In Covid-19, Intuit Israel asks: “how can we preserve and develop our culture?”

Due to the pandemic, companies like Intuit Israel still cannot interact the way they used to, be it in the offices or in their spare time. This poses a challenge for some of the 50 new employees the company has welcomed in the past 11 months.

Gene Golovinsky, General Manager of Intuit Israel and VP Security R&D. Photo: Eyal Marilus

Our top priority is protecting the health and safety of our employees while attending to the needs of our 50 million customers worldwide. We were already pretty digitized in our employee management and recruitment processes pre-Covid. Intuit has a unique recruitment and candidate management process called A4A (Assessing-for-Awesome). Our A4A process includes four key elements, including: Assessors with diverse backgrounds and departments to ensure we avoid groupthink; Key skills and values, where we review candidate suitability for the team and organization; Craft demo, where candidates demonstrate their skills; and immediate decisions, which ensure feedback and closure for candidates.

Before the pandemic, the process included inviting candidates to our site. That way, they could experience our culture and unique office first-hand and immerse themselves into our teams' environment. Inevitably, we had to adapt our A4A process to Zoom. Sometimes it’s even easier as we always like to have at least one global member in these meetings and this way everyone is on Zoom and not only the candidate or the panelist. Creating the same experience is not merely possible, but we are trying. We send candidates who sign on a small welcome gift home. Other little things that help are Zoom backgrounds demonstrating photos of our site, as well as virtual office tours that exhibit special spaces (such as our music room, quiet corners, creative art featured, and so on).

• Days off: We immediately provided an additional 10 paid days off to help take care of family members during Covid-19.
  

• Recharge days: We provided six Recharge Days. This was a true game-changer as it allowed everyone to disconnect and be present in their home-life.
• Work from home benefits: We did everything we could to make our employees’ home environment as productive as possible. We provided them with a spend amount for everything they needed from elevating desks, chairs, and other peripheral equipment. We reimbursed WiFi expenses and continued the monthly 10bis (meal plan card) and travel expenses. We also offered generous reimbursement for childcare and home cleaning services.
• Physical and mental health: We introduced a new service enabling remote doctor consultation visits, offered confidential counseling through licensed mental health providers, offered flu shots as part of our bi-annual medical check-ups, arranged for guest speakers to provide health tips suitable exactly for a time such as this (from working out and cooking to dietary and mental health), and hosted fun events for sole entertainment purposes.
• Small business aid: Our employees were beyond proud to participate in an Intuit financed GoFundMe for an initiative to help small businesses raise money and overcome the challenges caused by Covid-19. This was, of course, a global effort but this specific initiative raised morale and spirits also among our local employees, as they got to play an instrumental part in supporting our own nation. Our employees were proud to take action with Intuit's promise to double the sum raised by them, which resulted in a substantial amount donated to small local businesses and Magen David Adom, Israel's national emergency medical, disaster, ambulance, and blood bank service.
• Supported internal resource groups: Offered a beginner’s course for spoken Arabic in collaboration with the Madrasa organization, where participants took part in a unique opportunity to acquire skills and have great fun while they’re at it.