The Coronavirus Pandemic has led to a massive change in the way the world functions. The surging numbers of affected people have ensured mass-scale lock-downs in many countries. To tackle the situation and keep people safe, companies have resorted to asking their employees to work from home. Many employees who are working from home now may have very little or no experience of doing so, or at least not for such an extended period of time.

PCBL HR, Admin and IT teams have put together a holistic operating procedure and guidelines to not only to help the employees cope up with the new mandate and be productive, but also for the managers to keep their remote teams engaged. Here are a few things that PCBL has done to make the best use of the lock-down period that can be practical for other companies too.

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Connecting With People

For employees who have never worked from home, social isolation will be deeply felt, and more so, if they are young and alone. It is, after all, difficult to replicate the daily work-related interactions and banter with co-workers.

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• To make people connect with each other virtually, PCBL has started a ‘Connecting with People Series’ – where the leaders talk to a group of people over Google Hangout Meet. The agenda of these virtual meets range from discussions on well-being of the team members and business scenario in the world, to deliberating on the future of business once the PCBL plants can resume manufacturing again. Each leader talks to about 15 people regularly. To make communications effective, smaller groups have been formed which facilitate meaningful interactions. There are approximately ten such groups.
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• Not just related to work, the SF Jam Module in People Connect, PCBL’s HR portal, helps to connect for occasions like celebrating birthdays.
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• Besides these, each leader organises his Zoom or Hangout Meets with his team members at least twice a week. There are Whats App groups for each function to share activities and ideas on a real-time basis.

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Training

The time away from office can be utilised effectively for learning and development of the employees, which otherwise might be challenging due to the day-to-day work commitments.

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• PCBL has scheduled several types of virtual training on their Learning Management System (LMS) platform for various groups of people. It includes training on prevention of sexual harassment (POSH), and performance management, for instance. Since it is based on a reporting and monitoring tool called SCOM, the progress tracking can be done by HR.
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• Additional free online courses on Udemy and Coursera are also assigned to people.
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• Further, PCBL HR team is working on an online safety training calendar to organise very essential training on safety.
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• Besides these, knowledge leaders of the company are running virtual classes on Process Technology, Engineering, HR and IT.
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• PCBL has planned a training session for the Senior Leadership Team on ‘How a leader has to be a helper and also a coach for its team.’

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Health

The pandemic is increasing people’s stress levels, which can have serious consequences. In normal circumstances, companies can offer a variety of ways to support an employee’s mental and physical health. But with workers at home companies need to redirect efforts to foster their well-being.

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• PCBL has assigned a full-time doctor, based at Durgapur, as the single point of contact for any employee who might have symptoms which they want to discuss. There is a helpline number for the employees to reach out. Pre-lockdown, PCBL had organised a series of video conferences with the doctor to discuss the dos and don’ts. Besides these, the employees are sharing their experiences and write-ups on COVID. Safety guidelines have been prepared that need to be followed during the outbreak.
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• There is training on mindfulness to keep the employees stress-free and engaged.

• With gyms and fitness centres closed, PCBL is also creating videos on fitness challenges and circulating it among the employees to promote general health and wellness.

• Online and offline counselling sessions are also held by certified medical counsellors from renowned hospitals like Woodlands to enhance employee morale.
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• PCBL has planned a training session for the Senior Leadership Team on ‘How a leader has to be a helper and also a coach for its team.’

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Leadership

The leaders have a strategic role to play during a crisis for putting a business continuity plan in place.
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• PCBL’s leadership team, along with the Managing Director, Kaushik Roy, have regular day-long virtual conferences to plan strategic initiatives like Operations, Communications, Cash Flow Management, Capex and Training.
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• The leaders also play an important part to keep the employees motivated. Kaushik Roy has shared emails to employees assuring them that the company is handling the situation in the best possible way.

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HR Initiatives

The HR team of PCBL has taken several online initiatives to keep people engaged during the lock-down.

