How the Pandemic Taught a Company to Embrace Change

BY Lisa Jaffe | May 01, 2022

As a travel company with more than 20,000 employees in dozens of countries, Expedia Group was destined to experience the Covid-19 pandemic as more of a mountain than a mole-hill. But it is often adversity that instigates positive change, and so it has been with Expedia.

At a From Day One conference in Seattle, Archana Singh, the company’s chief people officer, spoke about how the company dealt with adversity–and how it learned to embrace change going forward.

“At first, we all thought this would last a week or two,” she recalled of the initial lockdown. The reality was that there were ebbs and flows of solving one problem, only to encounter another. “First, it was how do we handle [travel] cancellations. They were rampant, and our call-center staff needed computers to handle the work. So we had to figure out how to equip them for work during the lockdown.”

Then there were the employees with children, who were suddenly required to care for kids who had been in school or day care. Meanwhile, parents were figuring out how to work remotely, sometimes without dedicated office space, often with children and spouses also needing internet bandwidth for their school or work needs. “We had to incorporate flexibility and understanding, and support our managers in their efforts to do that,” says Singh. “We used to say ‘take your whole self to work.’ Now it’s ‘take the whole work to self.’ Working with kids or dogs in the background–it’s just a way of being now. All of our managers are now just driven by acceptance.”

Handling a Cutback the Humane Way

The company had started planning for a restructuring and layoffs in December 2019. By the time it came to pulling the trigger and cutting 3,000 staff, work had become completely remote. “We worked hard to create a way to care and nurture people through this. This wasn’t the time to save money. We went above and beyond, and took a caretaking approach on every one of those transitions. We got a lot of thankful email from former employees.”

For example, those laid off technically still worked for Expedia for an additional three months, even though they were getting severance payments, not income. This was so that they could still have health insurance for themselves and their families.

Singh was interviewed by veteran Seattle TV journalist Josephine Cheng, at left

The pandemic hit different countries at different times, and that also influenced the reaction at Expedia. As the virus moved from place to place, impacting different teams at different times, Singh says the company learned to quickly determine whether a task could be done in a different time zone.

One of the hardest hit in the first wave was India, where 25% of the company’s engineering capacity resides. “Other offices snapped up that workload.” For more than two months, every manager conducted outreach to see what people needed to take care of themselves and their families. “If one part was unwell, then another part stepped up. That is the power and resilience of teams.”

In India, “there were a lot of questions [from team members] about Covid, but we are not trained as nurses.” The company created 15-minute Zoom calls with the help of doctors and nurses whose family members worked for Expedia. During that time, they talked about the science of Covid and best practices for safety around the virus. When it became difficult to source oxygen in that country, the company brought together people with distribution and communications expertise to help solve that issue. “The human spirit rose to tackle problems.”

Rebuilding the Travel Industry

At a time of “the Great Reshuffle,” when many workers are seeking new jobs, Singh says she thinks of this as “a moment of great attraction.” Expedia can gain new talent by highlighting the company mission, something that surveys show is at least as important as pay and benefits in attracting employees, she said. “I see this as an opportunity.” To be sure, compensation is still an issue, especially for hotly competitive sectors like technology. “The war between companies to attract talent is so big. But that means that purpose and mission and creating a human feeling of connectivity is a good way to get people to join and thrive here.”

Salaries and benefits are what she refers to as basic hygiene when it comes to hiring, “but people want more for themselves and their families.” A current focus is around travel benefits–the company likes to stress that travel opens up perspectives, and is actively rebranding as a “traveler company.” Well-being is important too, including a support system to help employees thrive when home and work are so closely integrated.

About 30% of Expedia’s employees are new, and have had to onboard remotely. Integrating them into the company has likewise had to change. The company uses tools like those from Humu to create a “nudge-based listening strategy” that prompts managers to act. For example, one manager might get a nudge that says, “What do you want your team to be known for? Ask at your next team meeting.” Another prompts managers to reinforce positive practices, like acknowledging good decisions.

Expedia increased the frequency of performance reviews during the last two years of change to keep up with the relentless pace of change. “When you do annual reviews, who remembers what happened in 2020 or 2021? So we do Quarterly Connects, where managers and reports talk about goals, what they are working on, where they are thriving, and where support is needed.” Singh that more than 90% of the company has taken up the program. “Managers find it an easier exercise. They don’t have to rely on memories to remember what happened in Q1.”

Building a Culture of Learning

Expedia has formalized a program of seconding people to other groups, with the company allowing staff members an opportunity to work with other teams for three to six months. “Someone on my team just took a gig in AI, which is very different from HR. We are creating opportunities within the company so that people don’t feel they have to go elsewhere,” she said.

Managers and staff participating in this new gig structure are investing in learning. “That is a pivotal role: What is in the best interest of employees? We have to figure out how to augment and support managers when it happens. We still need to do some more budgeting and policy clarification on that.”

The State of Hybrid Work

Internal surveys show that 20% of employees would like to stay fully remote in the post-pandemic era, 20% want to be fully in the office, and the rest want a hybrid arrangement. Singh said there is power in those in-office days and face-to-face gatherings.

The shift to remote in some ways was easier for Expedia than some other companies, as Expedia has always had teams working together from different locations. Figuring out how to create time for focus as well as time for connection-building is an ongoing discussion.

Personal and intra-country travel bounced back in 2021, and Singh says Expedia expects international and business travel to follow suit, but it will probably be 2023 before it’s back in full. “We will be back in the game, but as a more mindful and conscious company,” she said. “We think performance and well-being are two sides of the same coin. It isn’t either-or. And disruption has come to be a brilliant conductor and orchestrator of different disciplines to come together and find new ways. We aren’t going to lose that. We will continue the practice of bringing different points of view together.”

Lisa Jaffe is a freelance writer who lives in Seattle with her son and a very needy rescue dog named Ellie Bee. She enjoys reading, long walks on the beach, and trying to get better at ceramics.

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