He told ET Panache, “I commute by car from Whitefield area of Bangalore. It is a convenient commute as one can avoid regular traffic. In fact, with lot of green surroundings on the way, while commuting I have a soothing feeling which is quite unique in Bangalore.”
The company is in the business of providing total solutions to grain and seed processing companies with their agriculture machinery and allied products, services.
Essential aid
“Thus, our business falls into essential goods or service category as our products and services are required for smooth running of food processing companies. After the announcement of the lockdown, we all were first under utter shock since such a lockdown is first of a kind in our lifetime. I had a tele-con discussion with my senior colleagues from HR, Finance and other functions. After due discussion and understanding the government announcements we approached our district collector’s office at Kolar. We have represented our case and based on our request and understanding of our nature of business wrt (with respect to) essential goods and service, the government authorities have given us permission to operate our factory and office with limited headcount,” he shared.
They restarted their office and factory on 27 March 2020 with minimum required persons. “On the first day of restart, we had a sense of belongingness and the team has networked with all supply chain partners. With the support of our supply chain partners, our own employees, workman and other service providers like transport, etc we have started production and supplies to our customers including service support in order to help un-interrupted food grain and seed production for citizens of India and all our farmers,” he said.
By the end of the first day of restart, they had a team with a sense of satisfaction and a feeling of responsibility and collective will to work through the pandemic in order to support the country and food industry so as to tide over the crisis.
At the office and factory the company are following required COVID SOP steps. These include thermal check, use of sanitisers, sanitisation of office and vehicles, use of mask, social distancing, use of virtual meeting even in offices including regular hand wash and disinfectant spray. Overall 25 COVID action points have been implemented to avoid any risk to employees.
Covid care
“Consistent and regular communication with all employees and toolbox talks at shop floor helps build awareness across teams wrt virus and actions to stay safe stay healthy. COVID Task Force is daily monitoring the process and tracking data and various parameters in standard format,” he shared.
Initially for a week, it was challenging for Shardul. “Especially being the financial year end, the timing was very critical for the organisation and customers. There was a lot of non-clarity among customers, suppliers, transporters, other stakeholders including government authorities wrt procedures and permissions, etc as it was first time for all stakeholders to face such a lockdown. Hence first week was full of uncertainties, panic and it was like flying an airplane while repairing it without crash landing,” Shardul said.
Travel tales
Commute to office is one of the main challenges Shardul had to faced initially. “Especially inter-district movements and commute from Hosur was an issue due to various government guidelines restricting movement across state border. Getting the supply chain open and availability of transport, its cross-border movements were few of other issues faced. However, they were sorted out in due course with support from authorities,” he said.
In the office, by following COVID guidelines and SOP, the company was able to operate smoothly since IT network and connectivity as well as power supply was available un-interrupted.
“We have given preference to persons who are from local district to work from office and allowed others to work from home. Consistent communication and support to employees helped avoid fear and build confidence to work in office,” Shardul said.
The company has tried to follow the 50:50 ratio. Their office timing are 9 am to 5 pm
“Safety first and build awareness among the team on the virus through regular communication is the success mantra. Once you are safe and the team is aware about dos and don’ts, then work can continue. It is advised to form a COVID Task Force in office who will ensure regular consistent communication to build awareness, implement actions as per guidelines in order to make it easy for all employees to follow new work methods so as to drive change in their behaviour and habits,” he said.
Once you have right collective attitude of ‘Let’s do it’, transparent communication in the team and mutual trust, then it leads to the generation of ideas to overcome the challenges to meet stated goal with due actions. Flexibility and adaption leads to building resilience feels Shardul.
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