Prioritizing the safety of our employees
Our employees in the field played a critical role in keeping the energy flowing to our customers during the COVID-19 pandemic. From proactive maintenance on our electricity system to repairing unplanned third-party damages to our natural gas system, it was vital that our employees continued to safely perform this work. To help these employees operate safely and minimize the potential for viral transmission, we allocated more company vehicles to our crews so they could travel safely to job sites on their own and implemented additional cleaning and disinfection of equipment, vehicles and facilities. These employees were also provided with a variety of COVID-19 personal protective equipment (PPE) including masks, face shields, respirators, full torso overalls as well as hand and eye protection to safeguard themselves and our customers. The additional PPE was especially important to prevent viral transmission in the event our employees couldn’t physically distance or if they had reason to enter a customer’s home to relight appliances throughout the pandemic.
As a critical infrastructure service provider, 100 per cent of our field-based employees continued working during the pandemic and were there to help deliver the energy our customers needed in their homes and businesses. To support our employees in their day-to-day jobs, while following physical distancing restrictions, we started to introduce virtual ways our field crews could get the job done.
With physical distancing restrictions in place throughout the year, we looked for opportunities to help our field employees provide even better service to our customers. In 2020, we started to phase in a new application–SightCall–that allows our customer service technicians to assist customers virtually with gas appliance relights during meter exchanges. Through SightCall, the technician texts the customer a link that will connect them virtually through a laptop or mobile device to provide step-by-step instructions on how to safely relight their natural gas appliances, without our technician ever having to enter their home. We expect the full roll-out of this application to be complete in 2021.
We took precautionary measures and transitioned many of our office employees to work from home, minimizing the number of workers in our facilities at the same time. We supported our employees working at home by providing them with guidance to help them set up safe and effective ergonomic workstations.
For employees who continued working at our offices, enhanced safety protocols were implemented including limiting occupancy levels at each of our facilities, restricting visitor access and mandatory pre-access health self-assessments as well as individual acknowledgment of safe work plans prior to entering all our facilities that were also displayed at reception areas. Additional measures included one-way traffic pedestrian routes, increased cleaning and disinfection, restricted access to meeting rooms, washroom and kitchen areas and the temporary closure of gyms and cafeteria facilities. Together, these enhanced safety protocols allowed a limited number of employees to continue to safely work in our offices and ensured we could continue delivering energy to our customers.
Employees connecting virtually
In an uncertain time for many of our employees, it was important to find ways to provide support and guidance in our new work settings. Our President and CEO, Roger Dall’Antonia, shared regular video updates through our intranet to keep employees up to speed on the latest developments. Roger addressed topics such as workplace safety protocols, provincial guideline updates and mental and physical well-being, providing an important connection between our employees and the senior leadership team.
Connecting virtually became the new normal and we found ways to remind employees to take care of their mental and physical health. We launched a Wednesday Wellness series where employees shared tips and stories on our intranet about how they’re coping with the emotional and physical toll brought on by the pandemic. We learned more about how our operations teams were staying safe while they continued to perform the critical work on our electricity and natural gas systems. These teams were recognized for their resiliency and dedication to getting the job done while ensuring they followed physical distancing guidelines so they could return home safely. We will continue to see more of these stories in 2021.
We also shared stories from our employees about how they were focusing on their personal health and safety during their time away from work. Jessica (pictured above) shared how she was staying active by skiing at Mount Seymour and enjoying the sunset views. Another employee, Jennifer, shared how she was keeping her mental and physical health top of mind by spending time with her two dogs and going for more walks during her free time.
Supporting inclusion and diversity in our business
We support the advancement of inclusion and diversity within our organization to ensure our workplace is somewhere that all can feel welcomed, safe and valued with zero tolerance for discrimination. At FortisBC, we recognize everything that makes an individual unique including gender identity, age, lifestyle, ethnicity, cognitive diversity and other attributes. We want to ensure our employee base reflects the diversity of the 135 communities we serve and that we create an environment that welcomes and respects diverse perspectives so we can achieve shared goals. We understand that strong business decisions are made when employees are comfortable expressing their opinions and we value a diversity of perspectives as it continues to strengthen our organization.
In 2020, we hosted sessions for all of our leaders around inclusion and diversity in the workplace. The sessions focused on sharing and listening to others’ perspectives with the goal of starting a conversation around what inclusion and diversity mean to us and how our leaders play a key role in promoting and embedding these practices into our organization. Our focus on inclusion and diversity will continue in 2021 as we pursue creating and implementing measurable goals to track our progress within these areas while ensuring our employees have access to innovative development opportunities through educational sessions.
We continued to demonstrate our commitment to the Progressive Aboriginal Relations certification by offering our introductory Indigenous awareness training sessions online to our employees who were working remotely. More than 250 employees completed the three-part training series where they learned more about Indigenous histories, cultures, traditions and the work FortisBC is doing with Indigenous communities and organizations.
