Boxing Day, the anti-climactic day following the Christmas adrenaline high, is my favorite day of year.
The origin of Boxing Day is not definitively known, but it may come from the traditional opening on that day of Anglican Church poor boxes that had been filled during Advent. Another possibility is that it arose ...
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No one is surprised when the financial function of an organization goes through an audit process. It’s standard practice. However, when it comes to the human resources function, not so much! As much as business intelligence and the perspective about the human resources function have changed over the years, the fact of the matter is, human resources departments are still significant cost centers. ...
Continue Reading →What do the following jobs have in common? Pool and Beach Worker, Procurement Intern, Electrical Designer, and Logistics Co-ordinator. Truthfully, not that much. But what is most apparent is that none of these jobs support an application for a senior executive position in finance. Yet, our executive search team sees increasing numbers of applications for senior management positions from candidates who are woefully not qualified for the job posted. The applicants are hopefuls who have no experience in the functional ...
Continue Reading →Posted by: Peggie Koenig
Years ago, as a newly minted human resources graduate, I was taken aback by an article in a business magazine titled “Let’s blow-up the HR Department”. As I was ready to take on the world and save business through human resources management, I was concerned that perhaps I had made the wrong career decision. The premise of that article was based on viewing the HR Department as an unnecessary overhead administrative expense that offered nothing to improve the bottom line. ...
Continue Reading →“I like to con people. And I like to insult people. If you combine “con” and “insult”, you get consult,” observes Dogbert, a comic-strip character. Over the years, I’ve heard a lot of interesting and disturbing stories from organizations about their experiences with management consultants. Business often doesn’t have a very good impression of consultants, and for good reason. Anyone can become a management consultant if they can sell the perception of ‘expertise.’ Barriers to entry are low and people ...
Continue Reading →I attended the Saskatoon 2015 Deloitte Spring Breakfast to hear a presentation by Janet Kestin and Nancy Vonk about their careers in the advertising industry as Mad Women and their journey to write their new book “Darling you can’t do both (and other noise to ignore on your way up)”. Their research shows that the perceptions towards women in the workplace have only changed marginally since the 1950’s. Those of us who work in the business world are keenly aware, ...
Continue Reading →We all know how tough it can be to find the right people to lead our organizations. According to a recent research report on the state of recruitment, internal recruitment is exploding. Organizations are putting significant investment into growing their internal recruitment functions to deal with an increasingly complex labour market environment. This trend to hire more recruiters and grow HR can be seen in many organizations. In today’s tough labour market, recruitment can no longer be based on advertising ...
Continue Reading →Posted by: Peggie Koenig
We analyzed the results and trends of the 2014 Koenig Trades Compensation Survey with the recently published 2013 Saskatchewan Wage Survey. Nine key trades covered in our survey and included in the comments below are: ccarpenters, electricians, heavy duty mechanics, industrial mechanics/millwrights, light duty mechanics (auto, truck), machinists, plumbers, steamfitters/pipefitters, and welders.
Our key findings based on the comparison are as follows:
Recruiting and retaining employees in the trades continues to be a challenge,not only in Saskatchewan, but across all jurisdictions in Canada. In response to the challenges facing employers, Koenig & Associates completed a trades survey in the first quarter of 2014. The survey covered nine key trades:
There was a significant level of interest in collecting and sharing of data for industry sectors that employ these trades. We want to share with you some of the key ...
Continue Reading →Terminating an employee, for any reason, be it restructuring, lay-off, or performance, is one of, or indeed, the hardest thing that a manager has to do. Losing one’s job can be devastating for an employee on many levels; loss of income and financial security, erosion of self confidence and ego, and social stigma. It is a manager’s job to make the decision to end the employment relationship and communicate the decision face-to-face in a respectful way. Those managers who use ...
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