Workspace accommodation woes could be a barrier to federal civil servants returning to the office full-time, HR professionals say. Earlier this month, the Treasury Board said the federal government “intends to increase the on-site presence of executives and employees who are eligible for hybrid work,” with executives expected to return to the office full-time starting […]
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Workspace accommodation woes could be a barrier to federal civil servants returning to the office full-time, HR professionals say.
Earlier this month, the Treasury Board said the federal government “intends to increase the on-site presence of executives and employees who are eligible for hybrid work,” with executives expected to return to the office full-time starting May 4, and all other employees expected to be in the office four days a week starting July 6.
While the idea of going back to working in the office full-time may have seemed unlikely a few years ago, the tide is turning, especially as more private companies reduce the number of employees who work remotely.
So, could the federal government have its entire workforce back in the office full-time?
Sure, HR experts say – but some changes need to be made.
Jesika Arseneau, founder of Ottawa-based HR firm Forge & Haven, said she was surprised to see the recent announcement that most federal employees would be expected to work in the office four days a week.
“Candidly, a lot of the feedback that I've heard from clients (and) people in my network is that the three-day requirement is already straining the logistics that are in place. There's already workstation shortages. People are spending a significant amount of time in the mornings when they go into the office, having to search for a place to set up and work,” Arseneau told OBJ.
She said that while it’s possible the feds may mandate a five-day-a-week return to the office, they need to be clearer on their workplace accommodation strategy.
“It would require a lot of infrastructure expansion and changing how things are working. I think that mandating presence is not the same as actually having collaboration and connection, and so people need to be going in with purpose. (Having) a dedicated workspace makes a huge difference in (quelling) any resistance to that sort of on-site presence,” Arseneau said.
If not, the government may see more pushback from employees, she argues.
“We’ve already seen a lot of negative reactions with the introduction of the four-day (in-office work schedule). I think it ties back to how that sort of change is communicated … If you are able to communicate what something looks like as it’s actually rolled out, rather than only (giving) the date, I think people are a lot more likely to support that decision,” she said.
If workplace accommodations aren’t sorted out by the time federal employees start working in the office four days a week, and possibly five days a week at some point, culture and trust will take a hit.
“It’s really hard to build a collaborative culture when you’re only focused on compliance. You need to intentionally build a space where people feel valued, where they have a sense of belonging and a shared purpose. When people don’t have their own workspaces to store their items … it does not contribute to that sense of belonging. There’s definitely a cascading effect from that, possibly eroding trust,” Arseneau said.
Disgruntled employees may start looking elsewhere for employment, she warned.
“There’s already so much uncertainty, when you tie that in with (the fact that) people are also dealing with the workforce adjustment notices (and) budget cuts,” she said. “I’ve definitely been receiving more referrals from people who are interested in having conversations about what work outside of government could look like.”
Carol Ring, founder and CEO of The Culture Connection, said the government’s decision to increase the number of days employees are expected to work in the office is not surprising.
“This is a continuing trend that I’ve seen where more and more organizations are asking for employees to be in the office more,” she said.
Thinking about whether the government would go back to a full in-office work model, Ring said it’s still finding its groove.
“Everybody was in-office before COVID. We’re seeing it swinging back (the other way). This is the big experiment everybody’s going with to try to find that balance between the flexibility that employees are looking for and what the organization feels it needs in order to be successful.
“I think we probably will swing all the way back to five days, and then we may see the pendulum swing back as they see how things play out,” Ring explained.
Increasing the number of days in the office for federal employees will exacerbate the government’s current issues with workplace accommodations, Ring added.
“Two days a week is a very interesting concept, because you, you're likely not, you likely can manage it so that you don't have everybody coming in on the same day,” she said.
“When you get to three days a week, then there's overlap. So, four days a week is going to be even more overlap. I think the organization really needs to have a good plan for how they're matching the physical footprint to the number of employees that are going to be on site, and if the experience gets worse and worse as people return to work, then the resistance is going to be higher.”
For Karen Craft, founder of Ottawa-based HR firm CraftXecs, federal workplaces aren’t any different than private-sector workplaces, and decisions around the way they work shouldn’t be different either.
“If businesses are asking their workforces to return to the workplace, and it's really about staying ahead of the competition, I don’t know why we keep thinking the federal government needs to behave any differently. They make decisions that affect our competitiveness as a country and they also need to re-invent how they’re doing business,” she said.
Craft added that the federal government has faced scrutiny over declining productivity, something that will only get worse unless a change is made.
“Businesses have to do something about that when it happens to them and the federal government needs to do that as well. They need a more aligned workforce. They need a healthier workplace culture, and that requires in-person connection,” Craft argued.
Still, Craft said a lack of infrastructure could remain a hurdle to implementing a full return to the office for federal workers. However, there may still be room for flexibility, she added.
“Clear and measurable objectives, period,” Craft said of how to achieve flexibility. “If you know where you’re going, what your metrics are and what success looks like, you can build in flexibility because you’re going to get to where you need to go. But I think we can’t look at flexibility in isolation of what success looks like.”
