How federal government departments are adjusting to new hybrid work rule
Monday to Friday, 9-to-5 era appears over, says Dalhousie professor
Some federal departments already have employees working in the office two or three days per week, but others have to take stock of the Treasury Board directive to shift thousands of employees in that direction.
Treasury Board president Mona Fortier announced Dec. 15 that the core public administration — some 254,000 people, 47 per cent of whom are located in the National Capital Region — will be required to spend 40 to 60 per cent of their schedule working on-site rather than at home.
After a half-year pilot period, Fortier explained "some organizations [were] applying in-person and others weren't doing it the same way," so the common directive was needed to ensure fairness, equity and consistency. The move has been blasted by public service unions, which argue it is restrictive and being imposed unilaterally even though many employees are working well from home.
CBC News asked the Treasury Board directly which departments did not already require employees to go to the office two to three days a week, but had to ask departments individually for current policies.
Some departments have easy transition
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED), the Department of Finance Canada, Natural Resources Canada, and Statistics Canada reported their current setups are already mostly in line with the new direction.
The media relations office for ISED, for instance, reported the department staggered its return to the office over four groupings in September and October. Most of its employees already work in person two to three days a week, and shouldn't see much change in 2023.
Statistics Canada said its employees are fully equipped for both settings, and offices have quiet rooms and "collaborative spaces" in addition to the traditional boardrooms and individual desks.
National Defence is a large department with thousands of civilian staff, and has noted more than half of its public service workforce never went online, or had already begun a hybrid arrangement before departmental experiments began last summer.
Larger transitions for others
Many other core departments appear to have some larger transitions ahead.
The largest core department, Employment and Social Development Canada, launched its flexible model in September that sees some employees working predominantly off-site, some working on-site, and others doing a hybrid of the two.
After its own experiments with hybrid models this fall, the Correctional Service of Canada has told employees who are mostly working from home they will have to work on-site three days per week. Canadian Heritage, meanwhile, will set its expectations at two days per week, up from the single day required since September.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada notes many of its employees stayed in the field or on ships during the pandemic. For those with a hybrid arrangement, many are working in person one to two days a week.
Environment and Climate Change Canada and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada each report employees have been encouraged to work from the office more as COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted, and an increasing number have done so.
Other departments, including Public Services and Procurement Canada and the Department of Justice told CBC they have flexible hybrid models and are now reviewing the new approach in order to implement it.
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is by far the largest "separate" agency outside of the core public service, and it intends to follow the Treasury Board's instructions, even though it's not mandatory.
"As we are confident that the benefits of increased in-person collaboration will help strengthen our organization and culture, employees will be required to work a minimum of two days per week in person," CRA told CBC in a statement.
End of traditional work week
For a professor who has studied hybrid workplaces in the public sector, this all means the traditional Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. work week is likely over, replaced by a model that is inherently flexible and mixing the benefits of both in-person and remote work.
Still, the transition to move tens of thousands of employees back to offices by March 31 could be rushed, and could have been better communicated, notes Jeffrey Roy, a professor in the school of public administration at Dalhousie University, who teaches students from across the country.
Challenges include technology and making sure public servants can have a "seamless experience," whether they're working from the office or home, he said.
Culture is another issue, as Roy said the public service management can still have a traditional mindset that wants to see employees working in person.
"One of the messages I'm hearing is that the more senior you are, the more time you're expected to be in the office and I think that's kind of the danger in terms of limiting the cultural shift ... of embracing hybrid," said Roy, who encourages senior leaders to embrace the hybrid model at all levels.
While department leaders will need to sort out many aspects of this new one-size-fits-all model, Roy said it appears to be a "healthy [embrace] of a new balance" for the public service.
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With files from Matthew Kupfer