The Saskatchewan Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) understands that it’s not always easy to navigate the workers’ compensation system.
Representatives at the WCB’s new Employer Resource Centre are your point of contact to answer questions, guide you to the right information, provide support materials and connect you with the right person at the WCB.
These are the resources available to employers through the Employer Resource Centre:
Register your business
Report and manage your worker’s injury claims
Pay employer premiums
Report your payroll
Create your online account
And more
Contact the Employer Resource Centre:
For general inquiries: 1-833-961-0042
For inquiries on your employer account or worker’s injury claim: 1-800-667-7590
Join us May 20th from 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM for an introductory session into
TEC – THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Companies who have joined a TEC group over the past 5 years grew 2.2 times faster that average small and medium sized businesses.
Imagine having your very own peer advisory board.
The SHCA wants to create a confidential group of strong women from the construction industry to hoin us 6-8 times a year to bring together your collective intelligence. These meeting will be guided by an accomplished Chair, who will provide a safe and stimulating environment to accelerate personal, professional, and business growth.
Attend from anywhere. The sessions will be delivered virtually. RSVP to confirm your attendance. The invitation link will be sent once we’ve received your RSVP.
We’re creating this special group because, women approach problems from different perspectives, they face unique challenges, and have unique solutions to tackle those challenges. They’re quite simply NOT men. Women are a growing force within the construction industry, and they should have a seat and voice at the board table, said Shantell Lipp, President of the Saskatchewan Heavy Construction Association.
We are deeply saddened to share the news that our long-time colleague and friend, Carlyle Murray, P.Eng., PMP, passed away on May 8, 2021 after battling cancer, a heart attack and a stroke. News like this is difficult to process, and we are in touch with Carlyle’s family to offer our support.
Carlyle’s impact within Stantec, the City of Regina and industry was clear. Throughout his extensive career, he worked very hard to contribute in a meaningful way, as can be seen through a few of his career highlights:
He contributed to the engineering industry for over 50 years, the “Gordie Howe of Engineering”
He improved the City of Regina’s maintenance systems, including the winter maintenance program; he found efficiencies in their asphalt and concrete construction programs, and introduced Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) equipment into the municipal roadways fleet
He was a very successful project engineer and project manager, having one of the best track records for keeping projects on budget and schedule. He had a long and distinguished career in engineering, and we were blessed to have him as part of our team.
Carlyle Murray
Carlyle’s extensive consulting background made him a key partner in the planning and delivery of infrastructure projects in Saskatchewan and particularly with the Ministry of Highways. His role gave him the opportunity to engineer and manage a variety of projects ranging from roadway projects, including grading and surfacing, hydraulics and culverts, civil works, land development and special projects such as civil site designs for Federated Co-op. On March 9, 2021, Carlyle celebrated his 11th anniversary with Stantec.
Throughout his career, Carlyle prioritized having a positive impact on those around him, for the betterment of the community. He was engaged in many charitable endeavors both corporately and in his personal life. Whether it was Stantec social events, Stantec in the Community, Rotary Club, providing education to our youth through his foundation, supporting friends and family, heading to a Rider game or companionship with Carlyle’s Coyotes, Carlyle always put his community first and was a real pleasure to be around. In addition to his contributions to his communities, he was very active in ACEC-SK and the betterment of the consulting industry, providing much-needed knowledge, time and energy to improve and evolve our industry. Carlyle has made a positive impact on many of our communities, clients and careers, which will always be remembered.
Carlyle believed in education and providing opportunities for others. In 1993, he founded the Carlyle Murray Educational Foundation through The Regina Industrial Parks Rotary Club. This foundation is a registered charity and provides an annual post-secondary scholarship to a Regina area graduating Grade XII student. If you are interested in contributing to the Carlyle Murray Educational Foundation, please reach out to Jerry Boulanger at jclan@sasktel.net or by calling 306-527-0671. A charitable donation receipt will be provided upon request.
The Government of Saskatchewan is investing $1.5 million in the Community Airport Partnership (CAP) program as part of Budget 2021–22. This funding will provide improvements to 19 community airports around the province. When combined with local matching dollars, CAP represents a $3 million investment in provincial airport infrastructure.
