The covid pandemic is unlike anything we have witnessed in nearly 100 years. The enormous scale of the crisis and the impact are causing alot of uncertainty and anxiety across the globe. The Covid situation is particularly stressful because our circumstances are rapidly changing.
“A lot of younger organizations have approached us with the same problem statement- how are you managing to sustain operations in these challenging times?”, says Tanushree, HR Head at Shadowfax. “The answer is fairly straight forward, we have been putting an equal amount of effort in ensuring that our people are in the right state physically as well as mentally when they come to the workplace. It's best we tell you directly what we have been upto all this while!”
To help deal with the challenges of the current situation, Shadowfax has been quickly evolving, bringing in new perspectives and new thoughts regarding how we, the Shadowfax family, can deal with these upcoming challenges.
Covid funds for our delivery partner network
Our delivery partner network forms the backbone of our business. Their health is our utmost priority, and with the objective of providing emergency financial support to our delivery partners, we have raised over Rs. 1 Crore in the last one year. If any individual from our delivery partner network tests positive or requires support, ShadowFax provides a covid care package for immediate assistance.
Covid Champions Network
The Covid Champions Network is a group of volunteers within the Shadowfax family, spread across various locations within the country. The team is equipped with a set of trackers and contacts that are regularly updated to provide necessary information regarding availability of hospital beds, oxygen cylinders, medicines and plasma.
We have set up a nationwide, 24x7 hotline number, using which our employees can directly connect with the Covid Champions. In the first week of this team being set up, we have been able to successfully aid 15 of our employees and their family members in distress, across 8 different cities in India.
The volunteer network is continuing to grow, and as more hands join together in supporting the ones in need, we are exploring more avenues and ways in which we can help our employees.
RTPCR sample testing
At the beginning of the 2nd wave of covid, while there was a lot of chaos and people were worried about being able to come to their work locations, we identified that the need of the hour was testing. We conducted a RT-PCR covid testing drive for all Shadowfax employees across all our locations for our distribution centers and hubs. The testing definitely helped in achieving its aim, which was to help in reducing confusion due to covid surrounding the workplace.
Employee assistance program
Given the ambiguity in the current situation, people find it stressful to deal with anxiety or grief that may happen to come up suddenly. As such, we have partnered with Inner sight to provide professional counselling assistance to all employees who are grieving or are experiencing any sort of trauma or stress. While this assistance program has been active since quite some time, the current times call for more focused attention on the well-being of our employees, which is our primary focus right now.
Covid wellness and bereavement leaves
It is also important for employees to take some time off work to recover, both mentally and physically, from the trauma that is attached to our near and dear ones contracting the disease. We have introduced two measures for our employees to take time off work and to recover.
- Employees who test positive for covid can apply for 5 days of Covid wellness leave (CWL). This is in addition to the advance sick leaves that they can avail in case of an emergency. These leaves are aimed at employees self-quarantining and taking time off work to recover physically
- Employees who have lost members of their family can avail Covid Bereavement Leave(CBL) of upto 15 days. This is aimed at emotional wellness, and to adjust to the calamity and the shock of losing someone close.
Although these things might leave us feeling helpless, in reality there are still a lot of things we have power over in our lives, even during these trying times. Redirecting our energy towards these things will help us deal effectively with this situation, and that is what we have strongly been advocating as well as adapting.
We are extremely thankful to the Shadowfax family for standing strong during these turbulent times, working together as a tight-knit unit, as a support system for one another.
