Legacy Indian firms level up COVID-benefits for staff, outperform unicorns, global tech giants

Ashish Kulshrestha | The Clear Picture

As Borosil’s announcement of providing two years of salary and taking responsibility of kids education till graduation in the event of an employee’s death due to COVID-19 took the country by storm and forced companies to look within, other legacy companies too are coming forward with enhanced benefits for their employees in the times of grave adversities. Their benefits are matching or even going beyond the current set of benefits offered by new age unicorns and global technology companies operating out of India.

After Borosil came out with its set of employee benefits, Bajaj Auto too announced benefits on the similar lines.

Tata Steel went a step beyond and rolled out a new social security scheme to offer the deceased employees’ salary to his/her family till the time when the employee would have turned 60 years of age. The family would also continue to get access to medical benefits and residential accommodation at company sites. Besides, children's education expenses till graduation in India will be taken care of by the company for its frontline employees who while on job get infected by the virus and die, informed the company spokesperson to a newspaper.

These benefits go even beyond the shorter work week, additional medical insurance cover, salary advances and extended leaves for their employees while donating medical supplies for citizens at large, being offered by new age unicorns such as OYO, Zomato and Paytm and global technology giants like Accenture, IBM and Capegimini.

Hospitality chain Oyo’s Ritesh Agarwal said on Twitter, “Starting today we are moving to a 4 day work week but implementing it slightly differently, making Wednesdays off to let OYOpreneurs have a mid-week breather. We also launched a No Questions Asked Flexible Infinite Paid Leaves.” IBM in India is providing additional insurance coverage for each insured employee and their covered dependents (spouse & children) for up to Rs 5 lakh per member covered. It is also in the process of procuring 500 oxygen concentrators to support its employees

While these commendable acts of generosity by the latter are complemented by their deep cash reserves, legacy companies such as Borosil, Bajaj Auto and Tata Steel among others are matching up to these extraordinary benefits in the worst world health crisis since the spanish flu in 1920.

This is a tipping point in the history of India Inc., where employee initiatives have largely remained subdued with not much evolution happening over the years. However, the deadly virus has shown the empathetic side of organizations as employees fall prey to it. This shift in organisational behaviour towards its employees, especially with legacy companies, is likely to draw the attention of universities, staffing agencies and fresh graduates etc. in the years to come, paving the way for an intense competition in the job market.