EN members reconvened to continue their monthly discussions on the situations in Ukraine & Russia, and the latest developments on COVID. This virtual conversation included more than 12 members representing diverse industries. Executive Networks extends its sincere thanks to all who participated.

Perspectives from on the ground in Ukraine

Svitlana Miller, the U.S.-based founder of the EN-supported non-profit To Ukraine with Love, joined members during the opening portion of the call to report on what she saw on the ground the week prior when her team crossed the Polish/Ukrainian border to deliver supplies.

• Major internal refugee crisis and widespread shortages: According to Svitlana, the population of Western Ukraine’s largest city, Lviv, has swelled to perhaps as many as 2 million souls. In peacetime, it is home to about 700,000 people. Shortages are widespread. “There’s no fuel. And they’re running out of unexpected things, like bedding, cutlery and dishware,” Svitlana said. “People fled Eastern and Southern Ukraine empty handed, grabbing only their children.”

• General ‘peace’ in the west, but with fear: Svitlana witnessed no on-the-ground fighting in her travels through the western part of the country, but she did encounter bomb-damaged buildings and air-raid sirens. “People are going about their normal lives, going to work, standing in grocery lines and then you see a crater from a rocket right there a block away,” she explained.

• Culture shift: “I grew up speaking Russian in Kiev,” Svitlana noted. “No one in Kiev wants to speak Russian anymore. Speaking Ukrainian everywhere took some getting used to.”

Employees who fled (or stayed behind) in Ukraine

The member on the call with the largest population of Ukrainian employees (800) had seen less than 10% of them flee the country. The company operates within Ukraine’s critical agricultural sector, so those with the ability to are continuing to work. “Of those that have left, we’ve identified about 30 as key to the business,” the member said. “We are considering suspending their contracts in Ukraine and giving them temporary ones at market rates for where they are now, with the expectation that they will return to Ukraine with peace.”

• Keeping tabs on those who have left: “We asked those leaving Ukraine to stay within the region, with preferred locales in Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic,” one member said. “We’ve put them on temp contracts based on market conditions.” It’s a popular approach, with several other members noting that they’ve turned down requests from Ukrainian refugee employees to exit the region once they’ve been safely established outside of Ukraine. “We’re saying, ‘no, you’re safe, that’s the objective’ to employees who request to go stay with family in Italy or in Canada, for example. It’s the one area where we are being a bit strict.”

• Rewarding those who have stayed behind: One member expressed concern that her employees who stayed behind may begin to resent those who left, especially if market conditions in their new host countries equals a pay raise. Another member helped assuage those fears: “It hasn’t come up as an issue for us because we gave all employees a lump sum, whether they stayed or left,” the member explained. “Everyone is getting paid. We haven’t seen any tensions. In fact, some people have moved back into Kiev.”

Exiting Russia (or not)

One member on the call said that her company had recently announced that it is selling its substantially-sized Russian businesses, with the largest of them being sold to a group of local executives. “Many of the people will be retained by the new employer,” she said. “Some won’t be because the business will look a bit different going forward, but we are very sensitive to Russian legal pressure on headcount reduction.”

• Staying behind: Three members said their current intention is to “retain capabilities” in Russia because their businesses there are directly involved in key sectors supporting the health and survival of the civilian population: namely healthcare, education and agriculture.

• Severance packages: Among those on the call, no one had begun to offer severance packages to Russian employees, but several seemed headed in that direction. One member described her entire Russian workforce as “on garden leave.” Six months’ pay had been the most common severance in the marketplace prior to the conflict, but two members reported anecdotally hearing “8 to 12 months” as the new norm.

• Russian legal help: One member requested referrals for additional Russian legal resources. He (and several others on the call) said they are currently using Baker McKenzie. If you have a legal referral please submit it to EN and we will share it with the requesting member.

Treating COVID like the flu (except in China)

Two members said their companies are moving toward dropping all vaccine and testing rules to work on site. Several others said they had reverted to “purely local guidance for all COVID-related matters,” with one adding that, “Some of our sites have begun treating COVID like any other infectious disease, like the flu.”

• Not so in China: “We have a huge workforce in China that is in lockdown,” one member said. “Shanghai has been shut down for two months.”

• Encouraging people to come back to the office: Most on the call reported that their office workers have returned at least part of the time. Ratios varied across market and industry, with some reporting better in-person working adoption than others. “We’ve made it purely optional to work in the office and our numbers are down at around about 20% on-site,” one member said. “That’s too low for us. We want people collaborating in person. We’re finding that we are having to put on events to attract them… Once they do come in for an event or two, they are more likely to keep coming back.”

Featured Network Directors

Eleven days after their first call on the subject, EN members reconvened to discuss the dramatic situation in Ukraine and Russia. This virtual conversation included more than 15 members representing diverse industries. Executive Networks extends its sincere thanks to all who participated.

Operating (or not) in Russia

Some member companies have ceased operations in Russia. Others continue to operate, most notably those on the call with larger employee populations in the country. “We are trying to work through all of this,” said a member. “It’s a very difficult topic. We have more than 3,500 employees in Russia.”

• Business continues, interrupted: Five members, all with 3,000+ employees in Russia, said they were continuing to operate in country. Their local business leaders remain under immense pressure, dealing with a plethora of employee, supply and logistics challenges.. One of the five has deliberately reduced production output. Another, with businesses in food production, said, “We are keeping employees working everywhere that we can because we do not want to exasperate any food shortages.”

