{"id":7929,"date":"2020-05-26T06:41:29","date_gmt":"2020-05-26T06:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.experfy.com\/?p=7929"},"modified":"2023-12-11T14:10:25","modified_gmt":"2023-12-11T14:10:25","slug":"new-reality-how-employers-can-prepare-for-the-future-of-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/future-of-work\/new-reality-how-employers-can-prepare-for-the-future-of-work\/","title":{"rendered":"New Reality: How Employers Can Prepare For The Future Of Work"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Employers across the country have been tasked with reworking their physical workplaces, rethinking <\/a>their customer experience and ramping up their digital capabilities for a future that\u2019s still mired in question marks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For companies that are transitioning out of a significant shutdown, some top priorities include recalling workers and addressing new health and safety measures.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u201cIf employees have been laid off, you\u2019d have to recall them to work formally,\u201d Kathleen Chevalier, a partner at Stikeman Elliott LLP<\/a> who specializes in labour and employment law, said in a phone interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She added it\u2019s also important to formally advise employees coming back to work of any health and safety measures being implemented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside from new policies around physical distancing and other health precautions, Chevalier said the new COVID world might also require an overhaul of work illness policies.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u201cWhat do you do if an employee is feeling unwell? Do you pay them? Do you not pay them? What if it\u2019s a runny nose? You can see how it starts as a snowball and very, very quickly turns into a very, very big snow boulder,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the main concerns Chevalier is fielding from corporate clients across all industries is employee resistance or refusal to come back to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said the reason provided \u2013\u00a0and whether or not that reason is protected under legislation \u2013 \u00a0will ultimately determine how the employer can move forward in addressing the employee\u2019s concern.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Blindsiding employees with layoffs will create a demoralized workforce: Labour lawyer<\/strong><\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Labour lawyer and senior partner at Levitt LLP Muneeza Sheikh discusses how employers should approach layoffs amid the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the reason is not protected by the law, Chevalier said it effectively becomes a choice for the employer whether to accommodate or opt for some form of discipline, termination or leave of absence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs long as your employer is doing what it has to do and keeping the workplace in line with public health and government requirements, and there’s work to be done, the expectation is that you show up to work,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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If businesses plan to keep employees working from home, that might also require an updated policy framework, Chevalier said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose policies consist of the expectation you still work the same number of hours per week, you\u2019re still available between the same working hours, you\u2019re answering your phones, emails and meeting deadlines,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWorking from home can feel very different, but the expectation is that the priority is you\u2019re getting your job done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘New ways of working’<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pandemic has forced many employers to react at breakneck speed, but at the same time has led them to pause and consider how they can emerge better, faster and more efficient.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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A number of big technology companies are now seeing remote work becoming a major \u2013 and in some cases, more permanent \u2013 part of their organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shopify Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tobi Lutke said in a Twitter post Thursday his company is now \u201cdigital by default\u201d as he aims to have most employees working from home on a permanent basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, Twitter Inc.\u2019s Jack Dorsey made waves with his comment on letting some employees work from home \u201cforever.\u201d<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Implementing new technology was a desire and work-in-progress for some companies before the COVID-19 outbreak, but the pandemic has accelerated those plans for many, according to Jeffrey Russell, president of business management consultancy firm Accenture Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s an opportunity to build in new technology and build in new ways of working that make you more agile, cost efficient and resilient,\u201d he said in a phone interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing many industries come to us to talk about not just the customer experience, but also the back end in terms of enabling functions to rethink how they use things like artificial intelligence to be more predictive around making decisions, how do we use automation to take fundamentally non-value adding activities out of the core business and allow those people to do more strategic things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether it\u2019s building out digital channels, finding new ways to reach the consumer directly or improving the customer experience, Russell said many leaders are moving quicker, allowing them to \u201cleapfrog\u201d ahead of their competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russell added innovation and technology are playing a big part in \u201cvariablizing\u201d cost structures and helping companies move away from larger, fixed expenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think getting \u2018future ready\u2019 means getting greater insight into the art of the \u2018possible\u2019 in terms of what might change with your customer and employees \u2013 and start to purposefully test out new propositions,\u201d he said. \u00a0<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For companies that are transitioning out of a significant shutdown, some top priorities include recalling workers and addressing new health and safety measures. Aside from new policies around physical distancing and other health precautions, the new COVID world might also require an overhaul of work illness policies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":812,"featured_media":7930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[108,217],"ppma_author":[3653],"class_list":["post-7929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-future-of-work","tag-future-of-work","tag-new-reality"],"authors":[{"term_id":3653,"user_id":812,"is_guest":0,"slug":"michelle-zadikian","display_name":"Michelle Zadikian","avatar_url":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Michelle-Zadikian-150x150.jpg","user_url":"http:\/\/www.bnnbloomberg.ca\/","last_name":"Zadikian","first_name":"Michelle","job_title":"","description":"Michelle Zadikian is TV Writer & Radio Reporter at BNN Bloomberg, Canada's only television service devoted exclusively to business and finance news with wall-to-wall coverage of the markets."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/812"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7929"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34842,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7929\/revisions\/34842"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7929"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=7929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}