COVID-19 shutdowns have opened the door to a more long-term working from home strategy for Town of Collingwood staff, a council committee heard last night.
Dean Collver, the town’s executive director of customer and corporate service told the corporate and community services committee last night staff are working on developing a working from home policy and plan.
The plan (and COVID), said Collver, will have an impact on a 2018 accommodation report delivered to council detailing a $20 million plan for building or buying more space to accommodate town staff and customer service. The report, generated by consultants with town staff input, said the town had already outgrown its town hall.
According to the consultant who presented the accommodation review to council, the current town hall was renovated in the 1980s and was made to house 18 staff, three council member offices and meeting rooms. In 2018, the building was housing 31 staff and two meeting rooms.
“Accommodations for staff have been a challenge for a while now,” said Collver. “We have people tucked into, literally, closets.”
Due to COVID and the resulting shutdowns, many town staff have been working from home.
“Not everyone is in love with the idea, but it’s definitely been successful in that we’ve maintained town services,” said Collver.
Town hall has been closed to the public and some services, such as marriage licences or in-person payments, have been suspended.
“There’s definitely been challenges as well. People are living and working in awkward situations,” said Collver, noting town staff are all now accustomed to kids crashing into the background of a video call.
Collver and the rest of town staff are currently devising a plan to re-open town hall to the public.
“It’s something that has to be carefully navigated,” he said. “Our town hall, unlike some in our region, has narrow hallways and small collecting spaces for staff and the public.”
Due to public health recommendations, the town will also look at enhanced cleaning protocols, mask policies, and managing traffic in the staff and public areas of town hall.
“We’re reallocating where we already had an accommodation concern where we didn’t have enough room,” said Collver. “We’re talking about adding the risk of COVID into the situation.”
And so staff are also creating a work from home policy. They have already surveyed employees about their ability to work from home and are conducting further surveys on what the functions of each job are and if they can be managed at home full-time, part-time, or not at all.
“We want to give staff the best opportunity to be successful in their roles,” said Collver, noting that includes social, emotional and physical considerations from the need for collaboration with colleagues, IT support, and the danger of isolation.
The town’s top staff have also turned their attention to the mental health of employees and the negative mental impacts of isolation.
“This is a big conversation,” said Collver. “I think one of the great things that has come out of this is an appreciation for how much we need each other.”
The town has hosted three mental health sessions and provided support to staff through a registered therapist.
“The check-in has indicated there are a lot of challenges,” said Collver. “They range in scope from loss of collaboration all the way to feelings of isolation and people who are working, quite honestly, too hard.”
The town’s manager of human resources, Melissa McCuaig also noted mental health is “top of mind” for the town’s staff leadership.
“What we have done is try to promote opportunities to connect with each other,” said McCuaig.
The town has had staff running online yoga sessions for other employees. Parks staff held a session on how to prepare your garden for spring, and water staff taught other employees how to unclog their sink.
Working from home would also require some changes in IT support, according to Collver, and for the town to determine where its responsibilities lie when it comes to home office supplies and equipment.
“There are lots of concerns and considerations we have to put into play,” he said. “Now we are putting this into play, in some form, against a $20 million plan, so there’s some latitude there.”
Being forced to work from home has also reopened the discussion around accommodation needs.
“We’re having to challenge all the assumptions that were made in the 2018 accommodation master plan,” said Collver. “In part because there’s an opportunity to do so. We’ve now practiced working from home. We know what our capacity is there, and we also know some of the challenges that come with that.”
Collver was presenting a verbal update to the council committee and said he and staff would come back with more information on the work-from-home policy development and the town’s accommodation needs at a later date.
In the meantime, finance staff will likely be the first department returning to their offices at town hall, according to Collver.
Staff are also working to restore council chambers for possible future meetings depending on how long the state of emergency remains in place.
