GOJO is a third-generation Family Enterprise in Ohio with 2,500 team members who are doing everything they can to support public health during this unprecedented pandemic – all while also trying to care for their own families and communities and participate in flattening the curve. Since early January, GOJO has been working around the clock, manufacturing and shipping millions and millions of PURELL® products – which enable billions of handwashing, hand sanitizing, and surface disinfecting moments.
“All of us at GOJO are galvanized to help the world stay healthy during this global public health crisis,” said Marcella Kanfer Rolnick, Executive Chair, GOJO. “And, while we respond, to keeping ourselves safe and healthy. Now more than ever in our 74-year history, the call of our GOJO Purpose – Saving Lives and Making Life Better Through Well-Being Solutions – is challenging us to make and deliver as many of our products as humanly possible to those who need it most. I am proud of our deep collective sense of responsibility to care for our team members making it happen and to contribute to life-saving efforts in our local, national, and global communities.”
“With every new challenge this pandemic brings, GOJO team members are doing what it takes – increasing production, developing new solutions, and working hand in hand with our distributor partners and end-user customers to ensure our PURELL® products get to the hospitals, first responders, and critical infrastructure providers who are on the front lines,” said Carey Jaros, GOJO President, and CEO. “Our 2,500 GOJO team members are remarkable, and both Marcella and I are grateful for and humbled by their tireless effort to get these critical medical supplies to others.”
Caring for GOJO Team Members
GOJO is vigilant in supporting the health, safety, and well-being of its team members. The company has been rapidly adapting ways of working to enable social distancing for those whose duties require work on-site and remote collaboration for all who can do their work from home. Specifically, GOJO is supporting its team members with the following:
- A Supply Chain bonus of an average of $1,000 for team members in manufacturing & distribution
- Additional paid sick time of up to 80 hours
- Employee temperature screenings available at all GOJO locations
- Psychological and financial counselors are available at no cost to team members
- Pandemic Child Care Center assurance for all GOJO employees in applicable geographies
- Aggressive adherence to all Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for team members whose work requires on-site work. For instance:
- GOJO added to already rigorous cleaning protocols the application of PURELL® Professional Surface Disinfecting Spray at each workstation and high-touch points around our facilities.
- GOJO adjusted manufacturing lines to ensure greater distance between team members, staggered breaks and added tables to limit the number of people together in the cafeterias, and placed additional time clocks at key locations to avoid congregating at shift changes.
- Accelerated roll-out of robust digital tools and collaboration technologies to enable our team-based culture to keep moving at full-speed
- The formation of the Goldie Lippman GOJO Team Member Relief Fund, which GOJO established with a $100,000 contribution. The new fund, named after co-founder Goldie Lippman, will be administered to provide financial support to employees faced with an acute need.
Caring for Our Local Community
“Our co-founders Goldie and Jerry Lippman nurtured not only a culture of taking care of each other, but also of giving back to our hometown community. We are compelled to do our part, especially in times of need like what we are experiencing now,” said Kanfer Rolnick.
GOJO and the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank have a long-standing relationship based on deep commitment to the region and shared values. Building on the support that GOJO has provided the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank for decades, GOJO is contributing an additional $200,000 to the foodbank to support the immediate hiring of employees to get food out the door since many essential volunteers are furloughed at this time, and to also help expand their infrastructure to offer hunger relief to our neighbors in need now and into the future. GOJO will also continue to provide the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank with GOJO hand soap that they then package and offer alongside their food distribution.
Caring for Our World
As a global company with employees and customers across the U.S. and around the world and a steadfast commitment to science-based advances in public health, GOJO has supported like-minded organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S.-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for years. To date, our focus has been on raising awareness and increasing education on the importance of hand hygiene. Now, we are joining them in their work to fight the coronavirus pandemic. GOJO is contributing $50,000 to the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for WHO to support their efforts to prevent, detect, and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Likewise, GOJO is contributing $50,000 to the CDC Foundation Emergency Response Fund to provide additional support for state and local health departments, support for the global response, logistics, communications, data management, personal protective.
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