As an HR vice president over several divisions at Facebook, Annette Reavis had helped lead that 40,000-person company’s switch to work from home.

Then she did it all over again when she moved to her new job as the first chief people officer at Root Insurance Co., an all-digital auto insurer based in Columbus.

Parent Root Inc. has raised more venture capital and has the highest valuation, at $3.65 billion, of any startup in Ohio. It had added the C-suite HR position as it surpassed 850 employees, but her hiring coincided with the need to swiftly adapt to the pandemic.

Meanwhile, she can't move yet to Central Ohio from San Jose while both states are under stay-home orders.

In this latest episode of Crisis Management, Reavis talks with Columbus Business First about the challenges of starting a new job and helping lead a major workplace transformation from 2,500 miles away.

She outlines the policies and experiences she had at Facebook that helped set the model for Root; and what changes to the company culture might stay after the startup can return to its offices.