Ceat Tyres initiative helps employees maintain physical and mental well-being amid lockdown

Ceat Tyres appears to be going the extra mile to balance home and work integration during Covid-19.

“It has been almost a month now that our employees are working from home,” says Milind Apte, SVP HR, Ceat Tyres. “We understand that this kind of crisis can take a big toll on employee’s mental as well as physical health and cause unwanted stress and fatigue. We are focussed on the issue and have mobilised our offerings,” Apte told BusinessLine .

In order to ensure the physical and mental well-being as well as skill development of its employees during this time, Ceat has begun an initiative called Cofit-20.

Apart from regular counselling by the recently appointed chief fitness officer (CFO) Deepali Athawale to employees, the company has also appointed a fitness trainer, Vani Pahwa.

The CFO connects with spouses and other family members of the employees on con-calls and briefs them on the basic precautions to be taken to mitigate the virus threat, says Apte. Employees are provided with two-hour slots every day where they can directly call and reach out to the CFO for any health-related query.

The CFO also shares a podcast with the employees directed at their well-being. Till date, there have been two podcasts: Stay healthy while working from home and strengthen the immune system.

“To focus on the physical health of employees, we have on-boarded functional fitness, movement and rehab specialist trainer Vani Pahwa, who conducts fitness exercise sessions of 30 minutes via YouTube for employees, including the shop-floor staff,” adds Apte.

This initiative has been extended to the entire management staff, workmen and associates. Special guidance on exercise, expert advice on physical aches, pains and injuries are also provided by the fitness trainer.

"On the mental health front, we are running a campaign and promoting our existing counselling services. We also conducted a webinar on ‘Building psychological immunity’ during the coronavirus outbreak by an expert psychologist,” adds Apte.

The company is also “leveraging this time for employee development” and is utilising its online learning platform as well as other web platforms to cater to the learning needs of employees.

A variety of learning content such as online courses, TedTalks, e-books, case studies and articles are being hand-picked for the perusal of employees. Learning capsules, with a duration ranging 1-3 hours, are also being delivered through web platforms on functional topics or as refresher trainings.

Appraisal time

Given that appraisals are good tools for planning employee development and setting employee goals, the company has just launched its annual review process.

Says Apte, “We have always kept our people at the centre and have ensured that even in these critical times salaries are paid on time. We are launching our promotion process as per schedule.”

Pointing out that the company has “not really looked at pay cuts at this time”, the official says it will be reviewed over a period of time depending on the business outlook. As for increments, “it is too early to speak about increments as our annual cycle is due in July. We will review the business outlook closer to July and make appropriate choices,” he adds.

COMMENT NOW