As we enter the seventh month of the pandemic response, our new normal is becoming more ingrained into our daily lives. Zoom meetings are no longer a new experience, and we’ve worked out the kinks on what constitutes good digital meeting etiquette or the right ways to get in contact with one another. This Roundtable was meant to be a look at what the “new normal” means for our port operations as we plan for the future, and look forward to a world that’s been altered by the current crisis.

We invited three state-level experts who are involved in implementing best practices around telework, workplace culture, and more to the September 29th Roundtable. We heard from:

·       Cheryl Sullivan-Colglazier, the Workplace Culture and Learning Administrator for the Washington State Office of Financial Management.  She recently moved into this role after being the Chief Learning Officer for the state. 

·       Jeff Pelton, the Director of Human Resources and Safety at the Washington State Department of Transportation and has been leading the agency’s innovative telework policies for many years. He will cover the permanent pivots WSDOT is making as a response to the pandemic.

·       Josh Calvert, the administrator of the Washington State Employee Engagement Survey for the Office of Financial Management. The survey collects feedback from over 50,000 employees, providing a major source of information about workforce trends, employee satisfaction, and improvement strategies for over 90 executive branch agencies. He will be covering what has been learned from telework over the years, especially during the pandemic.

In today’s conversation:

·       How the state has evaluated its work from home guidance, balancing work place demands with work force safety

·       Ways in which telework, remote work, flexible schedules are here to stay

·       Cost savings state agencies are realizing through closing some locations in favor of co-working spaces, based around telework

Do you need more resources on economic recovery, legal and compliance, internal port operations or health and safety related to the COVID-19 crisis? You can find today’s presentation, along with all previous presentations and information from Tuesday Roundtable speakers, on our COVID-19 response page for ports: https://www.washingtonports.org/covid19

You can listen to the whole meeting here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8fet3jfpq300fax/2020-09-29_Roundtable_recording.mp4?dl=0 

Do you have ideas for future topics we could cover in our Tuesday Roundtables? Email your ideas to Washington.ports@washingtonports.org