“As a commercial pilot myself, I know of the benefit these investments will have on some of our more rural and remote communities,” Highways Minister Fred Bradshaw said. “These revitalization and rehabilitation projects will bring some much-needed upgrades to some of our community airports and runways, leading to better usage and reliability for medical, emergency and transportation services to all regions of the province.”
Last year, the Government of Saskatchewan more than doubled its funding for the CAP program to $1.5 million, an increase of 114 per cent over the previous year. A portion of the 2021–22 investment, $650,000, comes from the $2 billion stimulus package announced in mid-2020. The Ministry of Highways will be investing $300 million from that stimulus fund over several years into projects like resurfacing of runways, improvements for pilot assists at airports and several other highways specific projects.
“It’s exciting to see the upgrades taking shape at the Moose Jaw Municipal Airport,” Moose Jaw Mayor Fraser Tolmie said. “We thank the Government of Canada and the Government of Saskatchewan for recognizing the value of this project and making significant investments that will provide long-term benefits to our community.”
“The Tri-Communities of La Ronge, Village of Air Ronge and Lac La Ronge Indian Band, as well as the surrounding districts, are thrilled that we are receiving the CAP grant for the much-needed servicing and repairs of the La Ronge Airport,” La Ronge Mayor Colin Ratushniak said. “As a vital hub and gateway to Northern Saskatchewan, we provide an important service to air ambulance and aerial firefighting and ensure the capabilities to connect families and tourists with commercial services. The CAP grant will ensure that we can continue to offer the highest of standards and safety to our clients, which in return ensures the economic growth of Northern Saskatchewan.”
Since 2007, more than $10.5 million has been invested in Saskatchewan’s community airports. When coupled with 50/50 matching community contributions, the CAP program has generated more than $21 million in airport improvements. A total of 38 different communities have benefited since the program began.
When an employee injures themselves at work, recovers and re-injures themselves off the job
When an employee gets injured at work, and the Workers’ Compensation Board in that jurisdiction accepts that injury, it accepts that injury for life…or does it?
It does not seem to be a clear yes or no answer, from our experience. As I am sure you are all aware by now, no matter what types of short- or long-term insurance your company might carry to supplement the forced WCB coverage you must have by government legislation, again by legislation the WCB is first payer. What does that mean?
In short, it means that no matter what other fantastic or simple insurance programs you may have, the WCB is the primary “owner” of that injury for the life of it. This is to protect the employee to ensure he/she does not get lost and later dumped if they lose employment with the injury employer or if the plan were to lose sufficient funding.
The WCB’s responsibility is to take the injured worker from the state of injury to the absolute best state of recovery, with the goal being complete recovery to the state the injured worker was in prior to becoming injured and capable of returning to his/her pre-injury duties on a full-time basis. The WCB is then to provide the injury employer with a letter advising the injured worker is fit to return to his/her pre-injury duties and that their dealings with the claimant are done.
If the worker is cleared for full duties by his/her primary medical providers, and then reinjures that specific part of their body away from work, the lost time and medical should not be the responsibility of the WCB and not affect the experience rating of the previous injury employer.
The injury employer may have a short-term insurance program that can help protect the employee while he/she recovers from the non-work injury up to the point where they can return to work again in a full capacity. Depending on the insurance coverage, the worker is usually covered for a percentage of wage loss and medical coverage. This type of insurance does not affect the WCB experience rating and the company’s premiums with WCB and competitive ability to compete for contracts.
Remember, there is no employer advocate to assist them, so they can either do it themselves or hire someone to assist them, again, at their expense.
At times, the WCB seems to take this whole ownership for life of an injury a little too far. They get a report from a physician who indicated a reinjury of a specific part of a body because the first time it was a work injury. They then contact the “injured worker” who advises this is not a work injury, but that it was done while he/she was at home and off duty. They press further, asking the employer of record for an E1 and salary information. They are told the injured worker was not working at the time of the injury, that they have statements from the worker, foreman and timesheets to show he was off duty. Further, the injured worker is already referred to their disability program and is already receiving benefits such as wage loss and medical.
The WCB insists and pushes legislation stating they are first payers, that they are accepting the injury as theirs and they acknowledge the injured worker has stated to them this did not occur at work, but since this part of his/her body was injured previously, this is a reaggravation of a pre-existing condition, so they accept it again fully. The employer has the right to appeal if they do not like this decision, at the employer’s cost. Remember, there is no employer advocate to assist them, so they can either do it themselves or hire someone to assist them, again, at their expense.
