October 11, 2021

Hi Sheru,

After carefully evaluating the current COVID-19 pandemic situation, we have decided to cautiously unlock the head office (HO) of Sharekhan from October 18, 2021. The HO unlocking plan will be implemented in a phased manner over a period of a few weeks. Presented below are the key points of the plan.

HO unlocking plan

• Starting from October 18, 2021, a maximum of 400 staff in Mumbai, inclusive of full-time employees, contractual staff and vendor staff, will be allowed to work from office (WFO). Currently, the headcount of the WFO staff in the HO is around 160.
• These 400 staff will be distributed proportionately in all four HO locations including Ruby, Empire Plaza, Jollyboard and Lodha Building.
• HO staff will resume work from office in a phased manner.
• All HODs will receive a formal communication from Human Resources (HR) requesting them to identify the WFO staff from their teams.
• Within two days of receiving the HR communication, the HODs will be required to submit to HR the names of their team members who shall need to resume work from HO for approval.
• The HR team will inform the HODs of the names of the staff approved by the management and the HODs can then inform their respective team members.
• The staff with their name on the WFO list will be required to resume work from office after two days of being informed by their HOD.
• The decision of an HOD in selecting the staff who require to work from office will be binding on these staff and cannot be questioned.
• The criteria for selecting employees who will be allowed to work from office are given below and must be strictly followed by the HODs:
  • Employees who have taken both the COVID-19 vaccination shots or have developed COVID-19 antibodies naturally. The certificate or report to that affect needs to be submitted for entering the office.
  • Employees who can self-drive or travel by train (note that only fully vaccinated individuals can travel by train at the moment).
  • Those staff who are not vaccinated and need to resume work from office will be required to get a rapid antigen detection test or reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test done on a weekly basis through a laboratory approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research and carry the test results with them at all times. The cost of these tests will be borne by the employee.
• The HODs must ensure that their teams work in split mode so that business continuity is maintained at all times.
• The company transport service started after the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic will be discontinued from November 1, 2021.
• The company bus service on the normal bus routes of the pre-pandemic era will resume from November 1, 2021.
• The busses plying on the normal routes shall be air-conditioned for the comfort of the staff.
• Going forward, the HODs will not require to obtain permission of a Director, and the heads of HR and Administration for visiting office unless they want to resume work from office on a regular basis.
• All other COVID-19 protocols, like wearing of proper mask, maintaining social distancing, sanitising hands frequently, getting temperature checked at the time of entering the office and obtaining one-time sign-offs of the HOD, Director, Head of HR and Head of Administration before visiting office will need to be adhered to at all times (the last one does not apply to the HODs anymore).
• The management will evaluate the situation towards the end of October 2021 and keep you updated.

Branch Network status

• More than 80% of Sharekhan’s branches have opened up and are operating with 50% capacity (up to 70% in small branches).
• Going forward, the branches that are already open will not require the permission of the management to increase the headcount of their WFO staff.
• The Cluster Heads and Branch Managers (BMs) can take a call on the resources that need to work from office and ramp up the headcount to even 100%, depending on the prevailing pandemic situation locally; the government and local regulations; and the availability of workspace, given the need to enforce the social distancing norms at the workplace at all times.
• The Branch Network will continue to require the permission of the management to reopen branches.

If you have any questions, please connect with your HOD or BM.

Please continue to take care and stay safe.

Thank you.

Best regards,

Rajesh Shetty
CHRO
Sharekhan