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Tag: Swiggy

  • Netflix India onboards Srivats TS as VP, marketing

    Netflix India onboards Srivats TS as VP, marketing

    Mumbai: Netflix India has brought on board Srivats TS as vice president, marketing. He will lead the marketing team in India and report to Netflix vice president, APAC marketing, Barry Smyth.

    Prior to Netflix, Srivats was associated with food delivery platform Swiggy as senior vice president, marketing and consumer experience. He holds strong experience in building brands and businesses across traditional and new-age consumer technology companies.

    Commenting on the new appointment, Smyth said, “Srivats is an original thinker and an incredible marketer. As we bring more great stories from India, he will lead marketing to drive conversations and form deeper connections with consumers.”
    Srivats started his career with Nokia, where he worked for close to nine years in roles across brand marketing, consumer insights, and key account management. He then joined Swiggy in 2016 as head of marketing. Prior to that, Srivats led digital brand marketing at Quikr.

    Speaking on his new role, Srivats said, “Netflix is home to incredible stories and characters that become a part of our lives and conversations. I am excited to be a part of this phenomenal team and find more creative ways to drive engagement with millions of Netflix fans in India.”

  • Voot ropes in Swiggy & CoinDCX as ‘co-powered by sponsors’ for Bigg Boss OTT

    Voot ropes in Swiggy & CoinDCX as ‘co-powered by sponsors’ for Bigg Boss OTT

    Mumbai: Days before Bigg Boss OTT debuts exclusively on Voot, the streaming platform has successfully onboarded food delivery platform Swiggy and cryptocurrency exchange platform CoinDCX as co-powered by sponsors for the reality show.

    The OTT special edition will be hosted by Karan Johar for the first six weeks following which it will be aired on Colors TV. The deal will allow the two brands to engage with consumers through industry-first innovations, said the platform on Tuesday.

    Swiggy is among the earliest digital-first companies in India and will use this occasion to celebrate its seventh birthday with both viewers and contestants. Swiggy will deliver one of the most special IPs of Bigg Boss OTT that will enable fans to digitally interact with their favourite contestants once a week, it said.

    While CoinDCX is looking to build trust through education to foster awareness and credibility with respect to the cryptocurrency industry. They have chosen to partner with Bigg Boss OTT with a host of innovative content integrations and digital interactivity that will build awareness and educate users about cryptocurrency. A trivia quiz “Hazaaron Jeetenge Karodo Inaam” has been specially designed for Bigg Boss fans on Voot along with CoinDCX’s Learn team, giving viewers a chance to play and win multiple prizes as they watch their favourite reality show.

    Apart from the digital interactivity, CoinDCX is also set to garner deep brand exposure and visibility through an exclusively designed branded zone in the house, where CoinDCX will share a screen with the entertaining contestants of the house, setting up space for some juicy conversations, arguments, and fights amongst them.

    Viacom18 digital ventures, head – AVOD (Voot), Chanpreet Arora said, “Bigg Boss OTT is a pioneering step that blends entertainment and technology seamlessly.  Given the all-digital play, Bigg Boss OTT is designed to empower the viewer with one-of-a-kind interactive features brought to life through polls, quizzes, voting, and a lot more, thus changing the narrative of reality shows and bringing in a whole new paradigm of engagement. Bigg Boss OTT, power-packed with gamification and engagement, has successfully garnered patronage of cutting-edge brands and we are excited to welcome Swiggy and CoinDCX as our ‘co-powered by’ sponsors. We are driven to explore newer ways to keep our viewers engaged while partnering with top-notch brands for India’s biggest reality show!”

    Elaborating on the partnership, Swiggy, director-marketing, Umesh Krishna K said, “Bigg Boss has been a marque property in Indian entertainment for more than a decade. When we started our partnership with Voot for Bigg Boss in 2018, we were taken aback by the scale of viewership on VOD. Bigg Boss helps us connect with our core audience through advertising and meaningful integrations, and we hope that the engagement will be far-reaching this year around.”

