Business Guide

How-To Guide for Business offers step-by-step instruction for preparing your workplace for a prosperous and sustainable future.

Download your free copy of the Tomorrow’s Workplace Guide for Business

TOMORROW’S WORKPLACE BUSINESS GUIDE

Community Guide

Enjoy a Community Guide of the project scope and context for your Community/Business project.

Learn how community services and business can collaborate to enhance the workplace and integrate diversity in a variety of contexts.

Download your Free copy of the Community Guide For Tomorrow’s Workplace.

Facilitators Guide

Chambers and HR Consultants: Enjoy a Power Point Presentation of the project scope and context for your Business/Community project.

Tomorrow’s Workplace projcet was driven by the needs of business owners and revealed:

• * the importance of addressing priorities identified by the business
• * levaraging workforce diversity

* the importance of partnership with community and employment service providers to improve the competitive edge

Diversity is the new competitive advangtage for sustainable business.  Rethink, reshape and renew your business community.

Download your free Tomorrow’s Workplace Overview Presentation.  Learn the scope of the project and what is needed to initiate your community/workplace/business collaborative model.

Research Guide

Enjoy an extensive Literature Review of the project scope and context for your Business/Community project.

Download your free copy of Tomorrow’s Workplace Literature Review

Implementing a Business Strategy

The heart of a successful business strategy is people.

Too often organizational leaders think that, if they only find the right set of tools or the latest financial or marketing software, their dreams of building a successful business will pay off. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your point of view, everyone else in the company also has their dreams for the future.  In essence, a business strategy is a metaphor to describe the collective actions of individuals. To the extent that the individuals can find a way of expressing their dreams and meet their needs and aspirations, then the business will be successful.

Strategy implementation is fundamentally connected with organizational change.

Unfortunately, many change initiatives have lost sight of the need to integrate legitimate employee concerns with perceived organizational imperatives. There is sometimes a sentiment that individual employees have got to accept the changes or find a job somewhere else. At a time when the true value-added in organizations is the collective energy of the individual employees, adopting this view will be severely restrictive.

Marketing Embraces HR talked about the importance of employee involvement, and outlined some ways to address employee resistance. These cannot be over-emphasized.

 Having said this, however, there are some steps that can be taken to increase the odds of successfully implementing a strategy.

 Strategy Development 

Setting the stage for successful implementation starts during the initial planning activities. You can:

• Involve the key staff in shaping the strategy helps create a sense of commitment and belonging
• Solicit input from all staff about the future direction of the enterprise
• Develop a proposed strategy
• Share and communicate it with staff and solicit feedback
• Remember that an unspectacular strategy brilliantly implemented will be better than a brilliant strategy poorly executed
• Identify the broad key performance indicators that will help you track success – financial markers, sales targets, cost of sales, customer satisfaction and complaints, etc. At this point, you don’t have to set specific targets, these can come during implementation

 During Strategy Implementation

• Assign responsibility to each department/division/team to develop their own operational plan for how they will implement the business strategy in their area
• Review all operational plans to identify overlaps, redundancies, or inconsistencies and make appropriate adjustments
• Set specific targets for the key performance indicators – e.g., how many sales, in what time period? how much profit or ROI? what level of customer satisfaction?
• Monitor your performance indicators on an ongoing basis – there will be bumps in the road
• Diagnose your results with the staff responsible using constructive, non-judgmental approaches
• Adjust your operational activities to address the identified issues

There is really a three-step process necessary to successfully implement a business strategy.

• Involve! Involve! Involve!
• Communicate! Communicate! Communicate!
• Praise! Praise! Praise!

Author: Wayne Penney, Business Consultant and Team Member with Tomorrow’s Workplace

Canada’s Top Diversity Employers

Looking for Employment in Canada where Diversity is Valued and Practiced?

The BMO sponsored “Canada’s Best Diversity Employers” 2009 lists produced by Mediacorp may be a good place to start looking for your next job.  These businesses were selected as “diversity friendly” based on “exceptional workplace diversity and inclusiveness programs” for the following employee groups:

• Women
• Members of visible minorities
• Disabled persons
• Aboriginal peoples
• LGBT peoples ( sexual orientation)

Is Your Business Eligible?

 The size of the company or the sector, whether private or public was not limited. Applicants were chosen on their merits for ingenious  and effective approaches to diversity practices in any one or more of the aforementioned groups.

 2009 marked the third year for the competition and is fully sponsored by BMO, who withdrew their name from the competition.

 Your business can apply if you meet the criteria.  Learn more about the application process here.

 You can find the list of business winners in 2009 here, with details of what they are doing to incorporate successfully the diversity principles and practices into their workplace.

Workplace Creativity on a Budget

Employee Ingenuity Needs Boost in Beleaguered Economy

In today’s economy with rising costs and struggling governments nursing it back to health, creativity and inventive imagination amongst employees is downsizing.   However, this is one cost of doing business that can have long reaching effects as it permeates the workplace and slowly syphons the growth of the future. 

In the Saturday edition of the Globe and Mail, February 19th, 2010, Jennifer Myers posted an article entitled: “Workplace creativity shrivels on the vine.”

You can access that article here, and we recommend that you do. Myers offers valuable ideas and suggestions as well as practical application of “creative ways” to innovate on a budget.

