Most of India’s formal sector businesses (62%) devised special policies for workforce wellbeing amid the country’s second Covid-19 wave, according to a survey from TimesJobs.

Among the special policies undertaken include: HR managers providing monetary packages to Covid-19 impacted employees (26%), offering healing time off with no pay cut to the infected employees (25%), facilitating healthcare via online health management partners (24%), HR managers offering to cover family expenses of the deceased employees (14%), and arranging for a higher insurance sum for Covid-19 infected employees (11%).

The survey also found that while speculation of interim business shut down were widespread, 36% of firms said that they will not stop operations or take days off from work, and have alternate plans for work continuity.  Nearly, 26% said they can consider shutting work for a month, while 22% said that their firm could work break for two weeks. Meanwhile, 16% respondents said their company could consider such a break for just one week.

When asked about the vaccination drive, 95% of businesses said that they were motivating their employees to get vaccinated against Covid-19.

Sanjay Goyal, Business Head, TimesJobs and TechGig said, “This is a very crucial phase for both workforce and the employers. Employee safety and wellbeing is the number one priority, followed by business resurrection and growth. Our survey found that most (38%) firms would focus on employee upskilling and reskilling to remain business relevant. For long, industry watchers have recommended this and it’s critical now to benchmark internal talent and help workforce learn new nuances.”

TimesJobs’ survey also found that 29% of firms said they would focus on productivity to grow business, 17% said they would hire well-trained individuals to cope with business challenges, and 16% said they would enhancing functional knowledge of their workforce.