Corona-crisis relief: What companies and others are doing to help soften the blow

BY Mimi Hayes | March 16, 2020

Our news roundup focusing on how businesses and other organizations are making purposeful efforts to provide help at a time of crisis.

Updated April 16

Amazon: Testing all employees for Covid-19

CEO Jeff Bezos announced that Amazon will be expanding efforts to test employees for the coronavirus. “Regular testing on a global scale, across all industries, would both help keep people safe and help get the economy back up and running. For this to work, we as a society would need vastly more testing capacity than is currently available,” Bezos wrote to shareholders. He stated Amazon would be testing all employees, regardless of whether they were showing any symptoms of the virus.

Starbucks: Some locations to re-open 

After closing a majority of stores in the U.S. and Canada on March 21, the popular coffee chain may re-open certain locations for drive-thru and to-go orders, depending on local health guidelines. The company will take a “monitor and adapt” stance, noted CEO Kevin Johnson, and will also be extending paid leave for employees and paying an extra $3 per hour to those still on the job.

Toyota: Teaming up to manufacture ventilators 

Like many manufacturing companies, Toyota has adapted to creating medical equipment, particularly sought-after ventilators. Nihon Kohden, a Tokyo-based manufacturer of medical electronic gear, is now working with Toyota to boost output of ventilators by fivefold, reported Bloomberg. Nissan and other car manufacturers may follow suit.

Office Space: This company has created an office-sounds generator 

Miss the office? Chances are you didn’t realize just how much you craved the sound of a copy machine. Kids Creative Agency, a culture design company based in Switzerland, just launched imintheoffice.eu, a simulator to bring us back to all the familiar and oddly nostalgic sounds of our offices.

Updated April 10

Twitter & Co.: Tech billionaires donate money and resources  

Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, announced this week that he plans on donating approximately one third of his wealth, or $1 billion, to coronavirus relief programs. Other celebrities from Jeff Bezos to Oprah Winfrey are following the trend, contributing millions to food banks and philanthropic organizations. While this provides much-needed short-term relief, critics warn that it's no substitute for what the government can do to alleviate economic inequities. “It’s really important to ask why the crisis has hit us the way it has and the weaknesses it’s exposed,” author Anand Giridharadas told Recode. 

Restaurants: Becoming makeshift grocery stores

With empty shelves in grocery stores and worker strikes sweeping across popular grocery-delivery businesses, local restaurants are converting their closed locations into grocery stores. In San Antonio, dozens of businesses are pooling their resources to sell essential items, meal kits, and, of course, precious toilet paper. 

Movie Theaters: Finding unique ways to stay afloat

As movie theaters large and small have been shut down due to social-distancing orders, some local cinemas are finding ways to stream new indie films with a new stay-at-home option. Customers can buy a ticket online and will receive a one-time viewing link and an option to support a local theater with their purchase. “We really do think that we’re supporting small theaters and their staff,” says Erik Lokkesmoe, president of Aspiration Entertainment. 

Hair Salon: Founder makes emergency pivots to save company

Amy Errett, the founder of Madison Reed, a hair-color brand, taking drastic measures to adapt to the pandemic. After shutting down multiple stores in San Francisco, Errett has seen an increase in online orders by adjusting supply chains and giving hairdressers customer-service positions to help people color their own hair at home. “We quickly quadrupled the size of the Color Crew from 30 to 115 people to support increased customer demand, and got everyone set up in new jobs within a week,” Errett said.

Detroit Sewn: Local contractor starts manufacturing masks

A contract-sewing shop in Detroit is now working full-time making masks for healthcare staff, essential workers, and the elderly. Inspired by the "Arsenal of Health," a movement designed to pivot manufacturing, the company began work making 50,000 cotton reusable masks per  week for healthcare workers in desperate need of personal protective equipment (PPE). The company has since partnered with several other non-profit organizations to distribute and develop machinery to make N95 masks, which are more effective at stopping the virus than standard cloth masks. "What's important to know is these are not alternatives to N95 masks, nor are they alternatives for surgical masks, they are considered standard face masks," says Detroit Sewn CEO Karen Buscemi. 

