Members learned more about one of our member companies, Capri CMW from Amar Munjal, and Bruce Yari. Amar began the presentation explaining how companies can leverage their benefits program to retain and attract employees.

Capri CMW can provide an audit of your offerings, benchmarking the group benefits & retirement plan, to see how it compares to other companies in a similar industry/size and geographic location the organization is hiring from. The audit ultimately outlines the comparison of other companies’ offerings, and the pros and cons of each of the findings. They look at plan design and recommend change metrics to improve it, allow people to enroll earlier, and make it more flexible from a contribution perspective.

Basic employee education is effective if offered recognizing demographic/age, and additionally, provided on company time.  The education that Capri CMW offers on a bi-annual basis to employees will help them understand how they can save tax with payroll deductions, the potential for saving with an RRSP and giving them future projection based on their organization’s plan. Employees will want to know that the impact is on their net take home pay if they contribute to the 4% matching program.  Capri CMW also can build and send out total rewards statements to employees on a yearly basis, if requested, and can conduct one-on-one education sessions with employees as well as group education sessions.

If organizations wanted to start this process, it’s recommended to engage employees in a survey asking them for feedback on their current benefits plan. Common current feedback is increasing coverage for mental health as well as wellness payments (gym membership, running shoes, fitness classes, equipment).  The process will take approximately 2 weeks from start to finish, and at the end, the organization will receive data on how their plans stack up against the competition, ultimately helping leverage their position as a leading employer in the marketplace.

A  reminder of future events:

Oct. 6^th, our annual Round Table takes place.

On today’s call we heard from two of our members, Dann Konkin, President, Ampco Manufacturers, and Don Bayda, CEO, F&M Installations.

Dann reports that material supply chain issues continue to keep him up at night. Because Ampco purchases materials from all of the world, they need to purchase at least 6 months in advance. Dann also reported that he noticed a 250% increase in the cost of sea freight.

Don shared that at the beginning of COVID, F&M lost about 25% of their workforce, but now things are tapering off. Because this has been F&M’s busiest year with 3 x the amount of work they normally have, they have had to hire more staff.  Don has noticed that the culture in the company has shifted with new employees coming on board.  Don has brought in a dedicated person to provide more leadership.

A  reminder of future events:

Oct. 6^th, our annual Round Table takes place. We are currently looking for sponsors, speakers and topics.

Thanks to all the members that could join us today for our Virtual Breakfast Forum. Members enjoyed an interactive conversation with three of our members, from three different industries, three different sizes of operations, and three different regions:

Doug Pauze, Coastline Wood Industries, Nanaimo BC

Amit Golan, CKF Food packaging producers (egg trays and meat trays), Langley BC

Ian Rood, UBSafe, Kamloops BC

Doug reports that Coastline Forest Industries’ biggest challenge is transport of product costs increasing up to 300%  (if you can even get the trucks!) as well as government policies in the forest sector. As long as export policies stay in place, they have a business to continue on with.  From a Health and Safety standpoint, Doug’s concern is forklifts / forklift interaction with poles and other machines. Even with extensive training and discipline, they continue to have 1-3 minor incidents, having not been successful in eliminating or reducing the frequency of these incidents. Members chimed in on some suggestions including installing blue lights on the forklifts and collision shut off mechanisms, however Doug has already employed these solutions. Another suggestion was to provide shift incentive programs to protect the equipment.

Amit’s operation, CKF, runs a 24/7 operation.  CKF hires only Red Seals, and provides substantial on the job task training. Loss control management meets once a month for an hour or two to review safety protocols. Amit reports that his management regularly walks the floor, and stops the work to talk safety with a random line worker. After this discussion, they shake the employee’s hand and thanks them for working safely. This is not done to catch them doing something wrong, but rather to keep the conversation about Health and Safety going with the whole team. Amit’s organization still has a mask mandate, but stopped sanitization and separation from between the plants.  There is a significant risk of fires in a pulp mill, and as a result, CKF does 12 fire drills a year and invites fire department to attend all drills. The goal is to familiarize the Fire Department with the plant and then following the teams will debrief in the boardroom.  CKF also has a proactive “Pre-Accident Investigation” form that he is sharing with members for their use.  Amit’s team has achieved over 50% gender equality in Sr. Management positions.

Ian reports that lately, UBSafe has been dealing with staff having spring colds, hayfever, allergies or Covid related symptoms, but their productivity is not really affected due to people being able to work remotely.  UBSafe has put in a lot of work into their systems, in case of sickness of staff, other staff can step in easily to replace them temporarily, and they have built a strong team. Ian reports that his greatest concern is keeping his team, due to labour shortage. It takes  4 years to get a worker to a useful level and 20 to turn them into an expert. UBSafe works on the lifestyle component rather than high salaries. Like many other members, Ian reports supply issues as being another major challenge.

A few reminders of future events:

April 28^th, The Day of Mourning. We’ll have our AGM, as well as a special guest speaker from Threads of Life, speaking on a personal loss in the workplace

Oct. 6^th, our annual Round Table takes place. We are currently looking for sponsors, speakers and topics.

June 24^th we are planning a trip to Kelowna, with more info coming out shortly. This will be a good opportunity to tour other members’ sites.

There will be a membership survey coming out shortly. We are asking all of our members to please take the time to complete it. It will include some important information we are trying to gather, such as how you’re measuring your effectiveness in your workplace, etc.

