reviews
By Alyson Nyiri, CHRL
WANT A MORE IN-DEPTH LOOK? READ EXTENDED BOOK REVIEWS ON WWW.HRPATODAY.CA.
WRONGFUL
DISMISSAL
HANDBOOK, 7TH
EDITION
By The Honourable Mr. Justice
John R. Sproat
Carswell, 2015
Terminations can be tricky,
opening the employer to
damages. The principles of
law pertaining to wrongful
dismissal generally favour of
the employee. The parties to
an employment contract can
agree to whatever contractual
terms they see fit. These terms,
however, should be carefully
documented in an employment
contract for employees at all
levels. The central question for
the courts is: “What did the
parties agree to?” Sproat cov-ers
types of contracts, causes
for dismissal, constructive
dismissal, damages, tort lia-bility,
termination payments,
employee obligations and li-ability
to the employer. Each
are covered in detail, citing
relevant cases and rulings.
Point of interest
Reading employment law
textbooks is a valuable exer-cise.
Books by Justice Sproat
and lawyer Stuart Rudner
provide insight into the
thinking and the case law
used by the courts, justices
and lawyers.
HR MANAGER’S GUIDE
TO SUCCESSION
PLANNING
By Brian Kreissl and Yaseen
Hemeda
Carswell, 2016
This guide provides compre-hensive
information on the
theory and practice of suc-cession
planning. In addition
to outlining the succession
planning process, Kreissl
and Hemeda flesh out the
planning, preparation and im-plementation
work required
to ensure your succession
plan is aligned with key as-pects
of your organization’s
talent management strategies
and its overall organization-al
strategy, vision and mission.
Particular attention is given
to Canadian legal compliance
concerns such as how hu-man
rights legislation and the
Canadian Charter of Rights
and Freedoms impacts succes-sion
planning.
Point of interest
With the end of mandatory
retirement, HR professionals
can and should track employee
ages, as long as the data is used
to forecast and plan for future
HR needs. However, employ-ers
cannot deny training or
promotional opportunities to
older employees.
Point of interest
Career development matters.
Smith has logged over 20,000
conversations about career
success over the course of his
teaching career.
Point of interest
When individuals are inspired
to discover their own talents
and learn ways to articulate
and demonstrate them, it adds
value to the workplace. HR
professionals now need to en-sure
their talent development
is flexible enough to allow em-ployees
to experiment. n
NO FEARS, NO
EXCUSES: WHAT YOU
NEED TO DO TO HAVE
A GREAT CAREER
By Larry Smith
Collins, 2016
The grown-up world is where
talent goes to die, writes Smith.
Many students come to him
to share their ideas, insights
and plans for their future and
seek guidance. Too many, even
those with talent, return to dis-cuss
their dissatisfaction with
their careers. Why are so many
dissatisfied? There is an epi-demic
of lowered expectations,
a failure to plan and think ana-lytically.
Smith believes a great
career is possible but we must
find our edge, learn to sell our
ideas and, most important-ly,
execute. He advocates a
thorough investigation of our
passions and believes that we
must combine them to create
an integrated career.
BORN FOR THIS:
HOW TO FIND THE
WORK YOU WERE
MEANT TO DO
By Chris Guillebeau
Crown Business, 2016
In 1992, Michael Jordan
stunned basketball fans when
he left the Chicago Bulls to
play with the Chicago White
Sox. By all accounts, this star
basketball player was little
more than a marginal baseball
player. Jordan recognized this
and went back to achieve even
more greatness in basketball,
his true gift. To win, some-times
you need to quit. In his
book, Guillebeau challenges
the usual advice to keep try-ing
until you succeed. When a
job, career, or business venture
isn’t working, ditch it and move
on. In our culture today, it is
becoming more acceptable to
have a varied work history.
HRPATODAY.CA ❚ JULY/AUGUST 2016 ❚ 47
