PPB April 2021

and distribution—and last summer everyone working in telecom was in high demand. If you were in those kinds of businesses, you were super busy. We monitored where the demand was and responded accordingly.” While most of HALO’s field sales support staff has always worked remotely, the post sales staff—customer service, order processing, billing—are used to working in an office. Olds says the biggest work impact on them was finding ways to work remotely. “There was a little transition when people started working at home, learning Zoom and setting up their workstations but after that, the metrics popped when I looked at their productivity and efficiency. We were really focused on the buying experience for customers. We were able to achieve that without disruption, so I was really proud of the team. They were very innovative and looking outside the box on how they could support customers in the way customers expect,” Olds says. She says the company looked at essential workers who needed to be at headquarters versus those who could work from home. The mailroom person, the receptionist who answered a general phone number and the warehouse manager and his staff, who also handle fulfillment, had to be in the office the entire time but those workers split their shifts to come in at different times to maintain more social distance. The company follows the CDC and state guidelines on how many people can be in the office. At press time, it was no more than 50, unless they are essential employees—like the fulfillment team. As far as when headquarters might reopen to all employees, Olds says that if employees can work at home, they will do so for now, but she wants to return to the office as soon as possible. “I definitely see myself going back to the office,” she says. “I’m too much of a people person to be working at home but I do see an environment where people could work at home if they choose to. We’ve found that people can be very efficient and very productive working at home.” She adds, “If there’s a silver lining, it’s how staff and leadership have found new, creative ways to connect when physical barriers kept the team from doing so in person. Everyone found their own way to keep the HALO family connection going.” As an example, she says the team always had a potluck meal together during the holidays but in 2020, they shared recipes and sent photos of teammates trying out the recipes with their families. “It really carried our whole community forward and I think these things will continue after the pandemic subsides,” she says. Working and connecting remotely are skills Amy Roller, MAS, hones daily in her role as sales support manager at HALO. From her home in Kansas City, Missouri, she and her New York-based counterpart, Mae Lincoln-Kass, are responsible for managing the needs of 150 sales support people located across the U.S. “When we had to close our offices nationwide, it was not too much of a change for us because a large “We’ve always tried to right-size the business and it’s that way whether it’s growth or constraint. I have a set of metrics on efficiency and transaction volume that makes it easier to be precise, whether we’re growing the team or reducing it.” Dawn Olds, MAS Senior Vice President of Operations HALO Branded Solutions Sterling, Illinois Resilient And Resourceful | FEATURE | APRIL 2021 | 33