Working on family ties

Swati Rai

Richard Branson has famously remarked “Take care of your employees and they’ll take care of your business”. This, in the current situation, is being taken a notch higher by India Inc. in so far as extending this care and privilege to the employees’ families in letter and in spirit.

Modern day work and life can be at logger-heads with each other. With the increasing work pressure, 24x7 work routine and lesser opportunities to de-stress, there is hardly any window left to spend quality time with one’s near and dear ones to connect, communicate and bond.  

It is with this intention that well-meaning companies are coming forward to carve organised and impromptu programmes, where families of the employees can join them  in office and spend some quality time. But apart from physically spending time together, there are other ways to make the employees’ family their own.  

Vishal Nagda, Head-Human Resource, Ozone Group, shares some of the measures in place in his company. In the Quit Smoking Challenge, we have involved best friends and family members of the participants to double the push and motivate the employee to actually quit a bad habit. Many employees had actually quit smoking after becoming a part of this initiative. “We received testimonials from their families thanking us on 

the same”. There was also huge prize money and certificate given. 

In ‘Celebrate With Family’, employees can avail a special leave to celebrate their birthday or anniversary with family members. Gift vouchers of Rs 25,000 and Rs 2,500 are also given to help them celebrate their special day. “We extend interest-free loans to deal with personal exigencies like medical, home renovation and school fees”, he adds. The company also provides scientific career counselling to  employees’ children studying in 

Classes IX to XII. “We also encourage children to be academically bright by providing education sponsorship to children holding top ranks in their respective school/college”, informs Nagda.

Talking about the significance of such an acknowledgement and appreciation of the employees’ families is an integral aspect of work-life balance. Subranshu Mohanty, Head of Human Resources, Everest Industries Ltd, shares his view on the role of the families in helping to maintain this balance. “Families are important in an employee’s life. Keeping this perspective in mind, we at Everest Industries have aligned our people’s policies by taking them closer to the family to extend the work-life balance equation. If a person is not able to maintain a balance, then his  productivity goes down and as an employer one should make an effort to provide opportunities to employees to manage this.”

At a time when hiring trends are showing a downward trend and increasing flexi work options and automation are adding to the woes of the employees; employers are increasingly taking cognizance of this aspect of involving and reaching out to the families.  

Inclusion and provision

• Modern day workplace ensures an inclusivity and provision for the extended family, that of the employees family, in looking after their health benefits be it medi-claim policies, health boot camps, off-site inclusions as well as the celebration of different ‘days’. Nagda elaborates, that apart from discounted health check-ups to family members there’s also a provision of a three-day special leave on the birth of a new child, which can be utilised anytime within 2 weeks of the child’s birth. 
• Mohanty shares the plans in place in his company, “Our employees’ children reward scheme is for wards of workers and officers who are on the rolls of the company. It is meant to encourage children of the employees to achieve better results in Class X and XII. The students who score a minimum of 85 per cent marks in Class X or XII are given a financial reward and a  framed picture in addition to a certificate signed by the Managing Director of the company. Later the certificate is also presented to these children in the presence of their parents and all other employees during our annual event.”
• Speaking about any challenges that companies face in organising such assemblies in general, HR managers unanimously maintain that the employees are very supportive towards engaging family members in company-driven activities. “However, gathering everybody’s family members at work for an event at the same time is difficult. For this, we to conduct such activities on Saturdays and weekly offs”, informs Nagda.'

At a time when nuclear families are a norm, the office space becomes a novel way for inclusion of all kinds. The idea of working together and achieving a work-life balance is gaining a new meaning at the workplace, as  companies are now also accounting for benefits to the employees' families as part of a package, sound in intent and purpose. Such initiatives come at great cost to the company but it is worth the effort.