by Don Nokes | I recently wrote a guest article for Providence Business News in July about how our leadership team and staff came together to implement a cohesive plan to get our staff fully back to work in the office, eliminating remote work.
Now, in August, our path back to the office is complete but the new uptick in infections keeps us consistently monitoring infection numbers and the CDC’s guidance. Our plan (for now) is to stay in the office, but our number one priority is the safety of our clients and our employees.
“As our leadership team planned for and rolled out our back-to-work initiative for more than 30 employees at NetCenergy LLC, we recognized we liked to be together in one office. But we wondered what the staff would say.
When the pandemic started, we knew that working from home would be seamless for our staff. As information technology professionals who spend time both in our office and in clients’ physical space, we had the skills and know-how to make that work. In fact, in March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic began, we limited our in-the-office staff to only one person per day. While we all missed the live, real-time collaboration, our video tools and remote access helped us feel like we were together.
In the spring of this year, as signs of the pandemic-designated restrictions were lifting, we began the discussion about bringing employees back to the office. We believed communication was key. The leadership team met one on one and in person with each employee to assess their readiness to return to our workplace. Given three months of advance notice, could they arrange child care, commuting and other facets of daily in-office life? Did we need to offer a hybrid schedule?”
Read the full article in PBN here.
PS – If you are looking to self-assess your existing IT systems and evaluate your level of risk, our 30-page IT Playbook is full of information to help you. Send us an email and we’ll forward a copy to you. And, if you are not following strict security protocols — including regular user training of anyone with credentials to access your network — reach out to our team at NetCenergy to review your situation.