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Building
a diverse workforce
Recently, a story in the Toronto Star discussed the
announcement of a national research group conducting
a ground breaking study on skilled visible minorities
who want to progress within companies and cannot. The
study hopes to identify the ‘glass ceiling’ that must
be broken to address the shortage of talent that will
emerge as baby boomers retire and employers face a shortage
of talent in workplaces and urban centers with diverse
communities making up 20-50% of the demographics.
Yet building diversity isn’t easy. There can be conflict,
accusations of discrimination on prohibitive grounds
and incidents of wrongful dismissal. Conflict erupts
among people who haven’t had much opportunity to interact
with those they find “diverse”, simply because interacting
with other cultures can be seen as confusing, threatening,
or just too different.
The result can be financially costly in terms of lost
talent and decreased productivity, demoralizing for
the workplace due to a potentially poisoned work environment.
Addressing these issues can require a significant amount
of organizational time. If the situation cannot be resolved
at the workplace level, it may escalate into a Court
case that can continue for years.
Your lawyer or in-house counsel needs to be familiar
with ways to help your organization deal with diversity
issues. Diversity Management and ADR tools such as mediation
can be a powerful asset in helping resolve diversity-related
conflict, and can also help to find and deal with the
root cause of conflict so that a stronger, more accessible
workplace results.
Since prevention is better than cure, organizations
need to start by putting in place an effective program
of diversity management as a form of risk management.
This is a way to integrate diversity initiatives into
the organization’s core practices – its strategies,
performance measures and human resources policy and
programs.
It starts with finding the skills, either within the
organization or externally, to develop a diversity plan
and implement it. Next step is to build a team of people
who will support the diversity initiative. The team
must include key executives from HR and other areas
to support the idea, to build organizational buy-in
and sustainability. It also needs to involve a cross
section of the workforce who can help make sure that
diversity gets worked into all areas of the organization’s
work.
Members of the team need to be trained in the value
of diversity, and how to create a climate that encourages
it, while identifying barriers and dealing with them.
They need to know about the patterns of harassment and
how they develop, and about subtle ways people indicate,
perhaps without even knowing it, that they are making
someone else feel unwelcome. This skill is called cultural
competence.
Next month Trade Talk tackles how mediation helps to
preserve relationships and productivity in the workplace.
Elser Lee Archer is a consultant with Sage Diversity
Management; she can be reached at 416 358-9945 or at
sagedcm.com
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I don’t have time for networking!
Running a business is exhausting. The e-mail
messages, the phone calls, the faxes, the decisions.
There is never enough time at work to get everything
done, and it seems we are putting in longer hours every
year. I simply have no time to network or to attend
outside functions after work hours.
The mantra of the business owner!
There are certainly some misconceptions about the value
of networking and the value of being seen outside of
your office at various social, fund raising, or other
types of events.
Have we forgotten how we developed our business when
we started out?
Business today is based on relationship development,
and we are most comfortable dealing with people we know,
like and trust. Referrals are great, repeat business
is wonderful, but it is important to keep the pipeline
full of prospects if you want your business to grow.
It is also the business that may likely just go to a
competitor that goes out and develops new relationships
and earns it.
Dig out your old business plan. Does it mention networking
in the Business Development section? Was there an expiry
date on these activities? Successful business owners
know how important networking is to the long term health
of their enterprise.
It is a very narrow-minded approach to business not
to include activities where there is the potential to
meet 50, 100, 200 people or more that quite possibly
have the need for your product or service. The math
is simple. As an example, if your average sale to a
new client is $200 and you meet 4 to 5 new potential
clients at an event, it could mean new sales of $1000.
Multiply this by 12 if you attend one event a month
for the year. We are now looking at a potential of $12,000
for an investment of a couple of hours a month. This
doesn’t include repeat business or subsequent referrals
from these new clients.
Personally speaking, I would not only make the time,
but schedule the time every month to take advantage
of pipeline generation. It is imperative to incorporate
networking into every other phase of marketing you employ.
It is also critical to “work” the events, not just attend,
then leave because nobody approached you with business.
