Back to Office: Challenges faced by companies & ekincare's solution

For companies and corporate professionals alike, resuming work from the office in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic is not a simple task. Merely announcing a reopening or "back to the office" date and hoping for "business as usual" is not a realistic goal. The repercussions of the pandemic will be felt by many workplaces initially. Additionally, certain changes, such as a hybrid work system may be the long term plan, even with the wide availability of vaccination options.

The specific details of each organization's plan for returning to the office will be different, but there are certain factors that will remain the same across the corporate world.

The government directives

As per the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW) guidelines on COVID-19 safety measures at the workplace, it is mandatory for companies to have a complete update on their team members' vaccination status and COVID-19 infection history. This is a prerequisite for all organizations across the board, for them to be able to call employees back to the workplace.

The challenges faced by Human Resource Managers

Collecting the relevant data for the entire organization is not an easy feat for anyone. With tools like Google Forms and other mass survey offerings, the process is cumbersome and time-consuming. The tools at the disposal of HR managers make calling employees back to the office a labour-intensive task, when it should be simple!

What is ekincare's Back to Office Initiative?

To help our clients with reducing the effort required for collecting and managing the necessary employee details to initiate back to office plans, ekincare is introducing the COVID-19 Vaccination Status tracker - a new tool that will help HR managers track the three most crucial details of their team members:

• Their vaccination status - This shows whether the employee is vaccinated or not.
• The details of the vaccines taken - This shows the status of vaccination, i.e. dose 1 and dose 2 status where applicable.
• Their COVID-19 infection history - This shows whether the employee has been infected with COVID in the past.

Watch our YouTube video for a brief overview of the Back to Office initiative.

How can employees update their vaccination details?

The process for updating vaccination details is straightforward and streamlined. Employees need to follow the steps as mentioned below:

• Login to the ekincare app.
• Tap on the "update your vaccination status" prompt.
• This prompt will directly take users to the vaccination details page.
• Otherwise, tapping on the "Health" tab in the ekincare app will take users to the health details page.
• Here, users need to tap "Your COVID-19 vaccination status" 
• Here, if the employee has taken ekincare's vaccination services, the app will populate all the necessary details. Users can then confirm the details.
• Users can also update their vaccination details and COVID infection history manually and upload vaccination proof documents as required. Vaccination proof is optional.

Users can update their vaccination status on the ekincare app

How can companies check their employees' vaccination details?

ekincare's data sense dashboard takes care of tracking and showing all the relevant details about employees' COVID infection history and vaccination status.

• A handy banner will keep companies updated about the percentage of employees who have updated their vaccination details.
• The collected information is shown in the form of easily accessible charts on the datasense dashboard.
• The dashboard also helps organizations track the vaccination status of teams across different departments and locations in one place.
• This information can be downloaded by the organization as needed.

A look at the data sense dashboard: Vaccination details & COVID infection history

A look at the data sense dashboard: Vaccination details across departments & locations

Helping create the new normal

With our Back to Office initiative, we aim to make returning employees to the workplace a seamless experience. In the new normal, convenient access to employees’ health status is crucial in providing the best healthcare plans possible. Back to Office is a step in making this future a reality in the present, where HR managers and companies across the corporate world can manage their teams’ health more effectively, in the most accessible manner possible.

Click here to learn how ekincare's employee well-being platform can help your organization.