Bisleri strengthens employee welfare practices to safeguard against COVID-19

Chandigarh: Bisleri, industry leader and India's most trusted mineral water brand, has initiated a series of activities to ensure its employees, and their families, are protected during the second wave of COVID-19 that has hit the country. The company has provided Ozone Therapy treatments and COVID insurance of Rs.3 lakhs, to their employees.

The company has announced two policies – Covid Insurance policy and Covid death Insurance policy. All employees along their family members (spouse and children) can cover medical expenses up to Rs. 3 lakhs each and this is included under the Covid Insurance policy. The same policy would be applicable for the employee who are on contractual role with the organisation.

Under the Covid Death Insurance policy, the family members of the Bisleri pay-roll employees would receive three years' salary or Rs 35 lakhs, whichever is less, in case of death due to covid-19. The organisation has extended this policy for its contractual employees too. During the first wave of Covid-19, to ensure business continuity and for safety of employees at the manufacturing plants, the company had collaborated with a few properties in the vicinity to arrange for staff accommodation. These places are regularly sanitised following highest standards of safety.

Since mineral water comes categorised as essential goods and services that are permitted to operate during the lockdown, the company’s management wanted to go the extra mile to ensure employee safety and well-being. The first step towards the welfare of the employees was by boosting immunity through Ozone Therapy where 320 employees were given Ozone shots. Ozone therapy is an adjuvant therapy which helps in improving immunity and enhancing disease fighting capacity of the body. It acts as an incredible rejuvenator, normalizer, detoxifier, regenerator, immune enhancer and physical and mental energizer. These employees were followed up for 6 months and it was observed that out of these 320, only 2% contracted infection which was mild and asymptomatic. This therapy shows 98% of efficacy.

Through this initiative, the company wanted to offer its employees preventive healthcare to fight COVID-19.

As a people-first organisation, Bisleri also believes in standing in solidarity with its team members. The 'No questions asked' leave policy, in the event of an employee or their family members testing COVID positive, is a step towards providing them with a mental and moral support to the employees. This leave policy is also applicable if the building is sealed due to Covid cases. Bisleri has also identified mental health as one of the key priorities of its employee well-being programme and has appointed a Life Mentors, who employees can seek help from. To ensure the safety of the employees, the organisation is encouraging work from home and rotation based shifts to limit physical contact with one another. This enhances and balances the work productivity and support well-being of the employees.  In addition to this, the company also regularly conducts seminars on wellness and mental health. To deal with urgent medical queries, a 24x7 consultation has been set up with the company’s in-house Dr. Mili Shah. In addition, an internal portal has been created for employee’s easy access of information on the various COVID protocols.

To ensure safety and security until the last mile, delivery personnel at Bisleri have also been equipped with gloves, shields, masks, and PPE kits. Bisleri has also installed ozone tunnels at their facilities and offices to disinfect the employees and visitors to safeguard the workplaces against the life-threatening virus.

Speaking about the initiatives, Parag Bengali, Director - Enablement, Bisleri International Pvt. Ltd. said, "For Bisleri, our employees always come first. As the entire country is still battling with COVID-19, it became very important for us to ensure our employees' physical and mental well-being. All our initiatives were put in place to help our people get through this difficult situation together and show that Bisleri cares for them. We wanted to send out the message that we are in this together and that their company stands with them, especially in these tough times."