India Inc. back to work is armed with Covid applications

NEW DELHI | MUMBAI | BENGALURU: Call it Aarogya Setu Inc. As India’s largest companies return to work from the office, they are arming themselves with internal apps inspired by the general idea of ​​the government’s Aarogya Setu app: Self-Disclosure on Health and Contacts.

Companies that have launched such apps include Maruti Suzuki, Hero MotoCorp, Reliance Industries, Capgemini, Philips India, Hindustan Unilever, ITC, Cipla and HCL Tech. In many cases, daily updates are mandatory for employees.

These corporate applications are not linked to any external databases and do not implement location identification software. Therefore, they do not perform independent contract tracking or location tracking functions for employees when they are not in the office.

The Aarogya Setu app is already a mandatory download for all company employees, with the responsibility of ensuring that this rests with employers. Employers themselves go one step further.

For its 150,000 employees, HCL Technologies has introduced a mandatory self-assessment platform. It’s a daily digital chore for employees, says Apparao VV, director of human resources, HCL Technologies, adding, “It’s kind of like the Aarogya Setu app, but we ask them to update it daily.”

Hindustan Unilever’s “HUL COVID-19 Prepaidness” app launched on March 20, just three days after the company started its work from home. Most employees have accessed it and regularly update their status, a HUL spokesperson said.

Watching

Reliance Industries has implemented the MyJio app for Reliance Industries employees and their families. “It is a self-diagnosis tool for people to check if they show Covid symptoms and if they need to visit a health center. It lists the closest testing center authorized by the Indian Council of Medical Research. RR. H H. Monitor employee responses daily, ”a Reliance spokesperson told ET.

The technology specialist Capgemini has a self-declaration application called “Namaste Capgemini”. Large automakers Maruti Suzuki and Hero Motors have “Wellness Mitra” and “Hero HOPE”, respectively. When its Gurgaon offices resumed work on Wednesday, Philips India launched its internal app for employee self-reporting. “All employees who will go to the office must give details about their health before entering the office facilities,” said Daniel Mazon, vice president and managing director of the Indian Subcontinent Philips.

Venkat Neelakantan, Vice President and Director of Corporate Real Estate Services, India and APAC, Capgemini said: “The app is to ensure that only a predefined number of employees have access to office facilities, based on our gradual approach to return to the office and in line with government guidelines. ”

At Maruti Suzuki, more than 34,000 employees, including apprentices, are using the Wellness Mitra app. The company has developed a similar app for distributor and vendor partners to cover the entire value chain. Quick links to download Aarogya Setu are built into the Wellness Mitra app, said Rajesh Uppal, executive board member (HR, IT and Security), Maruti Suzuki.

Hero MotoCorp has two applications. It has directed employees to mandatorily declare health information through the Hero Employee app before resuming work. A new Hero HOPE app – HOPE stands for “Hero Operation for Pandemic Elimination” – allows the company to learn about an employee’s contacts with other employees in the office, said Vijay Sethi, director of human resources and chief (systems information).

Sharmistha Mukherjee, Prachi Verma Dadhwal, Himanshi Lohchab, Sagar Malviya, and Surabhi Agarwal reported on this story.