This is a developing story. It was last updated at 11:50 a.m. on March 17.
There are 181 confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases in Massachusetts, and hundreds more are under quarantine. Travel restrictions have increased, events have been canceled and recent decisions to cancel in-person classes in favor of online alternatives at Amherst College, Harvard University and many other local schools have raised further concerns.
Companies that sell remote work tools are experiencing sales increases up to 41 percent as more companies are requiring employees to work from home. Meanwhile, local tech companies have had to make difficult decisions in order to protect employees from exposure.
Here's what some local startups are doing in the midst of growing public health concerns surrounding coronavirus.
If your company has specific COVID-19-related policies, let me know at jmckeon@americaninno.com.
Drafted
CEO Vinayak Ranade of Drafted, a network recruiting platform, sent an email to the startup's 15-person team on Sunday March 1 with a list of guidelines and recommendations for employees. Among the advice, Ranade urged employees to get a flu shot, stay home if feeling sick and be extra vigilant about hygiene. Ranade also recommended reconsidering any travel plans for the next three months, trusting that Drafted employees will use their best judgment in these cases. "Don't panic because of politicized news about the outbreak," Ranade wrote in the email. "The point is for everyone to be cautious to slow down the spread."
Fuze
Cloud communications company Fuze has "strongly recommended" that its employees work from home through the end of March. In a recent statement, Elisa Gilmartin, chief people officer at Fuze, said, "Amid the widespread concern of COVID-19, it’s more important than ever for Boston’s tech companies to take a leadership role in helping to protect not only their employees, but the broader community."
Legit
CEO Matt Osman decided on March 11 to make the local AI startup fully remote in lieu of recent coronavirus concerns. Legit also made the decision to offer its collaborative life sciences platform for free temporarily. The platform enables life science professionals to communicate and collaborate virtually.
Notarize
Notarize, a local company that allows customers to legally notarize documents online, has put a halt on all business travel and is asking employees to bring laptops home every day and think about the implications of potentially closing offices. "I put in explicit language encouraging people to not be in the office if they're especially worried or have vulnerable populations in their homes," Kevin Fanning, talent acquisition manager at Notarize, said in a Twitter DM. Notarize also urged its employees to remember that diversity is a core value of the company, noting that people should be mindful about how they talk about the virus.
Workbar
With nine locations in and around Boston, coworking space Workbar has taken extra precautions around hygiene. In a blog post, the Workbar team wrote that it had added additional and more rigorous cleanings as well as stocked its workspaces with hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes. Workbar employees are required to wash their hands frequently throughout the day and stay home if they feel sick. "We have requested that our members also enforce these same policies with their employees," Workbar CEO Sarah Travers said in an email to BostInno.
Lola.com
Corporate travel startup Lola.com began encouraging its employees to work from home following Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker's recommendation during his state of emergency announcement on Tuesday. "The office is open, but anyone who is able to work from home is encouraged to do so," a spokeswoman wrote in an email.
As a travel company, Lola has also been fielding questions from customers about changing and canceling travel and for general health tips and guidance. New bookings are down by 30 percent, while cancelations are up by 500 percent. Lola has published guidance for customers on its company blog.
Google sent a memo to all of its North America-based employees, including those in its Kendall Square office, recommending they work from home until at least April 10 due to coronavirus, the company confirmed to Business Insider. Google had previously told employees in the San Francisco Bay Area, Dublin and Seattle to work from home.
Spiro.ai
Sales relationship management platform Spiro's CEO told employees to work from home until further notice. "The reasoning was twofold for us," said Kari Hanson, the startup's VP of Marketing. "First, like most startups we have an open office where it's simply too easy to spread an airborne disease. And because we're in Back Bay, the majority of our office commutes via the MBTA." Spiro is trying to emulate office collaboration through Zoom video calls, Slack channels and virtual hangouts so employees can communicate easily with each other as if they were in the office.
Drift
Conversational marketing platform Drift published a blog post on Wednesday regarding its response to COVID-19. The company's employees across Boston, San Francisco, Seattle and Tampa will work from home until further notice. All company travel has been canceled as well. To make up for all of the event cancelations, Drift will be hosting the RevGrowth Virtual Summit in mid-April along with other companies in the SaaS community, giving the attendees the chance to collaborate and exchange ideas without posing a risk to public health.
Bullhorn
Recruiting software company Bullhorn has encouraged its employees to work from home for the rest of this week in light of Baker's state of emergency declaration. The office will remain open for employees who need or want to come in. The startup has also restricted all corporate travel.
Cengage
Edtech and textbook publishing commpany Cengage sent a message to its Boston and North Carolina-based employees encouraging them to prepare to work from home starting March 13 given local guidance in both regions. Both the company's Massachusetts and North Carolina offices will remain open for essential business activities.
RemoteHQ
This Cambridge-based company has opened up its remote collaboration platform for free to all companies affected by COVID-19 until June 1. The platform can be used as a virtual office and workspace to accommodate employees who have to work from home.”
Harvard i-lab
All programming workshops and meetings offered by the i-lab will be held remotely. Those with badge access will still have access, but should only work onsite for essential business purposes. Non-Harvard team members, mentors, volunteers and guests are required to work offsite. The Harvard i-lab will update its coronavirus page with new information as it arises.
meQuilibrium
Boston-based meQuilibrium, a company that offers a "resilience platform" to manage stress for employees, began offering emotional support services for employers and employees navigating the coronavirus pandemic. Among these services is a webinar designed to teach individuals about emotion regulation, empathy and how to remain calm and positive in an uncertain time.
Wayfair
Employees working in Boston, Berlin and London were asked to work from home for a two-week period starting on March 16. "We are in an unprecedented situation and we believe it is critical that we do our part to help reduce community transmission in these large metropolitan areas," John Costello, corporate communications manager at Wayfair, said in a statement to employees. Wayfair has since enacted an emergency paid time off policy speicfically relating to COVID-19, providing up to 80 hours of emergency paid time off for any U.S. employee who is showing symptoms or who is asked to stay home in quarantine due to exposure.
Neurable
The neurotechnology company canceled all business travel to CDC levels two and three countries and is encouraging employees to work from home for two weeks if they have recently traveled to a high-risk location. Neurable also encouraged employees to prepare a one-month disaster kit and is preparing laptops in case working from home is necessary. The company has also outlined some "trigger points," determining what policies would be enacted if there is a government quarantine in a major East Coast city, or if cases in Massachusetts spread significantly.
Neurala
Boston-based AI company Neurala published a blog post and instituted a work-from-home policy effective March 12. The company also said that if the state asks for assistance from those with medical training, Neurala employees with appropriate training are encouraged to contribute, with no adverse effects to pay or time off.
Kyruus
Kyruus, a company that provides a physician search and scheduling platform, has instituted a full work from home policies for its employees. Kyruus is also providing a monthly stipend and monitors so people can get the materials they need to work from home. New employee on-boarding and interviews will all be done remotely.
Sense
Sense, a Cambridge-based startup that uses machine learning to provide real-time analytics on energy consumption in homes, told its employees that they are strongly advised to work from home if they can do so productively. The company's Central Square office will remain open, and free parking spaces will be available to those who are still working in the office so employees do not have to use public transportation.
Associate editor Rowan Walrath contributed to this report.
Disclosure: Walrath worked at Cengage in 2015 and 2016 in the company's National Geographic Learning division.
