How Canadian business leaders see the return to offices

More than year ago, millions of Canadian employees had to switch to working from home because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

And although it’s not over yet, certain companies start thinking about when to get back to offices, whether it’s necessary at all, and how the working process will change regardless of where the employees are located.

CBC News talked to different business leaders all over Canada to get their opinion on it.

And here what it has found. Small non-profit organizations, promising startups, energy firms and financial giants with tens of thousands of employees shared one similar thought – nothing will be the same.

“There won’t be any one-box solution,” – noted Guy Cormier, CEO of the Montreal-based financial services giant Desjardins.

Desjardins will not call all employees who used to work in the office to come back in. It plans to implement various options. Many employees will return to the office, if they want to and if it makes sense. Meanwhile, some former office workers will stay at home. One more option allows employees to choose the hybrid model, where they combine two locations: home and office.

Large banks, for instance, TD and CIBC plan to increase the amount of work done from home.

Cenovus Energy chooses the hybrid model, so that people could work up to two days a week from home, in case they want to and their job allows it.

Staffing firm Manpower knows for sure that an individual approach is the best solution. “We need to show flexibility in order to attract and retain the market’s top talents”, – said Darlene Minatel, Manpower’s country manager for Canada.

At the same time, insurance giant Sun Life is open to all options as long as the job is done properly. “We’re not implementing any minimum or maximum period for working in office or from home,” – president Jacques Goulet noted. “We don’t even talk about getting back to office — we’re talking about opening our offices for work.”