WPP Raises more than $1.3 million for Ukraine Disaster Relief

Employees Come to the Aid of Displaced Ukrainians through Organizational Crisis Planning and a Culture of Care

As the first wave of refugees fled from the advancing Russian invasion of Ukraine, people worldwide watched on with a sense of helplessness. Employees of WPP, the world’s largest communications agency group, were positioned to begin making a difference almost immediately. With more than one hundred thousand employees in more than one hundred countries, their impact was substantial.

When WPP offered to match employee donations to the UN Refugee Agency to support displaced Ukrainians, WPP staff contributed more than $670,000 out of their own pockets in February and March. With the promised matching funds from WPP, the total contribution of $1.3 million to UNHCR helped provide emergency shelter and relief items such as blankets, emergency payments, and community support. Some of this may have gone to more than 200 WPP employees in Ukraine, but all of it came from the hearts of WPP staff.

Stephen C. McGarry, SCRP, Director, Global Mobility for WPP recognized this spirit of generosity as characteristic of the culture of WPP. Taking nothing away from the personal initiative of those staff, McGarry sees this collective generosity as an expression of the organizational value where employees take care of one another. But organizations must create systems and programs if they hope to be effective. It is these systems through which intentions of staff and the culture of the organization are reified and reinforced. With WPP, the response to the Ukraine crisis started with the crisis response programs already in place.

Prior to the invasion, WPP had 204 employees in Ukraine. In the days immediately before the invasion, the company asked if any of these employees wanted to relocate. “Up until the Russians crossed the border, most people did not believe there would actually be an invasion,” says McGarrey. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, still hopeful of a peaceful outcome just two days prior to the invasion, publicly signaled that “a broad escalation on the part of Russia would not happen.” Just two of WPP’s 204 employees decided to leave before the invasion.

On February 24, WPP crisis response teams initiated action plans prepared for anytime employees are in danger. “Getting aid to them as quickly as possible, finding out what they need, securing medical attention,” McGarrey describes the priorities, “really, anything they need to survive and get to safety.”

The company was remarkably successful with the initial evacuation, greatly aided by communications networks that were slowed but never lost with their employees. Many elements of the plan were followed to the letter, with tactical details providing resources and extraction plans. Many others were unique to this specific crisis and again reflected the organization’s culture.

“As people were fleeing Ukraine,” McCarrey recalls, “we had senior leadership from bordering countries standing at the border stations holding up signs that said “WPP.” They would these WPP employees and bring them to a space of safety.”

WPP had not fully re-opened local offices closed by the pandemic and used that empty office space in the border countries as staging areas. Local employees brought in food and toiletries and whatever families needed until they could secure residential shelter. In some cases those same local employees would help people transit to their next destination.

The company is actively assisting employees in the United Kingdom who have signed up for the Homes for Ukraine program. WPP serves as a matching agent, pairing up WPP employees needing a place to relocate to with employees in the UK who have volunteered living quarters. The company continues to pay and provide benefits to all employees displaced by the crisis.

WPP set up language learning for employees headed to destinations where they didn’t speak the language. Vendors were selected that to offered full immersion programs geared for adults and more game-oriented learning for children.

“We greatly expanded employee assistance programs (EAP) for employees and family members from Ukraine as well as those in bordering countries,” says McGarrey. “Many employees and their families in bordering countries are under tremendous stress and dealing with uncertainty and upheaval.” As the number of Ukrainian refugees in Poland alone reaches 3 million, one in five people in Warsaw is a refugee. Those arriving are increasingly older, poorer, and more traumatized. The impact on the lives of Polish citizens in particular has been profound.

“The crisis response plan worked very well,” says McGarrey. “Our crisis response team stepped up and did exactly what they were supposed to do. The company says that their talent is the most important resource they have, and here they were demonstrating it. WPP takes care of its employees. We’re not going to let our employees suffer. We’re going to help them any way we can and do everything we can to ensure employees’ safety, says McGarry. “It makes you proud to work at a company like this, to be a part of it, and to share it with people outside the company.”

As of April 22, three-quarters of WPP employees remain in Ukraine. Males between the ages of 18to 60 who do not have three or more children were not allowed to leave the country after the invasion began. Many civilians have joined the Territorial Defence Force; others often try to continue working their civilian jobs. WPP continues to communicate with them all and continuously assess their needs.

The Work of Mobility

“My direct responsibilities are around compliance,” says McGarry. “Before the European Union put together the temporary protection derivative (TPD), there were a lot of questions about where people could go and how long they could stay there. With the TPD in place everything has gotten easier and refugees are able to stay for one, two, or three years. Members of the European Economic Area (EEA) soon followed, with Sweden, Finland, Iceland, and Switzerland opening their doors,” says McGarry.

The broad welcome was important because WPP employees were looking to a wide range of destinations. “Canada, Australia, the U.S., and Eastern and Western Europe, North Africa and the Middle East,” McGarry ticks off the destinations. “They are going where family is.”

McGarry is still addressing some long-term clarifications for immigration, taxation, and corporate establishment, but many WPP employees from Ukraine are not planning anything long-term at this point. “They want to go back and re-build,” says McGarry. “Our employees want to go home when they can.”

Making a Difference

The Foundation for Workforce Mobility is supporting the excellent work of UNHCR and World Central Kitchen in Ukraine by matching donations up to $30,000. If you are able and so moved to make a contribution to Ukraine Disaster Relief, please take this opportunity to double your contribution to this cause.

• Go to: https://www.worldwideerc.org/foundation
• Click the orange ‘DONATE HERE’ box
• Complete the Foundation donation form with your information.
• Under “This contribution is on behalf of” field, please type: Ukraine Disaster Relief