This article is written by Amanda Miller, manager of change management and transformation at the Ontario ministry of government and consumer services

Amid the fear and uncertainty of the Covid-19 outbreak, public sector organisations have been challenged to continue serving our communities while keeping employees and clients safe.

Even before the pandemic, our global environment was often described as one of accelerated change; one where change was the only constant. While change is not new, what is new in the context of Covid-19 is its scale, impact and the pace at which the civil service has had to respond.

As public health information evolves, often by the hour, governments have moved quickly to protect critical programs and services and the people who deliver them. They introduced innovative solutions to address supply chain gaps. They’ve created accessible resources to help people stay safe and access supports, and shifted large segments of the workforce to work from home. There are a great many success stories and just as many lessons learned.

A thoughtful, people-focused approach

The Ministry of Government and Consumer Services, within the Ontario Public Service, delivers programs, services and products including consumer protection, access to government information, internal business services and employee inclusion and accessibility.

It’s a large, complex organisation that employs about 5,000 people in over 300 locations across Ontario to deliver both frontline and back office services to a population of more than 14 million people.

As is the case across the public sector, the Covid-19 outbreak has impacted ministry staff and service delivery in very different ways. Some departments quickly transitioned to working from home full-time. Others required equipment and training to shift people out of the workplace and into remote work arrangements. Many people who perform critical public-facing transactions have continued to come to work using protections like acrylic barriers. The work of some has radically increased in volume, while other initiatives paused and gave way to priority activities like procuring goods and services for the healthcare sector.

In the coming months, we may be inclined to revert to pre-pandemic ways of working, but it’s important we resist giving up our recent gains. Across the civil service, we have proven we can work in new ways and there is no going back

Like its response to this emergency, the ministry’s recovery planning requires a thoughtful, people-focused approach – one that helps people feel safe, engaged and inspired. Holding teams together will depend on effective communication that builds trust and shows empathy. This will also mean leading through a sustained period of change while not always having all the answers.

Leading change amid uncertainty

In January 2020, shortly before Covid-19 entered our collective vocabulary, I launched a small change management team at the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services. The team is part of the ministry’s Organisational Development Branch — a diverse group of change management experts, communicators, educators, engagement professionals, accessibility and inclusion consultants and digital specialists.

Covid-19 has imposed an urgency around change and a heightened need for credible, timely information about what’s happening. However, the gaps in scientific understanding of the virus leave a great deal of information unknown.

In response, my team combined our expertise and ideas to support leaders across our organisation as we shifted to new ways of working. We’ve spent the past four months regularly connecting with managers to talk about what’s happening and learn more about how the pandemic has affected their business and their people. We have also brought together people who are tackling similar problems and helped identify shared opportunities.

Through this dialogue, a few themes have emerged:

Open, two-way communication

We need to listen and find the way forward together. This is particularly important as we recover from the pandemic and adjust to the longer-term transformations that lie ahead.

We can do this by:

  • Communicating often and openly, sharing what we know and acknowledging what we don’t know
  • Helping our teams understand what’s happening, why it’s happening, what our roles are and how changes align with our broader vision
  • Creating meaningful forums for discussion and welcoming tough conversations

Practical, user-friendly resources

People need the right tools to do their jobs effectively in this new environment. This isn’t the time for long reads — we need quick, practical tools and resources that can be accessed anytime, anywhere and applied across a variety of scenarios.

This includes tools, training and resources to address:

  • Gaps in the use of technology
  • Leading and coaching virtual teams
  • Shifting challenging and important conversations to virtual channels, including performance management, onboarding and offboarding; and retirement

Meaningful collaboration

As much of the civil service continues to work remotely and physical distancing measures limit in-person interaction, we will need to foster meaningful collaboration. This includes creating space for the type of innovation and creativity that arises from unstructured interaction.

We can do this through:

  • Virtual townhalls, debriefs and team meetings
  • Crowd-sourcing lessons learned and actively incorporating them into how we work
  • Creating communities of practice that meet regularly to share ideas and encourage continuous learning

Health and safety

Public sector organisations need to build mental health and resiliency into their recovery plans to support people through the impacts to our workplaces and our personal lives. This includes support for employees who contracted the virus, who are struggling to balance work commitments with caring for children and elderly family members, and those who are experiencing grief and loss.

We can do this through:

  • Wellness services and resiliency resources
  • Clear communications about health and safety measures where employees are returning to the physical workplace
  • Flexible approaches that recognise this is not “business as usual”

There is no going back – so how do we move forward?

In the coming months, we may be inclined to revert to pre-pandemic ways of working, but it’s important we resist giving up our recent gains. Across the civil service, we have proven we can work in new ways and there is no going back.

As conditions stabilise and we turn our attention to what comes next, successful recovery plans must go beyond operational needs to focus on people. This means truly leading our teams through change so that it does not just carry us along. ⁠— Amanda Miller

(Picture credit: Unsplash)

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