Martina Pileggi is senior director of human resources for the Hillman Group Canada, a fastener producer for the hardware, automotive, plumbing, and electrical markets.

It seems that more people than ever are getting sick from COVID. Statistically, they’re not as likely to end up in the hospital as they did before vaccines. But when they do get sick, they still need to stay home.

So how do companies cope with increased demands for time off? Martina Pileggi, senior director of human resources for the Hillman Group Canada, says staff at her company understand the importance of taking time off, and realize the need to stay home when needed. “Staff are getting it. They use their best judgment to decide to stay home if unwell.”

While paid time off is important, especially for hourly workers, suppliers have been hit by disrupted supply levels that have affected sales volumes, coupled with demand in the marketplace for higher wages. As a result, cash flow can be tight, so suppliers might think twice about a request from HR for more paid time off.

Pileggi says her company has relied on expanded government subsidies to help pay people better and accommodate those sick days. But these will wind down in just a few months. “We’re going to have some challenges in the coming months,” Pileggi said. “When programs go away, we’ve got to look at our policies and determine whether we’re competitive when it comes to sick days.”

If a company does not stay on top of this issue, it could be at a real disadvantage. “People will start coming to work sick. So far, we’ve done a really good job keeping that at bay. But when people’s income is in jeopardy, people will come in sick.”

People’s attitudes toward the pandemic are evolving, especially in light of the increasing infectiousness of the latest variants. As individuals are adjusting, Pileggi has been working with her HR team to focus on a change of mindset as well. She personally has had to let go of the overriding mandate to try and keep everyone safe. “It’s crazy. You’ve got to move on at some point. I’m trying to get the team to go through that mindset change and do things a little differently.”

For one thing, she believes the hybrid model of work is here to stay. Some people on your team may look forward to being back in the office, but they don’t have to come in every single day. “It’s my belief that it’s the right thing to do, not only for safety reasons, but just in general. It’s 2022. We need to be more with it. So that’s not going away.”

For those staffers who are coming back, Pileggi says it’s up to her and her team to make sure employees do so in a safe and healthy fashion. “Now we’re on the cusp of writing the next chapter for Hillman Canada and I’m excited about that.”

By HR and health & safety consultancy Peninsula Canada

After a challenging two years with border closures, many employees are eager to get away on holiday. This could lead to an absolute surge of vacation requests this summer. Here’s how to cope.

Have a policy in place and share it with your staff. Your vacation policy should inform employees of how far in advance they must request their vacation. It should clarify the procedure for making the request.

The policy should also list the reasons a request may be declined. For instance, you may decline requests during the busy holiday season or if you’re already short-staffed.

Make it clear in the vacation policy or in your employee handbook that if several workers want the same time off, you will deal with the requests on a ‘first-come first-served’ basis.

Create a shared holiday calendar. A shared holiday calendar can help avoid vacation clashes. You could put it up in the work area or share it online so that it is easily accessible to all your employees. This way, your staff can check availability before blocking dates.

Get creative. While a ‘first-come, first-served’ policy would make managing time-off requests easier for you, it has its shortcomings. For instance, some employees may always reserve all the coveted holiday periods at the beginning of the year. This is unfair to others and may lead to staff becoming upset.

To avoid this, you should devise more creative ways to divide popular days. You could ask your employees to draw lots. Or you could have a rotational system. For example, everyone could take turns to get time off on Christmas Eve.

Peninsula is an HR and Health and Safety consulting firm serving over 80,000 small businesses worldwide, including dealers in home improvement. Clients are supported with ongoing updates to their workplace documentation and policies as legislation changes. Additionally, clients benefit from 24/7 employer HR advice and are protected by legal insurance.

With StatCan indicating one million job vacancies in Canada since the third quarter of 2021, recruiting young workers can require creative thinking to capture their attention. That’s just what Lowe’s Canada brought to its ad campaign to promote working at its stores this spring.

The retailer worked with creative agency Sid Lee to develop a recruitment campaign called “Make Yourself Failproof.” The campaign, which went out in traditional outdoor advertising, web, and social media, was supported by an online exhibition called “The Hall of Fail,” which showcases renovation disasters recreated as works of art.

