Hero Electric launches ‘Hero Care’ to ensure employee wellbeing & happiness at work

To support its employees at every stage or phase of their career and life, Hero Electric has announced a programme called ‘Hero Care’, which will offer benefits and flexibility to the employees. Through ‘Hero Care’— which is designed to support the dreams and hopes of the employees and their families too — the Company is trying to show compassion and support to its people.

Given the emotional ups and downs that people have experienced in the last one and a half years, Hero Care aims to make sure that employees are happy at every stage of their lives. “We strongly believe that employees can only be aligned to the Company’s goals when they are happy,” says Manu Sharma, AVP – HR, Hero Electric.

Naveen Munjal, MD, Hero Electric emphasises that at Hero Electric, the health, safety and growth of its performance-driven team matters to the Company, which is why there is an absolute emphasis on ensuring the growth of employees based entirely on their contribution to the Company’s mission. He explains that the “The ‘Hero Care’ programme is thus a family away from home”, which takes care of the employees at every step in their lives. The programme aims to “create an environment that makes work possible with respect” without compromising on the tradition of caring for the team. “Some of our initiatives are absolute industry firsts that not only encompass the employees but also put their families at the forefront of their careers. Hero is extremely excited to be launching this at a time when our employees have worked hard over the last two years to bring us to where we are today,” says Munjal.

All employees who have spent at least two years with the Company will be covered by the programme and can enjoy its benefits.

Hero Electric has tried to tap each and every employee and identify their challenges at every stage of their life cycle, and accordingly come up with ways to address them.

“We truly understand the needs and wants of our people through different life stages and wish to give them exactly what motivates them to be aligned with the Company’s goals. Hero Care is, therefore, not just a programme, but a plan to help each one of our family members thrive and succeed in an environment that respects each one of them,” shares Sohinder Gill, CEO, Hero Electric.

The younger lot of employees, aged between 20 and 25 will be given scholarships and loans for higher education as per their performance. They will enjoy flexi hours and schedules to enable them to complete their exams and participate in company-sponsored short-term courses.

The Company has also made efforts to bring some joy to the newly-married employees by announcing that their spouses will be given full-time or part-time employment opportunities in the Company. Hero Electric will provide priority loan to these employees to buy a vehicle. Flexible hours for three months from the wedding and additional leaves were already part of the benefits available earlier.

The Company’s care and concern does not stop at the wedding stage, but extends to the parenthood phase too. The Hero Care programme provides 15 days of paternity and maternity leave to new parents, in line with governmental guidelines. Additional benefits include flexi hours of working for up to six months and work-from-home (WFH) option for up to 10 days in the first three months.

There is more. The Company has announced benefits for education of employees’ children too. It offers support for primary schooling as well as higher education. It offers low-interest loans for school admissions and scholarships to meritorious students for higher education and to enable them to pursue courses of their choice. Hero Care will also help with paid internships and investment in skill development of the youth, so that they can be placed in reputed companies.

Aptly named ‘Hero Care’, the programme will ensure that opportunities are created through various events for children to get together with others of their age. Employees will be given vouchers for family vacations so that they get to spend time quality time with their family and be able to travel to a new city every year.

Employees of Hero Electric can take home loans at fixed interest rate to buy a dream house of their choice. To break the monotony, employees can take up hobby classes to learn a skill of their choice and take their mind off work for a while. “Giving each one of them an opportunity to shine through merit is the hallmark of our organisation. When we analysed the factors that made a difference, we realised that smaller initiatives, such as encouraging employees to take up short-term learning courses or encouraging them to take up speaking opportunities made a huge difference in their productivity. We thus set out to create a workplace that truly cares about its employees and launched this programme,” mentions Sharma

The Company hasn’t forgotten those dealing with mid-life crisis either. Employees in their 50s are offered a lot of flexibility. They are allowed to accumulate their leaves and are given annual health check-ups. Flexibility to take sabbaticals will also be available. After retirement, the former employees will be inducted into the Ex-Hero Club where they can avail the annual health check-up benefit for up to five years. That is not all, on the basis of merit, their offspring will be provided jobs in the Company. The retired employees will be given opportunities to consult and mentor in other organisations, through Hero.

“Today, we have over 300+ employees who have been part of the journey that has brought us to the position we are in today. Our employees are our family and when we looked at the best practices globally, we decided we had to come up with some of our own that will set benchmarks for the industry, just like we did for the EVs,” concludes Gill.