REFLECTIVE PAPER

Submitted to S P Jain School of Global Management in partial fulfilment of the requirement

to complete the unit of

Corporate Governance & Ethics

By
VARUN KULKARNI (ED20ONL022)

S P JAIN SCHOOL OF GLOBAL MANAGEMENT

GEMBA – ELO – BATCH 03

Prof. Kanchan Mahadev

March 2020 changed the world significantly to say the least. We saw unprecedented events
unfold that changed the world completely. Many things that we took for granted changed
forever. All of this caused significant amount of disturbance in the lives of people. Almost
everyone was impacted with Covid either financially or emotionally. These are the times
when the companies that took care of the employees and fellow human beings stood out.
Corporate social responsibility has always been more of something to do for the sake of it
for many organizations. It was added to the KRAs of the HR department & standard
activities were carried out under the name of Corporate Social Responsibility.
Ideally, the corporate social responsibility initiatives in any company are supposed to help
the needy ones & solve the real problems that society faces. All this from the funds provided
by the organization as an effort to give back to the society. At our organization also in the
last few years the CSR initiatives are being conducted regularly. These were more or less
standard initiatives where we used to tie up with NGO or Social Organizations & conduct
drives to collect clothes, donations etc.
What Covid did was that it exposed the sensitive side of a larger class to the people. Even
daily help, neighborhood vendors or employees with lesser salaries suffered quite a bit in
this pandemic. It made everyone realize that not only the way things were functioning
earlier wrong but also it needed a revamp. Many individuals and organisations I know paid a
full salary even during the harshest lockdowns to their house helps, workers and junior staff.
The neighborhood vendors helped out the needy people and the homeless. People who
were daily wage earners were helped by many organizations or even individuals.
To specifically highlight the changes observed in our organization, there were many never
before initiatives were taken that proved to be helpful for the employees & the society.
Our organization took many never-before decisions during these tough times. When the
lockdown was announced and we realized that this will go longer than anticipated, our
employees were given confidence that no salary cuts will happen. Our organization employs
a lot of low salary employees in call centers due to the nature of business. Right from those
employees who had a lower salary till the leadership teams. Everyone was assured of
stability in terms of the monthly salary coming in. For the junior staff, even the appraisals
were done on time without disturbing the cycle. The staff that works in office for cleaning
and pantry etc. were also ensured proper pay even though the offices weren’t functioning.
In case of the unfortunate second wave, our organization ensured that the communication
mediums were created, and the immediate help was facilitated. There was financial help
provided to those who couldn’t afford the treatment costs. Not only this, but from the
customer point of view as well the considerate steps were followed and the validity of
services were extended wherever we felt that the customers were getting affected by the
Covid.
Covid made everyone realise that theres a human side of leadership which is not usually
focused on. In chasing profits and targets, people have forgotten these aspects. In the last 2
years, the companies that have shown empathetic leadership have survived. The ones that
did not show empathy towards the employees would suffer in future.
Many people who worked from home struggled to manage both the things at the same
time. This led to many burnouts. Companies that focused on mental health and employee
well being were seem to execute Work From Home in an effective way. With multiple new
aspects coming into picture that no one was used to such as long video calls, Video call
fatigue was real and was observed at many organizations. Active measures to mitigate that
were taken by many companies.
Overall, Covid did bring a change in the way leadership is practiced across organizations. So
did in our organization. Focus moved away from only profits & revenues to the softer
aspects such as employee well-being and overall betterment of the workforce. It made
employers more considerate and thoughtful of the employees. It’s a step in the right
direction & hopefully whenever this unprecedented situation of pandemic ends, will be
continued too.