    Talking about the collaboration, CoinDCX, head of marketing and communications, Ramalingam Subramanian said, “I believe the audience that CoinDCX appeals to is well-aligned with Voot. The OTT platform already has a large share of the audience that falls under the same category which we focus on. This makes it a perfect fit for us. CoinDCX has been a pioneering player in the crypto space in India with a vision to make crypto accessible to Indians. Our association with Voot for Big Boss OTT should further help CoinDCX in creating awareness and educating retail investors about cryptocurrency as an asset class.

    The show will start streaming on Voot from 8 August.

  • Dukaan brings on board Swiggy’s Sandeep Mina as COO

    Dukaan brings on board Swiggy’s Sandeep Mina as COO

    Mumbai: Dukaan, a SaaS platform that helps local entrepreneurs to open a digital storefront, announced that Sandeep Mina has joined the company as the chief operating officer with effect from 1 July. Previously Mina was the VP of monetisation at food delivery platform Swiggy.

    At Dukaan, Mina will lead strategy and operations for optimising the adoption of the platform, building a strong revenue path, and elevating the growth of the organisation, it said in a statement.

    Mina comes with vast experience having worked for almost two decades across supply, operations, sales, and product & revenue strategy with reputed brands like Swiggy, Coca Cola, LG, Star TV, Marico, and others. Prior to Swiggy, he spent three years working with Hotstar as vice president of sales, product & revenue strategy.

    “Dukaan is now a year old and we are shifting gears to grow and expand strategically,” said Dukaan founder and CEO Suumit Shah. “A seasoned leader like Sandeep Mina brings with him great depth of expertise and experience and also shares our vision to revolutionise and simplify retail. We are pleased to have him on board and look forward to working with him.”

    “Retail and e-commerce are evolving markets and have the potential to grow exponentially in the next few years,” Mina said. “This is the right time to be a part of this industry and contribute to building the direction of this growth. I am happy to be a part of Dukaan, and join the team in building the future of retail.”

  • Swiggy elevates Phani Kishan Addepalli as co-founder

    Swiggy elevates Phani Kishan Addepalli as co-founder

    Mumbai: Swiggy has elevated Phani Kishan Addepalli, its vice-president for strategy and investments to a co-founder’s role, the food delivery app’s CEO Sriharsha Majety announced in a blog post on Monday.

    This will make Phani the third Swiggy co-founder, joining the original co-founders Sriharsha Majety and Nandan Reddy. Another co-founder and chief technology officer Rahul Jaimini had exited in May 2020 to join Pesto Tech, a career accelerator startup.

    Phani’s elevation follows after the recent development of the company’s COO Vivek Sunder leaving in October. Majety will be overseeing the company’s food delivery business until they find a replacement.

    “Phani joined us very early on in 2015, and has been my fixer and go-to guy for many important problems for as long as I can remember. Over these 6 years, he’s probably had the record for setting up multiple high leverage functions from the ground up,” Majety wrote in the blog post.

    Majety said Kishan has played a key role in shaping the company’s value. “His energy, can-do attitude, and founder mentality are all goal-worthy for any Swiggster to succeed here and make a huge impact in the company’s future,” Majety wrote.

    “His approach to building new and enduring organisational capabilities (read superpowers) has always been a force multiplier for us, and I can’t wait to see him go on and take new challenges to build even more superpowers in the years to come,” Majety wrote.

    Kishan joined Swiggy in 2015 as general manager – strategy, analytics, CX & new initiatives. Prior to that, Kishan had a stint with companies like The Boston Consulting Group, ITC Limited, and Softeon.

  • Swiggy COO Vivek Sunder moves on, CEO Majety to take charge

    Mumbai: After serving the company for three years, Swiggy’s chief operating officer (COO) Vivek Sunder has put in his papers at the company and will transition out by October-end.

    Swiggy’s chief executive officer (CEO) Sriharsha Majety told employees in an internal email on Wednesday that Sunder, who oversees its food delivery business, has decided to pursue interests outside of the company.

    Majety added that he will be overseeing the marketplace business directly. “We have been discussing this for a while now, and over the course of the past few weeks, have been planning the way forward as well,” he wrote.

    Sunder had joined the company in 2018 after spending close to two decades at FMCG major Procter & Gamble as its managing director. He had been responsible for scaling Swiggy’s key businesses, including food delivery, and its foray into grocery.

