12 Companies Prove Now Is The Time To Prioritize People

Posted in Employee Experience

The past month has seen unprecedented disruption for businesses and communities around the world.

In this new normal, organizations are faced with the difficult challenge of prioritizing their business objectives or their people. But it doesn’t have to be one or the other.

We’ve compiled a list of companies who prove it is absolutely possible to balance both.

And while your business may not be in a position to offer staff bonuses or full pay, there are plenty of other ways you support your employees during this time.

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1. Facebook

Despite the criticism and scrutiny Facebook has received over the past few years, we’ve gotta hand it to them – they’ve stepped up to the plate and recently announced that they’re giving $1000 to all 45,000 of their employees, to help them pay for things like a home office or childcare while their staff work remotely.

2. Lululemon

Lululemon, an athletic apparel retailer (side note: We can confirm their comfy and stylish workout gear makes for great work from home attire!), announced that they will continue to pay their employees while their stores are closed. Their Relief Pay program will cover unexpected COVID-19 related disruption and costs for employees, including sick pay and pay for employees required to self-quarantine.

3. Amazon

Amazon recently announced that they will be hiring 100,000 new employees to keep up with the surge in demand from people relying on their services. And since warehouse and delivery employees are at risk of contracting COVID-19 by continuing to work, Amazon is doubling hourly wages for associates working overtime (in its US warehouses) and also committed to donating $25 million to help its network of independent drivers, flex workers and seasonal employees.

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4. Walmart

Walmart is in a similar position to Amazon, experiencing a flood of demand in their stores and home-delivery services. They recently announced that they would pay special cash bonuses to their hourly employees for working during the pandemic.

5. Dallas’ Mavericks

American entrepreneur Mark Cuban has incredibly vocal about how companies should be responding to the pandemic. When the NBA season announced it would be put on pause, Cuban who owns the NBA’s Dallas’ Mavericks responded by pledging to support hourly workers at the Mavericks’ arena and launched a program to pay for the child care of health workers.

6. Google

Contract, temp and freelance workers are at a significant risk of losing their jobs, which is why Google has created a fund to enable all its contract and temporary workers globally to take paid sick leave if they have potential symptoms or are in quarantine.

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7. LVMH

Not all companies are in a position to offer their staff bonuses and sick pay, but there’s an opportunity for every company to give back to its community. The company behind powerhouse brands like Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, and Givenchy is converting its perfume and cosmetics factories to produce hand sanitizers, which it plans to give free to French authorities and France’s largest hospital system.

8. BaseCamp

BaseCamp is a remote software company, and it’s safe to say that their employees are quite comfortable working from home… well, at least they were before the distractions of kids and family members being at home entered the scene. That’s why their founder announced that parents and individuals with at-home obligations can work half their hours, while still receiving full pay.

9. Coinbase

Transparency is critical when it comes to employee communications in a crisis. That’s why Coinbase, a cryptocurrency company based in San Francisco, recently open-sourced their Coronavirus response plan. It breaks down levels of impact-from light to severe-and the accompanying actions they will trigger, including allowing working from home, increasing office cleanings, and curbing travel.

Philip Martin, Coinbase chief information security officer, says that Coinbase has opened up their response plans in order to help other businesses, in addition to their own employees.

“By sharing our plans around COVID-2019, we hope to help other companies that are trying to navigate this situation and to encourage a calm, rational approach,” he says. “Part of the goal is to also help our employees feel confident and knowledgeable, so they can make educated decisions on how to prepare, as the situation continues to evolve.”

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10. TomTom

TomTom is one of Enboarder’s favourite customers and we love how creative their team gets with onboarding. Even a world pandemic isn’t stopping their team from creating a WOW experience for their new hires. Their onboarding team are physically getting into cars and delivering new starter packs to their new employees in the Netherlands… while maintaining a safe, social distance of course! Want to learn more about how TomTom uses Enboarder to deliver exceptional onboarding experiences? Watch this webinar.

11. Zoom

Zoom, a video conferencing platform, is having a field day with the demand they’re seeing from so many employees transitioning to remote work. But that’s not stopping them from helping communities in need. Their CEO, Eric Yuan, announced that the company is giving K-13 schools access to their videoconferencing tools for free. 

12. Enboarder

And finally, last but not least! Enboarder is doing everything we can to support our customers, and we’ve created a remote onboarding and remote work best practice template for customers to use, free of charge.

Not a customer yet? We’ve slashed our profit margin and we’re now offering our Remote Work solution at cost. Talk to our team to learn how you can use Enboarder for employee communications, pulse surveys, and manager coaching. Offer valid for a limited time.

Do you have a great story about how your business or others are responding to the pandemic? We want to hear from you! Share your story on social media using the hashtag #createconnection

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