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Fast Forward on the Front Lines: Minnesota


When the Covid-19 shutdown began in the spring of 2020, Doug Anderson's top-of-mind concern was to help members adjust. Calls were pouring in, and employees were under directions to take their time with members' calls, given that they could no longer offer in-person meetings.


 

Fast Forward on the Front Lines: Minnesota

 
When the Covid-19 shutdown began in the spring of 2020, Doug Anderson's top-of-mind concern was to help members adjust. Calls were pouring in, and employees were under directions to take their time with members' calls, given that they could no longer offer in-person meetings.
 
Today, Anderson, executive director of the Minnesota Public Employees Retirement Association, believes his employees passed that test with flying colors.
 
Most members have been “very understanding and have no problem accommodating that we have phone counseling,” Anderson said. “Over time, we modified the services to have a higher focus on how we do the phone consultation” – in other words, front line workers got better and better at it.
 
“We still have a small fraction of members who expect to have that personal meeting, but we can't do that yet,” Anderson added. “We do plan to reopen our lobby in January, and until then, we do what we can.”
 
PERA has five funds with combined assets of more than $40 billion. Its 170,000 active members and 130,000 retirees consist of city, county, and municipal township employees and school employees who are not teachers.
 
In total, PERA has about 100 employees, 90% of whom are still working remotely. “We started to target Labor Day to filter back into the office,” Anderson said, but then different directions came from the state amid the Delta variant outbreak. As a result, a directive to work from home if possible will be in place until at least January, he added.
 
Working from home “has been a real game-changer for us,” Anderson said. Employees have responded positively, and they are productive. As a result, “We have some groups that are unlikely to be coming back in.” Anderson said the call center, which accounts for 20% of employees, has adapted very well. “We can measure performance. It works, and it fits their role.” He cited several other teams that are used to working independently and have less need for collaboration, including benefit calculations, accounting, and IT.
 
Before the Delta variant derailed plans, PERA had announced it would require managers and supervisors to come in for a leaders' meeting every other Wednesday. “We hope to get back to that,” Anderson said.
 
He said it's easy to focus on the downside of remote working. “I come in and walk around our big empty space. Two years ago, we talked about how to remodel and were worried about having too many people in a smaller place. Now, it looks like about half the group probably won't return to the office.”
 
He also misses the energy of monthly all-staff meetings and wonders if something important is lost. “We would gather 80 or 90 people in a training room downstairs for an hour. There was lots of conversation and people laughing, and then we would bring in ice cream,” he recalled. “It's evolved to 15 minutes on a video call. There has been a productivity gain because there isn't as much social interaction, but we're missing something that defines the culture.”
 
But, Anderson adds, “It's very clear that people are looking forward to when we can get back together, and it's not that far off.” In the meantime, the team is making the best of events like virtual social hours and employee appreciation events.
 
You might also like: On the Front Lines: Minnesota; On the Front Lines: Pennsylvania; On the Front Lines: Southfield Public Schools.
 

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