In your opinion, what worked and what did not in tackling the challenges of this unprecedented pandemic? Were the measures taken by your organization successful or needed adjustment?
Please post your comments below.
| 1
The Government and people coming together to strictly follow the COVID-19 protocols, the nation-wide lockdown and the mass testing really worked well. When a positive case was detected, people came forward saying they were in contact with the positive case as well shared details of their contacts thereafter. The team work and cooperation of each and every one in the country worked well in controlling the spread of the pandemic. The tracing app which was mandatory to be used whenever we visited another space helped trackdown the individual visiting the same space that the positive person did on the same day. Everything planned really worked well in case of Bhutan except for few cases where people didnot declare their places of last visit to avoid being quarantined, this created slight panic amongst the general public and the government. Here we learned that no stones could be left unturned in such situations.
Because of the current situation the import of vegetables were limited thus encouraged majority of the population to start their own kitchen garden, also the number of vehicles plying on the road reduced substantially thus reducing import of fossil fuels as well the air pollution. Bhutan's construction inductry was and is hugely dependent on labourers from India but this pandemic forced barred the entry of foreign labourers resulting in many bhutanese youths to opt for this sector for their livelihoods reducing Bhutan's dependence on Indian labour.
This pandemic COVID !9 was really first of its kind in last 100-150 years. People were inititally not prepared and were in a real distress to figure out how to tackle the situation. But the policy makers, government and people all came together to combat the crisis and actually helped each other in educating the pros and cons of various treatments. All sorts of efforts towards handling COVID were made starting from immunity boostups to social distancing. All fields of medicine came forward be it ayurvedic, homeopathic OR allopathic medicines including home remedies. People started discussing actively on various immunity boost up means like physical exercies, yoga, within the limits of lockdown by staying at homes only.
People also learned to remain engaged even being at home by indulging into various activities re;ated to both work and fun. Overall it turned out to be abig eye opener for entire humaity giving ways to new resources and new life styles. Gradually with combined efforts from all corners, situation turned positive except in few cases when people dint pay heed to any precautions and were not informative enough to handle in case of sickness. It was a challenge for nuclear families with small children and for working people as wokr from home and handling all home repsonsibiltiites was not easy. Striking a balance between all responsibilites was really a challenge ensuring self care and upkeep. Overall India handled the situation very well with kind of dense population we have.
Further in second wave too, inspite of being a developing country, the PM And governemnt were cautius enough to decide for the non-stop develoopment of vaccination and immediately started vaccination in phases. This vaccination drive was taken up in good spirit by people except few areas and overall the second wave has been under control with appx 2% of Indian population getting affected with COVID.
As My boss sir Sangay Tenzin stated in his earlier comment, BPC has formed a internal COVID task force members who have put the measures in terms of business operations in place like how we would go forward with the billing system, how the operation and maintenance team would be isolated during the lock down period so that we can provided uninterupted power supply to the nation. We have also developed work from home policies and and has successfully implemented it in the previous two lockdowns. People had faced some coordination issues in the first lock down but with experiece of the first lockdown, our employees have worked and coordinated well during the second lockdown. Though it is not as efficient as coming to office and working but the essential works has not been effected. So far, we have been blessed to be not affected as bad as our neighbour countries are with this unfortunate virus. We have had two nationwide lock downs and currently our southern borders are under third lockdown. Otherwise, we are coming to work following the protocols of COVID 19, wearing mask, scanning to record our movements and has somewhat lead a normal life.
What the pandemic has affected is our training and development aspect for our employees. We are taking up few online trainings for technical professionals but it has greatly effected the professional development aspect of our employees (both female and male). We are not allowed to hold meetings, gatherings, trainings as per our goverment orders so we have lacked in engaging our employees in meaningful discussions. We have not been able to even hold any WePOWER activities. We have had recently recruited a number of technical professionals and we arranged to give orientation programs to them in smaller groups. We shall soon hold a discussion in smaller groups with the new recruits (including both gender) to know about their journey and if there is anything we, as in HR can be of help. We have identified few mentors and if they want, we would attach them with the mentors.
