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.”

Benefits Canada Interview: How employers can promote employee health during flu season

This article was originally published in Benefits Canada – written by Sadie Janes.

The option to work remotely can help employees get through flu season, but employers also need to ensure no one pushes themselves to work while sick, says Janet Candido, founder and principal at Candido Consulting Group.

With more employees returning to the office, she says it’s crucial to encourage workers to take sick days because when somebody who’s contagious comes into the office, they can easily spread those germs to other employees.

“People didn’t like catching an illness before, but they really don’t like it now. The coronavirus pandemic has affected this perception because people are definitely more concerned. Now if you sneeze in public, everybody turns to look at you. So people are a lot more tense [because of the possible risks].”

Some employers are likely concerned employees may take advantage of the option to work remotely while sick, says Candido, noting she believes the benefits of encouraging people to work from home outweigh the negative consequences of someone taking advantage of it.

Remote work also allows for some flexibility when employees are sick since it’s easier for them to focus on their well-being at home, she adds. “It’s not enough to tell employees, ‘If you’re sick, stay home and work remotely.’ I think it should be added that, when employees are really sick, they need to focus on taking care of themselves. Don’t push it, don’t be a martyr. It shouldn’t be about forcing employees to work remotely while they’re ill, but more about allowing them to get well [so they can work at their best].”

Given that companies are still experiencing serious labour shortages, Candido thinks employers would be hesitant to put any vaccine mandates in place this flu season when their priority is to recruit or retain talent.

In addition, when it comes to taking sick days, she says employers must lead by example. “Don’t tell employees to work from home when they’re sick while you’re coming into the office sniffling. Remind them to focus on their health and make sure people believe you when you say they should be staying home, not make them worry whether you still expect them to work. There are very few things that can’t wait a day or two.”

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.

Benefits Canada Interview: Younger workers experiencing difficulties cultivating soft skills amid rise in remote working

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

Although there are many benefits to remote working arrangements, such as a reduced commute and improved work-life balance, younger employees who work remotely aren’t practising their soft skills and a lack of social interaction may negatively impact their professional lives in the long run, says Janet Candido, founder and principal of human resources consultancy Candido Consulting Group.

Many young employees haven’t experienced a real office environment, where spontaneous discussions often come up without scheduled virtual meetings, she says, adding if these workers don’t have the ability to cultivate their soft skills, they won’t be as effective in their roles or move forward in their careers. She cautions that this disconnection from work or lack of a pathway to leadership roles could lead to ‘quiet quitting.’

“To advance within a company, employees need face time with the people who make those decisions. If [they] can’t get that face time, it can trigger some people to just leave their companies.”

Some employers are solving this issue by moving to a hybrid working arrangement, providing employees with opportunities to learn and practice their social skills in the workplace, says Candido. However, because white-collar employees have been so isolated as a result of the coronavirus pandemic’s shift to remote working, social interactions may not happen organically in the workplace, so employers may have to be intentional about bringing people together, informally and formally through coaching.

This training can be hosted virtually as well, she says, noting as long as employees are tasked with team-building exercises and receive coaching on using their soft skills, they’ll gradually start to demonstrate those skills when they’re in group settings.

Candido believes employers are doing themselves a disservice when discussions about the return to the workplace are centred around concerns that employees aren’t as productive working from home. “They’re better off talking about the culture and career growth [opportunities] employees have when they’re part of a [team environment] and how it prepares them for the rest of their career.”

CBC News Interview: What is 'time theft' and why are some employers so worked up about it?

This article was originally published in CBC News.

It's a tense issue as companies monitor what remote employees are doing

It may be a new year, but many employers are still relying on an old tool for evaluating productivity.

That would be the clock — against which so much of work is measured, despite ongoing changes in how, where and when work gets done.

Employers and employees can sometimes butt heads over what happens on company time, but in severe cases, an employee could be accused of time theft. And this issue is growing more contentious as employers monitor what remote workers are doing outside of the confines of traditional offices. 

"Time theft is arguably an even bigger issue for employers at this time than it has been before," said Nadia Zaman, an employment lawyer with Rudner Law in Markham, Ont.

Not what you're paid to be doing

Time theft encompasses a broad range of behaviours — anything from taking longer-than-scheduled breaks or logging off early, to using work hours to do household tasks — all of which an employer would view as being contrary to what one should be doing while getting paid to work.

"Time theft is really when the person actually should be working and they're not," said Janet Candido, a Toronto-based HR consultant. "They're actively doing something else."

