As we have entered the phased opening of
economic and business activity, organisations will have to grapple with how
they are going to open, resume and continue their work. Will things be the same
as before, given sufficient time ? Has CORONA changed our lives forever -
personal and at the workplace ?
In the opinion of this writer, it certainly
has changed it forever. We just can't go back to the way we were living/working
and inter-acting with each other earlier - just like a person who has a heart
stroke and no matter how well he has become and how "recovered" he is
declared, his life is not just the same anymore.
We are not only going to keep looking over
our shoulder for CORONA but also keep looking ahead to see what new epidemic /
pandemic is going to hit us next.
Under these circumstances, CEOs and HR Heads of organisations have
their plate full and have a major role to play in shaping their organisation’s
working style & work culture, post–CORONA.
This article is an
attempt to flesh out some of the key areas that they will have to give
attention to and be prepared for many, many other actions that will need to be taken as and when circumstances
make them aware that “oh, we have to do something about this also !”. Even today CORONA is still an unknown
quantity and its “after-effects” are
much more so.
The following are the areas that need special
and specific attention.
1.
Safety
& Hygiene
2.
Work
Place Regulations, Culture & Discipline
3.
Other
Admin Matters
SAFETY & HYGIENE
HR Managers will need
to look at Safety much more closely, much more physically and much more personally
than before.
The current practice
is to employ a young, junior person who
has done some Diploma in Safety as an Asst. Safety Officer for “show purpose”
and hire a consultant to tackle/ handle
Factory or Municipal Authorities should some violation or deficiency be
found regarding Safety Regulations/Practices !
This attitude and approach will have to go.
HR Heads will have to
personally walk their office or factory areas, and look in every nook and corner for any
safety violation or deficiency – e.g. bare electrical wires, unstable stocking of materials to unsafe
heights, non-wearing of PPE in different
areas, slippery floors, cluttered walkways & passages and
similar.
A major part of
safety, in the wake of CORONA, will
also be the cleanliness level and hygiene practices related to spotlessly clean and
non-smelly toilets/washrooms (Indian
industry & businesses have a horrific record in this respect), regular
and frequent sanitizing of work place and clean, aseptic and mold
/fungus free Canteens / Kitchens / Pantry.
All Canteens /
Kitchens / Pantry will need to be repainted with good quality washable paint –
some paint manufacturers are even advertising “infection-free paint”.
Replace all Kitchen
equipment that have become worn-out, rusted, half damaged like water-filters,
leaking water-coolers, various utensils (coated with years of oil and dust!),
ovens, refrigerators and suchlike.
Next, it will be
necessary to have regular and frequent cleaning/dusting or vacuum
cleaning of Door Mats, Carpets (if any),
regular cleaning/washing of Towels in Wash rooms or their replacement with
paper towels / tissue and the like.
Another useful
practice to introduce is to ask employees to spend the first 5 minutes of
their work-day in physical cleaning of their work area – wiping their table
clean of any dust or stain, putting everything that has fallen on the floor in
the waste bin, properly arranging all documents/files on the table, putting
back things in their proper place. This
will not only spruce up the workplace but also make it hygienic and
virus-safe.
See the internet Screen shot, below,
about workstations - having 400 times more threatening bacteria
than toilet seats !!
See another report from the internet :
Computer Keyboards
Keyboards
can contain up to five times as many germs as a toilet seat. It makes sense,
since you use them quite often, for work and while browsing the internet.
Some people often eat while using the keyboard leading to a variety of bacteria
that can make it their home. Be sure to clean your keyboards regularly,
including all of the nooks and crannies.
WORK PLACE
REGULATIONS, CULTURE & DISCIPLINE
Employee Pick-up
The number of
vehicles employed will have to be increased to be able to maintain safe
distance while sitting / standing in the vehicle.
In case of
multi-stored office blocks, all occupants should jointly charter buses, from
different parts of the city to the office areas, so that employees are 100 % discouraged from
bringing their personal vehicles.
