Career Pathing: Developing a Roadmap for Employee Success

By Joey Walters

For some employees, a career in the restaurant industry can truly become a rags-to-riches story – even if those rags were used to wash dishes. After all, many a superstar chef started out scrubbing pots on the low end of the kitchen food chain with a dream of someday running his or her own restaurant. Whether they are ultimately successful in turning that dream into reality, however, depends much more on passion, hard work and a willingness to learn than it does on a desire for financial fortune.

Thankfully, the food service industry offers a multitude of career development, or “career pathing,” opportunities for those willing to put in the time and effort required for success. Human resources experts understand the importance of ensuring top employees develop and advance within their respective organizations in order to help their employers become respected leaders in their field. Restaurant operators, in turn, must invest in their employees. Leaders must have the right team to succeed, to build the next generation of talent by investing, listening and developing their greatest asset: Employees.

Communication Critical

This may be easier said than done in the restaurant industry, however with job abandonment on the rise – one study showed one out of every three voluntary terminations in quick-service restaurant establishments is a result of lack of future advancement opportunities within the company (leaders must show their employees the career opportunities that exist within their establishments. Organizations with an official internal communication system for restaurant management positions had 18-per-cent less turnover than organizations lacking an internal communication system.

There is a direct connection between customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction and a key driver of that satisfaction comes through engagement. Career pathing is one way to increase employee motivation and satisfaction. This process allows leaders to engage their employees in challenging job opportunities or training programs, in addition to creating a roadmap that shows employees how they can achieve their career aspirations.

This has increased employee retention dramatically in many companies, including family-owned Earl’s, a Vancouver-based chain that has grown to over 50 restaurants in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Arizona and Colorado. Earl’s has a designated website for hiring (www.earlswantsyou.com) because of the overwhelming interest in working for the company. Earl’s looks for great personality, passion for people and hospitality, and eagerness to learn and grow. In turn, Earl’s offers a fun, sociable work environment and advancement opportunities in the areas of the kitchen, service and leadership, along with award-winning training and career-development programs.

Clear Progression

In many ways, career pathing communicates the career progression available to all employees – simple, measurable, realistic, and time-based performance goals that align from the restaurant owner or managers down to the wait staff. A career-pathing program can also help a food service business by reviewing talent within each restaurant, developing advancement programs for top performers and knowing who can take over senior roles should a vacancy become available.

In order to implement an effective system, restaurant operators need to ensure all career-pathing programs are aligned with how the company plans to grow and it must be customized to fit the individual, values and culture of the company. Other concerns involve identifying a measuring stick of what success would look like in progressive jobs and evaluating an individual's position readiness by using real-life projects.

Boxed Sidebar:

Benefits of Career Pathing

·         Engages, motivates and retains employees

·         Makes employees the strategic differentiator and competitive advantage

·         Creates a strong leadership pipeline for all key roles

·         Builds a culture of continuous learning

Joey Walters is managing director of HRPreneur Inc., a consulting firm which designs customized HR solutions that fit with your company’s values and culture and help retain top talent and increase ROI. For more information, contact Joey at 647-534-4774 or by email at jwalters@hrpreneur.ca (www.HRPreneur.ca)

Salary Subsidies Available For New Hires - Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)

Are you a start-up or small to medium sized business in southern Ontario?

Would you like to take advantage of a $10,000 or $15,000 salary subsidy over 6 months for a new hire?  

Would you consider hiring a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) graduate?

The University of Toronto, in partnership with FedDev, has initiated the Graduate Enterprise Internship (GEI) program where eligible businesses can receive a significant dollar subsidy towards the salary of a newly hired graduate.

“The salary subsidy can be for the first 6 months of a new hires’ employment,” noted Chioma Ekpo, Assistant Director, University of Toronto Graduate Enterprise Internship Program. “Businesses can take advantage of the academic and project experience of our Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM) graduates. The industry targets of this program are southern Ontario start-ups and small to medium size businesses in the STEM sector. This program will inject the skills, knowledge and training that the graduates offer which will in turn spur creativity, innovation and new ideas in the firms in which they are hired.’

The subsidy amount is based on the degree of the hired graduate: $10,000 for an undergraduate or $15,000 for a Masters or PhD, paid out over the six month period. The business is to match the subsidy. There is no fee for businesses to register in the program.

“The salary over the 6 months for a graduate with a Bachelor’s Degree /Advanced Diploma would be a minimum $20,000, for which the business would receive the $10,000 subsidy. For a Master’s/Doctoral/Post-Doctoral, the salary would be a minimum $30,000 for which the business would receive the $15,000 subsidy,” said Ekpo. She went on to say that anyone who graduated from the Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics field in the past five (5) is included in the program.

