“The worst economy ever,” Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell recently said. Let that sink in for a moment. More than 30 million workers have filed for unemployment benefits in the last six weeks. Emerging data is shedding light on just how dis-equitably the economic pain is being distributed throughout our communities, with many of the […]
“The worst economy ever,” Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell recently said. Let that sink in for a moment. More than 30 million workers have filed for unemployment benefits in the last six weeks. Emerging data is shedding light on just how dis-equitably the economic pain is being distributed throughout our communities, with many of the hardest- hit industries — health care, hospitality, food service, and retail — being traditional sources of employment for women and minorities.
Not only are we facing a monumental challenge of rebuilding a robust and more resilient economy, but we are also facing the prospect of doing it in an environment where our glaring racial and socio-economic disparities, blatantly obvious before COVID-19, are even more apparent.
No wonder emotions are running high. The pressure to get back to work is real for both employers and employees. So, too, is the pressure to maintain the safety measures and social distancing that has enabled Central New York to emerge as one of the bright spots in New York state with respect to our virus caseloads.
The leadership that our elected and public-health officials have demonstrated, and the cooperation of the business and nonprofit communities has put our region in the enviable position of being one of the first places in the state that will likely be allowed to begin a phased re-opening. This is good news for our employees and our workers, but it also places a tremendous amount of responsibility on us all to get it right.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo was in Syracuse [on April 28] to share details of his plan for re-opening the New York state economy, embracing a region-by-region approach that we have advocated for here. He rightfully emphasized that any return to the workplace and re-opening of businesses will happen slowly and be based on regional analysis that includes a 14-day decline in hospitalization rates, a decrease in the infection rate and the number of positive antibody tests, as well as real-time monitoring of public-health data.
We know that returning employees to the workplace during and after the COVID-19 pandemic won’t be as simple as announcing a re-opening date and resuming business as usual. To support businesses as they navigate this process, we are developing a Re-opening Toolkit of information, resources, and best practices to help businesses ensure the safety of their operations and employees alongside our collective economic recovery. While the details of each employer’s plan to return will inevitably look different, we believe there are many key issues for which you should begin preparing for now, including:
Pre-opening Considerations, including workplace safety, employee policies, communication strategies, and remote-work operations.
Operational Considerations, including facility and physical-space considerations, best-practice protocols for staff and customer interactions, and cleaning and sanitation procedures.
Strategic Considerations, including continuity plans, capital-resource planning, essential-function decisions, and ongoing communication needs.
Together, we will navigate this first step in a long economic recovery through a measured, strategic approach to returning to the workplace, more routine operations, and our daily lives.
Robert M. (Rob) Simpson is president and CEO of CenterState CEO, the primary economic-development organization for Central New York. This viewpoint is drawn and edited from the “CEO Focus” email newsletter that the organization sent to members on April. 30.