Transformation of People function during Pandemic - Part I

The People function (HR) at Samunnati started the journey of transformation during this Pandemic and started learning from our own experience when we decided to go on "Work from Home" mode even before the lockdown was announced and even before other players in this industry decided. It was a decision that was driven with the sole objective of employee health & safety.  Everyday post that announcement was a new day where we started charting a new path within Samunnati.

This article is an attempt to summarise our experience i.e., People Management at Samunnati during this pandemic from the following perspectives –

• Introducing the team to new ways of work
• Employee Communication
• Employee Engagement
• Upskilling & Reskilling
• Leadership Team's engagement

In this part, we will share our experiences around introducing the team to new ways of work. The most important and critical aspect being Work from Home & going completely online.

While Samunnati has always had a policy of supporting Work from Home for its team members when their personal requirements demand, the entire organisation working from home together from various remote locations was a new scenario. Given the diverse locations that Samunnati operates across, there was no way we could arrange gadgets and physical devices at such a shorter notice. While the Technology team worked tirelessly to support requirements and ensure IT security, orientation for the team on planning to work from home for a longer duration (uncertain end date) and especially orienting the managers on managing team members remotely was another area to focus on.

We tackled these challenges by

• Orienting our team leads by sharing basic guidelines that ranged from how they can engage with their teams to what they need to be mindful of.
• Given that most of the households are not equipped for a professional working environment, we constantly created awareness around being empathetic and understanding.
• Reimagining Interactions/ Driving Online Channels: Given that about 40% of the employee base was used to personal interactions over virtual interactions, getting everyone online and connecting them on an online platform became a priority for the our function. With access to Microsoft Teams, we were able to drive the usage through several online engagement initiatives. We now have approx.. 98% of our team members using Microsoft Teams.
• Awareness drives - We started sending out regular mailers to our team on how they can plan their day to sharing articles of significance around Screen time, tips to minimise online exhaustion, how to effectively structure their day etc.,

We also introduced Employee Connect Calls where members of the People Function will reach out to our team members across several locations to understand how they are, what are the challenges they face while working remotely, what kind of additional support Samunnati can offer to make them comfortable. These calls are now part of our day-day routine and go beyond the discussions around Pandemic. We realise that this has helped the team open up and talk about anything that they need a listening ear to.

Most of the initiatives are here to stay as part of our ongoing HR processes / routine and have added a lot of value to not just the function but to the entire organisation.