Fast Facts

Program Name	Graduate Enterprise Internship
Website	www.graduateinternships.utoronto.ca
Target Businesses	Start-ups Small to Medium-sized businesses (fewer than 1,000 employees)
Business Location	Southern Ontario
Business Commitment	6 mos. of full-time employment Contribute a minimum of 50% of the intern’s salary / benefits
Subsidy Available	$10,000 - Bachelor’s Degree /Advanced Diploma graduate $15,000 - Master’s/Doctoral/Post-Doctoral graduate
Academic Focus	Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)
Graduates Registered To-date	500+ All meet individually with Career Employment Consultants to understand the opportunities presented by the program and to focus on the significant return on investment they will produce for employers
Program Timeline	Now to March 2014

Contact:

Chioma Ekpo, Assistant Director 

University of Toronto Graduate Enterprise Internship Program (GEI)

Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM)

Tel: 416 978-8601  |  chioma@ecf.utoronto.ca  |  www.graduateinternships.utoronto.ca

An Introduction to The Lean Enterprise

When people hear the term ‘Lean’ in the business sense, they think of Lean Operations or Lean Supply Chain and most commonly relate ‘Lean’ as something that only manufacturing companies can utilize. Indeed, the initial application of what we know as Lean was in manufacturing production, with the basic goal of reducing all wasted time, movement and overhead costs.  Our thinking has come a long way since then and in the series of articles that are planned over the next twelve months, we’ll explore how the principles of Lean can be applied to virtually all types and sizes of business (even government…but let’s not get too hopeful).

In this article, I’ll lay the groundwork for the series and provide some differentiation of Lean at the Enterprise level versus Lean implementation in operations management.  In future articles, we will discuss some of the over 30 methodologies that can be applied in becoming a Lean Enterprise.

The Five Principles of Lean

The goal of becoming a Lean Enterprise is to reduce non-value-added (NVA) time, cost and effort in everything that your organization does. There are five basic principles that we will relate back to over the course of the articles.  However, there’s also my own principle that runs in parallel to these: “If you don’t measure it, you cannot manage it.  If you don’t manage it, you cannot control it.”  In everything you do to become a Lean Enterprise, there must be the understanding that there will be an upfront investment in ensuring that you understand what you should measure, how you should measure and when you should measure the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) related to the Lean initiatives.

Understand Your Value Proposition

In order to determine what is and is not value adding to your customer, you first need to quantitatively and qualitatively determine and document what your customer considers in terms of the value in conducting business with you.  Therefore, the first step in the journey is to assess your current value proposition by listening to both positive and negative information from your current customers.  Later in the journey, you would then determine the value proposition of future product or service offerings.

Value Stream Mapping (VSM)

Once you understand your value proposition, an assessment of the processes that directly contribute to your value proposition needs to be done.  While VSM was developed to determine where NVA time, human effort and overhead cost was present in manufacturing operations, the methodology can be applied to any type of process whether it’s operational or a business process.  However, when we are utilizing VSM at the Enterprise level, we need to add the element of assessing and quantifying risk.

There are now tools on the market that are affordable to all sizes of businesses that assist with VSM.  That’s a topic for a future article.

Uninterrupted Flow

The goal is to not have any process, operational or non-operational, stall at any stage.  Achieving the goal of uninterrupted flow will result in the reduction of NVA time and overhead cost which, in turn, strengthens your value proposition.

Customer Pull

The principle of ‘Customer Pull’ is that your organization does not start any process unless it has some sort of customer demand.  At the Enterprise level, we adjust the focus to ‘stakeholder’ demand to this principle as stakeholders such as regulatory bodies can create risk situations that would adversely affect your value proposition.

The Pursuit of Perfection

Becoming a completely Lean Enterprise is not possible until a culture of ‘impatience with imperfection’ is achieved.  Essentially, this principle is used to reinforce the first four principles to drive out wasted time, effort and cost, minimize the risk factors and to drive a higher value proposition to your current and future customers.  The trick is to ensure that you don’t spend more time, effort and money than the value added.

The Three Components

There are three primary components that require assessment, planning and potential improvement in becoming a Lean Enterprise:  Your People; Your Processes; and, Your Technology. 

