Page 6 - Annual Report 2020

DEVELOPING OUR TEAM

Employee Progression

Throughout 2020, just as it was for our tenants, our priority for our employees was to
keep them safe, employed, and most importantly, healthy... in body, mind, and spirit.
As we do on an ongoing basis, we reviewed all our policies, procedures, programs, and
vendors and adjusted as needed throughout the year. This past year we made several
program changes, such as: selecting a new Health Care Provider for better coverage,
redesigning our Paid Time Off Program for more flexibility, and shifting our work
locations from the office to working remotely from home, to keep our employees safe.

COVID Related Policy Changes
Due to new threats and challenges created by the virus, we established a COVID
JACKIE RAMOS Emergency Planning Policy, a Travel Advisory and Quarantine Policy, and a COVID
Tracking System. We also established a Video Conferencing Protocol, updated our
Human Resource Director
maintenance On-Call Policy that included a back-up plan in case the person assigned to
be on-call is unexpectedly not available, and we created a COVID Voluntary Vaccination
Jackie is an accomplished, energetic,
bilingual (Spanish) Human Resource and Flu Shot Policy.
Professional with close to thirty years
of Human Resource experience in a Team Building
Generalist and Management capacity. Another of our priorities was to improve our communications with our employees,
promote teamwork, and to help employees keep that “feeling” of being a part of
Before joining New Neighborhoods,
she worked as a Human Resource something special. Every employee attended a virtual “Weekly Huddle” using
professional in various industries. Jackie Microsoft TEAMS. This allowed us to stay in contact with every employee on a regular
has her SHRM-SCP certification and has basis, keeping them informed of the company’s activities, challenges and successes, as
been a SHRM member since 2005. well as giving our staff a platform to communicate with management at any time.
Jackie gained both her Master’s Degree
and Bachelor’s Degree in Human
Resource Management from The State
University of New York at Stony Brook,
concentrating on Employee Relations,
Labor Relations and Human Resource
Management.

We also initiated a series of virtual team building exercises every four to six
weeks throughout the year. These events were designed to build a team
atmosphere and to help grant relief to our employees from the additional stress
and pressures they faced due to the pandemic. Each team building exercise
featured different activities and challenged our employees to push themselves
outside of their own comfort zones, while also making everyone feel like part of
the team and having some fun.

Team Counseling
One of the most important activities we provided was our Employee Assistance
Program (EAP) team counseling events focusing on COVID related challenges.
Employees were able to discuss, with a professional EAP counselor, their issues
and concerns and share with each other, providing them relief and guidance.

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