Supporting employees in COVID times

Unprecedented situations need unprecedented actions. What the people of India have endured over the last 2 months has been heartbreaking.

As an organization, you want to step up for your employees and society. In this article, I'll talk about what we can do for employees - hoping it gives leaders additional ideas to enhance covid-related support to their employees.

At Tiger Analytics, we experimented with several initiatives over the last year - some worked, while others did not. Like most other companies, we also work with limited internal resources and are dependent on the country's healthcare infrastructure. Given those constraints, below are initiatives that worked for us and can be adopted easily in most organizations.

Unlimited Paid Time Off (self or family): If one adult in the household falls sick, the workload on other adult(s) increases significantly, especially when external support/help is not feasible. So whether an employee falls sick or someone in their family falls sick, give them paid time off. At Tiger, we don't limit the time off needed - this flexibility gives one peace of mind, at least on the work dimension.

Covid Expense Coverage: Get your health insurance provider to extend insurance coverage to covid related expenses as well. You can get covid-specific top-ups to cover some outpatient expenses, in addition to hospitalization expenses. If the current health insurance policy doesn't include parents/in-laws, consider extending coverage.

Covid Medical Monitoring: We have tied up with two leading hospitals (Apollo and Lifeline) to provide remote medical monitoring to covid affected patients. If an employee or their family members are affected, they can sign up for daily consultations with doctors to monitor their recovery. The hospitals also provide them with covid recovery/monitoring kits, ambulance services, etc.

Internal Covid Helpline: We organized employee volunteers who offered to help their affected colleagues with verified information, search for medicines, oxygen, hospital beds, etc. One can optimally plan 1-5 hrs per week per volunteer towards these activities. We're using a combination of Chat Rooms, WhatsApp groups, intranet sites, shared spreadsheets, etc., for operationalizing this.

Quarantine Facilities: Some hotel chains in India have converted their properties into Covid quarantine and care facilities - especially for mild/moderate cases. They include doctor visits, 24x7 nursing support, basic medical support, ambulance services, etc. Affected people can opt to quarantine themselves in private rooms at these hotels to avoid spreading the infection to their family members. At Tiger, we have tied up with Fab Hotels.

Financial Support: Some employees find themselves in a bit of a financial bother - especially those at the start of their careers who are the primary support for their (extended) families. Keep the communication open to see how the organization can extend financial support, e.g., loans, salary advances, grants, etc.

Vaccinations: Organizations are conducting vaccination drives for their employees. This is a great support to get the load off the already strained healthcare system and an easy way for employees and families to get vaccinated. Leading hospitals are willing to do vaccination drives in the company premises or enable dedicated time slots in the hospital premises.

Health & Wellness: Employee wellness providers can provide doctor consultations, nutritionist consultations, yoga & fitness classes, mental health counseling, round-the-clock employee assistance, etc. At Tiger, we work with The Fuller Life to enable this for our employees and their families.

Listen, Listen, and Listen: It's been more than a year of working remotely amid a pandemic trying to keep your family safe, and hoping that the phone call is not bad news about a loved one - this is stressful on so many levels. Keep multiple communication channels open with your employees to ensure you can listen to the issues they are facing. At Tiger, we do 1:1s, virtual coffee meets, leadership connects, team satisfaction checks, team wellness connects, and more -- a multitude of ways to keep listening to the team.

Slow Down .. a bit: The best companies continually push themselves by doing more than what is enough - exceeding expectations. In these times, when employees and their families are going through some stressful times, you have to think about what is critical and what is not. Align your efforts around mission-critical activities and consider slowing down non-critical initiatives if it helps the team breathe easy. Communicate often that it's ok for people to slow down and it's ok to take time off to care for themselves and their loved ones.