Human, Psychological and Motivational Challenges Bigger Than Tech Transformation

The streets are empty, air pollution levels have fallen and you can hear bird songs from a long distance. The lockdown due to the Coronavirus outbreak has certainly brought a fresh lease of life to nature. But what is the impact on people who are confined to currently working from home?

Limited external outing and staying put in the house, while managing official work along with household chores, kids simultaneously is affecting our lives like never before. This new routine for most of the working population across the globe, and adapting to it has pushed everyone out of our comfort zones leading to increased stress levels.

"Employees are the backbone of any business, and empowering work culture can be a driver for the growth of the business," says Yashish Dahiya, Group CEO and Co-founder, Policybazaar at The Economic Times Global Enterprise and Technology Forum.

At Policybazaar, we have always believed that the key to creating a great work culture is not a prescriptive set of employee benefits, programs, and practices; but building high-quality relationships in the workplace. These relationships should be characterized by trust, pride, and camaraderie.

A lot of us have started working from home for the first time in our lives. This is the new normal and emphasizes the immediate need to take care of our emotional well being to effectively manage to work from home.

Policybazaar Group CEO and Co-Founder Yashish Dahiya says, “work from home happened instantaneously. We had a week to switch to this provision. In the normal course of events, it might have taken us months or years to move to work from home. So far, it has worked well for us. Productivity has improved and talk time has held up. But, I suspect that it's not the technology which is going to be a challenge, because that has worked quite smoothly. Difficulties that we will start to see is that human beings are social animals.”

He adds, “people were not coming to work largely to just work in the office. They were also interacting together and enjoying the office camaraderie which one has to see how one keeps that going. I suspect this isn’t going to be a technical challenge but it is going to be more of a human, motivational, and psychological challenge as time proceeds.”

Chetna Gogia, Head of Human Resources at Policybazaar.com told PB Life, “communication is the key to any crisis. When I talk about communication, we ensure that there isn’t just one way of communication. We organize video conferencing of employees with leaders. We are organizing town halls to address concerns of employees along with ensuring our people are aligned towards the company’s goals.”

The human resources department of Policybazaar has started multiple initiatives and also running internal campaigns for the wellbeing of its employees to cope up with mental stress during the lockdown period. A positive work culture develops only when employees feel connected and committed to the company.

Healthy and happy employees are productive employees and this is why it is paramount for an organization to take care of their emotional well-being. “We have launched a dedicated internal helpline number and e-mail id for our contact center employees to reach out to the HR SPOCS for any help. We are ensuring that we are connected with the employees for any of their needs and problems,” said Gogia.

The department is sending emailers regularly keeping employees engaged with fun activities. To beat mid-week blues, employees are given various challenges such as selfie with Dalgona coffee, workout challenge, yoga asana challenge, etc.

“We are also ensuring that they get some time for their family. We are also sharing fitness videos with our employees, asking them to share their stories as well,” she added.