BANGALORE:
Every corporate, be it large, small or mid-sized, wants employees to be productive. Work from home is not possible for all employees in many companies, especially in sectors like real estate, construction, architecture and interiors, where labour force is required to carry out the job at site and even a few senior employees have to be physically present to supervise the work. In such a scenario, it becomes the responsibility of the corporate to provide a safe working environment for its employees, so that they can be physically present at their place of work.
Vaccination camps, reimbursing costs of vaccination:
Several companies in Bengaluru have taken the onus upon themselves to ensure their workplace is safe post the lockdown by making sure their employees get vaccinated.
“We decided to arrange a vaccination camp for all our employees, and various other stakeholders and tied up with Manipal Hospital Group for the same. The vaccination drive was held at three of our project sites – Vaishnavi Serene, Vaishnavi Tech Park and Vaishnavi Tech Square. The vaccine has been administered to 1500 people including Vaishnavi employees and their families, various support staff including security and housekeeping, and construction site workers across all Vaishnavi projects for free,” explains C N Govindaraju, Chairman & Managing Director, Vaishnavi Group, a leading real estate developer.
The company made sure each site was equipped with doctors, nurses, medical personnel and an ambulance to ensure seamless vaccination for all. They adhered to strict covid protocols and avoided overcrowding by allocating time slots for everyone and conducting the activity in large open spaces
“There were rumours about side effects of vaccine in the market. However, we educated our workers and employees that the best way to prevent from getting covid -19 infection is to get vaccinated.All our employees are below 45 years, hence post the government announcement for a vaccination drive of 18+ and above, we have arranged vaccination drive for our employees in different office locations across India with the help of our medical partners. All our employees are vaccinated now,” says Priyadarshi Mishra, CEO & Founder of Design & Construct, a proptech company into end-to-end construction, where assessing the soil to civil work, all have to be carried out physically at site.
Some companies who found it logistically difficult to arrange for a vaccination drive due to employees being spread across the country made sure they reimbursed the cost of vaccination to their employees and workers.
“As we witnessed the second wave of Covid-19 in India, our primary responsibility was to keep our employees safe and motivated. To this end, we have encouraged all our colleagues to get vaccinated. The company has supported by extending reimbursement of the cost of vaccination to them and their immediate family members,” informs Dr Prashanth Reddy, Managing Director of Fundermax India, a company dealing in architectural products for interior & exterior applications where onsite work is crucial.
Educating employees about self-hygiene, sanitising workplaces:
A few other companies went one step ahead and took measures to educate their employees on hygiene and made changes in their office environment.
“Besides holding a vaccination drive, we started holding regular meetings to educate each and every employee on how to maintain self -hygiene and how to protect each other from getting infected by washing hands, using the sanitizer and masking up at all times. Windows in every air-conditioned space were kept open and we set up fans everywhere for a good air circulation. Every visitor was briefed about our protocols and it was the responsibility all employees to take ownership and safe guard each other. We promoted and encouraged additional protocols for our technicians who visited project sites for installation of our fans so that the residents would feel comfortable. We also advised them to carry the message home to their families and yes, we made it a big deal for everyone to take it seriously. After all none of us have ever experienced a pandemic before,” explains Anil Lala, Founder & Managing Director, Fanzart, a luxury fan manufacturer with showrooms across the country.
“At Fundermax, the operations team is functioning at 25% capacity, taking turns in handling the supply chain during this period. The office space and warehouse facility are regularly sanitized to ensure safety of the working staff,” adds Reddy.
The fight with Covid is still on and it is truly encouraging to see corporates do their bit for safeguarding the health of their employees. This will go a long way in not only ensuring productivity at workplace but in retaining talent.
