OYO launches employee wellbeing and work-life-balance initiatives including weekend curfew, gratitude holiday and more

New Delhi [India], Aug 14 (ANI/NewsVoir): Recognising the resilience and commitment demonstrated by individuals and teams across businesses in the past few months and understanding the need to prioritize health and wellness in the "new normal" ways of working, OYO Hotels & Homes announced a host of employee wellbeing and work-life balance related initiatives to foster growth, happiness and holistic development of OYOprenuers (OYO employees).
The company also announced a series of other initiatives in this direction, and to help employees upskill and prepare for the changing needs of the hospitality industry, as the pandemic forces all companies to innovate for sustenance.
With impetus on wellbeing and work-life balance, OYO announced that all employees across teams will have a 5-day work week starting August 2020. A 'weekend curfew' will also be implemented where everyone will be encouraged to avoid calls, meetings and messages on weekends and holidays.
Delivering on their people priorities, OYO has increased its focus on the wellbeing of employees and is encouraging a balanced approach to work as it adapts the hybrid workplace model. Managers and leaders will power the initiatives and lead from the front to ensure employees have mandated work hours, take a personal time-out, avail annual holidays and encourage a healthy and sustainable approach to work-life balance, even while working from home.
Some key employee wellbeing and work-life-balance initiatives launched include:
1. Five day work week, weekend curfew and new ways of working: At OYO, with effect from August 2020, all Saturdays across regional and corporate teams will be a holiday. There will be rosters for field roles that require working on Saturdays to ensure a five-day working week. There will be no scheduling of work calls and meetings, or sending emails or Slack messages on weekends and holidays, ensuring complete weekend curfew, unless it's an emergency. Responding to work emails or messages received over the weekend by the subsequent working day will be acceptable and leaders or business heads will not conduct review meetings on Monday, so that the teams do not have to prepare for it over the weekend. Moreover, individuals will be able to define their core working hours to schedule a majority of calls and meetings, based on the role and team and are also encouraged to block personal time (for meals, house chores, pursuing a hobby etc) and silent time (to ensure productivity) on their calendars.
2. Hybrid Workplace Model: Employees in India will continue to follow the Hybrid Workplace model, which gives them the flexibility of 'working from anywhere'. Employees will be encouraged to make use of OYO's co-working spaces for meeting as required.
3. OYO X Cure.fit: Taking a step towards holistic wellbeing of employees OYO has partnered with Cure.fit to offer its 12 month-membership at specially negotiated rates, where OYO will bear 50 per cent of the fee. The membership will offer unlimited access to digital sessions on fitness, dance, yoga, meditation and health and wellness content, and a chance to participate in closed group corporate level challenges.
4. Creating upskilling platforms: Offering upskilling and career growth opportunities by investing in employees' professional growth, OYO launched Data Science Academy & Young Turks programme. Data Science Academy is designed to help upskilling existing talent to build a world-class data sciences and advanced analytics team and Young Turks is a capability building and functional learning program for OYO's rising stars. The rigorous learning journey will be a combination of social, experiential, on-the-job training and formal sessions.
5. Surprise Holiday: OYO also announced that it would offer employees a surprise holiday to showcase gratitude to employees, on Monday August 17, 2020 in India (christened as OYOpendence day) so that employees can use the long-weekend to unwind, follow hobbies or simply catch up on pending personal chores.
"As OYO gears up for a much-awaited resurgence, our people continue to be at the front and centre of everything we do. The COVID crisis and the resulting 'new normal' has made it imperative for us to introspect and take steps to ensure a healthy work-life integration. We have therefore recently launched initiatives to foster growth, happiness, wellbeing and holistic development of OYOprenuers. We have received a lot of positive feedback and appreciation from OYOpreneurs so far, and it just helps reinforce our commitment to them. Workplace culture is a shared responsibility and we will work closely with all OYOpreneurs to ensure that everyone walks the talk on these promises and that all of us feel proud of being a part of this amazing organization," said Dinesh Ramamurthi - Chief Human Resources Officer - OYO, while speaking about the recent initiatives.
Apart from these initiatives, OYO also launched and facilitated a host of other initiatives to build an equitable and inclusive workplace focusing on development on the professional front. These revolve around four pillars of 'celebrating', 'enabling', 'supporting' and 'including' diversity at every level.
This includes rewards and recognition programs like 'Front Runners', employee initiatives like 'The CEO Club', and 'OYO Privy League 2.0'. OYO also launched OYO Women's Network, a platform for members to seek or share career advice, build a network with women leaders inside and outside OYO and drive each other's professional and personal growth. OYO also conducted over 60 sessions of Virtual Family Day celebrations in June, to bring OYOpreneurs and their families together to bond and have a great time.
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