Forbes 3/17/2021 Allstate India ensured communication and engagement, transparency and financial support to help employees cope with challenges posed by the pandemic
As the country went into a lockdown last March, it was easy enough for employees with laptops at Allstate India to switch over to work from home—they did this on and off in any case.
But switching an employee base of about 1,800 who worked on desktops from office was a challenge—shipping the desktops, some of them with dual screens, to their homes, ensuring good internet connectivity, and in some cases even uninterrupted power–and the first thing they did, says Chetan Garga, managing director at Allstate India, was to try and bring a bit of calm in the initial chaos for their 5,000 staffers spread across Bengaluru and Pune.
“We wanted people to realise we are all in this together so we have to find ways to handle this together,” says Garga. To this end, they ensured there was communication and engagement. A central team called the Critical Incident and Response Team was set up to handle everything from answering questions and allaying fears to helping with the support needed for work from home.
Allstate India is a subsidiary of and business services arm for insurance firm Allstate Inc, one of the largest companies in the US by revenue—in 2020, it reported $45 billion in revenue with $5.5 billion in net earnings.
When the pandemic hit, Allstate India took a call to provide internet reimbursement, a one-time payment of ₹25,000 for work from home support, and towards the end of last year, also Covid-19 support, creating a fund to help employees cover costs over and above what insurance paid for. It was a conscious effort to take quick decisions. “We needed to be patient but also be decisive,” says Garga. Which meant ensuring that policies and getting all the tick marks and consents on them did not slow them down. “Recognising everybody has unique situations and supporting them in that allows us to put people before policies,” says Garga.