Highland city leaders send out survey to gauge effects of COVID-19 on businesses

Highland businesses have definitely been impacted by the pandemic, but to what extent? That’s what city leaders are trying to find out.

Interim City Manager Chris Conrad and economic development director Mallord Hubbard have created a business retention survey for local business owners in order to gauge the business climate in Highland.

“We’ve had a few (business owners) that were on the cusp of retirement, and this has helped them decide,” Conrad said. “And at least two businesses that were going to close have found new owners.”

But Highland does not issue business licenses or require registry, Hubbard said, which means they don’t have any hard data on how the businesses of Highland are faring. Thus the survey, which asks businesses questions including:

• Number of employees and the availability and quality of workforce in the area;
• How many unfilled positions they have, and what positions are the most difficult to fill;
• Greatest achievement of the past three years;
• Whether the company has difficulty securing needed business services in the area;
• Adequacy of the community’s technology infrastructure;
• The strengths of doing business in Highland, and any barriers to growth;
• The impacts of COVID-19; and more.

It’s an entirely voluntary survey that provides an option to join a new Highland Business Directory, which will be posted on the city website and include the business’s name, contact information and logo.

“What we’re trying to see is what kind of issues are they facing, and what programs we can institute through the city or we need to be lobbying for through our state and federal legislators,” Conrad said. “Each business is unique in how the pandemic is impacting them. What can we do to help support them?”

As of late September, only one business was known to have closed due to COVID-19.

In May, the city council approved a grant program to help brick-and-mortar businesses launch e-commerce sites to help them cope with the order-from-home shift in the economy.

The survey is available on the city website for a full month, and Hubbard hopes to have more metrics available in the new year.

This story was originally published December 21, 2020 at 9:51 AM.