Zaman, looking through an employment-law lens, said it's essentially "when an employee is paid for work that they have not performed," or for time in which they were not actually working.

Many people might find themselves occasionally guilty, especially with the distractions of remote work. But the problem — and when it really becomes time theft — is when it becomes habitual.

Nita Chhinzer, an associate professor in the University of Guelph's department of management, said organizations go through a series of steps when cases of alleged time theft are identified. Once it's documented, that usually leads to progressive discipline, she said.

"It leads to a verbal warning, followed by a written warning, followed by dismissal in some cases," she said.

But Chhinzer said there are organizations that take a harder line that "theft is theft," and act decisively.

A headline-making case in Hamilton a decade ago, for instance, saw the southwestern Ontario city investigate and then take disciplinary action against dozens of municipal road workers it suspected of infractions that included time theft.

There were reports of road workers spending as little as two hours a day on the job. Some staff were fired, but most got their jobs back after arbitration.

An ongoing tension

Working life changed for millions of Canadians in 2020, when the pandemic forced organizations to send people home in a hurry. That left workers and employers having to adjust to the new circumstances.

"It's more of a problem with people working remotely, certainly," said Candido.

Zaman said there's not a lot of case law involving time theft disputes and remote work to point to yet. But the issue of time theft goes back further than that. The Canadian Legal Information Institute website (a database of legal documents) has well over 300 entries dating back to 1996 that mention the term.

"It's actually been around for a while," said Candido, who recalls advising clients, prior to the pandemic, on addressing the issue of people watching videos on cellphones during their workday.

News stories in recent years have revealed allegations of time theft being raised by a variety of employers — including an accounting firm, restaurants and municipal planning departments, and involving allegations ranging from employees billing for time they had not worked to people using their work time to conduct personal errands. 

Zaman said time theft is a broad issue that may be raised in a variety of contexts and jobs.

"Typically we see it more in the context of hourly employees because of the nature of the work. But it doesn't mean that it can't happen for salaried employees," she said.

Why the clock keeps ticking

For many employers, the clock has long been a mainstay of how they keep tabs on what's getting done.

"Most employers don't know how to measure productivity in any other way," said Candido, the HR expert, noting that stance has spurred more of them to employ software to monitor the activity of employees who are working at home.

Organizations are using such tools to determine if the person who has logged onto their computer is actually doing work, she said. Just last week, The Canadian Press reported that a tribunal ordered a British Columbia accountant to pay her former employer more than $2,600 after a tracking software showed she engaged in time theft while working from home.

The University of Guelph's Chhinzer said this approach is rooted in "legacy thinking" about jobs being built around a strict schedule and a defined exchange of a certain amount of money for a certain amount of time worked.

"That's how we have thought about jobs for so long," said Chhinzer, who recently wrote in The Conversation Canada about the flaws of such clock-focused thinking.

It's also not the way that a lot of knowledge workers go about their work, she said.

"If we can find ways to be more productive, then we should still be compensated and rewarded to the same level for completing the work, without being penalized for our productivity," she said.

Eroded trust

Paul Hutton, who works out of the Greater Toronto area, is a director in a private-sector company — a job that involves managing dozens of employees.

With a background in sales, he says he's long been used to working in an environment where people were successfully working outside an office.

While he says he gets that some companies may have previously had concerns about having people working from home, it's clear to him that it can work.

"You can achieve results ... you can do this remotely," he said, noting it involves putting trust in employees.

"Trust and honesty are critical," said Zaman, the employment lawyer, noting they may be even more so in situations where someone works outside of an office.

From Candido's perspective, the working world is seeing a broader erosion of the relationship between employers and their employees "starting with the pandemic and it's just getting worse and worse."

CBC News Interview: Companies embraced technology to work remotely during the pandemic — now they're using it for layoffs

This article was originally published in CBC News.

Using email or video calls to deliver bad news fails to factor in the people on the receiving end, workers say

It was stressful enough for Fionn Kellas to suddenly lose their retail job. But getting the news via WhatsApp message rather than in-person made it worse.

"It was an absolute shock to me," said Kellas, recalling the hurt of being dismissed in a way that felt so abrupt and cold.

Months later, the memory of being laid off from a Toronto-area candy store is still painful for Kellas.

"I was crying."

Using technology to deliver this kind of bad news — whether via email, video call or similar tools — is an approach some organizations embraced during the pandemic, but employees and experts say it fails to factor in the people on the receiving end of job losses. 

