Posted at 7:00 a.m.
Incentives to come to the office
How do you convince an employee who likes to work in slippers in his living room and sleep an extra hour in the morning? It needs formal incentives like rewards and perks, concludes the Guide, written after consulting and surveying downtown employers and landlords last June.
“At the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal, where three days a week are mandatory, we pay for the OPUS card to those who come for four days or more, explains Michel Leblanc, President and Chief Executive Officer, in an interview. These employees also have assigned workstations and do not need to put their belongings back in a locker at the end of the day. »
The fluidity of the journey to come to the office
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
To provide public transport services in the city centre, companies must communicate to the public authorities the need to maintain the offer at a high level.
“When companies survey their staff, [les travailleurs] say: “I’m ready to come back if the trip goes well. I want the office to be pleasant and safe, but if it’s to beat me to travel that ruins my day, that doesn’t interest me,” says Michel Leblanc.
In an ideal world, everyone would opt for public transit. However, the frequency of the service is no longer the same and the transport companies no longer have the income from before the pandemic. The president of the CCMM therefore encourages companies to clearly communicate to the public authorities the need to maintain the public transit service offer. “It requires sustained support from the Government of Quebec and Canada,” he says.
For employees who are not yet comfortable returning by metro, access to the city center and parking lots must be fluid. The Guide advises the City of Montreal to reconnect with its idea of having real-time information on available parking space and to create agreements with private parking lots so that rates are reasonable. Currently, the costs are $25 a day, a price that demotivates workers.
Meeting post-pandemic needs
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Place of rest that defines the spaces of each
The Guide suggests that employers focus on the well-being of staff — and therefore on their productivity — by designing various types of spaces suitable for relaxation, concentration, collaboration and confidentiality. “These spaces can, for example, include sleeping cabins, isolated cubicles of different formats, but also infrastructures adapted to paratransit, in addition to changing rooms and showers,” the document indicates. We propose the development of soundproof rooms or the supply of soundproofing helmets to create an efficient and pleasant work environment.
Relax zoning regulations
The Chamber wishes to send a clear message to the City of Montreal, which wants an attractive and surprising downtown, but which has not yet dusted off its rigid regulatory framework on the mixed use of spaces.
“We would like to create indoor and outdoor gathering places that can serve alcohol and install permanent electricity on outdoor terraces,” says Michel Leblanc. But the panoply of permits demanded by the City (alcohol, space, use, sound, lighting permits) discourages innovation.
“The objective is to ensure that working downtown is a different experience from what it was before the pandemic,” underlines Michel Leblanc. The Chamber works with partners to find creative projects that will surprise the worker and the visitor.
Make partnerships between companies
“It’s inspired by what Ubisoft did in its neighborhood, which wanted to help neighboring businesses and wanted to set up an incentive for people to come to the workplace,” explains the president of the Chamber.
Ubisoft offered a prepaid card that allowed you to shop at local businesses. This could be done in the underground businesses of the office towers and in the Complexe Desjardins.
Michel Leblanc, President of the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal
Another idea: in addition to encouraging local purchases in nearby businesses, we suggest developing business synergies within the spaces themselves. How ? By subletting excess space to related small businesses. The Chamber created the site “espacesetcie.com” which allows tenants to find sub-tenants. “Many companies are looking for collaborative spaces,” says Michel Leblanc. We see it with Cossette, which has located itself at WeWork. It’s powerful as a gesture. »
A clear plan from employers
But as a priority, each company must have a clear plan that it communicates to employees, argues Michel Leblanc. “Is it in hybrid mode three days a week, specific days or days determined by the employee or six days per two weeks? » Employees must also be reassured about the level of safety of the premises and feel that the work environment is healthy.
Once these clear rules are in place, the CCMM hopes that employees will be able to experience a clean, new downtown, with works of art, interactive activities and interesting places to do outdoor work.