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Updated September 2026 Having "Manager" in the Job Title Doesn't Necessarily Mean They're Exempt You've promoted your best employee to manager. They're now salaried, supervise a few people and occasionally work late. No overtime required anymore, right? Not necessarily. "Manager" is one of the most commonly misunderstood overtime exemptions in Canada. Across the country, employment standards legislation treats managers differently, but the basic principle is remarkably consis

Updated September 2026 It Depends on the Province, and the Type of Sales Role If you have salespeople on your team, you may have heard that sales employees don't get overtime. Sometimes that's true. Sometimes it's very much not. Sales roles are one of those areas where overtime rules can get surprisingly complicated. The rules vary across Canada, and exemptions can depend on what the employee sells, where they sell it, how they're paid, and sometimes how much control they hav

Updated September 2026 It Depends on the Province If you employ software developers, systems analysts, IT consultants or other technology professionals, you might assume they are exempt from overtime. That can be an expensive assumption. Across Canada, the overtime rules for IT employees vary significantly. Some provinces have specific exemptions for certain technology professionals. Others treat IT employees much like any other employee. And even in provinces with an IT exem

Welcome to our column, Dear Toby. We take real life HR questions and give real HR advice. Have a question or topic you'd love covered in our column? Send us an email at info@aandaconsulting.ca Dear Toby, My highest-performing, best employee is also becoming my biggest headache. They bring in a lot of revenue, clients love them, and they know the business inside out. But they interrupt people, dismiss ideas, hoard information, and make newer employees feel stupid for asking

Hiring an independent contractor can be a practical way for businesses to bring in specialized skills, manage projects, or get support without adding a permanent employee to the team. But what happens when the working relationship starts to look less like a business providing services and more like an employee working for your organization? The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) looks beyond the name on the agreement when determining whether someone is an employee or independent con

Project dashboards are supposed to create visibility. Boards review them. Executives rely on them. Leadership teams use them to make decisions about priorities, funding, staffing, and risk. But many dashboards fail at the one thing they are supposed to do: tell the truth about how a project is actually performing. The issue is not usually the reporting tool itself. The issue is that many organizations never clearly define what project status indicators actually mean. What mak

In Part 1 of this series, we explored why hiring right matters and how high-performing teams think about outcomes, behaviour, and values before posting a role. Now let’s get practical. Now let’s get practical. Most organizations say they want high performers, but their recruitment process is built for speed or comfort — not performance. Job descriptions focus on tasks. Interviews focus on experience. Decisions rely on gut feel. Then leaders are surprised when new hires str

Welcome to our column, Dear Toby. We take real life HR questions and give real HR advice. Have a question or topic you'd love covered in our column? Send us an email at info@aandaconsulting.ca Dear Toby, I am a small business owner and, honestly, everyone who works with me is a contractor. When I started, it made sense. I was small, cash flow mattered, and I did not want to deal with payroll, source deductions, vacation pay, CPP, EI, and all the things I know I would pro

High-performing teams are not found. They are built. And the first place organizations feel the difference is in hiring. For small and growing businesses, one mis-hire does not just slow things down. It changes how leaders spend their time. Instead of building the business, they compensate. They coach basic expectations, fix errors, redistribute work, and quietly lower standards just to keep momentum. The stress does not come from one person. It comes from the ripple effect a

Welcome to our column, Dear Toby. We take real life HR questions and give real HR advice. Have a question or topic you'd love covered in our column? Send us an email at info@aandaconsulting.ca "Dear Toby, We just had our company Christmas party and overall it was great - until it wasn’t. One of my employees had way too much to drink and started making comments that crossed several lines. They weren’t malicious, but they were absolutely inappropriate. A few people laugh

Welcome to our column, Dear Toby. We take real life HR questions and give real HR advice. Have a question or topic you'd love covered in our column? Send us an email at info@aandaconsulting.ca “Dear Toby, I want to thank my team this year but our budget is tight. Do you have any creative recognition ideas that don’t cost a fortune?” - Lost in Langley Dear Lost in Langley, First - thank you for even asking this question. The fact that you’re thinking intentionally about re

Welcome to our column, Dear Toby. We take real life HR questions and give real HR advice. Have a question or topic you'd love covered in our column? Send us an email at info@aandaconsulting.ca Dear Toby, I know I’ll need to hire in the new year, but I’ve been putting off planning because we’re slammed right now. How early do I actually need to start recruiting if I want someone in the role by January or February? - Growing Pains in Edmonton Dear Growing Pains, Ah, the great

Dear Toby, I keep hearing about businesses switching to a 4-day work week, and I’m wondering if that’s something a small business like mine should consider. What are the real benefits, and how can I make sure it works without hurting operations? — Curious in Canmore Dear Curious, Fantastic question — and one a lot of small business owners are asking right now (usually around Thursday afternoon when the weekend still feels far away). The 4-day work week has gone from “interest

If I asked you to describe your workplace in one word, would “joyful” come to mind? Most leaders wouldn’t say yes — not because they don’t want it, but because “joy” feels like something that belongs at a birthday party, not in a boardroom. After all, work is about performance, deadlines, and budgets… right? Here’s the thing: joy isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s a competitive advantage. When people find joy at work — through purpose, connection, and belonging — they don’t just f

On May 28, 2025, the Ontario government introduced Bill 30: The Working for Workers Seven Act . If passed, it will make changes to three...

Employment contracts are meant to give clarity and protection for both employers and employees. But as a recent case shows, if...

When was the last time you reviewed how your compensation stacks up against the market? If you can’t remember, you’re not alone. Many...

Dear Toby, Our company is growing fast, which is exciting — but it’s also total chaos behind the scenes. We’ve never done a formal HR...

Firing someone “for cause” might sound like a straightforward way to end a difficult employment relationship without severance pay. But...

When a customer complains about an employee’s conduct, it can feel like a clear-cut case for discipline—or even termination. But a recent...