Page 10 - BusinessWest August 4, 2021

adjusts to inflation, and that’s show- ing up everywhere in our economy — food, transportation, supplies, inven- tory, computer chips ... it’s showing up everywhere, and I think it’s going to have an impact. We see good times ahead as long as inflation can be kept in check and interest rates stay rela- tively low.”
Leary: “The need for our services greatly increased in 2020 because of the PPP program and other initiatives and trying to help clients understand the rules, what qualifies for forgiveness, and so on. There was great demand
for our services, and it’s continued into
ELIZABETH PAQUETTE
“I had to spend a chunk of my time with a remote first-grader, so I had that stress at home while trying to be at work. So I found that employees function better if we’re able to meet
them where they’re at.”
BusinessWest: That’s a good segue to the next question. Attracting and retaining workers has become the dominant challenge for 2021. How has your business been impacted?
Yee: “There is virtually no one apply- ing for jobs, and the people we do have working are tired from working extend- ed hours, so we’re trying to give them breaks by closing an extra day during the week or sometimes two, which we’ve never done in the past. But we’ve found that’s one of the only ways we can deal with this labor shortage — giving people some extra time for that work-life balance.
Senecal: “I received a résumé the other day from a headhunter for a position we were looking to fill ... the person was very well-qualified and has all the right skill sets. But in big, bold letters on the résumé, it said this person is only interested in working remotely. I don’t think I’ve ever seen on that on a résumé before, but it’s an indication of the world to come.”
Leary: “We’re seeing the same thing many of our customers are seeing.
As tax laws change and accounting rules change, we have a great demand for people, and it’s not for entry-level people, but more experienced people. And it’s very challenging to find them. But what we’ve found is that, because of the ability to work remotely, instead of searching for someone and saying, ‘we want you to work in our Spring- field office or our Connecticut office,’ we can say, ‘you can work anywhere in the country — we have the ability to let you work wherever you want.’”
Dumay: “I haven’t looked at the com- parisons closely, but it certainly seems, anecdotally, that we have more open positions than we normally have. For some, we’re seeing good pools of can- didates, and for others, the pools are not as strong as we would like. So in many ways, we’re like everyone else. There is a higher level of vacancy at the college, and for many positions, the pool of applicants is simply not as robust.”
Bitsoli: “From a business standpoint, the thing that’s very different for us and most all businesses is the staffing. It really is different. There are people who retired early, people who decided to change career paths ... so we’re deal- ing with quite a few staffing challenges, like everyone else. One of the things I’ve heard anecdotally is that, because of the incentives being offered by the state, for people at a lower level, like
Roundtable
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this year. As for our customers ... most of them are doing OK post-pandemic, but I’m concerned that the federal money that these businesses have received is masking how they are doing
financially. And as demand starts to grow, will these businesses be able to find the staffing to supply the products and provide the services?
For the second consecutive “marking period,” Mercy Medical Center was awarded an ‘A’ in the Spring 2021 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, a national distinction recognizing Mercy’s achievements in protecting patients from harm and providing high-quality, safe health care.
The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is the only hospital ratings program based exclusively on hospitals’ prevention of medical errors and other harms to patients in their care.
271 CAREW STREET, SPRINGFIELD, MA 01104 • TRINITYHEALTHOFNE.ORG
10 AUGUST 4, 2021
FEATURE
BusinessWest