For commuting during
working hours, circular, shuttle
bus services could be set-up with private or state bus service providers e.g.
in Nariman Point, Mumbai (with which I am familiar), you can have 3 shuttle bus services as under :
·
Nariman
Point, Fort, VT, Crawford Market, Ballard Estate, Colaba, Nariman Point
· Nariman
Point, Churchgate, Opera House, Nana
Chowk and back (via Marine Drive)
· Nariman
Point, Churchgate, Opera House, Nana
Chowk and back (via Marine Lines)
Tea/Coffee/Water in
Paper Cups
All
China/porcelain cups/saucers &
crockery should be replaced with paper
cups/glasses and plates as a measure of avoiding any disease-spread
through unclean cups, glasses or plates, and even the most important guests need to be
served only in throwaway paper cups/glasses/plates.
Of course, this will have a cost, but organisations must avoid the
temptation to switch over to plastic cups/glasses (which are cheaper) and
be ready to pay the cost of throw away paper cups and glasses. The cost of someone catching a disease
through dirty porcelain/china crockery will be far more than the rupee cost of
paper cups/glasses.
Multiple Attendance
Recording Machines
To maintain 1 Metre
separation in attendance punching queue and yet
shorten the total length of the queue, multiple punching machines (Card or
Bio-metric) need to be installed and at 2 or 3 separate entrances, wherever there is provision for the
same. This is particularly true of
factories
Staggered Working
Hours
Staggering working
hours 0800 to 1000 TO 1630 to 1830
will again reduce queue length by splitting it into 5 “entrance times”
at 0800, 0830, 0900, 0930 &
1000.
These are just
suggested times/splits – organisations
can choose whatever suits them. This
will, naturally also make road/rail traffic in the city staggered and, hopefully
save commuting time.
Staggered Work days
Organisations could
also seriously examine staggered working days, letting (or, even, making)
employees work, minimum one but preferably 2 days from home or “out of
office” i.e. field-work, customer visit,
supplier inspection, campus interview etc.
This will reduce 40 %of attendance load every day.
Stand – up Lunch
Let people eat
standing on high-rise tables – this will automatically shorten the time
spent over lunch and lunch–hour, thus reducing chances of any infection
happening here. Lunch time can then be staggered, every half hour, running from 1200 to 1400 hours.
More Round Rooms
Whenever there is
scope or opportunity, build more round meeting rooms to avoid corners
that tend to become and remain dirty and therefore prone to causing infection.
Fewer Almirahs
Reduce number of
almirahs to avoid accumulation of dirt/dust inside and outside, below and
above. Barring important statutory
documents, have all papers / files
stored in open racks to ensure proper ventilation of files and avoiding of mold
accumulation
Less Air-conditioning
Reduce
Air-conditioned areas (with employees consent) and/or reduce the number of
hours for which air-conditioner is kept running to enable intermittent
ventilation and intake of fresh air. Air
conditioned spaces have been identified as being particularly unfriendly in
case of virus occurrence.
Fewer Cabins
The fewer the number
of closed spaces, the better the
ventilation and lesser the chances of getting infected in case of a virus
spread.
Annual Health
Check-up
Ensure and
strictly enforce, on penalty of
salary cut, that people get their
Annual Health Check-up done regularly, as per schedule, in the time slot allotted to them. This will help in early detection of any
health issue, reduce health maintenance
costs, and will enable you to negotiate with Mediclaim Insurance companies for
lower premiums. Most important, it will improve the health profile of
employees.
Enhanced Mediclaim
coverage
Double the Mediclaim
Insurance Coverage Amount for all employees from present level.
Simultaneously, negotiate with the
Insurance companies for a lower premium, as you are doubling their business and
also get them to fund the Annual Health Check-up once every 2 years, in this
coverage.
OTHER ADMIN MATTERS
Visitor’s area
Enlarge the visitor’s
area to enable 1 Metre distance
seating.
Don’t keep visitor’s
waiting. That only increases the need for larger and larger waiting area for
them.
Introduce a practice
whereby all company employees, expecting
visitors on that day, inform the
reception/security of
·
who
they are expecting,
·
approximately,
at what time and
·
where
they should be escorted to or who should be immediately informed about their
arrival (give desk and mobile number)
so that the host can
immediately come and take his visitor to the “discussion area”.
Such practice will
reduce the waiting time for visitors in the reception area and hence
reduce the load and thus reduce the pressure to “enlarge” the visitor’s area just because they have to wait interminably
for their hosts to come for them.
Kitchen/Pantry separate and distant from Toilet.
