Pandora combats COVID-19 threats with workforce safety solution

A global jewelry brand is supporting workplace health and safety across its U.S. operations with cloud-based technology.

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Pandora Jewelry LLC began deploying the Appian Workforce Safety solution to help the company prevent COVID-19 incidents and the closure of its U.S. retail stores and logistics center. With Pandora's Baltimore-based U.S. corporate office in the process of re-opening, the Appian solution is now being used by nearly 2,500 of its employees.

Built on the Appian Low-code Automation Platform, Workforce Safety can be deployed in a matter of hours on the Appian HIPAA-compliant and HiTRUST-certified cloud. The solution provides the digital underpinning for Pandora America's comprehensive COVID-19 strategy, and helps keep employees informed while pandemic guidelines continue to evolve.

The Appian solution enables Pandora store associates to complete a simple self-screening before leaving home, freeing Pandora store managers from the daily task of screening employees. Approved employees receive a mobile pass that the store manager scans when the employee arrives at work. The solution maintains a record of each of these requests, approvals, and denials, as well as COVID-19 incidents, providing compliance and documentation should a coronavirus case arise.

Pandora is utilizing advanced technology to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 in its stores as customers are demonstrating rising levels of apprehension about the safety of brick-and-mortar shopping. According to a consumer study fielded on Aug. 5 by First Insight, 53% of respondents reported that they feel unsafe trying on products in dressing rooms, while 49% feel unsafe trying on shoes and 71% feel unsafe testing beauty products in store.

Fifty-six percent of respondents stated they feel unsafe working with a sales associate, a 30% increase from the previous month.  consumer study fielded on Aug. 5 by First Insight in which 53% of respondents report that they feel unsafe trying on products in dressing rooms, 49% feel unsafe trying on shoes, and 71% feel unsafe testing beauty products in store. Additionally, the survey saw a 25% increase since July 2021 in the number of consumers admitting that they are “very or somewhat worried” about the Coronavirus, from 51% to 64%, the highest one-month jump recorded since March 2020. 

Appian Workforce Safety provides a unified command center to manage an organization's COVID-19 response, with real-time access to track employee check-ins, monitor scenarios across facilities, automate return-to-work authorizations, track vaccinations, and manage company policies and government regulations.

Specific solution capabilities include contact tracing, FDA-authorized COVID-19 testing, vaccination insights, incident case management, symptom and isolation monitoring, visitor and capacity management, aggregate health reporting, and on-site reservations.

"Our top priority is the safety of our employees and customers, especially now as our offices re-open," said Luciano Rodembusch, GM for Pandora North America. "While we've continued to stay close to local authorities and follow CDC guidelines, Appian Workforce Safety has been an integral part of our COVID response strategy. We are confident that using this platform is a practical, simple, and non-invasive way for us to collect the pertinent health and vaccine status information we need to ensure we are equipped with the most reliable data to make the best operational decisions we can."

Pandora designs, manufactures and markets hand-finished jewelry. Pandora jewelry is sold in more than 100 countries on six continents through more than 7,000 points of sale, including around 2,700 concept stores.