Contents:

• Welcome
• Upcoming Events
• What's New
• GrandMaster Update

NOTE: This archive references other sites on the World Wide Web. From time to time, an article's link may be moved or deleted from the host site. If you encounter an out-of-date link, please e-mail the payrollnews@canpay.com.

Welcome!

August 2004 - Welcome to the latest edition of The Payroll News. As always, please feel free to forward this newsletter to your friends and associates who are interested in keeping up with the latest changes in the Payroll industry. Or better yet, subscribe them for free using the Tell Others About Us link.

Upcoming Events

Listed here are recent changes in legislation on Federal and Provincial levels that may impact your payroll calculations. Please view the following list for changes that affect your region.

FEDERAL:

July 26, 2004 - Measuring the Full Value of Human Resources to Organizations - Talented people give organizations a competitive advantage in today's business environment, so even small improvements in human capability can yield bottom-line results. Making the business case for investing in people requires effective measurement of the vital indicators of organizational performance. (Full Story - 490 Words)

July 2004 - Calls for Proposals for Grants and Contributions - An overview of the Call for Proposals process for establishing contribution agreements for projects valued at or above $500,000, and information on current Calls for Proposals posted across Canada. (Full Story - 400 Words)

Alberta:

July 29, 2004 - Is Alberta Heritage Day a holiday for you? - Monday, August 2, 2004 is Alberta Heritage Day. While most communities observe Heritage Day as a civic holiday, it is not classified as a general (or statutory) holiday under the Employment Standards Code. However, a day off may be provided to workers at the discretion of employers. If an employer recognizes Alberta Heritage Day as a general holiday, eligible employees are entitled to the benefits of a general holiday. (Full Story - 513 Words)

July 15, 2004 - Vacation pay-Are you entitled? - In Alberta, most employees are entitled to annual vacation with pay. Vacation leave and vacation pay are intended to ensure employees have time away from work each year without loss of income. Approximately 90 per cent of Alberta's workers are covered by the Employment Standards Code and are entitled after one year of employment to at least two weeks of vacation with pay, and after five years of employment to at least three weeks of vacation with pay. Part-time workers are entitled to vacation pay. (Full Story - 360 Words)

July 2004 - Ways to Reduce Your WCB Premiums - WCB promotes injury prevention through financial incentives. WCB uses claims volumes or costs to determine if an individual employer's performance is above or below the average for their grouping. If the performance is better than average, the employer will get a discount, and if it is worse, the employer will pay a surcharge. (Full Story - 264 Words)

British Columbia:

July 9, 2004 - More jobs for British Columbians in June - The June 2004 labour force survey, coupled with continued good news on the housing starts front, reinforces the fact that B.C.’s economy is on the rebound, said Skills Development and Labour Minister Graham Bruce. (Full Story - 420 Words)

July 6, 2004 - B.C. leads country in employment growth, wage rate - B.C. Leads the country in job creation and a larger proportion of British Columbians are making $16 or more per hour than in any other province, Labour Minister Graham Bruce said today. Bruce pointed out that nearly one million employees in this province earn $16 or more per hour - the amount Statistics Canada says will support a family of four in an urban centre. (Full Story - 394 Words)

July 14, 2004 - Disability becomes ability in Neil Squire Centre - People with disabilities will have greater employment opportunities, thanks to the Neil Squire Foundation’s new Disability Supports Centre, said Human Resources Minister Stan Hagen and foundation executive director Dr. Gary Birch. The centre was made possible by a $50,000 grant from the Disability Supports for Employment Fund, a $20 million endowment fund established by the Government of British Columbia in 2003. (Full Story - 374 Words)

Nova Scotia:

July 22, 2004 - Labour Standards Guides Now Online - Employers and workers now have quick and easy access to commonly requested information about laws affecting their workplaces. Four new labour standards guides are now available on the Environment
and Labour website. A complete plain-language guide to the Labour Standards Code is
also available online. (Full Story - 478 Words)

July 22, 2004 - New Acting Chief Appeal Commissioner - The Workers' Compensation Appeals Tribunal has a new acting chief appeal commissioner. Cabinet has appointed Louanne Labelle to the position, it was announced today, July 22, by Ernest Fage, acting
minister responsible for the tribunal, on behalf of Minister Michael Baker. (Full Story - 250 Words)

