THE

UNLOCK
DOWN
CHRO’S COVID-19
EXIT STRATEGY KIT
Table of Contents

01. Note from the Founders

02. Preparing for Day One

Part-01. The Logistic Lens - Workforce Safety

A. Workforce SafetyHealth & Sanitation

B. Employee Checks & Communication
C. Infrastructure Prerequisites & Arrangements

Part-02. The Human Lens - Workforce Readiness

A. Mitigating Anxiety
B. Change Management & Communications
C. Business Operations
D. Pandemic Recovery Plan

03. Planning Beyond Day One

Part-01. The Industry Lens - Who Returns First?

A. Prioritisation of Roles for Restart

B. Staggered Exit Strategy by Role

- Those who can work from home.

- Those who need to work from office.
- Those who interact with customers.

Part-02. The Strategic Lens - Realigning People Strategies

A. Shifting Gears to 5X Productivity

B. Accelerating Automation & Digitalisation
C. Managing Costs as First Priority
D. Talent Management in Post-COVID World
 03

For the past few months, we have lived through a

Note terrifying crisis, the impact of which has been harsh
from the and far-ranging. These are unprecedented times,
Founders probably even the crisis of the generation, if not the
century. 

It is unlike anything we’ve ever experienced before. So

there is no right answer, no standard operating process,
no playbook that can be followed. But as talent leaders
we sit at the intersection between well-being and
performance, and the only way to achieve both in these
anxious times and stay relevant after the lockdown lifts,
is by preparing well and building a resilient workforce.

A calibrated, safe and smooth exit from the lockdown,

after following all PMO directives and considering the
geographical spread of COVID in the country, would be
the practical approach. As we exit the lockdown, a
balance has to be struck between preservation of
health and workforce safety while also paying attention
to productivity and business continuity.  There are a
constellation of parameters that need deep thought
and preparation to give our workforce an assured
restart.

These are challenging times, and we’re sure like us, you
are doing what you can to make this transition smooth
for your workforce. We’ve just tried to put together a
master list of basic health precautions to strategic shifts
in workforce management that can help you navigate
this journey back a little bit smoother. 

Chaitanya Peddi Rohit Chennamaneni Jayant Paleti

 01
Preparing for
Day One

The Logistic Lens -

Getting Ready to
Resume Office
Time to Action:
T-5 days to T-1 day

Part
 05

Workforce Before the workforce returns to an

office building that has been
Safety vacated for a significant amount of
time - it is imperative for all
business owners to perform a series
of mandatory pre-return checks,
tasks, screenings, assessments and
other measures to ensure utmost
employee safety and a healthy,
thriving environment. Here are the
things to be kept in order before
getting ready to resume.

01/04 CHRO’s COVID-19 Exit Strategy Kit

Workforce Safety
06

Health and
Sanitation:

Sanitation of the entire premise:

Ensure the office premise is sanitised and cleaned
before reopening. 

Review, Stock-up on Health Supplies:

Ensure ample inventory of cleaning & sanitation
supplies, masks. 

Temperature Screening Setup:

Arrange for thermal temperature scanning devices
for entry points.

Setup Additional Facilities:

Provide facilities for employees to wash their hands
at the entrance/gate.

Sanitation of Common Spaces:

Review sanitation and audit routine for frequently
used areas (meeting rooms, gyms/locker rooms &
restrooms).

02/04 CHRO’s COVID-19 Exit Strategy Kit

Workforce Safety
07

Employee Checks
& Communication:

Capture Employee Health & Family Info:

Mandate work from home for those with pre-existing
health conditions (or) family members below 8yrs or above
60 yrs (or) have stayed in a red zone in last 3 weeks (use
your HRIS / Survey tool to capture info)

Establish & Communicate COVID Guidelines:

Through awareness posters / danglers / standees / videos
which clearly call out symptoms that warrant home
quarantine.

Train on Hygiene Practices:

Intensively train and educate employees, including
housekeeping, security and service staff, on social
distancing and good hygiene practices.

Visitor Management:
Limit visitors to office during these times & mandate
approvals from administration dept. for any visitors.

