Canadian HR Reporter

www.hrreporter.com 3 people off, says Taylor Green. "There's going to be a need for some restorative processes to rebuild those relationships. Some companies haven't been too worried about their reputation as an employer during this time and have really just worried about survival and I understand that dilemma, but there will need to be some perspectives on how we heal and learn to work together effectively in the new way, the new normal, so I think we're going to see graduated recalls." As the pandemic eases, there's probably going to be some damaged relationships as people return to work. And there's still going to be uncertainty about the economy and fear of being laid off again, says Gauthier. "When you're laid off and it's for maybe three, four, five months and you're getting maybe 25 per cent of your wages pure survival on top of that, so what type of back-to-work programs from just a confidence, healing, mental health perspective will employers have to come up with?" Employers have an enormous responsibility in attending to the total well-being of their workforce, and that includes people's mental health, says Taylor Green. "This has been an unprecedented reality and everybody deals with anxiety and stress in different ways. You don't really want an employee that is not well to be at work, whether that's their mental health or their physical health. And, so, the degree to which employers can take the lead and demonstrate an active commitment to employee total well- being… will pay dividends in terms of employee loyalty but also productivity." That means providing access to or directing employees to mental health resources, she says. "If you know that they are suffering undue stress because of financial hardship in the home where maybe one person has lost their job already, why not direct them to those resources that they can look at from a financial health perspective? Or if… their kids are suffering mental health issues or anxiety, directing them to those [resources], so not just taking the traditional route of saying, 'Well, here's the EAP, use it.' It's really not telling people but showing people what's available." In some cases, relationships between employers and employees have been quite strained because employers had to cut hours, reduce payroll costs or lay or 50 per cent of what your wage was, you can understand that the organization was put in a tough decision; but coming back, there's a healing process in the relationship building that needs to happen again." The issue of trust is one that's being raised by HR and employers in looking at the recovery, says Kitchen. "Our leaders are connecting with teams and individuals on a more regular basis than they might have before. As an organization, we've put communications and listening programs in place on a regular basis just to establish that routine… and it's been really fascinating to watch teams come together in really interesting and creative ways through the pandemic." Virtual recruitment Manulife has also pivoted its recruiting and onboarding process from a human- centred design perspective, she says. "We are now 100-per-cent virtual, but we've changed the onboarding process to help make employees feel really welcome, to help them feel productive as quickly as possible, and we know that first impressions mean so much, so we are doing home delivery of technology, we're doing virtual technology setup one on one with one of our tech experts so that our new employees are feeling productive as quickly as they can." Employers that have still been busy with recruitment, in sectors such as health care and manufacturing, are essentially doing interviews virtually, says Gauthier. "People are getting more and more PEOPLE FEELING GOOD ABOUT EMPLOYERS IN PANDEMIC "Are we better off to have people work remotely and be as effective or do we pay thousands of dollars in office space every year?" Ron Gauthier, CPHR Manitoba used to doing it, so [going forward] when you start looking at national searches and those types of things, will people be flying in and doing interviews in person or will a lot of the initial screens and those types of things in recruitment projects be virtually through formats like Zoom?" With the easing of the pandemic, every company will have to consider where the customer demand is for their product or services and how that's going to change labour force requirements, says Taylor Green. "Will you need the same workers with the same skills on the same schedules?" she says. "HR needs to be thinking about what… the knowledge and skill mix of your workforce will need to be because now is the perfect time, if people have excess capacity, to be upskilling employees. " In making their way back to the "new normal," employers may realize they 49% number of Canadians who have an improved relationship with their employer 29% number of people that have seen their relationship decline with their employer 52% number of people enjoying improved relationships with co-workers Source: Argyle Public Relationships

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