It took a pandemic for tech firms to adopt people-first policies

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Hello readers,

Many of my friends have told me they can’t survive working from home permanently. And when I tell them I haven’t been back to the office for about a year now, they simply stare at me in shock. It’s even more amusing to see their reactions whenever I tell them that Tech in Asia has an unlimited leave policy.

But you see, most of my friends don’t work in the tech industry. So these arrangements, which have been part of Tech in Asia since I started working here two years ago, seem too good to be true for them. Well, they’re in for a bigger shock because today, more tech firms are going above and beyond to help employees tide through the grief caused by the pandemic.

Today we look at:

• How the pandemic has disrupted human resource management
• How Gushcloud stayed profitable during the pandemic
• Other newsy highlights such as Wise appointing the Grab co-founder to its board and Snap launching a TikTok-like feature in India

PREMIUM SUMMARY

Pandemic is disrupting human resource management as we know it

We all know this: The pandemic has changed how we work, learn, and interact. But besides these, it has also changed the way tech firms look at human resource management. So we look at how some companies in India and Indonesia have begun changing with the times.

• Flipping the switch: Last year, India-based ecommerce unicorn Flipkart introduced Sia, a chatbot that “listens” to employees. With its help, the company was able to implement new initiatives including common lunch hour for teams, no-meeting days, and access to counseling facilities.
• Raze the bar: To build camaraderie, another India-based unicorn, Razorpay, has introduced one-on-one non-work calls between managers and their teams. And if a staff contracts Covid-19, the company also provides sanitation and protective gear for the people who live with them.
• Going the extra mile: Indonesian super app Gojek has put ambulances on standby in certain regions of the archipelago in case employees need to be taken to hospitals. A liaison officer also gets assigned to care for a Covid-19-positive employee’s well-being and provide them with any help they need.

Read more examples of the changes spelling the future of human resource management: The unseen human toll of Covid-19 on tech companies

PREMIUM SUMMARY

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