Navigating the evolving world of work
Influenced by technological advances, societal changes, and global economic trends, the employment landscape and world of work is in a state of flux. This is creating both opportunities and challenges for organizations, including WorkSafeBC. From the future of skill development to embracing an innovative work model, this article explores how we are advancing organizational effectiveness and employee experience while remaining agile in an evolving labour landscape.
The traditional employer-employee relationship has become more complex, leaving organizations to grapple with intricate issues that require inventive solutions.
"We are looking at our people with a different approach than has traditionally occurred, starting from recruitment and through to retirement," says Niloofer Balsara, Director of Talent and Organizational Effectiveness at WorkSafeBC.
To draw the best people to WorkSafeBC requires a strategic talent lens on key areas, including knowing how employees and career seekers feel about our organization, strengthening growth and development initiatives and opportunities, supporting an evolving work model, establishing comprehensive strategies for equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), and improving internal processes.
Enhancing the employee and candidate experience
Our greatest assets are our employees: Every day, they bring our values of integrity, compassion, accountability, respect, and excellence to life.
"We understand what people desire in a candidate and employee experience," says Kerri Buschel, Senior Director of Marketing and Communications and Chief Experience Officer. "We continually strengthen how our organization engages and connects with our employees, so they feel heard, supported, and empowered. We know it's only through this strong engagement that employees feel confident providing the best possible stakeholder experience."
It starts with a streamlined and thoughtful journey to improve a candidate's experience — once recruited, we provide employees with a supportive environment and numerous opportunities for personal and professional growth.
"We're supporting our employees by providing professional development, implementing employee well-being programs, and cultivating a culture of recognition in key areas that we believe will enhance the overall experience for both candidates and our employees," adds Niloofer.
Cultivating growth and development
Our positions offer tremendous diversity and excellent opportunities for our employees to grow professionally. We believe a culture of learning is essential to making a difference. We invest in our employees by providing them with robust training programs to learn new skills, fostering mentorship initiatives, offering opportunities to progress in their careers, and exposing them to a variety of career paths within the company. By investing in the professional growth of our workforce, we empower our employees to better handle the challenges and the evolving nature of work.
Embracing a changing work model
The pandemic reshaped the landscape of work, accelerating the adoption of more flexible work arrangements. Three years in, WorkSafeBC offers a hybrid work model, with employees working at home, in the office, and in the field — this allows us to tap into a broader talent pool and helps us support what our employees value as well.
Managing hybrid teams has required a shift in our leadership and communication styles. While we have always focused on providing the right tools and setting clear expectations, we've had to adjust the way we lead those efforts to accommodate the changing model of work. By offering many forums and opportunities for open communication and feedback, and cultivating a sense of belonging with employees, we are able to remain agile and balance the needs of our organization and our employees.
Strategies for equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI)
Equity, diversity, and inclusion are major contributors to creating a healthy and safe workplace and community. We recognize that a commitment to EDI and a respectful workplace shapes our organization's culture. Our approach to advancing EDI includes addressing and transforming systemic challenges and established norms, ultimately fostering a workplace that is both inclusive and diverse. This involves applying fair and unbiased recruitment methods, encouraging diversity of thought, putting all employees through EDI training, initiating targeted leadership development initiatives for marginalized and underrepresented communities, and ensuring safe spaces are available for open and honest conversations about sensitive topics.
Embracing new processes and systems
Technological change and innovation are happening at a rapid rate across all aspects of our lives and work. Being nimble and flexible allows WorkSafeBC to have systems and processes that are effortless to our users. Incorporating automation, the latest technologies, and data-driven decision making to improve the workflows of our back-end system supports our employees' high-priority work to support injured workers.
Meanwhile, we are adopting a consultative approach to talent acquisition by analyzing performance trends and reviewing our candidate experience to continue to enhance our hiring process.
Positioned for success
What does success look like? It lies in a strategic approach that ensures our employees, candidates, and the people we serve feel supported, empowered, confident, and valued.
By concentrating on enhancing our employee and candidate experiences, embracing innovative processes and systems, fostering growth and development, and focusing on equity, diversity, and inclusion, WorkSafeBC is positioning itself for success in a changing talent landscape.
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