CityNews  reporter Farah Nasser and her crew visited us at the InCenter to talk to our very own Rajiv Bhavsar and Cathy Chin about a timely subject: how to recession-proof your job. The story aired last night and can be viewed here.

Rajiv, who is currently studying for his CMA designation, spoke about advancing your education as a way to stay ahead of the curve.  

Cathy, our Employee Experience Manager, discussed the importance of developing soft skills that are transferable. Soft skills like communication and networking are vital during tough economic times. As Cathy explains in the segment, technical skills can be learned whereas fit and soft skills cannot.   

This story gives great tips on how employees can prevent the “what if I’m next” scenario. Organizations need to be proactive as well by providing learning opportunities, recognizing employee performance and communicating corporate strategy on an on-going basis. These actions go towards aligning interests – something that will help both employees and their employers survive the current downturn.  

I Love Rewards is working to be proactive in helping our own employees stay great! Our Personal Power and Professional Development vision committees are helping employees achieve their personal and professional goals and we overcommunicate company direction as much as we can. For example, we share the company’s vision and goals with employees every three months during the company-wide quarterly “Kickoff” meeting.�

The holidays are in full swing so we wanted to take a moment and wish all of you – our readers, friends, colleagues, partners and clients, a wonderful and joyful holiday season. 

 Santa most definitely came to town yesterday at I Love Rewards! We had carolers stop by care of our local business improvement association, the Liberty Village Business Improvement Area, and one of our vision committees, the Par(d)ty Committee, hosted a secret Santa gift exchange. The rules were simple and some good ole’ stealing was added to the mix. In the end, everyone went home with a great gift from their co-workers (even those who had their heart set on a particular gift and had it stolen!).  

Sending you lots of holiday cheer!

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As a high-growth company we have to be ahead of the curve when it comes to dealing with the impact a down economy has on our customers, employees and investors. Internally, employees must be aware of the company’s direction and understand their role in navigating through the storm.  

It’s essential a company communicate and reinforce its core values to employees!

So, to get insight from the investor side, the Professional Development vision committee hosted a Lunch & Learn today with guest speaker John Albright, Managing Partner, JLA Ventures. JLA Ventures is one of our investors so we were looking forward to hearing John’s thoughts on the subject.

John did not perpetuate doom and gloom but gave us a realistic look at what industries across the board – from the auto sector to startups. are currently experiencing and the right things we should continue to do as a company. 

You can view the complete presentation here but as a sneak peak, below are some key points from John’s presentation: 

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Early Monday morning  a group of communications professionals joined Amber Mac, a new media journalist, and Mathew Ingram, Communities Editor with the Globe and Mail, at The Suites at 1 King West in Toronto to talk about how social media is changing the relationships between businesses, the media and their audiences.  

The conversation revolved around how to best use social media to engage readers and build a robust online community. Since we’re keen on sharing news with our network via our blog, Facebook group and You Tube channel, this topic is of great interest! 

Here are some of the key points and best practices from social media gurus Amber and Mathew on how organizations can improve their blogs and get online media hooked:

• View blog posts as conversation starters. They don’t have to break news but they do have to spark interest.
• Videos and images are a definite plus! Bloggers and online media journalists like to add them alongside their posts.
• Keep blog posts short and sweet.
• Link to related sources early in body of the post and link often.

In the next couple of days, we challenge you to look for innovative ways organizations are using social media tools. We’ll go first. Check out John Ibbitson’s story “Obama takes charge with economic plan, ushering in era of President 2.0” from yesterday’s Globe and Mail. Do you think Change.gov is revolutionary?

Want more information on the event? Visit the CNW Group.

“Economy, economy, economy” ..is probably what you’ve been hearing about everyday, with good reason of course, since it affects many parts of our lives, either directly or indirectly. Does it affect employers looking for candidates? You bet. How does it affect us? I’ll tell you.

We are still hiring.  We are still looking for A-players and we are being more stringent than ever. We feel in this volatile, scary economic time, employers must be hyper-focused and take the time and effort, and make very, very smart decisions.  Recruitment is always a very expensive practice so we want to make sure we get it right! Make sure you put thought into your selection process – starting with painting a picture of exactly who you want to hire. If you don’t know who this person looks like, how will you know when they walk through the door?

On the flip side, I know there are many job seekers out there too, so I want to throw some thoughts over to you too. Companies are still hiring! I spoke with Monster and Workopolis and they are still selling postings, so somebody’s using them.

Last time I wrote, I gave some interview tips. This time let’s do some resume tips:

•  Get back to basics:  Spell check, consistent formatting – this goes without saying. Get some fresh eyes on it too.

