By Lidiane Cunha

The government of Canada has taken unprecedented measures to contain the COVID-19 outbreak and keep Canadians safe. Physical distancing is undoubtedly an important mitigating strategy, but it also creates challenges for Canadians.

Many employees are suddenly navigating through uncharted waters from having to work from home and cope with new job tasks or the lack of childcare support. Others face financial uncertainty as the COVID-19 crisis hits the economy. How does this new work-life reality impact employees’ mental health and how can organizations support their employees during these uncertain times?

To answer some of these questions, we interviewed Dr. Jennifer Dimoff, an Assistant Professor at the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management. Her research focuses on the role managers play to foster mental health in the workplace. Professor Dimoff is also part of a research team that has received a Novel Coronavirus Rapid Research Funding Opportunity by the Canadian Institute of Health Research. The team of researchers from Saint Mary’s University, the University of Ottawa, Cape Breton University, and Mount Allison University will examine how organizations respond to the COVID-19 outbreak and how their practices, policies and communications encourage or discourage health-promoting behaviors among their employees. The researchers suggest that employers also have a public health role to play.

1. How do you think the new reality Canadians are facing during the COVID-19 crisis will impact employees' mental health? What are the main challenges they face?

All employees are, and will be, facing unique challenges due to the COVID-19 outbreak, and these challenges are, undoubtedly, exacerbated for employees who have school-aged children or take care of other family members who no longer have access to care. Yet, for many people, work requirements continue. This situation resonates highly for me as the mother of a young toddler. All of this creates a perfect storm for work-life conflict and ensuing stress, which can contribute to strain, burnout, and potentially poor mental health.

Many people are also dealing with job uncertainty. Job loss and unemployment are certainly related to increased risk of mental health issues. However, the Federal Government of Canada is responding in an extraordinary way to support people by issuing Support Benefits to help employees who lose their job or who are unable to work due to the loss of childcare. Still, when people are experiencing high levels of stress, they are sometimes unable to recognize and seek out the resources that are available to them. The biggest message here is for employees who need these resources to use them–this is what they are here for.

2. Physical distancing can take a toll on employee mental health. How can employers and managers help employees navigate these challenges?

3. How can organizations promote mental health in their workforce right now?

• Employers can recognize that “business as usual” may not be possible in all situations – that some concessions may need to be made in the short-term to ensure the long-term survival and success of the organization and its employees. 

• They can make sure that front-line managers are well-equipped to communicate with employees and offer flexibility. This flexibility may come in the form of reduced work hours, different work hours, or other accommodations.

• Employers can actively promote psychological health by reminding employees to maintain physical health too – exercise, get outside (if possible), eat nutritious foods, and do activities that are relaxing and restoring. 

4. What’s your advice for front-line managers to continue supporting their team during the COVD-19 crisis?

• Supportive managers regularly contact their team, ask how they are doing, communicate gratitude to their employees, and make sure that their employees know they are cared about and valued. Expressing appreciation at times like this can go a very long way. 

• Managers can make sure to provide employees with the appropriate resources and tools needed to do their job safely and effectively, such as telework software or VPN access if employees are working at home, or self-protection equipment and training on hygiene and self-care for employees who must continue working on site. 

• Training will also be critical to easing the learning curve for employees whose jobs are shifting to include new or different duties. For instance, one call center in Canada has moved their workers to a work-from-home scenario, but in order to be effective, call center employees must have landlines—something many employees do not have. As a result, the employer ordered and shipped landline telephones and paid for associated services so that employees can safely work from home. 

• Pandemic or no pandemic – managers can be a huge lifeline of support and information for employees.

Jennifer Dimoff is an Assistant Professor at the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management. Her primary area of research focuses on the intersections between leadership, occupational health and safety, and employee training and development.

 

By Lidiane Cunha

What’s the challenge?

Empty shelves in supermarkets like Costco or Loblaws provide a very good analogy for a challenge our healthcare system is likely to face as the situation evolves. These shelves are empty because of a sudden surge of uncontrolled demands that supermarkets and their suppliers do not have capacity to meet. Although most supermarket supply chains are optimized to deal with moderate spikes in demand, it is impossible to have shelves restocked fast enough under the current circumstances. Our healthcare system is similarly designed but less prepared for day-to-day operations. Any significant spike in demand of services will significantly disturb the system and result in shortages.

This is why everyone is talking about “flattening the curve,” a term popularized by Anthony Fauci, head of the U.S. National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Disease. Put simply, by flattening the curve, countries are trying to slow down COVID-19 spread so there aren’t more cases than their healthcare systems can handle. Unfortunately many countries were not able to do slow down the virus progression, hence their health officials are forced to rationing services.

“Many might say that our healthcare system is not prepared for a coronavirus outbreak, but let’s be clear. No healthcare system in the world is really designed to deal with such events,” explains Wojtek Michalowski, Vice-Dean Research and Professor of Health Informatics at the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management. “As such outbreaks are extremely rare, building extra capacity into the healthcare system would require significant new investments and lead to a significant amount of resources being wasted or underutilized in normal conditions,” he adds.

How is the COVID-19 outbreak likely to impact Canada’s healthcare system?

Professor Michalowski believes that it is important to remember that our healthcare system cannot suddenly concentrate only on services put in place to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak as what deemed urgent at the moment will not be urgent in the long-run:

“People will continue getting other types of illnesses like the flu, surgeries will need to be performed, and cancer patients will need to be treated. In the short term, the biggest impact will be on patients who do not need urgent care. This means that wait times for these services will grow as resources will be redirected towards managing the COVID-19 outbreak.”