Updated April 7

Tesla: Using car parts to make ventilators 

The electric-auto maker released a video this week breaking down a prototype of its Model 3-borne ventilator, made partly of Tesla car components. The company joins Ford and General Motors in rushing to build ventilators that hospitals need to help severely ill coronavirus patients breathe. "Model 3 parts used in the Tesla ventilators include a mixing chamber and vehicle controllers and several components of its Model 3 infotainment system, including the touchscreen and infotainment computer," Fast Company reported.  

Car-insurance companies: Giving customers a break 

As motorists around the U.S. shelter in place, Allstate and American Family Insurance are cutting drivers some slack. Allstate will be giving 15% of its monthly premiums back to customers and American Family will send $50 for each vehicle registered with a policy. With fewer cars on the road, fewer accident claims are being filed, so companies are returning some of the windfall to customers. Not all auto-insurance companies are on board yet.

Grocery delivery: More ethical options 

In response to worker strikes over hazard pay and workplace safety during the pandemic, a new company is empowering small shopping-and-delivery companies to compete with the big platforms like Instacart. Dumpling, a new shopping platform, allows users to hire local delivery-business companies to shop for their groceries and essential items. Founder and co-CEO Joe Shapiro stated that personal shoppers using the platform are earning a take-home pay of $33 per job, “an order of magnitude higher than the average that you see on other online delivery apps,” Fast Company reported.

Uber: Helping out-of-work drivers find jobs

Impacted tremendously by the coronavirus, 3.9 million hourly drivers are now looking for alternative means to make ends meet. This week Uber launched Work Hub, a platform to connect drivers to new job opportunities such as warehouse, food production, and customer-service positions. Uber will also connect drivers to opens outside of the company and will not collect commissions from partner companies.  

Updated April 1

Kohl’s: Launching curbside pickup tomorrow 

In an email to customers this week, Kohl’s CEO Michelle Gass announced that the 1,200-store chain would begin a new "drive-up" feature that allows shoppers to order items online and have them placed in the back of their cars upon arrival. The stores will remain closed to the public. Participating locations are to be announced on the company's website kohls.com starting tomorrow.

Facebook: New feature to encourage neighborly behavior

The social-media giant announced a new “Community Help” feature that allows users to volunteer to help neighbors in their area. Within a 50-mile radius, volunteers can help deliver groceries, medicine, and run errands for sick or elderly neighbors. The feature is set to roll out this week in the U.S., U.K., and France.

Crocs: Donating shoes to frontline health-care workers 

The company's CEO Andrew Rees is donating 10,000 shoes for nurses and doctors across the U.S. Workers can have the shoes, known for their comfort and easy clean-up, delivered to their homes by going to crocs.com/freeforhealthcare. "These workers have our deepest respect, and we are humbled to be able to answer their call and provide whatever we can to help during this unprecedented time," said Rees.

Dallas Mavericks: Owner supports arena workers 

NBA team owner Mark Cuban has put into place a program to continue to pay hourly workers who are now out of a job. With the league unsure when games will resume, thousands of workers are now left empty handed. Cuban also plans to work with organizations to provide day care for frontline health workers.

Bloom Energy: Fixing up old ventilators

While many companies are starting from scratch, a California-based company called Bloom Energy has taken to refurbishing thousands of old and broken ventilators to send out to hospitals in need. “This is a really good reminder and representation of the power of American manufacturing, and Americans coming together to support the community,” said Susan Brennan, Bloom’s chief operating officer. 

Updated March 30

Yum Brands: CEO forgoes salary to help restaurant managers

CEO David Gibbs, who oversees brands including KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, announced today that he will give his 2020 salary to restaurant general managers in the form of one-time, $1,000 bonuses. His expected $900,000 will also be used to fund the Yum Brands Foundation Global Employee Relief Fund to help employees directly impacted by the pandemic. 

Facebook: A pledge $100 million to news media

News publishers, particularly the print media, are taking a hit during this pandemic and Facebook is offering its help. From the promised $100 million total, $25 million will be given to local media, while the remaining $75 million will be spent in marketing for global news organizations. Both Facebook and Google, whose dominance in the market for online advertising has exacerbated the decline of American newsrooms, have earlier pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to assist local media.