The employer, the injured worker and the short-term disability management company hired by the employer are extremely frustrated as they all believe they are doing the right thing by their injured worker and yet the WCB will not listen and instead uses their legislative authority to run over them.
This is not an isolated case, of course, and is not a consistent use of policy, as employers have seen many times when the pre-existing injury issue used in exactly the opposite way.
Competition Bureau’s updated guidelines for procurement processes
On Feb. 5, 2021, the Competition Bureau of Canada (the “Competition Bureau”) released “Competitive bidding processes in the public sector: Procuring good value for taxpayer money” (“Competitive Bidding Processes”). Competitive Bidding Processes represents the Competition Bureau’s most recent publication in the Competition Advocate in some time. Competitive Bidding Processes highlights the increased importance being placed on the framework for public procurement as governments across Canada enact stimulus measures in support of the country’s economic recovery and outlines best practices and offers guidelines that all levels of government should be aware of in government procurement processes. These practices and guidelines help ensure that government procurement processes are competitive and fair, and favour competitive bidding processes to protect public value when procuring goods and services. In this article, we provide a summary of Competitive Bidding Processes, which discusses the importance of competitive bidding, what constitutes bid-rigging and how to recognize it and measures to ensure that bid-rigging does not take place.
Why the need for competitive bidding?
In its report, the Competition Bureau indicates that there are many benefits that stem from competitive bidding, including lower prices, higher quality of goods and services being procured, incentivizing and increasing innovation and building a resilient economy. Public procurement processes can account for 15 per cent or more of a country’s GDP, in normal times. As Canada moves further along the COVID-19 recovery process, there are increased expectations that governments will need to urgently and substantially invest in designing and constructing large infrastructure projects to help stimulate the economy post-COVID.
As Canada moves further along the COVID-19 recovery process, there are increased expectations that governments will need to urgently and substantially invest in designing and constructing large infrastructure projects to help stimulate the economy post-COVID.
Bid-rigging defined
Simply put, bid-rigging is collusion. Under s. 47 of the Competition Act (Canada), bid-rigging is a criminal offence. Bid-rigging occurs when, in response to a call for bids or tenders, two or more potential bidders:
Submit bids containing content that the bidders determined through agreement or arrangement Agree that one or more parties will refrain from bidding or will withdraw a previously submitted bid
In earlier publications, the Competition Bureau discussed that bid-rigging can take many different forms, including:
Cover bidding – where competitors agree upfront on who will win. Losing bidders tweak their submission to ensure it’s less attractive than the winner’s.
Bid suppression – a competitor agrees not to bid or to withdraw a bid so a specific bidder is most likely to win
Bid rotation – competitors agree to take turns at winning bids
Market division – competitors agree to divide territory, customers or product markets among themselves instead of competing
The Competition Bureau notes that bid-rigging undermines the competitive bidding process because it allows suppliers, rather than market forces, to determine price and quality. The Competition Bureau claims that bid-rigging can increase the cost of multi-million dollar public procurements by over 30 per cent, which in turn diverts public funds to colluding bidders.
There are no monetary limits on the fines that can be issued for bid-rigging as such decisions are left up to the discretion of the courts. Anyone convicted of bid-rigging can face a jail term up to 14 years, they will also have a criminal record that will be registered with the Canadian Police Information Centre. In addition to the criminal charges and fines, perpetrators of bid-rigging can face civil action from victims.
How can you detect bid-rigging?
Bid-rigging inherently involves backroom discussions and deal-making, which makes it difficult to detect. The Competition Bureau has previously produced documents on detecting, preventing and reporting bid-rigging. Competitive Bidding Processes warns that public officials should be on the lookout for the following warning signs:
Large price deviations between the winning bids and other bids
Identical irregularities across independent bids
Winning bidders refusing to accept a contract once awarded
Once awarded, winning bidders subcontracting to losing bidders
What can be done to deter bid-rigging?
In addition to its earlier publications about detecting, preventing and reporting bid-rigging, the Competition Bureau in Competitive Bidding Processes provides some guidance for all levels of governments to consider in their procurement processes that includes:
Maximizing the pool of potential bidders
Building an understanding of potential bidder capabilities
Requiring disclosure regarding potential subcontractors and their pricing
Requiring bidders to submit a certificate of independent bid determination similar to or based on the Bureau’s model certificate
Conducting follow-up interviews with unsuccessful vendors to understand their rationale in respect of their bids
All of this suggests that potential bidders ought to avoid improper collaboration with their competitors, unless the parties are bidding as a joint venture. In that scenario, parties may wish to seek legal advice when considering any such collaboration or joint venture bids.