Many stupid
architects design them to be next to each other leaving the kitchen/pantry an
easy prey to infections from the toilet /wash room area – they ostensibly do
this to save “plumbing costs” by having
this wet area next to each other. There couldn’t be a more silly and stupid
reason – saving plumbing cots to endanger lives with infection and death.
Auto Flushing Urinals
Dry urinals or Auto
flush (laser operated) urinals, like at most airports, to reduce / eliminate touching of flush
button.
Auto Operated Sliding
Doors
Wherever feasible,
have automated sliding doors to reduce handle touching.
Lift Occupancy – 1/3rd
of the specified
Lifts in Office
complexes (as also residential towers)
tend to be filled to capacity, sometimes even more. This habit will have
to be changed. Every Company will
have to strictly instruct all its employees to avoid filing lifts more than 1/3rd
of its rated capacity (so only 4 persons must get on, if rated capacity is 12
persons) to be able to maintain required physical distancing)
If your office is in
a multi-storied building, this will
need to be discussed and agreed upon by all other occupants/companies.
No cash for expenses
– only company pre-loaded cash cards
Many organisations
have already done this but this may have to be extended to and by all
organisations viz., no more giving our
Cash for Expenses. Instead have
pre-loaded company cards which will be given for expenses and software can keep
itemized, categorized, chronological expense record by the concerned employee
(to be identified by Employee No & Unique Signature Code).
This will reduce
handling of Cash and thus reduce chances of possible infection due to dirty/soiled/infected
currency notes.
The by-product
benefit of this will be reduced cash handling which is always desirable.
THE NEW NORMAL
As you can see, we are an unchartered territory and what is
listed above is only on the basis of what we know or what we can guess, imagine or extrapolate. Whenever something unknown develops or occurs
suddenly (as they always tend to do) we
will have to improvise, respond and react, FAST !
This means that we
must ensure that we have no problem in our normal working so that we can pay
full and undivided attention to the new problems / issues / situations.
What COVID19 has
taught is that there are certain minimum
essential actions (or habits) of Personal and Public Hygiene that has to be
observed irrespective of whether there is an endemic or pandemic or nothing, at all, in our environment. Hence, for example, not only spitting but any kind of littering in
any public space is to be avoided and punished.
It has also taught us the importance of
Infrastructure/up
gradation of our entire health
eco-system, Proper
and regular maintenance of existing
equipment (beds, medical equipment, lifts, ambulances, laboratories), Training,
training & more training to health staff, not only on their medical
responsibilities but also in dealing with patients, their relatives, their
anxieties & fears and Discipline
observance by all of us, i.e. the citizens of Bharat , be it in observance of
Corona protection practices (masks, gloves, stay-at-home, hand wash), or
respecting road/traffic discipline,
observing queue protocols and so on.
The first
3 points specifically relate to Hospitals and the entire Medical System
and those readers or HR Managers who are associated with the Health System
(public or private) need to reflect on those.
However,
the 4th point relates to all of us and
HR Heads of organisations must seriously think about taking up this as an additional
responsibility of counseling, training and motivating their employees about
discipline observance in public life and public places.
On the face of it, this may appear to be matter of an employee’s individual behavior
and of no concern to the organisation. I
beg to differ. Organisations must
invest in helping their employees become better citizens ; in my view, it is axiomatic, that if they become better and responsible citizens, they will also become better employees.
I would like to propose 2 more
actions
which, I know, articulate HR managers
and CEOs can eloquently argue that “it is not our business, it is not our
responsibility ; this is the job of the
government, this is what we elect them for”.
Well, you will win the argument, but
lose the battle, not only against CORONA (and its various manifestations) but
you will also lose the opportunity to make Bharat a great country.
What are these 2 things ?
1.
Every organisation should extend its
maintenance responsibility to a 100 Metre radius around its office building or
factory boundary. If you are located in a multi-storied office
building, then this will be the joint
responsibility of all the occupants.
What does this “maintenance responsibility” mean ?
It means maintaining
this circle of 100 Metre radius such that it is perfect in every respect. There should be no potholes in the road in
this area, not a single tile should be broken or missing on the pavements in
this area, not a piece of scrap,
garbage, dirt, filth of any kind, moss should be found in this area.
All traffic signals
should be always working else you must take up responsibility to report
failures so that the AMC contractor can come and repair it at the earliest.
Pedestrian Crossing
lines and Road Divider lines should be
regularly painted (by you and at your cost) so that they are
visible, the first pre-requisite
for them to be observed !
