Non-traditional employment relationships more popular: CHRO

Purolator invests in both short- and long-term employees

Non-traditional employment relationships more popular: CHRO
The gig economy has proven to be “incredibly disruptive” for the 60-year-old business, which has more than 10,000 employees staffing 175 operations facilities in Canada, said CHRO Ken Johnston. Google Street View

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Each year ahead of the winter holidays, Purolator’s employee pool swells as the company anticipates a rush of deliveries across the country.

To handle demand, the Mississauga, Ont.-based company hires more than 1,000 seasonal workers, according to Ken Johnston, senior vice-president and CHRO at Purolator.

“We almost double our front-line workforce for November, December,” he said. “We need to hire more than 1,000 drivers and sortation employees.”

Retirees are increasingly becoming a great pool of talent, said Johnston.

“They’re excellent, ready-to-go front-line workers for us, and they’re happy to just work two months a year and make enough money in that period of time to pay for their holiday costs. It’s a real win-win for us.”

To remain employers of choice, organizations need to recognize that an increasing number of workers are seeking non-traditional employment relationships, said Johnston, speaking at the Talent Management Summit held recently in Toronto.

“There’s lots of really great, dedicated, engaged, motivated, capable talent working in the independent workforce, and they’re going to be looking for competitive work, just like anyone else,” he said.

“What we’ve found is if we become a top employer for short-term or independent workers, then they return, over and over again, and the best ones are looking to work with us.”

“We’re investing in them with every expectation that they’re not going to be solely dedicated to us,” said Johnston.

“That requires a shift in mindset for employers who are typically reluctant to invest in short-term employees — and we’re saying, ‘You have to.’”

Coming to grips with the gig economy has been a major shift for Purolator, but one the company believes is imperative for its future success, he said.

“It’s still a fairly recent phenomenon in our business,” said Johnston. “We had some pain along the way.”

Dealing with disruption

Eighty per cent of Purolator’s workforce is unionized, traditional, long-term, full-time employment, he said.

“That’s not really changing drastically… We view independent work as a supplement to our core workforce, as opposed to a replacement.”

But the gig economy has proven to be “incredibly disruptive” for the 60-year-old business, which has more than 10,000 employees staffing 175 operations facilities in Canada, said Johnston.

The rise of tech-fuelled companies such as Amazon and Uber are driving the change, he said.

“The outcome is that people who are participating in these types of platforms are choosing to do so as a day-by-day arrangement, as opposed to any type of direct, permanent relationship. And they’re doing it for multiple platforms at a time.”

Purolator has worked hard to “find different ways of dealing with talent,” said Johnston, including overhauling the employee value proposition to become a “premium employer” in this new economy.

Managerial acceptance of this shift had less to do with culture and more with adding options to the “employer toolbox,” such as varied compensation models, including payment per delivery, he said.

Inclusive tactics

Purolator strives to invest in all employees, regardless of contract status. That includes offering access to education, but also giving contract workers the option of remote work opportunities when possible, said Johnston.

“A lot of employers, we’re finding, are excluding independent workers from access to company programs and strategic development,” he said.

“We don’t. We allow our independent workers to take full advantage of what it means to be part of the Purolator team, and we’re finding that to be a real competitive advantage for us from a talent acquisition perspective.”

“We’re still hiring (people) for a short-term period of time. But we want drivers that are not just driving their dad’s pickup truck, but they’re driving a Purolator-branded vehicle, and they’re wearing a Purolator uniform, and being trained in our safety standards, our customer service standards.”

It’s about employers adapting their policies, procedures and nature of employment to allow for things like increasingly flexible work hours, more work-from-home policies and “the understanding that people might want to take long periods of time off between significant projects,” said Johnston.

“Then you’ll really be able to tap into this type of workforce.”

The gig economy is here to stay, and it’s up to employers to map out strategies to deal with the new reality, he said.

“The gig economy… is not a way for employers to take advantage of unemployed people,” said Johnston.

“In fact, if anything, it’s putting us more on the hook as employers to really change the paradigm of employment and really think innovatively about how we attract and compete in the war for talent.”

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