Page 53 - BusinessWest March, 21, 2022
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 Return
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to include those from other regions of the country. “We recognize that flexibility around remote work
and hybrid work schedules is a way to honor the needs of people,” she said, using that word ‘needs’ in reference to everything from family matters to physi- cal disabilities. “We’re seeing more people ask for that flexibility when they apply.”
And at the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, which employs roughly 150 people, 100 at the Agawam Corporate Center, there will be similar amounts of flexibility, said Jennifer Murphy, director of Human Resources, adding that the employees now working remotely, and that’s most of them, are slated to return in a hybrid format on April 4.
“Part of our new flexible-work policy involves a hybrid work model; when we return, people will be required to work 60% of the time in the office,” Mur- phy said, adding that this plan of action has been generally well-received by employees. Overall, it rep- resents acknowledgement of both the emergence of remote work as being popular and effective and the importance of face-to-face interaction when it comes to office culture.
“What COVID has taught us is that, given the nature of our work, we can operate our business suc- cessfully remotely,” she explained. “But we also feel it’s important for our culture that we work together and collaborate together; there’s real value in those face-to-face interactions. Overall, we’re trying to bal- ance the value and importance of in-person work and collaboration with employees’ desire to also have that flexibility to work remotely.”
At Cambridge Credit Counseling, Viale said his plan to bring employees back to a hybrid schedule was greeted with a generally positive response. Over- all, he’s not expecting the same when it comes to his plans to bring all or most employees (there will be exceptions for health considerations and other fac- tors) back full-time.
Elaborating, and echoing Morales-Lemieux’s com- ments, he said that, as the months went by, employ- ees became increasingly comfortable with working remotely, and increasingly uncomfortable with the thought of returning to the office.
But after weighing all the factors, including that seven-year lease on a significantly larger footprint
and other considerations, he decided that bringing everyone back is the best course. But, as noted ear- lier, he will listen, and he may be open to changing his plans.
And what may be a deciding factor in his ultimate decision is his ability to maintain his workforce.
“What’s really challenging is just finding people to work,” he said. “I just heard an ad coming in to work this morning that Target is hiring people for $24 an hour; our starting wage is between $16 and $18 an hour.”
At Ware-based Country Bank, most all employees have been back to the office since last fall, said Miri- am Siegel, first senior vice president and chief culture officer for the institution, adding that she believes that the bank is among the first, if not the first, busi- ness of its kind to put a flexible work policy in place.
The employees who have returned are work-
ing three days in the office and two remotely, she said, adding that the new policy, or strategy, is not the result of COVID, necessarily, but rather recogni- tion that times and needs are changing, and flexible schedules are the logical, responsible response to the current landscape.
“One of the big things we’ve learned at the bank is that we have to recognize that we don’t live in a one- size-fits-all working world anymore,” she said. “That has become our mantra in many ways.”
Elaborating, she said the pandemic helped drive home the need to communicate with employees, have them articulate their challenges and needs, and then work with them to the extent possible to accom- modate those needs.
This is the right thing to do, Siegel said, but it’s also what many companies are willing to do, which is critical during what could only be called an ongoing workforce crisis.
“When you couple this remote-work situation with the Great Resignation, shifting priorities, and our challenge to retain people ... we need to be listen- ing to our employees and accommodate them when we can,” she said. “Because they’ll very quickly go somewhere else right now.”
At Baystate, as Morales-Lemieux noted, efforts to bring back — to the extent they are coming back — those 4,000 employees who left for home two years ago have been underway for some time.
There is now an organization-wide communica-
perspective.
“We are fascinated with the response to our virtual
programming,” Vanek said. “I believe it helps entice people to come visit us, which is good for our organi- zation, the town, and the region.”
Out in the Open
Szynal has learned that people will travel long dis- tances to take part many of the outdoor activities in Deerfield and Franklin County.