So as in general, we have had not faced major challenges at least so far as we were able to keep the pandemic at bay and had stict protocols in place by our Government.
1
(on behalf of Mr. Taqi)
WAPDA has strictly adhered to COVID SOPs and are pleased to report that we have successfully controlled the COVID-19 spread at our organization. Female officers and officials were completely sent home in the first wave to work from home until they were essentially required at the office. Those who were required to be primarily at the office were provided with pick-up and drop-off services in order to minimize public contact. During the second and third waves, all staff is put on rotation. Officers and officials work on alternate days, as agreed upon by their superiors. Females from other stations get 15 days off and 15 days on. During the pandemic, the above policies worked well and helped to keep COVID-19 at bay at the institutional level.
1
Since the first wave of COvid-19 in Bangladesh, the government and other agencies took necessary precautions. That includes adding necessary equipment with the existing facilities and establishing new facilities, Voluntary food relief, deferral of bank installments of 5 quarters for loan repayment, the immediate implementation of vaccination program as soon as possible was also helpful to keep the covid toll in check. Despite all the efforts the second wave hit hard in Bangladesh, reaching the maximum number of casualties in a day. Currently, Bangladesh is facing vaccine shortage problem and the country is once again in complete lockdown.
Also job securities, more at mid or bottom levels are highly impacted due to covid-19. This is resulting in rural migration. Certain industries that are mostly affected like restaurants, travel agencies and did not receive enough policy support to survive and continue
At the starting of the home office, Grameen Shakti didn’t want to start a whole new practice without any pre preparation. So, to prepare those policies and SOP, a designated teal analyzed department-wise and employee-wise jobs to find out how physical interaction could be converted to e-coordination. Policy were in place to create reference to everyone of this new practice of home office as well as to create a tool for administration and management. As we spent a significant period of time of these two years in home office, we understood that, the well planned sop and policies helped us perform better in this new culture of remote working
It was very important to be able to perform better from home office that all of the employees are updated with the use of smart devices and necessary apps. And to make sure before going to home office practice, Grameen Shakti’s IT department ensured that each employees have necessary apps and software installed and also knows the basic usage of them. Throughout the home office the IT department has been promptly ensuring everyday IT support to each employee It also proved to be very useful throughout our home office time. And is believed to be useful even after the continuation of the physical office.
For Grameen Shakti’s employees, face to face communication was more convenient in order to complete their daily activities. As they are now doing home office, sometimes there are communication gaps and, in some cases, this is affecting their productivity.
Due to a workforce of a very varied backgrounds and skills, Grameen Shakti is highly dependent on paperwork for its daily activities. As everyone is now doing home office the transition from paperwork to digital note also created some challenges and adaptability issues. Grameen Shakti’s activities of sales force and implementation of development projects, are physically done in the field. Specially, controlling field activities via online is difficult as it requires heavy travelling and movement. In the current scenario our field forces are unable to do so because of lockdown and travel restrictions.
Though the home office has its own benefits, right now it doesn’t match the level of efficiency we seek in Grameen Shakti. Due to the restriction of field activities the productivity is hampering. Many of our work areas are under lockdown and/or restriction of movement, for this our field forces are unable to operate in its usual pace and its decreasing our overall productivity and revenue earning.
1
I'm curious whether any of your companies intend to continue policies such as work from home, or rotating in/out of office, once COVID is over?
1
| 1
According to my university and many of the universities all over the world, online education has become the new normal and it has been followed everywhere. This has its own pros and cons. In India many of the rural villages still have no internet and if there is, it is very haphazard. Most of the times it does not work. The students from these villages, since they have to attend the classes from home, find it difficult not to have the internet as well as the computer /laptop. This has created imbalance between the performance of the students. Even when we ask them to present some project, the first excuse comes with the non availability of technology. So I would say that still, we need to improve a lot to connect the people from all backgrounds.
