As the coronavirus pandemic began to hit the economy, Brown Deer-based Badger Meter Inc., like many companies, saw a need to control costs. Ken Bockhorst “The thing about this health crisis that’s turned into a financial or business challenge is we, along with everyone else had no idea how long and
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Ken Bockhorst[/caption]
“The thing about this health crisis that’s turned into a financial or business challenge is we, along with everyone else had no idea how long and how deep this would be,” said Ken Bockhorst, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Badger Meter.
One of the ways the maker of water meters and other flow instrumentation products went about saving money was to shift to four-day work weeks. Bockhorst and his team went with that approach over a temporary shutdown or week-long furloughs in part because of the nature of its business.
“We really wanted to make sure that we had adequate coverage for our customers,” said Trina Jashinsky, vice president of human resources at Badger Meter.
Most of Badger Meter’s customers are in the business of distributing drinking water or handling wastewater, making them particularly essential, even in the time of the coronavirus.
Bockhorst said there are other options for handling the challenging situation created by the virus.
“We were really trying to find the balance of how can we best support our customers and then also preserve our workforce,” he said. “Those other options are perfectly suitable for other people. I want to be clear, everybody has their own different challenges so what we feel has worked very well for us, I’m sure other people who have done it differently probably feel like it worked well for them.”
Badger Meter originally announced the four-day weeks in mid-April with plans to keep them in place for about a month. In mid-May, the company extended that period to June 15.
“As of now, it is not our intention to extend it beyond mid-June,” Bockhorst said.
Jashinsky said employees have been understanding of the company’s approach, which also provided flexibility for employees to work with their manager to determine which day of the week they would be off.
“People really worked within the teams to make sure they had good coverage,” she said.
Early on in the pandemic, Badger Meter put together a rapid response team with leaders from every function and facility. The group met daily to discuss customer, facility and supply chain challenges. Those conversations in turn informed a nearly daily update sent to all employees.
“We got tremendous feedback from many of our employees who are frankly stressed out by the news,” Bockhorst said. “I think keeping the connection with employees through a difficult time has been by far the most impactful thing that we’ve done.”
Jashinsky added that employees will commit back to the company if they feel they are treated with respect and communication.
“If they feel like they are part of something, even thought it’s difficult, but they feel like they are part of something bigger and they’re being respected, they’re going to step up for the most part,” she said.
Bockhorst said Badger Meter also worked to prioritize the right work during the current period.
“What we were trying to do is align our work schedules to meet the current demand patterns that we were seeing because, admittedly, orders were down, so some of the day-to-day activity was slightly reduced, which allowed us to continue to work on some of the more critical projects,” he said.
Work that was customer-focused or new product development related was prioritized while the company was also careful to not take on new internal projects during the pandemic.
“Just really hunkering down and focusing on what is customer critical is really where we’ve remained solid,” Bockhorst said.
Complicating the new work schedule was a shift to remote work for many employees, but Bockhorst said he is proud of how employees handled the challenges and kept the business moving forward
“We exhibited a productivity that I, frankly, wasn’t sure was possible working remotely,” he said. “It’s a testament to our IT team and every employee that was able to do it.”
Jashinsky said employees figured out different ways to communicate where it was needed and learned to lean on technology more.
“We had to adapt and people have had to figure it out, but overall it’s been, I think, a positive experience and we’ve learned how to use the technology better than what we did before,” she said.
Bockhorst said he plans to still prioritize face-to-face meetings and being in the office after the pandemic, but he has also gained a new appreciation for remote work.
“Whatever occurs in the future, I think will be a different version of how we work together,” he said, noting Badger Meter plans to take a measured approach in returning employees to the office. “I could see some hybrid in the future of being in the office mixed with some amount of remote working as a permanent thing.”
Part of the reason to choose a four-day work week was to keep Badger Meter’s workforce in place and ready to ramp up when demand returns. Bockhorst said that consideration included an acknowledgement of the challenge in finding employees prior to the pandemic and potential demographic challenges long-term.
“It is a tough market, you need to treat your people well, you need to think about the long-term, even when you’re challenged by one of the great crises of our lifetime,” he said.
The potential for more remote work does open up more opportunities for finding talent, Bockhorst said.
“Now, maybe you don’t need that employee to be in your facility, maybe they can be in Tulsa or maybe they can be somewhere else,” he added.
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