After Google, Indian Companies offer allowance to staff for remote working challenges

As 'Work from Home' has become the new normal, earlier Google had announced it would give every employee $1,000 to buy necessary equipment and office furniture. Now, several Indian startups have also introduced benefits to keep up productivity and motivation of their staff.

Edtech startup Great Learning, which has announced WFH till September, started a monthly Covid-19 allowance of Rs 1,000 in June, which covers Wi-Fi, internet and UPS installations, official phone expenses and workstation setup. Recently, they have also started collaborating with furniture rental apps to home-deliver ergonomic chairs and desks. Until now, about 204 of their 500-plus employees have availed the benefits.

For companies, WFH allowances make good business sense apart from the empathy, says Kartik Mandaville, CEO of HR tech firm Springworks. Besides a one-time allowance of up to Rs 25,000 for a home office setup, it offered a one-time reimbursement of Rs 3,000 for headphones and a monthly internet reimbursement of Rs 1,500.

Bengaluru-based cloud service provider G7 CR Technologies has even shipped free chairs and desks from its office to the homes of employees who required them, apart from providing home inverters to those who had frequent power cuts. In addition, it gave a one-time WFH package of Rs 18,000 for purchasing UPS and other furniture.

Payments solution company Razorpay is crediting a no-questions-asked allowance to all employees’ salaries. This can be used to rent comfortable office furniture, upgrade broadband connection, or any other essentials the employee wishes for, said Anuradha Bharat, head, people operations, Razorpay.

The Indian division of Salesforce, which has given its 2,500 employees the option to work from home for the rest of 2020, is also giving a benefit of $250 (Rs 18,500 approximately) for setting up home offices.

Many believe these allowances will become the norm and include more facilities. As industrialists believe it is better to have a motivated employee rather than making the employees’ mind bitter.