Join us for our highly anticipated Annual Meeting, Greater Boston's top business convening of the year.
05/20/2025
4:30pm - 8:00pm
Omni Boston Hotel
This virtual event gives small business owners the chance to hear directly from procurement officers about opportunities to work with them.
05/29/2025
12:00pm - 1:00pm
Virtual
Join us for an exclusive networking event at the Museum of Fine Arts and enjoy self-guided tours of John Wilson and Van Gogh, showcasing the deep bond of family, friendship, and community.
06/05/2025
5:30pm - 8:30pm
Museum of Fine Arts
This program is in redevelopment. Click this page for DEI resources.
Our Women’s Leadership Program enables you to take your leadership to the next level by arming you with the most in-demand leadership toolkit.
Our Boston’s Future Leaders (BFL) program provides emerging leaders with a socially conscious and civically engaged leadership toolkit, as well as the opportunity to apply their knowledge through experiential assignments.
Join us on June 12 for a highly interactive virtual workshop with Strategic Career & Leadership Coach Carole-Ann Penney.
City Awake empowers young professionals in a variety of ways that encourages these rising leaders to stay invested in the region’s future success.
We are developing an ecosystem of corporations and partners with the influence and buying power to transform economic inclusion for minority business enterprises (MBEs).
Small businesses are the backbone of the Boston economy. Learn more about the resources available through the Chamber.
BIMA (the Boston Interactive Media Association) serves a vibrant community of like-minded professionals from agencies, brands, publishers, and ad-tech companies with business interests in the New England market.
For over 30 years, the Chamber’s Women’s Network has connected female professionals of all background and career levels. Today, our Women’s Network is the largest in New England, strengthening the professional networks of women each year.
The Massachusetts Apprentice Network convenes employers, training providers, and talent sources interested in developing and implementing apprenticeship programs in occupations across industries and statewide in fields such as tech, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, and more.
Explore our mission and values to better understand how we are leading the business community forward.
Our member directory is your resource to discover, connect, and engage with Boston’s businesses from every industry and sector.
There are several details that employers will look for in the state’s reopening strategy announcement planned for Monday, May 18. While protecting public health is the primary concern, businesses will look for additional information on the reopening phases and triggers, a statewide goal on testing, the plan for using federal childcare funds, the public transit approach, and whether additional guidance is forthcoming.
Information
The state will have a four-phase reopening, however, there are still no clear triggers for each phase, including phase one. The state should publish the set of metrics it is tracking and the performance necessary to trigger each reopening phase. For example, what measure(s) will the state use to determine it is safe to move into phase two? As a part of the more detailed reopening strategy, the state should incorporate a plan to protect our most vulnerable residents that is based on demographic data and outcomes for those who have tested positive.
This information is critical not only for employers and employees who are planning their own futures but also to build public confidence that the reopening is based on data points and protecting public health.
Testing
Testing “anyone, anytime” requires a coordinated state effort to communicate and provide widespread access to affordable testing for all residents. Some employers will want to conduct testing for employees and are capable of funding and managing programs. However, employer testing should be one aspect of the statewide testing strategy. Relying only on employers to coordinate a response may result in haphazard testing for enormous swaths of the population including retired people, students, and those who became unemployed as a result of the economic shutdown.
A statewide strategy should set a goal that a certain share of the population undergo a serology test and use those results to influence the ongoing reopening strategy. The state should also oversee communicating how, where, and when to get tests; detail the statewide capacity to manufacture, administer, and analyze tests; and remove legal or regulatory barriers to ramping up testing capacity.
Childcare
Childcare should be considered a key element of the infrastructure needed to reopen, not just another industry. Massachusetts received $45 million in funding from the CARES Act Child Care and Development Block Grant and can use these funds for a number of purposes. Other states have used these funds in various ways, including:
Transportation
Many employers in professional services and similar industries have already announced they will encourage those who are able to work from home to do so for a longer period of time than required by the state. However, relying on work from home as the primary way to manage public transportation demand and capacity could lead to problems. There are hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts workers who cannot work from home, as demonstrated by the unprecedented unemployment filings since March. Those who cannot work from home include nurses, bank tellers, waitstaff, construction workers, museum guides, gym operators, janitorial employees, retail staff, casino workers, dentists, and more.
As workplaces reopen, these workers will need reliable and adequate public transportation that protects their health and safety. Information on how and when service will run should be clear, comprehensive, and made available as part of a robust communications plan.
Liability and Guidance
Clear guidance for employers and businesses remains a primary concern. While the minimum requirements described earlier this week provide some information, these can be strengthened with guidance – not additional requirements or regulations. For example, guidance confirming that a sink in a restroom is adequate to fulfill the requirement that employers have handwashing capabilities could clarify future questions.
Click here to read Part One of The Massachusetts Way Forward.
PDF Download
Download
Popular Resources