Councillors have mixed views on hybrid work model for town staff

Nearly 70 Town of Collingwood staffers currently have hybrid work arrangements with the town, and councillors say they've been hearing about it from residents.

Based on a request by Coun. Chris Potts, the town's executive director of customer and corporate services, Amanda Pegg, gave an update to councillors on Monday (March 6) during their corporate and community services standing committee meeting on the town’s hybrid work model for employees, and not all councillors are fully supportive of staff working from home.

As of now, she said 67 town staff have a remote work agreement in place, which accounts for about 24 per cent of the town’s office workers.

According to Pegg, the policy has also been part of the reason the town has been able to attract many new quality employees.

“A number of new employees that have been recruited to the town reference the policy as one of the key considerations for accepting employment here,” said Pegg. “It’s a very competitive market right now for professional staff, specifically in areas like planning and engineering.”

“One of their first questions is always, what is our remote work policy?” she said.

The town’s remote/hybrid work policy as it stands was last updated Jan. 1, 2022. The policy was put in place following the pandemic. Reasons for the policy include employee retention and attraction, a reduction of environmental impact, and workplace accommodation constraints.

Under the policy, front-line public-facing staff, such as firefighters, are not eligible to participate, and employee eligibility is determined on a case-by-case basis. Employees are monitored and are expected to provide a level of service equal or greater than work provided while at an on-site location. Employees also still undergo regular performance evaluations, and are expected to complete time sheets. She added that no employees are 100 per cent remote, and all are expected to come on-site when required.

“The learnings through COVID were not the sole reason it was recommended and adopted,” Pegg told councillors.

In 2018, an accommodation report completed by the town indicated there was not office space to house all municipal employees. According to the consultant who presented the accommodation review to council at that time, the current town hall was renovated in the 1980s and was made to house 18 staff, three council member offices and meeting rooms.

At the time of the review, the building was housing 31 staff and two meeting rooms, and the need for more space has only grown since then. On Monday, Chief Administrative Officer Sonya Skinner noted that when the pandemic hit in 2020, the town was nearing its accommodation capacity and had started investigating rental rates for other spaces. Since then, the move to allow more remote work taken some of the urgency out of the issue, but the space concern is still looming.

During Monday’s meeting, Pegg said an updated accommodation review would be forthcoming this year. She also provided information on the possibility of moving to a four-day work week. Skinner noted some benefits to offering a four-day work week option would be that the town could offer extended customer service hours.

“I know from a staff perspective, we’re really supportive of remote work, but I’m not sure the public is there yet in terms of their assessment of it,” said Jeffery. “Some of our staff live in the community... and when people see them outside their home during the work day, they don’t understand if it’s a day off or a coffee break, they have no understanding of that.”

“I think sometimes their minds go to worst-case scenario. I do hear a lot about it,” she said.

Jeffery raised concerns about sustainability, and whether a consequence of such a policy could be that people who live in the community would find it harder to get a job in their own town.

“If we continually go outside our community to hire for remote jobs, then will people in Collingwood have to find remote jobs somewhere else?” said Jeffery.

Pegg said hiring decisions at the town are skills-based.

“The best candidate for a job would be short-listed, whether they live in Collingwood or not,” she said.

Jeffery advised caution about remote work.

“We are in the people business,” she said. “We have to be cautious about what we’re doing with that hybrid model because the public loses confidence if they don’t see faces for the things they’re inquiring about.”

Coun. Chris Potts said he was not in support of hybrid work.

“I’m focusing on staff serving the public. We have a large percentage of residents who do not use or have access to social media or rely on email. They feel more comfortable coming to see someone... in the office,” he said. “This has caused a significant divide between remote staff and staff who have to be in the workplace everyday.”

“These days, individuals are struggling. It’s comfortable to know you can walk down the hall and speak to your manager,” he said.

Coun. Deb Doherty said she was generally in support of the town’s hybrid work policy.

“Not only this municipality, but every municipality across Ontario and possibly Canada, is challenged with retention and recruitment. If this is how we can recruit and keep good people, then so be it,” she said.

Deputy Mayor Tim Fryer noted that there has been a change in public perception of hybrid work coming out of the pandemic.

“We’ll never get back to the former way we did things. We’d like to think the benefit of the pandemic is what it taught us, for the benefit of the municipality,” he said.

No decisions were made on changes to the existing policy during Monday’s meeting, however Skinner noted that staff would be looking at possible updates to the policy this year, and would bring any recommendations for changes forward at that time.

“I think it’s really important that we have council’s help to explain what is happening,” said Skinner. “The reason we’ve looked at remote/hybrid work is for the good of the community.”