As I posted in my earlier post, the first thing I noticed during the lock down was the clear air and the pollution free atmosphere. The day to day hassle of getting ready at 7.30 am to leave home for the university and in some cases as early as 6.30 am was absent. But whether this helped the women folks is another question. The women are still expected to complete the household chores themselves, whether they work or not. While this was easier while we had to leave home early, after lockdown, it has become three times more work. Earlier, whatever we could complete before leaving the house, the house was able to manage. Even they found time to help us complete it before we left. Now, the complacency is seen on both sides - Getting up late, no support to complete the chores early and so work started extending. Since everyone is at home, it starts as small additional chore for each of them but when it accumulates, it is really difficult to manage. Every one used to ask me "How did you manage your career, IEEE as well as family, inspite of your husband being transferred every one and half years?". I have been used to running a single parent family with two daughters but I was my own boss. Now there are too many bosses for me. I am sure this is the case with many women - I have read many articiles citing how the responsibilities have increased for women since the pandemic hit.
Many women now have found it easier to leave their jobs since in teaching, the responsibilities of the job has increased multifold. Physical classes were the responsibility of the teacher as well as the student. Both of them were expected to contribute. But when teaching online, the responsility of ensuring that the student is attending, listening, grasping and learning have become the teacher's. I find the situation funny as well as painful. Just because the employees are working from home, some colleges have reduced their salary quoting that you are not spending for the transport. In spite of expecting them to contribute more, still many of the colleges have not provided the full salary. Women are the most affected since they already have to struggle to prove themselves doubly.
It has also provided so many opportunities which we would not have had. We have been asked to create full video sessions of the courses we teach which provides us a great resource. Since all over the world, it is possible now to connect with the universities, there is a possibility of cross border lectures - for example, I provided two lectures to University of Southern California and Kansas University. When traveling is not an option, online is the option.Similarly, we are able to present our research papers to the worldwide conferences. Earlier, in addition to the registration fee, which in itself was huge, we had to bear the transport, accommodation and other incidental charges to go and present the paper. But the main drawback here is that we are missing the interaction with some of the world's highest calibre specialists of that domain.
These are some of the things, that worked and some of the things that could have been improved.
Hi, this is Dechen Wangmo from Druk Green Power Corporation, Bhutan. In 2020 for the most part of the year in Bhutan, schools and daycares remained closed as a safety measure. This was the most challenging aspect especially for women in the workforce. While "Work From Home" was implemented for a brief period in the begining of the pandemic, life and work returned to normal as the pandemic situation was controlled in the country thanks to strict measures put in place. Entry to foreigners were closed and any Bhutanese or other travellers to Bhutan need to go through 21 days quarantine which is still in place. Thanks to this safety measure, things have been more or less normal in the country and community spread contained.
During the year while schools and daycares were closed, work continued as normal for most part, hence it was a struggle for some families having to make alternative childcare arrangements with friends and neighbours. Since schools were closed and limited to some online learning, families also needed to spend a disportionate amount of time helping with school work. With kids out of school, a lot of them were also spending a lot of time on phones and gadgets. Drawing from my own experience of having a primary school going child, parents especially women needed to ensure that their children were continuing to learn. In 2021, with the schools and daycares now open with strict COVID compliance measures and children need to be with masks on in schools, the issue of childcare for women seems to be eased a bit for now.
1
| 1
The learning from first wave is visibly making difference in handling the second wave by power sector agencies in Bangladesh. All Government staffs were asked to take vaccine. A system is well in place to monitor staff’s health and ensure safety measures in workplace.
In the second round of lockdown announced from April 6, 2021 and continuing till date, offices are practicing work from home or roaster duty on need basis. It has been found well prepared and well managed this time. For staffs does not have own transport are not bound to come and if their presence is crucial, departments were instructed to organize office vehicles or take alternative measures.
E-filing, virtual meeting and use of existing IT infrastructure or upgradation of facilities were key to overcome the challenges of complete lockdown or prevailing work interruption caused by staff’s absence from workplace. Some service at customer level could be made fully digital. Digital payment options for utility bills greatly benefitted customers and agencies amid the pandemic. But there is still scope to improve further strategically and in day to day practice. Rather than seeing these as adhoc measures, it's important to institutionalize the concepts of working from home, flexible office hour and build a more resilient power and energy infrastructure.
