Zoho, Cognizant tell staff to work from home

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

06.03.2020

New Jersey-headquartered Cognizant on Thursday temporarily shut one of its Hyderabad offices and advised all employees there to work from home even as several other tech companies encouraged their staff across India to rely on remote working and telecommuting options wherever possible to maintain business continuity till the Covid-19 threat eases.

Hyderabad has already seen attendance in offices of multinational and Indian tech companies housed in Building 20 at Raheja Mindspace down 30% to 40%, sources said. Building 20 houses offices of companies like Facebook, Parexel and RealPage. Chennai-headquartered Zoho said it had adopted the work-from-home model as its “default” option for offices worldwide, though no member of its staff has tested positive for Covid-19 yet.

“Our employees are encouraged to come to the office only when absolutely essential. We will continue this policy until the virus threat passes,” Zoho’s founder and CEO Sridhar Vembu tweeted.

In Mumbai, Tata Communications issued a statement on how the company’s flexible working policies and a variety of unified collaboration technologies were helping employees stay safe in their homes.

Sikkim bars entry of foreigners

To insulate itself from Covid-19, Sikkhim has banned entry of foreigners, leading to concern among tour operators and hoteliers in Darjeeling that bookings would be cancelled. A ban has been issued for permits to visit Nathu La that borders China.

India-EU summit in Brussels deferred

India and the EU postponed a bilateral summit scheduled for March 13 in Brussels after health authorities advised against travelling, MEA spokesman Raveesh Kumar said on Thursday.PM Modi was scheduled to attend the summit. P12

27% of companies have no risk mitigation plan, says survey

VP (unified communications & collaboration product management) Peter Quinlan said, “While we have introduced certain travel restrictions in the current scenario, employees have taken this in their stride since collaboration with remote colleagues was already the norm, and our teams are quite comfortable leveraging chat, voice, video and collaboration tools to get their jobs done.”

On Wednesday, Paytm had advised its employees to work from home after an employee in Gurgaon tested positive for the virus.

Tech Mahindra, too, has asked employees to rely on technologies like tele-presence and videoconferencing to fulfil their responsibilities without putting health at risk.

Godrej group has suspended all business-related international travel, moved meetings that can’t be postponed to videoconferencing and created a taskforce comprising senior employees to closely monitor the situation. A survey by HR consulting firm Mercer has revealed that around 27% of companies do not have a business continuity plan in place for risk mitigation during global emergencies. Nearly 24% are currently in the midst of drafting one.

Sikkim bars entry of foreigners over virus fear

Darjeeling/Kolkata: Sikkim has decided to ban entry of foreigners to insulate itself from the novel coronavirus (Covid-19), leading to widespread fears among tour operators and hoteliers in Darjeeling that bookings would be cancelled. A blanket ban has been issued for permits to visit Nathu La that borders China.

“Darjeeling and Sikkim are inter-linked tourist destinations. Overseas tourists usually spend four-and-a-half days in Sikkim and two-and-a-half days in Darjeeling. Now that they will not be able to travel to Sikkim, they are likely to cancel the Darjeeling leg of their trips and go elsewhere for week-long holidays,” said Amit Periwal, proprietor of Clubside Tours & Travel, who spent most of Thursday, informing his clients in the US and Europe about the development. TNN