Human Resources | MuniSERV

Free Webinar – Federal Technology Fund Addresses Covid-19 Community Challenge

Webinar – Federal Technology Fund Addresses Covid-19 Community Challenge

COVID-19 is forcing over 3200 communities across Canada to find new ways to address the immediate and ongoing challenges posed by the pandemic. Infrastructure Canada created the Healthy Canada Communities Initiative to help municipalities identify and deliver innovative digital projects that address changing community needs through the use of data and connected technologies.

The agency responsible for coordinating the procurement of all proposals under the $31 million fund will be announced shortly.

In the interim, communities especially the smaller ones, are encouraged to develop innovative project ideas that address immediate and ongoing needs arising from Covid-19. To help you with that, we invited the federal government, technology leaders and social service organizations to share ideas that will help build successful innovative digital projects that is inclusive and recognizes Canada’s proud history of diversity and youth. Our panel of experts will share how digital solutions can respond to immediate and ongoing needs arising from COVID-19 as municipalities build back better using good tech as tech for good.

The diverse panel of experts include Minister Bardish Chagger MP for Waterloo, Iain Klugman of Communitech, Tracy Elop from Carizon, John Neufeld from House of Friendship, and Dana Fox from Athena Software.

Kick start your conversation and discover innovative digital projects that address your changing community needs through the use of data and connected technologies.

Your build back better plan starts December 11 at 2 PM EST with ideas, planning and funding. It’s all here.

Click here to register.

We look forward to seeing you there!

muniSERV and LXM LAW LLP Announce Partnership

November 27, 2020

For Immediate Release – November 25, 2020

muniSERV and LXM LAW LLP Announce Partnership to bring enhanced membership value to clients of both organizations!

muniSERV.ca and LXM LAW LLP have joined forces to bring even more value to our respective customers and members by providing them with enhanced access to municipal procurement expertise as well as integrated savings!

Both companies offer powerful resources that have been developed to help municipalities throughout Canada. By working together, muniSERV and LXM LAW LLP are able to foster connections between municipalities, help build procurement capacity and provide unique opportunities and savings to muniSERV members.

Our partnership will provide a platform for muniSERV members to share lessons learned and best practices in municipal procurement while offering muniSERV members discounted rates on services.

LXM LAW’s monthly open call-in shows will provide muniSERV members exclusive access to experts to answer their specific questions on procurement.

Watch for dates and times of these upcoming call-in opportunities in the Events section on muniSERV.

For more information about muniSERV.ca and LXM LAW LLP, contact:

Lise Patry, Partner

613.601.6333| [email protected]

www.lxmlaw.ca

Susan Shannon, Founder & Principal, muniSERV

855.477.5095 | [email protected]

www.muniserv.ca

ABOUT LXM LAW LLP

LXM LAW LLP is a multi-disciplinary Canadian law firm that offers legal and consulting services for procurement and contracting needs. LXM LAW LLP has in-depth experience in Canadian municipal procurement through our experienced professionals.

Our legal and consulting professionals have been on the frontline of public procurement for decades. We’re exceptionally well-versed in both the legal and business aspects of procurement and contracting, including policy and procedure development for organizations of varying sizes and scale.

ABOUT muniSERV

muniSERV is a uniquely original online platform that masterfully connects Canadian municipalities and the municipal businesses that serve them. Our membership continues to grow with now over 1,800 municipal and professional members across Canada.

Drawing on the 25 plus years of experience of the owner as a municipal administrator, puts muniSERV in the unique position of understanding how to bring an innovative business perspective to municipalities while at the same time helping the private sector gain a better understanding of municipal operations.

The Communication Advantage Part 2

November 27, 2020

Have you ever heard the words, “Watch your tone!”?

Are you sending the right message?

Are people hearing what you mean to say or are they only hearing how you say it?

In our last blog we looked at how our facial expressions communicate. (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/working-improving-your-communication-watch-what-you-dont-ed-heinrichs/)

In this article we will look at Paralinguistics and how they can help or hinder our communication.

Pitch: Does your voice tend to go up if you are nervous or angry? You can develop the ability to control the pitch of your voice to maximize effective communication.

Each of us are able to speak within a vocal range, and vary the pitch. This ranges from the higher, nasal tones to the richer resonant tones that come from within the chest. Many studies indicate that speaking from the lower range instills greater confidence in the listener.

