Rough Construction 2018 by Espress Labs Inc.

INSIDE ROUGH CONSTRUCTION 2018 Job Safety First: On and off the Jobsite Eyes on Youth and Diversity: Working to Solve the Skills Crisis

Contributors Castle Building Centres Group Ltd. is a Canadian member-owned, Lumber, Building Materials and Hardware buying group representing over 300 member locations across Canada. Visit castle.ca to find a Castle location in your area.

Editorial Director Castle Castle Building Centres Group Ltd. Jennifer Mercieca Publisher - Espress Labs Inc. Dan Alexander Managing Editor Teresa Christine

Lawrence Cummer Lawrence (“Law”) Cummer is a freelance writer with more than 20 years of experience writing for trade periodicals, businesses and communications agencies. A former technology trade magazine editor and communications consultant, Law has been a frequent contributor to Contractor Advantage since 2009. Currently, he writes on a range of topics from contracting and construction, to general business, information technology, personal finance and occupational safety. He has a passion for learning and sharing how people can work better, easier and smarter, whether it’s contractors, technologists or business executives.

Art Director Daniel Polsinelli Contributors Teresa Christine Lawrence Cummer Danila Di Croce

Danila Di Croce Advertising Inquiries Jennifer Mercieca Director of Communications Castle Building Centres Group Ltd. 905-564-3307 jmercieca@castle.ca Material Contact Maryam Bashir Marketing Coordinator Castle Building Centres Group Ltd. 905-564-3307 mbashir@castle.ca Published and designed exclusively for Castle Building Centres Group Ltd. by Espress Labs Inc. 2

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Danila Di Croce is a Toronto-based writer with over 10 years of experience in the fields of media and education, including a Masters in Media Production from Ryerson University. Throughout her experience, Danila has worked in the areas of public relations, marketing, radio and television broadcast, and has contributed to various national publications on a wide range of topics including entrepreneurship, occupational health, home renovation and hospitality. Danila is also the creator and author of the lifestyle blog, Viva la Dolce.

What’s Inside?

08 Job Safety First: On and off the Jobsite The construction industry is well recognized for its perilous work environment.

Editor’s Note Turning The Tides Of The Trade Industry The annual edition of Rough Construction is an opportunity (for us) to highlight some of the current trends facing the construction industry. This year, given the present economic climate, we look to a few national associations to gain some insight on the future of skilled trades. Experts believe that building trades based on youth, diversity and tech seems to be an area of focus for business today. Turn to our feature, Eyes on Youth and Diversity: Working to Solve the Skills Crisis to read about this movement and more. Although not a new topic of discussion in the industry, job safety, has been catapulted back into the forefront with recent emphasis by many mainstream media outlets, government officials and independent businesses. This, as well as new regional rules and regulations, means that safety on and off the jobsite should be an area of importance for business owner and laborer alike. After all, as one tries to cope with all the potential industry stressors we must work together to ensure a healthy and safe workplace for all. You can review some of the policies and procedures that impact work wellbeing in the feature, Job Safety First: On and off the Jobsite. Helping you build a better envelope in today’s construction industry is at the foundation of every Rough Construction. We hope you enjoy this issue!

Eyes on Youth and Diversity: Working to Solve the Skills Crisis An impending skills shortage has already reached some skilled trades.

Columns 18 How to Manage the Job Site Using Effective Delegation 28 Top 5 Tips for Improving Jobsite Safety ROUGH CONSTRUCTION 2018

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Job Safety First: On and off the Jobsite Written by Danila Di Croce Drywall Innovations Meet Real World Needs Head On.

The construction industry is well recognized for its perilous work environment. A 2016 report, from the Association of Workers’ Compensation Boards of Canada, revealed that construction had the most fatalities, claiming almost one third of the total number across Canadian businesses. As an industry that is continually handling hazardous materials and engaging in challenging situations, it is of utmost importance for both employees and employers to be mindful of workplace health and safety policies and procedures. As a business owner, there are a variety of ways to ensure health and safety measures are being met on the jobsite. For starters, in order to aid in the prevention of workplace accidents and injuries, employers must adhere to the Canada Labour Code (part II), as well as the standards set out in the Canada Occupational Health and Safety Regulations. This includes the requirement to provide employees with things such as: the necessary information, training and supervision needed to ensure their health and safety while at work; as well as, prescribed safety materials, equipment, devices and clothing, and the knowledge of their use.