A big EHSCBC thank you to our members Tim Croyle, Mark Bunz and Allison Straghan who shared personal updates from their respective regions and industries throughout British Columbia. Here is what they had to say:

Tim Croyle – BC Transit – Victoria

Tim reported that he appreciated the recent Mental Health focused VBF, stating that he found it very timely. Tim’s team has been experiencing mental health challenges, especially during the pandemic, and more recently due to the current instability due to world events. His team is thinking about the lifting of the mask mandate, and how the public will react if/when it’s removed. Tim advised that BC Transit’s approach has always been to follow the PHO guidelines, and not make up their own interpretations. If the PHO is removing the requirement for mask wearing in public places, the challenge will be to deal with all the spectrums and work through that change management over the next few months. The key will be to minimize confrontations. They will be asking themselves: what are we going to undo, and which are we going to keep because it’s good business practice? Another observation was that they are starting to see ridership pick up. This is likely due to the impact of the price of gas rising, less vehicle use, and that downtown areas are starting to get busier after the announcement lifting restrictions on restaurants.

Tim inquired to those on the call and within the membership which organizations are ISO 45001 certified. Tim would be interested in connecting with you to discuss the certification process and your experiences with it.

Mark Bunz – Dinoflex – Salmon Arm

Mark reported that recently, especially with younger employees, their team is needing to revisit protocols, including mask mandates, more frequently. He believes that the challenge stems from other jurisdictions relaxing and eliminating some of those mandates.

Mark shared that in the first 2months of the year in the production area, they’ve already burned through 1/3 of the sick days that the government mandated. Cases have definitely spiked within their business. From a general labour standpoint, the Okanagan is no different from other regions, and labour is short there too. Mark has increased labour rates (pay) to incentivize their employees, but he’s finding that it’s not about the money that’s impacting people’s decisions to stay with an organization. Mark’s team is investigating a foreign work program to attract labour. We keep focused on automation. Supply chain continues to be an issue: price increases, raw material allocations and how that impacts / affects production, freight costs and delays. Freight partners have passed along surcharges and flat rate increases due to fuel costs rising. Mark reminds us that as leaders we need to remind ourselves daily to continue to focus on our employees’ safety and wellbeing. Mark reported that frequently, people are feeling “bummed out” and missing work. Mark shared that in his organization, they need to do more from a mental health perspective, and design a more robust policy to address it. The first things he’s looking to do are reduce stigma and start talking about mental health on a more frequent basis.

Allison Straghan – Code Electric – Vancouver

Allison’s organization had a similar experience to Mark’s, where lot of their production staff have used up the majority of 5 sick days. Recently, that has reduced and levelled off. Everyone in Allison’s organization is still wearing masks and following PHO, but she’s finding that employees working in the plant and those working in the office differ in their perspectives. As a leader, Allison shared that she will continue to wear her mask to support those people who are more comfortable wearing them, and wish to continue. On the shop floor there might be a bit of pressure for those wearing their masks. Mental health is wearing on Allison’s team. She reports that with the price increases of food and fuel employees are feeling more financially strapped, and as a result, she has seen employees missing work more in the plant side than the office/technical team.

Employees have brought in some referrals from other companies which have resulted in good hires. Allison has found that lot of people are looking to work close to where they live, as the type of work they do is not possible to do remotely. When things get busy and in the summer due to vacations, they used to use temp/agency workers, and they are harder to come by and cost more now. Although Allison’s time has not been as focused on the strategic direction of the organization, rather putting out fires, she continues to develop corporate culture, and is planning some fun team building type events for the summer.

George shared a few housekeeping notes to keep in mind for future events:

AGM was moved from April 7^th to April 28^th, and will still be a breakfast meeting but will also potentially feature a guest speaker.

Save the date: Round Table is on Oct. 6^th. This year, we will start a little earlier to accommodate those members who need to travel back home the same day.

It was great to see our members that joined the Virtual Breakfast forum today. Conversations revolved largely around Covid, and how organizations will adjust to the lessening of restrictions. Most members noticed that their employees are showing more inclination to come together in person. There were reports that some company mandates are lessening, from allowing masks to be removed at workstations, encouraging more employees to return to work in person, to the idea of dropping the mandatory vaccination requirement within their organizations. It seems everyone is excited at the potential for a return to “life before Covid”.

There was an interesting discussion around rapid testing: primarily, that obtaining rapid tests is very difficult here in British Columbia. One member shared his source, where tests can be bought from Ontario: https://www.minervamedical.ca/ But even with access to these rapid tests, it bears mentioning that even with a negative test result, the individual still may test positive a few days later, depending on the viral load at the time of testing. This begs the question of how much faith to have in a rapid test, and whether there is a false security developing when there could actually be the potential of transmission of the virus with someone who is symptom free.

Members reported a continued struggle with supply chain issues. It was also widely agreed that on average, approx. 10% of their teams continue to be off work due to quarantining.

We want to bring you topics that are of interest to YOU! Please reach out to George with any ideas of topics that you’d like to discuss at future breakfast forums. We are open to topics that are relevant to Leadership, HR issues as well as Health and Safety related topics. Also please keep in mind that we are always looking to increase and diversify our membership. If you have any suggestions from your networks on good potential members, we’d love to hear from you.

George reminded members of the upcoming opportunities: Feb. 24^th our VBF will feature guest speaker Debbie Pearmain, a Mental Health expert, on ways to engage your employees. Our AGM will be April 7^th, at our normal VBF time of 8:00am, and we are looking for expressions of interest on members interested in joining the Board.  Additionally, we are hoping that with lessening restrictions, we will soon be able to coordinate some in person site visits, as well as a Kelowna visit at the end of June.  More to follow.