Advancing inclusion and diversity in trades was another area of focus for us in 2020. In collaboration with the Indigenous Skills and Employment Training program and post-secondary institutions, we provided funding support for six new women in trades scholarships as a way to bring greater diversity to the trades and build relationships with talented students. These scholarships were designed to reduce the financial barriers some students face and encourage them to complete their full apprenticeships. We look forward to choosing our recipients in early 2021 and partnering them with FortisBC mentors.
Supporting a demographic shift in trades is important for us not only because it expands the pool of talent available to meet the growing demand for skilled tradespeople, but it also ensures the people in these roles reflect the diverse communities we serve. Three of the new scholarships will be offered at Okanagan College and three at Thompson Rivers University, all targeting either women or Indigenous students.
We know attracting top talent is critical to moving our business forward. These scholarships allow us to support the career pathways of these students and provide an opportunity for us to build relationships with talented individuals who may consider a future career with FortisBC.
Erinn Mah, Indigenous talent specialist at FortisBC
Employees learning from Indigenous leaders
With many of our employees working remotely, in June 2020, we brought our employees together virtually to honour National Indigenous Peoples Day and National Indigenous History Month. We collaborated with Indigenous thought leaders across the province and appreciated how they worked with us to transition from planned in-person events to virtual sessions. Employees were encouraged to participate in these sessions where they would learn more about histories, cultures and traditions from Indigenous perspectives that have been connected to the land since time immemorial. Sessions were centred on themes such as leadership, lineage and biodiversity while others focused on thought leaders sharing their own personal journeys specific to their communities, relationships and learnings grounded in traditional knowledge and teachings.
There were opportunities to continue building relationships with Indigenous entrepreneurs and organizations so we could learn more about the unique histories and cultures of Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous artists worked with us to share culturally significant pieces of art with our employees. Each piece of art represented a specific region within British Columbia, making every one unique. Additionally, the En'owkin Centre, a non-profit organization and registered charity governed by the seven bands of the Syilx Nation, shared a video with our employees on the ECOmmunity Place Locatee Lands project. Members of the ECOmmunity team have been working with land owners over the past 20 years to form agreements to lease or purchase parcels of land on the Penticton Indian Band reserve. They wanted to prevent the land from being developed and protect it for the unique ecosystem and biodiversity values and to use the land for cultural use. This was an opportunity for our employees to learn about the traditional knowledge of this project from an Indigenous perspective while furthering their understanding of local Indigenous histories.
Showcasing sustainability initiatives in our workforce
At the beginning of 2020, we announced a new employee-led initiative designed to inspire sustainability practices and change at all levels of our organization. We called it our Sustainability Ambassador Network and 27 employees from diverse backgrounds and positions joined this network. They worked in groups to develop projects and initiatives focused on improving sustainability practices within our organization. In addition, the ambassadors were offered training and education sessions to help improve their understanding of key organizational initiatives like our 30BY30 target.
Meet the members of our 2020 Sustainability Ambassador Network who showed their passion to find ways we can integrate sustainability initiatives into our organization. This group of employees all hold different roles within our organization and brought diverse perspectives and innovative ideas to advance sustainability across the organization.
Photo was taken prior to COVID-19 physical distancing requirements.
One of the team’s projects included sharing sustainability moments at meetings. Their idea was to create an inventory of facts, videos and activities that could be shared with all employees to help facilitate more conversations around sustainable practices within our organization. Another group focused on sustainable food and how to easily add plant-based options to weekly meal plans that they shared with other employees.
In 2021, we plan to combine our Sustainability Ambassador Network with our existing Innovation Ambassador Council so we can build on the success of this first year and help advance innovative and sustainable initiatives across FortisBC. This will include encouraging employees to participate in behavioural change campaigns such as lowering computer and monitor power use, decreasing heat loss in homes and encouraging employees to participate in Earth Day activities to show how together we can all make an impact to protect the environment.
Employees giving back
While our employees are dedicated to their jobs, they are just as dedicated to the communities where they live and work. The Warm Hearts Charitable Foundation was founded by employees and continues to be funded and managed through the generosity of our employees. Through the foundation, employees made an $8,000 donation to Zajac Ranch for Children, a summer camp in Mission, BC for children and young adults with a variety of medical conditions and disabilities. As we moved to virtual fundraising for the Warm Hearts Charitable Foundation, we ran a company-wide 50/50 draw in March 2020 to raise money for Food Banks BC, since the demand for their services increased during the pandemic. In total, employees raised more than $33,000 in 2020 for the Warm Hearts Charitable Foundation, which was donated to local community organizations across BC.
Employees who volunteer in their communities or give back to local charities are encouraged to participate in our employee giving programs where we provide financial support through donation matching to the charity of their choice. In 2020, employees gave back to the ALS Society of BC, the BC Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres and BC Children’s Hospital–just to name a few. In addition, funds raised through our annual employee-run campaign were directly given to local branches of United Way, a large non-profit organization helping thousands of communities across Canada, to help residents in communities where our employees live and work.
In December, our employees decided to donate the funds typically used for our annual holiday parties to food banks, animal shelters and community organizations across BC. Giving back to organizations that provide for others in a critical time and showing our support for the work they do every single day was a holiday gift we all valued.