Action Categories

COVID-19: Yeo & Yeo's Agility to Respond

Challenge

COVID-19 and the business shutdown forced all businesses to adapt to entirely new circumstances. 

Actions

Yeo & Yeo's Critical Response Team (CR'D put our firm's Business Continuity Plan into action on March 13, 2020, to ensure our people had the support and tools they need to balance work, home, family and uncertainty during this crisis, and our clients continued to receive the care they needed to navigate the operational challenges in this unprecedented
time.

  • With remote access, cloud solutions, unified communications platform and work from home flexibility already deployed, the firm's IT group made the transition to WFH seamless for the firm's 200+ professionals.
  • COVID-related office safety protocols, a COVID Response Plan, a Resource Center on the firm's Intranet, and regular communications were established to help our employees navigate ongoing changes and keep them safe. We continually evaluate our response and protocols in adherence to requirements and recommended safety guidelines and as impacts of the pandemic evolve.
  • With daily monitoring of safety protocols and relief programs, support of staff concerns and well-being (including access to virtual mental health support), policy changes and development of new policies in response to COVID, our HR team continues to meet the critical needs of our people.
  • Marketing pivoted to fully support the CEO, HR, Service Line Leaders and Team Leads on frequent internal and external C0VlD-related communications to ensure our people and clients stay informed.
  • With ongoing opportunity to support clients with PPP loan reporting and additional relief packages, it is developed as a new service with a team of specialists, training, communications, process/workflow implemented.
  • Quickly deployed training videos and 1:1 support on various virtual meeting tools to ensure our staff and clients could effectively and productively communicate in a remote environment.
  • To keep employees engaged and our culture thriving, various virtual events from coffee hours to themed after­ hour mixers took place.
  • Through Yeo & Yeo's Foundation, over $40,000 in C0VID-related donations went to non-profit organizations throughout Michigan in 2020.
Outcomes

Our agility to swiftly pivot along with transparent, frequent communications helped the fir's employees to feel confident in Yeo & Yeo's leadership and know that safety concerns for employees is our number one priority. Employee and client surveys indicated our response to COVID was overwhelmingly successful. While the pandemic shapes new organizational structures, we will continue to be proactive in supporting our people and helping our clients respond and keep pace.

This was the most challenging situation I ever faced as a leader, and I know it was for our people and clients, too. Now more than ever, we need to recognize everyone's unique situations, respect their beliefs, and support one another. I couldn't be more proud of our professionals at Yeo & Yeo. Together, we proved how resilient we truly are, and it's brought us closer as an organization.

David Youngstrom
CEO
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