"I think it's another example of us really not getting our heads wrapped around the best use of technology," said Paula Allen, a senior vice-president of research and total well-being at human resources firm LifeWorks.

Logging on for layoffs 

Thousands of employees at tech companies Meta and Twitter recently learned of confirmation of their layoffs in emails.

This was months after hundreds of U.K. ferry workers were fired via Zoom call. Workers at online car retailer Carvana learned of large job cuts in a similar manner in the spring.

While such mass terminations at large firms have made headlines, it's not just big business using these tools to part ways with staff.

For Kellas, the jarring WhatsApp-delivered news of employment loss came from the small store's manager.

"I've moved on from it, but it still is kind of a 'What the F?' kind of situation," said Kellas, who noted the manager could have made the moment a little less harsh by calling instead. 

But a phone call may not be that welcome in all cases either.

Kelsee Douglas learned she was losing her job at a Saskatchewan hearing clinic halfway through her workday last winter. 

First came an electronic message notifying her of a surprise meeting. Then came the phone meeting, during which she was told her employment was coming to an end — immediately.

"I was really, really shocked," said Douglas, who had been in the job for two and a half years. 

Allen, the HR firm leader, said it's key that organizations provide employees with support — such as counselling and career coaching — as they adjust to their new reality.

She cautioned that employers may not know the full set of personal circumstances people are facing at the time of a layoff or termination notice — nor do they know how hard employees will take the news.

"A lot of people are dealing with many issues and coming into the office every single day and this is the one straw that makes it very difficult for them to see their next step."

A pandemic uptick

Sixteen years ago, consumer electronics retailer RadioShack notified 400 employees they were losing their jobs via email. 

Back then, prominent labour leader Bruce Raynor called it an "outrageous way to treat human beings."

But it's seemingly become more common, especially during the pandemic. 

Cannabis company Canopy Growth used a Zoom announcement to lay off 200 employees back in 2020. 

Just last year, 900 people at Better.com learned they were being let go during a much-criticized Zoom call.

And 700 people at Swedish payment company Klarna were told about cuts in a recorded message in May, after which employees reportedly had to wait for an email to find out if they were affected.

Janet Candido, a Toronto-based HR consultant, said she hopes the remote termination approach "doesn't become commonplace."

She said the use of these methods seems to have expanded during the pandemic. As a greater number of people began to use these tools to work remotely, that same technology was being used to let some of them go. 

Camilla Boyer, a U.K.-based executive communications consultant, believes globalization has also contributed. 

"Companies with employees spread out across the world don't have the option to gather everyone in one room or meet with them face-to-face in an office the way it may previously have been done," said Boyer, who has helped advise firms on layoffs in the past.

"That has given rise to the increased use of technology in carrying out reductions in force," she said in an email. 

Room for improvement

"I think the practice has good and bad sides," Martha Maznevski, a professor of organizational behaviour at Western University in London, Ont., told CBC News via email.

Maznevski said the process is "completely dispassionate and cold" and leaves little goodwill among departing employees. But it may also be an efficient way to share key information, particularly in organizations that are spread out geographically.

Nadia Zaman, an employment lawyer with Rudner Law in Markham, Ont., said "employers should be cautious in carrying out dismissals via video or other similar methods."

Aspects of these tools, she noted, may allow an employer to have discussions in a private and confidential manner.

In the long-term, Allen doesn't expect these practices to go away — people will continue to be hired remotely and let go in the same way in some cases. 

No matter what the circumstances, she said consideration of the person should be at the centre of the process.

"I think it's the how it's done that needs a little bit more care." 

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.

‘It’s not a support function any more, it’s a leadership function’: How the pandemic changed the role of HR – The Globe and Mail

Read the full interview in The Globe and Mail.

Until recently, human resources was largely dedicated to administrative tasks. Today, however, the department is core to business operations, as teams add new positions, adopt new skills and use new technologies to meet the needs of a rapidly changing work force.

Janet Candido explains that during the initial pandemic-caused transition to remote work, there was a general sense that such changes would be temporary. As restrictions eased and resignation rates skyrocketed, employee management, flexible work policies and recruiting became a top priority for organizations in Canada and around the world, she says.

“We have a labour shortage. Right now employees want what they want, and if you’re not prepared to give it to them they will go somewhere that will.”

Employees, who have spent much of the past two years under lockdown restrictions, are looking for more freedom, flexibility and greater mental health support. They also expect their employers to address pressing social issues head on.