Research done for the campaign revealed that 88 percent of Gen Z students want to work for employers who give them access to training and growth opportunities. The ads and exhibition were developed to tap into this by providing examples of renovation fails that young people could avoid if they worked at Lowe’s, RONA, or Réno-Dépôt.

Lowe’s Canada is looking to fill 5,000 jobs at its corporate stores nationwide this season. Through this campaign, the company hopes to set itself apart from other employers by focusing on opportunities for growth and learning within its network.

“The fun factor of the campaign was something we could all relate to,” says Jacynthe Prince, director of brand engagement at Lowe’s Canada. But more important, she adds, is to make the idea of applying for a job at a Lowe’s store appealing and inviting, even without having any previous training.

“Humour is important both in advertising and for hiring—and especially with Gen Z. They don’t choose a job with their heads. They choose with their hearts.” The campaign’s message, says Prince, is that Lowe’s stores will provide a place to work where they can have fun and learn.

(Click here to see the epic fail by our own Michael McLarney as he tried to assemble some IKEA furniture!)

The world has now endured two full years of the COVID pandemic, which turned work habits sideways as companies learned to adjust. But even as restrictions lift, fully half of Canadian office workers have yet to return to their work spaces, and that’s not likely to change much, according to new research.

The Amazon Business Return to Office Report is a survey of nearly 1,600 Canadian office workers conducted by Angus Reid Forum on behalf of Amazon Business. The findings showed that only half of Canadian office workers that had shifted to remote work due to the pandemic had returned to working from their office before the Omicron wave struck in late 2021.

The study found that the ability to work remotely with flexible work hours has become more important to office workers than workplace culture, growth opportunities, and in-office perks.

In fact, only one in eight respondents (12 percent) said working entirely at a company’s physical workplace is their ideal scenario. Forty-three percent of Canadian office workers say they would be likely to look for a new job if their current employer forced them to return to the office full time.

For workers who face the realities of working in the office, 57 percent say they would prefer to either split their time equally between in-office and remote or work mostly from home. Two in five (43 percent) expect to work primarily from home for at least the next year. Nearly one in five (18 percent) expect to work from home or remotely indefinitely.

This study bears out that business is not going back to how things were before and companies need to adjust.

Roy Prevost is an international speaker, futurist, and business coach. He works with retail teams to help them compete better. One of the areas he focuses on is how a company can shape its core values.

Many companies might have a mission statement, but it often sits in a drawer. However, it should be an integral part of a company’s operations, says Vancouver-based retail sales consultant Roy Prevost. He says mission statements are necessary, “but there has to be something more to that.” That something is a set of well-defined core values.

Prevost stumbled onto the power of core values after connecting at a conference years ago with the late Tony Hsieh, who was at the time owner and CEO of online shoe seller Zappos. Hsieh explained how his company went from zero to a billion dollars in nine years and attributed that growth to having strong core values.

Prevost recounts that Hsieh told him, “It’s the only thing that really matters to a company because its transformational and it’s foundational to a company.”

Prevost advises company leaders to develop ten core values and make them fundamental. “It’s who we are,” he says.

He typically starts with the owner or manager of the company and works with them to develop those values, but then expands the conversation to include both management and staff. “If you have your employees engaged in the process, then you have a buy-in. You can’t work in a place if they don’t share the values you have.”

Companies today need transparency, Prevost notes. That transparency extends to both staff and customers. A store’s connection with a community, so important to most dealers, should be guided by those values, which create clarity and direction.

“It goes from customer service to customer care. That’s what’s happening today in the world.”

Prevost talks about the concept of managing with care. This can be especially important for smaller dealers, who don’t have a designated HR person of their own. Managers need an emotional intelligence, or EQ, to deal with both staff and customers in an empathetic way. These skills have become even more necessary as workers must cope with angry customers—and their own concerns—under COVID.

“You have to have the highest level of emotional intelligence to deal with this kind of thing, to stand in the middle of it and understand it’s not about you, it’s about the circumstances going on in the marketplace.”

(Roy Prevost is our guest on the latest episode of our Hardlines Podcast Series, What’s in Store. He expands on the importance, and the power, of sharing the story behind those core values with new hires. Click here to sign up for our podcasts and listen to Roy’s interview.)

