COVID-19 Client Update from Dayton Benway, Managing Principal
Greetings from Baker Newman Noyes,
I hope this message finds you and your family safe and healthy as we continue to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. It feels like an eternity since officials in our communities issued stay-at-home orders in March. Now as officials are announcing plans to gradually reopen the economy and ease restrictions, we wanted to share our own plans, along with some news about where we are now and where we are headed.
Plans for Reopening Our Offices:
Increasingly it feels as though members of our communities are split into a few groups as plans to slowly ease restrictions are implemented. Some are not ready for this next phase of temporary normal, while others have been ready to remove restrictions for quite some time. At BNN, we plan to reopen our offices and lift restrictions in a gradual and deliberate manner. We do this with the health and safety of you and every member of the BNN family in mind.
Before we get too far, I want to recognize and thank the critical members of the BNN family who continued working in our offices after we closed them. This team is small in number, but giant when it comes to heart and dedication. Without their commitment, some of the most essential components of BNN would not have operated as smoothly or efficiently. All of us are better for their efforts.
Our tentative reopening plan begins with phase one starting between June 1 and June 15. This phase requires a deep cleaning of all five of our offices, and careful identification of the first team to return to one of our offices. There will be many policies and protocols focused on health and safety that accompany phase one. We expect some of our offices will enter the first phase earlier than others depending on a number of factors, including location. The timing of phases two and three is entirely dependent on developments at the national, state, and local level. We will not rush our return; we will do our best to avoid any circumstance in which you or our employees could be exposed to unnecessary risk.
As we move through the reopening phases we anticipate members of the BNN family will encounter a variety of challenges that slow their return to an office. Some may experience school, daycare, and summer camp closures, others might have at-risk family members who need care, and some may simply not be ready for the new normal. We are prepared for this, and by using flexible schedules will do everything possible to prevent an individual’s responsibilities at home and at BNN from conflicting.
We understand BNN’s plans to reopen may not align with your plans or those of your organization. You may be ready for a face-to-face meeting with us before we are able to accommodate your request. Alternatively, we might be back in our office long before you are ready to have us visit yours. Whether we are working from home or a BNN office, our commitment to supporting you through these challenging times will endure. We will work with you to find the best solution now, just as we have since the crisis began. We are asking for your continued patience with us as we reopen our offices in the way that feels safest for everyone involved.
With this in mind, all BNN offices currently remain closed. Even when we return to our offices we will maintain practical health and safety protocols for as long as necessary to protect our two most important treasures… the BNN family and you!
Now, Next, and Tomorrow:
Economists were predicting some version of a financial slow down, but none of us expected it would come on the heels of a pandemic that has affected all of us. In the weeks since our last communication with you, we have been performing the same introspective assessments as businesses across our entire country. We have taken the steps necessary to keep BNN resilient with a priority placed on protecting every member of the BNN family.
With contingency plans in place, we are looking to what comes Next and where we will be Tomorrow. For BNN, Next includes further solidifying our relationship with you as your trusted business advisor; growing the rich content of the resources available for you, such as our COVID-19 Resource Center; and strengthening the communities where we work, live and play.
For BNN, Tomorrow is when the pandemic is fading behind us, and we are operating in a new business climate. We will use the lessons learned from the crisis to innovate and strengthen BNN. We will explore offering additional services in new and dynamic ways. Tomorrow will allow for further advancement in how we collaborate with you. As we move toward Tomorrow our values will remain unchanged. We will do the right thing, we will provide exceptionally responsive client service, we will have a passion for learning and growth, we will care about others, and we will win as a team.
We are preparing BNN to transition to Tomorrow, and we are doing that today. We will emerge from this crisis stronger than ever, and we will do it together.
From the BNN family to yours, we thank you for your continued trust in Baker Newman Noyes.