Benefits Canada Interview: Rise of remote, hybrid working leading employees to a ‘Great Exhaustion,’ says expert

This article was originally published in Benefits Canada – written by Lauren Bailey.

While remote and hybrid working arrangements have revolutionized the modern workplace, they’re also fuelling unrealistic expectations for office communications, leading to what some have coined the ‘Great Exhaustion.’

In the pre-coronavirus pandemic office environment, employees understood that it would take a couple of days for colleagues to respond to an email or phone request, says Janet Candido, founder and principal at Candido Consulting Group, noting employees are now expected to respond to requests right away via email or another chat messaging system and the time spent following up is cutting into their workplace productivity.

“It’s not unusual for [employees] to spend an entire day answering emails or chats, which means they’re often catching up on work at home in the evenings.”

Being inundated with email requests for their time can be overwhelming, frustrating and tiring for employees, she adds. “In many cases, people are working far in excess of what would be considered a normal workday. And it’s not unreasonable to assume that people who are working remotely may be a victim to that even more than [in-office workers]. If they’re spending too much of their day on internal communications, they’re not actually getting their work product done during working hours.”

Indeed, the average employee spends 57 per cent of their time communicating (in meetings, email and chat) and spend the remaining 43 per cent creating (in documents, spreadsheets and presentations), according to a May 2023 survey by Microsoft Corp. It found the heaviest email users (those in the top 25 per cent) spend more than eight hours a week on email and the heaviest meeting users (also the top 25 per cent) spend 7.5 hours a week in meetings.

This exhaustion is also creeping into the office culture, says Candido, noting it’s making employees hesitant to socialize with co-workers or participate in social work events. “They just want to get their work done and go home so the culture becomes much more sterile [lacking] . . . camaraderie.”

But a full return to the office may not be the best solution to this problem, as in-office workers are also experiencing this exhaustion due to long commutes or having to balance caregiving duties with their work hours. While they recognize working in-person is better for collaboration and, in some cases, productivity, she says there’s a real disconnect between what’s better for employees and what’s better for the company and their colleagues.

No matter the preference, people are entrenched in their preferences for working remotely or in-office, which is permeating into other aspects of the workplace, says Candido. “That may be part of where . . . microaggressions [are] coming from, with remote employees feeling [pressure] from leadership who really want them to come into the office.”

She says it’s important that employees — whether working remotely or in-office — have quiet time to focus on their work product. Many employers have addressed this need by blocking off a day or certain hours once per week in their staff calendars for focused work or they’re establishing email etiquette to guide employees on reasonable times and ways to communicate virtually.

Candido doesn’t recommend employers draw a line in the sand and mandate all staff to work in the office five days a week. “Try to do it in a more . . . staggered schedule [and] give people notice, so they can plan around their childcare . . . or elder care. Otherwise, [they’re] all going to come in on those days . . . put [their] head down and not emerge until the end of the day.”

Office comeback: Why leaders need to rethink the office space

This article was originally written for and published in CEOWorld Magazine.

From 2020 to 2022, employers and employees embraced remote work, and many have argued that they’ve worked just as, if not more productively than at the office. However, fast forward to 2023, during the post-pandemic era; recent studies show that while employees feel they’re just as, or more productive at home, this may not always be the case. For instance, a study by Stanford’s Institute for Economic Policy and Research shows that productivity dropped by 10–20 percent in the case of fully remote workers, citing the lack of in-office collaboration and less effective communication as the causes. 

While this may be the case for some remote workers, and depends on the industry, employees continue to fight back after recent calls to the office – including from big companies such as Google, Meta and even, ironically, Zoom – has been fully ignited. Although leaders may want their employees back in the office full-time, employees are still adamant to retain the freedom of working from home. So, this begs the question: how can employers call back their employees and create a pleasant in-office experience in a post-pandemic workplace? Here are three key tips that leaders should keep top-of-mind. 

Create a successful hybrid work model

With newer tensions in the workplace and companies experiencing a talent shortage, it’s more important than ever to keep employee morale high. Instead of approaching the office as to why you, the employer, want your employees back in the office, it’s important to keep the employee in mind and ask, “what can we do to make employees want to come back to work in the office?”.  

First, highlight the benefits offered to employees working in the office. There is no value to being in the office if they are simply coming in to hunker down at their desks, so there should be a tangible benefit for employees to be there. For example, being at the office gives employees the ability to participate in valuable in-office training and coaching sessions, which focuses on effective career development. Another benefit that in-person office experiences offer is improved professional relationships with colleagues, which means less video meetings and, in fact, a hard stop on when their workday ends. Many remote employees find their workday stretches beyond normal office hours, so working in the office provides a clearer start and end point to the day.  

Once the benefits are established, it’s important to communicate to your employees about these benefits and how you’ll approach these moving forward. Always give employees the opportunity to provide feedback and ideas so they become part of the solution.

