UK 
United States
Whilst business leaders across the UK are currently deep in conversation on the next steps through the coronavirus outbreak, many large-scale operations have already made their divisive positions clear and made all staff aware that remote working is the way that they plan on mitigating the spread of the pandemic.
Both Ford and General Motors acted quickly after the government announced plans for businesses to restrict gatherings and travel, and confirmed to staff in a company-wide memo that remote working would be implemented in all office-based departments, whilst Unilever, Twitter and Deustchebank implored all staff outside of China to do the same.
“Stay safe, stay well, and take care,” signed off Alan Jope, Chief Executive of Unilever, in an email to staff, as reported by the Financial Times. The Royal Bank of Scotland also recently advised office staff to stay away from the office from next week, including at its headquarters in Edinburgh, “where it is practical to do so”.
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“By doing this, we’re looking to greatly reduce the number of people in our office locations, which will, in turn, limit the potential spread of infection and reduce the risk for those who need to work in our offices,” the bank stated.
On Friday, professional services giant KPMG sent all 8,000 office-based staff home from its offices in Bristol to troubleshoot its remote working capabilities and banned all meetings involving more than 25 people – opting instead for digitised versions.
