Remote work during COVID-19 shifting the Sault's workplace paradigm

Working from home has become the new normal for many since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold last year. 

Although the majority of staff at the City of Sault Ste. Marie can’t work remotely due to the nature of their jobs, chief administrative officer for the city Malcolm White said the municipality has been shifting some administrative staff into remote work at different times throughout the pandemic. 

“I would say that all of our administration staff have, at one time or another, worked remotely. So often it’s been a type of thing where people are scheduled in at different times - so they might be working remotely two or three days a week and then the office other days, and other times, they may be working remotely for a more extended length of time, and then they would take a turn being in the office for a certain length of time,” said White. “Really, everyone has worked remotely at one time or another during the pandemic.”

White said the transition to remote work didn’t present the city with any major challenges.  

“We were able to have a fairly smooth implementation of it - our IT department really worked well to make sure people were set up, in short order, at the start of the pandemic,” he said. 

Just last week, the Sault Ste. Marie Chamber of Commerce (SSMCOC) hosted a virtual presentation by Algoma Technology Services President Ian Grant that dealt with working remotely. The event was attended by 30 people from across the Algoma District.

Sault Ste. Marie Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Officer Rory Ring told SooToday that the chamber thought it would be a great opportunity for local businesses to understand what the shift means strategically, and some of the tools that are available to the business community and other stakeholders to support the transition from a technological perspective.

But the transition to remote work has brought about a shift in the workplace that reaches far beyond the technical aspects.

“A lot of those technologies that were sort of early-stage adoption were now being fully implemented within organizations, and that has a whole set of challenges along with it,” said Ring. “And as we’ve moved down this path, we’ve really seen a lot of conversation happen around what does your family life look like? What does your household look like when you move to a remote environment, especially when you’ve got kids?”

The hybrid model of work

Ring said that both SSMCOC and the Ontario Chamber of Commerce have been speaking to businesses across the spectrum, from micro-businesses to corporations. And the chambers are seeing many workplaces adopting what's known as a 'hybrid model.' 

“What we’re seeing is real changes in organizations that are looking to adopt a hybrid model - so that may be all employees coming into work on a scheduled two to three days, and then staying at home on a scheduled two to three days,” said Ring, speaking with SooToday last week. “We’ve seen organizations that are taking segments of their business and actually transitioning them to a fully remote work environment, and what we’re also seeing is that there is some levels of compensation that are being adaptive to remote workforce. If you’re living, say, in downtown Toronto, the cost of living is very, very different there than it is in, say, Sault Ste. Marie.

“So some corporations will make a cost of living adjustment - not all of them, but there is some of that happening out there. This whole transition in moving to the remote workforce for a lot of organizations is, ‘okay, how do we balance our obligations to fulfilling our business plan or our strategic plan, but yet still maintaining our employees’ health and well-being, and productivity?’ I think what we’re seeing starting to project into the future is this notion of a hybrid model.”

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) is phasing in a return to work for approximately 1,200 employees in its Sault Ste. Marie and Toronto offices based on its own hybrid model. 

External communications director Tony Bitonti said that 90 per cent of the roughly 600 employees at the OLG headquarters on Foster Drive have indicated their desire for a hybrid work model.

“We have learned that staff can be productive working from home in certain positions and they have expressed a desire for continued flexibility,” said Bitonti in an email to SooToday Monday. “Management [is] working with staff to develop team charters to determine how often a team member should come into the office. It will depend on the nature of the work.”

The original timeline to start the hybrid model was slated for January, but in light of public health advice due to rising COVID cases and out of an abundance of caution, it’s delaying the start date until at least Feb. 22, the day after Family Day in Ontario. 

“We will continue to closely watch the situation, monitor public health guidance and will update OLG staff accordingly, but we remain hopeful to start the hybrid work model as soon as it is safe to do so,” Bitonti said. 

The future of remote work?

The concept of working remotely has been embraced by the local chamber of commerce, which has been working in a remote, virtual capacity during the pandemic. 

“What we are forecasting for the future is, if we don’t have a physical presence ourselves, we are going to be actually able to engage our membership to a greater extent, because now if we have meetings, we can do it in their place of business. If we need to hold a board meeting or an executive meeting, we can go and utilize one of our board member’s offices," said Ring. "And what we found to date in our inquiries is that our members are more than willing to act as a host for us in their places of business and that actually is a tremendous benefit, because it will, at the end of the day, connect us more to the business community and our membership in the long run. 

“So for us, we are not planning an immediate [return] to physical presence. We’re going to maintain our relationships in the business community from a virtual perspective, but it’s also allowed us to be a little more efficient as well in terms of delivery, because you’re not travelling to meetings, you’re not having lunch meetings and occupying certain parts of the day with non-productive activity.”

During the current state of the pandemic with rising case counts and rates of transmission in the region, the city is making sure that it’s still operating the way they have during the majority of the pandemic. 

White says remote work has become a "very useful tool, to ensure that operationally, work is still able to get done.

“Remote working can be a tool going forward for people to be able to work when they’re maybe having specific issues, whether there’s maybe a childcare issue or something going on that makes it more difficult for them to work on-site. It would be a tool that we can utilize on a case-by-case basis,” White said.