Mr Ajay Shad, President at Windlas Biotech excelled in academics as well as professionally, as an Exporter & as an Edupreneur. After his MBA in 1985 from FMS BHU, he interned at Siemens and worked at Ranbaxy HongKong as Area Manager of Asia Pacific. He has a rich experience of working in Torrent(GM Global APIs), Adani(Chairman’s Office) and Surya. And started own export house in 2002, that crossed USD 30 Mn exports by 2005, traveled to over 60 countries and has been responsible for exports of over 500 mnUSD. In 2008 he was appointed Dean of Globsyn Business School. And was also the Director at NIS Academy(Reliance ADAG) Ahmedabad and owner of Value Institute of Marketing and Entrepreneurship Development from 2009 till 2017. He specializes in training for Innovations, Rural Economy, Strategy, International Business, Entrepreneurial Attitude and Negotiations. Plans to take Sanyas at 75.

Here are his key experiences in the industry in relation to the current COVID-19 pandemic and WFH situation.

What is the impact on employee performance in the pandemic situation?

In my opinion, the employee output has actually gone up with the WFH situation. As the chances of time being squandered in office has been greatly reduced. So if you ask me it’s a good idea to have work from home.

Have you taken any proactive measures to maintain employee performance?

Sure, in the beginning we have arranged for internet connectivity and hardware at home. As many employees didn’t have internet connection or broadband. So for them we have taken an initiative and provided them the internet connection so that they can work from home without any problem.

Will there be any changes to existing appraisal methods? Process & Frequency?

Appraisal is independent of the place where they are working from. It has more to do with the attitude of work or the output that a person is going to give. So there will be a bit of subjectivity. Some people will say they have called up a person 5 times and out of those 5 times 4 times the person was not available regarding commission. But based on the employee’s productivity and moral, the appraisal system will be the same.

Do you think formalizing feedback and/or regular performance check-ins will make a difference?

I think it is happening anyway, whether you are working from home or working from office. Only thing is in office we can see a person all the time whereas in the remote situation, only the relevant people we will be able portray. But I think there will be more activities or output related tasks rather than the activities that lead to office grapevine.

With employees and managers all away from each other, what steps are being taken to ensure clarity on work objectives/goals and their priorities?

It is much better now, as employees are instructed to put everything on writing or as a part of their email. So it’s more transparent this way. In fact everyone will be compelled to write their KCYs and the boss will be compelled to write their expectations clearly as well. The role definition and the grading will be more and stiffer now than before. So the overall process will have more objectivity rather subjectivity. So that way I think it’s a very welcome thing.