Johnson & Johnson: Making progress on a coronavirus vaccine 

With a $1 billion investment from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, a federal agency, Johnson & Johnson announced it is getting closer to a vaccine for the COVID-19 virus. Human testing could begin as early as September, with use possibly by early 2021. The company is also partnering with other countries to speed up manufacturing capacity. 

Amazon: Alexa voice assistant now offering triage 

The company has added a new feature to the popular Alexa voice assistant to help users gauge their risk level for coronavirus. The AI-bot will respond with questions about symptoms and travel history, while offering expert health guidance from the CDC about how to get help if they are at risk. Alexa will also sing you a song for 20 seconds while you wash your hands, the minimum washing time advised by health experts.  

Medical drones: taking flight in the U.S.?

Zipline, a medical drone delivery service launched in Rwanda, is now working to bring its devices to the U.S. In Ghana, the company has already used the drones to deliver emergency masks and gloves to regional hospitals. The startup is currently brainstorming ways to use the drones for prescription delivery as well. 

Updated March 27

Walmart: Waiving rent for essential partner businesses

For the month of April, Walmart will offer rent relief to more than 10,000 businesses housed in their stores such as hair salons, veterinary clinics, banks, and eye doctors. The company has seen a boom in sales since the coronavirus pandemic and has also announced it will give $500 million in bonuses to hourly workers.

Apple: New CDC-approved screening app and website

The company announced a new website and iOS app that allows users to take a questionnaire to screen for possible symptoms. The app and website include information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about the virus and what to do if the app indicates that a user may be positive for COVID-19.

Instacart: Hiring as demand escalates

As more Americans stay home and avoid grocery stores, Instacart has announced it will seek to hire 300,000 independent contractors over the next three months, nearly doubling its current workforce. "The last few weeks have been the busiest in Instacart's history and our teams are working around the clock to reliably and safely serve all members of our community," said Instacart founder and CEO Apoorva Mehta.

Dyson: Founder designs new ventilator in record time

In response to an order from UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is suffering from coronavirus himself, the vacuum-cleaner company announced that it has designed a ventilator that will be ready to distribute to hospitals as soon as April. The devices will meet National Health Service requirements.

Columbia University: Putting 3D printers to good use

Madiha Choksi, research-and-learning-technologies librarian at Columbia University, put the school’s 3D printer to work this week by printing face shields for health workers. With help of volunteers, she has turned a local New York community center into an assembly line for the equipment.

Updated March 25

Snapchat: New games encourage staying at home

Zenly, the Snapchat app that allows you to share your location with friends, is now releasing a Stay at Home leaderboard to challenge users to help contain the coronavirus outbreak by staying at home. Zenly also offers a coronavirus lens, which allows users to see the number of confirmed cases updated on a map three times per day using data from the World Health Organization and Johns Hopkins University.

Restaurants: New food automation and 100% contactless production

Creator, a restaurant in San Francisco, is innovating with automated food production and a new pressurized “transfer chamber” that allows workers and delivery workers to eliminate the passage of germs during pick-up. “We can’t restart the economy until retail and restaurant workers are protected,” says Creator founder Alex Vardakostas. “They’re some of the most important people to keep virus-free.”

Neiman Marcus: Partnering to ship protective gear to health-care workers

Luxury retailer Neiman Marcus and Jo-ann Stores, the fabric-and-craft chain, are joining efforts to provide masks, gloves, and scrubs in several facilities across the U.S. The materials are not fully medical grade, but will follow health guidelines from the Providence Hospital System in Washington, reported the Dallas Morning News.

3M: Ramping up N95 respirator mask production 

Creator of Post-it Notes, Scotch tape, and various office supplies, 3M has been refining its response to health emergencies for nearly two decades. The company doubled global production of N95 masks and is shipping them to the hardest-hit areas in the U.S. The company is also announcing a partnership with Ford Motor Co. to produce air-purifying respirators for severely ill patients.