Discussion » WePOWER E-Discussion QUESTION 2 (May 19, 2021)
WePOWER E-Discussion QUESTION 2 (May 19, 2021)
Theme 1: Stocktaking
QUESTION 2
In your opinion, what worked and what did not in tackling the challenges of this unprecedented pandemic? Were the measures taken by your organization successful or needed adjustment?
Please post your comments below.
The Government and people coming together to strictly follow the COVID-19 protocols, the nation-wide lockdown and the mass testing really worked well. When a positive case was detected, people came forward saying they were in contact with the positive case as well shared details of their contacts thereafter. The team work and cooperation of each and every one in the country worked well in controlling the spread of the pandemic. The tracing app which was mandatory to be used whenever we visited another space helped trackdown the individual visiting the same space that the positive person did on the same day. Everything planned really worked well in case of Bhutan except for few cases where people didnot declare their places of last visit to avoid being quarantined, this created slight panic amongst the general public and the government. Here we learned that no stones could be left unturned in such situations.
Because of the current situation the import of vegetables were limited thus encouraged majority of the population to start their own kitchen garden, also the number of vehicles plying on the road reduced substantially thus reducing import of fossil fuels as well the air pollution. Bhutan's construction inductry was and is hugely dependent on labourers from India but this pandemic forced barred the entry of foreign labourers resulting in many bhutanese youths to opt for this sector for their livelihoods reducing Bhutan's dependence on Indian labour.
This pandemic COVID !9 was really first of its kind in last 100-150 years. People were inititally not prepared and were in a real distress to figure out how to tackle the situation. But the policy makers, government and people all came together to combat the crisis and actually helped each other in educating the pros and cons of various treatments. All sorts of efforts towards handling COVID were made starting from immunity boostups to social distancing. All fields of medicine came forward be it ayurvedic, homeopathic OR allopathic medicines including home remedies. People started discussing actively on various immunity boost up means like physical exercies, yoga, within the limits of lockdown by staying at homes only.
People also learned to remain engaged even being at home by indulging into various activities re;ated to both work and fun. Overall it turned out to be abig eye opener for entire humaity giving ways to new resources and new life styles. Gradually with combined efforts from all corners, situation turned positive except in few cases when people dint pay heed to any precautions and were not informative enough to handle in case of sickness. It was a challenge for nuclear families with small children and for working people as wokr from home and handling all home repsonsibiltiites was not easy. Striking a balance between all responsibilites was really a challenge ensuring self care and upkeep. Overall India handled the situation very well with kind of dense population we have.
Further in second wave too, inspite of being a developing country, the PM And governemnt were cautius enough to decide for the non-stop develoopment of vaccination and immediately started vaccination in phases. This vaccination drive was taken up in good spirit by people except few areas and overall the second wave has been under control with appx 2% of Indian population getting affected with COVID.
As My boss sir Sangay Tenzin stated in his earlier comment, BPC has formed a internal COVID task force members who have put the measures in terms of business operations in place like how we would go forward with the billing system, how the operation and maintenance team would be isolated during the lock down period so that we can provided uninterupted power supply to the nation. We have also developed work from home policies and and has successfully implemented it in the previous two lockdowns. People had faced some coordination issues in the first lock down but with experiece of the first lockdown, our employees have worked and coordinated well during the second lockdown. Though it is not as efficient as coming to office and working but the essential works has not been effected. So far, we have been blessed to be not affected as bad as our neighbour countries are with this unfortunate virus. We have had two nationwide lock downs and currently our southern borders are under third lockdown. Otherwise, we are coming to work following the protocols of COVID 19, wearing mask, scanning to record our movements and has somewhat lead a normal life.
What the pandemic has affected is our training and development aspect for our employees. We are taking up few online trainings for technical professionals but it has greatly effected the professional development aspect of our employees (both female and male). We are not allowed to hold meetings, gatherings, trainings as per our goverment orders so we have lacked in engaging our employees in meaningful discussions. We have not been able to even hold any WePOWER activities. We have had recently recruited a number of technical professionals and we arranged to give orientation programs to them in smaller groups. We shall soon hold a discussion in smaller groups with the new recruits (including both gender) to know about their journey and if there is anything we, as in HR can be of help. We have identified few mentors and if they want, we would attach them with the mentors.
