Canadian HR Reporter

January 2020 CAN

Canadian HR Reporter is the national journal of human resource management. It features the latest workplace news, HR best practices, employment law commentary and tools and tips for employers to get the most out of their workforce.

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THE Conference Board of Canada first opened its office doors in Ottawa more than three decades ago. Those doors are now closing, permanently. The research organization has decided it is going fully remote. "We had a massive building that was empty, a big portion of it, most days anyway, pre- pandemic. So those are questions that you start to ask: 'Does this space suit our purpose?' And, in our case, it did not [and] the pandemic accelerated it," says vice president Bryan Benjamin, based in Ottawa. The Conference Board had always had a flexible work option, with people often working from home a day or two during the week. And when asked, 89 per cent of the workforce said they preferred fully remote or a hybrid version, he says, "and that was long-service employees right through to new hires." That's not to say that employees won't be brought together in the future at some kind of shared space, when it's safe for off-site or client meetings. "We will absolutely do that. But the core of our business will now be fully virtual," says Benjamin. "One thing that the pandemic has taught us is we can't predict five years from now, let alone five months even. So, we're just taking it one phase at a time and, for this phase, this makes sense for us. That doesn't WWW.HRREPORTER.COM ISSUE 33.12.2020 THE NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Accommodating remote workers It's not just working parents who are struggling — and employers should be stepping up to help /10 Spotlight: Canada's HR associations Groups have been kept busy supporting growing memberships as HR is thrust into the spotlight /16 ALSO IN THIS ISSUE… Social media and freedom of speech Saskatchewan case highlights the importance of doing a proper investigation and using contextual analysis /8 Best practices in remote hiring Just because people are working from home doesn't mean recruitment strategies should be any less of a priority to attract the very best talent /22 More information required B.C. case serves as a reminder that employees looking for accommodation around a medical condition need to co-operate with employer requests /26 > pg. 2 Faced with empty offices, employers such as the Conference Board of Canada and Twitter have decided to go fully remote, indefinitely. Sarah Dobson looks at the pros and cons to making such a move Transformative technology New tools help employees with diabetes better manage their condition and connect with health-care professionals /24 Does it make sense to go fully remote?

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