Sunday Message From Ben: Hearing From You as We Go From Sprint to Marathon

Aloha,

Surf’s up! It was a beautiful Sunday morning today with the parks and beaches in Honolulu full of people getting out and enjoying life in paradise. We are lucky to live in Hawai’i!

This makes me think about our purpose and the power of purpose during times like these. Purpose is the source of energy and drive that gives us a reason to do something hard. It’s the meaningful “reason for being” for a Company.

Our purpose is to make it easier to be an employer in Hawaii. This purpose became clear to me one day when I had two experiences. First, I was standing in our parking lot in Hawaii Kai, looking out at Maunalua Bay and then up to the Ko’olau’s with the early morning sun on the peaks. It was so beautiful! And it was just our lowly parking lot. Then, that afternoon, a dedicated, high performing employee came to see me and tendered his resignation. You see, he didn’t want to leave, but he couldn’t afford to stay. He could make more money, buy a nice home, and send his kids to a better school back on the mainland. I tried to get him to stay, but those facts were too powerful to overcome.

The juxtaposition of these two events, which happened on the same day many years ago, crystalized for me that making it easier to be an employer in Hawai’i was really the key so that people could live here and have a wonderful life in Hawaii. Successful employers are the economic engine, and ProService can do its part for those employers by becoming the best we can be at HR in Hawaii.

Purpose has driven ProService these past eight weeks. Our team has worked exceptionally hard and well during the shutdown. We have handled a huge volume of client consults with care, continuously adapting to the changing landscape, dealing with unemployment concerns, workforce planning, and PPP applications. We’ve transformed our marketing and training teams into a resource center with the best, employer-focused content available. And our COVID community hotline has helped hundreds of non-client employers struggling with navigating this crisis without a partner like ProService.

Underlying this, I am proud that we are communicating with you, our clients, better, but we still want to improve from here. We want to improve and we ask that you give us feedback on what we can do better or how we can help. We recognize that the months ahead are going to be challenging, likely even more challenging than what we have been through so far, and we want to be at our best for you. If you would like to give me feedback, please write to me here:

This is especially true if you don’t feel like you are getting what you need from us. I may not get back to you immediately, but I promise, I will get back to you.

In other news, this week we had an excellent webinar with great takeaways on how to develop your reopening strategy or evolve your business model for the New Era ahead. This webinar got deeper into how to operationalize your strategy with the people and safety plans best suited to your business and culture. Huge thanks to Scott Maroney, the excellent leader of Crazy Shirts, for sharing his company’s current plan and learnings across their retail, e-commerce, manufacturing, and B2B businesses both here and on the mainland. You can view the webinar, and much-requested presentation here.

In closing, I just want to reiterate that I hope you’ll communicate with us on how we are doing or how we can help! I remain inspired by the toughness, tenacity, and heart of so many of you that are finding a way forward during these challenging times.

With much aloha,

Ben Godsey

President & CEO