Updated March 24

Nike: Top Athletes promote new coronavirus PSA

The company known for the message “Just do it” is campaigning a new one: “Play inside, play for the world.” Among the famous athletes to endorse the message are LeBron James, Michael Jordan, and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Ford: new ads and expedited ventilator and mask production

Instead of a scheduled March Madness-themed campaign, Ford released a new ad with the tagline “Built to Lend a Hand,” encouraging those struggling to make car-loan payments to contact them if they need help, Fast Company reports. The company is also teaming up with 3M, GE, and the UAW to produce 100,000 face masks and disposable respirators using a 3D printer.

Kraft-Heinz: donating $12 million to

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From Day One Celebrates Its Fifth Anniversary

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Even once you agree on a new set of values, there’s a lot of work to do in making them real.”  This was the historical turning point the three founders of From Day One were contemplating when they launched, exactly five years ago this month, the organization’s very first event, a one-day conference of hundreds of business leaders at BRIC House in Brooklyn, a place not previously known for business conferences. From the start, it was designed to be something different.The idea was that the country needed a “forum on corporate values,” a gathering of professionals to talk about the relationship between companies and their employees and communities. In other words, their stakeholders, rather than just their stockholders. 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All told, more than 72,000 professionals in HR and related fields have attended From Day One’s events. This year, Inc. magazine recognized From Day One as one of America’s 5,000 fastest-growing companies. The audience at a From Day One conference in Atlanta; featured photo: a panel onstage in Seattle (Photos by From Day One)Since the company has taken a journalistic approach to its conversations, it has never lacked for topics. History-making events of the past five years provided fuel for conversations that From Day One’s founders never could have expected. To start with, the pandemic brought the remote-work revolution. 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From Day One is planning a rich assortment of live and virtual events for the rest of 2023 and all through 2024, including a conference next week in our neighbor borough of Manhattan. We hope you’ll join us for the next chapters of our story.Steve Koepp is From Day One’s chief content officer. 

