1. Establishing Employee Support Systems: Organizations like TCS, Capgemini, and HDFC Bank have set up helpdesks, hotlines, and command centers to support employees during COVID with medical emergencies, information on hospital beds, oxygen, and other 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 like HDFC Bank, Infosys, and TCS have converted spaces into COVID care centers and organized vaccination drives for 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, while others, like Microsoft and Amazon, provide exceptional insurance coverage, advance salaries, and financial assistance.
Considered one of the worst health emergencies, the ongoing COVID crisis has impacted millions of people globally. Amid this healthcare nightmare, organizations do whatever they can to support employees during COVID-19.
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 finding it difficult to find accurate information about the availability of hospital beds and medical supplies.
They are also trying to grapple with the entire prevention, testing, treatment, and recovery process.
Hence, affected employees and their families are running around to get the correct information.
It causes panic and distress and 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 set up a COVID-19 Helpdesk for employees to seek any assistance required, along with a 24×7 TCS Medical Hotline to reach doctors and TCS Cares services for counseling.
Capgemini has a centralized,all-India command center that addresses the employees’ and their dependents’ medical emergencies and needs to be related to the availability of hospital beds, ICU, ventilators, ambulance service, blood plasma donors, oxygen concentrators, and medicine requests.
Read about How India Inc. is helping employees combat COVID-19.
HDFC Bank also provides e-consultation with doctors through apps, including Apollo 24/7, MediBuddy, and PharmEasy, which help deliver medicines. The bank has also offered access to e-consultation with impaneled psychologists through these apps.
Wipro has also launched the nurturing wellness platform, which offers doctors, nutritionists, health coaches, virtual consultations, and 24×7 emergency care experts.
Paytm has purchased home medical equipment for its team members and their families, including oxygen concentrators.
Read about IT companies expand 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.
Further, through tie-ups, Amazon, ITC, Capgemini, RPG Group, and Cognizant have also set up COVID-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 COVID positive 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 providing 14-day special sick leave to their employees who are COVID-19 positive as a policy.
Others like ITC, Optum, and Phillips have provided their employees 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 set up 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 Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Accenture, Grofers, Cars24, and Deloitte, have announced that they will sponsor the cost of vaccines for their employees and some for their families.
Companies like Amazon are providing advance salaries for employees who need it.
Microsoft announced that it will cover the expenses of its employees and dependents for up to 10 days in case of hospital admission for COVID-19. Additionally, it has increased the insurance coverage by 2.5 lakhs.
Altimetrik has rolled out a particular insurance policy for its 2000 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 paying 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.
Read about Loans, children’s education, mental health: India Inc hand holds employees through COVID-19 second wave.
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 corporate and entrepreneurship experience. In the past, Sagar has worked in 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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