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 If you encounter an out-of-date link, please e-mail the payrollnews@canpay.com.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!

March 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:

February 18, 2004 - Clients across Canada can now file for EI online - As of February 18, 2004, the HRSD's on-line claimant reporting service is available to all clients throughout Canada who file their report using the automated telephone reporting service (Teledec). (Full Story - 1270 Words)

February 27, 2004 - Minister Proposes Clarification of Rules for CPP Employer Contributions - Finance Minister Ralph Goodale today announced proposals to amend the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) legislation to clarify the rules governing employer contributions. The proposals relate to employer contributions that are in excess of required amounts and the withholding and remittance of CPP contributions by employers. (Full Story - 475 Words)

Alberta:

February 2004 - STEP funding helps employers hire summer staff - STEP helps non-profit employers provide Albertans with work experience to develop their skills and build contacts in their field of study. This year's program runs from April 26 to September 3, 2004. Funding priority is given to positions that contribute to the person's future employability and that are project-based. All positions must provide continuous full-time employment of 30 to 40 hours per week for a minimum of six weeks. STEP employees must be paid at least $5.90 per hour. STEP funding provides $4.50 per hour plus 10 per cent towards employer costs for Canada Pension, Employment Insurance, and vacation pay. (Full Story - 286 Words)

February 4, 2004 - New chair and two members appointed to Workers' Compensation Board - The appointment of two new public members and a new chair to the Board of Directors of the Workers' Compensation Board will ensure the continued strength of the ten-member group which sets the strategic direction of Alberta's workers' compensation system. "I've asked these talented people to apply their skills to keep Alberta's workers' compensation system among the country's strongest," said Clint Dunford, minister responsible for the Workers' Compensation Board. (Full Story - 400 Words)

Bristish Columbia:

February 6, 2004 - Time limit policy to protect people in need - The province has released a report projecting the number of clients that will be affected as the government follows through on its commitment to limit income assistance for employable clients to two years out of every five. The report shows that a total of 339 employable clients who have been receiving assistance for more than two years may become ineligible over the coming year, or receive a rate reduction, as a result of non-compliance with their employment plan. (Full Story - 689 Words)

February 26, 2004 - Environmental tobacco smoke fines top WCB infractions - More than one-third of the B.C. companies fined for penalty infractions by the Workers' Compensation Board in the last six months of 2003 were cited for environmental violations involving tobacco smoke in the workplace. (Full Story - 367 Words)

Manitoba:

February 25, 2004 - Public opinion sought on review of Workers Compensation Act - Labour and Immigration Minister Nancy Allan announced today that public hearings on the Workers Compensation Act are to be conducted by a four-person review committee beginning April 14. "It has been almost 20 years since the public was consulted about the workers compensation legislation," Allan said. "It’s important that the act be reviewed regularly to determine if there are areas that need to be improved and updated. Our ultimate goal is to ensure we have a system that appropriately meets the needs of workers, employers and the public". (Full Story - 491 Words)

New Brunswick:

February 6, 2004 - More New Brunswickers working in January - There were 1100 more New Brunswickers working in January than at the same time last year, and the labour force grew by 1,800 which helped to fuel a small increase in the unemployment rate, Training and Employment Development Minister Margaret-Ann Blaney reported today. (Full Story - 267 Words)

Northwest Territories:

February 10, 2004 - NWT Employers Gain "Invaluable"Tool - An agreement between Education, Culture and Employment and the Government of Alberta will allow Northwest Territories' employers to access Alberta's International Qualification Assessment Service (IQAS) to verify out-of-country credentials for individuals applying for workers in the NWT. IQAS verifies out-of-country credentials on behalf of employers, professional licensing bodies, and post-secondary institutions across Canada and enables individual applicants to get recognition for education they have received outside of Canada. IQAS assessment certificates show how educational credentials from other countries generally compare to standards in Canada. (Full Story - 590 Words)

Ontario:

February 1, 2004 - McGuinty government raises minimum wage - The McGuinty Government has raised the minimum wage rates starting today, Labour Minister Chris Bentley said. "This raise in minimum wage rates is nine years overdue and will help keep Ontario's most vulnerable employees from falling further behind the rest of Ontario employees." Effective today, Ontario's general minimum wage is $7.15 per hour. Increases are reflected in all minimum wage categories. (Full Story - 325 Words)

February 2, 2004 - McGuinty government involves multilingual workplaces in discussions to end 60-hour work week - The McGuinty government is delivering real, positive change by reaching out to Ontario's multilingual workplaces to involve them in discussions to end the 60-hour work week, Labour Minister Chris Bentley announced today. (Full Story - 246 Words)

