Ushering in the era of virtual League: our all-new #LeagueLife

When we shut our physical doors, we began planning for when we could safely return to the office and get back to our normal in-person, in-office routines. We quickly realized that it may never happen, and that the definition of normal is no longer static or predictable. Until social distancing is no longer required (because there’s a vaccine, or herd immunity) elevators are a pinch point, and we won’t be able to get more than 20% of our people in the office. As a company whose mission is to empower people with their health, our top priority is the health of our employees and their loved ones. So our doors will remain shut until July or until we can guarantee the safety and health of our people. We’ll rely on public health guidance and data to make our decisions. 

When the pandemic first hit, we responded quickly to execute our standard processes virtually. We relied more heavily on collaborative tools like Slack, Zoom, Figma and G Suite to keep our teams nimble and productive. But we must evolve in even more ways to make sure our people and our business can stay healthy, productive and competitive in a COVID-19 world. We must rethink these once-standard processes by viewing them through a virtual-first lense.

League is going virtual (and staying that way)

We’re rolling out new projects, initiatives and practices to support a new, sustainable way of work—in ways that work for our people. Our mission hasn’t changed, but how we achieve it has. Our values and our people brand—#LeagueLife—continue to be part of everything we do. 

The biggest evolution is offering our people the option to permanently work from home. Many Leaguers have found that working remotely works best for their lives and we’re here to support it. This also means we can cast a global net to harness the best talent out there. We will be a League whose employees are globally distributed in a virtual work environment. A company whose exceptional performance, strong culture and focus on mission translates beyond physical or geographic work locations. A culture in which all Leaguers are fully engaged even if they’ve never seen the inside of the office, and where all employees have access to the tools and leadership they need to perform their best work no matter where or when they do it.

Virtual work is different for everyone

We want to set up every employee with the tools, schedule and resources they need to deliver their best work. For some, that looks like working a 40-hour week from home. For others, it looks like a 20-hour week split between home and the office. For those in between, we’re setting up an agile and resilient work model that gives everyone the ability to thrive. Here’s how we’re defining the new #LeagueLife:

• Scalable on a global level: We’re no longer letting our talent be confined to geographic locations. This means we’re creating fully remote processes for hiring, onboarding, engagement and offboarding. A centralized and easily-accessible guidebook will encompass all things League: our values, mission, communications, benefits, total rewards, leadership, development and department info.
• Making a “Work Your Way” policy: We’re giving all Leaguers the opportunity to define how they want to work. This includes flexibility in location, schedule and number of working hours. People work best when they can work their way.
• Agile and resilient: We’re going to scale our workforce up or down to meet the changing needs of our business. This could include creating short-term development opportunities for employees on other teams—like an accelerated work placement.

Data first, decisions second: a safe return for all

We can’t say for sure exactly when our doors will open or how we’ll roll out our return, but we can say with absolute certainty that data will lead the way. We’re lucky to have the digital infrastructure in place to deliver robust insights based on our own anonymized population health history, real-time physical and mental health indicators, and location-based public health data. 

It also means we can forecast susceptibility and vulnerability risk levels to continually support the health and safety of all our employees and their loved ones. We will take into account government and legal guidelines but ultimately, we’ll rely on real-time behavioral insights and data analytics to guide our return-to-work policies at the employee-level and site-level. 

It will be gradual. It will be slow. Every move forward will be deliberate, considered, and driven by data. It will be done in a way that puts the health of our people and their families above all else. This has always been the League way, and it will be the Virtual League way, as well.