April 15, 2023

Putting people at the heart of hybrid work: Zoom to acquire Workvivo to bolster the employee experience offering

The employee communication and engagement platform will give Zoom customers new ways to keep employees informed, engaged, and connected in today’s hybrid work model

Zoom and Workvivo

Zoom announces intent to acquire Workvivo

SAN JOSE, Calif., April 14, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Behind work are workers. Real everyday people. People who work to live, not live to work. People who need a sense of belonging. It’s a simple concept that often gets forgotten as priorities and demands take over the workday.

With workforces looking much different than they did just a few years ago, leaders need to think differently to retain talent and maintain company culture. Today’s workforce is hybrid and distributed – with people working from home, in an office, at a remote location, on the frontlines of a retail floor or warehouse, as a pilot or flight attendant in an airplane, a nurse in a healthcare clinic, or anything in between. In fact, 70% of US employees are frontline workers. They are people who want to feel connected to their colleagues and leaders – no matter where they work. Engaging employees and driving culture through connection is no longer a ‘nice to have’ – it’s imperative for success in today’s business environment.

Zoom is excited to announce the acquisition of Workvivo to extend Zoom’s platform and offer its customers new ways to keep employees informed, engaged, and connected.

Founded in 2017, Workvivo provides a modern, feature-rich employee experience platform, combining advanced internal communication and engagement tools, a social intranet, and an employee app, all blended into one central hub, forming the heart of a company’s digital ecosystem. Workvivo’s best-in-class offering has seen triple-digit growth in the last three years and is used and trusted by hundreds of customers worldwide, from SMBs to some of the world’s most well-known brands, including Liberty Mutual, Lululemon, Ryanair, Madison Square Garden, and Wynn Resorts.

“We are excited to welcome the Workvivo team to Zoom. The power of Workvivo employee experience platform, with its robust communications and engagement offering combined with Zoom’s all-in-one collaboration platform, allows organizations to fully unlock the potential of their employees and evolve their company culture in a hybrid world,” said Kelly Steckelberg, chief financial officer at Zoom. “Workvivo has set the standard for employee communications, helping businesses reach and engage millions of employees worldwide. Workvivo prioritizes ease-of-use and simplicity of design, offering the best user experience which is a perfect match to Zoom’s DNA.”

“Zoom’s rapid pace of innovation and the persistent dedication to building products with a human-first mindset is why we are most excited about joining the team,” said John Goulding, CEO and co-founder at Workvivo. “Our platform replaces outdated, clunky, internal communications tools with a vibrant, familiar social experience, and has a proven history of unparalleled levels of adoption. With Zoom, we can build great things together, make teamwork more meaningful, and extend collaboration beyond knowledge workers, allowing us to reach employees who have historically felt disconnected from the company.”

Workvivo UI

Workvivo is an employee experience platform designed to inform, engage and connect employees everywhere.

With this acquisition, Zoom continues its evolution to provide the best end-to-end collaboration platform focused on enabling modern work and powering the digital-first workplace.

Following the close of the transaction, Zoom plans to incorporate Workvivo’s capabilities into its platform to deliver a best-in-class, employee experience. Workvivo’s founders John Goulding and Joe Lennon, and the entire Workvivo team, will be instrumental in driving employee experience innovation strategy.

The transaction is expected to close in Q1 FY2024. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

About Zoom
Zoom is an all-in-one intelligent collaboration platform that makes connecting easier, more immersive, and more dynamic for businesses and individuals. Zoom technology puts people at the center, enabling meaningful connections, facilitating modern collaboration, and driving human innovation through solutions like team chat, phone, meetings, omnichannel cloud contact center, smart recordings, whiteboard, and more, in one offering. Founded in 2011, Zoom is publicly traded (NASDAQ:ZM) and headquartered in San Jose, California. Get more info at zoom.com.

