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36 / BUILDING DIALOGUE / June 2020 ELEMENTS Post COVID-19 Transitioning to a New ‘Business as Usual’ During Pandemic EDITOR’S NOTE: Barker Rinker Seacat Ar- chitecture, a 40-person firm headquartered in Denver, shares its transition to working remotely, staying connected culturally and the silver linings of the COVID epidemic. B RS always has been flexible regarding employee work hours. Previously, it was limited to whether someone was more productive working from 9:30 to 6:30 as opposed to 9 to 5, or because it provided a convenient op- tion on a sporadic day, such as staying at home with a sick child. We offered this flexibility as an amenity for employees. However, since we are a relatively small firm with an extremely tight-knit and collaborative culture, we did not promote this as more than a short-term solution. All of this changed in March. In early March we had a few concerned employ- ees contact their managers and express their de- sire to work from home. At the time we had other employees who were not concerned and wanted to continue to come into the office. It was a delicate situation. The management team had to balance both reactions and respect that each employee has a unique situation and individual needs to cope during a tough situation. We talked about it openly and discussed it as a group. Following the March 16 discussion, the majority of the office began work- ing from home. When the Denver mayor’s stay-at- home directive was issued March 24, we closed the Denver office and transitioned to everyone work- ing from home. This “new abnormal,” was challenging for the executive team for a multitude of reasons. There were time-sensitive technical requirements to meet as well as management of fundamental emo- tional intelligence skills. By the time the mayor’s directive was issued, we already were working with our IT consultant to outfit everyone with a work-provided laptop, as needed. We issued an officewide survey checking in on home internet speeds, computer virus pro- tection, etc., to assist our IT department in under- standing the needs of each person, with one-on- one follow-up. The first day we were working from home, 80% of people were up and running. Within three days, by setting up VPN’s and remote desktop applications, we were 100% functional and work- ing from home! Meanwhile, wewerebombardedwithhourlynews updates and needed to discern the best resources amongst the rapidly developing information. With the media posting breaking news 24/7, our employ- eeswere looking to firm leadership to provide timely responses. Staying up to date on ever-changing gov- ernment policies, understanding how those policies affect our firm and our employees as soon as possi- ble was and continues to be our goal. We were also nervous our work would suffer missed deadlines, sluggish response rates, etc. Al- though we know our employees are flexible and adaptable, we had no idea how amazingly resilient BRSers are in difficult circumstances! We’re con- tinuing to offer the same level of service, meeting our deadlines and creating innovative digital work- arounds for in-person activities. In fact, our utiliza- tion actually rose the first threeweeksworking from home. We made it a point to bring this back to the staff with a celebratory “cheers” during our video chat Friday happy hour. We feel lucky to have had a previously established intranet, which has been hugely helpful in enabling people to work from home while still feeling connected to others in the office. Not only is it a place where an employee could access project relat- ed information, write a post or provide support, but we’ve also been using it to educate our employees on new office policy in the world of COVID-19 as well as share financial and health resources. We also hosted a webinar to help guide employees in understanding use of the Emergency Paid Sick Leave and the Ex- panded Family and Medical Leave Act under the Families First Coronavirus Re- sponse Act. Katie Barnes Partner, Barker Rinker Seacat Architecture BRS checks in virtually.