Corporate Social Responsibility : In The News

U of T doctoral student helps land on a potential key to corporate innovation

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

A University of Toronto PhD student has co-authored a study which argues that it's possible to pay employees to be innovative. According to the report, it all comes down to encouraging collaboration.

Bruce Curran, who along with the University of Saskatchewan's Scott Walsworth analyzed seven years of corporate survey data from some 3,000 Canadian workplaces, found that individual salaries and bonuses did little to spark creative performance. Instead, group or team bonuses, profit-sharing plans, and indirect pay were the most effective proverbial carrots employers could dangle in hopes of getting forward-thinking work done.

“Innovation is in many respects collaborative, and these incentives are encouraging collaboration,” Curran explained to the Wall Street Journal last week.

Curran also pointed out that rewarding teams could prompt workers to take more short-term risks, knowing their own pay or job security wasn't at stake. “If you go down a blind alley, you aren’t going to be punished for that,” Curran said.

Employers would be wise to take note.

Read the full article here.
Source: Wall Street Journal

A University of Toronto study might be the answer to a Kentucky town's fungus

Munchies Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Kentucky whiskey distilleries are behind a nasty "whiskey fungus" that's covering houses, cars, and street signs in the Louisville suburb of Shively, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in property damage.

Munchies reports:

For years, the residents of Shively took this black soot as a given. They didn’t know it was a preventable fungus caused by the nearby whiskey distilleries and they didn’t make much of a fuss about it. It was just another neighborhood complaint that wasn’t getting addressed by the local councilmen.

That changed in 2007, when University of Toronto mycologist James Scott published an academic paper about the fungus, which got attention not only for re-naming and re-classifying it based on DNA analysis, but also for pinning it on the whiskey industry. Dr. Scott discovered that this fungus—which he named Baudoinia, after the man who first studied it in 1872, Anton Baudoin—feeds on the ethanol vapor released by liquor as it ages. (Not surprisingly, you’ll find Baudoinia near scotch, brandy, and rum distilleries as well, since they also off-gas ethanol.)

Scott's findings have led to a class-action lawsuit filed against the three major distilleries in the area – and possibly, as the piece points out, the booze industry's answer to the Erin Brokovich story.

Read the full story here.
Source: Munchies

Top employers in the GTA

Aon Hewitt Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Aon Hewitt's annual rankings of the best employers in Canada are in. The organization has been ranking companies based on employee, leader, and human resource practices surveys submitted by participating organizations for more than 15 years.

There's good news for the GTA this year as the top four companies in the region are also the top four companies in the country (in the same order). Cisco Systems Canada, EllisDon Corporation, Bennett Jones LLP, and Marriott Hotels of Canada have been selected as the four best companies to work for in the nation.

Here is the full list of top organizations in the GTA:

Large Organizations

1. Cisco Systems Canada*

2. EllisDon Corporation*

3. Bennett Jones LLP*

4. Marriott Hotels of Canada*

5. Chubb Insurance Company of Canada*

6. McDonald's Restaurants of Canada Limited

7. Flight Centre

8. Keg Restaurants Ltd.*

9. Edward Jones*

10. LoyaltyOne Inc

11. PCL Constructors Inc.*

12. Hatch*

13. The Co-operators*

14. SAP Canada*

15. Stikeman Elliott

16. Starwood Hotels and Resorts Canada

17. OMERS Administration Corporation*

18. TD Bank Group*

19. Novotel Canada

20. Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP

21. Delta Hotels and Resorts

22. Aecon Group Inc.

23. G&K Services Canada Inc.

24. National Bank

25. Allstate Insurance Company of Canada*

26. Golder Associates Ltd.

27. GlaxoSmithKline Inc.

28. Earl's Restaurants Ltd.

29. Amex Canada Inc / Amex Bank of Canada

30. Dillon Consulting Limited

31. Procter & Gamble — Market Development Organization

32. Miller Thomson LLP

33. The Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited

34. Morguard Corporation

35. Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP

Small and Medium Organizations

1. Arrow Professional Services*

2. iGATE Global Solutions Ltd

3. Intelex Technologies In.

4. Achievers*

5. IHG

6. Intuit Canada

7. Klick Inc.

8. OPTIMUS I SBR Inc.

9. CAAT Pension Plan

10. C.S.T. Consultants Inc.

11. peopleCare Inc.

12. Geo. A. Kelson Company Limited

13. 99 bottles Inc. o/a beerbistro

14. TIC Travel Insurance Coordinators Ltd.

15. Furlani's Food Corporation

16. Gibraltar Solutions Inc.

17. Wakefield Canada Inc.

18. Vital Insights Inc

19. SOCAN - Society of Composers, Authors and Music Pu

20. Pinchin Environmental Ltd.

21. Phonak Canada

22. Ryan ULC

23. CWB Group - Industry Services

24. Mitsubishi Motor Sales of Canada, Inc.

25. MasterCard Canada

* Also appeared on the Best Employers in Canada list

For the full list of Canada's best employers, click here.

Original Source: Aon Hewitt

Mohawk College wins top regional Smart Commute award

SmartCommute.ca Wednesday, November 27, 2013

The year is winding down, so it's no surprise top employer lists are piling in. The Smart Commute awards recognize the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Region's top employers when it comes to implementing smart commute programs. These are employers that demonstrate "exceptional leadership, innovation and success in motivating employees to re-think their commutes," according to the website's criteria.

It recognizes one overall Regional Employer of the Year in addition to individual awards given to organizations based on region. This year's top winner was Mohawk College. Mohawk's sustainability office played a key role in taking the crown as it supporting smart commute options thanks to its Discount Transit Pass program. In addition, the college offers carpool parking and sheltered bike parking, and has made transportation a "key element of their recent sire redevelopment" including new multi-use pathways that connect the campus to local neighbourhoods.

Here is the full list of winners broken down by region:

Parsons Brinckerhoff Employee Engagement Award - City of Mississauga

Smart Commute Champion - Sante Esposito

Smart Commute Brampton-Caledon Employer of the Year – Region of Peel

Smart Commute Central York Employer of the Year – Scholastic Canada Ltd. - Newmarket

Smart Commute Durham Employer of the Year – Region of Durham’s Hillsdale Estates & Terraces

Smart Commute Halton Employer of the Year – Halton Region

Smart Commute Hamilton Employer of the Year – Mohawk College

Smart Commute Markham, Richmond Hill Employer of the Year – Town of Richmond Hill

Smart Commute Mississauga Employer of the Year – Hatch Ltd.

Smart Commute Northeast Toronto Employer of the Year – Royal Bank of Canada RBC – York Mills

Smart Commute North Toronto, Vaughan Employer of the Year – PowerStream

Smart Commute Toronto-Central Employer of the Year – Brookfield Properties – Queen’s Quay Terminal

To read about why each employer won the award, click here.

Original Source: SmartCommute.ca