“Remote working has had a negative impact on extroverts, with many even slipping into depression.” 

Prasad Kulkarni, SVP – human resources, Citco Group

And then 2020 happened! A pandemic confined everyone to their homes. Did this take a toll on these extroverts who prefer working with people in a physical surrounding? Did the change in work format impact their productivity? What are the challenges that they faced during the new normal?

Prasad Kulkarni, SVP – human resources, Citco Group, reveals that it has had a negative impact on extroverts, with many even slipping into depression.

The effect of the pandemic has been different on different people, depending on their nature. Extroverts are more impacted because there is no social ecosystem anymore. They feel anxious and concerned. Whether that is really impacting their productivity, is not certain, but it definitely does it impact their morale, to some extent. That is because, conversation points have reduced.

“Inability to pursue their interests and lack of forum to meet people has led to stress, and thereby, distraction among extroverts.”

Balachandar NV, executive director, Ashok Leyland

Agrees Balachandar NV, executive director, Ashok Leyland. “Inability to pursue their interests and lack of forum to meet people has led to stress, and thereby, distraction among extroverts.”

“Although they understand that the threat is bigger, however no social outings for months have impacted their morale. People worked online earlier too, but there were enough opportunities to take breaks. The travel time has also been taken away. The blurring divide between work and personal life is only adding to the woes,” he adds.

The question is, how are they coping and how are organisations helping them? While HR experts cannot be sure whether any of these changes influenced their productivity, they did throw light on how such people are being looked after.

“Our leaders have been holding their teams together and have been creative in coming up with virtual activities. However, the problem still remains. Extroverts still want to meet people and socialise, because they tend to draw energy from around them and multiply the same. Getting that energy in the virtual mode doesn’t work.”

Aniruddha Khekale, group human resources director, Emerson Automation Solutions

Aniruddha Khekale, group human resources director, Emerson Automation Solutions, reveals that they haven’t done anything different from other organisation per se. “Our leaders have been holding their teams together and have been creative in coming up with virtual activities, such as BYOB, Catch-Up and others. However, the problem still remains. Extroverts still want to meet people and socialise, because they tend to draw energy from around them and multiply the same. Getting that energy in the virtual mode doesn’t work,” says Khekale. He also adds, however, that such extroverts have figured out alternative means to be social or outgoing. In fact, they have become more adaptive. Social media came in handy for these people, and helped them lead a life beyond work.

Kulkarni, who is a social person himself, recounts how being with family helped him during the first lockdown. “Personally, I also like to talk and interact with people a lot. I call my friends and colleagues frequently. There are ways and means to engage oneself. Initially, it was a challenge but the best part was that I came to Pune. Being with family helped and absence of socialising didn’t bother me much. In the first lockdown, I attended seven to eight online seminars,” recounts Kulkarni.

“We built cross-functional teams. In India, we tried Virtual Time-outs — no official discussions, but just connecting over pizza. That has limitations too as people aren’t at the same place.”

Anurag Verma, VP-HR

As for his organisation, many counselling sessions and exercises were conducted where people could talk to others, especially through the EAP services for physical and mental health. They were conducted not just for the employees but for their family members as well. Many seminars or trainings witnessed regular participation from extroverts, which gave them an opportunity to talk to different people. They became active on social media, sharing their experiences there.

At Uniphore, the first Friday of the month is a Mental Day Off. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, there are no meetings, e-mails or conversations about work. That gives the employees time to rejuvenate. Recently, at the US office, since most of them are vaccinated and the government there has relaxed norms, small teams of five to six people, with all social distancing measures in place, organised a few hikes. Anurag Verma, VP-HR, reveals, ‘We built cross-functional teams. In India, we tried Virtual Time-outs — no official discussions, but just connecting over pizza. That has limitations too as people aren’t at the same place.”

“We have a few R&R initiatives which are completely digital, such as the Masterstroke, which is a video recognition series. Then there’s Inquisitive, a virtual quiz contest. We also do something called expert Talks — virtual learning sessions by our internal experts — to keep employees engaged.”

Paramjit Singh Nayyar, CHRO, Bharti AXA General Insurance

Recollecting an incident about an employee, Verma shared that a couple of people did approach him as they were finding it difficult to handle the monotony. To them he recommended looking at their interests and passions that they couldn’t pursue because of time crunch. One of them revealed that during his school days, he used to pursue music and jam often. “I said ‘brilliant, order something online and it can be delivered.’ He took my advice and rekindled his passion. This helped refuel his interest both at the personal and professional front,” Verma recalls.

Verma is also thinking of creating passion clubs inside the organisation to let people come together to pursue common passions, such as cycling and others. After all, “it is more about suggesting individual solutions to work on,” says Verma.

Bharti AXA General Insurance, on the other hand, has come up with a series of virtual activities to keep the employees engaged. Paramjit Singh Nayyar, CHRO, shares, “We have a few R&R initiatives which are completely digital, such as the Masterstroke, which is a video recognition series. Then there’s Inquisitive, a virtual quiz contest. We also do something called expert Talks — virtual learning sessions by our internal experts — to keep employees engaged.”

Ashok Leyland too provided outlet through 43 virtual clubs covering varied interests. Balachandar asserts that they have been a resounding success.

Organisations may not be looking at the well-being of extroverts in an isolated manner, but they are coming up with activities that can keep them interested. However, now that several companies have announced perpetual work from home, will these people reach a breaking point?

While Kulkarni agrees that if continued longer, it WFH may start impacting their productivity, Verma is certain the challenges are only going to multiply. “When people say it will be the new normal, I tend to disagree. It cannot replace the normal. These are constraints and we aren’t built to work under such constraints. It’s been a year and half in India. If it continues for another 7-8 months, it will become a challenge. Unlike in other developed countries, where people go to the countryside on weekends, in India people live in confined spaces. It will definitely have a huge impact,” says Verma.

He hopes with faster vaccination and hybrid work culture such a situation can be averted.

While there’s no data to link lack of socialising to lessening of productivity in extroverts, this class of people do seem to have been hit the most due to remote working. This has led organisations to intervene.

The post Extroverts, the real victims of remote working: how are they coping? appeared first on HR Katha.

This will now restructure the connect between the employees and the HR. The Company has streamlined HR and managed to carve out a well-planned and structured way of communicating and engaging with its employees.

HR Connect

The Company has formulated a plan wherein the HRBPs will connect with their respective functional teams every fortnight, to discuss and deliberate on business matters. This is being followed by employees working in the corporate offices. Else, there is also a wellness team at Yokohama which regularly stays in touch with each and every employee to check on their health and also the wellbeing of their family members. These individual connects are established every day. If employees require anything or if there is a distress call due to COVID, the COVID Task Force reached out immediately to provide further assistance.

“Earlier, it was a little unstructured and responsibilities were overlapping, which posed a problem for business continuity. Our communications were not forceful and we believed that every employee was following the discipline. But now, everything is well planned and structured. Everyone knows what they have to do and are expected to do. The meetings are fruitful and precise and the frequency of collaboration is also well planned.”

Rajeev Singh, CHRO, Yokohama Off-Highway Tires

Managers Connect

The head office and other corporate offices follow a structured way to connect with each other to ensure business continuity. The managers are given a free hand to chart out how and when they wish to connect with their teams — daily, weekly or monthly. At the shop floor, by and large every worker is coming daily but there are some support functions, such as HR and finance that are not required to visit the plant every day. They are following a hybrid model of work, so they have to connect with other team members. They are also following this structured plan to connect.

Wellness Connect

A COVID task force has been formed, which comprises the HR, admin and in-house medical staff team, which provides assistance to employees who need help or medical attention for COVID cases. Also, the Company has a 24×7 helpline number, where employees can reach out to in case they need any assistance. For the employees who are home quarantined, the Company is providing homemade meals through their task force.

Learning Connect

Yokohama believes that learning should never stop at any point. Therefore, the Company has started various initiatives, which are in accordance with the needs of the Company and the skills required in today’s time.

A module in the learning programme of Yokohama is aimed at training managers to manage virtual teams.

As explained by Rajeev Singh, CHRO, Yokohama Off-Highway Tires, the fundamentals of managing a virtual team almost remain the same as managing any other team. However, a few elements have been added pertaining to the techniques of connecting with the team virtually. The second most important skill is listening. “Nowadays, many people are going through struggles. Therefore, it is very important for a manager to listen to the team, empathise and then formulate strategies,” says Singh.

During the lockdown, the Company realised that long learning sessions do not work with employees when they are working remotely. So it came up with short, 180-min long Power Learning sessions.

As per Singh, during the previous year’s lockdown, the Company had struggled to connect and collaborate internally. Despite several experiments, success was not achieved.

“Earlier, it was a little unstructured and responsibilities were overlapping, which posed a problem for business continuity. Our communications were not forceful and we believed that every employee was following the discipline. But now, everything is well planned and structured. Everyone knows what they have to do and are expected to do. The meetings are fruitful and precise and the frequency of collaboration is also well planned,” explains a satisfied Singh.

The four levers, Singh says, “have allowed us to keep a people first strategy” and served as “oiling for smooth business continuity during these challenging times. Now we have a centralised monitoring body which give us better control.”

The post How Yokohama Off-Highway Tires restructured HR-employee connect & engagement appeared first on HR Katha.

This is where the asynchronous collaboration approach offers relief. Let us see how it makes a difference.

Just imagine a team working on an assignment or a project. During pre-COVID times, it was very convenient for any team member to share ideas, give feedback, and provide a status report verbally, as everyone was working in the same building. It was easy to call short meetings and have conversations. This is synchronous collaboration, where communication was in real time.

Asynchronous collaboration, on the other hand, is a type of collaboration in which the exchange of ideas/knowledge and interaction among users occurs as and when schedules permit, instead of the sender and receiver of messages and ideas connecting in real time.

“Generally when cross-functional teams work on projects collaboratively they do practice this form of asynchronous collaboration.”

Sharad Sharma, CHRO & chief ethics officer, Pramerica Life Insurance

Let us understand this with an example. Suppose a team of professionals is working on a project and there is a project-management system or a platform where the leader can mention all the essential details such as opportunity, status, new ideas, sales pipeline, and so on. The other team members can pour over it whenever they want to, and can add comments or make edits either simultaneously or at a later time. To support this, there are multiple tools, such as Google Docs. Here, the key activity is the preparation of self-explanatory presentations and documents, which audiences can understand. In the end, it leads to a synchronous way of collaboration in the form of a meeting, which is quite precise as everyone comes prepared and the purpose of the meeting is to take the final decision.

This saves a lot of precious time, which would have otherwise gone into taking status updates on calls or video conferences. Especially during these times, when some people are working from home and others are operating from the office, these disruptions can be quite annoying.

“In any pharmaceutical company, the sales personnel are spread across all geographical areas. Not just in the pandemic era, we have been practising asynchronous collaboration for a very long time via a digital platform in which every sales person has to feed in their update at the end of the day as a sales report. This platform is used to submit and access status reports.”

Rajorshi Ganguli, president and global HR head, Alkem Laboratories

Today, however, many teams try to replicate or follow synchronous communication which can end up to be a big challenge for every team member as most of the time is spent on calls or video chats.

Rajorshi Ganguli, president and global HR head, Alkem Laboratories, shares that in their industry, this kind of a collaboration is not something very new. The sales force makes up almost 65 per cent of their workforce. As in any pharmaceutical company, these sales personnel are spread across all geographical areas. Not just in the pandemic era, the firm has been practising asynchronous collaboration for a very long time via a digital platform in which every sales person has to feed in their update at the end of the day as a sales report. This platform is used to submit and access status reports.

“We did not do anything extra during the pandemic to put asynchronous collaboration into practice during the pandemic. It already exists in our industry as the nature of job demands it,” says Ganguli.

At Pramerica Life Insurance, the cross-functional teams practise asynchronous collaboration to work on and complete projects. “We may not call it asynchronous collaboration but we have applications like MS Teams, where we have tools to maintain status reports and chat with people. Generally when cross-functional teams work on projects collaboratively they do practice this form of collaboration,” mentions Sharad Sharma, CHRO & chief ethics officer, Pramerica Life Insurance.

“Asynchronous collaboration can be very beneficial for organisations that have embraced the hybrid model as it can lead to effective time management, better productivity and also enhanced work- life balance.”

Rajeev Singh, CHRO, Yokohama Off-Highway Tyres

When a team follows the approach of asynchronous collaboration, there may be times when an immediate need to communicate certain information becomes a priority during emergency and crisis situations. The key here is to identify such moments. “This would depend on the topic and the situation. Of course, the monthly and weekly meet-ups will be scheduled as per time, but there may be some instances where decisions may need to be taken instantaneously. Also, you will have to collaborate on video calls for brainstorming sessions,” tells Ganguli.

According to Rajeev Singh, CHRO, Yokohama Off-Highway Tyres, asynchronous collaboration is a very important concept which can be followed by organisations during these times when it is hard to collaborate in person. “It can be very beneficial for organisations that have embraced the hybrid model as it can lead to effective time management, better productivity and also enhanced work- life balance,” opines Singh.

Sharma adds, “While no form of collaboration can ever replace face to face interactions, during these times, this is the only way to stay productive. Asynchronous collaboration becomes a must in a hybrid working model as all employees are not working from the same location. They need to collaborate and use their time effectively. With this approach, meetings become more of a precise activity aimed at final decision-making. This fastens the decision-making process.”

If you think most of your time is wasted on follow-up calls and status update meetings, then asynchronous collaboration is the solution. After all, it is better to spend most of your time into productive activities rather than in front of a chat window!

The post Why asynchronous collaboration is a must in hybrid work appeared first on HR Katha.

This not only meant that the life insurance company had to hire new sales personnel en masse, but it also had to reorient its existing teams to the new sales environment. “Till March 31, 2020, we were running with a sales philosophy of exclusive distributorship,” explains Menon. “But when Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank merged with the Union Bank of India, each of the entities brought along their own insurance partners. The plan was to move ahead with an open architecture. As a result, every Union Bank of India branch now had three life insurance competitors eyeing the same customer,” he adds.

Blend of buddies

To tackle the challenge, the HR team at IndiaFirst Life Insurance developed a blended solution of a buddy-like system. Instead of simply parking the new salesforce at the new branches added to its network, the life insurance company restructured and shuffled a majority of the team. “We put a healthy mix of existing employees and incoming talent in charge of the new branches,” informs Menon.

The idea was that although it was a new branch, it wasn’t an entirely new experience for the Company’s existing employees. “Since they were aware of our ways of working, setting up a new channel wasn’t such a challenge for them. Their experience blended with a newcomer’s fresh perspective helped us scale the new channel well. Plus, pairing them with the incoming talent also enabled us to impart the Company’s culture to the new employees in the remote- work reality,” he adds.

“We notice there is more ownership now. The sales teams feels empowered that they can simply sit in the confines of their homes and still run a webinar, invite customers, get leads and convert them.”

Virtual hiring & induction

The life insurance company was one of the few that was on a hiring spree when most organisations had put an immediate freeze on hiring. “We hired around 700 salespeople from the market,” states Menon. Of course, every aspect of hiring right up to induction was done virtually. “At that time, one of the first points to be considered was — do we have the required skill set, especially in HR, to evaluate the candidate over a virtual medium?” recounts Menon. “We trained the HR team on how to identify suitable candidates virtually, which proved to be a capability and knowledge-enhancement session for the HR team.”

The Company’s pre-COVID-19 induction sessions that ran into five days turned stale overnight and had to be reworked entirely. “Earlier, it used to be a classroom setting where one could attend day-long sessions, but the same cannot be replicated virtually. One is bound to lose track, or digital fatigue sets in with anything that’s over three hours long,” notes Menon. While the induction sessions were broken into sizeable portions spread over 10 days and curated for the virtual medium, the trainers too were retrained. “The training enabled them to deliver effectively through a virtual medium. They were also pleased with the company-funded upskilling because they felt they were now well-equipped to handle virtual training tools.”

Selling insurance online

As for meeting customers, now that in-person interaction was a big no-no, IndiaFirst Life Insurance decided to support its salesforce by setting up ‘e-sampark’ webinars. “Incidentally I also look after the sales training so we decided to support our sales team,” informs Menon. The Company hosted hour-long financial inclusion webinars wherein customers were invited through its bank partners network. The sales teams were mandated with customer invite targets with each webinar attended by 25 to 40 customers. “The idea was to enable our salespeople to continue meeting customers and generating leads virtually, if not in person. They were pretty excited by the concept too,” adds Menon.

Closing a sale virtually is no child’s play. “A physical meeting is usually a one-on-one interaction, but in a webinar, one is dealing with at least 30-40 customers at once so how does one engage them effectively? And of course, each customer will then have their own specific requirements,” explains Menon. “First we had to curate our programmes in a way that they appealed to a wide selection of people. But even to conduct such a session requires skill,” he adds.

While the initial webinars with customers were piloted by the sales trainers, gradually the Company organised ‘Train the Trainer’ programmes to upskill the rest of the salesforce. “The sales teams were attending the webinars themselves so they got a flavour of connecting with customers virtually. However, with the help of training, they were soon conducting the webinars independently,” says Menon. “We notice there is more ownership now. The sales teams feels empowered that they can simply sit in the confines of their homes and still run a webinar, invite customers, get leads and convert them.”

The post How IndiaFirst reoriented its salesforce to a new merged reality, virtually appeared first on HR Katha.

At a time when most companies were cutting costs and right-sizing, Appinventiv continued to hire from remote locations in Q2 of FY 20-21. It hired 100 people during the lockdown, and is planning to hire over 300 more. It is all set to record more than 200 per cent growth in revenue in H1 FY 2020 – 2021 vis-à-vis H1 of FY19-20.

Thanks to its contingency plan, the Company was able to successfully maintain business continuity with a few new policies, as well as its fiscal readiness amid the pandemic. Appinventiv ensured a seamless transition to work-from-home for all its people. Remote working and an agile culture allowed it to sustain 100 per cent operational capacity in less than 24 hours and today it claims to be truly acclimatized to the future of work.

Niharika Rawat, manager – HR, Appinventiv proudly shares, “We ensured that there were no COVID – 19 related job losses despite a little business impact initially. All the recent hires are being onboarded virtually even from remote locations and our entire onboarding is focussed on delivering a smooth and hassle-free joining experience.”

The Company boasts of having grown its clientele in the last six months and bagged multiple government projects including some key digital solutions for the Indian and Qatar governments.

The Company, which was established in 2015, has served over 700 clients across industries. Some of the notable clients in the list include Dominos, KFC, IKEA, ABP Live, Supertech and KPMG.

The post Appinventiv completes 2nd appraisal cycle, gives 22% hike to staff appeared first on HR Katha.

Despite the pandemic and related disruptions, the hiring and on-boarding of new joinees was carried out smoothly and seamlessly leveraging technology and digitsation of the recruitment process.

Employees have been hired across verticals for both delivery and non-delivery roles and across hierarchies. The departments hired for include business-development services, human resources, as well as marketing and corporate communications.

The hiring targets for the year are still in the pipeline, in addition to the 240 analyst-level posts already filled. Almost a 100 more positions will be finalised by the end of the year.

Keeping the remote-working scenario in mind, TresVista has tried to make the onboarding journey intuitive as well as engaging in the new normal. It has introduced several policies, such as the special caregivers’ leave and allowance for WFH setup.

Sudeep Mishra, co-founder and managing director, TresVista, shares, “Our focus remains on hiring talent with cross-functional capabilities and complementing that with improving the candidate experience throughout their tenure. A hybrid work model will be enabled when we reopen offices. This will offer flexibility to everyone while we continue to evolve from the learnings of a work-from-home setup.”

The post TresVista hires 300, will adopt hybrid work model appeared first on HR Katha.

Core teams

The immediate response was for everybody to huddle together, informs Dr Raj. “We created a team that was orchestrating all the interaction, guiding on protocols to be followed and ensuring supplies. There was a logistics operation that ensured a smooth transition to the cloud with no disruption to the business of our customers.” Thanks to these core teams, the infrastructure for remote work was set up within a matter of days, which helped the Company stay up and running throughout the lockdown.

Leadership communication

In a remote work environment, especially at the time of crisis, communication is key. “People have to be fed with lots of information about what is happening around and what people are doing,” says Raj. The organisation’s internal employee-communication platform was abuzz with chatter. “We were publishing a lot of information just to keep the engagement, morale and motivation high.”

“The immediate bosses give individual attention to the schedules of people, enabling their teams to balance both personal and professional responsibilities effectively.”

 

It is also a time when leaders must go the extra mile to be in touch with their workforce. “There was lots of communication from the leadership, which is continuing even today,” informs Raj. “In fact, immediate bosses are playing a much bigger role. For instance, every morning, they have a review meeting with their teams in which they not only talk about work but also try to get a holistic understanding of the person’s family.”

Pyramid at work

Newgen Software’s pyramid structure of reporting coupled with increased communication from immediate leadership helped the organisation address issues that would have otherwise perhaps not seen light of day. “Our reporting structures are so defined that at the most one person has a maximum of 10 to 15 people reporting to them,” explains Raj. “We call it the pyramid structure, which helps us ensure that every boss or team lead has a true picture of their colleague’s life beyond work.”

The pandemic situation is even grimmer now, says Raj. “It’s not only the individual but even the families that need support, from arranging medicines to shifting hospitals.” The organisation’s various departments, such as operations, HR and infrastructure used their networks to assist people and their families. “Our support was not limited just to the metros where we are present. We made sure that our help reached people even in far-off places,” adds Raj.

Respecting time

This year of working remotely and virtually also provided some new learnings that the Company has added to its crisis-responsive culture. “Output has transitioned from the boss to the individual,” points out Raj, “so now, there’s a lot more focus on people’s schedules.” Besides, considering the Company services clients located all over the world, schedules also had to be adjusted for time zones.

