March 31, 2020

The C&B division of HR
bravely faced all odds to
ensure early release of salary

In these uncertain times, the Compensation and Benefits (C&B) division of Sharekhan’s Human Resources (HR) department wanted to offer some respite to all staff by crediting the March salary to their bank account one week before the usual date. The team spoke to the management who readily agreed and approved the idea. Though due to a state-wide lockdown it was difficult to commute to work, a bunch of Sherus in Mumbai faced all challenges head on to reach office so that we all could get our salary on March 24! That is commendable and this story tells how they did it.

The C&B team realised that if they didn’t complete their tasks by March 23, the salaries of all employees may get delayed. So they collaborated to get the job done. Makarand Satam and others from the C&B team went to office on March 21 and 22 (ie Saturday and Sunday) to complete the attendance and leave records. But the following day, ie March 23, there was a complete lockdown by the state government of Maharashtra, directing the district borders to be sealed. The team was stranded as they live in areas outside Mumbai, and trains and buses were also not plying while cabs and hired taxis were not allowed to cross the borders. Most of them live in Kalyan and Dombivli, and the cabs arranged by the Administration department couldn’t reach these localities. What’s more, the police were strictly patrolling the borders and no exceptions were being made for cabs. Unfazed by the challenges, some of these Sherus took out their bikes, picked up the colleagues who did not have any mode of transport and rode all the way to work!

Narayan Tandel finished the income tax calculations, Vihang Devlekar completed the statutory compliance related processes, Devdatta Ghaywat and Rajesh Shinde worked on the payroll process, Dinesh Chawda stationed himself at the Ruby office to manage the HR operations and Shailesh Gaikar reached the Lodha office to overlook the payroll process and issue authorisation letters to those employees who would need to go to office for a few more days before they too could start working from home. Vijay Bavkar ably supported them all from home.

The team collaborated, stayed connected with all who were working from home, helped each other and worked till late night to finish the payroll operations. They sent the payslips to all employees and carried out the bank transactions. When everything was cleared and settled they took their bikes out to make the return journey home. It was well after 2.30am by the time they dropped off their colleagues and reached home themselves. After reaching home and before hitting the bed, they signed off with the final message that all had reached home safely and the mission was accomplished.

These Sherus had the foresight to realise that the situation might precipitate in the coming days and it was important to not delay the payroll process. They had to commute to work in these tough times because a work-from-home solution couldn’t be provided to them in such a short time. Besides, bank transactions were also difficult to execute from home without the payroll data and remote access. The team showed immense commitment to duty and empathy towards their colleagues by ensuring each got his salary before time. They showed commendable bravery and camaraderie to make it to office against all odds to deliver results and ride back home safely to fight another day. The reward for them was the smile that they put on every Sheru’s face. Three cheers for them. They are all COVID-19 Heroes!

Meet the COVID-19 Heroes

Inn COVID-19 Heroes ko salute kar, Sharekhan kar

NOTE: If you too have an exceptional COVID-19 story to tell, please mail it to us at priya@sharekhan.com and copy your HOD.