Stephen Koepp | September 20, 2023

The Supreme Court and the Diversity Backlash: How Employers Can Respond Now

The backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in corporate America is now in full swing. Conservative politicians have turned DEI programs into a campaign issue under the banner of anti-wokeness, with an increasing number of red-state legislatures seeking to ban DEI efforts altogether. Consumer boycotts have shaken name brands. Many corporate DEI budgets have been cut in the name of austerity, while surveys of employee sentiment show a rising tide of “diversity fatigue.” Many DEI leaders, who were given a mandate to help corporations “do better” in the realm of racial justice after the murder of George Floyd three years ago, have grown dispirited in their roles. In this environment, the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision on June 27 striking down affirmative action as unconstitutional in higher education came as another blow to advocates of DEI efforts to make the U.S. a more equitable country. 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Immediate questions arose in many workplaces about the consequences of the court’s ruling. Will DEI programs now be weakened or banned? Can race still be considered in employment decisions? And will an activist Supreme Court look for a suitable case in which to extend its controversial educational dictates to the workplace?Though the answers to those questions are not entirely clear at this point, legal and HR experts advise advocates of DEI to be proactive. 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They suggest using codes to sort programs as red (high risk), yellow (medium risk), and green (low risk). But they discourage making knee-jerk semantic changes to terms like DEI or diversity: “We think it is unnecessary to revamp the language in this field. Although the court held that the universities’ interests in achieving a diverse student body did not justify a race-conscious admissions policy, companies are still allowed to strive for a diverse workforce.” Take Prudent Steps to Avoid the Possibility of a Reverse Discrimination LawsuitThe number of corporate DEI programs surged after the 2020 murder of George Floyd and the social-justice movement that followed. The result has been a fierce legal backlash, with conservative politicians, right-wing activists, and red-state legislators working strenuously to challenge them. In the wake of the Supreme Court’s new ruling, this trend is expected to intensify. Andrew Turnbull, a partner at the Morrison Foerster law firm who represents companies in labor and employment litigation, told Axios, “When people hear affirmative action has been overruled, they may say, ‘Well, why is my company still doing diversity programs?” The decision is also expected to embolden conservative activists. Will Hild, the executive director of Consumers’ Research, a right-wing advocacy group, told the Washington Post that the ruling “will put the wind in the sails of groups like ours, who want to get the woke, racially based hiring and promotion schemes out of corporate America.” America First Legal, a group headed by former Trump adviser Stephen Miller, has recently filed complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), asking it to investigate corporate diversity and hiring practices at major companies such as McDonald’s and Unilever. And in June, a federal jury in New Jersey ordered Starbucks to pay a white former manager $25.6 million, finding that she had been fired became of reverse discrimination.Although reverse-discrimination cases are not a new phenomenon, the potential risk of these claims may be increased by the Court’s shift in position, as well as the political ferment. Employers now should educate themselves about state legislation targeted at restricting DEI initiatives, as in Florida and Texas and brace themselves for possible challenges. This is an area that may well benefit from a lawyer’s trained eye. Alvin B. Tillery, Jr., director of the Center for Study of Diversity and Democracy, cautions against overreacting. Tillery told the New York Times, “I do worry about corporate counsels who see their main job as keeping organizations from getting sued—I do worry about hyper-compliance.”Explore New Ways of Growing Your Job Candidate PoolCorporate America has become dependent on higher education to provide a pool of job-ready, diverse candidates. That flow is certain to be stanched in the future by the court’s affirmative-action decision. “I don’t believe that there’s a dispute that university demographics will become more homogenous and less diverse,” said Janine Yancey, founder and CEO of Emtrain, an inclusion-and-belonging consultancy. This will lead to “a smaller talent pipeline,” she told From Day One. It has measurably occurred already in the nine states that have banned race-conscious affirmative action policies, generally through ballot initiatives.This has been particularly true in Michigan and California. After California voters enacted a ban on affirmative action in 1996, the number of Black students at the elite University of California campuses in Berkeley and Los Angeles plummeted. Likewise, since Michigan voters ended affirmative action in 2006, the number of Black students at the University of Michigan has dropped dramatically.Employers will need to cast a wider net now to secure a diverse workforce. Rhonda V. Sharpe, the founder and president of a think tank on equity, the Women’s Institute for Science, Equity, and Race, sees a silver lining to such a result. Said Sharpe, “I will not shed a tear for affirmative action but will rejoice in the possibilities for Historically Black Colleges … and Hispanic Serving Institutions.”  In fact, the impact of affirmative action was mostly in elite universities. “The majority of Black and Hispanic students attend universities that accept more than three-quarters of their applicants,” wrote academics Richard Arum and Mitchell L. Stevens in the New York Times. “The current opportunity to bring racial equity to American higher education lies in a collective re-commitment to the quality and success of more accessible institutions.” Many DEI experts recommend that corporate HR leaders look even further upstream, investing in programs to develop underserved youth long before they make a decision about higher education. Put More Stress on Employee RetentionWith a less diverse candidate pool, experts see more problems retaining a racially or ethnically representative workforce. “No one wants to work in an environment where they are ‘the only,’” Janice Gassam Asure, the founder of BWG Business Solutions, a consultancy designed to help organizations create more inclusive environments, wrote in Forbes. She warns that the affirmative-action decision “will not only make it more challenging to retain the employees you already have, but it will likely be more difficult to attract new talent from underrepresented communities.”It is important to pay close attention to employee sentiment in the immediate aftermath of the affirmative action decision. Y-Vonne Hutchinson, the CEO of ReadySet, a DEI consulting and strategy firm, asserts that some employees may be unsettled by this decision: “Your employees, particularly those from historically marginalized backgrounds, may be experiencing anxiety, stress, sadness, fear, and disappointment right now. They may be struggling to process what this all means–for them, and their families.” Hutchinson urges companies to both “provide space” for those employees and provide support such as employment resource groups (ERGs) or extra mental health resources.Stalwarts like Iesha Berry, chief diversity and engagement officer and head of people experience at DocuSign, have no intention of giving in to the current political pressure against DEI. “It doesn’t change our focus,” said told the Wall Street Journal. Diversity is “not a stand-alone, and it’s not something that is the flavor of the day, but critically important to the business and the business success.” Andrea Sachs, a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, began her career as a lawyer in Washington, D.C., at the National Labor Relations Board, then spent nearly 30 years in New York City as a reporter at Time magazine. She is currently the editor of The Insider, a weekly digital publication.

