Canadian HR Reporter

20 www.hrreporter.com F E A T U R E S F E A T U R E S "For our comp planning, we had to be very nimble in 2020 to address the shift in market demands throughout the various provinces." Donna Fagon-Pascal, Dynacare solutions, says Fagon-Pascal. "That group has been phenomenal in keeping us very much connected to the pulse: Where do we need to fix things? Where do we need to provide more support?" And health and safety committees have done a great job in supporting front- line employees dealing with people who have been exposed to, or may even have, the COVID-19 virus. That's included technology improvements such as touchless tools in the labs, helping people cope with their fears through education, support and science, and bringing in experts to go over the safety measures, she says. As for the 600 or so employees working from home, Dynacare has carried out engagement surveys to make sure people feel engaged and supported. "People started talking a lot more about their personal well-being because of the impact of the pandemic, the isolation, the pressure, just being afraid… [so] well-being was always part of our critical experience that we wanted to focus on. Many leaders really started to see why it was so critical because it impacts presenteeism and absenteeism, productivity — there were so many reasons why we needed to focus on it," says Fagon-Pascal. "It's really picked up momentum around designing work in a way that you're focusing on the well-being and balancing that with the work that people have to do." Recruitment soars Dynacare also decided to transform its business by providing PCR (polymerase chain reaction) testing. But that meant new equipment, new talent and new training, along with innovating new processes and partnering with government and private clients, she says. "We had to focus on a very different kind of business. It was very much in our wheelhouse but different because we had to start from scratch and build it up with talent and leadership and infrastructure to support the demands," says Fagon- Pascal. "That put a lot of amazing challenges in front of us in terms of the talent challenge, in terms of health and safety. So, it definitely created some opportunities for us to problem solve and figure out a way to provide different experiences for employees." The company has had to boost recruitment by 50 per cent, she says. Many of the new hires are specialized lab technologists, who are in limited supply, especially during the pandemic. "That created a lot of wage pressure for businesses like our own. So, we had to invest in wages in order to respond to the labour market situation there. For our comp planning, we had to be very nimble in 2020 to address the shift in market demands throughout the various provinces," says Fagon-Pascal. Along with that has been a boost in virtual recruitment and onboarding. But Dynacare was able to leverage the virtual work it had already rolled out in 2019 because it was hiring across the country and doesn't have HR people in every province. "It's sometimes challenging because of the technology, internet support, but the team has come up with very creative [solutions] and we've really worked on trying to figure out how do we make virtual interactive," she says. "We take a lot of great feedback, we learn from each session and then we modify and adjust accordingly." COVID hit the east coast, Lindsay Construction was largely focused on worker health and safety and following public health guidelines. That meant, for example, figuring out how carpenters, labourers and supervisors could effectively do their jobs while staying two metres apart from each other. "You had to figure out how to safely perform tasks and figure out how your organization is going to meet what public health and the government is telling [you] to do. Especially in construction, the industry here really stepped up and we helped each other out. But HR was a big part of that," says Angela Langille, director of corporate HR and stakeholder engage ment. "Once we figured it out, we were up and running again, we didn't close or stop operations," she says. "We definitely had a bit of a slowdown, though, just in terms of delayed project starts and that type of thing." About two-thirds of the compa- ny's workforce is on-site while the remainder are in offices throughout Atlantic Canada, and the head office is in Dartmouth. About 70 per cent of people worked from home for the first few months of the pandemic to try to reduce social density, she says. Challenges for HR When the pandemic first took effect, HR had to quickly become a subject matter expert on the virus, even though it was hearing and watching the same things as everyone else and trying to figure out how to meet public health and govern- ment guidelines, says Langille. "We really had to focus on ensuring that employees know what we're doing to keep them safe. That had to be emphasized day after day after day." While HR always has to handle a lot of employee communications, with this crisis, the response had to be fast and there was little time for reviewing or refining the message, she says. "You had to do it and do it as best as you could the first time around. And then, if something maybe wasn't right, then you ANGELA LANGILLE, director of corporate HR and stakeholder engagement at Lindsay Construction The Dartmouth, N.S.-based construction company has roughly 500 employees WHEN

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