A. Hopkins Insurance & Financial Services

Tag: Workplace culture

  • Three Ways You Can Boost Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace

    Three Ways You Can Boost Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace

    Right now, people everywhere are taking a close look at how unconscious bias, privilege, and structural racism continue to manifest in the so-called woke world. This includes the workplace, and these conversations underscore the importance of regularly reevaluating and re-energizing equality, diversity and inclusion (ED&I) initiatives to ensure real change is still happening.

    Adding the following three criteria to your ED&I strategy will go a long way to disrupting the organizational structures that continue to stand in the way of meaningful change in the workplace.

    Empower leaders responsible for ED&I so they can enact systemic change

    Most ED&I tool kits include some form of unconscious bias training where individuals reflect on their own intrinsic biases and learn how to adjust behaviours to mitigate the ways these preconceptions play out in the workplace. What these activities don’t specifically address, however, are the systemic issues inherent in most organizational cultures at a structural level that allow bias to continue to operate in the workplace.

    And while it is still important for each of us to be aware of personal bias and to learn how this impacts our behaviour, ED&I initiatives also need to evaluate systemic issues that are deeply ingrained in organizational structure, and interrupt those systems to create a more genuinely inclusive work environment. Change of this magnitude needs to be initiated, implemented, and evaluated by someone in the organization with authority and autonomy to overhaul current systems.

    James D. White, former CEO of Jamba Juice, discusses in a digital article for HBR how important it is to empower those responsible for ED&I so that sweeping change is actually possible. “[T]he standard DE&I playbook has been to hire a chief diversity officer (CDO) with a budget for consultants and enrichment programs. But you can’t build capacity if the problem is not with the diverse talent but with the culture that determines their future… doing anything once cannot change a corporate culture that reinforces itself day after day.” As CEO, White was able to implement broad change at a high level, including championing a more diverse Board of Directors — something a consultant or CDO likely could not have done.

    Change how high-profile projects are assigned

    Despite the time and resources invested in ED&I over the years, data shows that we still have a long way to go when it comes to diversity, particularly in leadership. Up to 70% of senior leadership roles (VP, Senior VP, and C-Suite) positions are held by white men, and over the past 12 years, the percentage of white male CEOs has only fallen 4% from 93.4% in 2005 to 89.4% in 2017.

    White and his co-author, Joan C. Williams, suggest that changing how “glamour work” is distributed can help boost diversity in all levels of management.

    According to White and Williams, “glamour work” refers to the high-profile assignments and projects that get people noticed and ultimately position them for promotions. By purposely choosing employees who were previously overlooked for glamour work, White appointed Action Learning Teams (ALTs) who had on-the-ground expertise and skills that made them ideally suited for solving relevant issues related to key business goals.

    Selecting individuals based on frontline experience and grouping them in teams to leverage the right mix of talent and skills to solve the issue at hand “meant that the teams were far more diverse than the company’s workforce as a whole.” It’s also important to set teams up for success by giving them release time from their regular jobs so that they can work on these projects and execute them well.

    Interrupt structural racism at every level including HR and middle management

    As White and Williams point out, “effective policies enable inclusion, but middle-level managers [and HR] hold the key to delivering it.” It is crucial that every level of your organization is highly attuned to issues of bias and, more importantly, is empowered and encouraged to enact concrete changes to interrupt them.

    At Jamba Juice, White implemented a new incentive system that assessed store manager compensation based on a variety of criteria including engagement, climate, and organizational health scores. In terms of debiasing HR, White and Williams suggest creating an action learning team that includes the CEO or equivalent, and setting a mandate and timeline to restructure the hiring process by developing objective hiring criteria to promote diversity and inclusion.

    Having an ED&I statement on your website or an annual bias awareness workshop simply isn’t enough. To see real change in the next 10 years will require a complete overhaul of all organizational systems — from hiring to promotion and everything in between — with a focus on eliminating privilege and inequity in the workplace.

    https://hbr.org/2020/07/update-your-dei-playbook

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/janicegassam/2020/12/29/your-unconscious-bias-trainings-keep-failing-because-youre-not-addressing-systemic-bias/#6d0b24c11e9d

    Author: ChamberPlan.ca

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  • Time to reinvent your business?

    Time to reinvent your business?

    It’s been said “never waste a good crisis.”  Most business owners who have been enduring the unexpected impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic would probably agree:  as far as crises go, this has been a pretty good one.

    “Good” may not be accurate. For some, words like “devastating”, “ruinous” or “bankrupting” might be better descriptors.  To be sure, the pandemic and its economic consequences didn’t bring much good to anyone – unless you were in the toilet paper or hand sanitizer business – but what it did bring was the opportunity (and for many, ample free time) to take a good look inward and reflect — on our lives, our careers and our businesses.

    If you run a business, it’s certainly the right time to take a second look at what you’ve been doing and decide if you can – or should – keep doing it.  Whether your business is currently open, getting ready to re-open or shut down for good, some reinvention may be in order in this new, post-pandemic world.

