HR in War“We see many acts of genuine care between all our team members on a personal level”
HR in War
“We see many acts of genuine care between all our team members on a personal level”
EverC has experienced an outpour of support since the war started
“[One challenge is the] repurposing and utilization of our teams,” explained Ayelet Ribak Lehmann, VP of Global HR at EverC. “EverC is committed to meeting all its business commitments, there is a need to make sure we keep focus and our eye on the ball. We know that due to the situation, we might face some delays and therefore the biggest challenge is to ensure the correct focus and utilization of our teams.”
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.
According to Lehmann, a second challenge is “quickly adapting to the changes that are imposed on us due to the war. Managing change comes with many challenges. To ensure EverC’s operational consistency we have reviewed in depth the structure of our organization, and discussed different scenarios and what will be the mitigations under those.”
Company name: EverC
Your name and title: Ayelet Ribak Lehmann, VP of Global HR
Names of founders and upper management: Ariel Tiger, CEO
Field of activity: Fintech
Number of employees: 160
Office location: Tel Aviv and New York
On a scale of 1-10, how much did the war disrupt operations at the company?
Three. EverC is a global company with distributed teams. This structure has already enabled the organization to maintain its ongoing operations despite the situation. As soon as the gravity and magnitude of the situation began to unfold, we started to update and roll out operating cadences to increase alignment between teams and enable us to prioritize our efforts more effectively, thus enabling us to pivot as our employees were being drafted while continuing to deliver on time to our customers.
What consequences have you experienced from these disruptions?
One of the major consequences is trying to maintain a routine of mitigating and minimizing the impact on our planning while taking into account our employees. We have executives and directors stepping in to manage different areas in the organizations to support our managers who have been drafted. We are all working together to find the balance between maintaining the business routine and being empathetic to individual needs during this sensitive time.
We have also established more frequent cadences of communication. Our employees’ safety and emotional well-being are our top priority. We make sure to touch base with all our team members and understand how they feel and what their challenges are. All of our managers and the HR team are conducting frequent personal check-ins to make sure and identify any issues or concerns that may arise.
What are the two major challenges you are coping with these days?
- Repurposing and utilization of our teams: As EverC is committed to meeting all its business commitments, there is a need to make sure we keep focus and our eye on the ball. We know that due to the situation, we might face some delays and therefore the biggest challenge is to ensure the correct focus and utilization of our teams. We are in a constantly evolving and changing workflow, balancing our business and our employees' bandwidth.
- Quickly adapting to the changes that are imposed on us due to the war. Managing change comes with many challenges. To ensure EverC’s operational consistency we have reviewed in depth the structure of our organization, and discussed different scenarios and what will be the mitigations under those. Our EverC employees globally continue to be strongly engaged with our purpose and mission. In addition, we see many acts of genuine care between all our team members on a personal level. This is a source of power and gives a sense of unity that makes us so much stronger in this situation.
What support do you provide to employees?
We understand that we need to be agile and quickly adapt to the needs of our teams. As the situation unfolds and progresses, we realize that we will need to adjust the support we provide to our employees. We believe that empathetic leadership and implementing a new adaptive work routine will become an anchor for our employees in the short and mid-term. To that end, we have implemented the following:
- Enabled employees to work completely remotely or partly at the office to create a flexible work schedule. We believe that giving the employees the possibility to choose at this point of uncertainty is the empathetic path to take.
- We created a support network via the HR team and the senior managers to support team members, especially those that need extra support such as employees whose spouses have been drafted. Created an additional support network of the HR team and other managers for the families of those who have been drafted.
- Arranged a virtual session with an experienced Parent Mediator.
- Moved our physical on-site workout sessions to Zoom to enable the team members and their loved ones to take a break and care for their body and mind.
- Enabled employees to move overseas and continue to work from any location.
- Volunteering - arrange for and enable employees to volunteer together, giving a sense of unitedness and purpose.
- As a global team, we also conducted separate discussions with our remote employees.
Do you have employees with foreign citizenship who asked to work from another country? If so, has movement been requested/approved?
Yes, we have employees with foreign citizenship and we approved all requests of employees who wished to leave the country at this time. When a team member is stressed, it impacts their mental state and well-being as well as affecting their productivity. As such, we approved all requests of employees who asked to work remotely and travel to a different country to do so.
How do you communicate the situation to customers? Do you see hostility or support?
At EverC we value our customers and their trust. We proactively sent a communication to our customers, reinforcing our commitment to them and ensuring and specifying the steps that we have taken to ensure business continuity.
Our global structure with distributed teams enables us to maintain and ensure ongoing business activities.
Overall we have not seen any hostility. On the contrary, we have received strong support and concern for our team members.
In the event employees feel they encounter hostility, how do you guide them to respond to the situation?
These are challenging times and we cannot foresee all scenarios.
Although we haven’t faced any hostility, in case our employees encounter any form of it due to the situation in Israel and the Israeli identity of our company, we will continue to follow our business ethics and stay professional, and committed to maintaining a positive customer experience.
The important guideline in such a case is to stay focused on delivering our product and service, and to acknowledge, however hard it is, that there are other opinions and avoid getting into a personal discussion. The coaching to our employees goes further than how to respond to such a situation, it will be also the support given after.
Startups only: How do you communicate the situation to investors, and how are they reacting?
EverC has strong relationships with our investors. We communicated our tactical measures to ensure our business scale and growth. We are diligently working to ensure that EverC continues to be well-positioned to weather geopolitical fluctuations and seize opportunities when they arise. We are receiving strong support from our investors. As they understand the situation they are offering help through different channels within the community of their portfolio companies and other unique programs to help mitigate the operational challenges.