    “Vivek has played a very significant role in the growth story of Swiggy – as a brand, as a service, and as an organisation, since joining us three years ago. He played a pivotal role in expanding the geographical footprint of the marketplace business taking Swiggy beyond 500+ cities, and later rallied the organisation to drive a step-change in the unit economics of the marketplace business,” Majety added.

    This is the second big exit at Swiggy after co-founder and chief technology officer Rahul Jaimini exited to join Pesto Tech, last year.

  • India Inc has no-deal with Covid stress on working minds

    India Inc has no-deal with Covid stress on working minds

    Mumbai: So, May was mental health awareness month. Not surprisingly, along with everything else, Covid-19 has taken a toll on our anxiety and stress levels too. As the pandemic’s second wave sweeps across the country, it is inducing a considerable degree of fear, distress, and alarm in the population at large, and especially among the working professionals.

    The economic repercussions of the ongoing pandemic have made Indian professionals vulnerable to job uncertainty, financial instability, and bleak company outlook while continuing to work remotely, according to a LinkedIn workforce confidence index (WCI) report on mental health.

    “The ongoing stress around the three Rs — Remote work, Return to work, and Risk of exposure — are adversely impacting the mental health of Indian professionals,” said LinkedIn, India country manager Ashutosh Gupta.

    The pandemic also impacted, in particular, working women and their ability to focus on work, with a major part of the household and childcare responsibilities falling on their shoulders at home- further highlighting the gender disparity in our society. Many professionals experienced financial uncertainty with salary cuts, lay-offs, job instability, and unemployment looming large.

    PRE-COVID

    It is a known fact that even pre-Covid, workplaces added to mental health concerns while doing little to address them.

    “Indians are among the most overworked workers globally while earning the lowest minimum statutory wage in the Asia-Pacific region, barring Bangladesh”, as per a study on the state of mental health in Corporate India by Gi Group India. The report does a comparative analysis of the working hours per week in India, as against the US and the UK. India stands at 48 – 50 hours while the US is at 40 and the UK a cool 33 hours.

    “There are 1.2 million registered companies in India out of which only 1,000 provide EAPs (employee assistance programmes) for mental health. How India Inc fares on the mental health index is very clear by this statistic. It is also a cry for help as the magnitude of mental health issues among Indian workers is increasing at an alarming rate.” GI Group MD Marcos Segador Arrebola told ET.

    So how does India Inc fare on the mental health index ?

    The Covid-19 impact

    As per the GI group survey, due to the Covid-19 lockdown: 29 per cent of the employees surveyed suffered due to erratic work schedules and 21 per cent suffered due to reduced salariesPIC:

    The contingency did affect organizations to the point of being a serious call-for-action. And, 48 per cent of the employers surveyed reported having taken cognizance of mental wellness concerns. Of this, 29 per cent believe they have been able to identify issues and provide an appropriate form of assistance. While the rest are at various stages of inadequacy, 9 per cent of the employers seem helpless in this regard.

    According to PeakMind.in-Empowered Emotionally, clinical psychologist Shefalika Sahai, the pandemic situation threw most of our coping mechanisms out of the window with anxiety and panic taking over. “According to the data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC), the number of adults reporting symptoms of anxiety or depressive disorder increased from 11 per cent during the pandemic, which also resulted in many organisations launching free mental wellbeing helpline numbers.”

    We are seeing many organisations leading creative and innovative engagements and collaborations with experts to build the morale and mental wellbeing of the employees. In that sense, Covid-19 has been a mixed bag for issues concerning mental wellness. Awareness and accessibility leapfrogged and taboos surrounding it significantly diminished.

    Hospitality firm Oyo rolled out a set of initiatives for its employees to alleviate their stress levels amid the coronavirus pandemic, including four-day working in a week and flexible infinite paid leaves. OYO Rooms CEO Ritesh Agarwal wrote about the company’s new initiatives on Twitter.

    The online food tech unicorn Swiggy also announced that it will be moving to a four-day work week for May.

    Gi Group Head for Staffing Business Sonal Arora said, “Although raising awareness is an essential part of the solution, the concept of a well-defined action plan has been lacking and a majority still struggle due to restricted sources of assistance.”

