Businesses engage employees to respond to humanitarian crisis in Ukraine
Wondering what, if anything, your company should be doing about the war in Ukraine? Here are some ideas.
GlobalLogic, a digital product engineering company, closely monitored rising tensions in Ukraine, where it has 7,500 employees. Even so, it was not prepared for the extent of the crisis following the Russian invasion.
“No one expected the scale of what has happened,” said Andriy Kalinovsky, senior vice president. “We were able to establish emergency hotlines and evacuate people. We moved many employees from east to west and provided them and their families with accommodations in places such as Croatia where we do business. By doing this, the government can focus its resources on people who don’t have this help available.”
Related: Social responsibility: Doing good is good for business
Kalinovsky shared his insights during a March 10 virtual panel discussion sponsored by WeSpire, a provider of employee engagement software and campaigns. Tech companies especially feel the impact, because Ukraine is home to more than 250,000 engineers, as well as many others who work in tech support.
“The first thing people need is moral and emotional support,” said Susan Hunt Stevens, founder and CEO of WeSpire. “I have heard that loud and clear from Ukrainians. It’s just knowing and hearing from so many of us that we are thinking about and supporting them. But you have to turn that into action. The level of need there is staggering to comprehend, so the responses from a government level and company level need to be big.”
Marc DeCourcey, senior vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, agrees. “We have tracked 120 companies that have given more than $165 million in the last two weeks,” he said. “That is only the tip of the iceberg of what is out there, and that will only build and build and build. One thing we found is that companies not only are giving cash but they are doing things. They are really leveraging their core competencies. For instance, AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile have enabled free calling to and from Ukraine. FedEx and UPS are using their muscle to move products to neighboring countries.”
A Connecticut beverage company has even introduced a special drink called Putin Punch and is donating 50 cents from each sale to the Red Cross in Ukraine.
Businesses should understand what is needed now — and what is not.
“What we are told is needed is water, sanitation, shelter, food and medical supplies,” DeCourcey said. “It’s important to know that unsolicited in-kind donations are not welcome. It clogs up the logistics chain and takes up room from the products that are needed. There is nothing worse than watching a warehouse fill up with things that are not needed. If you are wondering if you can do something like a coat drive or a can drive, please don’t. There may be a time for that, but right now, the nonprofits need cash. My recommendation is to give cash to trusted nonprofits.” Eastman Chemical Co. found that its employees were eager to contribute.
“We have a caring employee population, and they were looking for guidance from the corporation,” said Paula Bulcao, director of global public affairs. “We already had a virtual townhall planned, and our CEO let employees know that Ukraine was on his mind. It set it up nicely for us to be able to respond quickly. We launched a fundraising campaign with employees and also did a donation match. In the first week, we are close to our $50,000 match.”
The pharmaceutical company Otsuka took a similar approach.
“We are doing an employee giving campaign with a match up to $100,000,” said Melissa Shelton, the head of corporate social responsibility. “In the future, we are looking at what we can do from a pharmaceutical perspective, knowing some of the pharma is going into Russia and Ukraine.”
As the situation unfolds, there likely will be opportunities for businesses to move beyond cash contributions.
’We hear from people on the ground that yes, helping orphans is great, but if you don’t also help people on the frontline, there will just be more orphans,” Kalinovsky said. “We encourage everyone to think about not just a feel-good donation but what helps those on the frontline. The closer we get to that, the less downstream suffering there will be.”
Eventually, many companies will be able to contribute their core competencies, or what DeCourcey calls their superpowers.
“Kroger and Mars are donating food to the World Food Programme, because they are really good at this,” he said. “They can move product. Elon Musk is donating internet connectivity. Think about what you can do, either directly or in support of responding nonprofits in addition to cash, but it has to be something that you are really, really good at. That is a great way to motivate your entire organization.”
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