How Newsday's Top Workplaces companies navigated the challenges of the pandemic

Eight months into a national health crisis that has changed how business is done, workplaces across Long Island have found ways to navigate the challenges of the pandemic and adapt their businesses, from redefining the workplace altogether to finding new ways to keep morale high.

Surviving the worst of COVID has required that firms bring their best ideas to the table and evolve alongside a situation no one could have predicted. Despite the challenge, many business owners on Energage’s 2020 list of Long Island’s Top Workplaces found ways to make the best of a life-changing crisis.

The businesses that have made it through these unprecedented times are those "who actually sit down and think strategically rather than just reacting to whatever is coming in their directions," said Steve Davies, president of Huntington management consulting firm Edge Initiatives.

"You’ve got to look at your customers, you’ve got to look at the trends in the marketplace, you’ve got to try and forecast wherever you’re going to be," said Davies, who also runs the Nassau chapter of the Alternative Board, an organization that groups owners of small- to mid-size businesses to act as unofficial advisers for each other.

Effective communication, engagement and employee morale have all become increasingly important for Long Island employers, Davies said.

"After people figured out how to get their workforce to go digital, the next challenge was the communication issues," he said. "How do you communicate and how do you preserve a culture that relied on people seeing each other every day."

On-site company goes fully remote

For many top workplaces, one of the biggest obstacles has been redefining the idea of a workplace altogether.

Employees at HealthCare Partners, MSO in Garden City began working remotely in March, a major departure from what had traditionally been an in-person office culture, said Dr. Robert LoNigro, president of the firm.

"We viewed ourselves as an on-site company," LoNigro said. "And overnight we forced ourselves to become a remote company with not a lot of clarity with how it was going to work, but with the expectation that everyone was in it together and that we were going to do the best we could to make it work."

Now, operating fully remote, employee engagement looks different for the company. Previously, HealthCare Partners would host a variety of in-person employee appreciation activities, such as bowling, softball and painting nights.

LoNigro said since joining the company three years ago the firm has aimed "to give employees the opportunity to engage not only with themselves but with leadership."

And while in-person gatherings are no longer the norm, the company has found ways through interactive online lunch sessions and frequent communication to keep morale high.

Still, the new world of working has had its challenges, especially when it comes to taking "the pulse of the company in real time," LoNigro said.

"Because I don’t have the ability to walk around to see people on the front lines … it’s hard to get a sense how people are doing," he said.

Staying on top of communications

Some businesses had no choice but to have employees come to work.

For Stasi Brothers Asphalt & Masonry, the onset of COVID meant putting measures in place to keep employees of the essential business safe amid a time of many unknowns.

"We were trying to collectively figure out what was going to happen and how we were going to proceed," said Sal Karim, senior manager of the nearly 60-year-old business.

While the family-run firm made many adjustments to keep workers safe in the field, communication came easier, an aspect of their business that won them high marks in Energage’s employee survey.

"We’re not like an office-based business where everyone is big on emails," Karim said. In many instances a few text messages from senior leadership to small teams ensured all workers were in the loop.

"The leaders of each team relayed the messages," he said. "Everybody talks anyway."

Working ‘very hard on engagement’

Keeping employees engaged during the pandemic was a top priority for National Consumer Panel in Syosset, a market research company, which went remote earlier this year.

Jane Slater, director of human resources, said the firm has been focused on employee engagement for years, even starting an engagement committee about 10 years ago.

"We work very hard on engagement," Slater said. "It’s not rocket science. Don’t treat people the way you want to be treated, treat them the way they want to be treated."

One major goal for the company when switching to a remote workforce, she said, was ensuring that employees felt connected to the organization, even when face-to-face interactions were no longer on the table.

"You can bring in a brass band and bagels every day, but if people don’t like what they do and don’t feel connected to an organization, that’s where the disengagement comes in."