“There are mothers who have small babies to support, some employees have elderly parents to take care of. We realised we had to align to these schedules as well,” says Raj. “The immediate bosses gave a lot of individual attention to the schedules of people, enabling their teams to balance both personal and professional responsibilities effectively.”

All of these factors put together not only helped the company respond to the year’s challenges but also led to some positive developments. “I can happily tell you that productivity and engagement have gone up and our attrition is lower compared to normal times,” states Raj.

The post Newgen’s 4 hacks for a crisis-responsive culture appeared first on HR Katha.

Keeping in mind the health and well being of its employees, the Company had rolled out a compulsory remote-working policy earlier this year. It had also offered its employees a number of special benefits, including an allowance to update their home office, initiatives to help them advance in their careers, leave to rest and relax and focus on their mental health, virual programmes to improve their mental health and even loaned them office equipment.

The Company has been facilitating a work-life balance for its employees by allowing flexible work schedules during the pandemic. All the initiatives introduced by Druva have been done keeping in mind the “employees’ well being above everything else,” said Milind Borate, co-founder and Chief Development Officer, Druva.

The other benefits rolled out for the employees were, and employee assistance program (EAP) to provide holistic mental wellness support for employees and their dependents, across the country, with the help of professional counsellors. The employees were encouraged to focus on a healthy lifestyle and their physical fitness. The revised fitness reimbursement policy reimbursed their expenses on wellness activities or purchases, such as fitness classes, trackers or online sessions or video games. Insurance cover was also extended to include the employees’ dependents. In some areas, a paid top-up options was made available with support to manage the premium. Concierge services have been extended to a door-step service.

Throughout the pandemic Druva has continued to onboard people, offer timely promotions, annual increments and also maintained timely business delivery. The Company is clearly focused on accelerating growth through 2021, as it anticipates a greater need for its cloud data protection technologies during these times of increased cloud migration.

The post Druva to allow remote working till spring 2021, take on 15% new hires appeared first on HR Katha.

The results have led Canon India to ask some very important questions pertaining to the future of its workplaces. “We are looking at roles that can be moved to the home. Whether or not we really require office locations is a question that we are looking into. Not only Canon, but most HR people will be thinking about optimising costs, considering the current situation. Whether the focus will be on benefits or manpower optimisation or office locations, will require a complete study.”

Canon India has paused hiring as it wishes to assess the market first before inducting new joinees. Rai admits they are maintaining the status quo, and believes it is not the correct time to hire, for an industry like theirs. However, the organisation seems keen on a hybrid workspace, which can become the new normal soon. Even when there are just a limited number of people in the office, certain safety measures have to be in place, especially due to the current scenario. That can have some bearings on the cost as well.

“People have now tasted e-learning in a big way. While they were only experimenting with it in the past, now they are embracing it by force. Therefore, from an HR strategy point of view, L&D spends will be more on digital than classrooms.”

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Rai informs that they are undertaking a detailed study to factor in all that for a changed setup. “Making changes to the existing workspace will be more difficult and will entail more costs. Shifting to a new location will be a better option than altering the existing offices, which are all leased spaces in our case. On moving to a new space, we can look at the new style of working,” Rai elaborates.

While there is a freeze on hiring at the organisation, the review process of the existing employees has undergone a bit of a makeover. “Sales personnel had queries about how they would show their numbers in their appraisal cycle. We let them know that we are aware that they cannot achieve those numbers or sales. However, we also pushed them towards projects that they wouldn’t or couldn’t otherwise take up in their day-to-day firefighting. Therefore, between the managers and employees, we discussed what we could do differently. Many took up automation projects, or even database-cleaning exercises.” Rai emphasised on the trust-based method adopted to assess performance.

Rai believes that learning and development will undergo immense change in the future. “People have now tasted e-learning in a big way. While they were only experimenting with it in the past, now they are embracing it by force. Therefore, from an HR strategy point of view, L&D spends will be more on digital than classrooms. This means, much of the savings on travel and gathering people together, will now be diverted to e-learning and digital methods. I think it will be a big shift.”

Canon India had 40 per cent of its staff working from home anyway. When the lockdown began it merely had to accommodate another 20 per cent.

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The company that provides IT security and data-protection solutions has successfully hired and digitally onboarded more than 150 new employees during the lockdown, for its security labs, sales team and the R&D wing.

The hiring is expected to continue, with Quick Heal gearing up to diversity its enterprise product portfolio under ‘Seqrite’. It has collaborated with various educational institutions and created long-term and short-term courses on cybersecurity, through its education division, Quick Heal Academy. The objective is to make talent future ready and capable of controlling cyber crimes.

Reetu Raina, CHRO, Quick Heal Technologies, believes that this is the best time to invest in employees and “incentivise them for the hard work and dedication they bring to the table”. She rightly feels that it is the employer’s “responsibility to boost the morale of the employees and help them navigate through the crisis by addressing their concerns and apprehensions.”

Quick Heal simplifies security by offering the ace quality protection against even the most advanced cyber attacks. Its recognized by the brand names, ‘Quick Heal’ and ‘Seqrite’.

The post Salary hikes for employees of Quick Heal Technologies w.e.f October 2020 appeared first on HR Katha.

“We have hired about 200 people since the beginning of the pandemic. We have in place multiple batches of analysts, associates, marketing and software professionals. About 15 people joined HR just this week,” reveals Mishra. He also mentions that requisitions are still coming in from different departments for further recruitments, which means, they will have probably have to begin prioritising now.

While Mishra agrees that some firms were definitely struggling in the first few months of the pandemic, leading to job losses, the situation has stabilised now. “Quality talent has been picked up, as many firms are hiring now. There is a larger talent pool available now than a few months ago, and things will be completely stable by the New Year.”

The hiring process, however, will undergo a lot of changes. In case of TresVista, the process earlier involved a round of aptitude tests and two rounds of in-person interviews, followed by training. However, all that has gone remote now. Mishra is more concerned about the new joinees than his existing employees. “I think people are underestimating on-boarding when we talk about HR. The problem isn’t with the existing employees. I worry about people who have joined new. The culture would have been different had these people been met in the office. Everything is very transactional now. How that’s going to play out is the biggest challenge. Not everything can be done remotely obviously. Probably about 20-30 per cent of the process can be achieved remotely, which also reduces cost.”

Geography has lost a lot of ground as a qualifier in terms of looking for good talent. The remote working setup in the last few months has proved that in more ways than one, and productivity does not get compromised either. This, in turn, has increased the size of the talent pool now. While Mishra does not think it has widened as much, he does believe it is a really good opportunity to hire talent from anywhere now. It has opened up a lot of possibilities.

TresVista also has a Permanent Employee Mobility solution for the post COVID time. “Permanent employee mobility solution, a hybrid solution, where we are at home when it needs to be and we are also in office. Being in the office is extremely important for creativity and company culture. Giving complete flexibility to everyone, giving that tech and mobility to the employees is going to help scale the business.”

When it comes to the performance-management system, assessing the new joinees becomes tricky. Many companies have upgraded their systems to accommodate pandemic-induced shifts that they have noticed. However, Mishra informs that while the PMS at TresVista didn’t necessarily go through any major upgrade, they have definitely relooked into the review process.

TresVista, which has completed 14 years, takes pride in the fact that it has an effective way of reaching out to its employees. Mishra is quite proud of the ‘caregiver’s leave’, which allows the employee to take two weeks of leave if somebody in the family is unwell. The two weeks in question need not be two straight weeks either, but can be staggered. The Company had stopped the BCP planning meetings five months ago, after the transition to remote working setup was completed.

The post How TresVista changed its talent acquisition during pandemic appeared first on HR Katha.

While the corporate offices and sales and marketing teams warmed up to working remotely using technology, some divisions — those involved in functions, such as manufacturing, in particular, that are simply not compatible with remote work — were completely taken by surprise. “We had four aspects of the business to consider — manufacturing, R&D, corporate offices and sales & marketing. Each presented its own set of challenges,” recounts Srivastava.

In addition, every city and state had its own set of COVID-19 regulations. There simply could not be a blanket, one-size-fits-all solution for multi-functional and multi-geographical companies, such as Cipla. “We figured out what needs to continue to work, what cannot stop, as well as the issues that can stop the business — not just in India but across the globe,” says Srivastava.

 What kind of distributed leadership, cybersecurity, learning development will be required? How do we start using virtual reality or augmented reality to deliver something better? How will we adopt things which we don’t even know exist right now?  These are some of the key questions HR leaders will be tackling in the near future.

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Micro-customised solutions

To tackle this, the pharma company formulated division-customised solutions. It addressed micro issues with the help of each department head. “Answers were sought to questions, such as ‘Who are the people that can work from home?’ ‘How will their work be impacted?’ ‘How do we ensure business continuity?’ Then came the task of identifying the employees that necessarily had to come to the office and why,” continues Srivastava.

These decisions were made amidst a list of COVID-19 protocols, which too were evolving fast. “We were working under close scrutiny. However, as a company, we wanted to put the safety of our employees first,” says Srivastava. “We decided that in the short run it was okay to take a little hit if we had to.”

Mobilising task forces

It is easier talking about it now, six months later, after the dust has settled and companies have had the time to recalibrate. However, at the time, achieving this mammoth task list was no easy feat for HR leaders, who had to mobilise employee strengths running into thousands.

“A lot of work has gone on behind the scenes,” points out Srivastava, adding, “We created a cross-functional international task force. Initially, we used to have a one-hour call every alternate day, which became weekly after a few months and continues till today.”

Coming up with large-scale solutions on the go, meant there was absolutely no time to waste. “We were thinking and talking only implementable solutions,” shares Srivastava.

On their feet

Yet, once the lockdown finally hit, HR leaders soon realised that thinking on their toes was going to be their new reality for the rest of the year. There were unexpected challenges that they could not address until they were actually facing them.

Devising solutions for divisions, such as manufacturing and R&D, in compliance with COVID-19 guidelines proved the most challenging. Cipla’s R&D division is primarily based out of Mumbai, and therefore, the commute to work proved to be a huge obstacle.

“We never had an official transportation system because our Mumbai-based employees used public transport. Suddenly that became a problem,” recalls Srivastava. Then there were social-distancing norms to be followed. “Our labs used to run at a strength of 400 to 500 people. Obviously, we could not call everybody into the labs,” he states. “We didn’t know how to handle it initially, but gradually we started finding solutions.”

Commuting woes

Working in shifts was the best way to get the labs working with social distancing. “In R&D, we had never worked in shifts before,” notes Srivastava. “We figured out who necessarily needs to come.” To solve the problem of commute in the absence of Mumbai’s public transport, Cipla hired an army of buses. “We decided to spend a lot of money on hiring buses. This extra expenditure involved not just the hiring cost, but that of running the buses in two shifts and sanitising them each time.”

Fear and stress

The most perplexing dilemma with regard to divisions that simply could not remain shut after a point was that “people were scared to come to work,” says Srivastava. Protocols to ensure the physical fitness of employees were in place but, “We realised there’s a lot of stress so the most important thing became giving people the confidence to come to work,” says Srivastava.

As a company, Cipla already engages its employees with several mental health institutions. “We ramped that up, not just for our employees but their families too,” claims Srivastava. It helped that Cipla works in pharma. “We connect with a lot of doctors, and therefore, we asked them to hold virtual seminars to address some of the employees’ concerns related to COVID and stress management, among other things,” reveals Srivastava.

Humane solutions

For employees whose role demanded they be at work during the pandemic, Cipla created an extra allowance. “We also set up an ambulance service for COVID-affected employees and their families,” explains Srivastava. “We now also have our own quarantine centre in Mumbai, in case a COVID-positive employee doesn’t want to isolate at home,” adds Srivastava.

Cipla has already introduced a programme called ‘Caring for Life Partner’. For any COVID or non-COVID death in the company, everyone is encouraged to contribute Rs 100. Therefore, around Rs 20 lakh goes to the family of the deceased!

Technology saves the day

It is no secret that technology has been the ultimate saviour this year. 2020 has forced the shift to digital, whether one likes it or not. COVID-19 became a big catalyst for the Company’s move towards virtual reality. Cipla developed several technology-backed tools to ensure a smooth transition to remote work. “We immediately shifted to apps that helped us monitor and track employee performance,” claims Srivastava.

Key learnings

It has been a rough year for all of us, but the paradigm shift in global work culture perhaps invited the biggest learnings for HR leaders. “Being change-agile is a big one,” states Srivastava, “knowing that whatever you’ve thought can change in a day’s time. Be ready to be shaken with something you didn’t expect.”

Srivastava is already preparing for the post-COVID world. “We are in the ‘during COVID’ phase right now, but ‘post-COVID’ is not going to be the same. There are going to be some drastic changes again. For me, the biggest learning is to be ready for that change,” asserts Srivastava.

“What kind of distributed leadership, cybersecurity, learning development will be required? How do we start using virtual reality or augmented reality to deliver something better? How will we adopt things which we don’t even know exist right now?” Srivastava believes these are some of the key questions HR leaders will be tackling in the near future.

The post Cipla is future ready after 2020’s onslaught of challenges appeared first on HR Katha.

Own your family

A particular initiative that stands out is the ‘own your family’ initiative pushed by the organisation for its managers. The concept required every manager to take care of their team members like their own family at home. All managers were asked to check in on the welfare of their teams regularly, by staying connected and enquiring after their health periodically. In case an employee was found to be suffering from a health challenge, then the health and safety department was notified, who, along with HR, went ahead to support the concerned employee. In addition, managers were encouraged to help their teams plan their leaves so that work did not suffer even while the employees got some respite from the work-from-home fatigue.

Care and concern was not restricted to health alone. Singh mentions that in many cases employees also rose to the occasion personally. For instance, if a colleague staying alone was facing problems in terms of food (as food delivery was affected), during the lockdown, the colleagues staying nearest supported them in such times. Even when it came to checking on elderly parents of colleagues living in another city, colleagues volunteered to visit the parents to check whether all is fine. Such initiatives created empathy and bonding within the team.

Upskilling and bite-sized learning

All employees were provided access to bite-sized learning modules, and encouraged to use this time to upskill themselves. The R&D department partnered with HR to upskill functional capabilities for all teams, including relearning product knowledge, how to manage work-from-home and behavioural competencies. Singh mentions how topics that were a need of the hour, were shared among the employees, as working from home was an unusual change for everyone involved.

We introduced an efficient tech platform through an application which has features, such as online doctor consultation, book-a-doctor for appointment, facility to order medicines and appointment for lab tests

Engagement

The organisation encouraged several engagement initiatives during this time. One of the primary ones was a quiz competition called Qurious. Here, participating teams were selected after winning in their respective states and then the competition was elevated to a regional and national level. Around 700 people participated in the virtual quiz event.

Health and safety

In terms of safety and wellness, Akzo Nobel has designed initiatives keeping in mind the core pillars of self and family, team and organisation. Around the beginning of March, it launched its digital outpatient department (OPD) solutions for its employees. “We introduced an efficient tech platform through an application which has features, such as online doctor consultation, book-a-doctor for appointment, facility to order medicines and appointment for lab tests,” says Singh. This offered employees an absolutely contactless experience, while fulfilling their needs during the lockdown.

A preventive wellness programme was introduced three months back along with its OPD and insurance schemes for the general wellbeing of its employees. Under this programme, individuals suffering from chronic diseases have access to counselling sessions to overcome them. Employees receive help in planning their schedules better and in coping with their health issues. In addition, they also have access to an employee-assistance programme to help them deal with the stress and anxiety during these times.

The employees at the depots were trained on protective measures, while the sales team was trained on safe selling practices.

Communication

As a part of its efforts to listen to its employees, understand their concerns and communicate more, Akzo Nobel hosted weekly town halls every Friday. Their duration was extended to last for one and a half hours, to allow people to voice their problems and address questions they sought answers to.

To follow up on its own efforts, the management hosted pulse surveys to determine if all concerns voiced during the town halls were covered and whether employees were satisfied. In addition, the management endeavoured to constantly communicate with the employees and update them on any new developments within the company. Helpful tips and suggestions were also passed on through weekly mails, every Monday.

Akzo Nobel began opening up its manufacturing units in May, in line with local conditions in and around the plants. After June 8, the organisation opened up its regional offices with minimal staffing of 20 to 25 per cent. The corporate office in Gurgaon is still in a work-from- home mode with only the critical staff commuting to work.

The Company has five manufacturing sites at Bangalore, Mumbai, Gwalior, Mohali (Punjab) and Hyderabad. It has its research and development centres at Bangalore and Mumbai along with its regional offices. The Company’s regional offices are operating with less than 30 per cent capacity. The organisation has 1800 full-time employees and over 700 contract workers.

Most of the plants are currently working with 70 to 80 per cent capacity, in terms of workforce. Output varies depending on the forecast and demand from the plants. However, on an average, most of them are running two shifts per day. For the R&D centres, they are running at 50 per cent capacity in terms of the workforce.

Singh claims that the organisation has been running at almost 70 per cent of its 2019 performance. “The pace may pick up as the season is coming up ahead. Decorative paints is our largest seller,” she says.

The post How Akzo Nobel went people-first through the lockdown appeared first on HR Katha.

However, not everyone needs to travel to work every day, unless there is a need to deposit a cheque or to meet with a customer. “Only 30 per cent of employees can work out of each branch at a time,” reveals Shishir Agarwal, director-HR, PNB MetLife.

As the branches are open six days a week, the Company has created two-day rosters for all branch staff. Employees are divided into groups, and each group works for two days at a single branch.

Out of the 12,000+ strong workforce in the organisation, 90 per cent of the employees work in sales. This includes 3,500 employees who operate out of partner bank branches and around 2,000 employees who work out of PNB’s own branches. The total workforce strength also includes 5,500 part-time employees.

“Two weeks before the lockdown, we went into testing our business continuity plans for a possible work-from-home scenario. This proved helpful to figure out which employees were in need of necessary infrastructure, such as laptops, data cards and VPN connections. We were able to help their smooth transition into the work-from-home mode with minimal disruption to customers.”

The Company recently opened up four branches in Delhi NCR, including one each in Noida and Gurugram.

In a conversation with HRKatha, Agarwal shares how in the past few months, there has been an acceleration towards the shift to digital, and most of the business is currently taking place virtually.

While the shift towards digital has been increasing, Agarwal adds that a turnaround to going full virtual is not possible for the industry.

“While we have been on the journey towards working more digitally, it is not possible to go completely digital, especially in a bank-insurance partnership. Ultimately, both physical and digital, will have to coexist,” opines Agarwal.

However, the Company started practising remote working just before the lockdown was announced. “Two weeks before the lockdown, we went into testing our business continuity plans for a possible work-from-home scenario. This proved helpful to figure out which employees were in need of necessary infrastructure, such as laptops, data cards and VPN connections. We were able to help their smooth transition into the work-from-home mode with minimal disruption to customers,” claims Agarwal.

At PNB MetLife, except for the branch employees, the corporate office employees are continuing to work from home for the moment.

To ensure that employees remained financially healthy, PNB MetLife paid their monthly salaries four days earlier than the usual pay-out date in March and April.

“During the months of April, May and June, we paid full salaries to all employees, irrespective of their attendance, as we realised that it was not possible for everyone to commute to office during the time,” says Agarwal.

In addition to their regular salaries, employees were paid their incentives, bonuses and increments.

For the sales team, the Company adopted digital through its real-time customer service app, Khushi, to enable its workers to service customers from home. Sales leaders in the organisation set up daily virtual sales huddles to discuss leads and how to advise customers in a virtual environment.

Agarwal mentions that training has been one of the key enablers for the sales team in the organisation. While the majority of sales used to happen primarily because of walk-in customers at the branches, going virtual required employees to be guided on how to engage with customers more proactively and bring in business.

Speaking on performance, he said that since the months of April, May and July are typically lean, in terms of business, for the insurance sector, employees’ performance was assessed more liberally.

“We had encouraged our employees to meet their annual sales targets and not focus on one quarter alone,” reveals Agarwal.

In the areas of engagement and learning, the organisation has initiated multiple activities. There are regular leadership talks, initiated by Michel A. Khalaf, CEO, MetLife, where he connects with different groups of employees across the world every 15 days.

Recently, the Company’s brand ambassador, P.V. Sindhu shared her own experiences and offered tips on taking care of mental and physical health during the lockdown. In addition, the Company also has weekly ‘Chai pe Charcha’ sessions as a part of its fun activities.

The post How PNB MetLife’s workforce is coping with the virtual model appeared first on HR Katha.

On the flipside, there are also companies going the whole hog to take control of the situation and get the best out of it.

Pavitra Singh, CHRO, PepsiCo India, shares with HRKatha, “In the current times, we have reflected on what we need to do differently, challenged norms and ensured that ways of working become more agile and drive faster decision making. We have looked at all cost lines, prioritised discretionary costs and strengthened ecosystem partnerships. There are various process improvements that we have focused on to drive efficiencies at all levels.”

For any given company, according to Singh, there are two types of costs — good costs and bad costs.

“Bench planning and talent development for us is an ongoing legacy process, and this year will be no different in terms of our commitment to give unique careers and critical development experiences to our employees. We have our pulse on outside talent too to ensure that we are investing in future capabilities ahead of the curve.”

Good costs include training and investments in R&D, innovation and advertising, while bad costs are those discretionary costs that are not needed immediately.

Singh says, “A crisis provides a good opportunity to relook at the existing systems and identify the bad costs to drive efficiencies.”

“At PepsiCo India, we are leveraging this time to strengthen our business, build efficiencies and continue to invest in good costs to build future capabilities and talent,” she adds.