03/04 CHRO’s COVID-19 Exit Strategy Kit

Workforce Safety
08

Infrastructure
Prerequisites
& Arrangements:
Facilities to be Closed /Moderated:
Identify areas at the workplace that can attract large
gatherings and plan to close or moderate their usage
(example: canteens, gyms can be shut).

Recalibrate Workspace Capacity:

Estimate the ideal capacity of your workspace after social
distancing norms are applied (2 meters distance) and
plan for a workforce that can work from the office
accordingly.

On-site / On-call Medical Setup:

Consider hiring an on-site or on-call medical support to
help employees with queries or diagnose any symptoms.

On-premise Accommodation Facilities:

Larger manufacturing units could consider temporary
accommodation for workers on premises to avoid travel
and external contact.

Disinfection Spray Zones:

In case of manufacturing it is advised to plan for
disinfection zones at entry points.

Provision for Additional Transport Infra:

Gather data on employees without personal means of
transport and identify additional / temp transport that
can be provided while ensuring social distancing.

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 09

Recommended Reads - Refer to these WHO guidelines

on getting your workplace ready.

Darwinbox Pro Tips:

Digital Ways to Accelerate Readiness

Launch survey / profile data fields to

capture employee data (pre-existing
health conditions, family members
age, their current location with
geotag).

Mandate sign-off on new COVID

guidelines.

CHRO’s COVID-19 Exit Strategy Kit

 02
Preparing for
Day One

The Human Lens -

Giving Your Employees
An Assured Start
Time to Action:
T-5 days to T-1 day

Part
 11

Workforce While policies and safety protocols

are critical pieces of the puzzle, they
Readiness do not touch on the most important
aspect of return to work - workforce
readiness. Here are a few things to
help your employees transition back
to the workplace:

01/05 CHRO’s COVID-19 Exit Strategy Kit

Workforce Readiness
12

Mitigating
Anxiety:
Let their queries and worries be addressed well in
advance.

People are worried about personal health and there

will be a lack of trust in working with others. Share
information liberally on measures being taken to
ensure the wellbeing of employees.

Employees may have many queries about the impact

of the crisis on companies and their jobs. Good or bad,
keep them informed about business health.

Survey employees on questions, processes & changes

that might be troubling them.
Sample Survey by Spacematrix

Sign up for Counselling services to ensure you

manage any cases of anxiety through professional
help.

02/05 CHRO’s COVID-19 Exit Strategy Kit

Workforce Readiness
13

Change Management
& Communications:
Ensure employees understand what the workplace will be
like upon return. 

Communicate early when plans are being formed as soon

as appropriate for better alignment. 

Accelerate tech literacy to make employees adept with

technology and virtual collaboration tools. 

Train leadership and all managers in leading distributed

teams. 

Share why particular groups / individuals were chosen to

return to work before others.

Share SOPs applicable upon return - visitor approvals,

meeting room protocols, premise entry & exit.

Inform what will be available / supplied & what will not be

provided (eg. utensils, glassware, cups, etc).

Instructions on bringing equipment (laptops, dongles,

tiffin, bottles, etc.) to work.

Communicate workplace changes including meeting

room/canteen availability, desk relocation etc.

03/05 CHRO’s COVID-19 Exit Strategy Kit

Workforce Readiness
14

Business
Operations:

The business operations considerations

might include:

Risk: Engage with a risk management team to ensure

readiness to return.

Insurance: Coordinate with insurers to identify

potential risks for returning to work.

Services: Identify service providers required to

support pandemic-related activities (health staff etc).

Vendors: Notify vendors of changes that impact them

after reopening; disable/enable access if needed.

Escalations: Establish a hotline/digital helpdesk

category to cater to COVID queries.

Customers: Inform the most important stakeholder

about how you are resuming operations.

04/05 CHRO’s COVID-19 Exit Strategy Kit

Workforce Readiness
15

Pandemic Prepare to address responses to

pandemic by creating: 
Recovery
Operational emergency team with
Plan: essential functions staff.

Procedures for alert and outbreak

verification should the virus resurge.

Internal / external information flows

(situation reports, briefings, back-up of
information, etc).

Contingency plans to address impact

of potential spread of infection after
re-opening sites.

Contingency plan to address

disruption in vendor-performed critical
services after re-opening sites.