By HR and health & safety consultancy Peninsula Canada

As COVID-19 restrictions are being lifted, many remote businesses are beginning to plan for a safe return to the office. We know it’s hard to keep up with so many announcements and mandate changes from health authorities, so here are some suggestions to help your company prepare.

Involve employees in the decision. Involving employees in the decision to go back into the office is important as it will make them feel valued and empowered. However, remember it is the employer’s right to decide to bring their employee back into the workplace.

Provide support. As many employees are still feeling stressed and anxious, you should train managers and supervisors to recognize when a staff member needs additional support. All employees need to be aware of the available resources they can access for help, such as an Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Another way to help is to conduct regular check-ins with your team.

Create a Return-To-Work Plan. To ensure a smooth transition, all staff need to be aware of and in the loop about the employer’s plan to return to work. This plan will be the most important part of a smooth return. It is critical that you communicate with staff about return dates, who is expected to return, and at what frequency they are expected to be there.

If opting for a hybrid model that contains a mix of working from home and working from the employer’s location, write down the details in a Remote Working Policy to avoid any misinterpretation or misunderstanding.

COVID-19 guidelines. Although restrictions are being lifted, businesses still need to have a COVID-19 response plan in place to ensure staff are protected. Many companies are deciding what restrictions and guidelines they may want to keep in place even after mask mandates and proof of vaccine requirements are lifted. Be open with employees and have discussions on what will help them feel safe.

Martina Pileggi never figured, when she got COVID for the second time, that she’d be in for the long haul. But that’s exactly what hit her: a version of the virus that is still dogging her almost a month after she should have been symptom- and virus-free.

As senior director of human resources for the Hillman Group Canada, the hardware and fastener company, Pileggi and her team have been on the front lines getting the company through the pandemic. That includes ongoing communication with the staff. Part of that communication involved a regular series of town hall-style meetings at the end of 2021. On the way back from one such meeting shortly before Christmas, she had a strong urge to secure rapid tests for the company. After speaking with Hillman Canada’s president Scott Ride, the decision was made to ensure a safe entry back to work for all staff and by the end of the year, Hillman had enough tests for the entire company.

Somewhere along the way, she caught COVID herself—for the second time. “I am double-vaxxed and everything, but I still got sick.”

Pileggi heads up an HR team of six, with Hillman’s safety specialist Katelyn Smith and HR manager, Nailah Tyrell, running the company’s COVID protocols. When the staff came back to work on Jan. 3, after a week off before Christmas, she was forced to stay home herself.

Those tests purchased turned out to be vital for screening the over 500 employees across the country working in their distribution and manufacturing facilities, especially as a few people in many locations tested positive. Those tests were done every Monday morning throughout January. After missing the Jan. 3 date due to her illness, Pileggi was on the job every Monday morning at 6 a.m.

The tests were important as well for the staff who were healthy, as the Omicron wave was surging. “We told staff that ‘we’re going to keep you safe. We’re going to rapid-test you,’” she says.

The entire month was spent chasing after the virus, a process made all the more exhausting by her being struck with long-haul symptoms that have left her debilitated weeks after she should have been virus-free. “I’ve got my sense of smell back, but not my sense of taste, and my brain still gets foggy sometimes.” All that combined resulted in a month that was nothing less than “a disaster,” she recalls.

“It was the best thing because our staff were very thankful that we’re able to keep them safe. We got them back working. I’m happy to say February’s off to a much better start. Our cases are more manageable now.”

How are companies in the hardware industry adjusting to the new realities of the disrupted workforce? According to a recent survey, most of them intend to grow their teams in 2022.

In a business survey of his clients and contacts, Wolf Gugler, president of Wolf Gugler Executive Search, found that 78 percent of his respondents anticipate either adding to their headcount or remaining at the status quo for 2022. “Half of our respondents indicated they’re happy and not considering a move, while the other half are open to or contemplating changing employers.”

Workers looking for a change, he says, “will keep corporate and external talent acquisition specialists very busy.” Their work is especially rigorous currently because of the competitive nature of the hiring process—something that has not been the case in the past. “There truly is a war for good talent, which requires employers to get creative.”

That means being upfront with the pros and cons of a company and its culture, and the need to be ready to offer hiring bonuses, increase vacation packages, and just be more flexible in general around the work culture.

