In early March this year, when the deadly virusย COVID-19ย was spreading its wings across the globe, India was still a relatively safer place.
But our Managing Directorย Mr. Sanjayย Panjwani, who has always put his staffโs interest first, made a proactive decision of implementing the โremote-workโ culture as a preventive measure.ย
โYourย health, your safety matters most and safety is in staying homeโ, he said, as we started preparing ourselves forย โworking-from-homeโย beginning in a dayโs time.
Considering the uncertainty surrounding the coming few days and weeks, there was no clue how long it was going to last. And it is precisely this uncertainty which called for elaborate preparedness on various fronts.
Checklist to get readyย
Set in motion by this announcement, the different departments got into action to ensure the in-house readiness.
The checklist included an attendance tracker, remote login/logout facility for the employees, VPN configuration,ย access to data,ย tools for internalย collaboration, performance monitoring,ย task allocationย andย salary processing,ย &ย IT declaration, since the year-end was just around the corner.ย
However, the question remained, can we pull it off in the given 24-hour window? There werenโt many takers of the idea.
Most of the employees doubted the possibility of making a smooth transition to remote-work culture, given it was too short a period for a company with 500+ employees, spread across 9ย offices around the world.ย
But, in the year 2020, our approach ought to be of Twenty20 cricket- fast & slam-bang!
And we were up & running, remotely, in just 1 day.
Arrows in the quiverย
Didย BatchMasterย have the resources to make it possible? Well, our in-house applications such asย BizChatย andย HeRdย made it look like a walk in the park.
These apps ensured:ย
- Our employees could remotely login/logout in a safe & secure manner.
- They could connect, communicate, and engage with each other in real-time.
- They could access data and share important files, documents etc.
- They could file IT declaration.
- The managers could monitor performance of their team.
- The salary could be processed without fuss.
Theseย apps, designed for cloud, offer the users a simplified platform which facilitates information sharing and seamless coordination among employees operating from different locations.
These applications played a huge role in making โwork-from-homeโ for our employees a reality.ย
ย Best part was, it didnโt take aย lot of efforts to ensureย that we could continue to operate at similar efficiency levels without compromising with the safety interest of our employees, and the business interest of our customers as well as ours.ย BatchMasterย HeRdย made it possible in the simplest of way.ย
How we made it possible โ behind the scenesย
That round tableย conferenceย
Looking at the rise in the figures of Coronavirus positives, an in-house meeting of all the heads- mainly the head of human resources, information technology (IT) & networking, the Operations Manager, and the Vice Presidents was immediately called.
The idea was to do a feasibility check by talking to various stakeholders, and determine whether we had all the resources, and if it was possible to make such number of people work-from-home.
It was unanimously decided that we will go for work-from-home, a week before the lockdown announced byย Honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The firefighters
While we were still away from the lockdown,ย โwork-from-homeโย was a decision taken voluntarily to save people, as few of our staff members were returning from the United States of America (USA) and other parts of the world.
Our firefighters- theย HR departmentย acted swiftly. Itย readiedย a consent form toย determine the availability of laptops and other necessary requisites for working remotely.
The work-from-home rules were prepared,ย updated onย HeRdย for everyone to know.
For trainingย the entire staff onย HeRd,ย simple demo videosย wereย shared with all the employees, so that the employees could makeย a smooth transition toย remote-work culture.
And trust us that were enough asย HeRdย isย very simple to use.
Not to mention, the crucial role our developers played here. Working-from-home demanded the remote login/logout featureย inย HeRd, so that the employee attendance could be recorded every day.
The team of developers worked at war-footing to ensure that this featureย was addedย just in the nick of time.
The HR department also created several respective groups onย BizChatย for the internal communication.
The employees could post IT-related queries in the IT group,ย HeRd-related issues inย HeRdโs, so on and so forth. Ensuring the queries are receivedย in real-time, the solution is provided in real-time and work goes on seamlessly all-time.
Usingย HeRd, the managers could allocate tasks, monitor their progress, and even check the employee productivity through the duly-filled daily employee task-sheets.
Also,ย this being that time of the year when the performance appraisals are done,ย HeRdย simplified the process of digitally assessing the employees for the managers.
Also, the employees could self-evaluate themselves, and even provide their managersโ feedback.
Money, and otheradminย mattersย
HeRd, through its comprehensiveย payroll module, made salary processingย easy.ย It made the work-from-home of Accounts department even as smooth as silk.
As theย software made IT declaration a cakewalk, with easy uploading & submission of documents that are proof of investments such as policy receipts.ย
The accounts department could easily evaluate the declarations, and take necessary action such as approving or rejecting them.
This built a communication bridge between the employees and HR; helping accounts put up if thereโs any need for re-submitting the docs, simultaneously alerting the employees what they need to do next.
IT and supportย โ The wallย
The IT & networking department was being asked to provide a realistic time frame of getting the VPN connections ready for over 500+ employees, apart from ensuring the safety of data and servers.
The team responded brilliantly, by getting the required infrastructure ready in less than 24 hours.ย
The team ensured the sufficient bandwidth for VPN, secured connection to the servers, round-the-clock networking support to the employees, as well as assistance to our employees in responding to queries and offering support to our customers all through our in-house chat tool- BizChat.
Also, being a cloud-based company, easy digital access to all the folders where important data and documents are placed,ย was instant without major adjustments.
Not just Collaboration, but Cohesion
Most of our employees had never worked outside of an office setup for this long. So, it was important to make them feel connected, and importantly, โfeel at homeโ at work, even while being at home. HeRd & BizChat did the trick.
While all the information, rules, policies could be instantly broadcasted throughย HeRd, the Managers, IT people, HR were all a click apart throughย BizChatย making working as a team not a distant dream but aย virtualย reality.
And, we did it
In just the blink of an eye, we were able to create the perfectย โwork-from-homeโ experience for our employees without making anyย compromise on security, productivity, andย work efficiency.
The transition was as seamless as walking straight into one room of the house from another.
Today, already a month into it, we are operating likeย well-oiled machinery.
This confidence of โworking-from-homeโ with great efficiency stems from the fact that we have built a robust remoteย infrastructure thatย includesย HeRdย andย BizChat.
Something for the business fraternity
Theย COVID-19ย outbreak has brought more than a million lives at a standstill, and thousands of businesses around the world toย their knees.
We believe the business community is down but not out, and wish to play an active role in helping businesses find their feet again.
Doing our bit, we are offering heavy discounts to the businesses on our BatchMasterย HeRd offerings.
With travel bans and risk of having a consultant over at the site, we are offering Remote Installations and 24×7 support.
