October 18 2010
- World Statistics Day – a first on October 20th, 2010
- Nobel Prize in Economics -- Making Sense of Unemployment
- The Ten most significant women’s rights cases
- Optimizing Performance, Inspiring Innovation and Driving Growth in a Complex Economic Environment
- Canada’s Top 100 Employers
- Talent didn’t always make that much money
- Building Corporate Cultures that Support Sustainability and oikis International students for sustainable economics and management
- Vulnerability and Adverse Treatment in the Workplace
- Parenting Rights in the Canadian Workplace and International Review of Leave Policies
- Building Retirement Responsibility: Findings from the 2010 Canadian Capital Accumulation Plan Survey
- Post Secondary Education Payoffs
- Non-permanent residents mostly in unskilled occupations
- Recruiting on Social Networking Sites
- Skilled trades training needed: “If we want Canadian men to be productive, lifelong learners, we must advance public technologies”
- Book of the Week
World Statistics Day – a first on October 20th, 2010
“This is an historical moment: for the first time the UN General Assembly has invited all member states and international partners to celebrate the first “World Statistics Day” on 20 October 2010… to pay a well-deserved tribute to the professional community of official statisticians around the globe. This community has worked steadfastly in the past decades in building a global statistical system that the world relies on. It is a community united in providing high quality, reliable and impartial statistical information for evidence-based policy formulation.
Except in Canada….on the United Nations website Canada’s entry reads:
Canada’s Chief Statistician resigns on a matter of professional integrity
23 July 2010 -- Canada's Chief Statistician Munir Sheikh resigned on 21 July 2010 on a matter of principle regarding the 2011 Census of Population in that country. In a statement, Mr. Sheikh, who headed Statistics Canada for two years, explains that his decision “relates to the question of whether a voluntary survey can become a substitute for a mandatory census.” “It cannot,” he added. Addressing his country’s fellow-citizens, Mr. Sheikh wrote: “We do remember, every single day, that it is because of you providing us with your information, we can function as a statistical agency.”
United Nations Statistics, World Statistics Day 2010 website
Nobel Prize in Economics -- Making Sense of Unemployment
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2010 was awarded jointly to Peter A. Diamond, Dale T. Mortensen and Christopher A. Pissarides "for their analysis of markets with search frictions”… “which means any setting where buyers and sellers don’t automatically find each other. Search models are relevant in many settings, including dating, used cars and housing, but above all, these models help us make sense of unemployment.” [Edward L. Glaeser, New York Times]
New York Times, October 11, 2010: The Work Behind the Nobel Prize, By Edawrd L. Glaeser
The Ten most significant women’s rights cases
The Court commemorates the eighty-first year anniversary of Edwards v. Canada (Attorney General), [1930] A.C. 124, commonly known as the Persons case-- significant for its advancement of gender equality -- women were accepted as “qualified persons” who could therefore enter the Senate. The Court has made a list and summary of the ten most significant women’s rights cases since thePersons case – a number of these cases are employment related.
The Court: the online resource for debate & data about the Supreme Court of Canada, October 15, 2010: Amici Curiae: This One’s For The Girls: The Persons Case Turns 81 by Christopher Hunter and Ivy Tsui
Optimizing Performance, Inspiring Innovation and Driving Growth in a Complex Economic Environment
Webcast free from Cornell University ILR School
In this live webcast, Chris Collins, ILR associate professor of human resources and director of the Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies (CAHRS), and Michael Serino, executive director, ILR Human Capital Development, will have a conversation about the role of HR in supporting growth and innovation at a time when organizations are dealing with significant workforce challenges.
Topics to be covered include: finding the right leadership and technical talent in the U.S. and emerging markets; re-engaging a workforce affected by burnout, stress and the impact of the economic downturn; retaining the most critical talent to drive organizational growth and innovation
Date: Thursday November 11, 2010 Time: 12:00 - 1:00 (ET)
Click here to register and to see related resources
Canada’s Top 100 Employers
Canada's Top 100 Employers -- 2,750 employers applied this year -- are determined using eight criteria: physical workplace; work; health, financial and family benefits; vacation and time off; employee communications; performance management; training and skills development; and community involvement. Employers are compared to other organizations in their field to determine which offers the most progressive and forward-thinking programs. This publication is not comparable to Aon Hewitt’s Best Employers in Canada study which measures employee engagement based upon data from employees.
