Southern Indiana Business July-August 2020 | Page 11

amounted to price-gouging in order to
get the equipment, it wasn’t an option. “I
spent more money on masks in one day
than we would typically spend in three
years,” he said “But we did that because
we knew we would have to have them,
and we knew our employees would be
squeamish about coming back.”
Team member safety was top on the
minds of the leaders at Cimtech Manufacturing
in New Albany, too. President and
CEO Jesika Young said that while they
were fortunate to have a floor plan that’s
already spaced out thanks to the large
machinery, the company still put additional
measures into place that included
eliminating the second shift, reducing the
work week to four days so that they could
implement sanitization procedures, and
eliminating on-site visits.
They also got creative in caring for their
delivery drivers. Shipping and receiving,
she said, used to be a fully inclusive
experience where delivery drivers were
treated like extended members of the
manufacturing team, even being included
in celebrations and afternoon treats. Now
they’re still beloved, she said, but they
have to phone when they arrive and aren’t
allowed past a certain point. And if the
team members are sharing sweets in honor
of someone’s birthday? “We bring it out to
them instead of them coming in,” she said.
A shift in what’s important
Wendy Dant Chesser, president and
CEO of One Southern Indiana, a local
economic development organization,
said this is the first time that the government’s
actions to protect public health
created economic contraction that forced
people to choose between their health and
the economy. “As a nation we were illprepared
to have that conversation,” she
said. “This was so different than anything
we’ve ever had to face.”
As businesses continue to push toward
normal capacity, she said issues like how
to maintain social distancing, especially
where people work as a team or in close
quarters, are quickly becoming the new
normal. Businesses are also struggling to
understand their liability if, for example,
they hold an event that leads to a COVID-
19 outbreak.
For companies that have gone fully
remote, Dant Chesser said, worries
include how the office looks when people
start coming back and run the gamut
from setting break-room rules to finding
enough plexiglass shields and understanding
who’s responsible for sanitization.
Team member Byron Jackson remains socially distant during an inspection by Stephan Schmidt
at Cimtech Inc. in New Albany. Photo by Joe Ullrich
July / August 2020
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