Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER May 1, 2017 2 NEWS Recent stories posted on www.hrreporter.com. Check the website daily for quick news hits from across Canada and around the world. WEB O N T H E ACROSS CANADA Premier Clark boasts about B.C.'s overall low jobless rate, but rural areas struggle 'Where's the plan to help us with our core economy?': Mayor Transcontinental sells 27 newspapers to Halifax Herald Acquisition comes amidst contentious strike Alberta wildfi re evacuation highlights growing use of tracking workers using RFID Safety off ered by technology trumps privacy concerns: Union Changes to Temporary Foreign Worker Program announced Employers required to focus on more under-represented groups; on-site inspections to increase B.C. regulation means employers can't force women to wear high heels at work Government amends footwear regulation under Workers Compensation Act 19,400 jobs added in March, unemployment rate rises to 6.7 per cent Marks fourth month in a row jobs have been added Skilled immigrants to start paying fee to come to Manitoba for work 'We now have discretionary funds that we can set programs in place to help': Minister AROUND THE WORLD Phones and social media turn consumers into whistleblowers Forcible United passenger removal latest example Uber's PR head resigns amid tumultuous time for company Ride-sharing business facing accusations of sexual harassment in workplace NYC settles with U.S. Department of Justice over denying job to HIV-positive man Training program also required for police department's medical assessment of staff 'Best banker in America' blamed for Wells Fargo sales scandal Investigation says systemic nature of problems was ignored Workplace feedback Jen Wetherow, director of Great Place to Work Canada, discusses the importance of ongoing performance feedback hrreporter.com FEATURED VIDEO IBM goes against the grain as remote work gains popularity Company draws workers back to offi ce, citing collaboration, ideation BY MARCEL VANDER WIER AS remote work continues to in- crease in popularity among offi ce workers, technology giant IBM recently announced a move that appears to go against the grain. Calling it an eff ort to boost col- laboration and ideation results, IBM is drawing portions of its staff back into the offi ce. In Feb- ruary, more than 2,600 employees were informed they would need to return to state-of-the-art offi ce space in one of six U.S. cities, ac- cording to Quartz, a global news website. Once a remote-work pioneer, 40 per cent of IBM's 386,000 global staff ers worked from home as recently as 2009, according to Quartz. IBM employees will continue to work in a variety of workspaces going forward, said Carrie Bendz- sa, the company's Canadian brand manager in Ottawa, adding Cana- dian workers are not aff ected by the change. "Because of the nature of their work, in certain cases, it makes sense to have teams together in order to collaborate more eff ec- tively and accelerate the itera- tion of products or services," she said, pointing to sectors such as digital marketing and software development. "In these fi elds, professionals with diff erent skill sets can come together and develop and iterate new services much more rapidly than via traditional assembly-line work processes where work is handed from one team member to another. We also see that employ- ees in these fi elds who work in ag- ile, co-located environments have much higher job satisfaction." Focus on collaboration e drawing in of workers is a hot topic in the tech industry, accord- ing to Leslie Sarauer, senior vice- president of human resources at software company OpenText in Waterloo, Ont. For companies growing globally through acquisition, telecommut- ing can prove to be more diffi cult. And when it comes to tech de- velopers and engineering teams, it's helpful to have those teams working together as opposed to remotely, she said. "It becomes more challenging to coalesce people under a com- mon culture and common way of doing work, and collaboration is much more challenging," said Sarauer. "Our collaboration is more eff ective if people are co- located in the same offi ce in work- ing teams." "It's not to say we don't have to have collaboration and innova- tion amongst other teams, but it is pretty critical amongst the en- gineering team." IBM's decision comes at a time when remote work is at an all- time high, said Wayne Berger, executive vice-president of Re- gus Canada, a fl exible workplace provider based in Toronto — 47 per cent of Canadians work from outside the offi ce for half the week or more, according to a Septem- ber Regus survey of 1,600 offi ce workers. Fifty-four per cent of those working remotely do so to re- main productive while travelling to and from meetings within the same city. And 16 per cent of re- mote employees prefer working in business centres, while 11 per cent work exclusively out of the home. Remote work is said to boost productivity through improved work-life balance and the ability to skip long commutes, but it also holds fi nancial benefi ts for em- ployers, said Berger. "One of the reasons why IBM pursued this remote workforce strategy was to help alleviate capital expense," he said. " ey realized US$100 million in sav- ings just on the real estate port- folio alone." And IBM isn't pulling its work- ers back to a traditional offi ce set- ting lined with cubicles, but rather a work environment attempting to inspire collaboration, team- work, innovation and new ideas, said Berger. It's a sign that the greater trend to fl exible working environments is the way of the future, he said. "We're in a renaissance period," said Berger. "We're more driven towards a results-based society and technology has become such a key enabler." Advice for HR Despite IBM's decision, all signs point to more remote workers in the future, with 60 per cent of For- tune 500 companies implement- ing a fl exwork strategy of some type, said Berger. "No doubt, the trend is to more of an open, collaborative workspace or ecosystems with multiple types of space," he said. "You have to make sure you provide a multitude of solutions, technology and workplace types in order for people to get their job done." A rise in contingent work is increasing the need for shared of- fi ce spaces with open, private and meeting areas, accessible based on need, said Berger. Sixty-fi ve per cent of workers in Canada place an emphasis on fl exwork when job searching, said Berger. "If a company is looking to at- tract and retain their top talent, having a strong, flexible work- force management strategy is paramount." Remote work will continue to evolve over the next few years thanks to increased pressure from millennial workers seeking fl ex options, said Sarauer. "It is putting a lot of pressure on organizations to review how they're asking people to work." And while collaboration and ideation are the current focus of many companies, so is the re- cruitment and retention of key employee talent. "It's a constant balancing act because as much as we want to have the talent working together in teams, that might preclude us in being able to attract certain in- dividuals into the organization," said Sarauer. "I know a lot of peo- ple like to work remotely because they can avoid commuting and everything else." For HR professionals required to restrict remote work arrange- ments, leadership support is para- mount, she said. "This can't be HR-driven," said Sarauer. "HR helps with the change and the implementation, but it needs to be driven from the business." Additionally, remote work may not be as widespread as people be- lieve, she said. Remote work is ir- relevant in the manufacturing and retail sectors, for instance. "It's mainly a North Ameri- can issue," said Sarauer. "People in other parts of the world like Europe and Asia are a lot more comfortable with the concept of offi ce-based work." Pros and cons of remote work While remote work can improve work-life balance, reduce commuting time and boost productivity, it can also result in longer working hours, higher work intensity and work-home interference, according to Working Anytime, Anywhere: The Effects on the World of Work, a joint report released in February by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions in Dublin and the International Labour Offi ce (ILO) in Geneva, based on the fi ndings of data and research literature in 10 European countries. The fi ndings are, therefore, "highly ambiguous," said the report, and are related to the interaction between the use of telework, the place of work in specifi c work environments, the blurring of work-life boundaries, and the characteristics of different occupations. Moreover, whether telework substitutes for work in the offi ce or supplements it appears to be an important factor. "Partial and occasional forms of telework appear to result in a more positive balance between its benefi ts and drawbacks," said Jon Messenger, team leader of the ILO's working conditions group and co-author of the report. "It seems unlikely that telework will, or should, completely replace work in the offi ce in most organizations, but instead its use on a part-time basis will continue to expand over time." Technological advances and workers' increased desire for control continue to be the driving factors supporting remote work, said the report, while organizational cultures and managerial attitudes continue to slow the adoption of such arrangements.

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