We want to start by thanking everyone who took the time to share their thoughts on the conclusion of the Flexible Work Initiative Pilot. We had a significant response, with 479 employees (approximately 30% of our staff base) across all our locations completing the survey. Your feedback has been incredibly valuable in helping us understand the needs and concerns of our employees as it relates to returning to the office full time.
In anticipation of September 3, we are formalizing an initial action plan to address immediate concerns. Some of the recommendations and associated actions may take us more time to implement and we appreciate your patience as we evaluate and work to implement more significant supports (e.g. noise suppression, additional workstation hardware, parking and transportation support, etc.).
Based on your responses to our survey questions, the following themes have emerged and will be used to guide our action plan:
1. Work-Life Balance and Flexibility
What we heard: Work-life balance is important to you. Flexibility in work arrangements, including hybrid schedules and adaptable start and end times, were frequently mentioned as important for managing personal responsibilities and work-life balance.
What we are doing: We are committed to ensuring you have the flexibility to perform at your best both at work and in your personal life.
We work in different time zones around the world and our operations run 24/7. To maintain consistency in availability and service response, each office will continue to maintain core hours of 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. local time. During these hours, employees are expected to be available. Managers are tasked with working closely with their teams and cross functionally to ensure we meet the needs of both our employees and customers, while also maintaining our commitment to our hours of work standards. Flexibility at DHC means that we expect you to adhere to our core working hours and communicate clearly with your manager when you require flexibility to attend to occasional matters outside these hours.
We also offer a generous number of days for sick leave and vacation leave, with flexible use options that employees can leverage to ensure they are getting the time they need to take care of their family responsibilities as well as their physical and mental health. In instances where you are required to work beyond standard hours to complete specific projects or tasks, managers are expected to work with you to balance this with utilization of our various time away from work (TAFW) options and flexible scheduling when appropriate.
2. Commuting Considerations
What we heard: Concerns about commuting time, alternative work arrangements due to inclement weather, and travel associated stress were highlighted. Your suggestions for mitigating these concerns included considerations for commuting time, partnership with local transit or shuttle services, and ensuring parking availability.
What we are doing: We do not expect our team to travel to the office in poor weather when road conditions are unsafe; therefore, we need to adhere to existing business continuity practices (similar to those that were put in place during the pandemic) and when possible, bring our laptops home each evening. Employees are expected to communicate with their managers if they are unable to attend work due to significant weather events.
We are actively auditing parking options in all locations. We understand there are sometimes a shortage of parking spots, and we will work with parking providers to identify additional spots whenever possible.
3. Health and Well-Being
What we heard: The ability to engage in health-promoting activities was noted. There were some great suggestions for maintaining remote work options during illness and ensuring access to wellness resources when returning to office.
What we are doing: There is no expectation to come to work if an employee is feeling sick or are contagious. If an employee is ill, they are encouraged to utilize their allotted sick days to take appointments, rest and recover. This year, we also enhanced our coverage for mental health resources through our benefits provider. Further, we encourage all employees to take advantage our EFAP to access resources to support their mental, physical, financial health, etc.
4. Office Environment and Amenities
What we heard: Feedback indicated a change to the office space, including noise reduction, ergonomic workspaces, improved amenities in kitchen areas, and private spaces for focused work.
What we are doing: We are actively addressing some issues when it comes to proper amenities in lunch rooms (additional microwaves, fridges, tables and chairs) and we will be connecting with food services in our relevant locations to discussion options for broader service offerings.
Requests to address noise suppression and workstation set up will be discussed during our annual budgeting process; however, if an employee has an immediate need (ie. requires another monitor or their desk/chair is not ergonomic), they are asked to contact their HSE Partner or HRBP for consideration.
5. Communication and Employee Support
What we heard: The need for clear communication and management support during the transition back to the office was emphasized. There were requests for regular organizational and department updates, increased presence from management, as well as opportunities for team and culture building.
What we are doing: By having everyone in the office, with clarity of expectations and regular communication from their leaders, the opportunity for collaboration, connection, and culture building is at its highest. This will be an expectation for all members of our leadership teams.
Further, in the second half of this year, we were happy to introduce social committees at each location. With this initiative formally launched, we encourage all employees to contribute and participate to collectively lead culture change.
Finally, we also look forward to diving into our new company values that were introduced during town halls in June. There will be many opportunities for employees to actively contribute to the development of our DHC culture as we begin to work together more closely, in person.
While we are unable to accommodate every request and suggestion that was made through the survey, the insight we have received is invaluable to helping us best understand how we can support your return to the office.
As an executive team, we are committed to being intentional with this information and providing solutions to identified concerns that may make returning to work a challenge for some of our team members. We are excited to continue to work with you to ensure an effective return to office for all our employees and the organization as a whole.
DHC Executive Team
Team: News