February 12, 2004 - Ontario Labour Ministry announces audit of Workplace Safety and Insurance Board - An independent audit will be conducted on the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, Labour Minister Chris Bentley announced today. A third-party audit firm is being hired to assess the WSIB, an arm's-length trust agency overseen by the minister. The WSIB is responsible for providing insurance for workers, promoting health and safety, and facilitating the return to work by injured workers. (Full Story - 329 Words)

Saskatchewan:

February 13, 2004 - Upcoming review of occupational health and safety legislation - Saskatchewan needs up-to-date and effective workplace standards to help prevent occupational injuries and illnesses. That is why the province will be reviewing the occupational health and safety legislation, including consultations with worker and employer organizations. A review of the legislation is required every five years. (Full Story - 280 Words)

February 20, 2004 - More job opportunities for Aboriginal people - Today's Aboriginal Employment Development Program (AEDP) partnership agreement between the Saskatoon Public School Division #13, the Saskatoon Tribal Council, and the province will have a significant impact on future Aboriginal participation in the workforce. Through the program, the Tribal Council and the School Division will work together to encourage students to finish high school and go on to further education and training so they will be able to compete successfully for jobs of their choice. (Full Story - 400 Words)

February 6, 2004 - Employment holds steady in January - Saskatchewan's job figures remained basically unchanged in January with 474,900 people employed on a seasonally unadjusted basis. This is the second-highest job total ever recorded for January. On a year-over-year basis, Saskatchewan's job numbers are down marginally by 600 or 0.1 per cent. (Full Story - 377 Words)

Yukon:

February 25, 2004 - Yukon Government Creates More Jobs For Summer Students - Yukon post-secondary students are looking forward to more job opportunities this summer. The Yukon government announced it will add 30 new positions to the Student Training and Employment Program (STEP). "With education costs increasing, summer income becomes even more important to our postsecondary students", Education Minister John Edzerza said. STEP jobs also provide valuable career experience, helping students make the transition to the workforce after graduation. (Full Story - 411 Words)

The current release of GrandMaster Suite (3.90.06) 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:

• Easier editing during the Edit T4/T4A process - When you select an employee from the Edit T4/T4A File dialog box, the T4/T4A Details dialog box now appears immediately (previously, the program would close the employee selection list and return you to the Edit T4/T4a File window). Further, we have made a change to ensure that when you specify a year that does not have valid T4 data, an error message appears instead of a blank employee list.
• Earning and Deduction Assignments dialog boxes streamlined - The Earning and Deduction Assignments dialog boxes have been modified in that the numerous check boxes (for the T4/T4A/RL-1 options) have been replaced with a single drop down selection list. This list displays all available box number options. This allows for more available room in the dialog box and to more easily modify box number options.
• Insert button in the Edit T4/T4A dialog box moved and renamed - The Insert button in the Edit T4/T4A dialog box has been moved to the bottom of dialog box and renamed to Insert New T4/T4A Record. This makes it definite as to what action the button performs. Previously, the button appeared beside the Previous and Next Employee buttons -- this led some users to believe that it performed an Insert Employee function.
• Deduction Update dialog boxes allow you to select unavailable options - The Deduction Update dialog boxes (payroll and employee levels) have been modified to enable certain buttons and tabs only when the calculation method deems them required. This was changed to assist users who thought that certain options needed to be defined even though they were not applicable to the current action. For example, when you selected the Fixed Calculation option on the Fixed tab the Calculation tab was no longer necessary (but was still enabled). Now, when the Calculation tab is available the various options and radio buttons will be available based on the chosen calculation method.
• Roe file not including employees when using pending termination feature - When you issued an ROE through the Pending Termination feature, the first employee in the list would not be included in the resulting file. This has been corrected.
• Employee message not being cleared after pay run - When creating the Payroll and Cheque Register reports, the employee message (as defined in the Payroll Specific Information dialog box) is not removed even after you close the current pay run. We have added a utility program (UTCLRMES) that will clear any employee specific messages it finds in your payroll. This is a simple way to clear the existing messages that have been accumulating in your employees' Payroll Specific Information.
• Year-end WCB report not displaying correct employee totals - If you ran the history rewrite utility (UTHISREW) then created the year-end WCB report, the employee details could show multiple lines per employee with incorrect rates for the selected year. To resolve this problem, you must rerun the history rewrite utility included with this release.
• Taxable benefit not increasing Box 14 and Box A for Quebec employees - If you checked the Box 14 Income option (in the Earning Assignments dialog box), then created the T4s, the taxable benefit would not increase Box 14 and Box A if the employee is a Quebec employee. This has been corrected.
• Negative amounts appearing in Box 14 Income - If you edited the amount shown in Box 14 Income or Box A Quebec Income to be less than the sum totals of all boxes marked with an asterisk then subsequently removed the data from the latter marked boxes, Box 14 and/or Box A would display a negative amount. To make this more apparent to user who edit these fields, we have added a note in bold face type explaining that any edits to boxes marked with an asterisk will positively or negatively effect the total shown in Box 14 or Box A.
  