For instance, the Company has been investing heavily on internal talent development through key capability interventions.

PepsiCo India has been organising leader-led sessions, powerful online learning platforms and leveraging industry experts through its ‘Outside-In’ series, for its employees.

“Bench planning and talent development for us is an ongoing legacy process, and this year will be no different in terms of our commitment to give unique careers and critical development experiences to our employees. We have our pulse on outside talent too to ensure that we are investing in future capabilities ahead of the curve,” claims Singh.

Meanwhile, PepsiCo India has also honoured all its commitments to the external hires — Millennial campus talent — and extended internships and offers. It will continue to do so for the remaining year as well.

Singh believes that communication is the key during these uncertain times. “Employee communication has been the biggest lever for us to reinforce certainty and make sure that everyone has access to information about company operations and performance,” she explains.

In the initial phase, the Company organised weekly townhalls to ensure flow of information and build a connect with the employees as they tried to adapt to the new normal.

Now, the Company has moved to just one company-wide townhall every month, where there are interactive sessions between the employees and the senior leaders. “Employees are encouraged to ask questions. Our long-standing tradition to ‘voice opinions fearlessly’ with or without townhalls, encourages our employees to keep sharing their feedback, ideas and questions,” shares Singh.

“We have been leveraging multiple formats to ensure continuous employee listening, which is key during such challenging times, to get a feel of the pulse of the organisation,” she points out.

PepsiCo India believes that while it is important to listen to the employees, it is equally important to provide them with a feedback on their work. That is why, the Company will ensure that the performance-management process is completed within its due time.

Singh is of the opinion that, difficult times or not, providing feedback on how employees have performed will always remain core to the performance-management process. Shying away from it is not the right strategy.

“This year has provided an opportunity to rethink on the traditional metrics of measurement, and instead, focus a lot more on the ‘How Tos’ — collaboration, agility, future-first thinking,” she states.

Singh also clarifies that 2020 has made the Company cognizant of the fact that it has not been a level playing field for all due to multiple circumstances, unique to different individuals. The Company will continue to take cognizance of this and attempt to strike the right balance.

PepsiCo India has three sets of employees – one which works out of offices, another which is out in the market and a third which works in its factories and bottling plants.

“We have opened our plants after core process changes to ensure that staffing such that it facilitates social distancing. We have got logs and measures in place to ensure ‘contact-tracing’ for all workers,” reveals Singh.

For the office-based workforce, it was easy to adapt to the new normal because, the Company has been practising a remote-working model for several years now, with limited key roles across India and the world.

“So, when the pandemic hit, we took it to the next level and quickly scaled up to adapt our working styles to full scope for all our office-based workforce. We are still operating at 100 per cent remote working for all office employees, until we see a declining number of cases in India,” Singh asserts.

For its frontline employees, PepsiCo India has been extending safe travel and stay privileges across its sales territories. In addition, the Company has insured all its frontline staff, including the off-roll employees employed with the distribution partners. “We extended them medical benefits in case of COVID-19,” shares Singh.

PepsiCo India took an additional COVID 19 insurance and a higher coverage for the workmen, while also covering costs of home care as a part of the hospitalisation policy for all its employees.

The post How PepsiCo India has been re-strategising its workforce since the pandemic appeared first on HR Katha.

Due to the uncertainty in the job market, there has been a greater tendency to look towards further studies rather than pursue a job. Suresh Tripathi, VP-HRM, Tata Steel, says, “Not many people are looking for a job change right now. Earlier, we had people joining us for a year or two, but now they are opting for higher studies.”

He adds that they have put a hold on lateral hiring for the moment. However, campus recruits will continue to be onboarded virtually.

The steel major has now come back to working at 75 per cent capacity at the plants. During the initial period of nationwide lockdown, workforce capacity at the plants was at 25 per cent. The number of employees distributed across the plants and mines comes to around 26,000 in total. They work on a rotational basis with shifts changing every week.

“The concern in an industry like ours is that one cannot stop work. If a plant goes through an inactive or chill period, the costs of getting production to resume are huge.”

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Out of the total workforce capacity of 32,000, corporate office employees number close to 7000, and currently, all of them are working from home. The organisation has mandated that employees need not commute to the office, unless absolutely necessary. Tripathi says that the organisation plans to continue operations from home until normalisation returns.

The Company has taken measures beyond the usual SOPs followed by every organisation, to ensure employee health and safety, in addition to production continuity.

On the shop floor, to ensure minimum transmission of infection, the workforce has been divided into individual groups called pods. Each pod consists of a maximum of 10 self-sufficient workers across operations, maintenance and contractors. They do not need to depend on anyone outside the group for any assigned job, thereby restricting the need for inter-pod communication or contact. This initiative is active across plants in Jamshedpur, Kalinganagar and Angul, where workers have been divided into hundreds of pods.

To reduce the risk of contamination, a 30-minute air gap is maintained between two shifts. Each group leaves 15 minutes early, post which the area and tools are sanitised. The next group arrives 15 minutes later and re-sanitises the area and tools.

In addition, the organisation has introduced a real-time workforce-tracking measure through ‘Suraksha Cards’. These devices are capable of sensing a large group of people gathered at one place and detect violation of social distancing norms on the shop floor or anywhere else inside the plant premises.

For the employees working from home, learning initiatives have been introduced, in the form of online course content. Employees have been given the opportunity to learn at their own pace and choice. There is a lot of activity taking place through online webinars, which are conducted by various subject-matter experts. The top management interacts regularly with the employees and their families, and discussions occur where employees voice their concerns. Tripathi adds that he interacts with employee groups and their families every other day, to find out about their health and wellbeing.

However, he also mentions that there have been less concerns regarding job security among the employees. “Close to 30 per cent of our employees are now the fifth generation that has been working in the organisation. On the job security side, employees have remained fairly assured that there will be no retrenchment.”

Speaking on the challenges ahead, Tripathi mentions that the biggest challenge for the steel industry right now is the market. There is anticipation of demand hike and huge uncertainty regarding when it will happen. Even if the demand decreases, production will have to continue. At Tata Steel, during the initial days of lockdown, when the workforce capacity at the plants fell down below 30 per cent, production went on, although at a reduced pace. While production of finished goods was put on hold, the semi-finished material continued to be produced. Finished goods were rolled out later, when the markets opened up. “The concern in an industry like ours is that one cannot stop work. If a plant goes through an inactive or chill period as we call it, the costs of getting production to resume are huge,” explains Tripathi.

Despite the issues, Tripathi points out that there has been a huge learning for the industry. Earlier, it was unthinkable for a steel plant to run from home, but companies have gone ahead and done it. “As a result, we have realised that there are a lot of jobs which can become location agnostic. This gives people the opportunity to work from anywhere and provides us with a larger talent pool to tap into,” he concludes.

The post Tata Steel freezes lateral hiring, continues campus recruitment appeared first on HR Katha.

Out of the 35,000 plus strong global workforce, Mylan Labs has around 18,000 plus employees in its India business. Out of the total, around 4000 employees work in the R&D division across five centres and close to 12,000 employees work in the manufacturing plants. The remaining 2000 odd employees work in the corporate office, out of which around 800 work in the sales and marketing division.

“Through our robust IT infrastructure, we have been able to provide all employees the necessary equipment, such as desktops, laptops and internet connectivity, for a smooth transition to remote working.”

The special bonus has been mandated by the organisation for all employees working in the plants and R&D centres. This includes the contractual labour in the plants, who are paid their monthly salary based on their daily attendance. Under the special bonus scheme, employees are paid 50 per cent extra over and above their monthly salaries across levels and functions.

In addition, to ensure that employees need not worry about their financial status during the complete lockdown period, Mylan India moved up the payout date of employees to a week before the usual date, which falls around the last day of the month. The organisation plans to continue this practice as well until normalisation returns.

Beside the bonus, the employees have been receiving their regular salaries, increments and annual bonuses too.

Across its 35 manufacturing units in the country, all workers have been given training on safety and precautionary measures and how to operate in the new normal. Safety kits, including hand gloves, sanitisers and masks have been provided to all. Every two hours there is a PA announcement on the dos and don’ts during operations, in the plants.

Within two to three days of the lockdown, the Company acquired government permission to resume work. Currently, all Mylan plants are operating at 60 per cent capacity with all social distancing norms and hygiene systems in place. All employees are driven to and from their residences in company buses and vans, which are sanitised after every trip. A similar procedure has been followed for the R&D centres as well.

“We have designed the operation in a way that production has not been affected by the decrease in workforce at the plants,” says Udbhav Ganjoo, SVP and head-HR, Mylan Labs India.

In the corporate offices, the management has kept the upper limit for maximum occupation at 30 per cent at one time. All employees are encouraged to work from home as far as possible and need to commute to the office only when their managers deem it necessary.

In the sales and marketing force, around 50 per cent have been mandated to work in the field after being equipped with all necessary precautionary measures, while the rest of them work from home. Every 14 days, there is a rotation and those working from home go out into the field while those on the ground go back to working from home for the next two weeks. The field personnel are required to provide daily updates on where they have been and what their health status is.

In addition, for the sales and marketing staff and those in the plants and R&D centres, the Company has arranged accommodation at nearby hotels and paying guest facilities. For instance, in Bangalore, as the travelling distances are significant, living facilities were set up so that employees need not travel back should they wish not to. This was also done as a precautionary measure, just in case somebody contracted the virus and required isolation for a few days.

The Company has a global IT centre in Bangalore with close to 800 employees, which Ganjoo says, has been instrumental in facilitating their shift to working from home. “Through our robust IT infrastructure, we have been able to provide all employees the necessary equipment, such as desktops, laptops and internet connectivity, for a smooth transition to remote working,” he adds.

This month, the company launched an additional Covid-19 medical insurance coverage for all its employees and their families, over and above the regular health insurance, for a duration of one year.

Amidst all the pressure, Mylan has honoured all commitments made to its new recruits in January and has continued to hire virtually during this time. Till now, around 70 to 80 employees have been hired as management trainees and pharmaceutical trainees.

The post Monthly bonuses to continue for employees at Mylan Labs India appeared first on HR Katha.

With eyewear stores getting closed in the first and second phases of the lockdown, sales took a hit. Consequently, business dropped to almost zero. Even after the lockdown was lifted in some parts and the eyewear stores were allowed to open for a few hours, business picked up at a very slow pace, because these stores had to be closed by evening, which is actually the time for maximum customer footfall.

However, the low business volume failed to deter the Company. It saw an opportunity during the lull period, and optimised it to train its sales force and also the staff at the client stores.

Srees PP, head-HR, Essilor South Asia, says, “When business is as usual and at its peak, there is always a scarcity of time to upskill the workforce. That is why, we declared April and May as learning months, during which we engaged with our people and trained them.”

“As part of our global programme, we undertook product training and rewarded the sales employees handsomely,” reveals Sree.

As mentioned, the training was not restricted only to the internal team, but extended even to the opticians and their staff, who were imparted digital training sessions.

 “When business is as usual and at its peak, there is always a scarcity of time to upskill the workforce. That is why, we declared April and May as learning months, during which we engaged with our people and trained them.”

“The opticians are our local trusted men, and they are in direct contact with the customers. Therefore, we used to the lockdown period to brush up their knowledge on the latest technologies deployed at our manufacturing units,” points out Srees.

Srees also admits that the Company underwent a radical change in HR belief during and post the lockdown. “As a company, we became more outcome focussed,” he declares.

The Company had fully functional teams equipped to work from home. Generally, in the manufacturing space, the concept of remote working does not exist at all and employees are required to be physically present at the workplace.

“We realised that we do not need the entire workforce all the time. There are certain functions that require employees to come in to work once in a week and there are others that do not need them to come in at all unless the job absolutely requires them to,” he explains.

Srees discloses that due to the uncertainty all around, the Company is taking it one month at a time. “We are ensuring that the workforce stays motivated and feels they are equal partners in this journey.”

When asked about the performance appraisal, Srees says that the Company plans to reward the employees for their performance during these challenging times, by the end of this year. “We have kept the criteria as flexible as possible, and it will undergo change,” he reveals.

The post How Essilor found an opportunity in disruption appeared first on HR Katha.

The Company’s employee strength is around 1860, which includes 100 employees each at its corporate headquarters, in Kolkata, and the regional office in Guwahati.

Sudipto Mandal, vice president and CHRO, Star Cement, says, “We believe this is the time to focus on the basics and fundamentals.”

Right on track, the full salaries for all employees, including contract workers, have been paid regularly and without fail. Immediately after the sudden lockdown was imposed, the top management at Star Cement decided to pay employees their salaries for the month of March a little earlier than the usual disbursement date. As a result, employees received their pay almost immediately after the nationwide lockdown was imposed. There have been no pay cuts till date.

“A culture of safety and well-being has already been embedded in the DNA of the organisation. Providing psychological safety to employees in terms of jobs and salary, ensuring role clarity while adopting work from home, and continuous and compassionate communication on an ongoing basis have all helped to establish trust and confidence amongst the employees in these times of adversity.”

The Company has one plant in Guwahati and a township at Lumshnong town, in Meghalaya. During the lockdown, Star Cement distributed masks and other protective equipment among the citizens of the township and arranged for all necessary items, such as groceries, to be stocked within the premises. In the meantime, all its corporate office employees working at the headquarters in Kolkata and at the Guwahati branch had shifted to working from home.

Being a manufacturing company, the shift to WFH mode was a new phenomenon. To ensure that regular work continued for the staff at home, the management shifted all necessary items, such as desktops and laptops to the homes of employees and took care of their data and connection expenses as well. A template was designed for all employees working from home, which outlined their deliverables and how to achieve them. In addition, managers were tasked with providing clarity to their team members on what work needed to be done each day. They were also required to be in regular touch with the employees, to be able to address any kind of anxiety or other issues that they may face while working from home.

The Unlock

Around April 20, the Company decided to get the workforce back to the plants and resume work. However, prior to that, it created stringent SOPs for all the employees. Officers workers resumed work from office only after the Unlock.

It was during that time that the employees were offered the COVID insurance cover for the year, along with a promise from the Company that all expenses would be taken care of if any employee happened to catch the infection. This policy is valid for all employees on the rolls of the Company.

Two task forces — one at the plant level and another at the corporate level — were created to ensure that all safety guidelines, procedures and norms were strictly followed at all places and at all times.

The plant inside the township at Lumshnong, according to local norms, is allowed to operate, being within the premises. On the other hand, the Guwahati-based plant has been allowed to operate at 50 per cent capacity after the relaxation of the most recent lockdown.

As for the corporate offices, Mandal says the new workspaces are bigger than before and have enough capacity to accommodate all employees and ensure social distancing at the same time.

Preventive measures within the office include sanitisation before going in, toothpicks in the lifts to facilitate touchless entry and exit and constant sanitisation of all high-touch areas within the office, such as doorknobs and handles among others. For the canteen, a no-food-from-outside policy is in place, and employees are encouraged to bring their own food. All cutlery has been replaced with disposable plates, cups and other items.

In Mandal’s words, “These are simple ways to reassure the employees and automatically earn their trust.”

He further adds, “A culture of safety and well-being has already been embedded in the DNA of the organisation. Providing psychological safety to employees in terms of jobs and salary, ensuring role clarity while adopting work from home, and continuous and compassionate communication on an ongoing basis have all helped to establish trust and confidence amongst the employees in these times of adversity.”

Star Cement’s approach to taking care of its workforce has been simple and effective. By ensuring that the primary requirements of individuals are met, in terms of job security and financial security, it has assured employees of their psychological and physiological safety during this pandemic.

The post NE-based Star Cement promises to bear COVID-related expenses of staff appeared first on HR Katha.

However, in the last quarter, HCL Technologies had also mentioned that there will be no layoffs. Staying true to its commitment, HCL has ensured job security for its employees as long as their performance is up to the mark.

Speaking to HRKatha, Varre Appa Rao, CHRO, HCL Technologies, says, “Typically, there will be a small percentage of people who will exit because of performance, which is the same for any industry. But, we will surely not be reducing our workforce due to the drop in business.”

That is not all. The tech firm plans to continue its lateral hiring. It will recruit as per demand.

“We never stopped hiring in the first place. Currently, it is going on at the right pace. Our lateral hiring is dependent on two factors, attrition and growth,” points out Rao.

As there was a complete lockdown situation, Rao adds that the Company was a little slow in lateral hiring, but with the relaxation in government guidelines, it picked up in the month of May and June.

“We never stopped hiring in the first place. Currently, it is going on at the right pace. Our lateral hiring is dependent on two factors, attrition and growth.”  

“The downward trend in attrition continues. It is expected to continue in the next quarter as well. Attrition has come down significantly, but we will not be hiring significant numbers for immediate replacement,” adds Rao.

Most of the IT companies keep a bench of four to five per cent. During uncertain times, it’s common for companies to repurpose that bench first. However, Rao shares, “The bench levels in the Company are not reduced. In fact, we were repurposing and using them all, and for that the mobilisation has also increased.”

Initial challenges

Just like other industries, HCL too had felt the heat of the pandemic in the beginning. Different organisations opted for different strategies, and hence, came together to fight this battle.

When lockdown was announced, Rao continues, “We were slightly affected because there was a dependency on labs. In our engineering and R&D services, a lot of equipment is being tested for our partners — be it the aircraft industry, the manufacturing sector or the automobile industry — and for obvious reasons, this testing couldn’t take place at home.”

“Meanwhile, it took some time for the Government to formulate their guidelines, so the Company suffered a setback in its line of business. Also, a lot of customers had not given the approvals to work from home, and it took them nearly two to three weeks to approve the new normal,” Rao adds.

According to Rao, “There was very little disruption for a month and a half until the Government guidelines were relaxed.”

“Although we have a staff strength of around 1500 in China, when the virus spread was at its peak in the country, we brought our executive crisis management team into force on January 27. Going by the intensity of the situation, we declared WFH on March 4, almost three weeks before the lockdown was announced in India,” shares Rao.

This move gave HCL the runway in terms of providing laptops, desktops and VPN connections to its employees.

With almost 98 per cent staff working from home, it was a challenge to keep engaging with its workforce and also ensure their safety and well-being.

Talking about employee engagement, Rao shares that there are several modules ranging from zumba classes at 6 p.m. in the evening to yoga sessions for five to ten minutes every day.

For the employees’ safety, HCL runs a global helpline, which is managed by doctors and life coaches. Employees who feel anxious, or are in need of medical assistance at any point, will be provided assistance and ambulances. These healthcare facilities are not just limited to the employees, but extended to their family members as well.

“We also provide our employees with testing support. All our campuses have hospitals, manned by HCL Healthcare. We work with our third-party administrators and insurance companies for employees and their family members who need hospital beds,” Rao explains.

Meanwhile, the organisation is encouraging its employees to come to office. Although, Rao candidly admits that employees are not obligated to come to office in any way. “This is just a suggestion, and as long as the employees are safe, and deliverables are taking place, we are okay with the majority of the staff working remotely,” he adds.

Moreover, “It is not just about the employees alone. Their families should also feel secure, which is why, we are not mandating work from office. Employees are coming to office of their own will / choice.”

Currently, around two per cent of the total workforce has returned to offices to work.

The post HCL: No appraisal in 2020, no mass layoffs, lateral hiring continues appeared first on HR Katha.

“At the time of this crisis, our company was doing its bit to sustain the lives and livelihoods of as many people as possible. The effort was directed at retaining our employees, even if it meant taking a hit to our bottom line.”

A multinational consumer electronics company of Japanese origin, Panasonic India has been weathering these tough times through a sustained effort, and claims to have managed with zero layoffs and pay cuts.

Adarsh Mitra, director and CHRO, Panasonic India, says, “Panasonic, which is now over 100 years old, believes in giving back to the society as much as it cares about the top and bottom lines.”

Panasonic thought of its employees first before anything and anyone else. After all, ‘charity begins at home’.

Mishra says, “At the time of this crisis, our company was doing its bit to sustain the lives and livelihoods of as many people as possible. The effort was directed at retaining our employees, even if it meant taking a hit to our bottom line.”

Mishra shares that, apart from the fact that Panasonic has strong financial fundamentals — which is why it was able to withstand the hit — it was also its judicious management of finances, which resulted in reduced operational expenses (opex).

While revenues have been badly hit in this pandemic, on the flip side, opex came down drastically during the lockdown. The Company was able to save huge amounts due to no travel expense and cancellation of certain marketing campaigns and suspension of many similar activities.

Mishra opines that the biggest challenge for the team was to keep the team motivated amidst the negativity. “At Panasonic, employee engagement is one of our biggest priorities and it is our endeavour to create a culture and an atmosphere, where our employees are highly committed to and passionate about their jobs,” says Mishra.

Before the lockdown, Panasonic India was all set to substantially increase manpower. However, it decided to put the plan on hold and rely more on the existing workforce. The Company believes that new professionals would only have worked for money, but the old employees would work to earn and grow together.

It is not that the Company has totally frozen its hiring. Rather, it has honoured all the offers that were made earlier and is also making some fresh recruitments in various divisions and departments.

The Company’s factory in Jhajjar, Haryana, is up and running. “We are following all the Government guidelines and maintaining proper hygiene and social distancing within our factory premises. While our production has not yet hit pre-COVID levels, the product demand has picked up and I expect the production levels to return to what they were at the start of the year,” says Mishra.

The post How Panasonic India survived the storm without layoffs and paycuts appeared first on HR Katha.

“Humans are social beings, who are used to interacting and communicating at a social level, that doesn’t exist anymore. On one hand, while few employees are excited at the opportunity to work remotely — because it offers flexibility, and has increased their productivity — there are a bunch of employees who are deeply affected by the virtual working setup.”

