One of the first and disturbing
realisations of the COVID crises, for most organisations, has been the
revelation that
a) We don’t
really need so many people
b) We don’t need
them working for so long or for all the time
c) Some of the
work we couldn’t get done during the COVID period, probably doesn’t need
to be done at all
To whatever extent the above is
true – the impact will be felt in varying degrees by all organisations. It
is clear that the numbers employed in organisations will need to reduce and it
is going to reduce over a period of time. This is particularly true for
all white collar employees and “office workplaces”.
A 20 % reduction in employees can
be easily & immediately obtained by the simple act of
reducing “employee working” from a 5-day week to a 4-day week or from
a 6-day to a 5-day (16 % reduction) week. This reduction will
secure the objective of reducing employees without needing to ask 20 %
employees to leave.
However, the above proposed
action will be meaningful to organisations only if accompanied by a 20 % (or 16
%) Gross Salary cut for the employees, whose working hours have been reduced by
20 % (or 16 %). While this may sound a bit harsh and calculative, a
few moments of reflection will show that it is logical, fair & reasonable.
One caveat here – if the above is
implemented, there will be a natural and big temptation to shut the
entire office for the 5th day. I would advise against such a move because
business continuity through “availability to customers and
suppliers” for 5 working days will be, ultimately, more beneficial than
the cost saved on power, tea,/coffee/lunch & similar admin costs for
the 5th day. Hence 5 working days should be reduced to 4 working days by
giving rotating off to 20 % of
the employees on each working day – Monday through Friday.
This has a concomitant advantage,
if implemented on a wide enough scale, of reducing the traffic on the
road since a significant percentage of people – 20 % will not be
stepping out of their homes for commuting to office and back.
This, naturally, begs the
question that “where is the question of reducing traffic, when it
is already down to zero ? After all we are asking people to
work from home.” I have a definite view that work from home should be withdrawn at the earliest
opportunity, (COVID conditions permitting) and people, in a 4
day working week, may be allowed to work NOT MORE THAN 1 day from
home which can also be rostered and rotated as per plan so that
everyone gets a particular day of the week as work-from-home day in a cyclical
manner.
Working from home has put tremendous
strain on households, family members, children, guests at home, elderly
relatives staying at home and also, reportedly, led to higher incidence of spouse
altercations and even domestic violence. The reasons are generally
well-known and are therefore not being elaborated upon here.
Further, working together at the
office where all infrastructure is available, brings about a distinctly higher
level of team efficiency and resultant organisational effectiveness.
There are two other related
factors that need to be taken into account while implementing the above
suggestion :
a) Organisations
will need to formally drop the condition routinely put in all appointment
letters that “during your employment with our company, you will not engage in
any other paid work, with or without the permission of the company”.
Since the employee’s engagement
is being reduced by one day per week and proportionately his/her salary is
being reduced, it is only fair and just that he/she must be permitted to use
that “free day” for recouping the reduced salary. Employees must have
the full freedom to engage in any paid activity – part-time, night-time,
contractual or any other save and except for 2 conditions :
1. Employees cannot
work with or for (directly or indirectly) competition which
should be clearly defined by listing out specific names, and
2. They cannot
do work of any nature that may bring disrepute to or derision on the
organisation. I agree that this is somewhat of a “grey area” and not easy to
define but will, by and large, be understood ad respected.
b) Secondly,
organisations should not argue that
since you are now working only 4 days a week, you don’t need so many holidays
and we will therefore reduce your leave entitlement. Such an action will
not be correct. For the reduction in working days, the organisation has
already reduced proportionate salary. Any reduction in “paid
holidays” will, therefore need to be compensated by proportionate salary
increase and not forced upon the employee, on the specious argument
of “why do you needed so many holidays”.
To make this point amply clear,
let me give a small illustration :
Suppose there is an employee who
earns Rs. 1,10,000/- per month (hypothetical number chosen for ease of
calculation). In the previous normal of a 5-day week, his working
days per month were 22 days. Thus his daily salary(earning) was Rs. 5,000/- per
day.