    To get those thoughts rolling, here are a few book suggestions:

    The Optimization Edge: Reinventing Decision Making to Maximize your Company’s Assets – Steve Sashihara

    Author Sashihara takes a look at why, on a level playing field, some companies downsize while others keep growing. The book talks about how to approach your decision making in a way that optimizes your assets and gets the most value from your company – under any conditions. Sashihara presents step-by-step best practices and tools to help you stay ahead of the competition, even during a downturn.

    Reinventing the Organization: How Companies can Deliver Radically Greater Value in Fast-Changing Markets – Arthur Yeung, David Ulrich

    Markets change quickly. To keep pace and stay competitive, businesses need to change at least as rapidly. Yeung and Ulrich use their in-depth research into some of the world’s most successful organizations – including Amazon, Facebook and Google – to help readers build an organization that responds to changing market opportunities with both speed and scale. The book includes a six-step framework to help with all decisions leaders need to make in these shaky times.

    Business Model Renewal:  How to Grow and Prosper by Defying Best Practices and Reinventing your Strategy – Linda Gorchels

    When the global market is constantly changing, one-size fits all solutions don’t work. Author Gorchels argues that these days, even best practices can go out the window along with the phrases, “business as usual” and “tried and true”.  The book is not just about renewing your business model, it’s about reinventing it – by re-evaluating your methods, rethinking your strategies and broadening your perspectives. There is no crystal ball, but there is a way you can be ready for (practically) anything.

    What Happens Now: Reinvent Yourself as a Leader Before Your Business Outruns You – John Hillen and Mark Nevins

    What happens when your organization changes faster than you do?  Many leaders change everything around them – hire new staff or put in new reporting structures, for example, while others do things the same way they’ve always done them, only more so.  What Happens Now is the leaders’ guide to changing their own behaviours and skills so they can successfully drive the new ship. The authors share stories from dozens of leaders who have faced the need to change or (figuratively) die, and have come out the other side a stronger person, a superior leader and with the tools they need to adapt – and lead – in ever-evolving situations.

    Good Leaders Ask Great Questions – Your Foundation for Successful Leadership – John C. Maxwell

    John C. Maxwell is an acclaimed leadership authority and has acquired much of his knowledge on the subject by asking questions. He’s used what he’s learned to inspire millions of people through books including Leadership 101, What Every Leader Needs to Know and No Limits Blow Your Capacity. In this book, his readers get to ask their questions. With 70 plus questions answered, the book will show you how to be a better leader and how to ask the questions that will keep you at the top of your game – even in a crisis.

    Author: ChamberPlan.ca

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  • Insights on marketing during and after a pandemic

    Insights on marketing during and after a pandemic

    In a post-pandemic world, will our customers continue to be brand discerning, or will they turn a blind eye?

    We’re hardly there, yet—a post-pandemic world; however, the economy is slowly coming back as cities re-open businesses and people emerge bleary-eyed from three-or-so months of isolation.

    Isolation forced us all into somewhat of a consumerism lapse—No one was leaving shopping malls with a spree of purchases, splurging on travel or indulging in personal upkeep, browsing store fronts, or even grocery aisles, for that matter. It was more of a get-in-and-get-out kind of scenario—get the necessities and sprint for home. Heck, few of us were even gassing up.

    And business had to adopt a new kind of etiquette—few were doing anything more than engaging with customers, or selling products at a discount—upselling was in bad taste (and might still be).

    With this “blip” in consumerism, Jeff Beer of Newscred Insights questions, will COVID-19 will make us brand blind? “The longer it goes on, the more people’s minds are going to be wiped of brand preference in many instances. That specific brand of toothpaste is going to matter to me less than just toothpaste.”

    Though the usual marketing pulse has weakened, what happens when it comes back? When advertising is up and running again?

    What will smart businesses be doing differently?

    Find new ways to engage

    Some of businesses got lucky and flourished (bike stores), and have been lucky to have a high close rate based on supply and demand (bike stores). But, has some time away from the world of consumerism, given us pause? Does the future of consumerism look different?

    Steve Stoute, founder and CEO of Translation has done branding work for major sports leagues and believes, “No matter what the Knicks’ record was before the pandemic, or how you felt about the team before the pandemic, you’re going to be as excited as ever when they hit that court again. The momentum and engagement of that excitement is an opportunity for marketers like myself.”

    Whether Stoute helps the franchise find new ways to engage with customers, or increases the merchandise available to Knicks’ lovers, he is likely right—there will be a surge when everyone can get back to watching their favourite sports, live, again.

    Consider new ways of executing on “face-to-face”

    It’s also believed that travel for work will look a lot different—brands that sent their people for a face-to-face meeting, or traveled to location to market their products or services—some of that will go away, for the sake of profit, and because it just makes sense. Margaret Johnson, partner and Chief Creative Officer for Goodby Silverstein and represents big brands, such as Doritos, Pepsi and BMW, says of producing advertisements, “I can’t even imagine a situation now where you’d spend the money it takes to send eight people to shoot out of the country. You can just as easily see takes online. I think it’s going to have a big effect not just on production, on business in general, to be honest.”

