Espresa, Inc. announced the Culture Benefits Award for excellence and innovation to Proofpoint, Inc., a leading cybersecurity company, for its extraordinary and proactive human resources strategy during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Businesses are struggling to keep corporate environments intact with the onset of COVID-19. As shelter-in-place laws have become widespread, Proofpoint’s human resources department exhibited tremendous leadership by proactively resolving the issues faced by the employees and their families. Proofpoint rapidly extended services to sort the issue faced for its US and global workers who were forced to shelter in place and work from home using the Espresa employee engagement platform.
“Companies worldwide are experiencing challenges never before seen in the workplace,” said Sharyl Givens, Senior Vice President of Human Resources for Proofpoint. “This is an unprecedented time where leaders can make a defining positive impact on the lives of employees. Protecting people is at the heart of Proofpoint’s purpose and our award-winning cybersecurity solutions—and our global workforce is the key to that success. We are committed to prioritizing the health and safety of our employees while delivering programs that help keep our business strong and deliver for our customers.”
Before the pandemic, Proofpoint was already leading in well-being, recognition, and learning and development programs, “Proofpoint is an impressive example and true proof that an employee-centric organization, even under the direst of circumstances, can still connect and engage employees at scale,” said Alex Shubat, CEO of Espresa. “We are impressed with how quickly their global benefits and employee events team partnered with us to deliver new creative programs, to not only support their employees but their entire families. It says a lot about an organization when they clearly demonstrate culture through action, not just through words on a page or corporate wall.”
Despite the number of clients in the race, Espresa chose Proofpoint based on their world-class proactivity, engagement analytics, and work-from-home strategy in the first three months of the pandemic. As the organization continued to drive and interview employees while analyzing employee usage data, the Proofpoint team decided how they could reduce pressure on their employees more efficiently while stressing empathy through cultural benefits.
“We altered our workplace programs entirely to support shelter-in-place,” continued Givens. “Virtual fitness, mindfulness, and mental health were all necessities during this challenging time. We also quickly implemented initiatives that supported our Proofpoint families, and designed programs specifically for kids and to help working parents, such as Zumba, storytelling, sing-a-longs, laughter yoga, STEM camp, and game shows.”
Implementing different activities such as Espresa fitness and COVID-19 awareness programs at the time of remote work will help to keep human connections continue despite the office work. “We’ve seen a great deal of momentum with Espresa challenges that go well beyond step counting,” continued Shubat. “With leaderboards, points accumulation, and digital badges, challenges can replace tedious tasks in, for example, learning and development and employee onboarding. Employees want to have fun at work, wherever that work is, and whatever the task. That’s what the Espresa platform helps to facilitate for HR, and now more than ever, help them do it more successfully with less.”
Till the time fail-safe ways are not introduced for COVID-19, it will be difficult to bring back people to their workplace. “That’s why we provide workplace well-being to our employees wherever they are,” Givens said. “Espresa is an important partner as we continue to develop programs that help us ensure the health, happiness, and safety of our people.”
