HCCB, one of India’s top FMCG companies, has launched a nation-wide CoVID Care Plan to serve the community at a time when the country combats a crisis of enormous proportions. The company recently procured 100 Oxygen Concentrators from Germany to help the country deal with the immediate crisis of inadequate supply of oxygen in hospitals. Most of these concentrators have already been deployed in several government hospitals through the district administration in states. Additionally, HCCB also arranged 25 Oxygen Concentrators for its employees and their family members spanning across factories and offices.
HCCB is also funding NGOs in Eastern India for them to be able to procure new oxygen cylinders, where available. The NGOs in turn are helping small civil hospitals with steady supplies of oxygen. As a medium-term measure, HCCB plans to install around 10 Oxygen Plants, mostly in government hospitals, and in some cases at hospitals in cities with very high-test positivity rates. HCCB will also be donating ventilators, ICU beds, ICU equipment, BiPAP machines and several other medical emergency amenities to help hospitals reeling under the workload of CoVID patients.
Besides, HCCB has also started distributing dry ration kits to the poor and underprivileged. It is also sponsoring free beverages at vaccination centers and to frontline workers who are serving the community in dry heat or humid conditions – nurses, health workers, police, ambulance staff, ASHA workers etc. Additionally, upon request Georgia tea and coffee machines are being installed inside CoVID care wards at certain hospitals, mainly for the health staff.
The company has offered to respective governments, the option to convert some of its unused factory or health centers into Covid Care Centres or vaccination centers as appropriate. The company will make available its infrastructure like drinking water, electricity, chilling equipment etc services to support the government’s efforts.
HCCB has also taken a slew of measures to help its employees deal with the physical, emotional, and financial trauma caused by the sudden surge of the second wave of the pandemic. The company has arranged 25 imported Oxygen Concentrators for employees as an emergency measure and placed them at locations across the country to make for easy access. It has reduced the number of shifts both in the factory and in the shipping operations to minimize people contact. The company has also appointed a consultant to exclusively focus on people and enterprise safety. Where possible and depending on the availability of vaccines, the company is facilitating vaccination drives. Vaccines for employees including contracted workers, their spouse or partner and 2 children up to the age of 25, will be fully reimbursed by the company. The company will soon launch a drive to get the employees in its extended chain of distribution to vaccination camps and health centers. HCCB has further augmented its existing health insurance policy with provisions to include parents and in-laws with ‘top-up’ cover facility for the immediate dependents. The company through the health insurance scheme covers the hospitalization cost and the initial cash flows, except the personal costs. As a back up to the existing health insurance policy, HCCB has also introduced a ‘Covid Loan’ fund to meet exigencies of critical medicines and hospital admissions.
HCCB is also in the process of creating a Covid Relief Fund to channelize the voluntary contributions of the company employees for the family members of the diseased colleagues. The idea is to help the family meet the financial requirements towards health care and education of the children. A Task Force has been created to ascertain the requirement of each such family. Building on the basic tenet of staying in touch with its associates, HCCB has launched several communication initiatives to inform, enquire and elicit inputs and feedback on their well-being and Covid related initiatives of the company. The CEO himself interacts with employees across the organization every month in the townhall meeting to inspire them to stay safe and do business safely. This is supported by regular calls to employees by their colleagues and e-mailers with an update on the key policies and initiatives pertaining to Covid safety.