    Observe New Consumer Behaviours

    Early in 2019, before our world was turned upside down by a worldwide pandemic, Forbes contributor, Michael Stone, said “Retail is actually expanding, consumers are shopping and sales are up. Where, when and how consumers buy goods is shifting …”

    Stone was perhaps ahead of his time in predicting where brands will have to go—both outside and inside the retail industry. The “experience” they deliver, that is how a consumer is to discover a brand and how that brand catches on—might look different.

    Stone states, “Brands will continue to look for ways to ‘pull’ consumers into brand rather than ‘pushing’ the brand at them.” The rise of Augmented Reality is also to be expected, making it easier for consumers to engage with a product and decide whether or not to buy. Stone gives examples like IKEA and Wayfair, two companies with apps “that allow consumers to see actual furniture to scale in their own homes.”

    There is also market share to consider. The pandemic has been devastating for some businesses, so much that they have had to close their doors. Digital brands dipping into the market share will rise. Stone gives examples like Caspar taking a dip into Tempurpedic and Serta Simmons market share; Harry’s Shave Club taking a bite out of Gillette and Schick’s.

    It could be argued that any online brand has a chance to reinvent itself and gain market share—consumers are spending more time at home, and more time than ever on their screens.

    Collect the Data

    For those businesses that are essential services and have remained open through the pandemic, how are consumer behaviours changed? How do those same consumers engage your business, now? R.J. Taylor, founder of Pattern89, an artificial intelligence-based software company, says “No matter where your business falls in this new age, data can help you understand your audience’s changing habits . Take this time to slow down…and really dig into what your customers are doing.”

    For grocers, they certainly could look at their data and see that consumer buying habits changed during the pandemic. What of these habits might continue when all goes back to normal? What have customers discovered about the way they have bought their groceries over the past three months that they might adopt on an ongoing basis—for example, mass buying certain items, or planning their meals better so that they are minimizing trips to the grocery store.

    Is there a change in the average number on your work orders and invoices? Why is that? What has driven your customer base to make different decisions? When you are in touch with your own data, “you don’t need to guess what your audience is being attracted to—you can know with certainty,” says Taylor.

    And perhaps that is what brands will be expected to do down the line—work hard to create a sense of certainty when it feels like there is very little.

    Author: ChamberPlan.ca

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  • What the Canada-US-Mexico Free Trade Agreement means to you & your business

    What the Canada-US-Mexico Free Trade Agreement means to you & your business

    Nearly three years in the making, the revamped NAFTA agreement came into effect on Canada Day, July 1, 2020.

    Our federal government calls it the Canada-United States-Mexico Free Trade Agreement (CUSMA), while U.S. president Donald Trump refers to it as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). The lack of agreement on the name of the agreement nicely sums up the bumpy road that got us here.

    Getting the U.S. out of the North American Free Trade Agreement was a Trump campaign promise, but the agreement itself was an idea Ronald Regan came up with in 1980. It was negotiated by U.S. president George Bush, Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney and Mexican president Carlos Salinas de Gortari in 1992, and became law in 1994. It’s a monumental document; free trade between the three NAFTA members was valued at nearly $1.5 trillion in 2018.

    With a new deal that took almost the entirety of Trump’s first term to reach, what do the latest changes mean for Canadian businesses?

    Cheaper online shopping. Canadians no longer pay duties to have online purchases worth less than $150 shipped across the border.  Good news for shoppers but not so good for Canadian retailers, who argue that the change encourages Canadians to shop online in the U.S. or Mexico instead of buying Canadian at bricks and mortar stores. (It’s worth noting that the COVID-19 pandemic changed shopping habits and more consumers are now shopping online.)

    Protections for copyright and digital content. The revised agreement will extend copyright protection from Canada’s current 50 years to 70 years past an author’s death, aligning with laws in the U.S. As well, internet platforms are now protected from liability related to third-party information they publish, and consumers will no longer be charged customs and other charges on digital products like music, games, videos and e-books.

    More opportunities for auto parts manufacturers. All vehicles must now include 70 per cent North American steel and aluminum, and 40 per cent of passenger vehicles must be made of materials, parts and labour produced or carried out by workers in a plant where the average wage is at least US$16. The downside for consumers is that vehicles may cost more to purchase as the cost to produce them go up.

    Even with the new agreement finally in place, it’s still not entirely smooth sailing for Canada-U.S. trade relations. Just as CUSMA eases what has been a couple of years of volatility (in response to U.S. imposed tariffs on steel about a year ago, Canada put tariffs on a variety of U.S. products, including quiche, mayonnaise and toilet paper) the U.S. is once again talking about increasing tariffs on Canada’s aluminum.