If anyone involved in the tendering process suspects that bid-rigging has or will take place, they should file a formal complaint with the Competition Bureau, participate in the Competition Bureau’s whistleblowing initiative or leave an anonymous tip by filing online or contacting the Federal Contracting Fraud Tip Line by phone.
Competitive Bidding Process represents a signal to all levels of government and potential bidders that the Competition Bureau is acutely aware of these pressures and will be monitoring public procurement processes to ensure that all stakeholders act appropriately in the procurement process in order that Canada’s economic investments can be completed without anti-competitive conduct by participants.
Closing remarks
The adverse impact of COVID-19 on the economy will likely increase pressures on governments to expeditiously invest in public infrastructure and other publicly funded projects to stimulate and rebuild the economy. Competitive Bidding Process represents a signal to all levels of government and potential bidders that the Competition Bureau is acutely aware of these pressures and will be monitoring public procurement processes to ensure that all stakeholders act appropriately in the procurement process in order that Canada’s economic investments can be completed without anti-competitive conduct by participants. If bidders or government procurement officers have any questions regarding whether aspects of the procurement processes or bid submissions may be breach of the Competition Act (Canada), they should seek legal advice immediately.
Disclaimer This publication is provided as an information service and may include items reported from other sources. We do not warrant its accuracy. This information is not meant as legal opinion or advice.
As the digital age continues to expand and our everyday tasks (e.g., emailing, banking, online storage) continue moving to the cloud, there seems to be never-ending requests for new login usernames and passwords.
For cloud service providers (those that offer free email, banks, credit card companies, business sites) and your workplace, you likely need a login username and password to access your data. (And your home computer and personal devices should have login credentials enabled, too!)
Password requirements vary from one cloud system to the next and in some cases, there are no format or length requirements. Herein lies the problem for you (and your workplace) – it’s an opportunity for hackers to gain access to your confidential information.
Cloud application providers with no requirements for their password lengths, composition or expiration (i.e., length of time before you need to change your password) allow you to use the same login username and password at multiple sites. The problem with this is once one site is compromised and your password is exposed, hackers can start using your login info at other sites (e.g., targeting popular social networking sites).
So, although these providers might be easy to access, the risk is greater than the benefit of what you’re signing up for.
Ideally, websites will require password length, composition or expiration, but of course this creates a new problem: “How do I remember all my different login credentials?”
One simple solution is to write them down and stick them to your monitor or under your keyboard. It’s probably not the worst solution to maintain your list, but also not the best since hackers and thieves know where to look for this info at places of business or homes. There are also password protection/generation applications, but the best ones come at a price.
So, what can a business or each of us as individuals do? This is where a subset of multi-factor authentication, called two-factor authentication, helps prevent the unauthorized use of your login username and password. If you think of your password as the first “factor,” then adding one more step is the second or “two-factor.”
The “two-factor” can be based on something you “know” or “have” or “are” or somewhere you are.
Something you “know”
The simplest to set up and the most commonly available to consumers (non-business solutions) is the something you “know.” This is usually offered by many sites when you set up your account or enable two/multi-factor authentication. You chose the question and provide the answer.
The questions available to you are usually ones that hackers can’t research to find the answer – so you will not see “what is your birthdate?” The questions are along the lines of where was your mom born? Where did you parents meet? What was the name of your first pet? Although it’s tempting to select a question that has an easy answer, keep in mind the easier it is for you, the easier it might be for a hacker to find, too.
Something you “have”
This one is typically based on a code that you must enter after your password is accepted. There are cell phone applications and tokens (small devices that generate the code) that generate a code that you can enter after your password is accepted.
There are also services that can send a text or call your cell phone with a code you enter in order to access your account or in the case of a phone call, press a number to permit your login.
Once one site is compromised and your password is exposed, hackers can start using your login info at other sites.
Something you “are”
This one is primarily based on biometrics, such as a fingerprint, retinal scan or a voice print. For example, many mobile devices and applications allow you to sign into your account with your fingerprint.