There is a reason it is called net “working”. Sure you
will meet many people that don’t have a need (immediately)
for your product or service, but it is the power of
exponential contacts that you are hoping to develop.
Do they know someone in their network that you should
meet?
You can sit back and be content with the business you
have or you can grow it through networking.
Jeff Bowman is a partner in The Marketing Pad, a full
service Marketing Company. You can reach him at 905-456-4127,
or visit www.themarketingpad.com
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Managing
expectations – what are you doing about it?
Webster’s Canadian Dictionary defines expectation as:
“the act or state of expecting something to happen that
is expected to happen” or the plural as “prospects for
the future”. Well and good you say, but what has that
to do with my business.
Clearly, expectations are critical to the success of
any enterprise. Because, if the expectations of all
parties involved are not clearly understood and met,
miscommunication can easily occur, resulting in, you
guessed it lost business / revenue / valued staff members
/ etc.
Let’s take a look at who might have expectations in
your business:
First of course, are your own expectations? You expect
to:
be able to make a profit from what you made / sell
/ provide to your clients
meet the ongoing financial obligations of your business
in a timely manner
grow your business year over year
have your product / service wanted by your target
market
have everyone in your organization perform in a way
that will help the business grow
What about the expectations of your clients? They expect
you to:
deliver what you promise
provide them value for their money
stand behind your product / service
be fair and reasonable in your business practices
Now, let’s take a look at the expectations of your
personnel. They expect to:
be treated with respect
be fairly compensated for the work that they do
be given the opportunity to grow and develop as both
individuals and employees
Clearly there are a great number of expectations imposed
on a business every day. Just as clearly, the expectations
set out above may well not cover all expectations of
all the parties touched by your business. For example,
we have not considered your suppliers or your creditors
in the list above.
Your task as a business owner is to manage these expectations
and the many others not articulated here. In order to
do this you need to first ask yourself the question:
“What are the expectations of each of the people involved
in my business both directly and indirectly?”
Once you have identified the expectations of these
folks you next should pose to yourself the following
questions:
When: As you prepare to open for business each morning:
“What will I do today to meet the expectations of those
who are affected by what my organization does?”
When: As you prepare to close your business each day:
“What did I do today to meet the expectations of those
who are affected by what my organization does?”
If you are unable to provide a specific measurable
positive answer to these two questions, the question
you next need to answer is “What am I doing about it?”
Gordon is President of The Newman Learning Group Inc.
an organization dedicated to providing value add solutions
to improve the bottom line performance of organization
and individuals. Gordon may be reached at gordon@newmanlearning.com
or 905-790-2944
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Tax
savings are within splitting distance
While tax saving opportunities for business owners may
appear to be fewer and farther between these days, there
is one “family” of strategies that every owner should
look into: income-splitting.
Splitting income refers to shifting income from the
hands of one family member in a high tax bracket to
another in a lower tax bracket so that the family pays
less income tax. When you operate your own business,
there are some special income-splitting strategies that
can offer you and your family valuable tax savings.
• When you hire your spouse and/or children to work
in your business, you can pay them a reasonable salary
or hourly wage. If they have no other source of income,
they can receive about $8,000 without having to pay
income tax. As well, receiving income makes them eligible
to make RRSP and CPP contributions.
• If your spouse can provide money, time, or skills
to your unincorporated business, by making him or her
a partner, you can share the income.
• When your spouse pledges assets or guarantees a loan
for your company, you can pay him or her a guarantee
fee.
• If your business is incorporated, your spouse or
adult children can be appointed as shareholders of the
corporation. The corporation can then pay out dividends
to them.
• When you appoint your spouse as a director of your
corporation, the company can pay him or her a director’s
fee for services such as attending directors’ meetings,
approving financial statements, and declaring dividends.
Major tax savings are within splitting distance. Be
sure to discuss with your accountant what income-splitting
strategies will work best for you and your family.
Mark Smith is a partner of BDO Dunwoody LLP (www.bdo.ca).
If you have questions about this article or you would
like to receive BDO’s “Tax Factor” newsletter, contact
Mark at 905-270-7700 or marksmith@bdo.ca.
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