Now, if the company says, you
have paid leave of 30 days/year which we are going to reduce to 20
days/year, then it must compensate him for the loss of 10
days paid leave by giving him an annual pay jump of Rs. 5000/- X 10 = Rs.
50,000/-.
There will be a 2nd category
of employees for whom the COVID period has shown that they are not
required full-time, but only at some regular intervals or when a specific
need arises that requires their skill/expertise. This will typically be
the case where periodic, statutory returns have to be filed, periodic
repair/maintenance/house-keeping has to be done or when exhibitions or Annual
Shareholder’s Meetings (or other such events) have to be organised or
assistance provided to other external auditors (be it financial audit or
operational audit).
Such employees’ work would be
another area for detailed scrutiny / rationalisation and those employees who
fall in this category may now be shifted from full-time employment (when more
than half the time they are doing nothing) to contractual engagement, wherein
they are called to carry-out/oversee specific tasks or activities.
They can be paid at a
higher “rate” (per day or per hour) than their full employment rate to
partially compensate them for the loss of earnings since,
overall, their total monthly earnings will significantly fall. On the
other hand, for such employees, their free time represents an
opportunity to make additional earning by doing similar (or other) work for
different organisations. Of course, this is a tough proposition but
it is a reality they will have to face.
The 3rd category of
employees, smaller than the above 2, will be those, about whom it has been
realised that they were “not missed at all”. Such employees will need to
be retrained and redeployed for other work/duties wherever there is need
for additional manpower.
Since many of such people are
likely to be middle-aged or above, organisations must take a compassionate
view in terms of having patience about their learning pace and redeployment
effectiveness. Of course, those that are not willing to retrain and be
reassigned will, otherwise, have to be let go.
I would hasten to clarify that it
is NOT my thesis that post – COVID, workforce must be cut. However, I
do have a feeling that this is inevitable and, therefore, it is better to
fashion a response in a planned manner so that there is least collateral damage
and dislocation, particularly to affected employees.
Let me emphasise here that it is
not only “employment strength” or “number of working
days/hours” that will be affected post-CORONA. Will things “return to the
same as before”, given sufficient time ? Has CORONA changed our lives ?
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.
Elaborated below 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 us 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
4.
Neighbourhood Hygiene & Public Cleanliness
(maintenance & upkeep)
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 and/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 mould/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.
· Institute 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 10 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 this report from the internet
: https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/10-items-dirtier-than-a-toilet-seat.html
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-storied 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 4 shuttle bus services as under :
·
Nariman
Point, Fort, VT, Crawford Market, Ballard Estate, Colaba, Nariman Point
·
Nariman
Point, Fort, VT, GPO, Ballard Estate, RBI, Asiatic Library, Nariman Point
·
Nariman
Point, Churchgate, Opera House, Nana Chowk & back (via Marine Drive)
·
Nariman
Point, Churchgate, Opera House, Nana Chowk & 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
This has already been discussed
and elabora3ed upon in the opening part of this article and the same is not,
therefore, being discussed again.
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 become 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.
Quarantine / Isolation Area
Build a specific “quarantine /
isolation” area of adequate capacity, depending on employee
population, for isolating cases of any kind of infection in the future with
adequate stocking of Medical PPE and emergency support system like Oxygen
Cylinders etc.
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.
As part of Annual Health
Check-up, let there be a specific evaluation of each
individual’s “immunity capacity or strength” and suitable medical
advice and prescription should be given to each person, so that their
immunity levels improve and make them stronger to fight the onset of any
new disease like CORONA.
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 a 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 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 / Non-water
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.
Neighbourhood
Hygiene & Public cleanliness
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, nor any moss should be found in this area.
·
All traffic signals should be always working and
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, aluminium, or any other) are used to serve
food. All serving plates must be throwaway, made of paper, Aluminium 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 street 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 recommended changes/practices address some of the issues that the
advent of CORONA has painfully highlighted for us.
However, this is an attempt to
go beyond merely tackling CORONA–type situations and proposes using
this opportunity 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.
February 27, 2021
Mumbai
