Human Resources Support for COVID-19 and Beyond

June 23, 2020

Well, hasn’t the last few months been interesting…and exhausting, and difficult, and scary, and crazy, and boring, and exciting, and challenging…the list could go on and on! I can honestly say after 20 years working in Human Resources, the last few months have challenged me in ways I could not have imagined as I’m sure they did you too!

Whew…Covid-19, you’ve been a ride so far!

March started with trying to figure out what steps and protocols clients needed to put in place to reduce the risk of COVID-19 and then shifted to closures, layoffs, transitioning to a work from home model, and pivoting business models to stay afloat. Then on top of that, trying to understand the programs being offered to businesses while information changed daily. What’s better the wage subsidy, the work-sharing program, full-layoffs? It was tough to keep on top of the information never mind supporting owners with decisions on which way to go without ever feeling like all the information was available or that there was time to delay a decision. I had people phoning me daily in tears or mad as hell, their frustration, concern, and fear getting the best of their emotions. But you know what, we made it. They made it. Every client found a way to make the best decisions they could for their employees and for their businesses, with the information they had. What was truly amazing was to see how much business owners cared for their employees and were doing what they could to ensure their people, their work families, were going to be ok.

Now, I won’t bombard you with more COVID-19 stuff, we have all been the recipients of emails from every place, person, and business we’ve ever accessed giving us COVID-19 updates. I have been working with my clients over the last few weeks on recalling employees, developing new safety protocols and procedures, and creating return to work plans, so if you do have any questions, or would like assistance with any challenges you are still facing or re-opening plans you need to make, please reach out to me anytime.

As Spring comes to an end our communities are re-opening and businesses are still faced with many Human Resources challenges.

Who do we recall first?
Will there be permanent layoffs?
Do we have the right policies and procedures in place?

Many companies are using this time as a re-start or refresh. If you are thinking that it might be time to do things a bit differently but aren’t sure what that might look like…let’s have a virtual coffee. I can help take the development of tools, policy, communication, etc. off of your plate so that you can focus on your business operations.

Now, blog posts are supposed to be informative, right? So here are some things to keep in mind as you are re-opening or recalling your employees:

an employee’s temporary layoff time counts towards their tenure
the temporary layoff period has been extended, beyond the 13 weeks, to two weeks after the Public Health Emergency is lifted
if you are in the unfortunate position of conducting permanent layoffs, ensure you are meeting your obligations under Provincial Employment Standards
the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) is still available and can be applied for retro-actively
you have obligations to your employees under Occupational Health and Safety that need to be met, be sure that you are doing everything required to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 in your workplace

Let’s Continue Our Growth

“Inclusion is not a matter of political correctness. It is the key to growth.” — Jesse Jackson

I’m proud of us, all of us, for showing resilience, compassion, and creativity. We have a new opportunity now in light of the awareness that #blacklivesmatter has created. It’s time to challenge how we think, how we work, and how we live. It’s time to take a deeper look at the issues of diversity and inclusiveness, get out of our comfortable bubbles, learn more, and work to do things differently. If you need a trusted partner to assist your organization with these discussions, CoHR Solutions will be there for you!