Organizations across Canada and the United States of America are mandated to start implementing Return-to-Office (RTO) transitions. This switch highlights the need for employee relations management systems to support the new policies with compliance assurance that empowers organizations to effectively implement this transition regardless of whether they have a unionized or non-union workforce.
In August 2025, Ontario Premier Doug Ford required 60,000 public servants to return to the office four days a week. This decision follows the clear trend that corporations like Rogers, TD and Scotiabank are taking in reference to how they believe work should get done. In short: time to get back to the office. Some leaders mention the decrease in production and lack of mentorship opportunities to support this decision. However, HR leaders and professionals face practical challenges while employees push back against this new policy that could be supported by unions.
The Real Challenges of the Return-to-Office Policy
With this return-to-office new policy, we’re not only talking about logistical changes like finding a bigger office or buying desks and chairs for employees. For HR leaders, this change brings compliance challenges along the return-to-office transition process. There are significant risks that could be derived from miscommunication, unclear structure, lack of transparency and limited access to digital solutions during the implementation of this policy.
During a recent interview on CTV Your Morning, employment lawyer Christopher Ashkar mentioned that employees have rights protected under the Human Rights Legislation and collective bargaining agreements (CBAs). Therefore, employees who refuse to go back to the office citing reasons like a disability, mental health concerns, or caregiving responsibility should be evaluated as potential accommodation candidates to avoid future escalation.
Furthermore, for unionized employees, the new return-to-office policy must be in accordance with the CBA terms to avoid grievances or arbitration. In fact, even non-union staff may have policies regarding remote work in their employment contracts that could bring conflicts to organizations enforcing the policy without following the proper process.
The goal is to be compliant during the transition. The reality is that without a structured employee relations management system with key job accommodation features to lead this transition, HR leaders are facing the possibility of inconsistency which can cause them to lose employees’ trust and expose the organization to legal consequences.
Empower HR with the Right Employee Relations Management System
To effectively manage the return-to-office transition, HR leaders need a centralized, compliant, and intelligent platform that supports:
- Employee complaints and accommodation requests
- Grievance tracking and audit readiness
- Discipline management aligned with CBA agreements
- Real-time compliance with labor laws codes
These needs can be directly assessed with key features to support the return-to-work transitions:
1. Centralized Employee Relations Management
HR should be able to capture, track, and resolve all types of employee concerns, from an accommodation request to a formal grievance, all within one unified system and consistent with internal procedures and CBA’s contracts.
With Sodales’ Employee Relations Complaint Management, HR is empowered to effectively capture, investigate and resolve each complaint aligned with organizational policies and legal requirements. Each case ensures audit readiness with instant access to all the relevant information for the relevant stakeholders.
2. Accommodation Case Management
Organizations can’t properly manage the new return-to-office policy without the right tool to track each accommodation request, from religious, medical, disability, telework and ergonomic needs.
With our Accommodation Case Management, HR leaders can manage employees and candidates’ accommodations, including restricted duty assignments to handle each medical and/or religious request with accuracy and compliance with federal, state, local and organizational policy requirements.
3. Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) Integration
If an employee files a grievance due to the requirement to return to the office, HR leaders must understand the grievance documentation in the context of the Collective Bargaining Agreements to ensure consistent actions with union agreements during case management. Paper contracts increase the possibility of missing deadlines and misunderstanding the articles and clauses.
With Sodales your Collective Bargaining Agreements are embedded into your case management processes. HR teams can pull the relevant clause and article when needed to handle and resolve grievances and complaints with ease.
4. Automated Grievance & Discipline Workflows
To ensure compliance, HR professionals need to link complex policy grievances to unique workflows and procedures included in their different CBAs contracts.
Sodales supports union-specific timelines with different types of grievances, from individual, group or policy grievance. Your team saves time, prevents escalations and ensures deadlines are met while handling a grievance case.
5. Multi-Union & Multi-CBA Management
The return to the office policy is more challenging when HR team needs to follow different CBAs. Managing different rules, procedures and deadlines is impossible without employee relations software.
Sodales provides all-in-one integrated software to manage different unions, with automation tools that prevent escalation, confusion or error.
6. Real-Time Analytics with Trends Detection
While many risks are avoidable, they can pose problems when not caught early enough, jeopardizing compliance.
To effectively implement policy changes, like a return-to-office policy, it’s essential to have access to the right information at the right time.
With Sodales reports, you can track performance, monitor risks and manage compliance processes with real-time analytics that empower HR to identify patterns to implement risk reduction strategies.
7. Seamless Systems Integration
Whether your organization manages processes with SAP, Oracle, Workday, UKG, etc. Implementing a new policy can be challenging, especially when your current tools don’t integrate well with existing systems.
Sodales integrates with SAP SuccessFactors, Workday, Oracle, UKG, Dayforce, and more, ensuring employee data flows securely between systems with no delays-just the right information to manage people, processes and policies in one system.
Empower Your Workforce Through Responsive Request Management
The return-to-office movement is just beginning but it looks like it’s going to stay for a while. Organizations must find a way to run the process without compromising employees’ trust, ensuring fairness and staying compliant.
Furthermore, organizations must ensure this doesn’t negatively impact employees’ well-being by finding a way to provide channels for employees’ requests for human needs, safety and privacy concerns, or accommodation requests specific to each case.
It could be someone asking to work with modified duties due to changes in their health; an employee who is the only support to a sick family member, or a request to work in certain temperature or light conditions. Whatever the case may be, employees must have access to the right tools, such as our accommodation case management module, to address their concerns regarding the new return-to-work policy.
While the policy is straightforward, employees expect flexibility and unions demand adherence to contracts. HR leaders require instant access to the documentation and automated processes more than ever.
Unfortunately, this is impossible to achieve with spreadsheets or emails. Organizations need the right employee relations management system that brings structure, ensures consistency and supports automation during the process of this return-to-office policy implementation.
Sodales: The Unified Platform for Employee Relations Management
Sodales is the single unified platform for health, safety and employee relations management. Our accommodation case management module empowers your organization to implement a safe return-to-office transition. It’s a premium-certified SAP Endorsed App designed for highly regulated industries and complex labor environments.
It’s been adopted across more than 152 countries with more than 5 million users globally, with the ability to integrate with SAP, Oracle, Workday, UKG and many more systems.
This makes our platform the right employee relations management system for your organization to face this return-to-office policy change.
Trusted by top brands and organizations like the Ministry of Ontario, City of Houston, Texas, Canada Post, Coca-Cola, and many more, Sodales provides HR leaders with the right tools to manage the return-to-office policy change. Moreover, we empower HR leaders to ensure fairness, consistency and compliance during the full employee relations lifecycle — from complaint report to grievance resolution and periods of organizational change, like the return to the office.
Get ready to face the new return-to-office policy with Sodales’ employee relations management system and job accommodation case management software.
Book a demo today and learn how your organization can stay compliant during the transition.
