Bernard Lord on Trends that are Transforming the Workplace

Flexibility is key to attracting and keeping top talent in a workplace that has undergone transformative change, says Bernard Lord.

“It's one of the first things they (job seekers) ask. Can I work from home? Do I have to be in the office all the time? What are your rules? And three years ago, no one would ask that question.”

As CEO of Medavie and winner of Canada’s Top 100 Employers 2023 competition Bernard was invited to share his thoughts on workplace trends for a Globe and Mail supplement that profiles organizations that lead their industries in offering exceptional places to work.

Bernard has provided a firm and steady hand at the helm of Medavie as the organization has navigated uncharted waters over the past three years.

“The pandemic and what happened in 2020 forced us all to reconsider some of the things we thought were unchangeable, and we accelerated change significantly because we had to.”

In charting a course for the future, while steering Medavie through turbulent waters roiled by concurrent global health and economic crises, Bernard says organizations like ours are reimagining the workplace and considering how, where and when employees work.

“It’s just ignited this desire to be far more flexible and move away from what I call the Industrial Age philosophy of work, where everybody has to be a clock puncher and be there at a certain time, eight days a week, and take 10-minute breaks. Now people work from home, they may have kids, so they work six hours and then do the other two later.”

Medavie has taken steps to increase flexibility around work arrangements as it continues to rethink how it can best meet the needs of its team of over 8,000 professionals ― many of whom are in non-traditional work settings as frontline healthcare providers.

“Now, we're not there yet, but we're forcing ourselves to ask those questions, to say, ‘Okay, what's the next step in this evolution of work? What's the next step of making this environment even better for the top talent, so they choose us?’”

Read the full article on Canada’s “workplace revolution” here and then go here to learn why Medavie has again been chosen as one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers 2023.


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