• Customize your cover letter – include what made you apply to this specific company. If you can prove that you actually took some time in researching our company, and you have the qualifications, then your chances of landing an interview are much higher.
• Highlight major achievements and results (many people focus on what tasks they were responsible for, but as an employer, I’m concerned about results over effort. When I read a resume, I think, “what can this person do for us?”
• Numbers – put stats in your resume – you increased sales by X%, you brought in $XX in sponsorship, you decreased transaction time by X minutes, therefore saving your company XX dollars, etc.”
• Making sure there’s not major “time gaps” in your work experience (and if there is, either explain in your cover letter (briefly), or consider a different type of resume style, functional resume vs. chronological. Good luck and happy hunting!

Yesterday, I Love Rewards was named a 2008 Walk the Talk Award winner and honoured with the title of “Most Supportive Employer” at the “Thinking Outside the Cube: Walk the Talk best practices” event.  

The event played host to a panel of speakers, award winners and innovation leaders who shared their stories and insights on the changing workplace and best practices. While everyone came from different industries and areas of expertise, there was one underlining theme: employees are the drivers of your business. It’s those employers who take care and inspire their employees that will overcome and embrace business challenges, whether it is a recession, company merger, cross-generational or virtual workplace. 

You can learn more about the event and speakers here. The Walk the Talk Awards is an annual Canadian best practices study and awards program that gives employees a voice! Winners are chosen based on employee surveys results that assess whether their employer truly walks the talk. Results are tabulated and announced by Market Yourself Smarter, a career learning and employment trend research company. Congrats to the our fellow award winners Sequel Naturals Ltd. and Speakers Spotlight.

In case you didn’t know, our office is huge!  So after volunteering at Gilda’s Club two Saturdays ago, me and a couple of co-workers (Will and Jenna) sporadically decided to do something very bold.   We bought a badminton net and set it up in the middle of the office… without permission!  Sure, it cost us a little time and money, but the reaction on people’s faces on Monday morning was priceless.

Everyone here is also very competitive.  Michael Shaw and his Personal Power Committee are well aware of this, so they’ve decided to organize a full-fledged badminton tournament tomorrow at five o’clock.  Feel free to stop by if you’re in the area

When I think about it, this is what our company is all about.  Never excepting the norm.  Acting on ideas.  Taking things to the next level.  And most importantly, having a lot of fun!

Social Responsibility is a big part of life at I Love Rewards. To keep employees engaged, we have a Vision Committee devoted to enhancing and strengthening our commitment to this facet of our company. CSI: I Love Rewards (the “CSI” stands for Corporate Social Innovation) has already gotten off to a great start- we just facilitated Noogiefest at Gilda’s Club- and now we’re on to our next initative…MOVEMBER.

In the month of November, the men of I Love Rewards (as well as friends and family) will be growing moustaches in the name of men’s health awareness. As the mos grow, we’ll be seeking donations to the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation of Canada. Why not make a donation to our team, I Love Mos, and help us change the face of men’s health?

We’ll be tracking the progress of the mos on our Mo Bros as the month goes on. Stay tuned to this blog for some presumably hilarious updates!

2:00 PM 

Their building on 110 Lombard Street has had a long history of transformation. It was Toronto’s first firehall, then it became the home of the Second City comedy troupe (whom Gilda Radner was a member of), and now it’s the home of the Toronto chapter of Gilda’s Club. Today it’s undergoing another transformation!

10:00 AM 

Weeee’re back! It’s our second year at Gilda’s Club for our company volunteer day. Gilda’s Club’s mission is to provide a meeting place where men, women, teens and children living with cancer, as well as their families and friends, can join with others to build social and emotional support as a supplement to their treatment of choice. And our mission today is to get their historic club house decorated for Noogiefest, their annual Halloween bash for the younger members of Gilda’s Club. The rooms are coming along, but there’s lots more work to do.

Stay tuned for more updates as the house starts to take shape!

Being a top employer and employer of choice is really important to us so you can imagine how happy we are to announce that we have been chosen as one of the GTA’s Top 75 Employers for the third year in a row!  

Every fall, Mediacorp publishes their list of the GTA’s Top 75 Employers in the Toronto Star. This year over 2,000
Toronto area employers applied for the award and were judged on eight key areas: physical environment; work atmosphere; benefits; vacation and time off; employee communications; performance management; training and development; and community involvement. According to Mediacorp, those chosen have one thing in common – they are all industry leaders. Congrats to everyone on this year’s list! 

Check out our story “Employee love affair” in the October 18 issue of the Toronto Star. Razor Suleman, our CEO, and Rob Catalano, our Marketing and Sales Manager, talk about what makes us a GTA Top Employer. 

For a complete list of winners visit http://www.canadastop100.com/toronto/.

