Canadian HR Reporter

4 www.hrreporter.com N E W S Recruitment, onboarding adjustments Of course, one particularly challenging area in the heavily remote environment is recruitment and onboarding. Using video calls will make it harder to assess fit compared to face-to-face or deeper interviews, says Dacin. On the other hand, some roles will be filled more easily this way, she says. Salopek says she has onboarded new members to the team virtually over the last three months. "You're connecting them so that they're still seeing face-to-face visuals, but they're just not doing it across the desk or across the table, they're doing it electronically through Zoom. But you're doing the same steps, you're just using a different process." It is difficult to replace the advantages of in-person interaction, says Johnson. "We would prefer to bring people in, at least initially, so that they can start building those relationships." But in hiring a couple of people recently, BlueShore has rolled out onboarding and orientation sessions with new staff fully online, she says. " That even involved a [video] presentation and discussion with our CEO who would normally join the orientation in person." And one of the advantages of remote work is that it provides opportunities to increase diversity in the workforce, because you can look further afield for talent, says Johnson. "You could employ somebody in a different city who works 100-per-cent remotely. Even if you can provide remote working for one or two days a week, that can help you attract and retain somebody who has a long commute." Health and safety considerations While remote employees may not be on-site like usual, there are still several health and safety considerations for employers. For one, there's the whole issue of ergonomics and making sure that an employee is properly set up with the right equipment, says Trent. "If an employer sends an employee home with their miniscule laptop with this 13-inch screen and expects that the employee is going to be able to sit at their kitchen table and be as productive as they would be at the office, with 22-inch screens and a keyboard and a mouse and proper chair, well, they're dreaming… While there is an expense associated with it… the investment will pay for itself very, very quickly if the employee has the proper equipment, proper setup at home. And the productivity gains will be significant." There's also the more serious issue of potential harassment or even domestic abuse of employees working from home, and these should be addressed by the employer, he says. That can mean recommending the company's employee assistance program or even inviting the employee into the office to have a proper discussion. "Where the employer feels that the employee is in a situation of risk on account of domestic abuse or those kinds of things, having the employee come into work so that they can sit down with someone from HR and have a discussion about this may be a good idea, as opposed to just having discussions about this over the phone or via text messages or email." And, of course, it's also important to stay on top of remote workers' mental health. Through the pandemic, BlueShore has provided many resources for staff through its employee and family assistance program and information that it's posted on the intranet, says Johnson. "We have wellness Wednesdays and some weeks we post about meditation and yoga and other times we post about ergonomics if you're working from home and the importance of disconnecting from work, because this is not a sprint, it's a marathon. And we all need to make sure that we are safeguarding both our physical but also our mental health." CHRR FALLING ENGAGEMENT IN CANADA, U.S., U.K. "Organizations who had a strong culture prior to this happening are likely going to weather this a lot better." Carolyn Levy, Randstad 71.5% Drop in employee sentiment about workplace culture since working remotely 20% Drop in employee engagement since working remotely 12% Drop in employee trust in leadership since working remotely 77% Number of workers who say their workplace culture will not return to what it was before the pandemic 60% Number of employees experiencing some level of depression during the pandemic Source: O.C. Tanner

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