As we all adapt to this new normal and strive to provide our customers in-store and online best-in-class customer service, the Gap Inc. Health + Safety team have been working to supply our North America stores with top-of-the-line health and safety practices to ensure that we are helping to keep both employees and customers safe. The mission of the Health + Safety team is to codify our headquarters, distribution centers and stores that are visible and inspire confidence while create the conditions to sell to the customer.
One recent example is the evolution of our health check process. At the start of the pandemic, the team began leveraging our robust supply chain relationships and connecting with Gap Inc. providers to find PPE suppliers looking to work with companies like ourselves who wanted to help keep their teams and customers safe. The team noticed early on that digital thermometers would be high in demand, especially as companies reopened to the public, so they made the decisive decision to purchase touchless U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers of Disease and Control approved thermometers. While the world's supply chain was in disarray, they worked diligently to secure several thousand digital thermometers, enabling our distribution centers and store teams to include as part of the health checks at the start of their shifts.
These digital thermometers are now being used in our stores across our family of brands to help our teams verify they are able to work safely during this pandemic. Knowing that our employees’ temperatures are being taken at the beginning of each shift not only shows our staff that we care and gives our customers confidence in shopping at our stores. And, as our health and safety measures have continued to evolve, the team was able to quickly pivot to create a more efficient paperless health and safety check experience for our employees.
This cross-functional team, which includes Employee Relations, Legal, Human Resources, GapTech, PdM, Store Operations, Loss Prevention, and Learning & Development, have been essential to driving our safe retailing practices. They continue to stay connected with the CDC following their guidance as well as benchmarking best practices amongst other retailers to make sure health and safety measures align with what’s keeping our communities safe.
To learn more about how we’re taking care of our teams, customers, and communities, visit our Gap Inc. COVID-19 response page.
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