1. Establishing Employee Support Systems: Organizations like TCS, Capgemini, and HDFC Bank have established helpdesks, hotlines, and command centers to support employees during the COVID-19 pandemic with medical emergencies, information on hospital beds, oxygen, and other essential necessities.
2. Offering Home Treatment and Remote Consultations: Companies such as HDFC Bank, Wipro, and Paytm provide e-consultation services, access to psychologists, and home medical equipment, ensuring employees receive remote medical support.
3. Setting Up COVID Care and Vaccination Facilities: Organizations such as HDFC Bank, Infosys, and TCS have converted spaces into COVID care centers and organized vaccination drives for their employees and their families.
4. Modifying Sick Leave Policies and Providing Financial Support: Many companies, including Infosys, Tata Steel, and Amazon, offer additional or unlimited COVID-19 leave. Others, such as Microsoft and Amazon, provide exceptional insurance coverage, advanced salaries, and financial assistance.
Considered one of the worst health emergencies, the ongoing COVID crisis has impacted millions of people globally. Amid this healthcare crisis, organizations are doing everything they can to support their employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.
With nearly half a million getting infected daily, there is a massive shortage of hospital beds, ICUs, oxygen, medicines, etc.
Hence, employees and their families are getting infected by COVID and are unable to get access to timely medical treatment.
Employees are struggling to find accurate information about the availability of hospital beds and medical supplies.
They are also trying to grapple with the entire process of prevention, testing, treatment, and recovery.
Hence, affected employees and their families are running around to get the correct information.
It causes panic and distress, often delays treatment, and sometimes even the death of the patient.
The costs of medical treatment, especially in private facilities, are significant.
Employees who have been infected or whose family members have been infected are often struggling with the financial implications of the treatment and recovery.
Also, families of employees who succumb to COVID-19 are likely to go through severe financial distress.
Organizations have responded to the current COVID crisis with great alacrity and are working on a war footing to provide support to their employees.
Here are some of the ways organizations are trying to support their employees through this COVID crisis:
With the country’s healthcare system overwhelmed by the growing caseload,
TCS is one such organization that has established a COVID-19 Helpdesk for employees to seek any assistance they may require, along with a 24/7 TCS Medical Hotline to connect with doctors and TCS Cares services for counseling.
Capgemini has a centralized, all-India command center that addresses the medical emergencies and needs of employees and their dependents, including the availability of hospital beds, ICU, ventilators, ambulance services, blood plasma donors, oxygen concentrators, and medicine requests.
Learn about how India Inc. is supporting its employees in combating COVID-19.
HDFC Bank also offers e-consultation with doctors through various apps, including Apollo 24/7, MediBuddy, and PharmEasy, which facilitate the delivery of medicines. The bank has also provided access to e-consultation with impaneled psychologists through these apps.
Wipro has also launched the Nurturing Wellness platform, which offers doctors, nutritionists, and health coaches, as well as virtual consultations and 24/7 emergency care experts.
Paytm has purchased home medical equipment for its team members and their families, including oxygen concentrators, to support their well-being.
Read about IT companies expanding COVID care facilities for employees
HDFC Bank has already converted three training centers in Gurugram, Pune, and Bhubaneswar into isolation centers for COVID-positive employees.
Infosys also follows a similar strategy by setting up COVID-19 care centers for its employees and their kin in Pune and Bangalore.
Similarly, TCS has set up COVID-19 care centers for its employees across 11 cities in India.
Furthermore, through tie-ups, Amazon, ITC, Capgemini, RPG Group, and Cognizant have also established COVID-19 care centers.
Read about COVID Relief: India Inc. Shows it cares, puts Employees’ Well-being before Profits
Most organizations provide additional paid leave to employees who have tested positive for COVID and require treatment.
Infosys has said that employees who have contracted or are recovering from COVID-19 will get 21 days of additional paid leave.
Companies such as Tata Steel, Google, Deloitte, and Amazon are offering 14-day special sick leave to their employees who test positive for COVID-19 as a policy.
Others, such as ITC, Optum, and Phillips, have provided their employees with unlimited COVID-19 leave policies.
Food delivery platform Swiggy announced a four-day workweek for employees in May. Employees can choose the days they want to work and use the extra day to rest and care for themselves.
Wipro had organized a vaccination camp for Bengaluru-based employees at its Electronics City campus.
TCS has undertaken a vaccination drive for its eligible employees and their dependents through its hospital tie-ups across locations
Other IT companies, such as HCL Tech, Infosys, and Tech Mahindra, have also established COVID-19 test centers for their employees.
Similarly, Bry-Air and DRI have been setting up vaccination facilities for their employees in collaboration with Medanta Hospital.
Several companies, including PricewaterhouseCoopers, Accenture, Grofers, Cars24, and Deloitte, have announced that they will cover the cost of vaccines for their employees and some family members.
Read everything bout from vaccination to COVID-care centers, and IT firms step up employee support amidst a deadly second wave
Companies like Amazon are providing employees with the advanced salaries that they need.
Microsoft announced that it will cover the expenses of its employees and dependents for up to 10 days in the event of a hospital admission for COVID-19. Additionally, it has increased the insurance coverage by 2.5 lakhs.
Altimetrik has introduced a specific insurance policy for its 2,000 employees across India.
Similarly, L’Oréal India has offered one-time COVID-19 insurance for those who test positive and has extended this to its field ecosystem of distributors and sales representatives.
Borosil has announced that it will continue to pay salaries to employees who die due to COVID-19 for two years. They have also decided to shoulder the responsibility of educating the children of such employees until their graduation.
Corporate organizations are pulling out all stops to help and support their employees and their families through the current COVID crisis in India.
Lead author: Sagar Chaudhuri, the Co-Founder and CEO of HiFives. He is an HR Tech Evangelist with over 25 years of experience in both corporate and entrepreneurial settings. Previously, Sagar has held leadership roles with companies such as Genpact, Infosys, and ICICI Bank. He has an engineering degree from IIT Kharagpur and an MBA from IIM Lucknow. Connect on LinkedIn
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