HR in War“The team spirit of the people in Israel gives me hope and pride.”
HR in War
“The team spirit of the people in Israel gives me hope and pride.”
WalkMe has taken several steps to help its employees process the events of 7/10.
Our country is going through the most horrific times we have ever been through, but I manage to find some optimistic moments,” said Sharon Bernstein, VP of HR at WalkMe. “The team spirit of the people in Israel in general, and at WalkMe specifically, give me hope and pride. HR Managers must listen and sense their employees, hear what they say but even more importantly, what they don't say.”
HR in War is a new series exploring how companies in Israel are adapting in unusual times. At CTech we believe the world should know about the atrocities committed on 7/10 while at the same time highlighting the continued resolve and resistance of the Israeli tech ecosystem.
“Each one of us is taking the situation in a different direction, and I do encourage HRs and Managers to aim for a routine, to motivate people to work. It helps the person, it helps the company, and it helps the Israeli economy,” she added. “May we have quiet days soon.”
Company name: WalkMe
Your name and title: Sharon Bernstein, VP HR
Names of founders and upper management: Dan Adika, CEO & Co-Founder
Field of activity: DAP - Digital Adoption Platform
Number of employees: ~900
Office location: Tel Aviv
On a scale of 1-10, how much did the war disrupt operations at the company?
Four. WalkMe is a global company with headquarters in Tel Aviv; currently, around 35% of WalkMe employees are based in Israel. The attacks of October 7 have impacted our Israeli-based employees as well as our colleagues around the world who are grieving with us and wishing us safety. But the bottom line, the employees at Walkme are doing their best to keep the routine of work.
We are committed to our customers, partners, and shareholders, and we are continuing to drive the business forward through our contingency plans. Having said that, we have ~10% of our Israeli headcount in reserve duty, and some employees have spouses in duty, leaving the care of the household and kids to one parent who is also juggling work. And for employees who weren’t called up or don’t have a spouse who was, those employees are helping in other ways, including creating opportunities for WalkMe and its employees to donate money and supplies to the victims while many others are involved in volunteering missions to support their community.
What consequences have you experienced from these disruptions?
As a matter of fact, we are handling the disruptions by allocating headcount from one department to the other, per need, and skill set. Also, per our contingency plan, our global teams are supporting us as we collaborate to achieve our goals.
We did, though, re-prioritize some of the projects that were less urgent, so we can focus on the “must be done” and the volunteering.
What are the two major challenges you are coping with these days?
As HR, we are trying to support our employees with their challenges and obviously, these times are bringing massive challenges that we do not face on a daily basis, such as mental health, and horrible stories of friends and families. Unfortunately, we don’t always have solutions, but being there to listen, being there to help with small gestures, and hearing words of support from our colleagues around the globe gives us a lot of hope and strength.
The second major challenge that we are not only coping with as a company – but as a people in Israel – is abhorrent rhetoric from those who are uninformed, hateful, or both. This is why correspondence with our employees and managers outside of Israel has been so important. The more we process what happened to us as a country, the more we understand how much we need to shout it out to the world. Even our closest teammates need to get our stories over and over again for two main reasons: First, to understand that we’re not OK, and we can’t deliver at work as we used to; and second, to be our ambassadors out there.
What support do you provide to employees?
- Immediately after the attacks, we opened a Tel Aviv WhatsApp group that allows us to share feelings and thoughts as well as (and this is its main focus) to coordinate equipment deliveries to our employees and friends in the army and for citizens that lost their loved ones and their homes. This group seems to give a lot of hope, strength, and pride even to those who are not active there. Seeing the goodwill and spirit simply brought all of us at WalkMe, to understand that we have amazing people among us, generous, kind, and caring.
- We helped employees find temporary houses until their homes are safe again. We also help individually, with special requests that are coming in from our employees.
- We donated and collected donations globally to help with equipment for our employees in the army.
- We provide all employees with a mental health service and shared a brochure with contact details as well as some guidance for our mental situation.
- HR is checking in with our employees and sometimes their spouses to make sure we have everyone around, safe and functioning.
- Memory Book - we opened in the office a memory corner where employees can write down their feelings, and share personal stories and thoughts.
- We curated some guidelines and information on our knowledge base portal, to educate our employees all over the world about the current situation in Israel, and provided them with tools for how to approach the Israeli colleagues these days.
Do you have employees with foreign citizenship who asked to work from another country? If so, has movement been requested/approved?
Yes, we do and we allowed the employees who asked to fly out, to do that. We want them to feel safe and we support their needs as they continue their day-to-day responsibilities with WalkMe.
How do you communicate the situation to customers? Do you see hostility or support?
Business continuity is crucial, and to communicate this to our customers, our CEO Dan Adika sent a message to all customers two days after the attack. We also published this message as a blog in the event some of our customers missed this message, as it confirms our commitment to them. Overall, our customers have been great in that they are supporting us as we are working hard to make them feel that business is usual.
In the event employees feel they encounter hostility, how do you guide them to respond to the situation?
We encourage our employees to reach out to their managers and HRs with any type of challenge they face. Our employees are engaged with the company and the situation. We have an unbelievable volunteering spirit as well as help with spreading the truth on social media.
