As early as December 2019, Bridgewater had been tracking the virus’s spread in China and stood up a cross functional “EPILOGIC” team of researchers and data scientists to better understand the situation.

By late February, we were implementing measures to isolate employees at risk of infection to ensure they could work from home, and in early March we were among the first companies in the region to implement a work-from-home posture. In those early days, the immediate concern was to stem the effect of the virus on our employees and their families.
In addition to delivering unparalleled partnership to our clients, we also looked for ways to ensure our employees, their families, and our broader communities are safe and supported during this time. Those efforts include:

• Enhancing and Adapting our Employee Benefits. We continue to explore ways to further support our community and their evolving needs in the current environment – above and beyond our existing benefits portfolio, which already includes comprehensive medical insurance, unlimited sick days, backup dependent care and So far this includes:
  • Expanded eligible remote work locations,
  • Increased work schedule flexibility,
  • Enhanced support for parents and caregivers, including increased access to backup care, virtual academic support, and other resources,
  • Expanded virtual access to medical providers and medical advisory provider support,
  • Stress management and mental health support, including workshops on mental
• Crafting Inclusion Guidelines. To ensure people feel included and have strong support through this time, we published guidelines for being inclusive during these circumstances. This targeted summary of common issues we’ve seen and practical tips for addressing them gives guidance for how to react with care, how to handle to shifting team dynamics, and how to avoid assumptions regarding other people’s circumstances and
• Supporting our surrounding community. Our employees mobilized to help our broader community: With no more on-site events, our catering staff pivoted its operations to prepare and deliver meals to a local shelter – donating over 7,000 meals to date. Our transportation team who would normally be shuttling employees between campuses ran a food and supplies drive, picking up donations from employees’ homes. Learning that schools would move to remote instruction, our technology team found over 700 used iPads in our inventory to donate to the local school district. Head of Corporate Engagement Robyn Shepherd announced a new program matching employee donations’ 1:1 to two local relief
• Sharing our Research on the current paradigm and how to navigate it. Bridgewater’s Investment Research, Client Service, and COVID research teams continue to collaborate to be able to effectively partner with and serve clients during this time. You can explore some of this work here.

Our internal analysis shows a combination of our benefits (like unlimited sick days) along with our ability to snap into a full work-from-home model were the key drivers in ensuring zero community spread among employees, enabling us to continue to serve our clients and be there for employees during this unprecedented time. Today, we continue to evolve our response as needed so that we can focus on our business, serve our clients, and protect our families and one another.