    Given the rising anxiety levels among employees, several organisations are revealing their compassionate side by offering staff a much-needed break from work. Many companies acknowledge that in such dark times, it’s essential to go beyond mere words of being a ‘people-first organisation’ and ensure that caring actions towards each and everyone’s well-being are prioritised.

    Realty developer Godrej Properties provided its employees a five-day complete break from office work to allow its teams to “recuperate emotionally” in the backdrop of the ongoing pandemic.

    “The work from home burnout is real and the last thirteen months of Covid and the second wave have taken a toll on people; emotionally and mentally. As a company, it is our responsibility to be with our employees and we understand that in tough times like these, everyone deserves a break,” said Godrej Properties MD and CEO Mohit Malhotra. This applied to nearly 2,000 permanent employees of the company and around 600 contract employees working across all its locations in India.

    Ericsson India has launched an employee wellness programme that is focused on interventions around their physical, financial, emotional, and social wellbeing. In addition, the organisation has set up a 24X7 Employee Assistance Programme to provide one-to-one support to its employees.

    Visionet Systems set up a dedicated helpline for its employees, providing free mental health professionals, via phone or text.

    “We have close to 4500 employees across three centres in India and unless they are all moving in the same direction, are feeling safe, appreciated and financially protected, we cannot expect the company to do well,” Visionet Systems MD and country head Alok Bansal told Businessworld.

    Vestige Marketing started a Covid-19 support initiative, called SAMVAAD- a platform wherein the HR and the management regularly connect with teams and departments to acknowledge their efforts, listen to their concerns, provide support and inspire and motivate them.

    While these and many other companies have set the ball rolling and taken some initiatives towards employees’ mental wellness the question remains, is it enough for a country as vast as India?

    There is a dire need for corporates to factor in mental wellbeing in their regime and inculcate measures for the mental well-being of employees. Covid-19 is a wake-up call for employers to sensitize their organizations and formalize their mental wellness approach.

  • Why restaurants are stepping away from Swiggy, Zomato with #OrderDirect campaign

    Why restaurants are stepping away from Swiggy, Zomato with #OrderDirect campaign

    MUMBAI: Food delivery continues to be the mainstay for the restaurant industry hit hard by the pandemic with lockdowns and restrictions in place. While this has come as a boon for the food aggregators and delivery apps, it has also taken away a significant portion of the restaurants’ earnings by way of commission to these platforms.

    With these food apps currently the only source of revenue for many restaurants across the country, restaurants fear the industry is emerging into a duopoly controlled by the food aggregators. With reopening of the hospitality sector looking uncertain in the near future, more eateries are looking to improve margins by trying out alternatives to aggregators Zomato and Swiggy.

    The National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) recently announced the #OrderDirect campaign to offer a democratized digital channel with low commissions, data ownership, control over policies, and an unbundled technology stack. NRAI president Anurag Katriar referred to the food aggregator apps as ‘virtual landlords’ last year highlighting the urgent need for the sector to reduce its dependence on such platforms. To safeguard their interest, restaurants are now collectively coming up with their loyalty scheme, bill settlement technology, and even a home delivery solution.  

    Riyaaz Amlani- CEO & MD, Impresario Entertainment and Hospitality, who operates a chain of restaurants in several cities- is among the key voices backing #OrderDirect in India. From this week onwards, in a first-of-its-kind pilot project, his hospitality portfolio has teamed up with Mumbai’s Dabbawala for home deliveries. Riyaaz Amlani posted on LinkedIn, “Thrilled to announce a partnership that just fits. Dabbawalas know a thing or two about getting you your meals on time. They are severely impacted by the pandemic. Working with this awesome group of people is a privilege and a natural extension of our D2C push. #orderdirect “.

    Impresario Handmade Restaurants is employing several dabbawalas in Mumbai who will service direct delivery orders received on Impresario’s tech-enabled platforms for their restaurant brands such as SOCIAL, Smoke House Deli, and Salt Water Cafe. Orders from these restaurants in the Lower Parel, Bandra, and BKC areas of Mumbai will be fulfilled by the dabbawalas starting this week in a seemingly win-win solution for both parties. The association will roll out in phases over the next few months, each employing more dabbawalas and strengthening the partnership.

