Page 23 - BusinessWest August 3, 2020

Amy Roberts says PeoplesBank has to balance the benefits of working at home with the interactive employee culture it has
cultivated.
tion,” said Michael Galat, vice president of Employee Services at Big Y. That shift meant set- ting everyone up with the right equipment if they didn’t have it at home, and also putting together a best-practices guide for working remotely. “Whether people are working remotely or not, they need to have access and be available to sup- port those locations.”
The lesson learned over four months? They did their jobs just fine. And until COVID-19 begins to subside in earnest, Big Y is taking its time bringing employees — at least the ones who don’t have to work in the stores — back to their
pre-pandemic workspaces.
“We’re definitely taking our time. We’re at
about 30% in the support center now,” Galat said. “Obviously this is peak vacation time, but we are slowly, and I mean slowly, reintegrating people in the support center.”
PeoplesBank is learning similar lessons about what employees can accomplish at home, said Amy Roberts, chief Human Resources officer.
“There’s always a concern, when you don’t have someone on site, because you can’t see what they’re doing. Are they working?” she said. “But we haven’t really missed a beat in terms of
productivity levels. Some people like working from home — it works for them — while some people prefer working in the office, and they can’t wait to come back. But for overall productivity and meeting the needs of customers, we haven’t had any concerns.”
Roberts doesn’t see a day, post-pandemic, when the majority of bank employees are still
“Is this something we can do on a more permanent basis? We’re still trying to figure out the right blend. But there seems to be some opportunity for flexible work options, and I think we’re going to do that in the future.”
working at home. But functioning so well over the past few months has at least gotten HR lead- ers talking.
“Is this something we can do on a more per- manent basis? We’re still trying to figure out the right blend,” she told BusinessWest. “But there seems to be some opportunity for flexible work options, and I think we’re going to do that in the future.”
Patrick Leary has had those conversations, too. As a partner with MP CPAs, he understands that much of his business is face to face with cli-
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