City of London committee looking at work from home options

A woman works on a computer in a home office in this undated image.

Exeter, Ont. -

London’s Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee is discussing a recommendation to make potential changes to the city’s work from home plan.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, remote work or working from home was implemented where possible for city staff, as a temporary measure.

The Alternative Work Strategies (AWS) master plan being discussed includes results from a staff survey where according to the report, respondents indicated an overwhelming positive experience while working from home during the pandemic and a desire for a permanent long-term strategy.

The survey identified that 73 per cent of staff who responded are working from home, 17 per cent are working partially from home and 10 per cent are not working from home.

(Source: City of London Master Accommodations Plan update for Alternative Work Strategies)Of the people who responded to the survey, 52 per cent said going forward, they could work from home daily and still be productive at their job, 19 per cent indicated they could be productive staying home three days a week.

The AWS master plan indicates that the implementation of an alternative work strategy is multifaceted and would require several elements to be taken into consideration.

These include but are not limited to:

The development of protocols to support individual employees requiring accommodations

Continue to evolve the IT strategy to allow for technology integration (e.g., remote technologies)

The development of processes and procedures to further support alternative work strategies

(Source: City of London Master Accommodations Plan update for Alternative Work Strategies)By adopting alternative work strategies, the City of London says it will be in a better position to respond to future pandemics and outbreaks.

Reductions in capital and operating cost could be realized, according to the report, along with the elimination of costs for leased office space.

With the adoption of AWS, some of the potential cost savings would be offset by incremental investment required to support new policies, procedures, and additional technology enhancements that may be required for long term implementation.