Return to Work Should be a Structural Approach: Dr. Rahul Kalia, Medical Director, International SOS
The ongoing pandemic has changed the way people work, especially those in the organized sector. Since the Government announced the lockdown, employees had been working from home; and after the unlocking started, skepticism stays on whether to start working from offices again. Dr. Rahul Kalia, Medical Director, International SOS shedding light on the matters, said, “We all now understand the challenges that Covid-19 pandemic poses. It has impacted every phase of life be it personal, social and professional. Return to work should be a structural approach.” “We need to find out: why do we want to come back? When do you want to come back? And, how do we want to come back?” The speaker was speaking at the recent virtual Randstad Leadership Dialogues on the theme ‘Reimagining Work, Workplace and Workforce’ by BW People in association with Randstad India and BW Businessworld.
On what the future holds for organizations, Kalia said, “Let's look at the next 2-4 months. We will have a variable population working from home and offices, and this percentage will shift depending upon which part of the country our colleagues are, officers are, and what are the risks.”
Explaining the current scenario, Kalia said, “A lot of companies on one end of the scale are saying that they are not coming back to offices till about June 2021. That's fine because their businesses are not impacted as virtual working does not impact their business. On the other hand, there is the manufacturing sector and the services industry, where you cannot do routine business without being in offices." "So, at the two ends of the scale, organizations have to find a middle way,” Kalia said.
On the important issue of mental health, Kalia said, “We were anyway struggling with mental health issues before Covid-19 came in. A lot of great initiatives and work are being done by almost every organization and mental health industry.” Further, he added, “However, when you start measuring the outcomes, which is a good idea since you're talking about outcomes and not just the processes right now, every initiative has to measure yards together in process-based or outcome-based metrics in the context of health and wellness”.