Pace: Are you speaking at a reasonable rate or does it sound rushed? Are you slowing down or
pausing at appropriate points in your presentation? Reserving the increased pace to bring additional
energy and suggest passion will enhance your speech.

Are you intentionally adding moments of silence? These pauses can be as powerful as the
words spoken. Think of the rests between the notes in a piece of music.

Volume: What do we do when someone whispers? We instinctively lean in to hear what is being
said. A whisper can be amazingly powerful since it connotes a secret or special knowledge.
How can you use this as a way to draw in the audience?

Timbre: Timbre refers to the quality of the sound as it is perceived by the listener. It is often
used to describe musical instruments and is distinct from pitch or volume. As an example, compare
Kermit the Frog’s voice to the voice of Morgan Freeman.

Are you using ‘upspeak’ and is it undermining your communication? Raising the voice at the end
of a sentence can transform a statement into a question.

The Power of Prosody! This is the application of all these elements into engaging and effective
communication. Dreary dull, unvaried or monotonous delivery of what could be great content is
going to effectively undermine the entire presentation. A varied, energetic tone can serve to effectively
help communicate ideas.

Remember when you were told to “Watch your tone!”? Those are words worth paying attention to.
What is the next right step in your ascent toward your communication advantage?

We are here to help you succeed.

NB: For a more in-depth consideration of this topic check out:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-paralinguistic-cues-can-help-you-to-persuade2/

What is Virtual “Just-in-Time Learning”?

November 19, 2020

Virtual “Just-in-Time Learning “Training

Virtual Just-in-Time Learning is a new, timely training approach – especially during these challenging COVID-19 times.

Whether an employee is working on the road, at home, or at the office, each municipal employee can access “Just-in-Time” Learning training from a computer or their smart phone whenever they feel compelled to acquire the training.

This training approach provides municipal employees on-demand, flexible, agile training that enables them to acquire need-related training exactly when they need that training’s information.

It is a virtual training approach which closely aligns with today’s knowledge-driven, speed-oriented world where people want “just in time” information quickly.

Since there is no one right time to provide a group of municipal employees training on a topic, the resourcefulness of virtual Just-in-Time Learning will be appreciated by municipal employees since it provide them in-the-moment, relevant, real-time training exactly when they need that training.

Also, having experienced a need for that real-time training, they will likely retain the training longer.

The topics of this training approach are delivered in modules. Not only can employees initially learn the module’s training, they can also revisit a module, or a section of a module, time and time again, for tips, solutions, and training reinforcement.

Virtual Just-in-Time Learning also enhances a municipal employee’s productivity by providing them real-time performance support when they are experiencing a situation calling for that municipal support.

If you have questions or would like to learn more, please check out my profile and/or contact me:

Bill Dennis,

CEO and President,

Cultural & Generational Training https://crossculturalconnecting.com

COVID-19 Pandemic – What’s next.

November 10, 2020

The pandemic continues to rapidly expand in communities across Canada. At the time of this article over 267,000 Canadians have contracted the disease, 217,000 are recovered and 10,552 died. The number of cases each day is accelerating.

The effects of this highly contagious disease are catastrophic when left unchecked. Health systems are at risk of collapse affecting all other health issues. Covid 19 is not just affecting health care. Municipalities are being asked to address the surge in demand in every human service sector – education, justice, social and healthcare.

Primary care and wait times are measured with traditional outcomes in most communities. The wave we do not see coming as easily is just outside of the range of a 911 call. Mental health issues, loss of income, housing, food, education, relationships are all affected with Covid 19. The cold dark days of winter are coming. The risks associated with Covid 19 and issues associated with the disease are going to increase over the winter months.

While a vaccine may be available early 2021, it’s unlikely every Canadian will have access to the vaccine when it is approved.

Municipalities need to proactively seek strategies that wrap programming around individuals and families at risk. Traditional models of care that involve home visits or appointments are shifting to tele-health.

The federal government in co-operation with the provincial and territorial governments announced funding and extension to funding as the need requires.

It’s time to consider the short and long term requirements of your community during and after the pandemic and make use of the funding currently available to enable your municipality to not just survive but build its way out to a better future.

Five Driving Needs (Part 3): Creating an Energized State of Being

November 5, 2020

Powerfully productive days are the result of energized brains

If a person’s natural M.O. is to contribute and make a difference but they are blocked from doing so, it produces an unmet need. This creates internal tension – the gap between their desired state and their current reality. There’s good news about tension – it has energy right inside it – and that energy can be released. When a driving need is fulfilled, the tension is resolved – and energy is released, producing a state of being. A state of being is more than just a feeling—it is a pervasive emotional condition that includes but transcends the emotion – affecting one’s entire being.