Revamp the workplace culture 

After years of virtual connections, effort needs to be made to enhance personal connections between employees. To do this, involve employees in the decision-making and let them propose and organize events that can bring their teams together. Make sure to include some light-hearted, fun activities such as setting up sports teams, monthly book clubs, fundraising drives and volunteer days or happy hour, which can start before the actual workday ends. Create engagement opportunities, such as group projects or internal committees to keep employees connected and work on things that don’t pertain to their day-to-day tasks.

The enhancement of leadership training

Leaders have had a difficult time of late – remotely supervising, motivating, and coaching their teams. Often they are running meetings with some people on-site and some participating remotely. Leading remote or hybrid teams requires better and more intentional communication.  Set clear expectations regarding frequency and behaviour during virtual meetings. Keep employees engaged by conducting one on one meetings and provide different ways for them to connect with you and each other, such as virtual coffee chats. Show understanding and gratitude.  

This past year we’ve already seen many workplace trends go viral on social media, such as “bare minimum Mondays”, “resenteeism”, and most prominently “quiet quitting”. These trends may not be going anywhere anytime soon, and as younger generations enter the workplace post-pandemic, it’s important to remember that they haven’t had the benefits of working in the office and therefore don’t know what they are missing. This is the time for leaders to focus on and re-examine the current workplace culture and structure to ensure a positive environment for current and future employees.

The Globe and Mail: What is ‘quiet hiring’ and how can it benefit your organization?

This article was originally published in The Globe and Mail.

Spring Financial’s social-media manager was previously one of its customer-service representatives. One of its technology project managers used to work in sales. Its content writer was originally hired as a call quality auditor.

The Vancouver-based online loan provider has grown and evolved significantly since the pandemic. Not only has its head count increased from about 250 to 350, but its talent needs have also evolved along with its products, requiring a much broader range of skills.

Rather than letting go of old staff and hiring new ones, the company first seeks to utilize its existing talent.

“The labour market is quite tight, and it’s not always easy to find the exact skill that you’re looking for,” said Tyler Thielmann, president of Spring Financial. “Our preference is to find somebody inside instead of finding somebody from outside.”

Mr. Thielmann says that when skills gaps arise, he typically works with managers to identify internal candidates or puts out an open invitation to staff outlining needs and requesting volunteers.

After a three-month trial Mr. Thielmann says he conducts an evaluation, at which point the employee can either request to return to their previous position, or make the transition permanent, and receive compensation that matches the new responsibilities.

Not only does this strategy allow his organization to fulfill their talent needs at a relatively quick pace during a time of talent shortages, but Mr. Thielmann says it also increases employee retention, engagement, and internal communication.

“When you find that person who is able to make that lateral move it’s incredible, because they bring so much context to that team, and such a unique perspective, and it’s just super helpful,” he said.

Staff members who are moved around, meanwhile, get to explore new career paths and opportunities with minimal risk while upgrading their skills, and even potentially increasing their compensation. “A lot of people don’t know exactly where their career is going, and it’s not always easy to bounce around from job to job to find the right fit,” Mr. Thielmann said.

In a constantly evolving talent marketplace, more organizations are looking internally to fill their talent needs. This trend, dubbed “quiet hiring,” is both a response to uncertain economic conditions that have created budgetary constraints and a tight labour market that makes it challenging for employers to fill critical positions in a timely manner.

Canada’s unemployment rate reached 5.4 per cent in June, while job vacancies hit 4.4 per cent in the first quarter of the year, representing a gradual improvement from records set during the pandemic but a more challenging hiring environment compared with prepandemic norms.

“If ‘quiet quitting’ was a way that organizations were essentially losing skills and capabilities without losing head count, ‘quiet hiring’ is about adding skills and capabilities without adding head count,” explains Emily Rose McRae, a senior director analyst in the Gartner HR practice. “For a lot of organizations, it’s a much faster option and a more realistic option than hiring right now.”

The term ‘quiet hiring’ has been used previously to describe strategic talent redeployment – most notably by Google – but the trend really picked up steam in December after a report produced by Ms. McRae and her team, which named it one of the “9 Future of Work Trends for 2023.”

“We were talking about the one-two punch of talent shortage plus economic anxiety, which means a lot of organizations are feeling pressure to cut costs, or at least not raise them, at the same time that the talent market has gotten significantly more competitive,” she said. “It was a prediction in December, but almost immediately we started hearing from clients who were doing it – or wanted to be.”

The trend’s rise in popularity has not been without criticism, especially among social-media users, many of whom interpret the trend as a way for employers to save on hiring costs by overworking existing staff.

“When I hear things like that I’m always like ‘oh no, you got halfway there, and took the wrong lesson,’” Ms. McRae said. “If it is done badly – if it’s really just asking employees to take on more work without compensating them accordingly – then it’s not going to be successful, and will just lead to higher attrition, which will only make the situation worse.”

To engage in the right kind of quiet hiring Ms. McRae advises organizations to start by mapping out their strategic priorities, and identifying the additional skills or roles that will be required to reach those goals.

“Then you need to figure out who within the organization might be able to do the work, either with a little bit of upskilling, or right out of the box,” she said. “Sometimes that’s easier said than done, because one of the bigger challenges organizations have with work-force planning is knowing what skills they even have in their work force.”