People

If you do not have the right people taking the right action at the right time, there will be issues in achieving the end result expected.  In a future set of articles, I’ll be exploring methods to assess this critical component of becoming Lean and methods of correcting deficiencies and risks.  We will also dive into the topics of how to attract, hire and retain the right person for your organization for the long term.

Processes

This is where ‘the rubber hits the road’ in terms of reducing elapsed time, human effort, overhead costs and controlling risks to your business.  In future articles we will discuss various methodologies that can be employed to identify waste and increase the effectiveness and efficiencies of processes within the business.

Technology

This is the double-edged sword of business today.  From determining what you need to managing the cost to deciding whether keeping it in house or ‘up in the cloud’, we’ll need to put forth some information so that you can make wise decisions and make good use of technology to support your people and your processes and, ultimately, drive up your value proposition.

Summary

I trust that you will find good value-added information in the articles that come your way over the next year.  Should I fail to explain an issue clearly, or you have a topic that you’d like explored further, please don’t hesitate to provide feedback.  After all, if I can’t determine what is and what is not value adding to the readership, then this column will not be very Lean.

About the author

Ken Cowman is Managing Director of Emercomm Business Consultants Inc. of Mississauga, Ontario ( www.emercomm.com ) .  Ken has over 40 years of business experience with over 25 years in C-level positions.  He can be reached via email kcowman@emercomm.com and his career profile can be found on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=13440900&trk=tab_pro

Creative Benefit Plans

It is important for employers to know that money is not the only — or most important — explanation for why employees leave companies. On average, only 12% of employees cite compensation as the reason for resigning.

Employees, however, do value benefit plans, perhaps more so today than ever before. To keep employees happy, plans are no longer limited to the traditional benefits such as health and dental. Many employers have adopted creative benefits to suit their employees and their organizational culture.

This article covers a number of benefits that you could provide to your employees, often with little or no cost to you.

(Note: some of these benefits may or may not be taxable to the employee and may or may not be deductible by the employer. See http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/tg/t4130/t4130-07e.pdf for Canada Revenue Agency’s Employers’ Guide of Taxable Benefits.)

Health and Medical Plans

The monthly or annual costs for employee health, medical and dental plans can vary depending on the benefits (individual or group) that you provide to your employees as well as how much the employee contributes towards them.

Private health services plans are also available where the employee is allocated an amount available to spend during the year on health and medical-related expenses. The spending limit given to each employee is determined by the employer and, hence, the amounts can be budgeted accordingly. This is similar to a pay-as-you-go plan for employers with a small administrative fee paid to the company that administers the plan for each claim made by the employees. The administration of the plan is typically handled by a third party.

Other Related Insurance

Other insurance to consider is disability, life, accidental death/dismemberment and critical illness insurance. Be aware of the possible tax implications as any claims paid out to the employee may be taxable to them if the employer has paid the premiums. Companies usually make the plan available to employees, but employees pay the premiums so that any claims paid are non-taxable.

Flex Days/Hours/Summer Hours

Providing opportunities for employees to work variable hours or days is a well-received benefit that many organizations offer.

Another option is a summer hours program where employees work more hours during the week and take Friday afternoons off.

Telecommuting

Telecommuting has become more mainstream as a benefit for employees in many companies. It is ideal for employees who can work on their own, for those who have significant family demands on their time, or for employees who have a significant commute to work. Most modern companies adhere to a culture of trust and realize that productivity can often increase when employees are given the option of working from home.

Fitness Memberships

Many companies now offer employees either discounted or fully paid memberships for fitness-related activities. This is a win-win situation for both parties since studies show that productivity is higher in healthy employees and costs to the employer decrease when employees embrace a healthy lifestyle.

Prepaid Legal

Prepaid legal is a relatively new benefit that has been gaining popularity over the last few years. It provides employees (in a group type setup) with benefits such as phone consultation with lawyers on legal matters, will and powers of attorney preparation, and tenant legal advice. This service helps employees deal with personal issues requiring legal consultation.

Another example is identity theft protection. In the event an employee has their identity stolen, this plan could save your employee(s) money and significant time, reducing the number of work hours spent trying to rectify the situation.

The relatively low monthly costs of these plans can either be paid by the employee (e.g., by payroll deduction), by the employer, or shared. However, these programs are not usually available to an individual on their own.

For more information, see http://wserver0.prepaidlegal.com/Multisite/JSP/corpgrp/grpregsel.jsp.

Paid Parking

Paid parking can be especially beneficial in areas where parking is expensive and may help offset the cost of commuting as the price of gasoline increases.

T2200

Providing an employee with a T2200 to allow them to write off mileage and/or other employment-related expenses can be beneficial to employees at tax time.

