Covid spike fails to spook India Inc | Economic Times

New Delhi | Bengaluru: Delhi-NCR’s Covid spike hasn’t — at least as yet — reversed limited work from office rules of companies that had opened workplaces to white-collar employees.About 20 leading companies such as Maruti Suzuki, Deloitte, Myntra, EY, Cisco, Dabur, Whirlpool, Cipla, MakeMyTrip, AMD, SAP Labs, Max Healthcare, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Ericsson told ET that they won’t change the current work arrangement which involves 10-20% staff in office. Additional staff are deployed as and when required.And senior executives across companies that ET spoke to are not in favour of complete shutdown despite the spike in infections. Some companies like Coca-Cola India, PepsiCo, Dabur, Maruti, Cipla, Whirlpool and MakeMyTrip have opened some of their offices, plants and labs. None of these firms are planning to down the shutters even temporarily. 79274307“We have been encouraging our employees to work from home (WFH) and attend office only if necessary. Precautions and preventive measures have also been put in place to ensure a safe working environment for the employees coming to office,” said Mohit Malhotra, CEO, Dabur India Ltd. At fashion e-tailer, Myntra too, less than 10% of the total workforce is working from the office. “Within this 10%, we are ensuring that the home ministry guidelines are strictly followed and employees are working on a rotational basis,” said a company spokesperson.Telcos and network vendors said they have robust in-house sanitation norms in place and are taking extra precautions for frontline employees. “Our staff is trained for contactless delivery of services and sanitation aids have been provided to all teams who are also mandated to always wear masks,” said a top executive of Bharti Airtel.China’s Huawei said its critical field staff across India are being provided with office cars at all times and comprehensive Covid safety gear. Vodafone Idea (Vi) is conducting video audits for all employees and partners who are at outdoor locations to ensure Covid safety protocols are being followed. Offices of consumer durables company Whirlpool will remain open. “We have advised people to be at home unless it is essential for them to come to office,” said Sarthak Raychaudhuri, vice president-HR, Asia at Whirlpool Corporation.(With inputs from Brinda Sarkar)