Background information

Luminus is an Energy provider in Belgium with approximately 2,000 employees. They are active in the production and selling of gas and electricity as well as installing solar panels, HVAC systems and electrical installations. At the beginning of February the company undertook several measures in order to make working under COVID-19 and lockdown conditions easier and maintain continuity.

Content of measure

At the end of February a crisis management team was established by the HR services at Luminus, including a range of other department within the company. The company was able to anticipate the crisis more than most other companies, as they have affiliates in both China and Italy.

Within the HR department a specific group of people was dedicated solely to crisis management on a day to day basis. This lead to other departments as well as HR being able to continue their day to day work. Things like recruitment or assessments all continued (albeit digitally).

Some elements remained at the level of the local branches, especially in cases with significant amounts of temporary unemployment.

The centralised HR services cooperated with the communication services to send out daily updates to all employees. In addition there were general virtual meetings with 100-200 attendees. In these meetings there was room for questions as well. The HR professionals deemed these virtual meetings to be more efficient than their traditional variant, which often were running behind the facts due to logistical problems.

In addition the HR departments randomly called 100 employees to query them about their worries/problems/opinion about the crisis and the way in which the company managed the situation.

Use of measure

The entire company (approximately 2,000 employees nationwide).

Contents

• Health and safety
• Telework
• Work organisation

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Employees in standard employment	Does not apply to businesses	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
Company / Companies	Employer

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Unknown	Unknown
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Unknown
• Main level of involvement: Company level

Involvement

It is unknown (not mentioned) what the involvement of the social partners was. However trade unions have an important role in the H&S committees within the company.

Views and reactions

No public views or statements released.

Sectors and occupations

This case is not occupation-specific.

Sources

• 01 July 2021: HR Square edition 199 (www.hrsquare.be)