Gugler has been busy hiring in the outdoor living and hardware categories, both in Canada and the U.S. His clients come from across the spectrum of the industry. Vendors, stocking distributors, and retailers are all in the hiring mix. And the pressure is on recruiters to find individuals who are experienced in the hardware and home improvement industry.

“We are seeing more clients request that we headhunt from specific organizations to try and acquire talent that’s already familiar with their category,” Gugler says. “This is especially true in the Canadian market, with the doing away with non-compete employment contracts.”

Gugler says 2021 proved to be the third-best year he’s had in a quarter-century in business. “I predict that 2022 will match or better that.”

Sonya Ruff Jarvis is an entrepreneur and founder of Jarvis Consultants LLC, a marketing, events, and branding firm. Sonya has been a part of the B2B retail industry, working across all types of retail formats and categories, for more than 30 years and is the founder of the Home Improvement eRetailer Summit. You can contact her at sonya@jarvisconsultants.com. 

Last month, I wrote about dealing with mental health in the workplace while maintaining profits. It was a chance to address the declining mental health of employees accelerated by the pandemic, with ideas to help normalize mental health issues and demonstrate flexibility and empathy toward employees. This time, we focus on one real tactical suggestion to help companies consider designing benefits that improve employees’ mental health.

Leaders of any type of organization need to be fully involved to defuse the stigma of talking about mental health. Their action has to be purposeful to truly open the lines of communication throughout the organization. It doesn’t help that, in today’s world, companies unintentionally add pressure by expecting employees to be constantly connected.

This is particularly true now when many employees are working remotely. In addition, retail workers are considered to be the employee group suffering the most from mental health issues since the pandemic. According to a report by Retail Trust, 84 percent of retail workers said their mental health declined during the pandemic.

One suggestion is to create a mental health care program that supports the needs of the individual and helps them feel financially secure. How do you get started? Let’s focus on one benefit that is perhaps the easiest to roll out—plus, it’s measurable. Companies have long recognized that engagement around community charities can help build a team feeling while paying for gym memberships can create healthier employees. Both of these benefits result in less absenteeism and more productivity. It’s a win-win.

Now, let’s take that same philosophy and apply it to introducing well-being benefits like calmness and mindfulness. There are a number of larger corporations in the news already applying these types of tactics throughout their organizations. The easiest way to do this is through software applications. Some of the most popular apps include CALM and Headspace for Work. Corporations are seeking their support and rolling out programs to help employees sleep better, manage anxiety, and develop mindfulness.

Most people already use apps. It’s an individual approach that maintains the employees’ privacy. This offers one tactic on how to start creating a mental health care program that supports employees. Good luck, and let me know how it goes!

By HR and health & safety consultancy Peninsula Canada

Employers have the legal obligation to take all reasonable precautions to ensure a safe workplace. This includes identifying seasonal hazards and taking the necessary steps to reduce any related risks. Failure to do so can result in injuries and absences as well as litigation.

We first recommend reviewing and updating your Health and Safety policies, so all employees are prepared for the following most common winter hazards:

Slips and falls. The risk of falls is significantly higher due to snowy conditions so it’s important to identify any areas around your workplace that can be dangerous when wet or icy, such as parking lots, pathways, and side entrances.

Winter commutes. Travelling to work whether by car or public transit can be challenging during severe winter weather. Having an inclement weather policy to provide clarity on the procedures to follow on severe weather days is important. It can help you prepare for sudden work closures due to an emergency.

An inclement weather policy establishes the procedures your business will follow if it temporarily closes due to harsh weather, a natural disaster, or an emergency. The policy should also communicate how employees would be notified of a business closure and whether they will be paid during the closure.

Mental health. The cold winter months can sometimes feel very long and cause some people to experience seasonal depression or Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

The fear, anxiety, and prolonged isolation imposed by the COVID pandemic have also highlighted the importance of mental health. Wellness programs and activities are a great resource for employees to have in place. If you don’t have any programs available, you can offer an Employee Assistance Program (EAP). An EAP provides confidential counselling services to employees who may be going through personal challenges.

Peninsula is an HR and Health and Safety consulting firm serving over 80,000 small businesses worldwide, including dealers in home improvement. Clients are supported with ongoing updates to their workplace documentation and policies as legislation changes. Additionally, clients benefit from 24/7 employer HR advice and are protected by legal insurance.