Overcoming barriers

Performance Concerns

Productivity increases with a balance of working from home and in the office as the best solutions.

Most tech companies/new companies/start-ups have already shown data to increase productivity for their workers when working from home. For municipalities, traditionally, the idea of working from home was not considered either adopted. Nevertheless, in May 2020, municipal teams showed that working from home brings equal if not better results. Municipal World - a Canadian media based in Ontario that works with municipalities delivered a podcast on June 30th - talking with an IT specialist who reveilles that he has seen a significant uptake in productivity across municipal teams who work from home.

The main reasons for increased productivity come from non-office distractions (noise, unnecessary meetings, gossip…), no commute, which retain more workers time in the day and adjust to their personal mental and physical well-being needs that optimize productivity.

Nevertheless, different people have different needs, and some work better in an office environment and set time. A balance is needed, and therefore having an option to split the week with days in the office and days working from home might be the right solution.

That is why municipalities are looking to adopt policies that can combine both. Stuart Leatherdale, Divisional Director, Corporate & Protective Services, says the City of Kelowna is developing phased plans to return all of their staff to the workplace, but, at the same time, they are also working on a policy that will see some staff work from home ongoing.

Shifting Measures of Success, Managing Outcomes -

The productivity measures need to be adjusted from working hours to projects deliverables & due dates. If projects/ deliverables are on time and within budget - does not matter if the work is done from 8:30 to 5:00 p.m. every day.
Spreadsheet with deliverables and due dates will help both employees and employers to stay on track. Regular virtual meetings and checkups are also essential.

Trust Issues

Understanding employee own particular situations/needs
Set clear expectations - employees to share daily accomplishments; or end-of-week digest
Regular meetups/virtual video calls
Team chat tools help foster a culture of transparency (Slack, Teams, Zapier…)
Virtual lunch/coffee time
Tracking tools: Trello, in Google Docs, in Zendesk, in Salesforce, in Jira, in GitHub

New technology, training, skills

Dismantle barriers between IT, HR, and staff
Digital skills training for managers and employees
Learning Management Systems (LMS)
Video-conferencing tools (Skype, Zoom, GoToMeeting)
Create and maintain a bank of job aids and learning materials like short videos or infographics
Make feedback a core part of training strategy