Ms. McRae advises working with managers and department heads to identify potential candidates, asking employees to volunteer directly and even checking employee LinkedIn profiles for relevant work experience and skills. Ms. McRae also emphasizes the importance of keeping pay equity and DEI efforts top of mind, as moving talent around could create diversity-pipeline issues later.

“The next thing you need to be successful at this is to do some role design thought work,” Ms. McRae said. “What do you want people in this role to do? What are the tasks? What are the responsibilities?”

After identifying a potential candidate and defining the role or tasks, the next step is to engage the staff member in a constructive dialogue to determine their level of interest, what they need to be successful, and what they want in return for their efforts.

“The right way is to be open and transparent with the employee, to let them know what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and how it will benefit them,” said Janet Candido, principal of Candido Consulting Group, a Toronto-based human-resource consultancy. “The wrong way to do it, which is not uncommon, is just to pile on the extra work.”

Ms. Candido explains that employers typically engage in quiet hiring to overcome major staffing and budgetary challenges, and it’s not uncommon for leaders to instinctively hide such challenges from their staff.

Doing so, she warns, only leaves employees guessing, and their assumptions are often worse than reality. Instead, she recommends transparency, especially when it comes to commitments and timelines.

“If you’re going to ask one person to do more it spreads their work to everyone else too, so think about the impact on the person, but also the department they’re coming from, and the one they’re going to,” she said.

Ms. Candido adds that if employers can’t afford to increase salaries, they should work with affected staff members to identify other perks, such as more vacation time, remote work, or other forms of non-monetary compensation.

“Workers, especially younger ones, are very focused on work-life balance, so if you’re asking them to increase their work, you can do something to help on the life side,” she said.

While the trend may be somewhat new in Canada, Ms. Candido says that, given the current economic landscape and employment market trends, it’s one that’s likely to last.

“It’s just starting to happen,” she said. “I do think it will become more prevalent in Canada.”

Benefits Canada Interview: Communication, incentivization key to ‘quiet hiring'

This article was originally published in Benefits Canada – written by Blake Wolfe.

As ‘quiet hiring’ becomes more prominent amid a challenging labour market, communication and incentivization are key considerations for employers, says Janet Candido, founder and principal of human resources consultancy Candido Consulting Group.

“It can be a great growth opportunity for an employee, whether it’s presented as a stretch assignment or just an upscaling opportunity. You need to present it as something that is a benefit to both parties, . . . not by saying, ‘Oh, lucky you, I’m going to give you a chance to do [more work].”

Candido defines ‘quiet hiring’ as the redeployment of current employees to different duties. While it isn’t a new phenomenon, the term has grown in popularity as a counterpoint to ‘quiet quitting’ — when employees perform their duties exactly according to their work contract — and as a method for employers to cover workplace responsibilities amid hiring challenges.

“If [employers] have a vacancy, it can take weeks or several months to fill. A lot of companies are also struggling financially — they’re still recovering from the impacts of the [coronavirus] pandemic and hiring [a new employee] can be expensive. Even if you [redistribute the workload] and give the existing employees an increase in salary, it will still be cheaper than hiring somebody new.”

However, with new or increased duties, employers must also take steps to safeguard against employee burnout, she says. “You have to be careful that you’re not doubling the person’s workload. Employers need to look at what their current workers are doing and say, ‘OK, I’m going to add five hours of work to your week, so are there three or four hours that I can take away from things that are not important right now?’”

‘Quiet hiring’ can also act as a retention strategy for both underperformers and overperformers alike, says Candido. “You may have a good employee and they’re trying really hard, [but] they’re just not able to do the job. You can move them into a different role and give them some training. That also works on the other hand, where you’ve got an employee who’s really ambitious and you really don’t want to lose them, so it’s a really good retention technique to offer them opportunities to try something new.”

Benefits Canada Interview: Employers can use ‘Blue Monday’ to reset workplace mental-health strategies

This article was originally published in Benefits Canada.

The third Monday in January, also known as ‘Blue Monday,’ is considered to be the saddest day of the year, as people contend with frigid weather and higher-than-normal credit cards bills from the holiday season.

Employers can use this occasion to check in with employees and plan their mental-health strategies for the year, says Janet Candido, principal and founder of Candido Consulting Group Inc., adding it’s a great time to remind staff of the well-being support tools available to them, such as employee assistance programs.

Employers can also host lunch-and-learn sessions on stress management and coping with anxiety or financial pressures, she says. And for employers with retirement savings or pension plans, their providers will often send a financial expert, at no additional cost, to speak to employees.

The Alberta School Employee Benefit Plan is one employer taking this opportunity to remind employees about its EAP and the resources available through the platform. Blue Monday is also a good time to remind employees that their benefits maximums reset in January, says Anna MacDonald, human resources director at the ASEBP.

The organization constantly aims to normalize taking mental-health days and ingraining the practice within the company’s culture. The process requires leadership training, she says, noting it’s imperative that leaders are able to have those conversations with their team members, especially as employees contend with rising inflation and other financial stressors.

