Ford Motor Co. launched a massive health safety campaign on Thursday in response to the coronavirus pandemic, an effort that includes a COVID-19 contract with Ford employees and their families.
“We understand the importance of caring for ourselves and others, and will commit to establish safe practices that will protect all of us against the spread of COVID-19,” says the first line of a one-page agreement.
There’s an eight-point list of items to which family members agree, ranging from washing hands for 20 seconds — or twice the singing of the “Happy Birthday” song — and wearing a mask when away from home “even if friends pressure me not to wear a mask.”
There’s a four-point list of items for the parent or guardian in the home that includes engaging in “honest conversations” with family about the pandemic and its impact on the family and outside the home, leading by example and continuing “open dialogue.”
The document ends with the statement: “We have talked about and understand the terms and conditions of this contract and agree to honor them.”
It ends with lines for family member signatures and the date when signed.
Put on the fridge
“This isn’t mandatory. It’s completely voluntary,” Kiersten Robinson, Ford’s chief human resources officer, told the Free Press.
“We are encouraging the conversation — because that’s what’s most important. How you continue to educate yourself around what’s going on, how to stay healthy at home and, importantly, engage your family in those conversations. Each family will make a decision that’s right for them.”
She continued, “We want to reinforce, though, the measures that have worked really well at Ford to keep our employees safe and protected will also do the same thing at home. So it’s an opportunity for employees to share what those measures are with their kids and with their loved ones and talk about how they can use those at home. And decide what will make the most sense for them.”
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The contract, referred to as a Family Pledge, is something for mommy or daddy to hang on the refrigerator, not submit to their employer. It will be available for employees to download online.
“We invested a lot of time and careful planning in the creation of our return-to-work playbook and our protocol,” Robinson said.
“What we’ve heard from our employees, as well as our UAW partners, is that the discipline and rigor that employees were experiencing in the workplace gave them a sense of comfort. And it’s clearly working. But is there more that we can do to help employees outside of the workplace? We really wanted to look at, how do we apply the lessons learned and those disciplines and engage employees and also their families in how to make sure we’re being safe both in the workplace and outside of the workplace.”
Ford says this letter is designed to be a helpful reminder of good habits and the importance of disciplined behavior as tens of thousands of its 85,000 U.S. workers continue to work from home.
Off-site exposure to the virus risks the safety of office and factory workers, too.
No one is required to submit a signed contract to the company, but engaging with the contract is strongly encouraged and posting the contract on social networks is valued.
“We’re encouraging employees to post, so we’ve got a well-being app that we use through social media,” Robinson said. “We’re encouraging them to kind of share their declaration, their commitment and use that in a viral way so that it reinforces the importance of these safety protocols.”
This effort was developed in collaboration with the UAW and based on a similar campaign related to driver safety.
Internally, the new program is called Hero@Home. It will also include banners throughout Ford buildings that remind workers their conduct outside of work affects manufacturing and non-manufacturing coworkers.
The UAW was a “great” partner in developing this project, Robinson said.
“When you go home and you talk about what you do at work, that’s one level. But when you sit down and talk about what you do, and safety measures that you’re taking to keep yourselves safe in the workplace, and they also apply at home and we can do them together, you have a much higher success rate. It’s also a way to engage family members in adopting the same practices.”
The positive response to creating guidelines and working with employees on strategies during this stressful time has motivated Ford to soon launch the campaign to its workforce globally, reaching an estimated 188,000 employees.
Focusing on physical health as well as mental and emotional health of its workers is essential, Robinson said. “We’ve learned the connection with family and loved ones is one of the most powerful enablers in supporting employees’ well-being in both their personal and professional lives.”
Feedback led Ford executives to quickly conclude “there was a real opportunity to remind, educate and reinforce” coronavirus protocols and engage families.
22,000 workers want to stay home
At Ford, workers have been granted permission to work remotely until at least January 2021, for those workers whose jobs allow off-site work.
A North American survey by Ford in June indicated nearly 75% of the company’s 30,000 remote workers prefer to continue to work off site, 24% favor a hybrid approach and 3% prefer to work on site.
More than 100,000 employees at Ford worldwide who hold jobs that require working on site have returned to plants, product testing locations and other facilities, including more than 12,000 non-manufacturing employees in North America, Ford said.
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Ford isn’t alone
Companies large and small all over the U.S. and internationally are doing their best to navigate remote work and safety protocols, according to the Society for Human Resource Management, a nonprofit group that provides direction to companies globally.
An estimated 54% of employers are offering additional pandemic-related education or training while 24% are thinking of offering it, said Amber Clayton, director of the Knowledge Center for the respected organization.
“Companies have a lot more questions about telework this year than previously,” she said. “They’re trying to work with employees and figure out their needs. We’re providing guidance and resources. We get an average of 55,000 inquiries a year and this year we’ll likely hit nearly 70,000.”
The organization noted a survey in May of its global membership that revealed:
- 52% of companies with more than 500 employees do not have a return date
- 10% of companies are allowing employees to choose work location
- 73% of large companies are offering greater work from home policies
- 29% of companies will allow people to work from home through 2020
‘Pushback’
Melissa Whitson, a licensed psychologist and associate professor at the University of New Haven, said taking a whole-family approach to educational campaigns can be helpful, especially since the company is clear there are no repercussions for noncompliance.
“They’re saying, ‘Even though you’re not in the office, we want everyone to take care of each other and other people,’ ” she said. “Coming from that viewpoint, I think it’s positive. But it’s a sensitive area. You’re definitely going to have some pushback.”
Whitson emphasized, “This could be a very good thing, increasing the sense of community among Ford employees, that they’re all in this together even when they’re not in the office.”
Contact Phoebe Wall Howard at 313-222-6512 orphoward@freepress.com.Follow her on Twitter@phoebesaid. Read more on Ford and sign up for our autos newsletter.