Global health emergencies like the COVID-19 outbreak tend to change the future of workplace. On one hand, they highlight the gaps and flaws in our lifestyle, culture and workplace. And on the other, they enforce organizations to radically change their operational policies. Besides drawing our immediate focus on personal health and hygiene, this worldwide lockdown has necessitated almost every organization to implement some core changes – from finding and leverage effective means of working remotely to restructuring the health and leave policies. The Coronavirus pandemic has been a wake-up call!  

While some of world’s IT giants like Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft responded fairly quickly to the pandemic threat and switched to remote workplaces, others waited until the state and federal authorities warranted a lockdown.  The reasons for the delay in reacting to the situation varies from company to company and industry to industry depending upon the onset of the outbreak in the region and their readiness for business continuity in the wake of a crisis.  

Some underestimated the threat that the Coronavirus outbreak imposed and delayed triggering their business continuity and disaster recovery plan. Others like the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in India lacked the necessary business continuity plans and infrastructure to set up remote workplaces. And some organizations had no scope for remote operations at all. The latter which included manufacturing companies like iron and steel companies and essential services like telecom and eCommerce companies had to resort to reduced workforce strength to cope with the crisis.  

Besides the operational changes, different companies are adopting different measures to cope with the current situation and to weather this catastrophe in the near future. Retail companies like Macy’s Inc. and Gap Inc. have decided to furlough most of their employees which will impact the lives of lakhs of employees across their retail stores.  

Fiat Chrysler has announced a temporary pay cut of salaried workers by 20%. Fiat Chrysler Chairman, John Elkann and the automaker’s board have also unanimously decided to forgo their compensation for the rest of the year. In addition to the compensation upheaval, most companies are also making some major changes in their work-from-home policies, leave policies, and health and medical benefits. Walmart has waived off its attendance policy through the end of April as part of their new emergency leave policy. This is done so that employees could stay home and take unpaid leave if they find it difficult to work.  

Starbucks has obliged with a catastrophe pay in case a barista is exposed to or comes in contact with someone who is exposed to COVID-19. Besides, such baristas will also be eligible for up to 14 days of paid leave and an additional pay for up to 26 days in case they are still unable to work beyond the 14 days.  

There’s no doubt that this pandemic has changed the way we live and work but the question remains if these changes are temporary. Or is it the dawn of a workplace revolution where employees have better work and health benefits across the globe? Only time will tell.  

However, we are hopeful for a future where employees are not forced to work while sick or when they are in the danger of contracting a disease; there are better provisions for working from home. And we want to see more organizations incorporate compensation and leave benefits permanently (and not just in cases of emergencies) to suit the needs of employees.