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Writer's pictureVarsha Karmakar

How did companies support their employees during the pandemic?

Updated: Jun 25, 2021




Employees being the backbone of the organizations, need to be taken care of. And little acts of kindness during these uncertain times for employees’ happiness and wellbeing are the things that would be talked about, remembered, and cherished in the long run.


1. The flexibility of working from home

Given the current situation over the past 1 year, most companies have given their employees the flexibility of working from home and working from anywhere since the health and safety of the employees are the top priorities that were kept in mind.


2. Health insurance for free

There were a lot of companies who did not have health insurance cover for their employees in their organization but during the Covid-19 situation, organizations not just introduced health insurance for their employees, but some also covered it for free for them, without having to worry much about the medical expenses.


3. Extra paid sick leaves

Not everybody who gets affected by the coronavirus recovers in 14days, some take a long time and recovery varies from person to person with the seriousness and criticality of the situation. Therefore companies give their employees extra paid sick leaves where they do not without having to worry of any deduction in the salary or make an adjustment in their annual sick leave numbers.


4. Mental wellness programs

Coping up with the pandemic situation is definitely difficult and a sudden detachment from the entire workplace and colleagues had impacted employees mentally and psychologically. So, many companies had initiated mental wellness programs for employees to have a check on the employee's mental well-being and sanity. Weekly or monthly virtual team catch-up calls have helped a lot in boosting the morale of the employees.




5. Special medical allowances

It was seen that the tests and medicines given to people affected by the coronavirus disease billed comparatively high. With salary cuts, it had become a little difficult to be able to manage finances by many. And so, special medical allowances were given to employees affected with the coronavirus and this initiative acted as strong financial support for them.


6. Vaccination drives

The greatest measure that was taken up by companies for their employees were the vaccination drives and taking care of the end-to-end process by the HRs and admins without having to engage the employees in booking slots. This initiative was widely appreciated and a huge flow of people was seen participating actively.


7. Hampers and goodies for WFH employees

For WFH employees, it was difficult to have the work environment and comfort at home as compared to offices. So, companies came to the rescue providing hampers and goodies to employees like ergonomic furniture, immunity boosters, healthy munching options, and a lot of items that helped the employees working from home.


8. Learning and development programs

A lot of learning and development programs like taking excel sessions, or brushing up technical skills, building skills on products and services were started by companies to help employees grow professionally as well as personally. This in a way also acted as a skill enhancer by maximizing retention rates of the employees, increasing the profitability, and keeping more employees engaged.


9. Covid cares essential kits

Covid essential kits were safely delivered to many employees at their doorstep, especially after the second wave had hit hard. A box full of covid essentials like the oximeter, digital thermometer, masks, hand sanitizers, a list of Do’s and Don’ts, note from the management, etc acted as a protective measure for all the employees by letting them know that their companies care for them and their wellbeing.


10. Covid meals

Many employees and companies had identified that covid safe meals would be the best possible way to help both- employees affected by the coronavirus disease as well as for those who work from home since the food provided not only has a balanced nutritional diet but also is a healthy option that employees would seriously love.

While the corporates are continuously thinking to support their employees with new benefits like covid meals, SmartQ has helped to enable these initiatives into a reality for a lot of corporates.




These are the few good programs that a lot of companies choose to undertake to keep their employees engaged and happy at the same time. With the pandemic still around us and WFH would be carried out for some more time, It would be very ideal for every one of us to keep our employees’ happiness and wellbeing as the top priority and help them out with simple but powerful methods as given above.


Has your company helped you with any of the above benefits or things that are out of the list as well? Let us know in the comment section below!


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