As COVID-19 envelops India, "YES, WE CAN" must be our battle cry

As India struggles with the second wave of COVID-19, it is difficult to comprehend the magnitude of this crisis. But those of us who live in and love this country understand its devastating effects, and we pray that our citizens will soon get relief from this seemingly never-ending pandemic.

It is in times like these, that I am encouraged by the phrase we adopted at the beginning of this crisis: YES, WE CAN. Even in our darkest hours, I know that we can – and we will – be a force for good.

At HPE, our purpose is to advance the way people live and work. That means our constant priority is the health, safety and welfare of our team members and the thousands of customers and partners we have throughout India. And when times are difficult, as they are now, that purpose is even more important.

For our team members 

Our leadership team remains focused on our team members and we’re doing everything we can to support them,

HPE is taking extra steps to help team members find proper services for COVID-19 testing and hospital care. We are covering the full out-of-pocket costs for vaccination at private medical clinics and striving to procure short-in-supply oxygen services for them and immediate family members. And, to help alleviate unexpected financial burdens, we have established a team member financial assistance fund to help our team members with related COVID-19 care.

With the shortage of available beds, we have worked with Apollo Hospitals to set-up 45 isolation beds across Bengaluru, Chennai, Gurugram/Delhi and Mumbai and are in the process of setting up an 80-bed isolation center which will include critical care facilities in Bengaluru and Chennai. These centers will convert large hotels into COVID-19 care facilities equipped with oxygen beds and limited Intensive Care Units and will be staffed around the clock by doctors, nurses and paramedics. I expect the facilities to be fully functional by the end of this month and am really impressed by the speed and execution by all of those involved.

We have also procured oxygen concentrators and are working to get these deployed through paramedic staff to our team members across Bengaluru, Chennai, Gurugram and Mumbai.

Understanding the incredible mental and emotional toll this pandemic is taking on each of us, we have made several support resources available, including several webcasts related to COVID-19 prevention and care, advice on mental and physical wellness, and free personalized counselling and support services for team members and their families through our Employee Assistance Program (EAP).

I am so grateful to the support from our many internal volunteers who have come forward to augment our HPE India COVID-19 support efforts to help team members and their family members with assistance in hospitalization. Thank you to you all for your time and efforts. We are all in this together.

For our customers

We know that business continuity during this precarious time is of great importance for all our customers and partners, especially those providing healthcare and other critical services. HPE has implemented robust business continuity plans since the beginning of the pandemic, and we are well-positioned to continue to support you during the current challenging period.

Fortunately, we are able to leverage our industry-leading remote support technologies using “Connected Devices” and “Visual Remote Guidance” (VRG). Thus, while on-ground support is limited to very high critical support cases, our HPE Pointnext Services and technical support teams are able to continue to offer assistance at virtually any time. Our digital and self-help resources remain open and available too.

For our communities

Our communities - where we live and work - are struggling. And HPE is determined to help.

To help support our communities, the HPE Foundation is donating 100,000 USD to UNICEF’s fund to address the critical oxygen shortage and support RT-PCR testing. Plus, we are matching the donations made by HPE team members which has raised almost 300,000 USD for UNICEF so far. In addition, the HPE Foundation is also supporting the Indian Red Cross to provide emergency COVID-19 care services.

I am also grateful for our team members’ efforts to convert 50 of our e-health centers (eHCs) into COVID-19 testing and isolation OPDs and we are in the process of converting 50 more eHCs into COVID vaccination centers.

These are challenging times, and it is heartbreaking to see so much death and anguish from this horrible virus. On the other hand, I am heartened by the kindness, devotion and commitment of the citizens of this great land, as we work side-by-side to persevere and overcome.

Our people have indeed embraced the HPE spirit of YES WE CAN and have shown that, in the face of unbearable adversity, YES WE ARE.

Som Satsangi
Managing Director, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, India