The ASEPB is also focusing on providing its management team with training in diversity, equity and inclusion. “We know that inclusive workplaces create wellness for employees,” says MacDonald. “It goes back to that concept of creating a safe space for people to be open with their leaders.”

Indeed, the organization is hosting its holiday party in February to appeal to all employees, in recognition that not everyone celebrates Christmas. It also introduced a floating holiday that employees can use to observe days of personal significance or religious holidays, plus another day to volunteer at an organization of their choosing. “There are . . . little things you can do to feed into wellness for employees,” says MacDonald, noting these small steps meant a lot to employees.

When employers focus on mental health and well-being in the workplace, it tells staff their company is a safe place where they can talk openly about their issues and get the supports they need, says Candido, noting employees are less likely to leave their employer when they feel supported and respected.

Although Blue Monday is a great starting point for employers to assess the well-being of their workers, it isn’t an overnight process, she cautions. “This is the beginning of an intervention that normalizes mental health in the workplace and employers will start to see the impact of their steps moving forward.”

Similarly, MacDonald says employers have a year-round responsibility to support employee mental health. “I think that really starts with creating a culture [around a] psychologically healthy workplace, . . . especially around leadership.”

The Toronto Star Interview - ‘Tensions are definitely increasing:’ How forcing teams back to the office could backfire

This article was originally published for The Toronto Star.

Employers need to remain flexible with their back-to-the-office demands or they risk losing employees, HR experts say

Amanda felt she had no choice but to quit her job last spring when she was diagnosed with a chronic illness at the same she was asked to return to the office when COVID-19 cases were spiking.

The Winnipeg-based non-profit where she worked for seven years had lifted its mandatory mask requirements and Amanda, not her real name, had been diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome. She feared being left bed ridden for weeks or even months if she caught COVID-19.

Nonetheless, when her workplace asked employees to come in at least twice a week, she tried it for brief period of time.

“It was extremely stressful and I was constantly worrying about my health,” she said. “I was really disappointed. I know there were other people who also felt unsafe going maskless.”

Despite repeatedly raising her concerns to her supervisor, nothing changed. So she found another job that allowed her to work remotely full-time.

As the government eases pandemic restrictions, employers are expecting workers to return to the office. But human resource experts are warning companies to remain flexible with their back-to-the-office demands or they risk losing employees.

Employers “need to recognize people are concerned about coming back. They may be immunocompromised, or they may have immunocompromised people at home. They have very real reasons for not wanting to come back to work, so they need to respect those concerns,” said Janet Candido, a human resources specialist and owner of Candido Consulting Group, which provides HR services to 125 organizations.

“Tensions are definitely increasing between employees and employers,” Candido said.

But she urges employers to be more flexible. Unemployment is low and recruiting new talent could be difficult.

“Both sides are become very entrenched in their positions and raising tension. Employers are finding it very hard to hire at all levels,” Candido said.

To ease any brewing conflict, Candido advises employers to be compassionate and understanding of their employees concerns. She suggests setting up mental health supports and making masks mandatory in the office at the very least.

The number of job vacancies in Canada has reached a record high of nearly one million, while the unemployment rate remains low, Statistics Canada reported.

The combination could make employees less hesitant to leave companies that implement strict back-to-work policies or that fail to address health concerns.

As companies come under pressure to offer higher compensation to staff and to recruit skilled workers, the national average base salary increase for 2023 is projected at 4.2 per cent, according to a recent survey from consulting firm Eckler Ltd.

A recent survey by productivity software company OSlash about the “great disconnect” between bosses and workers found that 60 per cent of employers said they would offer employees a hybrid work schedule if they declined to return to the office.

Only 20 per cent would let employees go back to full time remote working.

Of the 800 work-from-home employees and 200 business leaders surveyed, nearly 80 per cent of remote workers believe their employers would fire them if they said “no” to a return-to-office mandate.

Meanwhile, 78 per cent of employees surveyed said they would be willing to take a pay cut to continue working from home, with Gen Z respondents being the most willing to do so.

“There’s a massive competition for talent for Canadian employers,” said Melissa Nightingale, co-founder of management training firm Raw Signal Group.

Nightingale cautioned that forcing resistant employees to go back to their pre-pandemic lives may drive away talent at a time when companies might be short staffed and when employees have “other opportunities that are often with direct competitors.”

The global shock of the pandemic has made people much more aware that anything can change at any given time, said Shimi Kang, a clinical associate professor at the University of British Columbia’s psychiatry department.

“People are rethinking their priorities including how they spend their time and their days. We’re seeing this play out in the ‘Great Resignation’ which has people choosing a better work-life balance,” Kang said.

Mental health concerns are another factor, said Kang.

“There’s increased anxiety, many people are burnt out and need a break and there are these big existential questions. People lost loved ones during the pandemic or fear losing loved ones,” she said.

“All of this makes people rethink how they spend their time. If the workplace isn’t a place of joy and connection and performance, then there definitely would be less interest in staying there.”

CBC Radio Interview: Daily work-life is stressing workers returning to the job in-person

After 2.5 years of working from home, Canadians are preparing to head back to the office to work in person. For many this transition may cause some stress about the day-to-day workplace activities we may no longer be used to. Things like bringing in our lunch, wearing business attire and commuting again. Experts say these are real stresses for many workers.

