CEO check-ins, tech leaps: Companies share ‘safe return’ to business lessons
Screenshot / Courtesy / Northern Light Health
Upper row, from left, Ed Gilkey, Northern Light Beacon Health; Tasha Gardner, Sargent Corp.; Scott Biehn, Ntension. Bottom, from left, Ryan Albert, Bangor Savings Bank; Carrie Meo, Anthony John's Day Spa and Boutique, Darling's Auto; Jeff Doran, Northern Light Medical Group and COVID-19 Incident Commander.
Split shifts, single-occupancy crew travel, constant communication between management and employees, and improved technology — these have been some of the strategies deployed by companies around Maine as they worked to maintain operations through the pandemic.
“One of the biggest lessons learned, and we’re not used to this, was that we sometimes didn’t know the answers,” said Jeff Doran, vice president COVID-19 incident commander for Northern Light Medical Group. “As a clinically oriented enterprise, that’s not a comfortable place to be in. We needed to be honest and transparent and say, ‘We just don’t know right now.’”
Doran spoke during a Zoom presentation held last week called “Safe Return to Business” and hosted by Northern Light Health. It was the 10th presentation in a series designed to prepare employers to have their workforce present, engaged and safe. Panels of experts throughout the series have covered topics such as risk mitigation and critical infrastructure for safety; face coverings and screening for employees and customers; and supporting employee needs as they return to work.
The presentation was moderated by Dr. Ed Gilkey, senior physician executive for Northern Light Beacon Health. In addition to Doran, other speakers were Tasha Gardner, CFO, Sargent Corp.; Scott Biehn, president and CEO, Ntension; Ryan Albert, senior vice president, director of human resources and employee development, Bangor Savings Bank; and Carrie Meo, CEO, Anthony John's Day Spa and Boutique and vice president of fixed operations at Darling's Auto.
The discussion revolved around COVID experiences in the business world, including lessons learned and moving forward.
Split shifts
Darling’s moved to split shifts and reduced work schedules to 30 hours, said Carrie Meo. “We kept saying we couldn’t do shifts,” she said. “We learned quickly that we could do it.”
It created online noontime calls between managers to discuss how things were being handled and what needed to be adjusted; and created pick-up and delivery services and sales in order to continue its work with customers.
The spa closed March 17 and has been opening in stages, she said. Staff and management used Slack to maintain communication on changes that could be made during the facility’s gradual reopening. That discussion is ongoing; for example, up-close services for things like skin-care are still not available.
“That was a revenue sources, so it’s still a challenge,” said Meo.
The spa has four staff members who specialize in skin care and it has been trying to keep them busy with other services such as nail care. For clients who can’t wear masks, the spa sets aside a private room and scheduling sessions with a provider who’s even more geared up than usual with personal protective equipment, she said.
Government mandates
As an essential business operating at job sites in Maine, New Hampshire and Virginia, Sargent Corp. had to navigate a different government mandates in different states and municipalities, said Tasha Gardner.
Generally, Sargent was able to continually operate, but was constantly figuring out requirements, she said. The early months of the pandemic were slow times for the company anyway, she added. And much of the workforce works outside and at some distance from one another at the job sites.
The company built wash stations on every job site, sourced face coverings and switched to single occupancy in its vehicles. It depended on industry associations and its law firm to keep tabs on requirements in municipalities where its job sites are located.
And it stepped up communication, implementing weekly podcasts and picking up a texting platform so that information could be quickly conveyed to employees. It shifted its monthly newsletter to a mini weekly newsletter.
“We tried to communicate as much as we can,” she said.
As employees struggled with childcare due to the closure of day care centers and schools, Sargent transitioned into being flexible in its scheduling, she added.
Time-and-a-half pay
Bangor Savings Bank also became agile, said Ryan Albert. The company, he said, previously resisted work-from-home trends.
“But on March 18 we pivoted and sent 650 employees to work from home,” he said.
That was 65% of the workforce, compared with 5% before the pandemic.