For this you will,
obviously need to deploy people to clean the area several times during the
day, provide Garbage Bins (as per Swachh
Bharat Abhiyan Standards) at convenient distances. Please do not grudge this
additional expenditure nor try to cut corners in this expense, for the returns for this expense are huge,
particularly from the national perspective of saving lives, disciplining people
and making Bharat World Class !
You can certainly use
your own people, if you have extra persons on your roll who are free to do this
additional work ; else, hire some people and thus do one more good of providing
some additional employment.
Do not argue nor act,
as some of your smart managers will try to advise you – “let us pay the
Municipal Safaiwala Rs. 100/- and get them to clean our area every day one more
time.” Such “clever” ideas will simply
not work unless you boldly and sincerely take up this responsibility as your
own and commit your own funds to see it through.
This is how a great
nation is built – by the collective and
voluntary efforts of its citizens and the organisation is also a citizen
– a Corporate Citizen !
2.
Every organisation should try to ensure
that within the above 100 Metre Radius area, if there are any Food Vending
Stalls or Shops, then they adhere to international standards of cleanliness and
hygiene
so that none of your employees or visitors contracts any disease because of
eating from such outlets. The things to be taken care of are :
NO
unpacked food item is kept uncovered. It
must be in sealed boxes or covered with mosquito net covering. NO
utensils (porcelain, steel, aluminum, or any other) are used to serve food. All serving plates must be throwaway, made of paper, Aluminum foil-coated Paper or
even Leaves but NO plastic. This will
eliminate washing (and the inevitable dirt/filth that comes with it). Tea/coffee
to be served in throwaway cups/glasses (paper or clay but no
plastic) Any
water used by the vendor can and must only be Filtered Water in 20L drums whose quality you will randomly check
once a week to ensure that he/she is not using unfiltered water.
All
the cooking vessels used by him will
only be Stainless Steel as these
are easy to clean and do not have food sticking to them nor do they get
blackened or oxidized with use. No
overnight food will be served. At
closing time, he must either dispose the remaining cooked food (Rice, Dal, Chapati,
Vegetables, Non-veg cooked items,
Chutney etc.) or give them away. This will be monitored by you, every
morning when he opens his shop, by checking that his vessels are all
truly and entirely empty. Half the
stomach ailments that people get from eating from such Street Vendors is caused
by the serving of previous day’s cooked food,
often mixed with today’s fresh cooking. Every
employee of the vendor must wear a
head-scarf or cap which fully covers all his hair, wash his hands with antiseptic water (diluted
Dettol or Savlon) before starting work,
puts on disposable gloves which he must budget for 3 pairs to be
consumed by every employee every day,
nail cut for each employee, every
2 weeks and mask on their faces, till
such time as the CORONA situation
remains and thereafter, compulsorily for the Cooks.
Obviously, doing all the above will mean a certain amount
of expenditure which most food vendors will be unable to afford or certainly
reluctant to spend. I am proposing that this should be funded by your
organisation to ensure that your employees have access to clean and
hygienic food.
Please do not be
aghast at this suggestion nor ridicule it on the grounds that this is not your
responsibility or you are not in business to do good and that your primary responsibility
lies on getting a good return for your shareholders’ investment.
First and foremost, most
of this can easily be funded by what you are, under law, anyway mandated to do
viz., CSR. Many organisations spend their CSR funds on inane
things like building lawns and gardens (so that they can put up big signboards
saying they have done it) or for one-time eye-check-up and blood donation camps
or one-time free notebook distribution to a school.
Instead, please consider
spending on what has been suggested above. Such spending will truly be an investment,
not merely in the well-being of your employees and people around you but also in the tremendous fund of goodwill you will
generate from all your existing and potential customers and stakeholders, whose value is immeasurable.
This much is certain
– we definitely cannot continue as we were doing, prior to CORONA ; the above changes address some of the issues
that the advent of CORONA has painfully highlighted for us.
However, it also attempts to go beyond merely tackling
CORONA–type situations and proposes using this as a
trigger to upgrade our country’s business, health and social infrastructure to
international standards so that we are not only better geared to face
any situation like this in the future but we, also,
transition to a better quality of life.
The choice is yours.
You have to make it and live with it.
hemendra k. varma
Mumbai
14 June 2020
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