How India Inc is coping with the pandemic

As the world gears up for what experts call the endemic phase of Covid-19, India Inc is leaving no stone unturned to prepare its denizens for the future.

Companies across the board are doing everything possible to retain their employees, keep them safe and meet their own productivity targets, according to a DH survey.

They are getting their employees tested on company dime, moving to a hybrid work culture, restricting business travel, promoting virtual events, creating infrastructure to monitor employee health in real time, developing apps to ensure social distancing in offices and even providing doctors-on-call services.

Some firms are allowing their staff to work from anywhere, paying for employee vaccination and offering paid leave to those who test Covid-19 positive.

Some of these measures may not go away any time soon, human resource experts said.

“HR practices around the hybrid work model, employee well-being, digital clinic for employees, virtual replacing physical especially for town halls, business travels and company events are some practices that are here to stay, and will continue well into 2022,” said Munish Kumar, the chief executive of the Quess Corp arm that caters to the staffing needs of the healthcare industry.

Pandemic-induced changes

HR practices are evolving in new-age companies and established firms alike, DH found.

E-bike startup Yulu allowed its employees to work from home since the Omicron threat became real. IT services firm Wipro Ltd said on January 12 that it would close all of its global offices for four weeks due to the latest Covid-19 wave. Larger rival Infosys Ltd has been promoting a hybrid work model.

“We are very flexible about it,” Infosys CEO Salil Parekh said.

Drugmaker AstraZeneca’s India arm has resumed its work-from-home policy for most employees.

"While we have moved to working from home, those who need to be present at the factories have the facility of a Covid test. That will help us detect and immediately isolate those people," said Dr Anil Kukreja, VP of Medical Affairs and Regulatory at AstraZeneca India.

Some others such as TVS Motor Company, which makes motorcycles, scooters and three-wheelers, are following a hybrid model and finding new ways to stay on top of employee health changes.

"The company has an ongoing roster attendance system that encourages all support functions to work from home and create better distancing measures for the manufacturing staff. We also encourage and recommend our employees for self-testing as per our company doctor’s recommendation regularly for the overall well-being of our staff,” TVS said in an email to DH.

Biocon Ltd, which offers regular RT-PCR tests to its employees, has adopted extra measures to keep them safe.

"With respect to travel, it is currently restricted to only critical travel and is in strict compliance with the travel advisory issued by the government from time to time. Large gatherings and events are limited to virtual meetings only. We had to ensure business continuity all through the pandemic with strict safety protocols such as restricting people movement by limiting it to respective zones," a Biocon spokesperson said.

Some others, such as Kolkata-based consumer goods maker ITC Ltd, are also trying to find a balance between keeping employees healthy and avoiding work disruption.

The cigarette-to-soap maker is ramping up inventory to cater to any additional demand but also making sure a majority of its employees in areas with many Covid-19 cases, stay at home.

"Employees in most offices are operating in hybrid mode with presence restricted to 30% or less, depending on the intensity of the pandemic in the location. Travel has been curtailed to the most essential with a mandatory test prior to return to the work premises,” ITC said.

ITC is also carrying out random sampling across locations to pick up cases before they are symptomatic and making company doctors and Covid response teams available round the clock to support employees and family members who test positive.

Rival Hindustan Unilever Ltd is using technology to ensure social distancing norms are being followed by its employees.

"We are using an app to maintain physical distance at work – the app sounds an alarm if a two-metre distance between people is breached. Similarly, we have enabled contactless food ordering and cafeteria space management by allotting time slots to employees on the premises,” Hindustan Unilever told DH.

Some smaller firms have gone a step further.

Emvigo Technologies has offered to get its employees and their family members vaccinated on company dime, its co-founder and chief executive officer, Sanjay Menon, told DH. The company, which has around 135 employees, also offers its employees two-weeks paid leave, just in case they test positive. It also provides free yoga classes and gets its HR team to check on all employees’ well-being every month.

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