• Winding down Russian operations: Two others on the call have already ceased operations in Russia, in accordance with home country sanctions. “We’ve stopped doing business entirely in Russia,” one explained. “What type of severance packages are others looking at for Russia? Where is this headed?” Others echoed the member’s questions, but no one had an answer.

Refugee Employees

For those on the call, full time employee numbers are much lower in Ukraine than in Russia, but for Ukrainian employees, working is even more daunting. Only a limited number of them safely re-established in Poland, Romania or elsewhere are physically able to work, if host governments would allow it.

• Actively pursuing permits (and looking at other options): ”We are looking at all options,” a member said. “Depending on where our people ended up, we are trying to get them work permits so that they can work where they are. But, we cannot guarantee our Russian and Ukrainian employees jobs. Severance packages are on the table for all.”

• Advance pay: One of the quickest ways for HR leaders to help affected employees is to get them access to cash. Members on the call are uniformly advancing pay to employees in Ukraine and Russia, but access to banking services and cash remains a challenge, especially for employees who have fled their home countries amid the conflict..

Insurance Challenges

Lawyers from member companies are combing through insurance contracts, with members expecting that their companies will pay life and disability policy claims even if insurers balk.

• Will self-insure if forced: ”Self-insurance is our fallback option,” a member explained. “It looks like our policy will cover refugees, but we have been trying to see what the coverage looks like for members staying in Ukraine versus those who have fled.”

Repurposing COVID Communication Tools

One member, with a particularly large employee population in both Ukraine and Russia, shared that her company’s leaders have returned to video journaling, a practice that first emerged in her company during the 2020 lockdowns.

“Our regional directors are doing video journals and showing their vulnerabilities,” she explained. “There have been 3 of them so far, about 10 to 12 minutes each. I find them to be a powerful way of communicating with the organization. My team have seen them, and it makes us very emotional.”

Featured Network Directors

With monthly “COVID Calls” still on member calendars, this month’s discussion was rebranded to include the more recent calamity: the crisis in Ukraine. The virtual conversation included more than 15 members representing a broad swath of industries. Executive Networks extends its sincere thanks to all who participated.

A European Crisis with Global Ramifications

As the situation in Ukraine escalates ostensibly between two countries with deep cultural, commercial, and religious ties. The nations affected are Europe’s top exporters of grain and fuel, respectively. The aggression in Ukraine deeply concerns members. As a result, they are making critical decisions impacting their employees, businesses, and futures.

• Evacuating Ukrainians: The member on the call with the largest population of full-time employees in Ukraine reported a frantic, but safe effort to evacuate them and their families. The member said that securing housing and providing pay in host countries (mainly Poland and Romania) is an ongoing challenge. A member with a much smaller employee footprint in Ukraine reported that his company’s evacuation buses were seized, allegedly by invading Russian forces. The “bus-to-Poland” plan quickly shifted to “meet at a rendezvous and carpool” for their 60 Ukraine-based full-timers and their families.

• Trouble with advanced pay: Many on the call have employees who are in Russia, Ukraine or have fled from either country. Providing pay for all three cohorts remains a challenge—even as all members on the call (and those who answered an earlier member survey) report that they are trying to advance pay to affected workers. Bank account access remains particularly problematic. One member reported that both Russian refugee employees in Dubai and Ukrainian refugee employees in Warsaw were unable to access direct-deposited pay advances.

• Tension in the workplace: Some members spoke of the need to deescalate conflict between Russian and Ukrainian employees, as well as increasing anti-Russian sentiment. One member said her leaders had done a good job of communicating that Russian employees are an essential part of the global company, who are not to be blamed for the actions of their political leaders. Nearly every member represented on the call has at least a few dozen full-time employees in Russia. Most also have workers in Ukraine.

• Stress in surrounding countries: One member company is offering paid leave for Polish employees, so that they can help with Ukrainian refugee support. “It’s no different than giving time off to fill sandbags with a hurricane in the forecast,” the member explained. Another member said that her European employees are having a hard time focusing on work, leading to more mental health support needs.

• Sanctions another challenge: One member company has more than 3,000 full-time employees in Russia. With the war being partially “fought” through sanctions, even normally-routine HR maneuvers, like pay advances for Russian employees, is under intense legal scrutiny. Members reported that their legal departments are working day and night to comply with a rapidly-changing sanctions landscape.

Flexible Work Becoming Normalized

The topic of hybrid work also came up, with one member chiming in via chat: “Hopefully we’re headed away from pandemic to endemic and onto #no-demic.” Those who broached the subject of hybrid working reported that their offices have more-or-less fallen into a routine, with masking now optional and testing less stringent than in the past. However, none reported an office situation exactly akin to 2019.

CNET reports well-known tech companies who revealed their return to office policies:

• Twitter opened their office on March 15, 2022; however, workers can determine how often they come into the office – wherever they feel most productive.
• Google is requiring employees to work in the office at about 3 days a week starting April 4.
• Apple will require at least 1 day a week in the office by April 11 and at least 3 days a week by April 23.
• Microsoft reopened on February 28 and Meta plans to reopen offices March 28.

Questions from Members:

• What are other organizations doing to support employees in Ukraine?
• What are other organizations doing to support employees in Russia?
• Are you evacuating employees?
• Are you offering PTO for Ukrainians who are being (or may be) conscripted?