05/05 CHRO’s COVID-19 Exit Strategy Kit

 01

Planning
Beyond Day One

The Industry Lens -

Who Returns
First?

Part
 17

Prioritisation of
Roles for Restart

The ramp-up in terms of returning employees could be

phased from 20% to 50% to 100% over a period of time, by
prioritising the roles that need to join back earlier than
others, and assessing the necessity of the employees who
need to be physically present/engage with external
audiences for their daily tasks. Also, one should phase out
the restart with locations which have a lower incidence of
the outbreak, followed by the ones with moderate impact.

01/05 CHRO’s COVID-19 Exit Strategy Kit

 18

Here is a matrix you can use to prioritise the roles that can work from office or
home accordingly. Build your own matrix to bucket functions, roles or teams into
these 3 categories.

(A) (B) (C)

Roles that are

required to  Roles that 
Type of Roles that can 
work from office / interact with
Role continue to WFH
factory / customers
establishment

Manufacturing, E-Commerce
Pharma, Construction, (Food, Consumer
Sample IT & ITES, Media Textile & Apparel, Goods), Organised
Sectors (online) Automotive, Retail Sector 
Healthcare Delivery & Logistics
Healthcare

Engineering & Sales, Customer

Operators,
Technology, HR, Service, Retail Staff,
Manufacturing Staff,
Finance, Legal, Delivery Executives,
Sample Facilities / Office
Marketing, E-sales, Medical
Functions Administration,
BPO, Online Customer Professionals,
Warehouse
Support, Shared Healthcare
Management
Services Administration

- Phased return to - Split into shifts/pods - Stringent Hygiene

office - Strict Social Norms
- Enable long-term distancing & Hygiene - Focus on Visitor
WFH Norms Management
Exit - Drive productivity & - Pandemic Response - Adopt Touchless
Approach engagement Plan Operations

EXPLORE EXIT EXPLORE EXIT EXPLORE EXIT 

STRATEGY>> STRATEGY>> STRATEGY>>

02/05 CHRO’s COVID-19 Exit Strategy Kit

 19

Staggered Exit Strategy by Role:

A. Roles that can

continue to work from
home
Be it global IT/ITES firms or functions within a company like
Technology, Finance, BPO, some selective roles in the
organisation can be just as effective working from home as
they are from office. These are roles you would rather have
continue working from home to regulate your workplace
density. Here are quick steps you can follow at the end of
the lockdown to manage these roles effectively.

03/05 CHRO’s COVID-19 Exit Strategy Kit

 20

Staggered exit
from lockdown:

Phase Week 0-8 Maximum 15% Workforce

01 • Consider having not more than 10-15% employees
work from the office.
• Run a survey with managers to gather roles that need
to work from the office.
• These would be roles that need to work on infra
restricted to office premises (Servers, Desktops etc).
Use this phase to ship infra that employees need at
home (Desktops / Digi-tokens / Dongles etc). 

Phase Week 8-16 Maximum 30% Workforce

02 • Based on the success of the first phase, the
percentage of employees can be increased to 20-30% .
• Adopt staggered / alternate day shifts, if 30% is too
large to practice social distancing in your workspace. 
• Occasionally, plan for one day per team for a weekly
catch up.

Phase Week 16+ More than 50% Workforce

03 • The ratio can be increased to 30-50% in this phase.
• Plan to activate 100% (based on PMO guidelines &
only if there are 0 positive cases in at least 6 weeks).

04/05 CHRO’s COVID-19 Exit Strategy Kit

 21

Working Procedure
Guidelines:

• Train managers on online productivity management

Drive
Productivity & virtual team management.
• Enable managers to track planned vs completed
work in daily check-ins.
• Enable geo-based attendance / mobile attendance
to capture work from home.
• Share a playbook of best practices for effective WFH.
Here’s one we liked.
• Setup digital onboarding process for new-joinees in
the coming period.

• Empower and train managers to check on employee

Engage &
wellness & show empathy when operating in virtual
Communicate
teams.
• Communicate all advisory, prescribed directives &
policy changes digitally.
• Create and mandate digital sign-off from employees
on all COVID safety guidelines.
• Establish ways to share feedback & recognise peers
in real-time for virtual teams.

