Health and safety is our top priority: Nina Nair, SVP & HRD Head, India, and Americas - [24]7.ai

Nina Nair

June 5: Nina Nair - SVP & HRD Head, India and Americas- discusses the initiatives that [24]7.ai has rolled out to support their employees.

What policies and initiatives have been put in place by [24]7.ai to help employees cope with the current pandemic situation?

The COVID-19 pandemic has deeply impacted lives everywhere. The impact of the second wave - the infections, shortage of healthcare supplies, etc. - has created fear and panic in citizens' minds. Most people do not understand how to cope with this situation - it is not something we have ever faced in the past.

At [24]7.ai, our top priority is the health and safety of employees and their families. In addition to taking all steps to protect the safety of our staff, we also must ensure that their emotional and mental wellbeing is taken care of in these especially trying times.

We set up round-the-clock email and phone helplines where employees can reach out for medical assistance, hospitalization, home care, or any other COVID-related support they require. Our team has been able to procure oxygen cylinders and concentrators for timely help, and we have also partnered with hospitals to set up temporary Covid Care Centers, to support employees and their families. We also have a doctor on call to assist with medical queries.

At the start of the pandemic in April 2020 we anticipated a need for additional time off for COVID affected employees and family members. We revamped our health-related employee policies to include:

• Special leave for lockdown situations, which can be compensated later with additional hours.
• Fully paid quarantine leaves for the recovery period of COVID positive employees.
• Advance leaves for employees with no leave balance.
• The ‘Gift of time' policy, where employees can donate their leaves to others who are in need.

How are you empowering your employees to look after their families?

Working from home during this pandemic comes with its own set of challenges - lack of social interaction, balancing work and personal life, dealing with the overall stress of the ongoing COVID19 situation, etc. We have partnered with service providers to ensure that our team members receive the best accessible support in their time of need. We have also upgraded our insurance policy to provide more extensive coverage. Our HR teams also send out periodic updates on how to maintain a healthy diet and lifestyle with tips on fitness, nutrition, building immunity, etc.

Work from home seems to be the way forward for every organisation. Is this model feasible for your organisation?

At the beginning of the pandemic last year, every organisation was forced to rethink its business model. We saw that majority of our business operations can be easily managed remotely. Not only were we able to comfortably service all our clients last year, but we also reported revenue growth! This is testimony to the remote working model and opened up a tremendous opportunity for us to hire from an expanded pool of resources across India. We can now hire anyone sitting anywhere in the country to become a part of our team.

Mental health seems to be a big issue cropping up amongst working professionals - Your thoughts on this?

The environment is quite disturbing and can impact a person's mental health due to all the negativity around it. [24]7.ai has partnered with MindHouse to combine techniques of Yoga, Meditation, and Nutrition to address mental health, as well as everyday wellness and chronic ailments. These sessions are open for teams and their families to attend.

We also must be more understanding towards each other, as it is difficult to assess how each one is impacted by the ongoing situation. Our managerial and leadership executives across the board have also been sensitized on how to deal with team members during these testing times.

You mentioned you are also helping the community as well. What initiatives has the company rolled out for the community?

It is critical that we come together to help overcome this situation. Our team members have been individually supporting societies and communities in every way they can. As an organisation, we have helped with:

• Donation of Food, Essentials, and Stationery: There is a dire need for food and essentials for the underprivileged families unable to fend for themselves. Our employees along with a charitable foundation provided daily essentials to families. We also donated books, stationery, and other items to support the education of the girl students at Navajeevana Orphanage in Hyderabad.
• Providing Masks for the needy: As a part of our Safety Mask Initiative, we donated masks to frontline workers and the company's outsourced support staff like drivers, security personnel, housekeeping, etc. The masks were sourced from an NGO - giving job opportunities for the underprivileged women they support.
• Tech4All - Technology for underprivileged children for online education: The pandemic disrupted regular schooling and forced education to go online. While private school students could afford computers, most underprivileged school children could not afford this. Our teams collected computers in good condition and donated them to such families. The computers were loaded with hardware and software necessary for online education.