‘Staff productivity might take a hit due to H1N1’

‘Better safe than sorry,’ is the single thought that India Inc. is seeking to send out. Not surprisingly, mailers, posters and town hall meetings have become the order of the day to coach employees on how to keep away swine flu or H1N1/09, as the World Health Organisation (WHO), is now calling it.

And also not surprisingly, given the frequent movement of its workforce across borders, the IT sector seems to be the most gripped by the fear of the flu.

While search giant Google’s Hyderabad offices were reportedly one of the first to experience its impact, Bangalore offices of consulting and IT outsourcing major Capgemini were evacuated and fumigated this weekend when a client employee was diagnosed with the flu.

“An employee of a client working from our Bangalore office for the last one week tested positive for H1NI. He is undergoing treatment at an authorised government hospital, and responding positively to medication. Capgemini is providing necessary support to the affected person,” said a company spokesperson.

All the affected facilities of Capgemini in the city were sanitised over the weekend and all employees subjected to checks by a doctor for H1N1 symptoms. Those in close contact with the patient have been asked to work from home for the next one week.

Meanwhile Infosys Technologies has put a stop to all inbound and outbound travel to and from Pune which is in the throes of the flu, said a company spokesperson. “We are continuing efforts to educate our employees, monitoring health bulletins and taking necessary precautions,” she said.

“There is no panic situation but we are taking all measures to see the virus does not impact us,” said V Balakrishnan, chief financial officer, Infosys which has 30% - 25,000-26000 people - of its total workforce outside India.

Many companies have asked their employees returning from overseas trips to work from home, in some cases for at least a week.

“Many of our employees keep visiting flu affected countries, when they return we insist that they visit a private clinic for a check-up,” N. Chandrasekaran, vice president corporate affairs at TAKE Solutions said.

While Zensar Technologies has disallowed any non-essential foreign travel, only travel involving client interactions was still happening, CEO & vice chairman, Ganesh Natarajan said. The kids of two employees’ kids have been infected with influenza A and are being treated, he added.

However, some companies including a few MNC BPOs that employ large number of people seem to be at a loss in handling the crisis. “We really don’t know what to do.

The situation is definitely alarming and it is difficult for companies like ours to keep an eye on each and every employee,” said the HR head of a MNC BPO with about 8,000 employees in Hyderabad.

While India Inc. continues to come to grips with the influenza that threatens to derail the industry, business chambers are said to be working out a proposal to be submitted to the Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad for a PPP approach to tackling the virus.

“We are looking more at a curative approach rather than a preventive response,” a source in a business chamber pointed out adding a PPP model was being planned
to help out government hospitals in this respect.