For the 400 people who couldn’t work from home, the bank had to find a way to ensure the safety and well-being of employees and balance that with serving customers, he said. The bank closed its branch lobbies, switched to drive-up-only service, increased sanitization and cleaning schedules, put up Plexiglas barriers and installed hand sanitizer stations everywhere
Also, the bank issued time-and-half-pay for all hours worked on-site and an extra $50 per day to salaried employees, with the idea that the extra cash flow could go toward day care.
For employees working from home, the bank found early on that constant communication between leadership and employees was crucial, he said.
“Folks working from home don’t need to be micro-managed, we found,” he said. “But they do need to feel constantly informed and connected to stay engaged, motivated and productive.”
To help with communication, the bank implemented daily Zoom or Skype check-ins with managers. The CEO holds weekly calls with the entire staff — over 1,000 people. On his first call, he promised there wouldn’t be any layoffs or reduced hours. That helped reduce employee stress, Albert said.
Over the past few months, employees have been transitioning to a “new normal,” he said.
“It’s, for us, trying to find out what that new normal is,” he said.
Strategies recently implemented, as branches reopen, include dividing the 650 remote employees into two groups, and having half work from home and half in the office on two-week rotations, in order to maintain physical distancing.
Employee continues to have anxieties, particularly as schools announce reopening plans, he said.
“We’ll continue to be as flexible as we can,” he said.
Ntension, in Hermon, is also splitting shifts.
The company is a wholesale manufacturer of custom fabric exhibitry, such as logoed banners at trade shows. The exhibit industry is on hold now. So Ntension pivoted to making personal protective equipment, said Scott Biehn. The factory is sizeable enough to allow employees to maintain spatial distance by maintaining separate workstations and splitting shifts.
“It’s been difficult but rewarding,” he said.
Clear, decisive, adaptable
Northern Light itself went through similar challenges, said Doran. The system has over 12,000 employees across 125 or so locations in Maine.
“Keeping them safe was a challenge,” he said. “Although we’re familiar with managing and working in infection-prone environments, this is a step up in significance.”
The decision-making process was crucial, especially early in the pandemic, he said. It required being clear and decisive, but adaptable.
About half of the workforce is in support roles and transitioned to working at home or other settings, he said.
Working remotely meant strengthening the system’s technology platform, including implementing new security solutions to protect information used by home-based staff, he explained.
Although clinical staffers were comfortable wearing face masks, non-clinical employees previously never needed to.
“We found it was viewed as weird and uncomfortable,” said Doran. “It’s become increasingly acceptable.”
Other strategies? From the start, Northern Light declared there would be no layoffs. With the goal of improving indoor airflow, the system is assessing HVAC systems and air exchanges at all its sites.
Important lessons
Improved technology and ramped-up communication have proven critical.
Darling’s improved its scanning ability, which went a long way to rationalizing operations, said Meo. Typically, the company relies on paper repair orders and invoices. But employees working at home needed to have access to the information. So the company has been scanning in paperwork or entering data in electronic form from the start. Those changes will likely stick going forward, she said.
Sargent Corp. found it wasn’t leveraging its existing technology well, said Gardner. For example, it had the communication platform Microsoft Teams, but as far as internal and external communications, “We weren’t even scratching the surface of what we could do with it,” she said. “We were forced to make a giant leap.”
Even though many employees are back in the office, Sargent continues to do meetings via Teams so employees are not crowded into one conference room.
“It’s also allowed us to take Teams meetings to people on the job sites, which we hadn’t done before,” Gardner added.
Bangor Savings Bank quickly learned the importance of clear, consistent and constant communication with employees, said Albert. It also established an internal online COVID-19 resource center to help employees get safety and health information quickly. It sent a bank-wide employee survey, asking what the company could do to support employees throughout the pandemic. Responses ranged from needing a more comfortable office chair at home to assistance with daycare. And the bank regularly updates its social media channels to keep customers informed of shifting hours and branch availability.
“If you think you’re communicating too much. you’re still probably not communicating enough,” Albert said.
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