HUMAN Capital - Fall 2016 - 24

about a code of excellence. "It was quite astounding," recalls Taylor, a former IBEW member for close to 20 years. "At one point, John looked over at me and said, 'Your mouth is open'. And I said, 'I can't believe I am hearing a president of a union speaking about members having to be more productive and to quit spending so much time in the coffee shop'." At the same time, it was clear to both management and the union that supervisors and shop stewards needed training, both to avoid sliding back to the days of confrontation and to keep up with changes brought on by a competitive marketplace. "We realized that we needed to change the culture in the group," Taylor says. "Utilities are a different animal. The old utility worker, once you're in, you keep your nose clean and retire with a good pension. When Alberta deregulated utilities, we needed to get competitive. We realized that if we didn't start training our union leaders at the leader level, we weren't going to get there." Changing the Culture Briegel, Jewell, and Taylor put their heads together to imagine what the curriculum would look like. Rising to the top was the We offer in partnership with GMS a product HR professionals can pass along to their employees when they are terminated or quit. Once the person is no longer with employer they can purchase our product with no medical questions for health and dental, etc. #209, 2577 Bridlecrest Way SW - Calgary AB - T2Y 5J4 Ph: (403) 221-9300 * Toll-free: 1-888 - 508-0077 (MST) Benefits.ddmktg.info 24 | www.hria.ca 821198_Puhl.indd 1 22/08/16 1:48 pm need to educate stewards and supervisors on how decisions are made, and to see issues from a bigger perspective. Their hope was that if stewards and supervisors understood each other's roles, festering issues could be resolved. They figured the best way to educate staff and open communication channels was to put all trainees in a room and treat them all the same way: on one day of training they'd be shop stewards, the other day front-line supervisors. MY EXPECTATION GOING IN WAS TO PROVIDE THE SKILLS AND TOOLS TO THE SHOP STEWARDS GROUP TO ALLOW THEM TO BE MORE EFFECTIVE IN THAT ROLE. THIS HAS, FOR THE MOST PART, BEEN In developing the curriculum, Briegel, Jewell, and Taylor made use of resources from Queen's University IRC, a management development unit specializing in labour relations, human resources and organization development. Both Jewell and Taylor received Queen's IRC Certificates for completing three labour relations programs. From their Queen's experience, they received inspiration and gleaned practical ideas on how to stage an in-house collective bargaining simulation and make adult learning interesting. (The IRC also provides customized training for those organizations, upon request.) "Queen's has been phenomenal in sending us learning resources to use," Taylor says. "Labour Relations Foundations was, without a doubt, the best program I've taken in my life. It was the course that got me thinking about doing a better job on union training." The first day of the Joint Leadership and Excellence training program features a review of the ENMAX and IBEW Local 254 relationship, the structure of the corporation and the union, a piece on leadership and culture change, and a collective bargaining simulation. The second day focuses on employee accountability, the supervisor's role, progressive discipline, the IBEW's Code of Excellence and "safety leadership". The final day explores how grievances are handled. Perfecting the Model To test their curriculum design, the trio piloted the program with colleagues MET AND AN EVIDENT BONUS HAS BEEN THEIR INCREASED LEVEL OF CO-OPERATION BETWEEN STEWARDS AND MANAGERS. - JOHN BRIEGEL, BUSINESS MANAGER FOR IBEW LOCAL 254 whom they knew would offer constructive feedback. They got that and more: the pilot project served to drum up interest for the first program, particularly among union members. The IBEW Local 254, in fact, was ready and primed for joint training. "This was not a difficult sell to the members as the majority of them depend on a relatively small group of stewards to look after their interests," Briegel says. "The stewards, on the other hand, were constantly asking for training. We also have a history of working together on Joint Apprenticeship Committees, Bid Committees, health and safety issues, and operational practices." Selling joint training to senior management was more challenging. Jewell and Taylor had to battle the perception of joint training as a "flavour of the week" http://benefits.ddmktg.info/ http://benefits.ddmktg.info http://www.hria.ca

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of HUMAN Capital - Fall 2016