Companies tweak leave policies as work from home is here to stay

Employees at NetApp India will be switching off from work the whole of next week — an initiative the cloud services company’s senior management has taken to give the workforce some downtime.Technology conglomerate Cisco declared May 22 as ‘A Day for Me’ for all employees globally and, more recently, announced this for June 19 as well. On Monday, Kartik Mandaville, the chief executive of Springworks, noticing a decrease in the number of leaves being taken, urged all employees at the HR tech startup to take regular breaks to feel recharged.As the pandemic shows no signs of abating and extended work-from-home is expected to be a reality for many employees, companies are focusing on tweaking their leave policies and introducing additional time off to ensure employees who have been working round the clock get some time to recharge and rejuvenate.“The past few months have been difficult for everyone and we want to make sure our teams are taking time to focus on their mental wellbeing, and spend time with their loved ones,” NetApp human resources director Manoj Sharma told ET.Recently, consulting firm Deloitte rolled out a shared leave policy under which employees can donate excess leave to a larger kitty, and these can be used by others who have exhausted their leaves and need more off days for any medical emergencies of their own or of their families. The company encourages employees to take off to focus on their mental and emotional health, making it a collective responsibility instead of only a top-down approach.“Burnout while working from home is a real concern since it’s often easy to forget how long you’ve been working. A break for water cooler conversations, chats, etc., do not exist. Instead, a young professional may feel the pressure to keep working, fearing that if they aren’t ‘available’, a senior may think that they’re not putting in the effort,” said SV Nathan, the chief talent officer at Deloitte India.Springworks, too, has created a common pool of leaves for employees who need extra leaves due to kids and parents at home or just due to increased housework. About 40% of the employees have donated leaves.Other companies are also focusing on making sure employees are able to deal with the additional stress and anxiety caused due to the pandemic.At SAP and Snapdeal, employees can avail of confidential counselling for their anxiety and stress.SAP also runs a two-day training on mindfulness and emotional intelligence. Employees have reported greater job satisfaction, better ability to focus, and a higher level of mental clarity after attending the programme, said a spokesperson for the software firm.At cloud-based software firm Salesforce, employees can now get advice from leaders like Arianna Huffington, David Agus, Larry Brilliant, Deepak Chopra, and Jack Kornfield, through a newly launched live webinar series called ‘B-Well Together’.Tech startup Bobble AI has provided employees a tool to measure their levels of stress, anxiety, depression, and emotional awareness. The WiT, or Wellness in Totality policy, supports personal coaching and counselling, psychotherapy, and medical interventions in collaboration with Madalasa Hospital, to help employees handle stress.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/2NmeIR2