Update on Top Employers During COVID-19

I've previously written about what some of the top employers have been doing to take care of their employees during the COVID-19 pandemic (see post here).  I wanted to do a follow-up post here, as some companies who offered initial support for their employees have since fallen off the leaderboard for best practices.  Much of this tapering off has been due to financial limitations within companies.  While it may be true that companies want to continue to support the employees that they still have, this often can't be done unless money is reallocated within the organization.  This can be a challenge in itself because it requires taking a hard look at where their might be excess or where cuts can be made.

As I mentioned in my previous post, there were a few themes surrounding employee support during the early part of this pandemic.  They were as follows: development of crisis management teams, additional budgeting for time off, reimbursement for medical costs, deep cleaning for workplaces and work from home policies.  As time has passed, the priorities for supporting employees have shifted slightly.  Now, employees need to establish home offices, find options for child care and think more about their own mental health.

An article put out by Forbes recently captured many of these new needs, highlighting how some companies have continued to respond to changing priorities.  Companies like Lowe's, Walmart, Dollar General, and Kroger offered additional cash bonuses to their employees to help support their frontline workers.  Others who have more remote workers, and realized that this pandemic (and remote work) aren't going away anytime soon, gave employees a stipend to aid them in setting up a more suitable home office.  Employees had been making due with whatever space they have and often struggling through a lack of equipment or space.  With a stipend to help them, an employee who must work in close quarters with a partner or roommate could purchase noise cancelling headphones so that they could improve their focus.  Employees with more space could purchase a more comfortable office chair to prevent discomfort that could distract them from their work.

Another area where extra support is being seen is back-up childcare.  CVS Health, Target and Ally Financial are just a few companies that are offering this to their employees with children.  This focus is new for many employers and some might say that it is a silver lining to the pandemic.  Pre-pandemic, companies rarely thought about how their employers dealt with balancing parenthood and work.  In fact, according to the Society for Human Resource Management's Employee Benefits 2019 Survey, only 4% of all employers offered subsidized child care in 2019.  Another 11% offered employees access to a referral service, like Care.com, that could point employees towards child care providers, but the company did not pay for the actual child care.  During the beginning of this pandemic, Boston Consulting Group reported that about 60% of working parents didn't have any outside childcare.

One specific example of adaptive employee benefits can be seen at Contec.  A CNBC article touts how “Contec employees that have been with the company for at least six months are entitled to six weeks of pandemic emergency child-care leave. The company will pay them two-thirds of their salary during this time off, up to $5,000, through the end of the year. Employees who have worked for Contec for a year or more can get double that: 12 weeks, or up to $10,000 in paid time off. McBride says about 10% of parents have already taken advantage of the program.”  This new system was implemented during this COVID-19 pandemic for working parents.  This extensive benefit is not the norm, but it can serve as an example for others who might have a high population of working parents in their employee pool.

Benefit companies are discussing the concept of more personalized benefits.  This would mean having a large pool of benefit options that employees would then self-select for themselves.  This way, a working parent could reap the benefits of policies like what Contec is offering, while another employee without children might choose a benefit more appropriate to their current lifestyle.  

Lastly, this Forbes article also highlighted companies who were donating to their local communities as well as large initiatives aimed to help anyone who was put in a tough situation due to the pandemic.  While they praised companies for supporting their employees first, the companies identified also donated large sums to support local communities and more.  Verizon and AT&T, for example, offered extensions on past due bills due to the financial climate.  Home Depot donated N95 masks to healthcare providers, T Mobile donated phone chargers to hospitals, and McDonald's served more than 10 million free 'Thank You Meals' to public safety and health workers.  During this unprecedented time, it is important to recognize those that go above and beyond to protect their employees and others.

Have ideas that can help companies keep it rolling?  Feel free to comment and share!

-Vicky