Blog

Though many people may wish to work from home, not everyone’s job is something they’re able to do from the comfort of their home office. As companies refine their hybrid work policy, consider how this will impact those who have no choice but to work on-site. Here are a few ways to address internal equity issues in your hybrid workplace, along with a few examples.

Ensuring Fairness

A need for fairness is just a part of the human experience. So, when one group of employees sees another treated differently, it can be frustrating. Leadership needs to make fairness a priority. One of the ways to do that is to fully communicate how resources will be divided between on site and remote employees. Even though they fully understand different jobs have different requirements, those who perceive inequity will begin to disengage.

Reduce Perceptions of an Inner Circle

Companies also have to be careful not to treat in-house employees differently than WFH employees. They will feel isolated, like they aren’t part of the inner group. That means you need to work hard to ensure that communication is effective across all channels to include those who aren’t in the office. Using the right communication tools will be an excellent start to creating more equity in a hybrid workforce.

Build Trust

Trust may be the most crucial aspect of having a successful hybrid work arrangement. Be open, build goodwill, keep in touch, addressing issues as needed, and managing expectations and outcomes. You can create a balance of trust if you can let the WFH people know they are part of the culture and engage the in-house staff with perks besides flexible schedules.

Types of Work

It’s also good for you to address the types of work that can be done at home versus in the office and adjust accordingly. Some office roles function better with in-person collaboration, while other tasks can be done easily at the home office. Production work can’t be completed at home, but other roles can. Create clear job descriptions to show your reason behind the classification of positions.

Do you need to know more about hiring top talent?

Contact itec group Recruitment Solutions. Our Talent is Finding Yours.

After over a year of working remotely, many workers have grown to enjoy the freedom and flexibility that work from home has to offer. But, there are many upsides to working from the office, too. If you are weighing your options of continuing to work remotely or returning to the workplace, there are some things you might want to consider. Here are several reasons you may want to go back.

More Opportunities for Social Interaction

If you’ve been feeling isolated over the last several months, getting back to work might be what you need right now. Even though you may have nothing more than a professional relationship with your coworkers, you will have an opportunity to engage in conversations and other types of social interactions that may have been missing.

More Support for Your Job

Remote workers sometimes feel like they don’t get the support they need. When they ask for help on a project from home, they have to wait for someone to reply. In the office, that request for help can be acted upon immediately. You’ll notice the natural give and take within your workplace when people are together.

More Collaborative Environment

Similarly, the office workplace fosters more collaboration. You can bounce ideas off of each other to brainstorm or figure out solutions to sticky situations. Collaboration is a big part of the office environment, and even with tools and chats available for remote workers, it’s not the same thing when you work from home.

Better Networking Opportunities

You’ll also have more opportunities for networking in the workplace. Whether it’s with other supervisors or outside resources, it isn’t easy to do much networking at home. You never know when an opportunity may become available, you just have to be there to receive it.

If you’ve been unemployed or your current job remains remote, but you want to get back to an office, now is the perfect time to look for a new job!

Are you ready to go back to an office and look for your next opportunity?

Contact itec group Recruitment Solutions, where our vision and purpose are to deliver our candidates the ultimate employment experience.

COVID-19 changed the world as we once knew it in every aspect of our lives. It’s still changing things in public, homes, and at work. Now is a great time to consider taking a second look at your employee handbook to evaluate your policies to make your post-COVID workplace safe and healthy for all of your employees. Here are just a few things to consider.

Remote Work Policy

For many businesses, work from home became business as usual. But when things changed so quickly in 2020, companies didn’t always take the time to establish work-from-home policies. Now is the perfect time to do that. These policies should include accessing remote tools, the hours expected, and requirements for the home office.

Moving Regions

Some people over the last year looked at it as a way to move to a new location while still keeping their jobs. That’s becoming common across Canada, but it’s okay for companies to make policies regarding workers who live in other provinces. Check with your legal counsel to ensure you’re remaining compliant with national and local laws.

Personal Technology Etiquette

Whether your employees are working from home or in the workplace, you should update your technology etiquette requirements. For example, if you provide a laptop to a remote employee, you can make conditions that they don’t use that laptop for social media or personal communications. You can also require this in-house as well.

In-Office Visit Policy

Currently, we are still concerned about the transmission of COVID-19 and its variants. That means you may want to include an in-office visit policy for any time a remote worker returns to the office on a temporary basis. Some options include vaccine requirements, mask mandates, or COVID testing before coming back to the office.

Are you considering changes to your employee handbook post-COVID?

Contact itec group Recruitment Solutions, where our vision and purpose are to deliver our clients the ultimate recruitment experience.

Covid fatigue; It’s not just a clever name, the struggle is real.  For over a year now many have been working from home and often balancing homeschooling at the same time.  Now with this third wave and a fourth looming, how do we continue to keep our employees engaged, motivated and feeling valued? 

For some, work has been the only constant in their lives; they depend on that for their mental health.  That dependency makes it imperative for employers to do everything they can to maintain a sense of connection with their employees; and like many things in life, it’s those small details that can make all the difference.