About Workvivo
Workvivo is an employee experience platform designed to inform, engage and connect employees everywhere. Workvivo works with organizations globally across multiple industries, including Bupa, TELUS International and Everton FC. Read more at www.workvivo.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking information related to Zoom and Workvivo and the acquisition of Workvivo by Zoom that involves substantial risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Forward-looking statements in this communication include, among other things, statements regarding the potential benefits of the proposed transaction for Zoom, Workvivo and their respective customers, Zoom’s plans, objectives, expectations and intentions with respect to the proposed transaction, Zoom’s ability to offer the best end-to-end collaboration platform, the financial condition, results of operations and business of Zoom, and the anticipated closing of the proposed transaction. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “project,” “will,” “would,” “should,” “could,” “can,” “predict,” “potential,” “target,” “explore,” “continue,” or the negative of these terms, and similar expressions intended to identify forward-looking statements. By their nature, these statements are subject to numerous uncertainties and risks, including factors beyond our control, that could cause actual results, performance or achievement to differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied in the statements, including: risks related to the ability of Zoom to consummate the proposed transaction on a timely basis or at all, Zoom’s ability to successfully integrate Workvivo’s operations and personnel, Zoom’s ability to implement its plan, forecasts and other expectations with respect to Workvivo’s business after the completion of the transaction, the ability to realize the anticipated benefits of the proposed transaction, and continued uncertainty regarding the extent and duration of the impact of COVID-19 and the responses of government and private industry thereto, including the potential effect on Zoom’s user growth rate as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic tapers. Additional risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements described under the caption “Risk Factors” and elsewhere are in Zoom’s most recent filings with the SEC, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date the statements are made and are based on information available to Zoom at the time those statements are made and/or management’s good faith belief as of that time with respect to future events. Zoom assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made, except as required by law.

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ed1d522c-0c14-4cdf-9ace-60dedc4803fe

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Zoom Public Relations
Candace Dean
press@zoom.us

Solvvy Public Relations
Eleanor O’Mahony
eleanor.omahony@workvivo.com

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 8808322

April 15, 2023

Eskom teams working to reduce higher load shedding stages

State power utility, Eskom, says it is working hard to address the causes of persistent breakdowns at power stations and ensure that the higher stages of load shedding are reduced.

This as the power utility implemented Stage 6 load shedding this week going into the weekend.

Stage 5 is expected to be implemented between 5am and 4pm on Saturday, returning to Stage 6 between 4pm and 5am on Sunday morning.

Following that, Stage 4 will be implemented from 5am to 4pm on Sunday afternoon and return to Stage 6.

“Eskom regrets the escalation of load shedding to Stage 6 but would like to assure all South Africans that our personnel at the various power stations are working around the clock to bring units back online and at higher efficiencies as soon as possible.

“It is to be noted that load shedding is implemented as a last resort to maintain the stability of the national grid,” Eskom said.

The electricity provider explained that long term outages have worsened the strain on the grid and has removed some 3080MW from the power system – the equivalent of three stages of load shedding.

“Apart from other generation challenges, the current situation has been exacerbated by the loss of four major units, which are on extended outages.

“Units 1, 2 and 3 of Kusile Power Station are currently offline as a result of the failure of the Unit 1 flue gas duct on 22 October 2022. Work is underway to bring these units back online from November 2023.

“Unit 1 at Koeberg Power Station is currently on a long-term outage for maintenance and refuelling as well as the replacement of the steam generators and is expected to return to service on 6 August 2023,” Eskom said.

By Friday, the power utility had lost some 17 093MW of generating capacity due to breakdowns with a further 6392MW out on planned maintenance.

The electricity provider emphasised that the “root causes” of these breakdowns are being addressed through the Generation Recovery Programme.

“Eskom continues to drive generation recovery initiatives which are aimed at preventing the current performance from deteriorating in the short term and improving the overall performance of the generation fleet in the long term.

“There have been some improvements recently, including several power stations achieving an energy availability of 70% in March as well as the suspension of load shedding on some days,” the group said.

Eskom maintained that it “does not want to implement load shedding if at all possible” but warned that with the power system under “severe pressure” the possibility of load shedding still remains.

“The cold front expected this weekend is anticipated to further increase the demand for electricity, adding to the capacity constraints, especially at evening peak hours from 5pm until 9pm. This can be alleviated if all consumers switch of heating and high consumption appliances during the peak hours.

“We thank those South Africans who heed the call to use electricity sparingly and help to alleviate the pressure on the power system,” Eskom said.

Source: South African Government News Agency

April 15, 2023

President urges senior public servants to accelerate implementation

President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged government’s Directors General (DGs) and Deputy Directors Generals to take tangible actions to deliver on their mandates more effectively.

The President held a meeting with the senior government officials on Friday in Pretoria to discuss the continued and accelerated implementation of government’s key priority areas.

“It is urgent that we narrow the gulf between priority setting and effective execution. And in doing so our focus must not be on setting unrealistic goals that cannot possibly be achieved in less than a year, but on a few tangible actions that can move the needle, and meaningfully so.

“The time for half-measures and heel dragging is over. It is time for decisive actions that will lift this country above the many crises we have faced over the course of this administration. It is time for high-impact, measurable interventions that will make an actual difference,” President Ramaphosa said.