Ontario:

July 14, 2004 - McGuinty government steps up employment standards enforcement - The McGuinty government is protecting employees and law-abiding employers by authorizing employment standards officers to issue tickets under a stepped-up enforcement effort, Labour Minister Chris Bentley announced today. (Full Story - 260 Words)

July 8, 2004 - McGuinty Government Beefs Up Enforcement To Prevent Workplace Injuries - The McGuinty government is hiring 200 new health and safety enforcement staff to achieve its goal of preventing 60,000 workplace injuries a year by 2008, Labour Minister Chris Bentley announced today. "We are investing in a safer, more prosperous future for Ontario by significantly increasing staff to target workplaces with poor health and safety records," said Bentley. (Full Story - 300 Words)

June 29, 2004 - Family Medical Leave Now Available for Ontario Workers - Effective immediately, workers in Ontario who are caring for a gravely ill family member can take up to eight weeks off work without worrying about losing their job, Minister of Labour Chris Bentley announced today. (Full Story - 415 Words)

June 29, 2004 - Revised Interest Payments Policy - The WSIB has recently completed a review of the payment of interest on delayed WSIB benefits in cases where a worker/survivor has also received payment from a third party for the same entitlement period. The current policy requires that for claims registered on or after January 1, 1990, the WSIB pays interest on delayed (late) WSIB benefits. (Full Story - 311 Words)

Saskatchewan:

July 9, 2004 - Job numbers continue their record pace - Saskatchewan's job numbers continued their record pace in June, topping the half-million mark for the third time in the province's history. Statistics Canada figures released today show 503,000 people working in Saskatchewan last month (seasonally unadjusted figures). That's the highest figure on record for the month of June, beating by 1,500 the old mark set in June 2003. (Full Story - 400 Words)

Yukon:

July 1, 2004 - FNGST to replace GST in eight Yukon First Nations - On July 1, 2004, the First Nation Goods and Services Tax (FNGST) replaces the GST for eight First Nations in Yukon. The CRA will administer the FNGST on their behalf. Everyone, including Indians but with the exception of some provincial and territorial governments, has to pay FNGST on the taxable supplies they buy on First Nations lands where FNGST applies. (Full Story - 195 Words)

The mid-year release of GrandMaster Suite (4.00.01) incorporates a number of changes to make it even easier to use the program and perform your payroll tasks. Recent program changes since our last Payroll News issue include:

• Payroll Entry report now sorts by keyed sequence - The Payroll Entry report now includes an option to sort the report results by the sequence by which the data was entered. To use this feature, open the Payroll Entry Report dialog box and choose the Entered Sequence radio button.
• Adjusted Tax Paid Vacation amount in Accumulator Calculation Codes 2 and 8 - When using accumulator calculation codes 2 or 8, the Tax Paid Vacation amount was not being included as part of the Taxable Benefit. This has been adjusted.
• GrandMaster II conversion resolving incorrect year - When you converted your payroll data from GrandMaster II to GrandMaster Suite, the year was not resolving correctly. This has been adjusted.
• Provincial Health and WCB Calculation not distributing benefits - When calculating the employee's provincial health and WCB amounts, the program was not distributing the benefits correctly if the employee had no income. The calculation now distributes all benefits as required.
• Range report not including company portion - If you created the Range Report, the resulting QPP total was not including the company portion. This has been corrected.
• Distributions not working correctly on split earnings - If you split an earning using Positions, the program would only journalize the first position. This has been corrected so that the earning amounts are apportioned to all associated positions.
• Administration module adjusted for WCB rights - If you disabled all WCB editing rights for a user via the Administration Module, the program was only disabling the Insert option (i.e. they could still Edit or Delete WCB records). This has been corrected.
• Stat pay earning will not contra to salary - If you had a stat pay earning setup with preset hours and wanted the earning to contra to the salary, the program would pay the stat but would not reduce the salary amount. This has been corrected.
  

Clock's Ticking - Some hints for making the most of your minutes

Have you ever given much thought to the word "time"? It's really such a pervasive concept, reaching into every nook and cranny of our life.

