Author: Jordan Bateman

Are you an effective manager? Could you be better? Check out our last Effective Management Skills workshop of 2019 on December 11 in Burnaby! The most important asset of any organization is the human asset, and we want to help you achieve results.

How much untapped potential, energy, commitment and creativity currently exists within your organization, team or department?  What would it mean to your culture and bottom line if you could learn to unleash just 10% more of the latent human potential?

This course is for all managers, supervisors, team leaders or anyone who is responsible for achieving results through people and who want to bring the best out in people.

Here’s some of what’s covered:

• Understanding group dynamics and how to develop team synergy
• Developing clear performance expectations for the team
• The four core elements of a high-performance team
• The principles of effective delegation
• The vital importance of developing clear “outcome-based” performance expectations whenever possible
• How to listen so that people feel understood
• How disagree someone without being disagreeable
• The essential difference between influence and persuasion
• How to deliver reinforcing or positive feedback in a manner that makes it meaningful

And much more! Plus you’ll earn 1 Gold Seal Credit and 7.5 CPD Points from BC Housing.

Visit www.icba.ca/courses for more information and to register for this or any of our other upcoming courses.

It’s the final course of 2019! Looking to learn how to improve the management and business systems of your construction business? Check out our two-day Construction Business Management course December 19-20 in Burnaby. You’ll also earn 5 Gold Seal Credits and 32 CPD Points from BC Housing!

At the end of the course participants will be able to:

• Understand the strategic planning process and how to implement it within their context
• Understand the importance of a business plan and how to prepare one
• Understand the participants within the construction industry – their roles, responsibilities and limitations
• Understand the benefits of a participatory management culture
• Formulate a marketing plan and understand the marketing mix
• Develop a human resource management plan
• Understand the employment cycle/process
• Develop an employee performance evaluation system
• Increase staff morale and engagement
• Understand operational planning for construction companies
• Formulate a financial plan, budgets, ratios and break-even analysis
• Understand the importance of financial internal controls
• Develop benchmarks and key performance indicators
• Understand bonding and insurance for construction companies
• Use risk management tools to identify risk and how to mitigate risk

We’re bringing it to Kelowna April 22-23, 2020, and again in Burnaby May 11-12. You can register for this or any of our other upcoming sessions at www.icba.ca/courses.

And while you’re there, subscribe to our biweekly training newsletter at www.icba.ca/trainingnewsletter.

The Independent Contractors and Businesses Association (ICBA) is pleased to announce the appointment of Mark Spence as ICBA’s new Senior Vice President – Group Health and Retirement Benefits. In this portfolio, Mark will lead ICBA Benefits, the association’s wholly-owned group benefits business.

Mark has spent the past six years with GroupHEALTH Benefit Solutions in Surrey, advancing from  Manager, New Business Development; then Director, Business Development; and finally VP – Business Development. Under his leadership, GroupHEALTH substantially grew its group premium business.

He has a demonstrated record of building and executing business plans, growing revenue, creating customer loyalty, and leading successful teams.

ABOUT ICBA BENEFITS

ICBA Benefits (icbabenefits.ca) is one of B.C.’s largest third-party administrators of health, dental, life and retirement benefits. With more than 2,300 members and clients, ICBA works with companies ranging from single-person startups to some of the largest employers in Canada. ICBA’s insurance services was one of the key factors in ICBA winning the 2019 Reed Award for Best North American Trade Association.

Who’s been nice in politics? Who’s been naughty? Santa Claus joins Maclean Kay to break down who’s getting a lump of GHG-spewing coal and who is getting a big present.

The ICBA training department is already looking forward to 2020, even with a couple of weeks left in the year!

Looking for some training to do over the holidays? ICBA offers hundreds of online courses that you can take on your own time and at your own pace. Plus, many of them offer Gold Seal Credits and BC Housing CPD Points! We have safety courses, supervisory skills courses, HR courses, and more!

When it comes to classroom courses, we’re starting 2020 off with Occupational First Aid in Burnaby on January 10, and some brand-new Microsoft Outlook and OneNote courses in Prince George on January 14! We’re also bringing a brand-new Negligence Claims and Construction Projects breakfast session to Burnaby on January 17, and some Electrical Code Change training to Kamloops on January 17, and Nanaimo on January 18.

We will continue to offer some of our most popular sessions, including Responsibilities of Joint Health & Safety Committees, Construction Law, and many, many more. Our two-day Communication Skills workshop will be in Victoria on January 21-22; it’ll give you 3 Gold Seal Credits and 14 CPD Points from BC Housing!

The training department adds new courses nearly every week all over BC; check out www.icba.ca/courses for the latest updates and to register for any of our upcoming courses.

The training department wishes you a safe and happy holiday season and we look forward to seeing you at one of our courses in 2020!

Congratulations to Darcy Stoffregen of Langley’s TAG Construction on winning the 2019 ICBA Safety Merits contest!

Darcy’s name was drawn from more than a thousand safe workers submitted by ICBA member companies in December, and Darcy has won a weekend in Las Vegas (or $1,500 travel equivalent).

Thanks to all the companies who entered workers, and congratulations again Darcy!

Understanding how Provincial Sales Tax works for your construction business can be challenging, but we are! Our Get the PST Right! PST Issues for the Construction Industry breakfast will help home builders, renovators and trade contractors understand how PST applies to their business. You’ll also learn about who pays PST and how to pay it, as well as:

• When to pay PST on your goods and supplies
• How PST applies to goods for resale vs. those you install
• How PST applies to goods used to fulfill a contract outside B.C.
• When you need to be registered to collect PST
• When to charge your customers PST
• How PST applies to goods bought outside B.C.
• When you may be eligible for a PST refund and how to apply

Plus, you’ll earn 2 CPD Points from BC Housing! Our next session is January 22 in Burnaby, followed by February 26 in Victoria.

You can register for this or any of our other upcoming courses at www.icba.ca/courses.

Do you have a few minutes to help the B.C. Ministry of Finance improve the PST website? They currently have a web survey that’ll take you about five minutes; the survey can be found at www.surveymonkey.com/r/PSTwebsite.

After winning nine prestigious Reed Awards over the past two years, ICBA is a finalist for three more in 2020.

Our Massey Tunnel campaign is a finalist for:

• Best Online Video, Canada
• Best Use of Outdoor Advertising Campaign, Canada
• Best Use of Outdoor Advertising Campaign, International

This year’s Reeds will be handed out Feb. 20 in Atlanta.

Read more about our 2019 wins HERE. And more about our three 2018 trophies HERE.