Protection of Privacy for Personal Information
HALIFAX , FEBRUARY 19 , 2003
The Halifax Chapter's meet-ing on February 19 featured a topic of vital interested to many of us in this age of quick and easy information exchange. Over 50 people attended this ever-popular session at the Holiday Inn Harbourview in Dartmouth.
Bob Doherty, Freedom of Infor-mation and Protection of Privacy
(FOIPOP) Coordinator with the government of Nova Scotia gave the
presentation. He has held this posi-tion for over 6 years and is responsi-ble
for providing technical advice on privacy legislation to the departments,
agencies, boards, and commissions of the Nova Scotia government.
Mr. Doherty started the evening by providing an overview of the cur-rent
legislation governing the privacy protection of personal information.
He explained when and where the different legislation applies and the
principles upon which the laws are based. He then explained the rel-evance
that the Freedom of Informa-tion and Protection of Privacy laws
have on HR professionals. In our positions as human re-sources
staff, we are often privy to sensitive information. It is vital that
we understand how the statutes affect us in our jurisdiction, how they align
with our internal policies, and what our obligations are when it comes to
employee records. Some of the com-mon issues faced in the HR profes-sion
include: <.li> Use of video/ audio surveillance
Email monitoring Sexual harassment
investigation information Reference checks
Mr. Doherty advised that it is crucial that when these issues arise,
we evaluate the parameters within which we can operate by understand-ing
what laws apply and whether our organizational policies align with
those laws. If not, what changes need to be made so that we are compliant
with the legislation? Those in attendance found that
Mr. Doherty was extremely knowl-
edgeable about the topic and found the presentation thought provoking.
Many of the questions raised during the question and answer period at the
end related to specific situations and how to clarify who is responsible for
ensuring privacy.
Strategic Business Connections: The Big Picture
WINNIPEG , FEBRUARY 26 , 2003
Why should you bother to build business relation ships? How do you do it? How does one retain and build these relationships that took time and effort to acquire? Cec Hanec, Princi-pal, Cec Hanec & Associates, joined the Winnipeg Chapter on February
26 at the Manitoba Hydro Building to provide the answers to these ques-tions
and more in a highly interactive session.
Ms. Hanec is a presenter, trainer, facilitator and personal business coach,
well known in the Winnipeg commu-nity for her work in the area of Hu-man
Resources Development. Her areas of expertise include interper-sonal
communication, leadership de-velopment, self-management, workplace
wellness, customer service, and con-tinuous improvement.
The focus of the session was the importance of building relationships,
whether internal or external, in the success of your business. Attendees
were challenged to identify the diffi-culties they encountered in their own
work in terms of building business relationships.
Ms. Hanec stressed two key fac-tors. First is the need to expend effort
on customer relations. In her words, successful organizations and indi-viduals
have customer driven excel-lence as a strategic core value in all
business decisions. The second driv-ing factor is ourselves and our ability
to build strong and positive relation-ships with all those we meet in the
course of our day. Why are these relationships so
important? Some of the rewards that can be reaped include expanded cli-
ent base, business referrals, customer loyalty, innovation and insight into
your markets. Ms. Hanec went on to expand on the major aspects of rela-tionship
building, how to build cred-ibility and maintaining those relation-ships
over time. The session was very well re-ceived
by those in attendance. The format of the evening was very inter-active,
and the participants were able to form teams and groups to help
understand issues. The group activi-ties really helped to illustrate the fo-cus
of the presentation.
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