Putting Employees First During COVID

Without a doubt, this is the decade of Employees First. Like all business dynamics, it makes you wonder how this important contributor to corporate success was so overlooked since employees are the heartbeat of a company. Did CEOs really think that the share price was its heart?

This weekend I read an article in Bloomberg that had the smart idea of looking at what was on company minds when COVID broke compared to now. And yes, most companies were talking about putting employees first and safeguarding employee health and wellbeing one year ago, whether their workforce was predominantly essential workers or not. Plenty of CEOs and senior officers reduced their pay to keep as many employees employed as possible. We are nearly at the one year marker and it is helpful to look back at how companies spoke then and now. That was what Brooke Sutherland did.

What fascinated me in today’s article was journalist Sutherland’s mention about Fastenal, a wide-ranging distributor of industrial and construction products. She covered the company one year ago when the virus was just getting started and wrote about how far ahead they were of most companies, even the government, in preparation. Fastenal saw the smoke signals since they work in Asia and worked fast to get their alternative supply chains in order and protective equipment in stock for its workforce (predominantly essential workers) and customers. They had already experienced a similar disruption due to former President Trump’s trade wars and now they were ready for what was next.

Sutherland mentioned that Fastenal and its CEO Daniel Florness is one of the rare corporations that actually makes time in its earnings calls to talk about how the pandemic has affected its workforce. And the company is not just spouting happy talk since the effects have not been pretty. She wrote: “Through September, there were 344 cases of Covid-19 among Fastenal’s 20,000-plus employees. By the end of the year, that number jumped to 1,118 cumulatively, or about 5% of the workforce.” The company was dead on about the toll the virus has taken on its workforce and although it compares to most companies, they were being honest about the hardships their employees faced.

Have to hand it to Fastenal. Powerful and transparent communications strategy.