Planning to return some of our employees to the office is important to ensure a long-term, sustainable work plan. The solutions we put in place to get people home were done in a time of great need, with sustainability and in many cases, quality, sacrificed for speed and safety. While things continue to work, they are doing so in a time when our call volumes are varying dramatically across the business, and when employees are working very flexible schedules and not all relying on our systems at the same time. Once we return to normal business volumes, our current solutions will not be sustainable if our entire workforce continues to rely on reaching our systems remotely.

It is important to remember that as an essential service, our OGC offices never completely closed. Essential roles and staff who could not do their jobs from home have remained onsite at both Northfield and Randall. Now, as the provinces slowly begin to lift restrictions and reopen services, proper planning is key to ensuring our return to the office plans focus on the continued safety and wellbeing of our employees, while at the same time minimizing disruption to our members. By talking about our plans and setting them to activate once certain criteria is met, we are ensuring we are prepared to respond to this very fluid situation when things change and our call volumes return to normal.

For larger organizations that rely on elevators and large group or hotel style workstations, implementing a sustainable working environment that respects social distancing is very challenging. That is the reality of many of our neighbouring workplaces and partners, such as Manulife and Sunlife. At OGC, we have buildings that allow us to implement the safety guidelines recommended by health authorities, including proper social distancing of workstations. It is also important to remember that even at our max, the OGC plan keeps a significant number of our workforce (almost 50%) at home to ensure those guidelines continue to be met.

Each team will require onsite management supervision, once employees begin returning to the office. We encourage you to work with your LT member to determine which managers will return, and when.

We are considering Cambridge and Edmonton as part of our return to the office planning. The opening of these buildings will be determined by business need and guided by public health authorities.

The health and wellbeing of our employees continues to be our top priority. With this in mind, we have made several changes/additions to our offices in preparation for our employees’ return. This includes:

• Limiting the number of employees who will be returned to the office, so we can ensure proper social distancing of employee work/desks.

• Workstations used by staff sanitized nightly.

• Hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes available at all locations, with additional hand sanitizer dispensers installed in the Northfield and Randall offices.

• Microbial-resistant paint on handrails in stairwells.

• Steam cleaning of all chairs.

• Disposable toilet seat cover dispensers installed.

• Non-surgical face masks available onsite which can be worn when six feet social distance may not be possible in areas such as stairwells.

• All workstations and office desks were sanitized after all work from home staff transitioned.

• Non-essential building services suspended until further notice (plant service, shredding service, mat service, etc.).

• Places of gathering (cafeteria, patio, sofa area, etc.) are not available to staff. Cafeteria chairs, kitchenette bar stools and patio furniture temporarily removed.

• New sanitized coffee machines being swapped out for current machines that aren’t being used.

• 72” partitions on end of aisles/hallways, as needed, at Northfield.

• 12” risers on top of cubicle walls along main corridors as needed for Northfield and Cambridge.

• Day Porter Service (4x daily) focusing on sanitizing all high touchpoints, washrooms and kitchenettes multiple times in a day at our Northfield and Randall offices.

Not at this time. Provincial guidelines only recommend temperature checks if social distancing can not be maintained in a workplace, such as factories or processing plants. Given that our return to the office plan includes proper social distancing of work spaces and employees, this isn’t something we will be implementing at this time.

Given that staff will be identified based on criteria, such as technology or productivity challenges in a work from home environment, returning to the office when requested will not be voluntary. As managers, it is important to emphasize with your staff what OGC is doing to make that return safe. We have taken many steps to prepare our offices for a safe return of employees, many of which exceed government requirements. We will also be bringing people back in a way that prioritizes limiting the number of staff so we can ensure proper social distancing of employee work spaces. If you have an employee who is still expressing concerns about a return to the office, please reach out to your LT member or Human Resources for additional support.

Our return to office plan will take a very methodical, organized and staggered approach; one that focuses on the health and wellbeing of our employees. We have taken many steps to prepare our offices for a safe return of employees, many of which exceed government requirements. We will also be bringing people back in a way that prioritizes limiting the number of staff so we can ensure proper social distancing of employee work spaces.

Taking into account the required floor space to ensure employees remain dispersed/distanced throughout the available work spaces, we anticipate we have the capacity to return up to 50% of our employees to our offices. This does not mean we will return the maximum number of people, only that this is what our floor plans will permit. The remainder of our employees will continue to temporarily work from home until social distancing is no longer required.

No. There are some teams that are highly productive in a home office setting and have minimal reliance on the VPN or other OGC systems. These teams will temporarily remain at home so that their desk/office space can be used for employees who require a return to office in order to be fully productive from either a technology or a role perspective.

Once the provincial state of emergency is lifted, we expect our initial return to work to take a minimum of eight to 12 weeks to complete.

Given our need to ensure proper social distancing between workspaces, employees may not be returning to the same desk that they left. Some staff may need to work at different desks, and in some cases may be asked to work on a different floor or office than they did before.

Similar to the work from home scenario, staff who need assistance returning their equipment can make arrangements with Facilities to pick up their equipment and return it to the office. Employees will then be responsible to set up their equipment at their assigned desk upon return. Managers or their designate will be responsible to validate that all equipment has been returned. If any items are missing or not in working order due to carelessness, it will be up to the manager to work with HR to determine if the cost of the item will be deducted from the employee’s pay. In addition, once items have been returned to the office, employees will not be permitted to take them home again (for example, monitors and docking stations can’t be taken back and forth between the office and home).

Please thank them for letting you know and reinforce that the work from home framework is currently being developed. At this time, please remind your employees that no decisions have been made regarding any employees working from home permanently, but more information will be coming shortly. It is important to level set expectations of employees wishing to work from home permanently, as there is a lot to consider before making those decisions and not everyone who wants this solution will be a good candidate for a permanent work from home setup.

We are working on the framework in collaboration with our return to the office plans and hope to have something shortly to share with the management team.

Our permanent work from home solution will be based on a framework. That framework will set out clear guidelines as to which roles and employees would be considered in a permanent work from home situation. If the individual and their role falls within these guidelines, they will be considered.

This would be considered as part of your decision-making process as to who returns to the office, and when. The same considerations would be given for someone who is productive at home, but would have childcare challenges if returned to the office before schools/daycares/summer camps are reopened.

Our current work from home solution is a temporary measure, designed to protect the safety and well-being of our employees during the COVID-19 response. It is our full intention to have employees return to the office once the crisis has passed. With this in mind, equipment such as sit/stand desks and other office equipment will not be provided to employees temporarily working from home.

As an executive team, ensuring we are addressing the unique needs presented by this pandemic while remaining a fair and equitable workplace is a difficult balance that we are trying hard to maintain. Our goal is to have as many employees as possible completing their seven-hour work day. With this in mind, the five hours is not an OGC wide message, but instead a guiding principle for you, as a manager, to use when knowing how much flexibility you can give to your employees who have workflow or childcare challenges.

We understand the current situation is challenging for many of our staff, especially those who work in the call centres and have technical or childcare issues. For any of your employees who cannot commit to a minimum of five hours a day, please work with Human Resources to find a temporary part-time solution that they can maintain during this situation.

As each of these situations are unique, we would ask that you work with your employee and Human Resources to develop a plan that works for everyone.

Each of these situations will be managed individually, on a case-by-case basis. If you have an employee who has cited health concerns, or who is unable to work from home, please reach out to Human Resources and your leadership team member for further direction.

Each of these situations will be managed individually, on a case-by-case basis. Please reach out to Human Resources and your leadership team member for further direction.