Somewhere you are
This is also known as “geofencing.” This permits you to login (or not login) when you are in a certain geographic region. For example, an application that only allows you to login if you are located within a five-kilometer radius of your place of business or house.
Let’s get into why two-factor authentication is so important.
Historical data shows us that hackers have breached some of the most significant cloud services and have gained access to millions of usernames and passwords. Sometimes, these same usernames and passwords are used at other sites by people like yourself, so it’s only a matter of time that one of the hacked username/password combinations allows cyber criminals into another application you have access to. (Remember: hackers have nothing but time and use multiple computers to try username/password combinations on various sites.)
Enabling two-factor authentication
Recently, cloud service providers have started to offer two-factor authentication (or in some cases multi-factor, which means more than one question must be answered).
This feature isn’t always turned on by default, so it must be enabled by you, the “user” of the account. (Tip: Search in the service provider’s online help for two-factor or multi-factor or search on the web to see how to set up two-factor for your service provider.)
The recommendation is to enable two-factor/multi-factor authentication on all your personal accounts (e.g., email, bank, credit card, online shopping). After your password (the first factor), then the second, third and fourth factors (or more) are something the hacker will have a difficult time guessing or researching. For them, having only your login information won’t be enough to break into your account. Hopefully, they’ll give up and move on to the next person.
Two-factor and working remotely
In 2020, a large part of the workforce moved to a “working remotely” strategy. In some cases, this may have presented an opportunity for hackers to gain access to your corporate network. Guess what your first line of defense is? Two-factor or multi-factor authentication! Make sure your business has enabled two-factor/multi-factor authentication and if not, enable it on your business account.
It takes a bit of extra work to use two/multi-factor authentication, but it takes less time than recovering your online accounts (and life) if you’re hacked.
The Saskatchewan Polytechnic Women in Trades & Technology program has been helping women access careers in the trades for more than three decades
For more than 30 years, the Saskatchewan Polytechnic Women in Trades & Technology (WITT) program has encouraged women to think about non-traditional career options and addressed barriers that may limit their participation in these fields. Greatly influenced by the women who founded Saskatchewan Tradeswomen in the 1970s, a movement that eventually formed Saskatchewan Women in Trades and Technology (SaskWITT), Sask Polytech’s WITT program recognizes now, more than ever, the array of opportunities awaiting women in traditionally male occupations and, in turn, the great opportunity that women afford the industries that hire them.
“Women bring to the job site more than the hard skills they learn in their programs of study,” said WITT program head Brittany Grimsdale. “Diversity in the workforce often means new ideas, and different areas of strength.”
WITT encourages exploration, offering a range of programs and events, including camps, info sessions, courses and mentorship. The Girls Exploring Trades and Technology, or GETT, camp that launched in 1991 has grown from one-day to five-day camps – reaching over 3,600 girls in grades six, seven and eight in a program aimed at demystifying trades and tools in a fun environment with a focus on problem solving. Camps have expanded in subject area in recent years to include those with a technology focus. During this past year, programs and camps shifted online to accommodate COVID-19 restrictions to in-person learning.
WITT’s Exploratory Workshops teach women aged 15 and older basic carpentry, welding, electrical or plumbing skills, and a separate technology-focussed exploratory course introduces women to a variety of basic technology skills. Says a past participant, “The WITT program helped me discover potential careers that I wouldn’t have realized before taking part in one of their workshops. With the help of some wonderful people at WITT I was given the encouragement and confidence to decide the next step towards my future.”
An informal mentorship program run by WITT goes beyond curriculum to match students and apprentices with experienced professionals. Women are matched on field of expertise, family situation or cultural background. The mentorship program includes a few networking events throughout the year, which are great opportunities for the women to discuss challenges, celebrate wins and learn about new job opportunities.
The global pandemic has made the future unclear for many sectors, but for the heavy construction industry one thing remains clear: Saskatchewan continues to grow, and the provincial government remains committed to stimulating economic recovery by investment in capital projects as demonstrated by their $7.5 billion, two-year capital plan announced in May 2020. Construction and related industries will need skilled and trained workers to capitalize on opportunities and rise to new challenges. Saskatchewan Polytech’s WITT program is helping to ensure that there is diversity within the pool of available hires, benefitting everyone.