“From getting the employees tested for the virus from the comfort of their homes to arranging beds in hospitals and providing PPE kits, the team does everything. We are deeply committed to the wellbeing of our employees,” shares Sailesh Menezes, director-HR, HPE.

Not just the physical wellness, HPE is also committed towards the mental wellness of employees during these tough times.

“Humans are social beings, who are used to interacting and communicating at a social level, that doesn’t exist anymore. On one hand, while few employees are excited at the opportunity to work remotely — because it offers flexibility, and has increased their productivity — there are a bunch of employees who are deeply affected by the virtual working setup,” Menezes says.

“Wellness in an office environment is very different from that in a virtual setup. Today, you are not just managing your work life but also your home life. So, there are employees managing the domestic and professional front at the same time, which is a lot more challenging,” points out Menezes.

He believes the stress is more on the women staff. One needs to understand that children, who used to go to schools or creches, are now at home all day. With no domestic help, managing domestic chores, taking care of the elderly and the children along with handling official work, builds up a lot of stress.

“We realised that there is an extraordinary amount of stress, more on our women employees than men, just like the socio-cultural norms in India, wherein most of the household chores tend to fall on women. Therefore, we directed a lot of webinars, especially our employee-assessment programmes, towards women during these times.”

To connect with employees at large, HPE has initiated a weekly programme, called the ‘Virtual Happy Hour’, that brings teams together for casual discussions and sharing of thoughts. Also, a global connect is established with the CEOs interacting frequently with the employees.

According to Menezes, “Nothing has changed much in the past few months except for the fact that physical engagement has given way to virtual engagement.”

Productivity enhancement

Menezes rightly explains that productivity can be looked at from different aspects — the infrastructure to be productive at home, the flexibility to be able to provide support to the organisation and the customer, keeping in mind their work schedules, and the physical and emotional state of the employees to be as productive as they are in office.

The Company has allowed every manager to define productivity in their own way. So, each manager works with his/her team on certain productivity norms and goals, taking into consideration their life at home.

“Productivity is also about enabling employees to work productively from home. So, we have provided employees with requisite infrastructure, such as high-speed dongles and power backups,” shares Menezes.

Learning and development

For Menezes, the lockdown has driven a high demand for online learning. Accordingly, the third important pillar for HPE is the entire learning process, which was virtualised.

The focus was primarily on virtual-learning platforms, which are cloud-based and available on mobiles phones, where employees can easily access and learn on the go.

“We are driving the whole learning mission to take HPE as a learning organisation through the virtualised-learning platform,” he adds.

On the hiring front, the Company is focussed on need-based hiring. “We will continue to emphasise on internal roles, because we believe in giving opportunities internally,” claims Menezes.

The post HPE’s Hitchki Response Protocol for COVID-infected employees appeared first on HR Katha.

While the current situation is certainly not favourable for distillers and their businesses, Allied Blenders & Distillers has resumed its distillery operations, started production and begun to manage its sales and distribution activities. With its comprehensive ‘Back to Work’ strategy, ABD ensures safe working practices including social distancing, effective sanitisation and equipping its employees with the required personal protective equipment (PPE).

“The ABD executive team is constantly monitoring and evaluating the situation. There are systems and processes in place to respond appropriately, as things change and evolve.”

The strategy involves several reimbursements for the employees, especially for the frontline sales professionals. The earlier policy of reimbursing only those with two-wheelers has been changed in keeping with the present situation. Now, sales professionals travelling by four-wheelers will also be reimbursed by the Company.

The sales staff are given monthly allowances so that they can buy PPE kits, masks and sanitisers.

In far-off locations, there has been difficulty in connectivity. Therefore, until the situation becomes normal, the Company has also decided to reimburse the expenses on broadband connection.

Biplob Banerjee, chief people officer, Allied Blenders & Distillers, says, “This crisis has accelerated our digital journey. We are leveraging technology and video conferencing collaboration tools, and learning to work remotely, as we continue to shape ABD’s future.”

As its employee base is less, the beverages manufacturer has given around 60 laptops to employees to work from home comfortably.

“The ABD executive team is constantly monitoring and evaluating the situation and has systems and processes in place to respond appropriately, as things change and evolve,” Banerjee adds.

The regional sales offices in Gurugram and Kolkata are being readied to welcome employees, who wish to come to office or if there is a requirement. “Employees can work for two or three days in a week, in rotational shifts, with full SOPs, keeping social distance in place,” he adds.

When it comes to ensuring employees’ safety, ABD is not lagging in any way. The Company has a COVID-response team, which reviews each employee daily and monitors their health, in case anybody shows symptoms of sickness, or requires assistance.

The families of employees have not been forgotten either. To help them stay safe at home, ABD has sent small PPE kits to all the families of its employees too. “Kits have been distributed to almost 1000 employees. We are also looking at ways to address mental health issues, if there are any, by setting up some helplines and giving a day off to our ABD warriors,” the CPO adds.

Engagement activities

The Company has accelerated its investment in training and development through the launch of the ABD Academy, which offers online tutorial sessions covering different functions. These will continue beyond the Covid-19 lockdown period.

Through the ABD Academy, many in-house ‘development sessions’ are conducted by the leaders themselves, on whiskey-making procedures, cross-functional activities and so on.

Yammer, a social-media platform, allows employees to post weekly updates on varied topics and showcase activities/skills, such as cooking, dancing, singing and ways of spending time at home apart from working.

“We are running excellent courses from Harappa and Skilldom, our online learning partners. In addition to the exclusive leadership programmes from Harappa, our leaders are also taking sessions, internally, which are recorded so that employees can access them anytime,” explains Banerjee.

Compliance training workshops — on anti bribery, anti-corruption, code of conduct, conflict of interest — are also being offered and employees are getting certified on completion of these sessions or courses.

Banerjee opines, “There is a sense of anxiety in our employees and even their families. So, we feel it is time to strategically work on such areas. We plan to come up with new solutions for our employees to safeguard their sanity.”

According to Banerjee, strategic-level changes have been taking place over the past few months.

Hiring

On the hiring front, ABD has announced the next milestone in its journey with some new organisational appointments and changes to strengthen its sales, marketing, manufacturing and finance leadership.

Primarily, there has been a lot of hiring at the leadership level, while not much has changed at the mid-management level. This transformation was led by Blazquez, who joined as deputy chairman, in January.

“These new appointments will accelerate the transformation process by bringing in new thinking and allocating dedicated resources to improve some of our processes and grow our capability,” adds Banerjee.

Appraisals

The Company has completed the appraisal process for FY 2019-20, by recognising exceptional performances. The overall process was simplified this year.

“Instead of the usual five-point rating scale, this year, we had just a three-point rating scale which included ‘above expectation’, ‘meets expectations’ and ‘below expectation’. As the year was very tough, and the overall workload has gone up, we decided to keep it simple and focussed on development discussions rather than detailed performance discussions.”

Although a few promotions have taken place, there have been no increments for employees, and the employees were already informed of this earlier.

The Company had earlier deferred the salaries of the top management by up to 50 per cent, owing to the huge economic burden post the outbreak. The decision was for the first quarter and it has not changed yet.

As promised by ABD, the salaries of the frontline workers has not been touched, and will not be either.

Due to the ongoing lockdown in Maharashtra, however, the manufacturing plant in Aurangabad and the corporate office in Lower Parel are presently shut.

The post How Allied Blenders & Distillers is adapting to remote working appeared first on HR Katha.

With a workforce of 13,000, of which 75 per cent were out in the field during the lockdown, the Company had a daunting task to keep the workforce motivated and energised, especially when people across the world were locked inside their homes.

“More than the incentives, I believe it was the love for the brand, and customer sensitivity that enabled the employees to deliver right from day one.”

It’s true that the Company had lucrative incentive schemes in place, to keep the workforce motivated. However, Captain Partha Samai, group head – HR & executive vice-president, AGS Transact Technologies, likes to believe that it is not just the cash incentives alone but also the the commitment of the employees that ensured undisrupted services.

During the lockdown, there were over 9,000 employees out on the field every day. These employees were given cash incentives, over and above their salaries, for each day that they went to work during the nationwide lockdown. More interestingly, the incentives were kept within a range of Rs. 200 to Rs. 315 per day in order to maintain parity across levels. The beneficiaries included field engineers, drivers and factory workers.

For instance, in the banking service, all field engineers in the metros received Rs. 250 per day as incentive, while those in the non-metros received Rs. 200 per day. In the petroleum division, workers travelling from one location to another for work received Rs. 250 per day. A logistics coordinator provided all spare parts required by engineers in the field from the hub location and back. That person received Rs. 250 per day as well. Factory workers who checked in at work received Rs. 200 per day. Similarly, workers in client locations, such as at the banks, support staff in administration and finance, and warehouse workers were all incentivised in a similar manner. The highest bracket of incentive at Rs. 315 per day went to the employees in the IT department.

For the drivers on the field, a flat Rs. 250 per day was given for going out to work. In addition, they also received a risk incentive in overtime pay. Typically, overtime for these drivers starts after they complete their standard 8-hour work day. However, during the lockdown, their working hours were shortened to six hours a day, and their overtime began right after that.

Samai shares with HRKatha, “We rolled out the incentives only in the second week of April, while work continued, despite hurdles, from day one of the nationwide lockdown. More than the incentives, I believe it was their love for the brand and customer sensitivity that enabled them to deliver right from day one.” Although the benefits were announced only in April, they were brought into effect from March 24. Therefore, workers received all the benefits due for their working days prior to the announcement.

Working SOPs in the field

While much of the work in today’s corporate world has gone online, few services do not have that luxury. The field workers at AGS fall into this category. After all, it is not possible to load cash into an ATM or repair the machine at a petrol depot digitally. The physical presence of an engineer at the site is necessary. Being aware of the sensitive nature of the work and its indispensability, the Company had sent out detailed SOPs to all field staff, which were to be followed at all times, every day.

It was mandatory for the cash-replenishment teams to wear masks and gloves all the time. Before going into an ATM, they were told to first sanitise the site and machine before proceeding with their job. After completion of the task, they were to sanitise themselves and the machine again before moving out of the area. The van itself was sanitised every day before going out to and after coming back from work.

In addition, the top management had made it mandatory for all field staff, in all states, to send out regular pictures or videos of themselves in the field to their immediate reporting managers. This was part of an exercise to build their confidence, by showing how they were discharging their duties in the field.

Changes for the corporate employees

Employees at the corporate office received laptops so that they could continue with their work unhindered. In addition, staff were given financial compensation for their data usage while working from home through the Company’s existing mobile policy.

The management has communicated to all corporate office employees that they will be allowed to come in twice a week, only if necessary, and work in a staggered manner to ensure safety. Who commutes to office and when is decided by the respective department heads, as they are the ones most cognizant of the required deliverables of each employee.

“We have encouraged every employee to work from home as much as possible, and commute only if absolutely necessary,” reveals Samai. In areas such as Mumbai, where several employees travel to office using local trains, instructions have been given to altogether avoid travelling to office, even if they want to.

Temperature checks, mandatory Arogya Setu app on the phone and sanitisation are the usual safety protocols maintained within the office premises. The HR keeps a daily report on who commutes to office and for how long.

Learning and engagement

The marketing and HR teams have collaborated and come out with a regular session called ‘Chat with Captain’, where Samai communicates with all employees on topics of resilience and keeping up a can-do attitude at all times. The HR team keeps making regular cold calls to all employees to keep a periodic check on their health and motivation, both on the field and at home. Apart from that, the management regularly shares tips and guidelines on how to protect and take care of oneself, both mentally and physically.

In the area of learning and development, the Company has kept up its focus on regular weekly training for the employees. Samai, a former Army officer, likes to say, “The more we sweat in the field, the less we bleed in war.” It is his firm belief that workers should keep sharpening their skills so that they are ready for the future.

For every employee, it is mandatory to complete a segment of their key performance indicators (KPI) every week. Senior members of the field staff have been encouraged to train their juniors at every opportunity as well. Workers brush up on their functional capabilities, even while being monitored by their respective department heads. The HR team has been training the employees on soft skills, such as negotiation, communication, team building, leadership and personality development. “We have been focussing a lot on verbal and non-verbal communication skills after identifying them as significant requirements during this phase,” points out Samai.

In a bid to keep business running and provide continuous service to its customers, AGS has readily shifted its way of working to suit the needs of its environment. Samai concludes by saying that while the initial first 10 days were tough, after a point in time they became used to the new way of working. Ever since the lifting of the nationwide lockdown, operations have been much smoother for the organisation.

The post How this ATM cash-replenishment firm managed work during lockdown appeared first on HR Katha.

As work is becoming more dynamic and agile, companies such as ATG Tires, a subsidiary of the Yokohama Rubber Company (YRC), are functioning outside of thei comfort zones in a really fluid manner.

“One of the most important things that we are emphasising on in the current situation is, ‘development’, rather than ‘performance’. What really matters is an employee’s development in an effective manner, and that can only happen when it’s a discussed and agreed response.”

According to Rajeev Singh, CHRO, ATG Tires, “It calls for a total review of each and every element of the HR policies, practices and mindset to make it relevant. We look at what will actually change or has changed and how to redefine our current people’s policies and procedures to support the ‘new normal’ way of working.”

The tire manufacturer has been undertaking a lot of initiatives for its employees, be it giving them a real-life experience virtually or driving an inclusive wellness programme.

Wellness

To begin with, ATG’s Wellness Initiative is an inclusive drive for wellness, involving the people from within the organisation — junior and mid-level managers, and even the leadership team. Under the programme, videos are created that help employees remain calm and peaceful in today’s challenging and disruptive times. The best part is that, instead of hiring somebody to give lectures on wellness and undertake wellness sessions, the Company is getting its own internal people to talk about such topics. Covering almost every age group, this wellness initiative was conceptualised with the theme – ‘By the people and for the people’.

Singh believes that peer inspiration and learning is the best approach to help employees come out of their shackles, bury their stress and connect more with their colleagues or teammates.

“On a daily basis, some people are uploading videos on yoga sessions, while others are sharing their diet and daily routine, while working from home. Some are even giving out personal insights on work-life balance,” he adds.

Moreover, the Company has assigned a doctor who holds a webinar only for ATG employees, which is covered globally. Singh admits that they are facing one challenge here, and that is of getting people from different time zones connected at the same time.

“Wellness is something which you can’t impose on somebody, it has to be voluntary”, Singh believes.

Virtual bonding

Birthday celebrations were always a great opportunity for employees to get together at the workplace and bond over informal conversations. But would that be possible in the new normal?

For Singh, the ultimate goal in the new normal was to give employees the real experience through the virtual platform.

“WFH didn’t stop us from celebrating birthdays. We still have birthday celebrations, virtually, complete with live songs and music, and employees joining in. Not even for a moment do we feel we are not in the office. The idea is to get all the employees to connect, bond and feel happy,” points out Singh.

Performance management

Talking about performance management, Singh mentions that it was kept on hold for a few months because there were other priorities to focus on. However, now, ATG’s internal performance management system, called PREP — short for Performance Review and Enhancement Programme — is back in action.

Going ahead with the performance management cycle with PREP 2020, the management has tried to make it relevant in terms of goal and review settings, to make the best use of it.

Singh says, “It is not just about reviewing performance but also about enhancing the performance level of employees. Therefore, one of the most important things that we are emphasising in the current situation is ‘development’, rather than ‘performance’. What really matters is an employee’s development in an effective manner, and that can only happen when it’s a discussed and agreed response.”

Typically, a management system comes with increments, bonuses and ratings. For Singh, however, in the current situation, these rewards seem to be vague. “Companies may or may not give out increments, but what can be really worked on is ‘development’. The delivery can be different and performance can be improved,” he adds.

Hiring

Earlier, for cost efficiency, the Company had frozen hiring, suspended merit increase, imposed pay cuts for employees, re-examined contracts with vendors, reduced training costs through internal trainers, offered free online courses, and focused on automation and leaner manning of the plants.

With a change in planning, ATG is currently partnering with businesses for increased automation of plant operations. It is using social-networking sites rather than recruitment consultants, and promoting employee referrals.

The Company is also honouring its commitment to campus hiring. Earlier, it had hired around 30 people from various engineering colleges who were supposed to join in the month of June. However, with the situation getting worse, the hiring has been postponed to September.

Engagement and role assessment

“As far as engagement is concerned, we have started arranging virtual meetings between the managers and the employees to ensure that they connect online,” he adds.

Earlier, while redesigning the organisational structure, additional tasks were assigned to employees and they were mobilised across departments.

However, with a new set of priorities in place, ATG is now distinguishing between critical and non-critical roles, defining and qualifying replacements for critical role holders, reassessing roles and defining the roles and responsibilities of the position holder, to prevent overlapping and reduction of roles.

Earlier, to protect the business and employees from the effects of the inevitable slowdown, the top management at ATG announced a temporary pay cut for three months, which will be over in July.

The manufacturing plants in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Israel are presently operational with 100 per cent workforce. “Although there are no restrictions at the moment, it is a challenge to keep the employees safe as they are commuting every day, increasing their chances of contact with other people,” adds Singh with concern.

He also mentions, that due to a rise in the number of cases in Mumbai, the corporate office is currently shut.

The post Keeping ‘priorities’ straight — ATG’s future plan of action appeared first on HR Katha.

To begin with, in order to ensure wellness of remotely working Mindtree Minds, the Company has enabled a 24/7 medical helpline staffed by specialist doctors. The helpline is set up for the benefit of both Mindtree Minds and their families.

“We are glad to have the required ‘infrastructure management and technical support’ team in place that allows our employees to work smoothly from any location. We are using tech-based software that allows even our IT teams to work from home.”

As part of the work-from-home (WFH) allowance, internet reimbursements will be included in the salary package. Since employees are continuing to work from home, the Company has extended its support with basic infrastructure so that the staff can have an office setup at their homes as part of its business continuity plan.

Initiatives, such as issuing health advisories from time to time, virtual yoga sessions and a helpline specially dedicated to COVID-19 are helping the Mindtree Minds stay updated, safe and healthy.

Paneesh Rao, chief people officer, Mindtree, says, “With all the employees operating virtually in the current scenario and set to continue doing so in the near future, we have a dedicated team in place, which is closely observing the evolving situation. A decision to resume work from office shall be taken accordingly going forward.”

Ensuring quality services to customers, globally, the employees are using Microsoft Teams extensively to collaborate for different aspects, such as IP creations or customer engagement.

“We are ensuring that the quality of our services to customers remains unaffected. Hence, we have created a remote delivery structure wherein we have adjusted our delivery model to ensure that our employees continue to be as productive while working virtually,” Rao shares.

To ensure optimum utilisation of time and productivity through the WFH arrangement, the Company has assembled an enterprise risk-management team to look into the evolving situation, and implement any changes required to the workforce structure on a real-time basis.

Reskilling employees

Reskilling has always been an imperative for any successful organisation. The current situation has made it even more crucial for organisations to build a future-ready workforce that can adapt to unforeseen challenges during the times of crisis.

Likewise, to enhance the skills of its employees, the IT company has been utilising this time efficiently by increasing online training and running reskilling programmes for its employees, using its digital learning platform, Yorbit. This platform hosts over 80,000 courses covering 900+ skills in domains, such as digital, testing, infra, behaviour and engineering.

The courses are not just limited to the employees alone, even managers are participating in to be able to manage their teams better.

Also, as part of its leadership training, Mindtree is offering courses such as Harvard ManageMentor and Harvard Spark that help build critical business skills.

Business continuity

While the pandemic has caused many businesses to struggle to find work-from-home solutions, Mindtree has been pushing on despite the restrictions in place.

“As part of the organisation’s policies on business continuity, we are glad to have the required ‘infrastructure management and technical support’ team in place that allows our employees to work smoothly from any location. We are using tech-based software that allows even our IT teams to work from home,” claims the CPO proudly.

Navigating through the crisis, Rao continues, “Our pro-activeness in setting up a cross- functional crisis-management team (CFCMT) operating in the ‘Hub-and-Spoke’ model, robust business continuity processes, and infrastructure at Mindtree ensure uninterrupted services to our clients even while maintaining health and safety of Mindtree Minds.”

Adapting to the new normal

Mindtree has realised the benefits of WFH and is ready to bring in further alterations to make the practice more prevalent.

It has created a comprehensive action plan for COVID-19. In terms of processes, a systematic three-step approach has been designed to resume office along with specific FAQs. The approach includes seeking business approval, completing online e-course on ensuring health and safety guidelines and providing a self- declaration on health and safety guidelines.

“We have created a remote-delivery structure wherein we have adjusted our delivery model to ensure Mindtree Minds continue to be as productive, while working virtually,” Rao shares.

Awareness messages along with specific do’s and don’ts have been updated and are already being circulated amongst the employees.

Currently, the Mindtree Minds — with the collaboration tools in place — are connecting with their respective managers and ensuring that the business remains unaffected.

The post With 100% telecommuters, how is Mindtree ensuring productivity? appeared first on HR Katha.

IndiGrid, India’s first power-sector infrastructure investment trust, has launched a ‘long-term incentive plan’ that gives out incentives not just to the existing employees, but also to the new joinees.

This plan is a unique cash-based model, which gives out incentives to new and existing employees on a long-term basis.

“We honoured all offers rolled out during or before the lockdown. A total of 40 per cent of the employees have joined in the last four months.”

Speaking to HRKatha, Kundan Kishore, head-HR, IndiGrid, says, “Looks like we may have to continue to work from home for some more months in FY 21. Therefore, we launched a comprehensive policy for assets and connectivity, where employees’ comfort and productivity are our primary concerns.”

IndiGrid also initiated the ‘virtual weekly town halls’ from March 24 onwards. The objective is to connect with all employees, communicate with them, provide business updates, listen to them talk about how they are coping with WFH and give out suggestions.