    It’s a threat that puzzles the Canadian government. According to Prime Minister Trudeau, the U.S. does “not produce enough, nowhere near enough” aluminum to fill domestic manufacturing needs, and especially now, with the requirement for a higher ration of North American aluminum to be used in auto productions. Increasing tariffs on Canadian aluminum, which the U.S. has to buy anyways, will increase costs for U.S. consumers. The decision on tariffs could be made within weeks.

    How long will we agree?

    After nearly three years of discussions, do we finally have a trilateral agreement all three countries can live with? CUSMA is good for 16 years, but mandates a joint review be conducted within the first six years to determine if all three countries want to extend the agreement for another 16 years. It also includes the option for a country to opt out of the deal with six months’ notice. This option was part of the previous NAFTA and was taken up by the U.S. when Trump tore up the agreement after taking office.

    So…in a world where anything can happen, anything could happen.

    Author: ChamberPlan.ca

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  • Fostering Resilience in the Workplace

    Fostering Resilience in the Workplace

    True resilience is more than simply bouncing back from a setback or challenge. We’re not spring-loaded, impenetrable orbs after all. Some of the most transformative self-awareness and personal growth comes from processing challenges or failure. Resilience is what prepares us so we can withstand adversity and come out of it stronger and better.

    Building resilience is like winter-proofing your garden. Making an effort to systematically nurture, insulate, and protect yourself is the best way to weather even the bitterest winter season.

    Like most skills, developing resilience is not something that happens overnight. It takes time and dedicated practice to develop and continuously improve our ability to respond with resilience. By adopting a few simple techniques, we can build up our personal winter-proofing so we can activate resilience when we need it the most.

    What does resilience look like?

    From years of studying workplace and organizational behaviour, researchers have found several common factors that contribute to resilience in the workplace.

    • Optimism – Never underestimate the power of positivity. Everything is easier with a can-do attitude. While some people seem like ‘born optimists,’ if we acknowledge responsibility for the tone and message of our thoughts and actions, we can start to frame everything from a much more optimistic perspective.
    • Ability to manage emotional balance – Managing balance in our emotions helps us resist the urge to catastrophize. By getting in front of your thoughts, emotions, and reactions, you’re in a better position to sidestep an emotional response and focus on purposeful action.
    • A sense of safety – Facing change or responding to a setback is difficult because it disrupts the routines and systems that we’ve found comfort in and success with in the past. Encouraging resilience starts with facilitating a strong support system where teams can share their feelings and fears, with access to the resources they need to navigate the challenge ahead.

    Tips to strengthen resilience

    Take time to reset throughout the workday

    The better we are at managing regular stress and avoiding burnout, the better prepared we will be to manage bigger challenges and setbacks.

    In his digital article for HBR , Rich Fernandez suggests “detachment breaks” to help promote greater energy, mental clarity, creativity, and focus. Basically all of the building blocks of resilience. Based on the idea that our ultradian (hourly) as opposed to circadian (daily) rhythms demarcate the “peaks and valleys of energy and productivity that we all experience,” regular breaks throughout the day help reset focus and improve our capacity for resilience in the long-term. High-focus, high-clarity cycles typically last 90-120 minutes, so schedule regular breaks, even if only a few minutes at a time, to reset yourself.

    Train for mental toughness and flexibility

    This is how resilient people build the emotional balance they need to be responsive rather than reactive. According to Fernandez, developing mental agility “hinges on the ability to mentally ‘decenter’ stressors in order to effectively manage them. ‘Decentering’ stress is not denying or suppressing the fact that we feel stressed — rather, it is the process of being able to pause, to observe the experience from a neutral standpoint, and then to try to solve the problem.”

    Instead of being overcome by ‘stinking thinking,’ step back from the immediacy of the moment and work through what you’re thinking and how you’re feeling. Recognize the thoughts and emotions that will not serve you and look for opportunities where you do have some control or influence in the situation. “We often tell our children who are upset to ‘use your words,’ for example, and it turns out that stopping and labeling emotions has the effect of activating the thinking center of our brains, rather than the emotional center — a valuable skill in demanding, high-performance workplaces everywhere,” Fernandez explains.

    Practice regular self-care

    Lawyer and positive psychologist Paula Davis-Laack knows firsthand the importance of managing stress and avoiding burnout. “A critical part of resilience is self-care and recovery, and resilient employees know how they spend their energy each day and they take time to re-fill their tank,” she explains.

    Detachment breaks are important for mini-resets, but longer breaks provide an opportunity for truly restorative recovery. Start by designating ‘off hours’ when you stop answering calls or emails and take vacation time regularly. Even if you don’t go anywhere, it’s incredibly beneficial to invest in the time you need to fully recharge. Opportunities for self-care include exercise, meditation, reading, or socializing.

    Grow your grit

    According to Davis-Laack, another element that resilient employees share is grit — “the passion and perseverance to pursue your long-term goals.” Grit and resilience go hand-in-hand. And you can’t have grit without having goals.