Additionally, employers are expected to provide the support and resources essential for the operation of policy and work place committees. In fact, as outlined by the Government of Canada, such committees are often referred to as an “internal responsibility system,” and are required for all federal work places, in order “to assist in protecting the health and safety of employees.” Larger companies, with more than 300 employees, have the added requirement of establishing a “policy health and safety committee,” in order to better address global issues. While it is up to up to the employers to help facilitate such committees, it is the responsibly of employees to participate in them. After all, while on the job site, employees need to take reasonable and necessary precautions to secure their own health and safety, as well as that of those around them, while working. According to the Canada Labour Code (part II), the following are some of the requirements employees must adhere to: use all the safety materials, equipment, devices and clothing provided by their employer; follow all instruction from the employer regarding the health and safety of all employees; and report to their employer, any hazardous thing or circumstance placing individuals in the work place at risk.

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Consequently, in order to report hazardous items, it is imperative that employees are well aware of the information provided by the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System, otherwise known as, WHMIS. Under regulation 860, it is the employer’s responsibility to collect health and safety information about hazardous materials in their workplace, and pass this information on to their employees. There are three ways this information can be distributed to workers: via the labels on the containers of hazardous materials; through material safety data sheets (MSDSs); and lastly, through employee education programs. While being cognizant of hazardous materials is a great benefit to employees, both on and off the jobsite, workers also need to acknowledge the safety of their physical workspace. For example, according to the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS), employees must consistently be aware of issues, such as: keeping the work site orderly; properly disposing of scrap, waste and surplus materials; and ventilating all storage areas properly. While there is much work to be done on the job site, employees must also be aware of maintaining their health and safety off the job site. This includes closely monitoring their physical and mental wellbeing. Most physical

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symptoms can be easily detected when one falls ill, however mental health triggers may not be as easily recognizable. According to the Mental Health Commission of Canada, “in any given week, approximately 500,000 Canadian workers will not go to work due to mental health issues.” Stress is all too common, and is a great contributor to mental health issues. As outlined by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario in their 2006 Basic Certification Training Program: Participant’s Manual, stress can lead one to lose sleep, and/or feel anxious, or reckless, in addition to other indications. When individuals engage in such behaviors they are more likely to make errors in judgment, increase the potential for physical strains and sprains, and become momentarily distracted. As such, it is important to try and reduce one’s stress levels, by following practices such as the ones suggested by CCOHS: take several deep breaths throughout the day; have regular stretch breaks; and organize and prioritize your day. After all, whether a business owner or laborer, as one tries to cope with all the potential industry stressors on and off the job site, as noted throughout the various policies and procedures, employers and employees must work together to ensure a healthy and safe workplace for all.

Job Safety First : On and off the Jobsite

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How to Manage the Job Site Using Effective Delegation Written by Eric Bloom, President & Founder at Manager Mechanics

The construction process is a multifarious enterprise. It involves many different responsibilities and suppliers from initial planning through execution. The necessary tasks, roles and responsibilities of the owner, architect engineers, construction managers, contractors and subcontractors can be organized in numerous ways to fulfill a construction project. While there are many factors that can contribute to reduced results, there are two key success factors: effectively managing and delegation. The effective management of construction projects today requires knowledge of modern management. Since construction jobs are relatively labour intensive, managers understand that manpower is their main resource which makes effective delegation even more important. One of the great things about being a manager is that you can delegate various types of tasks to others instead of having to do them yourself. This may sound like a rather cavalier statement, but it’s true. As a manager, to do your job efficiently and effectively, you must delegate various types of tasks to your staff. If you don’t delegate, you will be overworked and your staff will be underutilized. In fact, you do a disservice to your staff if you don’t delegate because this inhibits your staff’s ability to learn new things and grow as professionals.

Like all management activities, delegation must be done in a thoughtful, ethical and forward-thinking manner. To that end, consider the following tips when delegating tasks to your staff, contractors, vendors and others.

1. Clearly Define what can and cannot be Delegated As a manager, be mindful of what should and should not be delegated. For example, specific tasks may contain proprietary information that should not be shared at your staff ’s organizational level. There are also tasks that your team members may not be qualified to perform, thus setting them up for failure. Lastly, don’t just dump unwanted activities onto your staff to get them off your plate. Your team will eventually figure this out and it will hurt your credibility as their manager. Delegation is a powerful tool to maximize your team’s productivity, enhance their skill set, help them grow professionally and free you up to perform higher level tasks. All that said—make sure that you are delegating the right tasks for the right reasons.

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2. Create a Prioritized Delegation Plan

4. Provide a safety net

Now knowing what to delegate, your next step is to develop a plan outlining what tasks should be delegated to which staff member. When determining who gets which tasks, you should consider the following:

When delegating tasks—particularly if it’s a new experience for the employee being assigned the task — as the manager, you must be willing to provide an appropriate level of management support to help assure success, for both the employee and the task. A safety net is an environment of help and protection by:

• Who is fully qualified to perform the task • Who could perform the task with proper instruction and mentoring with the goal of enhancing their skill set • Who should not be given the task because of their professional weaknesses and/or specific political situations/reasons • Who deserves the task based on seniority, past performance and relevant considerations • The visibility and importance of the task to your department and/or company Delegating the right tasks to the right people is not always easy or popular, but if you do it with transparency, fairness, consistency, and for the good of the company, your staff will learn to respect your decisions.

