Canadian HR Reporter

www.hrreporter.com 29 as we're entering into the 50th-plus day going forward. It feels like a new world… And it's about being there for people and having really good open and honest conversations." Employees are also looking for a sense of normalcy in the programs, instead of focusing too much on the effects of COVID-19, she says. "The feedback that we got from people was 'It can be a bit draining, actually.' So, they want that feeling that we're rolling out some really good, fun, new initiatives… and don't just tailor everything around the situation that is upon us right now." Embracing virtual tech With the restrictions of the pandemic, BMO has been able to move faster into other channels, says Jeneroux. "We've had blended channels forever and we have really been able to amp up them even faster on the virtual and digital options," she says. "By necessity, people have been more open to technology. They needed to be more open to change and new ways of doing things and they needed to be more open to… nimbly jump into these situations. And that technology advancement — the advancement of access, the advancement of openness from employees and from leaders — has actually enabled us to queue up some things faster than we had even planned in terms of our road map. And so that's very exciting… and it means that, in places where we may have had to push a little bit, we've actually been seeing a pull." Longer term, in-person training will always have a place, says Jeneroux, but there are areas that are evolving. "For things that really are rightly in a face-to-face environment, let's do a short- term approach to be able to keep the learning happening, knowing that we will take some learnings from the new way of delivering it when we introduce it back into the classroom," she says. "The more we're able to think of things in a modular way, the more we're able to actually be more adaptable moving forward." While in-person training is a love of McCleod's, she says it's also important to adapt that to different kinds of modalities. For example, informal lunch and learns that were live at the office have been moved to online recorded sessions. "We're just pinpointing what needs to happen for that learning to be really beneficial or what experiential component of learning will we lose in-person? And the ways that we're adapting that is by saying, 'Take your key takeaways, your top three things, discuss them with your manager during your next one-on-one. What did you learn? How can it impact your career?'" Recipe always tries to have an e x p e r i e n t i a l c o m p o n e n t t o i t s learning, so, if, for example, it does a session on respect in the workplace online, it would then have a Q&A component as a live session with one of the HR business partners to talk through some of the concepts or scenarios, says McLeod. "There are some [times] that are beneficial to be able to ask these questions, get those immediate answers, role play those scenarios." While some of Ecobee's programming was definitely scheduled for in person, it could easily be flipped to the virtual environment, says Farinha. "Some of the things need to be tailored a little bit, some of the group work is a little bit harder to do. There's definitely a learning curve, [but] I think still it's a really big success." And the company makes a point to record all the live sessions so people can go back and listen later if needed, she says. "People will learn in different ways, so we really want to make sure that content is coming at people in a way that works for them." Yamaha had some training that was meant to be live, instructor-led, so now, it's about building a virtual program and trying to bring in some of that same interactivity, says Lyons. "The PowerPoint slides, once they're built for virtual and hosting it that way, can easily convert into the classroom training. So, depending on how we flip, it's almost like building for virtual but the goal of can you flip back to instructor-led if that's going to make sense." And Yamaha will gauge the success of employee development courses that are being delivered virtually, she says. "I would actually like to do it as an instructor-led if we can, depending on where we are with everything, just so we can get a true sense of what's the better medium for that based on the concept and what the participants are thinking. I don't know that I would say "People will learn in different ways, so we really want to make sure that content is coming at people in a way that really works for them." Penny Farinha, vice president of HR at Ecobee I'm going to switch permanently from one to the other — for those ones I'd like to assess and see what makes the most sense. Key skills in the spotlight A m i d t h e p a n d e m i c , t h e r e h a s definitely been more conversation around the importance of empathy, says Ramoutar. "It's the sense of having a collective empathy for not only your team and your organization but for the community as a whole, and that we're all in this crisis together." The emergence of human skills is critical, such as resilience, says Jeneroux. "Creativity, innovation, being able to communicate well, being adaptable. All these sorts of things that are actually about how we connect with each other and how we manage ourselves and how we're able to navigate through uncertain situations — all of these things are really critical for the future, and our focus on them has just accelerated in the last eight weeks or so." At Recipe, it's also about being mindful of looking at how to have a holistic component to all training, says McLeod. "So, even though we are training on something like innovation, how do we also pay attention to health and well- being through that training?" she says. "So, things like managing work priorities is not just the how, how do you manage changing priorities, there's also why: 'What is the importance of doing so, how do you support your team to do that?'" Learning how to communicate and share information in the remote or virtual environment is also important, according to Farinha. "It's much easier when you're in person and in a meeting, bringing people up to speed and along the journey with you. It definitely changes when you're remote and at home and not sitting side by side with someone… So, being able to communicate better, [being] more timely… bringing people in at the right points. I think that's something, at any point, that's going to be really, really crucial." CHRR "Training can still happen. That's a key message for everyone: You can still look after employee development in this time. You just have to pivot how you're doing it." Carolyn Lyons, manager of dealer training and employee development at Yamaha Motor Canada

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