Dear Sherus,
I hope you and your family are safe and healthy during these difficult times. Since I last reached out to you on March 23, the COVID-19 situation has escalated with a spike in the number of positive cases in our country. Thankfully, the Sharekhan family remains free of the novel Coronavirus at present and I want you to know the management of Sharekhan is doing everything in its power to keep it that way. I am extremely proud of you all and thank you from the bottom of my heart for quickly adapting to the current situation, remaining calm and supporting each other in this hour of crisis.
Many employees from the IT Foundation, IT Security, IT, Administration, Operations, Human Resources, Risk Monitoring, Contact Centre, Compliance, Research, Institutional Desk and Finance teams in the head office and some branches including Mumbai - Churchgate, Rajkot, Pune, Vadodara, Amravati, Nagpur and Bengaluru branches have travelled to work in the last few weeks. I am grateful to you all for putting your health at risk and braving the lockdown conditions every day to keep the operations running in the initial period of the lockdown. You ensured the impact on the service levels to our customers and business partners remained minimal during the transition to the work-from-home mode.
My special thanks to all co-directors, Department Heads, Cluster Heads and Business Heads for leading from the front, keeping the operations up and running; implementing massive organisational changes in a short time to enable more and more employees to work from home; and ensuring those who are working from office are also safe and taken care of.
I am extremely grateful to the 30+ Sherus from the head office who are still coming to work every day to fulfill their duties, without your support we would not have been able to support our customers and economy in this difficult period of a nation-wide lockdown. I have no words to thank you enough.
I am truly overwhelmed by the daily stories of courage and resilience I read in the COVID-19 Heroes, a newsletter specially launched by the Internal Communications team to recognise Sherus’ extraordinary acts of courage in these abnormal times.
We have now entered the third week of the lockdown. Though our government is doing a great job of fighting the pandemic, the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise in the country and we should be prepared for an extension of the lockdown. Whether the lockdown is extended or not, experts predict return to normalcy by May or June.
Meanwhile, in these uncertain times one thing is certain: Life is shifting online and this is the new normal. This is also where the opportunity lies. In March, we recorded an increase in the number of trades done online -- 85% of our orders were through our digital platforms last month compared with 80% in March 2019 and 78% in January 2020. Not only that, the number of trades executed daily has also surged to 12.45 lakh on April 8 from an average of 6.6 lakh in December 2019. We are one of the few lucky industries where revenues have actually grown in the aftermath of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Evidently, the lockdown has meant many of our customers are working from home too and they are utilising the additional time on their hands to trade online. As more and more customers go online, we should create new ways of connecting with them and increase as well as expedite our digital initiatives to continue to provide them value. We should also take this opportunity to open new accounts and reactivate the old ones, as more of India’s population joins the work-from-home workforce every day or searches for a new source of income in the face of the economic hardships brought on by the lockdown.
Working remotely is the order of the day. About 1% critical employees at your company’s head office are coming to work while 77% are now connected and working from home. The balance are at home but not connected to the Sharekhan system yet. But even they are contributing in whatever capacity they can and we are finding solutions so that they too can get connected to start working from home. It’s heartening to see that like the head office, the network too has transitioned into the new way of working and within a week we’ve had all branch employees working from home.
As you work from home, it is important that you learn to be productive while working in isolation. At the same time, you must also exercise, eat well, meditate, keep a positive mental attitude and do online courses to stay mentally and physically fit.
In times of crises, a manager’s role becomes more critical than before. Managers need to be more effective and get the best results from their teams. Here are four simple tips to manage teams efficiently in a remote set-up. First, communicate more, share information with team and encourage your team to do the same. Second, set clear expectations about work hours, availability, communication system, key projects and deadlines, scheduled meetings etc. Third, dedicate time to one-on-one meetings, communicate at least once a week with your entire team to maintain the feeling of being part of one team and set up informal team chatroom for daily talk. Last but equally important, be available for your team, attentive to their needs and positive in all interactions with them.
In the event it turns out to be a long drawn-out battle with the COVID-19 pandemic, our business continuity plan, which has been tested thoroughly, will kick in. We are already making preparations to work remotely for as long as necessary. We continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation closely and adhere to the advice of our group, government and local authorities. The wellbeing of our employees, customers and the people around us remains our number one priority during this time.
I once again appreciate your efforts, seek your cooperation and urge you to look out for each other in these tough times. I assure you we will get through this difficult phase together.
Please take care of yourselves and your loved ones.
Thanks.
Best regards,
Jaideep Arora
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