As the tech community continues to reel from the effects of social distancing due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, Atlanta-based meeting scheduling software company Calendly will offer integrations with Zoom and GoToMeeting free of charge through June 30th.
The company made the decision to offer these previously Premier Tier options to help remote workers manage their schedules during the crisis. The company will continue to offer customers the option to use Google Hangouts/Meet for free as well.
Calendly also plans to provide free premium plan access to researchers and teams helping to lessen the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.
“This is the best way we know to help remote workers and do our part as a company,” Calendly founder and CEO Tope Awotona said in a statement.
Calendly’s 100-person office went fully remote on March 13th. When the state of Georgia announced its first COVID-19 cases on March 2, the company’s human resources department began to encourage workers to use their flexible remote work options, as well as unlimited sick leave and PTO policies as employees and managers felt necessary.
Calendly also pulled together a task force comprising product, engineering, marketing, customer, and sales team members to help the company implement this initiative efficiently.
Although team members adjusted fairly quickly due to their familiarity with the realities of remote work, the company also instituted video conferencing and “drive-by” coffee chats via Slack channel for employees to foster connectivity.
“We hope this gesture will make your life just a little easier as we each do our part in these coming weeks,” said Awotona.
Other companies have also stepped up to offer video conferencing tools to organizations in need.
Zoom CEO Eric Yuan will allow all K-12 schools in the U.S. to sign up for the service free of charge. In Atlanta, Mailchimp has announced a plan to offer free Standard Mailchimp accounts to local governments, schools, healthcare providers, nonprofits, and other organizations helping to disseminate information about COVID-19 through June.
“It’s kind of a cool communal thing in the tech industry to see everyone realizing that this is bigger than any of us,” Calendly Head of Marketing Ty Collins tells Hype.
“This is impacting everyone across the world, and we’re all depending on each other to help us connect through the quarantine.”
