Portland Business Journal President and Publisher Candace Beeke recently talked with PCC President Adrien Bennings, Stoel Rives labor and employment lawyer John Dudrey; and Worksystems COO Tricia Ryan about navigating the new ways of working, whether in-person, hybrid or remote. Read what they had to say.
Candace Beeke: What is your company doing in regard to getting back to the office?
Adrien Bennings: We’re still a primarily on-site institution, but we wanted to take advantage of the advances in technology and everything we learned during the pandemic, so we structured a three-phase approach. The first focuses on developing flexible workforce plans and shifting from solely in-person. We still meet students’ needs, but also support onsite and flexible delivery of instruction and services. We had to bring in operations and human resources to update our policies and processes and to support staff and faculty through this transition.
The second phase focused on how to make an environment where employees and students have that sense of belonging and well-being. We know that’s important to attract and retain employees, but how does that create a culture where our students can thrive?
The last phase is continuous improvement. We don’t think that workplace transformation just starts and stops because of the pandemic. We’re continuing workplace transformation because we have to assess our work and how we deliver improvements even more.
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