Proofpoint Wins Espresa Award for Culture Benefits® Innovation and Excellence

Cybersecurity leader recognized for exceptional human resources leadership during COVID-19 pandemic

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Sep 29, 2020, 09:07 ET

PALO ALTO, Calif., Sept. 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Espresa, Inc. announced the Culture Benefits® Award for Innovation and Excellence to Proofpoint, Inc. (NASDAQ: PFPT), a leading cybersecurity company, for its proactive and extraordinary human resources strategy during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

With the onset of COVID-19, companies are grappling to keep workplace cultures intact. As shelter-in-place rules have become necessarily pervasive, Proofpoint's human resources organization has shown significant leadership by proactively addressing the challenges facing employees and their families. Using the Espresa employee engagement platform, Proofpoint quickly expanded programs to meet the moment for their U.S. and global employees who were forced to shelter-in-place and work from home.

"Companies worldwide are experiencing challenges never before seen in the workplace," said Sharyl Givens, senior vice president of Human Resources for Proofpoint. "This is an unprecedented time where leaders can make a defining positive impact on the lives of employees. Protecting people is at the heart of Proofpoint's purpose and our award-winning cybersecurity solutions—and our global workforce is the key to that success. We are committed to prioritizing the health and safety of our employees while delivering programs that help keep our business strong and deliver for our customers."

Proofpoint was already leading with well-being, learning and development, and recognition programs in advance of the pandemic. "Proofpoint is an impressive example and true proof that an employee-centric organization, even under the direst of circumstances, can still connect and engage employees at scale," said Alex Shubat, CEO of Espresa. "We are impressed with how quickly their global benefits and employee events team partnered with us to deliver new creative programs, to not only support their employees but their entire families. It says a lot about an organization when they clearly demonstrate culture through action, not just through words on a page or corporate wall."

Espresa had multiple clients in the running for the award and chose Proofpoint based on their world-class proactivity, work-from-home strategy, and engagement analytics over the first three months of the pandemic. As the company continued to pulse and survey employees while scrutinizing the employee usage data, the Proofpoint people team determined how they could most effectively reduce stress on their employees while emphasizing empathy through culture benefits.

"We altered our workplace programs entirely to support shelter-in-place," continued Givens. "Virtual fitness, mindfulness, and mental health were all necessities during this challenging time. We also quickly implemented initiatives that supported our Proofpoint families, and designed programs specifically for kids and to help working parents, such as Zumba, storytelling, sing-a-longs, laughter yoga, STEM camp, and game shows."

Espresa fitness and COVID-19 awareness challenges were also deployed to keep the human connections established in the office, still going while remote working. "We've seen a great deal of momentum with Espresa challenges that go well beyond step counting," continued Shubat. "With leaderboards, points accumulation, and digital badges, challenges can replace tedious tasks in, for example, learning and development and employee onboarding. Employees want to have fun at work, wherever that work is, and whatever the task. That's what the Espresa platform helps to facilitate for HR, and now more than ever, help them do it more successfully with less."

With COVID-19, there is not a fail-safe way to bring people back into the workplace. "That's why we provide workplace well-being to our employees wherever they are," Givens said. "Espresa is an important partner as we continue to develop programs that help us ensure the health, happiness, and safety of our people."

For more information on Espresa's Culture Benefits™ platform, please visit https://www.espresa.com/ and for additional information on Proofpoint's people-centric approach, please visit https://www.proofpoint.com/us/company/careers.

About Espresa, Inc.

Espresa, Inc. is the world's first Culture Benefits® platform offering a modular ecosystem of non-traditional benefits and employee experience programs within a single SaaS and mobile solution that drives consistent employee engagement and happiness at scale. Espresa is a global organization supporting all languages, time zones, and currencies. More information is available at www.espresa.com.

SOURCE Espresa