We spend, mark, waste, kill and save it. Some wish it away or even try to make it fly. And in April, hoping to catch just one more hour of sun, we move it.

Still others try to manage or control it. In fact, we've been trying to wrestle it to the ground since "time immemorial."

But time is elusive. No matter how hard we try or what we do, time still glares at us, creating challenges that can drive us mad. That's because, according to Steve Prentice, author of the book, Cool Time and the Two-Pound Bucket, Time Management for the 24 -hour Person, we can't manage time any more than we can manage gravity. The only thing we can manage is ourselves.

What does wasted time look like? Sometimes it's very blatant. It's people socializing and hanging around the water cooler just 15 minutes longer than they should. It's employees who look for excuses to go for long walks around the workplace and visit at every desk along the way. It's inconsiderate workers who exceed their coffee-break time and annoy their peers. Or it's bosses who make employees wait and wait. And it's inefficient and outdated work systems that force employees to spend twice the amount of time they should to complete a job.

But most time-wasters aren't quite so blatant. They're hidden behind the cloak of politeness, helpfulness or personality. For instance, we can't say "no" when someone drops in and asks for "just a moment" of our time. We stop to help others with their work instead of doing our own. And we delay and delay tasks that we really don't enjoy or we fail to resist answering just one more telephone call.

Then there's the issue of capability. We underestimate job tasks, don't delegate effectively and just plain take on too much. We don't prioritize, set deadlines or track our progress. Then there are those folks who brag about their skill in multitasking -- in other words, working on more than one project at a time. Is that even possible?

Prentice certainly doesn't think so. After all, can you imagine starting up the lawnmower, mowing a third of the lawn, then running into the house to paint a wall before running outside to continue with the lawn? I don't think so.

So why is time such a problem for some people? Prentice says time isn't really the enemy, but rather it's a lack of control over our own activities. And let's face it, some people like to be needed. They love to hear that phone ring -- it's a sign of their importance. They like an open-door policy where an invitation to interrupt is always present. After all, they don't want to be kept out of the loop and they don't want to offend anyone. Others simply have no concept of time and money values; their love of socializing stretches conversations to 20 minutes when only five would do. Still other ambitious workers suffer from a superhero complex, where "doing it all" is the only way to get ahead.

Classic project management suggests actual worker productivity is only 2.7 hours out of an eight-hour day, so you can see why books, books and more books have been written on how to wrestle time management to the ground. Solutions have included the get-organized approach, protecting your time, setting goals, prioritization, magic technology and simply going with the flow. And for those into self-help, you can turn to the "recovery" approach.

Prentice, on the other hand, says because time is very linear, it should be managed as a project. Take time to examine what needs to be done within the time-frame and plan for it, taking into consideration all the other status-quo tasks that have to be done.

Even though many of us already practice good time management strategies, here are some additional and effective ideas to consider.

Set aside undisturbed time - Regularly set aside a daily time period of 30 minutes to two hours to allow for a concentrated focus on a task. Schedule this time right into your calendar. Consider it a meeting from which you cannot be disturbed and don't leave your desk.

Optimize the day - Trying to do too many tasks in one day is unrealistic. Separate urgent priorities from tasks that are not urgent and are not priorities. Have all the tools needed for your task before beginning work; this helps to maximize your focus.

Avoid answerholism - Avoid answering the telephone, e-mails or voice mails unless it is absolutely of the highest priority. These interruptions erode your concentration. Most messages can wait. When you do take a call, make notes in a journal of some kind and immediately follow up on a promise before you forget.

Learn to speed-read - Reading the first sentence of every paragraph, and the first and last sentence of the summary, will give you a good idea of the content of any written material. This helps you to sort through those papers you want to seriously read later, and those that you don't want to spend time on at all.

Keep an active agenda - Keeping a calendar, written or electronic, is key to the success of time management. All tasks, appointments and meetings need to be in one place and edited as each day progresses. It should include a to-do list, with time assigned for higher-priority items. Take it with you wherever you go and update it constantly.

As Prentice says, when reflecting on the word "time", there is no turning around, no backing up and no stopping; we are forever travelling forward. So make sure you make the most of every minute. Use your time wisely.

Courtesy of Barbara J. Bowes. Barbara can be reached at barb@bowesgroup.com