Canadian HR Reporter

N E W S 10 www.hrreporter.com How can remote workers best be accommodated? It's not only working parents who are struggling to cope with the new work-from-home environment. Employers have both legal and moral reasons to respond to their remote workforce, finds John Dujay ever, the onus doesn't strictly fall upon the employer to look into alternatives, says Hyde. "The employee has to make reasonable efforts to ensure that they have con- sidered all possible opportunities for alternative childcare arrangements. An employee simply can't say, 'I choose to keep my children at home; I could send them to school but I choose to keep them,' and then demand accommodation because there is an alternative. When there is no alternative, there is a duty upon employers to consider changing the job function in certain ways." The employer should have policies with regard to workplace accommodation, he says. "Assisting your employees, wherever they're working, is an important function and is the foundation of success as an organization. Too many employers are saying: 'This is the employee's problem, not mine.' That's a big mistake." Flexible hours not always easy Changing a working parent's hours to better support them might involve a move to part-time hours — but that can also create unintended negative consequences for certain employees, says Françoise Mathieu, co-executive director at TEND, a training consultancy located in Kings- ton, Ont. "We know, and the data shows, that people who move to part-time often end up doing more than part-time work. There's ample evidence that part-time workers, if they're dedicated, actually produce or carry a significant portion of the load." And the switch to fewer hours might affect that employee's engagement with the greater workforce, she says. "One of the things that's tricky is Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto that found that about 27 per cent of parents who have children younger than 18 at home say they experienced moderate to severe anxiety versus those who don't have any kids at home (19 per cent). As well, about 24 per cent said they sought out professional help to cope with their poor mental health during the COVID lockdown. The legalities of accommodation If approached by an employee, employers should consider opportunities for accommodation as long as the employee can still do their job. That might include different times or perhaps shortened hours, if it makes sense, says John- Edward Hyde, partner and chair of the management-side labour group at Hyde HR Law in Toronto. "Don' t discount a request for accommodation outright; investigate it because the minute you discount a request for accommodation, then you're in violation of the Human Rights Code because you haven't even considered accommodation." An employee who is refused accommo- dation may bring up family status accommodation, he says, especially if the request is made because of that person's household situation. "The Human Rights Code provides protections with respect to family status and that may be a situation where an employee needs accommodation because of the requirement to look after children in the home while working." Any type of accommodation must be made to the point of undue hardship, which can be a hard thing for an employer to demonstrate, he says. How- making sure that they're still in the loop. Is their day off [going to mean] they miss a staff meeting? Are there ways for us to make sure that they're still involved in the information and communication about what's going on and also committed to connecting with one another?" Perceptions of fairness It's also important to bear in mind that not all employees are parents and some need consideration for a variety of different reasons. "It turns out a lot of people need flexibility and accommodation right now — not just working parents — and so one of the things is that, when people are in leadership roles and they're trying to be accommodating or supportive, some people get forgotten," says Mathieu. "A workplace's perception of fairness is really important." While it's important for HR to step in and figure out the details of these types of accommodations that may not be family-related, "we also need to consider whether or not these accommodations will be seen as fair and equitable by other employees," says Bevacqua. COVID-19 HAS HEAVY IMPACT ON FAMILIES 74% Balancing childcare and work is top concern of parents 71% Parents who were concerned about children socializing "THE most important thing is flexibility." So says Julie Bevacqua, president of Rise People in Vancouver, in describing how employers should be approaching the unprecedented dilemma of having so many parents with young children working from home during the pandemic. "There's so much happening in the world now and that's impacting people and how much they can focus on work," she says. "[It's about] understanding that tasks and assignments may not get done during the typical nine-to-five [workday], but they are getting done. As the situation with COVID continues to change, it's important to set clear expectations and not to get caught up in how things have been done previously "but instead focus on the fact that things are getting done," says Bevacqua. The pandemic has affected working parents particularly hard, according to a September survey done for the "One of the challenges is figuring out logistics to make sure that they're feeling like their needs are being met without putting too much pressure on other co-workers." Julie Bevacqua, Rise People Source: Statistics Canada, CAMH 57% Children between 15 and 17 report that mental health is worse 9% Canadians with children younger than 18 who had suicidal thoughts

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