On Tuesday, October 7th, The InCentre (our I Love Rewards office in Liberty Village) hosted an Executive Round Table event focused on Gen Y in the workplace entitled ‘Talkin Bout the Generations.’

It was definitely an interesting and interactive dynamic. There were three executive guest panelists providing their expertise and advice from three different industries and experiences:
Naomi Shaw, VP Leadership at Scotiabank brought great insight to the challenges involved with a new workforce in Gen Y and the upcoming exit of the Boomers. Sarah Nisbeth, EVP Client Leader at Young & Rubican provided insightful feedback about the agency world and the impact of Gen Y employees in a fast moving industry. Our very own Razor Suleman, CEO of I Love Rewards offered feedback on a growth company and the impact this generation shift.

After some direct questions from the panel host, each of the panelists broke into individual round table discussions with the attendees. This became a chance to ask very specific questions, learn from the group and have powerful discussions and get great insight from an array of people in different roles and industries. Facilitators from Right Management then highlighted some of the major discussion points from each round table discussion.

So, as a host, I think the event went well. Everything happened on time, as it was supposed to, and we managed to handle the ‘heat’ issue and make “Level 5” (the name of our Mezzanine – named for Level 5 Leadership from Good to Great) a comfortable venue. And we always love having guests in our office!

As an attendee, I also took away a few things:

• Be true to your company – if you hire people with similar values and traits that match the culture of your organization, the year they were born shouldn’t make a difference.
• Gen Y’s know what they want – and aren’t afraid to be vocal about it. Leaders need to know how to manage that. It’s just not limited to Gen Y though, it’s just they do it a lot younger now than we’re all used to.
• Be aware of the generational shift - not a huge issue at I Love Rewards yet, but Naomi at Scotiabank is dealing with the Boomers exiting the workforce and how to train and develop new leaders at an accelerated rate to bridge the gap. Have you thought about how to manage that at a larger scale? Process? Technology?
• Don’t be afraid – it’s scary, but the future of our workforce is Gen Y. They have more of the tools, information, and options than other generations. Embrace what they have to offer, and listen… they have good things to say

This year’s President’s Club (in which the top 10 percent of the company’s employees, as voted on by the Senior Leadership Team, are whisked away on an all-expenses paid vacation with the CEO) had quite a whirlwind trip! We were lucky enough to attend the Motivation Show in Chicago, before jetting off to San Francisco to meet the team at SuccessFactors and take in a ball game at AT&T Park. After a road trip along the Pacific Coast, we kicked back for some R&R (no, not rewards and recognition!) in Hollywood, complete with a stop at the Foxtail Club, made popular by a little show you may have heard of called The Hills.

Though “what happens at President’s Club stays at President’s Club”, the trip didn’t go undocumented. Here’s a taste of the fun we had, in an homage to West Beverly High’s most famous alumni…

I Love Rewards has just been named one of Canada’s Top 10™ Technology companies by the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation. This is the second year in a row we have been selected as one of the 10 most promising technology companies to Canadian and international investors and partners.

We also want to congratulate our fellow recipients. We are certainly in good company! Here is the complete list of winners in the Technology category:

Accedian Networks, Inc. (St. Laurent, Quebec)

BelAir Networks (Ottawa, Ontario)

DataGardens Inc. (Edmonton, Alberta)

Ecobee (Toronto, Ontario)

Evoco Inc. (Calgary, Alberta)

I Love Rewards Inc. (Toronto, Ontario)

IPeak Networks Incorporated (Ottawa, Ontario)

Redknee (Mississauga, Ontario)

Trellia Networks Inc. (Montreal, Quebec)

Wavesat Inc. (Montreal, Quebec)

The Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation is holding a summit the week of October 7 2009 to prepare for the 2009 Investment Forum series. If you would like more information you can visit www.ottawavts.com.

Super Bowl winners have their rings, actors have their prized Oscars, kids have their gold stars – the power of recognition is all around us.  I am sure there are lots of times in your life that you’d like to recognize someone or be recognized for something great you did.  I am currently part of a Vision Committee called Viral Kudos. Our goal is to develop a way to share that power of recognition with the world.
After much research we decided to create a Facebook Application. Give Kudos was born. We launched September 2nd and so far, over 1300 Kudos have been sent!

If you have a friend you’d like to thank for helping you out last weekend, or a co-worker who’s gone above and beyond…anyone you’d like to Give Kudos, go for it! You can check it out here: http://apps.new.facebook.com/give_kudos/. (you have to be logged in to Facebook to see this link)

We’re also holding a contest for the most Kudos given, so install it, Give Kudos and stay tuned.  As I like to say “Give Kudos, It’s good for you”