In a breakaway from traditional norms, RPG Enterprises has become the first Indian diversified conglomerate to do a permanent reset in its workplace policy around the work-from-home practice. The $4 billion group, which has a presence in tyres, IT, health, energy, infrastructure and plantations, has framed a new policy wherein all its sales people will permanently work remotely, while other employees would WFH 50% of the time. For office-based staff, this can extend to 75% in special cases.
In a month, an office-based employee can work two weeks from home, and in special cases, he/she can work remotely for three weeks.
At present, office-based staff can work entirely from home due to the pandemic, with the group unanimously keeping all its offices shut.
The new ‘RPG Remote Working Policy’, which is effective prospectively from September 1, is location- and workplace- agnostic. It is applicable to RPG’s global operations as well, and also covers factories and plantations for those workers who don’t work on machines.
Harsh Goenka, chairman, RPG Enterprises, said “Our new work from home policy shatters the notion of traditional workspace and productivity and has turned it on its head. Employees who are not operating machines in our manufacturing businesses or do not have a client obligation in our technology services business, can work from ‘anywhere’ even after the pandemic is behind us. It aligns with our vision tenet of ‘touching lives’ and brand promise of ‘happiness’.”
In a note to its 30,000 employees across the world, across companies like CEAT, RPG Life Sciences, KEC International, Harrisons Malayalam, RPG Enterprises said it is imperative for the conglomerate to encourage employees to adopt new and contemporary methods of working that improve their quality of life, productivity and also optimize the group companies’ operating expenses. “Empowering employees by giving them a choice to work remotely from home or another location for a significant number of days in a month, will enhance employee efficiency and business output,” it said in the note.
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