Canadian HR Reporter

4 www.hrreporter.com N E W S relationship with [a colleague]… before because we're all in the office together. So, the more that organizations can get real conversations going and give insight into what it's like for different people in different situations, [the better]." And while Habanero has always had a performance-based culture, with no fixed hours, it's had to be more diligent amid the pandemic and earnestly model off- hour time, he says. "We've had to actually say, 'OK, well, here's a chunk of time every week where let's not book any meetings where people can just get focus,'" says Fitzgerald. "So, we've had to develop some new patterns and behaviours and habits around this because what we're finding is people [are] deeply exhausted by the end of the day, just from being online so much… It was really deeply tiring for people, burning them out." TELUS International quickly recog- nized that many of its workers in countries such as the Philippines and Bulgaria were not equipped to work from home, says Galarza. "It wasn't just the equipment — because all that does is allow you to work — but how you work is where I think we did better than most companies in quickly giving tips on ergonomics within the home, quickly giving tips on work- life balance when you're working from home… That's a different dynamic that we quickly started speaking about in terms of mental health. [So] good work- life balance where you don't feel like you're being pressured from every angle, the family and the work." It's also important to embrace and welcome the diversity of the work-from- home environment, such as children or pets who unexpectedly demand attention, he says. "In fact, it's quite nice to see people's children and people's significant others and sometimes even their parents. Because I think it makes the human connection even more important. To us, if we were going to take the work home, we have to welcome the home to work," says Galarza. "We actually encouraged [people] to share more about [their] home in that new environment than we did trying to go back to the way that it used to be before [where] we were expected to have quietness all around." When the pandemic first started, management's biggest fear was that people at home were going to watch Netflix or play games all day — but the opposite was true, he says. "We've got a lot of people working around the clock non-stop, and we need them to take a break." In a lot of countries where TELUS International operates, to meet the local jurisdiction, it has to have either a medical doctor or medical nurse on site. More recently, the company has hired psychologists and psychiatrists to help with the mental wellness of staff, says Galarza, "because, all of a sudden, there's four or five family members working from home that can make a challenge. And then, on top of that, there's no place to go after work — you can't go to the movies, you can't go to the gym; in some countries, you can't even go to the park." And while people are very limited when it comes to going on holiday, that doesn't mean they can't take some type of holiday to maintain their mental health, he says. "We have also been encouraging folks to take their vacation and holiday, and we've been working with management so they have accurate data as to what is the vacation holiday balances the team members have so they can in fact take that time and disconnect." CHRR NEGATIVE ATTITUDES IMPACT WORK CULTURE IN 2020 "Once it's safe, there's going to be team retreats and team get-togethers to [satisfy] that need for continued connection." Daneal Charney, MaRS Discovery District 15% Drop in the likelihood that employees would say "no" to an inappropriate request from a manager. 7% Increase in people having to minimize their heritage or personal identity to fit in at work. 9% Decrease in employees who say their workplace culture is "healthy" in the area of harassment. 7% Drop in employees reporting "strong and respectful relationships" between age groups. 10% Decline in people who say behaviour in their workplace is governed by "well-understood norms." Source: Emtrain Employees at TELUS International in the Manila office.

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