Along with major safety changes, employers are focusing on workers' mental health
When the COVID-19 emergency was declared and lockdowns were imposed, large parts of one sector remained open — retail — which had a profound effect on both employers and employees.
While many office workers stayed home and manufacturing and service workers were laid off, front-line retail employees soldiered on, especially those declared essential.
Many employees experienced levels of anxiety while remaining on the job, says Wayne Hanley, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Canada, Local 1006A in Toronto.
“We did experience a death, we’ve experienced some serious illnesses among our membership and we still have members that are off,” he says. “But that uncertainty of not knowing whether you were going to get it, making it through a day at work, going home and then coming back to work again — it really took a toll on our members’ mental health.”
“It took probably six to eight weeks before things settled in terms of... shopping for your groceries with plexiglass and spacing and customer flow-through,” says Hanley.
Major revamp of safety measures
Many stores undertook massive changes to layouts, says Diane Brisebois, president and CEO of the Retail Council of Canada (RCC) in Toronto.
“The most obvious one has been signage at the entrance and signage on doors and windows and walls but also on floors. They’ve had to reconfigure their layout to respect social distancing and they’ve had to move displays or eliminate some displays to allow for more space.”
In addition, there are ground-breaking ideas that are transforming the retail environment, she says.
“For example, if you’re selling beauty products — creams and lotions and makeup — some retailers are testing augmented reality. You would stand in front of a screen and identify the product you want to try. The screen would replicate your image and would allow you to virtually try different eyeshadows or lipsticks without having to test them in the stores. There’s a lot of innovation going on.”
As well, many large retailers are adding “contactless” technology in washrooms and with entrance doors, resulting in fewer surfaces needing to be touched by the public, says Brisebois.
Rexall undergoes major redesign
For one major Canadian pharmacy, the entire store design had to be reimagined.
“The changes have been dramatic; it’s been a big shift in how we operate,” says Frank Monteleone, senior vice president of human resources and president of Rexall Care Network in Toronto.
“We had to put a number of different practices in place to ensure the health and safety of our employees and customers, from social distancing to increased cleaning, [and] visitors and vendors that come into the store have certain processes they need to follow to make sure that they can enter the store,” he says.
“We have acrylic barriers up at the pharmacy in the cash counters, increased cleaning protocol for high-touch areas. We’ve also let staff know that if they’re not well, stay home.”
To manage the transition, Rexall immediately brought in new training procedures, says Monteleone.
“Health and safety training has always been mandatory, but we added additional courses for things like proper hand washing, use of masks and gloves and additional training on COVID-19. We’ve trained people on physical distancing, and store sanitization.”
Boosting worker’s mental health
Another issue plaguing the retail industry during the coronavirus outbreak was keeping up employee morale during anxious times. For Rexall, it was an opportunity to reimagine engagement with the workforce, says Monteleone.
“We have been very good with keeping regular touchpoints with our employees through virtual town halls or team meetings, to make sure people are being connected and we’re giving them information as often as we can so people still feel connected,” he says.
“We’re also really good at sharing positive feedback that we get from customers and it’s gone over very well.” That’s one “silver lining” that’s emerged from the pandemic, says Brisebois, which might bode well for future employer-employee relationships.
“Retailers are paying more attention to their employees’ mental health and emotional health, because they understand that it has not been easy, especially for those who had jobs that were customer-facing. There was an enormous amount of anxiety,” she says.
“I’ve heard time and time again that leaders have realized the importance of communicating openly, honestly, in a transparent way, and listening to the concerns. What they’ve learned from an HR perspective is that the team is so important and, by eliminating silos, [they are] bringing different folks together so that people appreciate what everyone is doing within that chain.”
Customers a challenge for safety
However, optimism among Unifor, Local 414 workers is “hanging in,” says Gord Currie, president of Unifor, Local 414 in Toronto.
“At the beginning, it was down, obviously. I don’t know if I want to say it’s getting better because there’s still people who are working and worried about COVID itself. With the masks, I guess things are a little better, but the morale is what it is.”
During the summer months, many grocery store patrons relaxed their social distancing efforts, putting retail employees at risk, he says.
“I would get complaints when [customers] came in: ‘We’ve got too many people in the produce section or too many people around the bakery’ and that scared some of the members.”
However, conditions have improved, he says.
“From when this started until now, I would say [retail companies] have done a good job in the stores as far as safety measures.”
In British Columbia, stores moved into advanced phases much earlier than in Ontario or Quebec, and it was equally challenging for non-unionized workers, according to an organization that assists non-unionized employees in the province access employment rights.
“A lot of retail places started to reopen and what we’re seeing is workers are scared and feeling unsafe because COVID still exists,” says Pamela Charron, co-ordinator of the Retail Action Network (RAN) in Victoria, B.C.
“They’re scared for their health and their safety and they have family members that might be compromised, but they’re going back to work because they need to pay their bills. There’s also this unclear situation where they go back to work and they’re not sure they might lose their job again or they might be laid off again because of a second outbreak, which [B.C. provincial health officer] Bonnie Henry has advised may happen.”
Not all stores in B.C. are following all public health guidelines, says Charron.
“They’re going to work and there aren’t those measures in place and that’s very frustrating for some workers,” she says. “It’s up to the guests to choose if they want wear a mask or not.”
Recruitment challenges anticipated
Despite many workers having access to government programs such as the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), retention of current workers hasn’t been an issue, says Monteleone — but recruiting new workers may pose new obstacles.
“People now are re-evaluating: What do they want out of work going forward? Challenges or opportunities that organizations will face in the coming months are when it comes to attracting and retaining talent. What are the new drivers that are going to guide prospective employees’ decisions about joining a company?” he says. “Everyone now is looking at where do they want to work a little differently these days.”
Authenticity will be another issue, says Monteleone, so it’s about “ensuring that an organization’s acting with transparency and honesty in this time.”