The COVID-19 outbreak may also impose major challenges on tertiary care, or in-hospital units that offer highly specialized medical services, such as heart surgeries and hemodialysis. The outbreak may aggravate the shortage of beds, specialized equipment, and medical professionals available in the hospitals.

The crisis will also impact how health organizations manage capacity issues in acute care. Currently, health organizations already face challenges to rapidly transfer patients who no longer need acute treatment to more appropriate community care, such as the patient’s home, an independent living arrangement, or a long-term care facility. In the context of an outbreak, keeping these patients in the hospital much longer than needed will put a greater strain on the system and, ultimately, compromise the quality of care for those who really require acute treatment.

How can health organizations deal with the crisis?

“There is not a single best approach to address the issue, but Ottawa Public Health’s response is appropriate. They are working on ‘flattening the curve’ by vigilantly following up new cases that emerge. On the operational front, the key issue is to lower the demands of services in emergency rooms. This is why health official opened the new COVID-19 Assessment Centre at Brewer Park Arena,” explains Professor Michalowski.

How can the Telfer School contribute to supporting the healthcare system?

“The development of advanced analytics models can help health organizations identify the most effective policies and organizational arrangements needed to adjust to a new reality,” explains Antoine Sauré, Assistant Professor at the Telfer School of Management. “However, one of the main challenges with emergency response or disaster relief operations is the lack of data to support the development of such models. Not all emergencies are the same, making it challenging to develop accurate predictive models. In this context, simulation models can play an important role in evaluating the impact of different policies under uncertain scenarios."

For example, it is currently not clear if one assessment centre alone has the capacity to deal with the issue once the demand for COVID-19 assessment grows. It is here where the Telfer research in healthcare capacity planning and emergency response operations could support health organizations in identifying the number and location of the assessment centres the city will need.

The crisis is also likely to push the healthcare system into rapidly tackling delays in the discharge of patients who no longer need acute care. Researchers at the Telfer School of Management are working on the development of advanced analytics models that can support health organization in better planning and managing their capacity when transferring patients from acute care to more appropriate community care. Such models may also inform health policy officials, so they design policies that reflect both the allocation of resources and the demands for long-term care from hospitals and the community.

“The recovery phase will impose new challenges on health care organizations in areas where further research will be needed,” concludes Professor Sauré.

By Lidiane Cunha

Gender Gap in Access to Financial Capital

To launch and grow a small business, entrepreneurs need financial capital. Globally, gender gaps in access to capital impede many women-owned firms. As governments seek to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, some have introduced policies and programs to increase women entrepreneurs’ access to capital. In 2018, for example, the Government of Canada allocated $20 million to the Women Entrepreneurship Fund. In 2019, the Canadian government launched the Women Entrepreneurs Strategy with an additional $10 million in women-focused financing.

“Despite an increase in the number of government women-focused policies and programs, we know little about how such policies translate into practice,” explains Barbara Orser, Full Professor at the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management. “Small business and innovation programs are also rarely examined from a gender-inclusive perspective,” she adds.

To understand the links between government policies and practices, Professor Orser, Susan Coleman of the University of Hartford, Collette Henry of Dundalk University, and their co-authors reviewed policies and practices designed to increase women entrepreneurs’ access to capital in Canada, Germany, Ireland, Norway and the United States. The authors shared their findings in the article “Policy Support for Women Entrepreneurs’ Access to Financial Capital: Evidence from Canada, Germany, Ireland, Norway, and the United States.” The article was published in the Journal of Small Business Management.

Overview of the study findings

• Most women-focused policies have only been instituted within the past few years,
• These policies advance recommendations focusing on educating and training women entrepreneurs.
• Few women-focused policies unfortunately reflect the outcomes of gender equality, equity, or women’s economic empowerment.
• There remain disconnects between women’s entrepreneurship policies and funding allocated to small business programming.
• Across the countries studied, policies without programs and similarly, programs without underpinning policies, face a number of risks, such as changes in government and the elimination of funding.

Barbara Orser is a Full Professor and the Deloitte Professor in the Management of Growth Enterprises at the Telfer School of Management. Her research, teaching and advocacy focus on entrepreneurship and women’s economic empowerment. Learn more about her work.

By Lidiane Cunha

The Canadian Accessibility Act (S.C. 2019) states that technology must be accessible to all Canadians. Today, this is (very) relatively the case for people who experience physical disabilities because some interfaces provide or allow for optional adaptations. This is not the case for people with cognitive or sensory disabilities, particularly because it is not just the interface that needs to be adapted, but the logic of the application itself that needs to be addressed.

IT professionals are now called upon to quickly remove any element that would prevent people with a physical, intellectual or cognitive disability from fully and equally participating in society. These obstacles can become a barrier for fostering what is referred to as Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI). 

How does this impact the development process of IT? What are the main recommendations in terms of standards and best practices? These are some of the questions that Muriel Mignerat, Associate Professor at the Telfer School of Management, will address in her new research project to better understand the unique features of the IT development process in the context of EDI. For her new project, she has been awarded a Telfer School of Management Research Grant (SMRG).

Who will benefit from this research?

"I wish to contribute to research in the field of IT by analyzing the development process of information systems from a new angle, that of equity, diversity and inclusion. The development process can be challenged by the diversity of users who need to be accommodated, especially those who experience cognitive and sensory disabilities. I think that many of our IT models will have to be reviewed from this angle, but it seems to me that the development cycle is the most fundamental and pressing issue to address in practice now."

-Muriel Mignerat