EllisDon on Workforce Agility & Post-Covid Future (2 min read)

Experiencing a pandemic and re-evaluating priorities go hand in hand. As leaders, individuals and businesses, this year has made each of us realize the need to adapt, persevere, and navigate in the virtual world. More than ever before, we’ve come to realize how much technology has become intertwined in our everyday lives. Hatch takes a look at how businesses are preparing their workforce for what lies ahead in a Post-covid “normal” world.

The demand for change has been rapid. Organizations have fast-tracked being remote-ready, scrambled to keep close virtual-ties with teams when assessing critical support and resource needs, and updated inclusion policies...all while realigning priorities to refocus on their revised vision of the future. As leaders pause to evaluate their organization’s cultural strengths to rapidly realize such change; a silver lining has highlighted the importance of organizational agility and how technology literacy amongst employees is now at the heart of facilitating it.  

EllisDon is paving the way as an industry leader by championing this organizational agility, which begins with nurturing a culture of open dialogue to guide such change. Ensuring smooth transition is done by being sensitive not just to the needs of their employees, but to their employees' family members as well. From Ottawa to Halifax, Tory Smith (People & Culture, EllisDon) is supporting a team across Canada in how to work remotely and maximize their digital potential. All this with an eye on the impact that remote policies also play on families. They’ve partnered with Hatch to help realize this.

"When I heard about offering coding literacy as an employee benefit to support parents at EllisDon, it automatically tied in with the WorkPerks program already in place, and with the internal support resources that we had already been guiding the team towards" said Tory.

With remote tech-skills, mental health resources, safety and inclusion initiatives all being part of the conversation, Tory was able to include Hatch's Summer Teams Event as an opportunity for employee parents to take advantage of while working remotely with kids at home.

"As local People & Culture are already in close discussion with our teams, we leveraged that and included this in individual and general emails to the team providing a combination of resources” Tory explained.

After circulating the Hatch Summer Teams invitation to EllisDon employees, parents contacted Hatch

directly.

“All in all it was really easy and simple. I was worried though that our team, especially parents, would be too overwhelmed by information with everything right now to take advantage of the resource. But in just two and a half weeks we got 7 sign ups!” shared Tory.

Just as the sum is made up of its parts, an organization is made up of its people. Businesses with a workforce open to inter-departmental tech adoption will benefit most from the profound impact AI has on driving the digital economy. Businesses doing this in a fashion that includes family has the potential to make it even more positive and profound as businesses in closing the tech-gap and building their future pipeline for digital talent.

"Making coding a normalized skill set for students and children will have benefits to corporations. In the long term, these young people are learning a skill that is valuable to the future of businesses and how they adapt and develop their own technology. In the short term, it is making computer and coding literacy more commonplace in our homes. Understanding the fundamentals of coding isn't just for the developers and the IT groups, it can be for everyone." Tory said.

Technology may not have penetrated everyday work to the full extent possible, but it is clear that digital talent is no longer confined to the IT department. Companies who realize this and ongoingly invest in upskilling employees are reaping the benefits of increased innovation and efficiency. Industry leaders are seeing tech literacy as an asset, not an option - a transformational opportunity rather than a cost. Those leaders, individuals and businesses, adopting rather than resisting tech with a culture of continuous learning will be the ones agile and able enough to set the benchmark for others to follow.

Written By: Manon Buckingham

References:

• Harvard Business Review, (April 01, 2016), Which Industries Are the Most Digital (and Why)?
• McKinsey & Company Research, (Dec 01, 2015), Digital America: A tale of the haves & have-mores.
• McKinsey & Company Research, (Dec 01, 2015), Industry Digitization Index

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