Duty of Care: an Organization’s Bee’s Knees

The COVID-19 has prioritized conversations around sustainability, safety, diversity and good organizations have always valued their employees’ well being before profitability. In the post pandemic world, even employees have been playing their part in prioritizing their health and well being over salary and wages. It has also in turn made organizations be conscious about the safety of their employees not only at their workplaces but also beyond when they’re traveling for official purposes. Travel is an integral part of every organization while there is an element of risk present, these are essential human engagement activities which cannot be compromised.

In our third episode of the “Top Drawer Travel Talks” we discussed the trends in duty of care and how organizations are moulding their traditional ways of functioning, with Anuradha Bharat, Vice President- People Operations at Razorpay.

If you missed out on this insightful discussion, here are the key takeaways:

Post-pandemic Therapy for Employees

With the world slowly opening up after nearly two years, there is still a deep rooted fear where people are coping with the trauma of covid and losing loved ones in the process. They have witnessed struggles that were unprepared for and the trauma is still very fresh. The importance and the need for physical, mental and emotional support for the employees has become a pressing topic for all organizations.

Hence, to help with soothing the trauma of covid-19, one of the trends that Anuradha shared that Razorpay has adopted is changing the title of “sick leaves” to “wellness leaves”. Wellness leaves comprise not only physical illness but also burnouts, screen fatigue etc. They can use the leaves to do anything that rejuvenates them which can be as simple as getting in a few extra hours of sleep.

Employee Behavior Trends

The ability of organisations to put employees first is the primary driving force behind the growth mindset of the employees. . Some of the trends shared by Anuradha, that have been coming up are:

• Treating technology as a friend now, people have stopped fearing it and have adopted it as a natural way of life
• The acceptance of the need of mental and emotional well being and the openness around this topic
• The balance of work-life-self has been interesting to note and Ms. Bharat muses that “It almost feels like we have grown up in the past 2 years due to the pandemic.”
• The emphasis on empathy and care for not only self but the team as a whole. The concept of “I need it” has been replaced with “We need it”.
• The importance of personal safety and hygiene has been elevated

Policies for Employee Safety

With every passing day, new methods are invented to safeguard the employees and organizations have started taking pride in themselves when they receive employee appreciation. This changing scenario is a step in the right direction to maintaining and boosting employee delight in the future. To know more about such upcoming episodes of TDTT, follow our LinkedIn channel.

Hence, to help with soothing the trauma of covid-19, one of the trends that Anuradha shared that Razorpay has adopted is changing the title of “sick leaves” to “wellness leaves”. Wellness leaves comprise not only physical illness but also burnouts, screen fatigue etc. They can use the leaves to do anything that rejuvenates them which can be as simple as getting in a few extra hours of sleep.