Office Move in a Pandemic. VMS Software on Moving, COVID, and Remote Work
Managing Human Capital during a pandemic as the head of HR for global company has had its challenges. Initially my assumption was that the COVID-19 crisis was just going to be a temporary work inconvenience, however the company was faced with a decision to make quickly on securing new office space for our company.
Our 2020 plan was to close our corporate office due to a lease expiring in October and move to a larger space in the Metro Boston area to help us with recruitment for future workforce planning effective November 1, 2020. We were deep into discussions with potential new landlord in our sister companies building, which was put on pause.
In April 2020, all our employees moved to remote working from home due to statewide shut down. Initially there were challenges and setting up employees with the correct technology so that collaboration on development continued. During this technology transformation we learned that our employees adapted to the changes and our business was not impacted on the development of RD. In some cases we have seen an uptick in collaboration using MS Teams to enhance our meetings.
Our executive team in June quickly evaluated that we would move to 100% remote working and utilize our sister companies’ office space for when the time arises for meetings. Our core employee population resided in a next-door state, which had no state income taxes. We registered a location in that state, which gave those employees 5% increase due to no longer having to pay state taxes in a location they were not working in. Our employee moral increased with this positive news. The next challenge was how to have employees collect their personal items safely during the pandemic. Management worked on utilizing floor maps to set-up an 8 week move out schedule so employees could come in collect their items with no more then 8 workers in the building disbursed for social distancing. Our VMS employees are very collaborative and honored the set schedule.
For now, we will remain 100% remote and continue to evaluate if we need future space. VMS Software understands that when you are a technology company, building software you can continue to deliver the same services from anywhere and ensure customer satisfaction.
Vice President of People Strategy for VMS Software, Inc.
