NEW YORK, July 13, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- LivePerson, Inc. (Nasdaq: LPSN), a global leader in conversational solutions, announced today its move away from office-centric workplaces to become an employee-centric workforce. This reimagining of the modern workforce represents a decision to innovate in the face of COVID health and safety concerns and government mandates that have forced employees to stay out of the company's offices since March 2020.

"Our decision to shift to the employee-centric model has one goal above all: to keep the LivePerson community as safe as possible," said LivePerson CEO and founder Robert LoCascio. "In addition, we are responding to what our employees asked us for, which was greater flexibility in how they do their jobs safely and effectively in the COVID era and beyond. Over the past several months, we've proven that this model works successfully for both our employees and customers."

While LivePerson's 1,200 employees have been working remotely since the beginning of the pandemic, a new task force is currently at work determining the best ways to purposefully implement the employee-centric model. LivePerson employees based around the world are leading this bottoms-up effort. 

Results of an internal LivePerson survey demonstrated that a strong majority of its employees preferred not to return to traditional offices due to health and safety concerns. Combined with high productivity and outstanding execution during lockdown and social distancing periods, this measure of employee sentiment helped inform the decision to embrace a new model for the workforce. Elevators, HVAC systems, common areas, and shared entrance and exit points are among the office building elements that continue to present concerns.

By reimagining the future of work for LivePerson employees, the company is bringing its own operations in line with the model it successfully enabled for many of the world's biggest brands that needed to implement remote workforces due to COVID-19. LivePerson's AI technology became essential to brands' ability to communicate with customers as offices closed, hold times skyrocketed, and customer satisfaction plummeted.

"It costs about $10,000 per employee each year to be in a traditional office, and we believe we can put these funds to much better use in an employee-centric model," said LoCascio. "We strongly believe this is the future — not only for LivePerson but for companies worldwide focusing on their greatest asset: their people. As we continue to hire top talent, from incredible salespeople to the world's sharpest conversational AI experts, we expect our employee-centric culture to help us attract and retain the best from all over the world and most importantly, keep them safe."

About LivePerson, Inc.
LivePerson makes life easier for people and brands everywhere through trusted conversational AI. Our 18,000 customers, including leading brands like HSBC, Orange, GM Financial, and The Home Depot, use our conversational solutions to orchestrate humans and AI, at scale, and create a convenient, deeply personal relationship — a conversational relationship — with their millions of consumers. LivePerson was named to Fast Company's World's Most Innovative Companies list in 2020. For more information about LivePerson (NASDAQ: LPSN), please visit www.liveperson.com.

Contact: Mike Tague, mtague@liveperson.com

SOURCE LivePerson, Inc.