Insurance tech startup, Edelweiss General Insurance (EGI), has introduced a ‘work from anywhere’ (WFA)policy for all its employees across India. This hybrid work model aims to empower and enable employees with their choice of workspace, while ensuring optimum work productivity.
Despite the physical distance, staff of EGI were connected via the Company’s digital operating model, which also kept each one of them well engaged and allowed them access to all necessary work infrastructure. This resulted in smooth functioning and also provided the employees with a welcome workspace, which resulted in high productivity. This led the Company to come up with the WFA policy.
The new WFA policy, will allow all those employees whose physical presence is not required in office the flexibility and convenience to work from anywhere in India, even once offices begin to reopen.
Being cloud native, EGI has always had a digital operating model, making its “work-from-home” transition, extremely seamless. The company has established daily governance protocols to keep a check on employee and business health and ensured employee discipline through regular monitoring of business operations, via virtual mediums.
Melvin Gladstone, chief HR officer, Edelweiss General Insurance, believes that “WFA is an investment and commitment to employee happiness and well-being. With this flexible model, we have ensured that safety of our employees is not compromised, while work productivity is also maintained.”
Edelweiss General Insurance has also implemented many other Covid Care initiatives to support its employees. These including, 24×7 online teleconsultation with doctors to address any medical and health related concerns; counselling sessions with psychologists for employees to talk to experts and unburden themselves; webinars with medical experts to allay fears and address all questions on COVID-related topics; yoga and meditation sessions focusing on building immunity and reducing stress. To ensure that employees do not experience burnout, they will be given a break from meetings on the third Thursday of every month.
Additionally, 14 days of COVID care leave has also been introduced for employee who test positive or are taking care of affected family members. A vaccination drive will be organised to get all employees and their families inoculated in a phased manner. If required, employees will be given three months’ salary in advance as a financial support in case of any COVID-related emergencies.
