Service Canada provides Canadians with a single point of access to a wide range of government services and benefits. They are committed to improving services for Canadians by working with partners to provide access to the full range of government services and benefits that Canadians want and need through the Internet, by telephone, in person or by mail.
A significant part of the work that Service Canada does is manage Employment Insurance benefits for eligible Canadian’s. In such cases when an employee gets laid off from their employer or gets sick and requires short term disability payments, they would apply for Employment Insurance (EI) benefits.
Service Canada has three offices across Canada that are dedicated to reviewing and processing requests for EI benefits. The staff in these offices are unionized. In each office there are approximately 100 staff who are working in a call center environment answering calls regarding how to apply for EI, calculate how much money callers are eligible to receive, and answer questions regarding the status of the caller’s claim. Each office also has a staff of 30 who are considered adjudicators – these folks are required to analyze any application that is not automatically approved by the system. Their job is to consider all of the details of the application, compare it to the rules and regulations, decide if payment is owed and if so to process the claim for payment.
For over 10 years now it has been common practice for management to offer overtime hours to keep up demand. Although there are regular rounds of hiring new staff turnover is high. Issues include: a very rigorous training phase that must be passed before an actual term of employment is offered (only about 60% of those who are accepted into the training program actually pass the program and obtain employment); exit interviews have indicated that employees left because they found the work environment very rigid wherein coffee breaks and lunch breaks are scheduled leaving very little flexibility in ones workday; employees are required to sign in to and out of their computer every time they come in or step away from their computers as their managers are watching how much “unproductive time” each employee has and will call you in for a performance management meeting if there are more than 5 minutes of unproductive and unaccounted for time per shift; the work is very repetitive and although the call center employees know how to calculate a claim and know the rules regarding the approval of claims they are not permitted to process simple claims for payment – leaving the call center employees feeling frustrated and useless; and there is just more work than there are employees to handle which leaves many employees feeling unsuccessful at the end of the day.
Due to the COVID19 pandemic the federal government has committed to waiving the one-week waiting period for employment insurance to assist workers and businesses affected by the novel coronavirus, and explore other measures to support affected Canadians, including income supports for those who are not eligible for EI sickness benefits.
“I want all premiers and Canadians to know your government is here for you,” Trudeau said. “We will make sure you have everything you need.”
When COVID19 was considered a pandemic, EI workers were deemed essential services – meaning that, despite the circumstances which have prompted other federal departments to essentially close their offices to support social distancing, it is business as usual for the EI employees in the 3 provincial offices.
It has been estimated that over 10,000 Saskatchewan residents who work in the hospitality industry will be out of work within the coming weeks and seeking EI benefits.
Questions
1. If you were the head of Human Resources for the 3 Employment Insurance offices in Canada and were faced with the onset of the COVID19 pandemic, what policy/policies would you want to ensure were in place to meet the mandate of your organization and why? With whom might you consult in the creation of the policies and why? (8 marks)
2. The Regina offices of the adjudicators had been damaged in flood due to a broken pipe. As such, the adjudication teams have been moved to the basement of the building in small rooms. Each team has 6 people (1 team lead and 5 team members), and they are placed in a room so small that one employee previous complained “we are so close to each other we could all hold hands if we wanted to.” On Monday night Michelle (a team lead) calls to say she will no longer be coming to work as it is too dangerous working in such close quarters when people are being asked to social distance. With regard to occupational health and safety, what are the three rights that employees have and please explain if you think Michelle has a right to refuse to come in to work. Why or why not? (7marks)
3. Given that the offices are already reliant on overtime to meet the demands of their clients (this was with an overall unemployment rate that was at an all time low of approximately 4%), we can assume that an influx of new applications from the hospitality industry will exceed their capacity. Further to that, it is anticipated that many industries (i.e. retail workers) will also see great job loss. From a workforce planning standpoint what steps would you recommend the EI management team take to meet the increased demands in both the short and long term? Why? (6 marks)
4. Given the COVID19 virus is now a pandemic and it is consuming our news and social media, what are some things that employers can do to support their staff both physically and mentally? Keep in mind not all employees can afford to be sent home from work without pay and not all work places are well suited to working from home arrangements. Who would be in charge of making these things happen and how would these supports be communicated throughout the organization? (5 marks)
5. Before employees are hired to take part in the 3-month training program to work in the EI area, the applicant must do an online exam that assesses both their math skills and their critical thinking skills. If the applicants pass the exam, they are then invited to a very casual interview where if they are deemed ‘a good fit’ the candidate is conditionally offered a position in the training group pending the successful pass on a criminal record check. Given the high fail rate during the training phase, what are your thoughts on the candidate assessment process from a reliability and validity standpoint? (4 marks)
6. The exit interviews indicate several reasons for employees opting to leave the organization. From a Job Design perspective, what might the employer opt to do in an effort to lower turnover and increase job satisfaction? (5 marks)
** Please note this case study combines both real and fictitious information. This case study was no way was reviewed or approved by Service Canada.