Party/Team Building Events

Team building events allow employees to get to know each other in a social setting. Many employees consider these to be a perk and appreciate the opportunity to make connections outside of the standard office environment. Some examples of these types of activities include barbecues, bowling, and company-organized volunteer days.

Treats

Having a specified day for treats — e.g., a pizza day once a month or muffins every Friday, gives employees something to look forward to.

Pension

Companies can implement a pension plan and/or RRSP matching program for their employees. Typically there are certain minimum dollar amounts before a financial institution will set up a plan.

Automobile Allowances/Transit Pass Reimbursement

These are possible options for employees who are required to travel on behalf of the organization or who need to commute a significant distance from their home base to work.

School/Education/Training Courses

Many employers pay for or reimburse employees for taking courses related to their position.

Low or No Interest Loans

Employers can give low or no interest loans to employees where appropriate; for example, to help purchase a car.

Vacation Time/Personal Time Off

Additional vacation time or personal time off can be provided as a reward to selected employees, and this doesn’t directly cost the company. It can be offered to employees, for example, who reach certain anniversaries, have worked significant overtime or completed important projects.

Another alternative is closing the office during slow periods of the year, such as between Christmas and New Year's.

TD1

Have employees fill out a TD1 form annually (see http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pbg/tf/td1/td1-08e.pdf). This will determine what kind of taxes will be withheld from each pay period.

Provide Day Care for Employees’ Children

Several larger companies offer day care to their employees. This can be a tremendous help to employees who have young children, especially if the day care is located on the employer’s premises, allowing employees to keep an eye on their children during breaks or lunch.

Sabbaticals/Leaves of Absence

Providing sabbaticals or leaves of absence to longer-term employees can serve as a reward to hard-working employees for their dedication and loyalty to the organization. An employee who returns from a sabbatical or a leave will be refreshed and have new insight about their work.

Seminars/Lunch and Learns

Some employers do seminars or “lunch and learns” for their employees on topics unrelated to their employees’ work. Examples include health and wellness, dress to success or financial planning seminars. These sessions are provided to help employees succeed, both in their work as well as outside their employment. Many financial planning advisors, for example, will offer to do a financial planning session at no cost to employees. Such sessions reinforce the notion that the company cares about its employees.

Contests/Prizes/Draws

Another low cost benefit can be a company holding a contest each week, month or quarter enabling employees to win a prize. An employee can be eligible for a draw based on points earned during the period, or by nomination, for example.

Conclusion

Ask employees (e.g., via a focus group) what benefits they want and at the same time determine how much budget you have for the introduction/implementation of any new benefit. The benefits you will want to provide will vary depending on the average age of your employees, the tenure they’ve had, your organizational culture, and your budget. Younger employees may be more interested in flex time/hours, while older employees may be interested in health benefits, so it’s important to revisit your benefits every year with your employees. This will ensure that your benefit plan is meeting the needs of your employees and will help determine if your spending is meeting your objectives.

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Marc Belaiche is a 1990 CA and is President of TorontoJobs.ca, an Internet recruitment business and recruiting firm. Marc has been in the recruitment industry since 1995. TorontoJobs.ca allows companies to post their positions online, search a resume database to find candidates, publishes a monthly TorontoJobs newspaper and provides full temporary and permanent recruitment services. It also allows candidates to search and apply to positions directly on-line and get career, interviewing and resume tips all at no charge. You can reach Marc at marc.belaiche@torontojobs.ca and check out TorontoJobs.ca at www.TorontoJobs.ca.

Factoring: Alternative Capital for your Business

By: Jonathan Brindley,CA
Principal
Liquid Capital


As an entrepreneur ensuring you have access to sufficient capital is a constant and ongoing struggle. Banks don’t seem to have any money to lend right now — or at least none they want to — raising equity either privately or in the markets is not a great value proposition for many companies with investors skeptical about, well, everything. Also capital costs are high and dilution and intrusion in management can be excessive.


A major bank recently commissioned a survey of 1,004 companies nationwide with annual revenue of $10 million or less that showed slightly less than a third of those surveyed said their bank provides everything they need when it comes to financing and other business services.


Yet business needs to go on. Companies still need to buy goods, meet payroll, cover seasonal adjustments and even seize market opportunities. So what are they to do?


Many small to mid-size business owners are turning to factoring, an alternative to bank lending that provides businesses with capital when needed on a flexible formula basis that is proportional to sales. The factoring “line” grows as the sales to credit worthy customers increase giving clients an opportunity to capitalize on market opportunities.


