Companies and employers are racking their brains to promote diversity, equity and inclusion. SCOLOCO has found an original trick by using the logo on its ecological sneakers. At first glance, the logo looks like any other. However, when viewed through a cell phone, it comes alive. The Quebec ecological gender-neutral shoe company claims to be the first in North America to have a logo integrating augmented reality. It is a fourth secondary student in arts and technology at the Sainte-Anne de Lachine college, Béatrice Lane, who created the little comic strip. The characters personify the company’s values of fairness, equality and inclusion with the shoe brand’s slogan, “Difference is my preference”. The 15-year-old artist uses this avant-garde touch to express the mutual support and benevolence between two different people.
As employers look to cut costs, reducing time wasted in meetings can have a big impact, reports Employee Benefit News (EBN) magazine. The average organization invests over US$80,000 in meetings per employee per year. Companies of 100 people that cut unnecessary meetings would save almost $2.5 million per year, and companies of 5,000 people would see savings amount to over $100 million. According to research by Reclaim, an app that finds the best time for meetings, tasks, and breaks, professionals spent more than half of their 40-hour workweek in meetings in 2021. In 2022, employees were still spending average 18 hours in meetings per week.
When an employee slams the door to go to the employer opposite to earn an extra $1 an hour or $10,000 more in IT, it makes you want to agree with your competitors to set salaries and thus avoiding labor turnover. However, setting and controlling salaries, benefits and the amount of annual bonuses hinder competition, the efficient allocation of resources and job mobility. Since June 2022, a new paragraph has been added to the Competition Act and aims precisely to prohibit wage-fixing agreements as well as non-poaching agreements. It is now impossible to promise your client that you will not solicit their employees to convince them that you are the best employer in Quebec. The new paragraph applies to agreements concluded between employers as of June 23, 2023 and to those which implement agreements concluded before this date, specifies the government site which published its guidelines on the application of the law.
Who hasn’t heard a joke about civil servants? The fact is that the majority of them, at least those in the federal government, are happy, according to the results of the most recent Public Service Employee Survey (PSES). More than 4 in 5 public servants (81%) enjoy their work and 78% say they receive support to find a balance between work and personal life. The survey was conducted from November 21, 2022 to February 5, 2023 with over 90 departments and agencies. The results represent responses from 189,584 public service employees. Contrary to the clichés conveyed in films and television series, civil servants can show initiative. According to the survey, 72% felt encouraged to be innovative or proactive in their work and 83% said the people they work with value their ideas and opinions.
Quebec is not the only place in the world where the number of people aged 65 and over in the labor market has increased. The most recent data from the Institut de la statistique du Québec indicates that between 2005 and 2021, the growth of the labor force among those aged 65 and over has doubled to reach 126,000. According to The Irish Times, 107,300 people aged 65 or older were working in the first quarter of 2023 in Ireland, a substantial increase from the 91,900 recorded in the fourth quarter of 2019. Ireland has a population of 5 million and Quebec 8.4 million. The daily explains this increase in older workers by the cost of housing, unpaid mortgages, the increase in the cost of living, the raising of the retirement age of civil servants and public sector employees to 70, as well as than the state pension paid since 2014 at age 66 rather than 65.
