Our demand for employers never changes: people want to work in a safe work environment with a decent wage and health insurance. Now it's visible more than ever since many people lost their jobs without any compensation for living and can't find any other way to earn money because of quarantine measures.
2020 is tough for everyone due to the outbreak of coronavirus: businesses shut down, try to reinvent themselves, or suffer significant losses. Some of the world-famous companies demonstrated that the most important resource is people, not money — who were they?
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- Disneyland. Land of paradise has closed its venues for an indefinite period of time and still continues to pay salaries to its workers. More than that, Disney will reimburse tickets of visitors who planned to come but couldn't visit - a rare option at this time.
- Alibaba Group. Jack Ma, the owner of Alibaba (who also happens to be a billionaire) has initiated donations of thousands and millions of test kits and face masks to multiple countries. A good help considering that most countries are in serious lack of medical supply and in particular cases can't even diagnose the virus.
- Google. It always impressed us with extra activities for its workers and the organization of the workspace, right? Now, Google provides its employees with paid sick leave if they have the symptoms of the virus or can't be present at their workplace. Additionally, Hangouts Meet is now available for all the teams who gather online.
- Fashion becomes a profession: Louis Vuitton has been using its facilities to produce free sanitary liquids for France, Armani on behalf of Giorgio Armani donated $1.4 million to hospitals in Italy, Prada CEO's and chairman donated a number of resuscitation and complete intensive care units to hospitals in Milan.
- The Gates Foundation. Scientific research is an important part of fighting disease; the sooner, the better. Bill and Melinda Gates donated millions of dollars to fight the spreading of coronavirus and the development of the vaccine.
- Coursera, LinkedIn, Cambridge University Press, and many others made it easier to get educational services by making them free. Now online books, training, and courses are available for up to two months for all the people who can't leave their houses.
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Closed facilities, schools, and universities revealed another problem: hundreds of thousands of kids and adults were left without essential food supplies. Food became inaccessible or unaffordable - who contributes to this problem at the moment?
- Disneyland, once again. The California unit will donate all its food to local food banks to help people in need.
- Celebrities unite: singers, actors, and football players donate to the battle of the food crisis. Haus Laboratories by Lady Gaga contributes to food banks by partially sharing its income, Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively made a contribution of $1 million to help kids in need.
- Nike. More than $15 million were sent to prevent the spreading of the coronavirus. $250,000 now belongs to Mid-South Food Bank and employees of the bank can help the people who suffered from the new order the most.
The world economy is changing for the worst, and we must admit that everyone will be affected by it. Still, it's not an excuse to change the way of doing business - there are many ways to engage people in voluntary activities and strengthen teamwork. In the nearest future, it will pay off numerous times.
P.S. Some of the mentioned companies were found to be engaged in corruption and tax evasion several times. We strongly insist that business should stay ethical not only in crisis time but all the time.
Stay calm and wash your hands!