Andrea Sachs | July 05, 2023

Has the HR Profession Gone From Undervalued to Overwhelming?

In just three years, HR leaders have gone from aspiring to be where the action is to rarely getting a break from it. The professionals once regarded as paper pushers and corporate law officers are now charged with an increasingly long list of duties: developing the future workforce, protecting employees’ mental health, maintaining equity, preventing attrition, and lots more. For many if not most HR professionals, the result is burnout. Just as one crisis eases, another springs up, with HR often the first responders. In a recent surreal turn reported by Bloomberg, some HR leaders have now been tasked with laying off their peers when even the HR department starts getting the axe. Many leaders in HR have celebrated the expansion of HR into so many business operations, but has the department taken on too much too quickly? Is the job overwhelming? According to a recent poll by business software company Sage, 95% of HR leaders and C-suite executives say that HR role is too much work.Tamara Jolivette-Smith, the director of HR at health care provider Houston Methodist agrees. “In day-to-day operations, the work never stops,” she said in an email to From Day One. “New and unexpected issues continue to arise, with mental health issues becoming more and more prevalent with employees.”To handle the department’s growing responsibilities, Jolivette-Smith added three new positions to her team: two new hires for employee relations and one for recruiting–the duties that consume most of her team’s time. She’s ready to add more if that’s what it takes. “Burnout is real and I want to ensure the integrity of the team,” she added. Indeed it is: Few HR practitioners need reminding how exhausting the work can be. According to the Sage poll, 81% of HR leaders said they are personally burnt out, and 62% said they’re considering leaving the field.The department has spent three years battling challenge after challenge, Christopher Shryock, SVP and chief people officer at Sam’s Club, told From Day One. First there was Covid, then the Great Resignation and the need for rapid hiring, and now they’re managing fallout from massive layoffs, specifically in the tech industry. That’s just the new stuff.Shryock said everyone is feeling the burn, not just the HR department. The difference is that HR has an obligation to put on its proverbial oxygen mask first. Shryock believes that a burnt-out HR department is an ineffective one, and the messages that HR department sends about well-being have to be applied to the HR team first. “We talk a lot about how our team isn’t going to be very helpful to the organization if we don’t have our own oxygen masks,” he said. “We have to take some of our own medicine in terms of what we are saying, what we are articulating, and what we are encouraging the rest of the organization to do.”One reason for the significant burnout in the HR function may be its demographic makeup. HR departments are predominantly staffed by women, and women bear the brunt of unpaid work. “You’ve got 34% of women today saying they’re burned out, vs. 26% of men,” said Shryock, citing a 2021 Gallup poll. “That’s a delta of eight percentage points. If you just go back three years, that delta was three percentage points.”Despite the weight of the work, HR leaders are remarkably resilient and optimistic. The Sage poll found that 91% of HR leaders are excited about the future of HR, and 86% consider themselves speedy and agile. “I love HR and people, and I love working through the challenges,” Jolivette-Smith said. So, what does HR need to succeed? According to the poll, the department needs to upskill its team with a focus on tech specialization, invest in well-being initiatives, and develop stronger peer-to-peer networks within HR. Jolivette-Smith said that she’s taking team lunches and making time for off-site activities so her HR team can give back to the community together; she has added morning huddles to field team questions and guide her staff through what’s on deck for the day.  At Sam’s Club, Shryock has been automating and digitizing as much as possible. His team has invested in consolidating data across fewer tech tools and apps, automating processes, making process approvals easier, and in opening learning opportunities “so the HR team can be out of the minutiae and can be more focused on value-add and engaging work.” He said digital products and tech teams in the company are great partners. If the HR team can take care of its own well-being first, they can use that energy to pour into the rest of the organization. Shryock cited a favorite quote: “It’s chaos, be kind,” attributed to late author Michelle McNamara. “I think if we take that mentality, not only of the business functions and the associates and the employees we’re supporting, but we take that mentality with each other, I think that can actually unlock a lot for us.”Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is a freelance reporter and From Day One contributing editor who writes about the future of work, HR, recruiting, DEI, and women's experiences in the workplace. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, Fast Company, Quartz at Work, Digiday’s Worklife, and Food Technology, among others.

Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza | April 18, 2023