Tech firms reach out to employees as Covid-19 cases rise in India

Infosys, Facebook, Genpact, Cognizant among others have reached out to employees and offered support in different ways as the second wave of Covid cases  sees an exponential rise.

Companies are advising employees not to venture out of their homes and give prominence to the health and safety of the family. This is of significance as several IT and Tech firms were going to take a call of work-from-home scenario from June and had plans to allow some employees to come back to offices. But that seems to be now extended.

In an email  to employees on Monday, titled "Stay Safe from the Covid-19 Second Wave," Infosys chief operating officer U B Pravin Rao cited the enormous number of fresh cases being reported daily, and said, "I write today to request you all put your health and that of your family members above everything else. Do not leave your homes without wearing a protective mask, practice social distancing, and avoid crowds and closed spaces... We request you not to venture out unless its an emergency."

Infosys has also asked all staff to work from home unless they have to report to work as part of a business continuity plan team.

Facebook India has announced three company-wide paid holidays "to give people additional time to rest and recharge".

In an internal communication to employees on Saturday, Facebook India vice president and managing director Ajit Mohan said, "We are deeply conscious that we are going through a tough time in India and a lot of you are experiencing fatigue and burnout. Given the grim pandemic situation, our people are facing increased challenges to self-care, and many are carrying the additional caregiving responsibilities."

Similarly, business process management firm has increased its employee communications, in addition to the focus they've had since last year in the health and wellness of employees.

“We understand that the resurgence of Covid-19 in India comes with increasing personal and professional challenges for our employees. Our CEO, Tiger Tyagarajan is reinforcing the need to stay safe, to extend support to colleagues across borders, and to demonstrate empathetic resilience and agility, in order to focus on client work that is most important, and reprioritize work that is not client critical,” said a Genpact spokesperson.

In an email sent to all employees last week, Rajesh Nambiar, Chairman and Managing Director of Cognizant India said, "While we had hoped to be on the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of cases are growing significantly across India. Now, more than ever, we need to stay alert, continue to take precautions and follow safety measures to stop the spread."

He further said employees should report any illness, even without taking a Covid-19 test in the internal Cognizant portal, follow local health guidelines, practice social distancing, and stay home if they feel unwell.

Naveen Tewari, founder and CEO, InMobi Group said in an audio message to the leadership team said, “I am more than happy to help anybody at any point of time in the company, or in their extended family or friends if they need help. Please reach out, do not hesitate, you will not be able to activate things by yourselves,” he said.

He cautioned all the employees of the InMobi group by saying that for the last 14 months or so of the Covid breakout, this probably is the worst that he has seen. "The number of cases and deaths of people whom I have known have been 7-8 in the last 24 hours. Some of them I couldn’t save, and equal numbers are still searching for hospital beds. We do not have any systemic solution for this. The only way to deal with this is for you and your team members and family to stay in. Nothing is more important than saving yourselves. Our system cannot take cases, there is no capacity,” said Tewari.

India on Monday reported a net increase of 128,013 in active coronavirus cases, the most ever in a day, to take its count to 1,929,329. India’s share of global active coronavirus cases now stands at 10.57 per cent (one in 9). The country is second among the most affected countries by active cases. On Monday, it added 273,810 cases, the most in a day yet, to take its total caseload to 15,061,919. And, with 1,619 new fatalities, its Covid-19 death toll reached 178,769, or 1.19 per cent of total confirmed infections.

With 1,230,007 more people getting Covid-19 vaccine shots on Sunday, India’s total count of those inoculated reached 123,852,566. The count of recovered coronavirus cases across India, meanwhile, reached 12,953,821 – or 86.00 per cent of total caseload – with 144,178 new cured cases being reported on