A Philadelphia Based Search & Staffing Firms Response to COVID-19
Three months into a new decade and it’s quickly turning into one for the history books. Throughout my time at Juno, I have spent countless hours dissecting every possible threat that could impact our business, but I never considered a health pandemic.
As COVID-19 began making its way throughout the United States, we frantically began searching for a manual on how to do our job in the middle of a global health crisis, but it seemed we misplaced the whole damn thing.
So, with zero training on how to prepare a business for a health pandemic, this is what we did:
WEEK BEGINNING FEBRUARY 24:
It was during this week that we realized our fears were confirmed, there was trouble on the horizon. Hours were spent nervously shuffling and reshuffling from Vicki Sack’s office to mine where we shared every new development while adding to our mutual pile of anxiety. It became clear that action needed to be taken and fast. Following this frantic, anxiety packed week was the creation of five separate preparation plans (Internal Preparation Plan, Philadelphia Contract Employee Preparation Plan, New Jersey Contract Employee Preparation Plan, New York Contract Employee Preparation Plan, and Client Preparation Plan).
WEEK BEGINNING MARCH 2:
We kicked off the week with a special edition to our weekly Town Hall where we briefed our internal team on our health pandemic plans. Reactions were quiet, all taking the time to process what was being massively laid out before them. Following this, our plans were rolled out to our contract employees and clients.
As the week was ending, there was more than just anxiety piling up. New cases of the pandemic were hitting closer to home. The week ended with an update to the team that, at their discretion, they could choose to work from home for the foreseeable future.
WEEK BEGINNING MARCH 9:
The week that aged me 10 years. It started off with the Coronavirus officially being named a pandemic, followed by quarantining two employees who had recently left the continental U.S., and shortly thereafter — the stock market crashed. The most Mondays of Mondays.
There we were, left to glare at our social feeds with media filled chaos. What do we believe? Over-reacting? Under-reacting? Too much toilet paper? Too little? Our leadership team began meeting several times a day to review any new information coming from the CDC in an attempt to make purely fact-based decisions to ensure the health and wellness of not just our team, but our families and communities as well. Decisions were made:
- Postponed our connectors series (stay tuned for new date).
- Moved all in-person meetings to Skype.
- In an effort to practice social distancing, our team was advised not to participate in outside networking events.
- Encouraged employees to take advantage of our work from home policy.
- Those showing any symptoms of illness were advised to stay home.
- Never stop washing your hands.
The city of Philadelphia announced its first presumptive positive case of COVID-19 Wednesday afternoon. By Thursday afternoon, we locked up the office for at least the next two weeks.
Day 1 of Quarantine arrived. Being very well versed in working from home (our normal policy is 1 WFH day per week + we spend the week between Christmas & New Year working remotely) it is nothing new to us, yet this felt incredibly different. Having a team of extroverts in self-isolation isn’t optimal. Feelings of unease amongst the team could be easily detected and rightfully so. These emotions and feelings were directed towards the uncharted territory that lay ahead and we could all feel the weight. What is typically a Slack channel filled with Friday lunch plans quickly changed pace. Middle Child sandwich recommendations were replaced with words of uplifting encouragement. In a harsh, unexpected and difficult time, Juno is not just showcasing that we are a team but truly a family.
WEEK BEGINNING OF MARCH 16:
The show goes on.
We created a plan, we put our plan in place and we continue to stick by our health pandemic plan. Over the last two weeks, our team has been preparing for this moment to ensure our client and candidate servicing continue without any disruption.
It’s business as usual for #TeamJuno and we are ready and eager to help you. Whether you need assistance navigating your job search, an extra set of hands on your team or a customized talent solution to help you scale — we would love to *virtually* meet you and discuss.
