In the recent interaction with BW People, Sunjoy Dhaawan, VP - HR, DHL Express shared his valuable insights on how the future of work look like; enabling upskilling through virtual mediums, and the role of empathy in the post-pandemic era.

Upskilling is a much-heard word these days. How are you actually utilizing virtual platforms to upskill your employees?

It has been said many times already that these are indeed strange and challenging times. Working remotely using virtual tools is for many a fundamental shift in the way they work. For some, it can be a challenging experience learning new work approaches, tools, and mindsets.

In order to support our employees by providing them opportunities to develop new skills, understand fresh concepts and thought models, we have been offering various learning tools, such as my Talent World. It includes several interesting topics catering to all our employees.

Additionally, in the last few months, we have been routinely organizing virtual workshops and seminars to optimize learning for the employees. These webinar topics are curated and designed specifically to different departments and are customized to suit the requirements of individual teams. We have enabled tools like Skype for Business and Zoom to facilitate these workshops seamlessly covering all our locations.

Employee motivation and concentration have been impacted during remote working and also because of these tough times. How are you helping them being efficient?

At DHL Express, creating a motivated workforce is an integral part of our strategy. We truly believe that enabling a respectful and fun work environment, where every employee has the opportunity to grow, is the hallmark of being an Employer of Choice. In fact, one philosophy that we strongly believe in is to ensure that our employees have the ‘Best Day Every Day’ just like we would like our customers to.

At the outset, we created a ‘Work from Home’ guide, which is available on our company's internal ‘As One’ mobile application. Introducing these scientifically sound mechanisms has really helped us enhance employee productivity and overall well-being.

We have also held a lot of webinars for our employees, covering various aspects of this transition, that would help them manage both their personal and professional work better. Some of these webinars include ‘Parenting in the New Normal’, ‘Work from Home Ergonomics’, ‘Clear the Clutter’ with a wellness expert, and ‘Financial Awareness to name a few.

It's also important for organizations to keep the teams in high-spirits. We introduced an initiative ‘Engage More’, which involved not just employees but even their families through various hobby-led activations, workshops and much more. We introduced a series of eight “energy challenges” that are specially designed to help our employees stay charged up.

Since some of your employees are engaged in fieldwork, how are you ensuring the safety and health of these frontline workers?

During the lockdown, one set of our customers remained open throughout (those in the essentials category). We ensured that we kept service lines ongoing for our customers, and in accordance with the Government directives. Ensuring their safety and well-being has been our utmost priority. In fact, our first response to the pandemic was People First – Safety First.

Communication and raising awareness was the first step. We also provided all our frontline employees with masks, PPE kits, and established hygiene, sanitization, and screening routines at our facilities. We reviewed our team structures on the ground and split them into team A and B, to ensure social distancing norms can be followed with minimal employees present at work during a particular shift.

Keeping in mind our responsibility towards both our employees and customers, we have reduced the need for paper handling and face-to-face transactions, thereby minimizing interaction.We have established a strong support system for all our employees by providing medical support and assistance, as required. This includes medical insurance benefits, COVID-19 Safety Kit, and teleconsultation services with a panel of 12 doctors that we have constituted. Given that mental health can be a concern due to the long periods of quarantine, we have also enlisted a third-party counseling service free of cost to our employees.

According to you, what does the future of work look like?

I would say we are seeing a real push towards digitalization. A lot more colleagues are now using so many digital tools and are working together online. And this is also helping us adapt quickly and efficiently towards the ever-evolving conditions around us. In a socially distanced new reality, digitalization is definitely helping us collaborate across locations seamlessly.

Having said that, leaders need to mindful that the human connection is not lost in this process. Striking the right balance between technology and a human touch is extremely crucial, especially when we all are socially distancing.

Right now, we’re learning valuable lessons from which we’ll benefit when this global health crisis ends.

As an HR Leader, do you think empathy is a major role player?

In times of adversity, organizations, and especially leaders, play a crucial role in helping employees manage stress overload during and after the crisis. During such times, empathy is an extremely critical quality any business leader must possess. Stepping into the shoes of your team members is essential to truly understand their predicament. This helps us, leaders, to not only understand and connect with teams better but also devise hands-on solutions to the various problems are employees are facing while working from home or stepping out to work. It helps shape and sustains a positive workplace environment.