During the ongoing pandemic, when companies are struggling to continue with their businesses even while devising measures to retain the entire workforce, IndiGrid managed to stick to its hiring schedule, as per budget, even during lockdown!

“We honoured all offers rolled out during or before the lockdown. A total of 40 per cent of the employees have joined in the last four months,”claims Kishore.

The Company wanted to ensure an enhanced virtual onboarding experience for the new joinees. Therefore, the virtual pre-boarding, onboarding and induction processes started as early as possible.

Kishore states, “By altering a few pre-boarding mandatory activities, we wanted to ensure an enriching joining experience just like in a physical setup. We prepared an immersion module for new joinees to help them assimilate well with industry understanding.”

“Since the new joinees were a mixed bag — from the power sector as well as others — they required a better understanding of this sector, and its priorities. Therefore, we created a detailed immersion module, combining presentations, videos and subject matter from the industry perspective,” he adds.

The Company also started with the ‘30 days & 90 days catch-up’ initiative, to ensure a connection with new joinees and identify early warning signals. As the name suggests, the HR initiated catch-ups to help settle down nerves and get inputs to improve the experience.

Kishore reveals that during the onboarding process, a joinee or two have had to drop out, due to mobility issues, owing to the lockdown.

“Despite the pandemic and ensuing lockdown, we managed to conduct the annual appraisals in the month of April, as per plan. We gave out double-digit increments and performance bonuses, without any major changes in the process,” shares Kishore.

However, Kishore also states that the appraisal cycle in the upcoming financial year may undergo certain changes due to the several new work-from-home policies.

To keep up with the new normal, IndiGrid has introduced a ‘work-enablement policy’, where employees have been offered options to choose from buying an office chair, table, laptop stand, study lamp, printer, scanner, extension wire and so on.

Additionally, the Company has provided a high-connectivity router and headphone for all employees and is bearing the Wifi charges for FY 21.

With workplaces going digital, IndiGrid is looking to amend its POSH policy to safeguard and address the concerns of its employees.

“Employees are our foremost priority and with the new POSH policy, we have also planned an awareness session for all employees. This enables them to be vocal about such matters, even outside the workplace culture,” points out Kishore.

Furthermore, the leadership team went through sessions on ‘Leaders as Coach’ for holding meaningful conversations during appraisals to bring out encouraging results. Till date, more than 60 per cent employees have indulged in such meaningful conversations with their managers.

With the entire training taking place online, the Company initiated a ‘Learning Series’, under which technical learning sessions were organised by various teams on subjects, such as Electricity Act amendment, corona effect (on transmission lines), emergency restoration plans, GIS technology and so on, for its employees.

With 600+ site engineers and office staff to be taken care of, IndiGrid has developed a COVID health tracker. This daily tracker helps trace and monitor its employees’ health. Till date, no employee has tested positive.

The post Even new joinees are eligible for incentives at IndiGrid appeared first on HR Katha.

Amidst all this uncertainty, HDFC Life Insurance is moving ahead with extraordinary strength and resilience to ensure the safety of its employees and stakeholders, and carry on with its business.

Following the relaxation of lockdown, HDFC Life is opening branches in a phased manner with set guidelines for resumption of work. A skeletal workforce will be deployed on a need-to-be-in-office basis and on rotation, while customers will continue to be encouraged to use digital and self-servicing modes.

The insurance company has mandated that expectant mothers and those with comorbid conditions should continue operating from home.

The Company has approximately 10 per cent of its employees coming to work in the branches. However, with the rising number of cases in Mumbai, the head office remains closed, with 100 per cent of its staff working from home.

Employees are advised to practise personal hygiene and social distancing. They have to self-declare their condition in case they feel unwell and mandatorily follow self-quarantine guidelines.

Vibhash Naik, EVP & head – HR, L&D, administration, HDFC Life, says, “We are strengthening our digital capabilities further to ensure employees are able to operate seamlessly from home.

In Naik’s words, HDFC Life has adopted all the necessary precautions so that the employees stay safe and healthy. When the lockdown was being eased, the first step was to ensure proper cleaning and sanitisation of the branches and facilitate the supply of necessary equipment and material to the offices.

Apart from carrying out temperature checks for every individual before entering office, all the necessary arrangements are being made to enhance the hygiene of the office premises.

At the branches, transparent partitions are being installed at customer-handling desks to ensure the safety of customers as well as the employees. Additionally, employees are advised to download the AarogyaSetu app and conduct a self-assessment.

Needless to say that every employee and customer has to wear a mask or an appropriate face cover, not just inside the office premises, but even while travelling from home to office and vice versa.

“The lockdown was clearly the chance for all of us to invest in ourselves and hone our skills and knowledge, while at home.”

Team meetings, trainings, reviews and other activities that require people to come together, will be organised virtually.

“To avoid mass gatherings in one place, cafeteria services have been suspended and employees have been asked to make their own arrangements for food and snacks,” Naik adds.

At the end of the financial year, it was crucial for HDFC Life to achieve its targets set for FY 2020. However, the prevailing COVID-19 scenario changed the market dynamics.

While most of the processes were being managed digitally, and people were enabled to work from home, deferred spends by customers or reluctance to appear for medical tests posed a few hurdles in acquiring new business.

“Challenges, such as reaching out to the customers, resolving their queries or digital capabilities for selling a new life product to the customers were quickly mitigated,” Naik reveals.

HDFC Life — with its widespread geographical presence in India, through its employees and partners — left no stone unturned to reach out to its customers, so that they could benefit from life insurance in these uncertain times.

Naik adds, “It’s our collective strength that has helped us maintain the leading position in the industry and preserved the customers’ trust in us.”

The Company has always laid emphasis on skill building and knowledge enhancement of employees.

While the lockdown appeared challenging, Naik looked at it as an opportunity, since it offered the time and space to think about and prioritise those aspects, which were otherwise pushed back due to the daily work-life hassle. “This clearly was the chance for all of us to invest in ourselves and hone our skills and knowledge, while at home”, he explains.

In Naik’s words, “We, at HDFC Life, have a dedicated team that is constantly working on strengthening our training capabilities. The team has helped develop and improve existing training programmes, create several new modules, curate self-paced training platforms keeping each employee’s individual needs and preferences in mind. The topics ranged across categories — process training, leadership development courses, soft skills, product training, domain training and foundation courses.”

Naik shares that, when the lockdown began, they realised that working remotely would require a different set of social and interpersonal skills. Therefore, they trained and counselled employees and managers on the skills of remote working and remote team management. Additionally, several online sessions were designed, and programmes were conducted virtually to cater to specific needs.

Learning was made fun for employees through various interventions to ensure their participation with full vigour and also to make sure they gained value. “We are happy to receive an overwhelming response to these learning platforms and we intend to continue with the same in future as well,” says Naik proudly.

Understanding the financial and mental strain that the COVID-19 crisis put its employees through, HDFC Life came up with initiatives to support the employees mentally, physically and financially. “As a responsible employer, our priority was to provide confidence and comfort to our employees in these unprecedented times,” points out Naik.

To begin with, the ‘Employee Assistance Programme’ encouraged employees and their families to speak to professionally-trained counsellors and deal with any kind of mental or emotional stress.

The Company also created an online platform for employees to promote holistic wellness – physical, mental and financial. Gamification of physical fitness was another idea to keep employees active and connected, while ensuring fun.

Skill building has always been HDFC’s area of focus and therefore, it has created various platforms for the knowledge and skill enhancement of employees during the lockdown phase.

Apart from an hour-long virtual training daily, and leveraging mobile learning nuggets, the Company also curated a set of online courses relevant for upgrading the skills and capabilities of its staff. It launched a gamified learning platform to make learning fun.

Admitting that these are tough times, Naik concludes on a positive note, saying, “This too shall pass and we shall emerge much stronger.”

The post HDFC Life Insurance’s plan of action for Unlock 1.0 appeared first on HR Katha.

So how did Birlasoft ensure agility and nimbleness?

Usually, the teams deployed by the organisation to service clients are large, with 100, 150 or even 200 members. In a remote working setup, however, collaboration and communication amongst members of such large teams took up more than the usual time it would otherwise require in the normal office environment. With the exchange of information becoming more time consuming, project delivery got impacted.

To tackle this issue, Birlasoft came up with a governance model, where critical elements were selected to form a smaller team of around 5, 10 or 15 members. These leaner teams were then given a mandate to operate and function as an independent leg in a project, with micro deliverables and faster rates of delivery.

To ensure that responsibility and accountability were maintained even while facilitating constant communication with each other, standard protocols applicable in remote work environments were put in place along with overlays, such as the need for daily calls with all stakeholders.

Arun Rao, CPO, Birlasoft, says, “It is important for us to ensure that clients and teams are on the same page. This is a new way of life and has its own potential for leakages. It was essential to find a novel method of working which was efficient, acceptable and useful for all stakeholders during these times to generate the right kind of output.”

Creating ‘agile pods’

For each ‘pod’, a set of people with compatible skills is brought together to form a smaller team. The size of the group depends on the project load — a bigger project requires a larger pod.

“Some of our victories during the pandemic were because we were able to deliver beyond client expectations.”

For instance, for each team to have a complete set of essential skill sets, there has to be a scrum master, a domain expert, a technology architect, a person in charge of testing applications and a person to document it all, among others.

Agile pods work because since the teams are smaller, the members are aware of each other’s strengths and weaknesses, which allows them to develop a rhythm and cohesiveness.

“This has made a huge difference in terms of our delivery and winning client confidence. In fact, some of our victories during the pandemic were because we were able to deliver beyond client expectations,” reveals Shreeranganath Kulkarni aka SK, chief delivery officer (CDO), Birlasoft.

Delivery has speeded up for Birlasoft with the addition of these agile pods. Teams are now working on smaller work packages, with work becoming easier to track. Moreover, delivery for these packages has been possible in 8, 16 or 24 hours, which means just one, two or three days.

To further ensure, that there are no delays due lack of communication or clarity, dedicated time slots have been put in place, for clarification of doubts by each team.

Clients are more engaged than before

Apart from the team members, this new way of working also ensures clients are much more involved throughout the process. Earlier, a team in India would finish working on a project for the day and hand it over to another team, let us say, in the US. Prior to the handover, the client would review the work done till then and suggest modifications. Moreover, if there was any response needed from the India team, the client had to wait one whole day to get the clarifications. During the handover, the overlap time between the two teams and the client would earlier be a maximum of one and half hours in the morning and two hours in the evening.

However, instead of waiting till the end of the day to point out pain points in the project delivery and request clarifications, clients are now engaged with the teams twice a day in the morning and evening. This ensures that modifications and clarifications are made before the handover and there is no one-day lag in receiving clarifications from any team, either in the US or India. In addition, the overlap time has increased to two and a half hours in the morning and three hours in the evening.

“It was important for us to ensure that clients and teams are on the same page. This is a new way of life and has its own potential for leakages. Therefore, it was essential to find a novel method of working, which was efficient, acceptable and useful for all stakeholders during these times to generate the right kind of output.”

MealFirst campaign

Birlasoft, along with a Noida-based NGO called Under The Tree (UTT), extended a helping hand to all underpriviledged kids and their families. They distributed food items and hygiene kits to 1000+ daily wage earners and families in and around sector 135. The campaign was initiated on March 23, 2020 and those in need were provided, dry ration, hygiene kits, milk and other essentials. A total of 1600 people and 450 children were given support through this initiative.

As part of its engagement initiatives, Birlasoft is also reaching out to employees and their families during this time to engage them productively. Kids across ages at home are engaging in reading activities, as well as yoga and Zumba sessions. An open platform called Creative Masters was created for the adults to share poetry, paintings and online blogs. Virtual Antakshari is another initiative, where employees participate by sharing videos of themselves.

To ensure health and wellbeing of the staff, webinars with health practitioners, industry experts and life coaches through WebX sessions, in addition to regular e-mailers on mental and physical wellbeing have been an effective initiative. Consultation with doctors, counselling sessions and fitness challenges, all organised online, are some of the facilities offered by the Company for its employees.

The post Birlasoft’s ‘agile pods’ maintain productivity levels during WFH appeared first on HR Katha.

At first, there were certain business challenges. When MG Motor India had decided to restore its manufacturing capacity, there were issues of opening a countrywide distribution network and ensuring supply chain continuity between the designated red, orange and green zones.

“As we had opened early and in a phased manner, there was a situation when our suppliers hadn’t got timely approvals, which delayed production. Besides, there were supply-chain issues which were and are still being faced at the country level,” explains Yeshwinder Patial, HR director, MG Motor India.

In the COVID-19 era, most companies are facing operational challenges, and it is no different for MG Motor India.

For obvious reasons, car manufacturing cannot be done from home, and to restart the production pipeline, the Company had to ensure that employees started returning to the manufacturing plant. MG Motor India has around 1450 employees — across production, operations, IT and engineering — working from the plant, while there are about 150-200 employees at its corporate office in Gurugram.

We cannot compromise on any of the processes. Each and every vehicle goes through the same process, including sanitisation

Now, to bring the workforce back to the plant, the Company had to reassure the employees, especially about their safety issues and provide them the necessary confidence. Not to forget, MG Motor also has 33 per cent women working on the shop floor.

Having started early and even during the first phase of lockdown, it engaged with the employees, trained them, and also made them aware of the importance of health and hygiene. Online classes were organised for the same, which were attended even by the blue-collared employees.

Apart from the awareness programme, the Company also laid down some strict guidelines and a well-defined standard operating procedure (SOP) for the workers.

Employees at all levels were asked to either use their own vehicle to commute to the office or the plant, or use company buses. These buses were sanitised every day and ran with only 50 per cent occupancy.

In addition, the Company also practised staggered lunch timings. In cafeterias, 50 per cent of the chairs were removed or kept upside down, so that people maintained social distancing. Even if someone wanted to pull a chair and sit close to somebody, it wasn’t possible. Besides, the Company had in place a pre-defined seating arrangement, where chairs were kept at a distance.

MG Motors India also introduced a daily employee-monitoring mechanism, wherein all employees were required to mark their own and their family members’ wellbeing. If anybody from the family of an employee showed symptoms — even a normal cold — the concerned employee was asked to stay at home. Sanitisation chambers were also created inside the office premises.

The Company has replaced biometrics attendance with the face-recognition system. Even now, creches are suspended and conference rooms are closed. “All meetings, including the daily production meetings, are held virtually,” shares Patial.

When the plant became operational during lockdown 2.0, a unique problem was brought to their attention. Employees raised a concern that by the time they left the workplace, all shops were shut, which made it impossible for them to arrange food for themselves. Patial reveals, “As soon as we learnt about this problem, we took immediate action. From the very next day itself, all three meals — breakfast, lunch and dinner — were served in the Company for all employees.”

Maintaining social distancing on the shop floor presents its own set of challenges, especially when production is on in full swing.  That is why, employees are mandated to wear masks and gloves.

Safety and hygiene are maintained during production. As an automobile industry, Patial asserts, “We cannot compromise on any of the processes. Each and every vehicle goes through the same process, including sanitisation.”

Special initiatives

In addition to the existing employees, MG Motor India took care of the well-being of the new joinees and interns as well, by ensuring a safe and smooth landing.

As internships play a huge role in starting an individual’s career, Patial shares, “We initiated the ‘MG Nurture Programme’, to provide internship opportunities. Undoubtedly, there are challenges, and we may not be able to call people physically and give them opportunities. However, with our customers being spread far and wide, and appropriate technology in place, we have been able to provide internships to many brilliant minds.”

MG Motor partnered with CollegeDekho to call upon interested applicants for the internship programme. There were close to 19000 applicants, out of which 5000 were weeded out post screening, as they did not meet the requirements.

For the Student Nurture Programme, the Company had hired the EvueMe Selection Robot to simplify the entire talent-identification and assessment process. The ‘Robot Interviewer on Demand’ enabled students and professionals to take interviews from the comfort of their homes, using their own devices and at their convenient time. This redefines the HRM process, making it simpler, user-friendly and utilitarian, while maintaining professional distancing.

Patial believes that the unique AI-powered robotic solution has revolutionised the  selection process as well as the recruitment and assessment domains.

Finally, with all the efforts paying off, the Company embarked on its internship programme with 200 interns, starting June 1, 2020.

MG Motor has also launched the ‘Shield+’ programme as a precaution against coronavirus. This involves sanitisation and doorstep-delivery of vehicles, adopting various measures to minimise contact between dealerships and customers.

The post How did MG Motor India overcome operational challenges after reopening? appeared first on HR Katha.

Insurance companies, such as Aviva Life Insurance are crafting their response to the crisis and are continuously striving to improve their existing practices.

Amit Malik, chief people operations & customer services officer, Aviva Life Insurance, says, “Any crisis is an opportunity and I think that has been one key element of our response — be it towards our customers, partners or employees.”

The Company’s response to the Covid situation was guided by its crisis-management team. To ensure business continuity and stakeholder communication, the focus has been on its employees and customers.

“It has involved relooking at a lot of processes to enable remote functioning, quick adoption of digital means and educating our customers to do the same, increasing the frequency and nature of communication with our existing customers, and helping our employees manage their health and wellbeing in these tough times,” adds Malik. 

Very simply put, there were three challenges that the Company had decided to focus on when the menace broke out. 

The first challenge was to make sure that any new customer seeking a new policy is able to do so, and hence, the whole policy-issuance process needed to continue even while working from home.

Second, attention had to be drawn towards the existing customers. The Company had to make sure that they were able to reach out for any help they required with respect to their policies. 

Any crisis is an opportunity and I think that has been one key element of our response — be it towards our customers, partners or employees

The third and most important challenge was to ensure that the employees, the Company’s driving force, did not experience any form of anxiety because of the ongoing uncertainty. 

Living the value of ‘Care More’ in these challenging times, Aviva India continued with its legacy of ensuring the engagement and wellbeing of its employees and took no time to adopt social- distancing norms. Guidelines and best practices were shared with all employees to help them balance their mind, body, heart and soul as they continued to work, even while handling added household responsibilities. 

The ‘Work Feeling Happy Campaign’ or WFH was launched to ensure that learning never stopped. The fun activities did not let anyone’s mental wellbeing be impacted during the testing times.

To handle this situation in a structured way, the Company came up with several strategies as a key to encourage everyone to embrace the new normal.

Learning via ‘Curious Learner Challenge’

Aviva India’s 1700+ employees have been provided access to 8500+ learning resources to identify their learning needs and enjoy on-the-go learning. People have shown interest in courses not only related to their jobs, but in various fields such as IT, coding, fine arts, photography, music, social-media advertising, mindfulness, leadership skills and so on. 

Over the last two months, Malik shares, “We have curated and shared over 25 webinars and podcasts and received excellent feedback. It is indeed interesting to see insights from employees who attend webinars and live sessions shared by us, which encourages healthy debates on the WhatsApp groups.”

Engagement via ‘Work Feeling Happy Campaign’

This four-week campaign aimed to equip everyone with information, micro-steps, fun quizzes and webinars on weekly themes and complimentary access to a meditation app, which they could enjoy along with their families.

The initial theme was health and wellbeing, with the focus being to ensure that the disturbance in the daily schedule and reduced movement does not impact the physical and mental wellbeing of the employees. This was followed by mindfulness and gratitude, with an aim to de-stress everyone.

Gradually, the employees were offered online courses, along with activities to inculcate budgeting amongst kids and family, and understand the shortcomings while handling personal finances. The employees were also guided on being resilient in adverse situations similar to the current scenario around the globe.

The evolution of the video platforms has built a supportive ecosystem for the sales team.

Under such extreme conditions, the ability to adapt to digital platforms faster has helped its salesforce deliver even under lockdown conditions. 

“Our ‘mobile sales tool’ has helped them log in policies without requiring personal meetings with the customers. Customers were encouraged to leverage the benefits of the self-service portal— that helps them with their policy renewals and so on, for which they would typically depend on their advisors,” Malik said.

The crisis and the related uncertainty of health and life have made the need for insurance stand out like never before — especially in a country, such as India, where people are prone to buying insurance not for indemnity, but rather investment. 

The insurance company is living up to its purpose of ‘With You Today for a Better Tomorrow’, wherein it is operating with the goal that not a single customer’s policy should lapse for the lack of awareness or inaccessibility to our services.

In Malik’s words, “After the initial low in March, renewals have steadily improved — the top query in our call centres for the last month has been about renewal premium payment and our business numbers for the months of April and May are evidence of the same.”

Moreover, self-service portals for policyholders are proving to be game changers for Aviva Life Insurance. 

Malik believes that insurers will need to ramp up their call centre operations to keep pace with the increase in premium payments, claims and other customer requests. Going forward, new- age solutions such as cloud telephony, AI-powered chatbots, and interactive voice response and so on will provide the customers with contactless service and seamless experience.

Now that the Company has got back to working from office, albeit with just a few employees initially, the challenge is to help its people imbibe social distancing as the new normal.

Aviva is meticulously putting in interventions for every single minute that an employee spends in the office to ensure that social distancing is maintained at all times.

An onsite doctor has been engaged who visits the office thrice a week to check on all support staff and any employee who is feeling unwell. Employees have to sign an e-health declaration every day before coming to work. For seating arrangements, a minimum six-feet distance is ensured between the work stations. Employees will have limited usage of common spaces, such as the cafeteria, lifts, meeting rooms and so on.

For Malik, employee safety is paramount, and therefore, even more than the numbers, it is about understanding who can contribute from home and who needs to come to office. 

The post How Aviva Life Insurance India sees opportunity in a crisis  appeared first on HR Katha.