Stay tuned to CanPay's Product News page to receive the latest changes and release information for all GrandMaster products!

A business, as with any institution, not only has distinct physical and organizational structures, it also involves intricate webs of interpersonal, collegial and boss/employee relationships. Managing all of these work complexities, as well as the emotional and physical demands of a home, family and personal life, requires considerable energy on behalf of every employee.

To top it all off, organizations are continuing to change at a dizzying rate. They are either consolidating resources or locations, restructuring, reducing layers of bureaucracy, spinning off business units, closing plants or cutting services, most of which lead to employee terminations. Unfortunately, remaining employees tend to feel squeezed from all sides as they delicately balance their psyche between hope and fear.

But, what does all of this mean to your future career management?

Most people, look at work situations as something that is happening beyond them personally. In other words, they react to the people and events and perceive something is "being done to them"; Then, they feel victimized, powerless, alienated, fearful and angry because they see few choices they can make themselves. But there are indeed choices, even though they may be hard to make.

I strongly believe every individual struggling to manage the wild ride in the new world of work must look at a career as a journey rather than a one-time event and must take charge of their own career. By this I mean that you have to make a concentrated effort to thoroughly understand yourself and what this means in terms of a career whether you are looking for a new job or have to deal with fellow workers being terminated.

In other words, learn to understand how your personality, communication and decision-making styles impact on the type of job that is best suited to you. Learn what you are really good at and what you like to do (work and volunteer), what values and motivators are really important to you and what role you enjoy on a team or even if you enjoy a team environment at all.

This self-knowledge will build a fundamental framework for your job search or a better understanding of your current career standing. And, frankly, if you don't do this important "homework", you will probably end up in the wrong job.

So, how can you start this personal self-examination? For those of you with a bit of work history, begin by looking at how you have responded to life and work events to date. Do what is called a lifeline assessment.

Draw a line across a sheet of paper and mark the following events:

• Events and people that have profoundly influenced your career decision, note how they influenced you.
• Write down examples of the risks you have taken, what were the payoffs?
• Identify when on your lifeline you felt in control and out of control of your destiny.
• Note events or aspects of your career that created a strong sense of pride.
• Look at your current work situation to see what the satisfiers and dissatisfiers are.
• Develop a list of important workplace qualities and job activities that will lead to your job satisfaction.

For those readers still in school, your lifeline can still reflect special events along with the subjects that you have enjoyed and why. Once you have identified the lifeline diagram events, stop and reflect what these mean in regard to your current job satisfaction and/or your job goal. Then, compare yourself to the following well-known employee satisfaction criteria and turnover factors. Which ones apply to you?

• Respect, appreciation and recognition for good work.
• Feelings of being listened to, ideas being heard, an ability to influence.
• A sense of personal confidence and self-esteem in the workplace.
• A pleasant work environment free from chronic hostility, distress, harassment, anxiety and danger.
• A sense of belonging within the corporate culture and work group.
• A well-defined job accompanied by appropriate training and reporting relationships.
• A balanced workload with appropriate timelines, level of responsibility and work hour allocations.
• Perceived fairness of outcomes, processes and personal treatment.
• Opportunities for career advancement or career alternatives.
• Positive interpersonal and employee/boss relationships.
• Physical work environment and corporate culture.

(Adapted from Health Canada publication: Best Advice on Stress Risk Management in the workplace). Once you have completed this comparison, circle the top three, key job satisfaction criteria. These job satisfiers will typically reflect your personality and communication style. However, you can further confirm your style through formal assessments offered by career consultants, local colleges or your nearby employment office.

The next step in your career management is to match your knowledge, skills, abilities, personality factors and job satisfaction criteria to those factors that are important to employers of the future.

In facing their challenges, companies need workers who have:

• Flexibility in their skill sets, are capable of self-management, control and autonomy in their daily work.
• A strong sense of personal vision, purpose and self esteem and understands how they can contribute to an organization.
• Skills beyond simply technical skills such as good interpersonal communication, reading people and building teams.
• Excellent problem solving skills with an ability to apply good old-fashioned common sense.
• A strong interest in continuous learning from a personal and professional perspective.
• An ability to deal with change, take risks and have an eye on the future.

While much of this advice sounds like a great deal of work, and it is, I believe completing a self-analysis is the most important thing you can do for your career. It will clarify what you need, what you want and where you can get it.

If you don't, believe me, you'll never be in charge - and your career will continue being tossed about like a small paper sailboat in a big turbulent sea.

Courtesy of Barbara J. Bowes and the Winnipeg Free Press.
Barbara can be reached at barb@bowesgroup.com