RLB Blog

COVID-19 has opened employers' eyes to the benefits of offering remote and hybrid work opportunities. It may be challenging for some employers to imagine not conducting their new hires' onboarding and training in person, luckily there are various ways to ensure a smooth transition and foster a warm welcome virtually.

In today’s workforce, we are seeing more companies put diversity, equity, and inclusion into greater focus. DEI, as it is often shortened to, is so much more than a policy, a training session, or a headcount. It is an opportunity to foster employee engagement with varying perspectives.

What Employers need to know when implementing the Right to Disconnect Legislation Employers that employ 25 more employees on January 1st of any year must have a written policy on disconnecting from work in place by March 1st of that year. This is referred to as the Right to Disconnect provision. The purpose of this legislation is to support employees mental wellbeing and encourage work-life balance. The main questions employers and employees themselves are asking is what does this mean and how is this going to be implemented?

Drive your Employee Engagement through Performance Feedback Effective performance management is essential to a business. It is critical to an employee’s personal development to implement effective performance management processes. Performance management encourages communication, pinpoints strengths, and builds long-lasting work relationships. Providing comprehensive feedback allows your employees to achieve their greatest potential which, as a result, increases productivity.

February 1st is National Get Up Day. This gives us an opportunity to share inspiring stories of perseverance. It reminds us to pick ourselves up when we have fallen and give it another try. In our new normal, one of our biggest challenges can be working effectively from home while still feeling connected to your co-workers. Many of these trials could be parents with young children having to take on the role of teacher or dealing with a demanding and affectionate officemate (yes, I am talking about my cat).

There are changes happening in the CRA’s subsidy programs this fall.  The Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) and Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy (CERS) end on October 23, 2021.  These programs have provided wage and rent subsidy income to businesses that have been affected by the COVID pandemic.  There is a 6-month filing deadline on these programs, so the final periods will be due September 20, 2022.