    This association also takes away from delivery aggregators such as Swiggy and Zomato. According to Amlani, ordering directly from restaurants (and not through aggregators) empowers the company to have direct and deeper relationships with its customers and saves on prohibitive commissions paid to the aggregators. “We are then able to pass on these savings to our customers and allow them to benefit from ordering directly. Now, ordering directly is also helping to employ our dabbawalas, who have lost their livelihoods due to the pandemic. We need to support each other through these trying times, and this is Impresario’s way of meaningfully extending a helping hand. We are hopeful that this association will trigger the rest of the hospitality industry to employ them too,” he told a publication.

    While recognising the positive aspects of what the aggregators are offering the restaurants and customers, Food Matters’ founder and CEO India Gauri Devidayal, says “This relationship is no longer a partnership but rather is one built on dependency… This is not just about saving on commissions but also servicing an increased radius of delivery and therefore having the potential for higher revenues.”

    For restaurateurs looking to start their online ordering platform and reduce dependency on food aggregators DotPe, Thrive Now and Peppo are some of the tech partners supporting NRAI in this campaign. They are helping to build full-stack solutions and a sustainable hospitality ecosystem together with the restaurants.

    Whether these innovations are feasible and able to democratize the food industry, only time will tell.

  • E-comms ramp up vaccination drive for frontline staff

    E-comms ramp up vaccination drive for frontline staff

    Mumbai:  E-commerce companies have launched a rampant vaccination drive for their frontline staffers and delivery partners who interface with consumers who worry about possible transmission of the newer and more virulent strains of Covid-19.

    This comes in the wake of most e-tailer and logistics firms reporting infections among their frontline staffers who are on daily delivery missions of food and essential products such as medicines, healthcare packages and much more.

    While these customer interfacing personnel busily operated for the better part of the last 14 months, even in the wake of the pandemic, newer and more virulent strains currently in vogue for their high transmitting potential are a constant source of discouragement for customers who got used to remotely ordering the doorstep delivery of their various needs as they stayed locked down

    While the clear and present danger and high risk of infections of these frontline workers got exposed, as they shuttled door-to-door between eateries/ grocery stores/pharmacies and the customers to deliver packages e-tailer and logistics firms have gone into an accelerated mode of ensuring mass jabs for their frontline fleet.

    Online food delivery platform Swiggy started inoculations of its delivery agents and frontline staff in Bengaluru since Thursday. Apart from the delivery staff at the grocery delivery service Instamart, even the company’s cloud kitchens executives have been prioritized for getting the jabs.

    A few thousand delivery partners across varied age groups already received their first dose of the vaccination; Swiggy has announced and added in a public advisory that with drives planned across all major cities, all delivery partners and frontline staff will be covered over the next few weeks.

     

     

    Amid reports that Covid-19’s second wave was adversely impacting online shopping volumes over the past several weeks due to infection fears among consumers, many e-tailer companies are pushing ahead with vaccination drives on scale.   

    Last week, rival Zomato said it has begun vaccination of its delivery partners in the NCR. Founder Deepinder Goyal took to twitter last Friday and stated, “We are facilitating a free and safe vaccination drive for more than 150,000 of our frontline staff and employees. Thousands of our delivery partners are already vaccinated”:

     

     

    He added, “Vaccinations in Mumbai and Bangalore start tomorrow and multiple other cities (will be covered by) next week. The safety of our customers is the #1 priority for us as well as (the health of) our delivery partners who have selflessly and safely delivered hundreds of millions of orders during the pandemic.” He also thanked hospital chain Max Healthcare for facilitating the vaccination drive. 

    Many e-commerce firms have tied up with hospitals and government authorities while some are even procuring vaccines directly from manufacturers. This will, however, be subject to the continued availability of vaccines, as manufacturers prioritise supply obligations to states before meeting demand from private companies.

    Flipkart has also kicked off vaccination camps for frontline employees and so has Myntra for its units in Bengaluru. The effects of the current wave have especially hit consumer demand for non-essential segments, both in urban and rural markets, with Fashion bearing the brunt of diminishing orders due to infection fears.

