IBM India leveraging technology to fight Covid-19
Supporting employees and their families with medical services, supplies, transport as well as vaccination
Hyderabad: IBM India has put together a comprehensive support plan for its employees and their families to tide through the Covid-19 pandemic including vaccination drives, Covid chatbot assistant, medically supervised quarantine, emergency transport and hospital facilities. The company is leveraging technology significantly, right from enabling remote working to using chatbot assistants to mobilise medical resources.
Chaitanya Sreenivas, HR Leader, IBM India, told Telangana Today, in an exclusive interview, “We went into a self-imposed ‘work from home’ mode almost 10 days before the country went into a lockdown. Almost 99 per cent of our workforce today is working from home. We have been able to scale and sustain our operations. We enabled all digital and work tools to employees and ramped up digital infrastructure. Tools such as video conferencing, design thinking, file sharing, chat and voice have helped employees to work productively from home. We have also ensured skilling initiatives continue.”
“We took up Covid-centric initiatives that are replicable across all our locations. We introduced an employee-friendly leave policy to meet the current scenario. We have maintained social distancing and followed the guidelines at all our campuses. Employee safety is given priority and all our stakeholders are sensitive about it,” he added.
IBM also launched Covid Assist, a Watson Assistant powered bot, to channelise the requests around critical resources such as ambulance, oxygen, medicine, hospital beds efficiently. This enabled collecting validated data and matching demand and supply at a local level.
“When we started this digital platform, the primary focus was information. Soon, we saw it transforming it into a tool to mobilise critical medical supplies and resources. Technology is certainly blending well with human empathy and decision making. In future, this blended approach will continue,” he added.
Medical initiatives
Vaccination camps will be opened (in line with Government regulations) in all major cities with IBMer population where the staff and the family members (including specialised attention to elderly care) will have the option of getting vaccinated at hospital centres or camps at selected IBM locations. There is also a dedicated 24×7 medical helpline through Portea for doctor consultation, medical, home care and testing services, he added.
The company is also providing emergency transport facility 24×7 for medical requirements for both employees & immediate family members who are Covid positive (for transport to a medical facility) and those who are Covid negative (for procuring medical supplies or attending to impacted family members).
IBM joined Apollo Hospitals group to provide medically supervised “step down” facilities at designated hotels in every major city where IBM staff and immediate family members can quarantine in case it is not feasible at home.
The company is also procuring 500 oxygen concentrators to support IBMers and their families. IBM is also providing additional insurance coverage for each insured employee and their covered dependents for up to Rs 5 lakhs per member covered.
He informed, IBM organised local squad groups in each location staffed by IBMer volunteers to take service requests and match them to verified sources of available medical resources, after thorough validation of data. Over 1,500 volunteers have already signed up. The company is mobilising global US-India strategic forums to bring critical aid to India. It has also tied up with United Way and other NGOs to work together to benefit communities.
Volunteer experience
Soundarya Kamalapuram, Enterprise Operations, Finance & Operations, IBM India, said, “As a volunteer, I was able to help people with bed availability, and get medicine. Even though this seems like a drop in the ocean and there is so much more to do, I think this group is a great initiative and is helping IBMers with information that is as accurate as possible at that point in time. It is information that they definitely can rely on.”
Vikas Krishna, Service Delivery Manager, GBS, IBM India, added, “Being someone who has experienced the physical and psychological stress of the situation directly, I feel it as a personal responsibility to help and support in whatever way we can to the community, and the community being IBM’s extended family makes all the more motivating.”
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