Edelweiss General Insurance announces ‘Work from

 Edelweiss General Insurance announces ‘Work from Anywhere’ policy

InsurTech startup Edelweiss General Insurance (EGI), has introduced a policy change for all its employees across India. EGI’s Work from anywhere (WFA) is a Hybrid work model that aims to empower and enable employees with their choice of workspace while ensuring optimum work productivity.

The Covid pandemic has changed the way of working and functioning and has made organisations reevaluate their workplace strategies For EGI, although employees were physically distanced, the company’s digital operating model ensured that each one of them was well engaged and connected, with access to all necessary work infrastructure. Not only did this lead to smooth functioning, it also proved to be a happy and welcome workspace for employees leading to high productivity. This realisation led to a permanent policy introduction of WFA.

With the introduction of this policy, employees will have the flexibility and convenience to work from anywhere in India and contribute to the organisation’s growth. Employees whose physical presence is not required in office, will be able to work from anywhere permanently, even once offices begin to reopen.

Melvin Gladstone, Chief HR Officer, Edelweiss General Insurance said, “The last one year has presented an opportunity to analyse and understand more creative and productive ways of working and engaging. For EGI, WFA is an investment and commitment to employee happiness and well-being. With this flexible model, we have ensured that safety of our employees is not compromised, while work productivity is also maintained.”

Edelweiss General Insurance has also implemented many other Covid Care initiatives to support its employees. These include:

1.       Ensuring physical and mental wellbeing is top priority

a.       24*7 online teleconsultation with Doctors to address any medical and health related concerns

b.       Counselling sessions with Psychologists for employees to talk to experts and unburden themselves

c.       Webinars with medical experts who will allay fears and address all questions on Covid and related topics

d.       Yoga and Meditation sessions focusing on building immunity and reducing stress

2.       Covid Care leave

a.       14 days of COVID leave for

                  i.      Any employee testing positive for Covid

                 ii.      Any employee who is taking care of their COVID affected family members in their house

3.       Vaccination drive for employees

a.       This will be organized through approved service providers and will be conducted in a phased manner for employees and their families in select locations, subject to government rules and regulations

4.       Break from meetings

a.       The 3^rd Thursday of every month will be a No meeting day

5.       Financial support

a.       In case any employee needs financial support to meet Covid related exigencies, EGI will give them 3 months of their salary in advance

Being cloud native, EGI has always had a digital operating model, making its “work-from-home” transition, extremely seamless. The company has established daily governance protocols to keep a check on employee and business health and ensured employee discipline through regular monitoring of business operations, via virtual mediums. It has also provided access to various learning platforms, fitness and wellness solutions and engagement activities, to boost mood and uplift morale. In order to create and sustain a culture of innovation and agility among employees, EGI, in collaboration with AWS (Amazon Web Services), initiated a series of knowledge sharing sessions across topics like Big Data Architecture, Artificial Intelligence/ Machine Learning and Culture of Incremental and Disruptive Innovation. A deep dive into Amazon’s Sagemaker technology helped employees understand the nuances of AI and how one can build, train and deploy machine learning models.

5 tips on how to show up for a virtual interview

As offices continue to remain shut and many organizations declaring work from home indefinitely, virtual hiring for various roles has become a new reality. Just as employees adopt the concept of ‘work from anywhere’, virtual hiring is getting mainstream acceptance by many organizations, globally.  In fact, according to recent data shared by Indeed, is quite encouraging- more than 1250 employers have hosted over 3700 virtual hiring events with their portal. This new trend of hiring which seems to be growing certainly calls for new ways to prepare for your virtual interview.  

 Here are some of our recommendations on how to show up differently for your virtual interview: 

1. Test your technology: Test your equipment before the call. Ensure you do not use conferencing tools that produces grainy visuals and muffled audio. It might be worth your while investing in a good webcam or microphone and secure internet. 
   

2. Professional virtual identity: Many of us have several online identities and often these sync up if you are using the same machine for your social media interactions. You might therefore want to choose a profile that is professional in nature, displaying a professional photograph as well. 
   

3. Dress for success: Often when you use video technology, you tend to switch off your camera. In the case of virtual interviews, etiquette demands that the camera should be turned on so that the interviewer can see you. It is therefore important to dress-up formally for the interview. You might be in your pajamas foremost part of the day but for the virtual interview it is important to dress your part. 
   

4. Rid yourself of distractions: Tuning off distractions should be part of the interview etiquette in the virtual world. This would entail switching off the television, not getting distracted with YouTube on your machine and putting your phone on silent mode. This would need you to also isolate yourself in a room and schedule the call when you do not expect visitors. 
   

5. Practice your answers: Like every other physical interview, practice answers to commonly asked questions such as why you are leaving your job, salary expectations, your strengths and weaknesses, your achievements in your current role and why you should be hired. 
   

As workplaces continue to evolve, virtual interviews will continue to become the norm. Professionals navigating the job market are likely to be subject to virtual interviews, and more so when workplaces adapt to change post pandemic. These five steps to mastering the virtual interview could take you one step closer to the job of your dreams.