• Setup SOP for technical infrastructure issue

Resolve
resolution with SLAs (laptop/access issues).
Promptly
• Enable digital collaboration tools to help teams
collaborate smoothly from home.

05/05 CHRO’s COVID-19 Exit Strategy Kit

 22

Darwinbox Pro Tips:

Digital Ways to Enable A Productive

Remote Workforce

Leverage geo-based attendance check-in

(with facial recognition) paired with daily
work check-ins.

Consider rolling-out timesheets to better

track throughput per project.

Trigger anytime peer-to-peer feedback and

recognition through mobile-first & gamified
platform.

CHRO’s COVID-19 Exit Strategy Kit

 23

Staggered Exit Strategy by Role:

B. Roles required to work

from office/factory/
establishment

Staggered Shifts / Modified Reduce manning norms by 50% to

Work Week to Regulate reduce workers at a given point in
Workplace Density time.

If you follow single shift, evaluate

(business / economic feasibility)
moving to double shift with fewer
work days.

Introduce 1 hour break between

shifts to accommodate cleaning /
sanitation.

Employees to be rostered in
staggered shifts (each 30 mins apart)
to avoid crowding at entry.

Work from home to be implemented

in all feasible areas / functions /
offices.

Explore rotational work from home

on alternating days / weeks to
regulate workforce density.

01/04 CHRO’s COVID-19 Exit Strategy Kit

 24

Social Distancing
& Prevention of
Spread: Adopt contactless attendance with
mobile check-in or facial recognition.

Break-up teams or manufacturing

workforce into small pods / groups to
contain exposure within set groups. 

Maintain logs on the contact group

of each person in each shift. 

Stagger access to common areas like

canteens, washrooms with different
break timings in manufacturing. 

Mark indicators of social distance for

common areas / workspace / shop
floors. 

Close meeting rooms / limit

maximum attendees per meeting
beyond which additional approvals
are required.

Mandate senior level approvals for

any in-person meeting with external
stakeholders.

02/04 CHRO’s COVID-19 Exit Strategy Kit

 25

Sanitisation &
Health Checks:
Check temperature (should be less than 99.5oF) at entry
points, create disinfection zones. 

Empower security to detain employees who might be at

risk.

Mandate all employees to report their health and travel

history on a daily basis (online / physical form).

Provide masks at the workplace, include masks in PPE for

all roles and mandate wearing of masks at all times.

Train security, housekeeping and admin staff on sanitation

and hygiene protocols with clear audit. 

Regularly fumigate hand-wash areas in canteens &

washrooms and make sanitisers available in common areas.

Sanitise high-frequency areas like lifts (consider blocking

such high contact facilities if possible).

Regularly sanitise the entire premise of the plant including

greenery, walkways, entrances and all internal roads. 

Close on-site food-court and encourage employees to bring

food, water bottles from home.

Prohibit delivery of external food / packages (consider

sanitising them before being accepted otherwise).

03/04 CHRO’s COVID-19 Exit Strategy Kit

 26

Pandemic COVID
Response Guidelines
Plan: Awareness:

Quarantine individuals with Inform and educate

symptoms & home-quarantine everyone through posters
employees who came in in noticeboards, LED / TV
contact.  display in plant premises &
public announcement
Disinfect & deep clean all areas system. 
used by the individuals.
Send messages to all
Details of symptomatic employees keeping them
employees to be shared with informed of the various
the Group Medical Officer.  measures in place after
the plant reopens.
Symptomatic employees
should return to the workplace
only after securing clearance
from on-site medical team /
external health officials.

04/04 CHRO’s COVID-19 Exit Strategy Kit

 27

Darwinbox Pro Tips:

Digital Ways to Drive Adherence & New Guidelines

Adoption

Managing rotational shifts and automated capture of

attendance by shift.

Mandate approval for in-person meetings, on-field travel,

meetings with 5+ attendees with custom workflows.

Use enterprise social networks to communicate

frequently about COVID advisory & capture employee
health updates through simple pulse surveys.

CHRO’s COVID-19 Exit Strategy Kit

 28

Staggered Exit Strategy by Role:

C. Roles where employees

constantly interact
with customers

Apart from the guidelines established for working from an

office / factory / establishment in the previous section, here
are additional precautions required to resume roles that will
interact with customers or external stakeholders.

