What has been and will be the effects of working from home on the relocation industry?
On 3 December, 2020, OMNI held the second of its World Series of interviews with key industry figures. The interviewee this time was Joleen Lauffer, Executive Vice President of Aires in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The interview was conducted by Philippa Robinson of Robinsons Relocation in the UK and was open to all OMNI members.
Rather than working from home, Joleen said that a more accurate phrase would be Working from Anywhere (WFA) as people were able to work from wherever was most appropriate for them. Before the COVID crisis around 15% of Aires’ staff worked from home, now it’s close to 100%. Joleen said that she expected a high level of remote working to continue in the future.
Some functions had worked well with home working. Joleen said that customer relations had been successful as more contact was face-to-face on Zoom rather than on the phone or on email. However, learning, culture and relationships were more difficult ...
Photo: Joleen Lauffer