Louis Berger: Kshitish Nadgauda, Senior VP & MD Asia
Most of our engineers and technicians are IT-savvy, so upgrading to newer technologies is not an issue.
We have encountered no major challenges in acquiring newer technologies. We are already using online collaboration tools to the fullest. In addition, several of our major projects are being developed on the BIM platform. Since WFH will remain an integral part of our work culture even after the pandemic, we have invested in upgrading WIFI at employees’ homes. We are also using the latest laptops and workstations that operate more efficiently.
However, the nature of the projects that we work on demands in-person collaboration from time to time. At the same time, since our major regional offices are in the principal cities of Delhi NCR and Mumbai where valuable time is lost in arduous commutes, retaining WFH post-pandemic partially will boost employee productivity.
Measures like WFH, daily and weekly video conferencing with our employees enabled us to continue to communicate in an effective manner.
Our company had invested in technology from a collaboration point of view and had just completed the final transition to cloud-based working. Prior to the pandemic, the reason for moving to the cloud was driven by the need for different offices across the country to work collaboratively in a more efficient, error-free manner.
In addition, even before the actual lockdown was announced starting 23 March 2020, we had finalized and implemented a plan for partial ‘Working from Home’, and had moved desktop computers to the homes of our employees. With the sudden announcement of the total lockdown, it was therefore easy for employees to switch to WFH and continue working using WIFI at home and the cloud-based applications.
It has now been over fourteen months since we started WFH. From the very start, we set up daily video-conference calls with our teams as well as a weekly video conference call attended by all our employees across India and Bangladesh. Such measures have enabled us to continue to communicate in an effective manner on a daily basis. There are several online communication platforms that are available. At WSP-LBI, we use Microsoft Teams the most.
We have endeavored to keep our employees’ spirits and morale high through sharing of information that binds the organization.
For our staff supervising the work of contractors on construction sites, we compiled at the very start a document clearly describing the Covid-19 related precautions and SoPs to be observed. In addition, we set up a daily bulletin that gives the latest information on the pandemic and has a section dedicated to contributions from employees, including work anniversaries and other celebrations that bind the organization together.
NBM&CW July 2021
