As we navigate through the societal impacts of COVID-19, I’d like to share how we’re proactively working to keep our teammates and members safe through these times of uncertainty. With offices in the Seattle area, we’re located at the epicenter of the domestic outbreak, so we took some proactive steps to avoid transmission while mitigating significant business disruptions.
Last Monday, March 2nd, with 15 confirmed cases in the state of Washington, we made the early decisions to: (a) indefinitely suspend business-sponsored travel; and (b) authorize and encourage working from home for all staff with the exception of our fantastic Baltimore-based fulfillment team (more on that later). Based on the limited amount of information available, we felt this approach allowed the most freedom for our team while properly avoiding unnecessary exposure. Team health and welfare were our number one goals in implementing these strategies.
Hunt A Killer has been a bicoastal company since 2018, so we’re uniquely positioned to implement a work-from-home plan without too many issues. We operate on cloud-based storage drives, collaborate using Slack and Google Hangout, work creatively on platforms like Trello, manage projects on Asana and Jira, sign contracts using DocuSign—the list goes on and on—but the key is that all this software and technology can be accessed anywhere at anytime.
Working remotely can be a challenge when it comes to team communication, so our standard is to ensure that all meetings include video conferencing. I believe that most communication cues between people are non-verbal, and it’s no secret that adding the video component makes meetings more effective.
We’re just over a week into our plan, and are operating at similar near-term effectiveness levels. We’ll continue to observe the long-term implications. Who knows, maybe a remote-based environment is the answer to more than just pandemics?
COVID-19 has also impacted our supply chain. While a majority of Hunt A Killer items are printed and/or manufactured in the United States, a few items inside certain episodes are imported from Hong Kong. Our operations team quickly analyzed inventory on-hand, tracked large inventory buys placed before the Chinese New Year in February, and looked ahead to future forecasts. Where items fell short, and risk of impacts were highest, we vetted redundancies. We now have U.S.-based manufacturers ready to step in, and we’ve already placed orders with North Carolina and California-based manufacturers.
Outside of our remote work initiatives and supplier redundancies, we’re currently thinking through the future impacts to our in-house fulfillment team—which is a blend of part-time and full-time teammates who work incredibly hard to bring our immersive experiences to our customers’ doorsteps each month. Like Microsoft and Amazon, we’re discussing policies that encourage sick teammates to remain at home, while offsetting the financial impacts which will inevitably occur.
While the ultimate impacts of COVID-19 are still unknown, we’re stronger as a team and as a company. We continue to prove that physical presence doesn’t necessarily mean improved productivity, so long as the proper team and supporting structures are in place to facilitate remote-based success.
We will continue to monitor the spread of COVID-19, and evaluate our company policies as circumstances change.
Internal email distributed on March 2nd:
Team,
With the recent COVID-19 developments, I want to take a few minutes to outline the steps we are taking as a company to keep everyone safe and healthy. We have no internal cases, and there is no cause for alarm, but we want to be cautious and proactive in our efforts.
Effective immediately, Work From Home is authorized and encouraged for all teammates who are not in a fulfillment role. We have systems in place to help with remote face-to-face communications (Slack & Google Hangouts) — I encourage everyone to utilize these systems while working from locations of their choosing.
All domestic business travel is suspended until further notice. This will impact some meetings, conferences, and an upcoming Team Building Kits site visit. Please work with your point of contacts to communicate our current policy, and retrieve refunds or travel vouchers if possible.
We’re currently reviewing policies for fulfillment teammates to reduce the potential of transmission during shipping, receiving and manufacturing evolutions. In the meantime, if you are feeling ill or running a fever, please remain at home.
As a reminder, here are some simple steps to help reduce the transmission:
- If you are feeling ill, please stay at home
- Wash your hands frequently
- Cover your mouth when coughing
- Avoid touching your face (and if you must, wash your hands first)
We will continue to monitor the situation closely and respond accordingly.
Thank you
Best,
Ryan Hogan
CEO
Hunt A Killer
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