Responding to COVID-19.

• Author: Mackenzie, Kathryn

Risk assessment companies will tell any business owner that having a crisis plan in place is crucial. In Alaska that means being prepared for a lot of potentially disastrous scenarios--earthquakes, snow and ice, fires and smoke, even bears or moose. And now businesses have added pandemics their risk mitigation plans.

This year as part of the Best of Alaska Business awards surveying process, we asked you which businesses have been particularly impressive with their response to a whole new set of challenges presented by COVID-19.

While state and local leaders were scrambling to figure out how to best protect the public, companies small and large were carefully, quickly, and thoughtfully determining how to protect their employees and customers--not just from the virus, but from job losses and financial distress. As classrooms closed and students were sent home to learn, families had to adjust their work schedules to accommodate yet another significant change to their lives and companies had to figure out how to help them.

When we were sorting through your answers to this question, one response was repeated over and over: employees were most impressed with their employer's ability to quickly pivot them from in-office to remote work. And workers whose jobs require them to stay on location say they have been most impressed by the safety protocols put in place by their employers: plexiglass partitions, masks, hand sanitizer, and social distancing have all helped client-facing workers feel more secure during a very insecure time. We thought instead of interpreting these answers ourselves, we'd eliminate the middleman and print the answers just as they were given to us.

From restaurants and retailers to banks and hospitals, our readers answer the question: What company impressed you with its COVID-19 response? And why?

49TH STATE BREWiNG COMPANY

49th State Brewing Company was commended for the fact that it "never gave up and helped give the community hope for the past year!"

As another reader pointed out, "David and Jason fed 1,500 meals a day for quarantined people."

And: "49th State Brewing installed UV-c lights to sanitize the building and UV-c lights in the HVAC system to sanitize the air. Employees fill out daily screening and temp check, walk through a shoe sanitizing bath, wear gloves and masks, and maintain rigorous safety procedures."

ALASKA EXECUTiVE SEARCH "Alaska Executive Search embraced the technology allowing remote work and ensured their candidates were safe on the job. AES employees were encouraged to work remotely as much as possible and a very thorough and structured timeline was put in place for return to the office... This led to a more secure experience for staff, candidates, and potential candidates."

ALASKA REGiONAL HOSPiTAL

They provided the safest, highest quality care to COVID-19 patients, while also serving the community [by] keeping us informed and up to date [and] also providing us with a COVID resource hotline for the many...