When news first came of a potential for the COVID-19 pandemic first came, our Operations Manager John Gage and his terrific IT team acted quickly to ensure a successful transition to a work-from-home environment for all but a handful of skeleton staff.
“We had a bit of an advantage because even before the pandemic, one-third of our employees were already working from home,” John says. “We began working immediately to implement a plan to transition office-based employees to home offices, and we were able to do it over ten days thanks to the collaboration and commitment of our entire team.”
Thanks to John and the IT department, the work-from-home plan has served our employees and our clients well throughout the pandemic. For clients, the transition has been seamless, and John believes the home office set-up is helping the firm identify new processes and better ways to work, in fact. All, at a time when the firm is experiencing a record volume of business.
Although John misses seeing his team members each day, there is a silver lining to working from home. “I’m getting to know my children better. I get to see them during the day, like when I take a lunch break. I think it’s bringing us closer together. As for my work family, we’re finding ways to stay in touch with each other with workout videos and Zoom happy hours.”
John and his team are already planning for some staff to return to the workplace once infection rates begin to significantly decline. In the meantime, each office is being sanitized deeply with the same disinfectant Southwest Airlines uses to clean its planes. When they return, staff will be equipped with gloves, hand sanitizer, and masks to protect them and their co-workers.
Well done, John! Thank you for going the extra mile for our team and our clients!