Page 20 - HC B2B Fall20

SCHOOL CHANGES IMPACTING BUSINESSES
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By McKinley Winkle
While things have been slightly different in the last few months, schools have had one of the biggest adjustments to make amidst this pandemic. Last year, students made the switch to online learning in a matter of days, and no one really knew how the start of the 2020 school year would roll out. Thankfully, the Helena community had people working hard all summer to devise a plan and a series of tiers for the school systems to phase their students back. As of now, in the Helena School District, students are in atten- dance two days a week on either Monday and Tuesday or Thursday and Friday, with all students having an online day on Wednesday.
With kids at home at least three days a week, parents are faced with the issue of working from home or the office depending on place of work, still providing care for their children, and maintaining a work-life balance. If parents are at home with their children, they are still
expected to complete their daily tasks, while doubling as a homeschool teacher and caretaker.
According to the United States Chamber Foundation “79% of employers have shifted a significant part of the workforce to remote work,” affecting multiple industries. The 79% comes from mid-sized companies, where only 70% of small businesses (places with fewer than 10 employees), and 90% of large employers (those with over 500 employees) have made the switch to remote work environments. While a large majority of companies went from in-office to at-home, 34% reduced working hours, and 25% of employees have been laid off or furloughed.
“Childcare is important to children and is essential for working parents,” and employers are doing the best they can to accommodate while still obtaining
a strong workforce. The United States Chamber Foundation reports “40% of employers have offered additional childcare assistance, benefits, or accommodations in response to the effects of COVID-19.” Many of these benefits revolve around work schedules with 29% offering remote work as assistance, and 26% and 24% respectively for flexible working hours and flexible working days.
The beginning to solving an issue starts
with awareness and recognizing the
problem at hand. “Overall, 92% of
employers believe they are aware of the
childcare needs of their employees,”
which is a great number, but what is the
next step? By knowing how to
accommodate your employees, and
communicating what those needs are,
traveling. Most employees at RPA, when they travel, travel individually so it is on
the employer and employee can begin to work on a solution together.
Jeff Key and his team at Robert Peccia
and Associates (RPA), here in Helena,
have done an exceptional job at handling
each employee to practice safety and
make sure they are doing their part to stay
the school changes with their employees. “We have been very accommodating,”
As the pandemic continues and students
says Jeff, “we’ve known it was coming
and we were prepared to be flexible.” As
of now, their office is only at a 50% capac-
ity with half in-house and the other half working remotely. While it has been a slight change, they have made an easy transition. The biggest factor for RPA along with other businesses is “height- ened communication” between employees and employers, especially when it comes to scheduling and
only attend school two days a week, with
their parents still in the workforce, it is
important for businesses to remain in
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healthy. “We take health, safety and our
WEAR A MASK
employees’ wellbeing very serious and
want to be good community partners,”
says Jeff.
MAINTAIN SOCIAL DISTANCE (AT LEAST 6 FT. APART)
WASH YOUR HANDS & USE HAND SANITIZER
AVOID TOUCHING YOUR FACE
partnership with their employees, to communicate and collaborate by working
COVER COUGHS & SNEEZES
together to create the best of the situation.
SAFETY FIRST,
20 BUSINESS TO BUSINESS CONNECTION
ADVENTURE SECOND.
BE MONTANA AWARE AND HELP US SLOW THE SPREAD OF COVID-19.
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