On Tuesday, the Richmond Chamber of Commerce was on day one of social distancing, doing its part to stop the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19).
The business non-profit has set up home offices for all its employees and Tuesday morning they started working remotely with limited office hours at their Wireless Way location.
With 186 cases of coronavirus confirmed and three new deaths announced on Tuesday, the province has declared the outbreak a public health emergency.
The provincial health ministry is advocating social distancing and is banning groups larger than 50. As of Tuesday, pubs and bars were shut down.
Last week, the chamber decided to cancel all its events in March and April, something Matt Pitcairn, president and CEO of the chamber, said was already a hard decision.
But as the situation continued to evolve over the weekend, they decided everyone would start working from home as of Tuesday with staff in the office only six hours per week.
Pitcairn said having staff come to work and interact with the public on their commutes, on breaks and during work offered too much opportunity to allow the spread of the virus.
But for some offices, this just would not work.
“There are many businesses that are built on a foundation of in-person service,” Pitcairn explained.
Some Richmond businesses have divided their workforce into teams with a revolving schedule, with some in the office while others are at home, lowering the risk but keeping staff at the office when necessary.
So far, chamber staff haven’t had any glitches in the home-based work environments, and their team leaders are keeping staff on task and motivated.
“Working from home could feel isolating if not done properly,” Pitcairn explained.
Videoconferencing and group chats ensure colleagues keep in touch with each other.
They are also using Zoom, a remote conferencing tool, more and are planning some webinars for chamber members.
The chamber has a cloud-based server so they are able to access everything from home, but ensuring security of home-based computer is “incredibly important” when working remotely, said Pitcairn.
But if it’s possible for businesses to work from home, now is the time to try, Pitcairn said.
“Taking the long view, it's so important to keep your skilled staff healthy,” he explained. “Every employer will know their own capacity for work from home protocols.”
Pitcairn said he’s never seen his staff so motivated, and he chalks that up to the service-oriented nature of the chamber.
Staff can see that their members are hurting.
“They understand the challenges facing local employers and we're all in it together,” he said.
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