Saluting Our Office Support Service Teams
By Debbie Ciccotelli, Vice-President, Strategic Initiatives
Our ASP support service teams play an integral role in our business. These teams include our Finance, Human Resources, Administrative and Resource Planning teams, who provide many key services ranging from client invoicing, payroll, scheduling, recruitment, employee communications, leave management, etc.
From Back to Front: Natasha Stephenson-Belle (Manager),
“Harpreet Saini, Colin Catney and Hardeep Khaneja
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, A.S.P followed the recommendations of Health Agencies and elected to reduce or temporarily lock down offices and transition office support employees to a remote (work from home) environment. This transition required the company to ensure that these employees had the required tools and technologies to effectively work remotely and our employees had to quickly adapt to this new way of working.
While we recognize the challenges our front-line
While we recognize the challenges our front-line essential services employees experience, our office support staff also experienced significant challenges adapting to working remotely, which were further complicated by school closures, spouses/partners also working from home or job loss, pressures of social/physical distancing as well as the increased workload associated with COVID-19 business disruptions.
Challenges such as:
- Lack of home offices/space or privacy
- Distractions/interruptions in the home environment
- Learning and relying on new technologies and associated technical difficulties
- Feeling disconnected from their teams
- Balancing work and private lives
Most of us are “wired” for human connection; when forced to unplug from these connections and relationships, we feel the effects of isolation and loneliness and the adjustment to working remotely impacts each of us in different ways.
These individuals put in the effort, quickly adapted to working from home, stayed productive and focused. I know it wasn’t easy.
Their commitment, dedication and discipline were critical to our ability to maintain business continuity and serve and support our front-line employees during this difficult period. I am extremely proud and inspired by the way these individuals rose to the challenge. Loyal and dedicated employees like this are the foundation of our company.
As we begin to transition to the next phase (reentry), I wanted to take a moment to thank our office support team employees for what they have they have done – their contributions made a difference.