Fight against smog: Cos go the distance for staff wellness

Companies in the Delhi-NCR region are going out of their way to ensure employee well-being and productivity amid noxious air conditions as they increasingly experiment with HR tools such as work from home and flexi timing.
The Delhi government has issued a health advisory asking people to avoid highly-polluted areas as the city continued to battle its worst smog in 17 years.
In view of the present weather conditions and the poor air quality in Delhi-NCR, Idea Cellular, which has operational facilities in Noida with a jurisdiction over Delhi-NCR and the UP West region, has taken some key steps in the interest of wellness of its employees.

"Flexi timing is being enabled to convenience employees and face masks are being distributed to assist them in reducing their exposure to pollutants in the air. Special buses will be plied to pick and drop employees from key locations and car pools are being planned. These facilities have been enabled for this entire week," a company spokesperson said.
Chetna Gogia, Director-HR, PayU India, said the company immediately declared work from home to address this problem so that engineering work is not affected and employee well-being is maintained. Furthermore, as an interim fix, the firm also made available free face masks for our employees to help them avoid the thickly-polluted air.

Meanwhile, the Delhi government has halted construction and demolition activities, starting the process of deregistration of 15-year-old diesel vehicles and imposition of ban on use of fire crackers.

"At Paytm, we are playing an active role to save our colleagues from the harmful effects of pollution. We have ordered top-of-the-line air purifiers to be installed on each floor. More plants would be brought in to absorb indoor toxins. We are also planning to have solar panels to make our offices more environment-friendly," said Amit Sinha, Senior Vice-President - HR at Paytm.
Cases of severe breathlessness, asthma and allergy have sharply gone up in Delhi as the city remains blanketed in thick layer of toxic air due to the worst smog the capital has seen in 17 years.

Doctors and experts say that besides spike in fresh cases, health complications have aggravated in people having a history of asthma, allergy or other related ailments.
"We have given the work from home option to all our employees. This ensures employee well-being is maintained without affecting the engineering work. Furthermore, in order to protect them from the polluted air, we have made available free face masks for our employees," said Ambarish Gupta CEO and Founder - Knowlarity.