An emotion is like the temperature in your office, a state of being is like the weather in your city. For example:

Feeling accepted by a coworker in a meeting is good, but it can be a fleeting emotion.

Working in a team where you experience a solid, stable sense of belonging is a state of being.

Being given the chance to work on a new project is good, but it can be a fleeting feeling. Experiencing undisrupted freedom to make decisions and take action is a state of being.

An employee – let’s call her Jasmine, who experiences belonging within her team as a state of being. It’s the state of being – not just a passing nod of acceptance that releases a flow of oxytocin – freeing up mental bandwidth by bathing Jasmine’s brain with feelings of bonding, rapport and trust. Oxytocin is such potent juice that it can flush out fears of rejection, exclusion or isolation.

If she is also experiencing a state of significance, the potent juice of serotonin bathes her brain with feelings of agency, belief, confidence – flushing out the fears of being discounted, sidelined or disrespected.

Imagine Jasmine experiencing all five – a five-fold state of belonging, security, freedom, significance and meaning. Her ability to connect with people quickly unlocks trust in the group. Her calm brain sees things so clearly, cutting through the clutter, constantly re-focusing the team on what matters. Her creative thinking permeates the conversation with a sense of possibility – possibility that is infused with a sense of agency and purpose. Jasmine’s juiced brain makes her indispensable.

The addition of each juice does not produce a 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 sum. It’s multiplicative. Our clarity multiplies the impact of our connection which multiplies the impact of our creativity, our possibility and our purpose. The juices working in concert are a source of super-performance that scientists do not yet understand. It’s the inter-relationships of the juices that creates human magic.

Read the rest of the article by Brady Wilson

Five Driving Needs – Part 1 – A Framework for Understanding the Energized Brain

October 24, 2020

Your powerfully productive day is the result of an energized brain.

Imagine yourself at the end of a powerfully productive day. You became so immersed in your work you lost all track of time. Every task you checked off increased the buzz. By end of day, the sense of progress was palpable.

What creates a day like that? One could imagine it was sandwiched between two dismally unproductive days. So what changed?

It wasn’t your talents – they don’t change from one day to the next. Neither was it your education, your experience, or skills – they don’t spike from one day to the next. It’s unlikely that gritting your teeth and trying harder contributed a thing.

Consider this possibility: that day was the result of an energized brain. Not raw physical verve and mojo, but what we call intelligent energy – the ability to sustain focus in the midst of distractions, manage your emotions in high stakes situations, process oceans of information, pick out the vital bits of intel and connect the dots in surprising ways.

This article de-mystifies that ever-elusive, powerfully productive day. It doesn’t occur randomly or by chance. There is a pattern:

Your driving needs are fulfilled
Those fulfilled needs energize your brain
That energy endows you with peak performance.

Juices?

Question: what do people mean when they say, “The juices are flowing”?

Answer: Ideas are popping. The volume of ideas, The novelty of those ideas. The usability of those ideas. In short, creativity is getting easy here.

Question: what happens when your phone runs out of juice?

Answer: Brilliant technology – now useless – a paperweight – because it ran out of energy.

Question: what do people mean when they say, “I’ve got the juice to do this now”?

Answer: “I have energy to tackle this.”

The point? Juice is vernacular for energy. You’ve no doubt heard of dopamine – it’s an electro-chemical juice. When it flows – we’re more creative. There are several kinds of juices – each endowing us with a unique functionality. When GABA flows we feel calm. When serotonin flows we feel confident. When oxytocin flows we feel rapport. These juices prime our brains with the connectivity and current that produce peak performance, but they transcend plumbing and electricity by a long shot.

These brain-friendly juices create an emotional state, priming us with feelings of connection, clarity, creativity and confidence. Each juice is a form of intelligent energy that makes our brains smarter and our bodies more vitalized. Juice makes things easier – it shows up in the numbers – and in the work environment.

At Juice, Inc, we have partnered with many leaders to release this intelligent energy in their employees. Here’s what they told us:

Read the full article

By Brady Wilson

Read the next article in our Five Driving Needs Series: Why are Psychological Needs so Biologically Urgent?

