How CEOs are dealing with a renewed surge in COVID-19

By Herald Staff

Updated September 11, 2020 5:26 AM

Motorist line up at Hard Rock Stadium for COVID-19 testing on July 13. CEOs were asked: How has the latest surge in COVID-19 cases affected your workplace? Have you extended your work-from-home policy or made other changes? Carl Juste cjuste@miamiherald.com

CEOs were asked during the summer: How has the latest surge in COVID-19 cases affected your workplace? Have you extended your work-from-home policy or made other changes?

Our broader Mana team is located all over the world, so we have had experience and a general comfort level with tele-working even before this year’s health concerns. Given that we see our team members as our greatest resource, we want to ensure their health and safety. Therefore, we have extended the virtual work policy. Locally, Mana Tech is focused on convening Miami’s tech and innovation hub using the Mana properties in the downtown area. Use of physical space is clearly important to us, so we will closely monitor and follow the recommended protocols from health officials before bringing our team and our clients back into our physical workspace.

Michelle Abbs, Miami director, Mana Tech

At Istituto Marangoni, we have been taking all of the precautions to keep our employees safe. Our team was working from home for two months, and we slowly and safely brought everyone back. We made sure everyone was given a mask, and hand sanitizer has been placed accordingly throughout the school. Prior to entering the campus, testing was required as well, as we wanted to be sure it was safe to bring everyone back.

Hakan Baykam, founder, CEO, Istituto Marangoni

Our office, like the rest of the offices in Saul Ewing’s footprint, embrace and encourage attorneys and staff to work from home, if that is their preference. This policy has been in effect since the initial stay-at-hme order was issued by Florida. That being said, attorneys and staff are welcome to come to the office when necessary to ensure that our clients are being represented and served in the same manner as before our work from home policy was adopted. In addition, we also have a skeleton crew in our office to, among other things, assist in filings, receive and send mail, and coordinate delivery of office supplies to our employees working from home.

Luis Flores, managing partner, Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr’s Miami office

Like most companies, Guy Harvey Enterprises had to adjust how we conduct business as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are fortunate that most employees in our corporate headquarters have been able to work remotely while a few remain in the office to fulfill online orders and handle customer service as our retail shifted largely to e-commerce. As the COVID rates leveled off and the state began to reopen in early May, out of an abundance of caution we made the decision to keep most of our offices closed and continue to have the majority of our employees work remotely. As we are now seeing, COVID rates in the state have started to spike again. We feel it was the right decision and will continue to operate this way for the foreseeable future.

Guy Harvey, founder, Guy Harvey Enterprises

The latest surge has tremendously affected our workplace as the core of what Voices does is raise money to advocate for more than 1,700 children who unfortunately end up in foster care. Unfortunately, we have had to cancel all of the events we had planned. The traditional way of raising money through events is now on ventilator and we are on the race to reinvent how we continue to support the children that so desperately need us. We have extended our work-from-home and currently limit the number of employees who have to go into the office.

Nelson Hincapie, CEO, president, Voices for Children

We have put on hold any further expansion of back-to-office efforts until more information is available about the 2-3 month outlook for South Florida. The lack of guidance coming from the state level and the impediment it has placed on local government leadership to fill that void has made it especially difficult for South Floridians to plan and feel safe.

David Jobin, president, CEO of Our Fund Foundation

We are continuing to have our offices opened and manned by staff and management to support our associates and clients. We have been taking aggressive measures to sanitize all of our offices and enforce social distancing for any staff members or associates who do come into the office. Many of our associates traditionally spend most of their time on the move, whether they are en route to property showings or meeting with clients. We continue to support and train them on how to utilize virtual tours and video conferencing when needed to keep the normal course of business going while operating with an abundance of caution.

Mike Pappas, president, CEO, The Keyes Company/Illustrated Properties

Our internal COVID-19 Task Force meets daily to assess data and take appropriate actions accordingly. On June 15th, we had begun our HQ staff re-opening process utilizing Team A/B hybrid approach, with each team alternating two weeks remote, and two weeks on-site. With the troubling spike in cases on June 26, we paused on that, and returned to fully remote again. We will attempt the return process when the cases have stabilized. Our branches have been open and servicing members throughout the crisis, exclusively via drive-thru capability, or pre-screened branch lobby interaction. On June 15th, we re-opened lobby transaction capability with limited occupancy and strict adherence to CDC guidelines, and that remains today. I am pleased to report we have been visited for branch compliance inspection by local authorities and passed with flying colors. In addition, thankfully, our remote banking technologies have performed admirably, and scaled robustly, enabling essentially seamless member service in a stay at home, social distancing, world.

Allan Prindle, president, CEO, Power Financial Credit Union

YWCA South Florida, like most organizations, feels more prepared for the second surge than the first. We have PPE, trained staff, policies and remote capacity. We are following guidelines and best practices provided by the CDC, Miami-Dade County and the state to keep our services and programs running as our working families need us most at this time. Women and people of color fall disproportionately in two major groups affected by the pandemic: Hourly wage and service industry workers, many of whom have lost their jobs or had hours cut, or essential workers with no other options but to go to work. YWCA has – and continues – to pivot to show up for them. We are continuing to offer virtual programming and services wherever possible, and are minimizing risks of exposure by strictly limiting building access only to employees and the children in our programs. All others continue to work from home. Additional cleaning of our centers and offices have also been scheduled, along with ensuring all staff are wearing face masks at all times.

Kerry-Ann Royes, CEO, YWCA South Florida

Galleries traditionally have very scattered foot traffic so the lack of visitors is not that acute for the summertime. What has been affected is our ability to host public openings and program our Progressive Art Brunch events. We continue to install shows, relying evermore on internet and social media channels to market. Sadly, the power of the artists’ narrative gets lost in translation. There is no substitute for seeing an exhibition in person.

Mindy Solomon, owner, director, Mindy Solomon Gallery

We are closely monitoring the latest developments around COVID-19. At this time, the surge has not affected our approved work plan for the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science. We implemented a comprehensive plan on June 8 for our reopening for both the visiting public and for our staff in the workplace. It anticipates COVID-19 being an issue through at least the end of 2020. This operational safety plan includes work-from-home for those who can with office density kept to a minimum, and robust procedures for disinfection, social distancing, and guest and employee safety. We intend to continue with this plan unless further government restrictions are enacted, at which time we will respond to those new restrictions and safety measures.

Frank Steslow, president, CEO, Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science

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