Follow this link to listen to Janet Candido’s interview with Rubina Ahmed-Haq.

'I'm not coming back!' How to recall reluctant employees – Interview in HRD

This article was originally published by HRD Canada.

In the Great Resignation, should leaders take risks with harsh return policies?

Thinking of recalling your employees to the office? Be warned – there’s no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach here. That’s according to leading HR consultant Janet Candido. Speaking to HRD, she revealed that HR leaders really need to tread carefully when looking at their remits.

“Everyone’s circumstances are different, and we can’t put them all in the same box,” she explained. “Some have children who may need to stay home from school if they exhibit symptoms; some are around elderly or immunocompromised family members at home.

“Employers, ask yourself – do you really need everyone to work out of the office? If the answer is ‘yes’, do you need them to be in every day? Think about the specific times you need people to be in the office – for instance, for project meetings, staff meetings or brainstorming sessions. Once you determine that, if feasible, perhaps say you need employees to be in the office at these times but are willing to remain flexible the rest of the time when a project meeting, for example, isn’t happening.”

This tug of war between employers insistent on an in-office return and their people who swear they can work just as well (or better) at home has been raging since lockdowns lifted. And HR is stuck firmly, and awkwardly, in the middle. For some, the middle ground of hybrid work has brought some relief – but it’s still not smooth sailing.

“I recommend that employers think beyond what is strictly legal and consider the emotional impact the past two years have had on employees,” added Candido. “While some are eager to return to the office full time, there are others who want a hybrid model or some don’t even want to come in at all. And they all have different reasons – comfort, fear, exhaustion. That’s why it’s a good idea to consider a period of transition that allows employees to ease into working in the office and make it a defined period of time.”

For example, employers may claim they’re are working towards having everyone back in the office as of January 1st. With that in mind, implement a flexible schedule – start with two days, then gradually move to three days, then to four.

There’s also the legalities of office recalls that HR needs to consider with care. Setting aside whether or not it’s a good idea to ‘alienate’ your people by stipulating in-office models, are you actually allowed to demand a full return to work?

“The employer has the right to determine where work will be performed,” stated Stuart Rudner, founder of Rudner Law, told HRD. "The only way that will change is if there's something in the contract (written, verbal or based on past practice) that says, for example, that the employee has the right to work from home - or has the right to choose where they work. Otherwise, even if they’ve worked from home temporarily due to the pandemic, it's still at the employer’s discretion to require a return to the workplace."

But even in the best of circumstances, you’re bound to encounter a couple of employees that are adamant in their fears of the office recall. And when these refusals centre around health concerns, HR needs to sit up and listen. 

“Ask the employee what will make them more comfortable – can you work with that?” explained Candido. “Resist the temptation to become entrenched in your position. When that happens, you are less likely to come to a mutual understanding and may breed resentment. It’s also important to continue the dialogue so employees feel like their concerns are being heard. Lastly, provide access to mental health resources that will help employees overcome their concerns.”

640 Toronto Interview with The Kelly Cutrara Radio Program: Is it time Canadian companies finally embraced the 4-day work week?

With Ontario lifting mask mandates on TTC and in healthcare settings (doctor’s offices and hospitals), along with the rise of monkeypox, employers are once again facing the reality that some employees are still not comfortable with returning to the workplace.

Host Kelly Cutrara speaks with Janet Candido, HR expert and founder & principal of Candido Consulting Group, about how HR and employers can support/accommodate employees who aren’t comfortable with the office return due to health concerns, the benefits of enforcing a four-day workweek, salary increases due to inflation and employee retention, and more. Listen to the full interview below:

Employers should walk, not run back to onsite working: experts - Janet Candido Interviewed in Benefits Canada

Read the full interview in Benefits Canada.

More than two years after the coronavirus pandemic shifted many white-collar employees to remote working, some employers are planning their return to the office — even if it means bringing staff back kicking and screaming.

“Employers need to understand their employees more than they have in the past when they just offered a salary and a standard benefits program,” says Janet Candido, founder and principal of Candido Consulting Group.

During the last two years, employees have only interacted with colleagues through virtual calls, so a transitional, hybrid period will give them time to adjust to in-person interactions again, she points out. And there are positive aspects of telecommuting that have made the working environment more pleasant for some staff, including fewer microaggressions and unconscious bias for minorities, more accessibility for employees with disabilities and more work-life balance for caregivers. A hybrid working arrangement would also help reduce employees’ stress about the impending return, she adds.

Candido cautions that reverting back to old processes and policies after a disruption such as the current public health crisis isn’t always wise. She believes it’s an opportunity to evaluate whether past decisions and practices still make sense, noting employers can leverage data and performance metrics to build new policies.

In addition, it’s important for employers to consider whether remote working has impacted their businesses negatively, says Candido, referring to considerations like revenue streams, employee productivity, quality of work and employee engagement.

The future of work: The workplace trends that are here to stay

This article was originally written for and published in CEOWorld Magazine.

