Covid-19: Indeed tells staff globally to stay at home ‘until further notice’

4 Mar 2020

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Recruitment firm Indeed has asked all its staff to work from home until further notice to minimise the potential spread of Covid-19.

Not long after it asked all of its Dublin employees to work from home fearing a potential outbreak of the coronavirus, Indeed has now asked its almost 9,000 employees across the world to work remotely.

In a statement, the recruitment firm said this will be in place “until further notice”.

“Our goal is to minimise the risk to employees and help to lower the probability of the spread of the virus to you, your families and the communities where we operate,” the company said.

Indeed said there are no confirmed cases of Covid-19 among its employees, and added that this move is just “out of an abundance of caution”.

“We are well equipped to continuously serve our job seekers and our clients in a remote work environment,” the company said. “We are constantly evaluating this evolving situation and adjusting tactics based on new information to keep you safe.”

Not the first time

Last month, the company asked its 1,000 Dublin-based staff to stay home. This came after fears that one of its employees based in Singapore may have contracted the virus following contact with family members who were being tested for Covid-19.

There were concerns that a number of staff members who had visited the Singapore office had also visited the Dublin and Sydney offices around the same time and could have potentially brought the virus to Dublin. However, it was later confirmed that the staff member did not have the virus.

Elsewhere, Twitter has also advised its employees to work from home, citing an “abundance of caution”.

The company acknowledged that working from home is “not ideal for some job functions”, so Twitter will keep its offices open, while increasing deep cleaning and sanitising measures, and offering more visual reminders for personal hygiene best practices.

Meanwhile, Google asked many of its 8,000 employees in Ireland to work remotely yesterday (3 March). It was reported that the tech giant could be using this as an opportunity to test whether it has the capacity to allow all of its staff to work remotely in the event that the coronavirus situation escalates, or if another major incident were to take place in the future.

Staff are expected to return to Google’s offices as normal from tomorrow (5 March).

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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