WFH best practices at Wipro Limited, SAP India, and PolicyBazaar.com
Due to the global coronavirus pandemic, most companies have allowed their employees to work from home/ work from anywhere. Currently, people are working remotely with a few new norms, companies have reviewed their WFH policies and offered some extra benefits to facilitate smooth working and optimize efficiency for the best productivity.
We wanted to share some of Work From Home best practices of well-reputed global companies and doing great work, in current times of crisis. SightsIn Plus team had an opportunity of conversation with the HR- Heads of Wipro Ltd, SAP India, and PolicyBazaar on WFH best Practices and sharing the excerpt.
WFH Practices at Wipro
Saurabh Govil, President and CHRO at Wipro said that the COVID-19 crisis has necessitated many changes in work design, the most significant being Work from Home (WFH), Wipro enabled WFH for over 93% of the workforce.
Our priority has been to ensure employee health & safety and a seamless transition to WFH. Wipro issued 30000 data cards to employees and moved 35000+ desktops to employee homes. Wipro has published DIY guides and other communication to help employees manage their hardware smoothly from home.
In addition, Wipro deployed multiple interventions to keep employees engaged and connected.
1- Always Communicating
In the initial weeks of COVID19, Wipro’s business leadership conducted Virtual All Hands Meets to convey information regarding COVID19, work arrangements, and business direction. This was complemented by Virtual Account and HR connects that helped address and alleviate employee concerns.
In the last quarter, Wipro sent over 50 company-wide communications on the crisis, informing employees about the response to the pandemic, people process actions, medical helpline numbers, working arrangements, inspirational stories.
Wipro has been listening to its employees through mechanisms like WFH survey to understand employee experience in the new situation.
2- Health & Wellness
Wipro undertook regular check-ins to ensure employee safety and wellness including enabling access to medical help. We have also encouraged employees to take leaves for rejuvenation and preventing burnout.
3- Guiding employees and managers to WFH effectively
Transitioning from a workplace to home requires a change in mindset of the employee as well as the manager.
#Alonetogether: The WFH guide trending under the mentioned hashtag details all aspects required to work effectively from home.
Wipro also enabled a set of 5 online programs detailing different aspects of adapting to the new normal. Over 50k employees have taken these modules.
4- Capability Development
Wipro enabled over 1000 future-oriented learning courses on Wipro’s learning app to ensure that employees are not bereft of upskilling opportunities.
While there is a general consensus that WFH is here to stay, the shape and form of it remains nebulous. Current approach needs to be nimble, sensing emerging requirements, and providing a set of guidelines enabling decision making rather than hardcoding a policy. At Wipro, this has been the focus.
WFH Practices at SAP India
Shraddhanjali Rao, Vice President, and Head- Human Resources, SAP India said that Thriving on an innovative mindset & culture, SAP already had future-ready policies for flexible and remote working with individuals being the best judge of their working conditions.
Although the pandemic challenged us to find newer ways to work together, having these policies in place enabled us to bounce back faster and be productive.
We also have a part-time working policy where employees can choose to work 50%, 60%, or 80% of their regular workload and sabbatical policies for those who wish to take time off work to invest in their personal and professional development outside work, including experimenting with entrepreneurial passions. To enable seamless, connect as employees work remotely, they are provided with the best in class infrastructure including smartphones, 4G hotspot connectivity, and remote access cards.
The COVID crisis inspired us to relook at our policies to ensure that we are continuing to provide the best work-from-home support, be it for health, infrastructure, and even setting up their new workplaces.
From adding ergonomic furniture and home office setups to our flexible benefits catalogues to reinforcing our wellness offering, we ensured we left no stone unturned in providing our people the support they needed to find the perfect balance between their work, personal lives, family commitments and passions.
We have also introduced interactive workshops on mindfulness at work, stress management, physical well-being and various other learning offerings helping our colleagues and their families stay fit physically and mentally to help one thrive in their given circumstances.
We firmly believe, that by helping our employees choose their right balance, we enable them to provide the best in class support for our customers and partners.
WFH Practices at PolicyBazaar.com
Chetna Gogia, Head of HR, PolicyBazaar.com said that we have enabled ‘Work from Home’ for its 13,000 employees since the lockdown was imposed. A week before it was implemented, our technology team seamlessly equipped us with the required infrastructure. Agents were given tablets and laptops to handle customers’ queries with ease.
The efficiency of our staff has improved manifold in the post-COVID world where most of our staff are working from home. Our visits-to-bookings conversion rate for health and term insurance has quadrupled in the last two months of 2020 vs the same period, a year ago.
Communication is the key– One of the major challenges faced by organizations during the current work-from-home scenario is building trust among employees and making sure they maintain work discipline and at the same time meet deadlines. At Policybazaar, we quickly realized, proactive communication is the key To overcome this challenge.
So, we ensure managers communicate with their colleagues on a daily basis to discuss plans of action.
Immediately after the lockdown was imposed, we communicated to our employees that there will be no pay cuts for the next few months and no layoffs too. We gave them assurance which helped in boosting their morale.
We also believe in being empathetic towards employees and listening to their concerns. We are frequently organizing town hall meetings, addressed by Policybazaar group CEO Yashish Dahiya. They answer each and every query of the employees.
Wellness programmes for the motivation of employees– These are unprecedented times. For us, the wellbeing of our employees is as important as their work performance. Taking a step forward, we launched a dedicated internal helpline for our contact centre employees during these difficult times, wherein they can call and discuss issues.
We also send daily mailers with motivational messages to employees to create a positive work environment. At the same time, we are also organizing webinars with psychologists and fitness trainers to promote well being.
