MAM
Covid relief: India Inc shows it cares, puts employees’ wellbeing before profits
MUMBAI: As the second wave of Covid2019 batters the Indian subcontinent, there is little doubt that we are staring at a humanitarian disaster of humongous proportions. Even as the country struggles to cope with what is possibly a deadly new variant of the Coronavirus, organisations are going out of their way to show solidarity with their workforce.
Recently, Reliance Industries announced that it has decided to give employees their entire bonus for 2020-21, acknowledging their commitment to the company in a challenging year. It also launched an inoculation drive for all its employees, their family members, and stakeholders from Friday.
Earlier, FMCG major HUL announced it will cover for the vaccination of around three lakh people, which include not only its employees and their families but also those in its extended ecosystem.
Across India, as cases surge and precious lives are being snuffed out, companies are pressing the pause button on chasing quarterly targets and are instead going the extra mile to help afflicted employees and their loved ones.
Showing empathy through enhanced employee benefits
Many companies have become generous with employee benefits and leaves, granting special wellness leaves, vaccination leaves, and reduced work-day weeks for their employees, along with providing staff access to mental and health care services.
Online food delivery platform Swiggy has rolled out a four-day work week for employees for the month of May, keeping in mind the mental and physical well-being of its employees. Workers have also been given the flexibility to choose the four days they want to work in a week.
Companies like Tata Steel, Google, Amazon, Schneider Electric, Deloitte and more have provided their employees with 14 special sick leaves for them to recuperate and recover.
Some companies like ITC, Optum and Phillips have provided their employees with unlimited leave policies. These companies have allowed the affected ones to rest with a clear-cut mandate of not to resume work until they recover.
According to Human capital solutions and services provider GI Group India VP & head HR Upasana Raina, “The mental well-being of everyone in the organisation is key to each person’s individual success that finally ties up into the success of the collective.” She added that apart from ensuring that 100 per cent of their workforce has WFH facility, the agency also “encourages employees to take time for themselves to strike a healthy balance between work and family.”
Personal finance app Branch has also implemented the “unlimited paid time off for dealing with the physical and emotional trauma”. Branch India MD Sucheta Mahapatra says, “With the second wave, we understand that most employees are physically and mentally affected either personally or in their social circles. The health coverage will now cover Covid Related hospitalisation. We have internally formed a Covid employee taskforce to evaluate and work on various work streams to support employees during these times.”
Telecom and IoT services provider Teliolabs CEO Amit Singh says, “We have formed a Covid response team with a doctor, finance, HR and system admin teams to ensure proper help to the team members in case of any Covid related query, hospital admissions etc. We are also extending our medical insurance and term insurance policies for better coverage in these difficult times.” This is in addition to giving paid leave to employees falling sick owing to Covid.
Insurance tech provider SE2 Digital Service LLP head HR Sumit Bhatia shares some of the initiatives the company has put in place to ensure their employees are safe and reassured during the pandemic situation: “Reimbursement of RTPCR tests and vaccination costs, health insurance that includes Covid related hospitalisation, 24×7 free doctor access, stress management (EAP) support, 14 days of special Covid leaves in case any associate is detected positive, and in the unfortunate scenario of an associate’s demise due to Covid – monetary coverage for family (beyond Term Life Insurance)- SE2 will pay the associates’ full one-year salary (including 100 per cent of the variable pay) or Rs 10 lakh (whichever is higher) to the family.”
AI-driven online automobile marketplace Droom has announced a Rs 1 crore budget to combat Covid for its employees and dealers’ community. It has launched programs for its 20,500+ dealers to assist in pharmaceuticals, vaccination, medical assistance and provide isolation wards with basic medical facilities. It has also increased its medical insurance coverage by five times this year, providing medical coverage group insurance for employees’ parents, and has even launched a telemedicine consultation for mental and physical health free of cost.
Converting office spaces into Covid isolation & vaccination centres
Besides providing benefits, some companies have taken a step further and converted office spaces into isolation centres and hospitals for employees and their kin.
HDFC Bank has converted three of its training centres in Gurugram, Bhubaneswar and Pune into isolation facilities for its Covid-affected employees. These facilities have been equipped with first-line assistance and will have round the clock nurses and visiting doctors. The facilities include setting up vaccination camps. In addition, it has also tied up with many hotels across the country to provide isolation facilities, basic amenities and basic medical checks.
Similarly, TCS has set up Covid Care Centers across 11 cities in India and entered into arrangements with hotels that have hospital tie-ups. Employees and their families can avail emergency medical financial assistance, apart from the health insurance facilities offered. In fact, many IT firms are setting up hospital beds in their campuses with oxygen and ventilator support to support employees and their families to deal with the acute shortage the country is facing.
Droom has also converted its Sector 15 office into an emergency response center with telemedicine services, nurses, and all basic healthcare facilities.
Further, Amazon, ITC, Capgemini, RPG Group, and Cognizant have also set up Covid-care centres either on their own, or through tie-ups with hotels or hospitals at this critical time when the country’s healthcare system is getting overburdened.
Bry-Air, DRI and Artemis have organised vaccination camps for their employees, while Fortis recently arranged drive-thrus for Panasonic, Jindal Steel, Coforge, Honda Motorcycles and Scooters.