    Ecommerce giant Amazon announced earlier this week that it is working to administer vaccines to its frontline teams. Over the coming weeks, it will be hosting on-site vaccination events run by licensed healthcare providers.

    Online marketplace for home services, Urban Company Cofounder & COO Abhiraj Singh Bhal also tweeted, “At @urbancompany_UC , our vaccination efforts continue in full swing. We have vaccinated thousands of service partners in the last one week, and are now close to 25% of our fleet having received at least one jab.”

     

     

    As demand slumped for online home delivery service providers amid customer fears of contracting the virus, brands like Urbancompany have begun public announcements declaring the vaccination status of their staff on their online platform.

    Other online delivery services like Swiggy and Zomato also plan to introduce Vaccine transparency on their apps, to notify users that the agent of delivery of goods is not a potential carrier of the infectious disease as well by emphasising the individual’s vaccination status.

  • Brands engage with consumers with WFH creatives

    Brands engage with consumers with WFH creatives

    MUMBAI: The world around us has undergone a paradigm shift in the last year. The little joys that we took for granted – be it eating out at our favorite restaurant with family or catching a movie in the theatre over the weekend, or simply hanging out with friends after work – all activities have become wishful nostalgia. Keeping in mind these inescapable realities of the new normal, brands have come up with creatives to cheer flagging spirits with a dash of humor and empathy. But, at the same time, encouraging people to stay at home and stay safe. Here are a few ideations that we felt measured up to the task at hand.

    Pepsico’s Wafer Brand Lays released a new commercial with a short, crispy humorous take on WFH, while pushing itself as the best snack for a quick five-minute break from work. 

    Fevicol : The Pidilite Industries-owned adhesives brand shared a picture of a crowded market with people, both with and without masks swarming the street on Instagram. Fevicol took a tongue-in-cheek swipe on the picture using its own campaign of ‘FEVICOL KA JOD, MAJBOOT JOD’ with the words: “This Is Not A Fevicol Ad, Now Is Not A Good Time To Stick Together” adding “Kyunki chehre par mask aur do gaz ki doori, abhi bhi hai bohot zaroori.” (Because a mask on the face and six feet distancing is still very important)

     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     

     
     

     
     
     

     
     

    A post shared by Fevicol (@fevicolkajod)

    Dominos : The Pizza brand came up with the perfect #StayAtHome menu to make WFH a breeze and beat the blues!

    Swiggy : For all those of us who still find it difficult to accept that it has been a whole year and more of staying indoors with WFH and social distancing, this Swiggy India creative rubs it in. It covers all those ‘Masterchef’s who mastered cooking during the extended lockdown- from a shapeless, burnt roti in March 2020 right through to a perfect gol one in 2021!

    ‘Still can’t accept the fact that it’s already March 2021’

     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     

     
     

     
     
     

     
     

    A post shared by Swiggy (@swiggyindia)

    Durex India : The Condom brand came up with a cheeky play on words, reminding people that while indoors their product offers protection, outside it is the humble mask. It shared a post saying ‘Wear two masks for better protection outdoors and one as usual for indoors.’ It further added: “According to the CDC report, wearing a cloth mask over a medical mask can provide “substantially improved source control” as well as reduce exposure of the wearer.”

     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     

     
     

     
     
     

     
     

    A post shared by Durex India (@durex.india)

    grofers : The online grocery delivery service made a point of emphasizing staying indoors, with an attention-grabbing caption of ‘Places to Explore’. The post creatively showcases how within the four walls of our home, one can have a fulfilling day. Let’s continue to be the second line of our frontline by staying at home.

     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     

     
     

     
     
     

     
     

    A post shared by Grofers (@grofers)

    Nykaa Man : The e-commerce platform for men’s grooming came up with a detailed list of To-Dos and helpful suggestions of ‘Lockdown therapeutic exercises’ to help chase WFH blues away:

     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     

     
     

     
     
     

     
     

    A post shared by Nykaa Man (@nykaaman)

    OYO : Online Hotel booking site took a brilliant dig on people who wear a mask, albeit on the chin or hanging from an ear- anywhere but on their face! “No mask. No check-in. Take a pledge to abolish the chin diaper, the neck warmer, the nose flasher. #WearAMask, properly.”