In a statement, the Presidency said the meeting with the government leaders “covered a wide range of issues that are currently undermining the effectiveness of government”.

“President Ramaphosa expressed concern at the targets that are being missed and implementation failures that continue to cause a credibility deficit for the government.

“The rise of adverse audit outcomes and the failure to arrest them with urgency was identified as leadership weakness that undercuts the progress that government is making in rebuilding the upper ranks of the Public Service. The meeting further reflected on processes of filling vacancies that are moving at a snail’s pace in many departments, causing inefficiencies and complete paralysis,” the statement read.

Moving forward, the Presidency said, clusters will be expected to provide detail on how they will be addressing outstanding actions.

“The Department of Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation will provide data sets to assist clusters evaluate progress in implementing the MTSF 2019 to 2024, as well as all State of the Nation commitments since 2019.

“Importantly, the President further directed that public communication must be strengthened for

increased public accountability,” the statement said.

Source: South African Government News Agency

April 15, 2023

Calls To Protect Sasumwa Dam And Water Catchment Areas

Following dwindling water levels at the Sasumwa Dam that supplies water to Nairobi City, the government has called for conservation and protection of the water catchment area to restore the environment.

Ministry of Water and Sanitation Chief Administrative Secretary Chris Wamalwa has said there was a need to conserve the water towers in an effort to redeem forest cover.

Dr Wamalwa rallied Kenyans to embrace tree planting on their farms and public forests saying this will help assure there is enough clean water supply in the country.

He spoke at Sasumwa Dam in Nyandarua County, managed by Nairobi Water and Sanitation Company. He observed that the persistent drought that has hit the country was to blame for the dwindling water levels at the dam.

However, he was optimistic that with the ongoing rains in most parts of the country, the levels would rise and hoped that this would not affect the water supply in Nairobi City County.

He said the government already has an alternative, so there was no cause to worry.

On the management of the Sasumwa Dam, the CAS said the government has initiated a corporate social responsibility component for the local community to ensure they benefit from the water catchment.

He said farmers and neighbors will be getting tree seedlings to plant on the farms.

Other key stakeholders echoed his sentiments, calling for concerted efforts to protect such areas.

They also recommended the fencing of the Sasumwa dam in order to protect against encroachment and illegal grazing in the protected area.

Residents were also discouraged from planting eucalyptus trees on the grounds that their high rate of water demand was contributing to the depletion of water.

Source: Kenya News Agency

April 15, 2023

Establishment Of A National Lottery Kicks Off In Machakos

The Government is in the process of setting reforms in governance of the betting and gaming sector by establishing a National lottery to promote responsible betting and gaming.

A presidential task force was formed to engage in wider consultation with all Key Stakeholders in the county on establishment of the National lottery through public participation.

Speaking to the media during the Public participation forum at Machakos Social Hall, vice chair of the task force Mr. Gideon Thuranira said their mandate is to establish a national lottery and to intervene in bringing about regulation in terms of policy formulation and a setting up a gambling control bill.

‘The spirit of this task force is to grow and develop a National Gambling industry that is responsible, inclusive and properly regulated,’ he said.

Thuranira who is also the Chairman of the Public participation forum, said that in the past there have been over indulgence, under regulation and infringement as residents get into trouble because of poor regulation in the industry.

He pointed out that Kenya does not have any Gambling policy since the laws that exist were formulated in 1966 and since then, there have been so many changes and development such as online gambling, and gaming across borders.

The vice chair added that there has been infiltration of players who are not addressed by the 1966 act that controls gaming lottery and betting and that’s why President Dr. William Ruto formed a task force to bring in proper coordination and regulation.

‘The National Lottery fund will sit and identify projects to support and engage in public good, such as sports, children’s home and culture,’ he added.

Thuranira clarified that the National lottery is not going to kill other players but being a government body, it has to set the benchmark in terms of following set guidelines so that other players will know what not to and what to engage in.

‘We are not out as a task force to bring out things that are going to kill the local industry, but we want a growing sector that has proper control,’ said Thuranira.

He said that they have proposed that the minimum age to bet is 18 years and they are trying to control the minimum bet that one can place so that it stops children from participating in gambling.

The meeting included stakeholders from Makueni, Kitui and Machakos counties.

Source: Kenya News Agency

April 15, 2023

70 Year Old Who Has Never Used Modern Medicine

A 70-year-old herbalist from Udura village in Siaya County says she has never sought any mode of scientific or modern medication and declares that there are some illnesses she can cure such as epilepsy by using naturally available herbs.

