In line with advice from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and local governments in regard to the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19), GBG has enacted the following program:
We provide advice to team members based on the latest WHO recommendations, including how to minimise your risk of contracting the virus and what to do if you or a family member starts to show symptoms.
We have also provided advice to team members on staying healthy (physically and emotionally) while working from home.
The advice is regularly updated on the GBG Intranet, via emails sent directly to team members, and via “all hands” calls with the CEO.
We are monitoring global staffing levels to enable us to maintain service levels.
We collect information daily to understand who is working, self-isolating but continuing to work, and those who are unfortunately ill.
GBG has taken steps to ensure all team members’ personal information is up-to-date so we can quickly contact people outside working hours if required.
Currently there is no impact, and no anticipated impact, to service levels. We have plans in place to ensure we can operate with a significantly reduced workforce.
Working from home plans are in force for the vast majority of our offices, based on local government guidance. This includes all our UK, US, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia and mainland Europe team members. Offices in China have returned to business as usual. Before any offices are reopened, we survey team members and complete a formal Risk Assessment which is signed off by the GBG Exec team.
Many of our team members are now in locations where schools have been closed. We have provided guidance to team members on how to juggle the responsibilities of being a parent alongside working from home.
We do ask that customers are understanding at this time, for instance there may be background noise while on phone and video conferences.
There are a handful of roles that require infrequent access to offices. Additional support is in place for these individuals, including private travel and social distancing within the office.
Working from home was tested as part of GBG’s Business Continuity Plan. There have been no issues for employees working from home since the plan was enacted.
We have changed the format of all meetings. Video conference tools are used across GBG and we have a variety of channels should one system fail.
This includes all customer meetings.
GBG has advised team members to strictly adhere to the local travel restrictions in place.
In the UK, where a large proportion of our customers and team members are based, we have stopped all business travel. This is a similar situation in our locations throughout South East Asia and the US.
GBG does not currently anticipate any disruption in service levels of response times as a result of COVID-19. Globally, GBG has sufficient incident support staff and home working plans to cover absence due to isolation.
All BCP’s have been reviewed and mitigating actions have been implemented where required.
GBG carries out regular due diligence on all key suppliers, and therefore does not currently anticipate disruption to service levels.
We have commissioned a specific COVID-19 vendor risk assessment process. We are working closing with key suppliers to identify, define, assess, remediate risk and maintain services. As part of this process, alternative suppliers will be sourced if this secures service levels for our customers.
Any customer communications in relation to COVID-19 will be made through the usual GBG incident communication channels, run by the helpdesk, service management, marketing and product management teams.
In addition, our Customer Success teams are contacting customers to understand any individual concerns that we may be able to address.
Upon request, GBG team members will inform customers of previous travel or self-isolation history that occurred prior to a previous face-to-face meeting.
We want to wish our customers and their families all the best at this difficult time.
If you would like any further information please contact us.
