India Inc rejigs workplaces to shield staff, ensure continuity

Mumbai: Work, as we knew it, is no longer the same. A ‘new normal’ has descended with the Covid-19 pandemic, and organisations are redrawing strategies and redesigning workplaces to ensure employees are protected, while aiming at improving productivity levels. What’s enabling this transformation process is technology, which is helping teams to stay connected so that work can be executed seamlessly.

Amway said it has taken active measures for work management and constant learning, while ensuring optimum engagement and flow of information. The direct marketing firm said, with its initiatives such as ‘work by design’ and virtual town halls, it continues to progress towards achieving remote-working readiness.

Amway India CHRO Shantanu Das said, “At Amway, we continue to prioritise the safety of our employees, while ensuring business continuity to maintain operational readiness. In line with this, we had shared the ‘Normalcy Restoration Plan’ and the ‘New Normal’ for the workplace and extended work-from-home till July 31, for all Amway India employees. While predominant bias will be for staff to work remotely, employees will be allowed at the workplace only if work demands or there are genuine issues in

working

from home. This would be subject to prior approval of the head of department and the limit for such number of employees will not exceed 1/3rd, or as stated by the government guidelines.” Amway said ‘work-life balance’ continues to be a driver for the firm.

Motilal Oswal Financial Services executive director and HR head Sudhir Dhar said the firm has started preparing its workplaces with basic norms and prevention measures so that employees can feel safe while attending office.

Subhashini Sriram, global HR strategy and transformation, Unisys, said, “We all expect ‘work’ to be different in the

post-lockdown

world. In the new normal, every organisation will be forced to reimagine the way they connect with people within and outside the organisation. The

post-Covid

era has necessitated a reimagination of the entire life-cycle of an employee in an organisation, starting from on-boarding, driving employee engagement, effective communications, learning & development and performance evaluation, to name a few.”

Sriram added, “People leaders also need to evolve to cope with the new normal — staying connected with their teams, keeping team members engaged and motivated, resolving conflicts in a virtual world, communicating effectively with team members, setting common norms and expectations around virtual working models and proactively addressing any mental or emotional stress that team members may be dealing with. Moreover, the employees will also need to adopt to the virtual style of working where a lot will change as compared to the physical world they have been used to till now.”

With new relaxation guidelines being announced by the government of India, Amway said its warehouses, manufacturing plant and locational stores will be operational with all staff following mandatory hygiene guidelines within the office as well as pre- and post-work. Some of these guidelines include wearing of masks within office as well as throughout travel to and from work, no handshakes during meetings, washing of hands at regular intervals, avoiding touching doorknobs/items at home before sanitising self and avoiding participation in any group gatherings.

“As we slowly approach returning to office in a phased manner for the rest of the employees, both team and individual needs and preferences will continue to remain priority for us. Navigating through the new normal, we have made significant changes across our offices, considering the safety and well-being of all our employees. Some of these include a sanitisation tunnel at the entry point, social-distancing markings, and contactless sanitisers,” said Das.