How Victoria Repa, Ukrainian Founder of BetterMe has Adapted her Business to Help Ukrainians

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BetterMe is a healthcare Ukrainian company, with Ukrainian founder and CEO, Victoria Repa. The company’s headquarter was located in Kyiv. The team decided to respond to the Russian invasion unilaterally, did charitable donations, stopped serving clients from Russia, made a company’s app supporting mental health free for Ukrainians, spread banners and push notifications with words of support for Ukraine via channels.

How Have You Been Able to Support the Effort?

BetterMe:

– Donated $40,000 to the Savelife.in.ua foundation, which supports the Ukrainian army.
– Provided free access to the BetterMe Mental Health application for Ukrainians
– Started caring about children’s mental health, namely gathered Ukrainian fairy tales in BetterMe: Mental Health
– Negotiated with our partners, big technological companies their support to Ukraine, tech companies and developers
– Stopped serving Russian users and encouraged them to support Ukraine through push notifications in our applications
– Sent push notifications to 2.5 million international users calling for help to Ukraine,

The PR team works with international media and bloggers to spread real news about the situation in Ukraine.

– CEO and Founder Victoria Repa appealed to international tech companies to send notifications to their users to support Ukraine and make donations in support of the Ukrainian army: https://www.instagram.com/p/CamPurOtoBa/
– started giving free access for those donated to Altruisto polish foundation.

How Has the War Affected Team Management?

The company’s first priority is the team and team members’ families. Together with the Employee Experience Team we are managing all people related questions now. There are two main aspects we are taking care of: 1-everyday (providing basic needs, like food, water, accommodation, also contributing to evacuation, providing everyone with essential equipment to work from home, ensuring additional payments) and 2-mental (supporting, encouraging, checking-in).

Return-to-the-office management had to be delayed. Due to the situation, it is not safe to live in Kyiv and in other Ukrainian cities, so many of us have to change their location for unlimited time. Keeping the common team spirit and hope for Ukrainian victory is an important task now. At first we had delayed hiring processes, but yesterday we posted a couple of vacancies.

 

 

Has the War in Ukraine Affected the Mental Health of Employees?

Mental health of every Ukrainian has been affected. The BetterMe company developed two main apps: BetterMe: Health Coaching and BetterMe: Mental Health. BetterMe: Mental Health is free for all employees. The app has meditations, affirmations, breathing exercises, courses from psychologists and coaches to deal with anxiety, fear, blues etc. Most employees are using the app to feel better during the horror of war.

What Do You Do for Employees that Want to Enlist and Join the War?

BetterMe supports employees’ decision to join the Ukrainian army, keep their working place and salary in full for the period of service. Moreover, in addition to work, some of our employees volunteer to help internally displaced people find accommodation, supplies, etc. in the Western part of Ukraine, as well as deliver humanitarian aid to Kyiv, and use their skills in the information war.

What is the Internal Communication of War Related Messaging?

It is crucial to realise that what is happening in Ukraine is not a crisis or conflict, it is a full-scale war. But after every storm, there is a rainbow. So every team member should stay focused and motivated.

We use humour to support our mental health, memes are perfect for that. Moreover, it is essential to find some things from “previous life”, that is why we created BetterMe Good-News Channel in Slack to stay in touch, to congratulate on birthdays, anniversaries and other small wins.

I want to use my voice to encourage people, companies worldwide to support Ukraine in our fight for freedom, democracy and the rule of law. The support should be genuine, from the heart. But it is important to emphasise that now there are no big or small stepps to support Ukraine, everything does matter. So if you have no resources to make charitable donations, you can spread trustworthy information via your channels. Keeping quiet is the best option if you have no attitude to the situation itself.