3. Provide Clear Instructions and Define Specific Expectations There is nothing worse than being delegated a task, not given instructions on how the task should be performed, not told what is expected, working diligently to complete the task, and then being told it isn’t what they wanted. Give specific instructions as to what needs to be done and your expectation of the ending result. This combination of instructions and expectations provides the correct delegation framework and establishes criteria as to how your employee will be judged when the task is completed.

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• • • •

Providing the needed resources and training Allowing time to properly perform the delegated tasks Helping employees navigate company politics Provide instructions on how tasks should be performed

5. Let go and Allow People to do their Work If you delegate a task and then micromanage it to the extent that you have actually performed the task yourself, it’s not delegation. Neither should you totally divest yourself from the delegated task because, as the manager, you are still ultimately responsible for all work performed within your department. The trick is to walk that fine line between being overbearing and non-participatory.

6. Be mentoring and instructive This step provides direct instruction and advice to the person performing a specific delegated task. This type of task-based instruction is a “learning moment,” namely, just in time training on how to perform a specific task or how to deal with a specific situation. The level of instruction and advice to be provided should be based on the combination of the person’s specific experience and the task difficulty and political ramifications.

How to Manage the Job Site Using Effective Delegation

7. Give Credit to those Doing the Work As a manager, you should adhere to the philosophy of “it’s the team’s success or my failure.” This philosophy causes you to raise the visibility of your staff’s good work within the organization which is motivating them and helps instill loyalty in your staff toward you. This approach also helps remind you that you are ultimately responsible for both your team’s growth and your department’s productivity and performance.

8. Actively solicit feedback from your team Asking the members of your team if they believe you have delegated the right tasks to the right people has the following advantages: • Helps you grow as a manager by learning how you are perceived as a manager • Helps improve your team’s performance by providing you with insights on better ways to delegate and support your staff • Shows your staff that you are willing to accept their suggestions, making you more approachable as a manager For those not comfortable delegating tasks to others, be willing to go outside your comfort zone. Your willingness to take this leap will enhance your department’s productivity, enhance your managerial ability, and help your team expand their knowledge and skill. — This article has been prepared for general information. Specific professional advice should be obtained prior to the implementation of any suggestion contained.

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Top 5 Tips for Improving Jobsite Safety Written by Vicki Formosa, Content Writer at eCompliance

To ensure that you have a truly safe jobsite, workplace safety needs to be a top priority. Working for eCompliance, a health and safety software company, I often discuss ways in which workplace safety can be improved. Taken from conversations with thousands of safety leaders operating across multiple industries, here are my top 5 tips for creating a safer jobsite.

2. Have Formal Comprehensive Training and Emergency Procedures in Place

1. Ensure Management Buy-In

3. Create a Culture of Regular and Open Communication

Management buy-in is the most important element for a safer jobsite. When a jobsite manager is committed to creating a better safety program, their workers are motivated to follow the necessary procedures and policies. Management must lead by example and demonstrate that safety is their top priority in order for employees to follow suit.

Companies need to go beyond training to improve jobsite safety. Employers must ensure that their employees truly understand their training and know their role and responsibilities â&#x20AC;&#x201C; both for regular operations and in cases of emergency.

Having a platform for discussion amongst employees and management is essential in creating a strong safety culture. Weekly safety meetings or â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;toolbox talksâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; act as a platform for open dialogue. Management can address pressing issues or changes in policy and employees can express any concerns. This helps to increase worker engagement in the safety program which will have positive effects on jobsite safety.

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4. Meet Industry Safety Standards Safety performance is becoming increasingly important to major project owners and developers. Construction companies are being required to meet specific industry safety standards when bidding on projects. For example, British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario’s major construction buyers require COR™ as a health and safety prequalification for specified contracts. These safety standards not only open the doors to contracts but they also present an opportunity to re-evaluate and improve your safety program.

5. Invest in the Tools Necessary for Success Creating a safer jobsite is about communicating, training, meeting certain standards and having the right tools. Tools, such as safety software, can improve the speed and ease of sharing safety information throughout the organization. It gives management the information needed to make important safety decisions and report on important KPIs without the added administrative work.

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Whether you’re working on a new construction site or re-modeling a home, following these 5 tips can help improve jobsite safety. Vicki Formosa is the Content Writer for eCompliance, a leading software solution for protecting your workforce and your business. eCompliance’s mobile‐first solution connects at‐risk employees with head office, generating safety dashboards that management can use to make faster, fact‐based decisions. With eCompliance, management and executives have a 360 degree real‐ time view on safety performance so they can proactively protect employees, reduce corporate risk, and use improved safety performance as a competitive advantage.