Integrating New Employees in the Workplace

Infusing Your Workforce with Mission, Vision and Values

Ok, so let’s say you’ve defined your organization’s mission, goals and values. You spent valuable time and resources in that process, and now there is an alignment between your organization and your employees. Still one challenge remains. How do you transfer that knowledge and alignment to the new employees entering your organization?

 Attracting and recruiting top talent also requires time, resources and capital. But all those resources may be wasted if your organization doesn’t have in place a good new employee orientation program, designed to get the new employees aligned with your organization and up to speed quickly.

The First Week Makes A Big Impression

Research indicates that an employee’s first days in an organization sets the foundation for a successful employee-firm relationship. During those first days, new employees learn habits, form relationships and establish their perception of their role within the organization. The future success of the employee might be dependent on those first days. This is a powerful, vulnerable time in the life of a new employee, and it also represents the most teachable instance that your organization will have to shape the new employee.

 The on boarding process should be a mean to emphasize your organization’s vision, values, goals and policies as well as to provide the new employee with necessary information to start their contribution to the organization. The goals of a good orientation process should be to transfer organization knowledge quickly, highlight the mission and the vision of the organization and how it connects to the individual’s tasks and make the new employee feel at ease.

 Key ingredients for a successful orientation program include:

1.  The orientation process should start before the new employee’s first day. Send a message to all the employees announcing the new hire. Ensure that all the tools and necessary equipment are in place for their first day. Send the new hire an email with information regarding their first day in the organization. This will help them feel welcome in advance.
2. Spread the orientation process over a few days or even weeks. Many organizations make the mistake to try and have the orientation program compressed in one day. This will only add stress to the new employee, who will be overwhelmed with information.
3. Assigned a “go to person” or a type of “mentor” for the new employee, someone that can answer their questions, show them around and formally and informally provide them with information and support.
4. Involve the executive team in your orientation process. This is a great opportunity for the senior executive team to “walk the talk” and emphasize the organization’s mission, vision and goals and strengthen the alignment between your organization and the new hire.  Give new employees the opportunity for an in-person welcome by a senior executive.

The manner in which you handle the acquisition and assimilation of new hires communicates volumes about your organization and your leadership team. A good effective on boarding process will enable and inspire the new hires to deliver better results faster. It will also increase their organizational commitment and your organization’s ability to retain top talent.

Remember–first impressions really count, and will set the tone for the rest of the relationship with your new hires.

Nicoleta Ratiu

SFU Human Resources 2009 Graduate

Community Service Providers Invited

Employment Service Providers Free Networking and Development Workshop

The workplace of tomorrow will be very diverse, comprising individual differences in generations, education levels, cultural, and ability/disability. As an employment service provider, you’re aware of these realities, and are focused on connecting your clients with satisfying work situations.

Through the Tomorrow’s Workplace project, we are supporting the connection of businesses with community groups in order to source and recruit job-ready individuals in Surrey. We are helping organizations explore their “Business Case for Diversity” to help them sustain and grow into the future.

During the workshops and discussions we’ve had with employment service providers, one common theme expressed is their challenge in building relationships with businesses.

Please join us for exploration and discussion

We invite you to join with peers in your community as Dr. Neault and Ms. Pickerell share tips and techniques for building collaborative relationships with the business community. This is about moving forward, taking some risks, and recognizing how employment service providers are uniquely positioned to meet the immediate needs of our business community.

More About the Speakers

Dr. Roberta Neault is president of Life Strategies Ltd., an Aldergrove-based firm specializing in diversity, international/global careers, and career management as a recruitment, retention, and engagement solution.  She is a counsellor-educator at Athabasca, Yorkville, and Trinity Western Universities, and an award-winning keynote speaker, trainer, presenter, and facilitator.

In 2009, working with SUCCESS, she was instrumental in developing a toolkit: SEED: Supporting Employers Embracing Diversity. This comprehensive toolkit guides employers in recruitment, retention, and training a culturally diverse workforce.

Deirdre Pickerell, Life Strategies’ senior consultant, received the BC HRMA Award of Excellence for her innovative work in career management within organizations. Ms. Pickerell is a sought after speaker and an international expert on using career management as an employee engagement strategy.

Meeting Details

YOU MUST CONFIRM YOUR ATTENDENCE – RSVP to Heather Scragg at the Surrey Board of Trade   Email: heather@businessinsurrey.com   Call: 604.581.7130

Wednesday, March 3, 3:00-5:00pm

(network/register 2:30-3:00)

Sheraton Guildford, Surrey BC

Hosted by the Tomorrow’s Workplace project:

Gayle Hadfield, Project Manager,  Lynn Corrigan, Workplace Design Consultant

Business and Community

Communities Offer Help for the Business Sector

Many small and medium size businesses follow their business plans, mainly concentrating on their products, customers and their vision for success. However, businesses often overlook or underestimate the importance of the community they operate in. Organizations seem to operate in a silo, missing the important resources communities have to offer.

Communities form around geographic locations and they usually have shared values, culture and trends

There are some easy ways to get to know and understand your community better. You can start by connecting with your local Board of Trade and the Chamber of Commerce. Ensure you interact and network with other businesses to find out the trends, opportunities and challenges. This shared interest networking will help your business.

Connect with the local educational institutions

Schools can provide qualified potential employees, which are already members of your community and have a good understanding of its trends and characteristics. By being informed and understanding the specific environment your business operates in, you will be able to be more proactive, better serve your customers and consequently have more opportunity for business growth into the future.

 Nicoleta Ratiu, SFU Business Graduate and Tomorrow’s Workplace contributor

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