HYBRID OFFICE HEABC TRANSITIONS TO BECOME A HYBRID WORKPLACE/ ORGANIZATION
and innovative ways, while seeing even greater opportunities for expanding our impact and providing services.
During COVID, HEABC, like other office-based organizations, quickly pivoted to having 100 per cent of our staff working from home. Not only did this approach allow our services to remain largely uninterrupted, but it exposed us as an organization to the opportunities and possibilities of working in new and different ways. The experience of shifting to a fully distributed model required flexibility, quick problem solving, and rapid process improvement. Staff and teams rapidly adopted new ways of working together using our available digital tools.
It was the success that we saw as an organization broadly, and as professionals individually, that drove us to undertake an intentional process to consider our approach to work locations for staff and teams. We assessed each role for work location requirements and engaged individuals and teams around their workflow and personal preferences. We needed to ensure that we protected the organization and our ability to deliver high-quality services and impact for stakeholders and members. We wanted to ensure that staff were recognized for the skills they demonstrated to work in a distributed, remote way. Approximately 86 per cent of our staff have chosen to be hybrid workers, flexing between home-offices, our Renfrew office, client worksites, and other key locations.
Throughout the pandemic, our staff have demonstrated the capacity to be innovative and a commitment to quality improvement. They have developed greater fluency with digital tools and an approach to virtual work. We continue to build the skills necessary to leverage technology to connect us to our diverse and dispersed provincial members, clients and stakeholders. Growing competence in what it takes to optimize hybrid and remote experiences, means that our staff are able to meet client and stakeholder needs in new
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Importantly, in an increasingly challenging labour market, being a fully hybrid organization has enabled us to recruit and retain staff. Transitioning to a hybrid workplace has given employees flexibility in how and where they work, and offers the potential for a better work-life balance.