City will continue to offer work from home to certain positions

By Medicine Hat News on February 26, 2022.

A general ‘work at home order’ in the province is set to end March 1, but the City of Medicine Hat is planning to offer permanent remote working roles to some employees with the COVID-19 pandemic ease.

Since the spring of 2020 managers at city hall have juggled capacity limits by allowing some workers whose presence is not physically required to complete tasks at home and telecommute for online meetings.

Thursday’s meeting of the corporate services committee heard work is now underway to determine which positions may be suitable to continue off site in the future when employees request it.

That could aid in attracting or retaining workers who put a premium on such flexibility, said administrators.

“We believe that potential employees are looking for this sort of opportunity,” said managing director Dennis Egert. “It gives us the ability to examine our physical space needs or at least it may defer the need to add any new space.”

The move requires policy to be developed about which positions would be appropriate, how resources like computers and software might be distributed, and whether particular expenses may be considered in general compensation.

Several years ago the city began reducing the amount of space it leases in the city for office space.

Egert did not provide an estimate about how many employees may be eligible under the policy, but gave an example of accountants as eligible, while those with public interactions, such as payment clerks and firefighters, obviously wouldn’t.

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