So as in general, we have had not faced major challenges at least so far as we were able to keep the pandemic at bay and had stict protocols in place by our Government.
(on behalf of Mr. Taqi)
WAPDA has strictly adhered to COVID SOPs and are pleased to report that we have successfully controlled the COVID-19 spread at our organization. Female officers and officials were completely sent home in the first wave to work from home until they were essentially required at the office. Those who were required to be primarily at the office were provided with pick-up and drop-off services in order to minimize public contact. During the second and third waves, all staff is put on rotation. Officers and officials work on alternate days, as agreed upon by their superiors. Females from other stations get 15 days off and 15 days on. During the pandemic, the above policies worked well and helped to keep COVID-19 at bay at the institutional level.
Since the first wave of COvid-19 in Bangladesh, the government and other agencies took necessary precautions. That includes adding necessary equipment with the existing facilities and establishing new facilities, Voluntary food relief, deferral of bank installments of 5 quarters for loan repayment, the immediate implementation of vaccination program as soon as possible was also helpful to keep the covid toll in check. Despite all the efforts the second wave hit hard in Bangladesh, reaching the maximum number of casualties in a day. Currently, Bangladesh is facing vaccine shortage problem and the country is once again in complete lockdown.
Also job securities, more at mid or bottom levels are highly impacted due to covid-19. This is resulting in rural migration. Certain industries that are mostly affected like restaurants, travel agencies and did not receive enough policy support to survive and continue
At the starting of the home office, Grameen Shakti didn’t want to start a whole new practice without any pre preparation. So, to prepare those policies and SOP, a designated teal analyzed department-wise and employee-wise jobs to find out how physical interaction could be converted to e-coordination. Policy were in place to create reference to everyone of this new practice of home office as well as to create a tool for administration and management. As we spent a significant period of time of these two years in home office, we understood that, the well planned sop and policies helped us perform better in this new culture of remote working
It was very important to be able to perform better from home office that all of the employees are updated with the use of smart devices and necessary apps. And to make sure before going to home office practice, Grameen Shakti’s IT department ensured that each employees have necessary apps and software installed and also knows the basic usage of them. Throughout the home office the IT department has been promptly ensuring everyday IT support to each employee It also proved to be very useful throughout our home office time. And is believed to be useful even after the continuation of the physical office.
For Grameen Shakti’s employees, face to face communication was more convenient in order to complete their daily activities. As they are now doing home office, sometimes there are communication gaps and, in some cases, this is affecting their productivity.
Due to a workforce of a very varied backgrounds and skills, Grameen Shakti is highly dependent on paperwork for its daily activities. As everyone is now doing home office the transition from paperwork to digital note also created some challenges and adaptability issues. Grameen Shakti’s activities of sales force and implementation of development projects, are physically done in the field. Specially, controlling field activities via online is difficult as it requires heavy travelling and movement. In the current scenario our field forces are unable to do so because of lockdown and travel restrictions.
Though the home office has its own benefits, right now it doesn’t match the level of efficiency we seek in Grameen Shakti. Due to the restriction of field activities the productivity is hampering. Many of our work areas are under lockdown and/or restriction of movement, for this our field forces are unable to operate in its usual pace and its decreasing our overall productivity and revenue earning.
According to my university and many of the universities all over the world, online education has become the new normal and it has been followed everywhere. This has its own pros and cons. In India many of the rural villages still have no internet and if there is, it is very haphazard. Most of the times it does not work. The students from these villages, since they have to attend the classes from home, find it difficult not to have the internet as well as the computer /laptop. This has created imbalance between the performance of the students. Even when we ask them to present some project, the first excuse comes with the non availability of technology. So I would say that still, we need to improve a lot to connect the people from all backgrounds.
