Workforce Logiq, like most organizations, is closely watching how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting our team members, clients – and the now normal in which we find ourselves.

Since our last update, much has changed.  Good news as Drugmaker Moderna Inc. reported early results from the first human study of its experimental coronavirus vaccine that gave a positive signal about the shot’s ability to protect people, raising hopes that a weapon to slow or halt the pandemic could be on the horizon.  And, all but a few states have or are soon planning to loosen shelter-at-home restrictions and allow businesses to start getting back to work.  See map below as reported in the New York Times:

On a global note, Italy, a major COVID hot spot, announced that the country would be open to tourists as of June 3; India, where we have a large Global Solutions Center, is already allowing some parts of the economy to get back to work, especially areas deemed “virus-free”.  As reported in the news, IT/ITES offices have been told to work at 50% staff capacity.  Per the regulations, organizations will have to ensure every employee wears a facemask, no employee is closer than 6 feet from another, and that there are no meetings of 10 people or more. Those with children below 5 years of age and those aged above 65 will be encouraged to work from home.

Even with the loosening of restrictions, many companies, including Workforce Logiq, are delaying decisions on moving workers back into the office in order to get the right information to make the right decisions on how, when – and who to bring back to the office vs. continue to work from home.

The issue was clear in a recent Wall Street Journal headline: When It’s Time to Go back to the Office, Will it Still be There?  Good question!  The answer per the article: There will likely be fewer offices in the center of big cities, more hybrid schedules that allow workers to stay home part of the week, and more elbowroom as companies free up space for social distancing. Smaller satellite offices could also pop up in less-expensive locations as the workforce becomes less centralized.

San Francisco based Twitter already notified its workers that most of them could continue to work from home – indefinitely.  Nationwide also announced that they will move to a hybrid model, with in-office work at four main campuses and remote work in most other locations; they have already announced the closure of four offices, telling the four-thousand workers who worked there that they would be permanently working from home.  And Google recently announced that up to 50% of their employees could be working remotely within a decade.

Much of the hesitation has to do with continued questions on the pace of an economic recovery.  It appears that there is a growing consensus that a “Swoosh” Recovery is in the making.   Per the Wall Street Journal on May 11^th, the “Swoosh” refers to the Nike logo shape, created by a large drop followed by a slow recovery, with many economies not returning back to 2019 levels of output until late next year or even later.

And that uncertainty is reflected in worker sentiment.  Workforce Logiq’s national proprietary Talent Retention Risk (TRR) Score^SM – which has yet to reach its second peak, indicates to us that our elevated level of workforce volatility will remain at current levels through August, at a minimum.  Click here to visit our interactive TRR^SM infographic.

Workforce Logiq is taking a cautious approach to coming back to the office.  We have created a global cross-functional COVID-19 Re-Entry Task Force, chaired by COO, Mark Brady.  The task force is now officially partnering with ERM, a leading global provider of environmental, health, safety, risk, social consulting services and sustainability related services.  Together, we will create a comprehensive plan that has as its core the priority to protect our team members worldwide.  We also continue to be in close dialogue with our clients to understand how their re-entry plans impact our on-site program teams and contingent resources.

We expect to have a prioritized plan in the next few weeks.  However, like many companies, Workforce Logiq continues to deliver service excellence – even with 100% of our employees working from home.  We will take the time to make the best data-driven decisions – that also include feedback from our team members.

We also continue to be focused on advising clients on how to get back to growth smartly – and cost effectively – especially as they begin to bring their displaced contingent resources back on board.

As always, we appreciate your continued partnership and stand ready to assist in any way we can to help manage through this difficult situation together. Please do not hesitate to contact your client services team if you have any questions regarding the steps we are taking – or if we can provide you with additional support.  You are an important partner and we greatly appreciate the trust you place in us.

We have been hosting weekly Global Town Halls to ensure we stay connected with our 1,000+ team members – all now working from home on multiple continents.

Today we shared that while COVID-19 related cases appear to be leveling off, and some countries and U.S. states are beginning to relax shelter-in-place-orders, Workforce Logiq will remain in “remote mode” for the foreseeable future.  It’s the right thing to do.

Gartner recently described today’s work environment as the world’s “largest work-from-home-experiment.”  And, like many of our clients, we’re finding that it is working better than expected.  Of course, we had a lot of prior experience with a remote global workforce, but never at 100% of team members!  Even so, we purpose-built our solutions for fully remote delivery, ensuring no disruption in service or in our ability to interview, hire, and onboard employees to support our client programs.

As we think about our “new normal” – and how to advise clients on “getting back to growth” – we firmly believe that remote workers (both full-time and contingent) will be a much greater percentage of the workforce, by desire and necessity.  That means we need to share the right predictive and innovative solutions, benchmarks, and best practices with our clients to bring back the right talent in the right location.  More to come from us on this.  Although a “normal” work environment feels a long way away, now is the time to plan and prepare.  We are ready.