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• Contests and games are played amongst employees all over the world, which are circulated through WhatsApp.
  

• Keeping an open communication from the leaders is very essential, and even more so for the locations that are away from the headquarters. The management team of PCBL has shared emails explaining the People Connect initiatives to the HR team at the manufacturing plants so that all the HR initiatives can be cascaded to the employees at the manufacturing plants.

• An emergency situation like the COVID-19 pandemic calls for protection and support towards employees at all costs, with prioritising the lower levels ahead of higher levels, since they are more vulnerable. PCBL has provided essential items to security and canteen staff and other workers along with ensuring the safety of their family members.

• They have developed a weekly in-house online magazine with articles on mindfulness, stress management and employee experience during the emergency lock-down.
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• The management team also talks to the plant employees directly in small batches through video conferencing.

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Virtual Social Interactions

For workers who have never worked from home, social isolation will be deeply felt. It is difficult to replicate daily interactions and casual encounters with co-workers. Such reciprocal, supportive interactions with colleagues are linked to employee well-being.

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• The PCBL HR team has shared birthdays of all the employees with the team leaders so that they can continue to celebrate birthdays through phone calls and other methods.
  

• A Facebook Group has been created to encourage employees to have virtual interaction with their colleagues, to post videos and photos of their lock-down activities and keep themselves engaged.

• Important telephone numbers have been shared with family members so that they can contact in case they have an emergency.

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Tackling the Challenges of Working from Home

Working from home poses its own challenges which need to be addressed for creating an effective and collaborative work culture. For example, building IT facilities and infrastructure to enable employees to work from home, enhancing their technical capabilities to use online platforms for conducting meetings and training, and countering loneliness that might set-in while working alone for extended periods of time.

PCBL’s has its entire IT infrastructure hosted on Amazon’s AWS Cloud which allows people to connect to a secured VPN using a two-factor authentication to access PCBL’s data centre. This enables people who have desk jobs like Finance, HR, Statutory, etc, to continue with their work seamlessly. The company is organising online webinars daily to train non-technical people on how to schedule virtual meetings with colleagues and bosses, how to share screens and work collaboratively, how to use the collaborative apps on a smart phone for those who do not have laptops, and also training on SAP ERP modules.

Not just work, the teams connect and support each other emotionally through virtual coffee meets in the evenings, where people have their coffee together while being connected with colleagues through video conferencing. Personal issues are discussed like how they are managing groceries, medicines and other essential things, if anyone has any emergency in the family and so on. The local admin teams are requested to extend help to people who live alone in case of a need.

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PCBL has put together a set of guidelines to help employees work from home. Click on the link below to download.

Download PCBL Work from Home Guidelines

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Also, the companies need to be prepared for similar instances in future. Some possibilities that PCBL has discussed are, rearranging workplaces to ensure social distancing, introducing flexibility at workplace by encouraging work from home, allowing employees to bring their own devices to office, so that during such a sudden situation employees are not left without any device to continue working from home.

PCBL has put together comprehensive guidelines to help employees stay safe in various work-related situations. Click on the link below to download:

Workplace Ready for Covid-16
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Preparing for an Uncertain Future

The pandemic and the lock-down situation across the world have brought forth circumstances that no company or individual was prepared about, and no one has any idea about how things will progress. However, it is evident that the way the companies function is set to change massively.

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• PCBL has worked upon introducing revised processes that require no face-to-face interaction. For example, allowing virtual on-boarding through its People Connect portal and scheduling interactions through virtual platforms like Zoom Meeting Room or Google Hangout Meet.
  

• The company is creating a Work from Home Policy for Global by discussing with its employees across the world. The policy would include the norms of each country in which PCBL operates or is going to operate. There also needs to be clear guidelines for people whose roles entail that they cannot work from home.

• To build a habit among the employees to work on online platforms, PCBL plans to conduct training sessions and meetings through the virtual platforms at regular intervals even when the situation goes back to normal.

