age ranges working together - from experienced, seasoned employees to young, recent graduates. There are two primary demographic changes that are impacting our workplaces – an aging workforce and a generationally diverse workforce.

In Canada, both our population and workforce are aging, which is impacting every industry’s ability to recruit, retain and engage employees. According to Stats Canada, the median age of the Canadian population is 40 years old.  The fastest growing sector of the population is over 65 years and in 2011, for the first time, there were more people 55 to 64 years old, than 15 to 24 years old.  By 2029 all Boomers will have reached 65 years old and by 2020, Millennials (also referred to as Gen Ys) will represent 41% of working age adults (Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey, 1976-2010). All of these statistics suggest that we are already in the midst of a global aging crisis, which will impact economic growth.  

Given the desire of experienced employees to continue working and the need to continually recruit new graduates, today’s workplaces are comprised of up to four generations: Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Gen Xers and Gen Ys.  Generational cohorts possess unique values, characteristics, and skills based on their experiences of life-defining events.  These shared experiences create generational identities.  \  With four generations in the workplace, law firms are faced with four different, and often conflicting, approaches to work. As each generation has its own unique identity, its ‘generational baggage’ travels with it into the workplace, impacting team, departmental, and organizational performance. 

The Four Generations 

Source: n-gen People Performance Inc. 

HR & People Leadership Challenges

Based on the generational issues that all firms are facing, the question is how will these impact your organization’s operations? What challenges will HR leaders face and what will the impact be on your talent management practices? The answers are not entirely clear, however, we do know that there are areas that HR and people leaders ought to proactively address, including:

Improving Multigenerational Team Dynamics

Since Baby Boomers, Gen Xers and Millennials will be working together for the foreseeable future, it is incumbent upon HR and leadership teams to understand how to move beyond the surface conversations regarding generational differences to more tactical, business focused solutions that address real differences in expectations, behaviours and motivations.

Challenging Existing Expectations

Every part of the employee life cycle is being impacted by a shift in demographics.  Younger employees are demanding a work environment that is more flexible, adaptable, aligned to their values, provides growth and development and maps out a rewarding career path, that may or may not include becoming a partner.  The speed that Millennials expect organizations to change and engage employees is often out of pace with many organizational structures.  As all firms grapple with how to be an ‘employer of choice’ for younger employees, leaders must challenge their definitions and long held values regarding:

• Loyalty  
• Leadership style 
• Work style – not work ethic 
• Performance standards 
• Career-pathing options 
• Rewards and recognition 
• Innovation and creativity

Motivating Employees 

Motivation can be defined as the factors that influence people to behave in a certain way (Armstrong, 2008).  In our book Upgrade Now: 9 Advanced Leadership Skills we explore the concepts of extrinsic and intrinsic motivators.  

At a high level, extrinsic rewards are:

• “Carrots” such as money, bonuses, trips, gifts, etc. that are used to drive performance towards a stated goal 
• Based on the belief that conditional recognition is the best way to achieve results and retain employees
• An employer provides these rewards, which include base pay, bonuses, and fringe benefits and are thought to be important in attracting and retaining employees.

Intrinsic rewards are when an employee feels joy, engagement and empowerment from being able to perform in their role at a high level. Intrinsic motivation consists of 3 elements:

• Autonomy – the desire to direct our own lives

• Mastery – the desire to continually improve at something that matters

• Purpose – to do things for a purpose this is larger than oneself

These rewards influence employees’ enjoyment, satisfaction and engagement and are intangible such as growth, self-esteem and a sense of contribution. 

While extrinsic motivators work for some tasks (ones with a clear set of rules and a simple destination), in our modern age of knowledge based work, which isn’t narrowly focused and requires more creativity and conceptualization, extrinsic motivators (such as money) are becoming less powerful in driving performance.  Depending upon the nature of the work, the environment and the corporate culture, an appropriate reward and recognition program can be created to blend intrinsic and extrinsic rewards.  This will motivate employees through both a ‘push and pull’ mechanism of external rewards and internal drive to excel. 

Motivating a Generationally Diverse Workforce 

Since the workforce isn’t homogeneous, it’s important to understand what motivates different generations in order to create engaging and high performing teams.  In addition to providing intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, leaders can adjust their style to ensure they are tapping into what drives each generational cohort.  