People treatment as a continuous improvement strategy in construction environments
According to constructible.com, the demand for construction is growing much faster than the number of skilled workers, and the industry is facing a skills shortage like never before. Specifically, The Bureau of Labour Statistics suggests that overall employment of construction labourers and helpers is projected to grow five per cent from 2019 to 2029, faster than the average for all occupations. If there is work, and that work pays reasonably well, why don’t people want to work in the industry? Why, according to Gallup, are only 33 per cent of your employees fully engaged? And why, according to Digital Builder, is there a 21.4 percent industry-wide construction employee turnover rate?
There are a few possible explanations, and not surprisingly, they all relate to civility.
Rough workplace culture
In traditional construction environments, you need to show you are not “weak.” Fitting in often requires being “rough,” which might include engaging in what many perceive as uncivil behaviours, including:
Swearing
Calling people names
Ignoring people
Criticizing people in public
Walking away when people are talking to you
Shouting
Demonstrating physical strength, e.g., punching a wall, stomping, making a fist
Toughing it out when you experience small injuries
Crowding others, e.g., getting into their personal space
Overtalking and/or interrupting
Rolling your eyes
Gesturing rudely, e.g., giving the finger
Shutting people down verbally
Speaking in a harsh tone
Taking a staunch stance, e.g., wide postures
Failing to acknowledge others
Avoiding showing softness, e.g., formal thank you, hugging, too much smiling
Avoiding apologizing
And generally, just not being “nice”
Some of this behaviour might be understood as normal or acceptable by those who live in these organizations, but technically, these are uncivil behaviours that, when left unaddressed, collectively create a toxic work culture.
Construction worker stereotypes
In an article, “Three Myths of Construction Workers: ‘Why we are not Second-Class Citizens,’” Forrest Sim outlines three common myths about construction workers.
Construction workers are all gross and shout catcalls Construction workers are just dumb brutes who only know how to swing a hammer Construction sites are dirty and dangerous
Clearly, labeling is uncivil. That these stereotypes prevail potentially results in self-fulfilling prophecy – that is, some construction workers lower their behaviour standards because they believe they are perceived negatively anyway. And employers, site supervisors, clients and the public potentially treat workers badly because they believe the stereotypes. In either case, this labeling and categorizing is hugely detrimental and certainly impacts how people working in the industry are treated.
Survival of the fittest mindset
As a result of a “be strong to survive” mindset, construction sites are often not perceived as great places to work. Sure, noise, safety concerns, time constraints, stress, the union aspects, etc. may contribute to what can be described as a negative workplace culture, but the hard truth is that for the most part, the lack of niceness is due to leadership (including supervisors and managers) and their respective attitudes toward what constitutes acceptable “people treatment.”
In her public presentations, Colleen Munroe, the president of Hugh Munroe Construction Ltd., has spoken about an “old boys club” mentality that still exists in the construction industry. One example of this mentality is the belief that employees should do their job because that is what they are paid for – in other words, they do not need to like it! This attitude impacts how people are treated on the job.
“People treatment” is a term coined by Lewena Bayer, the CEO of Civility Experts Inc. Bayer refers to an overall attitude about what constitutes a fair and good way of interacting with people. People treatment includes how you speak, nonverbal gestures, the extent to which you are empathetic and how you define honesty and integrity. An individual’s idea of positive people treatment can vary from one context to another.
In order to navigate the interpersonal dynamics of both the workplace and the world at large, each of us – but especially those of us in leadership positions – need to be able to both convey positive people treatment and read cues and behaviours of others so that we can encourage civility in interactions. The recommendation for construction organizations, where command-and-control management style and the often-associated negative verbal and nonverbal behaviours might be deeply ingrained, is to focus on social intelligence training. In a very short time, this strategic training can build skills such that there is immediate, measurable impact to the workplace culture – specifically to the overall “tone” of communications.
People treatment includes how you speak, nonverbal gestures, the extent to which you are empathetic and how you define honesty and integrity. An individual’s idea of positive people treatment can vary from one context to another.
According to Civility Experts Inc., “social intelligence” is the ability to read and effectively interpret verbal, nonverbal, tonal and contextual cues. Social intelligence includes social radar (being present and paying attention), social style (ability to adapt your approach to interaction) and social rules (knowledge of the unwritten and written guidelines that vary with context).
Social intelligence teaches people the following skills that can offset communication skills gaps, enable people who cannot problem-solve on their own to ask questions and builds trust such that people can collaborate more effectively.