Canada's Top 100 Employers, 2011
Globe and Mail, October 14, 2010: The rankings: Canada's top 100 employers by Diane Jermyn
News @ The university of Toronto:, October 15, 2010: U of T one of Canada's Top 100 employers One of four post-secondary institutions named, by Elaine Smith
Talent didn’t always make that much money
Malcolm Gladwell writes about market pricing and changes in the way compensation is determined in baseball, publishing, investment banking, modeling, and other talent-based industries including how Marvin Miller took over as the head of the Major League Baseball Players Association and made it a union.
TALENT GRAB; Annals of Business: Malcolm Gladwell. The New Yorker. New York: Oct 11, 2010. Vol. 86, Iss. 31; pg. 84:
The University of Toronto community can click on the following permanent link and then click on ProQuest 5000 to read the full text of the article:http://simplelink.library.utoronto.ca/url.cfm/118814 (6928 words)
New Yorker, October 15, 2010: ABSTRACT: Malcolm Gladwell, Annals of Business, “Talent Grab,” The New Yorker, October 11, 2010, p. 84
Building Corporate Cultures that Support Sustainability and oikis International students for sustainable economics and management
Globe and Mail, October 19, 2010: The green building impact on employees: Companies find operating in environmentally smart structure increases productivity and staff satisfaction levels by Sarah Boesveld
Journal of Business Ethics Volume 89, Number 3, 449-472: Leaders and Laggards: The Influence of Competing Logics on Corporate Environmental Action, by Irene M. Herremans, M. Sandy Herschovis and Stephanie Bertels
YouTube: SFUNews: August 05, 2010, Faculty of Environment Spring 2010 Lecture Series: Building Corporate Cultures that Support Sustainability (I hour lecture)
Dr. Stephanie Bertels is an assistant professor from SFU's School of Business discussing the challenges found during a project examining a Suncor Energy environmental violation in "Building Corporate Cultures that Support Environmental and Social Sustainability."
oikis International: students for sustainable economics and management, October 14, 2010: oikos members from various academic backgrounds inspire students of Management and Economics on a global scale and advance the integration of sustainable development into teaching and research at their faculties.
oikis News: Events & Calls for Papers - Apply by: - 01. May 2011: CALL FOR PAPERS - Special Issue in the Journal of Business Ethics: “Sustaining Sustainability in Organizations”
Vulnerability and Adverse Treatment in the Workplace
The UK government, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has released a study that uses the Fair Treatment at Work Survey 2008 to investigate the characteristics which make employees more or less vulnerable to adverse treatment in the workplace. The report proposes that attention should be given to supporting specific groups of workers, including young people, those with long-standing health problems and gay/lesbian or bisexual workers.
BIS, September, 2010: Vulnerability and Adverse Treatment in the Workplace, by Helen Bewley and John Forth, Nieser (85 pages, PDF)
Fair Treatment at Work Report: Survey Findings from the 2008 survey (255 pages, PDF)
Parenting Rights in the Canadian Workplace and International Review of Leave Policies
AON Consulting reviews the current maternity and parental leave practices and requirements across Canada.
AON Consulting, June, 2010: Jigsaw of Parenting Rights in the Workplace, by Julie Ralph, Research Lawyer and Shelly Shapero, Research Consultant (6 pages, PDF)
International Review of Leave Policies
The UK government Department of Business Innovation and Skills has released its sixth annual review of leave policies in 29 counties. Leave policies include parental leave and care for adult relatives, as well as policies for life course career breaks and time credits.
BIS, September, 2010: International Review of Leave Policies and Related Research 2010 (260 pages, PDF)
Building Retirement Responsibility: Findings from the 2010 Canadian Capital Accumulation Plan Survey
“When asked to identify the top three objectives in designing their plans, the main two, by a significant margin, are competitive positioning (82%) and encouraging individual responsibility for retirement saving (61%). The fact that only 25% of respondents are focused on targeting a particular level of replacement income confirms that the majority of CAP sponsors are choosing to promote individual responsibility rather than employer responsibility to save for retirement.
Towers Watson, October 2010: Building Retirement Responsibility: Findings from the 2010 Canadian Capital Accumulation Plan Survey (20 pages, PDF)
Post Secondary Education Payoffs
According to two recent studies commissioned by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario a higher numbers of graduates from Ontario’s colleges and universities have not reduced opportunities in the job market. As well, graduates are finding jobs and out earning high school graduates by almost 25 per cent – an earnings gap that has more than doubled in the last 20 years.
Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario, October 18, 2010: Postsecondary Education and the Labour Market in Ontario by Drewes, T., Trent University (41 pages, PDF)
Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario, October 18, 2010: Exploring the Alignment between Postsecondary Programs and Labour Market Outcomes in Ontario, by Walters, D. & Frank, K., University of Guelph (49 pages, PDF)
Globe and Mail, October 18, 2010: Earnings gap widens between high school and post-secondary graduates
Non-permanent residents mostly in unskilled occupations
This study examines the growing number of non-permanent residents who work temporarily in Canada. They are compared with permanent residents in terms of demographic characteristics, location, occupations and earnings. Census data show that while the numbers destined to skilled work has been increasing, most non-permanent residents are found in relatively unskilled occupations. Reflecting the occupations in which they work, foreign nationals working temporarily in Canada tend to be paid less than are comparable Canadian born and established immigrant workers.
Statistics Canada, Canadian Social Trends, June 18, 2010: Foreign nationals working temporarily in Canada by Derrick Thomas (17 pages, PDF)
Recruiting on Social Networking Sites
More employers are incorporating social networking mediums such as LinkedIn, Facebook or Youtube to assess and recruit new talent. The 2010 Campus Recruitment and Benchmark Survey Report found more employers will be trying to engage graduates online in an effort to save money. However, the transparency that is associated to social media carries risks for both the employers and job seekers. Recruiters as well as job seekers must take responsibility for their participation and reputation and comply with current local and international social networking legislations.
Hrreporter, September 29, 2010: More employers using 'social recruiting’ to attract new grads: Study
Cost-per-hire decreased by 50 per cent in 2009-2010 compared to one year earlier
TressCox Lawyers, September, 30, 2010: Social Networking and Employment: What are the Responsibilities of Employers and Recruiters? Nicholas Duggal
TargetJobs, Manage Your Online Reputation: Social Networking and Graduate Reputation
WSJ Blogs: Hire Education: Follow college seniors as they look for work in a tough job market, May 3, 2010: The Basics of
Job Hunting Through Social Networks
Globe and Mail, Oct. 18, 2010: Personal info slips through Facebook into advertisers’ hands
Skilled trades training needed: “If we want Canadian men to be productive, lifelong learners, we must advance public technologies”
“One striking difference between Canada and advanced European countries is their far superior public infrastructure and public technologies… as a result of our fixation on U.S. models and perceptions, we may not even recognize how backward our technologies are. No prestige is attached to the trades because there is little of significance in the public space for them to maintain and improve. And so, our overwhelming hope is that our children attend university, preferably to become doctors, lawyers or currency traders. In turn, this further weakens state and private sector support for technical occupations and innovation in the collective sphere.” By Paul Cappon, CEO of the Canadian Council on Learning
Globe and Mail, October 19, 2010: Better tech, better technicians by Paul Cappon, CEO of the Canadian Council on Learning
Canada: Our Time to Lead: Failing Boys – You can link to all of the stories in this series here (scroll down on the page!) or just read the ones selected below
Globe and Mail, October 15, 2010: Failing boys and the powder keg of sexual politics: Compelling statistics show boys rank behind girls by nearly every measure of scholastic achievement, yet the phenomenon is as polarizing as it is puzzling
Globe and Mail, October 15, 2010: Five reasons why boys are failing: Five factors experts suggest have contributed to the growing academic achievement gap that separates girls from boys: click on each – gaming; education; code; development; models
Globe and Mail, October 15, 2010: How boys are falling behind girls: A survey of recent gender-based statistics on academic achievement, teachers, scholarships and more
Globe and Mail, May 20, 2010: Skilled trades among world's toughest jobs to fill Bertrand Marotte
Book of the Week
Nice Work If You Can Get It: Life and Labor in Precarious Times, by Andrew Ross. New York : New York University Press, 2009. 264 p. ISBN 9780814776292
In Nice Work If You Can Get It, Andrew Ross surveys the new topography of the global workplace and finds an emerging pattern of labor instability and uneven development on a massive scale. Combining detailed case studies with lucid analysis and graphic prose, he looks at what the new landscape of contingent employment means for workers across national, class, and racial lines—from the emerging “creative class” of high-wage professionals to the multitudes of temporary, migrant, or low-wage workers. Developing the idea of “precarious livelihoods” to describe this new world of work and life, Ross explores what it means in developed nations—comparing the creative industry policies of the United States, United Kingdom, and European Union, as well as developing countries—by examining the quickfire transformation of China’s labor market. He also responds to the challenge of sustainability, assessing the promise of “gr! een jobs” through restorative alliances between labor advocates and environmentalists.
About the Author:
Andrew Ross is Professor of American Studies in the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University.
Visit the Recent Books at the CIRHR Library blog.
This publication is protected by Canadian copyright laws and may not be copied, posted or forwarded electronically without permission.
Questions or comments: cirhr.library@utoronto.ca
Editor: Vicki Skelton
Designer: Nick Strupat
Copyright © 2010 Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources, University of Toronto. All rights reserved.