As we’re approaching better times ahead, employers are planning for the future of work. There are a lot of questions and conversations surrounding workplace trends and how organizations plan to move forward.

Prior to the pandemic, there may have been employers who were reluctant to initiate a work-from-home culture/policy for several reasons. One of them being that it was difficult to fully trust that employees were capable of being productive with all the distractions at home – i.e. kids, pets, electronics, etc. At the office, managers are able to physically see their staff in the office, at their desks, doing their job, reassuring them that they were getting the job done. There was also the notion that in-person meetings and collaboration were invaluable and could not be done remotely.

However, once the initial stay-at-home order hit back in March 2020, employers were forced to quickly adapt to a whole new way of working while equipping their teams with a home office setup. The result – employees continued to be just as, if not more, productive from the comfort of their own home. The pandemic completely changed the notion of the office and changed the mindsets of both employers and employees.

Workplace trends:

Work-life balance

The pandemic has created a shift where a flexible work-life balance has now become the norm, making it imperative for a company to prioritize and integrate it into the company’s culture as we transition through the return-to-workplace period.

During the pandemic, employees started to observe the things they value most, in not just a workplace, but also in the quality of life that was available to them at their current company. Over the past two years, we’ve seen a mass number of employees switching careers/jobs and this is a big indicator of this. With more employees re-evaluating their current job and looking for alternative opportunities that suit their work-life balance needs, HR professionals are finding it a particularly difficult time recruiting and retaining top quality talent.

Now more than ever, employees are more focused on working for an organization that matches their values so employers will have to work harder to engage their employees and attract new talent. With this in mind, one of the workplace trends we can expect to see is companies being more creative in their offerings to employees, such as the opportunity to work somewhere abroad for a period of time where the employer could potentially subsidize the cost. In addition, 4-day workweeks look to be another offering that may become available to employees in the future. Companies like Bolt, Buffer and G2i are trialing or already started offering a four-day workweek to their employees, which has shown positive results in employee productivity and retention, as finding work-life balance becomes increasingly important over time.

Workplace flexibility 

In order to retain employees during a return-to-workplace transition, employers will need to create a plan that takes into account both the needs of the business and those of the employees, allowing for accommodation – within reason. A 2021 report from Accenture revealed that 61 per cent of Canadians prefer a hybrid or remote work model, so if the business is able to work within these structures, this would be a reasonable accommodation to ensure talent retention.

For the future of work, one of the trends that employers should take note of is “flexibility”, in all its forms. For instance, the one-size-fits-all approach will no longer work as employees have proven their capabilities without being at the office from 9 to 5 and under constant surveillance. However, while there are a number of employees who prefer working from home, there are also those who look forward to returning to the office where they can have a separate space from their personal life. That’s why, as organizations begin to navigate the office return, employers should remain flexible in various approaches to ensure their employees are satisfied with the decision and company policy. Employers should have the ability to offer employees a choice of onsite, hybrid or fully remote while maintaining the work of the business. If employees choose a hybrid work style, employers will need to determine how to schedule the hybrid option and if they need to reconfigure the office layout. Providing these options to employees will allow them to choose a work style that will allow them to do their job to the best of their ability and keep them engaged.

Personalized benefits/perks

Fairness and flexibility in the workplace will create a positive corporate culture, while also preventing employee burnout – just another reason why many Canadians are uprooting their careers in favor of jobs where these “perks” are present. As a result, another key workplace trend will include an increase of personalized benefits/perks – meaning not simply the flex plans of the past 20 years, but more likely something that will allow employees to design their own plan. During the stay-at-home orders, mental health conversations have grown and become more normalized. Now, mental health has become top of mind after employees, managers, CEOs, etc. experienced a traumatic, isolated and unpredictable event together. According to combined data from Statistics Canada’s labor force survey and Canadian income survey, for the Canadians who were employed during the first four months of 2021, more than one in five (21.5 per cent) had a physical, mental health, cognitive or other disability – when compared to 2019, there was an increase of 2.7 percentage points (18.8 per cent), continuing a long-term upward trend associated with population aging and other factors. Creating awareness surrounding wellness and mental health will be a significant workplace trend that we’ll see more of across various organizations.

Individualized leadership models 

The pandemic took a toll on people’s mental health, causing increased stress and anxiety. As a result of the past two years, employees are looking for a different style of leader than prior to the pandemic. For instance, the World Economic Forum states that employees want to be seen as a whole individual, acknowledging their lives outside of work. This means having a leader who is more compassionate, empathetic and authentic, and willing to listen, learn and adapt. During the countless Zoom and Team calls, we’ve seen into people’s homes more intimately than ever before – we’ve seen their in-home office setup, children trying to learn remotely, pets in the background, etc. – and have seen the everyday stresses both employees and employers endured because of this traumatic event. Going forward, a trend we can expect to see evolving in the workplace is having leaders navigate through a newer leadership technique where they’ll be more mindful and understanding of the impact on their employees. This means providing a more individualized model of leadership, adapting to offer employees what they need.

