As a college student, little is as professionally nerve-wracking as nabbing a coveted summer internship in a competitive industry. With that in mind, cancelations due to extenuating circumstances carry extra weight. According to a recent Yello poll of 900 students, 35 percent have recently learned that this year’s previously accepted opportunities have been eliminated.
Given the impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on virtually every industry, it’s understandable. Turning an internship into a meaningful remote experience is no easy feat. But the following HR professionals had contingency plans.
Chicago company leaders shared how their teams are virtually onboarding new hires, honoring summer internships and ensuring that employees new to remote work have proper setups. Most importantly? They’re over-communicating through well-researched technology.
“We’ve been able to react well and provide platforms for sharing thoughts, feedback and concerns,” Adam Henry, senior director of human resources at Zoro, said.
In May of 2019, digital workflow company ServiceNow welcomed customers and partners to Las Vegas for its annual Knowledge conference. The year prior, the attendee list featured more than 20,000 guests. The event is looking a little different these days. Senior Manager Kay Hughes said the team has decided to go digital, giving viewers access to keynote content, community breakout sessions and business solution technology.
Tell us briefly about your team’s contingency plan pre-COVID-19.
We had all the expected and required business continuity and disaster recovery plans in place. Plus, as a digital workflow company, we had already digitized many of our manual processes.
Even so, when we thought about a one hundred percent remote workforce, we had to consider new details. For instance, we started testing remote systems access for our customer support teams a couple of weeks before we issued the stay-at-home order. We had to make sure they could continue to serve customers. We told our employees in India to expense MiFi devices to ensure reliable internet outside the office. Our facilities team got creative and started to plan ways to move fitness classes and other formerly in-person events online so employees could continue their wellness routines.
How has that contingency plan helped you respond in the face of the recent coronavirus outbreak?
We have been fortunate to transition quickly and seamlessly to remote work. We now conduct digital hiring, as well as digital onboarding through our ServiceNow mobile onboarding app. We host multiple weekly sessions for virtual yoga, virtual bootcamps, and other classes, even for employees’ kids.
We’re one of the few companies that will be welcoming a summer intern class this year. It will be digital. Interns will onboard and work remotely, along with the rest of our employees. But they will continue to learn and get critical experience on the job.
We’ve continued to support our customers with a new customer care plan that includes access to four free emergency response management apps. Plus, we’re taking our Knowledge 2020 customer and partner event digital. Instead of welcoming 25,000 people to Orlando in May as we had originally planned, we’re creating an engaging digital experience to give tens of thousands of attendees digital access to the content they need.
Our approach for this pandemic has been people-first.’’
What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned about contingency planning from recent events, and how do you plan to apply that lesson in the future?
Our approach for this pandemic has been people-first. Everything we’ve done starts with the impact on people: our employees and their families, our customers and partners and our communities.
We deeply believe that our commitment to diversity, inclusion and belonging has brought us closer together in the midst of a crisis that could’ve pulled us apart.
Despite increased external uncertainty, the Zoro team has decided to honor all job offers they had previously extended to candidates, including internships. According to Henry, creating a virtual onboarding and new-hire orientation program so quickly at the e-commerce business solutions company has required employees to think differently about making short timelines work.
Tell us briefly about your team’s contingency plan pre-COVID-19.
Because Zoro is considered an essential business, we felt it was important to take vigorous safety precautions. We were fortunate to begin preparing for our new world ahead of shelter-in-place orders.
We created a virtual work environment for all team members who could perform their work remotely. The intent was to get as many team members working from home as possible so employees who needed to physically work on site would have minimal exposure.
Setting up our customer service function properly in our virtual environment has been our biggest challenge. Many of our customer service associates did not have the capability to work from home prior to COVID-19. But we thought ahead and invested in the right technology, training and business continuity actions.
We’ve also thought differently about how we can leverage our communication tools as a platform for awareness and education. We launched a number of new channels designed to communicate important company messages and embrace informal social interaction. We have also provided team members with resources focused on fitness, emotional well-being, remote leadership and communication strategies.
It only takes one misunderstanding to create confusion and concern among a team.’’
What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned about contingency planning from recent events, and how do you plan to apply that lesson in the future?
If you don’t plan ahead, envisioning a number of different scenarios and outcomes, you will be unprepared to handle the challenge effectively. Ensure proper and frequent communication. It only takes one misunderstanding to create confusion and concern among a team. We’ve been able to react well and provide platforms for sharing thoughts, feedback and concerns. While the messaging can feel redundant, it’s times like these where over-communication is really appreciated.
The last few months have allowed us to create better business continuity and crisis management plans and have helped us open up to significant change.
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