Top 5 Tips for Imporving Job Site Safety

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Eyes on Youth and Diversity: Working to Solve the Skills Crisis Written by Lawrence Cummer Meet Real World Needs Head On. Drywall Innovations

An impending skills shortage has already reached some skilled trades, and experts say overcoming it will require a focus on areas of diversity, women in trades and inspiring youth. In 2012, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce reported based on country-wide consultations that Canada had reached a tipping point for businesses confronting skills shortage. It was a crisis that had been hidden by the prior recession. It has since been estimated that we will need one million skilled workers by 2020, with serious shortages in construction, mining and petroleum sectors. “The skills shortage has already reached some skilled trades,” says Ontario College of Trades CEO and registrar George Gritziotis. Because of this, he says that more than ever the College need to engage youth around—and reinforce to them—the potential and rewards of the skilled trades as a stable and rewarding career path, and this needs to start at an early age. Shaun Thorson, CEO of Skills Canada, agrees. His organization seeks to help youth better understand the process of getting careers in the trades and opportunities. “If [Canada] is going to continue with big plans on infrastructure development across the country, and the maintenance of existing structures, all of those require

skilled tradespeople to play a role,” Thorson says. “To develop those skilled trades workers, we must demystify the trades.”

Focus on Youth One longstanding challenge in developing skilled trade careers is a general misunderstanding around apprenticeships, Thorson says. “Students in high school are unaware of what’s involved. What the education pathway is and what the potential careers are,” he says. “Because the public isn’t always aware of how apprenticeships work, they can’t always be there to give advice. That is still a big challenge.” It’s a challenge Skills Canada, its provincial counterparts and their partners strive to overcome by putting tools and materials into the hands of young people to experiment with skilled trade careers at as early an age as possible. For example, the organization and provincial counterparts host competitions for youth and apprentices across the country. The Skills Canada National Competition (SCNC), for example, provides a competitive forum where 500 young people from across Canada gain hands-on experience related to skilled trade and technology skills. This year’s 24th SCNC took place in Edmonton in early June.

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A Digital Toolset Digital technology is becoming an increasingly important, if not required, skill set in the trade industries, Thorson notes. He points to its obvious impact in areas like automotive mechanics, but also more subtle examples in construction (such as laser levels) and landscaping (where digital equipment can measure grade and pitch). “There’s an impact in all areas, the difference is in the degree of penetration digital technologies have had,” he says. With the next generation of workers raised with the Internet and mobile technology at their fingertips, Thorson says this digital skill requirement may make it easier for young workers to adapt and it will increase their value. Make no mistake, though, the existing workforce must also gain familiarity with the use of the digital technologies changing how their jobs are being performed, he notes.

Women and Diversity in the Trades “The College has been proactively promoting diversity in the trades in part, due to the increase in the need for skilled workers in the province because of retirements, and the gender discrepancy in the skilled trades in the province,” Gritziotis says. Although women make up 50% of the workforce, they are not participating in the skilled trades as much as the could be. For example, only 13% of the Ontario College of Trades membership is female. To tackle future shortages, that will need to change. “Guiding women into the trades will be an important part of replenishing our future workforce,” Gritziotis says. “The College is participating in programs to help attract women to skilled trade careers. Most recently, for example, we participated in the Skills Ontario Women’s Conference.”

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One of the challenges in creating greater interest in women adopting skilled trade careers rests in the secondary school system, Thorson says. While there is news abound of women increasingly taking up careers in, for example, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), those careers may have one important leg up on the skilled trades when it comes to attracting female workers: the education system. “STEM is still part of core curriculum in secondary school,” Thorson says. “There’s not always an opportunity for a student to take a plumbing or electrical program.”

A Bridge to the Future Current skilled trades workers, contractors and builders play a part in helping to promote their industries. The payback, Thorson notes, comes from having a stronger pool of capable resources to draw from, but also the increase in professionalism and positive perspective that homeowners will have for the skilled trades. This, in turn, may lead to family discussions about trade careers, and so on. He points to numerous benefits, especially for those in Red Seal certified trades. For more than 50 years, the Red Seal Program has been the interprovincial standard of excellence in the skilled trades. He notes the mobility and flexibility such careers offer, but also the transferable skills around decision making and problem solving that will be required for future emerging industries, such as renewable energy and sustainability. “All those skills are what people are learning in skill trades now. The ability to do something, to create and maintain structures, we’re going to need those,” Thorson says. “There are endless possibilities. It’s exciting to see where the trades will go through the use of emerging technologies.”

Eyes on Youth and Diversity: Working to Solve the Skills Crisis

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