Managing Email Overload in Times of COVID

Managing E-Mail Overload – Is Your Schedule Realistic?

Part 2 – Wednesday, October 28 (12pm – 1pm, EST)

Does your inbox make you sweat?

With the majority of the workforce now working from home due to COVID, e-mail traffic is at an all-time high.

In this webinar we will provide you with strategies to help you to organize and prioritize the traffic jam in your inbox while maximizing productivity and purpose while working from home and most importantly – learning how to clear the clutter!

Learn More & Register Here

Innovation In A Box Virtual Training

Join us for Virtual Innovation Training!

Our online virtual training delivers a structured process with practical tools that will help you enable innovation within your team or organization. In order to innovate successfully, companies need to create a culture of innovation where staff are encouraged to generate and develop ideas.

Attendees will receive:

Online Tools: Access to specialized online resources to support the process

Session Dates:

This Beyond Engagement program is delivered in two 3-hour virtually facilitated sessions:

Session 1: Tuesday November 24th, 2020
8:45am – 9:00am EST: Login & Orientation
9:00am – 12:00pm EST: Beyond Engagement Training

Session 2: Tuesday December 1st, 2020
8:45am – 9:00am EST: Login & Orientation
9:00am – 12:00pm EST: Beyond Engagement Training

“The new virtual training delivers exactly what we have come to expect from the Juice Team – engaging and informative! The virtual training provided a new set of tools that I have been able to implement immediately!”

Learn More and Register Here

Hiring in the time of COVID-19. Part 1

October 15, 2020

I found myself in a very strange situation for the first time in 25-years of doing this thing we call, “search”. Suddenly I had candidates, and I had a search committee, but the two were separated by both distance and the mandate to stay home. The option to fly out to meet with my search committee and just have the candidates come to us was not the right option for these new and challenging COVID times – so what was the right option?

I have always been keen to find creative ways to achieve success for the clients and candidates I have served and supported over the years, and this new reality would be no different. It was simply about meeting the goals of the client by finding them a new CAO in a timely manner, and meeting the needs of the candidate by finding them a new and challenging role, but keeping them both safe in the process. Like many, I turned to the use of technology to create a virtual option for the personable aspects of the executive search process.

Here a few lessons learned that might help those who are looking to do the same:

1. Maximize the use of online tools that are available. With the use of video conferencing apps and platforms like FaceTime or Zoom, you can host a ‘face to face’ meeting with your search committee, and conduct interviews, right from the comfort of your home office. Choose a platform that will provide you with a variety of options to enhance your interview process such as dial-in audio to help maximize internet bandwidth, multiple video participants, a chat feature, and the ability to send quick links so others can easily join your online meeting.

2. Be flexible and adaptable. While technology can be incredibly useful, it can also be incredibly unpredictable. Remember to be flexible and adaptable when links to the video conference platform don’t work for candidates, or when the internet connection becomes unstable and someone freezes. Such issues may even mean re-scheduling an interview at the last minutes to allow time to troubleshoot issues. Try to remain patient in these moments and put everyone in the interview at ease.

3. Remember to smile. Remember to be personable during an online interview by using engaging in body language that encourages discussion and puts people at ease. While the virtual environment feels a little less formal, realize that the stakes are high for both the client and the candidate and both parties may be nervous. Offer a smile to re

4. Ease people into the online environment. Provide an opportunity for your candidates to familiarize themselves with using the online platform or app to participate in an interview process. Set up a time to test the technology and their equipment so they can get used to the environment. Ask them a few prep questions while you’re online together and assess how they might answer a question. Coach candidates with tips about looking at the camera when they talk and how to best use a microphone and headphones. This will also help you become comfortable with the online setting as well.

5. Minimize distractions. I tend to forget that my taste in art isn’t necessarily the same as everyone. There is one canvas in particular that hangs behind me on the wall in my home office that might easily distract someone during an interview Knowing this, I will take it down before I login to FaceTime or Zoom to ensure that it does not distract others during an interview, nor become the point of focus. Be aware of what others may be seeing in your background and minimize distractions as much as possible.

These five elements, when combined with the use of technology, maintained the personable aspects of the interview process even though we were engaging in a virtual environment. In Part 2, I’ll elaborate more on how technology can be effectively used in other aspects of an executive search to ensure a timely and successful hire of leadership talent.

Philip JW Smith is President of Smith Search.

We connect municipalities and the businesses that serve them.

Tag Archives: Human Resources