“We were shocked to learn how robust fly fishing is here,” she said. Indeed, whether casting a line into the Deerfield River or rafting in Charlemont, outdoor activities are a true resource for the area and bring in people who often stay for several days.
“The rivers and mountains have always been here, but suddenly there has been a renewed interest in these resources,” she said.
Warren is thrilled that Szynal and the chamber are now part of Deerfield.
“Diana has great ideas, and I think she can help us keep Historic Deerfield connected to the rest of the community,” Warren said, adding that, in a per- fect world, Deerfield would provide more incentives for tourism, but ongoing infrastructure projects have stretched budgets to their limits.
tion plan and strategy that will be launched in early April, she said, adding that there are still 3,000 people working “completely or largely” remotely.
Bottom Line
At all the workplaces we talked with, the new poli- cies and strategies are in place for what would be called the time being.
Indeed, each company said it reserved to right to re-evaluate and change what is in place, depending on how things work out.
“The program we put in place — we keep the option open to revise or revoke if we don’t see good results,” Moriarty said. “But so far, so good.”
Murphy concurred. “When we initiated this policy and rolled it out, we said we would try it for one year and see how it works, and that we reserve the right to revisit it,” she said, adding that, while there is gen- eral confidence that this strategy will succeed given what’s happened over the past two years, it is still, on some levels, an experiment.
But overall, she’s not expecting many changes to the new policies — or to the current landscape in the workplace, for that matter.
“Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t see the trend turn- ing back to fully in-person work for most people, especially those who work at a computer all day,” she said. “We’ve shown that that the remote model works; I think it’s here to stay.”
Morgan agreed. “We’re trending in that direction; HR professionals are talking about the trends, and the ‘new normal,’ and what will be the future of work,” she explained. “For so many reasons, we’re engaging in work in a different way; we’re fitting it into our lives in a different way than we could if we had a 30-min- ute commute to the office — and we’re finding that we can be even more productive.”
Those sentiments are among the many that make it clear that work has changed over the past two years — and probably changed forever.
And this will make the much-anticipated Great Return something to watch. u
George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]
Located between the Connecticut and Deer-
field rivers, the town faces constant challenges with stormwater runoff and flooding issues. Bloody Brook, which also runs through town, maintains a higher- than-normal water table.
Deerfield was one of the first communities to qualify for the state’s Municipal Vulnerability Pre- paredness (MVP) program. MVP grants are awarded to cities and towns that build climate-change resil- ience into all their infrastructure plans. Warren explained that type of thinking applies to every proj- ect in town, from simple tree boxes designed for bet- ter stormwater management to larger projects like the school repurposing and sidewalk additions.
“We are linking everything together in terms of managing water issues, and we’ve set our sights on staying on top of this for the next 50 to 100 years,” Mason said.
As Deerfield’s many projects move forward with Mason and the CCI keeping them on track, Warren took a minute to appreciate the situation.
“We have a group of passionate volunteers who want to work together help the town,” she said. “They are engaged and willing to put in the time to keep these projects moving forward, and that’s so impor- tant.” u
  Deerfield
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in Franklin
County.” While Szynal and her staff are still settling in from
the move, which occurred in mid-January, their focus is on having the visitor center ready to go when His- toric Deerfield begins its season on April 16.
Jesse Vanek, vice president of Development and Communications for Historic Deerfield, said 2022 is a tremendous opportunity to welcome back large crowds to the outdoor museum that depicts life in 18th-century New England. “Historic Deerfield is such a special place, and we’re hoping to see our in- person visits get back to pre-COVID levels.”
Every year, the museum runs a full schedule of programs for visitors. Beginning in the spring, pro- grams will range from Sheep on the Street, which explores heritage breed sheep and the role of wool processing in New England’s history, to a Summer Evening Stroll held on July 3 and themed on Deerfield during the American Revolution.
COVID and the winter season inspired Historic Deerfield to expand its program offerings online through virtual sessions. As a result, the museum now reaches audiences around the world. The win- ter lecture series included relevant topics such as understanding climate change from a historical
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