As I posted in my earlier post, the first thing I noticed during the lock down was the clear air and the pollution free atmosphere. The day to day hassle of getting ready at 7.30 am to leave home for the university and in some cases as early as 6.30 am was absent. But whether this helped the women folks is another question. The women are still expected to complete the household chores themselves, whether they work or not. While this was easier while we had to leave home early, after lockdown, it has become three times more work. Earlier, whatever we could complete before leaving the house, the house was able to manage. Even they found time to help us complete it before we left. Now, the complacency is seen on both sides - Getting up late, no support to complete the chores early and so work started extending. Since everyone is at home, it starts as small additional chore for each of them but when it accumulates, it is really difficult to manage. Every one used to ask me "How did you manage your career, IEEE as well as family, inspite of your husband being transferred every one and half years?". I have been used to running a single parent family with two daughters but I was my own boss. Now there are too many bosses for me. I am sure this is the case with many women - I have read many articiles citing how the responsibilities have increased for women since the pandemic hit.
Many women now have found it easier to leave their jobs since in teaching, the responsibilities of the job has increased multifold. Physical classes were the responsibility of the teacher as well as the student. Both of them were expected to contribute. But when teaching online, the responsility of ensuring that the student is attending, listening, grasping and learning have become the teacher's. I find the situation funny as well as painful. Just because the employees are working from home, some colleges have reduced their salary quoting that you are not spending for the transport. In spite of expecting them to contribute more, still many of the colleges have not provided the full salary. Women are the most affected since they already have to struggle to prove themselves doubly.
It has also provided so many opportunities which we would not have had. We have been asked to create full video sessions of the courses we teach which provides us a great resource. Since all over the world, it is possible now to connect with the universities, there is a possibility of cross border lectures - for example, I provided two lectures to University of Southern California and Kansas University. When traveling is not an option, online is the option.Similarly, we are able to present our research papers to the worldwide conferences. Earlier, in addition to the registration fee, which in itself was huge, we had to bear the transport, accommodation and other incidental charges to go and present the paper. But the main drawback here is that we are missing the interaction with some of the world's highest calibre specialists of that domain.
These are some of the things, that worked and some of the things that could have been improved.
Hi, this is Dechen Wangmo from Druk Green Power Corporation, Bhutan. In 2020 for the most part of the year in Bhutan, schools and daycares remained closed as a safety measure. This was the most challenging aspect especially for women in the workforce. While "Work From Home" was implemented for a brief period in the begining of the pandemic, life and work returned to normal as the pandemic situation was controlled in the country thanks to strict measures put in place. Entry to foreigners were closed and any Bhutanese or other travellers to Bhutan need to go through 21 days quarantine which is still in place. Thanks to this safety measure, things have been more or less normal in the country and community spread contained.
During the year while schools and daycares were closed, work continued as normal for most part, hence it was a struggle for some families having to make alternative childcare arrangements with friends and neighbours. Since schools were closed and limited to some online learning, families also needed to spend a disportionate amount of time helping with school work. With kids out of school, a lot of them were also spending a lot of time on phones and gadgets. Drawing from my own experience of having a primary school going child, parents especially women needed to ensure that their children were continuing to learn. In 2021, with the schools and daycares now open with strict COVID compliance measures and children need to be with masks on in schools, the issue of childcare for women seems to be eased a bit for now.
The learning from first wave is visibly making difference in handling the second wave by power sector agencies in Bangladesh. All Government staffs were asked to take vaccine. A system is well in place to monitor staff’s health and ensure safety measures in workplace.
In the second round of lockdown announced from April 6, 2021 and continuing till date, offices are practicing work from home or roaster duty on need basis. It has been found well prepared and well managed this time. For staffs does not have own transport are not bound to come and if their presence is crucial, departments were instructed to organize office vehicles or take alternative measures.
E-filing, virtual meeting and use of existing IT infrastructure or upgradation of facilities were key to overcome the challenges of complete lockdown or prevailing work interruption caused by staff’s absence from workplace. Some service at customer level could be made fully digital. Digital payment options for utility bills greatly benefitted customers and agencies amid the pandemic. But there is still scope to improve further strategically and in day to day practice. Rather than seeing these as adhoc measures, it's important to institutionalize the concepts of working from home, flexible office hour and build a more resilient power and energy infrastructure.