Derek Armstrong

Over worked business man at desk Pivotal HR Solutions Blog

“Dying for a paycheque?” — good HR Managmement can breathe new life into your team

HR BLOG, HR Management Blog

With power personalities such as Elon Musk advocating 100-hour weeks — and many real-life examples of 100-hour work weeks, notably amongst software developers — HR managers have to be careful not to literally “work their teams to death.” Chances are, if you are a manager, you are one of the […]

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Medical prognosis long term leave Pivotal HR Solutions Blog

What’s an HR Manager to do with the “excessively absent” employee; and what about the law?

HR BLOG, HR Management Blog

Of all the HR management tasks, perhaps the most complicated issue in the workplace is absenteeism, especially the unavoidable — and difficult-to-plan and manage — medical leave. While many absentee team-members may have challenging scenarios and legitimate reasons for absence, this does put a significant burden on the remaining workers

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Stressed out payroll manager Pivotal HR Solutions Blog

Ontario’s payroll nightmare: compliance with confusing statutory holiday pay rules — without stress

HR BLOG, Payroll Management Blog

Judging by the volume of calls to the Canadian Payroll Association, calculating pay for statutory holidays remains a mystery to many payroll managers or teams. According to the association, the calls are usually “how do I calculate,” or often just to “double check.” [1] Considering there are ten statutory holidays

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Recuit Top Talent Pivotal HR Solutions Blog

How to take hire top talent in a tight job market: 3 corporate tips and how to hire the “passive” candidates

HR BLOG, Recruitment

Although most of the jobs added appear to be in the construction industry, the Canadian economy broke records, adding 106,500 jobs in April 2019, according to Statscan. This trend is expected to continue, as long as interest rates remain stable. This contributed to an unemployment rate of 5.7 percent, the

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Payroll superman Pivotal HR Solutions Blog

A higher “sense of urgency” needed as increased CPP costs impact payroll budgeting

HR BLOG, Payroll Management Blog

CPP costs began its inexorable — and unavoidable — rise in January, 2019 — but many Payroll and HR Managers have not given the increases a high sense of urgency. Those that do, will champion important changes to human resources management — becoming the future superheroes of budgets. Although the

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Pink slip employee fired Pivotal HR Solutions Blog

Severance pay rules legal precedent: only Ontario payroll factors into the $2.5 million payroll threshold for severance

Payroll Management Blog, HR BLOG

The Hawkes Decision sets some clarifying precedent for severance payments for Ontario payrolls, with a clear differentiation between companies with payrolls of more or less than $2.5 million — regardless of global payroll of the company. The important takeaway from the December 2018 decision, according to legal consultants at BLG,

Severance pay rules legal precedent: only Ontario payroll factors into the $2.5 million payroll threshold for severance Read More »

Triage in World War 1 Pivotal HR Solutions Blog

Triage Productivity Method: the 4-day week — proof “Triage Productivity” rescues 20% of your time; plus, 3 essential methods

HR BLOG, HR Management Blog

Part 1 of a 3-part “Triage Productivity” series Triage Productivity (TM) is designed around prioritizing workflow as if your life depended on it — modelled somewhat after Triage field hospitals. (We’re being colourful to make a point. Bear with us.) In Triage, particularly in field hospitals or war zones, the

Triage Productivity Method: the 4-day week — proof “Triage Productivity” rescues 20% of your time; plus, 3 essential methods Read More »

Health care benefits Pivotal HR Solutions Blog

Payroll and benefits managers should budget for drug and health benefit costs to rise nearly 12 percent in 2019

HR BLOG, Payroll Management Blog

Drug benefits are projected to rise, on average by 11.57 percent on renewal in 2019, with healthcare benefits also rising 11.55 percent (according to Accompass data.) Dental benefits are forecast to increase 5.62 percent. “With good advisors, you’re going to find the rates will typically be lower for a lot

Payroll and benefits managers should budget for drug and health benefit costs to rise nearly 12 percent in 2019 Read More »

Digital Detox Pivotal HR Solutions Blog

Seven Digital Detox methods that can increase office productivity; human office workers now have an average attention span of 8 seconds, less than a goldfish

HR BLOG, HR Management Blog

Since the advent of smart phones, the human attention span in the workplace has dropped to eight seconds — now shorter than that of a goldfish (at nine seconds) — according to a Microsoft Corp study of 2,000 participants. The main cause of the drop in attention — and resulting

Seven Digital Detox methods that can increase office productivity; human office workers now have an average attention span of 8 seconds, less than a goldfish Read More »

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