Patronela Ooro says that she learnt herbal medicine from her late mother as an apprentice who used to tag her together with her elder sister, and later on advanced her skills on her own.

She claims she has been able to treat many people from diverse backgrounds since her youthful age, among them some who had been the bed ridden and had already lost hope of regaining good health after seeking treatment from hospitals for years without cure.

‘I was raised in an environment that did not use modern medicine. If you had a headache, you would chew a certain root, if your stomach had problems or you developed a fever you would be given a concoction of boiled herbs and you healed and that is what I stuck to,’ said Patronela.

She adds that she has never sought medical attention at hospitals or even used any form of modern medicine in all her 70 years of life.

The astonishing fact is that she uses native plant leaves; tree stems and roots of specific plants such as guava tree which has compelling submission of health benefits that were used by indigenous people to cure different ailments

She asserts that she can also reduce the risk of cancer, manage diabetes, and heal cold and cough, improve the skin texture, boosting the body immunity, and deal with stomach aches and diarrhea just by use of herbs.

Patronela gathers her herbs in unique ways. For example, she says that there are some herbs that she uproots using her teeth from the ground and when asked the reason behind this, she insists that it is spiritual and unexplainable for it has been done that way for as long as she can recall.

For preparation of the herbs, it depends on the illness. Patronela prepares them according to what kind of illness she is dealing with, in the case of a sore she pounds the leaves and airs them to dry while sometimes she mixes it with ghee so as to make a paste to apply on the sore part.

If the illness is internal then she boils the pounded leaves, and later on sieves it, instructing the patient to either drink it or bath with it for several days.

She has trained many people including her children and grandchildren hoping that one day when she is no more, they will be able to take over the mantle and keep the knowledge alive.

In her practice, Patronela keeps her knowledge a very well-guarded secret, one she says she only divulges the kinds of plants she uses as medicine to her children and grandchildren and cannot disclose to other people.

‘This herbal medicine is the only way for me to earn income which I have been able to cater for all my five children in their upkeep and education,’ says Patronela.

Patronela claims that she has never used cooking oil in preparing her meals, she does not eat eggs, fried food, processed foods or canned food claiming that these foods are hazardous to health due to their chemical preservatives and to her they have massive contribution to health complications especially when consumption is not checked, adding that she prefers boiled food and traditional vegetables.

When asked how she copes when she goes to public events and visits she laughs and responds that at such events so as to avoid any health complications she prefers to only take water at these kinds of places.

Source: Kenya News Agency

April 15, 2023

We need active citizens to advocate sustainable development – AFROSIF

Ms Serraine Nyamori, Managing Director of Sustainability Africa, a Kenyan based non-governmental organisation has called on citizens within the African region to be advocates for sustainable development in Africa.

She said: ‘We need active global citizens that advocate for sustainable development in Africa. If we do not speak up, nothing will happen.

There is the need for Africans to equip themselves with knowledge, skills, and information,’

Ms Nyamori made the call at this year’s African Social Intervention Festival (AFROSIF 2023)

The event brought together social change makers across Africa under the theme, ‘Showcasing the voices behind the Africans putting smiles on the faces of the marginalized, underserved and underprivileged.’

It also provided a platform for leaders, policy makers, corporate bodies, professionals, civil society organizations, academics, and social entrepreneurs to explore, network and exchange ideas.

Ms Nyamori said there was the urgent need to have citizens who provided local innovative solutions to our global challenges and urged all Africans to get on board, saying, ‘be part of the solution, do something.’

Nii Commey, Convenor of AFROSIF, said Africa had a lot of potential that needed to be harnessed and AFROSIF sought to help connect various social entrepreneurs to network and harness their abilities to make the needed change.

He said Africans could work together to raise funds to sustain projects and programmes locally ‘if we harnessed our abilities.’

This year’s event was dedicated to celebrating the power of social interventions to promote healthy, equitable and prosperous societies.

In all, eleven speakers from Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, and South Sudan covered several topics from poverty, health, education, climate change, water, and sanitation, fundraising social enterprise, among others.

The annual event is organised by Handwriting Communications through its Social Interventional Network Africa (SINA), a pan-African network of individuals, corporate bodies, NGOs, donors, social entrepreneurs’ experts, and practitioners in the field of social interventions.

SINA aims to promote best practices and evidence-based interventions in Africa, share knowledge and facilitate collaboration and innovation.

Source: Ghana News Agency