HOW CRISIS HIT TOP EMPLOYERS
The Dayton area’s biggest companies have had varied reactions — and it’s not entirely bad.
Some Dayton-region employers, such as Lexis-Nexis and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, have weathered the COVID-19 pandemic without layoffs so far. Others launched a hiring spree — Kroger is bringing on more than 1,200 new employees to its Dayton-area stores. And still others, like Honda, have seen normal operations essentially cease. A now-lifted ban on elective procedures hit local hospitals hard, putting even trained health workers on the sideline. The Dayton Daily News examined how the top Dayton region companies, ranked by number of employees, have fared in the past seven tumultuous weeks.
1 Wright-Patterson Air Force Base: 30,000 employees
“There have been no U.S. government or military job losses at Wright-Patterson,” James Mitchell, a Wright-Patterson spokesman, told the Dayton Daily News.
“Throughout this pandemic, the workforce has been engaged and making a difference in the Air Force mission while teleworking. Air Force and installation leadership has and continues to provide enhanced communication infrastructure and capabil
ities to enable the remote workforce and ensure their continued safety and well-being.”
2 Premier Health: 12,425 employees
Some Premier employees have been furloughed or taken unpaid time off, but the company didn’t say how many.
“In some targeted areas, we have temporarily released (furloughed) some employees (non-essential, non-clinical employees and partners who are not providing direct patient care due to the COVID-19 pandemic),” a Premier representative said. “Given the rapid pace of change that is occurring, we may recall employees quickly as business needs warrant.”
Some furloughed employees already have returned as elective procedures have been restored in the week, Premier said.
3 Kettering Health Network: 9,319 employees
The health network did not provide a number of laid-off or furloughed employees, but said it offered employees paid time off, voluntary leaves of absence and remote work.
“As elective procedures have resumed, over the last week we are flexing back up to match that volume increase,” said Tim Dutton, the network’s chief human resources officer and executive vice president.
4 Montgomery County government: 4,284 employees
The county has made budget cuts, but those haven’t include furloughs or lay offs.
“Many of our staff have been working remotely, some have taken leave, and others have still been working in the office or in the field,” said Brianna Wooten, a spokeswoman for Montgomery County government. “As we return to normal operations gradually in the coming weeks, some staff will be returning to their normal work location and others will continue to work remotely.”
5 Kroger Co.: 4,030 employees
Kroger has added workers — plenty in fact.
In late March, Kroger announced it had recently hired more than 23,500 employees nationwide and planned to hire about 20,000 more in coming weeks.
“Kroger has been hiring steadily since the beginning of the pandemic,” Erin Rolfes, Kroger corporate affairs manager said last week. “In our Dayton-area stores, we hired 1,218 new associates. This number includes both full- and part- time hires.”
6 Miami University: 3,800 employees
Miami University already had planned to eliminate some staff positions effective July 1. About 60 employees have been affected.
“Before the coronavirus, Miami recognized significant changes coming in higher education and last year identified budget re-allocations to ensure student affordability through investment in scholarships and new academic programs that are aligned with the interests of tomorrow’s students,” a university representative said in a statement.
7 Cintas Corp.: 3,600 employees
Cintas has made cuts but declined to say how many employees were let go or furloughed.
“Due to the ongoing uncertainty as a result of the COVID-19 global pan- demic, Cintas has made the difficult decision to reduce our workforce to account for the lower work volume currently demanded by our customers,” a spokeswoman for the company said.
8 Cincinnati Financial Corp.: 3,350 employees
“We’ve maintained full employment and benefits for all associates,” spokeswoman Betsy Ertel told the Dayton Daily News.
Today, more than 95% of Cincinnati Financial employees work from home. And the company said it has maintained full pay for employees who couldn’t do their jobs from home or who were needed to care for family members.
9 Dayton Children’s Hospital: 3,341 employees
About 400 staff members were furloughed with full base pay for a period of six weeks, the health care company said.
“Just last week, we announced we would continue to pay furloughed staff at 80 percent of their base pay through the end of June. Furloughed staff still are accruing benefits,” Dayton Children’s said.
“Now that the state mandate on surgeries and clinic visits has been lifted, we are focused on our recovery plans with our outpatient surgeries to restart on Monday, May 11,” the hospital added. “We are very hopeful that during this recovery period, many of our fur- loughed staff will be called back to work as our volumes return.”
10 Honda of America: 3,200 jobs
Honda has had all of its Ohio production employees, including its Anna work- force, on furlough since late March. A small number of employees are working on ventilator parts at the company’s Marysville complex.
The automaker confirmed late last week that produc- tion will gradually resume in Ohio and across North America starting Monday.
11 Sinclair Community College: 3,163 employees
A Sinclair representative said the college is freezing hiring, suspending travel and asking some employees to consider retirement “to help close gaps in the college’s budget.”
“Sinclair is working to avoid employee pay reduc- tions, furloughs and layoffs as much as possible. As the community works to recover from the coronavi- rus pandemic and rebuild our economy, Sinclair’s talented faculty and staff will be needed more than ever to train the workforce and provide high-quality and affordable education,” the college said.
12 University of Dayton: 3,028 employees
In April, UD leaders said the university had furloughed nearly 450 employ- ees and laid off an additional 60 employees.
13 (tie) LexisNexis: 3,000 employees CareSource 3,000 employees
LexisNexis and CareSource, two very different companies, find themselves in similar situations.
“At LexisNexis Legal & Professional, we feel very fortunate to say that there have been no Dayton-based layoffs or furloughs as a result of COVID-19. Our Dayton employees are currently working from home and the site is open to essential personnel only,” said Alyce Clark, executive vice president of global human resources at LexisNexis Legal & Professional.
“CareSource has not had to make any staff reduc- tions or furlough employ- ees due to COVID-19,” said Dan McCabe, chief of staff for CareSource. “We con- tinue to hire for certain posi- tions within the organiza- tion, especially those criti- cal for providing high-quality care and supporting the well-being of our members and the needs of our health partners.”