The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting businesses and governments as well as the lives of billions of people around the world – and we continue to look for the best ways to respond. Our attention is focused on keeping our worldwide employees, clients, partners, and greater communities safe, while applying our energies and expertise to help a range of organizations operate more effectively now and post-crisis.
We would like to update the greater Pega community on the actions and activities we have taken since our last company statement on the crisis.
How Pega is supporting employees
During these unprecedented times, we have implemented additional policies and employee assistance programs to support the health and well-being of our employees and their families. We are providing additional full-paid sick leave for employees who contract the virus or need to care for affected family members. And for employees who are balancing child care or family care with remote work, we’re supporting additional flexibility in work schedules. Understanding that these times may be especially stressful, we are also offering all Pega employees a one-year subscription to Headspace, a meditation and mindfulness app focused on relaxation and mental wellness.
For Pega employees whose households may be economically stressed due to the loss of their partner’s or spouse’s job or small business, we have banded together to create the Pega Employee Fund. The fund is financed by the company with the addition of personal donations from our leadership team and company-matched donations from any Pega employee that wishes to contribute. As a company, we are fortunate that we’ve been in a position to retain our employees during this crisis. We are also proud of the generosity of spirit and empathy our employees at every level continue to display in support of each other’s families, communities, and our clients.
Finally, as our company continues to grow, we are hiring strategically and taking advantage of video conferencing and virtual tools to recruit, interview, hire, and effectively onboard new Pega team members.
How Pega is supporting clients and partners
To help our clients address the unique challenges they are facing and adapt for future needs, we’ve created a portfolio of 18 industry crisis response solutions. More than just quick fixes, these solutions are designed to deliver high-impact results right now plus support sustained digital transformation initiatives that will help clients build stronger businesses for the long-term. And we are helping our clients in record time.
Inspired by our healthcare client needs, we built the COVID-19 Employee Safety and Business Continuity Tracker application to help track and manage the health, safety, and availability of an organization’s workforce – it is available at no cost to all Pega clients in any industry.
Our Crisis Small Business Lending reference application is designed to help financial services enterprises automate and expedite work for loan applications and customer service requests. The app can be configured in just days, comes with pre-built templates that reflect new U.S. and U.K. crisis loan guidelines, and can easily be customized to orchestrate crisis loan programs for other countries.
And in the government sector, we worked with partner T-Systems to develop and roll out an application for the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs that digitizes and automates the intake and processing of economic assistance requests. Designed and implemented in just five days, the application helps provide faster relief to self-employed workers, farmers, and small to medium-sized companies affected by COVID-19.
Our consulting and services partners are important to us, which is why we are also offering our COVID-19 Employee Safety and Business Continuity Tracker app to partners at no cost. And to support developer needs during a time when most are working remotely, we’re converting all Pega Academy classroom training to a virtual classroom model and are providing all certification exams online.
How Pega is supporting initiatives around the world
Every year, Pega employees individually and as a team dedicate their time and talents to an impressive number of local and global charitable causes and volunteer projects – and their commitments to helping others continues throughout this pandemic.
For example, employees have been using 3D printers to produce hundreds of protective shields and face masks for local hospitals and at-risk communities. Individuals with sewing skills are also making and donating masks to front-line health care workers and communities in need. Some are arranging free rides or donating food to healthcare workers, while others are scheduling regular virtual story times to give their colleagues with young children a much-needed break.
As a tech company, we were happy to answer the call to provide 50 Wi-Fi-enabled laptops for a temporary COVID-19 healthcare facility at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, which serves post-acute COVID-19 patients and homeless patients who do not require acute hospitalization. And to help in the global fight against the virus, we are making a significant donation to the World Health Organization COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund and matching individual employee contributions to the fund. The funds will be used to support the organization’s efforts to track and understand the spread of the virus; help patients get the care they need; assist frontline workers with essential supplies and information; and accelerate efforts to develop vaccines, tests, and treatments.
Whether through corporate programs or thousands of individual acts of kindness, we’re humbled by and proud of the generosity shown by Pega employees in every corner of the world.
Pega events
Remote work and limited travel will be a reality for the foreseeable future, therefore, we are transforming our in-person conferences to best-in-class virtual events that are free to anyone, easy-to-access online, and can be streamed and replayed from anywhere in the world.
Our flagship conference, PegaWorld iNspire, to be held virtually June 2, 2020, will present powerful keynotes and breakout sessions from some of the world’s most recognizable brands, plus the real-world technology insights and demos that our community has come to expect from Pega. Our flagship event has been completely reimagined to combine the best components of our marquee live event while capitalizing on a new virtual event format. And new this year, founder Alan Trefler will lead a live Q&A session.
Similarly, our Customer Engagement Summits (CES) are also going virtual. Though the pandemic is disrupting life and business as usual, we are proud to be able to provide more opportunities to connect with each other and learn from a distance.
We’re all in this together
These continue to be disruptive times, but the adaptability and resilience of people are amazing. Like our clients, we’re faced with new challenges and are innovating and making smart decisions to adapt to changing circumstances. But most of all, we’re thankful for all the good work being done by people on the front-lines and people at home to flatten the curve. Stay safe, be well, and know that Pega is here to help.
Read Founder and CEO, Alan Trefler’s, insights on the lasting impacts of COVID-19.