Ensuring business continuity under the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic

March, 2021 by Globant

At Globant we take the safety of our employees, clients and the community very seriously, and this is particularly the case during the current COVID-19 situation. The Coronavirus continues spreading quickly and we have taken preventive measures in order to protect Globers, their families, our clients, and the community as a whole, as well as measures to ensure both our business and our client’s business is impacted minimally under the circumstances.

As outlined in our protocol for emergency situations, we have appointed a Crisis Committee led by Patricia Pomies, our Chief Delivery and People Officer, in charge of setting the guidelines for our business and operational changes. These are reviewed on a daily basis and reported to the Top Management as we monitor the evolution of this outbreak.

We have asked Globers to check the CDC and the WHO and to stay up to date with their local country regulations, since each government may define different actions according to the evolution of the virus, and the COVID Site.
 

Current ongoing measures

The following measures have been set in place and are being followed by all of the appropriate areas. The section below provides more details on these for each of our different focus areas.

People

• Identified and defined our critical audience:
  • Globers who are experiencing some of the covid-19 symptoms
  • Globers that have been exposed to people with some of the symptoms mentioned above.
  • Globers who traveled in the past couple of weeks.
  • Globers planning to travel.
     
• Protocol for Globers in General:
  • Abide by the rest of the measures described in this document.
  • Inform us if they meet the criteria to be part of our critical audience. In case people are identified as Critical Audience, each individual will be identified and each case will be kept track of.
  • Proactively self quarantine if they have symptoms as well as if they have been exposed to, or may have been exposed to the disease. This includes the Globers who have traveled, have been in contact with people who have shown symptoms or any other known risk factor.
  • Report symptoms in Success Factors.
  • Stay informed with the latest guidance from the CDC and WHO regarding hygiene and prevention.

WFH Policy

• We have launched a comprehensive WFH policy to reduce the population density in all of our offices that includes almost a 100% of Globers.
• For any Globers who cannot Work From Home due to hardware, legal or other limitations, the offices will remain open and private transportation will be available for them to ensure their safety. In this case, these Globers must have approval from the project leads and contact their TCBP for further instructions.

Client Continuity

• We have created official communications to be shared with clients and establish channels to create ad-hoc communications on a per-need basis.
• In case it is extremely necessary, decentralize projects/accounts by TDC/region aiming at having no more than one third of the people involved in a given project in the same office.
• Launching a Contingent Working From Home policy.
• Identify clients at a higher risk of losing continuity and establish coordinated actions to mitigate (example, clients with high security requirements).

Offices

• Communication will be sent to all offices and Globers as necessary.
• We have reinforced hygiene measures and guidelines setting up signage in all offices: cleaning (reinforcing cleaning of frequently touched surfaces) and disinfecting offices, as well as making sure each space has adequate ventilation. All measures are followed in accordance with the general recommendations by CDC and WHO.
• Determining different courses of action for each office.
• All offices remain open at a minimum operational capacity.

Infrastructure

• Our core infrastructure is spread across 5 different datacenters in 3 countries using different vendors and redundant links over different carriers. Core services are geo distributed and can be served from different datacenters.
• The support team to these infrastructures is also spread across 5 countries. Every branch office has redundant equipment to provide basic services to each office. Redundant internet links are also a standard.

Travel

• Mobility to review all trips requested on a daily basis.
• Cases where people need to travel need additional approvals from the Covid Committee.
• Provision of a travel kit with the guidelines provided by the WHO and antibacterial supplies for those traveling.

Corporate Continuity

• Review and analyze the status of our staff areas and apply measures as needed:
  • Top Management
    • Reduce travel as much as possible
  • Studio Management
    • We are already working under a co-partnership model which ensures high availability across the studio management teams
    • Ensure visibility and workload balance across all co-partners for a given studio to avoid potential disruptions
  • Regional Management
    • Regional and portfolio management is already working on three-member teams that have full visibility into the account status
    • Ensure regional and account management teams balance their trips to avoid co-location as much as possible thus avoiding potential disruptions
  • Other staff areas
    • Distribute co-located teams across the different offices and areas within an office so that no more than one third of the team on a given site is co-located
• Establish a work from home (WFH) first approach across the organization

Communications, Events and Meetings

• Establish a centralized communication set of channels for all Globers to use if they have issues, questions or concerns, including email, direct messaging and biweekly open Q&A sessions. Sessions were held twice a week in order to clear any doubts and will be coordinated in English and Spanish
• We’ve moved meetings and events to virtual mode
• Encourage proper social distancing and changing usual behavior habits (no kissing, avoid sharing utensils, etc)
   

Protocol under a presumptive or confirmed case

In case of being informed of a confirmed or presumptive case by either one of our employees or clients we will take the following steps.

People

• If the person was working from the office: get the list of Globers in the office and those in close contact with the infected. Follow up with each individual case and monitor evolution. These people will be instructed to stay home preventively for 14 days and follow their local protocols and procedures established for each country. A list of local health care providers and local measures to follow by country will be provided.
• People team should monitor if any further sick cases emerge and provide the necessary support/follow up.
• Make sure that Globers have access to local medical facility information to use the service they need in this situation. A list of local medical facilities will be shared through local Talent and Culture Business Partner.

Client Continuity

• Ensure appropriate communication to the client is sent based on evolution.
• Review with the clients and explore changing meetings to online/video conferencing as appropriate.
• Monitor closely for any business impact and discuss with clients for better arrangements.

Offices

• Close the office with immediate effect and initiate deep cleaning/disinfecting. Offices will be shut down according to protocols established by CDC and WHO.
• IST will take the necessary action to ensure continuity of work for remote Globers.

Travel

• All business travels are restricted. Must be approved by Covid-19 committee.

Communications, Events and Meetings

• Cancel all in-office events and make them virtual if possible or postpone them.
   

If you have any questions, please email us at covid19@globant.com.We will continue to monitor the situation closely and provide updates on this page.