Another reason for our cautious return to the office is our national proprietary Talent Retention Risk (TRR) Score^SM – which is nearing its second peak, indicating to us that our elevated level of workforce volatility will  remain at current levels into August.  We are improving, but we are not out of the woods yet. Click here to visit our interactive TRR^SM infographic.

Our predictive retention benchmarks are important, as explained in today’s press release on the availability of our Q1 2020 Workforce Management Benchmark Report:

“While most employment news is focused on workforce reductions through layoffs and furloughs, organizations must continue to prioritize identifying and retaining key talent and skill sets.

During hyper-uncertainty, organizations with access to predictive data science insights are positioned to anticipate and make fast, accurate, and cost-effective decisions to hedge their retention risk before it impacts their ability to navigate through the economic storm.”  Dr. Christy Whitehead, Chief Data Scientist and Talent Economist at Workforce Logiq

Click here to view additional insights on the impact of COVID-19 on workforce management from our recently released Q1 2020 Workforce Management Benchmark Report.  You’ll find important information and trends by sector, job category, and geography.

We continue to monitor this highly fluid situation.  We look forward to sharing additional insights and recommendations on how to get back to growth smartly – and cost effectively.

We appreciate your continued partnership and stand ready to assist in any way we can to help manage through this difficult situation together. Please do not hesitate to contact your client services team if you have any questions regarding the steps we are taking – or if we can provide you with additional support.  You are an important partner and we greatly appreciate the trust you place in us.

We are certainly operating in unprecedented times. With the ongoing spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus) and the incredible speed at which things are changing around us, we are working diligently to focus on the safety of our employees, supplier partners, independent contractors, clients, and the communities in which we operate.

As I mentioned in my previous communication, we are monitoring this situation daily and adapting our operations and business to ensure there will not be any disruptions in your service or in our ability to interview, hire, and onboard employees.

Effective today, March 17, we have mandated a work from home policy across our global offices. As a technology enabled company, we are in a position to be able to operate fully remote with no disruption to our services. Our global infrastructure and VPN are designed and configured to support a 100% remote workforce.

We are taking this precautionary step to ensure the safety of our employees and the communities in which they live. We will keep working with our customers on an individual basis based on their contingency planning and will continue to be fluid in our support as the situation unfolds.

We have developed a Q&A document outlining our Business Continuity Plan and providing answers to questions you may have regarding the steps we are taking. Please use this online resource to stay up-to-date on COVID-19 news from Workforce Logiq.

We will continue to monitor this highly fluid situation and will take additional action if necessary.

We appreciate your continued partnership and stand ready to assist in any way we can to help manage through this difficult situation together. Please do not hesitate to contact your client services team if you have any questions regarding the steps we are taking – or if we can provide you with additional support.  You are an important partner and we greatly appreciate the trust you place in us.

Workforce Logiq is actively monitoring the spread of COVID-19 (the Coronavirus) around the world and taking appropriate steps to ensure the safety of our employees, supplier partners, independent contractors, clients, and the communities in which we operate.

We have contingency plans in place to safeguard our team members, client partners, and business operations, as well as to ensure there will not be any disruptions in our service delivery or in our ability to interview, hire, and onboard employees working at our client sites.

NOTE: All global Workforce Logiq offices are open and normal attendance policies are in place; we are following our individual client’s policies regarding employees working at client locations.  

We have set up a dedicated Health Oversight Committee and have instituted the following internal policies:

• We are working with our customers on an individual basis based on their contingency planning and will continue to be fluid in our support as the situation unfolds.
• All non-essential (i.e. non-client facing) travel is suspended until further notice for all Workforce Logiq team members globally.
• Employees have been advised to practice hand and respiratory hygiene and to avoid close contact with anyone exhibiting symptoms that may be consistent with COVID-19, including coughing, sneezing and/or a fever.
• Employees are encouraged to stay at home if feeling unwell. Any employee exhibiting a cough or fever is not permitted to travel onsite to Workforce Logiq or client offices.
• Employees who have recently returned from – or been in contact with anyone who recently returned from – any of the countries identified by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as high risk travel zones, must remain at home for at least 14 days and seek medical guidance immediately. In addition, Workforce Logiq requires a doctor’s note indicating employees are not contagious and are medically cleared before they may return to work.  This same protocol will be followed if an employee is in contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19.
• Custodial staff has increased the sanitization of our offices and we have a rapid response team ready to conduct extensive disinfecting of any impacted office in the event there is a confirmed case of COVID-19.
• Should we become aware of an employee who has contracted COVID-19 – we will immediately notify any affected customer, supplier partners, and employees while adhering to privacy and HIPPA guidelines.

Our first priority is the well-being and safety of our employees, supplier partners, clients, and the communities in which we operate. We will continue to monitor the spread of the virus and will take additional action if necessary.

Clients should contact their client services team with any questions regarding the above policies.