Welcome!
LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
A
colleague of mine recently
told me, “This week is the
longest year of my life!” It’s
easy to identify with that
statement. As of this writing,
we are entering the 11th week of “Shelter
In Place.” It’s almost incomprehensible
what has transpired over the past three
months since COVID-19 took root in the
United States and we became the global
hotspot for the coronavirus. All businesses
except “essential businesses” have been
forced to close indefinitely or pivot their
workforce to work from home with little
to no time to prepare. Hopefully, we
are starting to see some light with the
reopening of the parks, beaches, and
curbside pickup for retail operations. I
fear, however, that we will be dealing with
this for some time until we get a vaccine.
At JGS Insurance, we were fortunate to
have already piloted a volunteer workfrom-home
program since January.
Almost half of our staff were already set
up with the proper tools and protocols to
effectively work from home. We had to
scramble to get the balance of the staff
prepared to work from home very quickly.
We were successful in getting 100 percent
of our staff in all of our offices to work
from home within a few days of Governor
Murphy’s order to shelter in place.
Like all of you, we have had to react
quickly and adapt to the new technologies
that have enabled us to communicate with
our customers effectively while working
remotely. We have hosted one-on-one
“Town Halls” with our customers and a
representative from each of our service
teams to answer questions, give guidance,
and communicate as much as we can all
of the changes that have transpired at
the local, state, and federal level. We have
utilized the videoconferencing apps Zoom
and GoToMeeting to facilitate these Town
Halls. We hosted our first webinar and
participated in numerous others as both
panelists and participants each week.
We have developed a Coronavirus
Resource Center on our website that is
updated regularly as situations develop
and guidelines evolve. You can check it
out at:
JGSINSURANCE.COM/CORONAVIRUS-
RESOURCE-CENTER
On this page you will find recordings of
the webinars we have hosted recently. If
you have not had a chance, check out
our most recent webinar: “What Now?
Preparation for PPP Loan Forgiveness and
Return-to-Work Challenges.” We were
fortunate enough to have the law firm
of Giordanno, Halleran & Ciesla address
employment practice issues that you need
to prepare for with the reopening, as well
as have the accounting firm Withum
prepare you for the necessary steps you
will need to take in order to ensure loan
forgiveness from the PPP Program. In
addition, we are providing return-to-work
checklists, best practices for reopening
your business, and Insurance Carrier
updates for both Property & Casualty and
Employee Benefits that outline steps they
are taking to help our customers.
We will continue to be a resource for
all of you as we move through these
ever-changing times we find ourselves
in. With the summer arriving and plans
being developed to reopen the state as
best we can, we look forward to some
semblance of normalcy returning. We
as a nation have been through far worse
than what we are currently facing and
have always emerged stronger and better.
I look forward to the day when all of
this is behind us and we can get back to
discussing regular Risk & Business items.
Be well.
Vinnie Hager, President
JGS Insurance est. 1919
JGSINSURANCE.COM
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