Solidarity matters

The coronavirus pandemic is a truly global challenge, with countries all over the world in lockdown. Defeating COVID-19, rebuilding, and creating resilience for the future has to be a global project, too.

Resilience comes about when we take on difficulties as a challenge, commit to our goals and the causes we care about, and when we focus on the things that we can control.

Schindler colleagues worldwide have been doing just that since the outbreak of the coronavirus. Fully engaged teams from Switzerland to Spain, and from China to Canada have showed incredible willingness to go above and beyond and help their communities deal with this pandemic.

One recent example comes from the Schindler colleagues in Indonesia. They have helped turn the athletes’ village of the 2018 Asian Games at the Wisma Atlet Kemayoran towers in central Jakarta into an emergency hospital that will be able to treat as many as 22,000 COVID-19 patients. As part of their commitment to quality and delivering the best service, a group of 20 field technicians completed the refurbishment of all equipment in less than four days.

Meanwhile, Schindler colleagues in Spain launched #Schindlersiemprecontigo: the local call center staff has opened phone lines to anyone in need, dealing with topics. Additionally, there are initiatives across the world to collect cash donations and to donate personal protection equipment to the public. The Schindler community has come together with some extraordinary actions.

Moreover, teams across China dedicated themselves as a team to fight against the virus in many ways. Some colleagues donated plasma, while branches ensured normal operations continued to run even in areas with high infection rates, as some branches rotated shifts to provide rapid response time and others performed repairs through the night.

These are just a few examples of many more from across the Schindler family. The world has changed dramatically in recent months, but high engagement and solidarity will help us bounce back!

To give back, Schindler has launched a relief fund for employees to support individual hardship cases related to the COVID-19 pandemic. As an initial contribution, the Executive Committee and Supervisory and Strategy Committee will waive 10% of their fixed salary for six months starting in May 2020. Other senior leaders from around the world can also participate. Each contribution will be matched by the company.

The future is bright. Let’s all do our bit and shape it that way, we can do this.