The Globe and Mail: Provincial flip-flops on vaccine mandates are creating confusion for businesses

This is an excerpt of an article written by Rita Trichur originally published in The Globe and Mail. Read the full article here.

As more provinces prepare to relax COVID-19 restrictions, our premiers are seeking political cover from recent social unrest by punting the divisive issue of vaccine mandates to businesses.

“We’ve spent two years being terrified of catching COVID and I think it’s going to take some time for people to lose that level of fear,” said Janet Candido, a human resources expert who is also the founder and principal consultant of Candido Consulting Group.

“I hear from people who are saying ‘I don’t want to go back to the office because I have to travel, I have to use public transit and I don’t know who I’m sitting next to. I don’t know if they’re vaccinated or not.”

Businesses should also pay close attention to staff interactions in the office because vaccine mandates are proving to be a very divisive issue, she said.

“You’ve got to make sure you don’t have the two factions: the vaccinated sitting over there and the unvaccinated sitting over there,” Ms. Candido said. “Try to stay on top of people bringing their personal beliefs into the office and affecting the ability to work.”

Managing social tensions is tricky. But if the recent trucker blockades have taught us anything about managing risk, it is the importance of proactive problem-solving during this pandemic. Too bad that lesson seems to have escaped our elected officials.

“It’s easier to try and address it before it gets really bad than it is to wait three weeks and then try and fix it,” she added.

What you need to know about vaccine mandates in the workplace - CityNews Toronto

This is an excerpt of an article written by Dilshad Burman originally published in CityNews Toronto. Watch the interview and read the full article here.

If an employer chooses to frame a vaccine policy for their workplace, Human Resources expert Janet Candido says it is essential that they remain accommodating and adaptable.

“The issue as we’ve seen is very divisive and you’re either on one side or the other,” said Candido. “So employers have to be very flexible about how they approach any policy around this to their employees.”

Provide options and have good reasons

Candido suggests employers should offer three basic options to their employees:

• Get vaccinated and attend the office/workplace to work in-person

• If unvaccinated and attending the office/workplace, agree to COVID-19 testing at least twice a week 

• If able to work effectively from home, do not go into the office/workplace and work remotely, whether vaccinated/unvaccinated

She adds that working from home may not be the best solution long-term for some employers and in that case, they could consider a hybrid solution to help employees ease back into the routine — where people work from home for some part of the week and attend in-person for the rest of the week, working towards returning to in-person work full time.

“For two years, we’ve been hearing about the transmission of this and how dangerous it is and how easily transmitted it is. We can’t expect people to suddenly, come Monday, be prepared to all be in the same room together,” said Candido.

Candido says there are many benefits to having all employees in the office like being able to “access the collective brain of the people in the office, which you don’t have the same access to when you’re working remotely.”

“Anything that is improved by collaboration is best in person,” she added.

However, if an employer insists on having employees work in person, Candido says they should be able to back it up with some solid reasoning.

“Be prepared to answer the question ‘why?’ Why do you need me to come back to the office? What was not happening before that will be improved by my being in the office?” she said. “You really need to think through — do you need people to come back to the office and if so, what does that look like?”

Day-to-day management

Candido says while policy-making is tricky to navigate, it’s also important to be just as cognizant and careful when managing day-to-day workings once the vaccine policy is in place.

She cautions against unwittingly creating an ‘us versus them’ environment among employees based on who is vaccinated or unvaccinated and who chooses to come to the office as opposed to those who work from home.

“You have to be careful .. that you’re not pitting one group of employees against the other,” by treating them differently, she said.

In addition, Candido says to guard against the “out of sight, out of mind” mentality.

“It’s easy to fall into a trap of … inadvertently favouring the employees you can see, the ones that are there in front of you, at the expense of the ones that are working from home,” she said.

Most importantly, Candido says employers should focus on the work that is required from the employees and leave aside anything that is extraneous to that.

“It is not your place to convince them to get a vaccine or to not get a vaccine. It’s your place to make sure you’re accommodating their personal decisions in how the work gets done.”

Why managers must develop new skills to manage remote teams - Talent Canada

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, employers felt the pressure as they were required to quickly deploy staff to work from home overnight. Most of us thought that this was going to last a couple of weeks and we’d back in the office in no time, however after almost two years, many organizations are still working remote.

When looking ahead to the future of work, employers need to rethink the remote workforce environment and ensure that in-person office experiences are being reworked to accommodate a virtual environment.

Janet Candido’s article in Talent Canada outlines various techniques to help and guide managers in leading a remote team successfully.

Preparing For The Future Of Work: The Top Five Trends To Watch In The Future Of Work - Authority Magazine

Read the full interview in Authority Magazine.

Here are Janet Candido’s top 5 trends to watch out for in the future of work:

1. Remote work and virtual meetings are here to stay. The rise in virtual meeting technology like Microsoft Teams, Zoom, GoToMeeting, have facilitated the transition and we have all become more comfortable using these tools. Even though brainstorming, onboarding and negotiating are examples of things that do not work well remotely, the pros outweigh the cons. For employers, this means reduced office space requirements, reduced need for business travel, which saves the organization time and money. Employers will start to redefine productivity and redesign workspaces to accommodate the new styles of working. For employees, they benefit with a reduced commuting time and increased work-life balance.