    On the road to reaching those goals, you’ll encounter success and setbacks along the way. “Working on truly challenging goals means you’re going to experience obstacles, and you won’t be able to bounce back from them or get grittier without resilience,” Davis-Laack explains.

    Cultivate value and meaning beyond the paycheck

    Stress and burnout are common threats to our resilience, but some of the greatest challenges are variables beyond our control. Economic volatility, natural disasters, and market changes are forces that the average business-owner has no control over. If you get caught up in the grind and churn of it all, staying motivated will be next to impossible.

    Finding meaning in your work beyond surviving the grind and earning a wage builds engagement and, ultimately, resilience. “The most successful and resilient people I have worked with are there for more than a paycheck because they see how their work has value and impact,” says Davis-Laack. Seeing how your role contributes to something that is fundamentally important to you will motivate and inspire you to persevere.

    More than ever, workplace resilience is an important measure of organizational effectiveness and success. When the toughest winters test our mettle to the extreme, resilience is what helps us emerge better and stronger when spring finally arrives.

    Author: ChamberPlan.ca

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  • A new approach to work after a life-altering event

    A new approach to work after a life-altering event

    Your life looks more different right now than it ever has.

    Depending on the nature of your work, you are either run ragged trying to keep your business afloat, or you’ve had some time to slow down, take a step back and see life, your life, from a different perspective.

    Our patterns of behavior are ingrained in each one of us; what we do for work is often at the core of our identity. We wear 10-hour work days like a badge of honour; it signifies good work ethic—that we are getting somewhere. We are conditioned to drive to our place of work, sign up our kids for every available sport and artistic endeavor, all the while, stay fit, eat healthy, take care of ourselves and find quality time with loved ones.

    We’ve had some time to step off this crazy track (some of us are now watching the rats run by). We’ve been on a road that is near impossible to see because we are always traveling too fast upon it.

    It feels like a good time to open the mind to different perspectives and shared wisdoms, and ask the question, “Have I been working smart, or the only way I know how?”

    In a recent interview with Tim Ferriss, Michael Lewis asks, “Am I only here to pay my bills? Or are we here to get more out of life?”

    Lewis tells the story of his young self working for Salomon Brothers. After he wrote an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal about investment bankers being overpaid, he got into big trouble with his boss. But, he was also one of the highest revenue generators at the firm at the time, and therefore, un-fireable.

    Listening to people who are inclined to speak their truth gets one asking, “What is my truth?” While Lewis is more than ambitious, and admits he’s competitive, he says he doesn’t accept money as an accurate measure of ambition or success. “I’m not trying to get a lot of [one] thing. If I’m trying to maximize anything, it’s a feeling. [I want to say] ‘that is a great piece of work.’” It’s a great interview and worth a listen. 

    Working hard versus working smart is something we’ve all heard before. Medium contributor, Amanda Warton Jenkins reveals in her post “Don’t Work Harder, or Smarter; commit to these 3 things and watch your life improve” that after her reading of Brendon Burchard’s book High Performance Habits, that “the highest performers don’t grind and hustle like me.” She admits, [her] “ladder was usually against the wrong building.” Meaning, she realized that her “why” for achieving half the things she was working hard to achieve were for the wrong reasons. She states, “Many of my goals were only there because achieving them was about how I looked to others. Achieving them made me look successful, normal, important. But none of them had anything to do with who I really wanted to be.”

    COVID isolation has been a good time to reflect for some business owners and entrepreneurs. It’s a great time to answer some unaddressed and hard questions, like:

    Do I want to grow my business for the right reasons? Does your growth strategy make sense for your business? Or are you positioned for growth because it’s what you think you should do?

    What have I noticed about my business during the pandemic that I have never noticed before now? Is less overhead serving me well? A smaller team?

    How have my customer’s expectations changed? How can I keep this new mindset going?

    Can my business gain insight into new ways of operating? A new process?

    Zat Rana, an online writer who describes himself as “playing at the intersection of philosophy, science and art”, takes the words of philosophers and turns them into modern day messages, applicable to our daily lives. In a more recent article, he says of Nietzsche’s philosophy to not think of knowledge as being separate from power.  He explains, “Think of your body as an expression of truth. More than the warrior or the philosopher, this is why Nietzsche was especially drawn to the archetype of the artist – he/she who creates what they are.”

    There seems like no better time than now to recreate who we are, reinvent aspects of our businesses and question our approach to work.

    Author: ChamberPlan.ca

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  • Is This the Year You Learn How to Meditate?

    Is This the Year You Learn How to Meditate?

    Dating back to ancient times, meditation has been used to facilitate mindfulness, awareness, enlightenment, and reflection. And now, researchers are looking at how the practice of meditation affects our mental and physical health, and even how it changes the brain .

    What was once considered a mystical exercise in mastery of the mind, meditation is everywhere with many companies like Google and General Mills encouraging employees to incorporate it into their daily routines. Despite its ubiquity, it can still be intimidating to jump headfirst into the practice of mindfulness.

