“All PayU employees are well connected to maximize productivity”

As the Chief Human Resources Officer of PayU India, Ashish Chattoraj has been working extensively to make sure all employees remain safe, healthy, and engaged during the lockdown, as also productive to ensure business continuity. In an email interview with Shubhendu Parth, he shared details of the initiatives taken by the company during the COVID-19  crisis to enable work-from-home. Excerpts.

On business continuity process and plan

While it may seem difficult to get entire teams to work remotely, the reality is that the culture of remote working is on the rise. Our business continuity and security policies are designed to adhere to this principle and regular rehearsals on these principles make us well-equipped to manage the new situation of working remotely

We have put in place a robust business continuity plan to ensure that business runs as usual and our merchants, employees, and vendors do not get impacted. All our employees are using video calls, messaging, collaboration, and document sharing tools to enable smooth functioning of operations. We are focused that productivity should not go down during these challenging times and have advised our employees to work with their managers on productivity metrics. The IT support has enabled VPN connections for everyone and they are on standby to troubleshoot any problems related to hardware, software, connectivity, including performance of systems, and applications.

PayU is also helping local businesses by assisting them in going online and accepting payments digitally. Besides ensuring seamless routine operations, we have also introduced initiatives to help SMBs as well as entrepreneurs. Our initiative ‘Bringing India Online’ helps businesses accept digital payments and connect with customers who cannot step out of their house due to the lockdown. Our other initiative is ‘Startups Helping Startups’, a platform to connect businesses so they can help each other and thrive even in this time of crisis.  All our business functions are running as usual.

Our employees have access to Bluejeans for video conferencing. We have also used its event feature to conduct virtual town-hall meetings with senior leadership.

On collaboration and communication tools being used by PayU during WFH

We have our global online community Workplace by Facebook, which enables teams to stay connected, share documents, and collaborate on projects. The social aspect of the platform also helps increase morale during this period of social distancing. Employees also have access to Bluejeans for video conferencing. While we use it for communicating and networking with clients, we have also used its event feature to conduct virtual town-hall meetings with senior leadership.

On strategies and facilities to enable safe and secure remote connectivity

All PayU employees are well-connected. They have a proper connectivity suite and solutions to maximize productivity. While employees use video-conferencing facilities like Bluejeans to discuss and deliberate, we have also provided them with VPN connections to ensure secure data transfer. Besides, we have provided internet dongles and access to online Workplace communities, and a host of other technology solutions to overcome the work-from-home challenges.

On tools to keep customer service up and running during the lockdown

PayU has the largest merchant base in the country today and is using Salesforce, C-Zentrix, and OneDirect tools to ensure smooth coordination and servicing of these merchants. We are also using the PayUMoney Merchant Panel, PayU Biz Merchant Panel, and Citrus Merchant Panel, which are support tools for query resolution. PayU Assist, which is an automated customer service experience addresses merchant queries in real-time; merchants have access to support around the clock, 24X7, and are able to solve queries on their own, reducing delays and leading to faster query resolution.

shubhendup@cybermedia.co.in

The interview was first published in the April 2020 print edition of Voice&Data