Staying Healthy and Positive at Pinnacle

Hello Clients and Partners,

As I write this, my team is working remotely from various locations in Central Oregon, the Portland Metro area, and Vancouver, Washington. We are moving our projects forward, keeping our staff healthy, and looking at ways to help our clients and communities.

Helping our Clients

People’s health is our first priority. Second is the health of our organizations and businesses. We’re continuing to work on projects and reducing all unnecessary travel. For site visits, we’re coordinating with our contractor partners to do virtual walkthroughs, if able. Some projects may be put hold but planning for the future is not. We’re here to help your organization keep functioning, whether that’s converting space into temporary medical facilities or a feasibility study for that property you’ve been pondering. Let us know how we can help.

Engaging our Community

This is a rough time for everyone, especially the vulnerable. Seniors at communities across the country are basically in isolation to reduce the spread and save lives. We’re currently doing a remodel at Cascades of Bend Senior Living. To keep their residents safe, they are restricting visitors and limiting group social gatherings. Our team and their families are writing letters and drawing pictures addressed to each resident in hopes of bringing a little joy in these bleak times. News Channel 21 / KTVZ caught wind of the efforts and interviewed Associate Principal, Briana Manfrass, about the efforts.

Working Remotely

Since 2017, Pinnacle has had a remote workforce to capitalize on great talent across the country. Experience with remote working has benefitted our operations and our clients during this unprecedented time. Having the IT infrastructure in place is one thing, but having the skill set to communicate virtually takes practice! Things that work for us if you’re getting started:

Make it seamless for our clients and project partners to access us. We’re working like we’re in the office. Typical hours, phones are forwarded, easy to use voicemail system, etc.
Utilize a collaboration software tool. We use Microsoft Teams. You can do group and one-on-one chats and video conferences. Video meetings are highly encouraged since communication is 7 percent verbal and 93 percent non-verbal!
Keep socially connected with the staff. Starting the week by doing “roll call” and sharing a tidbit about what you did over the weekend helps keep that connection among the team. We even had a senior high school picture show and tell this week.