22nd April 2020: With the government giving a relaxation in the lockdown norms, companies are laying out the blueprint for business continuity while giving utmost importance to the safety of their employees. The pandemic has resulted in a paradigm shift where organizations, whether big or small, are prioritizing the health of employees just as much as they prioritize their financial stability. With almost every other organization planning to get easy access to A-grade medical facilities at work, they are also considering issuing certain guidelines for their workforce while also expecting the latter to strictly abide by the compliance.
We can expect several cultural shifts to prevail at work for the next few months, including office attendance as more companies are encouraging the digitization of their operations while also eliminating most of the high risk work. In addition to this, there will be a huge difference in terms of people’s socializing patterns, working habits and their extensive support for their employers.
Here are few such organizations and their precautionary measures for Covid-19 preparedness to safeguard their employees:
Toyota
Toyota plans to open its factories next month where it will introduce a daily self examination of health status for each employee where it will encourage them to stay back home in the event of any sickness. It will also ensure social distancing at pick up points while commuting to and fro from the factory, thermal screening at the time of pick up, alternative seating in the buses and maintaining social distancing at all times at the factories. While on the shop floor, it will be making it mandatory for its workers to wear a mask along with the standard cap/helmet and gloves.
Xanadu Realty
Xanadu Realty India’s leading Real Estate B2B consultancy firm has ensured that it has maintained a strong level of people centricity and employee engagement during the lock-down phase and has already begun planning for life once the lockdown ends. Xanadu ensures the roll-out of a Safety Protocol to the entire organization with dos and don’ts aimed at keeping people safe. Zoning the corporate office and sales offices into defined engagement zones to ensure social distancing norms are maintained. Each zone will also have scheduled disinfection done to keep surfaces and contact areas safe and also by ensuring that not more than 25% of the organization is aggregated at a single location at any time. To reduce physical engagement to the best extent possible, all meetings that can be done virtually will be done in such a manner. The organization is also providing Covid-19 fighting essentials such as hand sanitizers and masks accessible to all associates. In addition, Xanadu has honored all hiring offers that they had made prior to the lockdown and has continued hiring to ensure they are at 100% capacity on day zero post lockdown.
Biocon
With an objective of continuing the essential pharmaceutical manufacturing, Biocon has reduced the number of people in its offices to only those who carry out work such as manufacturing, logistics and quality operations, and has asked all other employees to work remotely from home. To promote good hygiene at work, Biocon has ensured the use of hand sanitizers, creation of zoning inside offices, satellite food courts, introduction of shift working, reduction of the seating density, and the reduction in the number of travelers in its company transport.
Brookfield Properties
Brookfield Properties has taken several long-term mitigating measures to ensure a safe working environment with high standards of hygiene to safeguard all its tenants, employees and other end users of its spaces across India including Candor TechSpace in Gurgaon, Noida and Kolkata; as well as for Powai Business District and Equinox Business Park in Mumbai. As a part of this, it is conducting a periodic fumigation of back premises such plant rooms, staircases, basements and terrace, front premises such as lobbies, food court and other prominent locations. It is also ensuring deep cleaning of cooling coils undertaken in addition to cleaning and disinfection of filters to flush out workspaces with fresh air before occupancy, and is also periodically monitoring the air quality.
In addition to this, Brookfield Properties is also conducting temperature checks at the entrances and periodic checks for front-line staff to monitor their health. It has also issued strict guidelines for self-regulation, personal protective equipment, and social distancing within the campus along with several safety protocols to be followed while entering and exiting the campus.