Social intelligence training enables people to:
Read verbal, nonverbal, contextual and situational cues to interpret the mood, motivation and needs of others
Exhibit nonverbal, verbal and situational cues appropriately
Be present, e.g., pay attention to what is going on around them
Recognize when gestures, language, behaviour or approach is grounded in culture, generation or gender nuances
Pick up on very subtle changes in tone and behaviour, e.g., to sense when a mood shifts
Learn unwritten rules, e.g., unspoken and unwritten expectations for how to live in a certain environment, e.g., aspects of workplace culture
Learn written and known rules, e.g., codes of conduct, regulation, etc.
Become self-aware, e.g., of one’s own social style
Adapt one’s social style to what is appropriate or required for a certain situation
Adapt to change quickly, e.g., due to ability to shift social gears when necessary
Respond to events calmly, e.g., due to ability to anticipate and/or monitor
Recognize appropriate time to ask questions
See aspects of personality that are otherwise unnoticed
Send positive first impression
Make others feel at ease
Build trust, e.g., due to paying attention
Be a better listener
Be cordial, e.g., approachable
Show humility, e.g., recognize when help is needed
Read emotions, e.g., be empathetic when needed
When leaders in construction have high
social intelligence combined with some experience interacting with others in the workplace context – for example, they know the general expectations for the workplace culture, they know the industry jargon, have some knowledge of the terms and processes, etc. – they can apply their social intelligence in a way that fosters social acuity.
Indicators of social acuity
Leaders need to have high “social acuity” – that is they need to have a keen social sense. They must be consistently accurate and timely in their perceptions and assessments of social settings. They need to know how to:
Read contextual cues
Be attentive to the nuances of workplace culture
Navigate politics in union environments
Identify who will be an ally and who will be a challenge
Build trust
Repair broken trust
Consider contextual aspects when timing everything from greetings to feedback to workplace coaching and performance reviews
Communicate in a way that leaves everyone involved in the interaction feeling valued
Acknowledge differences that make a difference, e.g., related to gender, culture, generation
Give timely and effective feedback
Monitor and manage nonverbal cues to boost credibility and perceived competence
Adapt supervisory approach and style to meet the needs of individual workers
Apply adult learning principles
Maintain credibility as a leader but still be perceived as approachable by the production team
One of the outcomes of high social acuity is a recognition that everyone in an organization has value. But we must be careful not to attach only monetary value to individuals. In Doing Virtuous Business, Theodore Roosevelt Malloch writes, “Every person has a fingerprint of personality and potential and desire to contribute. When we define people solely in economic terms, our motivational and incentive schemes tend to become mechanical and manipulative. We try to define a system that will idiot-proof the process, which can, in turn, make people feel like idiots.”
From a civility perspective, each individual has value as a human being. As such, every individual is deserving of respect just because they are human and on the planet. (Trust, however, is something that must be earned and not every person is deserving of trust.) In terms of workplace value, individuals at all levels should be acknowledged for:
Potential (amount of potential might vary)
Intelligence (nature of intelligence might vary)
Education (type and extent of education might vary)
Social contribution (nature and volume of social contribution might vary)
Experience (time on the job and type of experience might vary)
Resilience (extent of resilience might vary)
All these elements are aspects of value, but it is each individual’s understanding of civility and his/her choosing civility that enables us to recognize and appreciate these aspects of value. Without civility, and without respect, people often fail to see the value of others. As such, it is important to also recognize what Bayer describes as the civility quotient.
The idea is that when everyone in a workplace understands that everyone has value, overall civility and positive people treatment in the organization improves.
With more than 20 years in the workforce, Christian Masotti is a continuous learner who believes that the ability to combine his technical skills – including Lean, Six Sigma and Kaizen – with social intelligence and cultural competence have been the key to his success. In addition to a stint with the Canadian Football League as a professional athlete, Masotti has worked for Ford, Toyota, Chrysler, ArcelorMittal and MLSE, and is now a three-time published author who also leads the Civility Experts Inc. Worldwide Lean on Civility Consulting team.
“Many people perceive having respect, exhibiting kindness and treating people well as a sign of weakness – but this is a costly mistake.” – Christian Masotti
This article includes excerpts from Lean on Civility, Masotti & Bayer, 2020.