An important note to keep in mind: while you may not have any Traditionalists by age in your organization, you may have Traditionalist ‘minded’ employees who demonstrate the characteristics and behaviours of this generation due to traditionalist experiences and a formal up-brining. This is particularly true when leading a culturally diverse team or managing a global department.

Motivation Tips for Traditionalists:

• Tap into this generation’s desire to leave a legacy by provide opportunities to coach and mentor others. 
• Tap into their deep expertise by involving them in special projects. 
• Explain how change will benefit the organization and aligns to your organizational values and goals. Then provide the required support during the change initiative to ensure success.

Motivation Tips for Baby Boomers:

• Raise this generation’s profile by acknowledging their performance through industry awards, company-wide recognition or with high profile leaders.  
• Appoint them as leaders of special projects to leverage their strong collaboration skills and involve them in the decision making process. 
• Provide opportunities for professional growth and networking through cross-functional, global or industry-wide projects.

Motivating Tips for Gen Xers:

• Don’t micro-manage this generation – provide as many opportunities as possible to be autonomous and to make choices about how they perform their roles.  
• Provide on-going opportunities to gain new, marketable skills through formal and informal learning experiences. 
• Focus on results, more than process. Tie extrinsic rewards to clear performance targets.  

Motivation Tips for Millennials:

• Create a collaborative, collegial and fun work environment where this generation feels part of the team. 
• Solicit their opinions and ideas for improvement. Tap into their high level of creativity & innovation by being open to suggestions for change. 
• Involve this generation if your corporate social responsibility initiatives. They want to be the part of activities in which your organization supports environment improvements, local/national charities and is a responsible global employer.

Resources:
Loyalty Unplugged: How to Get, Keep & Grow All Four Generations, 
Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey, 1976-2010
Upgrade Now: 9 Advanced Leadership Skills

Organization / Company Overview

Expertise & Growth

Opening our first Canadian office in 2001, Hays has since grown to become a national recruiting presence. We have offices in every major Canadian city and working closely with our private and public sector clients across the country, we place candidates into the right permanent positions, contract roles and temporary assignments.

By truly understanding our clients and candidates, locally and globally, we help companies and people achieve lasting impact. This is what makes us Hays – the world’s leading recruiting experts in qualified, professional and skilled work.

In addition to serving the needs of the Legal industry, our teams also services the recruitment needs for industry sectors including: Construction & Property, Information Technology, Manufacturing & Logistics, Life Sciences, Office Professionals, Oil & Gas, Sales and Marketing, Procurement and Resources & Mining.

Services Overview

Our global leading brand underpins our local and niche attraction efforts, resulting in Hays being the #1 most followed recruitment company on LinkedIn. We have the largest network of available qualified candidates as a result of our digital recruitment strategy, enabling us to find you the best talent. 

Through our 360 model of client-onboarding, assessment, servicing and candidate matching, we understand your needs, providing you with the best qualified candidates. Our standardized compliance, tailored delivery model and full service management, guarantees your peace of mind.

Our specialist consultants know your industry, based on their specialization by location, discipline and niche skill sets. As a result of our global leading recruitment and industry training and renowned thought-leadership, our team of experts deliver labour market insight and advice, supporting you throughout your hiring process. 

How many years have you been a Business Partner of TLOMA? Three years

What has been your partnership experience with TLOMA over the years? Fruitful and mutually beneficial (we believe!).  We have gained a greater understanding of and access to the Legal community in Toronto.  Not only have we become a recruitment partner to the industry, we are also called upon to share our market and recruitment knowledge (from things such as providing job descriptions to compensation trends) to a number of firms. 

Favorite TLOMA memory? TLOMA Business Partner Dinner – 2016 Conference held at Niagara Falls – The entertainment that evening was a celebrity impersonator – for each act she would get the crowd involved (i.e. dancing, silly poses, etc) – great way for business partners and TLOMA members to let loose and have fun.  

What is the name of your favorite restaurant? Michael’s on Simcoe

What is your favorite movie? The Empire Strikes Back

What is your favorite artist/band you got to see live in concert? Rush – only three times unfortunately, although some people would say that was enough!

What is your favorite sports team? Since moving to Canada four years ago, it has to be the Blue Jays.

Where is your go-to coffee shop? As I've only been in Canada four years, I'm still only a tea drinker I’m afraid. 

What are your favorite hobbies? Playing the bass if I was trying to be relatively cool. Building Star Wars Lego if I wasn’t.