Make communication a priority: Now, more than ever before communication is paramount.  Since every organization and culture is different, you should use communication channels that make sense for your teams; focusing on what is familiar and trusted. Whether it be a slack channel, instant messaging or video calling; ensure everyone has several options to have two-way communication with team members and leadership.  This includes accurate and timely employee updates; confidential means to facilitate communication for questions and concerns or to seek help and of course don’t forget ways to have simple water cooler chats. 

Ensure consistent touchpoints: Depending on your business, initiatives and priorities may be a steady state or perpetually changing.  Since the pandemic and not unlike most times of crisis we’ve all sharpened our sense of resiliency and our understanding that plans may need to shift, and quickly. Staying connected and offering real time clarity to your employees will help in times of uncertainty and ambiguity.  Short check-ins provide opportunity to get a pulse for how people are doing, get on the same page, manage workloads and connect.  These few minutes with your employees will help to boost morale and will encourage feelings of hope and purpose.

Encourage self care and promote wellness: Remember travelling?  You get on the plane and the flight attendant does the usual spiel and they tell you in the event of an emergency to affix your own oxygen mask first and then help others with theirs because If you don’t look after you, you’re no help to anyone else.  So be like the flight attendant and promote self care for your employees, promote health and wellness in all you do.  Don’t just point employees to the EAP program, engage with them in all interactions, business focused or culture focused in a way that spurs wellness. 

Find ways to celebrate: This is where we have to get creative and find the good in each day.  Whether it be a birthday; an individual/group/company success; a work anniversary or a major life event for an employee, celebrate it.  Focus on the positive wherever possible.  In the words of Wayne D. Dyer, “Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.”

Lastly, connect outside your organization and share ideas, share knowledge and help each other out.  I’ve seen more instances of this in the last year than ever before in my career and it reminds me of the human spirit and keeps me optimistic for the future. 

Stay well. 

Modesty Sabourin 

Director of HR, Operations

Everyday we receive updates, news and bulletins about what is happening around the world but what is happening here, at home, in the Ontario and Canadian manufacturing sector, to help combat and prevent COVID-19?

The truth is, there is a lot  happening.  Companies are retooling every day to provide the essential PPE and equipment for our healthcare system and workers. Companies have shifted focus away from their core products to make hand sanitizer for the masses. Everyone is doing their part and it’s heartwarming to see us Canadians and our Canadian companies band together during a major crisis such as this.

So, aside from retooling and manufacturing the necessary goods needed, what else is the Ontario and Canadian manufacturing industry doing to prevent the spread? Over the last few weeks I have been speaking with manufacturers all across Ontario, asking them about best practices, unique solutions or other programs implemented to minimize risk to their personnel and business as a whole. Below is the compiled list, however, I know this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to best practices during these difficult times.

Some of this is standard by now, but some of the other preventative tactics may be new and what is needed for you, your employees and your company. If there is anything your company is currently doing that is not listed below please “reply” to this posting with your idea, suggestion or current initiative.

I have also included a number of links to resources available to Canadian businesses at the bottom of this posting for reference. 

We are in this together!
 

Restricted Access & Physical Distancing

• No outside visitors; employees only on site
• Blocking doors open to reduce touching of handles
• 6ft between personnel or workstations
• Stopped all in person meetings
• Only 1 employee in change room at a time
• Staggered lunch breaks or specific amount of people allowed in break room at one time
• No outside items allowed into facility (purses, bags, lunch boxes, etc) to reduce contamination potential
• Individual pre-packaged meals being provided to staff

Sanitization

• All staff required to wash hands upon entering facility
• Lunchroom sanitized every two hours
• Sanitize desk or workstation at start and end of shift
• Increase in cleaning frequencies for whole facility

Scheduling

• 30 or minute gap between shift start and end times
• All capable of working from home have been mandated to do so

Education & Monitoring

• All employees received training through an ongoing educational campaign; how does the virus spread, ways to protect yourself, preventative measures, company procedures and policies
• Monitor any employees and send any employees home displaying signs of COVID-19 or Flu like symptoms
• Staff can voluntarily go home if they request; staff who choose to go home and are not ill may be on unpaid leave (company dependant)

Supply Chain

• Regular communication with supply chain to identify risks, alternate options (if needed), suppliers in trouble (how can you support your suppliers?), 
• Determine which alternative suppliers can act as backups in the event of disruption

Resources:

http://www.chamber.ca/resources/pandemic-preparedness/BusinessPrepGuidePanPrep2020

https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/publications/diseases-conditions/preventing-covid-19-workplace-employers-employees-essential-service-workers.html

https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/2019-novel-coronavirus-infection/guidance-documents/risk-informed-decision-making-workplaces-businesses-covid-19-pandemic.html

https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/economic-response-plan.html#businesses

https://www.publichealthontario.ca/-/media/documents/ncov/ncov-daily-lit.pdf?la=en