Capital Region CEOS embrace remote work and hybrid schedules
But survey shows concern for morale, relationships
Fifty-seven percent of CEOS in the Capital Region have increased the ability for their employees to work remotely, and 48 percent of those CEOS plan to keep remote work indefinitely.
These are the findings of The Siena College Research Institute’s annual survey of upstate CEOS, which includes responses from 1,036 CEOS across various industries. The survey was conducted between Jan. 12 and March 12 of this year.
While CEOS believe they’ve made great strides towards efficient remote and hybrid working models and are optimistic about the benefits that remote work will continue to bring to their employees, many CEOS expressed concerns about their ability to build community, keep up morale, organically maintain one-on-one relationships, and really understand if their employees are happy when not in the office.
“From the employer side, there was an epiphany of ‘oh I guess we can actually work from home, the employees have been asking for this for years, and we actually can get work done,’” said Rose Miller, the president of Pinnacle, a human resources consulting firm based in
Albany. “But humans aren’t black and white… for one worker productivity will actually grow when they work from home… but some employees fell apart, the lack of structure caused them to disintegrate.”
Miller, who has consulted with her clients throughout the pandemic, is worried about employees getting left behind if employers don’t find new ways to connect with them. “We need to start re-engineering some thinking about how do you keep your culture that you have been working on intact in a remote setting. It is pretty daunting,” Miller said.
Lauren Groff, owner and CEO of Groff Networks, a small computer consulting company in Troy, is already thinking about how to improve interactions with his employees.
“I can’t just do a quick walk around and say hi to everybody. So I have to be more intentional” with checking in with them, Groff said. “That is something I want to do better on. That kind of rhythm check ins bring is really important.”
None of Groff ’s employees are required to work in person — a standard that the majority of workplaces are adapting as the pandemic stretches into its second year. But Groff welcomes the idea. “I don’t need to see everyone from the service desk together in one place, but it is kind of a cool place when it happens, so we might ask for that but we will not demand it,” Groff said.
Some CEOS are downsizing, others are upsizing.
Thirteen percent of CEOS have reduced their office space, 7 percent plan to make this change within the next six months, and 57 percent of those CEOS plan to keep the change indefinitely, according to the survey results.
Groff is one of those CEOS looking to downsize.
“If I can find two other businesses that are like minded or have a little more open kind of work, then sharing resources could work. We would be happy friends together,” Groff said about his vision for his current office space, which is about
2,800 square feet for his 12 locally based employees. He was thinking of splitting rent with other businesses even before the pandemic. Now, he is even more eager to make the change.
John Buhrmaster, the president and CEO of First National Bank of Scotia, made an opposite decision for his employees, about 60 percent who are back working in person. He rented an additional office in Schenectady so employees could comfortably social distance at work.
He estimates he invested $800,000 into getting the office spaces ready for employees to come back, including replacing old ventilation systems, obtaining PPE, barriers and paying additional rent.
“Lobby traffic is dramatically down but our transactions are up, more people are continuing to do electronic banking than ever before,” Buhrmaster said. So while the bank has increased office space it is planning to downsize the size and number of its lobbies. a trend that existed even before the pandemic. But the pandemic accelerated it.
Technical security
Forty-two percent of CEOS have increased their IT support for their employees, while 47 percent have increased technical security measures, according to the survey results. For Buhrmaster, increasing security was paramount in moving the bank’s operations forward during the pandemic.
“We have learned how to do many more functions of the banking safely and securely,” Buhrmaster said. The bank had a post-remote work analysis done by a cybersecurity firm that specializes in penetration testing, or hacking.
“That helped us change,” Buhrmaster said. “We added a position to the bank, a cybersecurity coordinator, because we realized that we are not going back.”
At Fusco Personnel, a recruiting firm based in Albany, President and CEO Patricia Fusco has equipped everyone on her staff with computers and IP phones at home, even though almost all of her staff is coming into the office regularly.
“If need be, we can literally be at home and just grab the phones anywhere. That is an advantage to have,” Fusco said.
“But we like to keep a really happy, positive, upbeat morale, and we feel that obviously being all together in person, it is easier to keep that morale going on.”