Ingeniux Response and Action Items - COVID-19 Pandemic

Like many of you, I have been closely following the news about the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, over the last few weeks, with particular concern as to how it might impact the well being of Ingeniux employees and our business.  To that end, we recently assembled a COVID-19 Response Team at Ingeniux to monitor the evolving situation and respond with resources and solutions as needed.  Riley started this process with Monday’s informational email and she will continue to provide weekly updates to the company and extended team members.

Our number one priority is to insure the safety and well being of our employees and their families.  That extends to making sure we have the proper business resiliency measures in place to weather the current market disruptions and potential business impacts to Ingeniux.  Our Response Team is addressing both areas, and putting policies and solutions in place.

REALITY CHECK

What makes COVID-19 worrisome is that it is caused by a novel, previously unknown virus that likely jumped the species barrier from animals to humans. That means doctors and scientists don’t know a lot about how easily it infects people or how serious the symptoms will be. The flu has actually killed more people in the United States, but those infections are predictable and come every year. There’s a lot we just don’t know about COVID-19, and some people can spread the disease before they show symptoms.  We don’t have enough data yet to truly understand its rate of infection, severity, or mortality rate. 

But it’s important to keep things in perspective:

~      Each year in the United States, 20 – 40 million people get the flu.  To date there have been approximately 95,000 reported cases worldwide of COVID-19.

~      Deaths from the flu in the United States each year range between 20,000 and 60,000.  There have been nine deaths in the United States from COVID-19 (all of them in the Puget Sound region).

~      The death toll in King County from the flu during the current flu season (Sep-2019 through Feb-2020) is 28 deaths.  That compares to eight COVID-19 deaths. 

I don’t mean to diminish in any way the current concerns about COVID-19 and the efforts needed to contain it.  But the real impact so far from COVID-19 has not been on public health; it has been on economic health.  We are now likely headed into a recession, with serious disruptions to the worldwide supply chain.  The travel and hospitality industries are in freefall, and we could see serious economic consequences for higher education institutions.  It’s too early to know how this impacts our customer base and our business, other than to say it will and we need to be prepared for it. 

POLICIES AND ACTION ITEMS

In response to the rapidly evolving situation we are putting the following policies in place and undertaking the following action steps:

Company Travel

~      We are strongly discouraging air travel at this time for company meetings and events.  Whenever possible, use online meetings rather than in-person meetings that require air travel.

NOTE: Airplanes are confined spaces and your likelihood to be in contact with a sick person is much higher in confined spaces. That being said, airplanes have advanced air filtration systems and the airlines industry is ramping up disinfection programs for planes.  However, you are also exposed to surface germs throughout the plane and you might be more likely to get sick from touching a dirty surface like a tray table or an air vent and then touching your face.   As a general rule, washing you hands frequently and avoiding touching your face on an airplane is a more effective preventative measure than wearing a mask.

• Scheduled on-site trainings will continue for now.  We are closely monitoring the situation and may cancel these depending on new developments.
• If you have any concerns about scheduled company travel, please meet with your manager to discuss.

Personal Travel

~      If you have personal travel plans that will take you to ‘highly impacted’ areas (see list below) you must complete a 14-day self-quarantine prior to coming into an Ingeniux office. 

-          Mainland China

-          Hong Kong

-          South Korea

-          Japan

-          Taiwan

-          Thailand

-          Italy

-          Gulf Nations (AEM, Bahrain, Kuwait, etc.)

-          Iran

Personal Hygiene and Preventative Measures

~      Please see the list of recommendations and resources from Riley’s email on Monday.

~      We are instituting an ‘office wipe-down’ program in Seattle and Walla Walla to disinfect common surfaces at the start and end of each work day.

~      We have provided disinfectant wipes in all of the conference rooms.  Please wipe down keyboards, mouse, phone and table surfaces before using the conference room.

~      We are sourcing hand sanitizers for use in common spaces.  Currently they are not readily available in any stores or online.

Working From Home

~      Some of you may want to reduce commute travel to minimize cross-infection risk.  This has more application to the Seattle office than the Walla Walla office. 

~      At this time we are not encouraging or recommending that employees work from home, unless they are experiencing symptoms or are concerned they may be contagious.

~      Remote work policies remain in effect.  We have a flexible work policy, but please remember this requires providing your manager with 24 hours advanced notice (and approval) of working from home, so we can schedule work and meetings accordingly. 

• • If you are sick, take PTO so you can rest and recuperate.  That’s why we have a generous PTO program.  Don’t try to “work from home” when you are sick.
  • If you are able to work but still experiencing symptoms from a sickness, stay at home to work and make sure you provide your manager with 24 hours advance notice (if possible).
  • If you need to provide care for family members, please work with your manager to arrange a flexible remote work schedule commensurate with the time you have available for work.

NOTE: A general note here.  We believe workplace flexibility is an important employee benefit.  We understand the need for people to have flexibility in their schedules to address personal and family issues.   However for employees working in the Seattle and Walla Walla offices, we place a very high value on working from the office.  We have made major investments in workplace facilities because we believe that in-person, on-site collaboration is an essential ingredient to our business success. 

Remote Working Solutions

~       Our systems operations managers (Ryan and Alex) are making sure that everyone has properly configured laptops for working remotely.  They have configured VPN for users who need VPN access.  If you have any concerns about remote access to company systems and data, please contact helpdesk@ingeniux.com

~      Generally, we are working on expanded communication and collaboration tools to facilitate an expanding remote workplace.  We have employees working around the United States and Canada and that trend is likely to continue.  It is a high priority to expand and improve remote workplace tools and infrastructure to accommodate this growth.

Business Resiliency

~      We are currently reaching out to key vendors (for instance, our hosting infrastructure providers) to document what measures and steps they are taking to address potential impacts from the COVID-19 outbreak.  These are being documented with the vendors and incorporated into a business resiliency plan for the company.  Alex and Ryan are heading up this effort.

~      We are working with the Support team to insure we have good systems and process in place to provide distributed, remote Support services to our customers, in case Support engineers cannot come into the office.  Efriem is heading up this effort.

~      We are working with our accounting, banking and financial services vendors to insure we have seamless access to banking services and payroll processing.  Ashley and Shannon are heading up this effort.

~      We are putting together talking points and communications for account managers and project managers to reach out to customers to address concerns and inform them of our business resiliency plans.  Keith, Tristin and Riley are heading up this effort.

~      We are working with Seattle Tower, Port of Walla Walla, and local governments to monitor any impacts on facilities, local access and government policy.  Victoria is heading up that effort.

~      We are putting together office hygiene and cleaning protocols.  Victoria is heading up that effort.

RESPONSE TEAM

The response team consists of the following people.  Please feel free to reach out to me or any of the team members with ideas, recommendations and concerns.

• Alex Loescher
• Ashley Christensen
• Efriem Bezabih
• Keith Osiewicz
• Riley Edmunds
• Ryan Taylor
• Shannon McKinney
• Tristin Finch
• Victoria Mjolsnes

Thank you

Jim