Overall Approach to Executive Compensation Surveys As an Adjunct Professor, Tim McConnell of our firm taught graduate courses in Compensation and Compensation Strategy in the Advanced Program in HR Management at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto for several years. The industry standard best practices outlined below were part of this curriculum. While our firm may be hired by the senior management of our clients, we are often called on to present our findings and rationale to the Boards of Directors of these organizations as they exercise their fiduciary responsibility. Thi ..read more

Effective management of the Human Resources function is critically important to the health of every organization. CEOs in small organizations often complain that ‘people issues’ are their number one priority. Unfortunately, due to competing demands and staff shortages, HR is often ignored or under-resourced. Human Resources Outsourcing (HRO) may be the answer. What is Human Resources Outsourcing? Human Resources Outsourcing (HRO) is a tool used to manage small organizations.   Instead of having internal staff perform HR activities and functions, HRO delegates HR to an outside service ..read more

McConnell HR Consulting Inc. is pleased to welcome a new addition to our team. Beau (Mr. B.) regularly attends staff meetings and greatly enhances our company culture and morale. He brings 12 weeks life experience to the role. His performance objectives include: Linguistic communications (although he enthusiastically reminds all in earshot when it’s mealtime). Personal mobility. Improved bio-break management skills. P.S. Our Chief of Security and Company Mascot, Ms. Tilley, decided to photobomb the event. The post New Team Member appeared first on McConnell Consulting Inc ..read more

Salary Survey season has two components. Data collection by the survey firms in May. Release/publication of survey results in October / November. Plus, in October each year annual increase forecasts for the upcoming calendar year are posted by the survey firms. Our firm collects this data and forwards it to our clients. Most of our clients augment annual COLA increases with a full Compensation Review / Salary Survey every three years. Since the labour market evolves and you can’t just rely on annual adjustments to stay competitive. There is normally a fairly standard and consistent approa ..read more

Do these symptoms exist in your office?  Let’s examine the case of the ABC Agency (name protected). Silos – Lack of Inter-Office Coordination An international aid agency had a mandate to deliver health programs for children in Less Developed Countries.  They had two departments and two types of staff: the accountants who collected, processed, and reported on funds from donors; and the scientists who designed and administered programs.  The accountants were frustrated because the scientists didn’t fill out the right financial forms on time.  The scientists were mad at the a ..read more

This is our annual Compensation Planning Outlook for 2022. “May you live in interesting times” is an English expression claimed to be a translation of a traditional Chinese curse. This certainly applies to HR Management in 2021. New Hybrid Work Models Forced Non-Vaccination Unpaid Leaves Labour Shortages Supply Chain Shortages And Statistics Canada is now reporting CPI at 4.1% (Year-over-year August), the fastest pace in years.   With respect to Compensation, we have reviewed the published annual Salary Increase projections for 2022 and presented these to our friends and clients for you ..read more

Our Experience In the famous movie The Sixth Sense, Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) tells Bruce Willis ‘I see dead people’.  Don’t worry, we don’t claim to do that. We do claim however, to ‘see’ process flows, especially ones that aren’t functioning properly.  It’s like the musician who ‘sees’ musical notes in colour. I can’t for the life of me assemble Ikea furniture, gas barbeques or anything than comes in pieces in a box.  My wife the puzzle expert thinks it’s hilarious that I can’t even put together two pieces that she has already joined and then taken apart.  ‘How can so ..read more

The results are in – Canada’s Top 100 Employers, along with the National Capital Region’s Top Employers  for 2019 have been announced. While we see an assortment of reasons organizations made these lists, this year there seems to be a focus on work-life balance, parental leave top ups, developing your employees, giving back to the community and employee wellness. Work-Life Balance Rather than the traditional X number of vacation days, X number of sick days, etc., a lot of the top employers in both Canada and the National Capital Region are offering their employees unlimited time off. For ..read more

It’s amazing how many people are stuck in their grooves. To the point where “stay in your lane” is a common saying. “Who are you?”. People ask us this question all the time. We walked into an automotive supply corporation the other day and the President asked: “who are you?”. Before we could answer the question, he said “you’re not car guys”, “name me three other car companies you have worked with in the past”. I said “none”. He replied, “we need people who understand the unique intricacies of this business”. We get the same comments from utilities, industry, hospitals, banks – you name it. I ..read more

Are you paying your employees properly?  A simple question.  Or not?  How do you know what is fair in salary administration? Fairness has many sides to it.  Your staff will get very irritated if you don’t get it right. Internal Equity – the relative worth of jobs within the organization. External Equity – how you pay relative to other organizations in your sector. Employee Equity – how you pay staff relative to each other based on seniority, performance etc. Pay Equity – equal pay for work of equal value between males and females. Administrative Efficiency – I’ll just say ..read more