    How does it work? Where do I start? Do I need to bring a yoga mat to the office?? Relax, take a deep breath, and read on to learn how the practice of meditation can make you work better. You’ll be optimizing productivity and improving focus in no time!

    Benefits of Meditation for Leaders and Team

    The founder of the mindfulness curriculum at General Mills, Janice Marturano, went on to start the Institute for Mindful Leadership — a non-profit training institute that offers retreats and workshops to teach employees how mindful practice can build resilience, increase creativity and focus, and help foster compassion.

    Marturano studied over 100 participants of a seven-week mindfulness workshop from 2008 to 2010. She asked them to reflect on how mindful practice was manifesting in their daily routines and what benefits they had noticed. Marturano found that 83% of participants were carving out time each day to think about ways to optimize their personal productivity, and 82% were eliminating tasks of limited value. On average, eight out of ten noticed improvements in decision-making and nearly 90% reported that they had become better listeners.

    As researchers continue to evaluate the effects of meditation practice on our bodies and behaviour, the evidence is stacking up in its favour. Much like aerobic exercise improves the cardiovascular system, meditation trains and tones the mind to function more effectively. According to Healthline.com these are a few other known health benefits of meditation:

    – Reduced stress & anxiety

    – Improved emotional health

    – Enhanced self-awareness

    – Lengthened attention span

    – Delayed age-related memory loss

    – Greater kindness to self and others

    – Improved sleep

    – Pain control

    Which Type of Meditation Works Best?

    A quick Google search and you’ll find that there are anywhere from six to 23 different types of meditation out there. Where do you even start?

    While you won’t likely start out of the gate with a handle on all 23 techniques, varying your practice with different styles of meditation will give you a well-rounded practice. You’ll soon discover which methods work best for you and how different situations or challenges may require different techniques to help guide you through. Here are five types of meditation to get you started:

    1. Mindfulness Meditation – Start by being fully present with your thoughts and aware of where you are and what you are doing. Typically using a focus on breath to anchor the practice, you observe thoughts and emotions as they come, but release them without judgement.
    2. Transcendental Meditation – Using a personally assigned mantra such as a word, phrase or sound that is repeated in a specific way for 20 minutes twice daily, this technique is meant to inspire deep inner peace, relaxation, and rest.
    3. Guided Meditation – To help achieve a fully relaxed state, a guide will lead you through a series of mental pictures and visualization using smell, sound, and texture to create a sense of calm and peacefulness.
    4. Vipassana Meditation – This ancient Indian form of meditation aims to create self-transformation through self-observation. By developing a strong awareness of physical sensation in the body, the connection between body and mind is strengthened.
    5. Metta (Loving Kindness) Meditation – As the name suggests, this practice focuses on directing goodwill towards oneself and others through the repetition of the following phrases: “May I be happy. May I be well. May I be safe. May I be peaceful and at ease.” The practice continues as you visualize someone else and repeat the mantra, replacing the “I” with “you.”

    Taking Meditation to Work

    Interested in using mindfulness and meditation to help boost engagement and innovation for your team? From online seminars to corporate meditation workshops, there are plenty of ways to bring the practice of mindfulness to the office.

    Mindset Brain Gym in Toronto offers drop-in classes, multi-week courses, and customized corporate mindfulness training sessions. With a focus on clinical mindfulness techniques, positive psychology, and neuroscience, Mindset has been helping companies like Uber, Holt Renfrew, and BMO bring mindfulness to the workplace.

    Vancouver’s Salt & Spirit Wellness creates customized programs, workshops, and retreats ranging from four to 12 weeks in length. Meditation programs focus on stress management and fostering greater focus, connection, and clarity. They also offer corporate rates for companies so that employees can enjoy unlimited meditation, wellness, and fitness classes at Salt & Spirit.

    MindWell-U delivers the popular Mindfulness Challenge — a 30-day online training program that delivers a meditation curriculum using short videos, podcasts, emails and text messages for 5-10 minutes each day. This delivery style makes it easier for employees to find time during their busy day to attend to self-care and mindfulness.

    It’s never been easier, or more encouraged, to adopt meditation practices as part of an overall approach to mind and body wellness. Let this be the year you make more time for you. You’ll thank yourself for it later.

    Author: ChamberPlan.ca

    Read the original version of this article.

  • The Benefits of Hiring a Virtual Assistant

    The Benefits of Hiring a Virtual Assistant

    We spend, on average, 12-18% of our work week answering email—that’s an average of 620 emails a week, and about 11 hours of sifting through our inboxes, reading and crafting responses to connect and bring in business. Virtual Assistants (VAs), both human and AI (Artificial Intelligence), are a growing necessity for a business owner looking to keep her or his head above water.