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Plant Related Initiatives

Social distancing in the factories is a challenge. PCBL is planning to re-arrange seating arrangements at DCS, labs and offices, so that social distancing, which might be a necessity from now on, can be maintained.

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• In its Cochin plant, PCBL has taken steps to ensure that social distancing is maintained among people, with the help of prominent markings to indicate places where one can safely stand or sit.
  

• The company is looking at making its factories intelligent through use of automation like IoT. This would ensure minimum human intervention and reduce human dependency to run the plants. The employees need to be trained and re-skilled to handle the change.

• Additionally, PCBL is creating training programmes on handling pandemics and essential safety precautions guidelines for truck drivers and other contract workers working in the plant.
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• The company has also implemented a disinfecting channel in its Durgapur factory to sanitise any person or goods entering the premises.
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• PCBL is also working on developing Digital Knowledge Management System and Documentation System. Some of the things that this will entail are – standardising operating procedures, documenting knowledge explicitly, which include RCAs, MOCs, and critical plant diagrams, and assigning responsibilities to identified stakeholders to ensure that every plant activity is documented and indexed for future reference.

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Looking forward

Companies need to have a plan in place to resume normal working once the lock-downs are lifted. PCBL is preparing for Day 0, which includes sharing what to expect in business from the MD’s desk, contingency planning for job responsibilities and decision making, creating alternate fall-back hierarchy, centralising and digitising all work-related documents and information, and having a succession plan in place.

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THE COVID-19 CHECKLIST

Additionally, here is a checklist of a few good practices that can help companies to manage through this difficult time and maintain goodwill:

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1. Employees

Protect and support employees at all costs. Prioritise lower levels ahead of higher levels. Pay full salaries till the nationwide lock-down continues – at least pay usual take home, one may think of holding back non-essential allowances like car allowance or perquisites
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2. Consumers

Keep the communications going with customers through Email or WhatsApp and a rigorous schedule needs to be maintained for this.Consider modifying the various offerings from the company to fit into the current situation and also the post-crisis situation that will prevail. This might seem difficult, but idea generation in this space may help.
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3. Cash

Conserve cash as much as possible. If the crisis worsens, cash will be harder to come by. Make sure all credit lines are alive – draw down funds if possible. With banks offering 10% extra draw down, companies should see that they can use the maximum facilities.
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4. Associates and Vendors

Support associates that are smaller and weaker, especially the MSMEs. One may use this occasion to de-prioritise undesirable associates, if any. Staying in communication with the associates all the time will build goodwill.
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5. Contract workers payments

Contract workers and labourers need to be paid too, and the companies must ensure that they get proof that it is gets paid out to the labourers.
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6. Statutory Issues

Utilise statutory concessions, but other than that, stay fully compliant by paying all dues in time. Statutory payments need to be reviewed for which extension may not have yet been announced.Deferring cash flow but not provisions may create TDS issues, as there is a requirement of deducting income tax from provisions although payment has not been made. There is also a need to not delay payments to MSMEs. Delayed payments will attract huge penal statutory interest. This is both a statutory and an ethical issue.
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7. Force Majeure event

This is a force majeure event. It may enable some parties to wriggle out of a contract with the Company. Therefore, contractual obligations taken up and received by the Company needs to be reviewed.
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8. Insurance

Ensure insurance covers are kept alive. Check levels of inventory and cash covered and actual on hand, to avoid mismatch. Check if there is any entitlement for Loss of Profits insurance under any policy taken up by the Company.
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9. Overseas

Review foreign exchange covers more closely. Be in touch with overseas associates.

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FUTURE-PROOFING THE BUSINESSES

Covid-19 has been a classical Black Swan event, both unpredictable and devastating in its impact. But looking at the opportunity, it has allowed businesses to learn to adapt in ways that shield them from sudden adversities. If we can learn some of these lessons as this crisis gets over, we have a great chance of inoculating our businesses against future shocks. Here is an informative article on things that companies can do to stay prepared.