01/03 CHRO’s COVID-19 Exit Strategy Kit

 29

Visitor Rostering
Management: & Minimum
Workforce
All visitors including customers /
supervisors / suppliers should enter
Plan:
only after protocol compliance. 
Work with business &
Mandate 24 hr advance notice and facilities to align revised
approval for external stakeholder workspace capacity with
interactions planned, if possible.  minimum workforce needed.

Establish digitised process to Stagger shift timings by 15

authorise visitor entry mins each to avoid
(OTP / QR Code).   overcrowding at start / end of
shifts. 
All visitors to be thoroughly
screened for temperature, cold, Restrict staff from entering
coughing, sneezing etc.  the premises outside of their
shift (integrate shifts with
Mandate masks at all times and entry access).
disinfection spray zone upon entry
(if available).

Ensure clear log of all visitors is

available with contact information
to trace back interactions. 

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 30

Additional
Ensure business has adopted
Sanitisation cashless/no-touch transactions with

& Health customers at store or during delivery. 

Checks: Setup high-frequency sanitisation

routine for high-touch surfaces like
tables, door handles, lift buttons etc.

Ensure sanitisation supplies are

available at all outlets (masks / hand
wash) at entry and inside the facility.

Conduct regular audits at all facilities

to keep sanitisation standards in
check.

COVID Share clear directives on how to

maintain social distance from
Guidelines customers / visitors.

Awareness: Communicate with customers about

resumed operations and the
precautions being taken to control
spread.

03/03 CHRO’s COVID-19 Exit Strategy Kit

 02

Planning
Beyond Day One

The Strategic Lens -

Realigning Business &
People Strategies

Part

Be it enabling work-f rom-
home, introducing new HR
workflows or rolling out COVID
advisory - business leaders
around the globe have had to
make many crucial decisions
over the past few months,
without losing a moment’s
time. But the crisis at hand
needs talent leaders to not only
adopt immediate precautions
but also realign their business
and people strategy in the
medium to long term in order
to thrive and stay relevant post
the crisis.
01/03 CHRO’s COVID-19 Exit Strategy Kit
32
Shifting
Gears to 5X
Productivity:
Even when one cannot give
bonuses and double digit
increments - one needs to step
on the gas and make one’s
workforce shift gears to 5X
productivity. 
Innovate and reimagine your
p e r fo rm a n ce a n d rewa rd s
programs.
Adopt continuous and peer
driven feedback methods to
drive a high performance
culture.
Identify alternate rewards -
leadership recognition / Special
Projects @ CEO Office / Stocks /
ESOPs.
 33

Accelerating
Automation &
Digitisation:
In every aspect of the crisis
response, technology has
played a pivotal role in ensuring
Managing
business continuity—from
enabling remote working to Costs as
driving adoption of new
governance policies,
First
dissemination of COVID Priority:
communications to facilitating
workforce collaboration. From pay cuts to lay offs to
Technology has been at the hiring freeze, suspend
centre of it all. Revisit your high-cost initiatives and
digitalisation roadmap to find ways to cut back on
prioritise new technology expenditures to stay afloat.
introduction as well as adoption Consider deferring
to help the organisation evolve perquisites and additional
and adapt to the new world of compensation benefits to
work.  control cost-to-company.
Start by reviewing and
analysing revenue per
employee in revised
business plan, cost centre
wise payout, merit
increments cost, CTC
analytics to reevaluate
perks & benefits. 

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 34

Talent Management in
Post-COVID World:
Revisit manpower plan and aim to reduce layoffs by
consuming internal talent before hiring laterally.

Build lean and flexible gig workforce and lower fixed

talent costs by relayering management structures.

Repurpose core skills of teams that are now redundant &

staff them on new projects/business initiatives.

Identify training to help employees adapt to the new

way of work. (Recommended Courses)

How To Manage & Influence Your Virtual Team 

How To Have Feedback Conversations On Call

Training on Digital Readiness 

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 35

Sources

Exit From The Lockdown (A CII

Strategy Report)


KPMG - Impact of COVID-19 on the

Indian Economy


Recovery Readiness: A How To

Guide To Reopen Your Workplace
(Cushman & Wakefield)


CHRO’s COVID-19 Exit Strategy Kit