IT majors like TCS, HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra, Infosys have introduced Covid201919 test centres to help their staff avoid exposure by visiting crowded test centres and waiting in long queues.
Assuring monetary aid
Companies are also taking measures to ensure the long-term financial stability of their staff and their families. Zomato announced that it would provide 100 per cent of the deceased employee’s income for two years to the family. Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma said the company will continue to pay salaries to the families of deceased employees throughout the current financial year
Cars24 CEO Vikram Chopra recently won a lot of love on social networking site LinkedIn for an internal mail he sent out to all his employees urging them to buy whatever it was that they needed for the treatment of themselves or a family member, without worrying about its price.
He wrote, “Need oxygen or medicines but only available in black at a very high price and without any proof? Please just buy whatever you need, from whatever source you get it. Don’t worry about a proof to be produced to the company or how it costs,” adding “Send us an email and we will transfer money asap.” He further wrote that the company will also try to arrange medicines, or oxygen and whatever else is required, while stressing that “We will pay you advance or reimburse all costs, whichever is faster. I repeat, no proofs required.”
Setting up Covid helpline & resource access
Software giant, TCS has set up a Covid help desk for employees to seek any assistance required, along with a 24×7 TCS Medical Hotline to reach doctors and TCS Cares services for counselling.
HDFC Bank too is providing e-consultation with doctors through apps including Apollo 24/7, MediBuddy, PharmEasy Apps, with PharmEasy helping with delivery of medicines as well. Additionally, the bank has also provided access to e-consultation with empanelled psychologists through these apps.
Several companies, including PricewaterhouseCoopers, Accenture, Grofers, Cars24, Deloitte have announced that they will sponsor the cost of vaccines for their employees and some for their families as well.
MAM
Madison World to launch AI platform M BrAIn for media planning
Agency group invests about $1 million as it shifts to AI driven growth planning.
MUMBAI: If media planning once ran on spreadsheets and gut instinct, the next chapter may run on algorithms and curiosity. Madison World is preparing to roll out the first version of its proprietary artificial intelligence platform Madison M BrAIn in early April, as the independent agency group accelerates its transition toward AI driven planning and product led media services.
The platform, expected to involve an investment of around $1 million, is designed to reshape how the agency approaches strategy by combining internal knowledge, external data sources and advanced AI models into a single intelligence ecosystem.
According to Madison Media, OOH and Hiveminds partner and group CEO Ajit Varghese the initiative forms part of a larger structural rethink within the organisation. “Traditionally agencies built frameworks around media planning and allocation. We are redesigning that structure into what we call a Growth Planning System (GPS),” Varghese said.
The shift reflects a growing belief that effective media strategy must begin earlier in the decision making process. Instead of jumping directly to channel allocation, planners must first decode the market itself identifying consumer barriers, purchase triggers and the core challenges facing a brand.
Once those insights are mapped, agencies can build clearer growth agendas for clients and design media strategies that connect more closely with business outcomes.
To support that approach, Madison has built Madison M BrAIn as what it describes as a human AI cognitive ecosystem. Acting as a central intelligence hub, the platform aggregates proprietary insights alongside external data sources and large language models, enabling planners to access deeper market intelligence before building campaign strategies.
Varghese said one of the core objectives is to democratise knowledge across the organisation. “In the past, this level of understanding was largely available to senior leaders or experienced strategists. With Madison M BrAIn, even a junior planner should be able to access the same intelligence and approach clients with a far more informed perspective,” he said.
The agency has already implemented the new planning philosophy internally and completed three months of testing for the AI platform, with early trials showing encouraging results in terms of learning capability and system performance.
While the first version relied on global large language models, Madison is now developing its own proprietary Small Language Model (SLM) to serve as the core of the M BrAIn ecosystem.
“The SLM will be able to read global LLMs, but the LLMs cannot read the SLM,” Varghese explained. “That ensures all the intelligence we build remains within the Madison ecosystem and strengthens our proprietary knowledge base.”
The first version of Madison M BrAIn is expected to go live in early April, with a more refined version targeted by the end of June. Over time, the platform will integrate additional external data streams and APIs including consumer insight platforms, social listening tools and client datasets.
These integrations are expected to enhance the system’s learning capability and enable it to generate increasingly sophisticated strategic recommendations.
Although the platform is currently being deployed for internal use, Madison sees potential for it to evolve into a licensable product in the future.
“At the moment, our focus is to stabilise and strengthen M BrAIn internally. But over time there is potential for this to become a product that could be licensed externally,” Varghese said.
The AI platform is also part of a wider technology transformation underway at the agency group. Alongside M BrAIn, Madison is building a broader digital infrastructure called the Catalyst operating system, which aims to integrate operational processes, data and product platforms into a unified ecosystem.
This broader technology stack could require an additional $1 million to $1.5 million investment over time, though spending will be phased and reviewed regularly.
“We are evaluating progress every three months and prioritising the most critical capabilities first,” Varghese said.
Madison expects the full AI and operating ecosystem to be fully functional within 12 to 18 months, positioning the agency to combine human strategy with machine intelligence as the advertising industry enters its next data driven phase.
