Businesses must bridge the ‘readiness’ gap
Return to work means being inventive, Steven Astorino says.
The private sector cannot rely on government in perpetuity
In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies and public sector organizations made swift and decisive transition to remote working. Upward of 40 per cent of the Canadian workforce took this step on the recommendation of provincial health authorities, according to Statistics Canada.
This herculean effort was followed in close succession by schools and universities with a shift to remote learning. Child-care facilities were closed altogether, thrusting many employees, students and kids into work-life imbalances that can only be acknowledged as unsustainable in the medium to long term.
While uncertainty around next steps remains, the last several months have also produced — for large enterprises and small businesses alike — a growing catalogue of informed processes and tools to get Canadian workers back to the workplace.
Considerations include how, when (if at all), and at what speed employees should return to the office. The tightrope walk of protecting privacy while ensuring health and safety is a debate now taking place as senior leaders consider implementing contact tracing and screening measures, restricting staff and customer numbers, as well as formulating “re-exit” plans: What to do in the event of a workplace outbreak or a second pandemic wave.
In July, Statistics Canada reported that once the pandemic has subsided, almost one-quarter (22.5 per cent) of businesses expect employees working remotely could account for a tenth or more of their workforce. In the information, professional, scientific and technical services sectors, upwards of 40 per cent of businesses expect to see the same change. Even more strikingly, for Canadian businesses that see remote work as viable for their organization, 14.3 per cent were likely to require working from home.
For the remainder of employees who will be heading back to the workplace, organizations must look for new tools to manage a wide range of changes to practices, policies and the physical work environment to facilitate a safe return. This is no easy task, but undoubtedly it will be less severe for companies and public sector teams that dedicate full resources and support to executing return to workplace plans. Large enterprises are mostly faring better in this exercise, thanks to existing pandemic protocols that were in place before the COVID-19 outbreak.
A recent Conference Board of Canada survey provides a snapshot of how leaders across various industries plan to approach the return to the workplace. Only eight per cent of organizations surveyed indicated they were fully prepared to reopen workplaces. In stark contrast to this unreadiness, 40 per cent of employers stated they will require remote staff to return to the workplace in some capacity.
Bridging this gap in readiness is critical if the Canadian economy is to survive intact with greater predictability than in the first two quarters of 2020. The private sector simply cannot rely on government goodwill programs to continue in perpetuity.
What’s obvious is that return-to-work considerations are much more complicated in scope and potential consequence than the initial jump to remote work. As such, they require a thoughtful, individualized approach — not only across business sectors, but by company to company — to enable us all to emerge smarter from the pandemic. At IBM Canada, our crisis management teams are taking a regional approach to workplace re-entry, synthesizing expert guidance from IBM’s chief health officer with public health and government data to inform our return-to-work policies. We’re also leveraging a curated set of tools called Watson Works to assist in effectively managing facilities management, employee and customer safety, plus additional priorities.
Thankfully, many organizations have been taking an open-source approach with their COVID-19 planning, while devoting significant resources to building and making available tools that can lessen the burden of these complicated decisions on senior leaders. Canadian organizations that ignore these new approaches, tools and business practices risk economic and labour turmoil greater than those that embrace them in these unparalleled times.