Skip to content

Guelph/Eramosa told it should offer staff work from home option

Township hired consultant to look at how to better attract and retain employees
20221123-get_cow-jg
The Township of Guelph/Eramosa Committee of the Whole at their Wednesday afternoon meeting.

GUELPH/ERAMOSA — A consultant hired by Guelph/Eramosa says the township needs to offer employees an option of working from home in order to remain a competitive employer.

On Wednesday, Elizabeth Hill, managing partner at Pesce and Associates, a human resources consulting organization, gave a presentation to the township committee of the whole.

Her firm was hired to look at how the township can attract and retain employees. A major piece of advice given by Hill was to start a work from home system where possible.

“It is such an emerging trend with municipalities right now,” Hill said in their presentation.

According to Hill, this is an option that many employees are drawn to.

“We’ve heard that so many people are saying that they want to continue with some sort of remote work and a lot of them are saying they will leave their job to go to another employer that allows that. And we ‘re definitely seeing that happening.

“So we’re really saying that to be an employer of choice, an organization needs to provide those options for remote where possible.”

How this process works is that an employee, if their position allows for it, will divide their working time between their home and their employer’s location.

“And really it’s not full remote work. It’s this hybrid model that’s becoming the norm for municipalities, where you work from home part of the time. Some municipalities have specific, where you have to be in two days a week or three days a week, and the rest of the time can be worked from home.”

Hill emphasized again the importance of this option.

“So we recommend that you look at whether that is something that you can implement at the township.”

The committee also endorsed the consultant's recommendation for salary increases in several positions, with research showing that Guelph/Eramosa falls behind a number of comparative municipalities when it comes to salaries in those positions.

Those salary increases will cost the township $86,000.

The recommendations will now go to full council for approval.

Jesse Gault is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.