The Group is aiming to double its turnover by FY25 to around 2,400 crore. Patel says that despite the slowdown in domestic demand, the demand to export is good. “We still see a 30-35 per cent growth in exports as many companies are looking towards India for supply of manufactured goods.” Patel adds that although there have been no orders received as of yet, there are many demand inquiries coming in from various vendors and the Company should be able to begin exporting soon. “We expect to be able to start by the mid of next month,” says Patel.

“We have enough reserves to take care of our people for the next six months. We do not believe in imposing salary cuts just because we have been out of business for a few days. The last thing we would want to do is cut down on our employee strength.”

Although Orpat resumed its operations from May 17, it has not gone for 100 per cent capacity in production. The Company has begun production in a phased manner and currently only operates at 30 per cent capacity. The operations’ hub of the Company is in Morbi, a small district in Gujarat, which is currently under the green zone. Due to the relative lack of cases in the district, at present, the organisation has been able to resume operations albeit with a lower capacity. The marketing, sales and accounts departments in the corporate office are also working.

Deliveries of finished goods are currently happening in Gujarat only, but are in the pipeline for other states as well. At the moment, according to Patel, around 70 per cent of the deliveries are taking place in Gujarat, with the rest going to Uttar Pradesh and other areas.

There also exists the problem of getting adequate human resources for work in the plants. The Ajanta-Orpat Group has a workforce of around 5000 employees out of which 95 per cent are women. Many of them usually come from neighbouring areas around Morbi, such as Rajkot and Ahmedabad, while a few are settled in Morbi itself. Currently, the Company is bringing in employees who are situated in Morbi itself. Areas, such as Rajkot and Ahmedabad are in the orange and red zones, respectively.

Patel says, “At this point, we do not want to push anybody to come to work if they do not want to. The only reason we have started is because we are in the green zone. The resumption of operations right now is not in any way related to making money or doing business. It is simply about supporting the people and we are doing the best we can.”

Currently, the divisions manufacturing fans, clocks and calculators are active. “Other divisions are going to start phase wise. The first or second week of June is when we see the demand picking up,” reveals Patel. In addition, key areas in the supply chain are also blocked, for instance, Mumbai, from where goods are further distributed across Maharashtra. Buses carrying employees to and from the plants are also working at 30 per cent capacity.

March, April and May are the busiest months for fans, winters for heaters and Diwali season for wall clocks and home appliances. Patel feels that it may take around 8-10 months for demand to rise again and for people to start spending.

Working with added precaution

Despite being in a green zone, the Company is not taking any chances. There are no public transport facilities, and therefore, pick and drop facilities are available for the employees in fully-sanitised buses with mandatory temperature checks and sanitiser use, before onboarding and deboarding the bus. Inside the plant, 1 metre distance between every employee is maintained. Before beginning production, all employees and their family members were checked for signs or symptoms.

While physical distancing may be easier with lower capacities, Patel says that even when production is going to be upscaled to normal capacity, distancing will not be a matter of concern. “Even on a normal day, there is adequate distance between each employee as workers need their own space to work. Since space constraint is not an issue, our buildings are more spacious than working spaces of tier-1 cities,” he adds.

Food is prepared for the employees by a six-member kitchen staff in every building. Monthly rations were provided for the employees who could not manage to procure any during the initial days of the lockdown due to hiked prices. The Company also provides medical coverage for all its employees. Monthly delivery of groceries is a regular activity at Orpat and the practice has continued throughout the lockdown.

The Company has built two residential societies for employees around the plants, within a distance of two kilometers, with around 300 flats in each. Quarters are reserved for employees who have spent a certain number of years in the Company.

Moreover, with the Company manufacturing most of the material needed for its finished goods, only a small amount of raw material comes from outside. At the moment, according to Patel, they have enough inventory of raw materials for the next three months. Post that, trucks coming in with the required raw materials will have a single point of entry and will be sanitised at every juncture along with the materials brought.

With so many precautions being taken, and with the well-being of its employees and their families at heart, the Ajanta-Orpat Group seems incapable of going wrong anywhere as far as resumption of work post lockdown is concerned.

The post “At Ajanta-Orpat, we don’t cut salaries for being out of business for a few days,” Nevil Patel appeared first on HR Katha.

Project Kavach

To begin with, Urban Company has launched Project Kavach specifically for its service partners – a certification training programme to help them protect themselves and take necessary safety precautions as they go about resuming their daily lives, vocations and routines.

The Kavach certification programme will train over 27,000 partners on personal safety and hygiene standards, PPE usage and service SOPs through a staggered 7-day virtual training programme.

The UC Care App

The Company’s in-house  technology team has developed an application, The UC Care App,  to will keep a close track of the employees’ health, on the basis of various parameters such as pre-existing medical conditions, whether living in containment zones or not. Only when the App gives an employee a ‘Green Gate Pass’, is he or she permitted to operate from the office.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

The home services aggregator is in the process of procuring and shipping a safety kit with mandatory personal protective equipment or PPE, to the service professionals who are associated with the platform.

“Depending upon the services, the service professionals will be equipped with a 3-ply surgical mask, protective sterile gloves, goggles, a hand sanitiser and a sanitising spray. In the post-lockdown world, this is another step that can significantly reduce the risk of contracting infection, for both the customers and the partners, while delivering service,” says Sana Nayyar VP-HR, Urban Company.

W-seating format

Out of its 25 offices, the Company has resumed its operations with 25 per cent workforce in all the locations except in Maharashtra, Pune and Nagpur. It is still planning to maintain a minimum employee strength for the time being.

For the 1600 full-time employees, Nayyar informs that the Company is phasing the restart of the offices, and has kept it optional for them to attend offices. “The office spaces will be utilised as per the Government regulations of course,” assures Nayyar.

Daily sanitisation, compulsory masks, social distancing and W-seating format have been implemented across workstations, wherein nobody sits next to each other, neither in front or behind.

Besides, some other rules that are followed are freshly-packed food at desks and no cutlery. The Company has ensured detailed protocols for resuming office operations. Among other things, this also includes the Government-mandated protocols of hygiene and social distancing.

“Seating capacities of meeting rooms have been reduced to at least 50 per cent or less to avoid crowding. Even breakout areas have been marked to ensure that employees maintain social distance while getting a cup of coffee or water,” Nayyar explains.

our focus has been to enable platforms and remote connectivity to minimise roadblocks to productivity

Suraksha holidays

The economic consequences of the lockdown have been most severe for lower-income and gig-economy workers.

“To provide sustenance and income for any partner who needs to self-quarantine, the Company is providing a weekly income grant of Rs 2,000 to ensure that the partners can get well without having to worry about lost income,” Nayyar adds.

Moreover, the Company has also purchased insurance cover for any partner infected with the disease, covering any hospitalisation expenses and a per-day allowance.

Daily temperature checks

The Company is instituting daily temperature checks for all partners on the platform. Anyone registering a temperature of over 99°F will be asked to stay home and consult a doctor. The partner can return to work only after a minimum of three successive days of running a normal temperature or the recommended duration of rest prescribed by the empanelled doctors.

To ensure that partners have access to the advice of expert doctors, Urban Company has partnered with Pristyn Healthcare to make quality tele-medicine services and advice available to partners free of cost.

Sanitisation of tools and single-use sachets

Sanitising tools and use of single-use sachets and disposables have been mandated whenever beauty services resume. Additionally, for home services such as appliance repair, electricians, plumbers, carpenters and so on, the protocol is to ensure a contactless service experience.

Hygiene checks at office receptions

All employees entering the offices have to undergo a mandatory temperature check, wear a mask and sanitise their hands. Other small yet important steps include shutting down the elevators, and neatly marking reception areas with socially-distanced squares for sitting and standing.

Nayyar claims, “We have also enabled continuous monitoring and feedback procedures to ensure that all protocols and guidelines are being implemented at the ground level in all the 25 offices.”

Further, Nayyar states, “We have set up a dedicated COVID-19 helpdesk to support employees in matters ranging from updated government advisories and guidelines to hospital and lab information. Any ‘high-risk’ cases will be continuously monitored for their health status.”

Key initiatives

Earlier, when the lockdown was announced, the Company launched its in-house learning and development programme called Urban Academy, as it was the best opportunity for the employees to upskill themselves and continue learning.

To reassure the teams and lend support, Nayyar shares, “We have a company-wide #CountOnMe programme to provide support to any and all employees. This includes 1:1 reach-outs and mini groups to keep a tab on each other and share community banter, even recipes.”

Additionally, the Company has set up a telemedicine line for employees and their families in case they need medical attention and also decided to go with unlimited sick leaves for the rest of the year.

Business continuity 

In the current situation, with businesses impacted around the globe, for Urban Company the challenge has been to keep the employees happy, engaged and free from mental stress.

“As a responsible organisation, our focus has been to enable platforms and remote connectivity to minimise roadblocks to productivity. We have strengthened our communication infrastructure and regulated usage to ensure that people are well connected to each other even during the lockdown.

As the safety and quality of the services are above everything else at Urban Company, it has revamped its entire service delivery such as salon and hair cut, which involve being in close contact.

“We have been through extensive virtual-training sessions and changed the entire service SOP. We have implemented a comprehensive set of eight safety protocols, including the usage of masks and gloves, use of the Aarogya Setu app, daily temperature checks, single-use sachets and disposables, sanitisation of all tools before delivery of service, health and safety training of its service partners, and so on,” reveals Nayyar.

She rightly concludes, “We recognise the need to re-commit to and strengthen all existing health and safety precautions on the platform. Adopting the new realities of social distancing, the hygiene bar has been a challenge and has pushed us to rethink how the service experience plays out, especially since our services are delivered within the safety of customers’ homes.”

The post How Urban Company’s 27000 gig workers are making a comeback appeared first on HR Katha.

Karan Sandhu, chief learning officer (CLO), Jindal Steel and Power, says that the Company undertook measures to cordon off large areas within the factory townships, built quarantine facilities and contraptions for hands-free hand washing and through the CSR arm of the organisation, built and distributed N-95 and washable masks amongst its employees and their families. All this happened in the beginning of March, as Sandhu says, even before the national quarantine hit the country.

Being part of the essential services, the plants at JSPL remained functional throughout, operating with minimum capacity in staggered shifts to maintain physical distancing as per government norms. Within the plants and townships, medical teams and hospitals are available around the clock for any emergency.

Interestingly, JSPL recorded its highest ever export of steel and related products in the month of April. Its steel plant in Angul recorded the highest ever production of hot metal last month.

In the corporate offices, on the other hand, employees and managers participated in rehearsals simulating a remote-working scenario, just to get used to the practice. The plan was to familiarise people with online collaborative tools, such as Zoom and Google Hangouts. In addition, the Company set up protocols and ground rules, such as regular morning and evening huddles to discuss the events of the day and prepare for the next.

During this time, managers have to understand the psychological condition of the employees and help them ease into the new normal

Doing so helped them avoid unprecedented hurdles in working from home. For instance, it was during one of these rehearsals that the team working under Sandhu discovered a snag in the firewall, which was solved immediately by the in-house IT team. “Many of the C-suite leaders have the experience of working remotely and this helped us in putting together a plan faster,” says Sandhu.

Going back to office

Office resumed with the minimum 33 per cent capacity initially, and only after a thorough fumigation of the entire complex.

Within the office, extra measures have been taken to ensure that there is minimum touching of surfaces and maximum physical distancing is maintained.

Two thirds of the chairs have locked up as the number of people using them has reduced. Dustbin lids have been removed to ensure easy and contactless disposal of garbage. High-touch areas, such as restroom doors are kept open so that people can use the facilities without having to touch any surface. Privacy is still maintained, of course. The number of people allowed in the lifts has been further limited, and hand sanitisers have been placed outside every door, even in the basement parking space. Apart from these, precautions such as wearing of mask at all times, are mandatory within the office premises.

Truck drivers have been allotted a special area within the plant, which is sanitised regularly and equipped with food and resting facilities for their use. This has been done to protect these drivers and the rest of the employees in the plants from spreading the virus unknowingly. Due to the nature of their job, drivers are prohibited from loitering around the campus. In addition, the turnaround time for loading and unloading has also been reduced so that trucks are able to come in and go out faster, without any loss of time and pose less of a risk for the other employees in the area.

From an HR standpoint, this will show us leaders at every level, and this is the moment for people to step up

Yet another precautionary measure taken by the Company for its corporate office employees is the spraying of their vehicles with a disinfectant before they leave at the end of the day. Employees queue up to have their vehicles sprayed. “I like to think of it as a gesture from the Company towards our employees to get home safe,” says Sandhu.

Learning and engagement

All formal offline learning activities were put on hold by the organisation, in the month of March itself, and some have now been moved online. For the plant workers, on the other hand, on-the-job learning has been an on-going process as usual. As Sandhu elucidates,

“The plants and factories being high-risk areas, continuous training and retraining is a must in all circumstances, to avoid serious injuries or worse. “On the job mentoring is an on-going process in the plants,” he adds.

As for the rest of the corporate employees, a host of webinars are organised regularly with each one lasting 45 minutes to an hour at max. Leaders also engage through online conversations, where they discuss their professional and personal journeys with the employees.

In addition, employees are sent easy-to-learn business concepts in the form of short, one-minute video lessons. Moreover, there is a curated list of courses on the steel industry, which employees can pursue at will. All webinars, sessions and courses are available to the employees on demand.

Sandhu elaborates how this is the time that will make or break organisations and define leaders. Empathy and compassion are the need of the hour. Moreover, businesses need to be agile and form crisis-management groups early on, because what the future holds is still unclear.

“During this time, managers have to understand the psychological condition of the employees and help them ease into the new normal,” explains Sandhu. It is important to acknowledge the stress of the employees in the plants, and their concerns about their own families.

“From an HR standpoint, this will show us leaders at every level, and this is the moment for people to step up,”concludes Sandhu.

The post Jindal steels itself and powers through the lockdown appeared first on HR Katha.

The professional services giant is also planning to use floor markings, which means demarcating places with stickers, tapes and posters for social distancing. It will ensure that medical isolation rooms are located closer to entry points.

Speaking to HRKatha, Unmesh Pawar, partner & head, people, performance & culture, KPMG India, says, “Social distancing is going to be the new normal or new way of life in the near future. We believe that the ‘six feet office’ and physical distancing are here to stay.”

Now that the cafeterias will remain closed, employees will have to eat at their own desks. Isn’t that the first step towards social distancing?

For employees to return to their offices safely, Pawar believes that the whole exercise will have to be undertaken in a planned and disciplined manner to ensure that everyone is safeguarded. “Rostering will be implemented so that all the employees maintain social distancing. Employees will come to office or work from home as laid down in the roster,” he explains.

Although the Company is unsure about the number of employees to return to work, it is planning to resume in a phased manner with limited staff desks occupied in office at any given point in time.

Based on the current situation, KPMG has ensured that its staff continue to work from home until the lockdown continues. “This is an evolving situation, and if we have to take additional precautions, we will take them as the health and safety of our employees is extremely important for us,” adds Pawar.

Although the Company claims to have an agile working environment, enabling it for 100 per cent of the workforce was challenging initially.

Business Continuity Plan

To deal with the COVID-19 crisis, KPMG initiated the Business Continuity Plan (BCP) by ensuring availability of critical infrastructure, enhanced network bandwidth and VPN capacity, so that employees can work from a remote location and access enterprise applications securely, without any disruption.

As part of the BCP, the Company has also taken several measures, right from scaling its infrastructure to supporting the staff pan-India and providing round-the-clock IT support.

Pawar states, “Our IT support team played an instrumental role in providing prompt support to the business, addressing any technical issues whenever required, just in time.”

To ensure productivity, KPMG has also leveraged cloud-based audio and video conferencing platforms that help efficient communication and collaboration.

This is an evolving situation, and if we have to take additional precautions, we will take them as the health and safety of our employees is extremely important for us

Security being of utmost importance, the Company is constantly updating to ensure compliance. “We are regularly updating user endpoints with latest security patches and our team is also monitoring the tools to ensure efficient operations 24/7,” shares Pawar.

As the pandemic is a testing time for people across organisations, it is also important to keep the employees engaged for any business to continue in a remote working culture.

Vitamin jOSH

Pawar believes that employees are the drivers, movers, shakers and breakers of any organisation. Therefore, “If we do not utilise our employee fuel effectively, efficiently or strategically, businesses will see an impact,” he points out.

Keeping these aspects in mind, KPMG has initiated some outstanding employee-experience activities to build organisational resilience.

Aptly named Vitamin jOSH, this series of activities is meant to ensure the well-being of the mind, body, heart and home of the KPMG work family.

The series comprises activities to relax the mind, manage financial stress and keep the body and heart healthy through yoga, dance and workout sessions. The jOSH series also includes guidance sessions and material on parenting along with activities for kids.

Pawar explains that these combined activities, as a part of the remote-working routine, help bring out the productive best in the employees.

Online university

Apart from the well-being initiatives, Pawar also stresses on the importance of upskilling and reskilling employees so that they remain productive and motivated. To this effect, KPMG in India has introduced the Stay at Home Learner Series, that comprises training sessions for employees across levels, aimed at improving interpersonal communication and soft skills.

The professional services giant has recently launched its very own online university, where KPMG India professionals have easy access to a repository of virtual-learning resources, comprising compelling articles, videos, as well as free-access courses from some of the best universities in the world.

“We are also encouraging our employees to take up anything that piques their interest or start with a skill they want to build,” reveals Pawar.

Furthermore, KPMG also has a mediclaim policy for employees, with an inbuilt COVID protection cover. This provides employees the option to top up the cover to secure their immediate family.

The Company is truly striving to adapt to the changing times and be prepared for whatever the future may hold.

The post Six-feet office, Vitamin jOSH, online university: KPMG plans ahead of pandemic appeared first on HR Katha.

As per the e-commerce payment firm, this move will enable the operations to run in a smooth manner, once the lockdown is lifted.

Paytm believes this step will help it keep its costs under check without adversely affecting employees’ morale.

As per the leave benefits, employees will have to surrender their accumulated privilege leaves (PLs) and casual leaves (CLs).  However, the Company has denied PLs accumulated up to 35 days and accrued CLs.

In a statement, Rohit Thakur, chief human resources officer, Paytm, said, “Ensuring that our employees are safeguarded from the current global crisis is of utmost importance to us.”

According to the Company, this move will have a positive impact on its balance sheet and help ensure that growth continues.

“We believe that this is the right step to effectively accommodate the short-term impact and the long-term interests of our Company and all employees,” Thakur added.

Adding that this is a temporary measure, Paytm assured that employees will be able to collect PLs and CLs again in the future.

Currently, the Company is focused on supporting the citizens, as the country is witnessing an emerging era of digital economy, with people widely using digital payments, and set to continue using the same after the pandemic, maybe even more.

The post Paytm ensures business continuity, asks employees to give up leave benefits appeared first on HR Katha.

The plant at Manesar was made operational only after the Haryana government granted permission for the same on May 13. 

Out of the 600 employees, there is a mix of permanent and casual workers who have started to work on a single shift basis. A few members from the leadership team have also joined the workforce. 

Speaking to HRKatha, Vinod Rai, head – human capital, Maruti Suzuki India, mentions the social distancing norms that are being strictly followed after resuming operations. 

“As per guidelines, a six-feet distance is maintained between employees with proper sanitation facilities on every floor of the departments. In order to protect our employees from contamination, we have built multiple tunnels for them to enter the premises, which will lead them to their respective departments,” says Rai.

In order to implement GOI guidelines and changes, the company has created a Covid-19 Task Force under the guidance of its management, and has worked out a detailed SOP for safe start of operations. Guidelines include starting from home to going back safely.

“As per guidelines, a six-feet distance is maintained between employees with proper sanitation facilities on every floor of the departments. In order to protect our employees from contamination, we have built multiple tunnels for them to enter the premises, which will lead them to their respective departments”

Rai also mentions that only the employees who have registered themselves with the Arogya Setu app will be allowed to come to the plant. 

“Parallely, we also have our own inhouse developed wellness apps to track temperature and stay connected and updated about Covid 19 cases, Rai adds.   

Maruti Suzuki India is the latest carmaker to restart operations in the third phase of the nationwide lockdown, along with the likes of Hyundai, Toyota, Renault and Nissan, which have also announced partial resumption of operations in the last few days.

Now that the plant in Manesar is operational, MSIL will also start its operations in Gurugram, and the other plant in Manesar, Haryana, by May 18, 2020. However, this will be in effect only after the government grants permit. 

There are uncertainties pertaining to production because manpower movement is still somewhat restricted. Permits are needed to move around  from one district to another.

When asked about the manpower-related challenges, Rai says, “Many workers have returned to their villages during the pandemic, and there being no means of communicating with them, so we are hopeful to get back with more employees when the operations are fully functional.”

“In spite of our manufacturing plants being operational, supply to other parts of the country will depend upon the government’s further direction. So, resuming operations with a limited workforce is not really a challenge for the time being”, he added. 

“Currently we are focusing on the maintenance and implementation of our SOPs in place,” reveals Rai.

The car manufacturing giant, which rolls out high-selling models, such as Alto, Swift, Dzire, S-Presso, Ertiga and Baleno, is looking forward to increasing its capacity and production after  May 18.

The post Maruti Suzuki India resumes operations in Manesar with 600 employees appeared first on HR Katha.

He was advised to stop watching such news and focus on the better things happening in the world. Shilpi Kumar, PGT English, Seth Anandaram Jaipuria School, then had a major brainstorming session with the student to make him understand that this pandemic is here to teach us that we should focus more on the positive things.

Teachers have been fielding such questions for some time now, as part of their efforts to overcome the hurdles presented by the lockdown — from counselling students to keeping them engaged amidst the lockdown.