    There are all types of VAs for hire : social media or blog management; VAs specific to product launch, administration, transcription, accounting tasks, and everything in between. Hannah Paré of Liferaft Virtual Assistance specializes in email clean-up and maintenance, and customer service support. She supports her clients in anything from grocery shopping for a food truck to helping clients respond to business leads.

    “A VA is a great fit for an entrepreneur, business owner or executive who wants the flexibility of a contractor,” explains Paré. “ The ROI makes sense—you don’t have the expenses of a full-time employee and, depending on your hourly rate, you reduce the number of hours on tasks that are not revenue generating.”

    Other reasons to invest in a VA:

    1. Stay on top of new technologies and trends. Hire someone who understands the world of social media, changing algorithms and social influencers. “What if your customers are more inclined to shop based on social media influencers?” suggests Paré. “That’s good information to know before you spend money on traditional marketing avenues.”

    2. Support to automate weekly and monthly tasks. “Some of my clients are working a full-time job as well as trying to manage all the details of a side business and a family at home,” explains Paré, “That gets overwhelming pretty quickly if there aren’t certain processes in place. This is where things like automated invoicing processes, accounts receivable follow-up, or GST preparation is made easy if someone can take them off your plate.”

    3. Services and Apps audit. Business owners and entrepreneurs do it all the time—pay a “bells-and-whistles” price for a software they only use for its basic functions. “There are hundreds of choices out there for programs and software, such as a file-sharing or storage, but to research them all takes time. A VA can look for the money-saving alternatives that are better suited to their clients’ needs.”

    4. Costs audit. Online storage, file sharing services, memberships, SEO and website maintenance, floor mat cleaning, insurance—and the list goes on—how often do we really assess what is coming out of the business bank account every month? We sign up for memberships and services, and months (sometimes years) later are still paying for them, but not using them. “Like checking for quality control, check for holes in your bottom line that can be rectified by pressing the ‘unsubscribe’ button. A VA can help in finding and getting rid of those extraneous costs.”

    5. Digital clean-up. It’s all those educational articles, those docs from professional association’s membership, it’s the list of blogs you want to read, that will benefit you, but you can’t get to right away. Your VA can file them, put them where you can easily access them when you have the time.

    Also, business owners meet the expectations of their clients when they have all documentation at their fingertips. Get help organizing all your client’s emails and attached docs into a filing system that is easily accessible. “Digital organization and efficiency can be so time consuming, but also saves you so much time in the end, and results in better service delivery,” explains Paré.

    Some tips for getting the most out of your Virtual Assistant?

    1. Set the communication expectations from the beginning,” says Paré. “Do you expect your VA to be available in the evenings? Within 24 hours or less?”

    2. Avoid micromanaging your VA. “Before you hire, know what tasks you want your VA to be responsible for and make sure you are comfortable delegating those tasks.”

    3. When hiring your VA, interview your candidates face to face if possible, not only over the phone. “You need to know if you are going to click with the person who is managing your inbox.”

    4. Decide what contracts you need your VA to sign, whether it is non-disclosure, or other.

    5. Have your access codes, passwords and logins available so that your VA can accomplish what they need to without the roadblocks.

    Author: ChamberPlan.ca

    Read the original version of this article.

  • Responding to COVID-19 for Employers and Employees

    Responding to COVID-19 for Employers and Employees

    As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve, I will do everything I can to provide the most up-to-date information for my valued clients and community. The best way for us to all do our part in the prevention of this virus starts at taking social distancing measures to help reduce the number of new cases, and protect communities. Self-isolation is essential if you have symptoms or have been diagnosed. Of course, it’s best to stay home if you do not need medical assistance. When out and about for essential reasons (i.e. grocery shopping) keep a distance between yourself and others. At this time it’s important to avoid crowds and large social events entirely, if possible.  

    Here are some common questions that might clear up your immediate confusion and anxiety related to Covi, as of March 20, 2020:

    Do I have disability coverage if I contact COVID-19 or am quarantined?

    If you hold Weekly Indemnity coverage under Chambers Plan and have contracted COVID-19, or have been under quarantine, or both, you can submit a claim. A self-imposed quarantine, not ordered by a Provincial Health Authority or a physician, is not considered a disability. A quarantine requested by an employer is also not considered a disability. If you do not have Weekly Indemnity coverage and are placed under quarantine, you may be eligible for Employment Insurance benefits. 

    Given these uncertain times and the possibility of delays in public services, what’s the best way to manage my plan and submit claims?

    The best way to manage your plan is through our online benefits platform, my-benefits.ca. If you haven’t created an account, you can do so by clicking “sign-up” and then following the steps.

    Once you’ve created an account you can sign up for direct deposit of claims payments to receive reimbursement of your claims, as soon as they are processed.

    Do I have any trip cancellation? If I need to return home prior to the end of my scheduled trip, will I be covered?

    Chambers Plan does not offer any trip cancellation or interruption under the out-of-country coverage.

