Canadian Occupational Safety

22 www.thesafetymag.com/ca P E O P L E transitioned to the working from home model. Hawkins says that at ACSA, they transitioned to working from home soon after the start of the pandemic. "We had a lot of infrastructure in place, so we were able to do it fairly quickly. Our COR team, client services team and others were up and running the day after we left our offices, and we were able to enjoy a seamless transition in services to our members. Our health and safety classroom training took a little more attention to prepare it for the virtual environment, but we have an amazing team of professionals who made it look pretty painless! We now have 16 courses converted to the virtual environment with more to come." As with many other organizations, your ACSA has had to adapt to teleworking and continues to use platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Adobe Connect, and electronic signatures, "a practice we'd actually adopted before it became a necessity," says Hawkins. With the vaccine campaign ramping up in Canada, people are now thinking about what the post-pandemic landscape is going to look like. "I think this [hybrid] model is something that a lot of people want to continue in future," says Hawkins. "I'm referring to both staff options, and course delivery." The reaction to working from home has been very mixed, she says, and feelings are changing the longer we continue to be isolated — "we'll be working with our teams to discuss what each person's ideal re-integration looks like." Hawkins highlights how important it is for businesses and leaders to communicate often and effectively with employees — something which Your ACSA has implemented. "We need to be strategic in our 'water cooler chats' these days to ensure that necessary engagement is ongoing. In addition to our regular business unit meetings, we need to design opportunities to be casually engaged with one another, with attention to mental health," she says. Mental health is a huge topic, and has been since even before the pandemic. Hawkins says that it's quite clear that once the situation returns to some sort of normalcy, mental health will remain a huge concern and focus in the sector. She mentions that Your ACSA has made mental health first aid training an equivalent option to standard first aid 2021 TRENDS IN CANADA'S CONSTRUCTION SECTOR Tammy Hawkins, COO, Alberta Construction Safety Association (ACSA) Source: Randstad training. Both are key in the industry. Safety training "A lot of our team is engaged in health and safety training," says Hawkins. The pandemic threw a spanner in the works. "We had a number of people scheduled for classroom training that we had to suspend immediately, although we honestly had no idea the duration!" she says. "We were fortunate in being able to re-offer those courses, in the virtual format, relatively quickly." Your ACSA offers a range of classes, including COR classes which are essential for effective health and safety management systems. "We have also converted all National Construction Safety Officer (NCSO), and Health and Safety Administrator (HSA) mandatory training to the virtual environment," says Hawkins. With the pandemic, the format of the courses has shifted to accommodate for e-learning. Being home-bound is something that also affects safety training. Most training in the last year has been virtual, which has its limitations — especially when it comes to more practical hands-on learning, says Hawkins. "Our training is not end-user, so that part has not been a challenge for us. We've worked to maximize the opportunities to remain engaged and active in our learning in the virtual environment," she says. "Our classroom training philosophy has always been one of taking the 'Sage off the Stage' and having the 'Guide on the Side' in our classrooms. I come from a background in education myself, and really haven't experienced value in a straight lecture-based classroom environment. We have included a lot of active learning in our classrooms and continue to work to improve that even further." To have these new, hybrid models has opened up ACSA's training to a lot of people throughout the country and the world. "Student engagement is different," says Hawkins. "Indeed, online platforms get students to engage in different ways such as by using break out rooms, polls, and/or chats. We had long had an eye to implementing virtual training, but only actually made the leap when we got the same pandemic push as everyone else that increased the urgency! Now that we've had this experience, and feedback, I don't imagine we'll ever go back to classroom only offerings." "We are further experimenting with more hybrid models, and I feel confident we'll be able to meet our learners where they are, and offer training when and how they want it," says Hawkins. The construction sector in Canada employs 1.2 million men and women, which is around 7 per cent of the Canadian workforce The industry is expected to record a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 8.5 per cent by 2024. This will make the sector worth around $430 billion The Canadian government will invest $180 billion over the next decade in building and maintaining infrastructure across the country under the 'Investing in Canada Plan' It is forecasted that 100,000 new jobs will be created in the construction sector, while around 320,000 retirements are expected to take place over the next few years

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