A community bank in need of assistance in reimagining the HR support structure brought on a Lauber HR Business Partner. Once onsite, the Lauber Business Partner’s time was initially devoted to dealing with the COVID pandemic.

Challenges:

• Due to COVID only 15% of the workforce was onsite.
• A protocol needed to be established to bring the rest of the workforce back onsite.
• A workforce communication plan with regard to notifying the workforce of COVID cases needed to be established and put in place.
• Interpret and follow the changing application of FFCRA language as schools and daycares closed and then re-opened.

Solution:

• Initially, the Lauber HR Business Partner assisted with research, including CDC recommendations, determining how much risk the community bank was willing to take on and answering overall questions about whether or not they were ready to bring the workforce back onsite.
• The Lauber HR Business Partner worked with leadership to put in place a protocol for office space and how to make sure people social distanced.
• A plan for how to proceed should an employee test positive for COVID was put in place.
• A point person was put in place to gather information from employees exposed to and testing positive for COVID, communicating the protocol in terms of isolation and quarantine, and keeping the rest of the workforce informed.
• Plans were made to bring the workforce back in October 2020.
• Once the workforce returned and employees started testing positive for COVID communication protocols were adjusted to make sure the impacted employee’s privacy was maintained.
• The Lauber HR Business Partner and leadership regularly assessed the COVID protocol to make sure they were containing the virus rather than spreading it.
• Discussions were had on the need to have ongoing business support. It was discussed how many people deep they could go before being concerned about the business and a contingency plan was developed. A short-term plan by department was put in place, as well as a long-term plan.

What this meant to the company:

• In unprecedented times, the Lauber HR Business Partner was able to help formulate a plan for dealing with a pandemic.
• The company was able to go from having 15% of their workforce onsite to 100%.
• Implementation of the COVID protocol left the company feeling confident in their ability to maintain ongoing business support.
• No spread of COVID occurred among the staff as a result of employees’ efforts to follow mask and distancing guidelines.
• The Lauber HR Business Partner was able to shift focus from COVID to compliance, leadership assistance, goal setting, recruiting and organization structure.

The value of Lauber Business Partners:
Lauber’s experienced and trusted HR Business Partners have a full complement of capabilities to ensure an optimal continuum of support and services to thrive. Lauber has a team of HR experts with experience in virtually every facet of HR and the ability provide practical solutions targeted at small and mid-sized organizations.

​With decades of collective experience in a variety of businesses and organizations–from small privately held firms, to Fortune 500 companies and nonprofit organizations–human capital is every organization’s most important asset. You do not get just a single person; you get access to Lauber’s team of experts that can provide rapid solutions and long-term stability.
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For more information, please contact Lauber Business Partners, Inc. at 414-273-8060 or [email protected].