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60 laptops before the pandemic truly hit the nation. Middleman said, "We were able to make the transition almost immediately. We got way out ahead of a lot of this. … We certainly didn't expect the social and political and physical turmoil that we saw. But we did expect the economy to have a hiccup because it was running too hot." Since the company had added the laptops early and staff productivity was high, Freedom Mortgage was able to respond to the pandemic more quickly than if workers had still been in the office. Middleman said,"We took every possible step we could to deal with this on every possible level we could imagine." Going digital was also a boon for Freedom Mortgage's staffing needs. Middleman added, "We were able to expand our recruiting nationwide to fill our needs. What's the difference if you're talking to somebody via the phone, or Zoom, if they're in California or Wyoming or Florida or Philadelphia? It didn't really matter to us where anybody was. By becoming a mortgage company without boundaries, without a ceiling, we're able to grow fantastically. We added thousands of people, and our system was set up to manage and train and equip. And we did it and remained almost 98% remote." Communications between management and staff was critical as the pandemic first began, and remains so now as some lenders/ servicers have started returning to the office. Gateway First Bank established a pandemic committee to help with the COVID-19-driven changes, said Steven Plaisance, Interim President of Mortgage Banking at Gateway. e committee helped the leadership team stay updated with the proper federal authorities and communicated to employees through the proper channels. e pandemic committee included representatives from each line of business. ere is also a smaller subcommittee of five people. e subcommittee was charged with communicating about the business environment during different stages of the pandemic. e full pandemic committee would handle issues such as where Gateway stood in terms of forbearance, participation in Paycheck Protection Program, what to tell employees sent home to work remotely, etc. "We sent out over 300 communications," said Melissa Bogle, Gateway's VP of Marketing and Corporate Communications. "Some of those were informational on taking equipment home, updates on when we would bring you back, etc." Ongoing communications were critical not only to maintain the Gateway culture, but also to helping employees who were used to the camaraderie of an office setting to dealing with the isolation of remote work, Bogle added. "I ran an executive meeting every morning, every day, for an hour, and tried to coach the executives about what I wanted them to do with the people that work for them," Middleman said. "We problem- solved every day, and we had a new fire that we put out every day." "We weren't exactly sure what this was going to look like for our employees," admitted Claudia Mobilia, SVP of Operations for Embrace Home Loans. ough a few were working remotely already, once the World Health Organization declared the pandemic, the company suddenly had 95% of its employees working remotely, providing a management challenge. Managers were accustomed to chatting with the staff about the workday and the events of the night before, working to build those relationships as well as discussing expectations for the day to come. Managers could also have informal discussions with employees, but the end of in-office work ended those common conversations. "One of the biggest things we saw initially was people just figuring out how to stay connected with your staff and your manager, when you don't see them every Cover Story By: Phil Britt "The consumers have made their mark; they've shown the mortgage industry that they want a digital experience with that high-touch service." —Paul Buege, President and COO, Inlanta Mortgage