The Need
During the COVID-19 pandemic, 40% of the City of Seattle’s workforce was mandated to telework in an effort to reduce the spread of the virus. In June 2021, Seattle reached the milestone of achieving 70% vaccination in our eligible population and WA Governor Jay Inslee began reopening the economy, which gave the City the opportunity to start thinking about reopening its offices and designing the ‘new normal’ for its workforce operations. The City needed strong project management to ensure effective citywide planning, as well as an approach for ensuring that City employees’ voices were heard.
Our Approach
During the COVID-19 pandemic, 40% of the City of Seattle’s workforce was mandated to telework in an effort to reduce the spread of the virus. In June 2021, Seattle reached the milestone of achieving 70% vaccination in our eligible population and WA Governor Jay Inslee began reopening the economy, which gave the City the opportunity to start thinking about reopening its offices and designing the ‘new normal’ for its workforce operations. The City needed strong project management to ensure effective citywide planning, as well as an approach for ensuring that City employees’ voices were heard.
The Results
Leveraging lessons learned from telework during the pandemic, return to office approaches from other leading employers in the region and engaging with the City’s employees, IP improved the City’s ability to quickly develop a position on when employees should return to the office, why, and what the expectations would be for doing so. IP’s project management ensured that the City developed a consistent, cohesive, thoughtful approach to planning that will have a lasting impact to how the City’s workforce of 13,000+ employees operates in the future.