Keeping ourselves and the students engaged has become the priority since the lockdown, and virtual classes have proved to be helpful in these difficult times

“Teachers are the next level of COVID warriors, fighting for the nation and shaping the future of tomorrow,” says Raghav Podar, chairman, Podar Education, Mumbai.

Here is first-hand information from the teachers about how they are coping up with the new normal and overcoming all the associated challenges.

Unlearning is the new learning

For Kumar of Jaipuria school, who hails from an Army background, remote working was never a challenge, but remote teaching definitely is.

Kumar says, “As a teacher today, this difficult situation has taught me to unlearn a lot of things and learn some more.”

Having been in the education sector for the past 15  years, today, Kumar finds taking online classes challenging. She says, “In spite of the availability of the content, its application, how to use it and deliver it to the students in the right manner is the real deal.”

According to Kumar, when one meets a student physically, a connection is established and it becomes possible to deal with or clarify any situation immediately. In online classes, however, somewhere, the connection gets lost. But she also believes that over a period of time, a teacher has to build that connection with the content delivery and also the way she interacts with the student.

“If the content is delivered in a proper manner, the student will not only be present but also participate actively during the sessions,” adds Kumar.

Kumar has made the maximum efforts to keep her students engrossed with different tasks and has incorporated several apps, such as Flipgrid, Padlet, Quizlet, Storyboard and Pixton to ensure interactive learning.

“Not only are students interested but these little fun ways of learning have kept them captivated and helped them concentrate during the online classes,” reveals Kumar.

Teachers are the next level of COVID warriors, fighting for the nation and shaping the future of tomorrow

“We are still not aware as to when things will be back to normal. So, instead of leaving everything to the future, teachers should plan ahead, keeping one thing in mind — that learning should not stop.”

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy

So far, it has been a constant struggle for Aditya Mishra, English teacher at Grand Columbus International School, to maintain work-life balance while there isn’t even a semblance of normalcy around.

However, Mishra believes that the best way to forget one’s own challenges is to help others and solve theirs.

Therefore, Mishra begins his online classes with little poems which he and the students read together, followed by an exchange of random thoughts and inputs related to those poems, before beginning to study anything from the curriculum. A truly unique and interesting way to begin!

Mishra says, “Teaching in this atmosphere has proven to be extremely challenging. Most of us have had to adapt to technology that we weren’t familiar with, overnight. And as a result, the working hours have increased. Our phones never seem to stop buzzing.” Along with being the authority on their subjects, teachers have had to play technology trouble-shooters.

Students are being kept engaged in different forms of art — be it yoga, meditation, sports, music or dance classes — online. “These fun activities along with their regular curriculum help take their minds off things troubling them, and provide much-needed respite,” adds Mishra.

“While there is no dearth of apps and tools that can aid learning at this time, our focus has been on keeping things simple,” continues Mishra. “Video lessons, PowerPoint presentations, live classes, online quizzes, and so on are undertaken to keep ourselves as well as our students engaged during these tough times,” he adds.

Teaching in this atmosphere has proven to be extremely challenging. Most of us have had to adapt to technology that we weren’t familiar with, overnight

Mishra concludes by saying, “The education system in India has been waiting for an upgrade for a very long time. Institutions which were oblivious to the importance of technology, have realised they can’t survive without upgrading themselves. We’re faced with immense opportunities to create simplified, dynamic, and indigenous solutions to aid the education sector in the country.”

Building 21st century skills

Three days into the lockdown, teachers at the Podar Group of Schools were deeply involved with research on online classes and training practices, day and night.

Sharing his experience with HRKatha, Raghav Podar, chairman, Podar Education, says, “All that brainstorming and research paid off so well that from nursery to the higher classes, everything had gone online within a matter of a few days. For students of the higher classes, the sessions went on for three to four hours while for the younger kids, they lasted an hour.”

The only challenge, and the biggest one for teachers, according to Podar, was that they were unable to see the reactions of the students.

The need of the hour, Podar believes, is for teachers to be passionate so that they can enjoy themselves while teaching online.

“At the Podar Group of Schools, not only the students, but even the teachers are enjoying virtual classes and keeping themselves engaged. Engagement happens automatically when everyone is having fun during the lectures.”

“Rising above all the challenges, our teachers surpassed all odds and stepped up,” Podar adds.

As a teacher today, this difficult situation has taught me to unlearn a lot of things and learn some more

When our school reopens, Podar continues, “Our teachers will not only focus on the academics but also on building 21st century skills, such as resilience, ability to cope with limited resources, flexibility and critical thinking.”

Online education is the ‘new’ future

While some teachers still believe that the future of education is in the classrooms, Dr Rashmi, TGT Hindi, Cambridge School, Indirapuram, holds a different opinion.

She believes that the pandemic has radically changed the concept of traditional education in the past few months and virtual learning will be the new future of education. Before the pandemic, technology was just considered as a means of entertainment.

Today, Rashmi continues, “Keeping ourselves and the students engaged has become the priority since the lockdown, and virtual classes have proved to be helpful in these difficult times. This powerful medium has diversified the field of teaching.”

“Earlier, teachers were not so familiar with online teaching at the school level, except for the computer lectures. Now, along with teachers, every profession has chosen the virtual platform, providing precious opportunities to both new learners and experts,” points out Rashmi.

There appears to be no dearth of online resources of academic value. And therefore, online teaching is more an opportunity than a challenge for teachers today.

The post A teacher’s work life during lockdown appeared first on HR Katha.

Resumption of operations in the ‘new normal’

“Now that the workforce is coming back to work, all our office spaces have been deeply cleansed. We have mandated a distance of six feet between each employee, to ensure social distancing,” claims Varre Appa Rao, CHRO, HCL Technologies.

“We have reduced the number of gates so that we can keep a check on the number of working staff and also ensure that they sanitise their hands every now and then,” states Rao.

HCL is not in a hurry to get its entire workforce back in office. Hence, in Rao’s words, “We are working only with four per cent of our staff in offices or customer location offices, while the remaining 96 per cent have been asked to work from their homes. “So it’s not business continuity for us, but more like business as usual. Though we can easily accommodate up to 50 per cent of our workforce if they return to office, but we don’t wish to force our employees to come to work,” explains Rao.

The four per cent returning to work have been clearly demarcated into three sets.
“The first set will comprise those who are dependent upon our labs for engineering and R&D services. These employees will need to visit the labs to test a TV, laptop or washing machine, as the necessary testing equipment are available only at the labs. The second set consists of those catering to customers who may not be comfortable with the force working from home, because of data privacy and security issues. The third set of people is made up of those working from customer locations. If the governments in their countries permit them to work from their offices, then they will do so.”

Precautions prior to lockdown

Talking about employees’ safety, Rao talked about how the process began in the month of January itself. “We had actually planned and prepared ourselves for this scenario as we believed that there was no harm in being prepared and cautious even before such a crisis is upon us. So, we started a 24×7 healthcare helpline for our employees across the globe, in association with our sister company, HCL Healthcare,” reveals Rao.

“So it’s not business continuity for us, but more like business as usual. Though we can easily accommodate up to 50 per cent of our workforce if they return to office, but we don’t wish to force our employees to come to work”

In February, the Company began restricting its employees’ travel, avoiding any country where more than 15 cases were reported. The management marked those countries as red zones. The employees, as well as their families, were instructed to avoid flying to the countries in that zone. Those who had travelled back from those countries were asked to self-quarantine for 14 days.

“We had also stocked sanitisers, thermometers and masks in big numbers, in case of emergency, and as a mandate to maintain proper hygiene for our employees,” discloses Rao.

Engagement post imposition of lockdown

Post the announcement of lockdown, employee engagement became a very important point of concern for the management at HCL Technologies. They understood that it would not be easy for their employees to sit at one place and work for nine hours consecutively.

An internal communication microsite was launched, where necessary survival guidelines were given on a daily basis, on how to use sanitisers, face masks, and so on.
“Employee connect activities began at a global level, with daily 10-minute Zumba fitness sessions for all our staff members. We made the employees’ families indulge in various activities, with specific programmes for kids as well. In the month of April alone Microsoft Teams software recorded 100k plus users with 100 million minutes. We also conducted surveys in terms of what was working and what wasn’t, and to our amazement, 90 per cent of the employees claimed that they were very happy,” claims Rao.

The remaining 10 per cent had issues with internet speed in India, and socialising in Europe. “In India, we sorted the issue of internet bandwidth and even initiated the reimbursement of the usage up to a level, which was almost double of what was being reimbursed under normal working conditions,” says Rao.

He further adds, “We also created separate databanks that employees could rely on in case they exhausted their daily limit.”

Being aware that work from home could be troublesome, the management provided the employees pandemic leaves, wherein, if the family members needed care and attention, the employees could avail of 14 days of pandemic leave.

Shift towards virtual hiring and onboarding

For the past two and a half years, the management has been enthusiastically working on virtual hiring processes. While the walk-in mode still continues — with people being asked to come to our offices for interviews — the focus has been more on virtual interviewing, wherein there are panels sitting and interviewing potential candidates from any location.
The entire process is captured on video with the help of tech, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). Hence, “if someone tries to cheat our system, we will get to know immediately. This measure did pay us good dividends during this COVId-19 menace and has also helped us roll out offer letters within hours. Alongside, the virtual onboarding process too has been pretty seamless for us,” explains Rao.

Throwing light on the need for updated skills within their workforce, Rao states, “When new skills initially pop up in the market, there is bound to be a scarcity of people possessing specific expertise in those skills. Hence, to combat this issue, we have been running learning and training programmes within our organisation to upskill our internal staff, to make up for the shortage of such skills in particular locations.”

This helps in fulfil HCL’s internal needs. “We keep training our people in domains, such as cyber security, data sciences and cloud computing. Therefore, today, our internal fulfilment — which was merely 30 per cent two years back — has touched almost 70 per cent. Also, we have saved on the average resource cost, which would have otherwise been much higher than our internal costs.”

Rao further went on to summarise the ‘new normal’ in three points: First, customers’ responses would be unpredictable unless they get used to the new ways of purchasing. Second, governments will gradually be mandating up to 50 per cent workforce to work from home, as it will be a challenge to maintain social distancing otherwise. Lastly, the need for commercial building and spaces too will come down if work from home becomes the new normal. This may pose a macroeconomic and socioeconomic problem for governments. In the worst case scenario, if the need for commercial real estate vanishes, so will the need for unorganised jobs.

The post How HCL technologies prepares for the new normal appeared first on HR Katha.

To begin with, the Indian multinational IT services provider will only get 10 per cent of its workforce to its offices, while the remaining 90 per cent will continue to work from home for some time. It currently has 94 per cent of its staff working from home. The challenge, however, is their reintegration back to the office.

Currently, our country is classified into three zones – red, orange and green — based on the number of COVID positive cases, doubling rate, the extent of testing and surveillance feedback.

With some of its offices falling under these zones, Tech Mahindra itself has divided its office premises, buildings, and floors into several zones as a precautionary measure. The seating of employees is distributed as per these zones, and no one will be allowed to crossover from one zone to the other, even within the same floor. This is to maintain social distancing.

Harshvendra Soin, chief people officer, Tech Mahindra, says, “We have made a comprehensive plan, building-by building, floor-by floor, and zone by zone. We have divided the zones depending upon the number of employees in each of the buildings. There are demarcated areas within these buildings out of which people cannot go.”

These zones have been created to ensure minimum risk in case of infection.

Besides, within the office premises, everything starting from seating arrangements in offices and cafeterias, to elevators and washrooms, each position is demarcated as per the plan. There will be no face-to-face meetings with more than five members.

As far as the seating arrangements are concerned, a six-feet distance between two associates will be maintained, both in the work areas and cafeterias. In queues at the cafeteria, a minimum of one-meter distance will be mandatory. To further avoid frequent contact, doors will remain open. Common areas, such as gyms and creche facilities will remain closed even after the offices reopen.

The office premises will be equipped with sanitisation facilities, adhering to all norms. Frequent sanitisation of lifts, common places, restrooms and public touchpoints will be mandatory. Attendance will be marked online, using tracking software. Also, machines brought back by the employees from their homes will be allowed inside only after a machine health check by Travel Information Manual (TIM).

The idea behind this plan is to make sure that each of the employees have a common understanding of the Do’s and Don’ts of, before, and after coming back to office.

Soin mentions that all these measures, taken over the last four to five weeks, have been in line with the Company’s philosophy of putting its people’s wellbeing above its business.

According to Soin, the new normal will be to continue complying with the restrictions for a considerable period of time.

There is an assessment happening, where hiring is not in the scenario for the next six months. Our first preference will be to reskill our internal people

In an endeavour to save all jobs, the top management of the Company had stepped up last week, to take the financial hit and forego variable pay cuts. The Company has reviewed its operating costs and taken multiple measures to curb the impact, based on the seniority level.

However, the salaries of around 85,000 frontline workers remain untouched.

As the future is uncertain at the moment, Soin reveals that these salary decisions are for the June quarter.

On the hiring front, the Company has paused all activities at the moment, except for a few critical roles. “There is an assessment happening, where hiring is not in the scenario for the next six months. Our first preference will be to reskill our internal people,” adds Soin.

The post How Tech Mahindra prepares to get back to work post lifting of lockdown appeared first on HR Katha.

Business-wise it made great sense.

The incident left us pondering, whether automation was the answer to the current situation. The rationale was that it would require less people and production can be regained without much effort, even with the restriction of only 25 per cent of the workforce being allowed to work in a shift, to maintain social distancing.

In China, after the lockdown was lifted, more than 80 per cent of original equipment manufacturers have been able to resume production capacity. At the epicentre of the pandemic, during the early stages of the outbreak, few factories in the automotive industry were able to maintain relatively high levels of production due to high levels of automation.

Should India Inc. be taking a leaf out of China’s notebook?

Automation is a business strategy and not a response to a situation. Only after considering all factors can one respond to automation

The unprecedented crisis has adversely impacted the manufacturing industry not just in the country but the world over. With employees sitting at home, the manpower-heavy industry has felt the effects of the pandemic hard, having to shut down operations entirely. Demand has gone down and businesses are at risk of a slump in the future. Could automation be the industry’s panacea to this problem?

“All repetitive, non-value adding and highly manual tasks will see automation, including heavy-lifting activities, such as loading or unloading,” says, Balachandar N.V, executive director, Ashok Leyland.

Keeping tabs on the goods and trucks coming in and going out, falls precisely in this category.

While automation may be a strong point for consideration, it should be remembered that not all roles and functions can be automated, nor will it be feasible for businesses to do so.

Prince Augustin, EVP-group human capital and leadership development, Mahindra and Mahindra, explains, “If an organisation decides to automate, then they will also need alternate skills for maintaining the automation in the plant. Moreover, in the automotive plants, one cannot automate everything as it is a very labour-intensive process.”

Augustin adds that too much automation will increase the cost of production to such an extent that it will become unviable to manufacture in India.

Increased automation is a good way to protect businesses from future shut-downs and keep production moving in times of distress, such as the current one.

However, HR pundits are of the opinion that the shift to automation should not be a reaction to any situation, rather, a product of long-term strategic thinking. It cannot take place overnight, but needs long-term thinking and strategy.

“To me, automation should not result on account of a lack of manpower. It should be ingrained as a process because the technology demands it, and because the quality and repetitive nature of the operation demands it. While the current situation may accelerate the process of automation, it is not an answer in itself,” explains Balachandar.

All repetitive, non-value adding and highly manual tasks will see automation, including heavy-lifting activities, such as loading or unloading

Expressing a similar sentiment, Augustin adds, “Automation is a business strategy and not a response to a situation. First, one needs to look at the ease of doing work followed by productivity, quality, the difficulty of carrying out the operation and then the cost-benefit analysis. Only after considering all factors can one respond to automation.”

However, everyone agrees that an increase in automation is a need in the manufacturing sector in India. “To compete globally, we need automation, especially in the auto-industry,” asserts Balachandar.

“Automation is a strategically proactive decision. It can be a long-term solution proving useful to deal with situations such as these,” concludes Augustin.

The post Can automation help overcome the current business-continuity challenges in manufacturing? appeared first on HR Katha.

This endeavour by Samsung has re-infused hope at a time when most other companies are either pulling back offers, delaying salaries, imposing pay cuts or stopping hiring altogether this year.

Samsung has ensured that the interns, mostly belonging to GenZ,  make the best use of the lockdown period. In the absence of the usual stuff —“…handshakes, audis buzzing with activities, gym or yoga sessions, foosball or table tennis, conference room meetings …”, this year’s “Band of 36” is lucky to undergo the Samsung experience of togetherness across different cities in the country, without actually physically meeting. The credit goes to the combined efforts of the HR and IT personnel at Samsung, who have left no stone unturned to allow these interns to enjoy a smooth and seamless internship experience.

While the experience is definitely new and different, it brings with it a lot of excitement too.

Each of the interns was inducted into Team Samsung online, in compliance with the directive to maintain social distancing. The leaders of the Company also interacted with the interns remotely, making them feel comfortable and welcome.

As the head of HR, Samsung, aptly commented, given the present scenario, this batch of interns has been lucky enough to realise how innovation and technology can actually make anything possible.

These interns are being assigned projects to work on with relevant guidance being provided by a guide, mentor or buddy from Samsung. This is already giving a good boost to the confidence level of the interns.

Not only are the young interns enjoying this extraordinary experience, their e-buddies at Samsung are also excited and highly motivated to make this virtual internship programme 100 per cent successful.

While some were a little anxious and doubtful about the whole arrangement in the initial stages, they soon got into the groove. As stated by Silpa PS, an intern from XLRI, Jamshedpur herself, “I ended up getting reassured and enjoying a nice overview of Samsung.”

The e-buddies assigned to the interns share the same excitement at this unique experience. “It’s a challenging time, and we all need to pitch in to make this wonderful programme, a success,” asserts Riddhi Ranjan, from the e-Com Team of Samsung India.

The post Samsung India continues to nurture interns virtually appeared first on HR Katha.

There weren’t any breaks for the pharma industry. Being an essential category, it was expected to continue with the production as it is, and keep fuelling the distribution pipeline till the last mile. However, the industry  has been facing its own share of challenges amidst the lockdown. Though, it has been promised government support, the on-ground situation is fraught with hurdles preventing full functioning.

Attendance

Many of the workers come from neighbouring villages and cities, and movement to the manufacturing sites was a big issue initially. As travel was restricted, employees faced difficulties while getting to work, being intercepted by local authorities, the police and the district administration.

In smaller cities and rural areas, the impact is more because of shortage of transporters in those areas

In many cases, the workers themselves refused to leave their villages or were prevented from doing so when the villages went into a lockdown putting a stop to movement in and out. “It took the administration and the employees themselves about two weeks to understand that pharma is exempted,” reveals Sunil Singh, CHRO, Cadila Pharmaceuticals. “Workers who came from villages faced problems with the police initially, as they had no idea how to deal with it,” adds Singh.

Singh mentions that due to the sudden nature of the lockdown, attendance dropped to 60 per cent at the Ahmedabad plant and in other places, such as the Jammu plant, it fell almost 50 per cent.

Rajorshi Ganguli, president, global HR head, Alkem Laboratories, explained that plants situated adjacent to multiple state borders faced the most trouble when it came to employee movement. For instance, Alkem’s plant in the industrial town of Baddi, Himachal Pradesh, has employees coming to work from Chandigarh and Punjab. “Because the borders got sealed and employees had to travel from different places, attendance was low,” shares Ganguli.

While the attendance has now improved, it is nowhere close to full capacity. Ganguly explains that while the attendance has gone up more than 80 per cent in most plants, it continues to hover around 50 per cent capacity in plants, such as Baddi and Daman. Singh reveals that Cadila is faring better than before and the average attendance across plants has risen to 80 per cent.

To lessen the hassle of commuting daily, travel and lodging facilities are being provided to workers in the plants. “In places where there are too many border restrictions, we have provided living accommodations for them,” claims Ganguli. Sanitised buses and company cars have been arranged for the workers and those driving their own vehicles have been given transport allowance for every working day.

Supply chain

While production has been continuing with limited impact, the biggest effect has been on the supply. Companies have been facing issues with truck movement. With many of the workers going back to their home states there is a shortage of drivers, loaders and off-loaders on ground. “Right now, we have only five to six per cent of transport services which are operational. The rest are all completely shut down,” says Singh.

Ganguli admits that the situation was quite bad the first few days after lockdown was imposed. Companies including organisations such as the Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA) jumped in and negotiated with the authorities to allow resumption of services as soon as possible. After the circulars listing exempted services were issued, state and district administrations relaxed restrictions and movement resumed. “Right now, operations are much better than a week back,” adds Ganguli.

“In smaller cities and rural areas, the impact is more because of shortage of transporters in those areas,” elucidates Singh.

Even in terms of exports, operations were delayed. Cadila faced clearance issues in running its export operations from Gujarat because authorised officials were not going to office. In addition, there was a shortage of labourers to manage the loading and off-loading at the docks. But according to Singh, things are improving with time.

For a field force, working from home limits functionality

Sales

While sales forces in most organisations are facing difficulties in working from home, they are faring slightly better than the rest in the pharmaceutical industry.

“In essential services, sales generation will happen. Patients will keep buying medicines, and therefore, demand will flow from retailer to distributor to company,” explains Ganguli.

Singh also agrees that business for most companies is still operating more than 80 per cent.

However, there are challenges here as well. Due to the present situation, many clinics and hospitals have not resumed operations and doctors in many places are at home most of the time. This has impacted the manner of working of sales representatives. Sales people are expected to go and meet doctors personally to maintain a relationship and remind them about the company’s products, so that the doctors prescribe them. “For a field force, working from home limits functionality,” says Ganguli.

