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
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Spotlight: Canada's HR associations
Groups have been kept busy supporting
growing memberships as HR is thrust
into the spotlight
/16
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Social media and freedom of speech
Saskatchewan case highlights
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investigation and using contextual
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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
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> 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
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Does it make sense
to go fully remote?