The transition to hybrid work, a widespread mental health crisis, a reckoning on racial injustice, and the “Great Resignation” each brought significant challenges to HR practitioners, as well as opportunities. Meeting these moments, however, would have been nearly impossible with the resources, processes and tools that had historically been allocated to the department, according to Ms. Candido. Now, business leaders are making changes on several fronts for practitioners within HR. Many relate to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG).

Visit the link to read the full article.

Does Ontario's paid sick leave go far enough? – Interview in HRD Canada

This article was originally published by HRD Canada.

The plan may be great for overall wellbeing, but what about employees who fall through the cracks?

Late last month, the Government of Ontario announced an extension to their paid sick leave program – applicable to March 2023. And while it’s good news for employees worried about picking between their income and their wellbeing, does the proposed scheme really go far enough?

“The government will reimburse the employer for three days but the mandatory isolation period is five days – furthermore, it’s possible for an individual to catch COVID more than once,” explained Janet Candido, founder of Candido Consulting Group. “Under these scenarios, employers may have an individual coming to work while still sick because they can’t afford to lose the wages.

“A bigger issue with the program is that employees (or their families) get other illnesses that they should stay home for, however the government won’t reimburse the employer for an employee staying home with a cold, for example. This means that the employee will go into work and spread that virus around to their colleagues. The pandemic really made the public conscientious of spreading viruses and illnesses to others, so it’s important to continue with this mentality and provide alternative solutions for sick employees so they don’t have to choose between not getting paid or going into the office sick and getting others ill.”

And COVID isn’t employers’ only concern right now. The recent rise of hybrid colds are having a knock-on effect on employees and their work attendance. With Ontario gearing up for the winter months, and with them the inevitable peak in illnesses, employers really need to start considering upping their game when it comes to wellbeing leave.

“Many employees don’t have the luxury of paid sick days from their employer, so if they don’t work, they don’t get paid,” added Candido. “The lack of a paid sick day program disproportionately affects low-income workers. As many of these employees can’t afford to lose one or more days of pay, this will result in them going to work, risking the spread of the virus to their colleagues.

“When looking back to pre-pandemic days, there was one year throughout the winter where a cold virus made its rounds in my office. Most of us caught it two or three times that year. A reason being that many people didn't have enough sick days and couldn’t afford to have unpaid days while they were sick.”

As the past two years brought us the harsh reality of the global impact of a virus, it’s crucial to have a permanent sick day program to avoid spreading these viruses further and risk severe viral outbreaks such as COVID, where it brings on additional challenges such as business closures and travel disruptions.

Return to work policies

For HR leaders, the issue is less about ‘policy’ and more about overall wellbeing. If the pandemic taught us anything it’s that, in order to retain top talent, organizations need to be sincere in their health offerings. One-size-fits-all approaches aren’t enough for tired employees – and they certainly won’t help employers win candidates in the Great Reengagement. Flexibility is key here – as Candido suggests asking yourself these very important questions before blanket recalling staff;

• Do employees really need to be in the office?

• Do they need to be in the office full time? If not, can a hybrid approach work? 

• How can we successfully implement a hybrid approach? I.e., assign in-office days, in-office by team or let employees choose.

• What can you do to support employees returning to work?

“Employers need to remember that this has been a long period of disruption,” she explained. “Mentalities have changed so it’s a good idea to consider a staged return to the office to allow employees to build confidence and get them comfortable. Also, ask employees what it will take to make them comfortable coming back to the office and be flexible and prepared to make accommodations throughout.”

Making accommodations

If an employee is genuinely uncomfortable about return to the office, HR leaders should look at making some sort of accommodation. Look at rolling out flexible working schedules, take note of commuting fears, allow for more remote models – and most of all ensure that your workplace is up to health and safety codes.

“HR and employers can implement a transition period that allows employees to ease back to the office,” Candido told HRD. “It’s also important to be completely open and transparent so employees trust you have their health and safety in mind. This means, continue to be diligent in enforcing the COVID protocols in place – be visible with the extra cleaning and masking requirements – and track the cases of employees who have tested positive and advise anyone who was in the office at the same time to self-monitor or test.”

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.

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.

How to Manage in the 'New Normal' - Canadian HR Reporter

Employers can no longer pay lip service to collaboration, diversity, mental health.

From vaccine policies to new ways of measuring employee productivity, employers need to change their mindset and adapt to the new workplace "normal". Janet Candido discusses this and more in a recent interview, originally published in the Canadian HR Reporter.

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.