Over the past five months, India’s workforce has been coming to terms with the new normal of working from home. As a result, most employees’ homes weren’t equipped to be able to work from home seamlessly – be it fast internet connections or ergonomic furniture.
However, India Inc is going to be working from home for much longer than first anticipated. Larger companies such as Google and Facebook have officially announced that their employees will be working from home till 2021 and will be given an allowance of $1000. Uber too announced a $500 dollar allowance. In India too, several companies have come forward to help employees transition to working from home.
Here's what some companies are doing to facilitate employees in working from home.
Hike
Most recently, instant messaging platform Hike announced that it has switched to a remote working model for the rest of 2020. It also announced that it would be delivering an ergonomic office chair and a new compact office table to its employees residing in Delhi/NCR and for employees presently outside of Delhi/NCR, Hike has announced a reimbursement of up to Rs 10,000 to be able to set up their workstation at home.
Hike has said that it would also be supporting its employees for any internet and IT accessories requirements. These include accessories such as monitors, USB converters, laptop risers and more, adding up to Rs 40,000 per employee.
OYO
Earlier this month, hospitality major OYO also introduced measures directed towards the well-being of employees. The company moved to a five-day work week with ‘weekend curfew’ and removed Monday review meetings so employees don’t work over the weekend. It also said that team leaders would ensure that teams work during mandated work hours only, take personal time-outs, avail annual holidays. It is also offering its employees a 12-month membership of Cure.fit at a 50% discount, upskilling opportunities, among others.
Razorpay
The payments company is offering its employees a no-questions-asked allowance to improve their internet connection, set up work desks and other expenses they may need to incur to work from home. It has also partnered with Rentile for corporate offers on office furniture.
Bobble AI
This social keyboard developer has not only given employees an allowance to set up a workstation at home but has also offered to reimburse operational costs of installing air conditioners at homes during the summer. While all team members are covered for physical health the company also extended the cover to mental health under their “Wellness in Totality” program. The company has said that experts are conducting weekly training sessions and workshops to ensure the psychological and physical well-being of employees.
G7 CR
This Bengaluru-based cloud services provider announced a WFH allowance of Rs 18,000 for all its employees to aid the purchase of UPS and office furniture for employees. It also delivered comfortable chairs from its office to the employee’s homes and is also reimbursing monthly internet bills.
Great Learning
Edtech major Great Learning did a wellness survey among its employees to understand their issues with working from home and designed allowances to cater to expenses such as internet, furniture, electricity, etc. It also said that it was partnering with furniture-rent apps.