Despite the sudden imposition of the lockdown, the sales force has been quick on the uptake. Ganguli believes that being digitally connected has helped the teams to resume work quickly. Each person in the 10,000 strong field force is equipped with a personal tablet and managers have been enabling employees by guiding them on how to work remotely. Employees connect to digital training using Alkepdia, which is an in-house application built by the organisation.

At Cadila as well, Singh reveals that on an average around 1500 people are given product training every day by the medical teams.

Alkem has introduced an additional incentive in the form of gratitude pay, for both direct and non-direct employees under Alkem’s payroll. This is an extra amount paid to critical employees attending work every day, and includes employees at plants, depots and as well as those employees engaged in research and development. Contract workers who are critical to the manufacturing and supply process are entitled to a 100 per cent incentive for every day’s work. Junior and middle management employees receive a 75 per cent incentive, while senior management, such as a factory head receives 50 per cent increase on his daily wage.

The post How pharma companies are pushing ahead despite challenges appeared first on HR Katha.

The concept of work from home did not exist in many consumer-facing sectors, such as BFSI, till now. With employees having been asked to work from home, given the pandemic-like situation, many are finding it difficult. This has become a business-continuity challenge.

Shharad Dhakkate, chief human resource officer, SBI General Insurance, quips, “Getting people to accept that ‘work from home’ is the new normal, is itself a challenge.

The shift from the conventional workplace to the virtual one needs to happen seamlessly, without any impact on core operations or customer service levels. This is a very unique and unprecedented scenario, and we need to adjust to the evolving situation and respond to changes accordingly.”

The Company has now formed an emergency management team (EMT), which is closely monitoring the situation in liaison with the central/state/local authorities. The necessary advisory is being issued to the employees and other stakeholders.

The primary mantra has been simple: communicate, communicate, communicate

The EMT has provisioned for various engagement activities and matrices to make ‘work from home’ a pleasant and productive experience for the employees.

Dhakkate explains, “In IT/ITES organisations, it’s normal for people to work from home. However, it is unprecedented in our industry. Here, face to face interaction is the normal.”

“Most of our locations are spread across geographies, covering a majority of the mofussil towns as well. It’s here that we have to herald this new style of working and staying relevant in terms of individual productivity, in alignment with the organisation’s overarching objectives,” he adds.

The other key challenge that the employees are facing is working with limited resources, staying connected with the team and keeping up meaningful engagement levels.

“We, as an organisation, have been sensitive to such needs in the current context and taken some proactive steps to ensure seamless transition to the new situational demands.

The primary mantra has been simple: communicate, communicate, communicate,” shares Dhakkate.

The managers at SBI General Insurance are not only expected to have clarity in terms of expectations and performance benchmarks in the new environment, but also provide the same to their team members.

SBI General Insurance has provided its people with all the required tools and facilities to work effectively from home. The Company has created a structured web-engagement framework to keep employees engaged.

“While we were early adopters of online learning and mobile engagement and already had a robust utilisation background, in the current situation we have enhanced the engagement quotient of our L&D interventions keeping in mind the work-from-home situation and the monotony that it may slowly breed,” explains Dhakkate.

“We have clearly-defined work streams and productivity expectations and all these efforts are motivating the workforce positively, to cope with the transitioned environment, more capably,” he adds.

The challenge is not limited only to people working from home. In the insurance sector, 25 per cent of employees also need to work from offices, to ensure business continuity. That is also a major challenge in the current context, as the safety, hygiene and security of these employees needs to be ensured.

Apart from this, mobility restriction amidst the lockdown is also a major challenge for employees who are travelling.

“Only those employees who perform critical activities are advised to visit office, and that too on a need basis. We have also considered mobility constraints, and hence, have provided employees, who are attending office, with cab service. Presently, we are tracking the movement of our employees performing their duty from office, on end-to-end basis,” claims Dhakkate.

The slump in the travel and automobile sector has created a serious dent in the general insurance space. That’s yet another business challenge these companies are fighting currently.

“There is a lot of thrust on online renewals and that’s transitioning a large chunk of our renewals. We are not facing any major challenges on the renewal front,” elucidates Dhakkate.

However, he also clarifies that while the current situation certainly limits the scope of new business generation, the strong relationship quotient with its intermediaries has enabled the Company to leverage its strength of personal touch, enthusiasm and positive energy in converting it into incremental renewal achievements and customer connect.

SBI General is following a comprehensive business continuity plan to address all probable situations and attune to near-to-normal BAU, using virtual and digital modes.

The EMT has been closely monitoring the situation in liaison with the central/state/local authorities, and necessary advisory is being issued to the employees and other stakeholders.

In Dhakkate’s words, “The EMT has been taking necessary steps as per our crisis management plan, to reshape the business strategy, to maintain business continuity, to build resilience and prepare for recovery.”

The post How SBI General Insurance is overcoming business-continuity challenges during lockdown appeared first on HR Katha.

Remote working is not possible in every function, sector, or company. In such cases, the challenge lies in optimising the downtime of these employees.

Learning & Development

Learning is what most companies are looking at to keep the workforce engaged during the downtime.

Ashish Anand, CHRO, SAR Group, says, “At SAR, we have created groups for people in activity-oriented jobs— such as service engineers and sales officers— who have no real job at the moment. For each role, a separate group has been formed. We are now focussing on providing these employees with content to learn and self-develop.”

In this scenario, people are worried about losing their jobs. We are constantly in touch with our workers, trying to clarify any doubts they may have

“The field force usually does not get much time to upgrade themselves due to the nature of their job. This is a great opportunity to do that,” opines Milind Apte, CHRO, CEAT.

CEAT has been using different formats, such as TED Talks and webinars with industry experts. It has also been sending them books and summaries of relevant reading material and talks by leadership team members. Employees are given lessons on how to get in touch with their roots, such as basic selling skills, advanced selling skills, building negotiation skills and learning about the future of selling.

For the plant workers, learning is more through continuous improvement projects, with their managers themselves handpicking the projects and assigning them to the workers. Training is also being provided in quality management.

Motivation

Learning is a priority at Aditya Birla as well. “Those who are sitting at home without work are more vulnerable to emotional distress and anxiety. Therefore, it’s important to engage them in a positive way,” shares Ravi Mishra, SVP-HR, Grasim Industries, Epoxy Business, Aditya Birla Group. His organisation is taking care to engage its employees in learning and trying to alleviate their fears to ensure they stay positive.

“In this scenario, people are worried about losing their jobs. We are constantly in touch with our workers, trying to clarify any doubts they may have,” adds Mishra.

Mishra himself makes it a point to regularly connect with employees who reside in Germany and Italy, to keep their morale high. A helpline number has been provided to all employees and their families to connect with a doctor as and when needed.

Fitness is also being used to keep the downtime employees motivated. CEAT, for instance, has hired fitness trainers who have already begun conducting fitness training for the workforce. Sessions are streamed live to all employees from 9 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. every day. The chief fitness officer at CEAT, Deepali Athawale, has been in touch with the employees and their families through podcasts and live calls. Athawale has been advising them about the dos and don’ts to keep safe, and providing them tips on nutrition, dealing with anxiety and being positive. Fitness is common for employees across the organisation.

The field force usually does not get much time to upgrade themselves due to the nature of their job. This is a great opportunity to do that

Extended workforce

Just like there are employees who do not have much work to do during the downtime, there are also extended workforces in manufacturing that have been forced to go on leave without pay.

CEAT has been taking care of its indirect field force as well. These are workers who are not on the direct payroll of the company, but are employed by the distributors, to help in distribution of goods. These workers have also been rendered jobless and payless right now. The organisation has supplied its supply depots with masks and necessary protective gear for these workers to pick up anytime they wish.

Workers and truck drivers, who are stuck near the plants are being provided with food and accommodation by the Company.

“At SAR, we have created groups for people in activity-oriented jobs— such as service engineers and sales officers— who have no real job at the moment. For each role, a separate group has been formed. We are now focussing on providing these employees with content to learn and self-develop”

Some business continuity

CEAT Tyres has found ways to keep the salesforce engaged too, even during the downtime.

Given that the sales and marketing professionals thrive on good relationships with clients, CEAT’s sales employees have been assigned the work of continuing to build strong relationships with dealers, distributors and all critical stakeholders in the market during this downtime. Since they cannot travel for their jobs, they have been making calls to try and facilitate business.

However, they are not under any pressure at the moment. “What we have told them is that if you get natural business through calls, then it is great. Even if you do not, it is okay,” explains Apte.

Mishra mentions that the sales professionals in his organisation are engaging with the customers to ensure that all business-related concerns that they may have, are addressed immediately.

For every organisation, engagement and ensuring productivity are the primary concerns at the moment. It can be tough to engage employees, who are staying at home without work. An idle mind takes a toll on the mental and physical health of a person, especially with the added uncertainty and stress that the lockdown has imposed upon all. In such a critical time, it is vital that employees are kept engaged using the best possible means, to upgrade their skills and to remain preoccupied. Taking care of downtime employees is in the best interest of not just the workers, but the employers as well.

The post Lockdown: Engaging downtime employees is equally important appeared first on HR Katha.

Andleeb Jain, chief people officer, JK Cement, shares with HRKatha, “Truly, technology has enabled seamless joining of new employees who were shortlisted to join at various levels”

The new joinees include frontline sales staff as well as mid-level managers in departments, such as marcom and technical services.

Jain reveals that the on-boarding exercise has been seamless, apart from the fact that the new hires cannot be provided with official laptops or mobile phones due to the lockdown. “But we have requested them to use their existing resources, even their personal mail IDs in some cases, till the time we are able to actually move things physically with company-configured IT assets,” Jain explains.

To compensate for the lack of physical presence, Jain personally wrote a welcome letter to each candidate and as soon as they were on-boarded, the management also made sure that they received all the advisories issued to the existing employees, regarding the spread of coronavirus.

“Communication with them has been the key throughout. We had already made clear to the prospective candidates that they had no need to worry and that joining will take place on time. We made optimum use of the cloud-based ERP system, which has been quite handy in the on-boarding process. In fact, all our offer and appointment letters were easily generated and didn’t even require any signatures,” asserts Jain.

Since operations are at a standstill, we feel this is the best time to focus on exploring and learning new things

However, considering that communication with the new on-boarded candidates can be a cumbersome task, the officials are expecting some amount of patience and resilience from the new joinees. Amidst this lockdown scenario, and with no physical movement, the management is focussing more on anytime, anywhere learning through various tools.

“Since e-joining is a very recent phenomenon, we are also learning how to refine this process into a smooth run. Many of the HR policies and processes that we have are available online on our cloud-based ERP platform, which is difficult to e-navigate on a personal laptop, unless the new employees are handed over the company-configured laptops, more from the IT security point of view. Hence, we are sharing the PPT format via mails to take them through some of the modules,” Jain explained.

The induction process for the new candidates is on in full swing.  The mandate allows the on-boarded candidates to be guided through the Company’s cloud-based HR system, and then through some specific tools related to their function.  Say, for instance, if some employee joins in sales, she/he is taken through various apps and digital initiatives that the Company uses for the sales people. However, the installation of these apps on personal devises is a challenge, and hence, the management is trying to devise ways in which to do it.

Learning is an ongoing process

JK Cement is utilising this time to help even the existing employees grasp new learnings each day.

“We are able to connect and interact with our employees very easily through mediums, such as Zoom Call, Webex and Skype. This lockdown has also enabled us to offer online learning modules on our HR cloud platform. We are in the process of adding many more online modules in our system, and Zoom video-based training for employees at different sites is also being planned. We will have trainers connecting employees in groups of 10-15 at various individual locations and running two to three-hour long programmes. Since operations are at a standstill, we feel this is the best time to focus on exploring and learning new things,” says Jain enthusiastically.

As an employee-friendly organisation, Jain claims, JK Cement has taken a call to not delay, reduce or defer any salaries to any staff or workers of the Company during this crisis period. “This has not only brought much-needed relief to all the employees, but increased their trust in the Company. We are also focussing on refining certain strategies for the forthcoming financial year, including our budgets,” divulges Jain.

The post JK Cement stands by commitment; new hires e-join appeared first on HR Katha.

And why would it not be? After all everyone is working from home!

As we keep moving amidst this pandemic menace, it has become vital that we protect the ability to distinguish between our work time and personal time. This is a major problem that most people working from home are struggling to solve. The home space has very different norms from the office space and one cannot expect to thrust the rules of the office upon the family.

The pressure is more on senior leadership because of the responsibility they have on their shoulders and the pressure to be constantly available

It is not just now, the line between work and home has been becoming a blue for a while now. The commute to and from office offered the much needed respite people needed to gear up for work or unwind on the way back. However, nowadays people have started taking calls and checking mails on the way back as well. “The drive back home was important to prevent us from being too involved and be more mindful and engaged at home”, says Balachandar N, Group director-HR, Café Coffee Day.

Archanaa Singh, SVP-HR, Reliance Broadcast Network, admits that this is a major issue in today’s ongoing remote work scenario. “The entire globe is under stress, people working from home are emotionally stressed and are not being able to balance between work and family”, says Singh.

A major factor why this is happening is because now there is no cut off time. Due to the lockdown, daily wage workers, blue or white, are unable to commute and as a result there is no house help which otherwise made our lives much easier. People are helping out at home while simultaneously attending to work. The situation is new and they are unable to strike balance on how they should approach work. The burnout from stress is more likely now.

“We started work from home two weeks back. People’s commitment levels are shaking because they are struggling to cope with work and household chores at the same time”, adds Singh.

Why is it important to keep the balance?

The current arrangement along with people’s inability to cope is a recipe for mental exhaustion, emotional distress and physical stress. Having the time to segregate work hours from personal time gives one the ability and energy to focus and engage in both adequately. If a person is mentally exhausted or constantly thinking about work, they might end up compromising their work not to mention their health. Moreover, it goes without saying that without a balance, productivity goes for a toss.

Being mindful is more critical in these times when there is so much tension all around. Doing that will help one to focus on each role that a person plays, whether it be that of an employee, a wife, a son or a daughter.

“The pressure is more on senior leadership because of the responsibility they have on their shoulders and the pressure to be constantly available. It is even more important for them to keep the balance otherwise the pressure builds”, adds Balachandar.

The entire globe is under stress, people working from home are emotionally stressed and are not being able to balance between work and family

How can one cope?

For those who have physical amenities at home like a home-office or their own space to work are relatively better off. They are relieved of having to deal with unwanted background noise and disturbance. However, for the majority that do not have access to such facilities, they need to take more proactive steps.

While work needs to be consistent, it should not be overwhelming. “If one can only deliver limited output in a day, it is acceptable as long as the work is prioritised. Moreover, work should not be merely transactional but collaborative”, advises Singh.

It will help if one can have a sit down with the family, make them aware of one’s needs to work and also understand their routine and adjust accordingly. Instead of trying to push back the changes, it would be wiser to conform and adjust since this is not a short term arrangement.

Guilt is another factor which forces employees to work overtime even at home. The guilt of not performing enough is what gets one back in front of the screen and burn the midnight oil. At this moment, it is more crucial to take care of one’s self. Without, the struggle might continue and one might find themselves being unable to engage neither in work nor with family members.

The post Switch Off, Switch On: Mind the gap between home & Office appeared first on HR Katha.

However, issues may arise if the customer is wary of remote work. This happens because of a lack of confidence that remote work will not hamper data security or delivery of outcome. This is the very reason why offshore development centres (ODC) have come into existence, where with a dedicated core team and infrastructure, the customer is assured of delivery and quality.

The situation at the moment is different and so are the issues associated with it. The lockdown makes it impossible for teams to travel to ODCs and work on projects. This has brought about an unexpected challenge. When employees are forced to work remotely, the clients have to be convinced that security risks can be mitigated.

Currently, it is a ‘lift and shift’ situation. As of now, the office is trying to provide the necessary infrastructure at the employees’ residences, to facilitate remote work for those who require the same

Kishore GR, SVP-Mphasis, says, “How to offset that risk in a non-ODC environment and convince the customer to allow the employees to work remotely, is the challenge.”

With the restrictions on movement across the country, clients are forced to accept the current conditions and it is an advantage for the Company. Kishore adds that, earlier, the clients had to be sold hard on the mitigating-the-risk factor, but now, with no other choice left, a demonstration of the measures taken is enough to carry the deal forward. “Now, 90 per cent of OD customers have lent their approvals subject to having secure VPNs,” says Lakhsmanan MT, CHRO, L&T Nxt.

Even when customers approve of remote working, connectivity remains an issue. Lakhsmanan explains that bandwidth is a major challenge. “People have to be trained on how to connect in tier-II, tier-III cities, where connectivity issues are higher.” Fuelled by current demand, downloads of software, which facilitate remote interaction, such as Microsoft Teams have seen a steep increase in the last few days.

Employees also face difficulties in working remotely. Many individuals residing in shared or paying-guest accommodations, do not have access to an environment conducive to deliver. To resolve this issue, organisations are trying to provide company accommodation to the employees.

People have to be trained on how to connect in tier-II, tier-III cities, where connectivity issues are higher.

“We have done this for a few of our employees from the accounts department,” adds Kishore. Depending on the number of people who come under this segment, companies provide shared accommodation for a team or single-bedroom apartments for fewer employees.

“Currently, it is a ‘lift and shift’ situation. As of now, the office is trying to provide the necessary infrastructure at the employees’ residences, to facilitate remote work for those who require the same,” explains Kishore.

“Our business operations have ceased in all locations. Only a handful of people are there in the office presently. On receiving permission from the authorities, which should be coming soon, we can have the rest also— around 25 people— in office,” says Lakshmanan.

The few who are still going to office continue to face problems in commuting. For this reason, L&T Nxt has provided its employees with accommodations near the offices, with all facilities, including food. Such arrangements have just begun and Lakshmanan explains that employees may soon be working in shifts. Currently, there is no fixed roster as to how many days an employee is going to work, since the lockdown has just begun. “As the days progress, things will become clearer,” concludes Lakshmanan.

The post Business continuity during lockdown — IT services face challenges appeared first on HR Katha.

The bank’s MD & CEO, Mrutyunjay Mahapatra, tweeted, “As an employee friendly measure during the crisis, in @syndicatebank, all physically challenged, visually impaired and pregnant employees have been allowed special leave with pay till further orders. #syndians, Please stay safe and maintain social distance.”

The PSU-bank  has also put employee safety on top priority. In order to ensure minimum human contact, Syndicate Bank has restricted all forms of non-digital modes of banking such as ATM, branch banking and door step banking and may even temporarily suspend them, if need arises.

However, banking through digital channels like mobile and internet banking shall remain open.

Another PSU bank, Indian Bank will grant paid leave to employees who test positive, until the treatment is over. The bank has also partnered with a few hospitals for preliminary consultations of employees with symptoms.

Indian Bank has rolled out its ‘Pay Safe – Stay Safe’ campaign to provide medical support to its staff and customers, respectively.

Indian Bank MD and CEO, Padmaja Chunduru says, “We are concerned about the well-being of our customers during these trying times and hence, request them to opt for the Banks’ seamless Digital Banking Services (DBS).” While 50 per cent employees will be present in each branch every day, offices have been advised to put down the shutters by 7 pm.

Private banks, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank are also promoting social distancing and urging customers to use internet banking and mobile banking facilities instead of visiting the branches.

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On the one hand there is the rising demand for supplies, and on the other hand there are genuine logistical challenges. Online grocery firms, such as BigBasket, Grofers and Licious have been facing several hiccups.

Albinder Dhindsa, co-founder, Grofers, shares with HRKatha, “Due to lack of clarity at the ground level, we faced operational challenges across many states. We want to assure that our teams are working relentlessly to ensure deliveries of essential products, to avoid any kind of panic amongst our customers.”

To weather these challenges and complexities, Grofers is closely working with administrations across multiple cities to resolve these concerns and issue passes. There have been cases where delivery boys have been beaten up by the police for disobeying the lockdown. Grofers hopes to be able to assist its compatriots in these difficult times.

Licious has taken all precautions to ensure that our people on the ground are safe and maintain the highest levels of hygiene standards as prescribed by the Government

Amidst the chaos due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the online delivery services have to ensure safety and hygiene for both the customers as well as their own staff.

Grofers is now planning to attempt deliveries at night, to address the high surge in demand. It has also introduced zero-touch deliveries in housing societies for prepaid orders. The Company is abiding by the rules and ensuring the maintenance of proper hygiene and sanitation at its facilities and in its vehicles.

“Our teams continue to work around the clock to support people who are relying highly on our services and are waiting for essential supplies at their homes. We understand that a lot of vulnerable sections of our society are highly dependent on our services, and therefore, we take this responsibility very seriously,” explains Albinder.

However, another big problem for the online delivery companies is to keep the morale and engagement level high for their team members, who are not only fighting the risk of getting infected, but also the man-made problems while they are out for delivery.

The co-founders of Licious, an online meat-delivery platform, Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta, voice a similar concern.

Our teams continue to work around the clock to support people who are relying highly on our services and are waiting for essential supplies at their homes.

They share with us how the Company is deploying technology to predict demand and supply patterns, and leverage the data to increase the overall supply chain efficiency. The platform is also using technology to engage with the employees

The key lies in staying connected with the employees and ensuring that there is no gap in communication. Hanjura and Gupta claim to be regularly talking to each and every employee through e-mails, video conferences and town halls, keeping everyone and every system in place.

Hanjura reveals, “Licious has taken all precautions to ensure that our people on the ground are safe and maintain the highest levels of hygiene standards as prescribed by the Government.”

Licious apparently operates on a farm-to-fork model, buying raw materials at the standard cost and not the current plummeted market price. It is also committed to ensuring business continuity for the farming community.

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