     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     

     
     

     
     
     

     
     

    A post shared by OYO (@oyorooms)

    McDonald’s Happy Meal : The junk food brand highlighted the brand’s Happy Meal with caution. “Right now, a Happy Meal is the one you have at home!” Let our Happy Meal make you happy at home! Stay safe and order in.

    Starbucks India : The Coffee brand creative talks about how Life has changed- with WFH, Zoom meets, video calls, and discovering new ways to stay connected with our loved ones. Because some things don’t change whether you work from the office or work from home.

    “Because even though we’re apart, Coffee has always brought us together.”

    Zomato : The Food delivery service harked back to the good old days when the world looked a bit different from today with a wonderful video reminding everyone that the only way to get back to that time was- by staying home and getting vaccinated ASAP. ‘Let’s bring back the good ol’ days!’

     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     

     
     

     
     
     

     
     

    A post shared by zomato (@zomato)

    Till that happens and till the world returns to some modicum of normalcy, all we can do is grin and bear it- behind our masks, of course! Meantime, brands can keep churning out more such imaginative communication to remain connected with their audience

  • Covid relief: India Inc shows it cares, puts employees’ wellbeing before profits

    Covid relief: India Inc shows it cares, puts employees’ wellbeing before profits

    MUMBAI: As the second wave of Covid2019 batters the Indian subcontinent, there is little doubt that we are staring at a humanitarian disaster of humongous proportions. Even as the country struggles to cope with what is possibly a deadly new variant of the Coronavirus, organisations are going out of their way to show solidarity with their workforce.

    Recently, Reliance Industries announced that it has decided to give employees their entire bonus for 2020-21, acknowledging their commitment to the company in a challenging year. It also launched an inoculation drive for all its employees, their family members, and stakeholders from Friday.

    Earlier, FMCG major HUL announced it will cover for the vaccination of around three lakh people, which include not only its employees and their families but also those in its extended ecosystem.

    Across India, as cases surge and precious lives are being snuffed out, companies are pressing the pause button on chasing quarterly targets and are instead going the extra mile to help afflicted employees and their loved ones.

    Showing empathy  through enhanced employee benefits

    Many companies have become generous with employee benefits and leaves, granting special wellness leaves, vaccination leaves, and reduced work-day weeks for their employees, along with providing staff access to mental and health care services.

    Online food delivery platform Swiggy has rolled out a four-day work week for employees for the month of May, keeping in mind the mental and physical well-being of its employees. Workers have also been given the flexibility to choose the four days they want to work in a week.

    Companies like Tata Steel, Google, Amazon, Schneider Electric, Deloitte and more have provided their employees with 14 special sick leaves for them to recuperate and recover.

    Some companies like ITC, Optum and Phillips have provided their employees with unlimited leave policies. These companies have allowed the affected ones to rest with a clear-cut mandate of not to resume work until they recover.

    According to Human capital solutions and services provider GI Group India VP & head HR Upasana Raina, “The mental well-being of everyone in the organisation is key to each person’s individual success that finally ties up into the success of the collective.” She added that apart from ensuring that 100 per cent of their workforce has WFH facility, the agency also “encourages employees to take time for themselves to strike a healthy balance between work and family.”  

    Personal finance app Branch has also implemented the “unlimited paid time off for dealing with the physical and emotional trauma”. Branch India MD Sucheta Mahapatra says, “With the second wave, we understand that most employees are physically and mentally affected either personally or in their social circles. The health coverage will now cover Covid Related hospitalisation. We have internally formed a Covid employee taskforce to evaluate and work on various work streams to support employees during these times.” 

    Telecom and IoT services provider Teliolabs CEO Amit Singh says, “We have formed a Covid response team with a doctor, finance, HR and system admin teams to ensure proper help to the team members in case of any Covid related query, hospital admissions etc. We are also extending our medical insurance and term insurance policies for better coverage in these difficult times.” This is in addition to giving paid leave to employees falling sick owing to Covid.

