Super Storm Sandy affected Port Washington residents and businesses alike, and those who could helped their neighbors, friends and colleagues.
. was no different. The Port Washington company offered support to employees coping without electricity and also damage to their homes.
“Our office never lost power, and so we decided to let our cafeteria stay open later and provide hot dinners for our employees to bring home,” said NPD’s Chief Marketing Officer Susan Pechman. “Additionally, we opened up the office on the weekends with the cafeteria providing three meals for the first Saturday and Sunday after the storm. We also invited employees and their families to sleep in the office if they needed a warm place. We converted one of our large conference rooms into a fun room with videogames and movies for the children.”
Like other companies, especially those with a global presence, NPD has in the past lent support during times of crisis, including Sept. 11, Hurricane Katrina, the Southeast Asian tsunami, the Haiti earthquake, and the Japanese earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power disasters. So when Sandy hit Long Island, the company launched a special NPD fund to help, Pechman said.
“NPD started the fund with a generous donation [a $25,000 contribution] and will also match every employee’s contribution on a one-for-one basis,” Pechman said. “The fund will be used to help NPD employees and storm-related charities.”
And while Pechman noted that NPD has “all kinds of disaster recovery plans” related to its various business and data operations, the company was able to address its staff needs, unique to Sandy.
“We responded very quickly,” Pechman said. “During the couple of days the Port Washington office was closed, we used that time to determine how we would support our employees.”