    For employers, the best ways to proceed in the workplace with the risks of COVID-19 include practicing the following:

    • Make sure employees are informed and have access to reliable information
    • Assess the situation daily and adjust the information if necessary
    • Rely on trusted sources of information to share with your teams – for support, contact our Health Information Specialists or refer to your Health Navigation platform
    • Provide access to handwashing areas and hand sanitizer while promoting hygiene best practices
    • If possible, allow employees to work from home or arrange schedules to reduce social contact
    • Be flexible with sick day requests and adjust your policies as needed
    • If you are sick, stay at home
    • Learn from COVID-19 and prepare for future similar events

    Below is a resource guide created by the clinical team at Novus Health®, our partner that powers our my-benefits health® platform, containing useful information for employers and their employees and further developed answers to the questions above, and more. 

    CH_COVID19 update, 03-15(1)

    Watch this webinar, where Teladoc Health’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Lew Levy, and Director of Clinical Quality and Informatics, Dr. Bridget K. McCabe, discusses the latest updates on the COVID-19 outbreak, protocols in place to identify and report cases, best practices for educating and preparing your population, and the role of virtual care in minimizing exposure to potentially contagious viruses.

  • Wellness at Work

    Wellness at Work

    Supporting staff wellbeing in the workplace is the responsibility of every business owner. Priorities that come to mind include: paying competitive wages and offering comprehensive benefit plans, or encouraging career development opportunities through educational programming and training.

    But what about mental health? Here are some mental-health focused activities, resources and strategies that can be incorporated in an employee’s wellness program:

    Enlist the help of a corporate wellness provider

    As increasing research supports a correlation between healthy workplaces and increased productivity, higher engagement levels, and cost savings relating to reduced absenteeism and job turnover, the number of companies offering expert programming — wellness retreats, seminars, and even private health and medical services — is on the rise .

    For example, Well Street, a Toronto-based workplace health solutions provider, delivers onsite, customized wellness programs to companies nationwide. Services range from a flu prevention clinic to healthy eating seminars and keynote presentations on topics like stress and work-life balance. Flexible, customizable delivery options make it easy for businesses to provide quality wellness programming to their teams that is relevant and informative.

    Organize a meditation workshop

    In addition to helping achieve greater focus and mindfulness, which are helpful in today’s hectic, distraction-laden workplace, increasing research shows that there are many health benefits associated with the practice of meditation. From overall stress reduction to more successful management of physical and psychological disorders, there are a number of reasons why people are turning to meditation as a personal wellness solution.

    Modern + Mindful , a mobile meditation company in Calgary, has helped companies like Lululemon, Uber, and The Forzani Group with customized meditation workshops. Some of the benefits their clients attest to include reduced stress, pain, or depression, as well as improved sleep quality, and a boost in immune response to illness.

    Offer regular Mental Health First Aid training

    For years now it has been fairly commonplace to have a designated fire warden, safety officer, or first aid responder in the workplace. Gaining momentum in recent years is Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training, which provides team members with the skills they need to respond to someone who may be either developing a mental health problem, experiencing the worsening of an existing mental health problem, or currently undergoing a mental health crisis.

    The Mental Health Commission of Canada offers Mental Health First Aid training courses nationwide where participants learn how to confidently interact with others about mental health issues. In addition to providing strategies used to successfully recognize, respond to, and guide someone who may be experiencing a mental health crisis, MHFA in the workplace helps break down mental health stigmas and increase awareness.

    Encourage and support opportunities for physical fitness

    Scientific evidence has long vouched for the positive health benefits of physical exercise on the body. From cancer prevention to reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and nearly everything in between, there is really nothing that exercise can’t help. Not surprisingly, evidence is mounting for the mental benefits of exercise , with positive results relating to mood enhancement, alleviation of depression, and reduction in anxiety symptoms.

    The demands of daily life have changed dramatically in the last hundred years or so, with much of our time spent on pursuits that are mentally challenging, but largely sedentary and desk-bound. It has become increasingly difficult for people to make exercise a priority in their day.

    Many corporate wellness programs are looking to change this mindset by offering options like corporate fitness discounts or flexible work schedules to allow employees to attend gym classes or go for a run during the day. It can be as simple as installing a bike rack to encourage staff to ride to work or offering weekly lunch-hour fitness classes in the conference room. Supporting fitness in the workplace is an important step in supporting physical and mental wellness at work.

    Pet therapy

    Allergies permitting, doggos in the workplace are increasingly popular, with some good research backing up the benefits . There’s just something about being greeted by a wagging tail that can completely turn your day around.

    Not only are pets in the workplace known to help reduce levels of the stress-causing hormone cortisol, their presence also tends to trigger workplace interactions that would not normally take place, contributing to a boost in morale and relationship building.

    Employers want their teams to do their best and be happy at work. Providing access to supportive tools and resources helps make this happen. In addition to implementing programs and initiatives, being a champion for mental health in the workplace is an important way to reduce stigma and encourage people to access help if they need it.

    Author: ChamberPlan.ca

    Read the original article here.