HUL directs office staff to work from home from Tuesday

The global consumer products company Hindustan Unilever Limited has directed its 4,000 office-based employees in India to work from home, starting Tuesday, 17th March, amid concerns over the spread of coronavirus.

“All office-based employees globally should work from home,” Alan Jope, CEO, Unilever said.

The information was uploaded on Unilever’s global website as the company, in the wake of the rise in Covid-19 cases, announced action for all employees, including its research and development staff, sales team and those who work at its corporate sites.

HUL has 18,000 employees in India, according to a news report by The Times of India. For now, 4000 employees or those who are office-based employees have been directed to work from home.

The company has announced the following measures for all Unilever people, including contractors, globally. They are most simply broken down into ‘musts’ and ‘must nots’:

THE MUST NOTS:
You must not …

1. Travel by air either internationally or domestically. Any air travel which is currently booked, apart from return-bound flights, will be cancelled centrally by our travel booking partners.
2. Work from any Unilever site other than your principal location.
3. Enter a Unilever site if you are suffering from cold or flu-like symptoms.
4. Invite any visitors onto a Unilever site without the prior approval of the site leader.
5. Attend meetings, conferences or events of more than 20 people.

THE MUSTS:
You must …

1. Self-isolate for 14 days if you are experiencing any cold or flu-like symptoms or have returned to your country from another location for either business or personal reasons.
2. Apply hand sanitiser when you enter a Unilever site.
3. Undergo thermal testing upon arrival at any Unilever site as legislation and equipment allows.
4. Use non-physical greetings (ie avoid shaking hands) and maintain appropriate “social distance”.

For the avoidance of doubt, all these measures are applicable to all employees, irrespective of role or geography.

We are also applying additional measures which vary based on whether you have an office-based role, work in a sourcing unit, or are one of our field sales or retail staff:

SOURCING UNITS AND DISTRIBUTION CENTRES

• All of our sourcing units and distribution centres will apply specialist tiered protocols to protect our workers while supporting business continuity. Country leadership teams will continue to monitor carefully and engage with site leads as appropriate.
• Strict site protocols for hygiene and social distancing are also being put in place.

FIELD SALES AND RETAIL STAFF (INCLUDING 3P FIELD SALES AND MERCHANDISERS)

• All field sales employees should connect with customers virtually wherever possible and minimise the use of public transport if a customer visit is necessary.
• Strict protocols on social distancing (including non-physical greetings), and hand hygiene (especially after handling cash) will also be put in place and will be communicated shortly.

OFFICE-BASED ROLES

• All office-based employees globally should work from home. Any exceptions (which we expect to be few and far between, and most probably due to the need to access data-intensive systems) must be approved by the country General Manager.
• The only country where this does not apply is in China, where people are beginning to return to work per national controls.

R&D

• For R&D colleagues who work in laboratories or pilot plants on essential activities, protocols are now in development and will be shared by R&D site leads.
• It is likely that some R&D roles will follow the office-based protocols and some will follow the Sourcing Unit rules.

More details about these changes, which will be effective from Tuesday 17 March, will be shared by your country General Manager early next week.