AN EMPLOYER'S OBLIGATION TO EMPLOYEE WELLNESS

An Employer’s Obligation To Employee Wellness

HAPPY EMPLOYEES, HAPPY CUSTOMERS

by: Erin King

Most people understand what is expected of them at work.

Show up on time, complete your tasks, treat your colleagues with respect, take your allotted breaks, and clock out when you are done.

Employers have handbooks and training sessions that clearly outline what they require from their employees, but what about flipping the script and outlining what employees can expect from them?

What exactly is an employer's obligation to its employees, on a deeper level? What should be expected, especially after all the recent changes to a standard workplace environment over this pandemic.

Given the long history, from Ontario Factories Act of 1884, Ontario’s first statute to regulate hours of work, to the most recent changes to the ESA in 2014 and 2015, what does it look like now? What will it look like five or ten years from now? With the work/life balance substantially skewed, adding pressures like caring for our children while working, or worse, employers not attracting people to work for them. This is the time for employers to redefine what commitment to wellness in the workforce they will uphold, beyond the standard ESA expectations.

Knowing that most employees, regardless of position, will be walking that work/life tightrope, what considerations should be deployed by all employers?

There are some existing basic guidelines that outline an employer's obligations:

Be aware of new information as it emerges and support employees in following all protocols.

Increase deep cleaning procedures and make sanitizing products available to everyone. home whenever possible.

Promote social distancing in the office.

Avoid having unnecessary visitors in the workplace.

Guarantee a sick leave policy that encourages people to report illness and comfortably take time off when sick.

Beyond the bare minimum, what additional measures should companies be reviewing to create an atmosphere of wellness?

According to Murray State University Study in Spring 2018 by Jeremy Nelson: “Workplace wellness programs can be cost effective and beneficial to many if implemented properly. Research has been conducted on costs, benefits, barriers, to participation with insight on how programs are beneficial. However, if not properly

implemented, success cannot be obtained.”

We can likely all agree that there are challenges from both the employers and the employees’ circumstances. For employees, balance has certainly shifted. Nearly everyone is conducting some form of work, school, and household obligations all simultaneously throughout the day, stretching each day longer and longer. Burnout for many is inevitable. For employers, perhaps if you’d implement programs that are more conscientious to potential employees, you might not have difficulties finding people, let alone keeping them.

For those employees with children, schooling, daycare, and other care options have been severely limited, leaving many forced to homeschool and care for small children while also working.

One of the largest ways that an organization can ensure a more wellbalanced employee is to encourage and display flexibility.

By breaking up the workday or having flexible start and end times, employers

Allowing staggered starts so that some employees can begin their days earlier (as early as 6:00 a.m., perhaps for those bright morning people) might be a way to space out workplace numbers by having less overlap at the beginning and the end of the day.

Introducing more generous sick leave benefits would allow people who get sick to stay home rather than push through it to avoid financial or professional penalties. This is also imperative to keeping the workforce healthier, not spreading illness, and creating more peace of mind among all.

Minimum regulations are a good start for keeping employers on the right track, but there is still a way to go to create a truly healthy environment for the people who give so much of themselves so a company can thrive.

Employers need to be mindful of the changes that have occurred in everyone’s lives and begin making the necessary policy changes that will provide a more welcoming, supportive, and ultimately successful environment.

Organizations should consider asking the following questions to determine

What is your organization doing to make remote working arrangement more seamless, secure, and sustainable?

Is your organization making a conscious effort to monitor how your people are responding to remote work, and adjusting as needed?

How are you reinventing your various policies that used to be tied to a physical workspace, for example expanding your recruitment efforts beyond your existing geographical area, or using more immersive technologies to build new company cultures?

Sources:

https://www.torys.com/insights/publications/2020/03/ covid-19-and-the-workplace

https://www.osler.com/en/resources/regulations/2020/ covid-19-quick-reference-considerations-for-employers

https://www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/about/cwr_ interim/chapter_5_1.php

https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/cgi/ viewcontent.cgi?article=1120&context=bis437