    Insurance tech provider SE2 Digital Service LLP head HR Sumit Bhatia shares some of the initiatives the company has put in place to ensure their employees are safe and reassured during the pandemic situation: “Reimbursement of RTPCR tests and vaccination costs, health insurance that includes Covid related hospitalisation, 24×7 free doctor access, stress management (EAP) support, 14 days of special Covid leaves in case any associate is detected positive, and in the unfortunate scenario of an associate’s demise due to Covid – monetary coverage for family (beyond Term Life Insurance)- SE2 will pay the associates’ full one-year salary (including 100 per cent of the variable pay) or Rs 10 lakh (whichever is higher) to the family.”

    AI-driven online automobile marketplace Droom has announced a Rs 1 crore budget to combat Covid for its employees and dealers’ community. It has launched programs for its 20,500+ dealers to assist in pharmaceuticals, vaccination, medical assistance and provide isolation wards with basic medical facilities. It has also increased its medical insurance coverage by five times this year, providing medical coverage group insurance for employees’ parents, and has even launched a telemedicine consultation for mental and physical health free of cost.

    Converting office spaces into Covid isolation & vaccination centres

    Besides providing benefits, some companies have taken a step further and converted office spaces into isolation centres and hospitals for employees and their kin.

    HDFC Bank has converted three of its training centres in Gurugram, Bhubaneswar and Pune into isolation facilities for its Covid-affected employees. These facilities have been equipped with first-line assistance and will have round the clock nurses and visiting doctors. The facilities include setting up vaccination camps. In addition, it has also tied up with many hotels across the country to provide isolation facilities, basic amenities and basic medical checks.

    Similarly, TCS has set up Covid Care Centers across 11 cities in India and entered into arrangements with hotels that have hospital tie-ups. Employees and their families can avail emergency medical financial assistance, apart from the health insurance facilities offered. In fact, many IT firms are setting up hospital beds in their campuses with oxygen and ventilator support to support employees and their families to deal with the acute shortage the country is facing.

    Droom has also converted its Sector 15 office into an emergency response center with telemedicine services, nurses, and all basic healthcare facilities.

    Further, Amazon, ITC, Capgemini, RPG Group, and Cognizant have also set up Covid-care centres either on their own, or through tie-ups with hotels or hospitals at this critical time when the country’s healthcare system is getting overburdened.

    Bry-Air, DRI and Artemis have organised vaccination camps for their employees, while Fortis recently arranged drive-thrus for Panasonic, Jindal Steel, Coforge, Honda Motorcycles and Scooters.

    IT majors like TCS, HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra, Infosys have introduced Covid201919 test centres to help their staff avoid exposure by visiting crowded test centres and waiting in long queues.

    Assuring monetary aid

    Companies are also taking measures to ensure the long-term financial stability of their staff and their families. Zomato announced that it would provide 100 per cent of the deceased employee’s income for two years to the family. Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma said the company will continue to pay salaries to the families of deceased employees throughout the current financial year

    Cars24 CEO Vikram Chopra recently won a lot of love on social networking site LinkedIn for an internal mail he sent out to all his employees urging them to buy whatever it was that they needed for the treatment of themselves or a family member, without worrying about its price.

    He wrote, “Need oxygen or medicines but only available in black at a very high price and without any proof? Please just buy whatever you need, from whatever source you get it. Don’t worry about a proof to be produced to the company or how it costs,” adding “Send us an email and we will transfer money asap.” He further wrote that the company will also try to arrange medicines, or oxygen and whatever else is required, while stressing that “We will pay you advance or reimburse all costs, whichever is faster. I repeat, no proofs required.”

    Setting up Covid helpline & resource access  

    Software giant, TCS has set up a Covid help desk for employees to seek any assistance required, along with a 24×7 TCS Medical Hotline to reach doctors and TCS Cares services for counselling.

    HDFC Bank too is providing e-consultation with doctors through apps including Apollo 24/7, MediBuddy, PharmEasy Apps, with PharmEasy helping with delivery of medicines as well. Additionally, the bank has also provided access to e-consultation with empanelled psychologists through these apps.

    Several companies, including PricewaterhouseCoopers, Accenture, Grofers, Cars24, Deloitte have announced that they will sponsor the cost of vaccines for their employees and some for their families as well.