Any company or business entity that offers credit to corporate or government accounts can benefit from factoring either all their receivables or just a few select accounts.


Following are some of the most frequently asked questions about factoring showing how business owners can benefit:


Q: What is factoring?
A: Factoring is the purchase of corporate accounts receivable. It’s generally used when a company has market opportunities requiring greater capital resources then they posses to properly exploit the opportunities. Factoring gives that company access to capital through flexible and cost effective means.


Q: How does factoring work?
A: The factor purchases a business’s accounts receivable and gives them a large percentage of the total creditworthy accounts receivable up front and the remainder when they are collected. The factor handles all the credit checks, processing, reporting and collects the accounts receivable so the client is able to concentrate on growing their business.


Q: How does factoring differ from other types of financing?
A: Factoring differs from traditional bank loans because the credit decision is strictly based on receivables rather than other criteria like how long the company has been in business or balance sheet and working capital ratios and personal credit scores which are key considerations for most banks. Factoring differs from equity financing in that factors don’t take equity in the company, do not sit on the board or charge management fees. Since contracts are short term, the client could elect to stop factoring whenever they choose.


Q: Who can benefit the most from factoring?
A: Generally, any business-to-business company with good margins that has the ability to increase their sales but are held back because of a lack of capital can benefit from factoring. The industries that tend to use factors now are diverse and without factoring, they wouldn’t be able to expand.


Q: What are some common misconceptions about factoring?
A: The biggest misconception is that people believe factors are a lender of last resort, but that’s not true, factoring is designed to support growth opportunities. In addition to providing financing, the factor will do credit checking, receivables accounting and reporting, and all the collection work, thus saving the company the salary of employees hired to handle these same tasks and all the ancillary expenses. As well, most employees tasked with these duties are not trained credit or collection professionals, which exposes companies that want to offer payment terms to customers to increased risk. Trained employees are expensive and hard to find . Using a factor dramatically reduces these risks. Most clients are motivated to contact a factor for the money, but they soon realize the services and flexibility are equally as important.


Q: Do you see factoring becoming the norm if these economic conditions continue? For what reasons? A: With banks becoming more stringent and less dependable, businesses can’t get the financing they need. In Europe and the U.S. , factoring is more established and its volume has increased substantially. Given its increasing popularity in other markets, I think it’s only a matter of time before it enjoys a similar level of acceptance in Canada.




Liquid Capital is an established international network of finance professionals with over 65 independent local offices throughout North America, who specialize in providing clients with Accounts Receivable financing. For more information, visit www.liquidcapitaladvancecorp.com

A Glimpse into the Success of the 2012 Toronto Entrepreneurs Conference

The Toronto Entrepreneurs Conference has grown substantially since the inaugural event last year, more than doubling the amount of participating exhibitors, growing the speakers list, and attracting more than 1,000 attendees.

We were delighted to have Mark Breslin, founder of Yuk Yuk’s join us as keynote speaker. Mark gave us insight into the unforgiving world of stand-up comedy and how he has built a thriving career and a world class reputation as one of the most important figures in Canadian comedy. The Conference also included outstanding presentations by Kurt Rosentreter, Lisa Kember, Marc Belaiche and Peter Weinstein who spoke of their unique experiences as entrepreneurs.

The Toronto Entrepreneurs Conference was designed to provide entrepreneurs, whether budding or experienced, with the opportunity to expand their professional network, hear from experienced and successful entrepreneurs on tips and opportunities and learn what it takes to become successful and stay thriving.

A special thank you to our 2012 exhibitors!

The 2012 Toronto Entrepreneurs Conference would not have been the success it was without the participation and support of our exhibitors. Thank you! For a complete list of the 2012 exhibitors, please click here: http://torontoentrepreneursconnected.blogspot.ca/2012/06/blog-post.html

Here’s what some of our attendees are saying:

“Overall it was well organized, in fact very well organized. I have been to conferences in various countries and it didn't fail to impress me.”

“Had glowing comments from the exhibitors I spoke with, especially in the Atrium. The place looked great and traffic was always moving through the halls.”

“The event was worth driving from Montreal. I particularly liked the exhibition booths where I got valuable information. The conferences were well prepared and useful. Also, it was fun. I do not know how much work you and your team put in it but it was a success. I hope to be able to come again in May 2013.”

Interested in exhibiting for our 2013 event?  Please email info@TorontoEntrepreneurs.ca for more information! 

2012 Toronto Entrepreneurs Conference Exhibitor Overview