2. Freelance and/or temporary contracts will become increasingly common. Employers and employees alike benefit from the flexibility such arrangements offer. Although the downside of freelance/temporary staff is that there are no afforded benefits, pension contributions or other traditional perks, I think we can expect to see increased innovation and uptick in individual benefit plans that are affordable and portable. I can also see more creative perks offered by employers to attract and reward temporary staff.

3. Diversity and inclusion are increasingly important considerations for talent management. Businesses are recognizing that having a workforce that better reflects our society makes connecting to our stakeholders more authentic and real. Competition for good employees will increase, as they can work from anywhere. Organizations will have to work harder and be more creative to recruit, attract and retain employees. Personal and corporate value alignment is more important as competition for employees increases.

4. Leaders will have to develop new skills to connect with their employees. Virtual leadership is very different and much harder than in-person leadership. Employees are less forgiving and leaders need to look for ways to support cross team collaboration, brainstorming and innovation. The future of work will need to focus more on monitoring performance and results rather than the process, meaning less about the hours you work and more about what you produced and accomplished.

5. Companies will continue to pay more attention to mental health. Mental health challenges will be destigmatized as people are more open to speaking about them and requiring their employers to support them whether it’s for depression, suicidal ideation, substance and domestic abuse. We will talk about mental health more and offer more resources and support available for employees. The traditional models of mental health support will be augmented by quicker, technology-driven solutions. Employers need to pay attention to mental health concerns and how they’re employees are feeling as it impacts their ability to work.

Globe and Mail: Why every company needs a whistle-blower policy

Originally published in the Globe and Mail

If you’re a Canadian business owner or leader, the implications of the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal revealed by whistle-blower Christopher Wylie go beyond technology and data breaches to promoting and ensuring ethical conduct.

Have you given much thought to what role whistle-blowers can play in any organization? Every company – regardless of industry and size – should include a whistle-blower policy in its company documents.

WHAT IS A WHISTLE-BLOWER POLICY?

A whistle-blower policy should guarantee the protection of an individual (employee, volunteer) who reports on an employer’s activities that are deemed to be illegal, unethical or dishonest. Its intent is to:

• Prevent retaliation – any adverse employment action such as termination of employment, poor work assignments, shunning by co-workers and/or threats of physical harm.

• Provide confidentiality – where possible. The identity of the whistle-blower is protected, but if the individual is required to testify or otherwise provide information in an investigation, their identity may be revealed.

These policies generally cover corruption and illegal, fraudulent or harmful activity that affects the public, or at least the company at large. But they don’t include personal situations between an individual and the organization such as workplace bullying or harassment, and individual disputes around compensation or mismanagement. These cases fall under provincial laws such as the Employment Standards Act (ESA), the Occupational Health and Safety Act or, in cases of environmental issues, the Environmental Protection Act. However, the ESA has very few teeth and prosecution is challenging. It can take years for cases to be heard and there’s very little enforcement of whether complainants actually get the awards.

WHY COMPANIES SHOULD CARE

In addition to protecting employees, internal whistle-blower policies are also necessary to protect the employer through early detection of wrongdoing. The statement “our employees are our most valuable asset” is often seen as meaningless, designed as a public-relations gesture more than a true statement of worth. For those organizations that are serious about their values and have taken the time to create their culture and business ethics, it’s the logical next step. It shows that you’re so serious about ensuring that everyone is behaving in accordance with those values that you are providing a mechanism for employees to report something that contravenes them.

When employees believe they will be supported, they are more likely to report their concerns internally. When employees fear losing their job or feel that nothing will be done anyway if they speak to their employer, they might be more likely to go to social media instead.

Implementing a whistle-blower policy is also just good business. A values match is a key factor in whether organizations can attract and retain employees. Younger people, especially, have different priorities than previous generations and it has been widely reported that millennials are more concerned about corporate social responsibility and ethical business standards. Who they work for and what that company stands for is important, and they are quick to leave an employer whose values do not match their own. A whistle-blower policy serves to engender trust not only among potential applicants, but a business’s consumers and clients as well.

PUTTING POLICY IN ACTION

It’s important to remember that the work environment is not what the leadership says it is, it is what leadership does and how it behaves. It can be hard for a company to demonstrate a commitment to its policy unless something happens, but it can be reinforced by following some best practices.

• Create a procedure: Don’t just write a bare minimum policy that says you support whistle-blowers. Define an actual procedure, set out clear steps and update the policy regularly.

• Identify a point person: Provide employees with the name/position of the individual to whom they can report their concern. If the complaint is about the executive/leader, offer an alternative contact (usually the head of human resources or the chair of the board’s human-resources/compensation committee).

• Communicate it: Talk about your policy and reinforce the company’s values in communications to employees, encouraging them to bring their concerns forward.

What’s required is a culture change, something that’s now seemingly being led by Mr. Wylie’s millennial generation, to mobilize both companies and government to meet international standards and truly protect their most valuable asset.